Latetoriously, latetastically, lateified.

But for those of you who are beginning to lose patience with me (but are still holding on in hope) please be assured that I have 14 sets waiting to go live. You'll probably end up with the new sets thrown at you all at once sometime next week! Ranging from the Garden of Eden to Shakespeare's Titania and even a set where I'm jumping off a cliff naked with a spear and fur boots! All will be forgiven when you see the new photographs!

Those of you who have been a member for a while, will know that I go through stages of "rest" and then go wild and upload set after set. So please, worry-ye-not lots of new work is on its way...

--------------------------------------------

Message for someone: Art posted. Letter explains everything.

*exhale*

I really can't tell you how relieved I feel, I was starting to panic a bit by the weekend, I was fine until then, but as the day of the results drew nearer, so did the reality that this might not be good news! But it's all over now and I just feel very blessed that I can forget about this and return to my life as normal, I'm one of the lucky ones. The scar is already healing nicely and I doubt it will even be notifiable by this time next year.

But please let this be a warning to anyone reading this who has a mole that has suddenly changed. My mole didn't really fit the criteria for melanoma, it was just very dark and growing, but if I'd waited until it did fit all the "abcd" of skin cancer, it would have probably been too late. Basically if you have a mole that is changing, have it removed. Far better to have a small scar than a death sentence.

I also just wanted to thank everyone who wrote to me to wish me luck, it really meant a great deal to me and boosted my spirits when I was feeling a little low at the weekend.

Right then, back to work... I have a carousel horse that needs riding into the sea...

I've been left with a very neat inch long scar (which will fade with time) but more importantly I now have a 7 day wait to see if I have cancer or (hopefully) not!

So I'm more or less offline for the next week (google is definitely not your friend in this kind of situation). I'm just keeping myself busy with work, going zip-wiring, hover craft riding (the usual).

I'm sure everything will be just fine and dandy... I never sunbathe, there's no history in my family and I always wear factor 50! So it would be very unlucky if I were to get skin cancer. But, if I do, that's life, the luck of the draw and I'll deal with it.

So there you go! I'll speak to you soon my lovelies (hopefully with good news).

Love,

Muse

(keep your fingers crossed for me)

Now back in my hotel room, checking mail on friend's macbook (which I've had to borrow, as my mac has now completely given-up-the-ghost RIP) and using this macbook has reminded me how rubbish my blackberry is for answering mail!

Will shortly be going to dinner dressed as a human being (which will make a change).

It looks like a motherboard error (the heart of my mac) so I'll probably need a new one and as my imac is a 27" I'm looking at around �£1500 (which I can't really afford at the moment). So option 1 is to try fixing the motherboard! In the mean time, I'll borrow a friend's computer so I can at least get some lovely new images uploaded for you by the weekend.

Anyway, so there you go, I thought I'd just let you know why I've gone a bit quite! But no worries, one way or another I'll have this sorted out within a few days.

Talk to you soon my lovelies.

Muse

xxx

I didn't really have much of an idea as to what he'd be doing, as they don't really tell you a lot (I've been working for him for the last 4 years... so trusted him to not cut all my hair off!) But I think we should have spoken more before-hand as he chopped off over 8 inches (= 1 year of growth for me, luckily my hair grows quicker than most peoples). Of course it's a beautiful cut, lovely long layers framing my face... but I miss my length... I miss the feel of my hair cascading down my back (it's still quite long though, it sits just above my breasts now... but it was almost waist length before). I actually feel like crying a little, how silly is that? It's only hair, it will grow back... yet every-time I look in the mirror I pine for it like a lost hairy pet!

I don't think I'll be getting it cut again (sorry Charles!) instead I've decided to grown it to my bottom... it will take me around 2 years... so watch this space!

I'm now off to find some special growth potions and to eat lots of seaweed (it's meant to make your hair grow!)

a). I'd probably bang my head

and

b). I'd scare the ducks/swans (but you get the general idea).

I think it must me a mixture of spring fever and the warmer weather... who knows, but it sure is fun and as of yet I've not even been arrested.

Fabulous.

I love water (and sunshine)!

These were shot at around 6.30am in the morning, and still there were quite a few people around taking pictures, one man scrabbled over a bridge and down the bank to get a closer view of what we were doing, he tried jumping across the river to a rock and he slipped and fell into the freezing water *giggle* I'll add some images to the out-takes gallery later this week!

So if you do not get a reply or it takes me a while to reply, this is why... I get so many lovely, thoughtful e-mails that it's impossible for me to choose which ones to reply to, sadly it's often the more in-depth e-mails that don't get answered as they require a long reply, I'm always filing them in my "reply to" folder and then by the end of the month the folder is so full, that I have to randomly pick emails to write back to.

I hope you understand that I'm not being rude or arrogant, I simply don't have enough time to answer. :(

I'm actually in Portugal at the moment.. shooting for a (slightly boring) holiday company... there's only so much walking up and down a beach/sunbathing while drinking fake cocktails, you can do before becoming comatose from the boredom, plus I hate sunbathing... I don't see the point in wasting your life sleeping all night, then waking up to a glorious sunny day, only to go outside to lay down all over again, I'd rather be doing something exciting and new, learn something, create something... anything, as long as it's fun! But, anyway you'll be pleased to know I've also had all evening free to work on some special pictures for my members (it doesn't get dark here until 10pm!). I've mostly concentrated on the cliffs and rocks in "Camara de Lobos" as they make a magnificent backdrop, the water is a beautiful clear aqua colour too, it's all rather wonderful.

Ironically it isn't that warm here at the moment (ironic, as I'm shooting for holiday brochures! I think they'll have to photoshop the weather in later!!) but it's just warm enough, to swim in the sea without freezing, plus once you get going you warm up anyway... it's just bracing yourself for the initial dive into the sea which is the hardest part... it's easy after that.

I'll be travelling throughout Europe a lot this spring/summer, but I'll be taking my laptop with me so I'll keep you up-to-date on what I'm doing, I thought I might add some "everyday" images of my normal life too (normal in the loosest sense, as hardly anything I do is usual for most people!).

See you soon my lovelies...

Muse

xxx

I've been working on one image now for over 8 hours, yes just one, no I'm not retouching it or airbrushing it (I try to keep that to a bare minimum these days, as I hate fake skin, I'm so over that fad).

I'm creating an image that's half photograph half sketch, a little bit like "Roger Rabbit" I guess... but more doodly than cartoony... It's basically an image incorporating everything I love... it's very personal and gorgeous (at least it is to me!) but it's taking up so much of my time, as I'm one of those people that when I set my mind to something, I keep at it until I've accomplished exactly what I wanted (my mum calls it bloody-minded, I call it selective-focus!)

This is probably making little-to-no sense! No worries, when I've finished I'll upload a little preview here - so you can see it...

Anyway, I have to get back to working on this image... it's 2am on a Friday night, but I can't stop now, I have to finish it before I can sleep or else I'll just lie in bed thinking about it.

See you later my lovelies xxx

La petit morte - by Kelly Durette

1). I'm updating older galleries with brand new never-seen-before images, why? because I'm fed up of having beautiful unseen images on my hard-drive and I have some free-time at the moment, I'm on a staying-at-home-holiday!

2). I'm re-placing some of the compressed images with full quality images (this is mainly for sets prior to 2008, all sets after that are already un-compressed (if that's a word!).

3). I'm working on 6 brand new sets (ready by the end of the month).

4). I'm generally tidying, re-arranging, making things easier to navigate/find. As well as updating the layout of the galleries/sets.

5). I'm making a mess and slowly tidying it all up again.

6). I'm adding a video and audio section (yes, about bloody time, I know).

I'm a woman, we are notoriously finicky, so be patient...

I know we're behind with the sets, but that's because I'm working so much at the moment (on new images and a book). This tends to leave me very behind, especially as I'm constantly editing/going through different images as and when we shoot them and it takes longer when I do it this way (I should just concentrate on one set at a time, but I get bored easily and tend to chop and change between themes!). But, you'll be happy to know that these five photo-sets will be uploaded this weekend:

Contemplating Mischief, Romantic rose, Cinderella, Seeds and Portrait of a vampire

Here's a few little samples...

(You'll have to wait for the rest!)

This is for an album cover for "The Extraordinary Contraptions".

Copyright Mark A. Helwig 2010, All rights reserved.