Happy New Year! I’m so excited about all the things 2009 has in store for us & grateful for the amazing people I’ve met in 2008. A much lengthier blog post is needed on this, but we’re in Seattle right now partying with my sister and two little nephews, so it’ll have to wait!
love you all,
kgb
I’ve been painting pretty girls and cute creatures for so long now that when I stumbled across the incredible Loopy Boopy art dolls a couple of weeks ago, I felt a rush of inspiration and switched to sketching and painting nothing but creepy girls since. I *love* her work and have put an original doll at the top of my Christmas list for next year. Now I just have to try to be good this year…
The first girl I painted was based on this particular doll – Danielle. I went back and forth when I started painting her, wanting to capture her image exactly as is (because I think she’s fantastically creepy and perfect and haunting), then realizing that her creator, Colleen Downs, might not appreciate that so much. I weakly attempted to make her more like one of my own girls instead of an exact copy, but because it’s soooo clear where the inspiration came from, I can’t help thinking my Danielle is just a watered-down version of the awesomeness that is the Loopy Boopy original.
I’m forwarding this post to Colleen (did I mention she’s incredibly talented? *grin*), so hopefully she’ll weigh in. She creates such whimsical creatures I may have to ban myself from her sites so I don’t try to paint every single one of them!
I’m finally back home after a rather harrowing Christmas pillgramage out to visit John’s family in Alberta and I couldn’t be happier. Over a week with no internet access? Brutal road conditions that resulted in an 18 hour drive home? Stuffing my face with every fatty, sugary concoction known to Christmas and washing it down with fatty, sugary Bailey’s? Yeah, you could say I’m happy to be home.
It was great to see everyone, of course, but the problem with living so far away from family is that these kind of visits have to be. so. long. I’d love to be able to get together with J’s parents and grandma every weekend for dinner. Visiting for a few hours, then returning to my personal space = happy happy. Trying to cram a year’s worth of visiting into a week just isn’t natural!
I know that sounds horrible, but hopefully my fellow introverts understand where I’m coming from: I *need* my personal space, my private quiet time to create, without feeling the obligation to be social. My morning routine consists of snuggling with the puppies, making coffee, then eating cereal while checking my mail and reading blogs. I need a solid half an hour of this private time to really wake up. Until then? Please don’t talk to me. Seriously. You’ve been warned.
When you’re a guest in someone else’s home, obviously you don’t have the luxury of your own morning routine. There’s some kind of weird guilt/shame applied to whoever sleeps in the latest. The early bird wins the prize of drinking 4 or 5 extra cups of coffee and getting a jump start on watching the weather channel, apparently. I was not a winner.
After an unsuccessful 2 hours of trying to check my email via the Safeway Starbucks wireless connection, I was starting to empathize with The Overlook caretaker. When I realized that installing iTunes on my laptop had buggered the video codec so I couldn’t play the Project Runway DVDs I’d packed AND I couldn’t download anything from iTunes due to the lack of net access, Jack began to look downright sane.
I did get some painting in while I was there, inspired by the amazing art dolls by Loopy Boopy. And now that we’re home, but still totally snowed in, I’m looking forward to doing a lot more painting.
And checking my email.
And posting on Twitter.
And watching Project Runway while eating cereal.
Merry Christmas!
Since we’re going away for Christmas this year, I didn’t go all out with the decorations. Living in the kind of tiny dwellings that most Vancouverites occupy means we really don’t have the space to put up a big tree or to store piles of boxes filled with decorations that only get used 1 month of the year. Instead, I opted to dress up the every day corners of our house with simple things that make me smile: twinkling lights, a bit of snow and a dash of green.
Have I mentioned how much I love twinkle lights? Even watching the most blandest of television shows suddenly feels romantic when lit by the soft glow of xmas lights. Our window has the hanging stars, the mantle has twinkle lights that slowly blink in a long cascade (not the kind that threaten to give you a seizure) and there’s another string atop the piano. I’ll have to get rid of the fake snow come January, but I’m really leaning towards keeping up the lights. Am I too old to have my living room decked out with twinkle lights all year round? Is it too “college dorm room”?
This old typewriter sits on top of my piano (which, admittedly, gets nearly no play time). I love seeing our everyday things like this dressed up for the holidays. Another really simple trick that brightened up our open kitchen was tying a few bright red ribbons around the cupboard handles. Quick and easy, but it really stands out against the stark white cupboards. Plus it’s easy to take down!
What are your favorite holiday decorating tips?
It’s snowing! It’s snowing! This probably doesn’t sound like exciting news in the middle of December, but in Vancouver a white Christmas is never a guarantee, so I’m happy we got to trade our usual rain for a dusting of the white stuff at least once before the holidays. Of course I had to snap pictures:
Even the dogs were excited! It started snowing Saturday night and the two of them looked like complete nutjobs whipping around the street trying to chase the snow flakes. It was very sweet.
As you can see below, The White Dog does not enjoy cameras nor anything strapped to her body that attempts to keep her more fleshy, less fur-covered self warm. It does not appear to matter if that warmth-providing garment is stylish OR affordable ($2.50 at Target, thankyouverymuch). Good thing the pug is so easy to please.
