Updates in May

Well... so many things have been going on! Where do i start?

Graduation time... sniff sniff, my younger one finished high school... and it required 100 errands and award ceremonies. Why don't they make all into one? Maybe because they do not want all their audience in a comma by the time they finish... I guess it is better to have them divided in separate interests I suppose...

I have been taping, editing etc a class, plus one that is back at U-thrive yaay!

Also I started to use more the instagram, which is easier to click an image and post from there.... I still love the blog more but it requires me to sit, think, type something more or less cohesive lol and transfer my said clicked images into the computer.
In general, I have been spending less time online, and more time painting.

Anyway, here is a picture of what's on my desk at the moment. One of my art journals, and the beginnings of some tiny dolls: ♥

Excuse my messy desk. I wanted to participate in the 6th anniversary of WOYWW What's on your work desk Wednesday: Congrats! I have participated in the past, always interesting!

Thanks for visiting! This post shared with PPF ♥ too and with Kim here

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She is here!

I am so thrilled at the moment! My finished doll Violetta arrived finally yesterday! She had been lost in the mail, took forever to get here from TX, but she arrived in perfect condition and she looks so pretty! Thanks Jenna and Jan for your beautiful work! I am very, very happy to have her, and this team was fun! But  it went just too fast!

Photo by Jan Conwell

And here with Tshilaba, before she went back home to Ohio:

As for other projects, for the past few days I have been too busy with some "easy" reorganizing of my kid's room. What was a half a day project ended up in a full week expedition to the past, along with a new piece of furniture and digging in the closet and a serious Spring cleaning. I got rid of tons of stuff, some was plain trash (how kids manage to keep wrappers for one solid year after they "vacuum" is a mystery to me) And tons of donation items (She grew up like a foot in the past months and nothing fits her anymore. Literally!) And I had been using one of the drawers in her dresser for all my babies' memorabilia. Well, no more. A teen's gotta have her space, so I had to go to memory lane, edit my baby mementos to a very basic little box, and re pack in my own closet LOL

I also went to open a new blog, just for paintings. Dolls are taking over everything :oD And by that I mean, virtually (in the blog) and locally as in kitchen, craft room, desk.... my goodness do they reproduce fast! :oP
So you are welcome to go visit, even if it is still an empty house. Soon it will have images and all the nice things that make a blog fun... like readers! :oD

I think I will start it with a bang: A giveaway! I will post details soon.

Doll News and Traveling Updates

I have so many news on the traveling dolls! Some are stressing though... but I will start with the good stuff:

My twin dolls Zeb and Calee are having so much fun! They went to Texas running away from a bad experience, remember? Zeb acquired a mustache and a fancy jacket there. Well, this is their latest trip to Florida where Calee changed her looks, you have to see her eyes and tutu!

As for the WIP pictures of the crow doll Tshilaba, she is all done and ready to go:

Crow mask

Do you see a bird around here?

Without mask, visiting Wren and baby

As for the stressing news: We were just waiting for Violetta (my doll) to come back from TX, but she seems to be lost in the mail :o(  Same thing happened to Luna last year, remember the Iceland volcano with the unpronounceable name? She got stuck in the mail for almost a month! Please keep your fingers crossed and hopefully she will make it home safe.

And last but not least, a baby frog! Made by Carolyn, from the Touring Baby team... As soon as I opened that package she jumped out and told me "I'm the queen of the box!!!! (Titanic movie style).

~ So I guess I will make her a crown, what do you think?

P.S. I just noticed that a bunch of your comments in older posts are gone! What happened to blogger?

Working on a mask and twitter

This is what's on my table right now:

Clay drying. Sorry the pic is blurry

It is a crow mask for my Eagles team in the traveling dolls. She arrived here pretty much all done, and I had no idea what to do to for her so... a mask was a nice element. Being she a magical shape-shifter and all :o)

Painted and added some glaze to eyes

More pictues will be posted as I have them ready, then she will go back home.

I hardly watch TV channels anymore. Mostly just sit to watch a movie. But today by chance I heard this thing about twitter, and how so many people just type any kind of stuff without "filtering" it first. So they guy was saying there should be a kind of step where you can actually stop and think if you should twit that. Something like "Is this what you really want to twitt?"  LoL it makes so much sense to me, but I wonder if it would make the site popular?? It for sure would help some posters keep their job!

I love twitter and like the short postings, I enjoy the links people post and see what people are up to in there. The only thing I do not like is when someone goes bananas and post 28 twitts in a row.... or when they say  "I'm taking a shower" or "I ate 10 burritos in a row" oh my gosh LoL .. those twitts, I can live without!

I love my blog too, in fact I love it best but it takes a bit longer to compose a post here and add pictures etc...
And by the way, did you guys noticed they changed the blog again? I just noticed it has a new button on the bottom right to add a location. I don't think I will ever use it.

I will be listing more tiny dolls on ebay. But first I have to fix the keyboard. The letter i and letter e are not cooperating with me... crazy! :o]

These past few days...

... have been so crazy busy with all kinds of things! House stuff, kids stuff, life stuff. But one awesome stuff is that, coincidentally, I have many visiting Art Dolls at the same time!

I have a sweet piggy from Sue, in the touring babies (I still have to take nice pics):

A gypsy (made by Jenna), here visiting with Wren (made by Jan) And dear Wren just left with baby Ingrid.

A monsterish lady, who is getting a body (from Mealy Monster Land) -I don't have pictures ready for posting but she is looking awesome!

...Oh! And remember Zeb and Calee? They sent a postcard!

Thanks Lezlei, that was a really cute idea!
Now I have to plan to sit and list in my shop all kinds of goodies that I have ready to go. One more baby will go soon to ebay, and more ACEO to my Etsy shop.

Here's the other one!

I made her a dress, bonnet and that's the hardest part of all, not being a seamstress... But what do you all think? I picked a very cheerful orange color :o)

Here's with the other baby girl and a Teddy bear to give an idea of size.

Another picture:

I am not sure yet where I'm going to list them. I guess I can try one in each site? (Etsy and ebay)
Thanks for visiting!

Traveling doll from the BBQs (how to add eyes)

 

Little Madga is such a funny girl! The first thing she said when she came to visit me was “Are the lights out?” I thought she was kidding, but then I realized she still didn’t have eyes! So I told her it was a sunny day, and she was soon to see it. We found a nice pair of glass eyes and after getting Emily’s OK, we removed her eyelashes and started to work on her face. To see this is the tutorial please visit my doll blog HERE 
Thanks!

Better than a party!

Yesterday I had an asweome gathering: 2 dolls and one painting showed up for me to play with!
Remember all the stuff I had happening at the same time? well, this is the results:

A wooden doll from Jan in TX (My Eager Eagles Team)

This is Wren and she is expecting a baby!

A half started doll from Emily in Utah (My BBQs Team)

Panzón is giving Madga a nice welcome.

And this beautiful lady from the Gut Art collaborative team. I'm going to work on this painting tomorrow and show you the progress!

The colors are much nicer in person, my scanner can't capture it.

Plus, we started the Traveling doll blog too! HERE is my doll going to Jenna in OH

OWOH Blog Event

Welcome blog travelers!

 http://awhimsicalbohemian.typepad.com 
OWOH event

For those that come here for the first time, the one thing you'll notice right away is that I love painting, and I love sculpting art dolls. When I remember I take pictures to make tutorials and post them here. I also have some demos in video.
I live in California, I'm a mom of teens and wife to a wonderful (and very patient) man. We have a cat that decided to move in to let us feed him, and we rescued a doggy last year, who now happily digs holes all over the back yard. They are a lot of fun to watch and great source of inspiration:

 

ACEO size

ACEO size

When I was little girl I started my art career in my grandma's wall. She let me make fabulous murals of mermaids and squirrels and all kinds of fun stuff. I wanted to grow up to be an opera singer or a mermaid.
Well, few decades later, and I did not become a singer (for the benefit of human kind) and thank goodness I am not a mermaid either! But I continued to draw, paint and create. If I'm not doing something creative, I'm not happy. And no one wants me cranky around here! LoL

For this awesome blog event I have 3 gifts. One for each area I like working on:

 An ACEO mermaid:

 A mermaid doll:

And a cool painting:

All you have to do is post here to say hello, tell me where you come from and what gift you want.

Everybody from everywhere in the world is welcome! (I am #164 in the OWOH list)

I will be making 3 different random selections for each gift, so each participating will be playing to get what they like best according to their post.

The results will be given on the 17th of February and I will contact each winner to get their info and send the art.

Good Luck!

...thanks for visiting, hope to see you again soon!
OH! And we are also having a OWOH giveaway at the touring baby blog!

Cloth dolls

I am currently and slowly working on 2 cloth dolls.
The first one is Claudia Crow, who is a re-worked dolly. She has a video, which will be redone as well. Originally, the story I made for her, a nice girl who are the wrong cupcake, and turn into a crow.... she kept her hands in flesh tone, but seems like that was not quite right. So now she has crow color all over, she completery changed. I think she looks cute, but then again... I am partial ;o)

Before

After

And the other dolly WIP picture. I think she looks more like my mini paintings, yes? That has been my goal for a long time but it is easier said than done!

I didn't give her ears because I am planning to have her have hair and a hairband. So lets see how she looks at the end :o)

Hearts, chicken and a dolly

I will start with the chicken, she will have her personal post shortly but for now she's hangin' in there with there girls. Her name is Petunia and was made for Illustration Friday. I think she turned out cute :o)
And I have hearts in my mind. Well, chocolate hearts but for now paper hearts will do, right?

I have been working also on a new doll, but I am kind of stuck at the moment. I am not sure if I want to paint her one way or the other so I left her sitting by the window in the kitchen. I kept all mirrors away so she won't get scared of her head at this point :oP

Awesome Saturday!

I had great awesome things waiting for me in the mail box... Guess who is back?? Luna!

Little green Luna came back home with lots of treasures and her journal full of mementos and her traveling story:
Here's with Victoria, who will be traveling back to Florida on Monday!

For those new readers that don't know who Luna is, click HERE to see the beginning of her travels, also HERE for more and HERE too. Thanks Jasmoon-Butterfly and DellaRae Dezines!

Frida Kahlo Doll challenge

Do I have fun news! I am running the ADO mini monthly challenge of July from the 1st till the 31st, and my theme is Frida Kahlo! You don't have to be part of ADO to participate, just make a Frida doll -any size, any style or materials- and post her in your blog! Send me a link and I will post them all here, and we can have them in the ADO blog as well.

Pretty Banner made by Dorote from Lithuania

July is Frida's birth month, and she is a great source of inspiration for women, people dealing with chronic pain, artists that like Folk, or Latin styles, and more than anything, she inspires to keep going even if life goes weird on you.

Yes, she has a lot of drippy red paintings, sometimes uses gross details, I do not agree with her political views :oP her life was very hard most of the time... but her intricate self portraits, the smaller size format she preferred, and the subject of her art, so local and unusual for the time, is what made her popular and famous.

It is always interesting to me, to see that the artists are the reflection of their time, country, era... not only of their own self and their own individual needs/ideas, but of their whole generation.

I can't wait to see what dolls you all can come up with! :oD

And while I'm at it, why don't we make some paintings as well?

New babies!

I have been working on my polymer clay baby dolls. You can see in the right module the listings, but I will post a link here too.
This is Brookie: (Sold)


This is Claire: (Sold)



Here they are together playing with the toys:


Listings HERE

ADO event

If you are into dolls, you will enjoy clicking on ebay and check out the great selection ADO is offering all this week. CLICK HERE

Cats, Dogs and Traveling Dolls

OMG February already?
Updates in our old-cat new-dog drama:
Well, we are not happy feline campers. Panzon is eating out, fast then he's gone the rest of the day. He doesn't want to come in, and I am very happy it is not as cold as it was weeks ago. We fed him treats every time we walked Scruffie infront of him, so he will eventually connect her with a nice feeling. At least he is not all puffed up anymore! :oP
And our dogie has two names. Scruffie and "Chiquita". Yeah, we like to make things complicated I guess LoL
I took some pictures to share:


Doesn't he look lonely?

And one more WIP picture of my Traveling Doll Project:


I have her story all written down, I'll post it in a couple of more days, just to keep some mystery going ho ho ho ho

Oh, don't forget to join me in the OWOH giveway HERE if you have not done so already :o)

One World, One Heart GIVEAWAY

Contest closed now. Thanks so much for visiting!
Hello there!
I am participating in this awesome One Word One Heart giveaway! I am #317 in the OWOH list.
Welcome all new visitors, greetings from California, thanks for stopping by!
People responding to THIS post will get a chance to win one of THREE gifts from me:
I have 3 original art pieces, each one is a First place but we will have three first places, yaay! why not?? LoL

The theme is a trip on a flying carpet... Each of the pieces represents my different "art trips" I have done from different interests: sculpting Art Dolls, Painting on canvas, and Art Cards.

Please post your first name and country, all countries are welcome!
You only need to post one comment on this posting! (Click on the top logo to see recent postings)

The winners will be selected on Feb 14th and posted here on the 15th.
So don't forget to "follow" my blog or bookmark and check back!
If you are in twitter, make sure you keep an eye open too, as I will be posting the winners there as well.
Good luck everyone! And thanks for stopping here! :oD

EDIT: I forgot to mention, I am also part of the ADO giving, so visit that BLOG HERE for a chance of 1 of 17 gifts from other ADO members! yaay! My donation to their blog is a Frida camafeo, or cabochon. You can see the pic there.

Azura and her cupcake

This little thing is called Azura. Her hair is blue, her tutu is purple, her wings transparent and shiny. I offered her a cupcake and she climbed on my hand all smiles, but when I tried to take pictures of her without it, she almost bit me!


Listed HERE

February is coming...

... and with it comes St. Valentine's day, love cards, hugs and elves eating cup cakes. What, you never heard that?
Well, around here we all know that the best way to catch a fairy or an elf is with sweets, so I made tiny cupcakes and a bunch of them showed up.

Click the picture to see the auction.

SOLD



The best part is that these are not fattening ;o)

Winter preparations and more Re-works

I know in many States and Countries, the snow has been falling for a while now, but here in my little spot of the world, the Winter actually started today. So I made preparations for it as follows:

-Get the yard ready for winter... check

-Replant a rose bush to a sunnier spot... check

-Scream like a lil' girl after finding a nasty spider in my glove... check

-Asking son for help... check

-Holding up the words" I told you not to..." when the son walks with muddy shoes in the house... check

-Cleaning the mud and changing driveway light that were supposed to be replaced weeks ago... check

-Losing the stoopid screw of the light fixture in a bushy plant of the flowerbed under the light fixture... check

-Forty minutes around the bushes looking for the screw with a magnet, while cursing in English and Spanish... check

-Getting bandages for all the arm scratches.... And feeling really shtoopid realizing that magnets won't ever attract brass screws... check

Asking son for help finding the screw (and putting up with jokes like "so you're missing a screw", "do you need a bigger magnet?".... check

-Washing the other light fixtures while son looks around the flower bed trying to find the lost screw... check

-Looking in disbelief as son has dug out half of the flowerbed, and still no screw.... check

-Making a list of things for HomeDepot (outside light fixtures, light bulbs.... new plant for flowerbed).... check

Making a call to yell at DH because really, he should've change the light bulb weeks ago..... pending

:oD

And well, I can't leave before showing a picture of my paperclay heads I am reworking on:

Before and After; Nose bridge softened; cheeks and forehead added to take the bulgy look of the eyes; lips sanded down to a more realistic proportion.
I made this head probably 2 years ago, and left them on the side because I just knew I was doing something terrible, I just didn't know how to fix it. Forward 40+ months and I have learned enough things to see where the mistakes are and how to change it.
This heads will not have a "baby" look. I guess adding enough clay they could look like that, but I think I want them more for a fantasy looking doll.

So... Never give up! and Happy Winter solstice! :oD