Pets on the Porch

My pets love the porch. I think it's because it's the next best thing to being outside. Terra especially likes it because we decided to keep her inside cat for her own safety (being right on a busy road), but her natural instinct makes her want to go outside so bad! (and we always want what we cannot have!) With the weather being nice lately, we keep the front door open and spend a lot more time out there.

One of these days, I saw Terra stretched out on the floor and I decided to take some pictures of her.

But then of course, jealous doggy Luna had to butt in for some attention.

Terra got annoyed and relocated to the rocking chair.

One of her other favorite places is the sock monkey pet bed my mom bought for us, since she knows how much I love sock monkeys. Mom bought it originally for Luna to use, but Luna is slightly too big for it (Plus, when we first brought it home, Luna thought it was a stuffed toy she could play with, and she tends to destroy stuffed toys with her rigorous play.)

But, seeing the cat sleep in it must have given her a clue, because I found her like this one day! Mom says it looks like she's tackled the sock monkey from the Kia car commercial.

Mother-Daughter Outing Photos

Mother-Daughter Silhouettes Comparison

Mom in 1972.

Me in 1983

Mom (right) and me (left) in 2010.

"Great Strides" CF Walk

This is my brother, Adam, and his girlfriend, Nicole...

They are both participating in Great Strides, a fundraiser walk for the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, today in NYC. I'm not usually "into" these kinds of fundraisers, but this disease effects my family on more than just one front. Nicole was diagnosed with CF at a young age. And a few years ago my husband and I found out that he has the CF gene (although he does not have the disease itself, the gene plays a part in the fact we cannot have children).

"Cystic fibrosis (CF) is a devastating genetic disease that affects tens of thousands of children and young adults in the United States. Research and care supported by the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation is making a huge difference in extending the quality of life for those with CF."

I love Nicole. She is a sweet girl, she makes my brother very happy, and I'd like to see her be able to stick around for a long time. Adam and Nicole are so close to their team's $5000 goal. If you can, go donate online to sponser them in their walk today! The walk is today, but there is still time to donate! (I just feel bad I didn't blog about it sooner!) You don't even have to donate a lot. If you can't afford to give $100 or $50... $20, $10, or just $5 can still help. When enough people donate a little bit, it can go a long way!

***UPDATE***

They surpassed their goal! They raised $5210 as of 10am yesterday! Plus, the company Nicole works for pledged to match whatever they raised, up to $5000...so they ended up raising $10,210 total! If you still feel the urge to donate, though, they will still be taking donations until June 30th.

Lilac Festival 2010

I went to the Rochester Lilac Festival with my mom this morning. It's a tradition for us. We try to go every year. We went early today to try to beat the crowds (and the rain that was supposed to come in the afternoon).

The craft show was fun. Mom and I have certain vendors that we go to every year. Today I wanted to get another dress from a clothing company called Blue Gecko (I bought one last weekend when I went to the festival with my friends from church). I wish I'd taken some pictures of the booth and clothing, but I was too busy shopping for a dress. After I bought my dress, Mom ended up buying the same dress I did (Aww! Mother-Daughter matchy matchy-ness!)

Mom and I were also planning on going to the booth of Scentastics, an essential oil vendor we buy from every year. But we were disappointed to find that they weren't there this year! We can order from them online but Mom and I said today "you can't smell over the internet!"... and smelling the oils is half the fun! Our going theory is that the festival was scheduled later in the month than usual (at least one of the weekends usually falls on Mother's Day weekend), so the vendor couldn't make it (they're from Vermont). I took the picture below to help me remember what oils I already have!

We stopped at the Turkish Culture Center booth and Mom had some Turkish coffee... (I passed. I don't drink coffee.)

Turkish coffee is made by boiling very finely ground coffee and sugar...

Then when it is served, the grounds settle to the bottom of the cup.

We also each had our silhouettes hand-cut. The artist offered to do them as a demonstration, with no obligation for us to buy them...but they were so gorgeous that Mom bought them for me. She has 2 hand-cut silhouettes in her house, one of her in the late 70's and one of me in 1985 when I was 3 years old. And she thought it would be cool for me to have this to hang in my own house.

Can you tell which is me and which is my mom? How can you tell?

Emily's Nubbin

I hung out with my 11-year-old friend Emily last night while her dad and my husband were at a men's Bible Study. She had a specific activity she wanted us to do last night...she wanted me to teach her how to make a Nubbin.

Good Fortunes...

I have a thing for saving the fortunes out of fortune cookies. I have a bunch that I want to put in a scrapbook. Here are a couple of my favorites...

Zipper Mouth in Progress...

A new monster in the works...

Presence on the Patio in Review...

I know what you're thinking..."That picture doesn't look like you were on a patio!"
Well, the weather wasn't nice enough for us to have the event outside on the Shirt Factory Cafe's patio. It was a gusty, blustery day all day, and the wind would have turned our canopy into a big kite and sent all our various wares flying across the street. Plus it was cold and rainy later in the afternoon. So outside wasn't an option.

Thankfully, when I was freaking out earlier in the week about weather reports predicting a rainy Saturday, my husband had suggested that we ask the cafe if we could use their large back room as a backup plan...so that we could still have the event and not have to cancel in case the weather was yucky. What a smart guy! (I'm so glad I married him!)

He's always very helpful and supportive when I do these shows too. He helped rig up the rope lights other stuff. I don't know what I'd so without him. :)

Here's my table (yay!). I think I like this setup the best out of any I have done before...because I have never set up my table the same way twice. I want a banner with my KiraArts logo for the front though.

My Mom came and we set up a mini-table for her to sell her cards. She is still recovering from surgery, but is doing very well. Spending the day together at the show, and then going to dinner afterwards was how we celebrated Mother's Day.


My friend Char ran a table with a free craft for the kids. I taught her how to do the coffee filter flower craft.

My friend Rachel (Char's daughter) was my partner in crime in organizing this event, and she and a friend did facepainting.

Rachel turning our friend's son, Micah, into an elephant...


Our other friend's son, Matt, wanted to be an elephant too.

This "alien" monster Matt picked out was one of CJ's favorites. I suppose I should make more monsters with eye stalks.

Matt's sister Emily picked up this monster and walked around hugging him the rest of the day. She was so cute! She loved that monster so much! I'm glad she picked him. I made him a long time ago and he's been in my Etsy shop and was even at Moonflower for a while, and no one ever wanted him...so I'm glad he has a home now.

And I found out that the facepainting girls started doing paintings of the monsters!

So cute! This picture is of a fellow vendor's daughter. She is so sweet. After both Presence on the Patio shows, during teardown/cleanup, she asked me if I need any help when I'm packing up.

These two 12-year-old girls came to the Presence on the Patio show we had back in December. I remember the girl in the hat had green hair then and she was the one who bought the Cheshire Cat pillow. They (and their mom) bought a lot of stuff, including some of my monster-ear hats, and were my best customers! I think I may be starting a fanbase in Medina!

Despite the nasty weather and having to have the event inside, this turned out to be my most successful craft show ever. I said the same thing about the show in December...it seems each show I have turns out to surpass the last. I can't wait until the next show! I'd like to plan one for the Fall. I've had people ask if we'll do one in the summer, but I think I need a break. Plus, there's enough craft shows during the summer. I don't need to add another one into the mix.