Constance Pelkey Designs

Showing posts with label spring. Show all posts
Showing posts with label spring. Show all posts

Friday, April 10, 2009

Cool Spring Bugs!

Yesterday I spent the morning and afternoon chasing the sun around the outside of my house so I could get good pictures of all the groups of bugs I have in this years swap! 42 groups in all!! I’d grabbed a few hours of sun Sunday morning and then it was dark and dreary for the rest of the week! So, yesterday was my first opportunity to get it done!

Spring in Maine!! Don’t we love it!?

Actually, we do! We LIVE for days like yesterday! Warm sun! Warm enough so that you could stay outside and work on something for more than 2 minutes without freezing some important body part off! Yes, I started my morning off on the front porch, in front of the house so I was getting a wind block. It was nice and sunny but quite windy! Wind does NOT make for good polymer – clay - bug picture taking! They may have wings, many of these bugs, but they only fly in our imagination! The wind does nasty things to cute little defenseless polyclay bugs! Blowing and crashing them about! Not pretty!

So, the first pic is of my morning escapades and then after lunch while I was in the driveway! I needed a wind block in both locations!

Really, it really was a nice day here in Maine… really it was.

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Nero helping me take buggy pics!
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My set up at the back door, by the garage, which was my windbreak here in the afternoon!

Pauline made the most adorable bugs! She apparently has had a rough few weeks of late, as she explains on the little note she enclosed in each little buggy baggie! As I was reading this note that spoke of her inspiration for her work in this swap and the "craziness" of her life of late, I glanced over into the box she sent her bugs to me in and there I spied my hostess gift from Pauline!*squeal!*

Oh, Pauline!

I LOVE it! It’s just what I needed!

Packing tape for the swap hostess!

I have all these buggies that need to be packaged and taped up for shipping!

Thanks so much!

Perfect!!

It’s just what I needed as the hostess!

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Monday, April 06, 2009

Our friends puggy pups

Brutie in the rear (the happy birthday singing pug!) and his little brother Ozzie who is up front!!!

 

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Monday, March 02, 2009

Waiting for spring....


"Waiting for the fish to bite or waiting for wind to fly a kite. Or waiting around for Friday night or waiting perhaps for their Uncle Jake or a pot to boil or a better break or a string of pearls or a pair of pants or a wig with curls or another chance. Everyone is just waiting." -
-- Theodor Seuss Geisel (Dr. Seuss)

On this, my and Dr. Seuss' birthday, I sit and nurse my painful but hopeful new knee and watch yet ANOTHER snowstorm out the windows!

Thick, wet, heavy snow is falling again... for what? The 3rd or 4th week straight?! Perhaps it's been longer than that, I don't know. I've been in an Oxycodone induced coma for almost two weeks now!

This, in some ways was a good thing, but others, not so good. I decided it was time to stop the controlled substances and just go with the Tylenol 3's on Saturday. So I took my last heavy duty med on Friday afternoon and Saturday morning I had a splitting headache, bordering on migraine status. I purged out both ends a few times and then I went back to bed. I had the cold sweats, aches and pains that hadn't been there before, fitful sleep and the weirdest dreams I think I've ever had. I eventually emerged from the dark little cocoon that is our wonderful new bedroom and felt like a new woman! I was CRAVING a cheeseburger like mad and Nancy came to my rescue with Burger King. It tasted like another!! Then we had Pizza Hut for supper!! *happy dance*

Yesterday was a very good day! Friends came over bearing gifts with their cute little puggies, Brutus and Ozzy. Brutus sang Happy Birthday to me! Thanks Brutie!! I love you!!

This morning I had physical therapy and it's with the amazing Dana! He got me through my shoulders and now he's working with me on my knee too!! He put me through my paces but didn't let me overdo! I got bent my knee back to 100 degrees!! Two weeks out!! He was amazed and pleased at how well I'd done on my own. He said it's nearly unheard of for someone to go past 85 degrees this early! I even "rode" the stationary bike for a bit. Really, it was just swinging the pedals back and forth, but it was good, a "good" kind of pain. Wednesday afternoon I get the stitches out and I'll be zooming right along soon afterward!

Boss at PetSmart says I can come in and "work" customer service for an hour or two as soon as I can stand without pain for that long. So, yay!

So, while it's snowing outside, my sweetie has to work 10 hours on my birthday and I'm still in quite a bit of pain, but I'm very hopeful and most assuredly on the downward slope!!

Thanks for all the birthday wishes, get well wishes, gifts and encouragement from everyone!!

♥ Nancy ♥



Tuesday, May 27, 2008

Recently on Drew Street.

It's been a busy past few days...

Nancy took this week off so we can work on fixing this place up.

The master plan is to move our bedroom into the room Patty used as her bedroom (she moved back to Portland last fall to be closer to family again) we'll keep the middle room as our "dressing room" - there's no closets to speak of in this house so we have had to use one of the rooms upstairs as a closet, it houses our dressers and my vanity.

My studio will be moved back upstairs, into the small front room (that I had it in when we first moved into this house) and the big electrical things - my kiln and buffer and tumbler - will go down in the cellar. We had the electrical updated on the first floor and cellar, so those "big things" will be down where the electricity can handle them.

Our old bedroom will become a new living room with a small area to the side that'll have a table and such set up for when we have poker and cribbage night.

Then, the living room downstairs and my "old" studio will be open for Mom's stuff. Yep, you read that right. My mother's stuff. It's time. I'm very concerned about her living alone. She is legally blind and she has fallen a couple of times. Also she just can't see well enough to do little things that, to a fully sighted person, is nothing, like plugging a lamp in that has become unplugged for whatever reason, changing the batteries in her remote, and any other of the 100's of reasons I have to drive up to her place (a 2o minute ride!) to rescue her from one thing or another!

We'll set up her living room in the front room and her bedroom in my old studio. We'll still eat in the dining room and I'll do the cooking, as always. She goes to bed pretty early so we'll have the upstairs living room for ourselves.

So, the painting involves our new bedroom, the dressing room, the new upstairs living room and we'll also paint the downstairs living room. I'm still working on the downstairs bathroom and at some point we'll do something with the kitchen too. This "master plan" is in preparation for the market to turn... fixing the house up while waiting for the pendulum to swing back. *g* Because, after the economy gets "righted" we will sell this place and move to the Southwest! YAY!

So, Friday Nancy took as a vacation day too. We did some errands and grocery shopped, that evening "D" came over and played cribbage.

Saturday Nancy worked on the new bedroom, taping, cutting in, rolling the walls etc...
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In the afternoon I went back to work for the first time since my surgery! YAY! I worked from 10AM to 2PM. It was fine, I just straightened aisles and did customer service. I go again next Saturday from 12 to 4PM.

Sunday morning I organized, weeded out and emptied the dressing room.
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Nancy mowed the back yard.

Then in the afternoon we went for a motorcycle ride - 73 miles round trip! It was GORGEOUS!! The lilacs are in bloom everywhere and we sniffed deeply every time we went past a bunch!! YUM!!

Monday morning was spent doing some more yard work. These two bushes were transplanted (by Nancy) from the front to the driveway side of the house.
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And these, the Bleeding Heart and -- I can't remember what it's called! AK!! -- Nancy moved into the bed across the front.
yard

In the meantime, I finished planting my tomatoes in the bed right off the deck. Not an easy task with one arm! LOL!!
yard

In the afternoon we got back to painting.
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And today, Tuesday we finished up in the bedroom. Well, almost. I still have to go back and do the details of the crown molding and the windows, but I have a couple appointments as well as Mom's year and a half out check up at the cancer center and believe me, I NEED a rest! My shoulder hurts and needs a rest.

Here's Nancy's beautiful floor!
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And a shot of the 3 colors... mocha walls, latte for the the trim, and dark chocolate pudding on the floor! See? The crown molding and details on the windows still needs finishing.. I'll get to that.
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The dressing room will have these same colors except there's creamy gray carpeting on that floor as well as in the new living room.

To top today off, the roofers came! They worked all day and almost got everything done! It started raining right at the end of the day and they had to knock off early. This new roof will stop those nasty leaks we had last winter! Shewt!
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Connie

~ Life's too short to use cheap beads! ~





Friday, May 16, 2008

Offensive?? I think not!!

Yesterdays post was NOT my norm. I'm not very political, although I do follow what affects me. This blog is for me, a place where I can talk about me, my loving partner, our home, our beloved pets and of course my main focus is my art work. It seems every time I stray from my regular focus and comment on something political, as I did yesterday, that's the day that someone comes to my blog, for the first time, looking for polymer clay work or jewelry, they see that political (usually about my Lesbianism) post and wham! They are so offended that they find it necessary to shoot me an email telling me what a terrible person I am for throwing my sexuality in their face! They (innocently) are looking for artwork and they happen across my "offensive post!" Sheesh! Get a grip people! Talking about my basic rights as a human being having been denied me is NOT offensive. Talking about what my (yes, female) partner did to help me whilst I was having shoulder surgery is NOT offensive! I read other artistic blogs all the time and they always post about their family life and various things that affect them. Do I find that offensive?? Nope. And if I did, I'd simply mark it as "read" in my reader and go on about my day! We all have things in our lives and beliefs that not everyone is going to agree upon! Just let it be and don't bash someone because they do or believe in something that you don't!

*shaking head*

So, without further political ado.... here's some shots of the flowers and yard I took the other day!

Ah spring!

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Here's Dilly underneath the flowering tree in our back yard. It always puts on a glorious show in the spring! It smells nice too! Anyone know what kind of tree it is?

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Dilly and the lilac...

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Lilac close up.

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My tomatoes, jalepeno peppers, basil and chive plants.

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A flowering bush out front, I believe it's some kind of holly.

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Our house plants live on the front porch all summer, the aloe has seen better days, seems every time it gets to looking good the dog knocks it over and breaks a bunch of leaves! The orangy-red begonia was sent to me by a dear woman I know when I had my shoulder surgery. It's quite lovely!


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And our front porch...

ooops!

Better not look at that last foto, it has a rainbow flag (gay pride) hanging there in your face!

*removing tongue from cheek!*

Have a GREAT weekend everyone!!!

Connie

~ Life's too short to use cheap beads! ~





Sunday, May 11, 2008

Tuesday, May 06, 2008

Scary Driveway Pig


Scary Driveway Pig
Originally uploaded by connie_clays
Nancy happened upon this "wild boar" AKA the Scary Driveway Pig while doing field work the other day!

Ha!

Saturday, May 03, 2008

Friday, May 02, 2008

Sure sign of spring - IN MAINE!!!!

OMG!!!

Spring is here!! It was just a couple of weeks ago that we were having the ice out of Mt P guessing contest and here is the first small lilac bud on our wee tree!!

lilacs

Lilacs are my favorite flower! I love the smell of them!! *sigh* A co worker of Nancy's gave her a couple twigs from her bush about 3 years ago. Last year we had two very small flower clusters that came late in the season and this year we already have at least 4 flower cluster buds!!

On our first outing, Nancy cut me a bouquet of lilacs!! *swoon*

Now if the weather will just warm up a wee bit so I can sit out on the deck and convalesce my shoulder some!

Connie

~ Life's too short to use cheap beads! ~





Tuesday, April 29, 2008

My partner, Nancy rocks!!

My partner, Nancy rocks!!

We had a wonderful 5 days when she took off for my surgery. I admit Wednesday wasn't the best day ever, but the rest were just great! She saw to my every need, my every whim and desire. We did very little except lay about and watch TV. She did groceries and bought me all sorts of fun things like puddings and granola bars and ruby red grapefruit juice and sushi for lunch!!

YUM!!!

It was tough on her and me, her going back to work yesterday. Mondays are her long day and she left around 8AM and didn't arrive back home until a little past 8PM! I missed her terribly!

She is certainly a keeper!

nancy with my thong on her head

Connie
~ Life's too short to use cheap beads! ~




Monday, April 21, 2008

And the winner is......

last lil' bit 4/21/2008 12:01PM


This what was left as of 12:01PM yesterday. 4/20/2008

Rebeccah is the winner!!! YAY!! Congrats to her and thanks to EVERYONE who participated and offered extra cash to go the Maine Autism Society!

I'll be making the final donation later in the week.

Again, thanks so much to everyone!

Connie & Nancy





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connie_clays' Ice Out on the Pinette/Pelkey back deck! photosetconnie_clays' Ice Out on the Pinette/Pelkey back deck! photoset



Sunday, April 20, 2008

Warmth, dogs and Frisbee's!

Nero & his frisbee!


Nero is OBSESSED with the Frisbee!! Now that the weather is warm enough for us to be outside more than 2 minutes without freezing our ass's off we toss it up into the yard for him and he will literally run and catch it endlessly!

Spring warmth - good for the soul!

*happy sigh*

Connie

~ Life's too short to use cheap beads! ~