I'm a new Mom!!!!!!

My girlfriend Tabatha reached out for help for an abandoned dog this morning and, me being the sucker that I am, I brought him home. He's an adult Saint Bernard, his previous owners moved and left him behind, after a few weeks it was obvious they weren't coming back. It gets better... not only was he half starved, full of ticks and fleas (infested) BUT he had been sprayed by a skunk too.
After 3 baths of tomato juice, lemon juice, deodorizing dog shampoo he finally is tolerable. I ran by my vets office and got him meds for the fleas and ticks and he has an appointment Monday for a complete work over.

Tabatha and her husband Tee feeding the poor guy this morning

 

 

 

 

This was about an hour before he fell in love with me :o)

He's really laid back, really sweet (except he is a little food bowl aggressive, understandably so). He gets along great with my other 2 dogs, he and Abby act like they were raised together.
I started the naming process, I had settled on Ben, well Ben didn't work out, he hates "Ben" and likes to be called "Theo".  I went through a whole list several times offering all kinds of names, I repeated his maybe likes and then every time I said "Theo" we got a big wag. I even offered him names like "Thor", "The Hulk" and "Spider-man", he passed on them! obviously he has brain damage. So looks like it's probably gonna be Theo. He even passed on Billy Bob, Bubba, Brian, Boo Radley and Barry White.

My brothers came to visit

My 2 younger brothers came down to visit from Maryland. My youngest brother Cody has joined the Army and will be leaving for boot camp Sept 14th. While they were here of course they went caving but we went fishing on the TN river too. Cody says the reason why we didn't catch anything was because "TN fish ain't got no teef".

my brother Cody

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

my brother Fran

my son Michael

Cody requested a pottery lesson

Me helping Cody, I was fixing the side of his cup.

My oldest son Michael, got in on the action too, he and I made a cup on the wheel also, while my other brother Fran hand sculpted small clay creatures  here is his duck.

Salt & Pepper

I was doodling a few days ago and a bluebird appeared on my page and then I thought, bluebird salt and pepper shakers!

And these guys were born :o)

New custom items

My son's girlfriend just had a birthday and anyone who knows me knows that I like handmade gifts (giving and receiving). I went to work weeks ago on making her something special.
I made her a necklace and a rattle / noise maker that I loved so much that I'm  making them available in my Etsy store this week. You can have both of them personalized for either yourself or someone special.

The rattle / noise maker is hollow and puffed out like a pillow. It's filled with about 20 tiny handmade ceramic balls to create the noise.

Continuing with my blue bird theme, the necklace (that's me modeling it) is hand stamped and glazed with a cute little hand shaped bluebird. I'm thinking of offering the bird in red as well.

These 2 items will be available for personalization this week. 

 

Back again...

After arriving back home from Maryland, I took off and went to Florida to visit my mother. I haven't seen her since her accident. 

I took my youngest son Levi and his girlfriend Makayla with me. The 3 of us had a great time. During the day, we spent lots of time on the beach. There is one picture that stands out for me that I'll share. Levi insisted on getting a snorkel mask so we popped in to a dollar general store and  grabbed an "adult size" mask. Needless to say it was way to small, it would have even been tight on a child. 

When Levi put the mask on, the laughter that ensued made that mask worth every penny we paid for it.

Also my Levi graduated high school, woohoo!

So now I'm back to business as usual. I've been feverishly making things to put in my Etsy store and for the gift shop.