WHAT MY WORKOUTS LOOK LIKE DURING QUARANTINE

In my daughter's home gym in her garage with my grandpup,

Miss Tatum,

trying to do my sit-ups without laughing too hard.

At least I'm trying!

29 DAYS

A STITCHING AND DYEING ADVENTURE

Day 2

Because I never do anything in the order you are supposed to in an On-Line Workshop,
my Day 2 was different then everyone else's.
Plus I can't give away too much info.,
just show you the highlights.
After all,
this is India's class.
So Day 2 (for me) was something she calls a Diagonal Fold.
I had a couple of alright ones from this experiment,
but only the one at the top that I truly loved.
And of course I did a few more then I was told to do,
cuz it was hard to stop!

As I said,
I loved the very top one,
actually it's one of my best from the entire class.
The others are ok I guess,
but not as brilliant as the ones India was doing in her online demos.

One of the things I should have followed

 was using only distilled water instead of the hard water from my tap.

But I was so anxious to start I didn't want to take the time to go to the store to buy it.

Turns out water has a lot to do with how the dyes react to the cloth,

India explains it so much more scientifically then I.

And so does washing your fabric before you try this.

All my wool pieces were not washed beforehand,

I didn't want to chance felting them,

but next time I will launder all.

The good news is that in this Adventure we needed a lot of contrasting fabrics,

so the lighter marked ones will look good next to the darker ones.

In case you are wondering what kinds of fabric these examples are the top one is a crepe silk.

Next is cotton, then a silk/wool mixture, cotton, and then a thin silky mesh.

BABIES IN THE GARDEN

Recently the tiniest nest appeared out of nowhere in my miniature Magnolia tree on our patio.

Even though I go outside almost everyday to watch my plants grow

and to see what's new in the garden,

I didn't even see the mama hummingbird building her nest.

Would have loved watching that!

She laid two eggs and sat on them almost constantly for a good two weeks.

She didn't like me climbing on the patio chair to peer into her nest,

but I did it anyways.

Even my husband was getting mad at me,

telling me to leave her alone.

But I wanted to see the babies so badly when they were first born. 

Here they are above.

Two days old,

It's hard to see them but their tiny beaks are facing to the left at about 8:30.

And here they are at about one week old.

They grew so very fast.

I didn't peek for another week because of the awful weather we were having,

and when I did they were gone.

I was so devastated,

I had no idea they could fly at such a young age,

so I googled them and found out they don't usually fly till about 26 days old.

Oh no,

did something terrible happen to them?

We don't have any cats in the neighborhood,

 but we do have coyotes that come into our complex some nights,

but that's a rarity.

We had a ferocious wind and rain storm the week I didn't go out and check on them.

Perhaps that were blown out of their nest then?

I will always remember them,

so very helpless.

I'm leaving the nest there for next year 

hoping that either the mama or one of her babies will remember it and return.

Not sure if they do that.

Any thoughts/ideas on the matter??

A RETURN TO MY STUDENTS

So, ok, it's March and I need to get busy on another of my resolutions,

and the reason I started this blog,

to feature the art works of my students.

I start with sophomore Madison Plotkin.

Even though I've retired she has kept in touch with what she is learning and making

at her after school art program called Ryman Arts in Fullerton.

Madison was so artistically gifted in the 7th and 8th grade when I worked with her 

that I recommended her to this program at the end of her 8th grade year. 

She is currently in her 3rd Semester there and learning all about Acrylics.

But before that she was focusing on watercolor,

one of her favorite mediums in the 8th grade.

She recently sent these examples of some of her watercolor work,

and I wanted to share them with all of you.

She told me this is her last semester there

and is looking to move on to a summer program to further her skills.

Can't wait to see what this very gifted young one will do next.

I'm thrilled that Madison and her parents are looking

to further her studies in Art outside of her high school.

Our top art colleges in the nation have become extremely competitive,

 so these days the kids need to do everything they can to get additional instruction 

from a variety of exceptional teachers and programs in the Art community.

Sadly this is a very costly venture for the parents 

because many of these programs are expensive.

Good Luck Madison!

We are cheering you on.

A SPECIAL VISITOR

I always get a thrill when our local bear pays us a visit.

He passed our cabin up for the one above us because they had their trash out,

and our neighbor was home and able to get a quick snap shot of him/her.

Usually it comes down to eat the apples on our other neighbors tree

 except they aren't ready yet.

In fact it's a bit early in the season for a sighting at all.

FAMILY MEDIAL UPDATE

Many of you have written in to ask how our son-in-law is doing with his cancer treatments.

He continues to suffer from extreme headaches and a swollen face at times,

but even so he is back to work full time and continues with his chemo. treatments.

And he never complains.

Our babies are 5 and 1 year old now

and already buddies for life.

Recently we have been told the Stage 3 Tumor in his brain has begun to shrink

so that has been much cause for celebration.

I share their most recent family pix from their Christmas card,

and thank you all for thoughts and prayers.

xoxoxoxo

BROTHERLY LOVE

My grand pups have been growing by leaps and bounds,

especially the baby,

 Miss Tatum 

below.

She has grown almost twice as large as her big brother Granger,

but she has no idea how long or tall she is.

The poor baby is always tripping or running into things with her back half.

And she is in that awful chewing stage right now as well.

So far she has decimated 3 pillows and 2 pairs of shoes,

and because she is also a real scaredy cat,

when disciplined,

 will wet herself.

ahhhhh,

it breaks my heart.

Granger is her protector and won't let any other dogs get close to her.

And he plays with her all day when they aren't sleeping 

waiting for their mommy to get home from work.

They are the best of friends and love to snuggle.

And Miss Tat gives the best kisses ever!

She is also the most gentle dog I've ever know,

Granger being one of the smartest I've ever encountered.

 

And I just love them to death!