Trout Girl Plus Four

Aries is feeling much better, as seen by the stretching in the sun above. We were proactive in the diagnosis and initial treatment of his kidneys. It looks like we’ll have him around for a while longer.

You wouldn’t be able to tell from the photo, but our Aries (the cat) isn’t feeling very well. He is having trouble with his kidneys, just like Little Guy. We ruled out cancer with an ultrasound on Monday. I’ve got my fingers crossed for “infection” as opposed to CRF (Chronic Renal Failure). He’s on special kidney food, Pepcid and sub-cutaneous fluids to help his kidneys recover. He really likes the special food and it makes Friday and Randy incredibly jealous. Which Aries enjoys!

This was our first Halloween in our new place. Finally, we had our own stoop and pumpkin display area.

I bought some pumpkins, carved away in my garage (less mess than in the kitchen, plus it was a nice day) and lit them.

I figured that in a big, well-lit development like ours we’d have tons of trick-or-treaters. I agonized about which candy to buy and how much.

Can you guess how many kids came by?

2

Everyone at work ate candy for two weeks. Plus, we fixed the doorbell and outside lights in preparation for Halloween. So it wasn’t a total loss.

The posts have been very infrequent lately, that’s not just because of the end of the trout season. I’ve been busy actually being creative. Pictured above are screenprint cards drying in my “office”.

In college, I discovered printmaking. I used to scan my sketches and make silkscreen prints from them. Years later, I’ve come back to it. My company asked to employees to participate in a “Craft Fair” and I decided that I needed a deadline to get myself working on artistic endeavors. So I signed up.

Boy, did I ever underestimate the time I needed! Plus, I planned on using my Print Gocco, but the bulbs were nowhere to be found for sale. So I decided to use the StencilPro system. Works well and is almost exactly what I did in college!

I made four different designs and sold half of what I made at the sale. It was really fun and I was pleased with the results.

Two “everyday” bug designs and two Halloween design are now available in my brand-new Esty store. Which gave me my first ever listing on a blog (thank you Jennifer)! So overall, it was a good start. I’m working on holiday designs now, hopefully they’ll be in production soon.