Woah. So busy lately. Tons of sewing commissions and in general life happenings.

my good friend catherine is moving back to LA, travelling via motorcycle cross country. www.mybikeignites.tumblr.com

she asked me to make her some saddle bags for her trip....so i met up with her a couple times to brainstorm and take moto measurements.

worked up a plan that made sense to both of us, and i got crackin. took four days to totally finish em, i also had two pairs of out of town visitors and other good distractions.

they came out really well, even though the math and planning involved in making them broke my brain. the bottom is one flush piece for strength, and for some reason making hidden seams on all sides of the bag just seemed so daunting.

first time using high end waterproof material too...terrain xpac is the jam! lightweight and waterproof up to 200psi. driving rain equates to 2 psi.

ride safe friend.

planning an etsy craft party at the end of the month, working on a top secret installation that will have a one night opening on the 5th of august, and preparing to take Egon to the dog neurologist to better diagnose his seizures. theres a lot going on.

oh! and i have a website now too! one more internet thing to keep up with, ugh!

www.bravebags.com

check it out.

i've had a significant amount of time off lately....for the end of june i took time off for birthday stuff, then worked one day, was off two for july fourth, worked one and a half days, then had another normal two day weekend. its allowed me a ton of time to sew, work on stuff in the house, and hangout with the dogs and andrew.

we got some pretty gnarly wind/rain storms lately that knocked out power to lots of folks...our across-the-street neighbors lost it for a really long time...felt bad as we were maxin and relaxin and they were sweating their guts out for five days. stoli came to work with us saturday, huskies and 100+ degree temps with no power are not a match. she's a real sweet dog.

picked up andrews great grandma's singer sewing machine...been meaning to stop working frantically on projects to take the time to get cozy with the singer, start using it instead of my kenmore.

its really nice, a centennial model from 1951.

even came with the little original oil can still clipped in place! so tight.

came in from one of many late night treat runs to find a male and a female stag beetle flying around the porch, tryin to get it on. they're super cool to see...this is the male, females have much smaller pincers.

in other exciting bug news, we've had a rash of HUGE hornets and butterflies creepin on the mulberry tree andrew recently trimmed. i saw a couple large eastern swallowtails hanging upside down, beating their wings, and thought they were tryign to cool off in the shade. but then the hornets came, they hangout near the slices in the tree. i can only assume they're getting water or fluid? weird. theres almost always at least one hornet or butterfly in this exact spot, its a go-to if you're trying to witness some insect activity.

in weird yard news, we seem to have found a portal of some sorts.

over time, rain was washing away dirt in our side yard. a concrete chunk was makign itself visible, and with a little raking/sweeping, a large circle became visible.

weird, right? started digging into it and pulling out trash, bricks, and hunks of concrete.

with a little more digging....

even more digging

so we apparently have a well that used to feed the house. i called the county to see if they had any record of it being "abandoned" or filled, after the late 80s/early 90s they required a permit and a lisenced contractor to perform the work. there was no record. it was not on the survey from the 50s that the county had on record and it was not on the survey that we ordered when we bought the well. so really, its a suprise.

andrew dug out about six feet of it. the first concrete section goes about three feet before it has a gap of a few inches where the pipes come in. then concrete begins again. ususally its just dirt after the first concrete section, so this one seems like it was pretty legitimately dug.

finding all kinds of crap in it. can't wait to see what else comes up. and how deep it is! i guess we'll be calling a contractor for advice soon.

been working on sewing projects as much as i possibly can while getting totally distracted with dogs and boyfriend.

worked up a front rack bag for braden at carytown bikes, will most likely turn into a little run of bags for the shop. little collab, a few design improvements/tweaks on the bags he was kind of bummed on. a little bigger, a map window, different opening direction, y'know...stuff that you want when you ride.

dottie found that the new sewing machine table plus the windowsill makes for a cozy nap spot.

good dog.

it was awesome having so much time off cause i could really hangout with the dogs. they're pretty hilarious. egon slept/snored through a total manicure/pedicure...trimmed and rounded all his nails while he slept. he was out cold! what a lazy dude.

hanging out with bostons is real fun. they're pretty wild, but real sweet too. good snugglers and vicious attackers when a toy gets stuck under the couch.

Sad news the other day, a lovely dog friend passed away. Back in my real early twenties I was hanging hard on Vine Street with an awesome crew of friends. Nova was just as important a fixture as anyone else, good dog.

Casey and Mary had a little rememberance get-together last night, we took Nova's ashes for a last walk to Libby Hill, which was her favorite Church Hill spot to roll in grass.

We told stories and joked about old times, then we all helped Casey spread her ashes down the hill.

Poured out a little cold beer for her, then celebrated her life with her favorite food, plain cheeseburgers.

Loss is never easy, and I can only hope Casey, Mary, and Chopper are finding comfort in each other and in the support of friends. Its hard to lose a puppy friend that is with you every day, excited to see you, funny and sweet... they become a huge part of your family and I just would never wish that kind of loss on anyone.

left work friday with four days off looming on the horizon. heck yeah!

before i left, though, i got a care package from etsy in the mail! yippee! my friend jk was asking for some feedback on the way items are listed, on the tools sellers have to use, etc. i thought about it for a night and wrote a long response.

all kinds of cool things in that package to play with!

I took the pups for a good walk, even picked up a butterfly on the route. he was freshly dead, so i took him home and laid him flat to dry. i'll shadow box him for the house. actually, to be a nerd about it, its a female. so i'll shadow box her for the house.

the sunflowers i bought (the ones that egon bit in half the day i bought them) were just starting to let petals peek out...i knew that they'd be bursting soon. the black ones are my favorite...can't wait to save some seeds from those to grow again next year.

i started watching 'sons of anarchy' on netflix and got so so hooked, thats pretty much what i did for the rest of the evening. egon started having seizures around two am so i was up for most of the night, didn't really even get to sleep until about 6am. at least i got to spend my saturday morning next to these guys...

once i was up i got crackin on treats. was having a few folks over later that evening for a campfire/cookout kind of thing and wanted refreshments.

made some layered jello treats. they took forever because each layer had to set for 30 mintues, even the whipped cream. so complicated.
hung out all evening by the fire.

egon had seizures saturday very early in the morning and we were keeping a really close eye on him. two months clear, but he was acting SUPER weird all day and we knew we weren't out of the woods.
sure enough around midnight thirty, he had another one. at least only one of my really close friends was there to see it, i know that kind of thing isn't pleasant to witness at all. poor little buddy, we're sort of at the end of treament at our vet, have to move forward with a neurologist if he has more anytime soon.

sunday we spent the day recuperating. i started working on a little sewing project for a friend. a lovely lady named nova just passed away, quietly.

nova was a really good dog. she taught me how delicious soft puppy dog ears could be. she used to catch flies out of the air like a ninja. she was a constant fixture at a house i spent a lot of time hanging out with, and was a part of the crew just as much as anyone else was. its so sad to see a friend hurt, i can only hope casey is finding some comfort in the outreach from friends.

finished up nova on tuesday.

monday was birthday day, and i spent it on all kinds of awesome adventures. i went to FRIDAYS for lunch (seriously!) and andrew took me to rainbow for some shopping. went to petsmart, and lowes, then headed home and filled the birdfeeders. yippee!

checked the garden and found a teeny mantis, hopefully patrolling for aphids. good luck for 31!

sunflowers were fully in bloom. so pretty to see!

the rest of the garden is gardening pretty hard. beans and tomatos are popping off, my one summer squash is just friggin huge and producing like crazy. gonna be getting cukes very soon. not bad for such a late start and ridiculous battle with nature.

took the bostons on a swimming adventure, i'd picked up a little life preserver and wanted to test it out. egon swims like a beaver, so well, he loved it. dottie was not feelin it, and was happiest to sit on the shore. defintely was not happy to be swimming around.

after swimming they were wiped out. andrew took me for a nice long drive in the travco while the pups slept.

rode out east to where the james river gets super wide. caught dinner at a neat little seafood restuarant. got to eat on a second floor balcony, and kind of watch the sunset get bigger and better til dark. super fun.

inside the restuarant was lodge-like...a really cool buidling. i'd love to live in a big single room space like this one day.

birthday was fun, adventures were awesome, and i had a really good time even though mr. egon got a kind of bummer prognosis. high hopes!

Woah. I found some legs in the trash this week at work!

It was pretty unexpected...threw open the trashcan lid to find an oddly-positioned pair of legs. Hm. Art school move-out time always brings out the bizarre trash.
Saturday after I left work I had a few minutes to kill before I met a lady about an internship as a soap maker. I stopped by lamplighter for a fast cup of iced coffee. While I was there, Andrew called me in a little bit of a panic.

Dottie had been stung by a bee in the yard and was having a very severe allergic reaction. She swelled up, vomited, peed, and then laid down, starting to make weird movements with her body and legs. He gave her half a benadryl (roughly 12 mg for a 14 lb dog) and kept a watchful eye on her while I interviewed.

Poor little bean, she was still showing some effects of the sting for the rest of the day. She couldn't keep food down, or water, and kept frantically eating grass when I let her out into the yard...then she'd just ralph it all up.

We sat out into the evening by the campfire. We were planning on having a little cookout for her birthday but after she got stung and blew up, I didn't bother texting around much to let folks know. Just on the chance that we would have to split to the emergency vet, it would have been good to not have a bunch of folks over.

She hung in there for the rest of the night, but at 230am, when the benadryl wore off, she blew up AGAIN. She started barrel rolling and scratching frantically, her ears started to swell and they were very hot...I jumped up from bed and gave her another half a benadryl tab and hung out with her while it absorbed and started to work.

Fifteen minutes or so after I gave it to her, she threw up. Knowing it had to be done, I dug the half digested pill out of it and put it on a piece of dog food. She ate it right back down. Ugh, I've done more super gross things since I own dogs. But again, after about thirty minutes, the swelling wasn't getting worse and she was able to sleep. I stayed up monitoring her breathing until about 4am, then finally called it a night. Sheesh, man.

The next morning I jumped up early to knock out some projects.


Did a little more weeding in the garden while the dogs got real comfortable in the sunny yard.

I put the pups inside and gasolined a yellow jacket nest I had in the yard. I really was hoping I could just leave it alone, but based on Dotties near anaphlactic shock reaction, I'm not gonna chance it again. Yellow Jackets suck anyway, they're not pollinators, they're predatory wasps. So I don't feel that bad.
Sunday was pretty chill. Fathers Day, nbd. I worked in the garden a little, weeding, then started cleaning house. Andrew had a slow leak in his truck tire and we'd noticed a screw buried in one of the tires of the Travco. We called around til we found a shop open on Sundays, then pulled the Travco wheel. Drove it over to the shop and left em both to get plugged/patched.

Took the dogs to Andrews parents house with the intention of continuing the adventure to a close by river afterward for swimming. I ordered a dog life jacket for the Bostons (wasn't sure how sizing would work but it fits em both) and wanted to check it out. The auto shop was closing and we were still out in the west end. Rushed back to the northside to the shop so we could get the truck, then because we were practically back in the city, stopped by the kayak landing at 14th. It was pretty gross, water wise, and there were a ton of raft teams taking out at the landing so it just was not pleasant. Took the dogs back home and porched for a little while. It was so pretty outside.

Monday I had a photoshoot appointment with my friend Ellen.

I drove the Travco into Church Hill to pick up a friend, then rolled down to the floodwall.

Spent a few hours walking all around the flood wall, train yard, under the manchester bridge, and down at the manchester climbing wall.

Can't wait to see edits.

I even found a geocache while we were down near the trains!

After the photoshoot I ran a few errands, bought a knife sharpener (how exciting!) Came home and tried to finish up some yardwork that was hangin from the week.
Andrew trimmed the Mulberry tree that was covering a lot of my garden area. He was cutting it down into smaller sections of stick/brush Sunday morning but snipped his finger and near took the tip off. Needless to say he took a breather from it to tape his finger back together. Barf.

I crammed as much into my wagon as I could (which actually ended up being most of it), then made two trips to the dump with it.
I should never be allowed to go to the dump alone, I always bring stuff (junk) back. I picked up a bunch of nice, precut sections of green bamboo while I was there this time. I figure I'll use em in the garden for a trellace or even a gate to keep the dogs out.

After the dump I took the Bostons to the park to play. As we were leaving, I heard a bunch of real weird noise over near the curb. Went closer to see what it was - turns out a HUGE cicadia killer wasp had caught a massive dragonfly and was in the process of killing/eating him.

The wasp was literally eating him while he was still alive.

Friggin brutal!