Here Piggy Piggy

I just have to tell you about my best friend, MB's brood.  Yes, that is a pet piggy.

She has a pig, a Rottweiler, and two blind kitty's.

Ruben is the pig.  He has only recently been adopted, but has had no trouble making himself quite at home.  He sleeps indoors. He loves to go outside and nap, play and root around, but he's white so he can easily get sunburned.

Pigs have the mentality of a 3 year old so they must be watched and they require lots of attention.  However, they also sleep about 18 hours a day.

When it becomes dark at night, it's like a trigger.  Ruben immediately lays down on his bed, pulls his covers over himself and doesn't wake up for anything until about 8:00 the next morning.  In this pic, he is napping beside his bed.  See his little feet curled up under his big body.

Yes, Ruben is considerably over weight.  His other family kept him inside all the time because they lived in the city where you are not suppose to have pigs.  Now he has a nice yard to run, play, nap and graze in. You should see him run.  It's a crack-up.

This is Abby the Rotty.  She and Ruben have let each other know that they are not interested.  She is an unbelievably submissive, sweet dog, but only to a point.  You don't want to make her mad.  Pigs have a bad trait in that they will push and push until they get themselves in trouble and then don't know how to get out.  Another reason why Ruben has to be watched.

This is little Stevie Wonder.  Stevie was born without eyeballs...hence the name.  He truly is a wonder and one of the sweetest, most loving cats I've ever met.  Being blind hasn't bothered him a bit.  He literally plays fetch with a crinkle ball.

Last but certainly not least is Blind Kitty.  There were lots of names, but that's the one that stuck.  We also call her Mommasita.  I don't know why.  She doesn't have eyeballs either.  She's a full grown, tiny kitty.  She was there first and not particularly happy about the others.

Everyone of these animals are rescues.  Thanks to people like my friend who open their hearts to provide these beautiful babies with their forever home.

A Fairy Class with Suzi Blu

My friend Suzi Blu is going home to New Jersey.

Before she goes, we had to fit in one last class.  We created a pretty fairy painting.

We started by drawing our faces in pencil.  Then we added a couple of different textures, such as molding paste.

We used stencils for some of the design.  The rest of the textures were added with a knife. 

Suzi, Christine, Gina and Anna

Here's our little group of students.  At this point we have completed the first day.  Need to let the texture elements dry completely.

The next day, we began adding color with sprays, paints and powders.  It was an awesome process.

Proud of my painting.

Gina and Anna with their beautiful paintings.

Suzi caught a few moments in between helping her students and not only created the painting above, but also worked on several of her unfinished projects.

This was our inspiration piece that Suzi actually created for the class.

It was a super informative class because of all the techniques we learned.  It was a wonderful, rich class because of the pretty face we learned to draw.  It was a fabulous experience because I learned to paint a beautiful fairy and gained so much more confidence in my art.  Suzi is not only a fabulous artist and teacher, but she also has a unique ability to reinforce confidence that one doesn't even realize they already possess.

Well, now that my Suzi is leaving, it will be online classes for me for awhile.  Rest assured, I'll be saving my pennies to visit my Jersey girl very soon. 

Technorati Tags: Suzi Blu

Cancer Coping Center Pastry Class Fundraiser

Saturday was a beautiful, summer day and I was one of the lucky ladies invited to spend it at Maryam's lovely, comfortable home in San Diego. We were there in support of her charity, Cancer Coping Center. 

Maryam provided an incredible, gourmet luncheon, a pastry class and a creative, fun swag bag.

Chef Yves

The luncheon started with the most delicious chilled cucumber soup I've ever tasted.  It continued with an incredible, delicately made salad, including vegetables, chicken, mouthwatering pork tenderloin and apricots, pate', biscuits and more.  Dessert was an authentic, seven layer, French, chocolate cake.  (I know there is an absolutely fabulous name for this cake and I wish I knew it.)  Suffice it to say, my pallet was in heaven. 

My descriptions of Chef Yves cuisine are rudimentary. I wish I could convey this exquisite luncheon in better terms.   It was awesome!

The class was presented by Executive French Pastry Chef Yves Fournier.  He is a fifth generation French Pastry Chef.  Check out his website for further information on booking a pastry class for your friends, a dinner party or private lessons.  You won't be disappointed!

Chef Yves not only taught us, but also provided us with the ingredients to make French Macaroons.  We learned how to make an easy, yet phenomenal Chocolate Mousse and Crème Mousseline.  All of these recipes are so versatile.  Chef Yves gave us many different ideas and ways to use these wonderful dishes.

Of course, it wasn't enough to learn how to make them.  We happily sampled everything. 

Maryam is a natural born, wonderful hostess and friend.

I was delighted to be invited to share this time with her.

Technorati Tags: Cancer Coping Center,Executive French Pastry Chef Yves Fournier

More Soldered Bottles

I told you I was on the hunt for some more bottles for soldering. I found this beautiful blue bottle in an antique store in La Mesa. It matches my first bottle. Now I have a pair of pretty blue, soldered bottles.

Elena Etcheverry and I spent the day at Suzi Blu's house soldering. The temperature outside was in the 90's, but we thought it would be a good idea to solder out on the patio (first mistake). Since none of us were especially experienced at soldering, it turned into a bit of "the blind leading the blind." In fact, it was downright scary at times. Since we were live on the web, many people across the world witnessed this fun but rather hysterical episode. Suzi was getting wild with the soldering iron and I was getting so nervous that she would burn herself that I had to unplug her. Then she dropped her bottle, which, of course, broke. Elena came to the rescue and foil taped and soldered the broken bottle along the JAGGED EDGE (eek). By now, I was a basket case. In the end, the broken bottle became a very interesting wind chime for Suzi's patio.

As the day progressed, we were so hot and near crazed. At one point my two friends looked at me and freaked out. I was red as a tomato and looking like a total stroke victim. Suzi immediately made me go inside and we were done...not only with our bottles but cooked well-done from the sun.

I must say, we made some pretty bottles, we laughed, and I'm happy to say, no one was hurt during the filming of that event.

This is a close up of the original bottle I soldered at the Art Bar in Miss Vicky's class.

Art Bar With Miss Vicky

The Crew with their bottles

The Carlsbad Book Club ladies have been trying to think of a fun place to go on a field trip. Elena came up with the idea of going to the Art Bar, which is located in Orange County, or Santa Ana to be precise. If you want to go somewhere really cool for a class or just to visit and shop, the Art Bar is the place to go. It's an art store, but I found the allure to be the ambiance. It is truly designed for people to go there and make art. This fun store is heaped with wonderful art supplies to play with and a whole bunch of unusual items to purchase. You feel totally comfortable just digging in and getting your hands dirty. There's something so unique and quaint about the Art Bar that you are truly inspired to create.

Kat & Pam

My Sister and I drove up to OC last Saturday and met up with 10 girlfriends, including Miss Vicky. Miss Vicky brought all the supplies and instructed us on how to make beautiful soldered bottles. We had crystals, beads, shells, and various other embellies to add to the inside of our bottles. Then we learned how to embellish the outside of the bottle and solder it all together. Once soldered, we added a patina that gave the bottle an old-world sort of look.

Kat & Pam

I loved it so much that I've already been on the hunt for bottles and I believe I have found my next beautiful creation.

Miss Vicky

Then we went into downtown Santa Ana, which is full of European stores and antique shops. We had a delicious lunch, went shopping, but most of all we laughed and giggled and really did have a hoot of a time. It was a great day. Good idea Elena!

Suzi Blu's Birthday Bash/Fundraiser

What a crazy fun day we had at Stamping Details a couple of weeks ago. A group of like minded, artsy girls got together and celebrated Suzi Blu's birthday by having a fundraiser for Holly's Garden Rescue. The final count was $530 with only 12 ladies.

We spent the day journaling and chatting and just generally playing. Suzi shared some fun techniques and provided birthday gifty bags that included templates for us to use in our journals. We commented on how all of us could use the same templates and end up with pages that were completely different. Everyone went home with a couple of journal pages that they really loved.

We went live on Suzi's website and many of our online visitors stayed with us all day.

As with only the classiest birthday parties, we enjoyed birthday hats, balloons, flowers, presents, awesome cupcakes from Cupcake Love, fun prizes from Suzi, singing and lots of artsy love.

We also had a stream of visitors, including members of Holly's Garden Rescue, a registered non-profit, who spoke to us about their organization, which rescues small breed dogs who are in danger of being euthanized. They will get the call from a shelter that 1 or more dogs is going to be killed that day and Holly's Garden jumps in the car and rescues them. They will drive all over, sometimes several counties to different shelters in one day. If you are inspired to help by fostering a dog, or donating to this wonderful mission, I encourage you to go to their website.

A couple of our most popular guests were Gigi and Finney who came dressed in their birthday best. Suzi has some wonderful pictures of them on her website.

Our own private photographer, Rhiana spent the entire day taking pictures of this fabulous event. I hope you get a chance to see them. We had such a fantastic time.

Suzi Blu's Birthday Partaay!

Suzi Blu is celebrating her birthday

by hosting a wonderful charity event for

Holly's Garden.

Holly's Garden is a local non-profit organization that

rescues dogs in jeopardy of being euthanized.

Suzi recently adopted Finnegan from

Holly's Garden

and would love for you to join her in giving back.

Birthday Party all Day

The theme of the event will be a super fun and colorful

birthday party.



Papier Story

But wait, you will be creating a Papier Story in your art journals using Suzi's templates and designs.

Bring your journals and your colored pencils.

You will learn some incredibly fun techniques and

there will be surprises and prizes all day long.


Partaay Details


Where:
Stamping Details
14009 Midland Road
Poway, CA 92064
858-513-8024
http://www.stampingdetails.com/
Call to reserve your spot today as there is limited seating.


Here is the website for your

supply list:
www.stampingdetails.com/cgi-bin/evinfo.php?on=9202439
Suzi will also be bringing fun and interesting items for us to play with.


When:
Sunday, August 8th, 2010
11:00 am - 4:00 pm


Cost: $45

Suzi is so excited to say that absolutely all proceeds from the workshop fees
will be donated to

Holly's Garden.

Jackie's Birthday Party

I bet the blogs are a buzzin' today! It was a very special day! It was Jackie's Birthday!

The girls, Jackie and her sister, Patti, along with June, Jeannie, Maryam, Bonnie, Elena, Bet, Sally and Miss Vicky had a blast at Jackie's Birthday Party Thrift Store Scavenger Hunt! We all met at the Beach Grass Cafe in Poway, and then with our pens and clues in hand, took off to hunt through the local thrift stores. The objective was to find little coin envelopes or pieces of paper or pictures of Jackie that were hidden among the thrift store merchandise. Each was worth a certain amount of points. We had clues to help us, such as Bearly There, Sock Hop, See Dick and Jane, Batter Up, Pink Peddle Pushers, etc. It was very interesting, competitive and fun! However, I must admit, this brain struggled a bit. I struggled with wanting to find the points and wanting to shop. I found it difficult to do both at the same time.

There were five winners, including yours truly! Yey! I won a beautiful, sort of Tuscan looking dipping set. Miss Vicky was the big winner with a box full of vintage jewelry. Sally came in second, June was third, and Elena took fifth place.

We definitely developed quite an appetite from all our hard work. Thankfully, the food was great and we spent some quality time gabbing. It was one of the most entertaining birthday party's I've had the pleasure of enjoying.

Next stop was Stamping Details for a quick visit and the purchase of a couple of "very necessary items". Ha! That's a joke! I need more necessary items like I need... There was a cute dress store next door and Elena found some "necessary items". And, then in another store, Sally and Vicky and I found a desert. What more can you ask for...everyone was happy! Super fun day with nice ladies!