essentially the worst blogger in the world.

It's true. I am. Oops.

Here is what I have been doing: trying to exhibit my work more.
Here is what I have not been doing: blogging about it.

In the past year I've shown work at various locations across the country. Some of what I accomplished: I won a Merit Award for my embroidery Pretty is a Process at the Hoyt Mid-Atlantic Competition, and was written about in the Democrat & Chronicle regarding Lois, you have not left yet when it was included in the Memorial Art Gallery's Rochester - Finger Lakes Exhibition. It's been a pretty good year.

Currently, Pretty is a Process on exhibit at The Faces of Women show at the Stella Art Gallery and Studio in East Rochester.

Pretty is a Process, 2011

Pretty is a Process, detail.

I'm really looking forward to the rest of 2012!

p.s. Gratuitous Kafka picture, because i know you missed him:

Weekly Kafka

Happy 1st Birthday Puppy!

I bought him a nice ribbon to tie to his collar, but he was only interested in chewing on it, which was not surprising at the least.

woe is my computer.

I want to throw my computer into the Genessee River. It has been coughing and hacking along, but tonight I believe it bleeped its last pathetic bleep at me. Now, if I had ever been attached to it emotionally, I would be sad, but the truth is that the whole time I typed away on it, my heart was unfaithfully lusting after a mac.

Honesty is the best policy, right?

Well, perhaps my computer didn't think so because we argued and I said some really mean things and it spitefully ate a couple of files. Or rather, made them completely inaccessible. And then began a slow and maddening descent into the realm of Complete Meltdown.

Taunting me is not going to win back my heart, Lenovo. Oh no it's not.

At least all of my scans are safe and sound, backed up six times in a couple locations. Who me? Paranoid? Huh?

So I have no Weekly Kafka as of yet, but I do still have a phat sale going at the shop. Prints are still buy one get a pack of holiday cards free OR buy two prints get the third free.

Rock on, babies. Hopefully I'll have more of the pup up for you soon!

Weekly Kafka

Two random Kafka facts for you:
1. He now has a blankie that he carries around. It's his dog blanket that we put in his crate. This weekend he has insisted on going into his crate, grabbing the thing, and parading around with it. He loves it.
2. Kafka loves to lick. Not anything specific, although I have to fight him off and run away once I put on my lotion. He will lick anyone or thing, at any time, regardless of race, creed, color, smell, texture, temperature, etc. etc. etc. He truly is all about equal opportunity. The opportunity to introduce his tongue to everything. on. earth.

Loves to ride in the car and drink coffee (see cup).

And yeah, he's getting big. About 40 lbs and about 5 1/2 months old. And he is immensely exuberant. This evening, my sister and husband and I all watched as he casually leapt onto the top of his big-dog crate. Holy shit. I thought it was going to CAVE IN.


We all yelled, "NO!" and he half slipped off and ducked with his tail in between his legs.

It's alright though, because then his blankie caught his eye and he pounced on it.

(This is his Kong Frisbee, not the blankie, but I think you get the idea.)

Photos are all before the snow came!

Holiday Cards!

When I got married, I made all of the paper items myself-- the invites, table numbers, escort cards, programs, etc., etc... but I have now officially begun my foray into the realm of cards for other people. I know. I'm so brave.

My first of four different holiday cards has now been listed, so we'll see how that goes. I hope to have the other three up by the end of the weekend, but given my tendancy to procrastinate by being distracted my small shiny objects, legos with the Meep and ducking a bounding Kafka... like i said, we'll see.

The textured paper I chose for the cards hasn't been showing the detail as much as I'd like, but I'm still generally pleased with the way they turned out. I'm hemming and hawing about the possibility of cutting these out of art paper and attaching them to the textured cards. What do you

I've started watermarking all my scanned images, and I'm not sure how I feel about it. I understand that it protects the image, but I hate the way it looks.

Regardless, I very much like how the back of the cards turned out!


Even though the image is small, I think it came out beautifully.

What do you think?

Shop update and bloggy-blog stuff

Flower Chain. Now in the shop.

I'm in the process of doing some secret blog rearranging, which is proving to be a little bit of a struggle, if only because of time. I will need to dedicate some solid blocks of time to it and that has been what I'm struggling with. If I get into ye olde codes and get torn away for something, I inevitably lose my mental place and flub for half and hour trying to get my head on straight.

Regardless, I'm excited about the upcoming changes. Let's hope it's not six months until I get them out (fingers crossed fingers crossed fingers crossed). :)

In other exciting news, the Kafka-nator is scared of snow. It's been snowing lately, just not sticking.

This morning I took him to the back door where he could see the blanket of snow covering our backyard. He looked, then padded across the room, sat down, and gave a little whine of discontent. When I opened the door for him, he walked tentatively to the doorway, gave the ground a brief sniff, then tore into the kitchen, then the dining room, then the living room, where he cowered under Ricky Bobby Spike's terrarium table. I had to put on my coat and boots, pick him up and take him (kicking and whiny-barking all the way) into the backyard, where I set him down and watched him sniff in circles for almost 10 minutes before he decided it was safe to pee.

Good job doggy.

Weekly Kafka

A short tale with pictures. Humor me while I pretend to know exactly what Kafka is thinking.

Gosh I like the fall.

There are leaves on the ground. I like leaves. They are almost as tasty as sticks.

What is this? A stick? With leaves?

I had better try it out.

Say... this is good!

Soooo gooood.

Within the past week Kafka has lost all of his baby canine teeth, and some molars too. He would be chewing on something (invariably something we didn't want him to chew on), and I would hear something skitter across the hardwood, like a little pebble. Then he would run after it and try to eat it. Yum. Teeth.

His new teeth are less sharp, and much more substantial than his puppy teeth. He is looking more and more grown, which is about right as this week he is five months old (I have no idea how many weeks he is any more because I have lost count and am too lazy to count again).

Weekly Kafka

This week, Kafka won't have his puppy class . He'll be sad, and so will I. He likes to learn and with most things picks stuff up within a few minutes. Besides three accidents, he was house-trained in two days. I'll miss it because it's one day out of the week where I know that he will listen. I think he likes to show off a little, because when he's at home, his puppy-adolescence prohibits him from paying attention %50 of the time. As always, pictures are from this past week.

Kafka continues to grow and grow and grow. Unbelievably, he also seems to gain energy as each day passes. He runs, he jumps, he flies.
Now that our yard is covered in dead leaves, he is thrilled. He will tear through the carpet of leaves and turn to catch them as they scatter into the air. It is endlessly entertaining for both of us.
He is still ready to lounge everywhere and anywhere. Especially if he can climb on someone to do it.
What a dog.

Weekly Kafka

Well... late Kafka is better than no Kafka.

He really knows how to relax.

He wants to eat all the time.
All the time.

I love this dog.


He loves balls.

Monday Monday

So I got some stuff done yesterday, but not as much as I would've liked. I was hoping to finish painting my sideboard into the sun and even though I worked my butt off, it was not to be. I was painting the molding on the drawers and cabinet doors and the black enamel I've been using is simply not giving me the coverage I was hoping for. Eventually I gave up for the day and moved on to a painting I've got in the works. I got maybe one drawer finished, but everything else is only partially finished because of the number of coats I have to lay down. UGH.

Here is a little piece of mine that I have yet to post:

Shadow oil pastel, graphite, paper on canvas.

I have an obsession with beetles, and this is just one of a large series that I did on them. It's quite small-- I think 4x6 inches if I'm thinking correctly, but I really like the way it came out. The beetle is from an old National Geographic and I love him dearly.


Kafka's day yesterday (as there seem to be a large number of you interested in his daily goings on) consisted of eating sticks and dirt, and then throwing up a little, which of course didn't phase him at all. Ah, the joys of puppy hood. :)

Happy Monday!

Weekly Kafka

I figured at this point I better give you some Kafka candy and that it would be best if I tried to make it regular, so allow to to introduce to you the weekly Kafka. I also thought it would be a good time to test out Picnik. It is so much fun to play with it's ridiculous. If you haven't tried it yet, go there as soon as you have soaked in some Kafka attitude.

These were all taken this week.

So freaking cute when he wants to be.

Kafka has an excellent, if sometimes inappropriate, sense of humor.

And he can fly!

We are part werewolf and other things.

So today I had most of the day to myself, which is unusual. I wasn't, of course, completely alone. Kafka was there, as he always is. Catherine came over for a while after recovering from that nasty bug that has been galloping around the city. It was so, so , sooo good to see her. I asked her to take some photos for me in about a month. She has a great eye, and a great camera. I forgot actually to ask her about it today. Once the photos have been taken, I'll talk about them. Until then, hang tight!

My sister Autumn came over as well for a while tonight too, so I could pluck her crazy eyebrows. You know how some families all have the same nose? Well, we have that, but we also have a bad case of the crazy eyebrows. And by crazy eyebrows, I mean the kind that will grow several inches long, and threaten to take over your face. Like we are part werewolf. Thanks a lot, dad. If you let them go, not only do they get long, but they literally begin to grow in from our outside eyes into our hairline. Let me just point out, right here, that despite what you may be beginning to imagine here, we are not a hairy family. Between my sister and I, the eyebrows are the only thing that allude to out beastly background.

I pluck my own (wax does not work as well to tame these monsters), but my sister is convinced that she can't do her own, so I am honored to do them for her. They looked magnificent when she left. In three days... well, we'll see.

Then and Two weeks ago

From Kafka's first two weeks with us:






And then two weeks ago:



I need to load more pictures. Rest assured, you'll see more.

Deer in the Woods

You must be pretty sure I've been hibernating, but I haven't been. It's been summer people! The weather in upstate New York has been wonderful! There's a puppy to take care of! Some updates for you:

1. Name that Puppy Update: His name is Kafka (Chindi's Metamorphosis) and Anne, who commented in with that suggestion, received a series of puppy kisses pictures, and a short, puppy-tongue filled video. And now he has almost tripled his weight.

2. I've finally opened an etsy store. More in a later post. I've got a number of new drawings to post too.

3. I love my blood sister, non-blood sister (in-law) and my best friend, but I don't spend nearly enough time with them. I love the men in my life too (I have brothers galore), but sometimes a girl just needs to get with her ladies.

4. If I have learned one lesson this summer it is to take more vacations.

5. Sarah Palin. WTF?? Please don't vote for someone because they have a vagina. Please vote because you agree with their politics and are sure that they know what they are doing. Something to consider: She doesn't believe in the theory of evolution or that mankind has anything to do with global warming. And that doesn't even scratch the surface of her grand "Alaska is close to Russia" argument for foreign policy. When McCain unveiled her, I didn't sleep for three nights because of Palin nightmares.

6. The deer still come around. This morning, not 35 feet from my living room window, stood an enormous 10 point buck. Incredible.

The "What Do We Name Him" Contest!

I'm a lover, not a fighter.

So what do you think?
Not Spot, Fido, Wind Waker (that's from a video game, and is the Meep's favorite)... I was in favor of The Dude, but JJ shot that down. He didn't like The Big Lebowski, either.

Rules:
1. The "official" name can be pretty much anything, but we're obligated to started it with "Chindi's", so if you liked the name Harrison Ford, the whole name would be "Chindi's Harrison Ford".
2. The name has to translate into an everyday name (i.e. Chindi's Harrison Ford could be Harrison, Harry, Ford etc.)
3. Remember that the Meep has to be able to call the dog by it's name, so don't suggest stuff like "Lick Balls" or "Ass Master". To the people who already suggested those names, you know who you are. I've got my eye on you.
4. You may enter as many times as you wish. Karl Barx has already been entered.

Winner Receives:
Many sweet little kisses from said named puppy, either in person or on film. Said puppy is not slobbery yet, and smells extremely good, so it's not the regular dog tongue-lashings. These are PUPPY kisses, people. Kisses will be available some time after August 4th.


***

Update! Here are some names thrown into the hat via email, phone, or visit (thanks mom):
Rufus
Bacon Bit (or even better in French, Petit Lardon... the little lard)
List Whistler
Watson
Ferdinand
Holy Mother Terrence (aka Mother Teresa b/c his sweet face can do no harm)
Hershey from the house of Kobie
Polonius
Charles Bronson (aka Charles, Bronson, Charley, Chuck, but absolutely NOT Bron Bron)
Captain Morgan's Spiced Rum
Brownie
Reginald
Zorro
Oreo
Jack the Kerouac
Ernest Hemmingway
Kirby or Hoover (because surely, he will be vacuuming up any crumbs)
Bobby B(rown)
Sir Poopy the Puppy (!!! thanks to my fabulous sister for that one. you are so cool.)
Wu-Tang Clan
Zero
Mighty Mouse
Mr. Tumbus

I know, I know... I've been neglecting you! Well, once in a while, that's what I do. I promise to make it up to you, because I've got loads of stuff to post. I've been busy thoroughly cleaning house, with class, the meep... JJ was in San Fransisco last week, so I had a little extra to keep up with.

To make up for my procrastination , may I present to you some PUPPIES!

Click on the pictures to get closer to the puppy goodness!

look at that little yummy puppy leg hanging out on the left. What a pork chop.

I normally don't always go in for cute, but I'll make an exception in this case, since one of these beautiful boys will be coming home with us in August. That's right folks. We're going to be puppy parents. Look at their parents!

See that little guy with the spot right in the middle of his back? I'm sort of in love with him, although I suppose we should MEET them first before falling in love with a picture.

Oh my gosh, get a load of that face.

By the way, it's fun to talk to breeders. The good ones are sooooo careful about who they sell to, and ask you a million questions. The best part is when they say "bitch" and I have to stifle a giggle. Bitch as in, "she's a solid bitch," "this bitch's litters are are winners," "I've got the best bitches you've ever seen!" However, my favorite was, "really lady, that bitch is gosh-dang FINE." Yeah, we're not getting a dog from that guy.