peace

Above: For Illustration Friday. This week's topic: "Peace." I'm still not comfortable with the oil brushes in Corel Painter, but one of my New Year's Resolutions this year is to experiment more with them; I tend to stick to pen and ink drawings, which are easier for me. Then again, I used to feel awkward using the pen and ink tools, so it proves that (hopefully) all I need is practice. My main challenge is patience, since I tend to prefer drawings that I can do at one sitting. With oils, it takes longer, and there's a lot of careful blending needed if you want to get anything semi-realistic. I'm not a great blender. :-)

But hey, maybe I can pretend that's my style! ("I'm striving for that organic, finger-painted look, you see...")



Above: our niece, Annie, designed and created the above creatures for Jeff and me as a Christmas gift.

Thanks for the good wishes for my Uncle John, everyone. My cousins told me he feels much better, and they had a good Christmas dinner. He is scheduled for a triple bypass operation early January.



Above: My new slow cooker (General Electric 3-1 Multi-Cooker - Model 169043, also is a steamer and deep fryer), a gift from my Dad and Mabuta. I've never had one before, and am excitedly combing through online resources for info on how to properly use one. I also bought two cookbooks with part of a gift certificate from my dad-in-law: Not Your Mother's Slow Cooker Cookbook by Beth Hensperger and Julie Kaufmann, and The Healthy Slow Cooker by Judith Finlayson.

I love the idea of just throwing things in a pot and forgetting about it until dinnertime. I tried my slow cooker for the first time last night when I made curry chicken for Jeff and his father, and it turned out pretty well.

If any of you have slow cooker tips for me, I welcome them!





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taunting squirrels

I was upstairs a few minutes ago, making myself a snack of wonderfully smelly natto and rice in the kitchen, when I noticed a black squirrel balanced precariously on top of my Squirrelbuster bird feeder, vainly trying to gnaw through the metal hook at the top of the feeder.

(Pause)

BWAHAHA!!!

Yes, I know that I am tempting the wrath of the Squirrel Liberation Front again, but life isn't worth living without a little risk, is it?



Above: some books I've recently read. I especially enjoyed both Charmed Life by Diane Wynne Jones and Millicent Minn by Lisa Yee. I LOVED Lisa Yee's main character.

Will Write For Chocolate had been updated. Click the image below for a larger version.



The GAfilk programming schedule has been posted online. Our concert is at 2:00 p.m. on Saturday. The concom was kind enough to rearrange the schedule so that we didn't have to perform right after the banquet so that Jodi, who also sings with the GAfilk house band, gets a break from singing. I was delighted to see that our friends Graham and Becca Leathers are doing the Concom's Choice concert and that Mark Osier's doing a dance workshop again this year!

Speaking of Becca, here is a photo of her crocheted Christmas ornament for the exchange this year:



Like I said in an earlier Blathering, this seems like complicated magic to me.

Links O' The Day:

More proof that squirrels are starting to take over the world! (Thanks to Ray for the link)

Margaret Atwood's cartoons: I had no idea that this Canadian author was a closet cartoonist! (Thanks to Booklust for the link)



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Craftiness and Hooking Tanya

I mentioned a while back that I was envious of friends with needlework skills. One of these is Beckett Gladney, and I just received a Christmas package from her that contains ample reason for my envy! Check out the ultra-cool writer's mitts she hand-knit for me (photo above)!!! I LOVE these! They'll be also handy in my office when it gets a bit chilly, AND for cool weather flute playing. :-)

She also sent me a homemade Christmas ornament for our tree:



Knitting and crocheting have always seemed like magic to me. You start out with a single piece of wool...and somehow some people manage to turn them into intricate things.

Anyway, Beckett's package also contained some of my favourite of her photos as well as Lindor chocolate balls (I lOOOOOOVE Lindor chocolate balls).

THANK YOU, BECKETT!

Speaking of impressive crafting skills, check out Judith's contribution to the Xmas Ornament Craft Exchange this year:



More ornaments from the exchange posted in future Blatherings.

Link O' The Day

I've been really enjoying Tanya Huff's reports on her trips out to Vancouver for the shooting of the tv series adaptation of her Blood books, but I especially enjoyed the most recent post (with photos!!) where Tanya gets to play a hooker on one episode. :-)



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Doodling

Hey, my pal Chris Conway opened for Jefferson Starship recently! For more exclamation marks, see the end of this Blathering!

I made Sicilian Seafood Stew last night, one of my current faves from the Moosewood Cook-At-Home cookbook. It's incredibly easy to put together and makes a special dinner with some crusty bread and a bottle of wine. Jeff and I opted for Strongbow Cider instead of the wine.

I've been somewhat surprised to be getting regular checks from Google Adsense. I used to pay more attention to where my traffic went, but since turning down the Dummies book earlier this year, my focus has been on novel writing. Inkygirl takes a lot less time now that I've dropped the job listing section, but it looks as if people like my writing-related comics just as much, perhaps even more. Go figure. When I've accumulated enough comics, I'm going to go through them all and select the best for a book compilation. Perhaps along with some Will Write For Chocolate strips as well!

In any case, so far I've found Google Adsense to be pretty painless. I know there are some out there who feel that personal blogs should be ad-free but as a freelancer, I figure every extra bit of stress-free income is a good thing, especially if it allows me to spend more time on novelstuff.



My writing cartoons generally don't take me much time and are fun to do. For the one at the top of this page, I sat down this morning, opened up a blank Corel Painter canvas and stared at it for a few minutes before coming up with an idea. The entire cartoon took about 20 minutes; I'd want to do a more polished version if I was going to include it in a book.

By now, some of you are thinking, "Hey, if it only took her 20 minutes, then why can't she draw a quick xxxx for me?" where xxxx is an LJ icon, blog header, or other "quickie" cartoon. The answer: because it wouldn't be as quick and painless if I was doing it on demand. When I draw my Blatherdoodles and cartoons, I can draw whatever I'd like and however I'd like it, plus I don't have to do it at all if I change my mind halfway through.

Plus doodling on demand isn't nearly as fun as free doodling. I've found that since I started drawing for pay, free doodling is even more important to me. In a way, it's very much like Blatherings -- writing and drawing whatever I'd like is good for my creative soul. I've heard of too many artist-types who used to draw (or write or play music, whatever) just for the fun of it, but stopped once they actually started doing it for a living. :-(

Some days the ideas come easier than others. Some days something like this comes out instead of a cartoon:



I was pleased by the following comment that someone posted on this doodle's Flickr page:

"Debbie

I caught my breath when I saw this - a great doodle. Without knowing the back story, I found it melancholic when I looked at it and imagined the worst. Further glances then had me thinking differently and imagining sulking or a time-out. A picture that provokes and challenges is a good thing.

Buzz in Aotearoa"

I was happy because yesterday's doodle was meant to be exactly this: capturing a moment that may or may not have had a backstory when I created it, but hopefully inspiring those looking at it to come up with their own backstory.

Anyway, I actually did turn down a paying drawing assignment yesterday because the person needed it before Christmas, and I've promised myself that I wouldn't take new illustration jobs until the New Year so I could focus on my book.

Below: Christmas Ornament Craft Exchange contribution from Lyanne. Lyanne and I are seeing Wicked in less than two weeks, woohoo!





And a Happy Birthday to Chris Conway! Chris recently opened for Jefferson Starship. I added the line at the beginning because I was so amused by his LJ comment:

"I might've opened for Jefferson Starship but on Blatherings I only got 5th billing to Sicilian Seafood stew.
I'm a failure...:-)"

Anyway, I've been very much enjoying listening to Chris's newest CD, Close The Circle. Perfect for mellowing out...

Speaking of mellow, here's one of my favourite photos of Chris, taken at GAfilk some years ago:



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It can't be December already

I did much of my Christmas shopping online yesterday, whilst eating lunch. I've purposely kept a bit to do in person; I actually don't mind Christmas shopping as long as I don't have to do it in a panic, and especially if it involves bookstores. A timely survey: What are your favourite online shopping sites?

Found out that the Super Secret Guest for GAfilk next month is S.M. Stirling! I haven't read any of his books yet and am trying to decide which to read first. So is Allison.

In response to my previous Blathering about squirrels and Kit Kats, Christine posted the picture below in my comments board.

:-D



Her accompanying comment: "Squirrels and Kit Kats... squirrels and Kit Kats... hmmm.... the 151th variety!"

Links O' The Day

YipyipMOO: I actually do remember this skit from Sesame Street days, and find it's the perfect pick-me-up on a cold and dreary and WET day like today. I WANT SNOW! (Thanks to Ray for the link.)

For Firefly fans: Don't watch this if you haven't seen the movie yet. Then again, if you haven't seen the movie yet, you're not really a Firefly fan, are you? (Thanks to BSAG for the link.)




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