Twilight review

Here is my Twilight review.





Making fun of this book isn't really useful or necessary. The people who like it really, really like it. No changing their minds. I just thought it was weak.
My short list of its weak-ness:
-Teenagers are boring. You were boring, I was boring. They go to school and care about dances and tests.
-Main characters are not equal. He is a super-hot, 80 year old, rich vampire who can read minds. She is pretty and smells good.
-No adult situations. Yes, its a teen book. Which means no actual weight to threats of sex and death. Which is what vampires are about. Sure scary situations happen, but its in kind of a "edited for TV" way.
-Subtle churchiness. They struggle with abstinence (vampire abstinence) and marriage like situations would fix everything.

Some of these complaints are founded, some are just personal nonsense. But cutting my teeth on Anne Rice (who I actually respect more now that I have read other vampire crap) made me realize this wasn't my cup of tea. Its a dullish romance book. And I actually read and really enjoy some romance books, but written for adults. I may try to read the second book (I have heard it gets better) but I don't really care. If it falls from the sky I will read it and reconsider my review.

Cover is nice though.

Lino!

Screw Twilight. I don't have the review ready that I promised. I spent the weekend buying gifts and eating my hopelessly burned peanut butter cookies instead. I also messed with my blog layout and tried to not headbutt the screen while messing with codes in seemingly random fashion. So this is what it looks like now.

Then I started a new little project...

I am starting a little lino carving!

I don't know how to carve linoleum, but that rarely stops me from doing things. I did some lino prints when I was a kid I think. And then one or two in highschool (or was it university?) Whatever, I touched lino block some time in my past.

I usually use softoleum (or soft-kut) for my stamps and fabric prints, which is way softer and easier to use. But its hard to get small detail. I wanted to try something new. And lino seems so much more grown up for some reason.

I also have the dullest lino cutter ever made by human hands. Its so crappy. They never have the size of blades I like at the art supply store. Why do they hate me?

So I have been warming the lino block under my bum (Hey, warming it helps you carve it!) and then carving teeny lines, which will be the guide for the deeper lines. I should be finished the carving by the year 2010.

Newness

My mailman brought a big box to me!

New mats! (Hey, it was exciting to ME! See the exclamation points!!)

I would love to mat everything in oval mats. It reminds me of old photos and fairytale illustrations. Some of my paintings have rough edges and can be hard to mat without a getting a custom mat cut (Which is a pain. Am I right? You won't do that.) So I will introduce a few prints in this new format.

I haven't even updated the shop with the new listings or anything. I will probably do it throughout the weekend...Later. What? Am I a robot? A listing robot?? Its FRIDAY.

I might do my Twilight review later today. I finished the book last night so I wouldn't have to stick my fingers in my ears whenever some movie review came on TV. (Which is a freaking frequent occurrence, with all the **dazzle hype.**) I am one of those people who hates having any part of movies or tv ruined for me. Even if I know what is going to happen. I don't want to know when, how or what pants they are wearing when it happens.

Off to find some sort of sparkle graphic to accompany my review...

Free!

Starting today!
I am giving away free Spooky Christmas gift tags with my Etsy orders!

I will throw in a few in each order, the more items, the more tags! (Duh!) They are matte sticker paper, some are bigger, some are teeny tiny, perfect for little stocking sized gifts.

I was going to sell them, but nah. Free is so much more fun.

I am probably finished making Christmas items for my shop now. I had high hopes, but I got all Grinch-y about it, and started painting high contrast male models instead of Santas. Haha.

I am reading Twilight right now, and so far its making my 14 year old self turn the pages and my 28 year old self gag and roll my eyes. I will have to wait until I finish it to officially rip it up. (Uhh.. I mean, give it an unbiased review!)

I don' think I will see the movie in theatres though, I might slap some kids. I guess it wasn't that long ago that I was am impressionable teenage girl, but I shudder when I see how lame some teenage girls can be. They turn into squealing mindless romance zombies. Its gross. Oh wait, this is so turning into a review....must stop.

So I leave you with a pic of Rocko the Cat. Its been far too long since I spammed this blog with catness.

You can hardly tell he is fat. Its like a myspace shot. haha

More swooping.

Look at this little custom order I made. Isn't it the freaking cutest?

Haha. A chef bat!
Making little clothes is super fun. But I don't want to do it all the time, to keep it fun. :-)

Some other bats I am considering though...
-tax man
-professional poker player
-makeup artist
-Etsy shop owner
-Ricky Gervais

Just kidding.

Painting in limbo

I finished a new little painting, but a technical difficulty is keeping me from scanning it right away. Here are a few photos of its little life.

Here is the pencil drawing. I thought it looked like Miley Cyrus, but my dude said it didn't. Phew! This is one of those pointless paintings where my only goal is to paint pretty eye makeup and splatter stuff.

So I inked it with acrylic ink and a little brush. No major flubs. I even left some of the pencil lines underneath at some places I liked them. Then, as always, my first step
is to wash everything in colours. White paper be gone. If you go to the full size one at its Flickr page you can see just how carefully I do this. *snicker*

So here is the final painting. She needs some plastic surgery in Photoshop, for sure for me to be super happy with her, but other than that I think it came out ok. Until she is scanned I am not sure what form she will end up as in my shop. Maybe a matted print, maybe a bookmark, maybe something else...

So now that Remembrance Day ceremonies have been watched, coffee and pastries have been gobbled (delivered to me in my pj's by my sweet dude!) and the internet has been updated, I can go out into the world. The cold winter world. Damn.

EDIT**
She is photoshopped and etsyshopped, and her name is Olive.

How long until next Halloween?

Halloween is OVER. How depressing!! I am sad.

It was awesome though.

We were sort of rockabilly/psychobilly zombies of some sort. We had already forgotten or abandoned parts of our costume by this point. The flash makes us look less zombie-ish than we really were. We left accidental tattoo prints on the rental car, each other, animals, and furniture. Wahaha.

We were at a party called BOOzefest. BOOzefest V to be exact. Five years of awesome parties. Hosted by two awesome friends that pretty much went Halloween crazy, and spared no expense to make sure everyone had a great time. They have a nice big house that was packed with decorations, food, and many,many drinks. Their parties are always good, but this one was really great. I feel lucky to not only have generous friends, but friends who also like Halloween as much as I do!

Good turnout too! We won third prize in the costume contest. Cheeeers!

So I sit here listening to my Halloween playlist while I begin to switch to Christmas mode. Its not an easy transition!! I would trade in Christmas for a second Halloween in a second. *grumble* Ok, trying not to be a grinch...

I listed my first Christmas item.

Spooky Christmas pin set.

I always have this set in my shop at Christmas. This years version's images are a touch larger and a teeny bit more saturated.

I don't really know if I will make any more specifically Christmas themed items. Its such a gamble, and I am not a gambler I guess. ;-) I do have some little things started, and will probably try to get some of them listed this week.

I am shutting down my shop for Christmas on December 10th, so I pretty much only have ONE MONTH. Guess I better got on it.