A Good Movie With A Side Of Snow

Well my friends, the year is nearly over. And what a year it's been! Lots of new leaps have been made, with many more yet to come. I'm so excited for the new year and what lies ahead (I have quite a few surprises to show you!), and of course, I am so terribly thankful for all the love and support from all of you. It's pretty mindblowing--I'm a lucky, lucky gal indeed.

My Christmas was splendid and I hope all of you enjoyed (or are continuing to enjoy) your holidays! Living in the Pacific Northwest, my holiday was spent under a foot and a half of snow after a week and a half of snow and ice storms.It's a rare occurrence for us to get so much snow in such a short period of time, and the cities definitely showed the unpreparedness of it all...but I really enjoyed just staying home and being completely shut-off from the rest of the world.When I opened the backdoor, this is the ominous view my cat was confronted with: The snow is practically all melted now (a big benefit to living around these parts), though there's still a few lingering cat tracks... Nothing beats watching a good film while the snow comes tumbling down. I received a copy of The Fall (at last, at last!) and I must say, it is by far the best film I've seen in the past year or more. And has made it head-first onto my "Artistic Inspiration Movie" list. I absolutely loved every minute of it... The shots, the colors, the *costumes*...sigh. It really is a beautiful, enchanting, heartbreaking, and dreamy movie. And almost no CGI effects--which is a feat all in itself.

My favorite character is Charles Darwin (of course!) and his costume is so, so perfectly insane and amazing. I mean--look at those boots! And that coat! Damn.

I hope you all have a fabulous New Year's! I'll see you loves in 2009...

A Pinch of Gothic-y Goodness

Hello, hello!

How's everyone doing? Are you all surviving December? I'm taking a little "lull" in art production to focus on what I love best about this time of year: spending lots of time with friends and family, cozying up under blankets with a good book and hot cup of coffee or cocoa, working on "nesting" projects (*cough* finish quilt *cough*), and doing lots of crafty-holiday-creating (baking, making paper decorative thingies, setting up the tree, etc).

This isn't to say I'm not painting...just slowing down a tad to enjoy the end of the year. I actually hope to have a few more original paintings listed in the online shop over the weekend (barring, of course, the natural light--which has been a little pathetic as of late for picture taking).

I have some sharing to do as well! This is a painting finally completed a few weeks prior:

"Bats Loom Among Us" acrylic on hardboard, 16x20"

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It's really big. I never paint this large and struggled with this one as a result. The sketch has been in my book for a year now, and I started planning the painting months ago...before I got overwhelmed with the size. It just couldn't be done any smaller. I'm happy with it, but will be more happy when I can find a good frame for it. I'll be frame hunting next month and have plans on putting it in the spring show I have set up.

Also, since it is December and all, I finally made my two "unusual" ornament purchases for the season. I collect odd and unusual ornaments, with a focus on handmade ones, and like to splurge on a couple every year for the collection.


First, I saw and fell hard for this typewriter one from Sundance.com:
It's so perfect. So utterly perfect. And I just got it in the mail today! A swell addition (I'll definitely vouch for the quality of glass ornaments through Sundance--the details on this are amazing).

And brace yourself for this bit of awesomeness:
!!! I lucked out in scoring this one from timberps.etsy.com (picture above from Timber). Words cannot describe how insanely cool I think this ornament is. And the heads even *move*! My tree this year has a bizarre story-like feel to it--lots of black and white ornaments of early 1900s men, sea critters, gnomes, typewriters, felt keys... I'll post pictures here real soon so you can all see what I mean.

Alright, kids. My poor unfinished quilt is calling my name, despite the desperate pleas from my sore fingers. And snow is a'coming...

Keep warm, cuddle your pets, and drink lots of tea!