A few new snow pictures.

I'm sure some of these will end up in my shop on a calendar and a few other things!

My new Robert Duncan picture!

Well, I have a pan of chili cooking on the stove and I just brought the Shelties in from a fun and playful session of Frisbee. The husband is busy ice fishing, so I would say it is a good time to update my blog. I have been busy crocheting necklaces at night after work, and they have been selling well. Soon I will need to put that aside so I can start painting a little again. It is hard for me to find the block of time needed to devote to a painting. It takes a couple hours for me to really get into it and start to feel creative, but that is hard to do after work at night when you are already tired. I also tend to get a rush of adrenaline after I have been painting so it is hard to just put the brush down and fall asleep. Getting up the next morning for work is quite the chore then!


I received a wonderful gift this week. You know some of the best things that happen are things you simply cannot plan for. I have admired the work of artist Robert Duncan for some time now, and if you are not familiar with his work, you can view his web site here:

http://www.robertduncanstudios.com/
 

He has several paintings that include a tri-color sheltie (which of course are especially near and dear to my heart). Robert and his son have recently started a facebook page for Robert's fans. They had a quote contest in which they asked for fans to submit quotes to be possibly used for next year's calendar they are working on. If they decided to use a quote that a fan submitted, that person would get a free Robert Duncan poster of that fan's choice. Of course I jumped at the opportunity and entered a few quotes. Because they only had a few people submit quotes they ended up giving each person that entered a free poster. That was very nice by itself, but when I got the details sent to me, Robert was actually going to sign the poster if I wanted him to, and asked who I wanted it signed to. How special is that!!! I asked him to make it to my name and "A fellow Sheltie lover", and sure enough that is what he did. I chose the poster called "Winter Friends".

This is a quote from Robert and Josh Duncan's Facebook page "I don't want life to imitate art, I want life to be art!" by Ernst Fischer. In my opinion, Robert Duncan is painting the art of life.

Here is a picture of my new Robert Duncan piece of art and please check out his website as his paintings are truly wonderful! The quotes that they decided to use are being kept a secret until the calendars come out. I will have to let you know if one of them chosen was mine.

More fun in the snow!

Make a Smilebox collage

Gracie's Story

Not much exciting has been happening in my neck of the woods lately, so I decided to post a story about a little Blue Merle Sheltie named Gracie. I don't claim to be a great story teller, but here it goes.

My Sister-in-Law decided that a Sheltie might make a good dog breed for her daughter, my niece, Kaylie. Kaylie participates in 4-H and wanted a dog that she would be able to train and show. I already had my male Sheltie, Chet, so my Sister-in-Law asked if  I would ride with her to Chet's breeder so she could pick out a puppy for Kaylie. I had no plans of getting a new puppy myself that day, but there was one tri little girl that I just couldn't leave behind. That also turned out to be the day I got my little Sissy girl. Kaylie was trying to decide on a name for her new little puppy, so I told her the story of how the lady (Pat) from The Sheltie Shop named her little female Sheltie Gracie, because she was born just before Thanksgiving. Our Sheltie puppies were born in early January, but my niece fell in love with that name, so Gracie she became.

Gracie has become a very important member of their family and my niece loves her very much. She is a small, petite little Sheltie that is a perfect match for a young girl. Kaylie has two younger sisters and Gracie loves to run circles around the girls while they are on their swing set, or while they practice cheerleading, keeping them all herded together!

Below is Kaylie taking Gracie to a retirement center.

Gracie is also featured in my shop, The Tri-Color Sheltie Store and More!