Mosaic Hiatus & Other Art

At the beginning of June I got a job at Wild Birds Unlimited in south Austin. The hours I used to put into working on my mosaics are now spent promoting birdseed and feeders. But I do have a mosaic under works... I hope to finish it by Christmas. I'm a little further along than this but this picture will do.

It will be a white barn owl.  But in the meantime I have been applying my artistic skills elsewhere--that is, at work. When we got a black glass "community" board, I took over (and they happily let me). This is what's currently on it.

This is what it looked like in September. I've only been changing out sections, leaving some things the same:

I'm really enjoying using the chalk paint markers and keep looking for other surfaces to write on. Our binocular case was next....

I ran out of space for new things on the black board so I put an old white board/bulletin board outside by our front door to add more timely news items:

I've also been experimenting with designing some print/digital materials. At work I don't have access to the Adobe Creative Suite and I'm just creating things in MS Word, using a lot of work arounds that I have used as a teacher:

I'm enjoying thinking up and creating such things. It's nice to have an outlet for my artistic talents. And I'm learning lots about birds that I didn't know.

Oh, I guess I should include yesterday's pumpkins. This year's hedgehog turned out quite nicely.

I didn't get a picture of it lit up because I discovered we were out of candles. I did a simple Jack O'Lantern after the more complicated hedgehog:

I've also been working madly on a presentation for the Texas Classical Association, which is next weekend. I guess it has been sucking a lot of my time up as well as work. That presentation and materials will be available in the RES SCHOLASTICAE section.