Spring is Sprung- sort of

It depends on where in the country you are, our neighbors to the south are planting spring crops already, I'm not sure they can grow tulips outside there. Up in the still frozen north, well, we're still frozen, and the tulips are not blooming yet. This little guy is basswood, whittled in 4 parts and assembled with a hot glue gun, then painted with washes. I originally was going to whittle it as all one piece, and cut the roughout with that in mind. Once i picked up a knife and thought about actually starting I went back to the saw and cut it into parts. things went quickly after that, I don't time myself while whittling, but I'd say it took one afternoon to do. Overall 4" high and about 2.5" around at the leaf tips. I like the way acrylics work when the wood is wet first, seems like they penetrate better, and more evenly. You can see the wood color showing thru in parts of the leaves and stem, that was actually intentional. After painting I put on a clear coat of Fabulon Crystal, a clear water based urethane originally formulated as a floor finish. I was not real happy with it, and whittled the finish and paint off the flower to start over. It didn't brush on evenly, the drips looked awful. I'll reapply it with a rag, very thin coat, just a little protection for the paint. The pic, BTW, was taken before the clear coat. I had to work to type the word 'it' when referring to this piece in this blog entry, funny how even inanimate subjects take on a personality, isn't it? He's cute, not even sure why he's a he and not a she. That's just the way it is. I can envision a little garden full of little flowers, that's the first time I've been tempted to do a scene or collection of items. Would look cute on the windowsill all winter. So whittle something already-BfloBif