For some reason, the momma said we couldn’t do a video blog. Something about “a voice that pierced the ears.” I don’t understand. I just have a lot to say!

Well, it’s been a year since I met the momma. I like her. She can be a little weird about tickling my feet, but everyone is a little weird.

I do like this set up. The momma feeds me twice a day and gives good treats. We go for walks and I have a big box of stuffies to kill.

Recently, however, I’ve been a little concerned about her. Now, she’s always been a little odd. She spends hours on the computer and goes into a room that has funny smells and paper and doesn’t seem pleased when I take a bite. So, that’s not my favorite room.

But the other day she brought home this.

Just an umbrella.

But then, she spent hours making marks on it.

She showed me this, but it means nothing to me.

A few weeks ago, though, she really went off the deep end. She took it into the kitchen and set it up like this…

I tried to express my concern and suggested we just go for a nice long walk. As usual, she ignored my suggestion (she can be a little slow, this momma.)

The she got out the squirt bottle (I hate that, it comes out when I have too many opinions) and started squirting away. I left then.

For a couple of days this was left in the kitchen, then it went into the smelly room. And I lost interest…

Editor takes back the blog

Well, in the year I’ve had Key, he has certainly learned a lot… including how to type apparently!

Well, Key may be a smart dog, but his reading skills are still a little low. For example, he rarely reads blogs, even those as wonderful as Margaret Godfrey’s. When I signed up through Artists in Action to “Paint a Parasol” for Salem’s Cherry Blossom Festival, I remembered this blog post from Margaret and decided to do my own version of her idea. All these birds are species I have seen on the Salem Capitol grounds! My working title is “Cherry Blossom Habitat.”

To continue the process from above, once I had applied the background stage above, I worked on painting the various birds I had sketched.

The parasol is covered in rice paper, which is not just delicate, but also the slickest paper I’ve ever worked on. Like Yupo, the paint doesn’t really stick on, it sort of slides around. There has been a lot of waiting between layers.

When I got to where I was comfortable with the values, I used some acrylic to outline the birds and to define some cherry blossoms (check out the Festival’s Facebook page!)

This evening I added the final touches as well as printing the names of the birds.

My parasol will be hanging at Dolce Mama’s for the month of March. It will be for sale for $50 if anyone is interested, but I mostly just hope you will make plans to come see the festival and enjoy some ice cream at Dolce Mama’s!

I hope to see you in town March 18!