Dog Park

Our town has a new dog park. Unfortunately for us, our dog is not a "dog" dog. He loves people and is great with kids, but he was picked on by his pack when he was a pup (before we got him), so he's not too fond of other doggies. This pretty much rules out the new dog park for us. But not for my dog beads!

I'm sure there's lots of frisbee playing at the dog park.

Some dog parks have doggie beaches ~ this fella is ready to make some waves!

Hmmm, the dalmatian might be wishing to be rescued just about now.

The Boston Terrier seems pretty happy at the dog beach.

Is your dog a dog park dog? Tell me what we're missing!

Inspiration . . . at the post office? Seriously?

It used to be I'd head to the post office to mail out beads and wait in the long line for a good 20 minutes, all the while wishing that the lady in front of me would quit cracking her gum and that the guy behind me would stand just a little farther back (I like my space). There was never much to look forward to there. But lately, I've found inspiration at the post office. That's right, I'm inspired by stamps! More specifically, the Animal Rescue Stamps. They've been available for a while now, and I'd see information about them when I was waiting in line. Today I finally acted on my urge to turn some of those cute shelter pets into beads. I came home from the post office and made a couple dogs and a cat, in the likeness of a the pets featured on the stamps.

Do you ever find inspiration in an unexpected place?

The Waiting . . . It's the Hardest Part

I haven't had anything new in my Etsy shop for a while now. That's not because I haven't been busy torching. In fact, I have a bunch of new beads that have been annealed and cleaned and are all set to go. There's just been a slight back-up -- at the photo staging area. Here's how it works around here: I make the beads, anneal and clean them. Then I take pictures of them using my husband's camera, which he has set up on a tripod in front of our light box. Then my husband processes and sizes the pictures for me (which can take a while - thanks, honey!). This week, however, my husband took the camera (the nerve!) off the tripod to shoot some pictures at a friend's son's hockey game. So my critters have been lining up at the light box, much like the American Idol contestants do outside the various tryout stadiums. Yesterday my husband set his camera back up and all the critters cheered. I even heard one say "I'm the next American Idol!" They get carried away on photo shoot day. So I was able to start photographing again. There should be quite a few new beads in my shop in the coming days. Thanks for waiting!

Don't worry - that's not a rocket ship in the picture. It's a blowy thing (technical term) for my husband's camera, but we use it on the bead holes to get the excess bead release out. So the critters aren't about to blast off into outer space.