Saturday, July 25, 2009

Fostering

Dictionary.com defines fostering as:
1.to promote the growth or development of; further; encourage: to foster new ideas.
2. to bring up, raise, or rear, as a foster child.

Let me share with you how we hit both of these today.
Today I went and took a class in tile mosaics from Laura Aiken. I've really only looked at geometrics in my tapestries and I wondered if I could stick with it, but use a mosaic cartoon to do some representative pieces. I thought it was worth a shot. So here we begin with a blank.

I then chose colors and went through where to place them. I tried these three combinations, but then this is there I ended up.

I liked the purple in the background and the red pear.
From there I began working on placing the tile. I'm thinking this is going to work for me. And I was able to finish the pear in the first session. It's really a great deal of fun. I always love to create something out of what seems like nothing.


Then from there I headed over to the Greenville Humane Society and looked into foster care. We have decided against a puppy at this point because of the construction, and have hesitated about a dog because I have a monumental birthday this year and we're planning to be in New Zealand for a month. Boarding fees would just be too much. We really miss having a dog around. I also made the mistake of checking out the website for who was up for adoption. There were 3 that had kennel cough and were looking for foster care. This seems like a good compromise. We can help the dog get a chance to be out on the adoption floor and we get to have a dog around again. Well, the Humane Society thought it was a good idea and i brought home Samson - a 2 year old 67 pound pure bred black Labrador retriever.
They provided us with a kennel, food, medication and a bone. He loved the bone, chewed it chewed it and chewed it. Then I let him out in the back yard and he promptly buried it. I can already see we are going to have issues about the couch. He knows the words "No" and "Down" already! I don't think his tail has stopped wagging since he got here. He'll be adopted almost instantly if we can just get him healthy.

5 comments:

Theresa said...

What a perfect solution! Nothing warms the heart like fostering and what a wonderful looking fellow you've got to start with.
New Zealand, that's pretty darn exciting and the pear
looks really nice. I've never done mosaic but have always admired it.

K Spoering said...

Good luck with the foster care, Jennifer. We did child foster care (infants) for about 5 years. It was very rewarding, but was so hard to let go that I just couldn't do it anymore. Samson looks like a sweetie- but then I do have a soft spot for retrievers!

kaiteM said...

He's gorgeous, i'll have him. Jenn I don't know how you could bear to think of parting with him sometime in the future!! Such a sweetheart. And i liked the mosaics class, a fun day.
Kaite

Life Looms Large said...

Wow - lots of great things in this post!!

Your trip to New Zealand sounds like it will be wonderful! It's on my "Some Day" list. Happy birthday in advance!

The mosaic class sounds really cool. And I love how the pear came out. I have a fascination with mosaic.....we were in Venice for a week once and I scoured the city for mosaic tiles to bring home. They're incubating in my studio....and have been for years.

That's great that you're fostering a dog. I've been thinking about that a lot this week as well....a way to help out a dog, and a way to have a second dog without committing to being a forever home to that second dog. We've got some travel coming up, but I'll be interested to see how you like your foster experience. We might do something similar this fall or winter.

Sue

Jennifer said...

It certainly a growing experience to be able to let him go. I haven't faced Friday yet, but we'll see. I keep clinging to the fact that he's VERY adoptable. I am working though to find a home for him. That would be the dream - I'm taking him back on Friday with his new family.