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The two cats are below, see?
A new Maneki Neko (Lucky Cat)...I shaded the orange this time instead of leaving a hard line...looks more like the porcelain "lucky cats" you see in Japan.
And here is the "aged bronze" Bast mask I was talking about making. Notice how I did the two masks differently, even though they are both cats? The Bast has a longer, narrower face with larger ears like a Siamese cat (Egyptian cat mummies show a cat with a body type very much like a modern Siamese). The lucky cats all have big round cartoony-faces with cute silly ears, so I did that pattern in that vein. Details! These two are up in Etsy already.
More Bast.
The next thing I try with this color treatment will be a Green Man. Haven't made one of those in a long time anyway, so it should be fun.
I also made another little gift dragon...
Isn't she cute? There's a story behind it but it has to wait, as I am nearly incoherent from tired.
I was up late working, and then experienced teen drama because someone in this house was on her cell phone at 1AM!! Yeah, that dog won't hunt, as they say. So I was up all night fuming and working and now I am an exceedingly tired headachey grumpy me. The only person more sullen and grumpy than me is Char. Honestly, I love the kid but there still have to be rules, you know? On no planet is it okay for a kid to be up until 1AM on the phone on a school night.
She's not used to me yelling at her. I'm not used to yelling. It's stressfull all around. Plus, she plays "defense lawyer" with me whenever I catch her doing anything she shouldn't be doing (which admittedly is rare) and that just makes me go nuts. If you DO something wrong and you get caught, just confess and apologize and assure me it won't happen again...that's all I want! Not some half-assed debate about how you didn't know & therefore no crime was committed & blah blah temporary insanity blah hate you blah blah woof woof....
SO much easier for both of us when she just refrains from doing stupid shit, you know?
*sigh* Anyway. Head hurts. Good morning. Going to bed now.
A new Maneki Neko (Lucky Cat)...I shaded the orange this time instead of leaving a hard line...looks more like the porcelain "lucky cats" you see in Japan.
And here is the "aged bronze" Bast mask I was talking about making. Notice how I did the two masks differently, even though they are both cats? The Bast has a longer, narrower face with larger ears like a Siamese cat (Egyptian cat mummies show a cat with a body type very much like a modern Siamese). The lucky cats all have big round cartoony-faces with cute silly ears, so I did that pattern in that vein. Details! These two are up in Etsy already.
More Bast.
The next thing I try with this color treatment will be a Green Man. Haven't made one of those in a long time anyway, so it should be fun.
I also made another little gift dragon...
Isn't she cute? There's a story behind it but it has to wait, as I am nearly incoherent from tired.
I was up late working, and then experienced teen drama because someone in this house was on her cell phone at 1AM!! Yeah, that dog won't hunt, as they say. So I was up all night fuming and working and now I am an exceedingly tired headachey grumpy me. The only person more sullen and grumpy than me is Char. Honestly, I love the kid but there still have to be rules, you know? On no planet is it okay for a kid to be up until 1AM on the phone on a school night.
She's not used to me yelling at her. I'm not used to yelling. It's stressfull all around. Plus, she plays "defense lawyer" with me whenever I catch her doing anything she shouldn't be doing (which admittedly is rare) and that just makes me go nuts. If you DO something wrong and you get caught, just confess and apologize and assure me it won't happen again...that's all I want! Not some half-assed debate about how you didn't know & therefore no crime was committed & blah blah temporary insanity blah hate you blah blah woof woof....
SO much easier for both of us when she just refrains from doing stupid shit, you know?
*sigh* Anyway. Head hurts. Good morning. Going to bed now.
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From:
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Both my sisters are quite smart. And I'm mean and not at all afraid to be turbo bitch (it doesn't even make me feel guilty, lol) so they usually shut that crap up as soon as my 'I am SO annoyed that I'm not sure I can stop myself from running you through with the BBQ fork, right now' look appears.
But sisters can get away with that, as I well know. Especially older sisters. Parents can't be quite that...er...intense. That's why a lot of my one sister's behaviours never got corrected, because mom and dad wouldn't come down on her as hard as would be necessary to make her shape up permanently, so she kept doing it...except when *I* would find out, because I'd land on her like a ton of bricks and though I have only older-sister authority, I AM very unpleasant in these circumstances and life is temporarily miserable. :D Not that my sisters would admit any of this.
Oh, I do like being me. There's some bad stuff, but a lot of it works for me. I'm so glad I'm just a sister, not a parent.
I like the gold and teal dragon, it looks a little softer. Most of your dragons look extremely masculine, and I like a slightly 'prettier' look to my dragons, to take them further out of the lizard realm. (I hate reptiles.)
I think dragons would have very long eyelashes, y'know? :) I like the idea of a fairly feminine wyvern-style dragon.
From:
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ROFL!! Yeah that is exactly what I get from her when things go South...suddenly this brilliant child turns into a stubborn simpleton & she will NOT see reason. People who are unreasonable drive me absolutely batty. When it's my own kid, I just feel doubly crazy because she is after all MY kid and I am sure if I just keep spouting logic, surely I will trigger the reasonable genes she got from me & everything will be alright. That never happens.
It's harder for me too, 'cause basically I am a single parent. Greg is a stepdad...he really can't & shouldn't be involved in discipline. So it's all me, & she knows it, & she is like any human animal in that we all instinctually test the limits from time to time. Ohhh...SO exhausting though. Seriously I need a vacation.
I'm glad you like the dragon & yes, she is a pretty one isn't she? She really almost could have eyelashes. ^_^
From:
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I sometimes debated if I got in trouble (but I got in trouble so rarely that I didn't really have a 'style' for it) but I NEVER played dumb. Not once. It was beneath my dignity, lol. Besides, I'm well known for being about ten times more logical than my mother. If I couldn't figure out on my own that I shouldn't be on the phone until 1AM on a school night, I'd be an embarrassment to myself.
It might be annoying, but there is something to be said for a kid with stiff pride. I was proud of being smart and sensible and logical and of being brave and straight forward. (I always told my mom if I'd done something bad without even waiting for anyone to find out about it.) I was a pretty easy kid, as a teenager. The few thing I was difficult in, boy oh boy...they were so difficult my parents never made an inch of headway and I still retain those traits/habits exactly, to this day.
Should fellow parents envy them me as a kid, or pity them? Maybe it evened out. Overall, Char seems like she's not one of the more difficult teenagers. Unfortunately when those ones take a break from being not-difficult, they usually outdo all their peers. :)
From: (Anonymous)
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From: (Anonymous)
Love em
On the phone at 1AM!!! I'm biting my tongue. Teens can sometimes be "difficult" can't they? My son is an intense "debater". And when he is convinced he is right he just won't let it go. And he has never gotten the concept that even if he is right, if Dad isn't in the mood to admit it, he isn't going to... Life gets hard at that point.
From:
Re: Love em
Char always was a "debater" too. When she was little, it was about innocent harmless stuff & often, if she had a point, I would let her "win". BIG mistake! Once you set that precedent, they never forget.
From:
no subject
Teens..Blah. I have one. He might live to see 17. But that is two months away...so there is always a chance he won't. What sucks is when they suck at the whole "defense lawyer" thing, which he does, and it so infuriating because their half assed and lousy. I have been having my own problems lately, can ya tell?
To compound this, I am about to go out of town, taking my teen and 7 others, to a Unitarian Universalist Con. This is what our church does, what other churches might call a lock in. Since we're UUs then the teens run the event and go a bit crazy for the weekend. Basically no sleep and little control for the weekend. But UU kids tend to be good ones, who are determined to do something with themselves, so I enjoy it, but when it's over, I am done with teens for a while. There will be well over a 100 kids there. Wish me luck.
From:
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Teens are a trip! I do my best to remain calm & consistent...it almost always works. Often I hear her saying EXACTLY the same things I say to her when she's talking to her friends...that's how I know she's listening.
They DO hear us, I am certain. When they get on the other side of all the drama & the hormones they'll realize we were right all along & life will get better. Still a few years away though... *sigh*
Good luck at the Con! It sounds like fun but also, pretty stressfull. At least you'll have other adults to commiserate with. ^_^
From:
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I just love all of these verdigris masks. I left a comment on dA, but I'll repeat it here: Would it be possible to do a keychain version of the verdigris lion mask? I think that would make a really great roomie gift this summer (I'd need 8-10). Possible?
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But with modern technology (she has a roomfull of DVDs and game systems and a TV and her own cell of course) you have to have rules and limits, or else you just can't trust 'em with all that stuff. She has no computer up there & she never will...it'd just be too great a temptation I'm sure.
Sure! I can do lions for ya! They won't be quite like my dragons, 'cause lions have their eyes in the front of their faces so I can't do those eyes with beads like I do for dragons (my dragons have their eyes on the side, like birds or deer or horses). But still, I'm sure I can come up with something pretty. Maybe $15 each...if that's ok? We'll talk...
From:
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I will completely defer to your judgment on the lion keychains. $15 is more than fine. I don't need them until July, so there's loads of time! :D
From:
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Both of this cat masks are great--and so different personalities! Awesome.
Stories like yours make me glad (sometimes, anyway--Char mostly sounds like a great kid) that I don't have kids--and boy am I glad that I'm not a teenager myself any more!
From:
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Eh...she drives me nuts sometimes but she also makes me smile. O don't have it too bad 'cause I only have the one kid to worry about. If I had several it would be a different story (they'd outnumber me!).
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I can't wait to see the green man. Of course, I couldn't wait to see the green man before you said you were making him. ;-)
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Hee...I remember you suggested the Green Man (I think!)...it's going to be cool but I have to re-think the carving on it a little.
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From: (Anonymous)
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I have a story to top you. Once we caught Rio in the toilet past midnight on a school night reading his manga!! He's smart enough to know he couldn't get away with it in his room, so he has to "go." Pathetic to have a house rule "No pooing after bedtime unless you have diarrhea or illnesses!!! Yes, I freaked out at him, yelled. but in retrospect, it's really quite funny and we joke about it now. Discipline is never fun, but you did the right thing and that's why Charlotte is GREAT.
BTW, LOVE how everyone has honed in on the feminine attributes of the golden dragon. Told you it's strong but very beautiful too!
Talk on the playground about dragon keyholders. Rio's hasn't elicit that many comments. Maybe because people just expect a boy with one. One girl mentioned "The eyes make it look so real, it's creepy!" I think he took it as a compliment. (Kids, whatever)
But Reina's has drawn comments from both little girls and boys wanting to know more about it, where she got it, etc.... She's really proud of it.
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Rio is a clever clever boy who thinks outside the box...remember how he tried to "stow away" at the airport on the luggage scales? That still cracks me up.
I'm so glad they are enjoying their dragons! It makes me happy to think of those two special kids with their special dragons (I can count on one hand how many dragons of mine are in Japan!). ;-)
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As for the cell phone... I would take their charger and put it in my bedroom and collect the cell at night and charge it in my bedroom so they wouldn't be able to use it improperly at 1am. Also turn off the internet at bedtime if the house was networked.
Heh.... I'd be a strict momma. Of course if my kid acted right I'd slowly give them more and more privileges, and if they didn't act right it'd stay minimalist for them.
LOVE the masks! Love seeing them here! ^_^ I don't check DA very often anymore.
It's SNOWING! YIPPEE! Doesn't look like it's sticking though. Awwww....
From:
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Snowing there? Wow! That's pretty rare from what I understand. Stay warm!
From: (Anonymous)
no subject
Making Charlotte continue to get good grades instead of giving into distractions ultimately is about teaching her the importance of focussing on bigger goals and achieving what is important. So it's more than just about GPA.
Even though I know all your frustations with her, I am totally envious. That you've raised her so far, to be such a super person. Rio and Reina are just too little to tell right now. I know I am on the right track but there just seems to be so much work ahead before I even get to the kind of problems you face with Charlotte!! ***Cuddles***
From:
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Your kids & your techniques are so much like mine...probably you should just bookmark these "teen moments with Char" entries for future reference. ;-) Seriously, compared to the problems SO many people have with their teens I'm feeling pretty lucky so far. *crossing fingers & knocking on wood*
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Thanks so much for the glowing reviews in Etsy! I personally think you got the two best masks of '09 so far, there...
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From: (Anonymous)
Golden Dragon