I've Done It!

Woo hoo!  I've done it.  I reached my goal for NaNoWriMo this year.

51585

It was a struggle.  The ups and downs.  There was a point where I thought I wouldn't get it done.  But one good half day and two solid days of writing and I did it.
 

Now I can get some rest and back to dolls.

NaNo Update

I am still far behind in my NaNo count.

22297

I will write most of the day today. I've caught up on emails, check the social network sites and played some games. I've had lunch. I've socks and the space heater on. It's probably warmer outside than in my apartment but I'll live. Let's see if I can hit 30000 by the time I go to bed. The only thing on the docket today is to write.

Toodles!

Thanksgiving 2011

I do hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving Day. I was truly blessed with being with friends, watching the parade, Purina Dog Show, football game (Packers won over Lions), Tanglewood Park for their light display, holiday shows and lots and lots of food.  The newest item on the menu was smoked mac and cheese (five cheeses) and green tomato and apple pie.  Oh - my - gosh!

Two kinds of dressing, cornbread and regular bread. Five bean salad, freshly made cranberry sauce.

Five cheese, smoked mac and cheese on the left and sweet potatoes on the right.  The mac and cheese was smoked in Joel's smoker outside.  The Butt Bros BBQ smoker.

The two birds were in the smoker too. There was so much food. Oh my! I forgot to get a pic of the desserts. Sweet potato pie, lemon pie, green tomato and apple pie, apricot bars, brownies.

Ack!!!! Again.

20002

Oh my gosh! Slowly chugging along. I am so far behind. Eek! Oh, also cut out six more voodoo doll pins. They are multiplying. 

Commission Complete!

Okay. I had a commission to do 12 voodoo doll pins but looking like a school mascot. Kind of. Mostly the colors of the school and these were a little easy to do because of their mascot. A brother and sister saw me wearing my witch voodoo doll pin and said they liked it. I told them I made it and they asked if I could make some simulating their favorite mascot. I said I'd give it a try. At first he ordered eight but then the number went up to twelve. That seems to happen more than not. Remember the dolls for the movie? I was suppose to do three and ended up doing close to 100.

Anyway, I finished them and the new owners fell in love with them.  The brother said that they were more than he expected and that I made his day.  His sister said that I made her year. So here we go...

These are the boys. Aren't they handsome?

The top hats for the guys. Some tall, some not.

The boys before the hats.

They each are sporting a pair of spats with bead buttons.

Delbert, Drake, Dustin, and Davis.

Delroy, Dalton, Dilmont, and Devon.

Drew, Dillard, Duncan, and Driscoll. The Demon Voodoo Doll Pins. Also can be hung as ornaments. The scarves were hand crocheted by moi. Some of you may know the school these guys represent. I think they turned out quite well and I'm glad I didn't have time to bond with them because they are so cute.

I hope you enjoyed them too. Now off to catch up on my word count. Toodles!

Visitor From Up North

My friend Kellie is here in town for the weekend. She visits me once a year and we do the girl thing. I picked her up from the airport on Saturday. It was a beautiful day and I wasn't paying attention, so I missed the exit to the terminal. I turned around, thought to myself that this doesn't look familiar. I ended up at the departure terminal instead of the arrival terminal. Silly me. So I parked, walked inside, I went downstairs and there was Kellie waiting for me. Outside.

She was surprised that I had come from inside the building. We hugged and laughed and I told her that the day was so beautiful, I wasn't paying attention. We laughed some more, got to my vehicle and took off. We got her gear back to my apartment and I introduced her to some of my neighbors and their pooch Obe, short for Oberon. Kellie spilled the beans that she brought me homemade chocolate chip cranberry cookies. I said 'thanks a lot, now I'll have to share.' My neighbors didn't expect to see any cookies this weekend. I don't think introducing them was such a good idea.

Then we went to a new restaurant called The District.  I ordered two different beers that they were out of.  I finally got one called Red Oak which was very tasty. We had a southwest soup and spinach/cheese/blue crab dip. Wonderful!!! We also met and talked to the owner who gave us a tour. We saw the awesomeness of their wine cabinet. Probably not the right word for it but here it is.

Then we went to Walmart and did some crazy 'you know what' shopping. Kellie gave me an early Christmas gift. One of groceries. Two carts and a gazillion bags which will be repurposed into art. Kellie also met Maya. They started talk as if they had known each other, like since forever and it wasn't looking good for me. I mean, they were gathering info to gang up on me. It's all good. I've got my own secret weapon. *insert evil cackle*

Today we went to Cagney's and had a good breakfast for the long day ahead. We then went printer shopping to Office Depot, Big Lots, Target, Sam's Club. All the while experiencing Christmas... stuff.  Trees, lights, lights on wreaths to put outside, animated thingies to put outside, holiday dishes (some were very cute, I really liked the Snoopy on his doghouse mug and I may have to go back and get that), more lights.

From there we went to the Reynolda House Museum of American Art and saw the exhibit Modern Masters from the Smithsonian American Art Museum. It was very nice. I'm not a big fan of abstract art but I enjoyed most of what was there. And the flood of artist's names came back to me from when I studied art history many moons ago. I still didn't like the ones I didn't like back then. Oh well. We also took the tour of the house. We both loved all the huge fireplaces. It would've been great playing hide-n-seek in that house. There is a costume section in the attic and I found out that I can sketch the clothing that the Reynolds wore back in the day. They were tiny people.

We got there a bit early so we walked some of the grounds and this is what I saw.

Beautiful little flowers hanging on. It was supposed to be 60 degrees today but with the wind blowing and the clouds moving in, I don't believe it made it past the upper 50s.

This is the fountain (closed up for the winter) in front of the Reynolda House.

 This is the way to the garden which looked very lonely because all the flowers were gone and the leaves were being blown from the trees.

After the Reynolda House we went to SECCA. Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art. We enjoyed walking through the old Hanes house and then to where the exhibits were.

The main exhibit that was going on was called Out of Fashion. Artist and designers from across North Carolina produce works of art dealing with the history of making fabric, clothing design, how their history and the history of the industry impacted their work. It was a very unique and interesting show. Yeah, I got some ideas for dolls too. As if I need any more ideas.

By the time we left there it was getting late. We were tired and hungry, so we went to Sakura. A Japanese restaurant. I'd been there before with Maya and Amanda and had sushi. It was Kellie's first time. We had Japanese Egg Roll (crab meat, cream cheese, asparagus rolled and fried), Japanese Volcano Dip w/crackers (crabmeat, scallops and shrimp baked w/special sauce). Those were the appetizers. Kellie had the salmon and jumbo shrimp combo and I had the Kabayaki Bento Box. Yummy!

Kabayaki Bento Box: large eel filet in BBQ sauce, 4 pieces California roll, Vegetable Tempura and Seaweed Salad.

I also had a glass of Kensen Plum wine. Yeah baby! I want to fall asleep as I write this. It was a great day, with a great friend. We both will sleep good tonight. I have caught up to celebrating each month for the year.

In Progress

This is going to be another quick post. I'm behind on NaNo again and will catch up today after two meetings. I feel like I'm a branch of Santa's workshop. Here's a sample of what I've been up to.

Finally getting some Moli Dolls dressed. As you can see by their colors, they were supposed to be for Halloween but didn't make it.  What am I talking about? Halloween is all the time.
The pink and black skirt is for another doll.

I made a ton of snowman pins years ago.  Each year I pull out the one I have left. I made a new pattern so I can take some to the Krankie's Holiday Craft Fair next month. They don't take long to do and I like them.

Here are new ornaments. They are going to be dressed in a primitive way. Some will have wings.

Another skirt for a Moli Doll. Although when I put it against her, it may turn out to be a dress. Have a good day.

Ack!

10,046

I kind of sort of caught up.  I was supposed to be at this number on Monday but I hit it last night before bed.  Now, as of today, I have to write 3334 words tonight.  Or close to it.  Am I getting anything else done? Not really.  I did make a snowman pin pattern, pulled the felt for them.  I'm ready to tea dye some fabric for some dolls, and I've got two doll skirts to sew.

Stay tuned! 

NaNo

7697

I'm a little bit behind in my word count.  Had an unusual week and weekend.  Just got numbers from Butt Bros BBQ and we served 579 plates from 11 on the AM to about 2:30 on the PM.  That's like 2.5 plates a minute. Woo hoo!

Voodoo Mummy Doll Pins

A little late but better than never, right? Here is my quartet of Voodoo Mummy Doll Pins. From right to left:

Merlot, Mo, Maeve, and Maurice. I made them little Egyptian type girdles with beads. They have the trademarked stripe legs and wool heart like my first Voodoo Doll Pins. I'm working on some winter ones. I think they're kind of cute and a bit worse for wear. Ha!

I'm behind on my NaNo so I don't have an updated count. Probably tomorrow. Plus more dolls. I've got so many naked babies lying around. I helped my pals at Butt Bros. BBQ this past Saturday at the Persimmon Festival in Colfax, NC. It was a success, we sold out of brisket, pork shots, and almost the pulled pork. We got so many comments. It was a beautiful day but oh so cold. I was frozen to one spot and didn't thaw out until Sunday evening. Off to write. Have a happy day.

I'd also like to welcome Hobbyaholic aka April to the party.

NaNoWriMo

I'm trying to keep up.  Dolls are almost done, some in the middle of being done.  I'm working as hard as I can while dealing with, well, life.  The job.  You know, things you have to do that take up time from things you really want to do.  Those things that make you happy and content.  Those things that make your life shine and sing for you.

I promise pics by the weekend.  That's my goal to myself and you can put me to task.  I'll even show things in progress.  For NaNo..... drum roll please.  My count as of yesterday was

5086

A little over my goal for three days worth of work.  Yee ha!!  Okay, gotta go.  Breakfast and some dollies.

Happy November

Just a quick little post.  Happy November to you all. Can you believe this year is almost over? What's up with that? I've started NaNo and I'm at 1717 words. I made my quota for the first day, actually a little over it. I will keep updates on my tally along with getting more doll pics up. This should be an interesting month.

Take care of yourselves and stay healthy.