We owe an incredibly huge thank you to Deluxe for highlighting our organization as the featured charity at the event this year. I arrived at Deluxe at 9:00am with chairs, raffle prizes, dog beds and signs in tow and was thrilled to see a little greyhound pen set up for us by the front entrance.

Thanks also to everyone who stopped by during the show to meet and pet the greyhounds. Many of you were impressed with how calm and friendly the dogs were, and how little barking and commotion they caused. We were busy during the entire event, answering questions and telling everyone about what great pets greyhounds make and how our adoption program works. Thank you to our amazing volunteers who picked up foster dogs and helped answer those questions, and to the Midtown Rotary for checking in on us and helping with set up!

I tweeted pictures of adoptable greyhounds during the show at @greyhoundpetsok. Polly’s cute Christmas pajamas sure got her a lot of attention!

One more round of special thanks to those local businesses and individuals who donated raffle prizes: Ashley Smith at No Regrets Tattoo, Deep Fork Group, Adrian Mix of Fried Okra, Jemellia Hilfiger of JemJam, and Robin Mead. We raised $200 that will help us with veterinary costs, food, and supplies for our foster greyhounds. Every greyhound that we are able to provide foster care for here in central Oklahoma gets lots of attention on our blog, website, and at show and tell events. When these dogs get adopted, we can bring in more of the retired racing greyhounds out there waiting for homes.

So far in 2011, we’ve adopted out 55 greyhounds. Two more potential adoptions are in the works thanks to some love connections at Deluxe. Thank you for your support, Deluxe, and thank you, Oklahoma City!

-Emily Williams, Hounds of the Heartland

Guest post from Angela Mabray, co-author of Polymer Clay 101

Five years ago, I wondered if I was the only gal in Central Oklahoma using polymer clay. Today, I have the pleasure of knowing a whole group full of folks who love it as much as I do, and we meet monthly to learn and play together.

Have you wondered if you might enjoy meeting with others who share your artistic passion, whatever that may be? If you’re thinking about starting your own group, I’ll share a few tips in an upcoming post. But today I’ll start by telling some of the unexpected benefits I’ve found through starting my own group.

Penni Jo Couch and I started the Central Oklahoma Polymer Clay Guild in late 2006. We found each other through a polymer clay-themed Yahoo group, after an exchange where we realized we were 1) both in the Oklahoma City area, and 2) both interested in meeting with other clay-ers.

Our first meeting consisted of just the two of us, and the group stayed pretty small the first year or so. But with some effort, we gradually grew, and we’re now up to 10 regularly-attending members plus frequent guests.

I think the two of us had slightly different goals when we first decided to start the group. Penni Jo was interested in the social aspect — swaps and play days. I’m a little on the shy side, so I was nervous about meeting new people. But I was eager to expand local awareness of polymer clay. Plus I’d heard about the polymer clay libraries the larger guilds had, and I thought all that locally-available reading material sounded divine.

I’m sure as each of our other members joined up, they were interested in slightly different things, too. The wonderful thing is that the group became more than any of us could have imagined.

Since the beginning, our meetings have consisted of a single member sharing a project or technique they knew, teaching the other members as they went. I’d never taught a group in my life, but with our small membership, I needed to teach often to keep things going. I went to Toastmasters to get past my fear of speaking to a group. I studied new polymer clay techniques to share. In the process, I learned a lot about both my medium and myself. I also saw first-hand where my instructions were lacking. I found out where other people had difficulties, and I was able to focus on those things not only in subsequent classes, but also in blog posts for my website, and later in my book.

Speaking of which, I’m not sure I’d be a published author today if it weren’t for my local community. And I’ve been happy to see the other members of the group find their own successes. Penni Jo now has her own very-successful line of polymer clay molds and has been asked to teach at polymer clay retreats across the nation. Several of our members (including one who joined the group as a beginner!) now teach local classes. Various members have placed in large polymer clay contests and/or had their work published in a national polymer clay magazine. I personally feel the group’s constant encouragement is part of what has led these artists to their successes.

We’ve done the things Penni Jo and I originally envisioned. Our library has 70+ polymer clay books and magazines. We hold themed swaps every other month. Plus we’ve done other things we hadn’t initially imagined. We held our first retreat earlier this year, which even drew a couple of clayers from outside the state. Through the Bottles of Hope program, we’ve shared pieces of polymer clay art with many local cancer patients. And I have to mention the friendship aspect. Together we’ve gone through baby showers and funerals and everything in between. Our meetings are full of chatter and laughter. We are able to encourage each other both artistically and in the more mundane day-to-day matters.

If you want to try starting your own group, come back next week for a few tips on making it work.

Join us Saturday for our monthly meeting!

Angela Mabray is a co-founder of the Central Oklahoma Polymer Clay Guild, which meets the second Saturday of each month at the Moore Hobby Lobby. She blogs about polymer clay at CraftyGoat’s Notes and recently co-authored Polymer Clay 101.

Ours is busy with families, gardening, crafting, home improvement and dogs… one of us is looking to adopt a retired racing Greyhound! We are so excited about this- and there’s a surprising amount of anticipatory crafting happening.

Check out Hounds of the Heartland to learn more… once you meet these dogs in real life there’s no turning back.

***Update!***

After applying and getting our house approved, we welcomed a young dog who had her last race in April. She has had a busy month with traveling, spaying, trips to the vet for suture removal and now getting used to being the only dog.

We call her Vera.

She’s settling in and enjoying retirement. She has been here four days and we have not heard her voice yet. Hopefully she has nothing to complain about.

Making good use of the nap mat

Her hobbies include sleeping, rolling on her back in the backyard, and sniffing everything. She has not expressed anything other than passing curiosity about our chickens.

We were never “dog people” but once we read about the attributes of Greyhounds we had to look into the breed.

We were highly amused by the demeanor of her vet Dr. Chris Rispoli at Gentle Care Animal Hospital – you’d expect to have to hoist a dog up onto a table for suture removal, no? But Dr. Chris layed on HIS back on the floor, scooted under Vera like a mechanic and quickly snipped her sutures, so smoothly that she wasn’t inconvenienced in the least.

Now, maybe that’s just standard large-dog procedure, but we were impressed.

If you’re interested in meeting some Greyhounds to see just how mellow and sweet they are, check out this calendar for upcoming Hounds of the Heartland events.

While you’re at it, read about the dogs that are currently looking for their forever homes here.

An invitation from our friends at Keep It Local OK:

Keep It Local OK is celebrating its first year in business with a birthday party at the OKC Farmer’s Public Market on Thursday, April 7th from 7 pm – 11 pm, and EVERYONE is invited! The party is called “The BIG One” and is sponsored by Oklahoma Employees Credit Union.

“The BIG One” will be hosted by Lacey Lett, co-host of the “Oklahoma Rock Show” on TheSpyFM.com, and will feature live music by singer-songwriter, Sherree Chamberlain. Ferris O’Brien and the rest of TheSpyFM.com crew will also provide music throughout the night.

Several local restaurants will be offering samples including: Cuppies and Joe, Deep Fork Grill, Iguana Mexican Grill, Sara Sara Cupcakes, t, an urban teahouse, The Wedge Pizzeria and more!

Local merchants such as Blue 7, Shop Good, Collected Thread and others will be on hand providing attendees the opportunity to shop local and experience all that Keep It Local OK members have to offer.

Prizes have been generously donated by local businesses which will be given out at the event. A free photo booth will be provided by Nexus Productions. Proceeds from Keep It Local OK Card sales at “The BIG One” will benefit local non-profit, The Spero Project.

Tickets for “The BIG One” are on sale now at The Paper Lion in Edmond, S Studio Salon & Spa, Blue 7 and Shop Good in OKC, Handmade With HeART in Moore, Crimson and Whipped Cream in Norman, and online at www.keepitlocalok.com. Tickets are only $5 when purchased in advance with a Keep It Local OK Card and $7 without a card, $7 when purchased online, and $10 at the door.

For more information, please visit the Keep It Local OK site.

High Fives all over the place! Sugar Free All Stars performing at OKCMOA’s Family Day.

You may recognize our favorite puppeteer in this video from Science Museum Oklahoma!
Shannon and Louie are promoting next week’s awesome and educational Science Camp in this video. Check it out! We can’t get enough of the Science Museum over here.