Feline Friday

For those of you that don't know, I currently have a furry office companion named Marlo.  I briefly mentioned her in this post while discussing the painting "Don't Stop."  She's a little gray stripey stray cat that lives in a makeshift "cat house" on the side of the office building where I work.  At the moment I cannot remember when she first showed up, but I do remember it snowing.  Since it is currently snowing outside, I'd say we've been acquainted for a year, or a little less.  It was awkward at first.  She was living under a shed at the back of the parking lot, but with my persistence and attention, she eventually warmed up to me and we have since become good friends.  To my surprise, my boss gave the ok to let her come inside.  That too was a bit of a struggle at first.  Marlo was hesitant, but now is a welcomed guest in my office each day that I am here.  I do have to put her back outside at the end of the day, but she does get to warm up inside and eat a good meal during the day.  I, with the help of some wonderful ladies, have put together a little insulated house on the side of the building.  I think she is comfortable there.  At least I know she has a somewhat safe place to stay at night.

Since coming into my life, I have become very close with Marlo and would love to make her a new addition to my household, but alas, I still rent and am at the cat limit for the apartment.  Although I adore having her at my desk during the week, I have been trying endlessly to find her a permanent and loving home.  I do have one lead right now.  I'm keeping my fingers crossed!

The other day I did purchase a little bed for Marlo.  I felt bad that she didn't have any real comfy place to sleep on my desk.  I brought it to work yesterday.  After her breakfast, Marlo went to investigate the new bed.  She settled right in!  So, for this Feline Friday, I'm finally introducing you to my wonderful office mate, Marlo, testing out her new bed!

Marlo, mid yawn.

Shop Update: Valentine's Note Cards!

I now have blank note cards featuring two of my lovely illustrations available in my shop!  It's about time.  Here's a peek.

Mission Completed: Valentine

This is my first official piece of the new year!  Simple and cute.  Just the way I like it.  Prints are available in my shop.  Cards to come soon!

Feline Friday...on Saturday

I've decided to add a new weekly post to the blog to help keep myself in the habit of posting.  During the holidays I get a bit distracted and neglectful of both my creativity and this site.  The new feature will hopefully remedy this.  I can't promise that I won't miss a day now and then.  I mean, I am starting the first post a day late, but I will try my best to keep it up.  I'm currently feeling under the weather and I did not manage to get the post completed yesterday, so I'm finishing now.  Better late than never.  Next week I will hopefully be feeling better and back on track.

Anyway, every Friday I plan on posting a painting, digital illustration, photo or quick doodle that in some way involves a cat.  This week I have a little drawing featuring my cat Mr. E to share with you.  I had to pick up his food after work on Friday.  Instead of just writing a note to help me remember this errand, I drew a picture of Mr. E with the "death stare" on his face.  I sat the drawing on my desk so he could glare at me all day.  The trick worked like a charm and I promptly picked up his food on the way home.

Mr. E's death stare:
About an hour before feeding time Mr. E situates himself directly in front of me, no matter where I am in the house, and just stares at me.  Seriously.  He doesn't blink.  Try winding down after a day at work with a giant black cat staring at you with it's pupils fully dilated, not moving, not blinking, occasionally howling at you.  It's a little unsettling, but I love the big, little guy!  He doesn't stop until I move toward the kitchen and open the cabinet containing his beloved food.

I guess I should explain the flame on his tail.  In the past month he has managed to catch the tip of his tail on fire, twice.  He's fine.  His tail is never aflame for more than a second or two and his fur is so long that he doesn't even notice that it's on fire.  His only injury is a small clump of slightly singed fur.  He is apparently unaware of the activity of his tail.  I am now extremely careful of where I place candles, and very aware of the whereabouts of Mr. E while they are lit.

Hope you enjoyed the first installment of Feline Friday, even if it is on the wrong day.  Remember to check back next week!

Mission Completed: Winter Prints!

We had our first "snow" of the season a week or two ago.  It wasn't anything big.  It basically just made the ground wet, but was a very strange snow.  It was evening and I had to make a quick run to the store.  By "run" I mean drive.  Anyway, it had been kind of windy most of the night and I do recall seeing a slight chance of a "single" snowflake in the forecast, but it wasn't anything to be concerned with.  So, I put on my coat and headed out the door.  As soon as I stepped onto the porch I noticed HUGE snowflakes whipping about.  "How nice," I thought.  I got into the car and headed for the store.  By the time I got on the main road, those HUGE, fat snowflakes were falling harder and faster.  It almost seemed like a bizzard.  The snow was coming down so "thickly" that I couldn't see to drive.  It was actually kind of scary.  I did make it to the store without incident.  When I got out of the car, the ground was just wet, like it had been raining, not snowing, but the snow was still falling heavily.  Before walking into the store, I took a few minutes to just stand in the parking lot and look up at the snow filled sky.  It was refreshing, and kind of magical.  It almost felt like standing in a snow globe.  What a nice start to...fall?

Being inspired by the first snow, I came up with some winter illustrations to try and transition myself from Halloween to the winter holidays.  I hope you enjoy them!  Prints are available in my shop. 

Mission Completed: What I've been up to lately

It's been dry in the painting department lately.  I decided to take a break and concentrate on some personal and household projects.  Aside from the non-art related projects, I have been fairly busy at the computer.  I've been working on some designs for a dear friend.  He asked me to come up with some  shirt designs for the first and second grade classes at some local elementary schools (Welch and Struble).  The first grade shirt was to say "First Grade is FROGtastic!" and the second grade shirt was to say "When it comes to reading, Second Grade doesn't monkey around!"  I was very happy with what I came up with (especially the for the monkey shirt) and apparently the kids were as well!

Thanks, Eric, for giving the opportunity to design these shirts!  It was a lot of fun, and I'm glad they were so well received!

Halloween: A quick recap

Seems like I'm always trying to play catch up on here, but I'm trying to get better.  Halloween has come and gone and I am sad to see it go.  I had a lot of fun this year.  Though I seemed very busy with the party preparations and taking down the "Little Conversations" show, I did manage to make some time for pumpkin carving with Zach.  This year we set up a table in the kitchen and watched The Howling 2 while we gutted the pumpkins.  I was pretty pleased with the way my pumpkin turned out. 

This year, my costume was Canary Yellow from Rainbow Brite.  It might seem a little obscure to do one of the Color Kids and not Rainbow Brite, but it was part of a "group" costume.  Earlier this year I went to Dragon Con in Atlanta with some friends.  Our group costume was Rainbow Brite characters, and my character was the yellow one.  My friend was Rainbow Brite.  Sadly, I live about 4 hours away from them, so the rest of the bunch wasn't at the Halloween party, but I still rocked my yellow outfit.  I made Mr. E my sprite.  Mr. F was not happy with the antennae, so he didn't have a costume this year.  He was more than happy with that outcome.

Zach was a werewolf.  Can you tell?  He likes his costumes to be "minimal."

I tried a few new recipes for the party this year.  The homemade potato soup was a big hit.  I've made it about 3-4 times since the party.  It's definitely getting to be soup weather.  Cupcakes always make an appearance, and this year I made chocolate toffee crunch cupcakes with caramel frosting.  I thought they were amazing. 

To top of the holiday, a friend of mine snapped a shot of my Halloween prints on display in the window at Fabricate.  Don't they look awesome!  Thanks to Diane for sending me the pic! 

All-in-all, I had a great Halloween, and I hope you did too!  Now, on to the rest of the holidays...