Hello Bloglandia Bloggers and Blogettes...

Again been away way way way to long...won't make excuses other than to say..."Where the HECK does the time go"....that's the million dollar question!!!

We have been busy here at  Creager Studios.... creating a little of this and a lot of that... trying to stay cool in our sweltering heat of the Arizona Desert.... but there is a change in the air...our mornings are actually bearable and down right coolish...YIPPPPEEE!  It always gives hope that Fall is indeed just around the corner...waiting to slip in and make it's self at home....ahhhhh, I LOVE fall time....the only downside to fall in the lower desert region is the color changes..I REALLY miss that....must resort to taking slow strolls through Michaels Craft Outlet Store Fall Foliage isle  with eyes partly closed  and pretend I am in the north country walking down a tree lined country road....and with the smell of cinnamon candles on isle 6 hanging in the air.... makes me wanna spread a blanket, open a thermos of hot cider and read a book in my colorful surroundings...but I found out the hard way that Michael's frowns upon customers doing this....so I just have to hold the image all in my mind....

Instead we start to make 'Fall Art' ....  all things Halloween and fun.  Started the year with a new Miniature (1:12th scale)  'Zombie Dude' ....but this is no ordinary Zombie.... this dude prefers carrots to brains ....a Veggie Dude if you will.  But he is Zombie non the less.....

 

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And the first of Our Original haunted Ghost Shadow Boxes ...that we started creating years and years ago...and in doing this one it made me realize it has been about 5 years since we made the last one....YIKES!  So needless to say he was fun to work on and makes me wanna do another....

This guy is 'Count Leopold Mordecay Von Ravensthorne....and his Pet Bat 'Guzzler'  ' a Long Gone Vampire who's portrait (and possibly him) still hangs in Ravensthorne Manor.

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Both are newly listed on EBAY....

Lets see...I also 'redid' our Miniature Gallery on our web site this summer, worked on lots of 'house' projects.... and made a few interesting purchases that were to good to pass up....more to follow on that...

Great to be back....

Hugs to All

Jodi

Hollybirdmas ...EEEEEK!

I woke up this morning all cheery and somewhat zingy in step and somewhere between my second cup of coffee and walking towards my sculpting table it hit me like a sack of yams laced with holly leaves.....THANKSGIVING IS IN A FEW DAYS AND CHRISTMAS IS RIGHT ON IT'S TAIL!!!!
EEEEEK...
I should have seen the warning signs ...  a few deranged neighbors have their Christmas lights and   Holiday Sentinels already  standing in place in their front yards.... tunes of cheer are blasting over the market intercoms ...mentioning those buzz words of turkey, cranberry, stuffing, holly, snow, presents, chestnuts and so on....all with cheery tones...up to this point I have been able to view them as 'white noise' ...but I fear no longer.!!   Not to take this is a negative direction but this will be my first Thanksgiving and Christmas without my Mom in over 60 years...and as these were the holidays where she really would shine...i.e. decorations, baking, ho ho ho'ing ...it will be a very different holiday season for me this year.  I plan to make a few of her favorite recipes (from her hand written recipe cards) , belt out a Christmas tune or two while sipping egg nog laced with brandy in her honor... make Rum Balls for friends and family (she made a mean Rum Ball)  and just reflect on wonderful childhood memories with Mom....  I think I may be channeling her actually as I remember she too had that 'panic mode' she displayed each year when she realized  that the holiday season was all of a sudden 'HERE'....

We will enjoy this Thanksgiving with good friends and family this year.....and Christmas is still up in the air as to what is going on....  I always refuse to think about Christmas until the last Kid Made paper turkey is removed from the fridge  and the last bit of left overs are digested....then and only then do I 'bring on the Nog'...

Have A Super Thanksgiving All

Hugs

Sunday Morning in the Tipi

Happy Sunday Morning from the Tipi Inhabitants of Havasu....  Today is Richard's 68th Birthday and what better way to celebrate than with a beautiful desert sunrise  (I fibbed a little and told him that I ordered this one up special for his day) ... I kid you not these are the true colors of a desert sunrise ...breathtaking is an understatement . The only thing more exciting than sitting in a tipi with this sky is to be sitting out on the glass calm lake in a kayak...which we need to get on pretty soon!  Anyway the following are some pics that I popped yesterday evening and this morning of the finished tipi inside (more to come)  ...The wood in the fire pit is for Richard's early morning Birthday Fire (which was warm and lovely by the by)  ... the other two are just random shots....as my Indian spirit guide is a Raven...Richard carved this raven Chair for me a few years ago (it is a N.W. Design which I adore) .  I need to get onto making a new bag or two for this years tipi...a tradition I started about 4 years ago.... so peaceful to sit in the tipi on a cold fall afternoon with the warmth of the sun hitting the canvas and feeling the warmth inside the tipi....beading!  I am NOT a beader...but I do enjoy the relaxing task and try my best....

It was a great morning....we are so content that the tipi is up and there and ready for us to escape to whenever we feel the need..... Richard has already taken a nap out there in that sun warmth....ahhhhhh!

Now back to work on dolls....

Have a wonderful Sunday

Hugs

Tipi Tippin

 

 

Well it is a Bright Sunshiny Day in Lake Havasu.... Birds are singing, there is a slight nip in the air and the tipi is UP!!!!  We LOVE this time each year.... always seems like a new beginning  and the start of endless possibilities....

Of course...we worked our arses off yesterday and are almost too sore to move today but we did drag ourselves out to the tipi at 5am to enjoy our first pot of coffee and a warm fire... the pains just seem to melt away... 

We rebuilt the tipi flooring a couple weeks ago ...fixing and repairing the flagstone and then adding a outer layer of pavers around the fire pit flagstone...less gravel under the reed and canvas flooring that goes in today....and it just looks cooler.  The other 'bare bones' shot of the tipi before canvas is actually taken last year....but it looked the same this year....almost!!  We have been doing this for 7 years now and each year the poles are a bit different....but this year....we set up and took them down 4 times...something was just not right.... poles to far apart at the top (cloth won't fit right) to close together...same thing!   door poles off center...not spread enough...spread to much.....LOL...I really should be taping this event as you have not lived until you see two  artists , each one extremely anal about how everything should look and be placed...setting up a tipi....!!!  I think we might be real contenders for the  $10,000 award for funnest video....  yesterday was the best..... BUT...we got them set, we put on the canvas (2 tries) and stood back and smiled....waiting a good 10 minutes to see if it all fell down.... at 11 minutes...we knew things were Hunky Dorey!!!  SHE STANDS!!!!

Now to do the 'tricking' out inside...lining, hanging up stuff, pillows, hides etc etc... I will do a short video and put in on here when complete...

OK...I am off for the day... changing direction a bit with the doll we are working on....thinking of something else.... might go for some elves...talk about different direction!!

Hugs

Facebook Free.....

Good Morning Bloggers in the Joyful Land of Bloglandia.... tis I...the woman who is getting all kinds of work done.... and "Why"? is she getting all this work done you may be asking...because...she...Me!  (OK this is getting confusing) ...I disconnected from Facebook!   I severed a tether  from the Mother Ship and struck out on my own for a bit....ZOWIE, what a feeling.  You never ever really know how ,dare I say it..'Hooked' you are until you go 'Cold Turkey' (mmmmmm Turkey)!!    .....at first the shaking was a little intense but I saw it as a form of exercise (something I had not been getting much of having been glued to F.B.)  ... next came the questions...Holy crap, what did I leave over there in little file folders  that I now cannot retrieve.... ???
Then I tell myself..."self....it's not like you left pentagon papers there, or secret formulas, just a few old pictures, a few recipes and a whole lot of words that you can never get back anyway.  What I do miss are the friends.....but...I have left long long trails of bread crumbs and I am hoping that many will find their way here.  I left rather abruptly , not even a note on the fridge....

So now...with all this extra free time I am indeed getting oodles accomplished ....and it does indeed 'Feel Good'  .  Rather like the 'Olden days'  (pre computers) ... I basically was not on the computer all day yesterday and when I got on this morning...guess what I saw...something I have not seen in a very long time...'dust' on my laptop...yes indeedy ...Dust!!!  A strange site to behold....I would have guessed radioactive fallout over dust  any other time. 

The trade off is work accomplished....a wonderful feeling. 

Yesterday we started  the long process of setting up our tipi for winter use.   She has been safely packed away all summer away from the extreme heat and sun... now she is ready to enjoy the company of friends, warm fires and  hours of relaxation....this is something we always look forward to each fall...when the temps start to cool.  We have been performing this same ritual for 6 years now and yesterday the neighbor on the back side of us  looked over the wall and said "So, are you gonna get this done or what"?  ...LOL...seems each year they look forward to this process  and have been waiting with baited breath....cool!  We want to have everything up and running by Thanksgiving with the tipi...now we need to buy a half cord of wood.

We are working on a Harry Potter Commission  at the moment...should be a really fun piece....  Ron Weasley on the back of the Horse Chess Piece   from the first story....helping harry to get past the Knights.... so far it is turning out great...will post pictures here when finished.  After that....Harry playing Quidich...chasing the Golden Snitch.  And we have to figure out what to do for a Christmas piece this year...times slipping away once again...thinking of a miniature Christmas Carol piece....

OK...time to  get back to work and let my computer gather a bit of dust for the day ... I really do promise to be here more and more...with lots of this and that's....stay tuned...

Hugs

Happy Thursday

Happy Thursday Blog Buddies.....

I have added a recent doll...BabySitting Witch....watching over 3 'Little Monsters' while their parents are off scary the Halloween Trick'O' Treaters.....  she is a 1:12th Miniature Scale....

So we are now planning the next piece....a Harry Potter Commission.... Ron Weasley riding the 'Horse' life sized chess piece from the Sorcerer's Stone, on the chess board...all in miniature...will be fun, then onto Harry and Hermine. 

Other than that we are doing lots of this and a whole bunch of that around the house.  Decided that this winter ( we have pretty mild winters here in AZ) we will do lots of Fix Up Work around the house...some very needed and others just fun cool small stuff I wanna do.... though in saying that we are right now clouding up and it is thinking strongly of rain at the moment....UGH!

Richard at the moment  is 'restringing' my large studio  window blind....it dips down on one side when I open it and I think he finally took pity on me...LOL! 

I need to have a couple garage sales this winter (again our time of the year to have them...summer way to hot)  so I need to organize stuff for that.

Man you would think with all the crap I need to get done and all the running I do...that I would weigh only 12 pounds....HA! ...not fair!

Roasted Garlic Pork Roast this cold stormy weekend (comfort food) and a few new movies we have not seen yet.....

Have a Great Weekend everyone..

Hugs
Jodi

Howdy Everyone in Bloglandia.... Here I go again with the apologies ...it has been ages since I have been here...no excuse really other than I get so darn busy I forget the enjoyable things to do...and also this has been on e WEIRD Year for me....Losing my Mom, not being able to focus as well on work, a million and one projects around the house , a brutally Hot Year here in Arizona and on top of everything else....we are discussing a Move to Oregon.....and though I am jazzed at the prospect of a move... the mere thought of packing up two shops and a big studio plus all my household stuff makes me want to run and hide and shake and quiver...a very scary thought.  Good news bad news kinda thing.  Richard and I have reached our limit with the hot summers here and lack of culture...we both crave a place where we can got to small art shows, hear local musicians while chomping on a burger and sipping  wine.... to enjoy these things we must now travel to Las Vegas or Phoenix.... each 3-4 hours....UGH!  I adore my house but, am willing to look again in an area I am truly happy.  If we could we would move at the beginning of the year but we have a few things to do to the house and then there is that pesky little task of 'selling' it.... with the market...who knows. So we are setting our sights on 1-2 years....EEEEK!  So in the meantime we sit and dream of greener pastures (literally)  and new opportunities. I look forward to a weekly growers market, great stores and Yes, even the possibility of selling small art pieces at a local art/craft fair....something we have not been able to do in years and years.... So gang, this is what we have been up to.  We have made a few dolls since August, mainly commission work and a few for EBAY... This one above is Called Princess Buttercup....a little girl dressed for Halloween  with her Fairy Godmother Ogre... We also made a miniature (1:12th miniature scale)   Witch , babysitting 3 tiny Monster Babies.
I think I am ready to get into Christmas....Santa's, Christmas Elves, Christmas Carol characters, and a few commissions of Harry Potter.....

Hope everyone is enjoy their fall time.... Thanks for hanging in here even though I am SO HORRIBLE at posting these days...I will I will try harder....

Hugs,
Jodi