Sunday, December 27, 2009

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies

. Sunday, December 27, 2009
1 comments




I'm not generally a zombie fan. Having had a baby sitter that enjoyed watching the Creature Feature on TV, and one evening of The Night of the Living Dead, had me fearing Zombies for a good 10 years. I couldn't dare having a bit of me sticking out from my blankets at night, even though I have no idea where I got the idea that Zombies couldn't get past blankets.

During my teen years, when the sequels for Night of the Living Dead started coming out, I did over come my Zombie fears and even enjoyed a good Zombie movie, however as I aged, I guess I outgrew Zombies...... until now.

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies was such a fun book. I enjoy Jane Austin's humor in the first place as she gently tells stories of all kinds of trouble that can come from the Victorian manners of her time. But when you add in the contrast of the Zombies, it was just too fun!

Imagine Mr. Darcy suggesting he take care of the zombies who broke into Mr. Bingley's ball and killed the servants who were preparing the desserts, and Elizabeth getting offended that he is insulting her warrior skills, when Mr. Darcy, in his proud way, advising her that he was merely considering her gown and that she may not want to go back to the ball with it soiled. Ha Ha I loved it.

I listened to it on audio, while doing my chores, and I have to say I loved the audio because the person who read it was good and her British accent was like the cherry on top. However, it did cause me to miss, what I understand, are some interesting illustrations in the book, so I'll have to go look at them the next time I'm in Barnes and Noble.

Read More »»

Saturday, December 26, 2009

Christmas activities

. Saturday, December 26, 2009
2 comments

I guess we aren't a very traditional family. I was having a big craving for Egg Foo Yung, and when I mentioned it, the rest of my family said they were as well and we decided to make it for Christmas dinner. I had never made it before, but it was actually pretty easy and turned out yummy.

Then we went to see Santaland Diaries at Zach Scott Theater. It was funny.

When all the festivities were settled, I went straight to my art desk for some sculpting. I'm working on making my first 1/24th scale doll and a 1/12th scale elderly man. Here's the man's head. Nothing like a Christmas with heads baking in the oven. I think I like him bald and may leave him that way.

Read More »»

Thursday, December 24, 2009

Merry Christmas

. Thursday, December 24, 2009
1 comments




Hope you all have a wonderful holiday season, that is just the kick off to a great new year! (Pic- my feline buddy, Matilda a/k/a Tilly)

Read More »»

Tuesday, December 22, 2009

Santa's got a brand new face

. Tuesday, December 22, 2009
4 comments




Santa's got his new face and is back home with his family just in time for Christmas. After sculpting his face, I got him painted, and reattached his glasses and beard that came from the face that had gotten broken.

Read More »»

Sunday, December 20, 2009

My Little Red Bird

. Sunday, December 20, 2009
0 comments



I want to thank Glenda (Etsy's WinterGarden) for including my Red Bird sculpture in her ByHand Spotlight

Read More »»

My sweet Amelia

.
2 comments



Meet my kitty Amelia. She's the sweetest girl ever. I adopted her from Central Texas SPCA several years ago. She's probably about 7 years old, I don't know for sure, and she just a tiny little thing weighing only 6 pounds. Before she came to live with me she lived outdoors and was found hanging out with a feral colony, so her ears are a little tattered and her teeth broken, but it doesn't take from what a beautiful girl she is. She so gentle in her ways, she reminds me of a little white bunny.

Read More »»

Saturday, December 19, 2009

Santa Progress

. Saturday, December 19, 2009
0 comments



I have the face sculpted for the Santa I'm repairing. I used Paperclay. At first I was going to use polymer clay so it would be more like the original face, but than the nightmare of having to bake a fully costumed Santa came to mind. Since he was a store bought Santa I have no idea what's inside him and if he would melt into Blob Santa or be toxic when heated. I'm so glad I thought of it before I was having to remember this year as the once where I was having to scrape a burned Santa from my oven for Christmas.

Read More »»

Thursday, December 17, 2009

My Chinese Lanterns

. Thursday, December 17, 2009
1 comments



Last year our family took a trip to Orlando and we went to Dr. Suess Landing at Universal, where it was like walking through the illustrations of a Dr. Suess book. I really liked the feeling of all the bright colors and shapes and decided my house needed a little Suessifying. Though not in a real Suess way, I set out to take home decor a little less seriously, and brighten my world with things that amuse me.

I found this little vintage table in an antique store and painted it orange, hung Chinese Lanterns from Pier One, and the bouquet in the vase is a button and puzzle bouquet from Etsy seller TracybDesigns. Here's the her picture of the bouquet I had gotten from her

Read More »»

Wednesday, December 16, 2009

Miniature Display Boxes

. Wednesday, December 16, 2009
0 comments



Check out these little boxes I found at Hobby Lobby. I put hangers on the back and painted them white. Now I can display some of my minis while I'm waiting until I get my house done. I think they're cute and I got 4 total but only have two of them painted. They are in the unfinished wood area and cost $5.99, but don't forget most of the time you can print out a 40% off coupon from Hobby Lobby's website!



Read More »»

Tuesday, December 15, 2009

Have yourself a mini little Christmas

. Tuesday, December 15, 2009
0 comments



Check out Team MIDS (Miniatures In Dollhouse Scales) Christmas slide show on their blog or see the sugary goodness of the display of miniature gingerbread houses on their website!

Miniatures in Dollhouse Scales Blog

Miniatures in Dollhouse Scales Website

Read More »»

Monday, December 14, 2009

Ouch, Santa, that had to hurt

. Monday, December 14, 2009
0 comments



A friend's Santa had somehow fallen from a ledge and had his face broken. I'm guessing he had a little help from a feline scrooge :-) I couldn't bear to see his busted out face still wearing his little glasses, so I took him home to sculpt him a new face.

The picture here is after I had taken off his beard and such and pulled back his costuming. At first I was going to use polymer clay and try to protect his costuming from baking, but later decided it would be safer to use an air dry clay, like Paper clay,

So after removing all the broken pieces of clay and adding some support to a crack across the back of his head with apoxie clay, I built his structure back out using tightly pressed foil hot glue.

I know the picture is blurry, but while I was working on him my cat, Tilly, was laying across my neck, which is where she often lays while I work.

Read More »»

Friday, December 11, 2009

ADO Elf Challenge

. Friday, December 11, 2009
0 comments




ADO has just announced the Dec/Jan Mini monthly challenge as "Elves"

Through the rest of December and into the first part of January, expect to see some fun elf themed dolls from the Art Dolls Only Etsy Street team.

Some elves have all ready started arriving. If you would like to see the Elf themed dolls check out the ADO Squidoo page.

There are also pictures there from the Vampire challenge and the Foreign Objects challeng

Read More »»

Thursday, December 10, 2009

Lil White mouse

. Thursday, December 10, 2009
4 comments




I guess there is something about Christmas that makes me want to make little white mice. I made one the same time last year. I sculpted him from polymer clay and flocked him with a bit of fuzz

Read More »»

Wednesday, December 9, 2009

Theater costuming

. Wednesday, December 9, 2009
1 comments

I may have gone for a while without posting in my blog, but I've actually been hard at work. I had to take some time off from sculpting to do some sewing. My daughter is in two productions for Easy Theater Austin and I have been busy making costumes.

Here are her costumes for the play Beyond Tolerance which she will be doing in February. My daughter did all the costume designs and I did the sewing and mask making. Actually, I loved the mask I had made for her so much, I made another similar one to put in my Etsy shop.

I put in a little yellow arrow in the cast pic so you could see which was my daughter, but I also wanted you to see the whole cast together, because they really are great group of young actors and actresses.










Read More »»

Tuesday, December 8, 2009

Christmas !

. Tuesday, December 8, 2009
1 comments



I just saw a reminder that there are only 16 more days until Christmas. I don't know how it manages to sneak up on me each year, despite my plans the year before to plan ahead.

The decorations are all up, and things are looking sparkly, and the cinnamon simmering potpourri is making it smell all yummy. So I'm well on my way

Here's my Christmas Tree, which I can't seem to get a good picture of, and that kitty you see in picture is Pip, he has great expectations. And it appears today he expects to bat at the tree ornaments. That's OK, always happy to provide him some entertainment.




Read More »»

Sunday, December 6, 2009

Ker-splat to my Website

. Sunday, December 6, 2009
0 comments



Woops, I slipped on something of a computer banana peel. See... I had these ideas of changes to make to my website, and I did the research (obviously not enough), went in and made some changes, and.....well.... slip, plop, klunk! I broke my website! and, I have no idea how to fix it. I think it's fallen and can't get up. So, for now it's just going to be out of commission until I get it figured out.

Read More »»

Saturday, December 5, 2009

Brrrrrrrr

. Saturday, December 5, 2009
2 comments

I guess it's getting me in that Christmas spirit, but brrrrrrr, snow in Austin, Tx so early is just crazy! Snow here is fairly rare in the first place, but this early in winter is even stranger yet, and I admit it was fun to watch. Since I don't get to see snow that often now that I live in Texas I was a bit mesmerized by watching it float and swirl through the air.

Read More »»

Friday, September 11, 2009

1:12 Scale little girl is done.

. Friday, September 11, 2009
0 comments




Well, I was supposed to be going to Austin Dog Alliance's Paws in the Park event tomorrow and at one point doing a talk about calming one's dog down. But it got postponed due to rain. That makes me happy because after an extreme two year drought rain is a wonderful thing, even if it did cause a change in my plans. But since I had an unexpected change in my day, I was able to finish up and get pictures of my new little doll.

Read More »»

Thursday, September 10, 2009

The Clowns are coming!

. Thursday, September 10, 2009
0 comments




I know for some people that's a scary thought, I guess they can be a little weird. But this is announcing the Art Dolls Only Team's September/October challenge to make a clown.

I started a clown a few months ago and this would give me great reason to get back to work on him. I've really enjoyed what I've gotten done so far, so the question is now - will I get him done before the challenge is over...... (cliffhanger)

Read More »»

Saturday, September 5, 2009

Little girl

. Saturday, September 5, 2009
0 comments


I have been working this past week on my first little girl in 1:12 scale. I'm anxious to see what she looks like with hair. I think I'm also going to have her in a hat.

Read More »»

Wednesday, August 26, 2009

. Wednesday, August 26, 2009
1 comments


I did it! I got my ADO Halloween Challenge projects done with plenty of time to spare. Woop Woop. The 1:12 scale dollhouse witch is borrowing the witches from MacBeth's cauldron which I made for the Shakespeare challenge. I will be posting them when that event is over.

Read More »»

Tuesday, August 25, 2009

Halloween House

. Tuesday, August 25, 2009
4 comments



I got a used dollhouse that I want to turn into a Halloween House and after way to long deliberating on how to paint it, I jumped in today. First I had to pry off the hearts and flowers and take off some trim. I want to use the trim from this house on a different house, besides it seemed kind of large to me and certainly not at all halloweeny.

Sometime I don't what's wrong with me, when I grabed the steak knife to pry off the stuff off the house, I knew it was a bad idea. That little voice said "go get a screw driver, this is a bad idea". But did I? Of course not, even though I waited for months to start - at that moment, I felt like there wasn't a second to spare. Well, I'm sure you see where this is going, the knife slipped and I stabbed myself right into the palm of my other hand. Fortunately, it was the meaty part of my palm, so some Neosporin and bandages and I was back in business and on my way to the garage for a screwdriver.

This is what I got done today.

Read More »»

Monday, August 24, 2009

ADO Halloween Challenge Update

. Monday, August 24, 2009
1 comments



Oh my goodness, some of the coolest pieces are coming out of ADO's Halloween challenge, I can't wait to see when it's all done.

I did get my ghost done, but need to try some more pictures tomorrow, the only picture I liked doesn't show the whole thing. And I got my poseable dollhouse witch put together and am in the middle of costuming. I hope to find time tonight to finish her dress.

Read More »»

Saturday, August 22, 2009

. Saturday, August 22, 2009
1 comments

The ADO Team is having a Mini Challenge, regarding the theme of "Emotions"

I created The Queen of Hearts, screaming "off with their heads". So I guess my emotion is "crazed"

Read More »»

Halloween WIPS

.
0 comments




I have a couple of works in progress for Halloween, because of all the detailing of my Queen of Hearts doll I was in the mood to do something larger, so I started a ghostie. I'm almost done, just have some cleaning up, painting and details to get finished. It's also been to long since I made any doll house dolls so I started one that will be a witch. I'm still wanting to make some 1:24th scale dolls but this one is going to be 1:12th scale.

Read More »»

ADO Halloween Challenge

.
0 comments


Art Dolls Only is running a Halloween Challenge, I'm sure as they become available, work in progress pictures will be showing up in the ADO Blog

Read More »»

Wednesday, April 15, 2009

Teddy Bear

. Wednesday, April 15, 2009
0 comments


This week I made this little Teddy Bear from polymer clay and flocked with with wool sheered from a baby alpaca. He's supposed to look like a flopped down much loved teddy bear.

My Mom saved my teddy bear from child hood, he doesn't look like this one though. He's lime green and yellow. I remember my Dad brought him home and put him in my bed while I was sleeping so I would find him in the morning. At the time (and still today) I was a big Winnie the Pooh fan, so I named him Pooh bear which eventually just got shortened to "P".

Here's my little doll house teddy bear:

Read More »»

Sunday, April 12, 2009

Starting my new Blog

. Sunday, April 12, 2009
0 comments

I'm starting a new Blog here on Blogger to give me some more flexibility

While, I'm building over here, here's a link to my past blog:

http://polkadottoadstool.mycdhm.com/

Read More »»