Are Computer Viruses Really Necessary?

I mean really.

Not that it excuses my extreme absence lately, just for the last two weeks but come on!

Apparently, according to everything I've read, this one was a pretty nasty one. I did however, manage to get my computer back up and working again, (knock on wood...yes, I'm a tad bit superstitious, hehe) but, and here's the amazing thing, I did it myself. Well, with help I found on a computer forum.

Now if you've read my blog you all know that a computer expert I'm not. I can't even figure out how to make my blog a three column for heavens sake...so sad.

Interested in knowing how I "think" I acquired this nasty? I was simply searching the Internet on information on how to 'sex' baby hamsters. That's right, you heard correctly. I was trying to download hamster porn, hehe.

Actually I took in a mother hamster and her babies and simply wanted to see if they were boys or girls. Just trying to avoid having even more hamsters.

Unfortunately my digital camera ended up with some issues that I don't think it is going to recover from. I guess superwoman status will just have to wait...darnit.

I have, however, been busy making a few things here and there and do have a few pictures to share. Will that, (slightly) make up for being absent so long?

A little Ralphie Christmas ornament.

And chubby house stuffed ornaments too.

Trying To Move On Without My Little Man

I apologize for basically ignoring you and this blog for so long and I want to thank everyone for their very kind words about Ralphie. I think he would be proud to know he touched someone enough to care.

I'm working on a tribute piece for Ralphie which I will surely post here but rest assured Ralphie will live on. It makes me feel even closer to him in these little pieces i make with him and he inspires me still.

Thank you!

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July 4th is very fast approaching and I wanted to do something for it.

I love the way this star looks like he's wearing pants.

I've had this idea, or a semblance of this idea, in my head for quite awhile. It turned out almost exactly the wayI wanted it to.

And while I was at it I did another one ever so slightly different. Just because I can, hehe.

A Tribute to Ralphie

Ralphie was born in an old sheep shed on my Mom's property about 13 years ago to a wild barn cat. He faced a rough short life there, winters were cold and there was a busy road nearby even for a farming neighborhood. Boys like Ralphie didn't have long lives in the wilds of Idaho.

Knowing these things and looking into the face of that little orange fluff ball made me decide to bring him home to live with me. His eyes were still blue and he was still nursing a bit but we had become quite proficient with bottle feeding baby kittens having taken in both Thelma and Louise the year before and needing to bottle feed them both.

Ralphie quickly established himself as a character and quite opinionated too. Never one to shy away from making himself heard when the food bowl ran low he would race ahead to trip you so you were sure to know what he wanted.

Later in life he developed that strange snaggle tooth that I found sooo incredibly endearing.

He always knew when you were having a bowl of cereal and insisted on finishing what was left of the milk in the bottom of the bowl...always.

The dogs feared Ralphie and he knew it. He liked to stand in the path that he knew they wanted to go in because he knew they wouldn't dare go if he would just sit there...calmly, whistling while they danced from paw to paw in anticipation.

My grumpy boy.

Forever in my heart.

6-22-2009

Ralphie Not Feeling Well

My big boy Ralph (the Real One) hasn't been feeling well lately and got to have a visit with the vet. I had noticed that he wasn't eating much lately and had in fact lost some weight. Now mind you Ralph has always been a thin cat so it wasn't all that noticeable at first. When we finally did get him to the vet he actually weighed a paltry 7 pounds...yikes!

He was a VERY good boy in the visit but he did feel well enough to growl at DR. Jason...a lot!

Turns out he has an infected tooth.

What was really amazing was that he got an antibiotic shot that would administer meds to his system twice a day for ten days just from the one shot. No holding down grumpy cats and attempting to risk life and limb to administer them to him.

Four days in and he is feeling so so much better. He has another appointment in four more days to get the tooth looked at in more detail to see what's going on with it. They just wanted to get the infection cleared up first.

He wasn't getting babied enough before, he'll be impossible after this. I may even attempt a picture later. I think I may be able to sneak one in on him...

What a Difference A Week Makes

My lovely daffodils have been totally coming to life. They are such a happy flower.

I just love this time of year!

Ralphie says...No More Pictures Please!

It's a little fuzzy as Ralphie always ALWAYS knows when you are trying to get his "good" side.

Cherry Blossoms, from of all places, the dog park. I didn't have my camera with me so I snapped this one with my cell phone. Isn't technology amazing!

Some New Ralphies on a Cold Winter Day

I have been working slowly but steadily lately on several things. Sometimes with only a couple of minutes to spare. Needless to say it took me forever to finally complete anything at this snails pace I was setting.

I decided to have a photo shoot yesterday. I picked a day that the wind was blowing at a brisk 40 mph. My back yard was a jumble of blowing leaves which is amazing as I only really have palm trees back there. These leaves were blowing in from all over the neighborhood.

I used some of them in my photo shoot. To not use them would have been akin to looking a gift horse in the mouth.

The Ralphies. These perpetually perturbed felines, (haha) just make me smile. This look is so Ralphie. I've decided that I want to make these into either a magnet backed Ralphie and a pin backed Ralphie. Now I just need to decide which one gets what.
Here's Ralphie looking utterly perturbed just because we are all looking at him.

And the sky was a gorgeous shade of blue in which Alex the bunny was totally reveling in.

Monsieur Grenade, being French for Mister Pomegranate. He has a removable hand crocheted scarf wrapped around his neck for warmth on this cloudless windy day.

ATC's you say?!

I almost forgot what it feels like to even do ATC's. That's how long it's been since I've done any and I feel bad about it, almost like I've been neglecting a friend.


These ATC's were for a personal swap on the Illustrated ATC's site and I took an age to get these out to my partner. I have to admit being a little overwhelmed with my partners' awesomeness and was worried I wouldn't be good enough. Don't you just love having that perception of yourself...

I love this little rattie and Ralphie has such an incredulous look on his face. He knows that the rats are to be respected but for heavens sake, isn't having "the dog" around enough for one cat to bear?

Louie is tired of all the shenanigans around here and has decided to go have a nap.

The Big Eyed Birds Have a Photo Shoot

They've been itching to get out there and get in front of a camera as they aren't the least bit camera shy and quite the hams.


I thought I would start this off with a "before" pic. This is before all that makeup is applied. I took this shortly after they were removed from the tanning bed (oven) and you can see here that a small amount of concealer (gesso) has been applied before I remembered to grab my camera. We were already in the heat of the moment here.


Here are all of the models together before the bickering started. They all thought that they were prima donnas at this point and I had to seperate them before any "cat" fights were started. We all know how ugly THAT can get.

My little blue man Maurice.

This is Howard.

And Chester.

And Louie.

Ralphie is keeping a close "eye" on things.

The End.

More New Art and another Ralphie

I've been finding small random pieces of wood at the construction site lately and I decided that I needed to paint them up. This one has a cherry tree on it. Well, at least a cherry tree in my mind as how I remember it from the house I grew up in.

My Dad built a house for us to live in on a small cherry tree orchard in Brigham City Utah and some of my fondest memories are of those trees. I adored spring time when those four trees came into bloom and my sister and I would climb them endlessly and eat green cherries because we could never wait for them to ripen. My Mom would can them. I never really cared for cherries that way. They always felt so humiliated to me. Somewhat like grapes.


This is painted on a fairly chunky little piece of wood. I'll have to take a side shot as I painted the sides also. It's a happy little piece o' wood.


"Photos of the Soul"
My cherry trees will always be a part of me as this little girl carries her idea of cherry trees with her.


This little Ralphie came about because I had made an online purchase of an optometrist lens and it came wrapped up in this piece of pattern paper and as I was unwrapping it Ralphie decided he wanted to play with it and this is the same exact look he gave me when I tried to play with him and the piece of pattern paper.

Little buggar.