Get to Know Bernie of Budugalee Cards

I've known Bernie for quite some time, probably since the very early days of starting this blog of mine-back in 2008-2009.  She is the hilarious voice behind One Mixed Bag and the creative genius behind Budugalee Cards.  With Budugalee Cards it truly is the thought that counts-and they're funny thoughts too!  I personally have a few of her cards saved in a "for special occasions" portion of my card drawer-they're soooo cute!

Let's get to know Bernie a little bit:

You're originally from Minnesota but living in Montana, do you like it?
 I'm not a big fan of Montana. I'm active in my community and have been able to do things that I never would have dreamed of doing in Minnesota. I miss my family. I miss water most of all! There are places in Montana that people have to haul water just to have it in their homes. That was a very weird concept to me. Moving to Montana taught me that I like to write so I started a blog. It allowed me to get involved with dog rescue. I acquired my own little t.v. interviewing show. I also acquired my husband, Mr. Bernie and our fur kids. Moving to Montana was the right thing for me at the time. 

One of the awesome things we have in common is our love of rescue dogs, and the volunteer work we do.  You have rescued two rescue pups recently yourself, and fostered several more, how did you get started rescuing and working with a rescue?
Our dog, Scoobie, had passed away and we were looking for another dog. We went to some of the shelters in town and didn't find what we were looking for. I stumbled on a group called Rez Dog Rescue. This gal, Sheri, rescued dogs off the Indian Reservations here in Montana. My husband and I saw on of her puppies on PetFinder and called Sheri about her. That pup was gone, but she invited us to her place to see the other dogs she had. This dog came zooming by us and she was very interesting looking. You couldn't tell her breed. She danced around me a couple of times and we thought she would be fun to adopt. We adopted her and named her Katie. I would send Sheri notes from Katie about how she was doing on her trial at our house. We became friends and I offered to foster if she ever needed a foster. We fostered and our first litter of puppies had issues. Three of them had something called Cerebellar Hypoplasia, an under development in brain tissue. Which means these dogs walk funny, almost like they are drunk. Sometimes they are unable to walk for a while. We kept the boy and love him to death. Having a special needs dogs has his challenges and rewards. Fast forward a year and we have had sever litters of puppies go through our home. Also, single adult dogs. Sheri and I are at PetSmart every weekend, pimping puppies and dogs. The running joke is we went for one dog. Now look at us. Here is a link to Rez Dog's Facebook page that I manage. 

What other activities are you involved with in your town?
 I'm President of The Museum of Women's History. We are a small museum that focuses on the history of women. We have a library for people to do research in. We collect histories of women as well. I have a small t.v. show on the local community access t.v. channel. I get to interview interesting women about their lives and passions. I feel very blessed to be able to do this. I'm quite the voyeur so this asking questions and being nosy is a huge plus for me. 

Everyone loves a good love story, how did you meet your husband?
I met my husband online in 1997. I was new to the internet and discovered chat rooms. Wheeeee! A guy I chatted with in Montana had a single friend he thought I would like. We chatted on the phone a few times and on a whim, I flew to Montana to meet him. I don't recommend doing that. He could have been an ax murderer for all I knew. Anyway, I flew out and had a good time. A couple months later I flew back out and had a good time. Then we didn't talk for about 10 years. He would send me an email on my birthday every year. Which I thought was cool! When I decided to move to Montana, I sent him an email to see if he still lived in Montana. He did and suggested that I not move to Montana. The wages were low and a whole host of other things. I came out anyway. NOT for him. We were friends for about 3 years before we started to date. He felt sorry for me when I first moved here and would cook me dinner every night. He was afraid I would live on Ramen and Mac and Cheese. I started to work in his Rubber Stamp Shop and he was awful to work for. He was mean. He will admit that to anyone who asks. After a while, we decided to date and the rest is history. We got married on Oct. 30, 2010 in a Haunted Shack. Everyone came dressed up in costumes. It was pretty cool. 

How did Budugalee Cards come about?  Where did that whole thing start?
Where did that whole thing start? When I was blogging hot and heavy I joined a New Year's challenge. The challenge was to try something new each week for a year. Ya, that didn't last. Anyway, I never did anything crafty so thought I would try to make cards. I started out rubber stamping, after all we own a rubber stamp shop, how hard could it be? Ya, pretty hard and I sucked. I somehow stumbled on digital images and played around with editing software on my computer. Mr. Bernie had to hold my hand to help me learn the ins and outs. Playing with digital images it like playing with color-forms as a kid, just drag and drop and viola! I found that I enjoyed doing and it was searching out for new images. We had to upgrade my hard drive because I had so many images my computer couldn't hold anymore! As for the name Budugalee.....when I started I wanted a stamp to stamp the back of my cards. I asked Mr. Bernie what would be a good name. I whined about how my cards were going to be "Butt Ugly" He laughed and came up with the name Budugalee. Not a lot of folks get the name unless the sound it out slowly. 

What inspires your designs?  Or, where do you get your inspiration from?
Most of my inspiration comes from quotes I stumble on across the internet. I read a quote and think of how I could make that into a design of my own. Sometimes the digital kits I buy have something about them that screams, "Make me into a card" and I just move a bunch of stuff around and make a card. Sometimes it depends on my mood. Most of my cards are funny or snarky, but if I get into a mood, they can be sad. Thankfully, I don't have too many sad designs. 


Which of your designs is your favorite, and what is the story behind it?
"We can't all be Princesses, someone has to clap when I go by." When I stumbled on that quote it made me laugh so darn hard. I dug through my digital stash and found a girl that would work perfectly! I slapped on some glitter and stones and there you go. I made her for my Mom and she loved her so much that I decided to put her on canvas as a Birthday gift and she loved it. My friend, Charlie, has a hard time keeping this one in stock in his bookstore in Pennsylvania.