I have...

I have over 1000 pics on my iPhone already.













Spring is coming, finally, my hands are always cold.

BLOODY HELL

Shit changes. Sometimes good, sometimes bad, and sometimes you are just like...ummm, whut?

Sometimes you are moving to Ottawa.

Living in Toronto, in a hip as hell neighbourhood with hipsters hipping, its terrifying to think about moving to dull, boring, lame Ottawa. I know nothing about it because no one cares about it when you live in Toronto. All the footage we see is skating on the canal or people having calm and Canadian press conferences.

 But job offers getting turned down because you like to look at daddies with full sleeves at the grocery store is kind of a bad life plan right? RIGHT? 

Not moving until fall, so I have one last summer to do Toronto. Go to shows, eat Burrito Boyz and generally try not to think about how cold and safe and family friendly Ottawa is. As it gets closer the moving date, I am sure I will flip my shit. 

(Everyone says I will love it there, I say, you move there!)

Lived in Toronto for 10 years I guess, and I feel like I am a bit tired of certain life stuff, so it will be fresh and new, even if that new is dull. 

P.S. I am pretty sure no one has ever used that font for an Ottawa graphic. And never will again. Ever.

What was that?

I have taken to listening to screamingly loud music on my iPod while doing chores, which means I am constantly waiting to be murdered.

You can't hear anything with Beats smashed into your ears and some dude screaming about goatblood or whatever. There is always a freaky killer clown behind me or something, just know it.
Click here to see a bigger one if don't know how to work your internet machine.

What is with the comics? I have no idea.

Boner killer.

So...

Celebs. They are most likely boring-ass regular people. Granted, they are beautiful-ass, regular people. When they aren't being their characters, they are pretty dull to me, just like other regular jerks. Beautiful...regular....beautiful...what was I saying...?

Nothing is a bigger boner killer for me than hearing a favorite actor/musician, who I may have concocted some sort of fake personality for in my ugly-person-brain, give props to God. 

It shatters my fake fantasy love for them. 

Lil Project: New Coat Buttons

Back in the day, I worked in a clothing store that sold coats. I would often mention that changing the buttons on a coat was a good way to make it look better.  The store where I worked would sell every coat with cheap tortoiseshell plastic buttons, and that made me barf. Nice coats ruined by ugly-ass buttons.

When I suggested that sewing on new buttons would transforma a coat, the customers would looked at me like changing the buttons on a coat was the most work any human had ever had to do. Its not a big deal! Sewing a button is something every man,woman and child should at least know how to do.

Lets do this.

Buy an "affordable coat"...Ok, boring/cheap/whatever coat. This one is a very normal one from H&M which I bought because I needed a "lady coat."

See, cheap buttons. Horror.

Figure out how many buttons you need, buy 'em. I bought mine off of Etsy, by searching in the supplies category. They were extremely affordable. 

I had a hard time finding buttons I liked that were also the same size as the old crappy plastic buttons, so I gambled a bit and bought slightly smaller buttons. I knew I may have to sew up the button holes a tiny bit if they ended up too small.

See, tiny! Oh well.

Sewing them on is easy but boring. Only 5 of them actually keep the coat closed, so I focused on sewing those on really well and kind of phoned in the other five. haha. No one will ever know.

In the end I only ended up replacing the double row of buttons on the jacket, not all the pocket, collar and shoulder ones, it was just too many white buttons. I think it was a success! I didn't even have to sew up the button holes more because of the smaller buttons.

I had TONS of people compliment me on my coat, and its is all really the buttons. FOOLED YOU.

Ever since working at that clothing store, I feel its my mission to rid the world of hideous plastic cheap-o buttons. I banish you.

Do it!

2011

Welcomed 2011 by drinking cheap pink bubbly at a small nerd party in my nerd apartment.

I don't have a hangover, so I am taking that as a good sign the year won't be a crapfest.

Cheers!

New Year Comic

I spend long hours minutes making a magical, beautiful comic about New Years...

My copy and paste skills are enviable. 

Anyway, 2009 sucked unbearably, and 2010 was kind of the fallout and self-pity session after that, so lets just all get together and wish it goodbye with a swift kick in the pants.

2011, don't make me make you a coffin.

Atari Teenage Riot

!!Atari Teenage Riot!!

1!2!3!4!

One of those shows that I had a lot more emotionally invested than I realized. It was like a loud, crashing flashing time machine, and it was awesome.

I had to make some gifs from my videos. I am going to make more gifs from now on.

And then Alec Empire responded to my twitter declarations of love, and I am pretty sure I am officially in the band now.

Yes.

Hey internet.

Living with someone who can't really use their hands is kind of crappy because you always have to do the dishes and feed the cat. But living with someone who can't use their hands is also an AWESOME excuse for not updating your blog... Right?

Ok, my cyborg is on the mend, the excuse is wearing thin...

I have something worthwhile to post about anyway.

THIS.

This amazing woman is Velouria Adore, and she contacted me to ask about getting a tattoo of one of my illustrations... Of course I said yes and then she actually went and did it!!!

 

Here is the original illustration.

I did this little painting for a student organized book project at the end of University (OCAD in Toronto,Canada) All the students illustrated "Candy" in black and white only, in a square format.

Love this one...

and this one shows the tattoo really well...

If you want to creep on her (like I know you do) there are a few more photos at my Flickr, and of course you can visit her model profile, www.modelmayhem.com/x_kitten, where there are many more.


So impressed with the work of her tattoo artist. All the subtle gray shading is perfect, its the closest to a copy of my work I have ever seen in tattoo form. :-) Grah, its gorgeous!

Thanks for making me look good!

Human meat accident!

So. Pavement is stronger than human mean and bone. Now we know for sure.

*Someone* might have fallen off his bike and turned his wrist to mush and bone dust.

This guy took a flip over the handlebars when confronted with a streetcar track on his way to work. I was unaware for hours and hours he was at the hospital!!

After his trip to a few emergency rooms, and surgery to fix him up, he is new and improved with metal parts.

Hospitals are scary and weird. I wasn't too helpful as the unhurt party, as I am a hardcore fainter, who can't seem to keep conscious in the same building as a band-aid. I actually had to sit n the floor with my head between my knees at times. SIGH. Been that way my whole life, gotta deal.

So now the surgery is done, he is on the mend, and I am playing nurse. It doesn't come easy to me, I am kind of a mean nurse actually. So my shop and creations are on hold for just a little while. But I am sure once the arm heals a bit it will be back to business as usual.

He is doing well and I am doing well and even though I have to do the dishes for 6 weeks, its still kind of fun to have a cyborg around. Yay for science!

P.S. We are both buying bike helmets. :-) Lesson learned!

I have been back from The Farm for a week.

Maybe its time to stop pretending I am still on vacation.

or maybe,

I will just stay there...

for a bit longer.

Impressing people. Its easy!

You are so lucky to have learned this lesson for free. I should be charging for this gold.

Haha. 

:-)

Its ok.

That is it. I am declaring it.

Blogs are for interesting people, and when you aren't doing anything interesting, they feel like a lead weight. 

I am not quitting blogging, or anything drastic like that. Just putting it out there that times come and go where I am bored and bored people are boring. Bored yet?

I think I need to try something new with this blog, because its a dull advertisement space for my Etsy shops, which I also find incredibly dull these days. I don't produce any design or product when I am bored.

So there it is. I am bored of me. At least this me. Just part of the insane freakout that is my rapid aging.

At least it made me make this graphic....

Stay tuned. Or whatever.

It was too hot.

Too hot to blog. Too hot to live.

Sure its an excuse, but life sucks when its hot. Plus a repairman broke my freaking door. See? Valid excuse for not blogging. (heh heh...)

So I finally got a new bookmark in the shop...

Choose...

Its a dual sided bookmark, with white wings on one side, and black on the other.

The bookmark has the word "Choose..." on the bottom of both sides. I didn't want to label black or white, because who knows who the real good guy is on any given day.

I worked on this image first a a pin set, the idea of the wings being the pins. I actually have the sets completed, and they are ready to go, just need to 'shop the pictures. Might have to wait until tomorrow.

Just for fun, here is the sketch it came from (its a Photobooth image)

Looks the same essentially! Haha I was sketching some ideas, but once I scribbled this one down I was like "Thats it!"

So tomorrow the pins sets will be posted. I am thinking of trying to do a few new pin sets in the upcoming weeks. I have retired older sets over the years and my pins section is getting sparse. :-)

Thanks for looking!

Earthquake. Yeah.

Wait. We can have earthquakes in TORONTO?? NO WAY.

Just had a little earthquake here, and sitting in my studio, which is in a hundred year old building (which may or may not have been built by unskilled townspeople) I felt the tremors. The building started creaking and the walls and ceilings were cracking. Sounds scary right? Not really because it always creaks and cracks and shakes when people walk on the stairs or sneeze really loudly.

I wonder if it shows a lack of appropriate action in a dangerous situation, because I didn't run to a door frame or whatever you are supposed to do, I complained then looked on Twitter. The cat didn't even wake up.

Anyway, I *was* working on listing a stuffed Skull and Crossbones!

Its available at my Etsy Shop.

The bones are not attached and they can be arranged how you desire, or you can hit people with them.

I also listed a plush bow...

It is also available at blacklilypie.etsy.com

Its a nice tapestry style fabric. Would look great in your boudoir!

I am already tired of people on TV and Twitter and Facebook talking about the earthquake. "I totally dropped my ice cream!" and "It felt, like, shaking, and...stuff." Already BORED of it. Even bored of my own anecdotes. I am such a grump! ha ha.

Guess I should get back to work...

Bones

Hey. What is that? Those?

I have no idea.

Ever make something you don't really know what its purpose is? Heh heh. Working on a few stuffed items this weekend, will probably put them in the shop next week.

weekend recap

Look at my bike. Isn't it cute?

My leg looks funny.

Its small enough that legally I could ride it on the sidewalk (its based on wheel diameter) And even though I usually don't ride on the sidewalk, it just necessary sometims when you live in a big city. I like knowing I am *in theory* allowed to do so.

This is where I rode it to...

And this is me at a True Blood Party on Sunday.

It might have been rude to park myself dead center to the screen, I realize now. But I was there first!

There was pickled eggs! Jealous? No me neither. (Sorry Tracy! I bet your eggs are the bestest eggs on earth, but they are still eggs. :-) ) You were there in egg-spirit.

So this weekend, I got to see ducks (cute!), had cake delivered to me in bed (hazelnut actually...), watch like 6 episodes of Rome (sad but awesome!), see bill and eric (Team Bill), drink sambucca (I want to wear it as perfume), and buy products from the drug store (My favorite store on earth.) The little things make the big things suck a bit less.

Now back to reality. I guess.

Lil' painting

A little painting is finished...

This tiny little painting started out as a face doodle on a scrap of board...

It was inked with acrylic ink then painted in acrylic paint. I sealed it with glossy varnish.

Her little face is cute, no?

I am waiting to put her into a little Ikea frame. A painting this small just seem like it should be sold as a complete package. I will just let the varnish cure a bit more and probably will list it on Wednesday...

(UPDATE!: Here she is in her frame!)

Think she would make a nice bookmark? print? hmm. Will have to do some test printing tonight too. Much to do, much to do...

New painting and more bread rambling...

Worked on a new little painting...

First, a little pencil sketch emerged...

Unsurprisingly, he seems to be some sort of fox-like creature...

And then the painting...

A Fox Soldier! He is dressed in his best uniform with his buttons all shined up.

and the I scanned it and printed it and matted it!

This is a photo taken in my studio. I have not had the official listing picture photoshoot, as it is rainy and gray today. This little print needs natural light! I really love the print in real life. I had not planned to mat it in an oval, but the subject matter just seemed too perfect to not try and it worked.

I think I will mat the original and sell it too, it needed almost no Photoshop and is pretty much identical to the print.

(Update: I listed the print at Blackforestcake! Check him out...)

And...

On the weekend I got a cute new toy. (Ok, its not a toy,  but this thing is fun to me.)

A teeny, tiny bread machine!!

After much use and abuse of the old second hand bread machine I was gifted, it became clear that I needed a new machine. The old ones pan kept popping out and then it wouldn't let go of the loaves!

After scouring reviews, I decided on this little baby. The Zojirushi Home Bakery Mini Breadmaker. It IS little, only making 1 pound loaves. That is about 9 slices of bread per loaf. That is really small for bread machines. Its about half as big as my old one.

See? Small little perfect loaves of bread. This one is a light rye. 

I have made two loaves of bread so far, and its a dream. For two people its perfect to have such small loaves. Bread machine bread only has a short lifespan and we would always have mouldy leftover bread at the end of the week. It also has a handle on the top so you can move it around. I really struggled lifting the old machine, it was the size of a microwave!

We had to drive to the super faraway Pacific mall to buy it, but a trip to "The World's Largest Asian Mall" is hardly a hardship...

I am going to try to make pizza dough in it next. Like, right now. YAY!

(Update: I totally made it too. It was so fat and ugly! But tasted soo goood.)

When they say "thick crust" in a recipe, they mean THICK! hee hee. Next time I will make two instead...