Pirate Flag

Came home tonight after a stressful, busy day to a sale my $5.50 Jolly Roger Magnet pin sold!!! How cool that it has found a home before Halloween.

Comment from new owner.
Great communication. Fast delivery. A cute, well-made pin!

first kiss

first kiss low comp
Originally uploaded by PitBullLadyDesigns

This was during the first home meeting of our 2 dogs, Cruiser (the red nosed pit bull) was being adopted from the local animal shelter. Hard to believe another Love Anniversary has gone by. . .

Needle Felt to Lose Weight

I know funny thought, right but. . .


At the WW meeting Monday, we were to label emotions that we try and satisfy with food. I've decided that it is not as much emotion that causes me to eat but idle hands. If my hands are not busy, I'm coming up with something to do.

So, needle felt to lose weight. . .

1. busy hands
2. food makes wool stick to fingers.
3. wool tastes bad.
4 texture of wool on my tongue is an absolute uugg, "I'm not eating that" to my brain.

What Is In A Name?

Much thought and time went into the choice of my Store Name.

How to portray myself to the Art World? Not only who am I but what do I stand for? What do I create?

I especially love the portion of my business that allows me to create animal portraits out of felt for people who adore their pets. So, I wanted a name that had something to do with animals.

I also wanted a name that would positively portray my breed of dog in a good light and allowed me educational opportunities. I was tentative about what type of reception my Store Name would receive, but positives of this name far outweighed the negatives.

Doing Dog Safety Programs for children in my community had given me the name I've decided to wear with pride. I'm known as the "Pit Bull Lady" to the under 5' crowd, because Ready, one of our loved rescues helps me with education and entertainment during these programs.

I'm many things to many people (and animals). First, I am a child of Christ. A Wife. A Mother. A Step-Mother. A Grandmother. An Artist. An Educator (not a teacher) but an educator to my children, my 4-H kids, the community about causes that mean a lot to me. An Animal Trainer. A Pit Bull Lover. A Dog Rescuer. A 4-H Leader. A Fighter of Breed Specific Legislation. A Church Volunteer. . . . . . .

My family and I have a long history with this mis-understood breed of dog that has lived with us since the 1980s. I trained and showed American Pit Bull Terriers in UKC , selecting and continuing a special Old Family Red Nosed line. This is the same Breed that I now educate about, fight for, rescue, foster, and my kids show in 4-H.

ADA CRAFT SHOW

ClawTreeDesign, Shelly & I were last minute invites of Ada Elementary School Craft show. Grabbed supplies and loaded van after 9pm the night before, leaving capable hubby with the boys and the house.

These pictures are of my booth. Shelley set up her jewelry & felting in a booth the right of mine, just a corner of her table & her scarf is on the mannequin (boobies) show. I was so pleased that the school had lights that we could reposition to highlight our booths.

Turned out to be a good show for me. . . after too many bombs of not selling a thing at outdoor shows, it was a good show for sales and needle felting education. Between Shelly, educating on Nuno felting and needle felting earrings and I educating on Needle Felt sculpture, we talked all day to customers.

Update on the mannequin

I love the hanging mannequin torso at craft shows but... storing it at home is quite interesting and not one of the little boys in my life will help me unload the thing they call 'THE BOOBS' - LOL

I mean COME ON! It is a whole torso - not just the boobs!!!

More new creations

This little fat face guinea pig is still not quite done... I want to repoke his cheeks to give him a cheek reduction! LOL He is about 2" long.

This curly vine pumpkin pendant is on a dark piece of felt that is 1 1/4" by (just shy of) 2", with part of the pumpkin and a portion of each of the two leaves hanging off the edges to create a design that is is 1 1/2" wide by 2 1/4" long.

One leaf is curled over the top of the pendant so that will allow it to be threaded on a chain or ribbon. The pumpkin is made of 4 shades of orange and the vines and leaves are from 3 shades of green.

This little gray guinea pig is just waiting for a new home... :)

American Pit Bull table top display - continued

This is a display that my daughter originally put together for a 4-H contest and I have used since for American Pit Bull Education; Anti-BSL events; adopt a dog gatherings etc. It is just jam-packed with information and pictures. She was 13 at the time and the figures were from 2001/2002 but for the most part this display is still relevent today.

Follow this picture back to http://flickr.com/photos/pitbullladydesigns to read all the attached notes and see several others on how the display was put togather. It is a fold down display that includes its own tablecloth base and room for display at the base.

The back - with added side wings - is a large box torn apart and reassembled with velcro, which folds flat in quarters for travel and storage. The 3-d centerpiece is usable alone or velcro'd into place to complete a more complete display.

RIP drama

My son's dear cavy passed away from an ongoing infection that we had been fighting for several months. He had seemed healthy other than a puss boil that sprouted on his side the day before the July 4-H show day, and we continued to treat the healing wound.

It was a sad time for all of us :( Just like the dogs, this rodent carved out a place in our hearts and lives with his patient and engaging personality. Well, patient that is until food was available, THEN, he must have veggies - FRESH VEGGIES, AND NOW!!! We made jokes about cavies being food and the fact that they are judged with rabbits - also a food animal - but this guy was always a friend first.

Will we again venture into the world of cavy showing? I don't know, it all depends on what my kids want to do...

American Pit Bull table top display

For all of those lovely anti-BSL people who are now looking for pictures of this display, I will take clearer pictures and replace this post soon... as long as life doesn't derail me before tomorrow night (it is my Birthday and I am hoping to have some fun!).

I have a picture in the blog from 5 September but it's not too clear, so I'll be retaking more foryou...

Custom animal portrait: 'Thunder'

Somehow, I missed adding 'Thunder' to my blog! How great this rottie head turned out and the feedback from his owner was "Awesome work - looks just like my dog!" - yay :)

I did have to wait for his owners to come back from vacation to let me know if he had a more of a German bred profile or an American bred profile... His pictures didn't do him justice for his proportions. He was German style and I think the end result came out just great! I did have to change some of the black shades to help make his ears show more as they stood away from his body. Isn't he handsome? If you would like a custom needle felt portrait of your family furry, just convo me via my Etsy shop: PittBullLadyDesigns .

Metro Hospital Craft Show

Seven of us West Michigan Etsians shared three tents at the Metro Hospital Show; this is my section:

It was an early cold day this fall for Michigan and there was rain the night before AND THEY LEFT THE SPRINKLERS RUN ALL NIGHT!!!!! It was so wet - ugh :( I stepped into the grass and sunk 2" up on my poor tennis shoes. Normally, I'd have worn muckboots to an event like this but with no warning at all, we all ended up sat around with cold, wet feet all day and no sun to help warm us up!