FINALLY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

After months of being on hold over my husband's new job - we're finally MOVING!!! OMG, what an ordeal. The problem was with the relocation company we were forced to deal with. I won't name names here, but they are AWFUL. Delay after delay, nobody answering phone calls, or returning them for days, etc.

But we'll be on our way by Thursday! WOO HOOOOOOO!!

I can't wait to be able to completely to revamp this blog, my website, and get back to consistently creating art!!!!

IN LIMBO LAND

Well, this blog has been totally neglected for the past few months while we've been on pins and needles waiting to see where we're moving to. :oP We thought we would be heading to the Austin, TX area, but now an even better opportunity has presented itself, and it looks like we'll be heading to a small town near Lake of the Ozarks, MO. My husband is a journeyman lineman, who worked as a troubleshooter for the power company here in Vegas for 14 yrs. He's the guy that determines why outages happen, and what is needed to get the power back on. ;o) This job would be a similar one, working for Ameren, the utility company that handles electrical service for MO and IL. This was the opportunity we were hoping for, so we just have to wait now till it all falls in to place!

It may be another few weeks, but then I'll be back to posting on a regular basis, and will try to make this blog worth reading! Hope you'll check back later next month. Take care everybody. :o)

WORKTABLE WEDNESDAY

Well, I'm still having a hard time finding the time to devote to this blog - obviously. We'll be moving at the end of February, and things are still very much up in the air with all of that. SIGH.

I've been working on Valentine's Day miniature figurines this week. Here's a little Bedlington Terrier:



You can see the others in my ebay display to the right. :o)

MOTIVATIONAL MONDAY

Today's Quote:

"All of us can take steps - no matter how small and insignificant at the start -
in the direction we want to go."
~ Marsha Sinetar

Still taking steps myself - to finish the Yorkie tutorial, which is almost done, and to work on the website. I also have some jewelry ideas I'm anxious to get to, once I get a couple more orders finished. There's never a drought of ideas and projects keeping me busy!

One thing that may slow me down a bit on the things I want to do is that it looks like I will be moving in 2-3 months. I am very ready to leave Las Vegas. Seventeen and a half years here is more than enough! I've had lots of fun living here, and gotten to meet some wonderful people. Sooner or later everybody seems to end up coming here to visit, so that's given me an opportunity to meet people in person that I never would have met otherwise. But I am very ready for a change. What I'm not so ready to do is pack! Fortunately, we left a lot of things in boxes in the garage when we moved in. So it definitely won't be as daunting as the last move was, after being in our house for 16 years!

About a year and a half ago, we sold our home. We were lucky to have quite a bit of equity in it, so we walked away with a very nice chunk of money. We fared much better than a lot of people have in Vegas' awful housing market. We chose to rent this house rather than purchase another one. We knew we didn't want to stay here much longer, and also knew we did not want to be buying another house here as bad as the housing market currently is. So we moved into this house brand new. We're the only ones who have ever lived in it, and it's a really lovely house. Unfortunately, the owner has been badly affected by the downturn in the housing market and the house looks like it's probably going to be foreclosed on. It's a case of a young man trying to expand his investments to fast too soon, and buying a house in the wrong city. For a long time, the market was hot here. Not anymore. Everywhere we look there are brand new homes sitting empty. The only good thing is that after our initial lease, we chose to rent month to month. So we can give 30 days notice and leave when we like.

So things will be a bit up in the air for me again for a while. I'm ready for the change though! :o)

HAPPY NEW YEAR

Well it's the first day and the first post of the new year, and I would like to wish everyone all the very best in the coming year.

This is always a time of reflection for me - upon the events of the past year, and upon the goals I have for the new year. I always seem to go through a phase of wanting new art and crafts books, and of wanting to try new things, and setting new goals. I don't believe in new year's resolutions, but I do believe in setting goals.

One of the goals I have had for a while was to get my own domain and redo my website. Well, I got the domain months ago, in 2008, but I hadn't had much time to work on it. I've spent some time this week working on it. I'm working on adding items that are available for purchase and setting up a shopping cart. Right now, the cart is set up through PayPal, which works very well. I am considering other options as well as I also have an account through ProPay which I have used when doing shows. ProPay allows me to process VISA, MasterCard, and American Express transactions, without requiring customers to have an account with them, unlike PayPal. So I am still working all of this out. The website is pretty bare bones at the moment, as I am trying to build it on my own. The PayPal buttons are fully functional and I will be adding more pins and pendants for sale over the coming weeks. Here's the URL for my site:

Designs by Ginny Baker

Another goal I have had for a while is to do sculpting tutorials that will be available for purchase, as I have had many requests for them. I want to be able to do a video tutorial on DVD, but in the meantime, I have decided to do a few tutorials for sculpting individual breeds that will be available as PDF files. The first one is on sculpting a Yorkshire Terrier, and includes instruction on creating a head study pin and a full body pin. It will be available within the next week. If you're interested, please watch here for updated information, or you can contact me at ftofclay@aol.com.

"Identifying your enthusiasms requires courage and heroic creative vision. You have to believe that what you want is possible for you."
---Marsha Sinetar

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas and all the best in the coming new year!

MOTIVATIONAL MONDAY

Today's quotes:

Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the really great make you feel that you, too, can become great.

-Mark Twain

Listen to the mustn'ts child.
Listen to the don'ts.
Listen to the shouldn't haves, the impossibles, the won'ts.
Listen to the never haves, then listen close to me.
Anything can happen child.
Anything can be.
-Shel Silverstein

Never listen to people who tell you that you can't do what your heart desires to do. I wanted to sculpt, and later on, wanted to earn money from my artwork, and I had many friends and family members who wanted to tell me why I couldn't do this. I know they only meant well, having the picture of the starving artist in mind, but it sure didn't help encourage me. I persevered and have now sold hundreds of pieces of my artwork, published a craft book, published numerous articles in craft magazines and collaborative books, etc. Only listen to the ones who will support and encourage you to go after your dreams!




This is a liver Bedlington Terrier pin I did recently. Hershey's owner wanted the pin as a gift for Sarah, the girl who shows him for her. I was very pleased with how he turned out, and so was Hershey's owner. The pin is almost as cute as the real Hershey. :o)