St.Francis-blessing of pets

Last weekend at the town church ,the  East Parish Methodist church, had an outdoor blessing of animals service. As we all know I am a St. Francis fan so I had to attend the service-with my pigeon!
Pastor Vin gave the service and went around blessing all the pets in attendance.
One lady brought her horse! It was kind of cool to see a horse at the service.A few people brought their dogs. One couple brought their boogery nose pugs.  One of the dogs sneezed and snots flew everywhere. It was gross but I couldn't help but laugh. My pigeon has been known to do that as well. Some people brought photos of their pets instead of bringing them. The people at the service were very nice and welcoming. Matter-of-fact I received these photos from one of the church volunteers.
Both myself and Craow Dum felt very welcomed. Pigeon and all!

rubbish to runway 2016

On Oct 8th I not only designed my outfit  I also modeled it at the blue Ocean ball room stage in Salisbury. I've got to say, I worked with some seriously talented ladies.
There were a total of  about 30 outfits modeled. Six were picked to be displayed in a local art gallery. Mine wasn't picked but I didn't feel bad about it because most of the dresses were jaw dropping amazing. They deserved to be displayed. I just felt honored to be selected to be a part of this show.
And what a show.
My dress and jacket were made of shedded feathers from all of my birds. This was two years worth of molted feathers from cockatiels, pigeons, doves, princess of wales and a caique. I found a 80's style cocktail dress and totally reconstructed it. The boots I paid $1.00 in Goodwill and completely redid the boots over by painting them, cushioned the inside and reheeled them. The criteria to be in the show was that all the outfits had to be made from discarded/recycled/trash materials.
The proceeds of the show went to "a long way home"-a organization that builds schools in underdeveloped countries out of recycled materials.
My runway song was "when doves cry' by Prince. My dress was mostly made of dove feathers and as you can see my boots are purple with the Prince glyph so the song was a perfect fit.It was pretty exciting to walk out on the runway stage with the purple lights and Prince music. Nerve wracking but exciting.People were cheering. One girl came up to me later and said "Prince would've been proud". That comment really made my day.
It was great fun. Maybe again next year?

Hydroxed

definition -HYDROXED: when you ask for oreos and you get faux oreos such as hydrox or cream-os instead.

I remember my mother tried to pawn that one off on me. She would screech: "it's the saaaame thing!". Ah no, hydrox taste like shit and the store brand knock offs taste even shittier.

That is how I feel about the new troll movie coming out.
Dreamworks got the licensing rights to make the troll movie and about two years ago had some promotional items that featured the troll dolls that I am accustom to (above" the Don trump troll photo)
I had the movie marked on my calendar set for the November 6th release and found out that the whole troll business had been revamped. They look more like colorful smurfs. (see first photo)
I have no idea what happened to why the change in characters.
I felt like I've been hydroxed...
siiiigh....

accidental saints

When I found out my cousin was diagnosed with cancer I painted this icon for her.
"Saint Kim, patron saint of dogs".
Yup, that's her with her two dogs.
I was so happy she liked it.
Painting is what I do to help me focus and deal with things. I am grateful to my Russian icon teacher, Marina, because I feel like I found my spot in the art world.
I will shift the subject slightly now on to a topic that is somewhat connected.
Last week I saw an ad in the local paper about a book discussion group at a local church.
The book in discussion was titled "Accidental Saints-finding God in all the wrong people".
I'm not much for book clubs or really any type of social gathering but this peaked my interest.
Author Nadia Bolz-Weber describes herself as a Pastrix (her version of a female pastor)and 'invites readers with what she calls "a religious but not-so-spiritual life' ".'Tattooed, angry, and profane, this former stand up comic turned pastor stubbornly, sometimes hilariously, resists the God she feels called to serve'.
Hmmm..I found this introduction quite intriguing so I bought the book and went to the discussion.
I found it quite funny (of course I would) sitting with a pastor and group of little old ladies reading out loud passages from this book in a church that had sentences such as this :"I was confronted by my own bullshit"...and "oh fuck".
Funny, yet, as I am reading I am finding so many things that I can relate to.
I told the pastor that I paint icons> Some traditional and some, not so traditional. With that being said, one of the member of the parish took me around in the church to show me icons that were painted by one of their parishioners that they have on display.
They were so beautiful and perfect.
It was so exciting to see them-especially knowing that they were done by a local artist.
The next discussion  group meeting is tomorrow. I am a pretty slow reader but I read half the book already. There is the potential of each and everyone of us becoming a saint, flaws, farts and all.
Who would've thought that somebody else thinks on this wave length.
hmmm...

my birthday at the Big E

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0uLI6BnVh6w









I just celebrated my (fill in the blank) birthday. We bought tickets to see Elle King at the Big E.
Elle king sings the song "Exs and Ohs". (see above youtube) 
She is one of the few singers both my husband and I like.
Matter-of-fact he bought me her CD for my birthday as well.
Her father is my number one fav comedians Rob Schneider (Deuce Bigelow).!
Seriously!!!!! I was hoping he would be attending her concerts so I could meet him! ha! A double bonus!
Anyways, the Big E is one big massive crowd of people. 
OMG the bathroom lines were at least 15 minutes long. 
We did get a glimpse at the farm animals but again, the crowds were overwhelming.
 I do have to say that the concert (we had reserved seats) was fantastic. 
It was a cool night which was great for singing and dancing.
This was an awesome thing to do for my birthday!

ovations

On September 4th the Greater Newburyport Ovarian Cancer Awareness foundation hosted their sixth annual lantern festival at the Bartlet Mall (frog pond). It is a local group that helps fund OvationsFortheCure.org for their promotion of knowledge of this insidious disease, support for those diagnosed and help finding a cure. The lady who ran this event Deb Green is an ovarian cancer survivor. She owns a stationary store in down town Newburyport.
As you know, my cousin had been recently diagnosed with stage 4 ovarian cancer. She is doing remarkably well, she is exercising normally and takes everything with a bit of humor.
As you can see (4 photos above)I had decorated a "special' lantern in her honor.
Complete with Alfred E Neuman's "what me worry?" "go away you stinkin' cancer!"
I only took a photo of the initial launching of lanterns because the other photos at night didn't come out but it was pretty impressive seeing thousand of floating lighted lanterns float along in the pond. Beautiful music and chimes echoed in the background making this a artist eyeful. I would've guessed at close to two thousand people showed up. That goes to show you how many people are affected by this disease in this district alone.
I had neglected to bring a sweater with me that night as it got a bit cold due to hurricane Hermione's wind coming from the east. My cousin had a blanket with her and gave it to me to ward off the chill.
As usual she was watching out for me.
This weekend this same organizer(GNOCA)  is hosting a comedy show with lady comedians at the firehouse theater. Both my husband and I will be attending it.
I was hoping my cousin would be able to attend it as well but unfortunately  she will be going in for round 3 of her chemo treatments.
I am at loss of word right now except for hopefully this round will knock the cancer down so her surgery will be a success.That's the plan.
We gotta keep OUR comedy team going!

back home

As much as I love going away for a vacation it is tough leaving the birds.
I miss them terribly but also they get mad at me for leaving them-especially the pigeons.
It just so happen the time we left all the birds were molting.
And I do mean molting.
The pet sitter does a great job but there is no way she can keep up with their mess. The place looked like there was a giant pillow fight.
OMG feathers everywhere!
I looked at my husband dead-panned and said, 'we're gonna need a bigger vacuum".
Trixstah is a handful too. He bites, has tantrums and refuses to be potty trained. (MY other pigeon is somewhat potty trained because she will only poop in a certain area)
Teddy the dove was so happy we were home. I gave him his bath and he was elated. Both the pigeons jumped in the sink while I was cleaning cages. They love their baths too. The cockatiels were happy to be back to their routine.
As I type it is now 4:00 and the pigeons are sitting on the couch awaiting "Judge Judy" so that means I have to end this blog and turn the TV on for them.
Life with birds!