They are here, they are here!!!

There is no greater joy for an artist than to receive a much expected package filled with her reproduced work. It doesn't matter if it is resin or vinyl, the excitement is the same, peppered with just a little trepidation because you know... you need to make sure it is exactly like you want it to be ;)

Today I got my Natalies! I was SO excited to get them that I didn't even wait for the postman to bring the notice... I just called, made sure the package was in the post office, loaded the kids in the car and off we went (I kept them home from school as apparently John has caught my flu-bug-thingie and was a little sick). Yes, not even a sick kid could stop me from going ;) Yes, I'd given him some Paracetamol and he felt good otherwise lol :)
Tomorrow I will go pick up the boxes and ribbons. Can't wait to show you!!

Ok off I go, I have so many things to do until tonight when I can sit down and paint some Natalies :)

Hugs
Tina

Spankings?

Today I got a feed in my e-mail from a blog I have been following a while. It's the story of a preemie boy who is now 2 1/2 (almost 3 actually). They hadn't posted since July so this was a long awaited post.
She writes that she sent her little boy to bible camp for a few days (!! at not even 3??) and that he only got "a few spankings" (!!!).

Huh?? I was so tempted to leave a comment but I restrained myself. Who am I to judge? He is a loved boy and this is a pained family as they lost their first baby and nearly lost the second (him). So I know the mom has gone through Hell complete with a lot of personal sacrifice for her son.
Still, it rubbed me wrong... very wrong.

I don't spank. Sure I had given the occassional swat on the butt, who hasn't? But I don't hit. I was hit mercilesly as a child by my mom (never my dad). I was beaten black and blue, I was terrorized (still wonder why I never mention my mom or why I have no relationship with her?), I lay awake at night in terror and worry often.
I don't hit. I don't take my nerves out on the kids. I wanted my kids. I worked really hard to get them here, to make them whole and functioning children. I don't hit.
But if I saw anyone lay a hand on them, child or adult, I would grind them to the ground. I am a very soft spoken person, practically a push-over. but when it comes to my kids, I am a dragon... not a lioness... a dragon, huge, fire breathing and with talons the size of an SUV. And I will unleash on you if you so much as touch my kids the wrong way...

"A few spankings"... on a former not even 3 preemie... In a BIBLE CHRISTIAN camp. Is my definition of Christian so much different then? Greeks are very firm Christians (Greek Orthodox, ever heard of that?)... I was never hit in Bibble Camp. I was never hit in Church Sunday School... my kids aren't either... am I the only one who finds this... wrong?

Exciting Week

This will be an exciting week!! My resin Natalies will (or should, please post office!!) be delivered, I have also ordered new certificates for my babies (always exciting for me!), my new business cards have already arrived, my Early Bird is off to production, I have also ordered these adorable boxes for the Natalies, they are sooooo cute and I can't wait to see them all wrapped up with their ribbons and little certificates in there etc.
Have I mentioned I love ribbons??

January

Well, January seems to be the month when we (as a family) get the sickest... I don't know if it is because the weather in Greece doesn't really get winter-y until December or so or because we are cooped up in the apartment because the boys are out of school or something but for the last few years it has held true.

This year it was better for some (George) and worse for some (ME!!). In December, the day after Christmas, I got this head cold. It started with a runny nose... within a week it had "traveled" to my chest and I developed bronchitis... It hasn't even been two weeks since I could say I am 100% and last night... runny nose, sore throat... again.
Then it hit me... it totally coincides with my ehm... womanly thing. Every time Aunt Flo visit, in the winter, I get sick! I really must dope me up with vitamins!!! Especially that time of the month.

It's freezing in Greece right now. I mean actual ice on the cars in the morning. This is very unusual for us. We were used to mild winters and blazing summers. It has been really dreadful here... and trust me, I know cold. I have lived in the UK (Scotland) for years. Scotland has nothing on Greece when it comes to freezing. It's a different kind of cold, the kind that pierces through all your layers, whereas in Scotland, it was cold but you could comfortably walk around in your jacket and mittens... here? Even mittens won't been the freezing part out. Ugh!
I hate winter... I hate summer.. I LOVE Spring and Fall.. what can I say? I am a mild weather girl hahaha :)

Hugs
Tina

Early Bird (new preemie resin)

Have you wondered what resin babies will be available this year?
You know by now I release between one and three resins each year, except this year I have been...tardy. Last year I only released on (Sweet as Sugar)... This year I started off with Natalie, my very first tiny resin baby girl (I still have 2 if anyone is interested)... I hadn't really planned on doing another one... then I sculpted this little fella for my sculpting book on preemies (coming in February, finally!!)...

He kinda grew on me ;) However the limbs he appears with in the book are not suitable for reproduction (too bent) so I gave him a new set...

This will be a tiny limited edition. Only 12 and 3 artist proofs. If you are interested, please send me an e-mail. I expect to have your baby done by the end of March (I will work with first come first served).

Details at a glance:
Name: Ealy Bird
Length: 15-16"
Limbs: Full arms and legs
Cloth body
Limited Edition in Resin
Hospital grade preemie replica model of baby born at 30 weeks gestation.
This is an accurate and realistic reproduction.
Body plate (** possibly ** I broke my first one, I need to make another one!)

Your customization options: Hair color, skin color, gender, name (note: if you want actual mohair, it must be glued. My glue is fairly non-shiny but there is a slight shine. You other option is painted hair, I am pretty good at that ;))

Delivery date: End of March
Price: $1200 plus shipping (about $30 - $40 maybe less)
Deposit: $300 (non-refundable) the balance is due when you approve of pics

(please note there has been a teensy change in his right hand, the fingers were originally more spread out, but they accidentally ended up touching during baking. I have now corrected this. Both hands are open. The limbs are full to the shoulder and hip. He wears preemie sized clothing. The body will be under-stuffed with pellets only for that super cuddly feeling.)

Here are pics of my little angel :)

Little Amelia

Little Amelia is a gorgeous little girl with Wolf-Hirschhorn syndrome. She needs a kidney transplant in order to survive. Even though a family member will donate theirs, the doctors say no to the transplant because Amelia also suffered brain damage and is deemed "Mentally Retarded". In their eyes, Amelia should be left to die :(

My jaw literally dropped. SERIOUSLY?? What happened to "first and foremst do no harm"??
Why are they playing GOD???
It kind of brought me back to when I was pregnant and my doctor said to me "we should do this test, we don't want any mongoloids now, do we?"
(he meant a baby with DS). REALLY?? Because I would NOT terminate if my baby had Down Syndrome. I would only terminate if it was something really serious, fatal that would cause the baby great agony in his short life and only if it was caught super early. That's just me I guess... life, any life is valuable ... It's a CHILD for Christ's sake, a living, breathing child... a child who loves, feels, cries, laughs, understands... ok she might not ever be a rocket scientist... SO WHAT??
Who are you to decide her life is not worth living???

Please sign the petition for little Amelia:
http://www.change.org/petitions/executive-vice-president-and-chief-development-officer-allow-the-kidney-transplant-amelia-rivera-needs-to-survive#

And please post on CHOP's Facebook page to let them know how you feel:
https://www.facebook.com/ChildrensHospitalofPhiladelphia

And you can read her mother's account of the events here:
http://www.wolfhirschhorn.org/2012/01/amelia/brick-walls/

Thank you for reading!

Taken by surprise...

I was (am) that weird kid that loved nothing more than to snuggle up with a good book and a packet of heliotrope seeds for hours at a time.
I LOVE books, love them more than anything else. I love to read, read, read... There is always a book in my backpack and in my tablet. When I eat, I usually read (when not with the kids of course).
It is not often that I am surprised by books... but I did fall victim to a cheesy movie that did ruin a good book... Twilight...

When the movie came out, I had no idea what it was about. I had not even heard of the books (no surprise there as I am in Greece) and I was really over the whole vampire thing by more than a decade. I did like "Interview with a  Vampire" back in the day but the books by Anne Rice? Total disappointment. I did read all of them though.

So, since I was no longer 17, I was dragged by my friend who is internally 17 and still stuck in the '80's (and I LOVE her for it :)) to go see Twilight.
I left the cinema with a "meh... I am not 17...I didn't get it" where all around me those who were 17 and had no kids (and no boyfriends or husbands) melted in a pool of butter over Pattinson... (NOT my type, I am more of a Gerard Buttler and Ewan McGregor kind of gal... ok fine... Chris Pine too... sheesh!)

However... at some point the movie was on TV and I watched it again and it kind of grew on me... I yawned through the next two but kinda liked the 3rd one and was disappointed I had to wait a whole year for the conclusion.
I then decided to get the books full intenting to just read the last one first so I would know how this all ends...

I do read slower than I used to (I read Rama by A.C. Clarke in one afternoon!!) mainly because of lack of time. I squeeze reading to a half hour before I go to bed (sometimes it is only 15 minutes since I can't keep my eyes open long enough or past 11pm at best) so here I am a month later and I am reading the first book.

What a huge disservice the movie did to Stephenie's writing!! I LOVE how she writes. It's not "for 17 year olds" at all!!! She uses BIG WORDS for adult people!! She uses all 5 senses to write (like a good writer should). You can actually tell she's been to school!!! ;)
I am mesmerized by her writing!! I love it!! No way I am skipping to the last book already!! I have.got.to.read.all.of.them!!!! And you know what?

I met my husband when I was 15... I fell in love with within 2 minutes of meeting him and I knew he was the man of my life. Yes, he has many flaws (so do I!) but I've been around the block a couple of times and here I am, 10 years married to him, mother to his children, went through super rough marital problems that we worked through and though of course I will always nag and he will still hurt me, or yell at me or mistreat me (and I know I might too)... I still get a hearthrob every time I see him.
When the world melts away, when work is being kind to him, when there are no triggers (he can't manage his stress and this is the problem), he IS the sweetest man on earth.
So by reading the book, I could totally get back to the time I was 17 and in love (mainly because I still am in love - is that weird? Being in love with a man for 19 years?)..

Stephenie Meyer... as an artist who trusted others to reproduce her work I feel ya. I know how when other people take over, some times (not all of the times!!), your work does not come out as you'd like or as it should, so I now know the movie(s) was the result not of bad, cheesy writing but of bad, cheesy directing and producing.

Never done this before... huh...

Something really weird happened to me the other day...
I was not feeling so good, I was under a lot of stress... I did NOT have a good birthday the day before and I was very low. I didn't feel like celebrating, life had thrown a couple of wrenches in my plans' gogs...

Hubby was working ... on a bank holiday. Because this is how it is now in Greece... they can make you do whatever they want... it's their way or the unemployment highway. Thankfully, the boys were at their grandma's and it's a very RARE treat she agrees to watch them for a bit... at one point she had even asked me for money in order to spend a few hrs with her grandkids.. but let's not go there now. She had them for a few hours and I was thankful.

I sat down after cleaning the house to watch a little TV and as it often happens, my hands wandered to my clay. I wanted to sculpt a baby that was something in between realistically cute and dolly-looking. Something like my BJDs, a little stylized. I wanted something I could reproduce in resin, put in a nice box, print a certificate for but also make it fun for collectors to play with and dress and knit for and make furniture for...

I did the body first... a little girl. Then I did two chubby legs...and two chubby arms...
No problems there. I am a pro when it comes to this. With absolutely no desire to toot my own horn I can tell you that I can do miniature arms and legs in my sleep by now... remember, I have been doing this miniature clay thing since I was 7 years old... that was 27 YEARS ago ;)

The head... ah the head. Now THAT'S trouble for me. Something between realistic and dolly cute... Round cheeks, ok got that... rolled my clay into a ball, then into a head shape. The body and limbs were already baked so I added my head/ball onto the neck, made adjustments to the size.
Fun to play with  = awake... eyes... hmmm, no eyes down here, they are all at the studio. I only had my "emergency sculpting bag" and a few scraps of clay with me.
Ok, I will try the clay eye thing...
Cute? Hmmm, button nose then... and a friendly expression... And then... I have NO idea how it happened but somehow, without much trouble at all, I had this baby looking up at me. Smiling, open eyes, round cheeks and button nose... with chubby limbs that were very realistic and detailed... and Mollie was born.

Something that hasn't happened to me before.. .with little trouble and no pause, I sculpted something that I consider difficult for me. An awake cute baby and with clay eyes too.
Huge plus... all my Ellery Kish clothes fit her!!
I wonder if this takes me a tiny half-step closer to becoming like my idol, Martha Armstrong-Hand... no, not really, but could I dare to think that maybe, just maybe, when she was my age, and she still had a long way to go, she too thought like me?
Oh how I wish I were as good as her... or if I could maybe, become as good with lots of practice and time?
I never thought I would have an "aha" moment with awake, clay eyed babies but apparently I did... huh... who would have thought?

Baby Natalie

I had a nice surprise today!! My sweet friend sent me a picture of my Natalie in resin already. geez, they are FAST :)
I want to share it with you (the color matches my clay, I know it might not look like it in this pic though). I can't wait to get her and start working on them. If you are interested drop me a note as my first batch is almost sold out :)

She would probably even be ok for an older little girl. I made the hands as fists on purpose so no tiny fingers get caught on clothes, same with the toes. Resin is harder than clay so a gentle touch little girl could have heaps of fun with a Natalie... (I would say a girl over 8 that is lol).

Can't wait to get my order delivered!! Man, that postman must think I have a serious crush on him... I practially squeal when I see him (not that is bad looking at all ;) wink wink)

New Year's Resolution

Happy New Year blogosphere! What's your resolution for 2012?
I only have one...
Get pregnant and complete our family with a 3rd child...
Simple right? And for a great part of the population on this Earth, it is... However here is the small print for yours truly:

Get Pregnant/Have a baby = Lose the weight from the previous fertility drug/IVF cycles --> find a new RE --> find the funds to support said new RE --> more sculpting, more dolls, possibly more kits etc --> start the whole process all over again --> try not re-gain weight --> fingers crossed it works --> I am not allowed to carry twins again due to the damage to my pelvis from last time --> keep said pregnancy healthy while managing the current kids/house/full time job/hubby/dog/cat etc --> do not deliver prematurely and do not go into bedrest like last time (4 months!) --> deliver healthy baby and live happily ever after.

Yeah... so... this is going to take more than a year to achieve :(

So instead here are my New Year's resolutions:

Laugh Every Day
Eat more Chocolate
See more movies
Cry less
Hug the boys more
Yell at them less
Take more care of ME :)

So what are yours then?