Dog Days of Summer

I'm not sure exactly what the phrase means "dogs days of summer" (I'm sure I could look it up on the 'net). I believe it's something about the heat, of which we've had a few days of some hot weather again. Luckily my downstairs stays fairly cool, and the wrap-around porch helps alot. My dogs seem to sleep 20 of the 24 hours in a day and I get to listen to them moan and grown, toss and turn, and one who even snores. When one barks or whines in their sleep, the others come to attention to see if they need to bark at something. So to that tune...I took some pics over a couple days to show my funny dogs sleeping. (Yes, I do love my dogs)

A Little Vacation at Home

artI guess it was last week, I was alone for 4…whole… glorious… days! Everyone had gone to different places, the kids, the H, and I was enjoying every minute of it. It was quiet and relaxed, just me and the dogs. I also realized that during that time, I found I was really creative. I had lots of ideas and actually created quite a few works of art, which is unusual for me to create so many at one time. So what’s up with that? I should pack up and leave? (had that thought many times, lol) live in a cave? But seriously, what does that say about our creative selves? I guess for me I need quiet, some people can work with music or background noise, apparently not me. I also realized that I had long periods of uninterrupted time (except for the occasional doggy potty breaks, where I rounded up all 5 and let them out at one time). I could follow through on an idea, not be interrupted and loose my train of thought. I’m lucky in that my kids are teens and I don’t have little ones demanding even more of my attention. I don’t know how you do it - those of you with little ones - I see the art created by you and am amazed.

My creative space is nothing fancy, just an alcove on one side of the kitchen. I recently redid it, painted, added shelves, combined and conquered the clutter and organized the plastic drawers. Stayed nice and neat for about a day! I find that I work better in clutter, then when I can’t stand it, I clean, but only if absolutely necessary!

Well, off to finish some art, here’s some that I created during my little 4 day vacation.

Fall According to the Dogs

According to my calendar, fall is officially here in the Sierra foothills--I finally had to put on socks to warm my feet in bed. A light quilt is still all I need for now, but when its time to bring out the heavy winter quilt, I get the signal from the dogs. The colder it gets, the closer they push, pinning me in one position so that I can’t turn over without causing a major shuffle of 10, sometimes 14 legs (and my two arms). So with the signal of winter according to the dogs and the “laying on” of the heavy quilt, they share more of “their” bed with me.



Well my lone maple tree is turning the most beautiful colors and will soon start dropping its leaves in earnest and for a short time the ground underneath will be covered in a sea of gold. Until then, every time I crest our road, I’m greeted with its glowing colors over the roof of our house. The oaks are also slowly dropping their leaves and every once in a while I hear a reminder of “fall”-- when an acorn goes ping on my car parked underneath.



I cut the last bunch of my roses and brought them inside for a last blast of summer. I’m going to cut some hips on another rose bush to add to a project I’m working on. I’ve been in an artistic slump. Just been trying (and not very successfully) to finish a few things that have been hanging around. I did do a few Halloween tags that sold on my etsy, and a few other misc. Halloween related stuff. I think it’s too late to list them, so I’ll just hold them for next year, makes me that much farther ahead, right?