I know, the traditional story  has the wolf trying to eat Red Riding Hood but in my depiction, Little Red is simply a girl who likes picnics and wolf dolls!  Especially wolves who wear Argyle named Lester!

I love clay.  I love how it feels.  I love the process of taking this soft lump and turning it into whatever I decide it should be.  I spent many years making dolls from fabric and thought that was the best until l I discovered paperclay.   Ok with that said, I admit, I don’t always love what I have to create.  That fitted perfectly with my wedding couple. 

One thing nice about working for a company is that it has categories for me to create for.  That helps…you want a Halloween witch?  Great I can do that.  You want something 4^th of July related?-no problem!  The downside is, when you have to design something not on your creative radar, hence my wedding couple!  This week was definitely a tough one for me in creating this couple-I just couldn’t see the outcome (something I need if I’m going to finish a project) and I really didn’t want to do it.  I kept putting it off hoping I wouldn’t have to make it but knew I already committed myself so I finally had to just go for it.  Happily I can say after nights of complaining to my husband about trashing it (which he kindly just listened to), I kept plugging away and wa la!- A Happy couple is born!  I really, really like what turned out and can now say I’m happy I was given that challenge (at this my husband just gives me that knowing smile that says yes…until the next complaint session about trashing a doll you’re frustrated with-he’s right! Some things just don’t change!).

I'm so excited-my PRIMS magazine came on Saturday and my dolls are in this month's issue-here's the first page.  I'm feeling like a very happy camper right now! 

   

I'm not all that great with technology.  I'd rather do what I do best, make dolls, make good food, homeschool my boys, compose music, play skip-bo, watch Chopped, read a book, go for bike rides, go thrifting etc.  Ok, you get the idea-I'd basically like to be doing anything but technological stuff like creating and maintaining sites and pages!  That's basically why it's taken me forever to create this blog page.  Today I took it one step further and even put pictures (which is a big ordeal for my non-computer skills!) on a Facebook page just devoted to my art stuff.  Look up Jenene Mortimer artist to see that page.  So far my daughter gave it a thumbs up "like it" so....that's a start!  Thank goodness she's around-I have a guaranteed number 1 fan!  

Here's the pumpkin man I made a few years ago.  I'm always happy to see my old friend when I pull out the Halloween decorations.  I'm currently making another more detailed doll (like he is) this time a witch.  I'll post her when I'm done.  Now and then I just need to make something that looks different than my typical doll look.

Do you have a bucket list?  I don't.  I haven't really thought about making one but my daughter Courtney has and last weekend in Petaluma we got the chance (by accident) to mark an item off her bucket list-Milking a cow! 

It went like this, after we went to a great art show (Halloween and Vine), we happened to be driving along the road leaving when we saw a cheese shop.  Okay, who can pass up a cheese shop-definitely not us so we pulled in, had a lot of tasties (so good) and then found it was free farm day...free what?  Free farm day!-people could go and see the farm where this delicious organic cheese came from and get a wagon ride, see the animals, buy a pumpkin, and best of all try milking a real cow!  Here's the pics to prove it.   


Okay, I know, we don't leave the city much! 

For as long as "Halloween and Vine" has existed (a really fabulous Halloween art show) I have wanted to attend but every year there is something that I have going on so I miss it.  Finally, last weekend I got to go (it's in Petaluma) and had a fabulous time with my daughter Courtney.  It was a moment I wish I had unlimited funds to spend-I would have bought pieces at almost every booth and yes I definitely would have purchased first at Nicole Sayre's booth-my favorite doll artist.  It was definitely the highlight for me to meet the doll artist who has been such an inspiration to me-I just love her work! Like a typical fan of a celebrity, I did ask for a picture with her and she very kindly agreed-if you ever read this Nicole, thanks for making my day!  

I confess…I’m not a big fan of summer.  The heat and I are not best of friends and though I am tolerant for a reasonable amount of time, there always comes a point in August or September that I’m ready for fall and would like summer to depart.  It usually goes like this. 

The first step of wishing it away is to make fall/winter food dishes.  Homemade rolls, chicken and dumplings (one of my favorite winter tummy warmers!) and some pumpkin pie does the trick (this time I was too lazy to make the pie and had some pumpkin ice cream--does that count?).  

The next step is to start Halloween decorating-yes, 1 week ago our decorations went up (this time I had all the encouragement from my 10 year old son who has been begging me to decorate since August!).

The 3^rd step of course is to make new Fall and Winter crafts (my favorite part of the 3 steps to a changed season). 

I know  it’s still hot outside, and summer is around a little longer but at least I’ve had fun trying--I always do! 

Oh wow-where do I start?  My daughter Brooke just got married a week and a half ago, my other daughter Courtney just found out yesterday she’s having a baby boy (hooray for grandkids), my military son (who’s in Afghanistan) just wrote me a great letter today, and I’ve had two of my favorite people (my daughter-in-law and my granddaughter) visiting for 2 weeks from the East Coast.  Hmmm….I see a lot of doll possibilities here-can you?  Definitely a wedding couple, a pregnant mommy, a little princess in her mommy’s shoes (such a Maddi thing) and the same 2 year old Maddi in khaki’s with a medallion saying daddy’s girl.  Looks like I’m going to be busy for a while.  I’ll post the results as I get done!  

My daughter wanted to name my blog “The Painted Shirt”.  She came up with that when I was agonizing one day as to what to name the blog.  I had asked her “what’s the first thing that comes to mind when you think of me?”  That was her answer.  “The Painted Shirt”.   Of course I denied and went on to naming it after what I love doing…playing with clay but after cleaning out my shirt drawer today and discovering over half of what I own has paint on it, I’m now seeing her point!  I’m still keeping my clay name but I think it’s time to invest in an apron (the real question is would I wear it?-maybe I should just get used to paint on my clothes)!

Out here in my part of Sunny California, we don't really have what my friends back east call Snow Days so...to have them, we have to create our own and here's my version (early of course). It’s a good way of thinking cool thoughts while I’m enduring these hot summer days right now.  My favorite is the top hat gentlemen with a very broad teeth-filled-grin.  He's a little bit different from the usual look I do but I have to change things up once in a while.  My daughter thinks it's hideous because Snowmen don't have teeth. "That’s nice" I say, "mine does"! 
 

I'm not a night owl.  Nope, not at all.  The best time of day for me to be creative is definitely the morning hours.  Thanks to a work deadline that was looming too close, I was forced to stay up and burn some midnight oil last week painting my dolls.  In that 3 day process, I discovered something very wonderful about crafting past my bedtime. Silence!!  Being a full time mom, silence and uninterrupted creating is so hard to come by.  How enjoyable it was to paint, think and reflect about a lot of things during that time.  I've decided...my next dandelion wish will definitely have to be surviving on 5-6 hours of sleep each night to get the best of both worlds.