Life, Love, and Critters – of course!
My baby turned 9 today! Yes, nine. NINE. Jeez, she’s almost in the double digits. She chose a very fun thing to do for her birthday weekend so we’ve been celebrating since yesterday morning and won’t be through until tomorrow! I’ll tell you all about it, for now I just wanted to share her sparkly candle moment. Make a wish!
(I am hoping this pic turned out okay, I can’t really tell on hubby’s laptop!)
For the first time ever, I present my photography, framed in really expensive stuff, and ready for showing in my very own living room! (That air intake vent has been a PITA since we moved in here. I wish I could hide it!!)
These are all 16×20 black frames, and I chose a 8mm archival white mat with a black core, which really sets off these photographs. For my regulars, I posted these when I took them just a couple of months ago. For my new readers, you can see two of them here: Jay and Cait. I don’t think I’ve posted Mark’s here, but you can see that one here.
I’m quite proud of how all of these turned out, and even the gentleman who cut my matboard asked if I was framing them for a gallery. 🙂
Why is it that when I’m trying my best to be understanding and caring, the one I’m trying to understand is the one I understand the least at that very moment?
Why is it that because I care so much, the only thing a lack of understanding brings is intense sadness and/or frustration?
Why is it that the more I try to show someone I love them, the more crazy I make them?
Why is it that the most productive conversations sometimes are arguments?
Why do arguments have to hurt so much if they’re so productive?
Why don’t I know a better way to be productive?
Why is it when my brain is throbbing from pain that the tears that so desperately need to fall, won’t?
Why is it that when I feel a little better and my head isn’t throbbing so much, and I feel like I can go forward, I turn music on, and tears are triggered and falling all over the place?
Why is it that I’m always out of Kleenex when that happens?
Why is it that my head hurting doesn’t make me cry, but all the crying makes my head hurt?!
Why is it that things like this happen when I least expect them?
Why is it that something that may seem so small or unimportant, is so very very huge in my mind?
Why is it that I live so very far away from the people who understand me the best? The people who would trigger my tears just because they know they need to fall. Those are the people with whom I say “yeah!” and “I know!” the most in any given conversation. The people who would analyze things with me until the sun comes up and not think twice about over-analyzing things, because it’s just fun to pick things apart. It keeps brains happy.
Why did God make girls so #^<%!$% emotional?!?
I love elephants. I love their wrinkles, I love how gentle they can be for being such massive creatures.
To me, she’s not a caption candidate. She just looks so thoughtful, a little sad, but mostly beautiful and majestic. I love this photo because I feel like I captured a very personal moment for her. How does this photo effect you? Do you look at it as a moment, with meaning behind it, or simply as a picture? I’m curious.
Today’s another full day, I’ll update later with another progress on Lucy. Lastnight and this morning I’ve been illustrating a custom graphic for a blog design and I’m trying to get that finished up! I also ran down to my favorite store lastnight (Dick Blick) and picked up my matting, frames and three photographs, so I need to get those framed up. I was hoping they’d have some of the new Linen Panels (or even the boards) in store but they don’t, so I’ll have to order online – I’d really like to try a new surface and see how I like it. I also picked up 3 books, hoping to break out of my tendency toward realism with graphic illustrations. You’ll probably be seeing my practice doodles on my tablet here from time to time!
I have to say that Bruce should win the Dick Blick best employee ever award, if there is one. I’ve never met someone so genuinely wonderful and good to the soul of an artist. I’m sure that he has to be every local artist’s creative therapist. I think from now on when I’m feeling in need of a little artistic therapy, I’m just going to have to hop in the car and run down to the store when Bruce is working. That, and he always carries all of my bags (oy) to my car and loads them for me. Simply put, if he’s there while I’m shopping, I feel famous. Sweet.
Kay, better get to work, have a great day!
Lucy’s eyes are pretty well finished now. I’ve started lining the upper and lower lids, but will move on to her paws and back now. The way that I paint is from the back forward. This makes the most sense if you think about it, because the fur on the tip of her nose will lay on top of the fur on her cheekbones, which lays on top of the fur on her paws and back.
I’ve cropped her eyes from the last work in progress pics so you can see the progress without scrolling, too…
I finally got to a point where I wanted to stop and take a progress pic. This is pretty neat, if you look at it against the second work in progress here (the work in progress category), you can see the areas I’ve been working on.
Her ears have 3-4 more layers of hair, and I worked the hairline on the top of her head but won’t continue down her forehead until her ears are dry. I put a lot of time in on her left eye, you can see it’s much more glossy, and I’ll still enhance them just a smidge more after this layer is dry. I thought that having one eye at the first layer and one after the second was pretty neat and wanted to share. See? It’s really not so scary after all.
P.S. A while back, I posted a pic of my favorite paintbrushes. Just so you can see what I paint with!
I have to know.
Over the past year, I’ve forced myself to get on the treadmill and forced myself to exercise when I actually have taken the time to do it. Why do I have to force myself? Why do I find every and any excuse and grab on tight to it nearly every day?
In talking to my buddy this morning, we asked ourselves some really important questions that neither of us can answer.
Why do the temporary side effects (sweat, breathlessness, time and effort) seem to outweigh the ultimate benefits and immediate results of exercise (increased energy level, weight loss, strength & endurance)?
HOW does one go about becoming addicted to exercise, to the point of needing it every day?
Over the past year of pushing myself mentally, I still do not feel like I need it. I know the benefits, I enjoy seeing the decrease on the scale and on the tape measurer, I love seeing the size of the clothes I pick out.
Still, I dread it, I procrastinate, and I talk myself into putting it off until it’s bedtime. I’m proud of myself when I get on the treadmill, when I make time for it.
Here I’ve been making a whole bunch of positive changes, but I’m still falling short. I still purchase prepackaged foods, still eat out, still choose the wrong things to eat most of the time, still have no idea how to combine foods for maximum nutrition and have no desire to learn.
So what do you do? And if you don’t, do you want to? Do you wish you could make those permanent positive changes? Or do you think those changes really just suck, and if you’re alive you may as well enjoy the time you’ve got? Where does one locate the motivation and stick-to-it-iveness? And how much does it cost?
Today is glum here, for some reason. The remnants of Dennis have reached us and we’re finally getting a little rain, but I think that it’s blowing westward has me feeling a little out of whack today? I’m not sure what it is, but I’m really sleepy, and when I go outside I get stuffy really fast and my eyes start itching. I’m not entirely over the whole blechy bug thing from last week, either. So, I’ve been lazy today, trying to keep my eyes open.
I realized today too that during my daily news & bloghop, I really don’t have a whole lot of profound thoughts that I share here. Probably why I’m not a huge name in the blogosphere, but then again I don’t mind. There are enough profound thoughts out there and I like to think that my blog is a bit of a retreat, a little rest for the brain, a little fun, a little eye candy. Life is hectic enough, eh?
Lucy’s underpainting is dry, so I can start working on the next layer. I’ve also got a custom blog graphic in the works, and I won’t share that one until the graphic has been implemented into the template. I’m not totally lazy, but it sure does feel like it!
On that note, this bear pretty well sums things up, huh?
Oh yeah, I made a little graphic if you want to snag it for your blog, you can link it directly to my Captionable Critters category, that way folks can keep on adding captions! I think they’re fun, and really enjoy it that you guys play and give them a voice! 🙂
