Wednesday, February 23, 2011

sketchbook tour!



i received an email last week telling me the art house co-op got my sketchbook! the sketchbook tour has started and is now on view at the Brooklyn Art Library. there are plenty of stops all through the US... i didn't get around to doing as much as i would have liked in my sketchbook but i'm still very proud to be a part of this project!

i thought i had more to say, but i'm sitting here yawning my face off! i've been really busy working lately. and when i get home i feel like it's too cold to do anything! i got in the tub to warm up, but now i'm just going to go to bed with wet hair. should be interesting in the morning.

things to do as soon as it's not so freezing: 1)paint, 2)start a zombie cross-stitch (anyone who knows i embroider always think it's cross-stitching... i have never cross-stitched anything in my life!) from a kit i got with 12 different patterns (but i'm scared of zombies, so we'll see how this goes), and 3)i'd love to try this starched fabic wall stuff! seriously.. check out this link, it looks super easy. i did see it done somewhere else on another blog, but sometimes i get to reading and clicking links i don't know where i am or how i ended up where i did. i was smart enough to at least bookmark this one!

i think i may try a small headboard for the bed in our spare room, if i get a chance on monday (my day off) i'm going to find a cool old second hand sheet to use just for this :)

Saturday, February 19, 2011

odd story after the owl tattoo!

hi there all. this is my friday night. and i think i want to spend it painting. or maybe just watching a movie because that involves less work, and right now, i'm kind of tired/lazy.
i took a quick stop by For The Love Of Blogs and added my blog to the list... if you're looking for some to check out there are plenty! (i'm #100!)


So a crazy thing happened just yesterday right in front of our tattoo shop. An SUV was hit pretty hard by a city bus, spinning it 360 degrees. I immediately ran over as our shop girl called 911. I was asking the driver of the SUV if she was alright, etc (she was thankfully alright!) to which she quietly replied 'hey.... I know you?' It was the very lady who I had just done that owl tattoo on! (previous post) I couldn't believe it!

after the fire truck arrived and all the police, her daughter showed up and they went off in the ambulance and i was asked to take pictures of the truck. i received an email from the daughter and she told me that her mother (and my artwork) were just fine, except for 5 stitches on the back of the neck and expecting to be pretty achy for the next while. thank god she was alright, i was so worried, i felt really connected to the whole thing in a weird way and wanted to do something!

so now if that wasn't odd enough... a client I worked on just today asked if we'd seen the accident yesterday, to which I explained the story above. she then told us that she was a passenger on the bus when it had hit the suv! Anyway.. everyone is fine but it is sure feeling like a small world right now.

hope you all enjoy a nice safe weekend :) i think i may go paint afterall

Thursday, February 17, 2011

who doesn't love owls

hoot hoot!


i did this owl tattoo yesterday for a client who just lost her husband last month :( apparently he was a collector of all things owls, so i think it was a good match when she asked me to do the tattoo for her. i told her i was well on my way to being the crazy old owl lady... my house is slowly becoming filled with weird random owl things! it was honor to do it, and help her keep a piece of her husband with her. those are even his initials we scanned from something he signed for :)

Wednesday, February 16, 2011

valentines day






hey did i mention that all that stuff i bought in my last post all came to about $14??

so we didn't do anything crazy valentine's day... just hung out, watched a movie and were really nice to each other! exchanged some sweets and i baked some chocolate chip cookies and monkey balls (my fiance's choice -also, still weird to say fiance, i always want to type finance). monkey balls (pictured above) are a peanut buttery ball with coconut... we got his grandmothers recipe and i was kind of afraid they wouldn't be as good, cause, well, she's his grandmother! anyway, they turned out pretty good.. and i made enough chocolate chip cookies to last until next valentines day so that's good.




we're not super mushy, but we just set v-day aside for quality hanging out time and i implemented a no screen in your face evening. ie, no iphones or laptops! we were also lazy and didn't want to bother making a big meal so we relied on our good ol' fallback food - kraft dinner! (also what we ate after he proposed ha!). although it was pretty cute to see he made my KD into a heart. then we watched Get Him To The Greek. pretty good valentines day if you ask me!

(this is what valentines day looks like when you are both pretty much 10 years old)

sooo many cookies! i keep taking some to work, to put a dent in this giant cookie pile.. i'm eating one right now mmm


"fiance" texted to let me know my wedding dress came in the mail today (thank you ebay!) i'm excited although i'm completely prepared for it to not fit. so i'll see if it's close enough to mess around with or just move on to something else. i just loved it so much i didn't want to be wondering. let me know if you are looking for an awesome unique wedding dress i may be relisting it on ebay haha! it's not like i don't have tons of time to find another dress. i'm so excited i want to leave work and go home to try it on! look at me, i'm a girl! my best friend will be in town this weekend to pick up her wedding dress.. we are both standing in each others weddings.. so i'm sure this will be a girly overload weekend, but i'm kind of looking forward to it!
{speaking of weddings, you can't really be anywhere on the internet right now and type 'wedding' without BHLDN being shoved down your throat! the stuff is nice, but maybe i'm just a cheapo.. i'm sorry but i'd rather use the $$$ i'd spend on that stuff to go towards our house downpayment or a honeymoon! or you know, groceries} i just found that funny because i just posted about eating KRAFT DINNER. living the high life over here haha!

i guess i'll get back to working on some drawings now, excuse the rant!

Wednesday, February 9, 2011

thrift store finds!



hey!
i'm having a busy week! which is good. but busy. (except for monday!)
. i realized i like seeing what other people pick up at thrift stores and flea markets so i'm going to share a few pictures of what i picked up on monday. i had the whole day all to myself and it was gorgeous out. i wandered around to a couple of places then lazed around. ahh it was nice. no i did not pick up that cat. she lives here. that knitted throw, however, i did buy.

here it is in all it's comfy glory

awesome peacock plate!

the cat being a cat and playing with some scarves i want to use for this bunting

some pillowcases i am cutting up to embroider on, and a neato green table runner. i think it's a table runner?


just a quick post.. i'll be back tomorrow because i have some drawing to do!

Monday, February 7, 2011

now's the time to save



so since we now have a wedding to start saving for, and have been saving for a house (among other things) i decided it was time to make the d.i.y. budget planner i saw over at ballpoint + pen! you can follow her tutorial if you click on the link. it's pretty straight forward but mine just looks kind of ghetto and you can get a better idea on her blog. i had some green fabric from a shirt i've been using for embroidering projects, that i glued to a piece of cardboard from a cheerios box. and i had this awesome owl paper kicking around.
throw in some scissors, a gluegun, and some envelopes


and voila!

yes, that says V Dubbs... one of the things we (constantly) have to save for is our old 1974 VW bus :)


i will also just include a couple more fondue photos because hey, it was chocolate fondue this time!



i bought some awesome things at some thrift stores today! had the whole day to myself and it was +2 and sunny! got some nice old pillowcases to cut up and embroider on, and a lovely peacock plate! i'll take some pictures after everything's clean and post em later. i also bought some new pliers that i've been meaning to get for over a week! (not as exciting)
don't hate me for it, but i love monday's :D

Thursday, February 3, 2011

yay for mail! the kind that's not bills!



Yayay!
my other winning from Pamplemousse's giveaway came in the mail today! thanks so much to Chrissy from Chrissy In America for my awesome iphone cozy! oddly enough i won the giveaway the same night i broke down and bought an iphone joining the the rest of the world here in the future. go figure! you can check out her etsy shop here where she sells these little soft felt cozies, and other handmade goodies. she even made me an owl one :)



man, little things like this totally make my day. i love fun stuff in the mail! everything i've been waiting for in the mail has now come though, except for our hacksaw jim duggan wrestler from ebay. he's second choice to macho man who got lost somewhere in the mail so we got him with the returned $. we need a forth to have tag teams! poor jake the snake has been all alone against roddy piper and the ultimate warrior!

i found the old WWF ring in the garbage near work one day last spring.. in the garbage! it wasn't until just after christmas did we finally get some wrestlers for it. and needless to say they made quite the first impression. they attacked our gingerbread house!



snow days!

so tuesday i stayed home because i was bummed about my budgie passing away. yesterday we were only at the shop for half the day because the giant snowstorm was coming. we got quite a bit of snow, but nothing major. although around here for some reason people still aren't used to getting any real amount of snow. 20cms of snow?! people act like it doesn't happen all the time. anyway... it's really nice outside today but because this city is kinda nuts a lot of places are closed for the day (post storm!). if it's a snow day at school then i guess a lot of parents probably have to take snow days off too. i'm not in school, and i'm not a parent, but i'm still taking a snow day!!
yay to being able to work from home! i had no tattoo appts today at the shop anyway, and i prepared by taking my drawings home with me yesterday after lunch. so today i am working on a drawing for tomorrow and getting my saturday appt drawings ready to go. the black & grey tattoo books i just won/received in the mail are going to come in handy today for inspiration and reference! i am going to be working on a black & grey 1/2 sleeve of a chickadee, a soft mountain in the background and a main component of apple blossoms. looking forward to it! {i've also been searching blogs for wedding inspiration... it's really addictive, and kind of frightening how much i'm getting into all the stupid little fun details even though we don't even have a date or venue nailed down ha! who knew i could be so girly?}

hope everyone is staying cozy in all the snow

Tuesday, February 1, 2011

wirlwind of a weekend!



wow-ee. how was everybody's weekend? mine was pretty crazy!
sunday i got engaged! i've always been the 'marriage is just a piece of paper' kind of girl, and believe the goal of being together is to just be happy together. and the goal shouldn't be to 'be married'. but hey, why can't we be happy together, and get to have a fun party with our friends and family?? fiance is a little more official sounding then saying boyfriend and i kind of like that! it's so weird. like what's up with girls? how come i am turning into a girl all of a sudden? it's like that ring (that beautiful, beautiful ring) has given me wedding powers. i'm a superhero, except with weird wedding hormones all of a sudden. i guess it's kind of cute, and i'm really excited about the whole thing. after my boyfr.... fiance, proposed on sunday and the initial ridiculousness wore off, i was like 'what do we do now?' i guess we finish our hike and drive home! oh, and then spend all day and the whole next day on the phone and emailing people. it's exhausting. and so much for keeping this blog not-so-personal! wooops!



i like to picture light rays shooting out of the ring box here! very legend of zelda


lots more grown up-y things happened this weekend like having awesome beer/cheddar/bacon fondue at my sisters sat night, mmmm



and like getting engaged and dropping my ring off to be sized down a tiny bit. and i even got in a quick visit with my friend and her 2 week old baby!


my sister and i went to some thrift stores and i got this awesome painting at the salvation army. i like how it's fall and wintertime


also my tattoo books came in the mail yesterday... they weigh 22 lbs! (over twice the weight of that baby up there!) they are amazing and i want to thank everyone for voting for me in the Tattooed People and Their Pets contest.


It is very sad, however, to note that Barley my budgie who was in the winning picture along with Puss our cat, passed away yesterday. he had cancer and it got really bad so we did the unselfish thing and had him put down. Selfless, yes. Very hard to do? Yes! i was really sad.. and was even more sad this morning when i went to go wake him up for the day (by taking the sarong off his cage). I know he's better off now... but boy was he a little trooper! here he is :)

and again... on my head


i promise i'll get back to the craftiness. i started a painting last week that i'm very excited about so i'll get to that soon, and hopefully be posting some photos of my art room/studio!