It's cold today, one of those days where your toes just never seem to get warm. Even with socks. There's still some residual snow on the ground outside, but it's mostly gone now. Now it's mostly just mud and ice....and cold tempratures.

Spent a fair amount of time working on the mice this morning, particularly putting the wings on the dragonmouse. I'm happy with their progress so far, but they have a long way to go. I may bundle up a bit later and go downstairs to work some (I need to paint, and do moldmaking)...but it's always several degrees cooler down there. I tend to get less downstair work done through the winter, due to the cold.

I keep yawning today, even though I've done quite alot...I hate days like that.

You know food is good when you go "Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmm" after putting it in your mouth. My sister makes theeeee BEST home made mac and cheese. just mmmmmm.

Soo the last few months has been going through boxes, trashing-well trash, and pulling out the stuff i had packed that i want to use. Still need to do a yard sale, real close to that...But in the meantime..the sun room is cleared!

While sorting stuff, we had this counter top we were puzzled over what to do with. My neighbor mentions, why not make it into a table? and i thought," WHY NOT!!!" Excited, I asked, which got an equaly excited response from my parrents.

This weekend they went and baught legs, and using wood we had, made a stand for the counter top..and now I have a pretty space for airbrushing, painting, housing all my other art supplies that previousely did not have an official place.
(while i refer to it as mine, this is really for my sister and eye, both of us will be freely using the space and the table."

( Click for photos )

Got up this morning and the first snow of the season was on the ground.

I love snow.

Donovan went outside to play in it right after breakfast, and I saw this the next time I looked out the window ..... It made me smile.




Then the rest of us went outside, and chris insisted on snapping a pic of me ...




Then we then went out to do the grocery shopping, and looked around a few shops.

I hate changing diapers in public restrooms....but on occasion when you're out it just has to be done. During the warm months you can just use the back seat of the car, but not in months where there's a 30 degree breeze ....talk about a draft.....Ok, so anyway...I was so preoccupied about having to change my daughter in a strange environment I carried her right into the mens room..... *facepalm* and didnt even notice. The mens rooms had changing tables, so that's all I'm lookin at right? I get her halfway undressed when Chris sticks his head in and goes, "Um..honey, this is the men's room."

"really?.......oh %^&*" and I haul up the baby, stick her pants and shoes under my arm and make a quick run, carrying a half undressed baby to the other restroom, and finished the job.

*applause for mommy* The place was packed too...so my error did not go unnoticed.....sigh.

Seriously...where IS my brain when i need it? honestly....

Oh, did see an interesting tow truck while we were out, never saw one with pink flames and pooh bear....

Whew...I'm beat. It feels good to be done with work for the day. Between homeschooling, sculpting and working on the website (LOTS of work on the website...) I'm ready for a nap..and maybe pie...but we're out of pie.

Oh well.

For the moment I'm content to sit and watch one of my favorite movies, "Tinman". I'm hoping Syfy does as good a job with "Alice" which is airing.....sunday? Ah man I gotta look that up.....

Anyway...be sure to check out purplecatcreatives, and let me know if the changes there are an improvement! I hope so!

and here's a quick shot I nabbed of the basic mouse forms. I have to do plain mouse anatomy forms before I start working them into a clockwork mouse and dragonmouse....so they're super super rough. I'm not even totally happy with the forms yet, but the posing is good I think. Looong way to go, but it's evidence that I've been workin, lol.

Today.....started out ....awful.

The workday doesnt stop for crappy days, however. I've actually gotten quite a bit done workwise already, so that's good at least. The Clockwork Snail got baked last night, so I'll need to be getting a plaster prototype from him soon. I'm finding that more and more of my sculpting is getting done in the clay stages, which is infinitely easier on my hands, and more cost efficient. I really only do minor touchups and very small detailing in the plaster prototype versions now.

I started up my next clay project. Mice. I'm doing a small set of mice. I'm wanting one to be a Clockwork, and the other to be a dragonmouse. They're posed mirroring each other, as separate sculptures, but if set up together look like they're peering at each other, each trying to figure the other out. Individually, I suppose they could be peering at whomever is passing by. :)

I'm rephotoing a couple of pieces for the store. The phoenixes especially. I remember being rather heartbroken they didnt photo well for me initially. In the past few months I've done alot of work though, studying light usage, posing, avoiding glare, using my camera properly, and editing photos effectively to make more professional collages. I'm far from the professional standard I've seen elsewhere, but at least I'm improving. I need to get a Blue Ember Phoenix painted up so I can rephoto him as well...but all I have on hand momentarily is a Red Pyre, but it's a start.

Did a crystal growing project for Donovan's homeschooling, which turned out really well. We poured the dark dyed water off the crystals today, and they are really neat. We were supposed to just let the crystals grow on themselves, but we decided to put part of a broken murex dragonsnail in there for them to grow on instead. Crystals formed all over the dragon, and Donovan is thrilled with his "crystal dragon". We're definately gonna have to repeat that experiment with other cool things to grow crystals on.

Updated nicer phoenix pic.