new mermaids!

Mermaid Heidi

Mermaid Maddie

i just finished these two new mermaid boxes for a friend who is moving off-island. one is for her sister, and one for her daughter. it was fun getting to be a little more personal with them, and giving them real faces! it's also nice to know where they are going to be living! sometimes it's hard throwing your work to the wind, so to speak.
while i was working on them my new diamond bits came for my dremel tool, so i got to drill my first bits of seaglass for them. it works so slick, and now they get to bring a part of mill bay & mission beach with them.

anyhow, now on to a piece for the summer solstice small works art show...due in 2 days. it would be nice to have some sun for inspiration...but rain keeps one focused.

new challenge at Awfully Big Art Adventure

rosie & linda have posted a new challenge at bigartadventure.blogspot.com ~ the theme is shells. who can resist that??? go take a look, it's inspiring. and they give us 3 whole weeks to create & post. i automatically thought of all the pasta shell necklaces my three kids have made me over the years... i have a shoebox full of them.

a sunny day for graduation

i haven't been doing a lot of artwork lately as we've been busy getting ready for devon's graduation from high school, and we did make a quick trip down to ugak. it was hot! and i don't get to say that very often! also dry. the boys got everything opened up, tuned up, and ready for summer. i aired out the lodge and de-spidered - ugh they are horrid and huge down there. the annual shedding of the shells has already occured and there is a continuous line of hollow perfect little crab shells down the beach. how do they get out of them like that? anyhow, now we're all set for summer, and can't wait for cullan to finish school so we can head back down.
devon graduated sunday, it was a beautiful sunny day and the speakers had mercy on all of us crammed into the auditorium and were blessedly short. yesterday i put him on a plane to anchorage to meet with his air force recruiter. he will finish his last paperwork, get his physical
and take his oath. when i pick him up tonight, he will be in the air force. as i sat boo hooing in my car after his plane took off i realized that, just like every other major event in his life, he was meeting this one full of confidence, with his goofy grin, and a giant scabby scraped left knee.

i won bead soup!!! yee haw!

thank goodness we don't have close neighbors, because this morning when i discovered i was a winner of one of beverly gilbert's amazing bead soups, i did the happy dance in my pj's out on the deck. and to get to choose which one...over the top. i couldn't pick. i'm trusting ms. beverly for that. my family is notoriously non-celebratory. say the word birthday and all 4 heads get buried in the sand. so this is like the best mother's day ever for me. i encourage whomever may read this to check out beverly's blog & website. she is the zen master of colour and bead artistry.
beverlygilbert.blogspot.com
www.gilbertdesigns.net

the sun is here!

we are having a burst of the most beautiful sunshine ever. on kodiak, when the sun comes out like this, no one stays inside. duffy and i have been out on our favorite beaches all day long. he's a smelly salty wet dog, and i am sunburn. it's great. and, i can finally post a photo of my tiny little patch of crocus blooms - i have been seeing so many pretty flowers blooming on blogs from everywhere for a month or so now, now i can be one of the flower crowd.

it doesn't get much sunnier than this. now we just need the green to come in. this is gibson cove, a favorite place for duffy to swim with the sea otters.

i have finished two projects. i lugged my sewing machine outside and made a new sassy dog bed for duff, he loves the pin up girls. then i completed a mosaic lamp i've been wanting to get to all winter. it has mother of pearl buttons from my grandpa's shirts, and "pearls" from an old necklace of my grandma's. i wet felted the shade, and will probably sew "stuff" on it this afternoon, in the sun, on the deck. yay!

i wish i knew how to get that evil glow out of his eyes - my photo program doesn't register it as red eye... he really is a nice dog.