I Won!!

I won greeting cards from doll artist Sarah Niemela pretty cool huh!! So excited! Thanks Sarah :)

Fear

I have not been blogging much because I have been out of commission so to speak. I had posted a while back about having trouble with my left knee while running, as it turns out I have needed to have knee surgery. When I went back for my post op visit, I was told that I should not run any more, so I have been very sad and trying to deal with the loss of some of my goals and personal identity. How can I not run? It’s as much a part of my life as breathing, as brushing my teeth everyday. It’s unimaginable to have this taken away, so I’m trying my best to not give up hope. As I was recovering I started to work on a sculpt of a little girl dressed in a bumble bee costume, I will post pictures soon and put her up on eBay. There is a quote from the founder of Mary Kay cosmetics. She said

“Aerodynamically, the bumble bee shouldn't be able to fly, but the bumble bee doesn't know it so it goes on flying anyway”. Mary Kay Ash

I realize that fear is something that always holds me back I think it is the same for many of us. Fear that we will somehow not make our goals, fear that things I made or do will somehow be unacceptable. We listen to others and let that fear take over instead of listening to our hearts. I don’t know if I will every accomplish all the goals I have set out for myself. But I’m hoping I can at least not let fear hold me back from trying.

Melancholy

There are occasions when you need to take some time and reflect. I guess this is one of those times for me. Starting mid December I was getting some regular knee pain when I was running. I did the usual of icing and stretching etc. But it continued to get worse! I have experience numerous running type injuries during the years that I have run, and I have always recovered and been able to continue with my running. After a visit with the doctor I have been on a no running schedule, much to my disliking, I have had to find alternative ways to get my exercise bug satisfied. He prescribed some anti-inflammatory medication, then after a week of them I could try running on the treadmill again. Last night had been my trial to see if I could run again. I only made it ½ a mile before I was in too much pain to go farther. This was devastating to me! My option now is to have cortisone injection when I see the doctor on Tuesday. I’m really not looking forward to this and wonder if this will be the fix to get me over the inflammation in my knee. I will keep you posted.
I have also been trying to get some doll work in but my doll mojo has also decided to take a break. I have all the ideas floating in my head but as I try to bring them to life I have only been disappointed with the efforts. Wow when it rains it pours! I know that time will heal my knee and eventually the flow of ideas with reach my hands I will sculpt with some success, but until then I will tread water.

Hazy Days of Winter

For the past few weeks Utah has had some of the worst air quality in the nation. As a runner this makes it difficult... do I run in the pollution and risk breathing all the bad air, or do I banish myself to run of the treadmill and save my lungs but risk my mental stability. I for one have been running on the treadmill... this has not made happy running times for me. I did get one reprieve, today I went snowshoeing with my running friend and our husbands.
Once you get up above the pollution and in the mountains it is fantastic! Blue sky, sunshine, warmer temps and sparkling snow! Ahhh it was good for my soul to see the blue sky.
We are supposed to get storms this up coming week, lets hope it will clean out our air!

The blue at the top of the pictures I posted is not the sky. I took them while in my car, so that is the top of my windshield.

It's Been so Long

I have been so remiss with my blogging lately, and I deeply apologize. It’s not that I have not been doing anything worthy to blog about, just that I have not had the time to actually sit and write about it. I open my blog every night when I get home from work, and quickly check to see all the updates on the blogs that I follow. By the time I have read through all your updates, it’s time to get other things done.
I have had a few wonderful wintry runs around Ogden City and the Christmas Lights. This year has seemed to be particularly hard for me to enjoy my running. We started off colder then usual and I don’t remember having so much difficulty with slipping as I have this year. Maybe as I’m getting older it’s more the fear of falling that I don’t remember having so much.
I have also been enjoying my new sewing machine. Even though I have always loved to go into fabric stores and look and all the color and texture combinations, it has become even more exciting with all the added project ideas that seem to be swimming in my head. Now to find more time to get it all accomplished.
My sculpting has hit a point of frustration!! I really need to sit and bust through this mental block that I'm having with it. It's not good for me when I feel like this.
I'm looking forward to the long Christmas shutdown that my work has every year, and hope to put the time to good use.

Fall is in the Air!

I love this time of year. I love the food that is associated with this time of year. I love the colors... the feel in the air... EVERYTHING! So I'm I bit early in changing my blog background... but Halloween is just around the corner and soon it will be here! I love Halloween so I have to get started early!
I have been so bad about posting and I do apologize, but I have been busy. First I have a little Gothic doll getting dressed at my sisters. I will post pictures of her as soon as she is dressed. I didn't post pictures before because she is a departure for me and I'm still not certain if I will like her.
Then we were out of town for a few days. It was very nice to get away. We were in Vegas, and had an incredible time!
Last... I'm working on another doll but I can't post any pictures or even say too much about her, because she is for my oldest sister... and I know that she will reads my blog and I don't want her to see her til her birthday :)
I will try to post more often.

Baby Steps

So yesterday I took a baby step without even realizing it until later in the day… Let me go back so that I hope I can tell this so it will make sense. I have blogged before about always making some sort of excuse for my art. I have blogged about not being able to call my doll room a studio, because studios were for professional artists and I’m just a hobbyist. And most of the time when people find out about my doll sculpting I always preface it with “It’s just a hobby” or “I just do it for fun” Both are true statements, but they also seemed to undermine my talent. It’s true that I’m not comfortable thinking I have talent, or to say out loud that I’m artistic. I don’t know why, maybe it sounds pompous to me, but I’m just not comfortable getting compliments or making statements about myself.

Another side not to the story (boy I hope this all makes sense when I’m done) a year or so ago I helped out on a team building activity at work. One of the things we had to do was draw on an apron, things that were important to us personally. Across the bottom I drew my family… then on the top mountains, I really love the mountains here in Utah. In the middle I drew three things… me running… a bike… and an artist’s pallet. I don’t paint, but a lump of clay would have looked weird.

So, back to my original point, I had to wear that apron at work yesterday to help serve up root beer floats for a fund raiser. When I was back to my desk a co-worker asked about my apron, I told him they were drawings of things that were about me. He pointed to the artist’s pallet and asked if I was an artist. I said yes but I’m a sculptor, and explained that I didn’t want to draw a lump of clay my apron. And there you have it!! I said “I’m a sculptor” no excuses or explanations. I was able to just let it be and be happy with the statement. Who knows maybe soon I will be able to say “I’m an artist”! Or “I’m talented” Whoa… hold on there… just baby steps.

Thanksgiving, Family and all the Crazy Stuff

I was able to get up and do the Thanksgiving Day turkey run at the hospital in South Ogden. It was fun and I got to see my running friend Phil at the race. He was nice enough to run most of the race with me.
Thanksgiving was wonderful, I had most of my family over to my house, and some that didn’t have dinner with us showed up to have pie later in the day. I cooked a 20 pound turkey and a 10 pound ham and the sisters, sister-in-law and daughter brought all the other things that make Thanksgiving so wonderful. It’s fun to just relax and chat with family… see what everyone has been up to and give thanks that we are all healthy, happy and doing relatively well.
I got to spend the rest of my Thanksgiving break catching up on a lot of the things I have been putting off then I started getting the house ready for Christmas. My youngest daughter and I got the tree up and the lights on, and then she finished doing all the decorating of the tree. I have to say it looks real cute she did a great job! I need to finish some of the other decorations but for now it’s beginning to look a bit like Christmas at the Metcalf house!
I was able to work for a good amount of time on a new baby. So far I have the head completed and I have started one leg. I need to work on her more if I’m going to make the January 1st deadline for the contest. I will try to get some pictures posted of her.
http://www.audrey-kawasaki.com/
Check out this artist... I love her work! Gives me lots of ideas for BJDs!!!

The Way Things Are

I have not blogged in a while. Things have been so busy at home, and work and I really have not been doing anything that I feel needs to be blogged about. At least when it comes to dolls. I’m struggling with a life size baby that I’m working on. I’m hoping to complete her for a competition that ends January 1st. What an awful time to have a deadline. But I guess anytime is a hard time with a deadline, but the holidays just seem to take that much more time away from the things that you are normally trying to get accomplished. So far I have started and pulled apart the babies face a few times. I think the sculpt now is looking pretty good. So hopefully I can work on her this weekend and see if she will be worth any more effort.
The ladies from the BJD class are going to start a couple of challenges, one in December and one in January. I think I will try to get into both of these, nothing like a challenge and having to post your progress to make you get off you butt and get the work done.
As far as my running... I’m averaging about 35-40 miles a week. This is pretty good, but the past few weeks I have not been feeling very good. Just tired a lot, achy in the mornings mostly, I see my endroconologist in February so maybe I need my meds adjusted.
I will have a lot of my family over for Thanksgiving it should be fun to have everyone there. I love when the family gets together, of all the people in the world I think my family and extended family are some of the greatest people to hang out with. I always have the best time.

Post Doll Class Blues

Well I have been anticipating...or participating doll classes for the past few months, and now they are all finished. Which leads me to the post doll class blues. This is where you have tons of new knowledge and hopefully new skills, combined with the reality that you don't have enough time in the day to practice these new skills and ideas. I have been slowly trying to get some new things accomplished but I'm painfully slow. If I must admit it I have not even unpacked most of my supplies that I took to the classes. I also need to file away all knew new handouts.
On top of all this are the holidays, looming on the horizon of my calendar, and as always I'm unprepared as of today. So the goal here is to buck up and get the jobs done!!! Wish me luck in all my projects, tasks, daily activities!
Still need to post more pictures from th Ball Joint Doll Class, and the class I attended from Diane Keeler... Hmmm hope that will happen soon :)

Ramblings and Wishes

Has anyone had this experience? You are at work, or the gym, somewhere where you know the people, and are friends with them, but not someone you hang out with all the time. I guess that it is more that they are acquaintances.
Some how the subject comes up, “What are your hobbies?” What do you do in your spare time? Usually sometime after where do you work. I don’t know about you but I cringe at these kinds of questions. No matter how I phrase my hobby I usually get very strange looks and a disappointing “Oh that’s nice…” I guess grown people are not supposed to sculpt dolls. Or play with them or I guess even talk about dolls. I try to play it off sometimes by saying simple that I just sculpt, but the problem with that is that it leads to the next question. “What do you sculpt?” to which I have to answer “Dolls” and that almost always gets a very quizzical look and the response “Oh”.
It seems to me and maybe its because most of what I read and look up on the internet is all about dolls. But there seems to be plenty of people in this world that love dolls just like me, so it begs to wonder, why I keep getting all the funny expressions when people find out my hobby? I guess I should be happy that the people who love me don’t seem to mind my hobby, in fact I think my sweet husband is rather proud of me most of the time. I have to beg him not to take people who visit the house into my doll room, or even call it a “doll room” for that matter.
But then that also brings up another issue that I’m having with myself. I can’t seem to figure out what I can call the space in my house where I sculpt my dolls. I usually call it the doll room, and that is OK for the most part. There is a part of me that wants to call it my studio. It sounds so much more professional then “doll room”. But in my mind I think I can’t call it a studio unless I was doing this as a profession and not a hobby. Doll room = Hobby, Studio = Professional. Maybe sometime soon, it will be a studio.

A Twilight Vortex

It has been a while since I have posted anything; but quite literally, all my time has been consumed with reading the Twilight series of books. I know, I know, I’m very slow on jumping on this bandwagon. My youngest daughter had read them all last year and I think all the ladies at work, my sisters etc. But when I was at Bear Lake with my family this year they were all talking about it so much, I felt totally out of the loop. So I figured that since I was on furlough for a while I would read a good book. I purchased the first two because they were on a good sale. I read the first and started the second before I went back to work. Not thinking that I would get so caught up in the book.

I feel like I need to explain some of my apprehension to reading. First, I’m not that fast of a reader and the books were very long so I knew it was going to take me a while to get through it. Second, I know that once I get into a book all other things fall by the way side. So here I am a few pages from the end of the third book… (can’t wait to start the forth) hiding in the bathroom at work, doing the minimal expected of all my house hold chores. Trying to sneak a few more pages while I’m standing in line at the grocery store, and forget about sculpting, it has been non-existant since I started the books. I have been acting like a complete zombie with my head buried in the book. AHHHGGG! THE GUILT !!! I feel so guilty for wanting to spend all my time reading about Bella and Edward, when there are so many other things I need to accomplish. I wish that I enjoyed listening to audio books, but I think there is something missing from that, sitting down and getting lost in a good book is like candy to your brain, and if most books are candy, Twilight must be heroin!

Weekend Wishing

We just got done with my oldest son’s wedding. It was very beautiful, but I’m happy that it is over. We had two graduations, one bridal shower, Mothers Day, wedding rehearsal and wedding all within 6-7 weeks. And my sisters and I did all the flowers for the wedding. More my sisters then me :) So, I’m very happy the craziness has at least slowed down.

I long for the slow and lazy days of my summer as a young girl. Do you remember those times, before work, kids and responsibility? Hmmm lying around in the hot sun in our swimming suits reading trashy romance novels and drinking cold drinks. Just the slow moving days of our youth. Probably late junior high or high school. I see it now with my youngest daughter. The contentment that she dose not have much to worry about. Only responsible to do a few things, she has time to read, hang with friends, and relax. Her days move by at the slow summer pace I remember. Then I see the contrast with my oldest son. He is just starting a new life with more responsibility then he has had in the past. More bills, more obligations, more, more, more. His days of slow lazy summers are a thing of the past.
The life scale baby that I had posted in the previous post is about to send me over the wall. I have had to repair her at least 6 times, and even now she sits on my table with her eyes about dug out so that I can again, repair the cracks that keep forming in the corners of her eyes. I don’t know what to do. If she keeps this up I think she will end up in the trash. So keep you fingers crossed and hope that this weekend will have a different outcome. Let’s all pray that she decides not to crack any more. I’m also hoping that I finish Jen Printy’s fairy. She needs her wings and hair… then I will mail her off to Jen. Keep your fingers crossed that all this can get accomplished.

Who pushed the >>FF button?

It has been a while since I have posted anything out here and even longer since I have posted any progress on my dolls. I have been doing some doll work and I promise I will post pictures of my progress soon.
It has just been a whirl wind of things happening lately and I have not been able to catch my breath and post. The time that I have had has been spent either working on dolls or having some quality time with my husband and kids. My youngest son graduated from High School last night. I was so proud and happy to have this accomplishment for him. He is a great kid, but not always the best student. Now my youngest child will enter High School this fall.
The old church hymn with the line "time flies on wings of lightening" has never felt more relevant in my life then right now. Graduations...weddings and the impending birth of another grand baby!!! At times it seems to be too much too fast. How can I slow the flow of time? I'm sure everyone would like to know the answer to that question. On the other hand I got some sad news last night. My long time running friend has three stress fractures in her pelvis, so for her time will be at a stand still while she lets her body heal. We can never know what lies in the road ahead of us, the key is to be happy with what and where we are now. Wishing away the past, or thinking about the future are in some ways a waste of the time you have right now. The past is the past, so let it go. The future is still unwritten so don't dwell there because you don't know what it holds. I'm trying to live in the now... one day at a time... one task at a time... and be happy to be a part of it all.

To eBay or not eBay... that is the question.

I have recently started to sell the older doll that I have made during the past few years on eBay. They may be older, but they are still very beautiful dolls. Some I have liked better then others, in fact there have been a few that I wish I had not sold. I have sold them because being an artist who is not independently wealthy, I need to have money to buy supplies so that I can continue to sculpt, so, in turn I can continue to improve. I’m sure other artist out there understand the need to create. It is a driving force that unless you have felt it would be had to explain. I’m lucky to have three sisters who also understand this creative drive. Well, on eBay if you are just starting out and have not received feedback, buyers are not going to buy from you. I realized this so I have priced my dolls with a very low starting bid in hopes that I would generate interest, sell the doll and gain feedback. So far it has worked pretty well. I now have a whopping 11 positive feedback and have earned a yellow star by the number. Can we all say YAHOOO!!!! Now for my dilemma and question. I’m coming near the end of the older dolls that I’m willing to sell at the lower prices. I’m thinking about starting the eBay auction with a higher starting price, and also setting a reserve on the auction. I have not done this with the earlier auctions. I feel that my dolls are worthy of a higher price and I’ve also show with the feedback that I’m a reputable seller. (I know that 11 is not the highest… but it’s better then 0). So… should I do this? Do I risk making potential buyers unhappy with a reserve on the auction? What will they think when I do this? I don’t have an auction up at this time. But my eBay name is: happy_sculptor. I would appreciate comments on this. I will be thinking of how I should handle this. Hoping and praying for some answers until my next auction.

No doll work this weekend

Well, this weekend I was in southern Utah picking up my Mom, who had been down there for the past two months. So needless to say I have not worked on dolls this weekend. It's good that Mom is back, and it seems like she had a great time while she was down there. She stayed busy with classes and concerts, it's all great for her.
I email the pictures and questions that are going to be in the Doll magazine. It will be good to have something published about my dolls. It's been quite a while since I have had any mention about me or even any pictures of my dolls published in a magazine. I'll let you know what magazine and when it's out. Now I just need to stay busy and get more work done so I can get even more publicity right!!! Man that is easier said then done. If only I had infinite time, money and a maid service. Life would be so easy then. But enough of the wishful thinking, that never gets your goals accomplished, it only waists time. Well I'll keep you posted on the progression of the BJD and other doll that I'm working on.
Oh by the way. The WRC (Winter Racing Circuit) that I entered. It's a series of 5 races (5K, 10K, 10 miler, 1/2 marathon and 30K) So far I've run the first three races and I'm in 3rd place in my age group. Not to bad for an old lady, I'll see how I do in the rest of the races to see how I place. I'll keep you posted.

Getting Older Stinks!

Well it has finally happened. I am becoming my Mother. Don’t get me wrong, I love my Mother very much. But as a kid I never understood why she was not a good sleeper. I remember many times hearing her move around the house in the wee hours of the night and early morning. She would say to me many times when I was small and as I was growing up that she had trouble sleeping. As a kid I always thought that was weird. Sleeping comes so natural, lay down and close your eyes. Seems simple right? Even as an adult I never understood not being able to have a good nights sleep. That is until about 2 months ago. I don’t know what has changed, but I don’t think I have had a good nights sleep in at least that long. I usually wake-up somewhere between 2-4 every night and can’t go back to sleep and to make matters worse, I need to have some caffeine to get me going now. I still keep it to one diet soda a day, but man this is killing me. If things don’t change pretty soon I think I will have a visit to my doctor. So wish me sweet dreams and hope that soon I will be having a sound and complete nights of sleep.

Waiting for the weekend

I’m hoping to work on my BJD this weekend. I have started adding clay to the torso, and so far I think it is working out OK. I also want to try to experiment with making some eyes. I’ll take pictures and we’ll see if it turns out.
I’m so excited to see if I can get this BJD to work, I would love to eventually have them cast in resin and have a company. I would do very limited editions, probably no more then 10-15 of each. If I got popular I might do bigger editions. I think it would be great also to have maybe 5 in the edition that I would paint, costume and sell as one-of-a kind. I guess they would be considered OOAK even though they are molded. The terminology is very confusing to me. I would get my sisters to make costumes for the OOAK ones, my sisters are all wonderful seamstresses. I can sew, but I never got very good at it. Anyway I will take pictures when I’m able to work on my dolls and lets all hope I can find some time.