when i brought rosie and her friend wycliff home from the gallery after my show closed-i thought great! i will sit them down on the pieces of furniture that i would like to discourage the cats from sitting/shedding on.

(note the purple velvet chair-it showcases white cat hair beautifully)

as you can see- woo had a different idea-he found a friend.

i am doing 3 altars this year-one at hollywood forever cemetery’s annual dia de los muertos “altar offerings”, one at ten women venice, and a very personal one right at home. (which will be dedicated to the “patron saint of reckless 21 yr old boys”)

i have a number of gallery exhibits i will also be in-which are on my website. i am especially excited to have been juried into the 2009 sacred memories exhibition. sacred memories opens at the pico house gallery at el pueblo de Los Angeles Historical Monument on October 21 and continues throughNovember 21, 2009.

i used vintage linen -filled with lavender and lemon verbena to create  my “huesos perfumados” (sweet bones).

we have a firm “no dogs on the furniture policy” – but that is not to say we don’t make  exceptions. oreo-the new girl- came from a home where she was allowed on the furniture-as a matter of fact- she had her own full sized bed! so even though she has several pillows-both inside and out-as do the other 2 girls-it’s been a bit of an adjustment for her.

several weeks ago around 3 in the morning, my husband and i woke to a very large thud and crash in our bedroom. not unusual-through the years with animals and kids-one gets used to these things. i turned on the light and saw oreo looking very chagrined- a table was overturned next to the chaise lounge. not hard to figure out-she was sleeping on it and fell off. she slunk away-very embarrassed-retreating to her pillow.  the new nightly scenario is-she starts on her pillow with the other girls- and about  20 min after i’m in bed i hear her try and quietly (virtually impossible at 150 lbs) creep up on the chaise. when betty comes in to wake me up at 5:30am-i pretend not to see oreo and she gets down-works for everyone! betty has her own chair in the den-again-i turn a blind eye. it is a chair i usually sit in-a smaller sized armchair. when i first saw her sleeping on it i couldn’t believe it. betty is a big girl-she isn’t as tall as oreo, but very muscular, she outweighs oreo by a few pounds (she will have to diet later in life.) she was curled up so tightly-that when when she saw me and tried to get down- whe was so wedged in it took her a couple of minutes to extricate herself. never a dull moment!

so many projects and so many marvelous distractions!

last week, my son called me from work asking if i would be interested in an antique table. he works for a moving company-and this piece was unclaimed. he sent me a picture from his phone-a beautiful solid oak mission library table-about 7′ long (weighing about 200 + lbs.  so-the good thing is i have a new work table for my studio-and since it doesn’t fit in my current room i am moving. i called my daughter and got her ok- so monday i started the move. i am even amazed at how much “stuff”  i have piled into this 10′ x 12′ space-ay yi yi! i have vowed no flea market jaunts until i have sorted, moved and tidied both rooms. hopefully by the weekend i will be DONE! ( my camera is buried-which is a good thing-the pix would be scary)

i’ll be at the cactus gallery on sat night for the opening reception of “found 3″-hope to see some friendly faces.

actaully-summer in southern ca is not quite over. we’re in somewhat of a heat wave. betty is the only one of the three girls who really enjoys the water. angie will sedately lay down on the middle step of the pool, zoey will have nothing to do with water at all (except her bath, of which she has no choice.)  betty’s  favorite thing to do is play ball in the pool, second best is to attack the sprinkler.  we’ve had betty for a little more than a year now-we rescued her last may & she’s come a long way. she came from a very good home and loving young mom-who was relocating to the east coast . betty was brought up in a studio apt- and was Not impressed with her new yard at all!  took her a long time to be comfortable going outside.  while the girls are inside most of the  time, they do enjoy their outside time- betty especially!