Hello Again

False Alarm!  Got you!  :P

Just kidding.  After a long day, I am in Colorado.  And it is TOMOZ that the no-internet business will start. :)  So here're just a few pictures we snapped today.

Bye, y'all!

AMZi x x x x x

Goodbye

Well, my last post before I take off for two weeks.  No access to electronics whatsoever.  Ergo, no posting. Sadness. :(

Ultrasadness because I just received something by post and it's very exciting and I wanted to show you...  But no matter!  When I return, I shall personally take you on a little tour round the world, in a way.  We'll have lots of fun.

And besides the shopping (I'm actually far from broke, but I'm a lot broke-ER than I usually am :P) and the packing and the lists and the counting and the planning and the *yawn* break-taking, I've been to the pool for the first time this summer!  Opened early.  I did NOT get in all the way, it was perfectly FRIGHTFUL but the sun was nice and it was refreshing as deep as I got.  So now I have that tired feeling, comfortably hot, you know that you get after you've been out in the sun and the water and then you come back in.  I really just want to go to bed, but I've got a suitcase to load up.  *sigh*

So I'll see you all later, around the 13th, and I've got stuff to show you then, so don't forget about me in my absence! :)
AMZi x x x x x

Lists

It's been dodgy round here lately...seems like one minute I'm crazy busy with all this stuff hanging over my head, and  the next, I'm sitting around with nothing to do!  Company coming, going.  Writing and then thinking and putting off and then making myself write again.  Abruptly running out of my rack of books to read (AAAH!!!  *instant shiftlessness*).  Suddenly remembering that I'm supposed to have a Bourree memorized by this morning... *cough* hope my violin teacher isn't reading! :P  Trying to figure out what to take, what not to, how to SURVIVE two weeks without my simple comforts...

One being music.  I am so dead here.  I'm taking the guitar conmigo pero no puedo tomar my iPod.  I keep catching myself saying, Oh, it's okay, I'll be fine, if I get upset, I'll just listen to that one--no.  No, I won't.  AAAHHH!  

Remember that post from day before yesterday, I think?  I hope they have leafy trees in Colorado.  I hope they have big sunny skies.  Dorothy, you won't be in Kansas anymore!  

So I've been making lists.  Don't get me wrong :: I make lists all the blooming time.  I make lists every day, for multiple reasons.  I usually have a master list, utilizing good old pen and paper, with checkboxes and everything I have to/want to get done that day.  I love checking them off!  If I forget to add something and I do it, I will actually add it after the fact just so I can check it off...  Yeah, I get that look a lot.  :)  

And I keep tucking away little things, adding things to lists or to the Bag of Awesomeness (aaahhh!  Did I mention yesterday that it is GREEN?????).  Things that I KNOW will completely change my mood from terrible to amazing...  Like this book ::

This.  Book.  Is. Amazing!!!  A brill friend gave it to me a few years ago (after I kept trying to steal her copy...always found out by the un-suppress-able laughter...rats) and ever since, it's the one thing I can count on to make me completely forget to be mad/sad/whatever.  I will laugh out loud (very loud) no matter how many times I've read a particular sentence.  Take this for example ::

"An angry Martin Luther nailed ninety-five theocrats to a church door.  The Pope's response was to declare Luther hereditary." 

Noooo, Pope, you don't say??  Watch out for his children!!

"Calvinists were the only ones who believed in pre-detonation.  It is not surprising that their preaching consisted mainly of dogmatic explosions."

You have got to be kidding!!  That is like...like a genius thought it up as a joke, instead of a mistake on a term paper!!  Oh, and I am very much a Calvinist, if it sounds like a disrespectful joke.  It's just hilarious!

Oh, and some AMAZING unintentional French jokes.  (Sorry, Frenchies, nothing personal really, I just...yeah...grrr...haha)

"The Quebec Act was an Intolerable Act because it would have required Americans to learn French in school."

HEAR HEAR!  INTOLERABLE, I TELL YOU!

"Another problem was that France was full of French people."

Ohhhh, that explains EVERYTHING!  XD

If I don't stop, I'll go on forever!  WARNING :: Not all of the book is exactly PG... Heh heh.  Mainly misspellings of inconvenient terms...  You have been warned.

But everything's kind of winding down before it winds up, if that makes any sense... Two more days!
AMZi x x x x x  

I Have Been Swayed

To this point in time, I have been a staunch Pockets Person.  I was NEVER ever ever a Purse Toter.  (Ooh, that sounds so derisive, say it really sourly :: PURSE TOT-er *shudder*)  Ever.  But in the course of human events, as they say, some things happened.  Things Generally Do.

These things cause el padre to have fits about me not being a PURSE TOT-er because it was inconvenient.  What's worse, Pippin took his side!  (Pippin, how COULD you??)  Though she did make some good points--get an over-the-shoulder bag, and you won't put it down and walk off without it (which I what I do).  Sigh, sigh, conniptions, fits, tears, sighs again...okay, not really.  I kinda moaned a little and rolled my eyes at the most.  Dramatic sighs are just more dramatic.

I knew I wouldn't consistently carry a purse (ugh what a word!  Let's say "Bag" shall we?) unless I seriously loved it.  Just like I wouldn't wear a watch unless I found one I really really liked.  (Which, by the way, I did, and it's big and clunky and leather and ivory-faced and has the timer ring and is like a parachuter's watch with big numbers and all and it PWNS)  I'm thinking camo.  I could deal with a camo *cringe* purse.

No beans.  But guess what I found instead?  A bright green satchel-type shoulder-bag awesomeness thing!  I have been converted to the Bag-Carry-Ers Society.  Yes, I'm afraid it irrevocably true.

It's got nice pockets and it holds everything, from sunglasses to wallet to phone to camera, with room for a book or two if I get bored. :)  I guess it WAS about time, as I'll be traveling soon and will want something to carry my effects (what a word!) in....

But PLEASE let's not call me a Purse-Toter.  More like a Bag-Slinger.  Yeah.  Like a gunslinger, but...with...a bag.
AMZi x x x x x

Three Things...

That are so Awwesooooome that I just can't get over them!  You'll probably hear of them again from me before long.  I just can't get over them.

Thing #1 :: The way the floor shakes when the elders walk up the center aisle of the church in unison.  I wait for this, two times every week, as they're distributing the Lord's Supper.  For some reason it just gets to me!  I had to put it in a book, Allemande to be exact, because it was such a tangible thing.

            The organ sang out, the strains of the hymn rising into the high ceiling, echoing wonderfully down the nave.  I could almost feel the deep tones of the foot-pedals humming through the pew into my back.  Then the organ burst into a resounding chord and died away, leaving silence still colourful to my ears. 

            I caught a metallic clink from far behind me—the distinctive sound of a shining plate being passed.  Then the elders walked forward in unison, up the aisle toward the front of the church.

            I scooted forward on the pew until my feet reached the floor.  I laid the soles of my shoes flat against the stone and waited.  The six elders approached steadily, rank on rank of feet.  They passed our pew and the vibrations of their footsteps travelled into my feet.  I smiled broadly as they passed and settled back into the pew.

            Why did I like the feeling of all those feet marching solidly up the aisle?  I couldn’t explain it, but it seemed one of those odd pleasures allowed to me, since I couldn’t see.  Others had the way the daffodils’ stems bent at the head; the way pale green and pale pink looked so well together; the way snow glowed in the little shower of light from a lamppost.  I had the reverberating footsteps of the elders as they took the communion plates to the front.  It was almost enough. 

            When I was young, Mum made me a big, heavy book, bulging with thick pages.  It overflowed my lap when I opened it and spread my fingers on the page.  She pasted a bouquet of textile delights into the hefty paper.  Thick velvet, and rabbit pelt, and sandpapers of various coarseness.  A cool, sticky piece of flat silicone, a wrinkled piece of paper pulp, and a square of shaggy carpeting.  Leaves with distinct, raised veins, Chinese coins with holes in the middle, lumpy woollen yarn—every spread became an exploration. 

            I traced the embossed cover of the hymnal as I stood to sing the hymns I knew by heart.  And the echoes of my thoughts surged through me like the shaking of the floor under the feet of the ages.

Thing #2 :: Fences in the fields in the summer...

Man, a scene like that just makes me crazy...  When you're driving out (South until the streets stop!) and you get to a hillside with a big green field and a fence and a bunch of black cows... Maaaan.  That's it, I'm telling you.

Thing #3 :: The way the leaves rustling sounds just like the ocean...

I love the sea.  I love the Great Lakes.  I love little lakes.  I love cow ponds.  Okay, I love water, period.  But I live in landlocked Kansas.  Small problem, yes?  But it doesn't matter!  It makes all the difference when the spring finally comes and the trees leaf out at last.  It's amazing.

Anyway, so that's what I've been thinking about lately.  I've been writing Chapter 7 on and off while working on this post (pictures take for blooming ever to upload) and I think I've just finished it.  AND once again, I didn't actually get to the point I was hoping for (reporting to the Admiral) but it's already 1,000 words over my goal/limit.  So, I guess we'll arrive at the fort NEXT chapter!  *sighs*

AMZi x x x x x

Soooooooo...*snore*

*wakes up*  Oh!  Yeah!  Title!  *cough*  Sooooooooo...Tired.  Indeed.

Very muchly.  We went bicycling this afternoon, and I hold up well enough during the ride, it's just after it... I... die....  Sort of.  I am so tired.

Add that to preparing mentally and packingly for two weeks out of the house alone.... Ayi!

A heck of a lot of reading, editing, critiquing, commenting, revising, checking, writing...  Summer workshops have begun, which means editing my own chapters and reviewing other peoples's so that they will think I am nice. :P

So I am making excuses, yes.  I refuse to feel guilty.  I'm too...*snoooorreee*

Fun game though (okay, maybe not so fun...fun for ME!) :: When you're driving down the highway for hours straight (south till the streets stop!) and you're kinda bored and all, it takes you a little under a minute to get from mile marker to mile marker, right?  So the game is this :: You have to figure out the factors of the number of the mile marker before you get to the next one.  So you can picture me driving along, looking at cow, muttering under my breath, "Is 111 a prime?  Hmmm... 3 into...  2 left over, that gives you... No.  No, it's not.  3 and 37--Oh boy!  110!"

AMZi x x x x x

Arts of All Sorts

Yesssss, I know posting has been dodgy lately...  I didn't mean to, honest!  I got kinda busy, and then I thought I was busy so I mentally "let myself off" and then I wasn't busy, but I didn't have the mental order to...yeah.  Oh well.  Besides, not much going on lately.  Mostly writing.  I'm almost halfway into Chapter 7, which is nice.  I'm telling you, except for Chapter 5 (which was kinda my fault just not sitting down and telling myself what I wanted to do) I've had no stuck issues.  The ideas just keep pouring in for how and why certain events occur!  I'm so excited--I'm crushing a few hopes in this chapter.  Ha.  I sound devious there.  Oops.

So besides the art of writing, I've been working on some other things, casually...  I have a new theme on the piano, if that interests anyone...I haven't composed anything in awhile!  Been mainly arranging.  But I don't worry, you know?  Some night I'll sit down and just KNOW, if I sit there long enough, it'll come out.  Handy that way. :P

Yes, my colored pencils are 2-4 inches in length.  I snatch up all the stubs around here, which is funny because I have big hands, but they work for me!  I have to sharpen them manually, but I don't care.

I love lined up stuff. <3

El hermano of savvy-ness (what can he NOT do?) carved this for me!  I have several others, in normal pencils, all with their own personality.  This one's long beard twists around the pencil!

So a little drawing, a little writing, a little music, a LOT of reading (I mean a LOT), and photography when the mood strikes me.  Oh, and to complete the various arts, here are the pictures of my other Fiber Arts projects.

Go ahead and say it! :P  Actually, check this out...

And a drawstring tapestry-woven bag.  Weft-facing.  Eternal project.  Maaaaan.  It can always be squished down more than you want it to!  (Probably the technical term for squishing down is beating...whatever!)

There you have it!
AMZi x x x x x

Rain...AGAIN

Because of the rain, I had to take some long-distance shots of the new roses....

 After all that writing yesterday, I was thoroughly excited for Ch. 7 but haven't been able to translate that excitement into actual work.  Too bad! :)  For me, the most challenging thing about writing during the school year is not finding time to WRITE but finding time to THINK.  Because in order for a scene to be written on paper, it needs to take shape in my mind.  I need to have a little 30-minute pow-wow with myself and start asking myself questions...

"Does he mutiny or blackmail him?  No, he TRIES to blackmail him, and that doesn't work.  So he mutinies.  But is he going for total control, or only Velocitas to betray them?  Total control, but that doesn't work, so he'll take the Velocitas and..."

Q and A just like that.  "Why does he want this?  What does he try first?  How on EARTH does she end up on board?  And what in the world will we do with Davies and Brigham?  How can I manage to make Ewings flog someone?"  If you barge in on me during one of these sessions, well, let's just say I've gotten some really weird looks in the past.

Me :: *happily explaining to some writerly friends*  I've stabbed two or three people already!

The Ginger Who Happens To Be Walking Past :: *mortified stare* Oh My Quesodilla!  *hurries back to Spanish class*

Stuff like that. :)  Anyway.  So I know it's coming, as always, it just needs a little time to congeal.  Yeah.  So far what I have is ::

Ch 7

Ta Da!  *bows*  Ah well.
AMZi x x x x x

A Tuesday's Daily Doings

• 6:23am :: Wake up slowly.
• 6:24am :: Realize today is TUESDAY, not Saturday as had somehow got into my head.  Bound out of bed with joy.  (I work on Saturdays, hence the general dislike)
• 6:25am :: Jump out of my skin when the alarm goes off.  Run to turn it off.  
• 6:30am :: Open computer and prepare to write.  Commence distracting self with excuses.
• 6:47am :: Actually buckle down to writing when faced with having to stop soon... *shakes head at self*
• 7:09 am :: Stop writing and make breakfasts/lunches/backpacks, etc.
• 8:30 am :: Have nice quiet house to self.  Commence violining.  
• 8:40 am :: Still scales....
• 8:50 am :: Even more scales....
• 9:00 am :: Forget the scales!  Bourree instead!
• 9:12 am :: Receive announcement of plan (dun dun dun!)
• 9:20ish am :: Head off to Starbucks!
• 9:34 am :: Order a Java Chocolaty-Chip Frappuccino (steep $$$-wise, but a special treat)
• Shortly Thereafter :: Commence writing.  If I were a real author, like full-time, I would totally find me a nice quiet Starbucks to sit in all day.  When I hit writer's block, I'll just listen to interesting conversations, order tea, etc.  
• 11:47 am :: Head home, 3,000 words later.
• 11:50 am :: More violining, more writing...
• Sometime Later than Normal :: Lunch!
• 1:00 pm :: MORE writing...
• 2:56 pm :: FINISH Chapter 6, PRINT Chapter 6, add some bits to other chapters I kind of forgot...
• 3:18 pm :: Write this. :P

So there's my day.  :)  And because I adore mi violin....

This is my new desktop.  I think if you click it, it'll get bigger.  :)

AMZi x x x x x

False Start

Feeling a bit south of the elements today...but I've therapied with good books all morning, so with a reheating of my cuppa, I'm off to try and be productive!  Itching for the guitar, but I shall resist!  I'm really brilliant with distractions, you know...like writing this post.  Totally circumnavigating my goals for the afternoon. :P

And the weather seems to be feeling a bit south of the elements as well...no light to speak of, photography relatively nonexistent.  Sadness, yes?  So this is what my afternoon will consist of ::

Yep.  Lotsa writing, if I have my way.  And if I don't get too tired.  And if my tea stays hot and I don't have to go reheat it.  And if I ever stop writing this post and actually apply myself to Chapter 6.  It's not that I'm not excited for Chapter 6--I am.  Most definitely.  *insert evil laugh*  Just so tired.................

Anyhow.  I think there should be a law (okay, a policy, a guideline, a suggestion, whatever!) that you're not allowed to argue or insult someone, EXCEPT in an English accent!  For one thing, using a fake accent makes everything less personal, and for another...well, long-winded insults sound SO much better like that.  Problem being, I can never think of something really good and long off the top of my head.  It ends up like this ::

Me (al hermano [[to el hermano]]) :: Oh, HONESTLY, you ARE the most...  errmm...  pig-headed?

El hermano the Immensely Helpful :: No, no, that doesn't sound right.  Stubborn--

Me :: Infuriating!

Hermano :: Good one!

Me :: Okay!  HONESTLY, you ARE the most stubborn, infuriating...  errrrrmmm...  several other derogatory adjectives...  unpleasant NOUN!

AMZi x x x x x x

PS Just remembered I never showed y'all a couple of my Fiber Arts projects... if we get some good light later, I'll do a post on those. :)

The Most Un-Blog-Ish Subject

Music. :P  Really a silly subject for a WRITTEN and VISUAL art form thingamajig.  Ah well.  You're in for it anyway.



Check it out.  He plays it really abysmally so I'm sorry, but use your imagination.  This. Is. My. Favorite. Song. Evah.  I heard it performed yesterday (MUCH BETTER THAN THIS yeesh) and it kills me every time. :D

And also this one ::



I remember the first time I heard this... *big grin*  Fantastic, yes?

So I took some pictures :: I love shots of people's hands on pianos.

This is my favorite--like the real world is INSIDE the piano, and outside it's just black and white like the keys....

And check this out!!  El hermano of crazy savvy-ness has lately been making these funky things.  They're flat, 2-D pieces of paper, and he draws on them in a certain way, and when a picture it taken from an angle, it--well, it looks like this!

There's a shot we have of me holding it (it IS MY book, of course--The Forewarned) and it looks so blooming real!  Keep an eye out for that soon. :)

Must run... as usual. :)  Hope all y'all had such a lovely weekend as I did!
AMZi x x x x x

A Quick Note...

To say I've finished Ch 5.  This morning I turned off my alarm and let myself sleep in till 7 (reason why later).  When I did wake up, I rolled out of bed and got straight to work.  The house was quiet, very peaceful.  Since there's nothing else to do, I like to write while I wait for everyone to get up.  Before 9, I'd written a couple thousand words.  Then...

DUN DUN DUN!

I went to get my hair cut again.  After I got a lot of it cut off awhile ago, every school day someone or other has insisted that I must have cut my hair again!

Person :: Did you cut your hair?

Me :: Uh... no...

Person :: Are you sure you didn't get a haircut and then forget?  It looks shorter.

Me :: Nooo, I'm pretty sure.  If anything it's longer now.

Person :: No, no, it was longer last week!

Me :: Yeah... I bet someone is sneaking into my room at night and cutting my hair every day... that's the only explanation.

Seriously, random people asked me twice a month for weeks!  It was bizarre.  So now, when I see my friends tonight, I'll tell them I got my hair cut just so when they asked if I'd cut my hair, I could say YES for once!!

So now I have bangs for the first time since I was about five-years-old...only I like them now. :P  A lot!  :)

And the reason for me sleeping in a whole 'nother half hour this morning....  Last night we went to an amazing dinner with my "big brother" and his new wife (okay, not SO new, they got married in March).  I missed my brother--not having anyone to pick on me!  We also finally got to really MEET a Russian family we helped out when they first came to the US.  Their kids are ADORABLE!  Last night was the most fun I've had all year, no joke!  I could have stayed there forever!  And the best part was all of the language stuff, el padre attempting Russian, everyone cracking up at his efforts, translations going on back and forth and back and forth and questions and jokes and it was blooming AMAZING! :)

Fun fact of the day ::  American say "Buh-bye" meaning "Goodbye" all the time, right?  Well, in Russian, a "buh-bye" is like a monster that scares children.  So when it came time to go, we started making grabby hands at the adorable little kiddos and saying "Buh-byyeee!!" in scary voices.  All in good fun of course.  They have such infectious laughter!!

Buuuuuhhh-Byyyyyyyeee!  *insert evil laugh*
AMZi x x x x x

My Creative Space

Playing along this week at kootoyoo... :)

My Creative Space is Rained On...

And Screened In as you can see.

And while listening along to The Reptile Room (see yesterday's post), I've been populating my Creative Space...

...with farmyard animals.  There's the pony with tiny legs (Simon?) and the grey hen (Persephone?) and the nanny goat (Nanny?) and the billy goat (Billy?).  And yes, I am fully aware that none of them have eyes/noses (in the horse's case) yet.  I'm still deciding how exactly I want to do that...  felt as the pattern calls for?  Or buttons? Very small buttons of course.

Missing granny squares, oddly.  I should have known I can't survive apart from them!

Chapter 5 is coming along grandly-ish.  I had some trouble (first trouble with this book so far) figuring out JUST how exactly I wanted to accomplish something, but I believe we have landed on a solution!

I stooped and picked it up, testing the heavy weight in my palm.  “Look me in the eyes, Brigham,” I said.  He blinked rapidly, but tore his gaze from the gun.  “I’m not going to shoot you, or even threaten to shoot you.  That’s not how I work.”  I glanced at Benjamin.  “Anymore.”

AMZi x x x x x

What I'm Reading

In no less than THREE tenses!  

Have Just Finished Reading ::

The first Ian Rutledge book, which I should have started with but didn't and is actually quite good though not as brilliant as The Red Door.

A Ted Dekker thriller which, while relatively original, features a main character who is practically identical to the heroes of his other thrillers.  Some nice twists all the same, and a lot of interesting stuff about mental illness, which is fascinating.

What I Am Reading This Very Minute (Which Is A Lie Because I Am Actually Typing) ::

An old fad series that I never really got around to reading.  It's so pathetically funny and British sounding, it's worth it. 

A book that I accidentally picked up and ended up being fascinated immensely.  Very very interesting.  Maybe not the most immediately applicable reading, as I am neither adrift nor a boy, but you never know...if I have children someday, it may come in handy.  And then I will laugh in all your faces and point and say, "Ha, I'm ahead!!"

A book by George MacDonald who is inexcusably ignored these days.  Packaged like a cheap romance, I know, but I have it from a reliable source that it's not bad at all.

What I'm Planning On Reading Next ::

Because of course I have to see what happens next....

Because so far as I can tell it's the next Rutledge book and ditto the above reasoning.  :)

As for me, a little writing, a little knitting (still working on that nanny goat but very close to completion), lots of reading, lots of thinking, and obviously a little blogging. I could get used to this holiday business. 

AMZi x x x x x

Three Reasons

...Why Mondays aren't so bad.  In spite of achy back and head from lack of sleep, and evil seasonal allergies assaulting my sinuses without mercy.  :)

Reason the First ::

Everything is so green outside!

Reason the Second ::

A light rain.  I opened the window a crack to let in the sound of it.  Quite nice actually.

Reason the Third ::

Knitting a nanny-goat.  Hahahaha!  Also a lot of reading going on, and a lot of writing.  I'll finish chapter 4 today if I have my way. :)

Of course, thinking about it, I find a lot of other reasons.  Tea, long interesting emails, dressmakers' blogs to read through, etc.  A snatch of alone time later on, I trust. :)  That sounds so nice to me.

AMZi x x x x x

Farmyard Animals

Got a good many things on my mind at the moment, and not many of them warrant talking about....  Ah well.  Let's have some knitting updates!

Can a chicken be sat upon a horse?

Yes it can.  No eyes on the chicken yet, and no eyes/nose on the horse yet, I'm not keen on felt and hole punches and glue.  I'll get there.  :)  Finally went and bought some more yarn, which takes me forever to justify doing.  Honest.  I had to work myself up for four days to buy the $4.60 pattern!  I can't seem to justify spending money on anything except music.   A ten or a twenty I can blow in a minute for music, but everything else is guilty afterward. :)  Ah well.  Probably a good thing, yes?  Bit of a saver, I am.

Go look at the Summit website if you've never heard of these chaps.  I'm going to one of their two week conferences.  Looks to be very exciting and a good time for people who rather enjoy thinking.

And as for writing, I'm halfway through Ch 4 and it's really ripping.  So enjoyable, being a full-time all-day sit-down writer again!  Just to be working solidly like that.  I've figured out the problem I had getting back into it.  I have to think, thinking is my whole life, just thinking about any old thing.  During the school year, there's no time (sometimes literally) for thinking, and that gets me in a not-so-nice mood.  In order to write, I need to think, sometimes for hours solid, preparing and letting inspi come.  Enter the summer hols, and voila!  Time, ergo thinking, ergo writing.

Remarkable, really.

AMZi x x x x x

My Late Creative Space

Would have had this up last night, as I was technically doing it yesterday, but yesterday was MAD!  Took a trip to the Nelson Atkins Art Museum, of which... I sound like a Philistine here...  my favorite parts were the Corinthian columns in the foyer and the rich Dutch made furniture in the American section....  Haha.  I'm sure the paintings were nice too.  What disturbed me was the fact that the canvases were laid bare to the air and anyone who wanted to stick a pencil through them.  And not nearly enough security standing around looking intimidating.  IMHO.

Check out this lovely iris... not dark purple like the others... cross pollination perhaps?

And we're petsitting again, a very charming little Yorkie with the best manners I've ever seen.  Love this picture of her.  Nothing like a picture with a well-defined window screen in the background...makes it feel like summer!

And we arrive at my Creative Space.  This week it involves some help from Alan Dart, namely, using his Farmyard Animals pattern.  Stop laughing, you!  I've always been fascinated by little animal figurines, cows and horses and sheep and goats and geese.  Of course I like the real thing, but those are rather hard to keep round the house, don't you know?  So I saw this pattern and about died of the cuteness.  Hahahaha.

Progress as of last night....wish me luck!

Progress as of this morning.  All the while, I'm listening to A Test of Wills, by Charles Todd, the first Ian Rutledge mystery.  Loving it!!

AMZi x x x x x

A Visit to the Shipyard....

To see the progress on me lovely boat!

The Captain's bunk, with chart storage underneath in the pigeonholes.

View into forward cabin under foredeck.

A view of the gun deck, with gun ports that will eventually be square....

Quartermaster's bunk, on one side in the slightly more forward aft cabin. ;)

First Lieutenant's berth on the other side of the slightly more forward aft cabin.

A view of the stern and quarterdeck.  There will be two more stern lanterns on either side.

The view from the captain's cabin forward.

Status as of now....  Sweet!!!!

AMZi x x x x x