Falling leaves, wood smoke, crisp nights.......

My favorite time of year is finally here......AUTUMN. You can smell the wonderful smell of seasoned wood burning in the fireplaces and woodstoves (not good for the smog level but I luv it!!!) and the leaves are starting to turn beautiful shades of red and gold so Cesar and I can start playing in piles of leaves!!!!! It's also when I can curl up on the couch, underneath the warmth of my favorite quilt while listening to the rain fall on our metal roof, and fantasize about all the lovely things I want to create with some wire. Copper is my favorite metal and it seems to blend in ever so nicely with the colors of autumn, leaves.....grass.....flowers......seeds.....etc. I love to get up in the morning on the weekend, take my steaming mug of coffee outside to my favorite resting spot (my adirondack chair underneath the apple tree) and let the last days of sunlight heat up my body while I search for ideas for new jewelry pieces in my yard. Hopefully I will be taking my first metalsmith class in November (I should find out next week) and get to increase my knowledge of working with sheet and patinas. I am looking forward to making my first bezel rings.

Anyway I thought it would be fitting to the season to post my pic of the lampworked leaf copper wire fibula I made.

Later,

K

Rainy Friday nite and I'm just bloggin'.....

Well I haven't blogged in awhile. Too lazy, too burned out, too stressed out, who knows. Been busy this summer working, doing the jewelry thing, attending art fairs, playing with pups, hanging out in the yard being lazy with a cold Corona in hand. The only news I really have is that I was accepted Wednesday night as a member to the 1st ever Molalla Arts Commission (MAC) which is pretty cool I think. The city wanted to start this commission to hopefully get people interested in bringing the arts to our little cow town. Our 1st meeting is next week so we'll see how this goes.

Made some new things - lots of bracelets and some cool earrings. Getting into the metal thing more and more. Just love working with that stuff. So many things you can do with a piece of metal. Especially copper - I just love copper......to me it just blends so cool against a tanned arm....I can admit it - I am a copper freak!!!! I am also partial to silver too, but copper really turns me on. Not so much a gold fan.

Since summer is going to be turning to fall sooner than I hope, I imagine my fingers will be busy on my keyboard more and more and you will be seeing (or reading) more of my babblings....

Until then.

K

A great weekend topped off by an equally great day!!!

I spent this weekend sitting in my backyard under a beautiful tree creating jewelry. I had a blast and even played around with some copper sheet my wonderful metal artist and good friend Paul gave me. Made some nice pieces and kicked around with my hubby and dogs Caesar and Zeus.

Then this morning instead of starting the week off wishing it was Friday again, I opened my personal email at work and saw an email from my "hopefully" brother Jeff. Now that might not sound like a big deal to most people but to make a long story short (and believe me it is a long story) I was adopted when I was 4 days old and raised as an only child by some awesome people who were the greatest parents ever!!! They spoiled me rotten. I didn't find out I was adopted until I was 19 years old. Anyway laws being the way they were back then, adoption records were kept sealed until not too many years ago when Oregon changed their laws.

Anyway I never really thought too much about it or pursued it until just a few years ago in 2006 when I had to replace my birth certificate. I also decided to request a copy of my "real" birth certificate. Paid the fee, filled out the forms and waited 6 weeks for the copy to come in the mail. I had almost forgotten about it, until one day I saw the envelope and realized what it was and was almost afriad to open it. When I did I started crying when I realized that the people listed on the paper actually were my real birth parents. I did more searching but only ended up with dead ends.

In early 2007 I had a major surgery because they thought I might have pancreatic cancer - they had found a growth and wanted to catch it as soon as possible because that type of cancer spreads really quick and is very fatal. It was benign but after many complications and long hospital stays, I had numerous times throughout the ordeal thought I might die and thought long and hard about who my birth relatives were - and if I were to pull through all this - I would work harder at pursuing their identity. At that time I searched a little bit on the internet and white pages but really found nothing until some time in late 2007 I stumbled upon a genealogy website of my mothers family name. It showed my parents being married and producing 3 kids - one sister and two brothers and their birth dates (before mine) and who they married. Then it showed my mother as re-marrying someone after my birthday and having 2 more kids - one 1/2 brother and one 1/2 sister and my sisters married name.

I did more searching from the info I found and pretty much came to a dead end except for finding my 1/2 brothers name in the white pages of the local phone book. So I wrote him a letter and mailed via snail mail. In a few days I got an email from him. He kind of sounded skeptical (can't blame him there) and kind of happy, but uncertain. We corresponded some but he never really said much of anything to confirm we might be related. I didn't give up quite yet - but kept searching the net.

So after sending more letters and emails and continuing to search the net, I found a possible address match for one of my brothers here locally. I sent him letter on Friday and low and behold Monday morning (today) there was an email from Jeff. I figured it was probably someone saying "sorry - not related. good luck" like so many others have been but it seemed to actually be a person that really MIGHT be my brother!!! And even better he seemd like he wanted to actually meet me. So we have corresponded some today and it seems I have 7 brothers and sisters - pretty unbelievable for someone who grew up as an only child. And also finding out my mother is still alive and a very cool person.

So to any of my possible siblings that might be reading this post - I am so happy that I might have actually found you guys and want to assure you that I want nothing more then to meet you, and possibly become friends with you. Believe me I have about one million questions I would love answers to - do you have kids, spouses, pets, grandkids, hobbies, career choices, etc, etc, etc, but I will take it one day at a time and leave it all up to you guys if you want to contact me. I have passed on that information to Jeff and Mike both. I am sure this was a shock for you as much as for me 36 years ago.

Kim

Some things to help me get over my sadness.....

First thing - My husband J thought a little 8 week old black lab puppy would help me get over feeling so badly over Bodi. So we brought home Caesar on Friday. Our 16 lb bundle of joy!!! What a little demon dog.....chews non-stop, barks at us when we scold him or when we are eating, plays with Zeus like he is 8 months old at least. But oh so cute and so much fun. Such a brat!!!

Second thing - my friend Mike who is an awesome machininst by the way made me this great stainless steel stepped bracelet mandrel with a tang for forming bracelets. He is just so very cool - and he did an excellent job. Thank you very much Mikey!!!! So hopefully I can start making more cuffs and they will look a WHOLE lot better then when I used the shampoo bottle....! Pictures to follow!!!

K

It's a very sad time......

On Sunday I had to give up my much loved shelter dog Bodi. With mu husband being laid off, I was just not financially able to help him overcome his issues that previous owners had put him through. Whatever they did to him it had traumatized the hell out of him, causing him to "fear bite" and to get into a "frenzy mode". He tried to attack my husband again on Sat. nite after he got a little animated watching the fireworks and also the Nascar race. This was the second episode. Bodi leaped across the room and was going to tear into him, but somehow I managed to grab his collar and hold on to him so he didn't bite him again. Most of the time Bodi was just a big lover boy and hung out on both of our laps.....he loved my husband, but then something would just set him off and he would go from 0-60 in a matter of a second and that would be it. He reacted the same way when I would drive into the gas station and if the attendent was a tall male he would run at the window, snarling.

I called the shelter I purchased him from numerous times asking for some kind of help with him, and said I would take their one-on-one classes with the behaviorist, but no one ever called me back. They offered this up during the adoption and advertised it on their website, yet everytime I called I never talked to a "real" person. I constantly left messages and one would think that after some of the desperate ones I left, that someone would have returned my calls. Whether this would have cured the problem or not - I don't know. But I would have at least liked the opportunity to have given him that other chance. Because he was mostly a good boy that just had some troubles to learn how to deal with. Now I am afraid that they will put him down, although I pray they will find a rescue foster home for him first, but I don't know if they will. They mentioned they would try to do that, but they might have been saying that because they saw how upset I was. I also tried other trainers, but after discussing his issues no one really wanted to accept us as a client, or if they did they wanted an exhorbiant amount of money that I didn't have. I even bought some of the Dog Whisperer tapes hoping for some insight into how to deal with these issues. I could have drug that dog around by the ear and he wouldn't have care.....it just seemed to be a "man" thing that he was afraid of them beating him or me. He was very protective of me.

In the end, it was probably the best course of action because it wasn't fair to my husband or to our other dog Zeus, as Bodi sometimes played way to rough with him and it was hard to get them to stop even after Zeus wanted to just kick back. I guess when I get another dog it will be another puppy, instead of an older dog this time.

To end this post I just want to say that Bodi I will always love you and I hope you find someone that can give you the kind of help that you need, and that will love you as much as I do. I miss you very much and my heart has a hole again that you filled with your sweet little face.

K

Beautiful summer day in Molalla

It's a beautiful summer day in Molalla, Oregon. The sun was just peeking over the hills as I was driving to work this morning, wishing I could stay home today. Perfect weather - in the high 70's. Great evening to be spending outside working on more jewelry projects for the Molalla Art & Music Festival this weekend. My husband J is suppose to be home making up some of our new "recycled" art pieces for the show. We are tapping into the "green" thing and making use of old glass bottles and jars - wire wrapping and turning them into flower vases and/or pots for small plants. (see pic above of first sample - ran out of wire so it isn't as cool as they will be). We'll see how they sell.

Hats off to Sadie, the Molalla City Recorder. She is attempting to bring the arts to a predominantly "cowboy/farming" town. It appears she has a lot of the local long-time residents on board with this (including me - although I am not a long-time resident, only since 2003). It will be a good thing for our little burb outside of Portland. Beautiful area with the Cascade foothills in the background, lots of pastures, woods and the gorgeous Molalla River flowing through the area. During the summer you can always smell the new mown hay in the fields - delightful smell, although I am allergic to it!!! Anyway, the plans include some historical murals and also an art gallery. Hopefully I will be able to showcase some of my jewelry in there. That would be cool. Of course it will never compete with the Buckeroo Rodeo that Molalla is known for the week of the 4th of July. I have been coming to the rodeo since I was a little kid. It's fun although now that I live in the area, I don't go as often. But I do sit out in my yard and watch the 4th of July parade and also the wonderful fireworks display after the rodeo ends on the 4th. It's pretty cool!!! Life in a small town - I like it!!!

I will keep you posted on how the art thing develops.

K

Molalla Art Festival and other ramblings......

I am hurridly trying to build up new inventory for Molalla Art & Music Festival this coming weekend Fri-Sun, but been so tired lately. New shelter dog Bodi takes a lot of my time and is a HUGE handful. Trying to overcome some major issues he came with. But we love him dearly and trying very hard to work these things out. Needing to tap into the shelter behavior person for advice quite a bit. Went to a class last week but it was mostly for NORMAL dogs that are adopted - not dogs that come with LOTS OF BAGGAGE!!!! So will have to schedule a one on one and perhaps that will help somewhat. He is so darn cute and definitely worth all the effort - but drawing blood on my husband doesn't go over real big at home.....! He panics, frets and suffers from major separation anxiety and panic attacks. All directed towards my husband. It is agression to a point - but he is very afraid that he will be beat. Apparently that seemed to be the way the previous owner handled Bodi's hyper hound dog personality. I cannot imagine even for a second beating an animal unless I was trying to save a life or something. I guess there are some people that just do not understand how to handle animals and don't know what else to do. Anyway, it is sad. And we are trying our best - because I feel we made a committment to this dog when I adopted him, to try and make this work out for all of us. He loves us very much and we love him also, and he has grown into a wonderful buddy for Zeus. So we will keep giving it our all.

Anyway, enough of that. I wanted to tell anyone out there that read my blog to rent the movie "Into the Wild" directed by Sean Penn. It is a wonderful movie based on a true story about a boy who graduates from college and was accepted to Harvard Law but decides to take off and trek around the country to the dismay of his parents. This film really made me think about life, and how screwed up it is sometimes. It focuses on all the quirky and interesting characters he meets throughout his travels and how he ends up in the Alaskan back country. It really is a good movie, but sad. I will definitely read the book now.

Well ciao for now. Have a great week.

K