Happy 1st Birthday DaVinci

DaVinci turned 1 year old on May 5, 2011.

We went to Pennsylvania for the weekend, arrived at night. DaVinci loves his travel cage so much he stayed in there the whole night and didn't come out till the following morning.

These are the videos taken that morning.

Caution - I am trying to teach DaVinci how to sing Happy Birthday, so one of the videos you will here one of the 100 times I sing the song to him. I want you to sing along - you know, in honor of his birthday.

Even though I have sang this some so many times, so far all he can say is "How does a cat go? Meow" and "Woof-Woof".

Hope you like his birthday videos:

Weddings are in the air...

The royal wedding was not the only wedding in my mind this weekend, although I think it may have been my inspiration.

Following is the makings of my latest wedding dress.

This one is for a Cockapoo named Hannah.

I'm ready to make the first cut of this beaautiful lace fabric.

It has an irredescent thread running through it as well, which is hard to show in the pictures.

Looks like I will have just enough.

( The shamrock table cloth is put down to protect the table while I am cutting.)

Sewing begins. The lace fabric gets a double lining so the seams do not show.

The peanut gallery (thank God for lint rollers):

Playing around with some designs for the bodice.

I decided to use an organza ruffle that has sequint flowers in the center. I used this along the neck edge and I made a curved design with it on the bodice.

I also used some organza flowers which have beaded centers.

Work starts on the train - no lining on the train so the lace will really stand out.

Finished dress with train. The train is removable, so Hannah can dance at the reception.

I also bordered the bottom of the train with the organza ruffle.

Here's the dress without the train.

Close up of the bodice.

That bottom flowerette gets removed and that is where the train gets attached:

And here is a picture taken outside with the veil on:

The head piece also has some of the sequint organza ruffle along the front:

Of course, she must cover her face while walking towards the altar - so the veil can be worn over the face:

I wonder if this will be a June wedding. :-)

EASTER EGG HUNT

We had our one, very first, Easter Egg hunt this morning.

First, I must apologize for the length. It is almost 5 minutes long.

I really tried to edit it down.

Second, I apologize for the very high voice.

I got very excited during our Easter egg hunt.

Hope you have a great Easter.

WORKING ON OUR DECK

It's time to do a refurbish of our deck.

Our potted trees have died over time. Our patio table broke 2 winters ago, along with the umbrella. Our outdoor fountain stopped working......

John decided instead of buying new patio furniture we would keep what we have and he would make a new table out of wood. It's been a really long time since I've seen him work with wood. This should be interesting.

So he prodeeded to make the table...We choose a nice emerald green:

...and he surprised me with some benches to go around the A/C unit that sits outside.

John bought a cute flag

Now this is how to relax:

Table is finished and we bought a beige umbrella that has solar lights inside.

There was a huge sale on trees

We start some of the planting. John asked if he could do some of the flowers, and even though I love planting, I let him do 2 pots. He asked me what colors I wanted to do this year and I said purples and yellow.

A little while later I asked where he was going and he said "The flowers are ready". ??

He had the garden guy pot the flowers for him. LOL

Here is what "they" came up with - a whole bunch of the same flower - the flower has both yellow and purple. LOL They are really pretty pansies though, and I do love the colors.

OK, now it is my turn...

How's that?

John wanted the big tree that he bought (for a whopping $24) to go smack in the middle of the deck.

Here is the fountain we bought, discontinued, last one, and on sale.

John will buid a wooden box for under it to raise it up.

I get to paint it to make it look like grey stone.

Well, this is one of the reasons I love it here.

And a short movie...

I GOT A PREZZIE IN THE MAIL

I am so excited!

I got a card from Athena and Sasha, and then I saw that it was much more than a card. It was an ACEO from Athena.

An ACEO stands for Art, Cards, Editions and Originals. They are 3 1/2" by 2 1/2" art in miniature. Athena has started making these recently and sells them in her shop - SassySashaDoxie.etsy.com.

But back to my prezzie - It is not just an ACEO made by her, but it is of my 2 precious doggies - Giupetto and Gianna.

They just look adorable. Look at the detail in the fur. Even my husband was very impressed, and he is very hard to impress, and I actually saw a smile - Hey Mikey, he likes it!

Then I had to laugh because not only do the dogs look great,

but Athena is known for her detail.

She has them sitting on my red couch (where I take so many of my pictures of them) and she even included the pillows that I have on my couch and the little designs in the pillows are there. I don't know how she knows this, but she even got the gold color in the back of the pillow.

I already started framing it, and stopped to take some pictures. I think the pink matt with the orange and white striped border looks great.

And here it is already on the wall in sewing room.

Thank you so much Athena and Sasha.

We love it.

DaVinci says his first words

I've been trying to teach my bird DaVinci to talk. I kept repeating a few phrases to him, but one of then seems to have caught his fancy.

Here he is saying "How does a cat go? Meow" over and over again.

John is now trying to confuse him by telling him a cat goes Woof Woof, and I am also trying to go on to teach him that a bird goes Chirp Chirp.

If you notice right around the time 3:59 in the following video he does say something other than meow. Is it Woof Woof or Chirp Chirp?

The video is a little less than 5 minutes. He does seem to get a little clearer by the end of the video.
I am, by the way, in the room at the back of the video sewing. You can here the click click of my sewing machine.
I set the tripod up to get this.

Gianna and DaVinci sitting in a tree...

... you know the rest. :-)

Gianna has been obsessed with DaVinci, my moustache parrot, since I got him in August.
I have watched them interact with much trepidation, but I do think they are working it out, and actually really like each other.

In the morning, I open DaVinci's cage and let him come out on his own. Gianna sits right there and waits for him to come out.

I usually know when he is out sitting on the top of his cage door because she barks to tell me.

Sometimes DaVinci goes down to the bottom of the door and they greet each other.

Here they are saying good morning to each other.

DaVinci loves their toy basket, but Gianna is not so sure about sharing her toys. She gets a little excited when he does this, she paws him, and goes to bite his tail, or his head. I tell her to try to relax, and watch like a hawk.

OK, where'd he go?

Gianna has becone a great baby sitter for DaVinci.