The Chatter Box 7/06-9/06

Here's the future site of my new glass studio.  Wally has been trimming trees and leveling the ground.  Right now I've been working in the garage and it's pretty icky in there.  Also in the summer it's stifling hot and in the winter it's so cold I can't keep my hands from shaking.  This will be so nice, whenever it's done that is...

I've shown you these guys before last year but that was a poor picture taken far away with my old camera.  These guys are pretty much in our backyard...really the huge lot behind us that belongs to the fireworks factory.  I don't think I ever mentioned before that we have a fireworks factory behind us.  We get some interesting shows some nights and lots of loud booms throughout the day that we really don't even notice anymore.  One night I'll try and get a picture of what we get to see in the sky from our backyard.

One more wildlife photo before I leave.  This is a baby garter snake that Wally saved from Charlie and Sissy.  I swear we would never know we had all these snakes if it wasn't for those cats.  I did see a large garter snake the other day that I had saved a week ago.  How did I know it was the same snake?  The cats had ate the poor guys tail off.  It was good to see him and know he was ok...another life saved.

Welcome to Beeswax's Animal Kingdom.  Seems all I take pictures of are critters lately.  This HUGE moth was above the garage this morning.  What a great pattern on him.

I'm home from Virginia Beach and I leave again Thursday night for the Milwaukee show.  Then I actually get a break for a few weeks.  Just been catching up with orders and restocking the booth so I have some stuff for the show this weekend.  I've even had time to get some beads made too.  

One more nature shot before I leave for Virginia Beach.  Notice that this poor garden spider only has 7 legs?

I'm home for a whole 2 1/2 days and then it's off to the Virginia Beach show.  Hopefully I can get the booth restocked and also get caught up on all the mail orders before I go.  

Wally saved another snake from the cats today.  Looks like a baby gopher snake....we think.

This has got to be the biggest tomato worm I have ever seen!

Hope you all had a great Labor Day weekend!  I'm trying to gear up for the next set of three shows in a row.  I'll be going to Rhinebeck NY, Virginia Beach VA and Milwaukee WI.  Then I'll only have the Salt Lake City UT show left which is near the end of October.  Hopefully I make it through these shows with no unwanted surprises.  

Nothing much is going on around here but I thought I'd better update so you guys knew I was doing okay.  Today is really the first day I feel completely back to normal.  I walked down the driveway to get this picture of Wally's sunflower.  A big "Thank You!" for all the nice emails I got too.  I think I was able to respond to them all but in case I didn't...all the well wishes made me smile and feel better!  I've ordered some core muscle work out tapes/dvd's and one of those big exercise balls.  I'm going to slowly work on getting back into shape.  I think that should make a huge difference with this whole back situation.  

Well I've had to delay the release of our new images...sorry!  I have 7 stamp shows in 8 weeks so I would feel bad releasing the images and then not being able to fill orders because I'm gone so much.  I'm already having a tough time keeping up as it is.  But here's another sneak peek...a stamping hand and a rubber stamp post. 

I got back home from the Mesa, AZ show at 2am today...ugh.  I'm still tired.  I hadn't flown out of the new terminal at the Sacramento airport before so I hadn't seen this.  A very odd piece of "art" in the baggage claim area.  I think the airport needs a new artistic director.  Friday I think I fly out of the the new terminal again.  I'll have to take a picture of the planes coming out of the parking structure.  They are very artsy but they eerily remind me of 9/11...and they were put up only a couple of years ago.  Like I said...they need a new artistic director. 

Wally planted watermelon this year and it is the sweetest watermelon I've ever had.

I'm off to the Mesa, AZ show early tomorrow....yes, I have to fly.  I actually have to fly to 6 more shows in the next 7 weeks...what a mess.

I'm back home from the Novi show and trying to get caught up with orders before I have to leave again Friday morning for the Mesa show.  This guy was on the sidewalk yesterday...isn't he colorful?  Luckily Sissy and Charlie hadn't spotted him.

I just finished putting up the faux postage tutorial!  Brigitta did all the work and she had a friend translate it all into English for me.  Here it is.  There is also a link to her website at the top of the tutorial.

I'm on a roll now!  I finished a tutorial on this pop-up card.  Actually, I didn't have to do too much work since my friend Susan Quinn did the whole thing!  It is so professionally done it should be in a magazine....but it's here!  I'd love to hear what you think of it.  I have another faux postage tutorial that Brigitta Ter Wiel of The Netherlands sent me.  What did I do to deserve these tutorial angels?  I have no clue but I am one lucky girl!

Phew!  I'm pretty proud right now...I finally finished the ATC Gallery!

Isn't this guy handsome?  We saved him from Charlie and Sissy.  They found him and were "playing" with him...poor thing.  I think he's ok.  I noticed a couple of minor wounds on him but when we let him go he slithered off so I'm hoping he'll be ok.

Why haven't I updated lately?  There hasn't been much going on except for the fact that it has been hotter than Hell here.  Once it gets over 100 degrees I find it hard to deal with but 112?  That's just not right.  Plus, I don't update unless I have something worthy for you like that handsome creature.  I guess I'm not much of a yacker and I feel I would be boring you.

The other reason is our computer room is super hot as the A/C doesn't work in here.  I tried to get the repairman, AKA Wally, to fix it but no such luck.  I finally got smart though!  I had him go to the store and get me a CAT5 cable so I can use my notebook computer in the family room where it's cool.  Wireless would be my first choice but I'm not in the mood to figure that out right now so this is the next best thing. 

What you are looking at is the inside of a garbage can that turned over on it's side and filled up with water.  That thing the frogs are all sitting on is part of a display rack that we threw out.  All of this turned out to be the perfect little froggy home.  Some days we have six or more all sitting around in a circle like little froggy Knights of the Round Table .

I guess it's not as under control as we thought.  Now we have flames coming up over the hill.

Here's a large plane to dump some fire retardant.  There were two small planes and one large plane dumping fire retardant and a helicopter dumping water. 

Here's the large plane dumping all that red fire retardant.

And here's one of the smaller planes.

Just a little excitement here today.  We had a grass fire on the other side of the hill by us.  They sure seemed to have it under control quick which makes us feel better.  Grass fires are probably our biggest worry living here.  All it takes is some careless person throwing their cigarette butt out the window.    

Sorry for the silence but you guys are keeping me busy with this special.  

You can tell it's summer around here with all the bugs.  These guys are cool though.  They are all over and Wally feels a need to save each one as he cuts the grass.  How the heck do they see out of those eyes?