Happy New Year!

When we were little, my Mom bought a 'birthday angel' for each of us four kids. The angels were about 5 inches tall and each held something related to the birthday month. I still have my angel who's holding a heart, since my birthday's in February. Now I've decided to make myself a set of 'special occasion' dolls, a doll each for New Years, Valentine's Day, my birthday, St Patrick's Day, Easter, May Day, July 4th, Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas. Instead of angels, I'm making little paper mache queens about 5 1/2 inches tall. This is my first - The New Year's Queen.

Dave's Doodles - Stangely Precise

Thought y'all might wanna see some more of brother Dave's cartoon art. Here's this year's Christmas card depicting him and me.


Next up is a drawing he did especially for me last year. It depicts him, my other brother, and me at the lake as kids. Mom had that "no swimming for 1/2 hour after eating" rule, so here we're waiting to go back in the water. (The shark in the background is eating our old neighbor, Robbie Downey.)


Dave's always liked to draw baseball players. I think he likes drawing the gloves and hats...


Flying things and dinosaurs and robots are other recurring themes in Dave's drawings.


I call myself the female version of Dave. I can't draw, but we definitely share the same warped sense of humor.

Doodle Book

My brother draws cool cartoons. For Christmas I made him a book to doodle in. I put a copy of one of his drawings on the cover and filled it with blank pages. The cover is made from regular corragated box cardboard covered in fabric, paint, paper and shellac.

Merry Christmas, everybody!

Just a little icicle angel I made for a friend.

Elspeth is here

In the Art Doll Cool-Aberration project, I have Karma's doll, Miss Elspeth Darkly, now. Elspeth is a female private investigator. Here's what she looked like when Karma first sent her out, just a 7" felted torso and head with a clay face.



And here's how she looks now after visiting 4 other artists in the collaboration.




She's a really cool doll. I've already made one addition and am pondering my next. Be sure to check out our Art Doll Cool-Aberration blog to see details on all the additions made to the project dolls and their journals.

Christmas ornaments

These days I just put up a tiny Christmas tree on my kitchen table (where I spend all my time). I have this thing about digging up small trees that pop up around my place and putting them in pots till they're bigger. Then I replant 'em somewhere they can stay. For several years, I used a potted cedar for my Christmas tree. This year it was just too big, so I'm using a potted holly tree. It's quite cute. For the past 5 or 6 years, I've decorated my trees with colored lights and natural stuff (pinecones, dried flowers, holly berries). This year I dug out a few of my Christmas ornaments including these Shell ornaments I made in the late 90's.




Unfortunately, the tree is in front of a window where I can't get a decent pic.

Peace doll swap

Here's the Peace Doll I received from my swap partner, Brenda. She has the cutest little feet in tiny sandals.

Christmas Icicle Dolls

Made these ornaments for my brother's girlfriend and her daughter to hang on their tree.

Pretty Package

This is what I found in my mailbox yesterday.



I love that Shawn (my 3D swap partner) wrapped the package in gift wrap. Such a pretty surprise to find in the mailbox. And inside, a pretty Christmas angel.


Thanks, Shawn!

Peace, man

The 3D group hosted a doll swap to commemorate 2009 being the 50th anniversary of the peace symbol in the US. Here's the tiny doll I made for Leslie.



I happen to love peace signs, so I had several kinds to choose from.

I'm anxiously awaiting the arrival of my Christmas and Peace dolls from my swap partners. You'll see 'em right after I do. :)

Christmas is upon us

This is the Christmas ornament doll I made for the 3D group swap.



I was making an angel, but she reminded me of a mermaid... So I decorated her with real seashells that I painted gold. Her face is an earring I picked up in a thrift shop, and she has a spiral halo and a wing of painted chicken feathers.