Sex Bob-omb!

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I know I'm a little late on this whole Scott Pilgrim vs. the World thing, but my, my, my. It was fan-tas-tic. My dear cohort, Ari, and I can assure you all that it was well worth the wait.

Bryan Lee O'Malley and Edgar Wright are totally my heroes. How can you go wrong with a comic turned action romantic comedy with an amazing cast, soundtrack and chocked full of pop culture references? You just can't.

Did I mention the amazing soundtrack?! Radiohead producer Nigel Godrich, Beck, Metric, Broken Social Scene, Cornelius, Dan the Automator, Kid Koala, and David Campbell all had their glorious hands in it, and it totally made the movie. Must. Have. Immediately.

Scott Pilgrim vs. the World is one of the most creative/quirky films I've seen in years. If you were at any point in time an overly dramatic, angst-ridden, insecure teen that had a crush, dated, got dumped, played video games, listened to music, played in a band, loathed sell outs or swallowed your gum and worried about it's seven year exodus through your intestines...then Scott Pilgrim is for you. It's. Your. Life.

P.S.
My little camping trip into the NC wilderness screwed up the whole NaBloPoMo thing, but I'll still be posting predominantly about various artsy things this month, so come back, m'kay?

How Do You Do & Shake Hands

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Are there any brave souls out there that have stuck around long enough to notice that I'm incredibly outgoing, but terribly insecure?

This is where I pretend a ton of you are nodding your heads, and I feel all warm and fuzzy.

Ahem. You know the type of person that will talk to a complete stranger, right? In line pretty much anywhere? Yeah, that type. Well, that's me. I'm all smiles, and great at striking up a conversation. I'm curious about people, and I love communication. Adore it, actually. However, immediately following any given spontaneous exchange I start dissecting the entire interaction, and doubting myself.

I start wondering if I made a funny face when I said that my grandmother was German, and forced me to eat cow tongue as a child. I begin hoping that the business man didn't notice me noticing the crusty stain on his tie. I end up feeling really bad about how I made the chick in front of me uncomfortable by telling her I loved her bra, because you could totally see it was polka-dotted...through her shirt. I have no filtering system, people. It's bad. Why in the world can't I just take my own advice and hush?!

Anyhow, I'm rambling. My point is that my outgoing/insecure personality flows right into my artwork. I'm all about creating. Another form of communication? Yes, please! I can't keep from making art. The problem is what happens after it's made. The audience comes in, and I start spazzing. It's exactly like an actual, physical conversation with someone. I start over-analyzing immediately. You'd think the Studio Art/Art History degree I worked my rear end off for would make me a tad more confident, but no.

Anybody out there with any handy dandy advice on building confidence, or how to communicate normally? I'm all ears eyes attentive and stuff.

Vers-ART-ile *evil laughs persist*

Versatile?! You want versatile?! Well...oh, who am I kidding? I had this entire post ready to go when I hit Ctrl Z, and the entire thing disappeared. I spazzed, refreshed and my heart broke. I'm brain dead from working all day, and, to tell you the truth, I don't feel very versatile right now. However, I still wanna thank Barry for thinking I am. Thank you, Barry.

The plan was to display my alleged versatility by simultaneously covering the bases of this award, and this month's NaBloPoMo theme. Basically, I would be amazing, yet humble, and you would all ooh and ah. I could carry my Versatility Award high above my head, and all would be well with the world.

Then I deleted it. So...yeah.

The Versatile Blogger Award has a few simple rules.
1. Be polite, and thank/link to the blogger that nominated you.
2. List seven facts about yourself.
3. Pass it on to some other wonderfully versatile bloggers.

I may be a moron, but I'm polite, so rule one is already covered. On to rule two. It might not be the most insightful list, but I'm brain dead from working all day.

1.  My first crush was David Bowie. It was 1988, and I was six.
2.  I have really, really curly hair.
3.  My eyes are green.
4.  Night swimming is one of my all time favorite things.
5.  Gustav Klimt is my favorite painter.
6.  I've been a vegetarian for 14 years.
7.  I'm an artist.

Aaaaand for rule three, I choose the following versatile blogger ladies.

- Ari from The Happy Cactus
- Amanda from My Life of Spaz
- Mel from Melanie's Randomness
- Shannon from Tattoos & Cupcakes
-Awmber from Awbviously Awmber

P.S. In order for this to pass as Art themed y'all have to check out the Gustav Klimt Wiki link, or peruse my Etsy store. I mentioned art, so that counts, right? *mwah*

A Theme After My Own Heart

Any of you lovely readers ever participated in a NaBloPoMo? Are you perhaps wondering what the heck I'm blathering about? 

For those of you who may not know, NaBloPoMo stands for National Blog Posting Month. It's a month long writing exercise inspired by National Novel Writing Month, Or NaNoWriMo. It's pretty simple. You simply post once a day every day for a month. You can follow a theme, or just post willy-nilly. It can be anything your little heart desires.

That being said, I probably have too much going on to be dedicating myself to posting every day this month, but what the hey. I just couldn't pass up September's theme. 

Check back every day this month for your daily dose of ART! I'm starting things out today with a little shameless self promotion. I've overhauled my Etsy shop, and added more of my incredibly affordable water doodles a.k.a. hand drawn watercolored illustrations. Feast your eyes upon some of my newest listings!

Percival Pinfeather

Escape II

Love Bird

To The Moon

The Wonderful World of June

I'm just going to go ahead and count May's NaBloPoMo a success. So I didn't post every single day, and I sort of forgot about the theme. Phooey! It got me back into writing pretty regularly, and that's what it's all about, right? I'm going to keep telling myself that I'm not a procrastinating failure, and move right along.

Right along to the wonderful world of June! This month is going to be chock-full of good times, and I can hardly wait. Let me break it down for you.

Birthdays! 
My Soul Mate's dad is turning fifty this month, and he's a pretty important fella. Since I met Jodi on the school bus, when we were eleven, her parents have been a very important part of my life. I've mentioned that my dad's a good guy, he's just never been very present in my life. Well, Jodi's dad has been there...always.

Jodi's also got two younger siblings, which I refer to as my Pseudo Little Sisters. Leah is the oldest, and Kayla's the baby. Well, the baby is turning fifteen this month. Feel incredibly old much?! I was at the hospital the day she was born, bloggers. The day she was BORN.

Since we're feeling old* here, might as well go ahead and get this out of the way. I'm turning twenty-eight on the twenty-seventh. Yes, that's right, I've now surpassed the twenty-seven on the twenty-seventh mark, and may possibly go into a deep dark depression. I doubt it, but it could happen. I'm keeping my options open.

What does all this birthdayness mean?! It means that my Soul Mate, complete with wonderful husband man, will be coming home for birthday celebrations! Yaaaaaaay! I'm thrilled to the core about this. I haven't seen them in over five months, and I'm going through withdrawals.

Projects!

I'm going to begin working on a couple of really exciting things this month, too.

First, there's my sketchbook for The Sketchbook Project. It came in today, and I can not wait to get started! I really can't express how much joy it brings me to know that some of my work, however rough and unfinished, will be exhibited in museums throughout the U.S. I'll probably be subjecting you to sketchbook entry posts, so brace yourselves for doodles.

I'm still in shock over this second project. I've already ranted to some of you about it, but I've got to give more details. Last week, a man came to facilitate a training at my place o' business. On his first day with us, he saw some of my artwork, talked with me a little bit and then...asked me to illustrate a children's book for him!!!

He recited the story he'd written from memory, and I'm in love with it. It's right up my alley, and totally something I can stand behind. I've already started working up some characters, but it's really in the early stages. I'm currently waiting to receive my edited copy of the book, so I can dig in.  I'm seriously waiting for someone to pinch me, and hoping and praying I don't wake up. I want to write and illustrate children's books so badly, and I think this is a wonderful start for me. Squee!

*Let me clarify, before someone thinks I'm calling them old. I'm merely in awe/thankful that I've been on this planet for twenty-eight years. I tend to go with the "you're as young as you feel" idea. I mean, look at the men I'm drawn to, for goodness' sake. I'm attracted to guys in the 34-50 range, which I most certainly do not consider "old". I just wanted to make that clear. And Todd? I guess you lucked out, young man. :P

Shenanigans

I am having way too much fun to conjure up an actual post. I apologize, NaBloPoMo. Really, I do. My favorite teenager is spending the weekend with me, and I just haven't the time! We're too busy being awesome!

A Sight To See

Oh, yesterday was a day, folks. A good day, but a day. When I left work, heading to get my tires rotated, and eat dinner with my loverly husband, it looked like this.

About 5 minutes later...it looked like this.

While we waited for my Jeep to be taken care of, we decided to take our chances riding bikes at a local green way. We checked the weather, and 40% chance of rain wasn't going to stop us, so off we went. 

About 4 miles before we got caught in a downpour. (We just rode 4 miles. Please excuse the hot mess.)

 

Luckily, we were close to an overpass! We ducked inside like good little wayfarers, and hung out with some pigeons. We also spotted a teensy snake swimming in the water you see there. When I approached to take his picture, he politely refused and swam to the other side of the stream. Hmph.

 

We waited it out, checked the radar on my handy dandy Droid and were back on our way in no time. We finished the trail, which was a little over 4.5 miles, and headed back the way we came. Right as we returned to the very same overpass, the bottom dropped out and it poured again. 

We waited as long as we could, but we ended up finishing the last couple of miles in a light sprinkle. We were drenched, but it was hilarious.

 

By the way, my husband's a genius. He left his dress shirt in the truck (rode in his white undershirt), and brought me a clear poncho (I felt like a Hefty bag.).

9 miles later, our clothes were pretty dry, but we sure were a sight to see.

Chicken Little

I thought it was about time for an update on our little silkie babies.

Ponyo and Sosuke have now moved in together. Since Momma chicken (Noir) would only take care of her wee black birdie (Sosuke), we had to move the two babies in together. Ponyo was so lonely, and starting to think she was a person. :P

Wanna see 'em in their humble abode?  They're currently residing under our carport, so excuse the gorgeous surroundings.

It cracks me up that the one we had to help out of the egg (Ponyo), has turned out to be the biggest. They are definitely funky chickens.

Photo Foolery

I just have a ball messing with the filters on my Droid's little camera app. It's called FX Camera. I'm not sure if I've said the name of it before. A lovely lady I know was talking about the Hipstamatic (I think that's what it's called) app for her iPhone, and I went in search of the equivalent.

Yeah, so how insane do I look in that picture?! I love it. Helena Bonham Carter, eat your heart out. I could totally be the next Bellatrix LeStrange. I just need some grungy teeth, more extreme bed head and a corset. And maybe to look a little more maniacal.

Oh, and the application brings out different hues, which is awesome. This one makes my eyes look reeeeaaaaally creepy green. They're fairly creepy green anyhow, but not that bright.

Anyhow, free camera application. Check it.

Bwahahahaha!!!

Twinkle Twinkle Little Bat

I'm planning a tea party! It will be a Mad Tea Party, of course, and it will be in celebration of Mr. T's and my 7th wedding anniversary. I think I've mentioned how mental I was at my wedding, so this is my chance to be a calmer version of me, and actually enjoy myself.

It's next year, and I've already been searching far and wide for inspiration photos, and this one is right up my alley. Colorful, but simple. I'm not going for the exact same thing, but pretty similar.

I googled "tea party", and found this image. Can't remember where, and didn't save the link! Not mine!

There will be all kinds of wonderful things, people! I'm going to make Alice In Wonderland themed invites, and "Eat Me" cupcakes. There will be "Drink Me" bottles of something...not sure what yet. It'll be nonalcoholic, of course, so my drinking friends can thank me for that later. I love you, guys! There's just so much, I can't think of it all. Must. Make. Lists.

Which leads me to the guest list. *Insert creepy, intense, impending doom movie music* I'm afraid I won't be able to invite as many folks as I'd like. There were over 100 people at our wedding, and I just can't plan/afford a party that size. After all, I am leaning towards starving artist here.

Another problem with the guest list is that some of my friends don't like each other. They're all awkward. Now, while I respect people's feelings, I want our closest friends to celebrate with us, and if that means they have to put up with people they don't like (SOBER), then that's what they'll do, because they love us. Right? Will that fly? I mean, I'm not heartless. I won't make them cuddle, or invite exes. I just want my very different friends to be cordial. That's not too much to ask, is it?

Moving right along! I now need to sell my house, buy a new one with a gorgeous fenced in back yard (This part is something we've been wanting anyhow, so why not expedite that little task?), and purchase LOTS of funky tea cups, twinkle lights, Chinese lanterns and multicolored tulle. Oh, and put my friends to work.

What a hodge podge of awesome it will be!

Standing In The Light

I've loved this song for a very long time, and I thought it was about time to share it.




It's completely gorgeous, but my favorite lines are:

-I've known folks as smart as dogs, I've known folks like bumps on logs, and they're all fine by me.

-I've got room enough to die.

Moderately Coherent

One can only hope I'm moderately coherent at this time of night. It's after one in the morning, and I can't sleep. Might have something to do with the fact that I didn't wake up until after noon yesterday, which is still today because I have yet to sleep, but not really.

My failure to doze might also be a direct result of my obsession with Comedy Central. What began as a quick search for a specific Tosh.0 clip (Yes, that's his wiki, cause I'm still meeting people who don't know who he is, and they need to know. YOU need to know.) turned into an all nighter.

I'll leave you with yet another Scottish man that makes me happy, and I'm going to attempt to get some sleep.

Jokes.com
Danny Bhoy - Scottish Breakfast
comedians.comedycentral.com
Futurama New Episodes Ugly Americans Funny TV Comedy Blog

A Day Missed

Do you see this?! THIS, friends, is a day missed of NaBloPoMo. I was simply far too busy to sit in front of my lovely laptop, but I'll make it up!

Wizarding World of What?!

 Credit where credit is due.

Alright, Mimsians...can I call you Mimsians? I don't think I've ever told you lovely people what a Harry Potter nerd I am. It's pretty bad. I'm slightly obsessed, and by slightly I mean totally. I love it.

I grew up on magicians, wizards and Jedi and learned early on that good eventually conquers evil. I think Fantasia was my first introduction into the world of magic. After Mickey Mouse was introduced as the Sorcerer's Apprentice, I was hooked. Then there was Sword in The Stone, Star Wars, Willow, Legend, The Last Unicorn and the list goes on. Hooked, I say.

Obviously, the Harry Potter series is my cup of tea. Neglected munchkin goes from underdog to chosen one pretty much overnight, makes friends, experiences free will, chooses love and finds his place in the world? What's not to love?!

So...I'm sure you've all heard tell of this whole Wizarding World of Harry Potter gloriousness by now? Oh. My. Goodness. The husband person and I are totally going. I don't know when, but it's happening. It's just a matter of time. I am beyond willing to spend some most all of my hard earned money in order to feel like a kid for a day or two, and a stroll through Hogwarts and Hogsmeade will totally do the trick. A glass of butter beer probably wouldn't hurt either. Squee!

Anonanimal

I just adore Andrew Bird, and the way he communicates. His brain makes me happy, and I like seeing things the way he sees them. I wish someone would say those things about me.

I can't tell you how many articles I've read arguing the fact that he makes no sense. First of all, art for art's sake, people! Some things are just beautiful, whether you understand them at all. I don't understand children most of the time, but their gibberish thrills me to my core. Second of all, this man makes more sense than most. He's a poet and a musician, and he does gorgeous things with the English language.

That being said, if you have any trouble figuring out what he's celebrating in "Anonanimal", I'm pretty sure I've got the lyrics right.

I see a sea anemone
The enemy
See a sea anemone
And that'll be the end of me...

While the vicious fish was caught unawares
In the tenderest of tendrils
Underneath her tender gills

And I will become this animal
Perfectly adapted to all music halls
I will become this animal
Anomalous appendages
A non-animal...

Hold on just a second
Don't tell me this one, you know
I know this one, I know this song
I know this one, I love this song
Hold on just a second
Don't tell me this one, you know
I know this one, I know this song
I know this one, I love this song
I know this one

Underneath the stalactites
The troglodytes lost their sight
Uh oh

The seemingly innocuous plecostomus
Though posthumous
They talk too much
They talk too much

See a sea anemone
The enemy
See a sea anemone
That'll be the end of me
That'll be the end of me
Vicious fish was caught unawares
In the tend'rest tendrils
Underneath her tender gills
 
And I will become this animal
Perfectly adapted to all music halls
Oh, and I will become this animal

Anomalous appendages
A non-animal...

Maybe it's just me, but I think this man is a genius. I've seen him in concert, he carries a sock monkey in a suit around with him, wears scarves, has a farm and is all kinds of adorable. If you don't like him, well, that's fine. I might beat you up, though. Just sayin'.

To The Moon

I have been all kinds of busy lately, and haven't been doodling or painting much. Which is why this little number has remained unfinished for quite sometime.

Well, I'm setting a very attainable goal for myself. I will finish this water doodle this week. You can hold me to that. I should be posting the finished product by midnight on Sunday.

The Sketchbook Project

I mentioned how excited I was about signing up for a project on Art House Coop a few posts ago, and I can't wait to receive my materials. I don't want to blather on and on about it, but it's called The Sketchbook Project and it's going to be awesome.

I signed up last week, so I should receive my wee sketchbook in 2-3 weeks! Then I get to fill it up! Once it's complete, I just mail it in to be put on display with the thousands of other sketchbooks sent in from all over the world. They'll be exhibited in galleries and museums as they make their way on tour across the country. So excited!

Scottish Manliness

I love this song soooooo much.

 

Travis

What is it about Scottish men that gets to me?! It's not just the accent, is it? It can't be. It helps, but I like them before they even talk. Am I alone here?

Sean Connery

Ewan McGregor

Gerard Butler

All three of these men have made me a little swooney, at one point or another. 

I even met three people from Scotland on a business trip once, and I fell in love with them, too. Danny, Gary and Jacqui.

Jacqui was a cute little freckly blond with a scratchy sort of voice. She was a mother of three, and missing her teenage boys something fierce. Basically, she was the sweetest thing ever, and adorable to boot.

Danny was tall and hilarious, and every one called him Donny. It did sort of sound like Donny when he said it, but I was pretty sure I'd heard Gary call him Daniel. When we ended up in an elevator together, I asked him to clarify. He cracked up, told me it was sort of an inside joke at that point and asked me politely not to tell. Donny it was.

Then there was Gary. Dude was all kinds of attractive and masculine, and he smelled sort of like eucalyptus. What? I wasn't sniffing him. He just sat near me, and I had to breathe. Perfectly innocent. Well, he made the mistake of saying my name. More than once. Like a lot. With that accent. I seriously fought the urge to follow him around like a lost puppy for the remainder of the training. Anyhow, he explained to me all about heather, how it's not a weed, and that Scottish grooms wear it on their lapels to represent love and commitment. Sigh. Luckily, he was old enough to be my father and never once acknowledged the fact that I was a complete mess around him. So polite. It also helped that my adorable husband was waiting for me in the lobby everyday, so his Scottish manliness didn't have a lasting effect.

Sounds like I'm a horrible woman, but I'm not. He was Scottish, therefor I couldn't help it. I just don't know why I couldn't. Any theories?

Reach Out & Touch Faith

Aaaaand I can't get enough of Johnny Cash right now.
I'm pretty sure the three members of Depeche Mode were beyond stoked when they learned that Cash had done a cover of their song. He didn't ask, and Depeche Mode didn't mind. While they were inspired by Elvis & Priscilla Presley, Johnny Cash was singing it for an entirely different reason.

When The Man Comes Around

Have I ever mentioned how much I love Johnny Cash? Well, I do. I've been singing his songs since I was a little bitty girl, and I love his "gospel" music as much as the rest. His voice combined with the words of the Bible seriously move me.