Update, some work happening....

Well, its been wild. Have spent most of the last few days holed up with the cool mist humidifier recouping from the usual post cold virual bronchitius (ok, don't flog me for the medical terms that I can't spell!!) Barking like a seal still, but not near as much now.

Tomorrow my dad has his surgery. Originally this was estimated to be an 8 hour surgery, but now has been re-estimated as only (ONLY!?) 5 hours. We'll be up at the crack of dawn to get him to the hospital by 7 am. Tomorrow promises to be a very long day.

All prayer, positive thoughts are gratefully accepted!

On the work in the studio, I have now finished all of the leaves for the necklace and I actually think these last few are the best of the bunch!

The next few days I will be working on blocks for the quilts and knitting on the sweater I'm making for the DH.....

Well, off to clean the kitchen, fold laundry and try to relax enough to sleep some tonight.....

Body parts and coughing.....

Ok, I've spent the last 3 days laying low.....picked up a nasty cold somewhere and have my usual post-cold bronchitis like cough....ICK! For the first time I can ever remember we're sick at the same time (and that's a lot of years to remember!!) So we've had chicken soup and beef barley soup and green jello....and today we're venturing out to get groceries, etc.

While I've been lounging in the recliner listening to the rattle of the cool mist humidifier I've managed to get a lot of bear bodies stitched up. Yup, there are 14 little bodies ready for turning. Twelve of them will have to have joints put in then comes the stuffing and faces.....looks like I'm in good shape to have a lot of stuff for our opening bear show in Nevada City in April....its a good thing!!

Next week I will be sitting in hospital waiting rooms again....my dad is have major surgery. Please appeal to your higher power for his safe recovery! Thank you so much.

Well, its time to get moving to the store, then back to the studio to start inserting joints in those bears......

Work amoung the chaos.....

Wow, what a few days it has been!

On Thursday we traveled to where our daughter was having her tonsils out...fun surgery once you're an adult...NOT!! She spent Thursday evening in the hospital and we took her home on Friday afternoon. She's doing better but having good days and bad days still.

Yesterday back on the road to be with my mom while my dad had a lengthy test done. Here we heard yet another conflicting piece of medical information so until this test is reviewed, his surgery is back on hold. They've spent 6 weeks now trying to decide what treatment is the right one, meantime the nasty little tumor is free to do its thing and get bigger.....GRRRRRR

Along the way, however, I did manage to get some more of the leaves done....pretty oranges and yellows. We're on the home stretch now.....after the yellows there will be some pale greenish ones then I can start putting the piece together.

Meantime, this morning I woke up with a beast of a cold.....BLAH!! Guess chicken soup and tea are in order. I'm shuffling off for a large glass of orange juice now, then try to get some work done........

Ouch!

Well, not as much happening in the studio the last few days. On Sunday morning I woke up feeling fine, but somehow during the morning, my back went "out" and I've been "hobbling" ever since. OUCH!

My beading work has been slowed down too....our jewelry scale (which I use to weigh each vial of beads when I begin a project, and again at the end so I know how much to charge for materials) broke on Saturday evening, and I'm impatiently waiting for the replacement to arrive. The up side is that the latest bead order arrived, so when the scale gets here, I can start on the Icon...YEAH!

Meantime, I've been working on blocks (see picture of the first one) for two lap quilts to be Christmas gifts (that's right folks, CHRISTMAS!!) best to get work in on them while I can because once the show season starts, I usually don't have time for this kind of work. This is also good to work on while sitting in hospital waiting rooms, which I will be doing a bit of the next few weeks.

On a personal note, keep us in your prayers....our (adult) daughter is having her tonsils removed tomorrow, and my dad is having cancer surgery (major 8 hour procedure) on Feb 28. Thanks!

Seven more leaves.....

are now done....that makes a total of 16. This batch are reds and oranges, and I still have more oranges to do before I move on to the yellows and pale greens.

Played with the polymer clay yesterday and created the faces for the icon. The fabric is now ready and the faces have been glued on. As soon as the order I placed for bead trays arrives I can start on this....Since I am using more and more color in each project, having only 3 bead trays doesn't work any more....one tray of 9 colors used to enough for a project, but right now I have 3 trays full of color variations for the leaves.

And today's plans are to submit pictures to two contests.

Pictures of the completed Moonshine piece are going to the company I buy the supplies from. It did come out rather well I thought, and I'd love to win the first prize in this contest ... $750 shopping spree from their catalog....YES!!

The other contest is the URSA which is bear related, and I'm submitting Polar Dreams there. This contest is for "bragging rights" and possibly to have the piece go to a museum and a traveling exhibit. That would be some wonderful advertising.

So, with fingers crossed (which makes for difficult keyboarding!), I'm off to put the entries together.

progress on lots of things....

Number 1 on the list....the taxes are all done....YIPPEEE!! So nice to have that out of the way so early in the year.

I finished the mini giraffe last night. He's sooooo cute! It feels really strange to take a marker and color all over a piece, but that's the way to get his spots on. Then he spent some time under the hair dryer to set the color....very nice.

Work continues on the frame for the icon. Gold paint (two coats already) has been applied and is drying. It looks amazing.

Oh yes, there was also the "playing in the mud" exercise yesterday....building an ice mountian (out of a foam hill, no doubt) with paper mache....it looks good but will probably take 3 or 4 days to totally dry...the joys of winter, this stuff just takes longer to dry when the ambient temperature in the house is only 58 degrees....

So now, time to work on more leaves for the necklace and making faces for the icon...should be an interesting day!

multi tasking....

as usual, there are about a dozen projects going on at once!!

While I was busy working on the little giraffe (only 4" tall....WOW!), DH was working on the frame for the icon. He has the wood cut, glued and filled. His next step is several coats of gold paint followed by gold leaf....WOW!!!

Meantime, I'm going to be painting the spots on the giraffe today and giving him a mane, tail and face.....this should be fun.

off to the studio I go..........

This is quite an interesting piece of sculpture my DH is creating....he started with a pre-cut piece of wood then cut a series of foam pieces that he stacked up to create the "mountain" The next step is paper mache.....mmmmmm, that should get messy!

Meantime, I'm still dealing with tax S*** ...... just love this time of year ...NOT!

We began filling in more show applications yesterday, these have deadlines (like one of them must be mailed by Friday), but its a delicate balancing act between the deadlines and the bottom line (of the check book, that is). Sure would be nice to just be able to write those checks and not worry if I can pay the other necessary bills too....oh well, in the next lifetime I guess.

So, time to go back to the paperwork.......

More on the ice.....

Have now completed the earmuffs for the little bear.....we used a piece of sterling silver wire to make the "frame", and some bright red fuzzy fabric for the "muff" covers......doesn't he look thrilled?!!

Now we're working on building the "ice flow".....the chunks of foam have been cut and stacked on a wood base and are ready for the paper mache ..... oh fun, the messy part!! Need to get a picture of that!!

Meantime, spending time with taxes.....this is the icky part of being self employed. Oh well [sigh!]

The minis have taken over...

...the studio!

Finished 6 little (and Little is the operative word!!) animals yesterday.

The camel is 3" to the top of his hump, the dodo and the elephant are also 3" tall.

The hedgehog is 1 1/2" long, the skunk is 2" long and the playtpus is 6" from bill to tail.

Next step, they all need names (suggestions welcome!!), and I now have to get them put on the web page.

Oh yes, there is a giraffe in process.....also small....about 4-5" tall to the top of his head.......
(this could drive a person crazy!!)

and then there were 9.....

yup, count 'em, 9 finished leaves.....have completed all of the brown ones and started on the reds. Still have orange, yellow and green to do, but its moving along.

Spent most of yesterday working on sales tax reporting to the 4 states I have to do.....glad to have that all done!

Now, on to completing the inventory so I can file the state and federal income taxes....sigh.....be glad to be done with all this paperwork so I can do the fun parts!