Saturday, May 7, 2011

New Puppy

We have a new puppy at our house!  He is an 8 week old min-pin and we've named him Mr. Bentley, because he has a bow tie on his chest as part of his natural markings.  He gets called Bentley most of the time though.  He is a dear little soul, sometimes in hyper warp speed, sometimes calm, sometimes sound asleep.  He's brave and timid and curious, all rolled up into a little black fur baby.  And he gets told how adorable he is a million times a day.

Yesterday we went to the Pella Tulip Festival in Pella, Iowa to take photos of tulips.  Bentley went with, as I am determined to have one of those dogs that goes everywhere with me this time.  Anyway, there was another photographer there and she HAD to have a picture of him by the tulips.  He was a reluctant model, but she eventually got the shot she wanted after about thirty tries.  Ha!  I was glad he was nice to the tulips, because when he comes across a dandelion he promptly rips it head off and shakes the crap out of it.  The head of a dandelion fills his entire mouth, so you get an idea of what size he is.

Bentley has caused me to take a new look at things again, from his level.  Together we've found some interesting things (at least they are to Bentley): A couple of screws, a few cigarette butts, a link of a chain, interesting rocks that promptly go into his mouth, some interesting leaves, violets at the park...anything tiny that I normally would have passed by.  He has caused me to speed up (as he is really quick on his tiny feet) and slow down (because he is so tiny, I don't want to step on him...and he consumes great quantities of my time-- so who cares if something doesn't get done?  The house hasn't fallen down around our ears yet). I think we are going to be good friends.

Tuesday, May 3, 2011

Lots of irons in the fire

I'm great at starting projects and not finishing them before I start another.  Must be the thrill of having all those supplies at hand, the anticipation of starting, and all the possible outcomes I see in my head that gets me pumped up to start something new.  Not only do I have many "works in progress" but I have an even bigger list of this I want to start!

Current projects include:  a painted guitar strap cover (completely painted, not sewn together), a woodburned art piece that needs paint and fabric on it, a photo mixed media that needs another photo and some more paint and doo-dads, several sketches meant to be turned into paintings, all those soldering supplies waiting to be used after signing up for an on-line class,  a fabulous felt hat that has been embellished with embroidery and beads, a fabric book with about three pages done, a new puppy sweater on the knitting needles, a scarf for my husband on the knitting needles, an amulet bag that only needs a bead sewn onto it, a knit messenger bag that needs assembling and felting, crocheted chokers with flowers that just need the flowers attached, a crocheted beaded cuff bracelet that only needs the closure sewn on, and my "secret project" for my family's friendly flower garden competition...just to name a few.  Oh, and I need to make two Mother's Day presents!  Yikes, just remembered that!

This week is not a good week to resolve to finish the WIP's as we have photo shoots, college graduation, in-laws coming for a visit, and a new puppy.  Still...maybe I can squeak in the final touches on some of the things.  I feel like I just need a week without interruptions to accomplish quite a lot, but if I had a week, really just had a week, you know what?  I'd probably want to start new projects!

Sometimes I feel like the storybook character in, "If you give a Moose a muffin, he'll want a glass of milk to go with it."  Where one thing just leads to another and another and another and I end right back where I started.  But I'm okay with that!  I love the thrill of the beginning of projects, but I also love having the final product.  I'll get it all done eventually if I want to bad enough.