New Taxidermy Projects

**Warning: Some of these photos are (not surprisingly) a little graphic.**

Despite the busy spring and summer I had adjusting to the new apartment and job, I did manage to do a few taxidermy projects, including mounting a lovely badger and learning some new techniques for skinning (which I practiced on a squirrel I'd found as road kill in Griffith Park).

Working on the badger:

The badger body form

More body forms in the studio

Wrapping the tail

Skins in the studio, packed in salt

Hammering out the ear liners

 

Attaching the front legs

 

All done!

Best of Winter 2015-2016

Gillian and I got matching tattoos in one another's handwriting

At Christmas camp

William's Birthday:

 

 

William's first days in preschool:

  

 

Hanging around with Beatrice:

Beatrice, Queen of the Wasteland

Beatrice spent an hour coloring this Christmas picture while humming "Deck the Halls" to herself.

Arthur makes a dress all by himself:

 

 

 

Happy Thanksgiving!

This year's Thanksgiving was very relaxed but very enjoyable. Dev represented the family at Sam and Lilli's annual party in San Jose, while I stayed home and had a quiet day with the kids.

 

Quiet, but I still cooked an entire dinner, including roast turkey, stuffing, biscuits, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, Brussels sprouts, corn pudding, salad, a pumpkin pie, and two cherry pies (one for me and one for my friend Jo - we did a pie swap), plus cinnamon rolls for breakfast.

 

 

 

The kids did Thanksgiving crafts and games all day, then we settled down for a big, early dinner together.

The Gratitude Tree Beatrice made with her Girl Scouts troop

Late at night, after dinner, the kids went off to bed and I had some friends over to help finish off the leftovers, then went to bed early to rest up after a long day of cooking and eating.

Happy Thanksgiving!