October irises and roses...

Just thought I'd share some flowers we have going right now.  I didn't get photos of the red salvia, the heirloom & landscape roses (Old Blush and Martha Gonzolez), nor the desert plants that are blooming--rock rose, desert mallow, or cinquefoil.   But some of my iris are "rebloomers" which means they bloom twice a year instead of once.

So today there were blooms of this purple and white (I've never met it before and don't know its name) and this pink one--"Pink Attraction"--which has a VERY sweet iris fragrance.  Maybe it's the color, but it almost smells like bubble gum in iris form.  The rose bushes are small right now--one because it was a 4" pot when I put it in the ground this summer, and other because I dug it up from out back and moved it--treating it quite ruthlessly in the process.  Doesn't seem to have fazed them. 

The before and after pictures are gratifying--the first is a listing photo w/ the giant house-eating junipers in place when we bought the house.  The second was this morning.

Have a great weekend, y'all!

Tiny Rachel and Feline Willie

I cleaned out my studio...no, that's not true.  I cleaned out the old not-likely-to-succeed projects in my studio.  Nobody was more surprised than me to find myself suddenly finishing an Izzy that had been waiting around for a year.

But here she is, watching TV with Willie, our torty cat.  Both girls appear to be enjoying a little down time.

I really enjoyed working on Tiny Rachel--I call her tiny because I've gotten used to working with the 21 / 22" Izzies, and Rachel is only 14" tall or so.  But she was fun, and I had fun experimenting a little on a different finish.  Not something I plan to continue, but I like the result on her, so I'll leave it.

The dog-cat show continues on pretty much a daily basis.  Only now sometimes they invade Phil's space while he's at work (he works from home now that we've moved--just works online at the same job he had in TX).  So every day is Bring Your Pets To Work day for Phil.

Schultz and Willie play like this at least once a day, sometimes several times, if they feel feisty, or Schultz hasn't had a good walk in a while.  :)  If he doesn't start it by going "terrier" on her, then she starts it by jumping out from behind a corner, Ninja Kitty style.  I'm very fond of this time.

Y'all have a lovely weekend!

Do you or don't you?

Question for the artists that share my little world. Julia Roberts asked Brad Pitt in The Mexican: "When is enough enough?"

When do you decide whether to give up on a project, to throw it away and not allow it to eat any more of your time? Do you ever get to that point with a project? The "right" answer for Julia was "never"...but that was romance. This is art.

Do we go with our heart, or listen to our head on some things? Jus' ponderin'.

I have a lot of doll projects in mind, and yet there is a shelf full of Works In Progress...in varying degrees of completion, from just a head to all-it-needs is arms and legs and a dress.  But not all of them appeal to me.  Some of them feel like a chore that, even if completed, will offer very little reward of satisfaction.

In some cases, enough really is enough, and I'm learning (hard lesson!) that to sacrifice time and energy for those particular projects is to take away from future growth as an artist.  I'll be honest and ruthless, and once in a while a little sentimental. 

So...when is enough enough for you? 
Do you ever scrap a project and refuse to allow it more of your time?

Phoenix Doll Show (postmortem)

My good friend Martha reminded me I hadn't posted about the doll show.  (Thank you, m'lady--I did forget that I hadn't done it.  To-do lists can fool you into thinking you're more efficient than you are.)

I'll start with saying Thank You to my lovely husband, who helped me so much.  I won't bore you with details, but thyroid issues have had my normally abundant energy flagging to the ground, so that I'm dependent on many hours of sleep and naps to get through a day.  The good news is that this situation will be corrected in the next months, so I'll once again be slinging a pick-axe to dig flowers (or at least managing my own doll shows!)

I spent two days and some money making new backdrops for the set-up.  Apparently I didn't spend ENOUGH money, because once I got the things to the event, and tried to set them up, it was a total failure.  Epic.  The backdrops are even now on their way to be recycled.  Lessons learned are painful, but they still count, right?  Despite that initial "wobble"--and the hubs is amazed I didn't fall apart, given my...retentive...nature--things progressed and I did indeed get set up.

Having rented three 8 foot tables, I'd been worried I wouldn't have enough dolls to fill them up.  This was not a concern.  In fact the husband grumbled a few times; "I can't believe she thought she wouldn't have enough!" upon finding yet another bin full of dolls to put out.

My sweet mother & father-in-law came to see me at the show, as did a couple of my nieces.  This was a special treat for me, as up til now I've always been too far away for them to see me "in action".

For a first show, I did remarkably well, selling several times the amount of my show expenses.  There was good feedback, and it appears I was the only doll artist at the show, the rest being dealers of antiques and one-timers selling off estate dolls of a loved one.  Lots of business cards went out, and I had a request to speak at an upcoming doll club meeting.  This bodes well for future shows at this venue, and I was encouraged.

The lesson I learned about the setup: my backdrops were too high, but I still need something to frame the dolls and set them off from the general chaos of the show.  (New ones in planning now.) Lastly, don't get too wrapped up in the decorating...make it look nice, but clutter only distracts.  

Hope your week will be a lovely one!

Nekkid rag dolls, and a pattern to dress them.

Valley of the Sun Doll Club--our gracious hostesses!

Me, w/ a weirdly prissy face and my show apron (uniform).