Not Dead

Seriously, I'm still here I promise, just...still stressy. And this needs to stop because I am totally not a stressy person. This last week I've had to work everyday (yes that was ten days on one day off eight days one :P) two nights were pool Halloween parties, one for each pool. You might be thinking "Aw, how fun!". Now picture 300+ children all hyped up on sugar all running around and screaming like little animals. While you try to entertain them with a game of pin the nose on the pumpkin. A paper pumpkin. At the pool. All while hoping that no one will drown and force you to jump in in your fabulous Gothy Angel costume (all the little girls looooved me). Argh. And then tonight is real Halloween. And I work of course. So probably no one but the JW's will come but I'm still wearing my fairy wings. It's a dilemma I have, I don't really celebrate Halloween...and yet I love to dress up. Ah well.

Also my car insurance is a bit of a nightmare...but I don't feel like talking about it at the moment.

However, on the plus side, I have actual days off work starting tomorrow. Hooray! And my parents are coming to visit/rescue me. So all will be well. Am, I'll have you pic done by Sunday at the latest, but if I have as productive a day tomorrow as I have today you might see it by tomorrow night!

Also, I am on episode 40 of Sailor Moon already. Erm, Craig is embarrassed for me.

Stripes

tadah!

Also I was a bit down today (sleepy and chills and just uck) so I went shopping to cheer myself up. Ended up being food shopping, because that's the best kind. I got tea (I know I know, but I had to) at the Kootenay Co-op, mmm....soo many nice loose leaf bulk choices but I only got Mocha Mint and Rose Black. I had the Mocha Mint this evening and it is so yummy. I also got Craig and I each an organic chai flavoured chocolate bar. Mmmmmm. Then I went to the french bakery and got a corn rosemary baguette (it was a risotto night, so I need some yummy bread), and a chunk of Manchego cheese. It's my first sheep's cheese and I really liked it. It's a hard cheese, but kind of mild and creamy. Then of course I had to get a bottle of wine...because apparently the meal required it. The guy was trying to be helpful:

liquor guy: Looking for anything

me: white wine...cheapish but good

lg: what are you having it with

me: risotto

lg: ah, well this one is nice with pasta, especially creamy pasta

me: hrrrm yes and I also got some sheep cheese

lg: oh goat cheese!

Yeah, so he wasn't the most food smart person I've met today, but the wine was still good. Is it wrong to love food so much?

*looks up the stairs at the lonely excercise ball*

Confession Time

I have been watching Sailor Moon on youtube. A few a day. I like something to watch while I draw okay?

In other news:

-Craig discovered facebook a few days ago and is now addicted. He can't stop playing the music quiz. He actually played it for a whole evening instead of WOW.

-I gave notice at my Nelson job. This working all the time thing? Not for me.

-I didn't sleep last night. At all. Then I got out of bed at 5:00 to drive to work. Haven't even been able to nap today. Yuck.

-I made the best cookies ever. Oatmeal coconut chocolate chip.

-Oh and this morning. At 5? I rolled down my windows to wipe the condensation off. Then one of them fell off it's track and wouldn't go all the way up. So I drove 40 minutes before 6am in the freezing misty darkness with my passenger window partway down and the heat on full blast. I was such a happy lifeguard this morning. Craig got it up, but not fixed.

-We have to get the car inspected this week to get our insurance switched! Ahahaha! *cries*

-The cat next door wants to be my cat, she ran inside my house while I was checking the mail and resisted arrest for quite a while.

-I got my birthday present and payment for webpage design from Jen (and Joel) today in the mail. Yay! It was a cool local trails books and some pretty pretty beading supplies.

-Last Saturday was trash or treasure day in Nelson and I was driving about (to visit Gramma)when I saw a purple exercise ball on the curb. I immediately swerved over and picked it up. Then on the way home I started to have treasure hunter's remorse. Where in my tiny house would this huge ball live? So I just drove around with it in the car for three days until I told Craig who said "Giant ball! Why is that not in the house yet?! Go get it!" Anyway now it lives at the top of the stairs. I shall use it to get fabulously fit. Sometime. I sure hope it was really trash or treasure day, otherwise I'm just a common exercise equipment thief.

-I am going to be a gothic angel for halloween. Because that's what I had around the house. Is that strange? Stupid pool events, I don't even like halloween.

Well, that's all I have time for, gotta get back to Sailor Moon. Erm, I mean drawing.

My favourite thing..

Is walking through crunchy leaves! What's your favourite thing about autumn?

Bark of the Bog Owl by Jonathan Rogers: Day 2

So today the website is up, and here's your promised site review :)

Wilderking.com

Overall I have to say it's a nice, well put together site. It's attractive and the look ties in with the books. There's quite a bit of info on it including book synopsises, quite an in depth note from the author about the books, and a little zoomable map.

What I especially liked:
-I like how the little illustrations are incorporated into the design, very cute,
-It's well coded and works in firefox properly
-Nice colours, they tie in with the swampy feel while still being easy to read.
-Lots of information.

Things I wasn't so fond of (nit pics):
-I'd like it to be centered. I have a big screen and it's nice if the webpage isn't hanging out in the corner.
-The splash (intro) page is cute, but doesn't match the rest of the site.
-It took me a minute to figure out how to turn of the swamp noises (it's the bird!)
-The link to the blog leads back to the main site.
-When you first enter the site there's navigation in three places. Overly redundant in my humble opinion.

Overall I liked the site and you should definitely check it out! You can even buy signed copies of the series there.

Bark of the Bog Owl by Jonathan Rogers: Day 1

Unfortunately I didn't receive a copy of this one, but I did read it over a year ago...so I'll try and remember what I liked about it. Because I did enjoy it. It's an allegorical take on King David, but instead of setting it his allegory in a standard fantasy setting, Rogers has created a very wild and fun adventure in a swampy mucky place. It's pretty much every boys dream adventure. If you have children (and especially boys) of a young YA age, I would definitely recommend this series.

To read a snippet about Jonathan Rogers why he wrote this book go here:Daystar

His site (which seems to be down, tragically): Wilderking.com

And of course you can buy the book here: Amazon

Tomorrow I'll talk about the cover art, and yeah hopefully a site review on Wednesday if the site is back online. In the meantime, check out these guys!:

Brandon Barr Jim Black Justin Boyer Grace Bridges Amy Browning Jackie Castle Valerie Comer CSFF Blog Tour D. G. D. Davidson Chris Deanne Janey DeMeo Merrie Destefano or Alien Dream Jeff Draper April Erwin Linda Gilmore Marcus Goodyear Andrea Graham Jill Hart Katie Hart Sherrie Hibbs Christopher Hopper Becca Johnson Jason Joyner Karen Dawn King Mike Lynch Rachel Marks Karen McSpadden Melissa Meeks Rebecca LuElla Miller Eve Nielsen John W. Otte Lyn Perry Deena Peterson Rachelle Cheryl Russel Ashley Rutherford Hanna Sandvig Chawna Schroeder James Somers Steve Trower Speculative Faith Donna Swanson Daniel I. Weaver Laura Williams Timothy Wise

Me again.

Just thought I should take a minute to plug a couple artists I've recently bought things from...(psst, artist nuddyness warning in the galleries...nothing untasteful though)

Shatia Hamilton (aka Nashya), did this beautiful bust of my character Hanasu for me. Yes yes she looks vaguely creepy...but she does in my pictures too so what can you do? This is my first bought with money commission and I couldn't be happier with it.



Also, I needed a mouse pad. See, I don't use my mouse that much, but I do need it for my second monitor. My tablet only reads the main monitor to keep the proportions right, otherwise I can't draw very well. So I just had the mouse up on the desk but then when I was de-glooming my computer corner (note to self, make de-glooming post) I covered the desk with a pretty scarf from my sister in law. Yeah the mouse doesn't roll on that. And I don't like most standard mouse pads...they're all bubbles and kittens and whatnot (I should mention that Craig's mouse pad is the map for World of Warcraft. Naturally). So I went on deviantart and found that one of my favourite paintings is printed as a mouse pad. So I ordered "Wrath" by Marta Dahlig (aka Blackeri). And it came in the mail today! Hooray! My mouse rejoiceth!

It's a cropped version of this:


If that doesn't inspire me, I don't know what will!
Support your friendly internet artists!

Friday Five

So today is a pretty good day although it had a bit of a rough start. I had to work the closing shift in Nelson and then open here. So that was getting home by 11 and leaving home by 5:30. You do the math. And naturally I didn't fall asleep until 1:30. But the day improved from there. I taught my first Aquafit class in Castlegar this morning (although, my 4th this week...I should be getting in shape or something) and it went quite well. It was mostly seniors and I know how to worm my way into their affections. And I was off by ten so it's almost like having a day off. Only I'm really tired. Took one nap, contemplating a second...

My big plans for the day include cleaning the kitchen. And then making it dirty again with some oatmeal chocolate chip cookies. Mmmmmmm.

1)Storm in a teacup!


2)Wonderwalls wallpaper. I just have to say that this is the cutest wallpaper ever.
Ever.


3)Atelier LZC, pretty posters, tea towels, stationary....ect...


4)Sunshine in a Jar. Because I was trying to explain it to Barb. Is Barb still around? Maybe I should have waited.


5)Foundlings from Huggaplanet. They are all organic and for saving the world and whatnot. But especially, they are cute.

Dear World

I am on day 5 of 10 before I get a day off. My body seems to expect tomorrow off. It will be sadly disappointed. Hopefully soonly however I can cut down to just one job. There's a good chance I won't get the promotion I'm shooting for, but either way a whole person is leaving so I should get more hours. Which would be fantastic.

Sooo...I haven't been posting much (or drawing much, or cleaning much...) because I'm just a bit burned out over here. I know some people work split shifts at two jobs all the time, but I don't know how they do it. So I've been doing more lazyish things. Here's what I love this week:

To drink: Pumpkin pie blended creme frappechino light. Mmmm, delicious. Much better than the pumpkin pie blizzard which is not so good.


To watch: Pushing Daisies. That show is sooo cute. I recommend especially to Barb. It's kinda fun like Amelie. But in english. Whatever, just look it up.


To listen to: Within Temptation...particularly the song "in our solemn hour" Girly gothy goodness.


To read Blood Bound by Patricia Briggs. Kait, you should read it. Well you should read the first one, but I didn't and was fine. Good book.



To admire: Dan Don Santos. Oil painter. Brilliant. (did the cover for blood bound, so it was doubly good :P)



What do you like this week?

PS to mom: Your layout looks very nice, I'm impressed by the bold colours :P

PS to the Muellers: I'm using my artistic licence and having your kids smile in the picture. Just a little.

Too much worky not enough sleepy...

So I signed up for a new forum. My randomly generated verification code? c u R s E

Is this a bad omen?

Friday Five

1) Check out this adorable claymation commercial!


2) Cute prints by Matte Stephens:


3)Lovely dresser by Wis Design (via emmas designblog)


4) Lovely paper art by Paticia Zapata:


5) Handpainted rocks from julia likes:

If you want a distraction...

1) A cute little comic about the love between a Hamster and a Cat

2) A very cute animation about the mysteries of internet slang

3)An article from Infuze webzine: The Arts: Blending the "Sacred" and the "Secular"

Thanksgiving

So we just had Thanksgiving up here in Canadaland. I had to work Saturday and Sunday so we got in the car 8:30ish Sunday night and drove down to the parents for one little day of Thanksgiving. We had much yummy food (mmmm pumpkin pie....) and other good things like a walk out in the wetlands.

Craig and Dad were very distracted by all the trees and birds and whatnot, but the real fun? Obviously caterpillars! Soo cute and fuzzy, we must have seen 10 or more.


The leaves are starting to go, but there's still lots of green. And the snow is lurking up on the mountains, ready to pounce.


Before we left we went out to the fields in search of mushrooms. (I must mention that I do not have a bloody hand! I was cooking beets :P)

Mmmm, now I just need to decide what to do with them. What's your favourite mushroom dish?


All in all, a very nice little mini holiday. I'm thankful to live closer to my parents again!

Friday Five

Sooo, yesterday was my birthday, here's the good and the bad:

Bad:
-woke up at 6:30...tired
-left the house at 8:30 and got home at 11, including 10 working hours, breaks and driving...
-I will throttle the next group of children to play Marco Polo in the pool.

Good:
-Woke up at 6:30, Craig gave me my present
-My new job seems good, I've only done orientation though.
-Sushi
-Coconut Creme Chai Tea
-Learned that I can hook my ipod into the pool's sound system.
-Chocolate from Craig and snuggles before bed.

So if you missed me yesterday you can call me today, although we will be out for dinner to A Taste Of India, which some of Craig's school buddies recommended. Nelson has great restaurants, but I don't feel like driving over on my day off.

Friday Five!

1) Ah, cutest Obento (japanese lunchiness) ever! By The Meaning of Food.






2) Heat sensitive wallpaper! The flowers show up when it gets warmer. By Shiyuan .





3)Corner Frames by Yvonne Schroeder (via Apartment Therapy)




4)Ehehe, it's a WII tournament between four seniors homes, so cute:




5)This is Dr. Whippy. He's an ice cream dispenser. You talk into the mic and the more upset and stressed you sound, the more ice cream you get!

zzzzzzzzzzzz

Happy birthday to me
I'm three plus twenty three
I won't be home till eleven
I am so sleepy

Oh Nelson

I can already tell that I'm going to have much more amusing Pool Stories for you now that I'm in the land of the free spirited. Here are two from tonight:

1)For the last couple days I've been pondering the fact that one of our lady patrons must not have been born female. S/he is about 6 feet tall, barrel chested and rather muscly. With breasts. And something else missing. I can tell because s/he needs to wear larger bikini bottoms as the ones s/he has ride up the bum. And there are not that kind of bottoms. So anyway s/he was wearing a dark green bikini today and then for some unknown reason traded the top for a white sports bra. White in the pool is a Baaaaad idea. So s/he's sitting there on the edge and I can see nipples! From halfway across the pool. But is it bad to see a man's nipples I wonder. If they happen to be attached to breasts then I say it is.

Traumatized.

2)A couple of patrons were looking strangely at the steam room and mentioned that someone in there was a bit loud. I went to check and found a man sitting in the corner and alternating between chanting and playing a plastic recorder. Hrm. Well I didn't know if there was a rule against music in the steam room so I reminded him that the steam room is not in fact soundproof and asked him to keep the volume down. He cheerfully agreed and when the pool started to clear out for the night the sound of recorder music filled the pool. Hahaha, I'm a music lover but plastic recorder is not really my folk instrument of choice.