Is it madness?

Tonight I did some more sculpting on the Loki pony. I worked more on the face sculpt, then attached the head to the body. I did some sculpting around the neck, and also planned the ears. I didn't get quite as far as I'd have wanted to, but still- got some done!



Tomorrow I should be able to finish up the neck, then sculpt the ears and start the mane and tail. :3

In other news, Scottie has been an amazing chef lately (like he always is, but still!) Since I was sick on Sunday he made chicken noodle soup for me from scratch. It was so good! And then yesterday he made homeade spring rolls, which were amazing. I was also having a craving for spagetti last week when I was feeling the most sick, and he ran out at midnight to get spagetti and sauce so I could have spagetti. He's such a sweetie! xD I think he wanted to make sure that I was eating so that I'd be able to get better sooner.


So sleepy, I hope I'm making some amount of sense. Time for bed!

Taking a break from the human figure sculpts for a bit because I decided I was really inspired to make some ponies to go with my Monster Highs. xD They're not quite MLP, this is the style of pony that I started sketching when I was a kid. I thought it would be fun to sculpt some!

Yesterday I did a quick sketch to start planning the armature, then I put it together. Today I did a blend of clay to get a colour that I liked, then I rolled the clay out into uniform ball units (helps to keep things symmetrical). I finished the bases tonight and now they're chilling in the fridge. This pony is going to be sort of a standard pony, but I have plans for more. I'm totally going off on a sculpting tangent from my original plan, but I'm so excited about it you guys! hehe n_n'


I wanted to have the ponies to be about the size of a MLP so I found out that MLPs are supposed to be roughly 3.5-4 ft tall. I sketched out a MH doll on the paper for reference (sea monster CAM is helpfully posing nearby).


Clawdeen is artsy so I thought she could hang out nearby. (I really need Catrine, haha).

Updates on other things.

Gwin is working on getting better. I'm keeping an eye on him, trying to get him all the baby food he can stand, and keeping him comfortable. I am cautiously optomistic. He's not feeling well obviously, but often he's doing better.

Last week I spent a lot of time fretting and stressing about him, and I actually wasn't doing much of anything because I felt bad doing anything fun. With the help of Scottie though I realised that it wasn't helping anything. If I'm sad, it doesn't make Gwin heal faster. If by chance he picks up on my mood it might actually make him stressed and that's the last thing he needs. So I'm going to try to help him out while doing normal things otherwise. It might be silly to feel guilty for doing fun things, but there it is. :P

Today is the last day of my long weekend (I got Memorial day off), I'm bummed! I've been needing a break.

This weekend was supposed to have more of a party time feeling to it, that was subdued by Gwin's illness. But the 25th is the day that I usually leave for Pilot, and for the first time in 3 years I did not have to leave! I almost wanted to go to the airport just to go there and not leave. I decided that we should save the gas instead, but it was nice to not leave. Scottie made me a cake from scratch!

I'm sure there are more things to say, but it's getting late and I need to get to bed. More baby food for Gwin first though!

Yesterday and today I continued sculpting the male figures legs! I have the lower legs and feet mostly sculpted now, and I have the upper leg cores covered and have started shaping them. I started sculpting the knee area on one leg, and have it attached to the body. I need to finish sculpting the knee area and shaping the upper leg. Tomorrow I need to finish sculpting the leg, and attach the second leg. I'm excited with how it's coming along.

( Progress for today )

I also took pictures of the chocolate making we did yesterday! This was another one of his surprises, I didn't know he was planning to do this. xD He'd even been asking me where the candy molds were, and said it was to do with making game pieces (the gem molds). I didn't suspect he was looking for candy molds to make candy! lol Now that's just crazyness.

( Easter chocolate making )

We also played Pathfinder on Sunday, but I need to get to sleep so that will have to wait for now. n_n

So I still haven't done a real photoshoot with Skelita and Jina, but I did take some pictures of Skelita today! I thought that since she was such a unique doll she could get a bit of a review. :3 I have a couple of pictures showing the body sculpt, then a couple pictures showing the face, and a couple of her posing. :3


( Skelita pictures! )

One sad thing is that she's not as well balanced as the other dolls, though I'm not surprised since the body has so much less mass but the head is the same as other dolls. I'm also not quite sure how to get her legs to bend. Are they supposed to bend? They don't seem to want to and I don't want to break her legs trying, but I'm assuming that they're just stiff.

We're still going with our diet! It's going well. :D We've started reintroducing some carbs into our diet. Scottie surprised me with french toast with seared bananas. The french toast was made with a piece of whole grain bread (and a very specific flour needed to be used, not overly processed). We had a little maple syrup on it too, and then we just needed to make sure that we were good for the rest of the day. It was so worth it!
( Diet foods! )

Tonight I continued sculpting the male head. I finished sculpting the second eye, worked on the brows, and tweaked the cheeks and mouth. I'm happy with how he's coming along! The first head in the picture is the second head that I sculpted, and while I kinda like it, I don't think it's what I want. I'm thinking I might save it for a different character and sculpt a different head entirely. I have a plan in mind for that earlier head, but I'm not quite sure yet.
I also tweaked the second female head (3rd head in picture). I'm actually pretty happy with her, but I needed to tweak her nose and mouth a bit. I'm probably going to tweak her further,but I think I addressed what I felt really needed to be fixed. :3
They're all ready for ears!

In this picture there is a tiny grey head, Scottie actually sculpted that today and last night! The head is baked, and the eyes are already painted. :D It's so small, and I'm super excited that he's getting into sculpting! He wants to make a DnD figure, and this little sculpt is a planning sculpt for his final one which will be even smaller!

( Progress for today, plus a teaser pic of Scottie's sculpt! )

Here's our Sunday Pathfinder game! If you want to read the story of what's going on, Scottie is blogging it from the viewpoint of his character. It's really neat! His username is tanvan. :3 The map is something that got out of the book, made it bigger in the gimp, split it up into something that we could print, then taped the pieces together into one large map. It's such an awesome thing to use for gaming!
( Picture of our Sunday game, plus our gamer foods! )

I also got a picture of Chaos exploring the back of the couch. I thought it was cute!
( Ferret! )

So after my intial stress about my grandparents property, I decided that I shouldn't let it stop me from having a nice weekend. I still need to figure out what's going on, but there's only so much I can do from here. :P That night Scottie cheered me up with a lovely dinner, cuddles, and game of Worms. Comedic mayhem is a good way to cheer me up, he knows me well. :3

I worked on sculpting tonight, but I didn't really finish enough to warrant a picture yet. I worked on the 4th head, mostly working on head shape and lip sculpting.

Yesterday I decided to do something a little different! We were at the thrift store last week, and while there I went to check for Monster High dolls. I've never seen one yet and I'm not exactly expecting to, but I still want to check! Anyway, I found a Mulan doll and I've always thought she was really cute! I decided to get her even though she didn't actually match anyone else. lol I wanted to take pictures but was all :/ because she has the old style Barbie legs and arms with only shoulder movement. I'm spoiled by MH and BJDs and couldn't think of what to do with her. I decided I'd do a head transplant onto a jointed body. I couldn't find any jointed doll bodies at the thrift store with pale enough skin though!

Scottie pointed out though that I have a couple of Liv dolls that I bought on clearance for their wigs for my CAMs, and one of them had really nice jointing and pale enough skin. I decided to do a head transplant!

Liv dolls have huge heads but they're actually slightly shorter than Barbies, so Mulan's head actually matches the body way better than the Liv head. Of course, now I have a floating Liv head and a headless Barbie body (though the body will just go to a Barbie customisation that had a broken neck).

I soaked both dolls heads in boiling water to soften up the vinyl, then used a knitting needle to get the head over the graple in the neck. Scottie helped me with the Liv head because my hands got soo tired after doing the Mulan head.
( Progress pics! )

She looks great though! She stands on her own and is so easy to pose! I love that she has double jointed knees. :D
( Showing off how well she poses! )

She needs a better outfit, what she came dressed in was a Mary Poppins dress which didn't really fit what I want her to look like! Not sure what to do with the dress. lol Right now she's wearing a random Liv dress I have. I might want to reroot her in the future too because her hair is a bit rough feeling.

Today I continued playing the Pathfinder path with Scottie as the DM! We made some maps, I'll have to post about how we did that later. It's getting late though so I can't get into that right now. I'm really enjoying playing with Scottie again though! He says he likes how I characterise the NPCs. :D
For lunch Scottie made lovely deviled eggs with shrimp! Diet food is awesome. lol
( Games and snacks! )

As a bonus, here's the kitty cuddling with Scottie on the couch. :D
( Sleepy kitty! )

At first I thought I was going to just post a picture of a ferret and go to bed, but I'm addicted to blogging so here goes!

So I started working on the first female head again. Even though I'd put a lot of time into her already, I really wasn't happy with her. So I pulled out the eyes (and discovered that one had gotten pushed significantly further in than the other, which explains a lot of my issues! I put in different eyes, a slightly bigger size. They're also all white instead of translucent, so it will be like my blind animals again until she's painted. lol I also reshaped the head and wiped the mouth. I don't have a picture, but I'm kinda dead on my feet so that's going to have to wait. Still, good progress!

Here's dinner for tonight!
( Noms! )

I found this picture of Gwin and I thought it was neat! It shows an interesting perspective on our mesh tower. hehe
( Ferret ahoy! )

So I got a lovely custom Frankie a couple of months ago and I finally got around to taking some pictures! I found a clearance Bratzillaz outfit pack (Blood Red Charm for Sashabella Paws) at Target, and it is totally adorable! I decided it would work for her perfectly, which was nice because up until then she was just wearing a spare Sweet 1600 Frankie outfit which didn't really match. She's wearing a Liv wig, which is just temporary but works fine right now! Ultimately I would like to get her a soft head cap wig or possibly reroot her, though I don't know how possible that is to do on an already customised head. :P

The dress is a bit loose in the body but it could be taken in, as it is it certainly doesn't look bad. I needed to take off the hands to put her jacket on and the sleeves are a little long, but her hands once put back on keep the sleeves in check. xD The shoes fit fine, though they aren't as stable as official MH shoes. :3


Anyway, here she is!


( One more pic )

The last week me and Scottie have been on a diet. We've put on some weight since moving to the city, since fast food is everywhere and I can't just walk out my front door to go snow-shoeing anymore. Which is kind of lame. It's also difficult to just go for a walk since it's just city everywhere filled with traffic, and in the winter the town is an ice rink. Not the best place to just go for a walk! We can drive somewhere to go excercise, but that's not terribly convenient. So we decided to start on the South Beach diet, which is actually a lot like how I'm supposed to eat because of my sugar problems (well, when you get to the main part of the diet that allows whole grains and fruit). I certainly don't feel like I'm dieting and I'm getting so much more veggies in my diet now, which is really good!

Here are the two main meals that we've had today:

( Noms! )

The last couple of days I've been working on the torsos. I've now got all of them up to the level of my muscular man base torso! I was going to make 2 girls and 2 guys in this grouping, but I realized that for one of the guys I really needed to make a different core and base. So I'm still going to do it but I'm going to do that later. My new plan is to make three females and one male, different poses and different characters.

( My progress so far! )

I have defined all of the muscles, I need to do some smoothing and tweeking, then start working on defining the back muscules. Then of course, I need to make the females look feminine and make the muscular man more muscular. hehe

While I was sculpting Scottie surprised me with a cup of apple cider to make things feel more festive! I found that cinnamon sticks make awesome flavor straws. :3
( Picture of Scottie's surprise! )

I hope that everyone has a lovely day tomorrow, no matter what you celebrate! :D

I went to one of my local stores to pick up a few things, and on a lark went and checked out the toy section. I found B&W SS Frankies! I'm so excited, she's so cute!

I know I've heard that people have had a hard time finding her, so I would be willing to pick up some for people here. I could ship her in her box, or I could unbox and ship for less. I'd be shipping from Anchorage, AK 99508, and our shipping is always a bit more expensive just FYI. But especially if I ship her unboxed in a bubble mailer I don't think it would be too expensive. She'd be $15 plus shipping. :3

I might also be interested in trades if you'd rather go that way.

I had posted this to the Monster High comm a few days ago, and I had meant to post here too but then I got sick. xP Anyway, I have a couple extra unclaimed dolls. I figured if nobody took me up on all of them I could always just return them to the store. Scottie has been chastising me for spending so much time trying to figure out how to ship the dolls and how to get the best shipping price for people when I really should be spending the time getting better. Especially since I'm not doing it for a profit. lol xP

Ah well, bad timing and all that. And I'm too stubborn to be good at resting.

Besides figuring out shipping I've basically been a sick blob all weekend (Today, Monday, was Seward's Day and so a state holiday that I got off). I didn't get any work or sculpting done, which is too bad. Sunday night my mouth started to get irritated, and Scottie said I had stuff going on in the back of my throat that looked like it could be strep. So I did go to the doctors today.

It was expensive even with the copay, but now I have antibiotics and steroids. o_O Luckily I don't have strep, but I do have a sinus infection and a nasty sore throat. The steroids are supposed to help with swelling, and after taking them this afternoon I was finally able to talk above a whisper! I've been whispering at Scottie since Friday, since talking irritated my throat too much and caused me to have coughing fits. Plus I didn't have much of a voice as it was so it really wasn't worth the irritation.

The doc said that I could have a steroid injection to get me feeling better fast, and I was like @_@'. I consented, sort of, and then the nurse came in. I was sort of prepared for a small shot in the shoulder or something. I really, really don't like needles. I was not prepared for what appeared to me at least to be a very large amount of liquid and a large needle, and for the nurse to say that because it was such a large amount of liquid that it had to be injected in my ass. Or he could set me up with an IV, and I could get it done in like 5 minutes that way.

Both of these options had me attempting to convince my brain that bolting out of the room was not a reasonable response. My anxiety won out over the large amount of discomfort I was in, and I apologized and said I would rather not. I figured I'd be getting oral steroids soon enough, and that was good enough for me.

One good thing is that the prescription with my insurance was only like $4, which helped balance out the $60 doctor visit copay.

While I was dragging my arse around the store, killing time until my prescription was ready, I stopped by the toys. I saw a nice selection of dolls! Including Nefera! I couldn't afford to get her, which was too bad, but at least I got to see her in person. lol

Scottie made something awesome for dinner tonight though, and with my newly not as swollen throat, I could eat! He made little pizzas on this really nice baked bread from Costco using mozzarella that he made fresh! OMG, fresh mozzarella is amazing, as is Scottie. hehe :3