Wonderland

Getting ready for my show at The Wren's Nest, and coming down to the wire!
I've made three dolls specifically for the show!
I'll be working on some more to send at the middle of the month.
The QUEEN:


Alice and Cat:

Alice:

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The One about the Lizard Peanuts

Life is still plugging along here... working on Dolls, taking advantage of the sun and planting in the yard... visiting with friends we haven't seen in a long time... Family BBQ's... it's a good life.
I'm getting ready for the upcoming doll show, and squeezing life into the cracks.
Wednesday was a beautiful sunny day, so Travis and I worked out in the yard, and I got more of my flowers from the old house transplanted into the flower beds here. Travis found this little guy in some of the dirt he was moving. I thought it was a Blue Tailed Skink, but when I googled for a good link, I found out that it's probably a Skilton's Skink. What a shame... when it gets to be older, it will lose that glorious blue color.

lol as I was taking it's picture, I had taken off my other glove to use my camera, and it decided to run off my gloved hand, into the wheelbarrow beneath. Where my other glove was. INTO the finger of my glove. :) Silly Lizard.

My Circus Dolls came back!! The board came back to me packed MUCH better than I sent it, which meant that the box it came in was HUGE, and FILLED with packing peanuts!
As you can see. The boys LOVED them. The dolls will join the new ones I'm making for my show at The Wren's Nest!




In other news, I'm planning to order four new hens that will be grown up enough to come to our house the summer!! More on that later.
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My First Live Doll Show

I've been invited to be featured in a local boutique called The Wren's Nest, located in Florence, Oregon. I'm working on completing three totally new dolls for the show.
Funny how opportunity will find you.
I thought I'd share a little bit about HOW this opportunity literally fell into my lap.
I am a member of Freecycle. Wren (the owner of The Wren's Nest) had advertised on the Florence Freecycle group that she had a dog kennel and some old wooden shutters to give away. I responded to her message, and got the shutters.
When I am responding to emails on Freecycle, I usually remove my signature with my links in it, because I don't know the people I'm emailing, and I prefer to keep that private until I know the person more. This time though, during our correspondence about pick up locations and that, I forgot to remove my signature. Wren followed my links, and saw my art work. She was in the process of moving her shop to a new location, and later advertised some boxes, and emailed me that she also had some doors I might like. When I came to her shop to pick up the doors and boxes, she asked me if I would be interested in being a featured artist in her shop!!
So. Remember this. Keep doing what you love. Be ready for the opportunities that will come your way. You never know where they will come from!!
Here are the dolls I have for the show. I may or may not have my dolls back from ADQ. If I do, they will also be at the show. They are sculpted and gessoed. Ready for their details!

Close up of Alice and the Cheshire Cat

Close up of the Queen of Hearts

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Country Livin'

Some highlights from this week...
I'm saving the pics of my mom and my day trip for their own post...
Yesterday, the boys found a TURTLE in our driveway!!
We were going to keep it if it wasn't a turtle native to Oregon, but it was. A Western Pond Turtle. We thought about letting our cat Kilo name it, because according to the boys, he's the one who REALLY found it. Then, instead, and because we are the crazy weird people we are, and because my husband is a Drug Recognition Expert for the county sheriff, and because we name as many pets as we can after drugs, we called him SPEED. :P

We had a spot on the river here on the property ideal for Western Pond Turtle according to all I could find on the 'net. Since the drive way isn't anywhere NEAR that type of area, we took him down to the river and released him there.
Ian brought the video cam.

Kilo came down to the river with us to watch his new buddy off...

His lazy brother Otis stayed behind in bed.

The other day, Travis called me out to see the chickens scratching around near our "pile 'o' cats".

As you can see, neither group cares about the other. lol It was really funny to watch!
All three of the cats were there too! They love this spot. Any time the sun is out. This is where they like to lay.

Even our calico, Bean likes it. She's pretty skittish, so her sticking around with the boys and not being bothered by the chickens is a pretty big thing.
Well. I'm off. Worked on three new dolls for a live show I have coming up!! More on that, and photos of my mom and I later!!
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Unpacking and the Story of the Time Suck

I have a BUNCH of photos.
I've been great about taking time to take pictures and EVERYTHING...
BUT
I can't find my card reader to get those photos on my computer...
So I'm resorting to cell phone pictures.
Unpacking is sucking my time like no body's business.
I know I'm not telling anyone who's ever moved anything NEW... but
GEEEZE.
I'm starting to wonder if I'll EVER be done.
I'm in so MANY stages of Middle OF and UN done.
I hope to have my studio finished soon.
Remember this?

Before I started UNPACKING... it looks pretty cute!! But I still have a ton of things to fit in there, and re arrange. I'm fitting some things in my bedroom, and putting others in the studio, so I'm unpacking, RE sorting, and RE putting things away... lol
hmmmm
Maybe
THAT'S
the time suck.
All the RE
Whatever it is... this is the current state of my UN:

I have art journal prompts to come up with today... and that's what I have to work in... lol I think Picnik and I will have a date today...
Did I mention my printer isn't one of the things that I've gotten to yet?
Ahhhh Moving.
Thanks for the reminder of how MUCH I really don't like you.
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Free Ranging

Everyone is loving the country.
The cats are proving that even sissy city cats can make GREAT killing machines.
They also make sure to leave the evidence in the driveway so we all KNOW they are killing machines. lol There were two rodents who didn't make it through the day today. At least, there were two I found evidence of...
The trampoline has been a huge hit.

The first day I wasn't sure we'd keep it for long, because Macs seemed to feel the need to whine a lot on it.
He'd getting the hang of it now tho, so there's MUCH less whining and a lot more laughter coming from that area of the yard now.

I woke up yesterday to a momma deer in the yard with her yearling.

We're friends for now... until they eat something I'm trying to grow. :P
There's also a humming bird that likes the flowers by the kitchen window. I hung a feeder out for it, and it's been eating. I'll try for photos of that soon. :)
The chickens got to have a taste of the free range life yesterday too!!
The color on this one was CRAP so I had to make it B&W so I didn't have to waste forever waiting for picnik to load on our slow internets. Just look at their fluffy butts!! They stuck together pretty well, and had SO MUCH fun scratching up the leaves in the yard, and eating everything they could.

P.C.Peep returned to the hen house to lay an egg and the other two went around the corner before she came out... it was pretty funny to see her get nervous and search for them!! lol
It really is true that they will come "home" to roost. Nice too, because I can keep them penned up on days that I won't be home. They'll vary this way. Fresh grass with the chicken tractor moving, and free run of the yard once in a while.

Unpacking is coming along pretty good.
Still need to get the bathroom settled, but it's functioning.
I started unpacking the studio today... The stack of boxes to be unpacked vs. the pile of unpacked and broken down boxes is finally taking a turn in my favor.
The boys and I found pollywogs to catch near the river... we'll be doing that fairly soon I think.
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