MY Elves on the Shelves

As I have mentioned before, I am (and have been for over two decades now) an ElfQuest fan.  Not nearly so obsessive as I once may have been (because who can match the obsessions of one's preadolescence), but I maintain a certain nostalgia...

...and a decent collection of books.

Aaaaanyway, I keep moderately aware of What's Going On With ElfQuest (35 year anniversary!  Woo!) by following them on the Book of Faces, and as such I took a bit of time today to read this article, which I enjoyed.

The author illustrated the article with his own ElfQuest fan art from the 80s, and it made me oh-so-nostalgic for the hours and hours my Katie and I spent drawing (reams and reams worth of) elves.  This nostalgia drove me to do a couple of quick sketches from memory, to see how deeply ingrained the images were in my psyche:

Leetah

Doodled at work, photographed with phone.  Quality!

Not bad, not bad.  Certainly better than what I was churning out at age 12 (and thank heavens for that).  Her nose is far too large to be mistaken for a Pini elf (differently proportioned than humans, y'know), but that is just my style and my style makes me happy, which is actually something of a relief to finally be able to recognize and say.

One of these days I may go more into depth re:the extent of my obsession with ElfQuest (I may even dig through ye old archives for adolescent artwork), but not tonight...

Easter (Was LAST Sunday)

Here it is, one week later, and I'm finally getting around to writing about Easter.  Let's not even talk about the other  posts that are languishing in pre-production hell... ::sigh::

It was a really fabulous Easter, because Nathan's sister and her family came up for a visit, and holidays are always more enjoyable when there are niblings about!  The niblings in question were Eel and Bee, and we had a grand ol' time of it.

After church in the morning my sister-in-law, Eel and I headed over to the climbing gym (per Eel's request) to get in some quality bonding time.  The last time we went climbing there Eel stuck to bouldering, but this time around he decided he would put on a harness and try it on the "big wall"!

Auntie Jenny O ties Eel's figure-eight knot

He saw some other climbers using chalk, so I let him borrow my bag.

He didn't get all that far up, but considering he hasn't even been alive as long as I've been married, I think he did quite well- and I expect he'll make still more progress the next time we go climbing...

Once we got back from the gym, it was time for an egg hunt!

EGG HUNT!

Bee was NOT letting go of the bubbles.  Priorities, people.

Isis actually turned out to be surprisingly good at hunting eggs, a talent my clever nephew quickly took advantage of.

Share??

Less surprising was her skill at being a throw-pillow:

Vicious.

Also skilled at giving kooses.

Eel generously shared some of his hazelnuts with me:

One for him...

...one for me!

Once we were good and worn out from egg-hunting fun-in-the-sun, it was time for dinner!  And since it was such a gorgeous day, we decided to take advantage and have a picnic in the backyard.

Isis guards the plates.  Or, more likely, positions herself to receive any dropped food...

Lamb burgers with pistachio pesto and butter lettuce "buns"!  (And bacon, OF COURSE)

Pre-meal affection.

Family!

 After dinner I looked over and saw this picture-perfect moment:

Solemn at Sunset.

So I crept a little closer and got this:

Bee has secrets.

So that was my very pleasant Sunday.  I also had an exceptionally good Saturday, but that tale must wait a day or two longer, because I'm still waiting for photos from one of my compatriots...

Four-get Me Nots

Four Years and Counting:

Awkward Hands!

Year four is flowers/fruit, so Nathan got me vintage, floral-themed jewelry, including a frosted-glass necklace, an amber bracelet with silver forget-me-not embellishments, and an amber brooch with petals caught in the stone (technically that gift hasn't arrived yet- it's coming from France- but he showed me a photo).  I got him a photographer's membership to the Japanese Garden in Portland, which we plan to take advantage of later this weekend (and also throughout the rest of the year).  I felt it was a particularly fitting gift, what with us having had our wedding in the Birmingham Japanese Garden, and all...

I don't really have anything super-insightful to say this year, other than I just really enjoy the hell out of being married to my husband.  We constantly crack one another up, and I love that.

That Other Thing I Write For

So by now you've probably put two and two together, and realize that my dog is a pit bull mix:

Pig Bull

If you've been reading long enough, you also know that we got her via Born Again Pit Bull Rescue, a wonderful non-profit whose motto is "Foster One, Save Two".  Go ahead and check them out- I'll wait.  Just don't blame me if you end up with a new dog.

Aaaaanyway, as one might expect, adopting a pit bull has turned me into something of a pit bull advocate...

I advocate smoochies!

...and that advocacy has led me to volunteer with BAPBR the best way I know how- via my words.  I've been doing supplemental blog entries for them for a little while now, and if you peruse their blog chances are you'll come across some of my jabbering (it may be hard to tell, since we all try to write in the same "voice", but the current entry, for 03/29, is one of mine.)  (Like the photos?  Guess who volunteers his photography skills...)

So yeah- that's part of what's taking up my time these days, and I hope you'll take the time to check it out on occasion.  And now have an outtake:

OUTTAKE!

Firebird

Sometimes I just start stitching because I want to, and I don't really know where it's going to take me.  The last time that happened (in February, actually), it went a little like this:

"Hmm, I want to stitch, but I'm done Valentine's Day is over.  What else could I stitch now?  It might be fun to do one of my angels with the illuminated wings... hmm, illuminated wings... I'll bet it would be nice to stitch a firebird!"

And so I drew a little firebird on a piece of card stock, and started to stitch:

Burn.

Simple simple line-work, in the beginning, lots of long graceful lines to follow.  For the colors I decided that I wanted to work in shades of flame (obviously), but that I would treat the bird's body as the hottest part of the flame, and therefore white (twined with pale yellow) and then get darker the further out I went.

A lovely effect.

Such a nice gradient!  I got the subtle color changes by using three threads and slowly substituting one shade after another.  You can see it most obviously in the third feather from the left- I used a pale orange, a salmon, and a scarlet for that one.  Anyway once the main line work was done, I needed to go back in to the feathers and do the details...

Which I did.

That shot also shows you where I started adding extra flourishes, and how I draw the lines in pencil and then punch holes in the card stock using the needle.  But still more flourishes were needed!

Traces of gray, for smoke.

So I added those flourishes, and filled in the world "burn" while I was at it, but I knew that still more flourishes were needed!

More!  We need more!

In the end it turned out like this:

An Official Portrait, by Nathan.

And the back looked like this:

Awesomely ordered chaos.

And if you would like get a better sense of the scale of this thing:

Too much red!  Blowing out my phone's sensors!

And here are two more Nathan photos for more detail work:

Can you see the barest touch of blue I used in her eye?

Ha hah, who forgot to erase pencil lines before letting Nathan take photos?  THISGIRL.

So that's what I occasionally do with my time- freehand something onto a piece of card stock, and then stitch the hell out of it.  Wheee!  All in all it took me... three days, I think?  But they were highly satisfying days.

Darling Divination

So one of the Important Aspects of my Winterhaven story is that the Pfeni rely upon runes for divination- but since I'm setting this in a fantasy world (with magic!) I didn't want to just fall back on the stereo-typical Germanic runes.  So I pulled a(n off-brand) Tolkien and made up my own.  And, of course, I decided to make up an entire divination system to go with them because hell, why not?

In the end I settled on twenty-five runes, with meanings so complex and incestuous (and still in development) that it would take several lifetimes to master them- which, fortunately, the Pfeni have had.  You can cast them like the runes we're familiar with, but more often they get laid out in patterns/spreads, like tarot cards.

(The runes aren't actually carved on squares- I was just working on graph paper at the time.  Don't ask.)

It's a serious rabbit-hole of World Builder's Disease, and has already sucked up more hours of my life than I should really admit- and I can't help but find myself thinking, "You know, if you didn't want to draw this story, you wouldn't have to spend so much time developing a bunch of symbols..." and then I'm all, "Pish tosh, this is superawesomefunplus!"

Part of why it's so superawesomefunplus is because for once I don't have to do any friggin' research- I've spent my entire (reading) life  educating myself on various forms of divination, so now I can just run around crazy as a kid in a water feature.  It's fun.

(Actually it's also been fun to do research on the flora and fauna of the Arctic and Antarctic- a subject which I also have a bit of grounding in- it's like this is the story I was always meant to tell...)

Speaking of drawing (remember that, two paragraphs ago?) here is a reindeer, along with a list of some of the patterns the runes can be cast in:

DEH

In her antlers you can see where I was working out the rune Deh, aka "The Deer".  Can you guess what some of the others are?  Don't be fooled by the fact that Deh and deer happen to align on the first letter (although Byr does that, too)- it was completely unintentional.

FIVE

3+2=5

0+3+2+0+1+9+8+1=23, 2+3=5

I'm not all that well-versed in numerology, but I'm pretty sure that this will be an awesome year for me.  Doubling up on fives?

5+5=10, 1+0=1

#1 Year.  I just proved it.  With maths.

Okay now I've got the dirt on the number five.  Sounds good to me.  Fives are awesome.  Five by five.  High Five.  Five and Dime.  Heck yeah.  All hail my fiveness.  To the max.

Anyway, enough of that.  It's my birthday!

And what a day it's been!  I slept in a little this morning, but when I got up Nathan told me to go back to bed, because he was going to bring me breakfast.  So I did some yoga and climbed back into bed, where I opened my birthday cards while waiting for my pampering.  My mom sent me a card with a unicorn that says stuff.  Basically it was the best card ever.  I literally shrieked with glee when I pressed the unicorn and it said, "Don't be sad!  If you're sad, I'll cry!"  It says other things, as well as making magical sparkle noises.  My inner eight-year-old won't shut up about it.  (Neither will my external-thirty-two-year-old, apparently)

The breakfast Nathan brought me was chocolate wrapped in bacon.  Yes, you read that correctly.  And yes, it was even more delicious than you think it was.  Also there was a piece of brownie.  And a mug of honey-sweetened chai.  And presents.  My birthday is so rad, you guys.

Nathan got me not one but two new pieces of Humblebug jewelry, so I am pleased as punch about that.  Pictures in the next few days, I'm sure.  I wore one of them (which I have been calling In Like a Lion) allllll day- even tho' it is blingy and dramatic as hell.  On your birthday, you do what you want, and you wear what you want.

Fiiiiiiiive....

I got all sorts of lovely birthday wishes, including a call from a  far-away friend who had feedback on Sleeping Beauty for me, so it was like two birthday surprises in one.  Plus my friends totally got engaged today, which I will straight up take credit for because (as mentioned) it is my birthday.

My boss-to-be brought me a live plant!  This is awesome for so many reasons.  1) I did not tell him it was my birthday.  This means he found out from elsewhere, and chose to act on the knowledge.  Nice.  2) Live plants are always more awesome than cut flowers.  I prefer living things to dead.  Again, this is something he didn't know- just intuited.  3) He got me a plant that needs to be put in the ground because he wanted it to be something for me, not the office.  Now that is thoughtful.  I am feeling pleased with this entire set up.

I went on a long, delicious walk in the gorgeous, dramatic spring weather- sun and clouds and a stiff wind that made all the flowers dance with joy.  Later in the afternoon there as a rainbow so bright it literally dazzled my eyes.  As in, I looked at it, and then when I looked away I couldn't see anything because dazzle.  That rainbow was not messing around.

After work I got all gussied up in a fancy dress to go with my fancy necklace, and Nathan and I went out to a fancy dinner where I had a fancy drink and a fancy dessert that was on the house because (you guessed it) it's my birthday.  Fancy!  And then we came home and got into fleecy pants and life is just all sorts of good, and there's even like two hours left in my birthday so even more goodness could be heading my way!

Perhaps... five more good things?!