It's that time of year again.

That time when all the magazines at the check-out counter are shouting about how you can lose 20 lbs in a month on their new diet, or how you can FINALLY get organized this year.  Need to quit smoking?  THIS time, you can really do it.  Need to learn to (fill in the blank) and finally (another blank) and make it stick?  We can show you how.

The gyms will be full--at least up until Valentines Day, when most have dropped out in favor of chocolate and self-forgiveness. 

I am a big fan of self-forgiveness!  I've got lots of things I should do--and undo, accomplish, learn, commit to, many other shoulds.  But after my first thirty or so New Year's Resolutions came and went, the majority of which were unfulfilled, I realized New Year's Resolutions didn't motivate me.  They do work for some, no doubt.  But I did hate the gym that first few months when it would become so crowded.  (At some point, I quit the gym, too--in favor of walking my dog every day and stretching in my bedroom floor.)

In the intervening years, I had to distill it down to this: is my goal realistic?  If not, can I break it into sections, to be accomplished one at a time?  If I can't do that, what is unrealistic about it?  If it is realistic, what--in tangible, concrete terms--will allow me to accomplish it?  And lastly--what does January 1st have to do with it?  For some reason, my goal setting urges seem to hit in the fall.  I clean, organize, analyze, and study what changes I want to make.  I don't always accomplish them, but I manage enough that I have learned what works for me.

What do you do when you want to make a change, and stick to it?  What do you want to accomplish this year?   

We're baaaaack!

Almost three weeks on the road clear to East Tennessee and back.  On the way through Oklahoma, we stayed for two days visiting our eldest daughter and her kids.  Then on to Knoxville, to visit with our youngest daughter & her family, and our youngest son, who drove down from Ohio with his family, for Thanksgiving.  Five days there, then two days up in the tri-cities area of Johnson City, Kingsport, and Bristol exploring the area.  The hardest part was getting there and back: four days each way.  Our poor dog Schultz has no interest in getting into the car now.  I don't blame him.  Counting a run down to Phoenix to leave our cat w/ in-laws, we logged 4,588 miles all total.

Tennessee was worth it.  Circumstances sort of dictated this as our time to go check it out--the hubs really preferred to go in the spring when the trees are green--but even with so much of the fall color gone, there was so much beauty to enjoy.  We hiked, went antiquing, put up our daughter's Christmas tree and decorated it.  We saw a Colonial era fort (1757) that the English built during the French-Indian war.  Of course we had Thanksgiving dinner--with a noisy houseful!  And I got to play in the garden a little, planting a couple of baby trees I'd brought her from AZ.  Tennessee dirt is good dirt!

Later we met a nice lady outside of Bristol--and met all ten of her collies, both rough and smooth.  Schultz was not impressed, but we were. We did learn that we want smooth collies--I am just not up to that much dog-brushing.

With our kids spread out so far--Oregon, Oklahoma, Ohio, and Tennessee--it's hard to see them very often.  But two years in a row, we've been able to at least see three of the four.  Now we're going to let them come to us! 

We've pretty well decided to retire to the Knoxville area--we liked a little town called Maryville (which the locals pronounce as "mur-vel") best of all we saw.  How long that will be--who knows.  Maybe ten years!  But for the first time ever in our years together, we're planning a major move instead of just jumping into action.  We've moved sixteen times in our years together, but we really (really, really!) want this one to stick.  As in; 'til we're too old to live on our own. And who knows?  Maybe this one will really be it.  I'm going to keep telling myself that, and imagining how it will be to have those mountains to hike in any time we want.

Operation Tidy O'Studio and some works in progress...

Those of you on FB have already seen these, but I thought to share it here.  I got three days to totally overhaul my studio--and will be selling mucho doll supplies on Ebay over the next months. 

The trick now is to keep it clean, and I think some of my changes in there will help.  Every time I rework everything, I get a little closer to refining a system that makes it easy to keep it tidy--the tools I use constantly are stored within reach of my chair, so I have only to tidy it up before I even get up.  So far I've had the room a week and it's still spotless.  This might well be a record.  (Try not to laugh.)

The week wouldn't be so impressive if I weren't working in there daily, but I have been.  I have four pieces in the works--two are a pair and will be dressed in patriotic colors, one is for spring, and the last is for an "aquatic theme" challenge in a magazine.  I gotta say, it's nice to go in, sit down, and begin work right away, without having to scrape aside bottles of paint, root through piles of tools and brushes for "that one" and work on a tray on my lap because there is no room to work on the actual work surface!  Maybe it'll actually take this time.  Maybe, at the young age of 54, I will finally learn a lesson I should have learned in fourth grade.  Ha!

Hope everyone has a fun Halloween!

Back from the Doll Show, and a bit of silliness.

We had a lot of fun--or at least I did--dressing up.  The crowd was kind of sparser than we have been used to, but we did okay.  I got to visit with Connie Tognoli again this year, and buy one of her small pieces (a little bunny and an ornament). 

I think my shifting focus will see me aiming for folk art festivals in the future, rather than doll shows.  So it is with mixed feelings that I bid the doll shows Farewell, and the folk art fairs Hello. 

In the meantime, now that I'm back from the show, I have ornament commissions to finish for a lady in New York, a Zodiac Baby to work on, and an Izannah commission to start. I'm glad there is little work to be done in the garden at this time of year!

My VPH: very patient husband.

 

Happy Birthday to Izannah Walker!

Well I thought I felt old, but at least I'm not 200.  Ha!  Today is Izannah Walker's birthday, and lots of artists who admire her work are getting together to celebrate it.

I had originally intended to make a doll for this day, but as I got busy with orders and now for the upcoming show down in Phoenix, I must be one of Mr. Burns' mice:  “The best laid schemes o' mice an' men...Gang aft a-gley.”  Yep, my schemes ganged aft a-gley back in July and I haven't seen 'em since.  Hmph.

So the best I can do (and I wonder if Ms Walker ever got snowed under with work, especially once she got her patent?) is to post a sort of chronicle of my Izzy studies.  My first ones, made from a pattern that Dixie Redmond designed, were chunky babies to be sure.  And my vast inexperience really made itself apparent.  But through determined study and the chance to see several real Izannah Dolls in person, I improved.  The following are in sets, from the first to the last. I never realized how many of these sweet dolls I have made over the last five or six years until I started going through photos, so I had to leave quite a few out.

Here's to you, Ms Walker.  Thank you for being so independent, creative, and innovative.  You are an inspiration to us, and always will be. 

Clicking on the photos enlarges, but read captions first.  :~)

My first three from Dixie's pattern; Enid, Odessa, and Vernon.

The next ones, after a little pattern drafting for a smaller head to body ratio.  I don't think it was authentic--antique Izzies really did have large heads for their bodies, but I seemed incapable to making them that way.

After more pattern drafting.  Still working on the head-to-body ratio, and head shape.  LOTS of study on the face sculpting went into this bunch, and I was finding a groove I liked. 

The two outside ones are mine, the two inside were antiques belong to my friend Edyth O'Neil.

My friend Martha Bishop inspired me to experiment with lamb skin wigs...this is Delia.

 

Geillis, Thomas, and Elizabeth.

I think this one had been in the cooking sherry.

This is Red Riding Hood, for Connie Tognoli.  I'd gotten used to making the bigger ones, so the 15" size was a treat to make.

This one for a dear friend of mine in Texas.

This one was inspired by that wine-red velvet hat...I found it at a flea market and a Kate "Greenaway Izannah" doll came to life full blown in my mind. 

The most recent custom Izannah that I did for a dear lady.  This may well be my favorite one ever. 

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Dixie asked us this morning what we would give Ms Walker for her birthday from our time.  I think I'd collect allllll the articles and books written about her and her work, to show her what an incredible influence she has had on artists that came after her.  Happy Birthday, Izannah Walker. 

Busy times!

I got a new commission for a cat doll, based on one I did years and years ago (I think the Universe is telling me to revisit what inspired me in the beginning!).  I'll be finishing her this week, and will have photos.  The cat that inspired the commission is here--only the new one will have a tutu and ballet slippers.

This little witch doll sold this weekend and will be on her way to Ohio--she's been hoping to have a new home by Halloween, and it looks like she'll have one.  Once I finish the new kitty and get her on her way, then I'll get busy with my set up for the upcoming doll show down in Phoenix.

In the mean time, I finished this little guy.  Something about that face just kills me.  He's only seven inches tall, but he seems to have a big presence.

Hope y'all's week is fabulous. 

That was then, this is now.

A nice lady I met on Facebook bought my little Frankenstein character...and then while she was looking at my Etsy shop's past sales, she encountered a previous piece of folk art she'd bought from me--several years ago!  It was kinda funny.  But anyway, while she was in the past sales thing, she found one of my verrrrrry first art dolls--back when I was making them out of gourds. 

 

She wanted a custom character similar to him.  The original was trick-or-treating, and this lady wanted an Easter Bunny with a basket of eggs, but otherwise, I tried to stay with the basic idea of a kid in a bunny suit.  (Who, it must be said, was originally inspired by the movie A Christmas Story.) 

So of course my imagination kicked into high gear at the challenge--to revisit a thing I'd made WAY back then, when I didn't know much at all about paper clay, or how to assemble these characters to be sturdy, or faces.  Or painting.  Or antiquing.  My techniques are so different, and I think the sculpting is better.  The original is still fun, but I am pleased to think my skills have grown in the seven years since I made him.

Of course now I'm thinking of revisiting a lot of the ideas I had back then--they were good ideas, and with new techniques, they'll be good again.  Cheers! 

And just like that, there were tiny angels.

I was working like crazy on little Halloween peeps, and just like that...I went another direction.  Not sure if these little angels are related to any holiday--one of them has Halloweenish colors, but that's about it.  I just got them in my head and couldn't get them out. 

So I'll get real photos and post them in my Etsy shop later, but right now, here are some little angels.  I hope your week is fabulous.