Sacrelicious

The Snow Queen: 4 of 7

2012-02-01T23:52:00.001-06:00

Fourth Story:

The Prince and Princess

Another installment of The Snow Queen. While I've lived in Louisiana long enough not to expect snow, perhaps I'd be more inclined to finish this snowy tale if it felt like winter at all: as it is, 70 degree February days just don't feel right to me.

This concept, while not entirely without merit, was probably better in my mind than it came out on paper. Though both versions shown here are quite rough indeed, I think the pencil sketch is far superior (except in the animal silhouettes, which were done hastily and without much regard for anatomy).

“It seems to me as if somebody were behind us,” said Gerda...

"They are only dreams," said the crow...

The Snow Queen: 3 of 7

2012-01-12T22:58:00.000-06:00

Honestly, I drew this quite a while ago for the third chapter of The Snow Queen. I didn't put much time into it, and I meant to do something better for the blog. However, this being sort of cute in spite of itself, and me wanting to move on, here it is. Consider this my obligatory "Hummel Figurine" drawing. Although, Hummels aren't normally crying inky, black tears from piteous, empty eye sockets.

Third Story:

The Flower Garden of the Woman Who Could Conjure

“I will give you my red shoes if you will give him back to me.”

[Ink & Watercolor on Weekly Planner]

The Snow Queen: 2 of 7

2011-12-04T12:06:00.001-06:00

I regret that I still cannot weigh in on The Snow Queen as a whole, as I still have yet to finish reading it! The first installment describes a sinister mirror that reflected things that were good and honorable unfavorably, and evil things beautifully. The second story documents how fragments of that mirror lodged themselves in the eye and heart of a little boy, and how he was changed as a result.

Second Story:

A Little Boy and a Little Girl

“'Have they a queen bee?,' asked the little boy, for he knew that the real bees had a queen."

[Graphite on Moleskine]

The Snow Queen: 1 of 7

2011-11-23T23:23:00.001-06:00

The Snow Queen is a tale in seven stories, so I deemed it worthy of seven drawings.

Story the First,

Which Describes a Looking-Glass and the Broken Fragments.

"...the people became hideous, and looked as if they stood on their heads and had no bodies."

[Grapite. Moleskine. ~2x4"]

What is it about drawing terribly ugly things that I find so satisfying?

Oh, and Happy Thanksgiving.

The Pine Tree

2011-11-05T01:46:00.000-05:00

The Pine Tree (or, The Fir Tree, if you like) was an especially depressing read for me. I find it nearly impossible to summarize the moral of this tale without spoiling it completely, so I won't try. I encourage you to read it yourself - a recommendation that I make startlingly seldom on this blog.

Thus, without further ado, I give you my chosen quote (taken entirely out of context of course, just to be silly, and because it mentions bacon - [what's more popular than bacon these days, eh?])

"It is a particularly uninteresting story. Don't you know any about bacon or candle stumps?"

[Graphite. Paper. 7x4.5"]

The Hideously Ugly Duckling

2011-10-27T21:46:00.002-05:00

Everyone's heard some incarnation of The Ugly Duckling, so I won't bore anyone with the content of the story. My illustration today doesn't exactly resemble a duckling or a baby swan, but I'm pretty sure I nailed the "ugly" part.

"...that is not a turkey; how well he uses his legs, and how upright he holds himself!"

[Graphite. Moleskine. 4"x6"]

The Sweethearts

2011-10-17T01:40:00.000-05:00

... Or, The Top and the Ball, which leaves (regrettably) less to the imagination.

I read three different translations of the final two lines of this story, and the clear winner is as follows:

"You get over it when your beloved has lain in a gutter and oozed for five years. You never recognize her when you meet her in the garbage bin."

[Haugaard translation]
[Ink / Copic. Sketchbook paper]

The Nightingale

2011-09-01T23:09:00.000-05:00

"In China, you know, the emperor is a Chinese..."

What a great first line.

I read The Nightingale a long time ago, and I can't fully remember how it went. I started re-reading it, but when I got to the bit about the clockwork nightingale, I knew what I'd be drawing, and didn't feel like reading the rest of the story again.

I guess he's a little bit of a throwback to my Unnatural Miscellany series from last year.

"...the artificial bird sang only waltzes."

[Graphite. Paper. Smallish]

Death, God, and Flowers. And Doodles.

2011-08-26T00:28:00.000-05:00

The Angel seemed nothing but a hurdle to be cleared right from the get-go. I can't believe I let it hang over my head for so long.

In The Angel, Andersen weaves yet another tale of Death, God, and Flowers; which I have come to believe are his three favorite themes. In fact, I'm beginning to suspect that nearly all of his stories can be more or less sorted into three categories: those centered around the theme of Death, those that are about God or Christian values, and stories about Flowers.

Anyway, I wasn't too keen on illustrating anything too central to themes of The Angel, but the prospect of drawing sick children held some appeal. Alas, a fear of stealing outright from Edward Gorey's Gashlycrumb Tinies paired with the general half-heartedness with which I approached this story resulted in no more than a notebook page filled with doodles of pitiful-looking children. I'm ready to move on, so I'll just post said doodles, and do just that.

“Down in that narrow lane, in a low cellar, lived a poor sick boy..."

[Graphite + Ink. Notebook paper. 8.5" x 10.5"]

This little guy is my favorite of the bunch. Maybe I'll do something with him someday.

The Buckwheat

2011-07-27T19:35:00.001-05:00

Before reading Hans Andersen's The Buckwheat, I knew very little about buckwheat. This limited information included namely that a) you can make pancakes out of it, and b) said pancakes taste much like dirt. After reading (or sort of skimming, rather) The Buckwheat, I learned that it is a) a proud grain, and being so, b) it is particularly susceptible to lightning.

YES.

I'll go so far as to say that Andersen doesn't seem to have looped back around into sappy territory, but we are well within the realm of the tedious allegory. See also: The Garden of Eden.

I couldn't bear to do any translation comparison here, as I scarcely made it through two of the dullest pages I've ever attempted to read. Having survived (remaining awake, at that!) I concluded that rather than drawing some buckwheat, I'd prefer to draw (as the story's title suggests, anyhow) THE Buckwheat.

“I am as valuable as any other corn.”

[Graphite. Moleskine. 4x6"]

And so I did.

THE END

Ach, du Lieber Augustin!

2011-07-26T18:32:00.004-05:00

How silly of me! I should have known that the one time I read only one translation, that would be the time that a real talking point would sneak by me.

While searching out the next story in chronological order in my Haugaard edition, I caught a glimpse of the ending of The Swineherd, not having read this translation of it before; you might recall. What grabbed me right away was a conspicuous couplet in the center of the page:

"Ach, du lieber Augustin,

Alles is weg, weg, weg."

Conspicuous, of course, as it was written in a foreign language. The version of The Swineherd I'd read was entirely translated to English. Right away I sensed that these lines did NOT translate to "A jolly old sow once lived in a sty / Three little piggies has she…" (yes, it was probably the proper noun, "Augustin," that tipped me off).

So, I typed the lines into Google and got my answer. The original is actually a Viennese, plague-era folk song, Oh, du Lieber Augustin, and is about a bard who is nearly buried alive among the dead. Nothing about pigs. Wikipedia even includes a footnote referencing Andersen's use of a (modified) version of the song in The Swineherd. It roughly translates to something like," Oh, dear Augustin / All is lost." Of course, this fits the story as well, as the princess indeed loses everything in her greed and shallowness. The use of this song rather than the one about the sow adds depth and the bitterness Andersen can't seem to resist to the tale.

And to think, I even used it in my caption! I'll be more careful next time - which, if you're wondering, will be The Buckwheat.

The Swineherd

2011-07-24T22:26:00.000-05:00

The Swineherd wasn't exactly remarkable, but I liked that it was about a bitch getting her comeuppance - and hey, pigs.

I only bothered to do a quick, simple little doodle (although, I did bother to color it, as I'm rather in love with my Copic pens and eager for an excuse to use them). I figured I've been drawing enough nasty pigs lately, and went for super-cute ones this time. I've depicted the swineherd/prince character as a sort of wizard-like figure, and I guess he sort of is a wizard.

“A jolly old sow once lived in a sty,
Three little piggies has she,” &c.

[Copic. Sketchbook Paper. 6x4.5"]

Sustainable Fertilizers for Flowering Shrubs

2011-07-21T21:52:00.000-05:00

No, that's not the name of today's Hans Andersen tale, but it is relevant. I just thought I'd title this entry something more eye-catching than the plain old story title; today's being The Rose Elf (or, The Elf of the Rose). For those of you keeping score at home: this time, I only read one translation, that being the Haugaard. I don't suspect there should be significant variations here, but for transparency's sake I'll disclose that I haven't yet read the translation I linked above.

Getting on with it then:

Any reader of some of Hans Andersen's more obscure works will notice that his storytelling (I say storytelling here, rather than writing - see next paragraph) seems to lack planning of any kind. A story will begin about one thing, quickly shift to another, and more often than not, come to an abrupt and unexpected end, sloppily tying off, rather than weaving in, all the loose ends Andersen left hanging along the way. So it goes with The Rose Elf, a story that begins about a tiny elf dwelling among the roses, and ends up a grisly murder tale centered around a severed head kept in a flower pot. Oops, spoilers. Nobody actually reads these stories, right? Nobody even reads this blog, surely.

Anywho. I suppose I should not be surprised at this lack of planning. With a bit of imagination, I can clearly picture Andersen, huddled by a dwindling fire in a rustic cottage, surrounded by, oh, some fifty or so filthy, sick, and dying children. In a malnourished stupor, he attempts to spin a yarn that will shut them up and/or briefly take their minds off of how frozen and starving they are. Needless to say, the story need not be terribly cohesive or even interesting.
**The preceding has been a FICTIONALIZED DRAMATIZATION. I have NO IDEA whether Andersen was poor or wealthy, had children or not, etc. And for once, I'm not bothering to do A LICK of research.**
How all the bizarre false starts and plot holes got into the versions that were actually written down on paper is beyond me, but that's my little story, and it's good enough for me.

Without further ado, two versions (colored and uncolored) of my illustration for The Rose Elf. Enjoy.

"...she took the largest flower-pot she could find, and in this she placed the head of the dead man, covered it up with earth, and planted the twig of jasmine in it."

[Copic. Moleskine. 5x8"]

If they look slightly different to you, that's because they are. Neither are scans, they're low-quality photos with skewed perspective. I'd ask which one you prefer, but the point is moot, as the b&w one doesn't exist anymore, having become the color one.

Ole-Luk-Oie

2011-07-10T23:25:00.001-05:00

When I guessed that the next story would not be as sappy as A Rose From Homer's Grave or The Friendship Pact, I must confess, I was not completely in the dark. I'd been reading in my (chronologically arranged, print, Haugaard edition) and peeked ahead enough to see that the next story, The Sandman, looked much more fanciful and interesting than the previous two had been. When I finally did read it (taking a break from Jeff Mudgett's Bloodstains [frightful - not so much for the content as for Mudgett's artless writing and self-indulgent frame story]) I found it to be precisely that, with (when will I learn to expect this?) a dark twist at the end that I somehow failed to see coming.

I haven't been able to carve out much time for this blog at all lately, so recent posts have more or less abandoned my comparative study of different translations. When I opted to read this tale on my Kindle (translated by Anon) for convenience, I noticed that I couldn't find it by searching for "sandman." Further investigation via Wikipedia revealed that the story I sought was actually more commonly known as Ole-Luk-Oie or Ole Lukøje. Indeed, the Kindle edition titles it Ole-Luk-Oie, The Dream God.

Ole-Luk-Oie is interchangeable enough with the figure the English-speaking world calls The Sandman; he sprinkles sand in the eyes of children, making them drift off to sleep, then decides whether or not to bless their sleep with dreams (by the means of magical umbrellas) depending on whether they have been good or bad. At first, I (reluctantly) convinced myself that it didn't do terrible harm to the tale's integrity to call Ole-Luk-Oie "The Sandman" instead. I'm assuming the change was made so that English-speaking readers would not stumble over an unfamiliar and difficult-to-pronounce name when a suitable substitute was so readily available. That excuse, however, only made me wonder why Haugaard would keep the name of the child in the story, Hjalmar, the same, but not Ole's. If you're changing names for the sake of simplicity, why didn't Haugaard just call the kid Bobby or something? Not to mention, just how suitable is this substitution?

I read along and found that the story was largely unaffected by the name-change, that is, up until the end. I'll go ahead and say SPOILER ALERT here, just in case anyone wants to read it for themselves. After telling Hjalmar a week's worth of stories (i.e.: giving him a week's worth of dreams), Ole-Luk-Oie introduces Hjalmar to his brother, who happens to go by the same name, Ole-Luk-Oie. The Kindle edition, earlier on, had revealed that "Luk-Oie" literally means "eye-closer," and while the first Ole closes children's eyes every night when they go to bed, his brother, also known as Death, only closes a particular pair of eyes once. I figured that was reason enough for a translator to have kept the original name intact. It makes sense that the "eye closer" would bring either sleep or death, while, in my experience at least, the popular image of The Sandman dealt exclusively in sleep: harmless, albeit creepy.

While I always thought the idea of the Sandman was a little scary, I'd never heard of him being the brother of Death. Death, the second Ole-Luk-Oie, is a benevolent figure in the story, yet one can't help being just a little creeped out by him. What little research I did (again, going only as far as Wikipedia could take me) mentions nothing about The Sandman being kin to Death, (although the Wikipedia entry relies heavily on Andersen's Ole to flesh out the content). Furthermore, Ole Lukøje is said to actually be Morpheus, the Greek Dream God. Morpheus, in turn, is not specifically cited as being the origin of the Sandman character (except in the Neil Gaiman series). Therefore, they seem to be fairly distinct characters. Why confuse things?

Anywho, I can't resist drawing an umbrella, so here you go.

"But the other umbrella has no pictures, and this he holds over the naughty children so that they sleep heavily, and wake in the morning without having dreamed at all."

[Graphite. Moleskine. 5x8"]

For absolutely no reason I have made Ole's umbrella a Kasa Obake, a spirit I'd researched when I was planning a series of drawings of legendary beasts (since abandoned). Although, maybe it makes more sense than I thought: Ole being an ancient god, his umbrella(s) are bound to be at least one hundred years old.

A Rose From Homer's Grave

2011-06-09T12:45:00.002-05:00

I think I may be reaching the end of Hans Christian Andersen's sappy phase (I don't want to speak to soon, the sappiness very well might return). Anyway, A Rose From Homer's Grave was pretty sappy indeed, but a brief mention of sprawled-out camels inspired this doodle.

Speaking of camels, have you heard THIS??

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Hans Meets Wes

2011-05-16T20:49:00.000-05:00

So, I bet you're wondering, "what's with the goofy title?"

I read The Friendship Pact, a.k.a. The Shepherd's Story of the Bond of Friendship, long, long ago. Probably even before that last *cough*filler*cough* post. It inspired in me a very specific idea for an illustration. So specific, and - dare I say - so grand, was this idea, that I knew I could not (or at least, would not) devote the time and energy toward doing it justice. Thus in the grand tradition of How Sarah Does Shit, I put it off forever and ever until I finally just wound up doing a kind of pared-down, half-assed version of my original, fantastic idea.

Have I overhyped it?

The Friendship Pact - yes, I prefer the shorter title - in short, tells the tale of a guy, (presumably a shepherd, as per the wordy translation of the title - honestly it's been so long since I read it I don't remember whether he was a shepherd or what, but I don't feel like re-reading it now) who has an adopted sister and a best buddy. Stuff happens, the two friends make some elaborate pact of friendship, and in the end, they confess to each other that they are both in love with the shepherd's adopted sister. Upon reading this, a veritable Christmas tree's worth of tiny light bulbs went on in my Wes Anderson-obsessed brain. Of course! It's just like The Royal Tenenbaums! How profound!

Several minutes later, said brain was even heard to exclaim, "Andersen, Anderson; brilliant!!"

The original (and fabulous) plan was to draw the three main characters of the Andersen tale as Richie and Margot Tenenbaum and Eli Cash performing the friendship pact as per the story. Who would've guessed I'd never follow through with that one, eh? So, in the end, I just did a little sketch of Margot and Richie from a screencap. Lame as it may be, I'll still consider it a little homage to one of the best films EVAR, and a little portrait practice. My likenesses pretty much suck. Oh well.
Kudos to moleskine paper for taking all my erasing like a champ.

You're in love with Richie. Which is sick. And gross

Graphite on moleskine.

First Anniversary

2011-02-12T17:58:00.002-06:00

How silly of me. I let the one-year anniversary of my Hans Christian Andersen project go by unnoticed. Honestly, I only just realized it myself. I posted my first illustration for The Tinder Box on 25 January of last year. Since then I've managed to do drawings for an astounding 17 stories (16 within the year from my launch date) - a far cry from doing all 156 of them in a year like I'd sort of hoped at first (even though I knew that was basically impossible). Ah, well - 139 to go. Or, to put it visually:

The Bronze Pig

2011-02-09T18:31:00.001-06:00

I read The Bronze Pig (The Metal Pig, according to older translations, which actually say that the pig was made of brass) some time ago, but have only just gotten around to doing a drawing from it on account of some turbulence in my life. (Speaking of my life, I showed some art this past weekend at Zeitgeitst's Analog Frontiers show - it's up until the end of March, I believe.) Anyway, The Bronze Pig is sort of an art-appreciation story for children. (Maybe I should do a fully illustrated version and pitch it to some publishing houses as such?) The statue of a pig comes to life and escorts a street urchin around Florence, exposing him to such works of art as Michelangelo's David. These adventures inspire the child to devote his life to art, he achieves some success, and - almost as an afterthought to the body of the story - dies. I suppose Andersen at the last regretted not making this tale more morbid, and tacked on that last little detail: that, in death anyway, this young artist gained recognition.
It has become my custom to illustrate specific lines from these stories; the ones I found especially irresistible. I haven't done that this time*, instead I've chosen to depict the scene in which the pig and his young charge gaze in awe upon the statue of David, who - if only in part - was a pleasure to draw. And, what can I say? I heart drawing piggies.

The little boy said not a word; he was half pleased and half afraid.

[Graphite. Moleskine. 5x8"]

* If I were to choose such a delicious line from this story, it may very well be this one: "it is quite a picture to see a half-naked boy clasping the well-formed creature by the head, as he presses his rosy lips against its jaws."

Other Pigs

2011-01-29T03:13:00.002-06:00

What I said previously about the storks was probably a lie. My Avicides idea has been ditched, or at least put on hold indefinitely. I enjoyed reading The Bronze Pig/The Metal Pig, but have not done my illustration yet.

In the meantime, here are the pigs I have been working on:

Avicide

2011-01-17T00:22:00.001-06:00

Avicide (n) the killing of a bird or birds; also, something used to kill birds

It seems everywhere I turn, I find more dead birds.

A simple illustration this time for The Storks, (but with paint this time - how exciting!) because I think there is much, much more to come based on this story.

Peter

[Acrylic + Graphite. Moleskine. 5x5"]

The Flying Trunk

2011-01-11T00:28:00.003-06:00

After reading The Garden of Eden, I flipped a few pages further along and noticed that the next story, The Flying Trunk, was quite short, so I went ahead and read it, too. I did not like it. The tale reaches something of a climax with the main character telling some kind of (allegorical? perhaps just nonsensical) tale about kitchen matches, so I've taken this opportunity to do a little exercise of a still life drawing featuring a jar of burnt-up matches that have been collecting on my kitchen window sill. I've always admired artists who could paint trompe l'oeil pictures of glassware, what with all the reflections and shadows and transparency - it presents quite a challenge. Those things are not easy to draw in pencil, either, but where I really failed with this one is with the shapes. I have a tendency to hold my paper at an angle while I draw, thus making all my shapes look distorted when I hold it up straight. D'oh!
May I present what is probably the most awkward thing I've drawn in recent memory (but I suppose a crap story deserves a crap drawing):

"I feel as if I were really in the kitchen, and could see the matches; yes, you shall marry our daughter.”

[Graphite. Moleskine sketchbook. 5x~3"]

How's that for a caption? Yep, that's how wacky this story was.
Wow, three posts already this year?
Next!

The Garden of Eden

2011-01-10T18:51:00.003-06:00

Haugaard translates the title of this tale as The Garden of Eden. Older translations call it The Garden of Paradise. Either way, I suppose you'd call it a Christian parable about man's inability to resist temptation. I won't dwell on the story; I spent far enough time poring over the illustration. What started as something simple quickly evolved into a fairly intricate and detailed work. I thoroughly enjoyed creating it, in fact, I couldn't put it down.

"Why, frost is my greatest delight."

[Graphite. Moleskine sketchbook. ~6 x 8.25"]

This is the North Wind, personified as one of four brothers who inhabit a cave with their mother. Yes, Andersen manages to weave all that into a story about Eden.
Buttons are the result of residual textile-themed influence from Kirby's Epic Yarn.

The Wild Swans

2011-01-02T17:14:00.001-06:00

Today's offering is The Wild Swans. No time for comparing translations today - I was far too busy drawing boobs.

... and the third snuggled as close to her heart as it could.

Have I mentioned that I'm in love with my Moleskine sketchbook? Graphite flows onto its pages like a velvety dream.

The Steadfast Tin Soldier

2010-12-12T23:12:00.001-06:00

I read the Haugaard translation of Andersen's The Steadfast Tin Soldier (a.k.a. The Brave Tin Soldier), but I have yet to read the older translation. (Though I can tell you right now I prefer the decision to use the word "brave" rather than "steadfast" in a fairy tale / children's story - not because it is a word that children are more likely to know, I just think it's warmer and more evocative of an emotion.) I feel the need to mention this, as this blog has become nearly as much a study of the differences between the older and newer translations as it is a place for my little drawings. As often is the case, the part of the story that screamed out to me to be illustrated was not necessarily a vital part of the story. Nonetheless...

"Have you got a passport? Give me your passport!"

The Daisy

2010-12-10T01:00:00.002-06:00

What can I say about The Daisy? It turned out to be much darker of a tale than I anticipated when I first read the title. A short little story about embracing what pleasures life has to offer while you have the chance. I've been dabbling in digital art of late, so here's my take on The Daisy in a quick digital drawing.

Bewailing its Lost Freedom

Oh, by the way, did I mention that the previously titled Steampunk Taxidermy series is finished? Well, it is, and now I've taken to calling it Unnatural Miscellany, after the late 18th- and early 19th-century publication The Naturalist's Miscellany. The final piece:

∅

Nothing But Meat

2010-11-28T23:53:00.001-06:00

I wrote previously that I had an especially captivating image (in my opinion) selected to illustrate for The Magic Galoshes / The Goloshes of Fortune. I went on to mention that I've been referencing no fewer than three different translations of Andersen in this project, so some discrepancies are to be expected. The image I've chosen to illustrate this time is described thusly by Haugaard and H. P. Paull (translator of the online [public domain 1872] translation I've been referencing), respectively:

"Now he was crawling on his hands and knees through a butcher shop.  Everywhere there was meat and more meat."

"Next he crept on his hands and knees       through an overfilled butcher’s shop; there was meat, nothing but meat,       wherever he stepped..."

I prefer the Paull translation, personally.
Without further ado, here is a sketch I've done based on that line. There is a pretty good chance that this sketch will become a painting or a more finished drawing one of these days, as I am rather fond of it.

Meat, Nothing But Meat

More Steampunk Scans

2010-11-25T00:22:00.000-06:00

Honestly, I'm still not completely thrilled with the quality of these scans, but at least they don't have the glare problem that plague those awful iPhone photos I take so many of.

V.V

XII.II

VIII.XXIX

P.S. - The Raven, probably the final piece in this series, is now complete as well. I have no pictures suitable for posting here yet, but once I've got one, I'll post it.

Some Notes on Galoshes / Goloshes

2010-11-11T18:33:00.002-06:00

In writing my previous post, I thought that "goloshes" looked funny (I could've sworn it was "galoshes"... Hm.) However, both my public domain Kindle translation of Andersen and the online version that I linked to in my post used the "goloshes" spelling, so I left it that way, dismissing my suspicion as a mistake on my part. Earlier on this blog I wrote that I was using the Erik Christian Haugaard translation for this project. For the sake of integrity, I guess I'll come clean now and admit that I've been primarily reading the Kindle version these days for convenience - I love being able to save my little highlights as I go along and then browse through them so easily later. Anyway, when someone else mentioned the bizarre-looking spelling of "goloshes" in my post, I decided to investigate. Pulling my nearly-abandoned Haugaard translation (1974) from the shelf, I found that Haugaard not only uses the "Galoshes" spelling, but has also translated the title as "The Magic Galoshes," not "The Goloshes of Fortune," as so many other translators have done. The foreword of the 1974 volume mentions Haugaard's choice to make the substitution in the effort to be more accurate "in projecting the idea that the galoshes themselves were magic." Okay. That's not a whole lot of information. Wikipedia yielded only that,

"'Goloshes' appears to be the older spelling of galoshes used previously in Great Britain. The spelling perhaps changed around 1920 to the present-day spelling. A discussion took place in November 2007 on the Victoria Web Discussion group."

So that explains why older translations use the 'O' spelling, and the 1974 Haugaard translation uses the more modern 'A' spelling. Exciting stuff. The Victoria Web Discussion Group, incidentally, requires a subscription and login to access their database (and whether or not a subscriber would be able to easily locate an obscure discussion on the word "goloshes" is yet another variable), so there ended my quest.

End the most boring blog post in the history of ever.

Now With More Words Than Pictures!

2010-11-08T23:03:00.002-06:00

As another month has passed me by without progress on the Hans Christian Andersen project, I find myself compelled to readjust the focus of this blog yet again. I suppose one could call it a success; as my mission statement of sorts (back in January) announced that the purpose of giving myself the "assignment" of illustrating Andersen's tales was to somehow trick myself into creating other art. Since August I have been primarily absorbed in working on my Steampunk Taxidermy (working title) series. October saw not only the completion of likely the most complicated piece in the series, but also my very first book cover design, a project I greatly enjoyed working on. Now, a week into November, chilly, dark six o'clocks alleviate some of the guilt I feel for spending entire evenings chained to my desk. Hence, the Raven, next (and largest) of my Steampunk drawings, is well on his way.

This does NOT mean that I am abandoning the Hans Christian Andersen project. Quite on the contrary, I've had a delicious (literally - but that's all I'm telling for now!) image from The Goloshes of Fortune in my mind since July. (Thank you, Kindle, for documenting just how long it has been since I read it...) If you haven't read The Goloshes of Fortune (and you probably haven't), I highly recommend it. While not all the Andersen tales I've read so far have been worthwhile, this one is lengthy, but a delightful read. In fact, I highlighted several lines that I was considering for my illustration before I came across the one that I absolutely had to use. If I haven't convinced you to read it already, maybe these will whet your apetite.

"Their shapes were too graceful, their complexions too delicate, and the cut of their dresses much too elegant. They were two fairies. The younger was not Fortune herself, but the chambermaid of one of Fortune's attendants, who carries about her more trifling gifts."

"In a very few seconds the watchman had travelled more than two hundred thousand miles to the moon, which is formed of a lighter material than our earth, and may be said to be as soft as new fallen snow."

"The materials of which it was built seemed just as soft, and pictured forth cloudy turrets and sail-like terraces, quite transparent, and floating in the thin air."

"The first heart he entered was that of a lady, but he thought he must have got into one of the rooms of an orthopedic institution where plaster casts of deformed limbs were hanging on the walls, with this difference, that the casts in the institution are formed when the patient enters, but here they were formed and preserved after the good people had left. These were casts of the bodily and mental deformities of the lady's female friends carefully preserved."

"Then he entered the heart of this man's wife; it was an old, tumble-down pigeon-house; the husband's portrait served as a weather-cock; it was connected with all the doors, which opened and shut just as the husband's decision turned."

Steampunk-er

2010-10-09T19:11:00.004-05:00

For those of you following along at home, the Frog is finished (except for a minute finishing touch that I can't - for reasons beyond my control - fill in yet). Also in my flickr photostream is a better scan of the Moose.

Two Birds with One Post

2010-09-29T19:46:00.005-05:00

It's high time I posted a proper update to the ol' bliggity-blog. Therefore, having slacked long enough on illustrating The Emperor's New Suit (a.k.a.: The Emperor's New *Clothes*), I took the opportunity to get in some tablet practice while I was at it. The result? Not too shabby, I think - although it's really just a rough sketch - but the tablet (as I may have mentioned) causes me to feel that I am drawing without the use of my dominant hand.

Anyhow, a bit about the drawing itself: I decided that the Emperor should be of a somewhat ambiguous sexuality and clad in his custom royal undies (not invisible themselves), and wearing an expression half-cocky, half-insecure. He's not sure if he's naked or not, but he knows he's the center of attention. It really turned out to be quite a fun figure-drawing exercise. Something I haven't done since college, and miss terribly - it's loads of fun. While I can draw the female form (or a close approximation thereof) entirely out of my head, I require a reference for a man's body. Otherwise, I tend to draw them all shoulders and biceps: lanky and bizarre-looking. This brought me to the problem of finding a suitable reference photo. Googling "naked man" or "man in underwear" is probably unwise, as was my first idea: trolling the Deviant Art stock photos (not recommended). Then it came to me: where is there an abundance of notoriously bad, bordering-on-amateur-softcore-porn photography with a totally gay bent to it? American Apparel, that's where! So that's where I found my source image. This dude even had the expression I was looking for on his face. Score.

How well it fits him!

A note about the panties: Yes, this was the part I was originally excited about drawing; purple undies with little crowns on them. The crown idea didn't work out like I'd planned (probably should have been working with a higher-resolution image) and they metamorphosed into fleurs-de-lis. I'm just as sick of those things as anyone else, but for some reason it worked. I'm sure anyone in NOLA would be clamoring to get their ass into a pair of these.

Side Project

2010-09-17T23:13:00.007-05:00

Actually, this blog is the side project, but to get to the point, I haven't done any H.C.A. drawings recently; mostly because I've been wrapped up in another project that I'm really excited about. I've been working my ass off at it, so I actually have something to show for it. Woot.

Working title: "Steampunk Taxidermy"

XIV.

Another Re-post

2010-08-25T23:58:00.004-05:00

No, I'm not just dragging my feet because it is inevitable that I must draw a naked man for my next tale. I actually have other things going on, and this project is suffering for it. In the meantime, I am uploading a new scan (with crinkly background edited out - sketchbook paper is no substitute for watercolor paper: some obvious wisdom I should have considered when I was working on this drawing) of my Princess and the Pea watercolor from a few months back. Enjoy.

Mermaid II

2010-08-05T23:37:00.003-05:00

I said I'd replace that dark photo of my Little Mermaid drawing with a scan, but it has grown on me, so I'm leaving it where it is and uploading the scan here. Better? Worse? Neutral?

The Little Mermaid

2010-08-02T23:24:00.004-05:00

What can I say about my Little Mermaid drawing? No obscure references this time, just a mermaid... of the little persuasion. I wanted to give her a frilly, fancy goldfish tail. 'Nuff said.
This is a bad photo, taken on impulse immediately following the drawing's completion. I'll most likely replace it with a scan when I get one.

Boobies!

More Travels

2010-07-29T22:56:00.001-05:00

I so enjoyed creating my illustration for The Traveling Companion that I turned it into a painting. I'm quite happy with how it turned out, but the credit should really go to Liquitex Soft Body acrylic, without which this piece would not have been possible.

Next up: The Little Mermaid. Those of you familiar only with the Disney version, feel free to read ahead.

The Naughty Child/The Traveling Companion

2010-06-21T23:45:00.001-05:00

The Naughty Child, while conjuring fantastic images of an aged pedophile taking a drenched and naked child in out of the rain, I was in no particular hurry to illustrate it. In fact, it became something of a roadblock, keeping me from this project for... *gasp*... three months now! For shame.

So I finally scribbled something that is not so much an illustration of the story itself, but kind of a silly reinvention of the iconic "cupid" character.

Sorrow and many a heartache

While I was on a roll, I managed to put down Murakami's Dance Dance Dance long enough to read The Traveling Companion. It inspired no shortage of images that I would love to put on paper - the glass-eyed, handlebar-mustachioed, wooden puppets were awfully tempting - but I couldn't say no to a princess' garden dripping with the skeletons of dead suitors.

It was really a doleful garden for a princess.

Inchelina

2010-03-17T18:23:00.005-05:00

Inchelina, better known as Thumbelina. Drawn entirely on my iPhone with the SketchBook Mobile App.

Oh no! I must have deleted this picture from my flickr account!
I will try to dig it up and re-post it ASAP!

EDIT 1.2.2011: Found her! She was still in the SketchBook App's gallery on my old iPhone.

Something Was Ticking Inside

Deviation

2010-03-11T00:46:00.001-06:00

This is really what this project was for in the first place. Nothing gets my brain thinking about what it really wants to do, or would rather do, than having a specific task to complete. Not wanting to illustrate the next Andersen tale I've got lined up to work on, I managed to eke out this Decemberists-inspired piece.

The Whores And Hounds

I wouldn't go so far as to say it's finished, but it IS more finished than it's ever been before.

Re-Launch

2010-03-09T22:32:00.000-06:00

It seems that I may never finish reading Inchelina (a.k.a. Thumbelina), let alone creating an illustration for it. In the meantime, I've done a watercolor version of my kickoff illustration: the one I did for The Tinderbox. Purple and yellow - Huzzah!

Menacing or Cowering?

Little Ida Is SO Emo

2010-02-11T21:20:00.000-06:00

A normal person, confronted with the task of illustrating Little Ida's Flowers, would surely fill a page with brightly-colored, dancing flowers. I however, am no normal person, and I don't trust my imagination to be able to shake the influence of Disney's Fantasia in attempting such a thing. Surely, this little b&w girl is nothing new or original to anyone who has ever, say, shopped at Hot Topic; but I had fun drawing her anyway.

Why do my flowers look so sad today?

Furthermore, I've noticed a pattern. This must be some element of old Danish folklore: in two out of four stories, a character attempts to revive someone (or something) dead by having them "sleep" a night in someone else's bed. Little Claus tried it with his grandmother, and here, Ida tries it with her flowers. (Spoiler alert: neither of them met with any success; both of their subjects remained dead.)

The Princess And The Pea

2010-02-07T12:28:00.000-06:00

A more familiar story, The Princess and the Pea; and a more successful drawing. And yes, it's been illustrated many times before.

A real princess

Sneak Peek, or Why I'm In Love With Watercolors

2010-02-04T09:13:00.001-06:00

Little Claus and Big Claus

2010-02-02T21:04:00.000-06:00

Playing a bit with watercolors. Not particularly inspired by the demented tale of Little Claus and Big Claus, but here is Little Claus' dead grandmother nonetheless.

Driving To Town With My Grandmother

LAUNCH

2010-01-25T23:11:00.000-06:00

Inspired by blogs like One Drawing For Every Page Of Moby Dick, the fanciful art of May Ann Licudine (and others), and my current preoccupation with fairy tales; I hereby announce a project I am undertaking for 2010 in an effort to stay motivated and be productive (and fun isn't bad either). I endeavor to create an illustration for each of Hans Christian Andersen's stories - some 156 in number - hopefully by the end of the year.
To what extent the illustrations will be fully finished pieces of art is as of yet uncertain. It is likely that the degrees of "finishedness" will vary greatly, from crude pencil sketches/doodles (I am rather fond of what Matt Kish is doing with found paper lately) to full color illustrations. Who knows? Some may graduate into actual paintings once my *studio* is fully functional.

As for now, I present my first interpretation; one for Andersen's The Tinderbox.

Eyes As Big As Teacups

Note: For those interested, my source is the translation by Erik Christian Haugaard; not necessarily the same as linked above.

Creativity Continues To Elude Me...

2009-10-09T15:47:00.000-05:00

I started working on an owl drawing, but digital media does little for me these days. I'll probably never finish it. As much as I loathe the mess (especially in the confines of my tiny home), I still long for the physicality of a tangible medium. I'm not ready to haul the paint out again any time soon, but I have been doing a bit with some gel pens (circa 2000 - I'm amazed any of them still write), but I doubt I'll be able to elevate something best left to junior high girls' notebooks to the status of high art.

Ponyo

2009-08-20T13:02:00.000-05:00

Nothing but good mail today! No bills: just a lovely postcard from Taiwan. A welcome, pleasant surprise after waking up to ants biting me in my bed at midnight. I think they're seeking revenge after my attempts to boil them out of their mulch-pile home by invading mine.
Again, I've neglected this blog for some time and I think all the things I have to say should probably be broken up into more than one post. Right now I'll stick with my brief (and likely incomplete) review of Ponyo, as we went to see it over the weekend and I still find myself somewhat preoccupied with it. I don't like to review things, really. Maybe it's because I think my opinions are somehow invalid because I don't like to think about things (especially movies) too deeply. I've looked at art from a scholarly perspective long enough to be totally cynical and I think I've looped back around to a rather "that's a purty picture" mindset. But, this particular movie is still on my mind, so here goes.
For the most part, the story was sort of predictable and unoriginal, borrowing heavily from Hans Christian Andersen's Little Mermaid. Not that that's a problem, mind you, but we left the theatre with Rebecca kvetching about the plot, or lack thereof, and anticipating that the story would be somehow more developed in the Japanese dialogue version (unfortunately, only one theatre in the area was showing the movie at all, and it was dubbed. Boo. But kudos to Liam Neeson - he was really very entertaining.) Rebecca may be right about that, and we'll see when the DVD comes out, but frankly, I don't care. I don't watch Miyazaki movies for the stories. I find that they're usually just a tenuous framework to build a lush, magical world filled with endearing characters around - and THAT is why I love his films. They leave me yearning to make my little world somehow more magical in the simple and decidedly Japanese way that his worlds always are, and in that aspect, Ponyo did not disappoint. I was a little surprised to see the slight deviation in style towards washy, looser backgrounds (rather than the very tight ones in Howl's Moving Castle or Spirited Away - did he do this in Totoro? I'll have to check.) And the chicken feet - and hands - were a bit weird. But really, what could be more magical than a little house on a hill by the sea? It also left me with quite a hankering for ramen and ham. So now you see why I don't write reviews. All in all, it's worth seeing. Especially after sitting through Transformers 2. Ugh.
I think I'll have that ramen now.

Wednesday

2009-07-15T10:15:00.000-05:00

So, I sort of ran out of momentum on the house-cleaning project. Never could get up the nerve to tackle the spare room... And in the meantime I've been working on a poster for the upcoming Jeff Buckley extravaganza (or so I'm calling it as I have yet to get a firm title from the Columbia Records people).
Working without a title does make things tricky, but since the event is less than a month away, I thought I should get to work ASAP with or without full details. The goal is to get everything else done today so whenever I get the go ahead to start putting letters in there I can hastily finish it up. Hopefully whatever text has to go in there fits in the spaces I've allowed.

The band played at Marina del Ray over the weekend, and I used to opportunity to experiment with the new camera. It isn't fabulous, but it takes better pictures than my iPhone. Maybe I should have gone with the Sony Whatever-Shot that I was considering, but decided against because it didn't have as much zoom.

The guys are playing again tonight at Cate Street Pub in Hammond and on the 31st at One-Eyed Jacks. If you're in the area, come out!

Long-Awaited

2009-07-07T15:45:00.000-05:00

For years I've wanted a real digital camera. I really had my eye on one of those fancy schmancy DSLRs or what have you, but I figured I'd never be able to afford/feel worthy of them, so I finally went ahead and spent some of the $$ my dad sent me for my birthday and got a Nikon Coolpix L100. I suppose it's what you might call "mid-range": bigger than a credit card, 10 mpx, 15x optical zoom. That's all I really need to take pictures of the dog, anyway. I still have a lot of figuring out to do (why do all cameras shoot JPG format? JPGs are for the internet!)

Following Through

2009-06-29T22:24:00.000-05:00

My guess is that no one really reads this, but that's okay. I do not have delusions that tons of interweb lurkers are clamoring to read the pointless little tidbits I post about my mundane life. You see, this blog is more a motivational tool than anything else. If I write about something I intend to do, there is a far greater chance of my actually doing it than if I just make a mental note of it on my imaginary "to do" list (and then promptly forget about it, blow it off, or talk myself out of it). If I can convince myself that somehow, some way, I'll be letting my little imaginary online followers down by failing to do something I've written about, I'm much more inclined to follow through. As for today, however, I'm only reporting on things I've already done.

So, as promised, I shall proceed to post about the fantastic rearranging of the bedroom!

Having eliminated the desk that never quite fit, I was able to move the bed back to a more appropriate spot. The small dresser came out from behind the door (now it opens all the way!), and I gave (my side of) the closet a much-needed overhaul.shame on me for not having done this sooner

Today, Albert and I spent the afternoon together across the lake before my evening class. We walked down Magazine Street and got him some bitchin Richard-Simmons-esque sweatbands at American Apparel and checked out a music shop where he drooled over some amp or another. I also picked up some regionally relevant postcards for Postcrossing (I'm sure the good people of Finland have grown weary of receiving my handmade cards).

Summer Cleaning

2009-06-26T12:33:00.000-05:00

Although I started my Spring Cleaning while it was still actually spring, it seems to have spilled over into the summer. The goal has been to eliminate as much stuff as possible (fiercely), and to make the house feel neat, organized, and comfortable. A tall order, indeed, for someone who lives in a trailer. Anyway, things really started coming together last night when we realized that, having been liberated from the CABLE, we could finally move the T.V., thus allowing for glorious rearranging of the entire living room (with the exception of the giant sofa that can really only go in one spot).
I brought my little desk back out from where it had languished in the bedroom (for some reason I thought I'd get more work done if the desk was tucked away - not true, it turned out), and now my computer has a home! Just because it's a laptop shouldn't mean that it has to be a nomad, constantly roaming from the sofa to the ottoman to the kitchen table, etc. We finally took the wood glue to our crappy LACK coffee table and now it doesn't wobble anymore, nor is it sunk down in the corner next to the big sofa that is much too tall to render the table useful as anything except a hiding spot for the dog. Now it is by the door - a place for the phone (which needs replacing, but oh well), the modem, and our shoes which were previously strewn about the entryway all the time. Furthermore, the little bookshelf that used to be by the door was emptied of the handful of books and random stuff it used to hold, and now serves as a much needed annex to the DVD/game collection. Now, if I can just find permanent homes for all the things I've displaced... Onward to the bedroom!

Cooking Overload

2009-03-21T00:14:00.000-05:00

...but no real dinner.
I knew that today was destined to be grocery day, but I did not suspect it would be a cooking day. I'd been waiting for the opportunity to try out this recipe for stove-top whole wheat pitas that Carly sent me, then when I saw a link to an orange cake with an improbable name in one of my favorite blogs, I knew my fate was sealed and I'd be spending the afternoon wearing a light (or not so light) dusting of flour (three kinds, no less!). And of course, since pitas require hummus, I put on a pot of (unsoaked - eep!) chickpeas for what turned out to be a batch of half-assed hummus. (I should note that my hummus recipe also comes from the aforementioned blog; the half-assed version entails not bothering to pick out any of the little chickpea skins and using the reconstituted lemon juice in the little plastic lemon instead of squeezing fresh lemons). In spite of my failure to soak the beans beforehand (therefore cooking them aaall daaay) and my two other short cuts (and one screw-up), the hummus came out pretty good, albiet a little tahini-y.
So, I thought I'd finish the painting today, but apparently I was more interested in working with flour and sticky stuff than acrylics. Tomorrow is class in the morning and apparently screen-printing in the afternoon, so I guess it's on hold for now. I'm quite anxious to get it done at this point - and also very proud of myself for really pushing myself to do a real painting from start to finish without a deadline or some other imposed obligation hanging over my head.

Stampede!

2009-03-19T12:47:00.001-05:00

I can't believe I rounded up this herd of 25+ My Little Ponies in my early childhood. Sorry guys, it's ebay for you now! Maybe you can make some 80s kitsch collector very happy.

If I Blog It, Will I Do It?

2009-03-02T14:27:00.000-06:00

I just can't seem to get going. Being out of work has made me feel increasingly worthless and sluggish with each passing day. As of last Friday night, I had a grand scheme to be set in motion the following Monday (TODAY), but alas, I have done naught but study, surf the web, and finish a sock.

So I started thinking that maybe if I lay out my plan (tiny as it may be) here, I'll be more compelled to get to it.

1) Go to the DMV and get a driver's license with my correct address for once, so as to lend myself some sense of legitimacy for when I:
2) Go down to the high school to sign on as a substitute teacher. I really need some kind of employment; stable or not.

Although it may not seem like a monumental task, I can't seem to motivate myself to get started. Maybe tomorrow.

Yay for Socks

2009-02-27T21:43:00.000-06:00

Just finished my Baudelaire socks!

These were a lot of fun, and the first thing I made with my KnitPicks Essential Sampler that Albert gave me for Christmas. I think I'll wear them tomorrow, though I really wish I had better shoes to wear them with. Right now my DC flats are the only shoes I have that really work with handmade socks, so they'll have to do for now.

These being finished, I'm ready to start another pair of socks RIGHT NOW. There's just something about socks.

I've also been working on a painting. It's good to get back to my roots.

It's Been A While

2009-02-19T11:45:00.000-06:00

I haven't really wanted to blog about what has been going on with me lately because it's been tough making peace with some decisions I've made. Law school (as I should have foreseen, and probably did but didn't admit) was not for me, and despite totally decent grades and a good likelihood of keeping my scholarship, I quit. I now find myself without a steady job, taking the occasional class toward paralegal certification (which I missed altogether this morning because I overslept), painting, knitting, cooking, and playing too much Beautiful Katamari.

Mango Tree!

2008-09-12T18:30:00.000-05:00

I've been sprouting mango seeds this summer, and my first baby tree has sprouted! I was so excited that it had actually emerged from the dirt at all (me having a very bad history with botany), but even more so that it looked just like a little baby mango tree. If all goes well, we will be feasting on home-grown mangoes in 7-8 short years!I couldn't get a great picture, but I thought this one was cute because Jack is taking a peek.

A Resolution

2008-09-08T08:20:00.000-05:00

It has occurred to me that the harder I try to do nothing but study, the more I end up doing nothing at all. I have been mortified to find myself spending mind-numbing hours in front of the television and eating more than I'd like to - something I tend to do when I'm procrastinating.
Therefore, I hereby resolve to drag the knitting back out (having packed it away at the start of the semester) and to devote a substantial amount of time to reveling in its yarn-y goodness. I feel better just thinking about it. As it stands, Angel's earflap hat remains unfinished, temporarily lagged by some confusion with the i-cord trim, and my Hedera socks are stuck in SSS limbo. Additionally, I have since queued this fabulous, albeit mind-boggling, Entrelac Cube.
And to think, I wasted a whole week of hurricane vacation
(or "hurri-cation" as the locals have taken to saying) agonizing over homework that never got done instead of knitting. For shame!
I did however, senselessly evacuate to Dallas. At least Jack had a good time.

Day One

2008-08-01T08:55:00.000-05:00

August 1, 2008: The first day of my week of freedom between full-time employment and leaping blindly into the mysterious world of law school. Yesterday being my last day, we had lunch at La Caretta, where I had some amazing ceviche, and I was showered with very sweet and totally unexpected gifts (see: Totoro).
It kind of feels weird having my last day be a Thursday - my nagging need for closure keeps insisting that I finish the week - but seeing as how my first day of orientation is next Friday, it's only fair that I take a good, solid week off. There are SO many things I have been planning to get done this week that I'm sure I won't get around to half of them, but it's way too early in the week (and the morning) to worry about that. Right now I just need to concentrate on willing the rain away so I can float in the pool today. I'd really feel better about everything if my car was home and well, but as it is, it is sick and away. In seven years it's never had any problems, but I guess it's finally starting to show its age. So I guess I had it in my head that some blogging about all the nonsense zooming through my little brain would be somehow therapeutic, alas, it has only made me dwell upon all these little loose ends that are bugging me. Maybe I'll make some brownies.

Isabella

2008-06-05T23:01:00.000-05:00

I just finished the Isabella top I've been working on since March. I'm not all that thrilled with it; kind of short, kind of... vest-y. But I think I'll wear it.

Berry Blue

2008-04-27T20:04:00.002-05:00

I just took my first stab at dyeing! Two big skeins of Knitpicks Bare dyed with delicious Berry Blue Kool-Aid as per this tutorial I found on Knitty.com. I was pretty impressed with how easy it was and how well it came out, especially considering the fact that it's Kool-Aid and that my yarn was superwash - i.e., not 100% wool, but a 75/25 wool/nylon blend, which the tutorial warns against. The color is kind of uneven, but that's pretty much what you can expect from hand-dyed yarn. It just sucked up all the color as soon as I threw it in; no time to swish it around and try to get the color to soak up evenly.

All in all, more fun and less messy than anticipated. The hard part now is waiting for it to dry! I plan to use it to start knitting this as soon as possible.
I've also finished my fantabulous Rhiannon Socks and my Katamari...

^_^

...aaand we got MarioKart Wii at midnight last night. I honestly couldn't imagine how they were going to make Rainbow Road harder than in Double Dash - but they did.

Royal Rainbow!

2008-03-27T19:37:00.000-05:00

I thought that I couldn't wait to start working on this, but now I want to play We Love Katamari so much that I've gotta get my fix before I start. Rumor has it that a Wii version of Beautiful Katamari is due out in November, and - check this out - it's even listed on Amazon.com, although it is listed as, "Currently unavailable. We don't know when or if this item will be back in stock." Mmkay.

Two Fine Mondays

2008-03-24T19:46:00.000-05:00

Albert called me this morning to tell me that Eddie Izzard is doing a show in Dallas and we had to go. Much to my shock, awe, and glee, there are to be two shows, one of which is next Monday. I wasted no time in ordering our tickets. How awesome.

Extra awesome, I managed to finish sock #1 today. Alas, I fear that with the warming weather, Second Sock Syndrome may be setting in. I am NOT looking forward to doing that big cable set-up row again, but I am looking forward to wearing my kickass new socks.

In addition, I took this sweet picture of a little tree, probably not long for this world, but cute nonetheless. I have been seeing it for days and wanting to photograph it, but was waiting until the weekend when I'd be able to shoot it in better light (morning sun). But as I passed it today and saw that the nearby structure was in the process of being disassembled, I figured I should seize the moment and take its picture before it goes down as well.

The Week Nothing Happened

2008-03-16T23:45:00.000-05:00

Having spent the past week fighting off the cold that wouldn't die, I have been sitting home dwelling on the numerous problems with sitting home: namely my oven-like living room, having many windows, none of which are adequately covered, and the always loathsome daytime t.v. The former I managed to tolerate by means of alternately cranking the a/c and diving under blankets in an attempt to achieve some kind of balance, but afflicted with feverish symptoms, I had little luck. The latter led me to concoct the theory that daytime television was perhaps invented to punish the unemployed and somehow scold them into getting jobs so as to avoid watching things like Judge Judy, ancient re-runs of Full House, and a seemingly endless string (regardless of what channel one watches) of commercials for debt consolidation and lawyers who claim their services will result in cash materializing out of thin air because you deserve it. Oh, and weight-loss gimmicks of all kinds. Enough fatness-related advertising to give anyone an eating disorder. Of course, I have basic cable. Really basic. I guess, by today's standards anyway - just shy of 80 channels and NONE suitable for viewing before six in the evening.

That being said, I'm not much of a t.v. viewer. I'm more of a t.v. listener, while knitting or somehow occupying my hands with something; i.e.: my Nintendo DS. So while The Forensic Files or That Generic Hitler Show* droned on in the background, I spent most of my time - that is, the time that I could focus on something that small without feeling nauseous - working on my fabulous (though still singular) sock.
All I really have left to work is a couple more inches of foot and then the toe, but I've kind of blown off working on it all weekend, opting to frolic (well, not quite - maybe walk the dog, rather) in the pleasant weather and go on a shorts-buying spree (the sickness must have gotten to my brain). But, I'm sure my return to work tomorrow will make the prospect of sock-knitting seem exciting as ever by comparison.

*That Generic Hitler Show, though it should be, is not an actual show. It's just the name I've given for the many interchangeable, 30-minute segments of Nazi-related nonsense the History Channel churns out by the millions.

Friday Night

2008-01-19T21:18:00.001-06:00

IMG_0341
Originally uploaded by treaty_of_paris

It rained. It was cold. Nobody came. Rock on, boys.

I am SUCH a Snob.

2007-11-15T18:02:00.000-06:00

Doesn't anybody pay attention to etiquette anymore? I myself happen to own a copy of "Miss Manners' Guide to..." well, to something. And it's probably a 1973 printing or something that I found at the used bookstore and picked up for a laugh. I guess that's beside the point. I just received in the mail an invite to a baby shower for a couple with whom I am just barely acquainted. The father-to-be is the son of a friend of my dad, and I scarcely know him, let alone like him. Not to mention the aforementioned soiree is in some remote area of Mississippi and it just goes without saying that I won't attend, therefore making it so blatantly clear that the invite is not so much an invite as a gift request. Especially since the envelope contained not only a first-grade-birthday-party-style Precious Moments invitation, but a bar-code bearing printout declaring that the couple had the frugal good sense to register at Wal-Mart.

What? No shipping address?

I guess this makes me pretty awful. I know that gift registries are so totally the norm, but they just rub me the wrong way. If I really wanted to skip the sincere, thoughtful act of actually selecting a gift for you (rather than just shelling out the cash for something you'd already picked out for yourself) I'd just buy you a gift card. I'm not crazy about those either, but they're not entirely outside my realm of appropriate gift-giving. The sad part is, if they'd just sent an announcement that they were expecting, I'd probably be touched that they thought of me and eager to start knitting them a gift (shower or not - I heart knitting baby things!). Instead I'm annoyed and resentful. Argh.

And A New Scarf As Well

2007-11-13T18:17:00.000-06:00

Yes, we are in the midst of yet another move. Yes, I really should be packing or cleaning or contact-papering cabinets or something. But entrelac is something I've been wanting to dig my knitterly teeth into for some time now, and when I fell into a serious funk at the end of last week it seemed that the time was ripe to time-out for some serious knitting therapy and tackle this fabulous scarf.

As is my habit, I had to add an extra level of pain-in-the-ass to the project by using four colors instead of the suggested two with a dash of a third, so I've got about a million ends to weave in - I'm trying to do them as I go so I don't get stuck doing them all at the end - but I think it's coming along pretty well.

A New Blog for a New Year

2007-11-13T18:02:00.000-06:00

Seeing as how 2007 has been the most eye-opening, heart-wrenching, and otherwise life-changing year of my life to date, I thought it fit to start a new blog for the new year and (dare I say it?) the new me that may very well be emerging. Yes, I know I said that old LiveJournal of mine was to be converted into a knitting blog (and even before that, a cooking blog) - and I suppose it still could; anything's possible - but I guess I never much cared for LiveJournal as a whole with that whole "community feel" it has going on - a community I never really felt too in touch with, really.

So here goes! A shiny new place for some shiny new stuff. Creative endeavors, the occasional news and goings-on, and of course, plenty of pictures of the ever-handsome Calico Jack for all his lady-fans.