Carver McCarvington

First, a gift, from my wonderful husband =]

After we spent the weekend dragging the kids around in the pouring rain, looking for this carving block, he just happened to stumble upon it in a shop next door to the brewing shop he frequents. He surprised me at work with the Mastercarve the Speedball linocutter, and a set of blades (they store inside the handle!).

I haven't yet cut into the Mastercarve.

I have, however, cut into these Alvin Jumbo White Vinyl erasers. I have carved a few things from these; they work very well, are much larger than the Staedtler Mars erasers I had been using.

Birdy: The outline is carved into one side of the eraser, the "filling" is carved into the other side of the eraser. I don't actually intend to use them together. Sometimes I just want an outline, sometimes I want a filled shape.


Castle: I had drawn this several weeks ago, and am so pleased that I found an eraser large enough to carve it up =]


Finally, for a couple non-Carver McCarvington related things:

Marble Kitty...he's called that because I used marbles to weigh down his bottom X]


Bright Flight ATC. I finally had a good reason to use my Prismacolor colorless blender pencil ;) This is all hand drawn and colored with my Prismacolor pencils. I love using them, but my drawing inspiration has been limited lately *sigh*

I've got to make something for a swap....A handmade gift for my partner. My partner is a quilter. What can I hand-make for a quilter that she doesn't already have? =X I'm thinking I might make another Marble Kitty. Quilters like kitties, right? Geeze, you'd think I wouldn't have such a hard time with this, considering who my mom is! XD

I've also got 12 more ATCs to finish by 4pm Thursday. I'm not too horribly worried about that, although there are a couple of the themes I am having a hard time with. I'm not a big celeb-follower, so the famous person theme is giving me trouble. Likewise, I do not know what to do for the magazine theme. Should it be an ATC that looks like a magazine, or an ATC utilizing parts of a magazine? =X

Bah, I'll go work on the ones I can finish up today, and spend tomorrow on the tough stuff ;)

The cat says, "Meow!"

I drew and carved these three stamps while at work on a particularly slow Monday night (Jan 21).



They are carved with a standard Xacto knife, from 2 Stanford Magic Rub erasers. This is a new eraser for me, and I do not like it as much as I love the Staedtler Mars erasers, but I like it better than the Pink Pearl erasers. The Magic Rub erasers have a lot of bubbles in them, and are not quite as soft as the Mars erasers.

The kitty cat was made at the request of my husband, and I am so happy with it! I already have some nifty ideas for him =]

The lightbulb came from me trying to think of things that started with the letter L. It was the simplest of these three carvings.

The cupcake is one I have been meaning to do for a while. I'm not on the "OMGZ I LOVE CUPCAKES!!" bandwagon, but I knew that I would be able to use this in many ATCs. It was a total pain the the ass to carve X]

Shot in the Art

Lying in bed would be an altogether perfect and supreme experience if only one had a colored pencil long enough to draw on the ceiling.  ~G.K. Chesterton

Artists can color the sky red because they know it's blue.  Those of us who aren't artists must color things the way they really are or people might think we're stupid.  ~Jules Feiffer

Listen carefully to first criticisms made of your work.  Note just what it is about your work that critics don't like - then cultivate it.  That's the only part of your work that's individual and worth keeping.  ~Jean Cocteau

Art is spirituality in drag.  ~Jennifer Yane

Great art is as irrational as great music.  It is mad with its own loveliness.  ~George Jean Nathan, House of Satan

Everything in creation has its appointed painter or poet and remains in bondage like the princess in the fairy tale 'til its appropriate liberator comes to set it free.  ~Ralph Waldo Emerson

The buttocks are the most aesthetically pleasing part of the body because they are non-functional.  Although they conceal an essential orifice, these pointless globes are as near as the human form can ever come to abstract art.  ~Kenneth Tynan


The artist is the opposite of the politically minded individual, the opposite of the reformer, the opposite of the idealist.  The artist does not tinker with the universe, he recreates it out of his own experience and understanding of life.  ~Henry Miller




No great artist ever sees things as they really are.  If he did, he would cease to be an artist.  ~Oscar Wilde

Very few people possess true artistic ability.  It is therefore both unseemly and unproductive to irritate the situation by making an effort.  If you have a burning, restless urge to write or paint, simply eat something sweet and the feeling will pass.  ~Fran Lebowitz

An artist cannot fail; it is a success to be one.  ~Charles Horton Cooley




Every creator painfully experiences the chasm between his inner vision and its ultimate expression.  ~Isaac Bashevis Singer

Art is the only way to run away without leaving home.  ~Twyla Tharp

Every artist dips his brush in his own soul, and paints his own nature into his pictures.  ~Henry Ward Beecher




Creativity is allowing yourself to make mistakes.  Art is knowing which ones to keep.  ~Scott Adams

10 Things I Don't Have to Hate About You Anymore

What a sad, sad day.

Heath Ledger was found dead this afternoon.

*sniffle*

Hard at work?

Warning: there will likely be a lot of swearing and obscenities in this post.

I love my job. I love the people that come into my bar. It's like one big family.

You know what happens in big families? You get a loser that everyone loves because they have to, but no one can fucking stand for more than 5 minutes. You get the one that thinks they are the glue holding everything together, and is so sensitive, you hear the eggshells cracking before you even get your foot in the door. You have the successful one, who is so damn full of themselves, you have to rent a separate room for their ego.

There is more gossip and drama than I remember having in high school. Everyone hates whoever is not in the room at the moment. Everyone loves whoever is in the room at the moment.

Trust no one.

I don't have a lot of work experience, to be honest. But, really, is it asking that much that we act like, oh....I don't know....ADULTS?! Can we please take responsibility for our actions? Am I the only fucking person on Earth that realizes that it's not always someone else's fault??

Another bartender I work with came in after closing a few days back, and decided to stay after I left, assuring me that she wasn't drinking, and would lock up. OKay, fine. She trained me, she's worked here 5 years, she knows what she's doing. A customer that was on his way home,, but still in the parking lot, warns me that I can't let her stay by herself, and that he was going to call the boss man if I didn't do something about it. WTF? Am I supposed to drag her out of the bar? Alright, whatever, I go back in, and talk to her. I ask her if I could get in trouble for letting her stay, asked if she could get in trouble for being there, etc. She assured me that all was well, that the OTHER bartender that works with us did that all the time, and she even offered to call the boss man herself. I was appeased. After all, she's the one they appointed to train me, right?

So, on the way home, I had to drop off the keys to that Other Bartender. She asked if I locked up, and all, and I told her about the co-worker that stayed behind. It was so minor to me at that point, because I was convinced that there was no problem with it. Other Bartender kinda flips a little, and by this point, I am freaking exhausted. Seriously, I got about 4 hours of sleep the night before, and spent 8 hours running around on my feet. So, Charles and I go out to dinner, and swing by the bar afterwards to see if there are still people there. There are. I called the boss's wife, who I am friends with. She says don't worry, she'll talk to the boss man, and make sure it all gets smoothed over.

Well, this Other Bartender takes it upon herself to tell everyone else over the next few days about the one that stayed late after closing. So, now, my FRIEND, who happens to work with me, is PISSED OFF, thinking I called the boss and ratted her out.


.....


Are you serious? I spent almost two hours trying to convince her that I wasn't tattling, because she had convinced me that she wasn't doing anything wrong. Now I've lost two great friends (her + her boyfriend). I had considered them my best friends in this whole damn city!

I'm so fed up with this job, and it's constant gossip and ass-kissing. I feel like I'm being taken advantage of at every turn, I can't trust ANYONE. Shit, the only reason I got a job was to make some friends, and now I don't even think I have the energy to keep them!

Yeah yeah, I know, if she were a real friend, she wouldn't have put me in that situation. Hell, if she had asked me not to tell anyone, I wouldn't have. I knew she wasn't drinking from the bar, or taking anything. She wasn't drinking at the bar, she wasn't having people over. She was just relaxing, listening to music, because she didn't want to wake her sleeping roommate.

Ugh. I'm sick to my stomach -_-

Artsy Fartsy

I have nothing new, except a few ATCs. I sent out 4 ATCs this morning, and I forgot to take pictures of them (DOH!). I am really proud of them, too =/
I have been working on a set of 20 ATCs for a challenge over at Swap-bot. Each ATC has a different (predetermined) theme. It is rather challenging!

Here's what I've got so far:


The themes are (clockwise): Hearts, My Favorite Hobby, Superhero, and Blue.

Yeah, I know, I've completed the easiest themes *sigh*

I'm not very pleased with the Blue one, but I think that has more to do with the fact that my husband mentioned that it looked very busy. I was pretty happy with it before he said that, lol. I have several other ideas for that theme, however, so if I have time (HA!), I may do that one up again.

My Favorite Hobby is sewing for my children. The background is text from The Frog Prince. I love this card X] The dress is adapted from a pattern in this book, by Alicia Paulson. It's made of wool felt, cotton calico, and some random embellishments. The pink swirlies on the background were made with the first eraser stamp I ever carved. This is the first time I have actually used it, too! *squeeeee!*

The Hearts card is something I've doodled since I was a young teenager. I just did it up all fartsy with metallic gel pens on black cardstock. *LOVE* this one =]

Black Cat is a Marvel super villain that got busy with Spiderman several years ago. She's always been my favorite mainstream comic book character, and I figured she was superhero-related enough for the Superhero theme. Hand-drawn from a reference, inked with black and white permanent markers. The edges are inked with a black ink pad (loving this technique, now that I have figured it out!). I dunno, does it need more? I've been going back and forth on it. Maybe some glitter, or something ~.^

That's all for now. I've got the kids down this weekend, and I took the weekend off so I could spend lots of time with them. Charles is on leave until Tuesday, and we're going to go shoot off the baking soda & vinegar rocket we built today! Ooh, I should get pictures of it before we destroy it, hehe. Self, thank you for reeminding me! You're very welcome, Self.

I should sleep more

OMFG

The pizza was cold, the toppings are wrong, and the driver didn't even say thank you when I tipped him! He didn't even offer me my change!

This is enough to convince me to change pizza places ~>=O

And, seriously, I ordered grilled chicken, and they mistook it for garlic. GRILLED CHICKEN vs. GARLIC. That boggles my mind *sigh*

When it rains, it pours

My computer is back in the shop, for the 3rd time in the past 6 months =[ I should get it back around the end of next week.

My husband was kind enough to share the stomach flu with me, so I haven't been sleeping hardly at all the past couple nights. I'm so incredibly nauseated; I'm seriously considering just moving into the bathroom >_<

Then there's the rain.....ah, yes, the rain the wind, the trees falling all over the place. The little trickle of a creek in our backyard is a good 4ft deep now,a nd has somehow created it's own little waterfall. I was supposed to go pick up the kids today, but there are highways closed all over the place, and I'm sick....there's no way I could make it over the hill in one piece ;_; Charles said he may go pick them up later tonight, when he gets off work. Idk, I miss them so much during the week, but I know it wouldn't be fair to expose them to this stomach flu. Charles is still sick; he needs to go fill the prescription his doc gave him two days ago! Hell, idc if he takes the anti-nausea pills, I want them! hehe

Ugh, I'm so scatterbrained =[

This storm is so weird; we're getting 1-2" of rain an HOUR, and winds over 60mph...but there is no lightning or thunder! What a rip-off!

I ordered a pizza, so I can get something in my stomach (maybe it will help settle it?). I hate tipping the pizza delivery guy, because they already tack on a delivery charge of almost $3...but, I might throw an extra buck or two at him today, for driving out in this weather. The website says my pizza was boxed, and placed on teh rack to be delivered over 20mins ago, though; the pizza place is only about half mile away. I hate getting cold pizza ~.^