Moving Forward

I completed another piece that was commissioned from my wonderful patron in Canada.

I have two more from this patron for now, and yes, another pumpkin. Why? Well, I had a white pumpkin left and a customer in Washington asked if she could still order one for some friends that are getting married Halloween 2014. Since I was able to take a break from the pumpkin craziness for a few days, doing this last pumpkin of 2013 is no big deal.

I would love to be able to work on some pumpkins (non-custom ones) throughout the year and have an inventory come September. However, the pumpkins are only available at Michaels during September and October. Plus, they're half off for the season, and you can't beat that. Therefore, I'll have to be prepared to start looking for them come August, wait for them to go half off again and then clean up! 

Alexander. Oh, that kid. I love that kid. This kid is killing me. He's a handful. I love him. We love him. No, I am not writing that to convince myself. I love him like crazy. 

These pictures were taken last Sunday. At church! You get to the point that between his skinny waist and no butt (but it's a cute little butt) and the fact that he always wants to shed his clothes, you just have to go, "c'est la vie!" and let him go without pants.  I'm not sure if I'm just exhausted or don't care. No, I care. I'm just exhausted.

That's writing on his legs, from a Sharpie. Post-bath!

Christian was a handful too. In many ways, he was just as exhausting. But these two are different. However, whatever Christian didn't do that was exhausting, Alexander made sure to fill in the gaps. 

The Wickenburg House
I admit, I thought we would have ground broken by now. It needs to be started yesterday. Either way, we're moving there in time for the 2014-2015 school year to begin. I'm not yanking Christian and Mikelle out of school when they can start fresh at the beginning of the school year. This is especially the case with Mikelle. She'll be starting high school. She's already upset that we're moving. I'm not going to have her start high school over here, have her friends and then - boom - we're leaving! We need the closure of finishing this current school year here at her junior high and then starting the new one there next year. 

Of course that means moving in the dead of summer, but it's the price we'll have to pay.  But if we have to move into an apartment in Wickenburg for a little while until the house gets finished, that'll just have to be the way it is. I can think of worse things. Christian and Mikelle will act like they're in a Turkish prison, but we'll survive.

Our designer has been finishing the floor plan with some changes that we are making back and forth. This is the street-view look he gave us last week. I would prefer more bricks on the turrets (upper level), but it's hard to know at this stage if that's financially realistic.

Street View/Front of Walk-Out Basement Hillside Wickenburg Home

I am trying to keep my wits about me. I can see how people can end up getting divorced during such a project! lol And you have Chris and I - both opinionated and argumentative, but with very different tastes. And he has the "engineer" way of doing things, which can have its practical purposes, but not aesthetically pleasing, which is my baby.

But I know when it's finished, it'll be worth it. So when will it get finished? Well, let's get it started! 

Time to get back to work!