Post-wedding + a baby

Yes. I have a new baby in my life.

No. I did NOT get pregnant.

We got a puppy! My- I mean- OUR new addition is so precious and sweet and adorable. We are totally in love. Her name is Ginger. She's a Shar-Pei/Chocolate Lab mix. We're enjoying the lap puppy as long as possible.

"I like carrots."

She's also super lazy and just wants to sleep on the couch with you allllll day. ^.^

She's very tolerant of her new people; we're still in training.

Oh yes. We also got married. Finally.


Other news is that my website for Scotsgrove Stables is finally live! So clicky: link and critique away. The load time frustrates me. I need to figure out how to cut that down.... but other than that- I'm pretty proud of it. And it's a work in progress so it will keep me busy for a long time. ^.^

<3 All for now!

Scotsgrove Website

I don't really know how to get the full page up to show you, so this will have to do. It's still rough, but at least there's an idea there. I can see it at least, still have a bunch to do. Can't take credit for the awesome photos (I need to get their owners' credits up there), I just do the design. This is autumn, by the way. Hopefully, I'll get spring and winter done (already got summer done in just enough time not to use it, ugg!) :P

Other than that... I'm scrambling to work on wedding stuff. I keep giving myself deadlines and then pushing them back. O.o I can't believe I'm going to be married in about two and a half months. Time flies and I have SO much to get done.

Art seems to be sketchy and I really long for a scanner. *sigh* Someday soon...

sketch

Awww! Aren't we cute?
Originally, this was going to be on our wedding invitations, but then it somehow got too adorably cute and not enough "grown up, we're getting married!" cute. Who knew? So now it's the shower invitation illustration.

Yes- those are toys of our childhood. Books, fairy princesses, unicorns, art, and nature for me. Music, game consoles and controllers, ninja turtles, and computers for him. Pokemon for both of us. Yes, we are dorks- it's a good thing we found each other. :D

Roughly based the girl off of little Odette in Swan Princess and the boy off Christopher Robin... except with a butterfly dress and a Power Rangers shirt. >.>

I think this came about because I realize we did fall in love rather young (18) and it was really before we knew what it was. We started out innocent and naive about everything, but we've grown up together and learned so much. Also I'm moving in, thus, boxes and STUFF everywhere! It makes you realize how much crap, I mean, valuables you really have.

Okay enough babble, I'm just procrastinating going to sleep anyway. <3

resting in peace

A month has passed (almost to the day) since Wade died. My sister, mom, my sister's friend R, and I held a bonfire last night in honor of Wade.

It was very brief, but surprisingly powerful. It had rained that afternoon and the fire circle was covered in wet ground cover from over a year of inactivity. We got it cleaned up enough to light a fire. Then we brought out the hard cider to toast Wade with and send him on. My sister wrote him a huge letter- locks of hair, rose petals, a nine page letter. She never did get to say good-bye, so this was her way of doing it. She burned the letter, maybe he'll get it in some fashion or another. He did always love fire. R and I also had letters to him that we burned. The fire flared and consumed the letters with astonishing speed while Momma recited a blessing. A blessing to let the spirit pass on and be at peace, but also to let those who grieve come to peace. Once the blessing finished, the fire went out and though we tried to make it last a bit longer, it was done. Perhaps, it had done it's job and now had another purpose to achieve in delivering it's messages... that's what I believe anyway.

It's hard, so hard, to say good-bye to someone who became so special to you. We grieve for the past that we didn't see any warning signs until afterward. We grieve for the future that will never happen. A month isn't nearly long enough to come to terms with any of that, but this way we can start to remember the good times instead of grieve for the last moment of his life.

To Wade Phillip Sprow- I hope you've found peace.

The sky now divides
To bring you back into the fold
Welcome home
Still my need to recognize
Any comfort you may show
Only grows
Guess Ill learn to accommodate
While my heart just sits and waits
Maybe God you found
Maybe is all that you can offer now
Where am I to take refuge
When the storms of pain release
Shelter me
This blessedness of life
Sometimes brings me to my knees
I call on thee
I have not the words to write
A farewell to you tonight
Maybe God you found
Maybe is all that you can offer now
I know hearts are weeping
While your voice is now singing
On high, angel on high

~Collective Soul "Maybe"

art & stuff

So it looks like I may have started (or restarted) a tradition of Art Day with my Mom and sister (and more friends as we go).

Here's some stuff we've been up to:

A brief glance into the clay play day I mentioned. I made really tiny totem animals. I swear that fish is no longer than my thumb. They still have to be fired and painted and such. I hope they didn't blow up in the kiln.

Next is the Art Day that we recently had where I went over some of my layering techniques... Starting with watercolors and colored pencils and then moving to acrylic glazes. It's still a work in progress.



And Scotsgrove in the morning. ^.^ See the ponies (aka huge horses) in the distance? This was around 8:30am on Friday and I got there before everyone else except Laurie, the barn manager. It was so peaceful. I love Scotsgrove.

the best laid plans...

Life has a way of turning on a dime. This weekend started out being super fun and turned into one of the worst weekends ever.

Things started out nice: horseback riding, clay play day, a wedding to go to on Sunday...

and then ... my sister's boyfriend died. He was only 20. At first it was considered a suicide, but most of us have determined it to be an accident. It had to be. Believe me when I say, there was nothing suicidal about him. There was no goodbye letter. He was making plans for the weekend and for the rest of his life. He was going to propose to my sister. He was practically family already.

It has hit us all hard. He was loved by everyone. I still can't believe he's actually gone. You still expect him to suddenly call. I still have his number.

The abruptness of it all has left us in shock. This wasn't the way things were supposed to turn out.

Life's lessons come at you fast and though I don't know the details... don't play with guns, nothing happy can come of them.

Needless to say, I hope to have some stuff up soon, but there's a lot of grief I've got to deal with first.

On the Horizon

Well, things are moving along. With a major over haul of this blog (format wise) and some major life changes (for the good!), I'm hoping to update more frequently.

Good news! I have a new computer! It's very spiffy and I can finally upgrade to CS4 which will be a major change from CS, hopefully for the better.

Should be some new work coming soon!
On my plate of things to do:

• mushroom dancer series
• Scotsgrove website
• Wedding stuff (invites for example)
  
• finish my "Fish Lord" (ha!)
• play with clay and make something pretty (perhaps cake toppers?)
• work on "Wolfskin" mini webcomic
  
• and start daily sketches (but first I need a scanner!)

Wow. Didn't know I had so much stuff I wanted to do!

In general- I want the blog to document my creative process however slow or sketchy (pun intended) it may be. ^.^

Link!

Hey! Hey! I'm on the internet! Officially. Seriously.

Check it out: here

I have to say- I am proud of it. ^.^

long time, no post

Here are some sketches of a self-promo card I'm thinking of doing.

Star Sweeper
The Lion & The Unicorn

Final- Pippo

Color comp for Pippo. It's a Puss in Boots kinda story. A little different from the rest of 'em.

Two Cakes

"The Two Cakes" is a story similar to Perralt's "Diamonds and Toads". There are two girls, one good and the other mean, who both met a fairy. The fairy asks each of them for a piece of cake and each girl gives or refuses due to her nature. The fairy gives them each a gift, for the good girl- pearls and garnets fall from her hair when she brushes it, roses from her lips when she talks, and lilies follow her when she walks and for the mean girl- toads from her lips and thistles when she walks.
My story I decided to set in Africa. The "Diamonds and Toads"story has been adapted in African retellings before like "The Talking Eggs" and "Mufaro's Beautiful Daughters".

This is just a color comp... but I really like it. I hope the final comes out like this. ^.^

Portfolio

Well, I have a quick portfolio up and live!

HERE

It's a quick turnaround for the Job Fair that's coming up this Friday. Wish me luck!

There are finished pieces over there, if you can believe it. :D

Talia final color comp

Final color comp.

Talia 2nd color comp

I like this color comp better. I looked into color symbolism of India and it helped a lot!

Talia color comp

Sun, Moon and Talia is a Sleeping Beauty tale. I set it in India. This is just a very quick color sketch. I'm not sure what color her outfit should be... She is in a sleeping/trance/spiritual form before she wakes. So I want the colors to be a little sad. But India has such rich colors. :/ I'm just not sure yet.

Empress card III

The Empress in progress. I'm not sure how I like it. I've been looking at it too much. I still have to take the tape borders off the edges - it's a double border with thick and thin tape not going to the edge creating a kinda "window" square design in the corners. Hopefully it will turn out okay.

And you can't see the swans in the background- gotta work on that. :/

Parsley

Value study and color study for my Portfolio class. This is Parsley, a pre-Grimms Brother's Rapunzel. The tapestry behind her tells a lot of her tale.

I found this story here.