Spotlight

Would you like to meet some of the soft sculpture characters in the display cases here at the Flying Leap?  

Our landing on the second floor provides a great location for a little display area, and here's where the Scratching at the Window
creatures who are looking for new homes await adoption.  All were handmade by me from my own original designs.

Of course, it's hard not to be up-staged by a dragon with a 6-foot wingspan!  Fawn impressively oversees the landing as you climb up the stairs.  She took 2 1/2 years to construct and is not looking for a new home.




In the display case await the lady bears, with Lorelei the Merbear on the top shelf,  Emralda and Annette on the middle and Venus, Caviara and Seian on the third.

 Venus, Annette and Emralda are all about 14 inches tall, made of European mohair and built over a wire frame so they're very poseable.  They have glass eyes and doll wigs, and handmade costumes that were a lot of fun to create! 

Here's Seian as a bellydancer.  She also is not looking for a home.

 On the wooden shelf, we have 

Cere and Bella, two ratty brothers

Devina, a lady rat in her Hallowe'en best

Squirt and his mom Pearl

and my Titanic bear, with the commemorative 100th anniversary postage stamp.

If your keen to know more about these critters, please visit my Scratching at the Window website.  As you'll probably notice, some of the girls are not there yet so just contact me and I'll send you the adoption details.

For a Love Like No Other

Dogs! This month at the public library in Aboyne you can see this display celebrating our canine companions.  It is Dog Bite Prevention Month but more importantly I wanted to share the informative posters I found online and the images that encourage adopting from shelters and rescues.

Of course the library's assortment of books helped bring the display to life, along with lots of "props" from home (with Willow's permission, of course!).  

I particularly wanted to share the Dogs in Need of Space poster as so many dog walkers don't seem to understand that there are dogs that don't associate well with other dogs.  That's okay, they just need some space and the DINOS poster explains this very well. 













For Dog Bite Prevention Month, this poster is a great reminder that children and dogs don't always mix well!  Never leave a young child alone with a dog, even your own. 

And here's How NOT to Greet a Dog, with fun little cartoons pointing out how terrifying meeting a human can be!  

Finally, under the table is Fauler, with a poster that informs children that those woofs and growls, along with other body language, are the dog's way of telling you to back off and stop being so darn scary!

Please click on the images below to read the posters' text:

You can read more about DINOS by clicking here.

These two posters are from Jessica Dolce's sites https://notesfromadogwalker.com/ and https://dogsinneedofspace.com/posters/

While these two are by artist Lili Chin and you can see more of her work by clicking here.

And finally this poster is from http://www.dogingtonpost.com/

The Flying Leap!

So we bought a former guest house in Elora!  The house, an 1891 triple-brick beauty, became ours on August 8th, our furniture and possessions moved in on August 18th and my last day at work was August 21st, with a lovely send-off with many warm wishes and congratulations.  We slept (on the floor) in our old house for the last time and were completely moved August 22nd (with a little help from some friends:  thank you John and Pam!).  And of course we're naming our bed and breakfast The Flying Leap, aiming to open September 19th!
  I can't believe it's been less than two weeks as I wonder about who just completed my Tuesday night shift and the complete loss of any sense of routine.  It's been a roller-coaster of highs and lows, moving is a TERRIBLE thing to do, especially if you have LOTS of stuff... ah well.  The house, Elora, the people:  it's all good and will only get better.  Neighbours actually stop and introduce themselves (that never happened in Stratford!), our neighbour behind us brought over a casserole on moving day (thank you Leslie!), and my morning walks are along the gorge trail, overlooking some of the most beautiful rocky crags I've ever seen (I bet there are lots of bats!).

We have accomplished so much, going from this, our dining room and kitchen:

to this:

Wow, there were actually tables under there!  

When the going gets tough, the tough... hide under the kitchen table.  Can't say I blame her one little bit:  Willow found a safe place underneath and crashed after days of following us around.

Yet, in all this chaos and activity, there was still time to enter one of my pieces in a local exhibition celebrating the Year of the Horse!  

The opening reception was this evening at the Elora Center for the Arts, a catered event that had an eclectic, though seemingly exclusive, group mingling about the interesting and varied art and informative displays (which I really enjoyed).  

And there was my Tairo the Unicorn!

  

I'm very proud of this little accomplishment and hope that Elora will be a place where I can grow and flourish as a person, entrepreneur and artist.  It certainly is the Year of the Horse, hold on to those reins!  

Make it so!

I was inspired by this...

 

to put this together at work: 

 

 

Let's make 2014 magical! 

 

 

And what's more magical than Mother Nature?  We've been thrilled to enjoy the company of this gorgeous backyard visitor, a Cooper's Hawk maybe?  He's enjoying the pigeons and sparrows in the neighbourhood, it's amazing how very little he leaves behind, just feathers and a little bit of blood on the snow. 

Cold Snap!

This is what happens when a Hallowe'ener needs to create a Library display in the middle of winter:  "Cold Snap of the Soul"!  I have wanted to use Carl Chalupa's awesome photography in a display ever since he gifted this large print to me at Scarefest, and finally I had my chance!  With the photograph as the centerpiece, the books feature wintry landscapes and dead bodies, murder mysteries mostly.  I also squeezed my full small-child skeleton into the case and a few other bony bits, with synthetic furs serving as snow and beads as blood.