I can't believe it's Sunday already!

Having taken a couple of days off for Cheryl's Birthday, I have fallen ever so slightly behind in my seat carving responsibilities. So tonight I carved up 5 seats, I already have several for tomorrow. Lets hope that the sales continue and we are able to catch up from last month. Since this is a rather short post, I thought that I would continue putting some of my old carvings on just so I can remind myself of what I used to do. Here is a whitetail deer carved out of one piece of oak. It took a while to carve the foliage underneath, but it doesn't look to bad. the carving is rather large so I can't seem to capture a good picture with the poor lighting. Hope you are all having a great weekend.

What's an Otaku? Cheryl's birthday!

Cheryls birthday is today! June 6 ( 6/6/ 1980? Yeah 1980!) I'm Aug 8 ( 8/8 for those who might not have noticed.) But unfortunately we were not married on July 7. Bummer! Looking back we should have just gotten hitched on that day and planned the reception later. Anyway, Chery's day consisted of us driving to GR and picking up the last volume of BLACK CAT. Then eating at Mr Burger. Then shopping at the world store before heading home. Going to Grand Rapids is exhausting so now we are simply relaxing and fixing to watch the video. Oh! Otaku is the word that the Japanese use to describe a fanatic collector of Anime. Now ya know. Cheryl is on her way to becoming one....And before I sign off....More pictures of the kitten! the line in Black cat is, " if you have a bad cat, tie a bell around its neck to always know where it is," Cheryl thought this was fitting for Hiro.

Lazy "almost" summer day.

Well, I guess technically it is not summer quite yet. But it sure felt like it. Not the "hot, Hazy" days. Rather, the cool air and bright sunny skies type of day. We didn't go the beach tonight, instead we headed for the bookstore for a coffee and some browsing through magazines. Tomorrow is Cheryl's birthday, so we are planning on a trip to Grand Rapids for some adventure. I did manage to take a few pics of the wood nymph in the daylight, even though I did not have a chance to work on her this evening. She still might need a little more work. Otherwise, I decided to show off my Mule Deer in Cherry from several years ago. This is one of those "almost perfect" carvings where you just want to keep looking at it. Luckily, I don't have many of the "total disaster" carvings left. And I have never had a "totally perfect" one to brag about. Still, I like this one a lot. It's a shame I can't seem to capture the "feel" of it with just the camera. Probably is the lighting. Just the same, it has lots of movement. the Io mothcame back to visit us. Well, Another one anyway. I took him back to the safety of the woods. He was a little rougher than the last one we showed.

Wood nymph #2 day 2.

Worked on the tree carving again. Mostly on shaping the head and eyes. It was a lovely sunset this evening. So I just had to try to capture it. It has been getting cold in the evenings lately. Nice for the inland, but kinda chilly at the shoreline.

Your dog is smart, but can he do this?

A challenge to Stella bird! Feast your eyes on "the kitten", and be amazed! Can you get your new puppy to do this?

More seats! YEAH!

Carved up three more seats tonight. The last batch took too long to dry so they( hopefully) will all go out tomorrow. I finally found an old barbershop group that for a while, was lost on youtube. I don't even know if they are still together. Enjoy Rounders.

Tuesday seat carvings.

Well, what can I say? It's late and I carved up five seats. I'm going to have to get to carving earlier next time or else the poly won't dry. Rashi has taken up as the full time shop cat now. since Red pouts if he can't go outside at night. It was rather windy at the shore tonight. I failed to capture the wonderful rainbow that the setting sun cast. maybe next time.

My fascination with the Irish Elk

For a long time I was into carving extinct and unusual animals. None captured me like the Irish Elk. I did this carving in a Cherry stump. It checked badly, but I still love it. It also had some damage on one of the Antlers, The trouble with making them so big. Just thought I would show it off since it now collects dust with many other carvings in my garage. I actually carved two and managed to sell the first one! I was very excited! This one is still my favorite though.

Daytime pictures, tree carvings, and the windy beach!

Monday is one of the days I take off from carving, which I find is quite common lately, However, I started a new tree carving in the back once again. I found another wonderful LARGE cherry tree that had died and is just begging for a carving! I also took the opportunity to capture the last couple of carvings in the daylight. My plan is to have another wood nymph with her head turned slightly. I can't wait to work on it later, but I'm currently out of DEET! The lake shore was bright, clear and windy. The lighthouse turned out pretty good for a change. It was quite cold, so Cheryl and I decided to keep our walk short tonight. Hope everyone is having a great Monday!

Sunday Night carving with the Io (ie: io) moth

Finished carving up the weekend seats. Only five tonight. But better than nothing. I noticed afterwards that the theme this week looks like it was "tropical island." I have not done a pelican in a while. Other than that, we had a visitor from the "giant silk moth" family. An Io moth is one of the smallest of the family. ( it might be THE smallest) it's still a rather large moth in comparison to the other moths around here. Instead of feeding it to the cats, ( they are just to pretty to let the cats bat them around and eat them) we took a few photos and eventually let it go back in a safe place. For those who don't know, they have only one purpose as an adult and that is to lay eggs and die. So, she won't be around much longer. She was a difficult subject to photograph with all her movement, but after thirty or so pics, we found a few we could show off. Enjoy!