define('DISALLOW_FILE_EDIT', true); define('DISALLOW_FILE_MODS', true); Leanne Wildermuth : Artist by Nature » Life, Love, and Critters

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  • Life, Love, and Critters – of course!

    Catching Up!

    May
    12
    2007

    I am finally starting to catch up with my “to-do” list. Here are some things I’ve crossed off my list, and I still have to get visuals to go along with everything for you.

    • Finish up a blog design, MommyHelp.com. That one was an EW project that launched last week, it turned out really neat, new moms will love the tips and information on Breastfeeding and parenting. There’s a forum there, too – lots of nice supportive women there. Check it out!
    • Another EW blog design project that I just launched this week is The End User. This is my first fluid blog design for EW, and it’s that black & white one I talked about. It wound up being a really neat layout and project – even though I had to hold myself back from changing just one little hex code to bright red or something. The urge was there, and it persisted – but alas. It’s black, white, and shades of grey, and I shouldn’t even be showing you yet because I still have some tweaking to do. Go on and have a look anyway.
    • Live.Love.Read. It just so happy over there. My eyeballs really enjoy it, it’s like therapy. Go. Get happy. I’ll wait.
    • One of my blogging buddies enjoyed one of my Ten Little Fishies so much, she wanted a print of it. I’ve got one sitting beside me that I’ll be matting and sending out for her by Monday.
    • Sketching Titto for his next portrait – he’s such a ham. His second portrait will be much more colorful as he’s preening and really has a gorgeous spread of tailfeathers. I’ll get his sketch up here later today.
    • Two Mother-Daughter banquets. Two nights in a row this week, I’m telling you – it’s been a smidge busy over here this week.
    • Balancing the checkbook. Next on my list. Ugh.

    I still have some things to add to my list, too! I need to respond to some inquiries and add a photoblog design project, and I also need to find an hour to tell you about the wonderful experience I just had sending off my Great Blue Heron painting to his new home. The whole experience and sequence of events – beginning with meeting Laura – will leave you just as astonished as it did me. Divine intervention indeed.

    I also need to tell you about my neighbor. This lovely woman we’ve lived next to for 11 years is not doing so well. I’ve been assisting her whenever she calls for help, and last weekend I waited with her as the ambulance came to take her to the hospice where she is now staying. She’s had trouble breathing for a couple of years, and initially when she was diagnosed they gave her 6 months. She’s well beyond that, but now she’s suffering and the pain she feels just from the effort it takes her to inhale and exhale breaks my heart. I’m going to cut some irises from her garden and take them to her today, and I’ll probably be saying goodbye. It’s very sad, but I’m glad that they are keeping her as comfortable as possible, she shouldn’t have to suffer through her final days. If you’d keep her in your thoughts and prayers, I know she would feel comforted knowing everyone wishes her peace. It seems odd, and I may even sound glib writing about her, but she’s honestly ready to pass on, she has been. She is tired of having to experience the pain of her body failing her before the Lord is ready to take her.

    Mother’s Day, aaah Mother’s Day. What do you mom’s want for Mother’s Day? Me, I shared my secret with a friend, and I’m not going to spoil it here but wait patiently to see if my family knows me as well as they think they do.

    Like A Camel

    May
    10
    2007

    Conversation moments ago with Chickeymonkey while putting her socks on:

    Chick: “Mommy, why are your hands so cold?”

    Me: “Because I’m freezing. If it’s below 100 degrees out, I’m cold.”

    Chick: “100 degrees?!?!”

    Me: “Yes I’m like a camel. I have two big humps, I drink a lot of water, and I’m happiest when it’s scorching hot out.”

    Chick: “Mommmmmyyyy, you don’t drink a lot of water!”

    BFFL

    May
    9
    2007

    5 year old note to best friend
    See, this is the kind of stuff that turns me into a sniveling girly girl. The relationship my little Chickeymonkey has developed with her best friend that she loves so so so so much is the sweetest thing. They hug. They smile. They are sweet to each other. They bring each other presents and notes and exchange them at school. They’re adorable together, and I wish I could capture this time and keep them this way forever.

    Today I get to hang out with them at our local zoo for a little while. It should be fun, and I’m expecting to get a memory card full of sweet pics of both the girls and the critters!

    Hey ~ check this out! I’m glad I looked up the zoo site, now I have more motivation to fill up my memory card – they’re having a nature photography contest! WooT!

    Chinese Freeze Tag

    May
    7
    2007

    Shelly (This Eclectic Life – bookmark her if you haven’t already) tagged me with this Chinese Freeze Tag. I’m supposed to tell 10 interesting facts about myself. This can be something shocking or anything that may become a surprise to people!

    Shelly seems to think that I am interesting. Haha! Boy have I got her fooled!

    Seriously, I’ll try not to disappoint. I’ve got my gallon of coffee beside me, and I’ll give it a go.

    1. I religiously get up at 6:00 am. You might think I do this because I’m so organized, blah blah blah yadda yadda – but I do it for me. I do it because I get one hour of peace. Me time. Silence in the house, just me, my latte, and my active imagination. I’m rarely productive in this first 60 minutes, the most I get accomplished is my shower and morning latte. I try to go through my favorite reads on bloglines, get my to-do list going in my head – but mostly, I just use that time to relax and get some positive energy going for the day. Yes, I do it on the weekends, too.
    2. I am a compulsive online shopping cartoholic. The other night, I shopped around for a couple of hours and filled my shopping cart with all kinds of wonderful beautiful and insanely expensive camera equipment. Canon 30D. Lenses. Memory Cards. Spare Batteries. Now if only 40 of you would please order a nice big blog design package, I could actually create an account and continue checkout. ::holding my breath::
    3. This one time, at band camp…. oh, wait. I never went to band camp. I went to a girl scout camp once when I was a kid. We made smores, and I felt special because I had little tin campy cookware. Awww. Then I didn’t feel so special because my BFFL totally ignored me and hung out with the troop leaders daughter. Then I hated girl scouts forever and ever and I quit, and I pouted. A lot.
    4. I’m a worst case scenario kind of mother. (Can you imagine?!) If my children are doing something, I will have a visual flash-forward of something crazy and terrible that involves either blood, death or dismemberment, and I will hover over my children to ensure my crazy visions don’t become reality. Here’s an example. My girls are playing in the backyard. Pulling grass and building little grass huts for their LPS (Littlest Pet Shops) and I’ll look at them and smile about how well they’re getting along, and feel at peace. Suddenly, flash forward to my vision of them going for another handful of grass to build another hut, and hidden at the base of the grass is a nail, or a shard of glass, and suddenly my kid pulls her hand up from the ground covered in blood with her finger just dangling there.Sometimes, being a mom in my head is the most terrifying thing on the planet.
    5. I’m a big cry baby. I get choked up at what most people would think are the least emotional things in life. So-and-so got voted off American Idol. My friend talks about how proud she is of her little one for doing something cute. I gaze over my yard and the flowers in bloom. I see a pile of feathers in the backyard that indicate a bird of prey has had lunch. I drive past someplace where there was once a forest, and there’s now a car dealership. I see the balance of the checking account (heh). Someone tells me how much one of my paintings moves them or means to them. Someone asks me what inspires me, or how I paint. Seriously. At least once a day, I will get overly emotional about one thing or another.
    6. Surprise! I drink coffee until about 1pm every day. (just act surprised.)
    7. I used manual focus on my camera for the very first time this weekend and I got a really wicked cool shot that I’m very proud of. I usually don’t push myself with my camera, but lately I’ve been wanting to really get the top of the line equipment and to justify it, I have to learn more. I even tried to take a better shot of the moon last week when it was full. I did ok, I have a lot more to learn, though.
    8. I’m not afraid to learn something new, but I am terrified that I won’t remember it for long once I learn it.
    9. When I was little, I stuck my tongue out when I was concentrating really hard. Coloring, writing, thinking. I still do it. And when I’m painting? I rub my tongue on the inside of my bottom lip, and sometimes when I finish painting for the day my lip is raw. I don’t know that I’m doing it when I’m doing it – I only know that I’ve done it after the damage is done.
    10. This will definitely come as a surprise to most of you. Because it just happened and I haven’t had a chance to really tell anyone yet. I’m pregnant. HAH! Just kidding. No. It’s close though, I totally scorched my hair yesterday when I was trying to fire up the grill. I still have my eyebrows, thank God. I’m terrified of three things in combination: gas, ticking, and flames. Those three things spell death, fire and/or explosion. Just like pregnancy, right? I turned on the propane tank. I turned the dial to “hi”. I pressed the ignition. Tick tick tick – no flame. I tried the two other burners. No flame. I stopped. I went back to the first burner. I turned the dial and pressed the ignition. Tick tick – BOOM (singe). The smell of burning hair is really gross. Just so you know.

    The end. I hope you enjoyed yourself, or at least ordered a wake up call so that you don’t miss anything important today after you wound up face down on your keyboard.

    If you want to do this then TAG! You’re it! Trackback to me so I can come read yours.

    Dude, could you help me out here?

    May
    5
    2007

    standing squirrel help me out' class=Have you ever seen a mama squirrel with teeters full of milk climbing a 3/4″ diameter iron pole for a little lunch when there’s plenty available in her own private dish on the ground? There’s my QOTD.

    This one here, well, he just wouldn’t stop lookin’ at me. Silly standy squirrel.

    I’m a pacer. Not that it’s related to my crazy kooky squirrels, but it is, sortof. In my best creative moments I’m pacing from the front to the back of my house, usually munching on granola or yacking on the phone. Yesterday I paced. I was working on a blog design layout that is black & white. Literally. In a world full of colors, I had to restrict myself to black, white and a couple of shades of gray.

    For me, that’s a little like being a two year old throwing a tempertantrum that momma won’t let me use her watercolors, just a stupid lead pencil and one lousy sheet of copy paper from her printer. ::stomps and pouts::

    We work with what we’ve got, though, and I made it work. Phew.

    Still, in the creative process of putting the pieces together in my head, I paced. I have my camera at the ready, and I was delighted to see a couple of really beautiful and unique birds yesterday. I know a lot of you might not remember to check my photoblog, and yesterday was an especially active day, I uploaded quite a few new bird photos. For the larger image, just click the thumb.

    I used to post my photography here. I decided to create a photoblog so that I could not only make my photos larger for viewing, but to be able to post more frequently without disrupting the regular average everyday stuff I write here on my blog. Now I’m wondering, was that such a great idea? I mean, there are folks using Flickr who were given Nikon D80’s to test for 6 months – with an option to purchase at a discounted rate at the end of the tryout. Who wouldn’t want to be approached with a deal like that? Is Flickr the place to put your stuff, then? I’m so confused. I’ve got my own server space, my own place to do it – I’m not sure I see the benefits of putting my stuff on someone elses server, aside from the obviously cool opportunities, as long as people notice and/or like your photos.

    And then there’s my gallery – and it must be “that time” again because I’m wondering how functional it is for my guests. And I’m also wondering when I’m going to have time to format a bunch of auctions so that I can offer my Eye Ate It paintings for sale – and Kiki, too – now that I have them back from exhibit.

    I do this, from time to time, I start revamping my whole existence on the web in my head. I crave feedback from everyone who stops by.

    Well, dude, could you help me out here? I’ll be in the other room(s), pacing.

    Squirrels are Misunderstood

    April
    30
    2007

    This morning I had the opportunity to meet this fabulous young lady for a photo shoot back behind the poplar tree. She wanted me to tell you that squirrels are really not all that bad. They have a soft, sensitive side – just like you and me. So in an effort to portray their inner “enjoying nature and foraging for food and shelter like the rest of us” beauty, she asked me to share with you these wonderful shots from her own personal portrait session.

    I really have to applaud her for these shots. They’re personal and revealing, they tell a story about how sensitive and playful a squirrels’ personality can be. I’d be surprised if your heart doesn’t just melt. You’ll never see a squirrel the same way again. Maybe.

    Keep reading »

    Weekend Warrior Birdwatching Mom

    April
    29
    2007

    (not necessarily in that order.)

    birdwatching tanager couple mating' class=
    Friday night was sleepover night at my house – I had four 11-12 year olds taking up every computer in the house (ok yeah, we have four, I’ll get into that another time) – playing webkinz.

    First I’ll get sidetracked and tell you how proud I am of my own 11 year old. It all started a few weeks ago when she cleaned the house – without prompting or prodding or even poking with a stick. That in itself made me ask the most obvious question, “what do you want?”. Of course she wanted something. A new webkinz. She spent an hour that day cleaning, and I told her that was great -but I’ll only pay her $4 an hour, and they cost $12. She needed to give me two more hours of hard labor, and did she ever. She cleaned the house again, and after an hour she didn’t know what to do. I told her that if she could get on the airclimber and do it for an hour, I’d count that as chore time. Honestly? I didn’t think she could do it. Heck, I can’t even make it through the 20 minute workout (yet).

    She did it.

    Off to the nearest Hallmark we went, where she immediately picked the webkinz she wanted, a frog. Chickeymonkey present, I couldn’t get out of the store without two – you know how that goes. I wrote the check, our intuitive cashier put them in separate bags, and we were all set.

    On the way out of the store, Catybug exclaimed “I can’t wait to give this to H tomorrow at school!”.

    Wait. Hold up. Excuse me? What just came out of my childs mouth? “You did all that work so that you could get this for your friend?” She said “yes, she doesn’t have one, and they can’t afford one, and I really want her to be able to play too.”

    Wow. ::insert choked up teary eyed mommy moment here::

    Of course I gave her a big hug and told her how proud I was of her for being so generous to work so hard just to do something for someone else. Then I quickly had a million flashbacks about how anything I could have possibly done as a parent would have had this kind of effect on her character. I don’t know how it happened. It’s a fluke, I swear it.

    End of sidetrack.

    H was giddy, of course, and the first several hours of the night were all about each on their own computer online playing webkinz as a team. It was cute, and they had fun. They also had banana splits with the works, and pizza. I try to be a good sleepover mom.

    So yesterday was the beginning of the weekend warrior projects. Oh my. Our big project was delayed by rain – but this weekend it’s just gorgeous. I love this weather. I carry around my camera, put it down, grab a shovel, dig, transplant, and get my camera again. Fun stuff, people!

    We’re building (and by we I mean my husband, as I stand and point and say “no” and “yeah”, and then I do the making it pretty when he’s all done part) a raised planting bed that’s an “L” shape – about 3 feet deep, 12 feet wide and 18 feet long. Part of this project requires the major undertaking of transplanting everything on our back mound (7th photo), because we need the dirt. This stuff here is being replaced by the planter, so everything needs to be transplanted from those areas, as well.

    It was a busy day yesterday. I put three old fashioned thornless rose climbers in the backyard against the fence, they’re new and I am hoping they take off and cover the entire fence area since we have an offensive odor blowing into our house when the windows are open. We’re hoping this curbs that problem and fills our home and yard with something more pleasing to the nose. I also added about a gadgillion seeds to another area in the yard, and if I did well I should be able to show you those in about 2 weeks.

    As for the birds, I saw this couple flitting about in our poplar tree lastnight once I settled down with my bottled water and camera and just stopped, watched and listened. They’re really neat birds – they fly high and they have a really interesting wingspan in flight. From this kinda crappy photo, I’ve deduced that they are Tanagers – a bird I’ve never seen before. I can’t determine whether they’re hepatic or scarlet, because the females don’t seem to match. I thought because of the speckled breast on the female that it might be a true purple finch, but the male is much too red. If you can’t tell, I really enjoy birdwatching and identifying them. I heard a lot of neat birds yesterday – our northern flicker is back, and it won’t be long before he makes an appearance on our suet – or at least on the hill of ants by our poplar tree. Hubby spotted a predator swooping through our yard twice yesterday on the hunt, looking to nab a small bird or squirrel. I missed the action, off digging up a plant somewhere, but what a cool thing to have going on in our backyard!

    Sidenote: we also rescued 4 baby bunnies last weekend and released them the other night. One had been injured, so we wanted to get the bloody one away from danger and healed. They’re doing fine now, hiding in the brush pile – you can see one of the little cutie pies in my photoblog.

    Today we should finish the new raised bed and transplating. I’m not as sore as I was last weekend, I learned my lesson and did bicep and tricep curls on the treadmill while I walked for a few days this week. The airclimber also helped with the leg squatting and digging. Whatever the task – bring it on, I’m ready!

    Pick my Brain

    April
    26
    2007

    Now that the new design is (nearly) complete, I feel like I should be making the other change I wanted to make – which is all about the content.

    I wanted to really do more – to write more, to really get into things because admittedly, I’ve been holding back. I hold back about my family, my kids – my processes in painting, technology and design. Believe it or not, I do know a lot of stuff. Now, it may or may not be accurate, but there’s a lot of stuff just sitting here in my head collecting dust. It’s time to clean off the cobwebs in my brain and start sharing more. Care a little less about what has caused me to clam up and retreat into my safety zone, and ever so cautiously wander back out into what used to be my comfortable, wysiwyg blog. The good old days. When I poured my heart out and allowed myself to be vulnerable – until one day when someone thought it would be really swell to use that vulnerable spot and jab a knife or ten into it.

    I worked up this design in such a way that I’d feel “it” again. The “it” I lost. The “it” that once was, the “it” that allowed you guys to really know me. (BTW, You can also find “it” on eBay.)

    Now, I’m inching forward, taking the next step, hearing the eggshells crunch and crack beneath my feet. Hold me.

    Today I’m just going to open up my comments for questions of any kind. Pick my brain. Ask me anything. Blog or website related, design, photography, gardening, family, personal or art – ask away, and I’ll reply in comments.

    1 Vision, 2 Brains & a dash of Brawn

    April
    22
    2007

    A dash of brawn. Hah. Who am I kidding? I couldn’t even lift my arms up over my head to pull my hair back this morning. It was worth it though. I have been on the search for a planter, about 6-8 feet wide, 2 feet tall – not too deep, but just deep enough. All of them I found? Either too small, too big, and all of them too expensive.

    I had to do something, because when we replaced the windows, we ended up short on siding. Some of the siding was relocated, some of it is the closest match we could get. The relocated siding has about 6 years of sun fading, and it’s quite visible right now, so we had to conceal that so the rest of the siding could catch up. Also? I wanted a huge, and by huge I mean spectacularly big showcase of gerber (gerbera) daisies because I love them so much. They bloom all summer, they’re huge, they never disappoint – well, only in that their annuals. I wish they were perennials. So every year, I’ll be buying boatloads of ’em, which I don’t have a problem with. I also added some wave petunias so they’ll cascade down the sides and conceal the rest of the faded siding.

    I drew the blueprint. Hubby wrote up the supply list, and down to Lowe’s he went. $33 later, he was home and breaking out the circular saw. He spent about 6 hours on it, and even got the girls involved in hammering and drilling the nail holes. It was all fun and good, and a perfect day here for being outside. We’re both sunburned and sore, but man. The payoff.

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