Woken by Deerhound Alarm

No coffee, no music. I *could* have slept in this morning, but I was woken by the deerhound alarm clock. The deerhounds are not allowed upstairs. Jester wouldn't come up anyway as he will not walk on the hardwood floors so the hardwood stairs would be just beyond him. Seraph is not allowed up as I do not like a cold deerhound nose shoved in my face when I am sound asleep. Of course deerhounds also do not understand prohibitions so there is a baby gate at the top of the stairs which is kept closed to enforce the rule. The upshot is that Seraph comes to the top of the stairs and wags her tail. If you have never seen a deerhound tail you are probably unaware that it is a mighty weapon. The Scots of old used to take out swathes of British soldiers by sending the deerhounds (the royal dog of Scotland) cavorting through them tails a wagging. So Seraph stands at the top of the stairs and slams her tail against the wall till I get up to let her out. This would be an okay thing if she really wanted out. But as soon as I have struggled into my jammies and blearily stumbled down the stairs (often literally), she goes right back and lays down on the living room rug. I, of course, have none of that and drag her 90 lb carcass over and heave it out the door. I am just a wee bit grumpy this morning.

The weekend was productive. I finished the wind chime, necklace and window panel designs for the book and experimented with different ways of ornamenting the surface of the necklace with silver (paint, leaf and mica in suspension). I also tried the fountain with irid glass and used a soup can for a slumping mold for the wind chime support bars. Yet even with all this progress and adherence to a well-defined schedule, I am still not confident in the final product. This is either a flaw in my character, or I am right and there is really something to worry about. Unfortunately I won't know which until the projects are done and turned in to the publisher for final review. I have the singular inability to reliably judge my own work.

On tap for today? Model a bas-relief fish in clay and cast it, crush the glass for the birdbath, and do a screen melt for the S-curve platter. I also need to design the table, garden stake and clock. Best get to it!