X-mas in AZ

Things are freezing right now!

I know that New York is under like, 8 ft of snow right now, but I'm still cold.

So there.

Anyhoo, the New year is almost upon us and I'm almost done with my two weeks off (sniffle) so I thought I would random post about a few things going on and then actually get some stuff done around my house (homework, laundry, sewing, scanning).

So, since I was actually home this year and my parents did not rent a house, I decided to decorate a bit for x-mas. Not much mind you, but when I moved down here my mother sent me with a crap ton (an actual measurement I swear!) of boxes filled with holiday cheer. Which I went through and got rid of via a garage sale then a trip to ye ole Goodwill.

So here is my "tree"



It was a tight X-mas money-wise this year so as I was undoing all the decorations I didn't know what I was going to do with all of my ornaments. Then I found this pretty star garland in a bag and knew it would be perfect around my bookshelf. I really liked how it turned out but I probably need to do something different next year. Three of my ornaments bit the dust. One while pulling out a book, another when I was taking them down, and another had death by helicopter (EVAN).

Then we had the decorations on the fireplace.



Before I talk about the nutcrackers I'll talk about the stuff on the bottom mantle below. I have a hand crocheted (not by me) set of carolers next to a light pole. One of my mom's friends made those YEARS ago (I seriously can't remember NOT having them) and I kept them cause they are some of my favorite decorations. Next to them is a sleigh with four reindeer that my dad made ages ago. Love them.

Then we have the Nutcrackers. Only one shelf on top of the mantle. That is it...compared to THIS:


Nutcracker Suite by ~Sarapuu on deviantART

so the insanity has subsided a bit. :)

My parents came and in my parent fashion they spoiled the hell out of the family. Just a short list of things I knew I had gotten even before Christmas morning: Lazy Boy Recliner, Ottoman, a promise to pay for fans to be installed, 15 month gym membership for the two of us,a kinect, Zumba for kinect, and a gift of money which payed for Evan's new laptop. Then all the stuff on X-mas morning.

I really hope the don't do this again next year, it was getting to be obscene. Evan and I felt bad.

I renewed the Netflix subscription for my dad (I got them a player and subscription last year) my dad LOVES the Netflix. It's like the gift that keeps on giving. Then I had gotten my mom an Arizona thing from the Day of the Dead festival. It was cut and artsy. She liked it. Then my brother and I went in together and did family photos. My parents didn't want to be in them but bull on that. We love them and made them.

Here is just the D family of 4. My brother, me, Dad, then Mom.



Then the WHOLE gang. My brother's wife, his step-son, my hub, brother, me. Then in front is my niece, dad, nephew, and mom.



My goodness we are a good looking crew of people!

Tarot

So a few weeks ago I went to a White Elephant party with my Geek Girls. Near the end of the night my friend Shauna got her tarot cards out and was giving little readings. We were to think of a question, shuffle the cards, then cut the cards into three piles, the past, present, and future.

My question was about my job. Major budget cuts to the education system are happening and I don't think I have ever really been so unsure of my employment for the next year.

Ah, the life of an art teacher.

Anyway as I was shuffling a card popped out, as I was about to put it back in Shauna grabbed it and told me, "It wants to be seen."

I continued to shuffle and cut the cards into the piles.

The first card (past) was the Two of Pentacles. The card for change. It makes sense, moving across the country, starting my career, meeting Evan, marriage, a house. My recent past has been all about change.

The second card is my present and it was the Ten of Wands, Oppression. Which with my job, this makes sense. I'm unsure of my employment so I don't want to get too attached, I am subbing a day a week which disrupts my life and teaching, but I do it for the love of the rest of my job. I am tired but I know I need to still work hard.

The third card is my future. While the card did not give me a definitive answer about my employment it did tell me that I would be okay. The card was the Six of Wands. Victory.

The fourth card, the card that popped out when I was shuffling, was the Three of Pentacles, titled "Works." The card featured an artist. :D

So, as long as I work hard and keep doing what I'm doing, I think I am going to be okay.

Massive Art Update

So there has been art going on.

Truly. So I posted a bunch of stuff over at the deviant art site and wanted to share it here!


Synthetic Business Cards by ~SyntheticPlatypus on deviantART


Emerson by ~SyntheticPlatypus on deviantART


Kiriban Kabuki by ~SyntheticPlatypus on deviantART


Mirror World by ~SyntheticPlatypus on deviantART

ENJOY!

Garage after

Garage before

Epic Fail

on the art front.

*bashes head against desk*

I have this creative grab bag thing right now and it is PISSING ME OFF. I just can't seem to get it. I finally have another idea which I will be doing this week and hopefully life will be good again.

I did finish the prize pic for Miss Kabukikatze for dA all I need to do is scan and post. Which I did hers by restarting the 90% picture I had finished before.

I also sketched a bunch for the webcomic I'll be working on and bought some new paper things for it. So, as soon as Miss Connie gets back from INDIA(!) I'll be able to start a bit more.

Had an epic garage sale over the weekend. I made posts everywhere and multiple times on craigslist. As the sale was going on I kept rearranging things and pushing everything forward toward the door. I think we sold about 75% of the stuff we had. Sold all the furniture but the bigger metal cabinet, sold one rug out of the two, sold all the electronics I had, and alot of the queen bed linens I put out there. Over half the shoes, a little bit of clothes, and honestly a bunch of misc. I didn't think was going to go.

We had the sale on Friday and Saturday and decided that what we had left was not worth trying to do another day. So I made a big bin of clothing for the geek girl clothing swap, and a giant pile of date and two bins for bookmans and said that whatever they didn't take at bookmans we would add to the donate.

Well, they took a bunch more books at bookmans! I have lots of credit again and am very excited. Carted everything to goodwill and my garage is EMPTY. We just need to organize this alcove we have and it's all good. My brother is very jealous.

I'll post pics from my phone of the garage sale. I have a new app and want to utilize it when I find fun Phoenix Art things. I'll do before and after pics.

I've also been running and I found part of the AZ canal system a mile and a half away, which is super exciting to me. I ran there the other day and Evan met me there (he can barely run) and we ran-walked an additional two together. But I was frustrated...how am I supposed to run with him all these miles I want to do? He's wheezing through one.

So we came up with a solution...he rollerblades. He'll rollerblade next to me on the long distances. Which we did (he can rollerblade forever) and we went and did 6.2 miles....which for those of you who don't know is a 10K.

So, a few (hopeful) goals this week.

1) Post the prize pic
2) finish this creative grab bag finally! (and post it to prove it!)
3) Get the clay stuff at school out and organized along with the powerpoints to go along with them.
4)Run the 6.2 miles Mon, Weds, Fri, and 8 miles on Saturday. (My eventual goal for this is a half marathon, 13.1 miles, which I would like to do twice a month and maybe eventually go for a marathon. But I still thing 26.2 miles is crazy)
5) Join the gym by the house to crosstrain on Tues and Sun.
6) Get most of the schoolwork done during conferences this week!

Test test test

This is a test from blogaway on the phone

Test test test

This is a test from blogaway on the phone

The Art is Coming.

It is.

I promise it is.

I stretched myself a bit thin for awhile and it left me with no time for personal endeavors such as art. The only thing I could really get in was a bit of reading which I do in bed before I am actually going to bed.

So wth that being said I have my fall break coming up next weekend. Now I have a big giant personal thing to take care of from Thursday evening to Sunday evening, but after that I have an entirely delicious week to do stuff.

So what exactly am I going to do?

Well here is a list of goals art and otherwise:
1. Run every other day and do my EA workouts for the rest.
2. Get FOUR Creative Grab bag projects FINISHED. I have the plans ready for one, so that shouldn't be terrible to do.
3. Finish Miss Kabukikatze's Prize Picture for dA. I started it...I'm not sure if I love it though. I may redraw it and color it differently. But the plan is there.
4. Character designs for a webcomic I am working on with one of my Geek Girl friends. She is going to be on a flight to India for 14 hours and will be e-mailing me massive amounts of stuff.
5. Get at least 4 pages (if she sends me that) drawn and finished for said comic.
6. Work on the Character Portraits for Evan's Game. He's making a video game. We have an idea so I'm gonna help with a portion of that.
7. SLEEP
8. Finish my library books. I'm in the middle of two of them now and am going to spend another day reading a different one.
9. Go to work on one day and get everything prepped for the week we get back. This will probably be done later on in the week.
10. Enjoy my house, husband, and puppy...cause I've been missing out since going back to work.

So ten goals. One Week. Will I do it, ladies and gentlemen? Or will I fail epically. You will find out with me!

Also: Last practice for cheer today...for this season. I'm still on the fence about doing it again but if it's just Mondays and Tuesdays then I probably will. The amount of money for this work is stupid. :D

Irritation

I'm getting irritated.

It's as if either everyone is way too polite or no one knows what "healthy" is anymore.

I've been on a diet...excuse me "life style change"

at one point a couple years ago (when I first moved to Phoenix) I was depressed, had a horrible living situation, and eating crap. I gained a ton of weight. I got a wii fit and lost ten pounds of that. Kept it off for awhile and then had to move all of my belongings up to a third floor of an apartment building when I moved out of horrible living situation. Lost another ten, kept it off for the most part. I was curvey but no one ever called me fat (technically obese/overweight according to BMI at the time).

Met Evan, current husband extraordinaire. Kept the weight off but became really sensitive of my size...especially since the man could wear MY PANTS.

We celebrated our one month together in style and I ended up gaining 8 lbs. Oy.

Adopted Evan's lifestyle of eating for allergies and working out with him. Lost 20 lbs.

Took a break, gained about 6 back. Still in overweight/obese land.

Got married lost those 6 and then some for my wedding. Yay. Gained the some back over the course of honeymoon. Boo.

Started a lifestyle of working out twice a day and only eating 1100 calories. No results...misery.

Decided to do something safe and drastic and now the weight is pouring off and someone hit my eating reset button.

I eat really healthy right now and everyone comments on it.

"Are you on a diet?"

Yeah

"Well, you don't need to be"

and I want to scream because yes I do. I'm still away from a normal BMI for my height. I am closer everyday, but everyone this whole time (besides Evan who knew what everything was and knew it was unhealthy) has told me I don't need to do anything. Now especially since I am super close to my goal. But I was not healthy before and everyone wanted me to eat like them and look like them and I refuse to do it. I know people think I am weird now.

I don't care. America has a warped perspective about the whole healthy eating and weight thing and I was a perfect example of this.

I'm almost there, I'm the skinniest I've been in I don't even know how long. I'm inching into middle school territory if I really think about it..I think.

But I am finally getting happy with how I look and feeling way healthy. I may even post the pics of my journey with my face blurred (even though there are already pics of my face) but they were me and I am proud of how it's looking now.

If not I'll just dig up photos from the past few years and scan them in to show that kind of difference.

I am happier now with myself but this crazy diet is almost over and then comes the maintenance for 3 weeks and then living the rest of my life. I'm kind of terrified about this.

But I believe in me!

Life Styles A-changin'

When my job started up again, I got into a huge funk.

I couldn't get anything done. My weight was going back up. I was super stressed. There was too much to do and no time to do it.

Last week I went to my Geek Girl Goal Setting (nearly late and rushed) and said I wanted a schedule, to catch up on things, and to calm down.

I am starting this goal this week. There has been lots of things going on around here and I wanted to address some of them.

Goal #1
Catching up on the house.
It's almost there. Evan and made more work for ourselves and bought a bunch of things from IKEA and we've been putting them together throughout the weekend. I now own a king sized bed, two nightstands, and two tall dressers from the MALIM collection of IKEA.
The Kitchen is clean. The living room is clean. The bathroom (thank god) is clean. We moved out office into the bigger extra bedroom, which still needs to be cleaned and the former office needs to be cleaned out along with the closet. Our bedroom is a work in progress from all of the new IKEA stuff and moving out my old set. Which now needs to be craigslisted.
The house is almost there, and that actually takes a lot of stress out. I can come home and relax a bit now.
Still need to clean that car though.

Goal #2 MI reception stuff
Invites are mailed. My ring issue is being resolved (via a new ring, that is almost like my other one just more expensive) as is Evan's ring issue. Surgical grade steel ring = no allergic reaction. I also have a nice shiny plain band too. I bought plane tickets as well. The only few things left are to do the photo books and print photos from the wedding and honey moon. I will also have to get my dress altered since I have lost enough weight where it is sagging a bit. I'm going to call an alteration place this week.

Goal #3 Art
oooh boy. I've been THINKING about art. Not much doing. I owe a friend a prize picture, still need to do my next creative grab bag, Evan wants some help with a game, and my friend Connie wants to talk to me about a webcomic. I am hoping to sketch out the prize pic this week along with the sketch for my grab bag. Evan will be next week and Connie whenever I talk to her.

Goal #4 A schedule.
It will be done this week. I am a cheer coach now and have to use time wisely after school and during. I want to schedule in art time, cleaning time, relaxing time, and evan time.

Goal #5 Dietary Changes
I'm on a pretty restrictive diet right now, but it's working. I'm being creative with cooking and spices and am not bored at all. I'm over the halfway mark (if I do it for the 30 days, I may go the full 45...currently on day 20) and have been working out how I'm going to do this when I'm allowed other foods. I have good ideas and need to start writing them down somewhere so I don't forget how to do this. Also: tea and stevia are my new best friends. I have finally fallen in love with tea and drink it ALL the time.

Lots of things to do, not enough time to do it...but I'm getting there and enjoying it finally. I've reached some sort of inner peace I guess.

I'll just keep going.

This is a Test

This is only a test...

I'm alive, I promise. Everything kind of just hit at once and I've been slowly swimming my way back to shore.

Everything is great and awesome though. Some quick highlights.

My job has started back up again. It's going great. The only thing about this is that I'm spending tons of time on new power points and project examples since I'm starting at the beginning with the little ones and have nothing.

I'm also becoming a middle school cheerleading coach. *shrugs* I have no idea, don't ask.

The house is being cleaned out. Like a major overhaul. I feel like I'm drowning in stuff and that Evan and I are falling into that owning a house trap of filling it up. Just in the living room we are down a bookshelf and entry way table. Just started going through clothes last night again. I'm so sick of stuff.

Clothes are easy to go through right now. I'm back on the horse of losing weight. I have 20 more days of my restrictive diet plan and then can slowly add back some normal things. But I'm feeling so healthy and great some things may be having a permanent grave for me. I will also tell you about the horror show that happened to me because of that on another day.

Also had to clean out the fridge because apparently "natural flavors" n thing sis code for milk and soy. Which my husband is allergic to. He kept getting ill and we had to figure it out. I gave half my fridge away. That sucked.

The art portion of my life besides making examples for school has been nill. Monday I have a Geek Girl Goal Setting meeting and it's the perfect time to restart my goal of an artwork a month. The first being a prize for a dear friend who got my 1,000th page view on the deviantart site. Then I'll be back to my creative grab bagging.

Umm Some drama with mine and Evan's wedding rings too. We are both getting new ones, which is depressing but better than having to deal with the drama of them both. He's allergic to his and mine just keeps breaking. The jewelery place is working with us though. Which is nice.

I will be blogging more and more, I promise! It's part of the goals!

Comic Sans

Stolen from here: Timothy McSweeney's Internet Tendency

I'm Comic Sans, Asshole.
BY MIKE LACHER

- - - -

Listen up. I know the shit you've been saying behind my back. You think I'm stupid. You think I'm immature. You think I'm a malformed, pathetic excuse for a font. Well think again, nerdhole, because I'm Comic Sans, and I'm the best thing to happen to typography since Johannes fucking Gutenberg.

You don't like that your coworker used me on that note about stealing her yogurt from the break room fridge? You don't like that I'm all over your sister-in-law's blog? You don't like that I'm on the sign for that new Thai place? You think I'm pedestrian and tacky? Guess the fuck what, Picasso. We don't all have seventy-three weights of stick-up-my-ass Helvetica sitting on our seventeen-inch MacBook Pros. Sorry the entire world can't all be done in stark Eurotrash Swiss type. Sorry some people like to have fun. Sorry I'm standing in the way of your minimalist Bauhaus-esque fascist snoozefest. Maybe sometime you should take off your black turtleneck, stop compulsively adjusting your Tumblr theme, and lighten the fuck up for once.

People love me. Why? Because I'm fun. I'm the life of the party. I bring levity to any situation. Need to soften the blow of a harsh message about restroom etiquette? SLAM. There I am. Need to spice up the directions to your graduation party? WHAM. There again. Need to convey your fun-loving, approachable nature on your business' website? SMACK. Like daffodils in motherfucking spring.

When people need to kick back, have fun, and party, I will be there, unlike your pathetic fonts. While Gotham is at the science fair, I'm banging the prom queen behind the woodshop. While Avenir is practicing the clarinet, I'm shredding "Reign In Blood" on my double-necked Stratocaster. While Univers is refilling his allergy prescriptions, I'm racing my tricked-out, nitrous-laden Honda Civic against Tokyo gangsters who'll kill me if I don't cross the finish line first. I am a sans serif Superman and my only kryptonite is pretentious buzzkills like you.

It doesn't even matter what you think. You know why, jagoff? Cause I'm famous. I am on every major operating system since Microsoft fucking Bob. I'm in your signs. I'm in your browsers. I'm in your instant messengers. I'm not just a font. I am a force of motherfucking nature and I will not rest until every uptight armchair typographer cock-hat like you is surrounded by my lovable, comic-book inspired, sans-serif badassery.

Enough of this bullshit. I'm gonna go get hammered with Papyrus.

Chuck Jones: An Animated Life

So a few weeks back my brother and I went to Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport to sadly take my Mom there so she could go home to Michigan after her ten day visit. After we said our tearful farewells I asked my brother if we could find the little mini art gallery they have in that terminal (Terminal Four!) he said sure since we were going to have to pay for the full hour of parking anyhow.

So we found the gallery and what do you know...a Chuck Jones exhibit! Now for those of you who don't know who Chuck Jones is, he is one of the lead animators/creator of characters from Looney Tunes. It was quite the retrospective of his work. I didn't get pictures of everything but I got the best things in my opinion.

Again these are taken on my camera phone as it was the only thing I had. Yay Droid!

Biography


Sketches








Looney Tunes Paintings




















How the Grinch Stole X-mas Painting


Phoenix Art!

Bigger Than You

So in Tempe Towne Marketplace there is a store front called "The Night Gallery" It is a facility that is used to showcase student works from ASU. A lot of the time they will have "established" Phoenix artists share the gallery space with the student work in order to get more people to come in and see the shows and to hopefully get more revenue. The shows are free but there is a donation jar in the front.

The following is from a show that is still up (it's been up for awhile now in the back) and it is by Nathanial Lewis and called "Bigger Than You" According to his blog this was his Thesis show for ASU.

here a couple links to him and his work: Blogspot Blog and Art Site

A side note: My photos don't really do his work justice. I only usually have my phone on me, so all of these pics are taken on my Droid.

Now on to the show!


"Blossom"


"Icarus"


"Scribble"




"Feast"


"Maya"


"Melt"


"Real Gone 1"


"Ghost"


"Anticipation"


"Hunger"


"Loom"


"Me & You"


"Extrude"


"Romper"


"Satisfaction"


"Make Believe"

Phoenix Art by a Phoenix Artist

Platypus!

CD Cover Design

Fantabulastic's Victoria by ~SyntheticPlatypus on deviantART

The next Card in The Creative Grab Bag Series! Design a CD cover for a fake band. Luckily, I already have one of those.

Fanatbulastic starring the lovely Kabukikatze on Guitar and SyntheticPlatypus on Vocals.

Awhile back Miss Kabuki and I did an art trade where we had created a band and did posters advertising for them : Fantabulastic Poster
Miss Kabuki removed hers cleaning house :) But I assure you it it was an epic poster advertising the Russian leg of our tour.

So a little about the design of this cover. I had the band already so the hard part of figuring out a name was already taken care of. I knew I wanted to revisit fantabulastic, but how?

When I was in Victoria, Canada I fell in absolute love with the Native Art there. Evan bought a painting and I bought some magnets for the fridge. If I could have bought more I would have.

So I decided to use that as my inspiration! The CD is called Victoria for Canada and I used the design elements in their native art that makes it so unique and fantastic. The colors are simplistic and everything is made of shapes and alot of those shapes have animals in them.

I'm on the left I have glasses! Miss Kabuki is on the right. See the red hair? :)

In this picture somewhere: A beaver, a rhino, a frog, an eagle, a cardinal, and a parrot.

I had a ton of fun doing this, once I figured out how to draw with the shapes it actually came out rather quickly. Colored it in photoshop and sized it correctly.

Phoenix art by a Phoenix Artist!

Mint Condoms and Weed

Now you are looking at the title for this blog entry and thinking: "...what?"

Now that would be what I was thinking when I encountered these very items.

Let me explain.

The other week I had my follow up Doctors Appointment (everything is fine, I worried for nothing). As Evan and I were leaving the office I pulled out the wrong way into a gas station that is in front of the building center. So as I pulled around to go out the other way I saw something on the ground and I came up to next to it and opened my door.

A wallet and a phone! Holy Crap!

I picked up both and pulled into a parking spot at the gas station. Now as luck would have it I was just reading about what to do when you find a wallet or phone from The Simple Dollar.

So I went inside to the gas station and told the clerk I found a wallet and phone and I wanted to leave my contact information. She told me that the guy has just come in 15 minutes ago in a panic. I gave her my name and number and told her that I hoped he came back.

I went back to the car and started going through the contacts of the phone, hoping to find a "mom" or "dad" number to call. Evan started going through the wallet. There were no credit cards and no money (hopefully no one had taken it) but there was a mint condom that Evan pulled out (which we had a good laugh at)and then a small bag of what I could only assume was a bud of weed. (o_o)

Well, I wanted to get everything back to that guy ASAP because I was not keeping this around. Especially when one of the numbers was "House of Toke" so I punched in the guy's address from his license and found it was only 5 minutes from the station and since Evan was with me, I figured we could drop it off at his house.

Well as we were pulling out a car pulled in and rolled down his window and started to ask something of the maintenance men that were working around the gas station.

I told Evan that this had to be the guy. So I pulled up next to him and asked if he was looking for something. He said a wallet and phone and I handed it over to him. He looked like he was gonna cry from happiness. He asked where we found it (on the ground) and then I told him I was going to drop it off at his address. He threw a couple "God Bless You's" at me and we drove off on our merry way.

Make Art Like A Child

miscellaneous by ~SyntheticPlatypus on deviantART

Another somewhat easy card drawn, once I figured out what I was actually going to do.

Card Drawn: Make Art Like a Child

So the first thing I did was dig out a bunch of old old artwork and look through it. I was looking for inspiration, at one point I was going to update a picture I had done in 1998 but then I found some stuff I did while I was in school and realized the answer was this:

DOODLE

I teach kids now and this is all they actually ever want to do. So I took a sketchbook page and I doodled the crap out of it. No pencil, no erasing. Just pen to paper and have at it.

I enjoyed filling up this space quite a bit and enjoyed trying to come up with all sorts of different things.

It did take me a few hours to do it (I watched some moves while doodling) but on the whole I'm pleased how it came out!

Photograph Strangers: Tempe Fireworks

Tempe Fireworks by ~SyntheticPlatypus on deviantART

Cause I'm a Platypus

I found this today on the interwebs. On I Am Bored

I love it!

Grapheme Magazine

Grapheme Magazine by ~SyntheticPlatypus on deviantART

Design a Magazine.

Though this one did not take as long as the others, the majority of this one was spent cussing and fitting about because I knew what I wanted to do, but goodness was my computer and programs against me.

I would say that about 80% of the time was spent on things that did not work. Grah. But now I know how to make pictures from text, so I learned! Which I guess is the point of all this.

So, Welcome to the first issue of Grapheme Magazine a magazine dedicated to all things typologically related.

I wanted this cover to be a bit tongue in cheek about typography. So for those of you who do not know the vocab:

Grapheme:is a fundamental unit in a written language.
Ligature: where two or more graphemes are joined as a single glyph
Kerning: refers to adjusting the space between two letters
Bleed:a printing term that refers to printing that goes beyond the edge of the sheet after trimming.
Serif:semi-structural details on the ends of some of the strokes that make up letters and symbols.
Sans-Serif: the opposite of above!
Helvetica: A font. The best font ever, really.

I wanted this to read like a Vogue or Seventeen magazine, where there is bits of innuendo and relationship advice. It was fun coming up with the headlines.

Besides the bits I had trouble with (namely the person) this was fun to stretch a bit back into the graphic design territory and using the computer again. I'm glad I could, the undo button came in handy for this one.

Also normally, I wouldn't have left such a big space to the left of the word Helvetica, but I left that there for shipping stickers if someone was to get a subscription for this magazine.

Black Condor Vs. Black Condor Inking Commission

Inking Commission by ~SyntheticPlatypus on deviantART

Pencils: Larry Guidry

Inks: Me!

So I won't lie, it was a bit intimidating inking a piece of art drawn by an already established artist. What happens if I messed it up? Luckily, the whole process went as smooth as butter.

I worked in small increments daily, because inking while fun can be a tedious and tiring procedure. Coupled with my fear of screwing up, little bits seemed the way to go.

I worked where I was comfortable first, namely the people. I used several sizes of Sakura Micron Pens in order to keep the detail and vary the thickness of the lines. I used a large black marker for the big areas of black.

The transparency in the human looking Black Condor was difficult, I didn't want everything to look the same in DC, it had to look like something was in front of it, even though the cape was see-through. Uber thin lines and cross hatching the ink pen for shading became my new friend.

The Helmeted Black Condor was a different kind of challenge. In the practice sketch of the cover that Larry Guidry he very much drew the feathered cape that this Black Condor has. I think he forgot to finish it in the final draft cause I had to. Another terror of messing up, drawing and inking my own stuff on someone else's work. Eeek.

I saved Washington DC for last. Which also took the longest. I don't really ever draw landscapes and what a landscape this was! I filled in the darkest areas at first and then worked with my thin pens to fill in the rest of the detail.

Walah!

My Dog, Gala

I love her to death (even when she is being annoying as ALL WHAT). She's the first pet I've had except for a pet hamster (wiskers, when I was 10) and a failed attempt with a dog when I was in the 2nd grade. Evan and I got her in late September of '09, she was born in April according to her vet, which is when Evan and I started dating!

She is an awesomely sweet puppy. She loves to cuddle, rarely barks, does this fun thing where she sits on her hind legs and pulls your hand to her tummy to scratch it, and sleeps in the weirdest positions. She also follows me everywhere around the house, like when I was cleaning yesterday. I was in the kitchen, there she was. I was cleaning the bedroom, and she was lying on my comforter, the bathroom she was sitting looking at me, and in the office she was chasing the rolly chair as I moved it.

She can be a bit needy, but I think that's cause she loves us so much.

She is great and it's been a good experience so far. I miss my 12 pound puppy though, she is nearly 50 lbs now!

A Forest- Make a Painting

A Forest by ~SyntheticPlatypus on deviantART

"Make a Painting" was the next card that I drew.

I love this painting. It took absolutely forever though. When I draw a card I have to figure out what I'm going to do. I knew I wanted watercolor, but I didn't know of what.

After a few days I was doing laundry and hanging up my clothes. I love dresses and as I was hanging them up I noticed I had quite the collection and array of colors and patterns.

"How pretty this would be" I thought to myself. But how to approach it? I ordered the dresses in rainbow fashion (ROY G BIV) with brown, white, and black at the end. I then took several photos of close-ups.

After deciding which photo I would use, I printed it big and gridded it, I added a grid to my paper and then drew everything square by square by square. I erased my grid as I went so I wouldn't have to backtrack.

Then I very patiently started in on my white saver (a lovely liquid rubber that you paint on your paper that saves you from accidentally painting something you wanted to keep light or white) and then started in with the colors, layer by layer by layer. I really wanted to take my time and not rush myself.

I just did a little a day work-wise constantly moving around the paper to make sure I didn't bleed into already wet areas. When I felt like I would mess up if I went further I quit.

I borrowed some glitter from a friend who does crafting because the orange dress I own is glitter-riffic and I have noooo idea how I would have pulled that one off.

I'm very pleased with this piece and I think it's the one I've had the most enjoyable time making.

On to the next!

Hey!

So, I'm irritated and worried.

Probably for absolutely nothing which is what I am hoping for.

I'm not looking for sympathy, empathy, or pity (at least not yet, :p).

But things suck when it does not go according to plan.

I made a doctors appointment the other day for a physical. I am going to be 25 this year and never have had a physical so I thought it would be wise to have one.

Things went great, she looked at my skin, talked about diet and exercise, told me I probably need a new prescription for my glasses soon but that I was still well within the limits of seeing good. Then they drew some blood and said they'd call me.

They called yesterday and told me to come back in for ANOTHER blood test. I'm all, "what?" Reason being is that my white blood cells are low (wtf?) and my kidney function was not as good as it should have been (huh??). This was not the plan. The plan was for me to get a phone call with the words: "thumbs up Sara, everything is uber fine!" not "another blood test and doctors appointment to discuss everything with the doctor" >_<

Not cool.

And of course, the internet is really not the best thing to look at when you potentially have something wrong with you. There are several different types of white blood cells and whatever one you are low on is what is wrong with you. For me it could absolutely nothing or I could be anemic (which admittedly, would make sense) or it could be very very bad.

Please nothing. Please?

So I'm going today to get my blood drawn again for the white blood cell test. Then making an appointment probably for Friday to get with the doctor and chat.

I'm really not thrilled by any of this.

Salad!

So not lately but for the month of May basically (monday-friday) Evan and I decided to eat salad every night. We wanted something healthy and easy because quite frankly by the end of school we were both just absolutely sick of cooking. So we decided on uber salads, because we started going to Sweet Tomotoes and we were basically paying 20 bucks for salad.

So, our salads are so delicious I thought I would share the how-to process of making them. Mind you there is no dairy, soy, or tree nuts because of Evan's allergies.




First we have the basic salad mix. Get actual lettuce and spinach. They have actual vitamins. No iceberg lettuce allowed.




Then I add sliced baby sweet peppers, found at Walmart.



Then open up a can of beets and chop 'em up.



Then a little bit of broccoli. I try to chop near the head because the stalk is just gross.



Then we have super yummy hard-boiled eggs.



Then let us not forget the fungus among us with some mushrooms.



CUCUMBER.



Then I dice up some pickles too. I think dill relish would work fine too, or the pickle chips.



Then some kidney beans or chick peas, either one is suitable.



Then some canned chicken.



Toppings! Salt, Pepper, and some olive oil and vinegar (balsamic, raspberry, red wine, whatever) No ranch dressing here!



Then we have our finished delicious product.

Now, you probably have some toppings that you are wondering where they are at. It's fine to add or substitute ingredients. I personally hate tomatoes, so poor Evan never gets them on his stuff cause I just don't buy them.

If you hate chopping things, a lot of stuff you can buy pre-chopped or take a day like Sunday and chop everything and put it in some tupperware, then you can just quite literally throw it all into a bowl!

Enjoy!