said Abraham Lincoln
Friday night we added two new members to our family.
This is Meeksa. Meeksa means “little snot” in Greek. (I’ve spelled it as phonetically as I could because Greek isn’t exactly that easy to translate into english writing.) Meeksa definitely lives up to his name. He is for sure a little snot.
This is Skilo. (Pronounced Skee-Low.) Skilo means “Dog” in Greek. Skilo chews on my shoes, is scared of the vacuum and stares out the window of the car just like a dog. He is also a little rascal. We also think that Skilo was the runt of his litter. His legs are about an inch shorter than Meeksa’s, his tail is so short that it doesn’t touch the floor when he walks and his ears seem too tiny for his huge fluffy head.
The first day the spent at home with us they scaled our shower curtain, unrolled the entire roll of toilet paper in the bathroom and claimed every fabric surface in the house as their own personal jungle gym. Fortunately for us, they love their litter box. These two little angels are the best birthday gift! They are hours of endless entertainment and I’m so excited to watch them grow up into crazy little hunting cats.
- says Frank Lloyd Wright
Sunny Downtown Pittsburgh, PA - Photo by Me
Let’s talk for a minute about my wonderful Macbook, Blanche. I sit down comfortably in my chair 2 nights ago with some hot chamomille mint tea, Blanche happily resting on my lap, a perfect evening as far as I was concerned. Until I attempted to wake Blanche up. I open her, press enter. Nothing. I push the power button. Nothing. I plug her, push the power button and to my surprise she wakes up and greets me cheerfully with her little chime. I wait anxiously to see if I get some kind of crazy virus warning (I’ve never had issues with my Mac, so I don’t even know what it would look like if I did.) Everything is perfect… everything except the microscopic black X covering the battery icon where the little lightning bolt should be. Panic.
Blanche? Blanche what’s wrong with you? I decided to let her rest, plugged in over night. The next morning… nothing had changed. The black X still plagued me like a splinter deep under the skin.
I use the PC to get on Mac Support. It seems this is a common issue because it’s under the FAQ on the support page. I follow all 4 suggestions for healing my Blanche and nothing works. Last resort… call Apple.
My wonderful husband takes the task upon himself. Forty-five minutes later and lots of panic stricken faces made by him, causing minor anxiety attacks in my ignorant self, that problem is solved.
Turns out my battery was the member of a batch of faulty batteries. Apple simply stated they would send me a new one. Fortunately, Tom had researched before we called, reading a few message boards and that’s how he found out about the bad batteries. I’m not entirely sure that they would have offered up that knowledge had Tom not asked about it. However, I love Apple. We were both very pleased with the way they handled our issue and I’d have no qualms about dealing with them when anything else goes wrong.
The Doctor (Doctor Who)
Something I haven’t mentioned very much here is my pure obsession with science fiction. It’s quite unhealthy, I think. My DVR is full of Doctor Whos, Stargates, Sarah Janes… Some might even call me a nerd. I’m alright with that, though. If science fiction shows don’t exercise my imagination, what the heck will?
Anyway, I’m sitting here this evening, drinking red wine, catching up on all my DVR’d shows and working on my hummingbird wip that is long overdue. I was afraid to move on with this illustration because I didn’t want to mess it up. I do that, alot. I start something, love the preliminary sketch so much, then I never touch it again because I don’t want to mess it up. It’s terribly sad and I’m trying to overcome that horrible habit. The result has been many destroyed drawings that I once adored. However, for every great success, there must be sacrifice, right?
I’m very pleased with my hummingbird, though. It’s turning out better than I planned. Maybe my best work is done when I have a delicious bottle of pinot noir to help? Or maybe it’s the sci-fi. Who knows. Whatever it is, I hope I can figure it out and channel it more often.
This illustration is still unfinished…
-Mark Twain
Last night, my family decided to take my sister-in-law, Lindi, and me out for our birthdays. They are still a few weeks away, but with them being in town, it seemed the perfect opportunity to party.
The evening began with The Melting Pot. This was a first for me. I’ve long been a devoted fan of fondue, but never made it a priority to go experience The Melting Pot. It was incredible! With 4 courses, 3 of them being different kinds of fondue, the evening left me stuffed, happy, and anxious to go home and try to mix my own cheddar cheese, beer, worcestershire sauce and garlic.
After we finished our amazing dinner we walked down to the river and watched the dancing water show for a while until the sun set and I was able to snap this amazing photo of this beautiful city that I live in. Everytime I drive through the tunnels and they open up to downtown, it takes my breath away and I’m reminded of why I will never ever move from here again.
Not that that has ever happened to me, but today definitely feels like one of those days. It’s one of those days where the sounds you hear every day of your life suddenly annoy the crap out of you. It’s one of those days where you put on your brand new dress and even though you loved it on in the store, somehow, now you hate it. It’s one of those days where every driver on the road is doing exactly the wrong thing, driving 5 miles under the speed limit or not changing lanes when you need them to. It’s one of those days where even though you are wearing waterproof mascara, everytime you look in the mirror it’s smudged under your eyes making you look like you got mugged walking from your desk to the bathroom.
But it’s also one of those days where the smallest things make you smile to yourself because everything else is just SO wrong. Like the rain that so morbidly fits your mood… it actually makes you smile when you smell it evaporating off the hot sidewalks. Or seeing the bunnies that terrorize your garden… they actually make you smile. Or eating a handful of Reese’s Pieces from your co-workers candy jar…
A Rainy Day In Pittsburgh - Photo by me
It’s just a backwards day today.
To keep up with the whole arts and crafts theme I’m supposed to be following on this blog of mine, here’s a picture of my second-ever softie that I designed for my sister-in-law Jen for this past Christmas. I absent-mindedly forgot to take pictures of it before giving it to her. She snapped these shots for me of Fitz in her wonderful new habitat.
Making this elephant was definitely a task I was not prepared for. I really had no idea what I was getting myself into and it will be a very long time before I attempt to make one like her again. So for now, she is unique, a one-of-a-kind disaster that I am ever so proud of.
Now I must go onto my backwards day. All I can do is take a deep breath and say, “Oh well.”
Quote by: Ralph Waldo Emerson
It really is true, I think. Sara and I discovered, especially, during our pottery classes that it requires a great deal of patience to sculpt and throw pottery. We assumed it would be theraputic to mold the clay and take the time to add the detail before firing… It wasn’t. It was frustrating. Given only a short amount of time to use 25 pounds of clay was stressful.
My desperation to get back on the wheel over the past decade, I finally realized, was an incredibly out-dated desire. Although I enjoyed the classes immensely, I think I’ll leave pottery to the potters. My time will be devoted to my drawings and wherever else my strengths are. I will admire pottery from afar and commend those that accomplish what I know I couldn’t.
With that said, here are the pictures of my completed works from the Sweetwater Center for the Arts pottery class.
I was very fortunate that all of my pieces made it through all stages of firing without exploding or cracking. I worked with a lot of under-glazes to get the earthy, rocky texture on them. I’m very pleased with how each piece turned out. Especially the last piece with the leaves. That one probably required the most time, sculpting each leaf separately and then having to attach each one without deforming it.
I loved the class, but I’m glad it’s over.
Since I am blog title-y challenged, I have decided to open each post with a quote. The quote above is from my absolute favorite artist and perhaps my biggest inspiration, M.C. Escher. If any of you haven’t noticed, my drawings do resemble his to a certain degree. I have spent a lot of time studying his designs, the mathematics behind them and the simple detail given by textures of a single color. He truly is an amazing artist in my opinion. It seemed as if each of his prints were a challenge that he set for himself. I’m trying to point myself in that direction.
This is a gnarly old tree that I’m working on right now. The entire tree is stippling. I love the grainy feel that stippling gives pen drawings.
While I’m writing this post, Tom is breaking in our brand new Wii Fit. It might just be the most entertaining thing I’ve seen lately.
However, now it’s time to go and cheer on my Penguins and hope they don’t let the Red Wings take yet another Stanley Cup. Go Pens!
The quote above is from Notes From The Underground by Dostoevsky. The sketch is an illustration I’m working on. I’m not really sure what my intent is with it, but lately I’m somewhat obsessed with the relation of humans and nature. It’s undeniable that one affects the other and vice versa.
On that note, I have somewhat of a dismal story to share. This past Sunday Tom and I were in the basement moving some stuff around to make room for our newly acquired treadmill. I picked up a few blankets off the floor to toss aside that our boxer, Bruiser, had been using as a bed when I noticed a hole in one of the old comforters. I leaned down to look at it and saw that there were bugs inside of it. Gross. I jumped back and yelled for Tom to get the blanket out of the house before these little buggers ate their way through anything else. Tom leaned over to inspect our little invaders. He stood up a few seconds later with a calm look on his face and said, “You’ll be more upset when I tell you what it really is in there.” I felt my eyes bulging and my gag reflex kicking in. I couldn’t even imagine what it would be that was worse than bugs.
“What??” I gasped not really wanting to know the answer.
“Baby mice.” Tom grimaced.
“Oh no! I killed their mother and they starved!” I cried out. I realized in an instant that I had been the bane of these sweet little creatures. They never even had a chance.
We’ve had consistent issues with mice living in our house. Since we are in the country and there is always an ample supply of dog food, the mice find it easy to habitate there. We often find their little supplies of the stolen dog food in random places around the house. For example, inside our snowboarding boots or our christmas decorations. Once evidence of the mice made its way to our living space upstairs, our hand was forced. The traps were set and the problem solved.
I never even considered the possibilty of a little mouse family in our house. I was reminded of my favorite cartoon as a child… The Littles. Thinking of that made me even more upset. It’s been 3 days now and I’m still feeling the guilt. Unfortunately, there’s no way to avoid this kind of thing.
The agreement is now that if something of this sort is discovered again, Tom is to lie to me. He’s to tell me it’s something disgusting that I would be happy to know is dead… such as spiders, stink bugs, or carpenter bees. (Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for the preservation of Bumble Bees, but Carpenter Bees are something completely different and I don’t want them living inside my walls.)
That’s my horrifying tale.
My team *time lately has consisted mostly of cleaning, organizing, rearranging… it’s refreshing, but exhausting. We’ve been doing a lot of redecorating lately, which has led to alot of excess accessories lying around the house. This, of course, is grounds for a yard sale. I love “sailing” as my mother and I call it. However, I abhor being the sailee. I hate the haggling. You could have a book priced at 50 cents and people will still try to talk you down. Sometimes it’s much more satisfying just to tell them no and then donate it to Goodwill. Yes, I’m a stubborn brat sometimes. I’m anxious to get the yard sale over with. We still haven’t set a date yet because I’m still sifting through all the junk in the basement that’s been stored up over the past year. Cleansing this hectic life of some of the junk is going to be wonderful!
In the meantime, I’ve found some time here and there to draw a little. That in itself is a relief. I find myself getting incredibly cranky when I can’t release my creative urges on a regular basis. Tom is a fabulous encouragement. He has to force me sometimes to stop working around the house and pick up my pens. I couldn’t ask for a better husband than him. Here’s a little sketch I did recently. It’s simple and delicate.
On a very bright note, I finally got all my thank you notes written from my wedding. Only 3 months late. I’m so terrible. At least I got them done, though!