Monthly Archives: November 2011

Clyde has been brushed!

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****Edited! I uploaded the wrong drawing!

I have to share my second commissioned painting with you! As I said yesterday, I cackled with laughter when I saw the photo I was to work from:

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Look at him! Oh my lord, what a little furball!

I knew he’d be a challenge, and I wasn’t wrong. This is the hardest drawing I’ve done yet. I hope they like it; I’m not 100% happy with it, but I’m also exhausted. Here’s my version of the ‘Jabba the Hutt’ lookalike Perisan kitten, Clyde:

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Lastly, I found a photo of what he looks like as an adult:

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Clyde has to be the hairiest cat I’ve ever seen, and he’s huge! What an armful.

Ivy and Stewie (Emma) have been Brushed!

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Okay, are we ready with the drumroll, please?

My first ‘professional’ drawing!

This lovely, cuddly pair are Ivy (canine) and Stewie (feline). Stewie is short for Emma. No, I don’t know why, maybe Bean will tell us. They live with Kim, a good friend of Nadbugs’ Bean. (Don’t say a word on Bugs’ site yet, though – this picture is a surprise! We can’t spoil it.) I hear that pretty Ivy is under the weather; please send good thoughts her way.

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I can’t wait to hear what Kim says when she gets her early Christmas present! I feel I know two of her furry kids quite well now, and I wish them all the best.

Me n the dog have dodgy bellies

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Ugh, something is wrong with the dog. Her stomach is gurgling and making loud squirty noises, but she doesn’t want to eat her food. She has free-choice kibble all the time, and her only t-r-e… oh for fucks’ sake, I don’t have to spell it out in type! Treat! Nyah-nah, they can’t hear me! Her only treat is a carrot a day. We’ve learned not to give her something special like the carrot when she gets like this though. Listening to the racket coming out of her belly is better than cleaning up copious amounts of puke. She’s got colitis, apparently, and I guess the few snacks she got over the last couple of days were too much for her. No Thanksgiving for dogs next year, sorry pup.

So! I am working on getting my ‘show’ together. Need to do a lot of printing. Of course I’m trying to do it on the cheap; iDJ has a nice color printer at work so he’s going to print what he can for me there. I’m 80% done with my little flyer, and have a list of what needs print-checked and what just needs printed high-quality.

I’ve also finished my first commissioned work! I’ve only just now sent it to Nadbugs. Sure hope she likes it! I’ve got another commission, for a Persian kitten that made me laugh like a loon when I saw the picture. It’s a tiny, furry, Jabba the Hutt! Looking forward to attempting him, going to be a challenge for sure. When I’m done, I’ll post both the pic and the drawing so you can laugh, too.

Oh man, I’m nervous! Hahah. It’s a good picture. She’ll like it. And if she doesn’t, I can always edit this post and say how terrible it was…

Do you ever…

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…catch your cat in the middle of a huge yawn, and stick your finger in their mouth? So they get a huge surprise when the yawn is over and there’s suddenly a squishy thing in the way?

I have to admit I do it when I can. I’m such a terrible cat-mom! But it makes me giggle, I can’t help myself.

I used to do it to people too, but they get annoyed.

Goodnight!

I bet you think about this the next time your kitty yawns in your face. 😀

Socks has a Lime!

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The short story: Socks is the nickname of my best friend, and she is having her first baby. Since I can’t be there with her, I’m chronicling her journey on my blog.

Long story: go here, then here, and the rest are my weekly updates: one, two, three, four, and five. That will catch you up to now!

Holy crap! Baby Button grew from the size of a prune to the size of a lime in a week! That’s just crazy talk.

I’m all excited because in a moment, I’ll have a picture of her to share! One that illustrates quite well the whole ‘lime’ business.

We didn’t get our Thursday BS session due to Thanksgiving, but her house is her own again and she had time to send me an email update on how she’s doing. It was short but she still made me laugh: she had a craving for pickles. Ha! Hmm, I’m not sure that’s going to be understood internationally – in the USA, the joke about pregnant women is that they crave strange things, and the example always used is pickles (gherkins) and ice-cream. Yum!

Oo! Picture is here…just let me…hold on…a little bit here…yes. Ready for viewing!

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HAHAHAHAHAH! She said her smile was too goofy to share with the world, so I gave her a goofier one 🙂 Love you!

Earworm OTD

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I had to Google this one:

“” “How About You” is often titled from the lyrics that occur before this, “I like New York in June.” It’s from the movie musical Babes on Broadway (1941) and has music by Burton Lane and lyrics by Ralph Freed.

The song has been recorded by Tommy Dorsey, Judy Garland and Frank Sinatra. “”

No clue why it’s in my head. You shouldn’t hear songs you don’t really even know…

Aside

I’ve lived up to my American heritage and eaten so much that I am in pain. I never do this… ow. I need to go to bed and suffer in a prone position.

Ps, Hubby loved the pie so much he ate a third of one. I’m starting to understand why people say he has an American accent…

Ow, ow ow.

Nobby and Felix have been Brushed!

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I have one week until my Open Fair ‘exhibition.’ I still don’t have a business name, email, or even a PayPal account. No panic… har…

I’ve mentioned a few times that it was one particular reader who gave me the idea and the hope and the heart to attempt to sell my work. It was a lovely blogging lady in the UK named Annette, and she had asked my pricing on drawing her cats. Until then, it had never even occurred to me.

As a thank you, I drew her furry kids for free. I wasn’t charging when she asked, and I didn’t think it was fair to ask her to pay for what others were getting for free even though she offered. And I did owe her a huge thank you, and there’s really only one way I could show it, isn’t there?

This is Nobby, isn’t he a gorgeous boy?

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This is his biography, from Annette: “This is Nobby. My cat soulmate. Clever, inquisitive, talkative, active, adventurous, athletic, brave, funny, loving, and Felix’s friend and protector. An alpha cat in touch with his feminine side!”
She told me afterward that beautiful Nobby is no longer with her. I cried.

This is Felix:

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She told me this about him: “Loveable, playful, teddybear cat. Often bewildered by life, and not the sharpest tool in the box, but always ready with a purr…”

Sounds like my little Lokii 🙂

I’m happy to have met two more lovely fur-people and one very special human, and to have such an opportunity given to me. Thank you, thank you, Annette!

From pies to skies

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Right! Turkey is stuffed and in the oven, the pies are done, the whipped cream has been beaten within a micron of its life. I’m ensconced in front of a fire with both cats vying for lap space and my rum n Pepsi close to hand. iDJ is playing his Thanksgiving special in the kitchen and the tunes are good. I could get to like this Thanksgiving thing. Even if it’s a few days late.

Huh. I just realised that I’ve managed to teach my iPad the difference between it’s and its, for the most part (it added an apostrophe to the second one just then). I hope I don’t start to trust its opinion. It got it right that time, too! Now, if it will only stop capitalising white I’ll be happy… and it just didn’t. Yay!

My pie filling looks lumpy. I’m sure it will taste fine, but they aren’t all shiny and smooth like I expected. The pumpkins weren’t pie pumpkins, and I didn’t purée them before freezing, and they were too wet. Oh well, something is better than nothing, and I’m sure they won’t be fed to the dog!

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I uploaded a few pics from the proper camera onto the iPad. Here’s my girl Neko about to drink the extremely nasty looking water in our town square’s sculpture/fountain.

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Them’s my legs. Just before this was taken, we had someone get out of their car to ask about her. We gave him a short lesson about the difference between American Akitas and Japanese Akitas. The easy answer is that if the dog’s face is black, it’s an American. If not, you have to register your dog on the dangerous breeds list in Ireland and walk her with a muzzle. I also told him the official name for her coat coloration is ‘pinto.’ cool, eh? I have an American dog named the Japanese word for cat with the markings of a horse. No wonder she’s a bit neurotic. You can tell she’s worried all the time just from this picture.

Here’s Lokii looking confused. He looks like this quite often. Compared to his ginormous butt, his head is too small, so I don’t think there’s a lot of room for brains in there. Poor Lokes, someone has to be the dumbest in the house, and it is you. Love you anyway.

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I took a couple pics of our sunset tonight, too. The color is wrong, I think it looked more purple and yellow than the camera shows. Rats. In any case, that’s the view out the front of our house.

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A little bit of sappiness, if you don’t mind? I’m thankful for every funny, smart, kind, artistic person I’ve met through my blog. X