Trophy Photos

Now that things have finally settled down to a small, containable riot around here, I thought I would post some pictures of the trophies I made for our show. Total made: 18 Fan lamps and 4 Table Lanterns. The first photos are of the 3-sided Table Lanterns that I did for Best in Show & High In Trial.

I didn't think to make sure to get a shot of the entire trophy table, I'm hoping maybe one of the other club members took one. I also didn't have lights on in the Calla Lily ones, but the shots turned out nice. The fan lamps were made for Group 1, High Combined and Best Junior Handler.

The Calla Lily lamps turned out very nice, I was really happy with them. I think I'm going to make one for myself. :)

The flower is a deep wine color, hard to see it, because the picture makes it look black, but it really is a beautiful color.

I hope to get a post written showing the steps it takes to make one of these lamps soon.

Next project.......

Bull Terrier trophies for my regional club's speciality in November, and another fan for a fellow blogger who fell in love with the ones I was making.

I am going to open an Etsy shop as well and hope to start selling different things online, lamps, suncatchers, tissue boxes, clocks, etc. I have lots of ideas floating around in my head.

I have a program on the computer that will let me make patterns and I hope to be able to make things with the less common breeds of dogs. It's hard to find things for breeds like Bull Terrier, Chinese Crested, Dandie Dinmont, Bullmastiff, Irish Wolfhound, Japanese Chin, just to name a few, I hope to remedy that in a small way at least.

This program is wonderful, if you can dream of something you would like in stained glass, the program makes it possible. :)

Until next time,

We're Outta Here!

We're off to the dog show, be back the first of the week!

Ya'll behave now! :)

Angie

Trophies and an Award

The trophies are coming right along and they will be finished on time, thankfully. I just tend to worry a little too much about things like that, even when I know I shouldn't. I tell you though, being sick with whatever that bug was for 2 weeks did NOT help matters a bit!

I am missing all my favorite blogs big time! I miss doing Tuesday's at the Table with Andrea, I miss Mari's Slow Cooking Thursday, I miss Julie's daily dose of crazy, heck, I miss all of you! I promise though, I will be back as soon as our dog show is over and things have gotten back to normal around here (well what DH and I call normal)

The dog show is on May 16 and 17, and since I am the Parking Chair, we are going to take the RV down on Thursday and I will just stay there until Sunday. DH will be down Friday after work to help and he will stay the rest of the weekend, so I'll only be there one day and one night without him. Our friends with the Bullmastiffs are always there to help park the RV's as well, so it will be a busy 2 days! Most folks start coming in on Friday, so I want to be there to mark off the reserved spaces and help get some of the other things set up. I will be showing Pappy, the baby of the bunch on Sunday, wish us luck.

Now for the award Jan at Jan's Place gave me, I was so honored to get this! Thank you so much for thinking of me, I really appreciate it. If you haven't met Jan yet, head over there and meet her, her horses and her dogs. You'll find a down to earth, neat lady! Is that not the cutest award?

Here's how it works:

1) Accept the award, post it on your blog together with the name of the person who has granted the award, and his or her blog link.

2) Pass the award to up to 15 other blogs that you've newly discovered. Remember to contact the bloggers to let them know they have been chosen for this award.

Coming up with 15 blogs is not going to be easy, there are so many great ones out there and I have to admit, alot of the blogs I visit are Dogs with Blogs, so I'm including both 2-legged and 4-legged friends in this list. ;) Also, most of these are not newly discovered, but ones I enjoy reading. Here they are in no particular order:

1) Cindy at Tales from the Winterdark

2) Rachel at A Doggie Life

3) Allison at Reflections of a Dog Mom

4) Farrah at Old-Fashioned Homekeeper

5) Andrea at My Chihuahua Bites

6) Erin at Life of a College Student

7) Rosie at Reading Rosie

8) Deb and the Bullies at NY Bully Brats

9) Mari at My Little Corner of the World

10) Clive and the Little Man at Assistance Dog for Autism

11) Julie at From Inmates to Playdates

12) My own Kids In Dog Suits (so they can pass it to doggie friends)

13) Catsmum at Susan in Stitches

14) MW at DogGonedMysteries

15) Karen at Karensbrae Terriers

If you have already received this award then that means you do indeed have "One Lovely Blog"

so accept it in the manner in which it was given and know you are doing a great job! ;)

Lastly, I have had a couple of requests for pictures of my glass trophies I have been working on, so here you go....

The fan lamps are what we are giving for Group 1 and High Combined (Obedience) and the 3 Panel table lantern is for Best In Show and High In Trial. The last shot is what my table looks like right now. I have them all turned over to solder the backs first. I have found if I do all my soldering at one time, they come out more uniform. Seems my soldering skills vary from day to day.

I'm outta here for a bit, gotta get back on those trophies.

April is a Busy Month

April has always been a busy month for me what with birthdays and being the Parking Chairman for my kennel club's show in May. Nowadays, there are a few more things added to the month.

April is National Donate Life Month. I am a huge advocate for organ donation. I volunteer whenever I can and I have met some wonderful, amazing people while doing so. The need for organ donation is great and it is so easy to help, all you have to do is sign a donor card or the back of your driver's license, then be sure to let your family know you want to donate your organs. According to UNOS, the United Network for Organ Sharing, as of today at 6:00 pm, there are 101,792 candidates awaiting an organ transplant!!

(My mother Jerri, Christmas 2003)

My beautiful mother Jerri, died suddenly Aug 7, 2004 from a ruptured brain aneurysm and she was an organ donor. I know for a fact, there is a lady in North Carolina who spent years on dialysis waiting for a kidney. She has a son who was planning her funeral instead of planning for her to watch him graduate high school. There is a man in New York, who had to stop working and was living a life of pain, watching his family grieve for him while waiting for a liver. There is an older lady in Tennessee and a gentleman in South Carolina who couldn't see their children, the beauty of a sunrise or spring flowers blooming. ALL of those folks received Mom's organs! There are countless others who received her tissue donations as well!

(Mom with one of her hand-fed baby birds she raised.)

The lady in NC did indeed get to see her son graduate and by now has also seen her daughter graduate. I hope she has also gotten her horse that she was looking forward to getting. The man in NY has gone back to work and is enjoying running and golfing. And I could just imagine how the folks that received Mom's corneas are living! Imagine, seeing your child's or grandchild's face for the first time or watching the sunrise!

Losing my mother was the hardest thing I have ever gone through, the pain is still great, especially on those special days, Mother's Day, Christmas, my birthday, etc. BUT knowing that someone else is living and enjoying life because of Mom eases that pain somewhat. Mom would have been 66 years old this coming Mon. April 20. Yet another day that makes this month a hard month for me. When those special days roll around I find myself thinking of her organ recipients and wishing like crazy that I could hear from them. I think I'm ready to write them a letter, let them know a little about Mom and see how they are doing.

(Mom, 4 months before she passed away)

According to the policies and protocol surrounding organ donation, recipients and the donor family can indeed get in touch with one another IF both parties want that. Either side would write a letter then send it on to the donor organization that handled our services. Mine would be Mountain Region Donor Services. These are the most caring, wonderful people I have met. I have made quite a few friends through them, both during Mom's donation process and through volunteering for them. So I think I will write something to her recipients and hope that they want to communicate with me.

I've been told by other recipients it was hard for them to contact their donor families. They were afraid of bringing more pain on the family or opening up a wound that was beginning to heal. They have also told me they didn't have words to say to the donor families. Thank You just doesn't seem like enough to them. I promise you, I am not looking for a thank you anyway. I am looking for a way to see that Mom's organs have made a difference in someone's life. I mean I know it has, I just want to SEE it or READ of it. Wish me luck that I will get a response.

This post grows long and believe me, I could go on and on and on about this subject. Yet another reason I volunteer for MRDS and try to get the word out about donation.
If you would like to know more about it, if you are contemplating donating your organs and have questions, please, please, PLEASE feel free to ask me anything about it. I promise I will help you all I can and if I don't have the answer right then, I will find out for you and get back to you. I promise.

For now, I'm out of here and I'll be back with you next time with another cause I care about, you see, April is also Autism Awareness Month.

(My second cousin Kolby, the reason I support Autism Awareness)

Be Blessed,

Back pain & Stained glass

(silly little ice cream cone suncatcher I did for practice)

I started working in stained glass over 20 years ago and I have recently gotten back into it. I had forgotten how much I love doing this. I also didn't realize how much the cost of supplies had gone up! WOW! Talk about inflation!
I have Degenerative Disc Disease. I have 2 discs that, according to the Dr, might as well just be labeled as "gone" and one that is half-way there. On top of that, I have arthritis running the entire length of my spine. Not good news for a dog groomer. 28 years of standing, lifting, pulling, tugging and fighting with big dogs, combined with the genetic factors have finally begun to take their toll on me and made me begin thinking of another way to make money. I hope to be able to open an Etsy shop soon.
As much as I hate to admit it, I am slowing down, I can't do what I used to be able to do, I am in constant pain whether I am grooming or not, grooming just makes the pain more intense. Some days are worse than others.
Anyway, I decided to begin my stained glass work again. I am currently working on trophies for my home club, The Greater Kingsport Kennel Club. We have shows each year in May and we always try to come up with something different each year for trophies. This year we decided to give stained glass pieces.
I'm pretty excited about getting started and I'll be sure to take lots of pictures as I go along.
I have done a few pieces for other things, mostly dog-related, but mainly just for fun. I'm certainly out of practice, but it's like riding a bicycle, it all comes back to you once you get on and get started.

(suncatcher I did for the Silent Auction for Rescue at the Bull Terrier Nationals)

Wish me luck, and keep your fingers crossed that all those panes of glass I ordered last night get here in one piece, not in a ton of pieces. The company will replace them if they do arrive broken, but that would mean the whole process will be running behind.

(The Rainbow Bridge Tissue Box)(Best of Variety (Colored) trophy for one of the shows)

I'm sorry some of the photos are not that great, the flash is hard to contain sometimes. The tissue box was certainly a project. I had never done one before, but I was determined to get it finished in time for the Nationals so it could be put on the Rainbow Bridge table!

Until next time,
Bullie hugs and kisses all around,