Cassi, Cassi, Cassiopeia

Little Cassiopeia has got her makeup and accouterments on, and she is ready to go trick-or-treating on earth. She only gets to descend from the heavens once a year so she wants to make the most of Halloween. You see, Cassiopeia tried to intervene in the marriage of her daughter to Perseus, but little did she know that Perseus had that ole' nasty snake head of Medusa that could turn you to stone, and sure enough Cassiopeia was turned to stone and then placed in the heavens by the Greek gods. Part of her fate was to serve half of the year upside down in her thrown because of her location in the constellations.

Since she sits in the heavens and looks down on earth nightly she started to notice a special night in the fall when children and adults would dress in costume and go door-to-door collecting "something" in their pails, sacks, pillowslips and buckets. She asked her fellow constellations what this strange practice was where humans would go to the doors of their neighbors, in disguise, and then receive something simply by standing there in costume. "What an odd practice," she commented to the other heavenly bodies. Cassiopeia then heard Little Dipper mention the giving of sweet treats and goodies to tempt the taste buds and palates of even the mythological Greek gods.

That's all it took! Cassiopeia has such a huge sweet tooth she discovered a means to descend to the earth on Halloween disguised as a moon figure. She is shown below wearing her little black hat with stars, carrying her cat scepter in her left hand and wearing her kitty bucket over her right arm. Her lower torso is covered in Halloween orange with yellow stars complimenting her "skin" tone, and she dons a black belt with a metallic copper buckle to coordinate with her hat and boots (Such a diva!!!). Cassiopeia also has hazel eyes and wears Halloween orange rouge and lip gloss. She really has this costume thing down.

If you know the best place to go in your hometown to get the best treats on Halloween night, look for her...she has it all scoped out and travels across the skies to fill her bucket full of the best treats available anywhere. There is a chance you might run into her.

Have a great weekend!!
Laurie

"Uncle Skelly"

You know, even a little Skelly has to have costumes to wear for various occasions and with Memorial Day just passing and the 4th of July approaching, he was feeling very patriotic. This little guy is definitely trying to look like Uncle Sam, but I have to tell you, that collar is screaming either Evil Knievel or Elvis to me!! The other thing I noticed was he got the red, white and blue all wrong and is wearing orange, cream and black. I guess you just can't take the Halloween out of a Skelly.

"Uncle Skelly" is wearing a top hat with orange and cream stripes with a black hat-band covered with a row of stars (there is a matching black band on the base of the figure with white stars). He has a large high collar with a star on both tips, a large orange bow tie, and orange cuffs with black cuff links studded with white stars. He also has his fingers interlocked so that they can hold onto an "inflated" metal star at the end of a curled black wire. (He doesn't want that pretty star to float away.)

He is tickled with his appearance and smiles broadly about being such a cleaver Halloween boy!! Silly Skelly!

Have a great day and happy creating!!
Laurie

Memorial Weekend

I painted over the weekend and have two pieces ALMOST finished, but had a bit of a glitch on the one piece so painted over what I had sketched and started over so neither piece is completely finished. Do any of the rest of you change plans in midstream like that? Well, I'm afraid I do it and sometimes way too often. That is my reason for a non-picture post today!!

I took a drive through the cemetery and it was covered with hundreds of American flags remembering our fallen soldiers and those that served, and it reminded me of our military still involved at war and the concern about their ongoing safety. Say another prayer for them tonight, will you.

Hope you had a really good Memorial weekend.

Laurie

Three Little Celestial Heads

Here are the three little celestial heads with their buckets and hats. They have little pits and craters on their scalps from the astroids and space debris hitting them over the years, but they still wear their smiles and grins because they know they provide part of the light in the sky each night. Little Dipper is the figure on the left and he isn't named for being part of that constellation....he has a problem with dipping into Halloween buckets stealing the goodies collected by others. When you were younger (and perhaps still today) do you ever remember blaming a sibling for eating part of your candy? Well, it wasn't them, it was Little Dipper!!! Such a sweet tooth that little guy!! (By the way, I give you permission to tell your children this story if you need a candy bar or two and didn't realize they had counted their candy.)

In the center is Cassiopeia. Now if you know the story of Cassiopeia, she was a vain woman that tried to disrupt the marriage of her daughter, and was turned to stone by the head of Medusa. Always a diva, she carries a cat scepter and Halloween bucket to collect as much candy as she can devour before returning to the heavens to spend half of her year upside down. She has gained a little weight since Posiedon put her in the heavens, but as we get older we all learn it is harder to keep that weight off!

To the left is Crater Head. This poor little figure has had tons of space debris hit the surface of the head so has lots of craters and pits. Still a Halloween fan, you see little Crater carrying a bucket to collect the goodness from Trick or Treating!


Little Dipper thanks you for taking a look at the group!! Have a great end to your week!
Laurie

Just to Update you

I have continued working on the WIPs this week and 3 figures now have arms, and I have added to new Skelly figures to the group along with base coatings for 5 new heads. I will give you a look at the celestial family tomorrow that is still in clay free of any paint.

I have been having lots of..." help" by 2 persistent kitties that find the tiny little fingers of my figures interesting to step on while I have them sitting to get leather hard. I have redone one hand three times due to Mr. Jake. He is in hot water, knows it, and is trying desperately to be my best friend right now. Little stinker!

"I've been bad!"

Have a great evening and hope to see you tomorrow!

Laurie

May Halloween WIPs

I'm still working in clay all of this week, but here are some of the works in progress I have going for next month's STJ update and for creating some type of inventory for three fall shows I am participating in (I need my head examined). The heads of the figures are pretty well completed with their little smiles or grins, they have their bow ties and hats, and one figure has her arms and hands (the rest are to be completed this week in between head construction on other figures).


The 2 cat heads are some of my first smaller versions of my Monkey-Cats and of course the boys were too busy to be bothered with modeling for me over the weekend. Fortunately, they both come to me when I call them by name so I would get an occasional glimpse as they arrived for their head rub and drink of studio water when they weren't napping. Silly little creatures and the clay head with the broader grin is Elwood...such a comic and I swear he smiles!!! He brings me his chenille worm (chenille pipe cleaner he took from my supplies) and if I ignore him he sticks it in my paint water---yuck!!! We have decided he likes the way it feels in his mouth because he takes them to his water dish downstairs, his water dish in the kitchen and my paint water. He gets very excited when I rinse them and pull them through a towel to get part of the water out of them (yes, he has used up my entire package of chenille pipe cleaners, but I don't care because they bring him such pleasure).

There is also a moon figure with her scepter and Halloween bucket, two other celestial figures and a pumpkin head. I had a blast making collars and bow ties this past week so most of the figures have one or the other or in most cases they have both.

Well, I had better get my fanny in gear and get today's clay mixed up!

Have a great day and happy creating!
Laurie

STJ Banner Campaign

If you like the SpookyTime Jingles' artists and want to win one of their giveaways this is a great way to enter!!!

Grab this image above (which was designed by one of my FAVORITE artist, Chris Klingler at Designs by CK ) and by adding it to your blog with a link to STJ, you will receive 10 Door Prize entries for each linking badge per month!

To enter just send an email (ambitionsdesign@yahoo.com) with the link(s) to your site(s) that have the linking STJ badges and Dani will enter you accordingly! When you send your links and info be sure to tell her your favorite door prizes for that month because if your name is drawn, you WILL get the one you want!

Aren't we shameless?!!!! HA!

Have a great weekend!
Laurie

Thank You!!

I have had my nose in my work a lot lately like so many of you, and I need to apologize to several wonderful bloggers that have given me awards that I have not addressed. Your generosity of spirit is so greatly appreciated and my intentions are good, I just think I will get to it the next day when I don't have clay on my fingers, or the day after that when I take a painting break, and all of a sudden I have lost track of time and the email you sent about the award. I really feel like I use to be better organized, more attentive to detail and a better time manager. As I have gotten myself more involved in the studio business I find I am working longer hours, generally 7 days a week, and all of a sudden I find another week has flown by, and then suddenly a month or two. I feel badly for my behavior so I think from here out I will have to be an award free blog because I don't want to disappoint anyone that bestows me with an award, their time and attention. Don't get me wrong, I love the fact you find me award worthy, I just feel like I'm not reciprocating appropriately and that isn't fair to you.

Anyway, Pam of Yoborobo, recently awarded me the Renee award. Pam wrote that the Renee award was created by Bella, so I went to Bella Sinclair's Doodlespot blog and found it a visual delight. Her images are charming, whimsical and refreshing.

Bella wrote about the award: "This one is meaningful to me in profound ways. Firstly, it was created in honor of Renee, one human being who has made such a difference in the lives of many just by being. Her honestly, wit, intelligence, and grit are a tremendous source of inspiration. She can elicit raucous laughter and guffaws in her banter, and then turn right around and offer the most heartfelt, gentle words of wisdom and emotional support. She is a spreader of love, simple and true. And her love is infectious."

I thought wow, who is this Renee that inspired this award, so I went to Renee's blog. I found when I went to Renee's blog she has stage 4 inflammatory breast cancer. My initial reaction was sadness, but then I started reading her blog and I found it inspiring and that she is a warrior. She talks about her strategies, her discovering the divinity within and experiencing inner peace. I realized quickly why Bella and Cez had created the award.

What a lovely award and I thank Pam for taking me on a journey to bloggers I wasn't familiar with, but that I will return to frequently.

Thank you all for stopping by and a special thank you to everyone that has given me an award in the past. I treasure each and every kind word and thought.

Have a great day and happy creating!
Laurie

STJ Update at Midnight

SpookyTime Jingles has the monthly update tonight at midnight eastern time. Below are the little spooks and a single jingle I have for the month. "Spider Web Skelly", "Sorta Wicked" and the "Dancing Pumpkin" ornament are the new Halloween works from Monkey-Cats Studio, shown along with the Christmas offering, "Santa with the Ornament".

"Spider Web Skelly" has lots of web detail on the shoulders, top hat and the back yoke and tiny little spiders on each web, as well as the large spider holding his shirt closed. He is a dandy, no doubt about it!!

The "Dancing Pumpkin" ornament shows a vine-bodied pumpkin boy dancing in the graveyard under the moonlight. Lots of little details down to his root-like feet, haunted house, tree, stars and swirls covering the surface. More views of this ornament can be found on my flickr site.

"Sorta Wicked" was seen on yesterday's post and is the third little spook in the group. More uni-body figures are planned, but she is the first!!! Silly girl!

The jingle for the month is "Santa with the Ornament". I tried to give him a sweet face as he prepares to give a jolly laugh as he hangs the ornament on the family Christmas tree. Mrs. Claus doesn't ask much of the big guy, but when it comes to placing the ornaments on the tree she likes a little help. Santa is more than happy to accommodate...he is a softy you know!

That's it for this month!!! Working in clay today so WIPs will be shown as I work on them. So many sketches and new ideas...I need more hands!

Have a great day and don't forget to give all of the artists at STJ a look!!

Laurie

And the Winner Is......

Well, Elwood picked the winner this morning and he picked the number 128, which is Kathy Hunka from Primsical Studios!!! He loved flying through the numbers and of course played longer then I had hoped but he finally got the job done. I tried to get a photograph but the little pooh flies and jumps and bites at the paper and I couldn't get a shot with him in it. Just as well, some of the numbers are under the loveseat, some are under the couch and a few are under Kelly's chair so I now get to clean up his paper "celebration." So much for my great idea of a truly randomly picked number!!! Thank you all for playing with me and congratulations Kathy!! I sent you a note to let you know you won.

I hope all of you had a great Mother's Day. I drove down to my Mother's on Saturday and met her and my two sisters that also drove in for the day. We had lunch in one town and then drove her to another town to take her shopping for some new outfits. We played "personal shoppers" and grabbed and coordinated outfits for her and got the nicest selection. The prices were fabulous so we helped feed the local economy and couldn't have done it for a more wonderful lady. It was great to see Mom and my sisters....they are just lovely people and I feel blessed for having them as family.


SpookyTime Jingles is updating at Midnight tomorrow night! "Sorta Wicked" is one of the new works that will be available on the Monkey-Cats Studio pages. She is the youngest of three girls and has had a little facial work done, but she wasn't able to do anything about the bat wings on her back or the fact she has no neck. She is a lovely celadon color and just spent a day at the spa so she has on new nail polish and a fresh blow-dry look. What could be better?

Have a great day and happy creating!
Laurie

200th Blog Post Giveaway

Okay, here he is, the little giveaway piece for my 200th blog posting. That's right, this is the 200th post in less then a year. Wow, it has gone by really fast and I love this little blog world of ours and the friendships it creates!!!! To celebrate the occasion, I am giving away this silly little pumpkin boy with a bat flying overhead called "Gone Batty 2". It is a handmade original made of celluclay, paperclay, wire, raffia and a papermache box.

Now, to enter to win this little guy all you have to do is one of three things....(drum roll inserted here....)
1. Go to the right column down to the followers box and click on the follow button if you have a blog and become a follower of this site, and that will register you for the prize.

2. Leave a comment on this post and that will give you a second chance at winning the giveaway and leave me an email address to contact you.

3. If, and only if, you do not have a blog and the only way to contact me is by emailing me, you can email me at: monkeycatsstudio@charter.net and that will enter you into the prize giveaway as well, but you must also leave me a return email address for me to be able to contact you should you win.

I will run this for 7 days and will pull the winners name (number) out of the entries next Monday. If I am unable to contact you and you do not contact me within 7 days of the winning announcement, a second name will be drawn.

Whew!!! Okay, start your engines and I hope the winner likes the piece!!

Have a great week!
Laurie