the magnificent sky (and some critters!)

i just wanted to share some pictures of the incredible sky last night. it was just beautiful. just as i was clicking away, it started hailing but sadly, the storm past right over us and fast! look at the difference in the two photos below taken from the same angle just a minute apart!


the sky just glowed and reflected on everything. we went outside because it got so bright and pinky-orange out! i'm so glad i brought my camera with me!

tonight we had some little visitors in our yard. adam was taking a branch to the back of our property where we have a little wood pile going, when he was hissed at. he took another step and was hissed at again. he looked around and saw a momma raccoon and her little babies! the babies were on the trunk of a tree while momma was on the ground. so upon hearing this, i ran outside to see if i could see the babies because they are so darned cute!! i got to see 5 tiny little guys about the size of our kitties (5 pounds-ish) scurrying up a tree trunk! one little guy hung back and let me take a few pictures of him. good old adam was standing behind me with the branch in case momma came near. i was very careful and didn't go too close but they are ridiculously cute!

this little guy was hanging on to the tree hoping with all his might that i don't come any closer!

adam and i have been doing well this spring and trying to keep busy and out of trouble. i'm working on art stuff and adam's in the lab working on his papers and stuff.

the kitties are doing really well and i'll post some pictures of them next time. hope you're all doing well! until next time...

the new blog

i'm painting again! yay! it feels so good to get back to my art. i really missed it when i was working full time.

i started a new blog devoted to my art adventures ---> CrazyBlissBlog.blogspot.com i'll be updating that regularly with new work and activity.

i also opened up an online store at this place online called etsy. it's a venue for artists and craftsters to sell their work world wide. so i'll be selling prints and original works as well as selling on ebay still. i'm pretty excited to be back online with my art. it was fun to watch the ebay auctions. i love painting and it's been too long without it.

adam's doing really well. he's coming to the end of his masters and is wrapping up projects and doing a lot of writing. he's teaching himself to weld and fixing up his bike to get it on the road for the summer.

the girls are growing and getting bigger. they're more vocal and we just love them. i'll update some pictures (because i know you all just LOVE pictures of the kitties! lol!) very soon.

the snow is melting. we're having some really nice days lately so it won't be long before we can put away the bulky coats and boots!

well, that's all for now. we'll hopefully have some "good" news very soon for you all. ;)

byeeee!

the niece's first birthday

we went to little savannah's first birthday this weekend. man, that year went by fast! it was a nice afternoon with some of the family.

pretty pretty birthday girl

as soon as we got there, uncle adam hopped in the ball pit to play

savannah then joined him to see what the fun was about

present time! auntie jenn helped savannah open her present

uncle adam made this whole t-shirt (as it clearly says right on it!) with the supervision of auntie jenn

auntie jenn painted an "S" on a romper with a little dragonfly as momma-julie displays

cousin nathan arrived! yay!

that must mean it's cake time!

right into the cupcakes mom and dad made!

we all had a really nice time and savannah did very well with the stimulation and sugar! hee hee.

we continue to "practice" on our own parenting plans and we'll hopefully have some good news of our own to post here soon for all of you! all in good time... *wink*

the pretty kitties

there was some really nice light coming into the house today and caught the girls looking pretty in it so i took some pictures.

little sunny picky

sunny bunny

the corporate puppet (art)

so things have been going well, lots to update and share but first i thought i'd show you a little bit of art!

i've been working on some 3-D stuff these days, taking a break from painting. adam built this wonderful new workbench in his workshop that i've promptly taken over. it's really nice to work at and i've been making wooden boxes.

preparing the little box - at this point, i have no idea what the finished project will be

i immediately stained it a dark brown and decided to try to make some hinges (weird X things at the bottom) out of hammered wire then made a decorative scroll for the top

i wanted to add some texture to the outside so i used some specialty tissue paper and tea-stained it to blend it better to the stain already on the box.

the box is coming together now that the hinges are attached (and work! yay!) the tissue paper had been adhered to the sides and front of the box

a better look at the assembled box

after the box took shape it wanted to be a puppet theater so off i went to make a little marionette out of wire and clay. it couldn't be taller than 2 inches to fit in the box properly

here's the little puppet all strung with cables and ready to go. he ended up wearing a suit when i was finished with him so the project took on an office-y feel

and here's the little guy all ready for action in his office (collage background and felt flooring)

and here's the little puppet dancing

and finally the box closed and ready for the next puppet show. there are about 8 hours of work in this little piece that can sit on a shelf or hang on the wall.

the sleepy sunday

bunny zonked out with her mouth open

picky snoozin' on the back of the couch

jenn with some pretty impressed looking girls after (one of) their nap(s)

adam with the girls as picasso is doing her mick jagger impression, screaming, "are you ready to rock?!"

the girls go outside

bunsen sniffing a world of new smells

what a beautiful day out today! i saw some really nice light hitting the bench in the back yard and wanted to get some nice photos of the girls while they're still little. they were too busy sniffing all the outdoor smells and blowing leaves to be focused on modeling though.

picasso stalking some blowing leaves

after they came in they were sniffing EVERYTHING that had once been outside as if they now understood these strange scents coming off these foreign objects. won't be long now before they start trying to sneak outside! teenagers!

the fall hike

the gatineau hills as seen by jenn

it sure is beautiful in them thar hills! adam took me on a hike today to show me a place he and brock sometimes rock climb. the scenery was beautiful and the hills were steep (according to my legs). we hiked through woods as seen in the first picture, sloshing through the fallen leaves (tripping over unseen rocks and branches...) and watching cute little red squirrels getting ready for winter.

after many little stops along the way, we got to the rock climbing spot and adam gave me a little demonstration on how to climb in the "wild".


on the way back some cool moss caught my eye...

this moss has sparkly mica throughout it

now we're off to have dinner with my mom. yay sundays!

the kitten update

"what is this? an update?!"

the kittens are doing very well and are growing fast!! they're getting into all kinds of mischief! they've lost most of their chubby kitten tummies and are changing into little cats right before our eyes! their meows are still tiny squeaks though and we take our time giving them their dinner just so we can hear them! man they're cute!!

our pretty girls gazing out the window

they've spotted me with my camera...

some gratuitous cute sleeping shots

the nerdy cat parents

that's us! we're such a couple of cat nerds! these girls are great! they're so much fun!! the both of us are stressed out and tired from working crazy hours these days and these girls just dissolve that when we get home. they've got these great little gurgley meows when they get excited. it's so cute!

little picasso peeking out from under the green chair

picasso and i played with string while adam and bunsen jammed

adam's been learning the bass and was plucking along when bunsen came to join him - promptly falling asleep

bunsen our little groupie

bunsen adores adam - and his music

adam will be taking bass lessons from blake martin the bassist from the "new originals" who played at the wedding. he's really excited and i can't wait to see what he learns from blake! a week after the wedding, the band played a function at the westin hotel - my old work. they've since booked several events and i'm so happy for them. they're great!

the new jobs

i got a new job! i'm the new banquet manager for 2 small properties here in ottawa. i started the last week of september and finished my training 2 weeks later. i would have written about it sooner except for the fact that we've been swamped at both hotels for the last 2 weeks! it's been insane! i'm short staffed and we're booking up like crazy! it's great and i'm exhausted!

adam started his second year of his masters studies which is off to a running start to say the least. he's wrapping up his project this year and will have to write a thesis... which he may get a head start on completing as he's been asked to submit a paper for review to an international conference this spring! so he's been working his butt off like crazy too.

it's not just been us who's had luck in career-land, bette, my mom, had been head-hunted too and has taken a job with treasury board!

so we're all very busy and working very hard. so many new changes since the wedding! we're on a good path i reckon...

the new girls

bunsen and picasso snuggling adam's arm

we are pleased to introduce you to our new furry little girls, bunsen and picasso.

after much grieving over the loss of our billy banjo, we decided that the house was too empty and though we could never replace billy, we could fix the empty-house feeling. my dear friend jo-anne, whom my mom and i got mark from, just happened to have some babies ready to go! we went over to visit her (jo-anne is magical and made me feel so much better after losing billy) and came home with two 7 1/2 week old girls! jo-anne makes the nicest kittens! her cats are extremely good mothers and these girls are just wonderful.

picasso is the little tortoise shell calico with the most unusual markings on her little face! her nose has 3 different colours on it where the lines all meet up. she seems to be the quieter, more cautious artist cat while little bunsen, the silver and black tabby, is more adventurous and playful.

adam with picasso in the hood of his sweat shirt

little bunsen sleeping on the chair

the girls playing in "the stump"

picasso forcing a bath on bunsen

we're pretty darned happy with our new girls. we're really glad we got two of them so they can keep each other company. we got billy at 5 months old so we missed out on this stage with him. he was a little less rambunctious than these little elephants!

i miss billy everyday but these two are nice little reminders that life does go on and can be so, so sweet.

a very sad day

i am devastated to let you all know that we have lost our little billy cat to a rare blood disease today. we were told he was most likely born with the condition that took him from us way too soon. he was only 15 months old but he provided 15 YEARS worth of love to us.

it's been very hard on us but we're getting through it. anyone who knows us well will understand that billy was anything but "just a cat". we miss our little man and always will. he's an act no cat can follow but our house feels too empty now.

time heals all wounds and dries all tears.

you will be dearly missed our little billy banjo.

the reluctant model

bird's eye billy

i may soon have to find a new model as my current one is getting irritated with me! billy may never fulfill my hopes of becoming a super model to support me and adam.

although he's very patient, i was told off by the moody furry beast today!

after following him around and taking about 20 shots of him, he gave me a dirty look and an exasperated meow and went into the bushes where he was no longer shoot-able. even appealing to his model's ego didn't help! "you're gorgeous! work that grass! give me another pouty look!" nothing. ah teen models...

my angelic boy

"yup, there's a leaf over your head, what's your point?"

billy is plotting his escape; you can see him thinking...

my next plan is to get/make a back drop for the basement so i can take more photos inside as the weather cools. lucky billy!

the photo course

after looking through countless wedding photographer's sites to get ideas for poses etc. (then not preparing at all for my own!), i was bitten by the photography bug! i've done photography before for fun and was told i had an eye for it so i started to look into what it takes to do wedding photography...

that proved to be very intimidating! it's a pretty big responsibility to be the photographer for a once in a lifetime event. it's not like you can do the shots over if they don't turn out... although shooting weddings is something that i'm still interested in doing, i started to look for niches other than weddings to start out in.

i landed on an interesting correspondence course doing portraits. portraiture is something i've always been very interested in but working for a sears/walmart portrait studio didn't appeal to me and didn't give it much thought after that. i've painted many a portrait and love character faces, so when i came across this family and pet portrait course, i decided to give it a shot.

it came in the mail on tuesday and it looks really good so far. so today, i decided to get in the mood and took some photos of billy while he was hanging out outside. cats are notoriously hard to photograph so i decided to start with the most difficult to practice with!

peaking through the grass...

billy's sexy glamor shot

sweet sunshine!

a closeup of my very serious furry boy

my next victims will be adam and my mom *mua-ha-ha-ha* when i get lights and a backdrop to do better portraits, i'll need guinea pigs so let me know if you're interested!!