Back from the ladies retreat.

So I'm home from the church ladies retreat. I had a lot of fun although my body is telling me that I had too many carbs and not enough sleep or water. Is all good though. The speaker was excellent and it was a lot of fun getting to know my friends a bit better (including the friends I just discovered :P) The retreat was at Southern Alberta Bible Camp and I will admit it's the first camp I've been to without.....you know mountains and stuff...but I took some pictures on a photo expedition with Amethyst and Tanya (so jealous of their pretty cameras, mine wouldn't even zoom....evil! low batteries I think...) so you can see it for yourself!







And here are some photos I stole from Amethyst...don't tell (oh crap! she's reading this right now!)

Internet

I'm not dead, I just have no internet. It's been down since Monday Night and hopefully will be fixed today (telus is checking it out for us today anyways). But tomorrow afternoon I'm leaving for the church ladies retreat so I will hopefully be back with the posting and whatnot on Sunday. Love for you all!

Hinata

A little anime fanart. Cause I'm nerdy that way.

Friday Five (late again)

So I was about to post last night when my mom called to let me know that my Gramma had a stroke and is likely to stroke again soon. We probably won't have her with us for that much longer. I'm torn, I still haven't decided if I should go visit this week or not...so between that and Steven still being sedated and intubated in Calgary...and you know the snow aaaaall month and people quitting all over at work and whatnot...I needed a bit of cheering up. So here's five fun things I found.

1) Tango Floor Stickers by Design 3000. So cute, and they peel off with no damage to the floor.


2)Obelisk Chairs. $8,900. Who spends that on wicker chairs? I don't care how fun these are that's just insane.


3)MiniHome. This is so cool, watch the clip. I would live in one of these anyday, although I can't see how they do it with kids, seems like kids would want an actual bedroom.


4)Moo Cards. They print your photo on the front and then text on the back. I might get some as art promo, they're pretty cheap and pretty fun!


5)Marimekko Memory Cards. You remember the game memory? (I was a champ by the way) Now it's pretty! Done by a textiles designer.

Blog Tour: Return of the Guardian King by Karen Hancock

So as promised, here is my review of The Light of Eidon. Yes yes, I know that's not the book we're blog touring about, but I can't read a whole series in a week. Okay well sometimes I can, but not this week. So here is book one:



First of, a word about cover art. These books are really well done, very pretty. Regardless, it's possible that I won't be able to convince Craig to read them as he says they are too girly looking. So maybe too pretty can be a bad thing? Because the book is not a girly book in my opinion.

I really enjoyed this book. More than I thought I would. Why? Because I am cynical when it comes to Christian Fiction as I find most of it to be borish and preachyish. The Light of Eidon is however, great fun. It's a little reminisciant of Gladiator, but with magic. The characters are excellent, although I wanted to slap Abramm for being such a pansy for the first third of the book (seriously, he's such a pansy!), but that's just to give his character lots of room to grow. I enjoyed how the characters developed and worked through issues, I'm a very character influenced reader so you have to have more than a good plot to keep me going. A bit of romance too although I unfortunatly spoiled about 3 chapters by accidently reading a sentance while trying to find my place. I guess that's why they make bookmarks.

Anyway, read the book, it's a gooder. I'm looking forward to reading the rest of the series until I finally reach Return of the Guardian King, which I'm sure is a lovely book as well.

Blog Tour: Return of the Guardian King by Karen Hancock

So today is day one of the blog tour of Return of the Guardian King by Karen Hancock. This is book four in her fantasy series...I am currently reading book 1. Don't think I'll get to book four by wednesday but I do intend to do a review on the first book. Which I am quite enjoying. I only started it on friday :)

Some people who may have managed to read all four books by now:
Dawn King
Rebecca Grabill
Jill Hart
Nissa Annakindt
Wayne Thomas Batson
Jim Black
Jackie Castle
Valerie Comer
Karri Compton
Frank Creed
CSFF Blog Tour
Gene Curtis
D. G. D. Davidson
Chris Deanne
Janey DeMeo
April Erwin
Kameron M. Franklin
Linda Gilmore
Beth Goddard
Marcus Goodyear
Andrea Graham
Katie Hart
Sherrie Hibbs
Sharon Hinck
Christopher Hopper
Heather R. Hunt
Becca Johnson
Jason Joyner
Karen
Tina Kulesa
Lost Genre Guild
Kevin Lucia and The Bookshelf Reviews 2.0 - The Compendium
Rachel Marks
Rebecca LuElla Miller
Shannon McNear
Caleb Newell
Nicole
Eve Nielsen
John W. Otte
Robin Parrish
Rachelle
Cheryl Russel
Hanna Sandvig
Chawna Schroeder
Mirtika Schultz
James Somers
Tsaba House Authors
Steve Trower
Speculative Faith
Daniel I. Weaver

Classical Hanna

Friday Five

No seriously, I was going to post this yesterday but our internex wasn't working. Must phone telus as this has been happening too often of late.

Before I post my Friday Five, I'd just like to ask everyone to pray for my cousin Steven. On thursday morning he was running a bit of a temperature, by thursday night he had been airlifted to Calgary and by friday morning he was hooked up to a respirator. The Doctors don't know what's wrong. And I guess his platlet (sp?) count is so low that if he got a cut he could bleed to death. I am absolutely sick with worry and I can't even imagine how his parent's and brother are dealing with it. He's just such a great kid, he's 17, good looking, musical, smart and just...good. I can't accept the idea that the world wouldn't be a better place with him in it, he's got so much to give still. So please pray for him. Even if you don't really pray...maybe just try this once?

Okay so I have a bit of a different five today, I was in chapters and I always love looking at book covers, because that's something I'd love to get into. So here are five beautiful covers I found yesterday, I haven't read any of the books so it's unbiased.

1) The End of East by Jen Sookfong Lee

The scan doesn't quite do the cover justice, it's very vibrant looking. I love the photo, it evokes the feeling that there is a story behind the girl and makes me wonder about her. Also the font and the scalloped edges are very retro-modern which makes me think it's a story about the past...that a modern person would enjoy. The book is about a families immagration from china to canada, so that would be pretty accurate.

2) Ophelia by Lisa Klein

I'm a sucker for portrait style covers, either as photos or well done paintings. I'd rather have a feeling of who the main character is then a scene. This one tells me that the book is not modern, that the main character is strong but her story isn't always happy. I also feel a little bit like I know her after seeing her portrait. This book is a retelling of hamlet, as a novel from Ophelias point of view for an older YA audience. I'd actually really like to read it although....I don't like sad endings! Also, the text is beautiful and well placed...I wonder if I have that font....

3)Mistress of the Art of Death by Ariana Franklin

I don't really want to read this book, but it's one that caught my eye two or three times, which is evidence of a well done cover. Part of the draw is the title. "Mistress of the Art of Death" makes me wonder what the book is about, it's very mysterious and elegant. I've spent some time looking to see if the cover is a recent painting (neoclassical) or a classic painting but I just don't know. Either way, paintings as covers make for a Happy Hanna.

4)A Mama for Owen by Marion Dane Bauer (Author), John Butler (Illustrator}


Such a sweet painting! Look at the little smiling baby hippo! I glanced inside this one and it looks like a great kids book, just wonderful art all the way through. And so cute, the hippo gets adopted by the tortoise...awwwww. At least I think that's what happens...I kinda skimmed it.

5)Such a Pretty Girl by Laura Wiess


So this is not an original style, and honestly Twilight does it better, but it still evokes strong feelings about the story. I would guess from it that the story is dark and that the dying flower represents a "pretty girl" with a lot of issues, probably some kind of abuse or depression. Also, just very eyecatching. The font is stylish but still loose enough to feel like she could have just written it.

hi

I'm really not dead, I've just not had a lot of computer time, very busy. And what time I have I've been using for art as I'm working on a couple big projects right now and one is due for a contestish thing quite soon. The snow finally melted today. And I made two kids cry this afternoon. All in a days work.

Saturday Five

So good times at Kait's house so far. We went out for very yummy food last night and I will post pictures....later. For now here's five amusing things.

1)Eco Coffin! No more do you have to be buried in a stiffling expensive varnishy wooden casket. Cardboard boxes! I want to be buried in one. No I am not kidding. Please ensure that my wishes are carried out.


2)Book of Lights: Open the book and a popup light turns on :)


3)Bholu Some very cute (and red!) pillows and plushies and other textile related items. The elephant plushie is my favourite.


4)Blossom lights by Rockett St George. So pretty, I would love to have these.


5)The Liftmatic Oven by Gaggenau
The bottom lowers, and you put the dish in, then it goes up up up into the oven! Hooray!

So it's winter?

Yep, snowed yesterday too. Today it is not snowing, but there is still snow sitting about and looking smug. grrrrr.

It was the power supply, luckily we have good nerdy friends with things like power supplies sitting around (Thanks Karl!). So I bought Craig some cinnamon buns and he forgave me for killing the computer and he bought me some Bailey's and I forgave him for being a jerk and after a bubble bath all is well.

Going to visit Kait tomorrow, yay! Going up to Calgary first to stay the night with friends there and then off to Edmonton tomorrow. Craig has today off as well and I'm frankly a little jealous.

I haven't painted in 3 days and have no hope of doing so for 4 more. I'm feeling a little twitchy but what can you do? I'll prolly post sometime this weekend though, I hear that Kait has internet :P.

Why Hanna? why would you do that?

Yeah so last night my internet wasn't working (it's been testy lately) and I tried to unplug the box but accidently unplugged my tower instead.

And now it won't turn on.

And Craig was sooooo mad at me! And I can't even make it better because my nerdiness is strictly a software nerdiness, I'm not a hardware girl.

Yeah I either shorted out the power supply or the motherboard! Yay me.

Poor little computer...no art for me...no nothing. Just internet at work if I stay after my shift.

And Craig just keeps saying "why Hanna? Why would you do that? Why?"

Gah!

There is no emoticon to properly express my current feelings.

And it just keeps snowing and snowing. And snowing. It's April! Three days of snow? Seriously!

If you need me, apparently you will have to call.

Sunday Five

Because I didn't get to it on friday and it made Amanda sad.

Okay quick life update first:
-Craig got into school! Yaaaay! So we get to move to BC! Yaaaaay!
-work is fine, a bit stressy but I'm focusing on having a good attitude so....yeah.
-I have been drawing toooons, can't stop drawing. Don't have time to do anything but draw. Thus my house is a disaaaster.
-I just finished reading New Moon by Stephanie Meyer and I'm trying to decide if I should just reread it again right now. Today. Because I miss it already.
-It's snowing. I guess that's a big April Fools from God?

1) Lotus Chair/mat it can be gathered into a "bud" or lie flat like a flower, how cute!


2)Haha, it's a vacuum/lamp for those of you who forget to put it away?


3)Okay, so this is wall climbing for city people? Found at Gold Digger


4)crocheted egg/chicks! by Mahar Drygoods


5)Such pretty little pear shaped vases by Viraterra