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Wood carving retreat

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This workshop was intense. More intense than I expected, and especially taxing on my *brain*! As we eased back into carving on day one, it was deceptively simple. Then when we moved from easier things like defining the tree to harder things like carving the rocks and matterhorn, it got more mentally taxing. But there is SO much information and guidance contained in the shape of the CNC blank that the carving, while time consuming to get it done (it's a huge piece!) wasn't *that* difficult.  The "Next Level" in "Next Level Retreat" really came on strong in days 3 and 4 with the painting. SO many layers. SO much depth created. SO many new ideas about how to look at an object, think about light, and create additional shaping with the paint *in addition to* the shaping that was already present in the carving. Ray's guidance and expert eye was really crucial to keeping everyone on track and getting the results we did.  I learned SO MUCH at this retreat. I can...
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Museum of Illusions!

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The Museum of Illusions was fun and mind-bending. Be forewarned - SO many of the exhibits feature static pictures that your brain interprets as moving or spinning things that I was *almost* motion sick by the end! Who knew? I asked, and it's not that uncommon. 🤣 When I saw we were at the end I was relieved.
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February 2025

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January 2025

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This is one of the months that reminds me to take photos of the "everyday" more often. I always take pics at karaoke, but I forget to get pics of what the kids are doing. And they resist, so ... that's not necessarily easy anyway.  In Other News: Drak finished his first training class. He's slow to get used to new places so he wasn't really accepting treats from me until the 3rd of 6 classes. We're going to repeat the class - it'll be kind of boring for me, but now that he's settled in at the location we can do more actual training. And getting him out of the house at least once a week is a good thing, too. I'm determined for him to not be scared of the whole world!  
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Walking Drak

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Drak update! Having a blind dog is weird. He's settled into our home and yard well enough that it's easy to forget that he's blind when he's in our home and yard. When he had been here just a few days, we tried to walk him in the neighborhood. We only got a couple of houses away - he didn't trust *me* yet, and he was totally spooked by being in a new environment, and just refused to come along. Now that he's much more settled in, we tried again today. Going down the 2 front steps is still a complete non starter. Becasue he can't really see how far it is, going down off of just about anything is really, really scary for him. It took time just for him to get used to going down the 2 steps from our deck to the grass, something he encountered multiple times every day, so that wasn't a big surprise. I carried him down the stairs, but from there he walked really well! He followed me, did some good sniffing, and wasn't too scared overall. Two "funny...
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Woodcarving Retreat!

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I went to a woodcarving retreat with Raymond Kinman - it was an amazing experience and I can't really believe I made this!!! You are looking at 14 hours of work starting with zero carving experience. The video shows the process, and a little bit of what others were working on while I was there. I can't wait to go back!
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December Video

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