Thursday, March 31, 2011

What I Did On My Spring Break




With my folks antici-pating bad flooding of their riverside property this spring, i flew up to Manitoba to do what i could to help raise everything in dad's studio to a level of 3 feet above the floor. It was a huge job and i still can't believe we got it done in a week. Back in New Mexico now, i am keeping my ear on Manitoba flood updates. We'll see what happens in the next couple of weeks, but the long, slow thaw this spring bodes better than the "worst case scenario" predictions.

At some point this winter a shepherd mix pup crossed the river ice and took shelter under my parent's back deck. She was pretty feral, and between flood-prep tasks i took it upon myself to dog-whisper her into socialization. My family and the immediate neighbors were all concerned for her welfare and hoped we could find a dog rescuer that was willing to take on a difficult case. We thought it unlikely that she would be "adoptable" while she remained scared of people. But in five days we got her from cautiously coming out from under the deck to take kibble from a hand, to letting me scratch her belly. Sadly, someone not involved in her rehab called in the big guns and she was dragged away at the end of a noose pole the same day i left for home.

Get your pets spayed and neutered, get your next pet at a shelter, and please support your local animal rescue group.

Thursday, March 10, 2011

Perky New Card of Business


On a whim last night i took some time to design a new business card. The basic card design i started out with was very simple, kind of fresh and clean and new. It had a plain white background and just a few colored balls on one end that could look almost beadlike if you were inclined to see them that way. It had my name and status ("glass bead maker"), and my etsy shop address, and that was it.

And then i pretty much went the opposite way and ended up with this ornate, old fashioned style of thing. It was past my bedtime, and so i called it a day and ordered 250.

As i look at it this morning i'm shaking my head. iI'm wishing i had stayed up just a little bit later, since the next logical step would have been to go with a design somewhere between the two extremes... But i used VistaPrint, so all i paid for these cards was the five and a half bucks for shipping. And since the whole point of having business cards is to give them away, well i feel right now like i won't be able to get rid of these ones fast enough!