lion scene tattoo all done

i have a few bigger pieces on the go right now... but this one has been in progress for quite a while.. like well over a year! we did go tubing down a river one time this past summer before some of the color was healed which didn't help. oops! but anyway, we finally put in the last few hours the other day.. and voila! thought i'd share it..

..and you can click on the picture to get a bigger view. blogger's 'large' images aren't very large

tacky souviner swap MAIL!

i just wanted to share a little picture i took yesterday of my now favorite antique/junk store. this is just half of my favorite room in the place. there are lots of rooms!

also.. yesterday my tacky souvenir came in the mail!! i did the tacky souvenir swap and got maryam from http://www.pamplemousse1983.com/

love my stuff! (it's from texas if you couldn't tell) i'm not sure how well you can see the paperweight in the picture(it is a paperweight right?).. i don't curse so i've been telling people at work that i got some texas bull-crap in the mail. which i'm sure makes no sense to anyone until i explain the whole swap ;) and i actually love the bookmark and don't think it's tacky at all.. and think it will be an excellent replacement for the Swiss Chalet 2-for-1 dinner expired coupon that is now acting as my current bookmark. i feel like my mom always wanted an armadillo. maybe i made that up though. i used to have a hedgehog! but that's not the same thing :/
we have a big collection of postcards so i'm excited for that too, i'll add it to the pile until we know what to do with them all.
hope everyone has gotten something fun in the mail lately or is awaiting something fun! mail really is the best :) thanks maryam!

pei pictures + pyrex

yay for alliteration!
here is a picture post from the weekend:)

here is a bad example of the red soil on P.E.I.

two of my friends in one of the junk stores

awesome cupboards

this place was cool

pretty dishes

the confederation bridge... it is 12.9 km's or 8 miles long

sky on the drive home


i ended up getting an awesome pyrex dish that i won't share in case my sister see's this - it's part of her birthday present!. but i did pick this 'Glasbake' bowl up for her today, along with these pyrex burnt orange mugs for about $7 altogether from 2 different stores.

I got two bowls for myself on PEI from a flea market/junk shop. i don't know the brand of this little one but i loved the color and the little images on it.


the other bowl i got myself there, is that turquoise pyrex bowl off to the side in this picture ... but i also got these awesome turquoise pyrex dishes today! they just match the bowl so well! (i love turquoise)


oh and just so my fiance doesn't feel left out i got him this haha


it's still cold out... doesn't it know it's spring out yet??

PEI

i haven't disappeared .... just got back from a much needed weekend away on PEI visiting friends :) i've had friends that have lived on the island now for years. and it's always a nice little getaway.
weekend included trying on wedding dresses, having our tarot cards read, late night nightmare inducing curry dinner, diner breakfast and hitting up a couple cool antique shops! i'm exhausted from the trip :) and somehow the only 3 hour drive managed to take about 4 hours each time? go figure. if you don't know what/where PEI is (Prince Edward Island).. it may seem familiar to you from Regis & Kelly.. they did a week of shows there last summer! it's known for it's red sand, super warm beaches and of course potatoes. what is really funny is that one time when i was there i actually won a 50lb bag of potatoes at the race track/casino hahaha. it was pretty awesome.

anyway.. it's nice to be back home and the cat is happy i'm back a day early! i just took a couple pictures on my iphone but i will post them tomorrow. hope everyone else had a friend filled refreshing/relaxing weekend as well. i know mine was overdue!

home.

this song has been helping me through with some tough times! hope it can help to make your day a little better as well :)

happy st paddy's day!

happy shaint samus day!
(this was me last year)


last year we weren't planning on doing anything for st patrick's day but my fiance was having some drinks with his brother before his brother had to go downtown to meet his wife and their friends for celebrations. i came home from work, got in on the whiskey drinking with them and after listening to a bunch of Pogues somehow we all made our way downtown to my old stomping grounds. i guess we just got in the spirit! one of the best irish pubs in halfiax (and trust me we have quite a few!) was the bar for the art school i used to go to. (i even used my 7 year old expired student id and still got in for free! ha!) we're not really big on going out anymore but it was super fun! and we were still home at like 11:30 haha. but anyway, we all have irish in us, but are probably more scottish then anything. we kept yelling HAPPY SAINT SHAMUS day.. which drunkenly turned into Happy Shaint Samus day!

hope you are all enjoying yours if you celebrate it at all :)
i'm going to stereotypically throw on the pogues and have a beer while i clean then work on some drawings while i watch weekend at bernies ;)

what's in my pantry!

after doing the what's in my bag post the other day... and after my sister and i geeked out on pyrex pictures online last night i decided to post some pictures of "what's in my pantry!" i said that like a gameshow host in my head.

i apologize for the picture quality, i took these with my iphone and it was late last night, so we have the flash battling the beautiful tungsten glow. barf! (not to mention the walls/shelves are all yellow too ha!)














k these last two aren't in the pantry but are out on the actual kitchen counter because they are used all the time :) so i cheated



yes, i sure do like owls, and also salt & pepper shakers!

startched fabic for the walls!

so i realized i didn't take a 'before' picture. but picture a plain room with a bunch of mismatched paintings. it's our spare bedroom, so we never really did a whole lot with it. bed, lamp, bookcase, and a place to put some extra paintings...

then last night i followed this tutorial and made a headboard for the spare room! i got some cool fabric (a pillowcase and matching sheet) at a second hand store yesterday. after washing them, i cut the pillow case down the sides and opened it up, and using the starch mix in the tutorial i applied it to the wall. it was too much material to stay up on it's own at first so i ended up having to cut it in half then match them up on the wall again. then i just cut out a giant circle from the matching sheet, stretched it in a big embroidering hoop and hung that on the opposite wall with a cool old mirror my mom found for me, and a painting of mine in a complimentary color. i think it makes it a little cozier in there :)(i also starched the koi fish paper onto the wall up there, which i wasn't sure would work or not. it did, and it's still there this morning!)


(note the picture of the wolf playing the trumpet -my gift from my fiance he got from a local Bermudian artist when he was there with work hehe)

the opposite wall


and the cat not enjoying the flash in her eyes! i am beginning to see a theme here with my picture posts hrmm


i had a little bit of the starch mix leftover (i only made half the amount in the tutorial).. and i was looking around for more stuff to starch.. it's pretty fun, you should try it! now i must get back to my revenge of the nerds marathon. ah mondays!

What's In My Bag(s)

Two bags worth of random junk!


So it's friday night and i figured hey, what better thing to do then take pictures of all the junk in my bag(s)! i was actually home sick today and have a super full day at work tomorrow so i am trying to take it easy. that's how i'm justifying this.

So most days i have two bags (at least). and one not shown here which i use as a camera bag/purse, but i move all the junk out of my real purse into my purse/camera bag when i take it to work. because i need my camera at work (my beautiful Canon Rebel T1i not shown :). and i put that whole bag (along with my lunchbag) into that brown owl bag along with more junk to take to work! follow me? yea basically just tons of crap to carry around! or i will even put my camerabag/purse into my backpack with my laptop and take even more junk! is anyone else's 'what's in my bag' post this in depth?

if i'm just going out on my own for fun i take this red plaid purse if i don't think i'll need/want my big ol' camera.

above is my regular purse. we have a coupon, a bandaid with the baby dinosaur from that show Dinosaurs. (remember 'not the mama!' ?? don't ask me why i still have this thing?), plasitc bacon, crumpled receipt, concert ticket, swiss army knife (what gal doesn't have one of these? ha), lighter even though i don't smoke, burt's bees lip balm, a rock that i got from the a crazy fossil place -i think it looks like a t-rex head, business card holder + my pinup girl business cards, notepad, pencil, pen, and my iphone + cozy (from Chrissy!)

i forgot my wallet was up on the organ/piano when i took the pics, so i'm adding these in. always have to have my wallet, sunglasses and keys!


now in the owl bag we currently have:

pencil crayons, a sketchbook/notepad, my daily planner for appointments with a receipt book, honey roasted peanuts, fake elastic pearl bracelets, extra leads and erasers, bacon flavored toothpicks, i heart NY mints, a tattoo supply flyer, and oddly enough THREE spoons! that's kind of embarrassing?

well there you have it. if you know that people call me 'safety' then it makes sense that i have a swiss army knife and a lighter in there. just cause you never know! apparently i think i could get stranded somewhere at any given time and feel secure knowing that i could survive with these haha. actually not only do people call me safety but people at work have been known to call me 'safety bacon' because of my love of bacon. which i suppose explains the toothpicks and the little plastic bacon! i probably shouldn't even mention that i have a bacon tattoo!

and of course any time you put anything on the floor the cat thinks it's for her!

Morning Noon & Night

so the name change for my blog came about well, because i didn't like the other one. i found it almost confusing. and it kind of sounded like a sunny day real estate song title. anyway! i saw something the other day about a book called Morning Noon & Night on amazon and the wording hit home with me, as it's a phrase i say daily. when i'm telling my tattoo clients about aftercare i tell them to wash their tattoos 3 times a day - morning, noon & night. it's become part of this spiel that i just automatically go into. so as soon as i saw that i thought it'd be the perfect name for here. i also love mornings (when i'm on my own time, and not forced to get up for some reason), noon's ok i guess and i love the nighttime!

above is a tattoo i did on my friend dan. he gets pretty random stuff so it's always nice and refreshing. whenever i'm getting a super random tattoo ready (big wheel, banana, etc) it usually belongs to either him or this client posted below with the "see you in the funny papers" quote!

this is part of the full sleeve we've been working on


and this is another client with a varied collection of tattoos, including but not limited to this barrel of monkeys monkey!



why not hop over to Kam's blog campfire chic and check out the blog party going on there for her birthday! and it's an excuse to eat cupcakes or something. i would love a cupcake except i feel like poop today! (i don't curse) funny enough a girl was getting tattooed today and after talking about cursing and not cursing she started yelling 'Parsley!' instead of the F word for my sake haha -i really don't mind if people curse at all, i mean i'm marrying a sailor people, i think i'm used to it;) i just sound ridiculous when/if i do and people just laugh cause they're not used to hearing it from me. either that or you've just made me reaaalllly angry!

art room/studio pictures

here is my art room! i had just tidied it up here so please know that it is normally not this clean looking. and if you don't think this is actually clean looking then you are probably a virgo, like my fiance (jk! i think i'm awfully lucky to have this little room in our house and he doesn't mind how the space looks.. and if it's a disaster in there i can just shut the door!) on that note i will post a photo of it when i get home today of what it looks when it's in use!

drafting table/desk, super mario garbage can, paper mache skulls, etc


opposite side of the room.
some old camera's behind the door, canvases, and an awesome bird poster, small peek at my easel and table of paints (and more paper mache skulls)


messy bookcase, notice the zombie cross stitch kit i have yet to start


puss likes the sun in here :)


collection of shells and beach rocks, acorns, jade, and a sand dollar from different beaches i've lived by (and a little cat paw peeking in of course)


... and here's what the room looks like right now


and a peak at the new painting i'm starting. i also wanted to include my globe lamp. i found it for 3.99 and i was excited when i thought it was just a globe at first. then i saw the cord! cheesy globe lamp? don't mind if i do.

and tomorrow i'll post the meaning behind the blog name change! i was looking for a new name and i came up with this last night and automatically knew it was going to be it!

randomness midnight post

check out these delicious croissants from Two If By Sea mmmm. this was their croissant of the week (last week). Raspberry compote and cream cheese filling! and if you can't tell by the picture with my sunglasses for reference, these suckers are huge! we ate them all day long.
this is Lincoln. he was here for a puppy sleepover last weekend!

my sister and i tried a different/newish sushi place downtown and it was AWESOME. this is the volcano roll we got and i think there was even stuff in it that i didn't care for but the whole thing altogether was delicious and all deep friend.

and lastly we have a picture from about two weeks ago with me and my best friend who was in town for that weekend. it is a picture of a picture on our friends camera of us karaokeing!

it's funny because there was a crew of us who used to all go to this same place every sunday night back in university days. so we thought it would be funny to go while she was around. we sat down and when asked what we'd like to drink i asked 'Do you guys still have Molson Ex on tap?' and the guy laughed and said 'Not for about 8 years now' to which i replied, 'ya that sounds about right!' hahahha WE'RE OLD!
anyway we had fun, and we butchered Cecilia and Maggie May. guess we had something for girl name titled songs? huh!

Oh!! and i am going to change the name of this blog. the url was the theme for my Sketchbook Project (which will be at the Austin Museum of Modern Art this Saturday during the SXSW festival... if anybody's in texas!). And that's fine, but i was never fond of the title i gave it. it's like you have to stop and think about it as you say it. I got a good one though and i wanted something that i could carry over if i ever make an etsy shop. so they could be the same thing. and it scares me to make an etsy shop because the first thing i heard is that you can't change the name of your shop! and so it better be good! i'm obviously bad with commitments.

i think i'll get around to posting some pics of my art room/studio cause i also just got an ugly cheesy globe lamp for in there! and seeing chrissy's 'what's in my bag' post has reminded me that i was going to do one of these a while ago and just forgot about it. so there you have it, i may actually be doing some posting this week!

Fill In The Blanks + i'm a giveaway winner (again)!

1. I am currently emailing, updating, editing photos, and possibly about to start designing our wedding invitations!

2. Today I am trying to relax and enjoy the weekend ... but have lots to do

3. The age I am is 29 but usually mistaken for younger because i am basically a big nerdy child still

4. My favorite place probably involves the ocean and some hills and trees

5. Something I have been procrastinating is making art! don't know why, but i just bought some embroidering hoops and hope to get at it

6. The last thing I purchased was the following!:


and these for my scarf collection to make a bunting thing

7. The thing I love most about my home is coziness, and almost springtime which means open windows!

Hope everyone's weekend went well. i'm in the middle of mine right now :)
I just wanted to say a giant THANK YOU! to Chrissy for hosting a giveaway which i won! She was the lovely lady i won the iphone cozy from. And I'd like to thank Danielle for the granny square bunting which was the prize!!

i'm super excited to get this in the mail!