Bird Attack

So finally, here's the whole unvarnished truth about this story.
I was minding my own business, I swear, when I walked out my front door to go to work and out of no where this bird, attacks me:

He had been sitting in my palm tree out front and apparently viewed me as an invader. And when I say he attacked I mean it. He was actually hitting me with his little body. I was laughing so hard I could scarcely breathe...little buggar. He actually chased me down the street at one point.

When I got home from work there was this little bird out by my garage door.

Now mind you this picture was taken AFTER I moved him to a "safer place". He still couldn't get back up to his nest and I have 4 cats and 2 dogs and that's not counting how many other animals are in the neighborhood. Sooooooo, long story short, I felt I needed to get him back home. Hehehe, I still chuckle about this when I think of it.

I've got both mom and dad attacking me when I just step out the door, how in the world am I going to accomplish this? Oh did I mention they were taking turns attacking? One from the left and the other from the right one after the other. They were good.

I decide that I would put on a hat as they were usually aiming for my head, oh and then I would wear my heavy canvas coat because sometimes they missed my head and hit lower. Yeah and then I'll wear my heavy welding gloves for handling the baby. Yeah, this was going to be great!

Did I mention that it was over 95 degrees outside and the front of the house was in full sun? Ah, nevermind...

After retrieving the spider infested ladder from the backyard, I didn't know this many species of spiders would live together harmoniously on a 6ft aluminum ladder but...*shrug*, I proceeded to my destination all decked out.

Put the ladder up, ducked a few times, picked up baby bird, ducked some more, invented new swear words, laughed til I cried, placed the baby back into the nest with his other two siblings, screamed as a spider climbed up my neck, fell off the ladder onto the grass rolling, lost 5 pounds just in sweat, jumped up in time for another assault and ran for my front door.

5 minutes, I swear.

I stood there, finally, wondering what in the hell my neighbors were thinking of me now.


Oh yeah.
I did go back up with my camera and this is the best pic I could get of the nest.
I'm insane...I'm pretty sure.

They have now moved to the backyard and I see dad feeding the three hungry babies all the time. They hop along the back wall but do alot of hiding out in my pyracantha tree, they are safe there.

I've tried to find out what kind of birds these are and have had no luck. They sure are bold little buggars and I have enjoyed them.

Anyone know?

Some new items

Some of the items I'm offering in my etsy shop. It's just a small handful of items just to get my feet wet and see how I feel about the whole operation. I do feel kinda funny pandering myself here in this blog post but I am kinda excited to finally be up and running even if it is on a small scale. Forgive me if you find this all rather off putting.

Finally...an etsy.

I know I know it's been so long since I've posted here. I seem to come home from work so drained of energy during the week that I can't get anything accomplished and then spend the entire weekend trying to catch up. It's a vicious cycle I tell ya!

I also have that inability to focus on anything, especially when I need to be in the studio doing stuff I tend to sit at the computer for hours on end really doing nothing at all and I find it amazing that time can fly by so fast when I do this.

Last week however I did get brave enough to actually and finally open up my etsy shop and it feels like a huge burden has finally been lifted. I had been agonizing over this step in my life for years and although at the moment I don't have much in there I finally feel at peace with the decision. Hehe, I had no idea how cathartic just saying that would be...yay!

A Bug of a Chunky 4x4

I had to do a little post stalking on my latest and last partner for the Craftster chunky 'Creative Life' 4x4 swap and I found out (at one point anyway) that she liked bugs, sooooo, these little buggars came to visit for a bit.

I wanted to try out this new wing 'recipe' I found on someone else's blog. Please forgive me as I can't remember whose wonderful blog it was and would seriously like to credit them for this process.

Edited to add: Here's the wonderful blog/artist that posted the wonderful tutorial for the transluscent wings. Many thanks again for sharing this!

These are tissue wrapped wire wings and I love the transparent way they came out. After finding lots of small (very small) pieces of copper wire on the construction site I felt I really needed to find something creative to use them for and this was perfect.

I really must do more of the wire wrapped copper flowers as well. Maybe a little too chunky for this but would probably work well for something else along the way, eh, who knows.

The little bugs on the back remind me of something you would see on "The Farside" by Gary Larsen. Father's Day is just around the corner and my Father loves the Farside so that is probably why I thought of that, hehe.

The last Altered Ancestor to arrive

The Altered Ancestor Project.
Six of us got together for a swap of our ancestors where we each submitted a couple of photos for consideration to be altered and we could alter whichever photo spoke to us best.

This is Phizzychick's Mom and Gran. While I struggled with this picture a bit I love the way it turned out. It did take awhile to get it where I wanted but once it started going there I had a blast with it.

This was the first one done and shipped but the very last one to arrive. It did have a VERY long way to travel however.
I really enjoyed these ancestors and am sad that my end of this swap is done. I have received 3 of my 5 back so far and will start posting mine soon. I do find it amazing how two people can view the same picture and come up with something completely different. You've got to love it!

There Are Other Worlds Than This

This little bird was created over the weekend and had a specific goal in mind. I submitted him for pocketful's illustration magazine. The theme for the magazine is "Oh dear! Oh dear! I shall be late!" which is where the clock like reference came into play around the edge.

I wasn't real sure I liked where he was going at first and had walked away from him for awhile, so much so that I was scrambling to finish him right up until the deadline...whew! Glad he finally came together.

He was created on a 8"x8" canvas with a collaged map using acrylics.

Third and Fourth Ancestor Arrive

It's a calvacade of ancestors today, who knew that they would all arrive together like this, well except the last one that's traveling all the way to Sevilla Spain. I'll give that one a couple more days. hehe.



This ancestor belongs to Katxena and for me was the hardest one of the bunch which was weird as he was the one I had the clearest idea of what I wanted to do with him.

He was a cattle rancher which is why there are cows involved there. I'm not sure how much of the back story I should indulge in here as it involves actual people but suffice it to say that he lost his wife early on in the marriage. I thought it was a sad story and is what I wanted to center the story around.

I like the way the copper wire almost looks like fencing there at the bottom. Ha! That wasn't my original intention but I like the way it turned out.




This one turned out better than I had hoped for and was almost a fluke. I wasn't real sure where I was going with it and was taking turns on this one and the Frederick one and I feel it just fell together.
The story behind these two boys is a troubled one. The older brother used to play cruel games with his younger brother and then dies after playing a particularly cruel game with him. I love these two boys but those eyes are haunting.