5 random things about me

I was tagged by Kelly to do this meme. So here it goes...
5 random things about me:

1. I have an uncontrolable urge to grow plants. Even when I've been sent to hotels or such for a week, or go camping for a couple days, some type of plant/plants ends up on the windowsil/next to tent within a day or two, a cutting in a glass, a pot of african violets, something!

2.Along with plants, I also obtain weird seed pods and rocks and sticks and other random nature things.
One time, near Cork, I had collected several pretty yellow sea snail shells, they ended up on the windowsil. The next morning, a few of them had crawled away all over the walls. So we had to bring them back to the place we found them!
Another time, in Claire, we found an old sheep's skull (or was it a goat?) and a possible meteorite.

3. I like toys: Yoyos, tops, Plushies, puppets, music boxes, female action figures (I have a Diana Troy and a Rippley), wind-up toys, plastic figures, dolls, Barbies, anything that animates or moves is super cool.

4. I played an online role playing game for many years. My favorite characters were: a dryad named Salix, an orc named Zaal'Ug, and a pixie named Viola. I never played a human.
Zalli was married to Zur'Goth, he was the clan's warboss.


5. I once lived in NYC's lower east side without electricity or a stove for a year. The only thing I missed was hot herb tea. Evenings were lit by candles, and I had a little tape player powered with a big battery. I ate a lot of yogurt and fruit during that year for some reason.

a handful of dolls

I saw some of these dolls on Mimi's blog here, she wrote about her memories as a child, and mentioned the 100 dolls. I too saw an ad when I was a girl, it advertised 100 dolls for a very small price. It seemed too good to be true. So my father sent off for them. They arrived in a very small package. And they were only tiny little pink plastic figurines. I was quite dissapointed at first, but I did play with them a lot! Today, more than 40 years later, I still have a small handful, sewn onto a hat I made for a Halloween long ago. I wonder how many other little girls grown older still have these tiny dolls?

Afghan Hound studies

NEW logo test: afghan3 - ruff 1
(only partially cleaned up, still needs a LOT of work. The head and ears are almost to my liking. Basic body shape good, I think)

Logo test 1, click on picture to see larger size.

Second rough test

Gold Afghan Icon (rough test)




What a beautiful animal!

Angels do wear red!

When I was a child, in school, we were occasionally given copies of drawings to color in. Close to Christmas we were all handed drawings of angels and told to color them in. I sat happily coloring with my crayons, and made her dress red. Everyone handed their angels back to teacher. She hung them all up on the wall in a row. Except mine.
She looked at me crossly and said mine was not being hung up, because "Angels don't wear red!"Hmm, I wonder if Botticelli's teacher ever told him about angels not wearing red?

tick one

Dona Nobis Pacem

Make a Peace Globe today! Peace to all creatures and life on our beautiful planet Earth. Help heal our Earth, do whatever little (or big!) thing you can to help our world.

Nessie plush toy

Progression of a cute stuffed Loch Ness monster toy, a commission for a pattern. Sketch for a stuffed nessie.

Newspaper pattern mock-up.
(Photographed with a horrible old webcam, my digital is away, to take pics of my daughter's birthday party)
......................................
(Pattern sent to client, here's a tutorial for her)
Instructions: click on each picture for close-up.



See real fabric body and belly below as well.

Body with spine-bumps and eyes sewn on.

Belly with legs sewn on.

.................................later..........................


Got my camera back! Just in time to take this last pic of Nessie all done!
Only thing I think is wrong, her eyes are a bit too large. Well, I'll fix that another day.

Tribal Dragon tattoo

progression of a tribal tattoo: sketch 1
sketch 2
sketch 3, and partly drawn
Finished tattoo! Hopefully in a few months, I can see the design on skin.

*edit* People have been asking me if it's ok to use this tattoo. Yes, please do use it, and please let me see a photo of it when it's healed. I love seeing my artwork on people.
I won't be sending out Emails to anyone asking permission, as I have immediately after received tons of spam Email.
So, please just go ahead and use any of my tattoo art. And if you'd like to send me a donation, that's appreciated.