morning sketch - little retro boxing girl

For lack of real life models, I sometimes draw pictures of pictures I have around the house. I need to get back to life drawing. Do i lose my "artist license" if I admit it has been 8 years since I last attended a life drawing class/studio? Sometimes I draw the husband or a cat. The good news is that Guelph seems to have several opportunities for life-drawing... if I can just get my ass and my nervousness out the door!

woot woot

The "Double-Woot" is a new non-standard multi-lingual punctuation mark that I invented recently to help society meet all it's double-wooting needs. (woot woot!!!)

The Double-Woot looks like a "W" with an umlaut underneath. It's purpose is to replace banging out all eight letters, one space and whatever number of exclamation marks one normally deems necessary when exclaiming "woot woot!!!!!" in moments of great typing-excitement. The "w" in the design represents "woot" of course but the uprights of the letter, when combined with the dots of the umlaut are also like four, stuck-together exclamation marks (this is more apparent in the "classic style"). Meanwhile the "dots" also represent the Os in "woot". I toyed with hanging a "t" off the end somewhere but the Ws and Os capture the essence of "woot" strongly enough.

I personally write "woot woot" a lot in emails. It's a word habit I picked up from my friend Sonya many years ago and it's never gone away. Typing the double woots on a keyboard is fast and easy but since I joined the 21st century and got myself a cellular device, I've found the 8 letters, 1 space, and several exclamation marks tedious and annoying (my cell phone is from 7-11 and doesn't have auto-complete). Therefore, I invented the Double-Woot. I might be the only person in the world who needs it.

Show N' Tell Day!!

Radio Silence. Sometimes I just forget to blog...

But today is a good day to blog because I have several fun items to show off!

First off, I got great mail today all the way from Virginia! Comics from Robert Ullman!

I actually ordered back in October but things got messed up, something was out of stock. He remembered my order when I inquired though and threw in a bunch of extra goodies because of the wait! I can't even remembered what I ordered because it was so long ago - but it wasn't all this! The main thing I was after is the "Old Timey Hockey Tales" you see on the top.

As you can see, Bob is a fellow Pens fan! Check out his blog and other art!

Next up, some very poor and headless photos of my recent obsession. The last few days I've been totally preoccupied with sewing this dress (still need to sew the hem).

It's the "Heidi" from BurdaStyle. It has pockets and a lining and a zipper and everything!

Originally my plan was to make this dress to wear to my sister-in-law's wedding. Less than half-way through I realized the foolishness of this idea. You see, I've never sewn anything from a pattern in my life and never had any school courses or lessons in sewing (I took Shop). I think it turned out pretty well considering I just taught myself from the internet but it's not "wear-to-a-wedding-good". On closer inspection there are many flaws... but I learned A LOT.

I learned:

- that you should really appreciate being able to buy nice clothes at a store - because sewing is a bit tricky and often tedious!

- that the architecture of clothing is amazing and fascinating and I would like to learn more.

- I am probably not meticulous enough to make very very nice clothing but I'll try to make more simple things because it was enjoyable.... in the end.

- Work through the frustration... even if you don't know what you're doing, you can make a pretty cool thing... I was going to quit part way through when I realized the final product wouldn't be very good. The Mister encouraged me to finish and I'm glad I did.

- Good sharp scissors will be crucial for the next project,

- I need to learn more about adjusting patterns for my measurements and about marking patterns (I think I missed this step altogether and sort of eye-balled all the seams... I amazed it even looks like a dress)

- My bedroom is very very dusty and the mirror needs a good cleaning!

And lastly, a little thing I threw together from odds and ends:

I love these old resin-encased-flower-arrangements! I had another one before but it broke in a tragic episode of clumsiness. I found this one at Value Village yesterday for $1. It was on a pin but I refashioned it into a necklace using a piece of an old chandelier earring.