My trusty pencil sharpener.

Right now, I'm working on finishing some animal portraits that are going to be given as Christmas presents.  I have finished four, and have two more to do before Friday evening, when they will be delivered.   They are colored pencil, 8"x10", two dogs and four horses.  I've been commissioned by two different people.  One person already has theirs, and the other five go to another.

Being a teacher has made it harder to do things like this.  Just trying to find the time to squeeze in between grading projects, lesson plans, meetings, and just being plane exhausted can be difficult.

In order to get me through the countless minutes wasted sharpening pencils, I found this little gem of a sharpener at Jerry's Artarama earlier this year:

(Mine is blue)

I absolutely love it!  It's the Alvin Dux Glass Inkwell Sharpener DX2580N.  I found this one online at the link for about $7.  At Jerry's, I paid $10, and it was worth it.  I don't like using electric sharpeners because the pencil always breaks, and have always preferred the manual, cheap, silver ones.  That's what is inside this sharpener, and you have a sturdy little case for all the shavings to fall into, without having to go to the trashcan every 5 minutes to sharpen a pencil.  AND, it also fits snugly in my hand when I'm sharpening.  If it ever breaks, I'm getting a new one!