Holiday Hootenanny on SpookyTime Jingles 2009!

Holiday Hootenanny on SpookyTime Jingles 2009!
Originally uploaded by AmbitionsDesign

There will be additional holiday goodies on SpookyTime Jingles in 2009, along with our favorite Halloween and Christmas offerings!! (Very exciting!!)

As Dani puts it, "We have SpookyTime and SnowyTime, and now we are adding SweetyTime!"

Updates are always on the 13th, so come give us a look in two weeks to see what little spooks, jingles or sweet "snacks" we have to satisfy your collecting needs!!

Hope to see you in 2009!
Laurie

"Hopper" the Pumpkin Bunny

I started painting on "Hopper" the Pumpkin Bunny yesterday and have a lot of work left to do in paint, but he made me giggle so I thought I would throw out a shot of him today to let you see how he is coming along. "Hopper" is one of several pumpkin bunnies that are enlisted annually to assist the Easter Bunny in preparing and delivering Easter treats. Unlike Santa's elves that we are all familiar with, the pumpkin bunnies have been left out of the story of Easter. (But as we all know there is no way a single bunny could do at Easter what Santa can't do by himself at Christmas, the story just hasn't been written yet.)


The pumpkins disguise themselves as bunny rabbits by wearing bunny ears, painting their noses and wearing bunny teeth, plus putting on pastel garments to cover their pumpkin torsos. Because they learned to wear costumes at Halloween, they are all very comfortable dressing up and pretending to be something they really aren't. They look very angelic, but I must warn you that on occasion a bit of the "Halloween" pops out in their personality and they have been known to leave a rotten egg or two to a deserving human.

Hope you like Hopper and have a great day creating!!!
Laurie

Happy Monday!!

I'm afraid I have taken time off over the holidays and don't have anything new to show you that is completed or is a work in progress. The break and spending time with family has been rejuvenating so I am working today!!

I hope everyone had a joyous Christmas!!!

I'll be back with something in a day or two!!

Happy Creating!
Laurie

3 New WIPs

Three little Works In Progress (WIPs) today that I have been working on. We have a Skelly in a top hat (that I have plans on painting in a way I haven't done before so knock on wood that it works out), a Pumpkin Boy dressed for Easter with his bunny ears and big bow tie, and a Santa in a top hat holding Mrs. Claus' gift and two candy canes (one for her and one for him to have in their hot chocolate cocktails before they leave for the New Year's Ball...after all, they need a little incognito downtime too!!).

In addition to showing you the three little fellows above, I would like to thank the patrons, artists, friends and family that have made this past 6 months such an amazing experience for me. It seems impossible to me that I started this blog just this past June because of all the wonderful customers and cyber artist friends I have made in such a short amount of time. I correspond with many of you on a regular basis, and look forward to the generous give and take from many of you regarding creative tips, feeling like I have known you for years, not just months. The journey has been encouraging, thrilling, surprising, sometimes exhausting, and never ever boring!!! I now am working longer hours than I have ever worked before, but I have the energy and drive that I haven't experienced previously in my life. You all lift me to want to do bigger and better things in 2009 , and for that I say THANK YOU!!

I hope all of you have a wonderful holiday season and remember it isn't about the gifts you receive, but the gifts of love and friendship you give...I hope I have given many of you this gift.

Merry Christmas and Happy Hanukkah!!

Laurie

The Weather Outside is Frightful!!!

Whew, all I can say is -25 wind chill is stinging to the nostrils and face!! This past week has been "brrrr-city" and I am content today to spend most of the day indoors.

Yesterday afternoon we went to the final performance of "It's A Wonderful Life," at our local community theatre. I had already watched our DVD version three times this month, but I never seem to grow tired of the message in the story of George Bailey's life. The actors did a wonderful job and our "Mr. Potter" was perfectly played to the point that the crowd boo-ed the actor when he came out for the actors' final bow. Poor Stan, he was just too good!

I have been working on some new pieces and will probably show you a little peek of what I am up to tomorrow.

Stay warm and happy creating!!
Laurie

WIP Jingles and Spooks

As Christmas approaches and I finish up the Christmas pieces, I find I am feeling a new freedom to create the little skelly, spooks and pumpkin boys that are near and dear to my heart. After all, Halloween is only a little over 10 months away. I show three of the little "spooks" in progress below. I created an over sized top hat for one armless skelly (arms are still to come today), a pointed hat skelly and a little pumpkin head boy that is also in need of arms. I have some ideas on making them crossover pieces with Valentine's Day and Easter coming up so we will see what happens. Hmmmmm.....

Lots of heads and bodies in rough clay are sitting on a rack to dry just enough to toughen up the outside so that I can put details on them in the next day or two, or three, next week, two weeks...you get the idea.

I hope everyone is feeling the joy of the season as Christmas day approaches. I'm feeling very little stress this year for some reason and this week the creative juices are flowing. I just decided if a glass gets left in the sink or my "Christmas" cards don't get out until January, I'm not going to beat myself up over it. For anyone that has known me for years this just isn't normal for me, but I made a conscious decision to enjoy myself through the holidays and giving myself permission to follow through with it has been a great gift.

Here is wishing all of you the permission to sit and have a cup of cocoa (or my new favorite David Rio, Flamingo Vanilla Chai) and just breath in the wonder of the season.

Happy creating all!!
Laurie

Sharing Some Of What I Collect

Today our temperatures are in the single digits again with light snow so this is an indoor day!!! I had told you that I would show you some of the originals I have collected over the years and since I am in for the day it seemed like the perfect day to do this. This is a shelf of Santa, Father Christmas and Belsnickel figures that are wood carvings from 2 Nebraska carvers, Kevin Baxter and Dan Kuklis, with the addition this year of a Janell Berryman "Reindeer Santa". There are several ornaments laying on their sides on the shelf because the monkey-cats take joy in knocking them down and running off with them. I thought before they chewed on them and made me very upset I would just put them up and wait until they grow out of the crazy cat stage.



This little shelf just makes me smile and they are up all year long. Hope they serve as some eye candy for you and inspire you to buy handmade originals as they inspired me to do!!!!

Off to mix some clay so happy creating all!!
Laurie

Oh My Land---Brrrr Cold!!

I just got home from mailing out some spooks and jingles and I cannot believe the difference 2 days has made in our temperatures here. Last night we had -25 degree wind chill, and the day before I was outside without a coat on. We were at -7 degrees when Kelly went to work this morning, and at noon we were having a heatwave of 0. Tomorrow the chill continues with an 80% chance of snow. This is headed east/northeast so look out if you live in that direction. Well, at least it will be "Christmasy" here!!!

I have one figure left on STJ, a cute little snowman by the name of "Ima Giftgiver" . If you have a snowman collector in your family, he would make a nice addition. He is a charming little character with a hint of the potential to be naughty, so go take a peek !!

Mixing clay today to start on some new pieces!!!
Stay warm and happy creating!!
Laurie

SpookyTime Jingles Updates Tonight Just After Midnight!!

Three little jingles....

and two little spooks on STJ tonight!!!

The artist at STJ are offering their final works for the 2008 holiday season...give them all a look for a special one of a kind holiday gift!!

HO-HO-HO!!!

Laurie

Thank you for the Blog Award!!!

Sorry I am late with posting this Joycee and Sonia...I have been busy, which I feel fortunate to have people interested in my work to keep me busy!! Just wanted you to know that I wasn't complaining. Anyway, thank you both for giving me the nod for this very lovely blog award.

The rules I was given are:

1. Add the logo to your blog. (done)
2. Link to the person from whom you

received this award (done above, click on their names to link to their blogs)
3. Nominate 7 or more blogs (getting ready to do this)
4. Leave a message on their blog,

letting them know they are "One Lovely Blog"!

So let me pass on the love...And my nominees are:
1. Sonya at Back Porch Pickins
2. Kim at Kim Hardt Originals
3. Lance at Crescent Hill Designs
4. Diane at Duda Daze
5. Sheila at Pieces of Me

6. Dani at Ambitions Design
7. David at Chicken Lips Folk Art

Well, I have messages to leave so we will do a picture post tomorrow!!

Laurie

Christmas Frenzy!!!

Whew, I almost have everything finished I need to paint before Christmas...just one or two things left, not 9 or 10 so I am taking a minute to exhale. Aahhhhh!!!

Time management....does anyone have the answer for a right-brained artist? I know what deadlines are, I meet deadlines, at least I use to meet deadlines. This late fall going into the Christmas season has sent me whirling with both my work and the addition of the tree farm plus a wee health scare that went on for 4 weeks and turned out fine. I hate asking for extensions and I have had to ask twice.

I can't seem to gauge the length of time a piece will take me to paint, even when I can see in my brain what it is going to look like. Since each piece is new and different I seem to underestimate what speed I can actually finish within. Anyone else suffer from this? Is there a solution? I can't set a deadline and say it is done when my eye says, "Oh no it isn't!!"

Please share your thoughts with me on this. Outside of elves that I have been asking for over the last 2+ months, I don't have a solution!!!

Oh, one more thing... SpookyTime Jingles updates December 13!!!! Just in time for us to box and ship you a new Jingle or little Spook as a gift!!

Sneak peek tomorrow!!
Laurie

2 Painted Spooks and Father Christmas

I am painting like crazy and still feel like a snail. I have managed to complete the two little spooks below, "Mad Hatter Skelly" and "Hocus Pocus Skelly" for the STJ update. Both figures ended up in Halloween paint, but the magician figure is a first for me so I still did something new for my figures. I still want to paint a "Hallomas" (Chris Klinger word) Skelly so it is on my "to do" list.

The two make a nice look together...similar, yet very different.

Full figures with bases.

Detail of Hocus Pocus Skelly...he does like his jewelry and border trimmed attire.

I painted his bucket to match his outfit!! Diva Skelly...HA!!

Mad Hatter Skelly has a lovely bat bow tie and some long spindly fingers.

Father Christmas has his first layer of stain on the paint, but I still have hours of work to do on his base and lower torso. He is getting there though. I mixed a new blue last night for his eyes and I'm liking the icy shade that came out.

That is what I have been up to and I need to get back to work on other pieces so we will talk to you after the 10th!!!! Very busy, as I know you all are this time of year!!!

Don't forget we update our SpookyTime Jingles pages on the 13th!!! Still time for a little treasure in your stocking!

Happy Creating and have a great day...snow here!!

Laurie

Something Painted Tomorrow!!

I thought I would let you know I will be showing you the two little spooks in paint tomorrow!!!!
Whew, back to work for me! Paint, paint, paint, paint.......

Happy Creating All!!
Laurie

2 Little Spooks and a Jingle

Sculpting again today and thought I'd show you what I've been doing this week. Below are two new WIP Skelly figures on boxes holding their little lanterns. I'm thinking one will be painted for Christmas and one for Halloween , but then again I don't have my paints mixed yet, so who knows...I have been known to change my mind.


One has high boots and a pointed cap and the other has on bat wing-tip shoes and a top hat.

I love doing Skelly figures...they can be cute or rather naughty looking!!

Below is the little jingle WIP...a short Santa sitting on his shoes. This little guy is "oh and ah-ing" over his candy cane treat.

Need to mix a new batch of clay and get to work so that I have new items for the SpookyTime Jingles update on the 13th. Elves, I need elves!!!!!!

Happy creating and have a great weekend!!
Laurie

2 New Santas

Two new Santa figures were finished today. One is a short squatty little guy with his hands coming together inside his cuffs. He is all of 5.5" high and has the pushed down boots. He is just a little guy!!


The second Santa figure is 7.75" tall and has big tall boots with large feet to support his figure. He has a lovely little face with a full beard and moustache and hands on his belly from a little chuckle he just had.

I'm really happy to be getting some commission work done and moving on to another group of figures to paint. This is such a crazy time of year with family and business obligations and creating some sort of balance in the middle, but I have to say I am loving it and all of the wonderful people I have met the last 6 months blogging. This is a joyous time of the year for me and I am thankful to all of you that read, leave notes and encourage me to do bigger and better things. Bless you all!!!

Happy creating and have a great day!!!

Laurie

2 Wonderful Artists!!

Wow, this past week has been amazing!!! We had a really good opening at the Christmas Tree Farm, and it is always such fun to see the little ones run through the trees to pick out "their" tree. They tend to favor the little trees and one little boy wanted to take home a newly planted tree...his parents had told him to pick a little one because their space was limited and so he did!! They did manage to convince him they could get one a little bit bigger.

Then I get an email from an artist that I admire so much and he wants my mailing address. This is what came in the mail yesterday--LUCKY ME!!!!!! Oh Chris, "Father Hallomas" is just the best and I love how the snow flakes look spider like. What a great spooky-sweet image down to the little ghosty in Santa's pocket. (It takes a talent to photograph a flat image and I tried really hard so hope this does the print justice.) The artist is Chris Klinger from Designs by CK and you must, must go look at his blog and his fabulous work. Chris is always listing on eBay so go get yourself an original for Christmas!!! Thank you CK--You are the BEST!!! I owe you one!!

Then last week I had another special treat---adorable Jackie Lauger of Fat Jak Originals happened to be on her way to Colorado for Thanksgiving and was driving past Kearney so she was sweet enough to agree to stop by for a few minutes (2 hours). She took my little delivery and we talked and talked while her sweet husband and 3 children watched a movie. The whole family looks like the pictures you see in the stores selling frames--just all too cute and charming!!!! Sometimes I feel like I live in a vacuum out here so it was so great to have a one-on-one with another clay artist.

Jackie, thank you and your family for taking the time to stop for the visit, information sharing, showing me your WIPS and for just being a doll!!!! Oh, and a big thanks from the Mister in my house for the weeble-like Santa you made and so generously gave me to give to him. It is currently on the hearth with CK's art.

Yes Virginia, there is a Santa Claus and he lives in the hearts of Chris and Jackie!!

Have a great day and happy creating!

Laurie