Death of the Endless and a Spring flower faery sit on my art table calling to me to come back from the computer and visit with them, meanwhile there's a whole half sim in Second Life that needs completing - a chateau inspired by Biltmore House (here in NC), but with an art nouveau flavour sits in the Skybox awating completion so it can be moved to it's permanant home on the sim below - furnishings and home decor to be created, clothing construction to be learned, more jewellery to create....Second Life is a world just as demanding as the real one lately! I have such high hopes of accomplishing much, but it seems that little is getting done, although I've got quite a lot done in SL. Unfortunately, that's only apparent to others in SL, while I'm sure my husband wonders what I do with my time during the day since 'Death' and 'Flora' still languish, half-finished, on the art table in the corner. I'm coming ladies! I'll be with you soon...I just need to finish this mansion...oh, and that Elven skywalk thingy...and these lamps...and so on and so on.....

I'm not dead or anything of the sort, just very bad at blogging!  To be fair, I've been very busy lately (and staying out of trouble).  Since it's a new year, that  means sorting out the books for the past year in preparation for tax season.  I've also been planning to switch over to Mals shopping cart for a while - I shall try it out with the stationery site (which is my 'day-job' so to speak) and will change my art site over later...once I've got enough artwork done to do a proper update.  I've not done any art since before the Yuletide and I'm getting itchy!  I bought myself John Howe's book as a pressie, and am even more inspired to get back to arting.  First things first though, must get the business books sorted out - then, I need to sculpt something so I can try out the new craft oven I got from my husband.  February will be sculpt and paint month.  I'd like to try and sneak in a Mardi Gras themed painting this week though...I might be caught up enough with the book-keeping to manage it!  Wish me luck!

Thursday's going to be a long day. We're leaving on our (usually) annual holiday to the UK so it'll be about 17 hours squashed into a plane or sat sitting in uncomfortable airport seats until we eventually arrive at Teeside Airport (oops - sorry, that should be Durham Tees Valley Airport now) to be collected by my brother-in-law once removed (that is, my sister-in-law's husband)*. Then, it's an hour's nap, just to reset the internal clocks a bit and we're officially on holiday!

We'll be in Yarm for several days (including Bonfire Night) and then Whitby for several days, and back to Yarm for a few days, returning to the states late Monday night. Very excited!

Lots to do before Thursday - I have a book cover commission to finish, I'll be getting into my Professor McGonagall gear for the trick-or-treaters tomorrow night, and then de constructing the hallowe'en decorations before we leave, and packing, packing, and more packing!

*Graham says he's not really MY brother-in-law, since he's married to Graham's sister, but I still refer to him as my brother-in-law, anyway. :P

There are Second Life versions of my hubby and me:

Graham reckons his SL self looks more like a younger Patrick Stewart, but I'm fine with that - I like Patrick Stewart!

In addition to the recent acquisition of a new computer (because my old one balked at doing digital art at 300dpi, and I have a book cover commission), we have another new toy in our house at the moment. We affectionately refer to it as 'the leg-winding machine'. It's actually a recumbent bike, recommended to me when I visited the Orthopaedic specialist to find out why my left knee doesn't bend as much as I'd like and both knees seem to hurt after brief walks, standing for a while, sitting for a while, and when I get up after sitting for a while, or a night's sleep. As it happens, I've got Osteoarthritis in both knees - thanks to my Mom and Grandmother, who both had it, and years of being heavier than necessary (ie, being a fatty). The prescription was cortisone injections (which seem to be helping), and no weight-bearing exercise (including walking for excercise). When our lovely Schwinn recumbent arrived, there was much wailing and gnashing of teeth, as the peddles were too long for me, and caused pain in the knee due to over-bending. After a call to the Schwinn folks who, although helpful, couldn't really help, we decided to go to a local cycling shop to see if we could purchase shorter crank arms (the technical term). What we found was even better.  'Crank Arm Shorteners' - primarily used by folks with kids and tandem bikes so that they can alter the stride length to suit a child's shorter legs, but also preferred by people with 'range of motion' issues (that's me!) who find the regular crank arm lengths to be too much. We did some research, and the crank arms installed on most home cycling equipment is designed for folks of an average height of 5'8" - 6" (I'm a 'petite' 5'4", Grahams is 6'3" - yeah, Mutt and Jeff :P ). So, now, I have found an exercise programme I can live with, because I'm not in pain before it's over! I just have a seat and wind me legs whilst I read the paper in the morning, and often, I'll have another go whilst watching telly in the evening. So, I'm averaging 30 - 60 minutes of exercise a day, with an occasional day off. I don't know if I've lost a vast amount of weight yet, although I can report that my trousers are feeling a bit roomier than normal, which I take to be a good sign. I suppose I'll need to start recording weight sooner or later, though; but for now, I'm just relishing the fact that I can do a good cardio workout without hurting during and afterwards!