Strange things...

I've been merrily working on some tiny dolls for the ADO challenge, and I'm telling you, I'm afraid I was too close to the elements (play The Twilight-Zone music in the backgrownd):op
After I started working for the one elf of the Water element... it rained, here in California, in the summer! Then when working on the one representing Earth... My mushrooms were conjoined, my flowers have been doing crazy things, like, the bougainvillea took over the hibiscus, and the passion vine climbed all over the roses... is it the Earth element's elf's fault.... or just me being a lazy gardener?? You be the judge! ;o)







Oh! and we lost the electric power. We were in the dark... worst of all: we were in the dark WITHOUT computer ho-ho-ho ;o) jk!
97 happy degrees outside and feeling like pizzas in here. The electricity finally came back somewhere around midnight, as I was thinking to grab a pillow and go to take a nap at the 24 hour open grocery store.
I'm not sure if I should blame the "Fire element" doll as well, since I had just finished the last touches on that one at that time....


Now I'm afraid of even get close to the "Air element" elf hehhehee

I am working on a little story for them as well.... :oD

New ADO video, and newblog look

I will start by my blog's new look, tho it was the last thing I did... and by accident! I wanted to add and remove some page elements (to the left menu) and puff! I deleted one thing which contained my backround! I panicked and couldn't replace it... waaAA! So anyway, I went back and started from scratch, ended up with a new look. Hope you all like it! It is bright and whimsical isn't it?? :oD

Now the news: I finished the second ADO video; please take a look and let me know what you think. Vote in the video and if you want to see more, just subscribe to my channel in youtube.




I will be participating in the ADO ELEMENTS Challenge with my tiny elves :oD



On a personal note I have to say: Life is easier with a dishwasher... Yard work sucks when it's too hot.... Weeds should automatically disappear on eye-contact.... and slugs are hideous little critters! :oP
Ta-ta for now!

Summer, dolls and stuff

Well, summer vacation is here, school is over.... yaay? Kind of yay, maybe lol
Hard to keep kids busy and the craft going, much less listing... how do everyone else does it, I wonder? I need to put my act together. My older one finished his freshman year and my younger one is going to Junior High.
I finished 2 of the tiny elves I started under pressure (the dishwasher drama) and here are some pictures, they are around 3 inches tall.




Now as for the dishwasher drama..... after waiting for 3 weeks for the repair man to bring it back, he came and re installed it and left ...then I noticed that the timing was weird: the quick wash was like 5 hours!? and the longest wash only 15 minutes....?? So I decided to test it and it started to smell like burnt stuff!! oh--my--gosh.... Forward next day, they come, test for a long time, re program the buttons to adjust time, and convince me that it will smell like that because of the new liner inside. Oh well. If my house burns down you know who to blame. >:o/

In other news, after months of insisting, finally my daughter convinced me to get her a Guinea Pig. He's the funniest little thing! :oD

Time sure flies!

These past weeks went up so fast and I was not even having fun! heheh OK, I had some fun, but I mayor and lesser dramas going on.
In no particular order: We went to a wedding, we had to get a math tutor, my husband was very ill with fever for a whole week, and my dishwasher is still broken and I am still waiting for that repair man.
Note, every situation was completely unrelated to each other. The only thing in common is that I was involved in there. Just in case you wondered. :oP

While waiting for the repair man I went on a sculpting frenzy, so here are the faces, the quarter is for reference, they are tiny!


Now I have to make the rest of the little body parts ;o)
OH!! And remember the little elf with no hair I posted not too long ago? She decided she wanted purple/pinkish hair and a hat. What do you think? I particularly think she looks darling with her hat on :o)
Next to her is her albino elf friend. He has been showing a bit of a tantrum... see the lip? hehehe



I almost didn't want to post, so that the ADO video was the posting on top, but I am about to finish the next video, so I may as well blog today. If you join ADO after watching my slide show, let them know it was because of me (Ayala Art) and they will give me a dollar per each new member. Just kidding!! hahahaha They won't give me anything but I will feel happy ;o)
I hope everyone will have a nice, healthy and safe Memorial weekend!

Slide show

I made this slide show for ADO (Art Dolls Only) and it shows the work of many doll makers. I hope you like it, I sure liked working on it!



If you want to see more of the artists, visit the squidoo lens made by CheriV HERE where you can find more links, pictures and great information.

What I've been up to lately

I hope everyone had a great Easter and Spring break!
I have been dealing with a terrible case of a broken dishwasher. I won't go into the gory details, but it started by a recall since the beginning of March, and neither company (the store where we bought it, and the manufacturer having a recall part) has been successful in finish the mess they started. Four technicians later, I have the washer's guts under the counter and the door in pieces in a box... and they told me it was going to be a 15 minutes job... ha! 15 minutes and 2 months more like it.
Anyway, back to the artsy part of my post, here's a picture of the paintings I've been working on.



I had left my canvases for the clay, and I am very much into dolls (I am making a video for ADO, I'll post a link when I upload to YouTube) but I also get the itch for the brushes and paint tubes :oD

I also finished remixing -finally- the Odysseus video book-report my son made. He got an A+ We laugh all over again, it's such a silly thing!
Oh... I love this! Have you heard of Susan Boyle ? Get a kleenex. That's one CD I'm getting.

Cool video and Avatar comments

Well, first the good news and then the comments:
I am thrilled to announce that one of my dolls is on a video made by CheriV, from the group ADO (Art Dolls Only) Enjoy... then read about my avatars...



OK, Here's my question/comment: Like most crafters/artists nowadays, I belong to different groups online and I guess some people have their act together much better than others, as in more uniform with the same icon everywhere...and I have been using any ol' avatar that I can grab at the moment, because usually one size doesn't fit all, so.... In order to go standard I have been changing most of them into only 2 avatars... and my blog picture.
OK, then it's 3.
I think I should change everything to the same avatar.
I was going to use the first one everywhere, but in ning it just doesn't work because of the proportions, so I use the second one. The third one I use in OG, but will update with the eye soon.

Plus my blog pic, that I have been using since 2005.
....geez that's 4 LOL ....Didn't I say that I had a lot of them??
Now I wonder, should I change my blog icon into the eye avatar?

Website's new look, and baby elf WIP

Last night, somewhere close to midnight, after months and months of working off and on in the updating of my website, I finally finished. HERE is the old look I posted months ago.
And HERE is the new look which includes dolls, WIPs, ACEOs, paintings, cool links on tutorials and how-to on all the stuff I love. Unfortunately I lost all my page hits and counter in the process... oh well....
I hope you can visit and enjoy it. As hard as it was for me to settle into one style, it was a lot of fun and I am glad I am done.... for a good while anyway! All the updates will still be here in the blog, but there's one thing missing... items in my store and auctions!! lol
Here's a new baby elf I am playing with. She still needs her hair, but she has not told me yet if she likes purple or yellow better. :o)

Stuffy noses, Spring, and a Raffle

It's been 3 long weeks of sick people here in the house. They took their turns one after another and of course I was the selected, reluctant nurse lol
I still have circles under my eyes, but the good thing is that miraculously I did not get sick.
We are having the most appreciated spring weather around here. I am so happy! some needed rain, cool breeze and sunshine! I was missing the sunlight so much.
And along with Spring came the great news I won a raffle from one of my doll groups. I was SOOO thrilled! I got the sweetest ladybug, made by my friend LaDonna ID clayconnection59 on ebay.
Just look at her, I love it!!

Before February is gone...

I hope everyone had a wonderful Groundhog day, Valentine's day, President's day, Mardi Gras, and why not, Ash Wednesday as well...

Updates, OK, The video I talked so much about some postings ago went great. We got an A+! yaay! I have to shorten it a bit to unload it here, it's too big so "whenever if ever" I will upload and post. It is actually a very funny video, and it is educative as well, since it had ti be based on the Odyssey.

Now as for dolls.... I have been finishing all the half-finished projects, so the poor things can be done.
Remember the one picture with several DOLLY heads? I just finished the smallest of them, and if I may say so myself, she turned out pretty cute. I made her hat with leather and a tiny bell so she can be seen and heard ;o) Just 3.5 inches tall, hat and all.