Honestly, I couldn’t think of a good quote that even remotely applied to anything in this post, so I just stuck up there my favorite line from my favorite Monty Python flick, The Holy Grail.  Speaking of… if you haven’t seen Spamalot yet… SEE IT!  It’s amazing… and men would even like it!

This past weekend my husband and I helped move my brother and his wife, Ryen and Lindi, from Philadelphia to Pittsburgh.  Needless to say, it was exhausting and we are all very happy that it is over with.  The drive back we were all in separate cars/trucks and it took 2 hours longer than normal because of the moving truck.  Fortunately, because of the storms that were passing over the sky was absolutely amazing.  I almost died a few times taking these pictures, but they were well worth it, don’t you think?

This one is my favorite.  I felt like I was in a tunnel of stormy clouds and I could see the light at the end of it.

The sign in this picture completely confused me.  Doesn’t a red light itself indicate that you are to “wait for green”?  We don’t have signs like this in Pittsburgh.  I mean, why don’t they just put up a sign that says, “red means stop”?  All of you Philadelphians.. do you know what these signs mean and WHY they feel the need to be so obvious??

Now that Lindi is here, she is joining the girl’s nights out with Dana, Sara and me.  Wednesday night was our first official girl’s night out and we decided that because of our experience that night, we should document and basically review every place we go.  So that’s where Davidson Lane comes in to play.  We will be recording our adventures over there and giving our opinions of all the places we go to, the things we experience, the people we meet…  And it’s a way for us to never forget all the fun we’re having.

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!

My next illustration is by request of my soon to be sister, Jen. She loves hummingbirds and their beautiful colors. I hope my abilities can do this little angel justice. Last summer there was a hummingbird that daily came to drink of my petunias. Even if I was sitting on the porch, no more than 4 feet away from the box, she would still come. She always paused for a moment, mid air like something from the Matrix, and looked at me. She had a red head and a green belly. So cute. I hope she comes back to see me this year. I plan on putting out even more petunias to satiate her thirst. Anyway, here’s the rough draft of the hummingbird.. she’s about 8 inches tall right now.

Months ago before Christmas I posted about a stuffed owl I was making for my sister in-law Lindi. I finished it a while ago, but forgot until now to post pictures of it. Plus, I lost the USB cord for my camera, so I’ve been procrastinating getting the pictures off my card.

Anyway, here she is at last…

Unfortunately, she was the last of my sewing as of late. It’s just so time consuming and I’ve decided to focus on other mediums for the time being. Monday nights for 3 hours I’m paying for studio time at the Sweetwater Center for the Arts to throw pottery on the wheel. I’m doing this along with my awesome sister in-law, Dana and my two neighbors, Sarah and Kim. We have so much fun and I can’t wait to actually bring something home. Last Monday was the first of 7, so in a couple weeks I should have something glazed and fired to show. I’m going to take my camera with me tomorrow night to document some of the muddy action.

I hope everyone is enjoying the wonderful spring weather!

For a long time now I’ve had issues with the millions of plastic bags I’ve acquired from grocery stores, so I switched to paper.  Now I have hundreds of paper bags laying around my house.  One Saturday I casually walked past a stack of them sitting on the dining room table when all of a sudden a lightning bolt of ideas struck my brain and I had the solution to my wasteful problem.  The following pictures are what have come from this. 

Feather of a Peacock
The next step in the process is to turn my shredded mail into the paper to mount the cuttings on. 

Dead Tree -
This cutting is the first of many that will compile a forest of dead trees.  Somewhat ironic considering the motivation behind this project?

Bumble Bee -
I have a slight obsession with insect wings.  Check these out… Imogene earrings

Twig & Leaves -
This cutting is currently gracing the wall of my living room.  It was the first of it’s kind and I love it dearly.

I would really appreciate some feedback since I am considering these for my up and coming Etsy shop.  If I weren’t me, I’d want one.  ((laughing to myself))  I’m sure as I continue cutting them they will incresase in intricacy.

Thank you to Alice  and Rob for your wonderfully encouraging comments in regards to my peacock illustration.  It’s nice when hours of hardwork are noticed and admired.

After a very long leave of absence, I’m finally back to give this little blog of mine some much needed attention.

I’m going to start simple. I’ll post about the wedding later when I have a chance to “enhance” the photos.

In the meantime, I posted earlier, much earlier, about a peacock drawing I was working on for my brother and sister in law for Christmas. I finally finished it! It was agonizing. The body of the peacock is stipling. It was an excruciating process, but the end result is exactly what I wanted.

Once I get my Etsy shop up and running, this will for sure be an item to purchase. I’m not exactly sure how I’m going to offer it, as a print, on stationary or a journal, postcards… hmm.. Ideas?

I hope you all enjoy and I’m looking forward to posting much more from now on!

Today my mom and I ventured to the Andy Warhol Museum. First let me say… wow.

What initially attracted us to the museum was the Larger than Life exhibit by Ron Mueck. It was incredible. The artist depicts humankind in its most natural state, vulnerable, trusting and delicate. These “giants”, to me, magnify the frailty of man. You could see every hair follicle, every vein, every blemish, every overwhelming wrinkle. It was amazing. I literally felt like I was in the land of giants, like I was Jack after he crawled up the beanstock. This exhibit is HIGHLY recommended.

As for the rest of the museum, if nothing else today, I learned that Andy Warhol was one strange individual. From his wigs, to the company he kept, to the so-called art he produced, I’ve come to the conclusion that I don’t and probably never will understand him or his success. My only guess is that he impressed the right people in the wrong way, thus obtaining his infamy and establishing his $220 million estate.

What intrigued me the most was the woman that appeared in a large portion of his artwork / films: Edie Sedgwick. There are a few books written about her that I plan on reading. Also, the film “Factory Girl” portrays her and her life with Andy Warhol.

I realized today that Andy Warhol and whatever it is he accomplished are nothing even close to where I want my life to go. I was disgusted when I left the museum… digusted and intrigued.

“Ugh” was all I could say. So, I drowned my confusion and border-line sorrow in shoe shopping. It was a succesfully vain attempt to distract my mind from the plethora of genitalia I was exposed to at the Andy Warhol Museum. Seriously… there was one exhibit that was all metal-worked human genitalia inside sardine cans… WTF?!?! ((Yeah, I was that confused that I actually said WTF out loud and then set off all the motion sensors because I was looking at the miniature sculptures so incredulously and obviously too closely.))

Anyway… I have a new obsession which I am going to post about tomorrow… stay tuned.

This next week to come is going to be wonderful!  I’m so very excited for Christmas and spending time with our families, watching the kids open their presents, cleaning up all the residue of Christmas morning, after-Christmas sales… The best part of it all is that I just quit my job and I have all this week off!  2008 is a year of new beginnings for me.  I’ll have a new job, a new husband, a new family… It’s going to be amazing. 

Here’s pictures of our Christmas decorations that have been up for almost 2 months now.  Yeah, I decorated early. 

That’s not our only Christmas tree.  I put 2 up this year.  As excited as I was to get the decorations up, I’m just as eager to take them down.  I miss my springy flowers and paintings. 

I have one new year’s resolution to make this year.  I’m going to start keeping a journal.  A journal that is just for me and no one else.  Somewhere I can write how I feel one day and that I can’t believe I felt that way the next.  Somewhere that I don’t have to be politically correct or try to impress anyone.  Somewhere that is totally just ME.  I was inspired to do this after reading Marta’s blog entry about her resolution to start a journal next year.   I think it will be good for me to be honest with myself.

Here’s some music recommendations to start the new year off with:
Landon Pigg
Jon Foreman
Brooke Fraser

Merry Christams!

The first Holiday has come and gone. What a great weekend it was! I’ll post about that later. For now, here’s a little project I finished last week. I put my amatuer crocheting skills to the test and created my own little flowerpot cozy.

I have so far to go before I master Alice’s seamless crochet stitch, but I’m on my way. She’s been a great source of inspiration for me and definitely a huge help so far!

I have so many pictures to post from Thanksgiving weekend including my bridal shower tea party and a big family outting to the Grand Concourse Sunday brunch. Yum!! Anyway, I’ll get to those later. Right now I’m recovering from a fever and infected tonsils. Boo. Yay for plaid Christmas pjs, boot slippers and mint tea. Oh, and definitely yay for Tin Man on sci-fi. I’m such a nerd.

The lovely Cindy  has tagged me to tell you all 8 random things about myself.  I’m not even sure where to begin. 

1.)  I love hats.  I’ll try on every hat at a store and make whoever is with me take pictures.  How can you not love hats??

2.) I love snowboarding.  I’m the farthest thing from a daredevil, but there’s just something about flying down a mountain covered in ice and snow with the chance of breaking every bone in my body.  Once I reach the bottom in one piece, it’s like I’ve conquered the world.

3.) I don’t eat any pig.  I went to a nutrition seminar years ago and learned that because pigs don’t have sweat glands, all the bacteria in their body stays in their bloodstreams.  Hence, making them the dirtiest animals.  It has nothing to do with the mud they roll around in

4.) I have a freckle on my lip.

5.) I listen to death metal.  I know, I know…  It’s weird.  But I also listen to things like Imogen Heap, Ingrid Michaelson and Brooke Fraser.

6.) I have a “Save the Wooly Catepillars” Campaign going on at work.  For some reason, the fuzzy little buggers just love to infest our walkways.  They get trampled and it’s very disturbing.  I spend my breaks patrolling the walkways and transporting the crazy guys to safe, wooded areas around our office.  I’ve acquired quite an amusing reputation for my valiant efforts.

7.) I love backpacking.  When Tom and I first started dating, I took him to the Laurel Highlands trail in Ohiopyle to do the hardest 6.5 miles of the trail, sleep under the stars, then hike 6.5 miles back.  He said it was harder than his Air Force basic training.  Needless to say, I won his heart over.

8.) When I’m thinking or concentrating I blow bubbles with my tongue and roll them around in my mouth.  It’s so juvenile, but I can’t help it!

Now for the rules:

*link to the person who tagged you
*post the rules
*name 8 things others don’t know about you
*link to 8 other bloggers

So who shall I link to?  I have no clue, so if you want to join in, be my guest, but leave me a comment so I know and I can read your crazy random self-facts!