It's been a very emotional week for everyone at my house. The sudden loss of Lucy has really drained all of us. This is also the week my daughter (who moved back home this summer after graduating from UW last year) is moving in to her new apartment on Russian Hill. She works for Marriott's and was able to transfer to the sales office in San Francisco. I really encouraged her to find a place in the "city". Being young and single, when will she ever be able to do this again? We took two loads (all the big stuff) up last night, which worked out well. There wasn't as much street traffic so it was easier to unload. Of course there was no street parking so it was a mad dash to get everything up stairs before we got a parking ticket. She hopes to be all moved in before the end of the weekend and I'm looking forward to getting my storage room back. :)
I had to make the very painful decision today and have Lucy put to sleep. For the past few days Lucy was looking tired and not eating. Since she was sleeping so much I didn't realize that she was not able to walk more than a few steps at a time. She did manage to go outside in the back yard with me this morning but I had to carry her back in when I was done watering the garden. I now realize how much will power my little bull dog had to have to work up the strength to spend our last morning together. While I waited for our appointment with the vet, she would still try and follow me around the house. Lucy was never a lap cat, so all I could do was sit next to her. The vet isn't sure what the cause of Lucy's sudden illness was since we had a full panel of blood work done (because of the recall on the cat food) just a month ago, showing everything was fine. Any of the treatments, given Lucy's condition would probably kill her so the vet, who was being very gentle with Lucy finally said if it were her kitty she would put her to sleep. Being by myself I couldn't watch the process, so the vet took Lucy to the back room. They brought her back wrapped in a sheet and her tail was hanging out. One marking that I always liked on Lucy was the the white tip on her black tail. I like to think that this last time it was waving good bye. Lucy had a very short life, that didn't start out well but in the end she did find her forever home with a family that loved her and all her crazy energy.
I've never been a big "go to the movies" type of person. Then I discovered morning time movies starting at 10:00 a.m. No worries about crying babies, teenagers talking on their cell phones or not getting a good seat. I went this morning to see"G Force" (I love talking animal movies) and there where only 8 of us in the theater. There was a technical problem with the movie so it started 15 minutes late and we all received a free movie pass. Now you're asking why did I post a photo of Julia Child? When I was little, the only time I would sit still was when Julia's cooking show the "French Chef" was on T.V. My family couldn't believe a 5 year old would sit through the whole thing. Today I found out a movie titled "Julie & Julia" (base on two true stories) with Meryl Streep as Julia with be at the theaters on August 7. As you can tell I'm a big fan of Julia Child and can't wait to see the movie!
It's been a long time since I've spent anytime out in my garden. Since my hubby decided to put one of his hives right in the middle of my raised beds, I have to time my gardening to either early morning or sunset when the "girls" are less active. It's hard to weed when you're right in the middle of the flight path. Of course hubby is never out in the garden so he doesn't see the problem. I do have some nesting birds who are doing a great job cleaning up all the bees that die off from the hive. We use to have them every where and I would have to make sure to put my gardening gloves on to do anything out in the backyard. I'm amazed at how many bees two little birds can eat. The photo above is a cantaloupe plant mixed in with my basil, marigolds and eggplant.
This weekend Michael Strong was in town at Memories Live On. All the ladies had a great time and can't wait for his next round of the classes. Since his classes filled up so quickly, we've added another class for his visit on August 28 and October 9.
It's been a busy week prepping for classes, checking out the auction houses and hosting Michael Strong's visit to Memories Live On. I finally got a chance to go out in my garden this morning and start picking my black tomatoes. My buddy gave me a seedling (really I begged to have one) of what she said was the best tomato around. I do have to say, it not only tastes great, but it's very meaty with hardly any seeds. I forgot to take a photo of the ripe ones before I had them for dinner. I will remember to take photos next time.
I just got back from my bee guild's field trip to the Rabbit Foot Meadery in Sunnyvale. I was just blown away by the quality of the wine and beer, that is all made with honey. As many of you know, I don't like the taste of alcohol so I don't drink. Now I'm thinking it's because my body doesn't handle wheat or oats very well. This mead stuff is really good. While you sampled the mead, Mike Faul (owner) and Mark (friend and bee guild member) would talk about how it was made or where the honey came from which gives each bottling of mead it's distinct taste. Since the mead tasting was going so well, I took a giant leap and sampled the beer. Yes, that too was excellent. But my favorite was the chocolate raspberry port, a super sweet dessert wine. The same coco beans that are used in Ghirardelli chocolate goes into their port. 
This sign sure makes you stop and take a second look doesn't it?! :) We had a garage sale this past Saturday and we sold tons of stuff. A HUGE van full of stuff went off to Goodwill afterwards and I'm still dealing with several boxes of good junk, you know, the stuff you don't want in your house but can't throw out. So back out to my studio for several more hours of sorting and packing but I will have to remember this sign for our next sale.
While I've been getting ready for my garage sale on Saturday, I was playing some DVD I checked out at the library. I usually pick movies I know and just let them play in the background. For some reason, I picked up this movie "The Red Violin". When I got it home, didn't know that it had subtitles. It was a very interesting movie and one that you had to pay attention to. It isn't one of those play in the background type of movies unless you understand, Italian, French, Chinese and German. As the violin passed from owner to owner over a course of three hundred years, the actors spoke the language of the country and era it was in but the music always stayed the same. It was that love of music that saved the red violin from being destroyed many times over and one man's love for his wife.
I like to keep one week open a month to work on new classes. It's too hard to prep for classes and design for new ones at the same time, at least in my world. :) A Muse had some fun ocean theme stamps, so I decided to build a class around them. I like to mix up different techniques in each class, so if a beginner stamper signs up, they can learn something new.
This was on of the make n takes I did for the A Muse event at Cranberry Hill this past weekend. When I saw the stamp I thought of my husband's cousin's wife who is a big ski nut. You know the kind of person that loves to jump out of helicopters and ski down mountains that have no rating because only the totally insane would ski down them. Since I'm allergic to snow, I have no idea what people scream when going down the slope so I went with "yeah baby". I used the Copic airbrush to make the blues sky and Copic makers to color in the squirrel.
These are the free make n takes I did at Cranberry Hill this weekend. Some of the images are from the new A Muse winter release. In keeping with the clean and simple style of A Muse, the card are super fast to make. I think less than 5 minutes for each one. Some people were so fast I didn't even know they sat down to make a card. I will be doing some more free make n takes (while supplies last) on Monday so stop on by.
OK this would so be my dream job - designing displays at a garden center. Getting to combine my love of gardening, junk collecting and funky designs would all come together in one place! 
On my latest trip to the library, I picked up these books. "Junk Beautiful" is a very inspiring book for those who like to reuse things in different ways. The design style isn't for everyone but I found it very creative. Being into junk myself, I know some of the items they use are not easy to find. They make is sound you can pick the stuff on the side of road or for pennies on the dollar. Maybe in Minnesota but not out here in California. You also have to be really good with a variety of tools. But if you need some "Junk JuJu" then this is a book to read.
Just finished up my samples for my "Penny Black Bee & Friends" card class. It's busy bee time at our house with the "girls" working hard out in our garden.
I've been working in my studio for the last three days coming up with new class ideas, so you can only imagine what a mess it is right now. I have to take the next few hours and clean everything up so I can at least see the top of the table. 
Here's a photo of another quick card class I will do for Cranberry Hill later this month. I was asked to do a class that featured just one stamp so people could see the different ways you can use it. I also wanted to keep the class under an hour, so the style is very basic and simple. The stamp will be included in the class fee this time. It's called "sweet peas" but whoever named the stamp must not work out in the garden because none of images look like sweet peas. 
Some bees hit the big league this week by swarming in the middle of the game. Happy to hear someone knew to call a bee keeper to come remove them. Hope this helps people understand that you can have bees removed and not have to kill them. GO BEES!!!
