studio mascot and young apprentice

a few of you have asked how presley, my little art studio mascot, is doing and i wanted to give you a quick update. the daily dose of prednisone has really helped to reduce the ill effects of the brain lesions. he does very little spinning these days and is much less restless at night. the above photo shows him snoozing in the sun streaming into the art room this afternoon. he is enjoying the little bit of snow that fell yesterday, doing his classic "snoofing" by running his nose along the ground and breathing out heavily. my husband has now built two small wooden ramps to assist presley with getting in and out of the house -- one from the house down into the florida room and then one right outside his doggy door at the back door. the ramps have been a god-send and do a great job at preventing presley from falling quite so much. his balance is still impaired but he has adapted well for an almost-sixteen year-old miniature schnauzer.



in addition to my art room mascot, i now have an art room apprentice. my almost 4-year old granddaughter jenna visited on saturday and we spent several delightful hours "doing messy crafts" as she likes to call it. on each visit she discovers some art medium or gadget that she hasn't gotten to play with yet. she adores the oil pastels, the watercolor pencils, my bowls of beads and my collection of multi-colored vials of glitter. she has a great imagination and i'm always delighted by the little projects she creates on her own. yesterday i let her play with my collection of scissors and the zig zag ones were her favorites. she told me that her teacher lets her cut with scissors but her mommy never does. sorry, megan, but it appears that you are now quite outnumbered. although i never left her side she was quite trustworthy with the scissors and she had a grand time! of course, it took about 40 minutes to clean up the mess after she left but i wouldn't trade the experience for anything.


last sunday our almost one-year-old granddaughter layla visited. she is walking up a storm and so enjoyed just wandering around. our house offers much more open space than the apartment she lives in with her parents. in the photo above she is looking thru the patio doors into the florida room where presley is patiently waiting to be let back in after a potty break. they seem to adore each other but we are very wary of letting them get too close. they're both too teetery for comfort!

and last, just a word or two of thanks for those of you who faithfully follow my little blog and offer words of encouragement and cheer. it truly does my heart good! i've been a bit hit and miss on blogging lately but promise to get back into the swing with more frequent posts!