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  • Nine Months.

    October
    25
    2006

    I spent the entire night lastnight being nine months pregnant with the baby’s head pressing against my pelvic bone ready to come out.

    I spent the entire night going about my business as if I were on the verge of delivery, but not quite.

    The entire night being a weebol-wobble, my left hand against my lower back, rolling my hips side to side because my belly was so big and the pressure of the baby’s head was making me crazy.

    All night long, I was told by doctors and nurses that they’re advice to me was to get into the Labor & Delivery room as soon as possible, and all night I wanted to get more stuff done before I went to the hospital. I kept telling myself the baby would wait, it would not come until I was finished.

    I totally woke up feeling pregnant, too. Good grief, let me never have a dream like that again.

    Lisa Made Me Do It.

    October
    24
    2006

    She made me do it. I had forgotten all about it, and I definitely needed reminding. Now it’s your turn.

    Stuff, and Things, and More Stuff.

    October
    24
    2006

    Days are flying by lately, zipping before my eyes in a blur. We’ve got construction going on here at the homefront – a little bit of this, a lot of that, and in the end, we’re two steps closer to where we want to be with our household projects.

    Did you know we’ve never had a working garage door that opened and closed – with actual space to drive a car into the garage and park? Nope, we haven’t.

    We’ll have that by the weekend. I’m freakin’ out a little bit about that. We spent a good chunk of time this weekend clearing the stuff and things – and more stuff – out of the garage to get rid of years worth of collected – uhm, stuff (for lack of a better word), and then assembled the remains in an orderly fashion so there’s space for the contractors.

    We did yardwork, which was pretty much negated by the rain and wind Saturday night, but we did get a lot of things taken care of (trimming a few branches off our tree, which was fun and really took a lot out of us – but cost much less than hiring someone to do a complete hack job of it), now by the end of the day tomorrow our property – well, all but two feet of it which has been lost in translation – will be surrounded by six foot privacy fencing.

    The birds will be happy. My bulbs will be happy. Our house will be happy because it will have a barrier against the northern wind this winter. I will have a beautiful backdrop for photographs, and above all else, I will not be distracted visually while I’m painting.

    I think tomorrow afternoon, I will have a naked party in my backyard. All by myself. Whose gonna know? (ssssh, it’s just between you and me, and my fenceposts.)

    Then there was pumpkin picking, and carving. The girls wanted their pumpkins to have carvings of things that didn’t exist in stencils, so I drew them for them. That was a challenge! I did my best, and we carved our little pumpkins out, and these are the results:

    pumpkin carving george monkey
    This is Chickeymonkey’s pumpkin, George. Of course it’s George! She’s a monkey-aholic. He turned out cute for totally wingin’ it, I think.

    Catybug’s was much more of a challenge. She has a thing for penquins, and likes Bruce. Yeah. Okay. Figuring out what to cut out and what to leave was no easy task, so it took a lot of planning, and stuff. It’s always nice to have dry erase markers handy for this kind of stuff. That battery operated carver was nice, too.

    pumpkin carving bruce penquin
    Mine – my pumpkin is still sitting on the table. Big fat guy, he is, nice flat front, a little green around the edges. He’s perfect. I drew up my own carving, too. I’m excited to get’er done, but I need time, and peace and quiet, and patience. Today doesn’t look like a good day for that – we’ll see what tomorrow is like.

    Oh yes, and the blog design. I’ve been working on that, too. I’d like to finish it today, we’ll see how that goes with all the running around and tripping over nailguns and things!

    So. You’re all caught up now with all the stuff and things and more stuff that’s going on here, pretty much.

    What’s up with you? Where ya been, and how ’bout them snowflakes?

    2006 Pumpkin Carving Contest

    October
    23
    2006

    The Second Annual Intricateart.com Pumpkin Carving Contest is now open! If you’ve carved your pumpkin, go on and get a Wicked picture of it and enter the contest!

    2006 pumpkin carving contest entry page   
    TELL YOUR FRIENDS!
    2006 pumpkin carving contest
    Save this image and link to either the contest entry page, or the carving page!
    The image is 145 pixels wide, a good width for blog sidebars.

    2006 Pumpkin Carving Contest

    October
    21
    2006

    ‘Tis that time of year, I think. What do you think? Shall I host a Second Annual Intricateart.com Pumpkin Carving Contest?

    10 days ’til Halloween, there’s still enough time for everyone to grab a pumpkin and carve it up into an artistic masterpiece to share with the world.

    Doesn’t that sound simply

    ???????????

    Over the past week or so, I’ve had over 1,500 hits from folks looking for a contest. Last year’s was so much fun! See the results of the 2005 Pumpkin Carving Contest here. A lot of people submitted photos of their pumpkins – it was so cool to see all the different carvings all lit up!

    We picked up our pumpkins lastnight, and we’ll be carving this weekend. We’ve got some super spOoOky things planned for ours this year!

    If you’re up for it, leave a comment and I’ll make all the preparations. Maybe this year I’ll include a prize – how ’bout a signed battery operated carver? OooOOoOOoooo….

    UPDATE: I’ll launch the 2006 Pumpkin Carving Contest on Monday, October 23. It will run through October 30th, voting will take place on Halloween only (times to be determined). Get carvin’!

    2006 pumpkin carving contest entry page

    Got Towels?

    October
    20
    2006

    Not long ago, I added myself to Simply Sassy’s list-o-joiners for a neat little Kitchen Towel Exchange. (Buy 6, get 36! I bent the rules a little, it says to send out one towel and 6 letters, but I’m sending towels along with my letters. Why not?!)

    I’ve received my towel, and I’m looking for a few more folks who would like to join in, so I can send these out and keep things rolling! Paige, Clara and Tommi, I’ve got you already. I need three more willing towel exchangers.

    Wanna play?

    Eye Ate It #4

    October
    18
    2006

    eye ate it oil painting brown m&m
    Here’s #4 in the Eye Ate It™ series, a brown M&M on an orange dish. I know a few of you who are really going to have a sweet tooth after you see this one, and I will not apologize for that. I’ve been sitting here snarfing them down, so please – go get yourself a bag and try to catch up, would you? My Hips & I would appreciate it if you did.

    One set is now complete in my Eye Ate It™ series. They look awfully tasty together, see?

    eye ate it paintings 1-4 walnut blackberry m&m goldfish art oil
    As shown:
    #1: Walnut, #3: Blackberry
    #4: Brown M&M, #2: Goldfish
    I’m really enjoying painting these little 4×4’s. It’s stretching my brain, and I feel like I’m getting a really great refresher in depth, shadow and dimension. Who knew these tasty treats would teach me so much?


    Enjoy.

    We’re Late!

    October
    18
    2006

    Catybug giggled as I doodled out her “sandwich bag art” this morning. We had 5 minutes. Then 3 minutes. Then one minute – then we were late to leave the house. When we’re about to be late, and I still have a headful of hair to comb – that would be me – the little stick figure with the “Oh No! Mr. Bill!” look on his face.

    I dug the espresso machine out of the pantry lastnight, cleaned it up and stopped by the coffee shop for some ground beans and vanilla flavoring. That was a smart move, because I needed that latte to put me in overdrive and get the girls to school on time today.

    Now if I could just figure out how to go back to “idle” mode…

    (zip da dee doo dah, and all that is holy and caffinated.)

    Eye Ate It #3

    October
    16
    2006

    eye ate it blackberry oil painting
    I just completed #3 in the Eye Ate It™ Series, a nice plump Blackberry. Unfortunately, my poor little perishable looks pathetic now next to its sweet and former self of a painting, so Eye May Not Eat It this time around. I have, however, eaten a few of its cell mates. (cellophane – hahaha. get it?)

    4-inches square (all of them in the series will be this size), a perfect sized oil painting for bite sized goodness.

    I’ve added the scans of the first two in the series to my gallery today as well. You can see them here:


    Eye Ate It #1 : Walnut
    Eye Ate It #2 : Goldfish

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