Pride and Prejudice and Zombies

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.

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Christmas activities

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.

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Merry Christmas

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)

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Santa's got a brand new face

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.

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My Little Red Bird

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

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My sweet Amelia

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.

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Santa Progress

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.

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My Chinese Lanterns

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

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Miniature Display Boxes

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!

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Have yourself a mini little Christmas

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

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Ouch, Santa, that had to hurt

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.

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ADO Elf Challenge

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

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Lil White mouse

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

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Theater costuming

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.

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Christmas !

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.

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Ker-splat to my Website

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.

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Brrrrrrrr

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.

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