Good Morning All!
I hope you all have been well since our last visit.
I, alas, have been sick. Still fighting off this BLECK! It's been a week and a half now. Co-workers are sick, grand children are sick - just surrounded by coughing, hacking and just general blahs!
I was going to post last Sunday, but did not feel up to the task. Then on Monday I saw all the people that had visited my blog and felt really bad about not posting. Which was followed by a few days of 'OMG, why didn't I post something. Yes, I feel bad when I realize that people are actually reading my posts and I have nothing there...Sorry to all of you who stopped by and found nothing new. :(
Let's get started, shall we?
About a week ago, Georgia got a snap of the cold and wet that most of the country has gotten. Yes, I can hear you groaning and rolling your eyes. Georgia cold? yeah right. Well, it happens, occasionally.
But when it's cold, it's really cold because we are so used to it being warm. Especially when a few days prior to this it was almost 70 degrees - in December. I do have to say that I really don't miss the snow and ice. Granted, it wasn't a foot of snow or anything like that. In fact, by most standards it was simply a cold, wet day. But when I opened the door and found slush and ice it was quite a surprise. I even had to force my dogs to go out. They both looked at me like 'what the hell is this?'
Georgia's awful day of cold LOL!
A couple of weekends ago we had our get together - the Saturday after Thanksgiving. It was a lot of fun and I'm glad everyone got to come. Unfortunately, I didn't get any photos. I know, 'What?' 'Why?'....well, I really don't have any excuse. All I can say is that I had a house full of people and my brain was elsewhere. My daughter and her family were here. My son and his family were here. The neighbors, Amy and Barry were here. And Eddy and Yvonne made the trip as well. Amy made a 'pizza ring' for an appetizer. Yummy! I made a vegetarian dish for Stephen. Stuffed squash. Peppers and mushrooms, onions, etc. It turned out very well. It was supposed to have black beans as well, but I forgot to add them. Stephen and my daughter seemed to enjoy it, so I'm counting it as a 'good' dish. And then, Eddy and Yvonne started cooking...let me just say it was really, really difficult to stay out of the kitchen and out of the way. I am normally the one who cooks. Having someone else in my kitchen, without my fingers in things, was strange and totally abnormal. I hoovered like an old lady. We joked about it and things got done. They made pico de gallo, black bean dip and several other things that aren't coming to mind at the moment. Every thing was great. Then my son and daughter-in-law made chicken balls. Which was really good and was gone very quickly. My grandson, Lawton, had 5 of them. We also celebrated my grandson's, Preston, first birthday. He was so cute. He devoured the black bean dip. He opened his gifts and had a blast. He didn't get his cake until the following day though. Which he promptly spread all over everything...blue icing from head to toe. We then spent time outside around the fire. It was cool but not cold, which worked out well. Everyone seemed to have a good time and I am thankful that everyone got to come. The dogs were even well behaved. I didn't have to lock them down the hall. They must have known to be on their best behavior. I got to hang onto Rylee for most of the night, which was wonderful. He was having a really good day.
Preston opening his BD gifts
mmmmmm....black beans and rice
We put out the Christmas lights and tree for the get together. Got my nutcrackers out and Sally put out some of her Christmas town. We set these up on the mantle/fireplace. I got replacement bulbs for my mother's C9 lights. The day after it rained and blew my lights out. It has been raining (and I've been sick) since. So none of my outside lights are working. Apparently, on top of this, my neighbors were waiting for my lights. They all seemed disappointed that I didn't put out everything. And of course, my wife wasn't happy that I didn't put out everything as well. Can't win for losing.
mantle all lit up
The Christmas gifts are all but done. Just a couple more and they will be completed. YAY! They've all come out well and I'm happy (as I can be) with them. Unfortunately, it will still be a few weeks before I can share any of them with you. :( Patience is a virtue...not sure what that says about me, since I have none. HA!
I have been working on the doll from the Ankie Daanan class. I am still so far behind. Being sick really sucks! I have been making progress though. So it's not a total disaster. Got the hips, thighs and calves built up. I've had to repair a crack over the knee three times now though. Hopefully this last fix will take care of it. I've been happy with the progress so far. Trying really hard to get caught up...
working at getting caught up...
progress as of this post...
I started a separate project about a week ago. I got some
Monster Clay to work with. So far it's been great. I really like this clay. It has a wax base and has been great working with. I have sculpted a brooch. It's a special project that I will have to give details on later. I got the Monster Clay for my Ichabod project. I thought the brooch would be a good test for the clay. I was right. :) I also got some
Dragon Skin for the Ichabod project and I used it for the brooch as well. I managed to get the brooch sculpted, molded and a test pour done. I had some ice resin that I used for the pour. I added 5 drops of ice blue and some metallic white glitter to the ice resin. The pour came out great. The Dragon Skin picked up all of the details in the sculpt. I can't wait to get the rest of the materials to finish this project. Hopefully the recipient will be pleased with the outcome. I will post pictures of the final outcome when it's done. In the meantime, here are some of the progress pics....
basic shape started
face building up...
the dark on the right eye is from heating
the clay with a lighter. didn't expect it to
brown
Swirls and textures being added
building up the WED clay wall
mixing the Dragon Skin silicone rubber
demolding the sculpt
mold detail...hard to see due to the
transparency of the Dragon Skin
ICE resin and white glitter
discovered that my table is not completely
level. had to trim the flash
mold and test pour (prior to trimming flash)
hard to see how transparent this is from this photo
MORE TO COME....
This past week I got a video from my wife while she was babysitting Kennedy. It's so cute. If you listen you will hear her say 'OMG'. All I could do was grin. My daughter has no idea what's coming her way. :)
Kennedy is going to be ready to go! She already doesn't like sitting still. And she will talk your ear off if given the chance. I've never loaded a video to my blog...so hopefully this works like it's supposed to...
Well...apparently not. Can't get the video to load. DAMN! I will have to figure out why and then post it later. Bummer!
I guess that's all for this post. Looking forward to seeing you all next time! Have a great week and a Happy Season!
Be Good, Be Happy, Be Safe!
TTFN
Here's hoping that
Father Chirstmas
is good to you...
and that you haven't
been naughty.
