Friday, August 3, 2012

Little Peter cottontail... Hopping round the coffee table

Now that I've done a trial run with the less expensive clay and molding materials, I'm ready for a more detailed piece.

Meet Peter rabbit, or just a rabbit in a bowtie if you're a negative Nancy. :)

In any case, I made him last night with a crude wire frame covered in plastillina #3, a much harder and quicker to cool material. It also should hold up better during the molding process.




Thursday, August 2, 2012

A dog's life... as a sculpture, that is...

From time to time, I get a wild hair and decide to dabble in a new art form. Sometimes, its just a new take on some old ideas. Sometimes, its taking up a new hobby, like scrap booking or learning how to make a wedding dress. I'll post a bit about those endeavors later, seeing as I haven't blogged here in a while.

But today, its all about sculpting and molds!

Oh, what a cute litttle doggie...

Well, it sure would be swell to have another one... maybe I should make a mold? *giggles* Yeah, duh, I guess...

I had a couple of options for this, as I'd been thinking of doing some sculpting/molding with the lady that I was working on before. I didn't end up being very inspired to finish it, so instead of letting it sit in a corner, gathering dust, I decided to cannibalize the plasticina from the project and try and figure out molding. Originally, I wanted to make something that I wouldn't care about too much, but that would be cute. Actually, I ended up loving this little doggie. He turned out really cute.

I put this little guy in the freezer to harden him up and then I put the molding epoxy on the doggie after testing it on a little star guy I made.




Next was cleaning out the mold and casting a trial run...  I couldn't find my plaster, so I ended up using the other mold mix that I had. Since the yellow 2 part epoxy is an oil based mold and the other brand is a water based mold, there was no chance of them sticking.



Then, voila! Or, Ta-dum... or presto... or whatever. LOL


Not quite what I had set out to make when I started earlier this afternoon, but cool none-the-less. Next stop will be Meinningers tomorrow to see about getting some molding resin and some mother mold casting epoxy. Should be good! I'll keep you posted.


Wednesday, April 4, 2012

I LIVE!!

As a general rule, if something tastes a little funny, I won't eat it. But, as it happens, I was very, very hungry at dinner on Monday evening. Its not an excuse, just a logical reasoning as to why I kept eating even though the chicken strips were very old and mealy and the ranch I was putting on them was god knows how old out of a refrigerator that has a tendency of not getting closed all the way.

I got food poisoning from that meal. Or, as I like to call it: a supremely painful pyrotechnic event in which my insides became my outsides and my outsides just cried in pain... I'm still amazed that I didn't seriously injure a few of my organs. Even after the evacuation of my system subsided for the night, I felt like I had been run over by a mack truck, repeatedly. All said, as of this morning, I slept a total of 23 hours.

I feel fine now. A little shaky, a little weak, but fine. I also feel like a jerk for not finding a replacement for my shift on Tuesday. But, again... I really thought I was going to die. Honestly, I'm surprised that I didn't. Glad... but surprised none the less.

There were repercussions, obviously. My boss is very upset with me, and I'd be surprised if I didn't get written up or worse once I finally get in touch with her. Also, I'm reasonably sure that I've lost about 5-10 lbs in this endevour. Most of it was undoubtedly water weight. I could actually feel my body drawing from the fat stores of my legs and behind to aide in the evacuation process. I was throwing up much more than the amount of liquids that I'd taken in the past week. It was really scary. I tried to call my Mom at 2am, but was unable to get a hold of her.

If the waves of nausea and diarrhea hadn't stopped by 4am as they had, I would have gotten Sean to take me to the hospital. As it was, I'm still pretty wiped out. But food is staying down, and I'm taking it easy today. Yesterday was a complete wash, as I was in bed til 4pm, got up for some chocolate milk and a restroom visit, then went back to bed til 7pm. I parked myself on the couch for the rest of the evening, dozing here and there, then went back to bed a few hours later. 23 hours of sleep is only counting the actual time I was in bed. I don't count the time I spent on the couch, though I was sleeping much of that time too.

But, the important part is that I LIVED! Yay! Now, time to clean up and try and eat something. Gotta get my strength back up... Whew... that coffee I made earlier is really hitting my system, so I think maybe I'll not drink the whole thing. Half the cup should do it... Wow

Friday, March 2, 2012

New Website!

So, technically this could be posted on any of my three blogs (Overkill, I know... LOL). But I think that this should suffice for now.

After four days off, I have a cleaner house, a slightly cleaner mind, and some plans in place for my future.

I won't spoil the surprise, however, as to what I'm doing... that wouldn't be much fun. However, step one was to fix up/spruce up my web page. Please let me know what you think!!

www.monikagraf.com

Sunday, February 26, 2012

What to do?

It occurs to me lately that I may have lost sight of the big picture. It's a grand statement I hear a lot on television and in referrence to young people's directions in life.

The next question is what to do about it?


But "therein lies the rub!" I suppose that this could be an occasion to make a list of pros and cons. An evaluation of what I have going for me and what needs to change. I guess it could be yet another example of my narcissism and hubris, but even with all I have going for me, I'm still not content.


Question: How does a person find happiness with their current situation or place when they're constantly looking to the horizon for something more? "Stop looking and be happy" is the answer I get fairly often from the wise-types in my life. Stop worrying is another common answer. But above all, I hear "be patient. It'll make more sense when you're older."


I'm gonna call shennanigans on that one... Bullshit. Suck it up and just stop trying?


If something is not right, then something is wrong. True, there are shades of grey in every seemingly black and white case. But, I stand by my statement. If I can't move forward, I get nervous and start to over-analyze my situation. It's a sort of defence mechanism against boredom that I've developed since childhood.


But, it still begs the question. What is it that I should do with my life? a

Thursday, January 26, 2012

Fly fly away

Some days you just want to fly, fly away...

Lou Reed!!!

I'm not saying that I live on the Dirty Boulevard by any means, but I can understand the desire to get away. Not a vacation, but a whole departure from all that is the same old thing and comfortable and familiar. Fly fly away from the world I know and do something completely different.
There are times that I wonder if there is something missing in my heart that might be somewhere else. Its a search for completion that drives me to keep going, keep striving, keep looking for different things and different experiences. Striving for that one illusive something that is just over the horizon, and just out of reach.
Not sure if I'll ever find it, or if this stupid insatiable aspect of my soul will ever be sated or if it will kill me... either that or the grammar police will get me with that last run-on sentence.
Like many other artists, I often find myself in these kinds of situations. The search for that illusive spark or passion. The one that will finally satisfy that itch that makes me so uncomfortable in my own skin. Maybe if I find it, I can start to like myself. Who knows?

Saturday, January 21, 2012

To blog or not to blog...

That is the question, isn't it?

Lately it seems that there are more and more things to complain about and less and less things to celebrate. Could be the gloomy weather, and it could be just me. In either case, here's whats up with me:

Working as much and as hard as I can. There is always room for improvement, and being that business isn't as booming as we'd like, I'm not working as much as I'd want.

Health problems with family are always interesting. Dad is the most recent recipient of heart attacks in the family. A stent and a partial blockage later, he's back at home. Needless to say, he's not a fan of his new "heart friendly" diet. No more butter and whole milk... But he can still have garlic, which is good.

Wedding planning is going well, and we have a caterer now! Johnny Carinos is officially doing our catering as of today. I still have to put down a deposit and sign the paperwork, but it looks good. Simple fare for simple people. They were unable to provide a bartender, but I'm optimistic about finding a good one.

Dress construction plans are going well too. I'm going to the gym again, albeit not in any discernible pattern.

So, all things considered, its going pretty well. Now I just need to figure out some sort of routine that I can do around my flexible schedule and try and make some sense out of the chaos. Maybe the key is to keep breathing and just keep chipping away at the things that need to get done.

Slow and steady...

That, and to keep writing. I think that helps too.

Monday, January 2, 2012

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year internet!

Every year that goes by is bittersweet, to me at least. There are new faces coming into our lives, and beloved faces leaving them. To look back in regret is something that no one should do, unless you're on a killing spree, then yes... regret the killing part and go turn yourself in. Right now.

Most of us do not look back at the previous year and think "Damn, I really shouldn't have done that" or "Man, I know that was a dumb thing to try". Actually, most of the people I talk to around New years are saying: "This next year I'm going to..." Fill in the blank.

New Year's Resolutions!

They range from anything as trite (and redundant) as losing 5, 10, 50 lbs to endeavoring to buy a small island. But its a goal. A dream, if you will... and I won't begrudge anyone their dreams. I've had the weight loss one so many years in a row that I don't count it as a resolution anymore. I did make one, though.

Don't worry, its not "blog every day" cause we know thats not going to happen.

Actually, I'm going to finish one of my stories and try and get it published. Hell, in this age of digital publishing, I might just do that part myself.

Whether or not anything gets done is not really the relevant part of the resolution. Its more that things are being done in the spirit of self-improvement. Its sort of like what my brother, Thomas always used to say when I was a kid "Shoot for the stars, and even if you never quite make it that far, you'll still be further than if you had never tried at all."

I like that.