HE'S SO FLUFFY!!!

This is Klondike:

He is THE ABSOLUTE CUTEST puppy in the entire world, and he is ours! Well, he's my daughter Melinda's, really. He is a Great Pyrenees/Maremma mix.

Here is info on the Great Pyrenees.
And here is info on the Maremma.

Melinda had gotten a dog that was the same mix when she came back from Germany, but had gotten it as an adult, and there were some behavioral issues that would not be curbed, so she had to give it up. When we found out about these puppies that became available we were thrilled, and got one for her. Right now we have him because we have three other dogs that are teaching him "manners" and how to be a cuddly fierce protector dog for Melinda when she gets her own place after college.

He's about two-and-a-half months old, so that makes him about one-and-a-half in people years. So he's testing the boundaries: biting the electrical cords, stealing shoes from the closet, touching things while looking you straight in the eye...

Here are some pictures to enjoy:

His favorite place is under something...

With Carolyn--don't know how long she'll be able to pick him up...they get big!

Finally Melinda gets to meet her puppy when she came up from Tampa.

Melinda named him: Klondike the Polar Bear (with a Coke!)

Chillin' with big brother Kaiser.  He should get about the same size.

Maybe we should have named him Velcro...

New Fridge!

Okay here is the old one...

side view...

My husband had been hearing a loud clunking noise for months that was making him nervous.  He was at Lowe's last week and found one that had been returned and repaired, and marked down a significant amount.  He had also recently aquired a rebate debit card from buying a new AC unit for the downstairs, so it's kind of like not even paying for a new fridge!  :-]

Okay for the reveal:

Side by side stainless steel (to match the kitchen sink)

AND...

Yes, folks, we're roaring into the 80's with an in-the-door water and ice dispenser!!  Most of the fridge pics will end up in a scrapbook that I have for the every-several-years-when-I-clean-off-the-fridge-door event.  Most of the magnets will stay, but this is a particular favorite, the lobster that Lee and I got on our 20th anniversary trip to Maine. (The legs are attached with springs, so they move whenever the door moves!)

Okay, I had to share...  Next I'll be telling you all about our NEW PUPPY!!!  :-D

Sarah Landauer

Perhaps you heard of her because she was the third of three athletes that collapsed within a week of each other and died. She was featured on Good Morning America Thursday morning, along with many questions about Sudden Death in Athletes (which is becoming another "Syndrome"). I know her because I taught her in Middle Schoool Youth Group Bible study, her family and mine worship at the same church, and she was a dear friend of my daughter Carolyn.

Sarah Landauer was an intense young lady. She fiercely competed in sports, soccer being her highest priorty. A few years ago she decided to learn and compete in one new sport each year. It was at track practice last Monday that she collapsed and needed three rounds of CPR and a defibrillator just to make it to the hospital. Sports is how the general public in Gainesville knew her. Those close to her and those at church knew her character as well, and we knew she was a dedicated child of God that loved Jesus so much. Within hours of her collapse, there were hundreds of teens with Phil. 4:13 written on their arms in her honor.

This was the verse she had adopted as her own. This is the verse she lived by. And this verse made its way to the arms, the thoughts, and the minds of people who had never opened a Bible in their lives, those who were indifferent to God, and those who believed but maybe hadn't walked as intensely in the Lord as Sarah had. Just go to the Supporting Sarah page on Facebook and read the comments... Athletes, teachers, complete strangers, black, white, Indian, Jew, Muslim, punk... all supporting Sarah by writing a verse on their arms.

Why, why, WHY God? Why take this sweet, loving girl who Loved you so much? and Lived for you to the fullest? The answer was clear to me at her "celebration" service on Saturday. Over 800 in attendance, mostly teenagers, who had never been faced with their own mortality and the reality of a God Who loved them. All loved Sarah and had been impacted by her life, and now they would take away with them the lifelong impact of someone who loved God and that God who loved her and loves each one of them here and now.

We Christians are a strange bunch. In the midst of such a tragedy, with tears in our eyes and streaming down our faces, hearts aching in agony over those who loved her most, we each smile on the inside, knowing that Sarah is not really dead. In fact she is the only one of us that has truly started to LIVE!! She is rid of the flesh and sin which so easily besets us all, and she is running, and jumping, and tearing up that heavenly soccer field! She is laughing and singing, and dancing in the arms of the Love of her Life, Jesus. And she is waiting for each of us, who will be joining her when God sees fit to call us home.

Please pray for the teens in Gainesville, Florida.

Celebrating Sarah:
https://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=156458721076990&ref=ts
Supporting Sarah:
https://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=195486977140834&ref=ts
TV Coverage:
http://www.wcjb.com/news/8940/remembering-sarah-landauer
And Google "Sarah Landauer" to read more.

Pool Party!

I promised a look at our new pool finish, so here it is.

But first, a look at how it used to be.

This was taken when we were building a rail for our deck to please the insurance company. The pool is in frame. This is before our pool became very sick. It developed a leak, and went down in level about two feet. It's only 5 and a half feet deep to start with. Here is our sick pool.

This is a picture of... well, actually, it's a picture of an alligator in our pool, but the water was so cloudy and un-chlorinated, the gator was very happy.

Backstory is this: Our dog Lola...

here she is...

...is a barky thing, and will run and bark at anything that moves. Well one day she would not stop barking outside, and I noticed the pitch was a bit anxious even for her. I went outside and found her standing off with a three foot gator. Now despite what you may think, gators are VERY quick--we have had a 12 foot gator in our yard before, and when the animal control guy tried to grab it with his rope pole, I WAS WATCHING IT AND I **DID NOT** SEE THE GATOR MOVE, but one second the pole was intact, and the next nanosecond, it was snapped in half and in the gator's mouth...

Anyway, I got Lola inside, then grabbed a flashlight to shine in his eyes (it's supposed to distract and mesmerize the gator, keeping him still--worked for me...) and called my brother to come *do* something about it. (My husband was at work.) Two hours later... (don't ask) ...he put on welding gloves and grabbed it by the neck (don't try this at home) and held it up for all to see, then he did the obligatory "flip it on its back and rub the tummy and watch the gator go to sleep" (yes, it really works, but don't try this at home!) and at my request, dropped it in our pool, which was already very sickly and cloudy and the perfect place for a dehydrated alligator used to being in lakewater. It was quite dry last summer in Florida and instead of raining every afternoon like it normally does, we had a bit of a drought. Gators will come roaming under two conditions--really wet and really dry. We live next to a State Preserve where gators are plentiful, and like to roam when it floods or it droughts. (Is that a word? It is now...)

So, backstory aside, Here is our new pool!

We went with black RiverRock,

and off-white tile on the steps.

Important for safety... always a mom.  :-]

I think it looks great with our existing border tile treatment.

With the water, it looks like a cool dark green.

As for the gator, my husband caught it the next morning in the fishing net (don't try this at home) and after doing the obligatory "flip it on its back and rub the tummy and watch the gator go to sleep"...

(don't try this at home)

...we let it go (a mile and a half away) in the middle of the Preserve next door. Happy endings all around!

New Paint!

Just a quick note to say that our house has undergone a makeover, and the *best* part about it is that *I* didn't have to do it!!

Before:

A blue-gray that I actually liked, but it was getting a bit tired.

After:

A gold-leaning tan...

...with the classic red door--this is called "Sun-dried Tomato" which is on the darker side, which I like. The kick plate is on the right side of our door rather than on the bottom for a good reason.  Our dog, Kaiser, likes to open the door himself, and previously scratched up the door right around the handle. 

This is Kaiser.  Here he is in perspective--size-wise...

Without the kickplate, he would scratch a hole through the door!  (He nearly did.)  :-]

Do you like our door-knocker?  I love it!  My husband found it in Hungary.

AND:

Look at our front porch! No, it's not really tile...

It's painted to look like tile, and I *love* it!

Next I'll show you how the new finish on our pool turned out.  Pretty!  :-]



Shout! pictures :-]

Here are some of the costumes I did for "Shout, The Mod Musical" that is running at our high school.  This was a fun show to costume, and I really wanted to be as authentic as I could with what the script described and the time dictated.  My daughter Carolyn directed the show, so she introduced it.

The show is about five young women that make their way from 1962 to 1972, chronicled by the magazine "Shout" with its various features about fashion, music, and "coming of age" in the sixties.  As our disclaimer at the beginning of the show says, "We neither condone, nor condemn what went on in the Sixties Generation". haha...  Each of the women are characterized as a "color", which matches their personality.  Orange, Red, Blue, Green, and Yellow. 

Orange Girl--maternal and idealistic.

Red Girl--youthful and awkward.

Blue Girl--model, actress, in her "Mary Quant mini".

Green Girl--how can I put this nicely?  Um, the "free-spirit"... ;-]

Yellow Girl--"loud and thoughtless, quite possibly American".

Fashions changed through the years.  Here is the Blue Girl in her sequined top and plastic skirt:

Here is Orange Girl releasing her "Inner Purple".  She stays purple through the rest of the show.

Notice the Cage Dancer in the back.  We had two Cage Dancers.  I dressed one in a white dress with black fringe, and the other in a black dress with white fringe.  It was mesmerizing!  The ensemble girls I dressed in black and white bold prints. Similar to the psychodelic artwork of the day, but not in color so as to compete with the Color Girls.  You can see most of them here. 

At the end they all had 70's costumes on.  I know I can relate to each one of these styles!

Hot pants with a bolero vest, the Maxi dress, long-sleeve top with mini skirt, print tunic with split bell-bottom jeans, and a long flowy scarf with a mini dress.

Welcome to my world! Next show is "Forbidden Broadway" opening in April.  That one will be loads of fun to costume and to watch.  The show parodies all the major hit musicals on Broadway in the past 20 years or so: Annie, Les Mis, Spam-a-Lot, Chicago, etc. And some of the more memorable stars: Carol Channing, Mandy Patinkin, Bebe Neuwirth... 

Can't wait! 

busy busy busy...

...costuming costuming costuming three shows!  And they all open the same day.  Why can't I say no?  That's a topic for another time I guess...

One show I'm helping my daughter Carolyn with, and only doing a few costumes.  It's Shakespeare's "The Tempest", and I love the concept.  They are making each character as a character from a different story.  For example, the boatswain is Captain Hook, Prospero is Merlin, the Sprite Ariel is Superman, etc.  What a great idea, huh?  Should be fun to watch.

Another show is called "Sherlock's Last Case".  1900's England, one of my favorite eras to costume.  There are five characters, and not so much to do, but I did have to make two Sherlock capes *and* two deerstalker caps, which I had never done before.  Also a lady's formal gown and a couple of lady's everyday dresses.  I love thrift shopping for things that I can make into period pieces.  For the formal gown I found a rather plain dress with a lovely jacket with fancy trim.  The jacket was perfect for the time, and I simply made the dress into a skirt by putting elastic right under the arms!  It turned out nicely.  [I'll insert pictures when I'm finished and will get the actors to model them, so keep checking back!]

The last show is huge.  It's the musical that Carolyn (yes, she can't say no either...) is directing for her high school.  Oh, and she's also in the ensemble...8-/  The show is "Shout! The 60's Mod Musical".  The costumes are really fun--five girls, each represented by a certain color: Yellow, Blue, Red, Green, and Orange (which changes to Purple mid-show).  They each have at least three color costume changes spanning 1962-1972, each have Union Jack dresses (British Flag--luckily we were able to order them online), and each have their color raincoats. 

In addition to the Color girls, there are five ensemble singers, which I'm putting in black and white bold shapes, two cage dancers which will be in fringe dresses, the band, in 70's hippie outfits, and the editor of the "Shout!" magazine who is a conservative Dolores Umbridge type. 

I love costuming.  I have done Children's Theater (Anne of Green Gables, Beauty and the Beast, Hunchback of Notre Dame, to name a few), Community Theater shows (Jane Eyre the Musical, Oliver!), and school shows (Twelfth Night, Nightfall with Edgar Allan Poe).  Here are some pictures of those past shows.

                      Cast of Jane Eyre. Many modified prom and bridesmaids dresses, and...

                                                 ...curtains!!  This is Blanche Ingram's ballgown.

 Jane Eyre I put in browns.  The play starts out with her memory of her childhood, so I made all those costumes in sepias.  I had her start out in brown, then gradually brought color (reds) into her costumes as she gained more and more confidence in herself.  I made a lot of capes for this show!

 I costumed Fagin's Gang for Oliver!  My daughter Carolyn played Dodger. She is fourth from the right, in the top hat.  Several people were surprised when they found out she was a girl at the Meet and Greet after the shows.  BTW, I also painted the backdrop that you see there.  :-]

This is The Raven (Death) from Nightfall with Edgar Allan Poe.  My favorite costume from that show!