quirky is as quirky does .... and this is one of the few titles that i've written after composing my post instead of before ...hmm.. what's that mean?

i am in love with mona lisa ... but you knew that, right? so .... when i was blog hopping through various artists' blogs i found a site that had WAY groovy toovy mona lisa rubber stamps .....lost coast stamps has bunches of cool stuff ... but my new mona stamps are so the coolest ..... but, that said .... i have trouble using rubber stamps in my art!!! i just can't do it ..... not sure why ..... i'm ok with letters and swirls and basic stuff ... but anything too fancy and .... well, it just doesn't feel right .... so, i'll use these fun and funkydoo monas in my journals or on cards or other frippery ..... but, not so much on my actual real and true art ..... is that ok? or is it weird that i can use a photo of mona, but not a stamp of her ...... yup .... the more i try to explain it, the more i know that it is just odd ....
actually, today with my pal tricia, these words came out of my mouth:" well, we all know i'm quirky, right?" ... she just looked at me and laughed ......

hickory, dickory dock, elizabeth made a clock, of bottle caps and this and thats, hickory dickory dock...tick tock

yippee, zippy, hooooooooray for telling time ..... i've had the findings for this clock for well over a year ...meaning, a year ago, i had an itch to make a clock ...the itch passed, the clock was never made, and the findings were thumbtacked to my wall in my studio ...... so, when presented with a deadline painting group topic of face ...... i certainly thought about sweet mona's face ...... or a face on a sun or a moon or a turtle or a pig or something .... but no ... i somehow ended up with the face of a clock ..... i was going to do an acutal face or paint a clock ....but this is where i ended up .....i'm not sure my deadline painting group will approve ....i'm always WAY looser with the topics than most ... but, i am over joyed ...... when julia saw the clock she LOVED it ...... drew said ...IT WORKS? ...... why, yes it does!! and when Sophie came downstairs this morning she said it is STILL going ...... so .... i impressed a houseful of kids at least ...... and julia has requested a clock for christmas ...nothing like planning ahead .....

ps .... i decided that i coulnd't tell time from across the room, so now the hands of the clock are black so they show up better .....that ok?

this blogging thing is feast or famine .... i have about twenty things i could blog today ...we'll see how many i get to ...

i started my day busy with life ..... doing the things that ya' gotta do .... and i was a bit out of sorts .... i wanted to do art but wasn't making myself or letting myself ..... i was just choring ......and messing around ..... and then i realized i was all discombobulated (great word) because i was still not used to having the kids at school ..... i felt like such a dope .... being all sad sack cause i missed them .... but it is a shock to the system to go from being with them constantly to sending them off for seven and a half hours ..... that's a long time ...... so, once i had sorted out why i was discombobulated, i convinced myself that i could actually make myself happier by digging in and arting .... so i did ..... and it was grand .....and i undiscombobulated quickly ..... i should have put discombobulate in the title of this post, but i had NO idea that i was going to work to get discombobulated into it as often as i have ......


anyway ..... discombobulation gone, and i was doing art ..... yippee, zippy, hooooooray .......

i had these collages started from some time ago, and i used liquid acylics to slather them in transparent paint ..... so you can totally see the groovy papers underneath ...... it was a grand and messy time ..... and luckily i remembered to take pics at the interlude cause then i went right into stenciling letters onto them in opaque colors ..... some coordinating colors, some more of a contrast ....


so, all that painting and i loaded about a dozen new pics onto my flickr site ..... go peek at all the collagey goodness .....

i also have two pics of my studio .... with loads of little note boxes to read if you scroll your mouse over it .....go do that HeRe and hErE if you are interested in the messy bliss that is my studio......

so then .... my kids got home ...hooray, yippee..... and before they'd even settled in, the doorbell rang ..... it was a delivery .... from my pal cindy .... i hosted a birthday party for her husband, my pal, craig.....this weekend ...... she sent me a bouquet of fruit! ....it was gorgeous .....was.....was because we have eaten it to smithereens ......
... sweet sophie said " how did miss cindy KNOW that i am a chocolate covered strawberry FANATIC???" ...... and we dove in and ate SO much fruit ... it was fab .... cindy went above and beyond on her thank you ... but if anyone else wants to send me flowers ever? i'll take the fruit bouquet!!!

and then .... since my day was on the upswing, it kept swinging ..... drew said he needed a picture, would i print it for him? sure babe, whatcha want a picture of? i need one of you and me...... JUST you and me.... or the girls can be in it too? just us ....so, it needed to be a new pic, not one that was on my camera already ...... so, drew tapped jj as the photographer, she took our pic... we go to print it out .... drew, why do you need this picture .... ummm, cause i'm writing about you and need a pic ..... do you need a picture of daddy too? ....no.....why do you need a pic of me? ........ because i need it to go with this thing that i'm writing ......(it's worse than pulling teeth to get him to volunteer information!! ) ..... drew, what are you writing? .... i'm writing about my hero ..... what? ..... it's you ...... and there i go getting all discombobulated ......

... this is julia with our fruity happiness.....and, just as a matter of full disclosure, julia had the same writing assignment ..... her hero? dontcha want to know? her mom? no....her dad? no ..... an athlete? no...... a celebrity? no ...... an historical figure? no ...... julia, in all her julia-ness? her hero is dixie .....that's the dog......dixie, the wonder dog ........and why julia did you pick dixie to be your hero? ....because dixie saved me, saved me from being petless ........

and now andy is home from his business trip .... i have pineapple flowers and chocolated covered strawberries in my fridge..... i had a productive art day .... my children are lovely ..... and i am no longer discombobulated ...... hooray ....


and here's a big P.S. teaser ...... i am ALMOST done finishing out one of those ten by ten collages ..... but am not going to show a pic til tomorrow when it is well and truly done ...... when julia saw it today she said it was " the coolest thing you've ever made" .... she might have been trying to suck up after that whole hero thing .... but i don't think so .... i think she really loves it ...... stay tuned .....

i don't have a title for this blog entry that is enticingly artsy ....so i'll say, that there is artistic merit to be found in artfully arranged piles

"If a cluttered desk signs a cluttered mind, of what, then, is an empty desk a sign?" -
-- Albert Einstein

today was my children's third full day of school ..... the dog and i did better today because it wasn't 104 degrees .... we went for one super long walk .... and four or five normal walks ...... so we are finding a "schools back on" routine ....

so, with no agenda for my day, no large responsibilities or obligations, i had plenty of time to do some art ... and yet .... no ... i did hardly a snip of art ......
but my desk .... my disaster that i call a desk, actually..... my desk is doing much better .... i got to the bottom of quite a few large piles ..... apparently i hadn't gone through some of those stacks since 2003 .... that's a lot of paper clutter!!! gone....gone, gone, gone ...... sophie saw my desk and said, i can tell you cleaned it, but it still looks pretty messy, isn't that weird? ...... so .... as sophie noticed .... i got some done.. but not all .... i still have some mess to deal with .... but all paper mess is GONE ...... it's all the knick knack paddy wacks and fifty seven pens and five containers of change and journals in the process and .... well, you know, surely your desk is the same way ..... surely no one who is reading art blogs regularly has one of THOSE kind of desks that old einstein is worried about .....

shout out to sandy for sending me the einstein quote

what i did during summer vacation

what i did during summer vacation
Originally uploaded by eeeee.

....alas, my summer is over ...... the family flew to england to see my oldest brother and his family ...... we went to the beach with another brother, his family, and my parents .....we went to andy's parents for fourth of july and a couple more days ..... we went to my pal dana's mom's house ..... and we went on one last hurrah trip and stayed in a cabin in calloway gardens ..... that is a TON of road trips, eh? andy didn't do all of the travelling with us...someone has to work ..... but in between all that travelling i got quite a bit of painting done .....these nine collages were all finished this summer ...... as well as dozens of backgrounds that are waiting for foregrounds, some art boxes, and bits of assemblages that are starting to look interesting .....

but now, the joy of summer is behind us ..... the kids started school yesterday ......here's a pic of them ready to walk over on the first day..... ..... drew and julia are in fifth grade now and sophie is in first grade ....sniff, sniff .....my baby is in first grade? how on earth can that be right? and how old will they be when i can get through a first day without shedding tears?

the dog and i have been looking for our new normal ...... we are actually having trouble with that normal since it is 100 degrees outside during much of the day ..... making it unpleasant to go on much of a walk ...... and ...... even with two days of an empty house, i have not managed to get in a titch of art ....but .... i have some grand plans ....not to mention an art fest in late october that i have NO pieces for at the moment!!! so .....not only do i have to get moving on my art endeavors, but i REALLY REALLY REALLY need to start working hard ...... happy end of summer vacation ......

oooooops!!!

in my last blog i was having trouble getting my photos to load ..... so in my quest to accomplish that, i neglected to put in any hot links.......so here:
allison, the best artsy pal a girl could ask for, has a blog......
allison, maker of the grooviest charms ever ....on her etsy site.....
allison, groovy girl of flickr ........
so, there ya go heidi .... thanks for asking if allison has a blog!!

did you know i'm a journal kind of girl?

i am.... i am a journal kind of girl ..... on a shelf in my family room i have about 20 or so journals....most of them are done ...full.....finished ..... just on the outsides, they mostly look fun and lively and busy .... and then the insides are chronicles of days, trips, events, journeys, moments, ideas .......

here's a story of my first artsy journal ......
my best artsy pal ever, allison, found out about an art workshop called art and soul ..... and it was in cleveland ohio (this is years ago now) .... we talked each other into doing it ..... signed up for classes, plane flights, hotel room ..... got our class lists of supplies ....packed nine thousand bits and pieces of potential art joy .....scheduled baby sitters and such ...... and off we went ..... when we got to the gate at the airport we were GIDDY .... we didn't know it at the time, but we were taking a HUMONGOUS leap on the path towards being full fledged, full timed, fully realized artists ......huge step ...... so....we were giddy and giggling and SO very excited ..... and i said, al, i have a gift for you ..... a VERY important gift that could change your LIFE ..... and i whipped out a DOLLAR store notebook....lined...spiral bound ....... and told her that from this point on she had to document ever single solitary moment of our trip ...... i had markers, glue, tape, this and that ..... and we began ..... WE ARE AT THE AIRPORT .... we were writing some really genius stuff!! .... or not .... but every single bit of that journal exudes giddy, silly, gung ho happiness ......flat out joy .....the joy of art .....all in a dollar store notebook that was transformed miraculously into a journey journal of epic proportions ...... at all moments we had our journals on hand ..... we filled those journals up with words and things and art and trash and ephemera and junk and goodness and joy ....... this is a picture of my journal from that trip .... i adde a metal cover .... i had brought metal mesh for a class ..... and cool rivets .....and all sorts of artist trades tied on and glued in ..... we took a beading on paper class (allison did NOT love it, i did ....but then she turned into much more of a beader than i ever was) ......so i beaded the edges of some of the journal pages ...... and that was the beginning of a big ole journal thing that allison and i share ...and that we share with our families ......
later, allison was asked if she had journals to go in a book ... and she volunteered me, and my journals...and even our children's journals are in there...... and why you ask, am i telling you this now? is it perchance, because i have not done any art today to show you? why, yes indeed, that is the problem exatly!!! ..... i am teaching a spiritual journaling class at my church ..... and spent a long time today working on my syllabus, my hand outs, my plans, and such ...... the truly artsy fartsy willy nilly bit of me really slows me down ..... if i weren't teaching an artsy class, i surely could have gotten through the task much more quickly ...but no, i go the slow road, worrying about which week to do color pencils and watercolor .....oh, pocket pages, we should do that early ......it could have been quite straight foward and quick ...but i, no surprise, took the long and winding road ..... the nice bit is that pretty soon i'll have fresh journal pages to blog about every sunday ....... the even nicer bit, my task is done WELL ahead of time ....whew!

well, if it's not one thing, it's another ...and it was my cable that was out but now it's my camera...i can't get the computer to suck the photos out

since i currently cannot get my 'puter to suck the pics out of my camera, i'll tell you about a little something i've got going on .....
once upon a time, a lovely girl, a groovy artist in fact, put all her art pics on flickr .... and then she started a blog .... people read her blog, looked at her art, and told her nice things ...... one particular internet surfer, the owner of found gallery in ann arbor, michigan, was clicking blog to blog ....following no particular path, turned up at the art site and said to herself...hmmmm, self, this is some groovy art, and i think i want it to be in my gallery ......
i like this one VERY much ...... it is all doddley and delicious ..... with a whimsical charm and a bit of mystery in all those collage-y bits ....... yes....i quite like that one a lot ...... oh, and i love this one very much too..... i remember playing masterpiece quite fondly ..... who didn't want the million dollar painting? and i love the oddball mixture of ephemera ..... and the color pallette is very now ..... yup .....i want these pieces to sell in my gallery .......
and so it was that mary, at found gallery in ann arbor, michigan, got a doodley dandy package in the mail ......
the end .... of the happy art story .....

i hereby publicly proclaim that my husband ROCKS ... he is so awesome because he fixed my cable ...went out in the yard and figured out the problem

.....i was at the folk fest today and told two dear friends that my family was going to be amish this week ...cause cable was down ..no tv, no internet, no happy wireless mac laptop.....and i came home from folk fest (fabulous things to tell you) ...and the cable is working ....and i am just having a quick online fix ..... i'm inhaling...... and then i'm off to a baseball game in the 9000degree heat wave that is atlanta ...... so .....i'm just blogging to say that if you read the last blog, you don't have to wait til tuesday for me to be back up and running ...... and i have grand and glorious emoting to do about my weekend and my day and the fest and artsiness .... but in the meanwhile ..... just a tra la la of happiness ..... at the folk fest, while i was the "artist in the booth".... this painting (the biggest in lola's booth) was SOLD ....sold, sold, sold....someone likes my art ...someone who has never met me before likes my art ...tra la la .....

so many things, so little time

HERE: everything goes smoother if you have a list.....i don't actually believe this...because i am the stereotypical lost the list girl ....anyway .....in an attempt to have organized thoughts in a finite amount of time....my list:

1. i just got back from my one last hurrah of summer .... the five of us spent four nights away ..... at callaway gardens a bit more than an hour south of the atlanta airport...... it was joyful and wonderful and perfect .... happy, easy .... just what we needed ...golf, tennis, bikes and endless swimming ...... so much fun that at one point andy had me laughing so hard in the swimming pool that i snorted water and coulda drowned! ..... lovely time .... even with water snorting .......

2. i got home at 12.30 .....and discovered at about 1 that ALL cable is out ..... cable tv, cable modem, my beloved wireless connection

3. i am at border's ..... with my girls stacking up books beside me ..... they are shopping as i get my internet fix ..... the cable folks can't (won't? meanie heads) come until tuesday afternoon ....oh my ..... i shall be internet deprived ..... snifff.....will you miss me? or have i been so sporadic in the last two weeks that you won't? oh me, oh my....don't leave me!! i'll be back and blogging strong as quickly as i can!!

4. i called fabulous pal allison today on our drive back ....and she is AT folk fest!!!! yippeeeeeee...she was VERY excited and had already bought some art .... i don't know if she's sold some yet......



5. folk fest (a different folk fest link even!) started last night, continues on today and tomorrow .... i'll be in lola's gallery booth from 12 to 1 ...and shopping the rest of the time .... woooooohoooooooo!

6. ...and now i must go pick up dixie, the wonder dog ....who has been lovingly cared for by dear, sweet friends, the fricanos .....

7. ...and tonight i have a sitter and will go out to dinner with andy ..... so that we can celebrate our 17th wedding anniversary ..... yippee! ......

and 8... i still have not told you the happy story that i alluded to in this post .... but that'll have to wait until the cable guy solves all our problems on tuesday ......

happiness to you and yours!!!

what size art do you prefer? prefer to make? to buy? to display? to me bigger is always better in my art world ....

artsiness is happening ....i just puttered about and did some back- grounds .... the only thing unusual about these is that they are infintessimally small for me ...they are six by six inches ..... i bought the canvases about a year ago....18 of them ....3 sets of six ..... and i've given 12 away for allison to use ... i could never get excited about small ...... but i bought them thinking small would be faster...and small may well be more sellable ...since it should cost less ......so ..... i've done the first step in my multi step background process .... and wonder if i'll stay with it and get a tiny finished product ? or are these destined to be vintage papers waiting forever for more .... time will tell .....

and here's a titch more!!! for post 100, i promised a contest ..... so, rather then an actual drawing i asked each child to pick a number between 1 and 10 ....
drew said 5 ...that's jeannie....
julia said 3 ...that's roberta .....
and sophie said 8 ...that's jeannie again .....so....jeannie and roberta ....your prizes shall be forthcoming ..... not really, really soon or anything!!! but i promise!!!
happy day....

the blog post of nothingness ....it is a post... but just barely and it doesn't even have a link or a photo or a smidgen of art in it...does it count?

i came back from my trip with an art agenda ...... i had plans swirling about in my head ..... notes jotted and sketched in my book of ideas ......
and it just didn't happen ......
instead i spent the weekend reminiscing, big chill style, with old friends, some local, some out of towners, some i see a lot, some i hadn't seen in ages ..... we'd gathered for a good bye ..... a memorial service ......
i'm exhausted from being sad ..... from crying .... from laughing .....

some artists would tap into the feeling and make something pensive or moody or angry or sad .... but not me ..... i'm a happy artist ..... and not quite sure what to do, artistically speaking, with these feelings ..... so ..... sorry i've been unbloggy, ungroovy, and just not here .....

i'll be back soon .....

100 .....

yippeee .... 100 ...that took some stick-with-it-ness, didn't it? ..... to do 100 blog entries .... i feel accomplished .....

i've doodled today ....and puttered about in my art room ... but not done any blogworthy art ...... so ...here's my deal ..... i'm going to have a grand 100 drawing .... and send a grand prize to the winner of the drawing ..... to enter this drawing you must sign the comment bit down there .... i'll put your name in a hat ... i'll draw ....and there ya go ..... a prize coming your way ...just for commenting on my 100th post .... ok ? got that ? i promise the prize will be groovy-toovy ..... make sure i have a way of contacting you ...... family and friends and lurkers and anyone can play ..... i guess if my mom wins, i'll have to pick another winner too...and send out two prizes .... cause i sure don't want to leave anyone out ...especially my mom if she wants to play ......

my kids and i are going on a road trip with a pal tomorrow ..... so.... you'll have sunday to saturday to sign up ...... i'm sure jeannie will sign up ..... and i'm betting heidi ...they are my committed posters ...... hopefully i'll get more than just two though!! we'll see, huh?

good luck ... happy trails ..... back in a week .....love, e

Chance You'll Live to 100: 83%

100 is looking like a sure thing for you. So don't screw it up! In fact, you may live even longer than that. You're healthy, and you have good genes. Unless there's a robot uprising, you'll probably live a very long time.

Will You Live to 100?

99

my favorite thing to do is make long run on title's to my blog ..... nothing cute and concise, just keep typing til it says nope, long enough ...... but not today ..... on this, my 99th blog entry ...... i am happy to say that i have successfully delivered 11 paintings to kristy, at lola's ..... whew .... that was a big chore to tick of my list of things to do .... i can't find the list to actually mark it as done ... but it is still quite satisfying ...... tra la la ...... sometimes artistic endeavors mean packing your little dog in a purse and running an important errand ....

groovy, artsy, fun girl (gafg) seeking highly organized helper friend (hohf)

it's official .... i'm a mess ..... anyone who knows me usually thinks i have it together.....i LOOK like i have it going on ..... i'm generally the calm, cool, collected one ..... but .... here, in the semi anonymity of blogland (lots of you readers could NOT pick me out of a crowd ) here, i confess .... i am a pinhead ..... a dip .... a flitty mess .....
here's the problem .... so small a problem as problems go ....and yet ...so telling about my dippiness ......
i paint .... i love to paint .... i paint papers ...that's what i like best ..... picking interesting papers and painting them and cutting them and gluing them and making them into something ...... so i paint ..... a lot really ..... so, when my gallery girl, kristy at lola's, asks if i can get her 10 to 15 pieces of art for the folkart fest ... i say , sure, absolutely ...... and then the day arrives to think about it and i say , oh, i'll just pop by tomorrow and give them to you ..... i'll even write out an inventory list and prices ..... cause i am hip and together ..... and i do that .... make a list ..... and then ..... i walk around my house where i have the art displayed here and there ..... and i gather .... i gather the 11 pieces that i have picked out ..... and NONE..zero, not a single one ....is actually finished ...what? you are delivering 11 unfinished pieces of art tomorrow? i paint the edges of my paintings black ...nope...... none of these are black ...they are all lumpy bumpy drippy messy from the process ...... so, note to self....paint them all black .....oh ....and i journal on the back of my art ..... and some of them have some writing ...and some have lots ...and some have none ...and some have journalling about art that IS NO LONGER EVIDENT cause i painted over it ...like : i enjoyed creating theses sunflowers ....oops ...no sunflowers in sight ..... i hated them and painted over them ..... maybe i should write a titch about the actual art there ...oops ...note to self: check journalling on all 11 canvases ...... oh ...look...i haven't signed this one ....note to self ...sign all 11 canvases ...... oh ....hardware .....these need to be hung up .....note to self 11 pictures need 22 eyehooks and some wire ....hmmmm.... where is my wire cutter ....... oh ...and my stamp ....i have an e.beck.artist stamp for the back of each piece ...... nope, not stamped yet ...note to self: STAMP .....
so ...my question is .... why do i wait til the last minute to do these things ???? why can't i have it together enough to do it as i go .... one painting at a time instead of in this big bulk? because i am flitty and dippy ...... i believe procrastiantion is a conscious decision to do something later .... i'm not even doing that ..... i'm not deciding to do it later .....i just don't do it ...what's up with that?
so ..... the ONLY color i painted with today? ....black ....i edged 13 canvases ......13 you say? ....yes, i have two others that i am preparing to ship off to michigan ..... i'll tell ya about that some other time ..... it's a nice story ......

..and now ....now that i have confessed to being a GAGF who is seeking a HOHF to keep me in line and on track...do you still think i'm groovy enough to have a groovy art blog? or do i need a new motto?

ok ....that's my art report for the day ...black paint, eye hooks, and sharpies to journal with ..... i'll try to do better tomorrow .....

but wait ...there's more ....move over to the right margin of my blog ...scroll down ..... and let's just look for a moment at the number of blog entries i have written ...... tra la la ......

it is the very, very beginning of august and i so love summer and want it to last forever and yet it feels like our summer days are waning into school

ok ... i did it ..... in a reasonable amount of time, no less ..... this piece started life like this .... and now has become three happy hearts ..... all because i'm lucky enough that my kids and i are having one of the summer weeks that is FAB, fab, fabulous ..... not too many commitments .... and even though we had a whole morning of school errands, back to school type things, we still had an arty afternoon ...... tra la la ......i wish it were always summer ..... don't tell my kids .... have to send out positive school vibes ... but wow summer is the good, easy life .....
.... and this piece was a lovely background that has been in my studio for EVER ..... in fact, i just looked it up .....i did it in october last year ....nearly a year ..... i did it at the same time i did this delicious piece ... but .... as usual ..... i made an extra background .... can you see the resemblance and ...whaddaya know ? .... i didn't do anything with it ....but it sure did make today easier ...... i was rummaging .... i do that a lot .... i was rummaging through my mess ...i mean, my studio ....saw this background might work for what i had in mind and ... then ended up doing something else all together ...... i have too many ideas zinging around in my head that i couldn't even keep up ..... anyway .... i had some words i was going to add to this ...real words, not jumbled letters.... but somehow was struck by the simplicity of this .... don't know if it is done or not .... time will tell .......

it's a bird, it's a plane, it's dixie, the flying wonder dog......

..... this is an art blog ..... and i really have all manner of good intentions to only blog about art .... and i did some art today ..... quite a bit actually ..... but nothing quite photo worthy or maybe even blogworthy ..... and i didn't get quite as much done as i'd hoped because of dixie the wonder dog ..... just to get a size perspective here ......her cape is a napkin ..... not big at all ..... the kids had out the cam corder and were making flying dog videos ..... i'm thinking they won't make it into wide release ..... but if any of them ever become famous, this is the video footage that i'll give to the networks as a document of their exuberant childhood ....

....and this is mail art ...that was in my CAR ....all day ... truly .... all day ... and every time i drove i really, really, really, really meant to mail it .... but alas, no such luck ..... i was going to wait and post the picture once the lovely recipient had shouted hooray, i got groooooovy mail .... but instead, i am showing it so i MUST mail it tomorrow .... it's an oddball mental thing i've got going on ...... so, groovy recipient on vacation that might NOT see this blog prior to collecting vacation mail ...... cheers to you ......

...and one more artsy bit...... if you head on over to michelle ward's street team blog you can get a fabtabulous look at loads of mail art .... mail art that just might blow your mind ....michelle is a blogger that issues art challenges ..... today is the LAST day for the mail art crusade ....so i can get this little bitty artsiness in just under the deadline ......

hope your day was full of sunshine and flying dogs........