Happily Framed...

This was written Monday 2/23/15...I neglected to officially post it...                    Enjoying nicer cooler temperatures today and rain. Love it love it love it. Only problem is constant nights of insomnia due to Restless Leg Syndrome (RLS is different than WUPS, but can occur concurrently).         

If I'm going to be called into substitute teaching assignment in the mornings, I can't have constant nights like this! I'm trying a different home remedy tonight and I picked up more Magnesium. Between that and a few other little adjustments, tonight will be better!  It has to be.  But this is a really bad bout of RLS. It's been bothering me all day too - which isn't very common. It usually waits for bedtime to come back. Even after running 2 miles on the treadmill my legs are still going crazy.

Excitement... 

Anyway, enough of that (in more ways than one!). This is so exciting. Pictured below is the progress of the house as of last Friday. The bottom level (basement/walk-out) is framed on the inside!  The pictures here are a little splotchy because we were losing light fast.  We didn't take any pictures inside because there really was no light at all.

Pictured - the backdoor/back porch.

And here's some pictures we took today. Despite the off and on rain, there was plenty of work at the house site going on. Awesome! If anything the rain made moving that dirt easier and keeping dust from being a problem.

Framing of the interior, bottom basement walk-out level. This is facing the wall of the staircase..

Christian is standing in a room that will be unfinished storage...I want to put a "secret passage" door there!

Loving those rain clouds...see the rain the distance? Beautiful perfection...

Art Updates...
On the art front, first, here is our new M Monster, out of the kiln last weekend. He turned out pretty good, but the purple of his iris wasn't as divided as I'd like and there are some spots that I wish could have received another coat. But it's okay. He looks good!

I've received a lot of good suggestions for M names. I just haven't really sat down to think about it. I think whatever it is, it has to sound good paired with "...and Melvin" or "Melvin and...". 

Suggested M names include Morris, Muggles, Murgatroid, Morty, Mortis (first name, Rigor), Marti, MOM (monster of madness), Mobie, Morocco, Moticuco, Maynard, Marvin and Mortimer. 

I'll decide soon. 

Also, last Fall, a custom order with the Orlando LDS Temple was commissioned and I completed this work (smaller one, shown here).

Custom work for Cheryl ... Completed October 2014

In tandem to this custom work, I decided to create a general Orlando Temple work so that particular temple would be available to anyone for prints. But with the demands of the season and other orders, the second Orlando temple was set aside before it was complete. 

Then after the demands of Christmas eased up, I forgot about it!  Well, I finally realized that I never finished it, and I did just that last weekend.  (shown below)

It'll be listed in my Etsy shop later this week. Even the original of this work is available. More details will be available in their listings. 

Do you have a temple you would like to see me put to art? Request it and I'll only charge you for a 12x12 print (If you do not need any personal customizations on the artwork)!*

**However, as all artwork (LDS or not), all artwork commissioned by a customer with customizations of course receive the original artwork, so custom requests have the different charge for the service. For example, the Orlando Temple art above was a Custom Commission. The one pictured below is a general Orlando Temple artwork that is available to everyone for prints.

This temple request deal of course enables that temple to be put to the style of my artwork, but the requester doesn't have to pay for the labor. And their request (your request?) enables that new temple art to be part of the collection and available for prints. 

I doubt I'll ever get to the 144 total operating temples, but it would be really cool to add to the variety!

One Last Thing...
And just when you thought I was done mentioning our potty train arduous journey with Alexander, here comes this little diddy. This sounds like annoying TMI, but really, it's not. It's just one of those anecdotes that has to be shared. You can't make this kind of stuff up.

Okay, so after a good dry run last week and I thought our potty adventures were more smooth sailing, the kids and I hit a Burger Drive-In last Friday afternoon (Screamers, for you locals) and sit outside. Because it was overcast! cloudy! The only time to be outside, if I haven't that abundantly clear before. 

Upon arrival, we notice that X-man pee'd his pants. YAYness! Good thing we could sit outside.

So after Mikelle brings him out of the bathroom and we're sitting down outside (and I ordered the food), Alexander goes on and on loudly proclaiming that he pee'd his pants. A biker gang was sitting at the nearby table. Okay, the "gang" was a group of 5 or 6 retirees who ride and they were eating and had maps out planning their route. I subsequently helped them with their route since their maps weren't updated with useful information to help them get back to Yuma that night via Lake Pleasant that bypassed city rush hour traffic.  Mikelle said I was sitting with the silver bikers more than I was sitting with them! lol Hey, they had maps (I am a geography weirdo...) and they needed me.

ANYWAY....so Alexander wouldn't stop going on about the fact that he pee'd his pants along with doing an active rendition of LL Cool J's "Mama Said Knock You Out" over and over. 

One of the older biker gentlemen comes over to Alexander and says, "It's okay that you pee'd your pants. I pee my pants all the time and it's no big deal."

Like I said, you can't make this stuff up.

And now onto about twelve different things that have to be done!