Kira's Place

Newly Painted

Mon, 16 Jan 2012 18:20:39 CST

Here are two new resins I painted and showed at the Midwinter's Ball model horse show last weekend. First is the fantastic "Imp" resin by Sarah Minkiewicz-Breuning; I painted him a baby chestnut color. It was great fun painting all those curls! He did really well at the show, too, taking reserve overall workmanship in the mini resin division.

And here's the Little Lonestar resin by Sarah Rose, which I painted to a shaded dark bay with a bald face. He also showed well, earning NAN cards in his class, and reserve in both halter and workmanship in the mini stock breeds section.

Happy New Year!

Sun, 1 Jan 2012 20:59:33 CST

The new year seems like a great time to make new plans, dream new dreams, and hope for a better future. I've come to realize that art is important to me, and I want it to be a bigger part of my life. This site is changing a bit to reflect that. I'll still be doing apps this year, but I'll be doing more art as well. Stay tuned. :)

Draw Lights: Christmas Lights for iOS

Mon, 12 Dec 2011 08:45:41 CST

My new app Draw Lights is now out for the iPhone and iPod Touch. It's a Christmas-lights drawing app; take a photo, use an existing photo, or use one of the holiday-themed background images provided, then use your finger to draw lights on the image. There are 30 different lights to choose from, including mini lights, stars, snowflakes, and luminarias.

I also created this Santa Hand icon as a custom pointer icon for the demo video I did. You're welcome to use it in your own projects. I've also submitted it to Michael Glasser's Screenflow custom icons page; it should show up there soon.

Merry Christmas!

New Christmas App

Thu, 17 Nov 2011 09:45:56 CST

I'm working on a new app for Christmas this year. I had hoped to be done with it by now, but apps always seem to take longer than expected. (Although I might have stayed on schedule if it hadn't taken me a week to hammer out the photo-cropping stuff.) Anyway, here are a few sneak peeks:

There will be a Holiday Bells update this year, too. I'm planning on adding a couple more tap-along songs, and am going to drop the shake-to-clear thing in the iPhone version. That turned out to be a mis-feature; too many folks were accidentally clearing songs while playing them. Now it'll just be a "clear?" button, with an alert pop-up to make sure you really want to clear the song.

There'll also be an Eggster update, with retina art for the Winter board (iPhone). And I'll be adding the Winter board to Eggster for iPad.

It's going to be a crazy, busy couple of weeks!

Steve Jobs

Thu, 6 Oct 2011 20:47:28 CDT

"The measure of a man's greatness is not what he achieves, but what he enables others to achieve."
-- seen on Metafilter

"Jobs's greatest creation isn't any Apple product. It is Apple itself."
-- John Gruber

"Steve was fond of saying that he lived every day like it was his last. Because he did, he transformed our lives, redefined entire industries, and achieved one of the rarest feats in human history: he changed the way each of us sees the world."
-- President Barack Obama

"We're here to make a dent in the universe. Otherwise, why even be here? We're creating a completely new consciousness, like an artist or a poet. That's how you have to think of this. We're rewriting the history of human thought with what we're doing."
-- Steve Jobs

"Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven't found it yet, keep looking until you find it. Don't settle."
-- Steve Jobs

"Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of others' opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary."
-- Steve Jobs

"I used to think that when you died, everything you ever learned and amassed along the way in your life just stopped existing, all of it returned into the universe and repurposed for something else completely. Steves passing made me realize that cant be true, because every bit of energy and intellect he spent his life to collect is still here with us, as vital as it was when it was with him. I cant think of a better way to measure a life well lived."
-- John Mayer

Silver Dragon Pendant

Mon, 26 Sep 2011 21:12:37 CDT

I've posted some of my silver dragon pendants over on Etsy. These make a great gift, and each pendant comes in a gift box.

How to Lose Weight

Tue, 23 Aug 2011 17:40:35 CDT

Last summer I lost 30 pounds, going from 170 to 140lbs. This was after being overweight for most of my adult life. While I'm not an expert on weight loss, I do have a feel for what things worked (and continue to work for me):

1. Limit processed foods. That means anything from a box, package, wrapper, etc. (If you do eat some processed food, stick with items that have fewer than five ingredients - and be sure they're real ingredients, like "whole wheat" rather than "butylated hydroxytoluene".)

2. Eat whole foods. (The corollary to #1.) That means fruits, vegetables, salads and leafy greens, nuts, and beans. Things that come from nature, not from a manufacturer.

2. No dairy. That means no milk, yogurt, cheese, or ice cream. (Soy or almond milk is a good subsitute for dairy milk.) I realize there are conflicting stories on whether dairy is good or bad for the diet, but my personal experience is that it's bad and causes weight gain/retention. You might also want to read this book.

3. Cut back on meat. If you must eat meat, stick with fish or chicken/turkey - they're lighter and healthier for you anyway.

4. No sweets. That means cookies, candy, pastries, etc ... things with a lot of sugar in them. (Is sugar toxic?) If you need a sweet treat after dinner, eat fruit. Watermelon is wonderful in the summer. Berries (strawberries, raspberries, etc.) are good too. Try out different fruits and find the ones you like best.

5. No seconds. Stick with one serving of whatever you're eating. If you're not familiar with serving sizes, try measuring things out for a week or so. If you eat at a restaurant and they bring you a plate that's bigger than your head, cut everything in half. Take the rest home for later, or share it with a friend.

6. Eat low-fat. Nothing fried. Limit the oils, and try to use olive oil. If you eat salads, have the dressing on the side.

7. Exercise. Walking is good, easy, and free. Not only will it make weight loss easier, it'll make you healthier all around. (What is the single best thing we can do for our health?)

Here's some more great info: Top 15 Diet Hacks from Zen Habits.

Summer Eggster

Mon, 15 Aug 2011 11:22:36 CDT

I submitted an update for Eggster last week; it should be out this week (as soon as Apple approves it). This update finally adds a Summer board to the game, completing the set of four seasons. The Summer board is beach-themed, with seashells, shorebirds, beach flowers, and nautical-themed eggs. It turned out great; I'm really happy with how the art turned out.

Here's a sneak peek at the new game pieces:

And art for one of the new achievements, "Turtle Rescuer", for matching 5 sea turtles in a row:

Mini Models for the Artisan's Gallery

Mon, 18 Jul 2011 09:50:52 CDT

I was at the Artisan's Gallery at BreyerFest this year, and took a bunch of newly painted mini model horse resins to sell:

The pegasus model was done using the new resin wings. He turned out awesome, and was the first one to sell! I picked up a few more mini bodies so I can do some more completed pegasi. Want to do a tiger-striped one... rawrr. :)

I do still have a couple of these models left - e-mail me if you're interested!

Wings!

Fri, 8 Jul 2011 09:36:38 CDT

I'm off to Kentucky next week for BreyerFest; I'll have a table there at the Artisan's Gallery. One of the things I've been working on are some mini scale Pegasus wings (Stablemate sized, approx 1/32 scale). I sculpted these from Apoxie Sculpt over aluminum foil. They really turned out great:

They're about 3.5" long:

Here's a pegasus model I made using the wings! He turned out really awesome!

If you want to try making your own, pick up a Stablemate-scale Breyer (like this one), and a pair of wings! (Some assembly required :) I used super-glue and Apoxie Sculpt to attach the wings to the model.)

Resin wing sets are $12. I'll have an order form for them soon; til then you can e-mail me if you'd like to order some.