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,

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.

I WAS going to start....

a series of posts outlining the steps involved in my stained glass project I'm working on.

I spent the better part of the early afternoon downloading pictures off my camera onto the computer. I had a ton of them, pictures of work being done on our new house, pictures of the new foster dog we have here, pictures of my glass project I'm working on, lots of pictures I'm here to tell you.
Well, I managed to get about half of them downloaded just like they should have, but I'm not sure what happened next. I was adding all the stained glass photos into my folder so I could do a series of posts describing the process from start to finish. Somehow I managed to lose all the glass pictures without them being downloaded! Makes me so mad!
I guess, I'll have to start over with the next project I work on, and hope I don't mash the wrong button on this machine and lose everything again. Wish me luck.

I have not felt well all day, my attitude has been less than award winning to say the least and the picture problems didn't help it one little bit. I'm grumpy, my joints and my back just ache like a miserable toothache, and I feel that dreaded wave of depression over my mother's death coming on. My birthday (which is next week), her birthday, my son's birthday, Mother's Day, the holidays and the anniversary of her death brings the depression on like a tidal wave. I HATE it and I wish it would ease up on me. It's been nearly 5 years since Mom passed away and I swear it's still just as painful today as it was back in Aug. '04. Please keep me in your prayers as I fight through this yet again. And those of you reading this that still have your mothers, hug them, hang out with them, take them to lunch, enjoy them and tell them you love them!! They won't be there forever, enjoy them while you have them.

I leave you with a picture of my beautiful mother Jerri, with one of her baby birds she raised.

Until next time,

Fun Pictures

JoJo had become very good at using his feet to do all kind of things. We gave him a couple of those waffle balls with bells inside that you get from the cat toy section, he loves them. He holds them in his little foot and shakes them like maracas while muttering all kinds of things under his breath, not sure if he is singing or just jabbering, but it's cute.

My friend, Kara sent me this cute picture of Miss Winnie all snuggled in her chair. I don't know what it is about these rotten Bull Terriers, but they do love being all snuggie under blankets. All of mine do it and as you can see, Winnie is no different.
Those of you that live in the south know what Goody Powders are. Kiwi, our little Green Cheek Conure seems to have a headache in this picture. All I had with me was my camera phone so it's not the best picture in the world, but at least I managed to get one. He had the best time with that empty packet AND he was quiet, so I let him keep it.

Now, I'm off to the grocery (YUK) and back to get some work done on my latest stained glass project....trophies for our upcoming dog show.

Enjoy the day,

Tagged Again

I know I'm getting old and can't run as fast as I used to, but tagged TWICE in one week? Man, I need to learn some new moves to get out of the way quicker. :)

Dannielle Over at 50 Fingers & 50 Toes caught me. So here we go, the same as the other picture folder tag except this time it's folder #6, Picture #6. Rules are the same as the last one.

The dogs found this big guy hanging out around our pond last year and DH rescued him. (He wouldn't have made it very long if he hadn't) Good thing for the turtle we have Terriers who can't keep their mouths shut when they find something new & exciting to play with or should I say torment?

We put him in the bathtub for safe keeping overnight, then took him out to the lake and set him free out there.

Now, the rules say I am supposed to tag 6 people, but I'm going to follow Mrs Mari's lead, and tell you, if you are reading this, consider yourself tagged. :)

Camera-Critters

It's time again for Camera-Critters! I nearly forgot about it since I have been so busy here this week! Glad I didn't. If you want to join in or want to see other folk's adorable photos, please head over to the Camera-Critters blog and check them out! You can also click on that cute badge at the top of the post to get there.

My post today is of our 24 year old Blue Front Amazon, Chico eating a Ritz cracker. :) He loves them, he also has an addiction to Bojangles' Botato Rounds, Scrambled Eggs, Spaghetti, leftover chicken leg bones and Pancakes. Birds can eat anything we eat (except chocolate, avocado and onions, those are deadly to them) and in fact, feeding them good foods makes them healthier. All of our birds share our meals. As long as you don't use alot of salt whatever you eat, they can eat. Chico, like most of the other animals in our house, is a rescue.

Now, jump on over to Misty's place and check out the other Camera-Critters this week.

Tag! I'm it!!

I wondered how long it would be before this tag reached me, well it has. I was tagged by Lisa. Check her blog out, really, what a neat lady! :)

So here are the rules:

1) Go to the 4th folder in your Picture folder on the computer.

2) Go to the 4th picture in that folder.

3) Post that picture and explain it.

That is (l-r) Pooch (the white Toy Poodle you can barely see), Cissy (the black Chihuahua) & Rascal (the Cockapoo) in the RV window. We are heading out to The National Donor Recognition Ceremony in Washington DC. July '07.

My mother passed away suddenly in Aug. '04 of a ruptured brain aneurysm. Mom was an Organ Donor and the Mountain Region Donor Services, here in NE TN handled everything needed for our family. Every other year, the Federal Government honors donors and their families with a ceremony in DC. Nationwide, each center can choose one donor or donor's family to sponsor for the trip and that year, they chose my mother! I got to go to the most wonderful ceremony. It was very emotional for me, but I feel blessed to have been able to attend and meet so many other donor families from all over the country.

I have to end this by telling you, if you have not already made the decision to donate your organs, please consider doing so. One person can save 7 lives and enrich the lives of so many others through organ and tissue donation. If you want to know any more about donations, please email me, I will help you all I can. I am a Champions for Life volunteer for Mountain Region, so I can help you with any question you may have.

Now I have to tag 4 people for this "Tag Your It" fun:

1) Erin at Two Dachshunds and a Puppy

2) Mo & the Hounds at Two Hounds and a Manx

3) Nigel at Nigel, Sola & Co.

4) The Gang at Hey, Mama Where's My...

So guys, TAG! Yer it!!

IHeartFaces

I found the neatest little contest that I just had to get in on over at I Heart Faces. I have looked at a few of the entries and just love them. I wanted to add mine before I go back and look at the rest of them.

Now, since my "kid" is almost 21 and lives out on his own now, I don't have many recent pictures of him, so I wanted to add one of my 4-legged "kids" to the contest. :)

Meet Darla Jean, a brindle Bull Terrier. I took this photo in a hotel room after a long day of showing at the Bull Terrier Nationals, she was one tired puppy.