New member of the family: meet Merlin

With much anticipation, last Friday we got to meet the newest member of the family: Merlin.  My sister adopted this homeless 1 year old Australian Shepherd and he's as good as gold!   Smart, affectionate and wanting to please, Merlin also is a rambunctious teen who's testing his boundaries but he's oh so very smart in the best ways. 

And here he is playing with my 7 year old Willow! 

 

Ever since being attacked by a Golden Retriever she hasn't been the same, I can't predict her reaction to new dogs.  We were very careful in how we introduced these two, choosing to simply walk away from the house, meeting at the end of the driveway and just continue walking.  As we moved quickly along, the dogs both had no time to fuss and got to sniff each other only when we paused.  In this way, they got used to each other, had multiple quick introductions and any shows of aggression were quickly stopped by walking on.  By the time we reached our driveway (about 10 minutes later), they were ready to be off leash in the yard, and everything was okay!  Sure, there are angry growls and teeth every now and again but no fighting.  Willow is very clear when she wants Merlin to back off and he does. 

And when my sister visits we often go shopping and we found Hallowe'en!  In our Dollarama and Dollarstore, we got some Hallowe'en goodies, like this large circular "Happy Hallowe'en" window decoration, and Winners had some goodies too, with lots of great Canadian-made dog treats!  Let the party begin!

That's Zima, Mocha and Merlin deciding if the house is too scary to enter and here's Willow taking a break.

First harvest

My first mini fabric pumpkin is finished!  Isn't he cute?!  I finished off the super soft pumpkin with a real little branch for a stem, a twisted pipe-cleaner "vine" and a faux leather leaf. 

 

 

And I treated myself to a few quilling supplies from the Quilling Superstore that arrived today.  I especially wanted the quilling tool with a 1/4" slot and I got 2 different widths of paper strips and a mixed pack of oranges and yellows full sized sheets that I'll have to cut myself.  It turns out that the paper width I like best, 1/4", isn't very popular and there aren't' too many color options in that width.  Ah well.

Weasels in the works

I have wanted to create a more realistic weasel than my woosels for a very long time... finally I was inspired to sit down and do it!  As per usual, I did my first prototype in a white synthetic (easy to work with and not too expensive if you muck it up).  Here is Spook in progress:

 

He worked out quite well, has a sweet face and stands on all fours relatively well, without splaying.

 

And here he is finished, free in the garden.  Spook has a wire spine so you can turn his head, pose his tail, bend his back, etc...

 

 

He definitely has a young face.

And now I'm working on a brown version, after altering the pattern a little.  I think I captured the Pine Marten look!!!

Growing pumpkins

What do you do when you find 2 meters of pumpkin orange super soft synthetic fur for $2 at Goodwill? 

Well, after petting it, I started making pumpkins! 

I'm making two sizes, in the hopes that one will be in scale with my mini Styrofoam headstones. 

And who helped?  My supervisor Willow was on the job!  NOT!  Here she is in my studio in her favorite pose:

 

I think she was a bit embarrassed that I took her photo... I won't tell her I posted it on Facebook!  : }

Mohawk styling

The transformations have continued!  After giving Seian a Mohawk and a dress made from a lost leather glove I decided to see what Banshee and Venus would look like with Mohawks.

 

The neat part about all this was taking the photos to tell a story about our hair madness episode on the website.  The girls are really very pose-able and fun to play with! 

So here's Banshee with her blue Mohawk being admired by Seian.

 

And here's Venus with a multi-colored pink and black one. 

 

I think the long wigs look better on both girls, but Seian can pull off anything.  The question is, what will cause folks to stop and look at what's on my table at the doll show next month??

 

The whole glove dress and hair craziness story can be read by clicking here.  Notice how the girls are posed for the photos, very flexible!  Their entire bodies are built over wires with Flexlimb spines right up into their heads.

 

 

Hallowe'en dreaming...

Only 84 days to Hallowe'en...

There's a subtle change in the air...

 

Something is brewing...






























Do you see what I see?

 

It's the 5th annual Online Hallowe'en Artists' Studio Trick or Treat!  Care you lend a hand in support?   Do you create Hallowe'en or seasonal art?  Then check out my tour at http://www.halloweenstudiotour.com/ with the guidelines at http://www.halloweenstudiotour.com/for_artists.htm and follow our blog: http://halloweenstudiotour.blogspot.ca/.

 

 

Happiness is a long weekend! Happy Civic Holiday!

Happiness is... finding a non-toxic way to kill ants that WORKS!  Yes, use cornmeal or corn flour, liberally sprinkle it around the anthill, make sure your dog doesn't eat it and watch the ants disappear!  Apparently they can't digest the corn but they don't know that and eat it and die.  It takes about 3 weeks to kill the whole colony but it works, chemical free! 

Happiness is... pulling on pants that you wore in college and finding they still fit!  Okay, not great but still wearable! 

Happiness is... baking a delicious treat, having someone you love say it's fantastic (thanks Mom) and getting the chance to share it with people who will appreciate it (see you soon, Dodo).