[fire2225ems]

ok I have to say this is a sad accomplishment, but I am still SO HAPPY I did it!!! I finally finished my Dad's Christmas Present. Now I know what most of you are thinking, its only Oct. why is that sad? and maybe even why would it be a "finally finished"? well, see, this was his present from Christmas '05.... I thought I would be ambitious that year. My Dad is really into chess and the first year he was dating my mom (step dad btw), Santa aka DAD, brought my sister and I a really nice wooden chess set. And my Dad spent all of my winter vacation that year teaching me how to play and to play well. So 15 years later for Christmas I returned the favor... I found this ceramic chess set and decided I would paint it for him. To bad I didn't decide this until Mid Nov. Finally got the set about Thanksgiving. Now most people would think - hey thats a whole month to paint, no big deal. Until you think of the fact that in addition to the 32 chess pieces I had to paint but I also had the 4 corners and 4 walls to paint for the board as well. Not to mention the fact that 6 of the pieces came in broken so I had to arrange with the guy to re-cast them, clean them, fire them, and then send them out to me again. I worked every free moment I had on this, even dragging it to my boyfriend's and somehow convincing him and his roommates to help with some of the not so detailed areas... Christmas comes around and I am finally putting the final touches on all but 7 of the pawns. And I'm talkin, last minute, we were walking out the door to go to my sisters to open presents and I still was tryin to get paint to dry so I could wrap it... I gave him all 40 pieces with the promise that I would finish they last 7 soon. Unfortunately at this point I was so SICK of painting that I just couldn't bring myself to get the supplies back out and work on it. In the last 2 years I have tried a few times and each time I get distracted. So this afternoon I happened to look up at the shelf on my desk where the pieces have been sitting all this time and decided "I'M GONNA FINISH THOSE!" And thought that I would be happy to get them done by Christmas this year... So I brought out all the supplies and started working. I couldn't believe how fast I was moving through the pieces either. about the time dinner was ready I was thinking to myself "Sh*t, I could actually finish this tonight." And I did!!! Everything is painted. I just applied the second coat of sealant to them and just waiting for them to dry to add the felt to the bottom and plan on delivering them to him on Sat. And I also realized how much I miss painting my ceramics. I am actually looking forward to getting more pieces to work on. (Anyone know of anything they would like, let me know! **just no more chess sets for awhile**)

[fire2225ems]

Just so you guys know how complex of a project this was...




I will add pics of my version once its all set up and ready to go...

[Moshpitrockchick]

Shell, you are super intense!
I know how you feel with the whole not finishing projects you began, I started sculpting so many projects and they all sit around un-fired and the fired ones are un-glazed still. I have drawings that are unmatted, boxes of photos not in albums, albums that are half full.....thats just part of being artsy...

I use to paint and draw and be really artsy, I have almost fully converted to photography though.

[schlegelbagel]

Originally Posted by Moshpitrockchick

I think I live in the wrong climate, as far as winter is concerned anyway. I hate the snow, I hate being cold, and I hate the shorter days. I need the D3.
seasonal affective disorder is not my friend.

I"m the exact same way. Just because I grew up in Buffalo doesn't mean I like cold!!! I don't mind snow, I hate cold. I know, you can't have one without the other. Actually, what I really hate is Gray.

Shell, my brother painted figures for years, i thought he was nuts too. Can't wait to see the finished product!

[Merlin]

Actually, what I really hate is Gray

ME TOO! Along with dry and brown!
I always love Fall with the autumn colors and cool temps.
Then winter comes and everything looks so dead and barren.

And I find myself awaiting Persephone's return!

[schlegelbagel]

I love summer. I love the heat and the flowers and the green of the trees. This summer has been a bummer because its been so dry. I like spring much more than fall, but I'll take fall over winter any day!

My hubby keeps trying to get me to move to colorado. He insists even though its cold, its sunny all the time and not a damp cold like here.

[nicole]

up here it has been gray, rainy and windy...... I even went and made sure the generator was all ready to go yesterday,,,,, yuck.! I hope we dont have a winter like last year with DAYS of power outages,,, it was so miserable last year. However this year ought to be a little easier than last as we have a wood stove in this house,, so I dont have to worry about the generator running my heater and all the cages and such. I have a huge generator and still had some issues with it running the heater, and All the cages last year,, along with everything else in the house. maybe I have too many cages,,,,,,,nah, that cant be it, lol
Mayeb I will get lucky and not have any trees drop on anything this year.
last year One took out my shed and missed my house by two feet,, phew talk about lucky, lol. I also had one drop smack dab in the middle of the shop last year, which was scary as it barely missed my iguana habitats out there, the bad part was it took over a two weeks to fix the damage, and I had no extra huge enclosures in the house, so I had to take 4 egotistical male iguanas in the house and lock them in rooms and bathrooms with temporary set ups, lol. That was fun,,,, not!
I just pray,, no more weird nasty storms coming this way, lol

[schlegelbagel]

hey consider yourself lucky. You could have been my parents last year.

[Moshpitrockchick]

Nicole- You guys usually have it pretty easy over there....we get that **** every year. The best part about it is pretty much all of the weaker trees have been eliminated.
I can't wait to move back onto the power grid though, they figure that everyone out here in the "sticks" has a wood stove and a generator and we don't really "NEED" the power. For that we are on the bottom of the list.

I miss living in the city on a super steep hill, we'd sit in the front window and watch idiots try to drive their rear-wheel drive cars witho studs up a wall of ice.

[kelly]

I finally got some good pictures of my new kitty. The first two were taken the day we brought her home from the SPCA. She was approx. 5 weeks old and weighed 1.4 pounds.




These two were taken over the past few days. She now weighs about 2.8 pounds and is around 8 weeks old.