ceramic art all the way..

my very loving husband surprised me yesterday-with an email. In a couple of weeks I will be able to work in ceramic clay again because I will have my very own little kiln! It also allows glass work! Woohooo, I cannot believe it, I have drooled at them for years and always thought that I wouldn't be able to work in my art of choice, polymer clay is just not as nice for the work I would like to do. So, if there happens to be anyone out there that knows of a good online supply store for glaze, clay etc, please let me know, Thanks!

Self-portrait Tuesday

This is my first time for self-portrait tuesdays....my new short haircut....and toys in the background!

for more participants see
flickr group or self portrait day

and for all the kiwi groupies, some gratuitous puppy pics...

Kiwi's homepage!

Kiwi's homepage

Air Zoo

We made the most of our weekend by traveling and getting to know what there is to do in Michigan. First was Binder Zoo, next day we went to the air zoo. It was dimly lit so the pictures are not so good, but here are a few highlights. We got to go into a simulated space shuttle ride and wear goofy 3-d glasses:


Caden will not pose anymore, he is sick and tired of all of mom's blogging!


Caden and I are flying along...daddy would not share in any spinning around in circle fun.


this is the miniature shuttle ride, like they have in the malls, but you can see an example of the beautiful murals they have, even the floor was intricately muraled.


the view inside an old WW2 war plane that carried parachuters.


This is Caden testing out his barn-door kite (we got to make it there) in the "wind tunnel".

One last propeller picture for good measure :)

Binder Zoo here we come!

Oh come on give me a kiss! This was the absolute best zoo experience we have ever had. I usually get depressed for the animals not living out in the wild, but this allowed such a wonderful experience. The giraffes eat out of your hand, you can see eye to eye with them. This giraffe grabbed my hand with his tongue and enveloped my hand withing its' mouth ever so gently. A conservation theme was the theme of the park.



This is Caden (with daddy holding onto him) looking at and feeding the giraffes.








zebras too!


ok ok, this is enough for now, I'll post some more later, or you can click on the pictures and I think they go to my flickr account or use this...( http://flickr.com/photos/65079589@N00/ ) Tomorrow is the air zoo, hmm busy busy!

Introducing Kiwi

Here she is, in all her cuteness...Kiwi, our furry little baby!

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itty bitty news

We have finally found our new (furry) baby. She is a wee pug, 6 weeks old and we named her Kiwi...pictures to follow when I can access my pictures on our home network (ugh!). Be warned...she is adorable (or incredibly ugly that she is cute...according to whatever your view on pugs is!)

Does popcorn work as an earplug?

The answer, of course not. Why would a four year old boy stick a unpopped kernel of corn in his ear? No one really knows. But that is the reason we ended up in the emergency room last night. I thought he had wax in his ear, a lot of wax, so I tried to clean them. Well, he just wasn't acting right, crying etc...so I decided that maybe I had injured his ear while cleaning them. Luckily the ear ended up to be fine, just narrowed canals from allergies, BUT the other ear had an unidentified object inside. I laughed and thought the doctor was joking. He wasn't. Apparently it is a serious thing, foreign matter, especially vegetable matter can cause a severe infection. It took three grown men and the help of a velcro strapped back board to hold caden down to remove the kernel. Oh, it was terrifying to see him strapped down hysterically screaming for me. I was right there, trying to soothe him and let him know it would be ok. Luckily they got it out and now we need to put drops in both of his ears every four hours. Kids, never a dull moment.

Monday Blatherings...

i love these designs.. I found them here! She was on a recent Crafters Coast to Coast.
Tomorrow is the big day, after weeks of procrastination, I will be picking up a new pair of glasses, with my mom's help. We have had our normal laundry monday, and I have been cleaning out the closets. I am hoping too get all of our stuff down to what we use, so moving (whenever that comes) will be easier. (plus, I am a neat freak) Paul bought me a Wacom tablet this weekend so I can practice my graphic design and other stuff. I was really shocked! (it is like a pen and paper for the pc) I have been practicing off and on today. I have been able to doodle, but not much more than that so far.

Caden is obsessed with Bob the Builder lately. He wants to watch the DVD all day long. He loves it. That is all for now, I have to find all the parts to the camera to get it back to functioning so I can post more pics.

design updates

I have fourteen pendant designs finished...more on the way...I just need to take pics...(designs include several birds, an owl, flowers and others, hand-carved in clay)stay tuned

ps-have fun in Chicago, mom! :)

clay time

Recently I have been working with clay again. This is the original medium I worked in and have been trained (a little) in. I am working on making embossed molds sort of like these (but much smaller)




I love carving the designs into clay. I love clay.

It has been a stormy couple of days. This may be a signal that our hot summer days are winding down. I hope so....

Nothing much else is new. We have found a house that we like, but it is as slow going as this house! The realtor doesn't call back and neither does the finance office, is this a Michigan thing? We have never had so many calls go unreturned. I guess once we get financed it will be easier, but it would help if the finance office would at least return our first call! We just need to be happy where we are at, but I feel like we are throwing money out the window by renting. In due time I suppose.

Another pet peeve, not only am I going to be the big 3-oh this year, but I found out that I need glasses. What? This is not fair! I now have become obsessed with looking for wrinkle cream to make sure that doesn't start happening too. The good news is that I have finally gotten the chance to start working on art again. Our church has asked me to take some photographs for the website. That made me feel a little better. :)

swimming along

We got to go to the aquatic center again. Caden had so much fun and he is even attempting to swim. He has learned how to float and even dog paddle. This surprised me because all my attempts to show him have been thwarted. He doesn't act like he wants to learn...but back in there he is really listening, he is just so stubborn--it needs to be his idea for things to work out properly. He is definitely a "in his own time" kinda kid. I am hoping to enroll him in lessons this fall. He needs to know how to swim because we live at the lake and we are walking or boating in the water almost daily.

Last night Paul was able to come home by 6:30! We went for a walk on the pier and had ice cream. We literally saw so many people that we knew. We had no idea my cousin was camping with her family at the beach, we also saw two families that we have become acquainted with through church. Usually we never see anyone we know, we don't really know that many people because we didn't grow up here.

testing..

buggabu store under construction

thank goodness for naps...

I think that is about all I have to say, I just have had a horrible parenting day, which has been part of a rough week. Caden doesn't want to pick up his toys...so a lot of them have been taken away for a week and put in the "naughty closet", and he is not allowed to get a new toy for a week (because he doesn't seem to care if he loses a toy to the closet). Pretty soon we will be donating the toys. He says 'you can pick them up mom, I don't want them anymore' Ugh!!!!!!! I just don't know, he is in a very difficult phase. He directly disobeys, he just finds things out the hard way. It breaks my heart and makes me feel like a bad mom. He is so strong willed, we just need to mold him a little to believe us when we say something, he thinks he knows everything (and he is only four, boy what is this going to turn into when he is a teenager?)

You can never watch over your kids too much

Let's see, Caden has had a love hate affair with the six year old neighbor. Paul and I on the other hand have had more of a "please find someone else to play with" plea since the neighbor's arrival three months ago. She always leads Caden to trouble....playing in the pond....scooping dirt close to the road...tempting him to do things he thinks he probably shouldn't do, but sees her do, so it must be ok, right? Well, today I have had it, And I hope Caden has also. He came inside screaming, I ran to the door, thinking some sort of blunt force trauma..which is normal between the two. What do I see, Caden's clothes hanging off from him, incoherently screaming. The neighbor girl, nowhere in sight. (Later to be discovered hiding in her parents' car). Was Caden crying because his clothes were cut to shreds? Maybe...but I think it was more because the assailant fled with the weapon in hand...his small green scissors. These scissors have only known nice crafting projects, not the shredding of clothes. After 30 minutes of calming Caden down, I was able to rescue the scissors and through his brand new shirt into the trash. I didn't know what to say or do when the neighbor's mother asked what was up...as I was talking to her daughter through the car window, I tried to make like it was no big deal, but what is next? She literally seems like she is out to: a. get Caden in trouble, and b. more cynically, hurt him. I hope the latter is not true, but she just doesn't play nice. I have tried to be a positive role model, but it has come to not answering the knock at the door when she asks for Caden to play. I never knew how difficult this parenting thing is. I feel inadequate, but it is not my job or position to parent other people's children. I am so glad we are house-hunting.

parade pictures

Caden "chillin" in the tree while we wait for the parade to start.


Caden was in heaven..the firetruck was right next to our float. He got a private tour of the truck. Most any four year old boys' dream.


Not the best picture...but you can sorta get the idea, we borrowed a truck from the dealership, it matched the VIP boat perfectly, we then had to decorate it red white and blue and salute the coast guard a "happy birthday" (that is what is on the side of the truck)


The view from the back of the boat. We shared a float with one of our clients, Freedom Boat Club. We trade skills, so we get to go on the boat for the gas only.



This is a quick pic that Paul snapped while the parade was in progress, this was after we had passed out 25 pounds of candy....ugh It only lasted for half of the parade. Caden drove the boat and I waved at the crowd. (pretty good for a shy girl, if I do say so myself)

The parade was attended by over 100,000 people and televised on two to three channels. Weird, it has gotten to be a bigger and bigger deal over the years, I had no idea...

parade

I cannot believe that over 100,000 people were in our small town to see the parade. We made a float...pics to follow whenever I can load them up to the computer....It was pretty cool. Caden had a blast honking the horn and "driving" the boat in the parade.

second thoughts

penelope's painting says it all, second thought. (http://www.penelopeillustration.com/journal.html)
Well, something is up. It is just taking too long to buy this house. Too many things pointing to "no". So...we are house shopping. Let's see where it takes us. Slow but sure, we will find where we are supposed to be.

So, no time for crafting. I do have a new inspiration though. I am very excited. Now, it is just up to find the time....hmmm preschool countdown 4 weeks! Yay, that will create some time. Caden and I will both be entertained!

Wish us luck.

Coast Guard Week

Well this is the two weeks that our little town quadruples in size. It is Coast Guard Festival time! This week it started with the parade of boats...



Caden cheering them on.

the helicopter is part of our local patrol and is always zooming around.


This is also part of local patrol. In addition they have a large ice breaker in. It will be decommission next year. Paul was able to come home on time and we toured all but one of the ships.

Next...
Kid's day was on Tuesday. It was about 90 degrees and 80% humidity, and I think the whole town plus half of Grand Rapids showed up. Busy.

Caden got his face painted.

he was a little unsure about all this commotion...


Then he got a frog tattoo (temporary of course).

This is his "tough guy" look.

Then we made a sailboat and got an apron from the Home Depot stand. After that it was time to make a turtle puppet. There are no pictures of this because mommy was making the crafts while Caden was flopping around and complaining...He was unsure about all this crowd.

We did get to see a huge display of exotic birds. They were all out of their cages and were flying all about. It was very..Interesting. (considering I have a huge fear of birds..They bite!)
They were sure beautiful though...






hello there!




Then Caden ventured on to go one a few rides...

This was a blow up maze...A lot of kids that went in after Caden were coming out before him. I had a fear that I would hear him screaming and have to crawl in after him, but he emerged and I was so relieved!

Next we waited in line, in the hot sun, (remember the first sentence...The humidity ugh!) I just couldn't disappoint him...All for this...drumroll....

That's right, Caden climbed a rock wall. He did pretty good for his first time, and being four and all.


He had a blast.
Then we went home and both took a long nap! So that is the festival so far...This weekend is the craft fair and the parade (which we are supposed to be in!). Most likely there will be more pics to follow.

Weekend wanderings

We went to the downtown car show yesterday. Here are some gratuitous Caden pictures....

Caden loves jeeps

a mini

a gussied up mustang

a restored bedliner that I was entranced with!

Daddy and Caden and our resident soda truck that gives out pop at various locations almost everyday, I have no idea why they are spending this much time in our little area on the lakeshore.

all of this car show stuff inspired Paul to come home and wax up our cars! ohhh shiney!

one crafty note...I want to make this for a pin cushion, wouldn't that be so cute?