August… in recap

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Looking at the calender I figured August was going to be nuts… and I was right.  However, September is doing its best to keep the pace.  I keep reminding myself that November & December will be here soon enough and I’ll be griping about how there is NOTHING TO DO!!!!

It’s been a busy and fun month.  Camping with some friends in beautiful Brookings on the southern Oregon Coast.  It was peaceful, and fun, and I got adopted by my friends zany family.  Er… maybe I should say my zany friends family.  I’m not sure which one sounds worse… that the family is zany, or that my friends are zany.  Nevermind… it was fun.  Four days without computer screens, phones, internet, etc…  Just beaches, campfires, sand, raccoons, and scenery.  Plus we did a quick stop off at the Prehistoric Gardens parking lot to say hi to Rex because, well, it’s tradition!

I also got to photograph a strong man competition that Vic’s Powerhouse held at Three Rivers Casino.  That was a definite change of pace for me… however, strong men picking up heavy stuff is a lovely combination of two of my favorite things.

Group shot of the Feats Contestants

The little girl being held up was the winner of the kids tire flip challenge that was held during the lunch break.  Talk about a Strong Woman in the making!  She (along with many others of us) developed a bit of a crush on the guy in red.   Unfortunately I couldn’t think of a legitimate reason to have him pick up the photographer.

And in the Studio I got to tackle a few new projects.  One project was for a jewelery competition held by Janice Everett of JLynn Jewels a very cool artist & bead maker that I met through my friend Ms.  Amanda Austen of Sea Shore Glass Girl (who many should recognize as the August designer feature in Bead Trends Magazine and who also has a wicked cool Etsy Shop).  This is the piece (see below) I made, and has been earmarked as a gift for one of my friends.  I fear I will have to mail it to her tho, since there seems to be no time free when I can drive it over to her and spend an afternoon in her company.

Center Poppy tile by JLynn Jewels, crystal, smokey quartz, and chain.

The other piece I made for the competition is available for purchase in my Etsy shop.

Yes, you heard me right… I actually posted something in my Etsy shop.  My shop is named Eggplant And Saffron.  I’m Eggplant, and Saffron is my muse.  Eggplant is one of the nicknames my family bestowed upon me.  Also worth noting that I love the taste of, color of, plant shape, flowers of, and history behind the Aubergine.  Plus Saffron (aka Saferella, Sasafrassy, Saffers, SaffyDog) is the best dog muse I’ve ever had.

Oh, and just one more thing… I also managed to fit in a play date with my Grandma to show her how to do that felting thing I was introduced to at the Black Sheep Gathering.  It was a really fun day, and the first time ever I was able to teach her how to do something! It was also the first time she’s ever just hung out at MY house with ME!

I apologize for my oversight in not taking a finished photo of her fabric piece.  It turned out really nice.  The colors are all wispy and reminded me of a cloudy sky at sunset.

Here is my attempt at “painting” with hair.  I was pleased with how it turned out.  I already have plans for the next one.

As a quick tie in with the last posting, I created the above peice while listening to Gillian Welch Radio on Pandora.  I was in a folksy-frame of mind.

Well I’m tired now, it’s nearly September (literally in and hour & 15 minutes it will officially be September 1st) and the madness goes on.  Should be fun and I’ll try to be better about recording the fun stuff going on & happening in my studio.

~ L

 

 

 

Gillian & Lemon Powderd Sugar

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Gillian Welch & David Rawlings rocked the McDonald Theatre tonight.  Perfect harmony & clever lyrics.  Whats not to love!

Here’s one of the better YouTube vids I found of her singing Make Me a Pallet on Your Floor.

We followed up the show with doughnuts from Voodoo Doughnuts on the corner of Broadway & Willamette.  The perfect thing to give you a little sugar buzz for the drive home.  Went for the Lemon Powdered Sugar for myself, but accidentally had a few bites of the Mango Tango one my Mom bought.  Both were quite delicious.

Something Hairy & New

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Last Friday I went to the Black Sheep Gathering in Eugene @ the Fairgrounds and had an opportunity to take a class from Sandoval McNair on felting yardage for a vest.  I’m gonna just say it was an awesome class. 

We started with this:  

   

and ended with this:

The class was really fun and relaxing.  It’s an ancient way of making material for just about any use possible.  From an artistic point it was like painting with fiber.  The colors of roving we were able to choose from came directly from Sandoval’s personal cache.  She is an amazing fiber artist & does her own dyeing.  Which made the materials even more unique and fun to play with! 

I bought a few new colors of roving at the fair to play around with at home and so far have been really happy with the results.  Like I needed another hobby!

Bucket Head

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Bucket Head Beagle is the latest hand-carved stamp.  Hand carved, doesn’t that give you a mental image of me sitting on the front porch whittling away on a stamp… in a rocking chair.

Here is my inspiration for the above stamp.  She was such a good dog.  Doesn’t she look like a little Drum Major?

22 Cent Love

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Love Stamp

The best stamp ever

Today I woke up thinking about printing in 3+ colors.  And throughout the day this stamp kept popping in my head.  That’s right, the Love stamp featured on Mr. Rogers neighborhood from the trip to the post office where we learned about printing stamps.  This is quite possibly the best stamp ever.  End of story.

 

Lino-Cutting

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Sheep Lino Cut
Check him out!  My very first lino-cut experiment.  Sheep design all my own.  He’s going to be a gift for my knitter Mom.  Now I need to find some really rockin paper to print him on… or way to frame him.

 

Orn – The Brand

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Alright, so I’m going to take the plunge & set up an etsy shop.  I know, its something that will require some time, effort, and responsibility.
Doesn’t sound like me at all!
However, I took stock of the house plants today, and all 14 are doing well.  The dog is still happy, healthy, and well fed.  So… maybe these are all signs that I’m growing up and am ready to become a more organized & responsible person.

HAHAHAHAHA!

Well at least until I borrow the full DVD set of Arrested Development from my sister & sit around in sweats drinking spiked coco & laughing for 24 consecutive hours.

But seriously now, I’ve come to the point where I need to start making this hobby of mine pay for itself.  I’m talking jewelery & beads here.  Its fun, and relaxing, and I’ve been getting enough feedback of late that encourages the idea that perhaps I could make a bit of money doing it.  I don’t expect to ever pay my rent with the proceeds, but perhaps enough to make the hobby pay for itself.  That is a fair enough request right?

So now the questions begin.  What do I call myself?  Do I need a business license for an online shop?  Should I establish a beading/jewelery money account only?  How do I go about packing my trinkets?  What kind of graphics should I use?  What should the feel be?  And how am I going to photograph stuff so it looks good and will make people want to buy it?  And how do I price the dang things?

I’m going to tackle one question at a time tho.  Right now that first question is What do I call myself?  Orn’s Thoughts is taken for my ramblings (this).  Lauren’s Treats will be my bakery (some day).  Eggplant/EggyO/Eggplantorn, is my nickname, but I feel it would be misleading when pertaining to my jewelery & art because I don’t bead eggplants nor do I photograph them.  Same deal with Eggy, cause I don’t find eggs terribly interesting.  Besides I’ve got a weird mental connection between eggs & breasts from research for a surgery.  Don’t ask.  However, it is the reason I only order one egg at a time.

But I digress…

And the question remains, what do I name my “shop”?

Out of the darkness…

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This morning I very nearly maced the neighbor dog. Not out of any malicious intent, he just happened to scare the well… you know… out of me.
6 o’clock am, I am pulling back into my driveway after workout. Its still pitch black and I am bleary eyed… thinking about a warm cleansing shower and oatmeal for breakfast.
As I pull into the drive I hear a dog bark, and somewhere in my head I think “that sounds closer than Schultz” (the north neighbors German Shepard).
I open the door and there he is… a big furry German Shepard dog head.
I shrieked and slammed the door shut.
Did I mention it was dark out?
After realizing that el doggo has no malicious intent, and then feeling foolish for my very very girly shriek, I opened the door to say a proper good morning to him.
But doggo was nowhere to be found.
I fear he may have gone home to nurse a perforated ear drum.

Goodbye to My First Dog Love

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Saffy & Abbey at South Jetty

Last weekend was sunny and beautiful, but carried with it little joy.  We had the hard job of saying good bye to our Beagle Abbey.  She was almost 14 years old, and was suffering from nothing more than the break down that age brings to small animals.  It was difficult to do, but she was finally telling us that life was not comfortable to live any more and we had to respect that.

This is the first dog that my family has had, and has lost.  Most people have experienced that loss at an earlier age than I have.  I dont know if that is better or worse, I just know its a really sucky thing to have to go through.  At any age.

Abbey came to us from friends.  People we knew had bred their female and advertised puppies.  When my mom called she recognized the voice and we knew that we were getting a pup from a good home.  She was a funny little pup, not much bigger than would fit in one hand.  When she came home I was instructed to not let the dog’s whining keep anyone awake.  No matter what!  I slept on the floor that night with her, and was terrified that I had smothered the puppy when in the morning I found her at the bottom of my sleeping bag.  Thank goodness it was a false alarm!  But she always found her way to the bottom of sleeping bags from that point on.

Abbey was part of our family.  For 14 years she went everywhere with us.  And when I moved out of my parents home she was decidedly sad about it.  By the time I could have a dog of my own she had bonded so deeply with my Mom that moving her to my house was not even an option.   In fact she seemed to hate visiting my house.  After the first 5 minutes she would go sit by the front door whining to go home.  She had become accustomed to a higher level of living than I have.  Funny, but very true.

Abbey opened our heart to dog love.  In fact she is the one I credit with cracking my self proclaimed non-dog lover grandmother.  Grandma now proclaims that she loves only the dogs related to her.  My dad who insisted the new dog be an outside dog only turned into the guy who would share his pillow with the dog in order to keep her comfortable.  And my mom was finally able to truly explore the dog loving side of herself that had been trying to satisfy itself with cats for so many years.

I know this beagle sized hole in our hearts will heal with time and with love from the current dogs.  In fact there is a sweet little puppy at my parents house who is doing her best to keep everyone amused with her antics.  But in reality the new pup will never be an Abbey replacement.  And that will eventually be ok.  But right now its ok to miss Abbey like crazy, and shed a tear every so often for our lost family member.