Dee-Shadowhawk9973
Well it happened again, I disappeared from DA for more than a month. Life comes at you fast, and it rarely gives me time to catch my breath. I came back to lots of favs and comments and a few new watchers. Many thanks to all of you for your continued support of my work in spite of my lengthy absences.
So here is an update on what has been happening in my world:
THE GOOD:
The kitchen remodel is half way complete. The new enclosure for Trouble (the bearded Dragon I rescued) is almost finished. I am having another computer built to replace my other aging machine that will no longer handle DAZ with any grace. That computer should arrive the first week of August. Finally i was able to get an RTX 3090! I am super excited to see what the new machine can handle. 
THE BAD:
My van has been in the garage more than it has been drivable, and I believe it will have to go back again soon. My truck is still not running, and the car is getting far to much use for something as old as it is. I see garage time in its future as well.
My youngest child has been back home with me for most of a month. A weekend visit turned into a month of medical appointments. Gallbladder surgery is on the horizon, but first more tests because there may be another issue.
My step-Grandmother passed away last week from covid complications. Everyone thought she was on the mend and then she went to bed and never woke up again. At my age loosing a grandparent isn't shocking, I feel blessed to have had all 3 of my grandmothers for so long. But my step-grandmother was the youngest of the 3 and was an otherwise healthy woman, loosing her first shook me. So grief and frustration have sent me into a Bipolar spyral that shows no signs of letting up any time soon. 
If that wasn't enough, I twisted my back yesterday and am currently in too much pain to sit of stand for more than a few minutes at a time.
THE MUNDANE:
Breeding season in the reptile room is going fairly well. There are more Crested gecko babies this season than I expected. The leopard geckos are about half way through their season and the babies to hatch so far are healthy and beautiful. I have decided that it is time to retire from large scale breeding, I am getting to tired to put in 12 hour days anymore. So I will be rehoming a lot of my collection as soon as is possible. From now on I will be focusing on a smaller breeding program with more emphasis on my snakes. That way I will have a lot more time for my art. I want to get back to learning more about the various programs I use and how to create and rig more of my own stuff. My head is full of ideas that I have had no time to take out and play with.
I am still alive and still around somewhere. I try to find time here and there to check DA, but for a while that is going to be hit and miss. I hope you are all happy and healthy and have a wonderful week ahead.
~Many Blessings My Friends~
I promised I would keep you updated on the new enclosure build for our Bearded Dragon "Spike" so here goes...
It took me nearly a month to figure out how I wanted to do it and actually get all the work done. Most of that time was waiting on things to dry or cure before moving on.
Some of you know that I have wanted a Beardie for a while, but didn't really have room in the house for an enclosure the size one would need. Well, when the situation arose that Spike needed a home, I sat down and done some creative thinking on how space was being used in our house. Urika! We have a 75 gallon fish tank on a wooden stand. There is nothing in the stand accept a little air pump. Massive waste of space! So that is where Spikes new home could fit...
I took the doors off and installed some sliding door tracks. I cleaned everything up and got it ready to do more work. At this point it looks impossible, but I had a plan.
Put in some back panels and and prime everything. The back panels would have to have cut outs for vents. and it had to have a ceiling in it. Now it was starting to look a little more like it could work...
Ceramic tiles for his floor. Something easy to clean, Beardies are messy...
Then it was time to start building some shelves and a dig box and make it look a little more like it should. A lot of people do this part of their enclosures with styrofoam, but I prefer the stability of wood...
Once that was all built and stable it had to be primed as well. It was a good time to install safety glass doors and some pretty trim...
The next step was to make everything feel like stone. I used sanded grout and mixed it with an exterior grade water based wood glue instead of water. It adheres well and is good and strong. Yup, it feels like everything is carved out of some rough sandstone...
Hand painting everything to have a desert look was the next step. More waiting.
Then everything had to be sealed with a water based polyurethane to make sure it is safe for Spike...
Lighting and heat was added and caging built and installed to keep him safe from accidently touching any of the bulbs. Finally it was time to start adding in decorative things and installing his hammocks. I had to place a rock in his new one for a couple days to stretch the stiffness out of it...
The inside was really starting to look good and it was almost time to introduce Spike to his new home...
Welcome to your new digs little dude
He seems very happy in his new home...
Time for a nap with his face buried in the plants...
Kairi seems to enjoy being able to visit with him, even though she thinks he is a snake
Spike seems to enjoy all the extra attention he gets now that he is in the main living space...
In other news, there are four more new baby geckos sense my last post. Here are their hatchling photos...
I will still be very busy for a few more months with all the little ones and other build projects that must be completed. I still try to be on here when I can and I am slowly learning how to do things on this new version of DA. It is slow and inefficient, but doable when I can keep frustration at bay.
Thank you all for the recent favs, llamas and new watchers! I have no time to thank you all individually at present, but please know that each and every one is greatly appreciated. 
I hope you are all doing well and staying safe.
Have a great week my friends!
~Many Blessings~
Life Update and photos...
There are currently 36 eggs in the incubators and more are on the way. Some babies have already hatched and are in need of much more care than their adult counterparts, so they take a lot of my day.
They are all such tiny little things!
We also have a new addition to our little reptile family...
Our Bearded Dragon, Spike. His previous owner was no longer able to keep him, so we decided to adopt this special boy.
But again, there goes any free time I may have had for art for a while. I have been spending any free time I may have had building a proper enclosure for this guy.
He has been in a tank that is actually too small for him for quite some time, so the sooner I can get a proper place for him finished, the better.
I will post pictures when it is all complete.
As many of you already know, we live on a fairly large property, so we are busy with a lot of yard work and building maintenance as well, not to mention gardening.
Today it rained, so I get to be here for an hour or so
but I will be away a lot more than I am here for the next month or so. When I am here, I will be slow while I try to figure out new ways to do things efficiently on Eclipse. 
Please don't think I disappeared, I am not leaving DA. Format changes, while they are an annoyance and a good reason for me to complain, are not a sufficient reason for me to leave all together. I will be around here somewhere when I can be
I hope you are all doing well and staying safe and healthy.
~Many Blessings My Friends~
Hello 2020...Life update
First off, I want to say a huge thank you for all of your continued support of my art, even during my extended absence. Life got rather hectic on me.
The usual winter health and mental health issues are still a bother, but I do have some really good days, though my creativity and my ability to focus on any one task are a bit impaired at the moment.
The holidays went well, though it seemed to be a longer process and a lot more stressful this year. I hope your Holidays were wonderful!
Though I have not been working on my usual art much lately, I have been doing some creative work. The reptile room has taken up most of my time lately. It is in the process of a complete rebuild and expansion.
We built new racks, both built in and mobile ones.
I have also been working on repairing damaged tanks and 3D printing hides and things for all the different habitats.
There are now 37 Leopard geckos here, sense two more hatched 3 days before Christmas.
They are adorable little guys! It is breeding season, and there is still a lot of work to do in the reptile room, so that will take up a lot of my time for the next few months.
I am hoping that I will also be able to get some motivation to get back to my art again real soon! My posts may be few for a while longer though.
I am trying to get caught up on everything I missed while I was away, then I am going to force myself to switch to Eclipse and stay there. I don't much care for it,
but if I am going to be here I may as well get use to it.
No New Years Resolution this year, just a whole list of goals. Hopefully I can find the drive to accomplish most of them
I hope you are all having a wonderful start to the new year!!
~Many Blessings My Friends~
Update and feature...
A huge thank you to all of you for the favs, comments, llamas, and new watchers.
Life is still super hectic here, so I don't have a lot of time to be on here. I am managing to get caught up a little at a time (there are now only 1,400 notifications to go through). Thank you all for overlooking the long absences and slow response times.
My health is still giving me some issues, but it is all seasonal stuff that I deal with every year. No worries, time will take care of it as always.
We had a baby deer orphaned here a few days back, so we will be taking care of her until she is big enough to go off on her own. I will post pictures of her as soon as we have some weather that my camera isn't afraid of (it has rained here all week).
Now on to the beautiful art I found to enjoy in the last little while...
There are so many more that deserve to be featured, but sadly I am out of time for this at the moment.
I hope you are all having a wonderful weekend!
~Many Blessings My Friends~