Happy New Years!

Lorek wanted to say "Hi!" - I promised him would pass it along.

Tonka started celebrating way too early, I doubt that she'll make it to midnight.

Happy New Years!

Pictures from the day

This is Maggie, she's come back to us. Although there are a few bad habits that need to be addressed (like counter surfing all my baking!!! Bad Dog!) A new collar, nail trim, bath and a big cushie bed, and she's fit in with the pack.

Jethro at 8 months!

On Going

I've discovered that it is rather hard to take a picture of a canvass painting done with acrylics with a flash camera at night! I've also decided that I'm not to bright when it comes to thinking things through before starting a project - once I paint all the foliage, I'm not convinced that the Jaguar will be easily seen...

Lesson learned - when picking subject colours, make sure there is a moderate amount of 'pop'.

Jaguar gets a tree!

I finally got a chance to go get some burnt umber paint and started laying some colour on this canvass, so at least the poor Jaguar has a half coloured tree! I know that it's far from perfect, but layer by layer - slowly but surely it will all come together.

Maybe if I can get out of work quick enough tomorrow I will be able to get the rest of the tree finished (at least the branches).

First layer of Paint

Step one: Buy a canvass - Oh good God! You really want how much for that piece of fabric stretched onto a frame?!? It gets cheaper the bigger it gets? How do you figure? What do you mean "Go big or go home"? Can I go medium? Really... the canvass is still that much?

Step two: Decide what you are going to paint - Darcy, what should I paint? What do you mean you don't know? Here's a bunch of ideas... pick one. Oh gee, it was a really big stretch to pick the Jaguar! What about the Black Bear? Oh fine! Where's the picture of that bloody cat again?

Step three: Quick sketch your subject onto the canvass. Don't screw up, you can't erase that!

Step four: Figure out what base colour you want to start with and jump right in. Ya' right! I start with jacking up the music, and dancing around to Barenaked Ladies singing "Chimpanzees", but pick what ever turns your crank.

As you can see I'm only on step four, but slowly but surely it will progress.

Art - Sort Of!

Most of you know that when the mood hits I will put lead (charcoal, grafite or some type of pencil) to paper....

...but recently I have felt that I need to go outside my comfort zone and try colour! Of course my first painting was of Zebras, so I guess I can't say I strayed far from my comfort zone - but baby steps, baby steps! (at least there was green grass!)

I am now onto my next project, here it is set up in my studio...

This is where my inspiration came from...

... and here is the start of my project, as it progresses, I will post more pictures. Don't laugh, I'm not a painter!

It's hard to tell but I have rough sketched some outlines on the canvass... I think you would need to click on the picture and see the large size to actually see it.

This will be for Darcy, and I really hope that Robert Bateman doesn't get mad!

The gardens

Here is the second garden that Darcy built me (for every year that my garden puts food on our table, he's supposed to make me another box).  

Although I should have 3 by now, I'll take what I can get!

Darcy even filled it up with the compost from last year and got me special veggie dirt!

Now I have corn, tomatoes, pumpkin, cucumbers, radishes, peppers, radishes, carrots in the first box and blueberry shrubs and potatoes in the second box!

This is the other side of the garden that I worked my butt of at today!  I know it's hard to tell (if you click on the picture it will make it bigger to see), but I pulled 5 big wheelbarrows full of weeds that I needed a shovel to get out (darn those were big weeds!)

I finished the right side almost all the way up to the pond, and then planted more blueberry shrubs, then I fixed the pond (we had a leak in the rockery).  Now all I have to do is find the time to weed the other side and I'm good to go for BBQ season!

Fluffy New Bed!

Although we have had the bed for about 4 months, I didn't have enough "fluffiness" until today I added 2 layers of ortho foam and 3+ inches of a feather pillow top... I don't know if you can see just how fluffy the bed is now, but it was really obvious when Darcy laid down and sank! LOL

Caution: Boob Talk Ahead!

Well it only took 11 months of waiting to hear back from the second plastic surgeon Peter, that, Yes, in fact I can have implants (from a surgical perspective)! My first surgeon, Mark, was very unsure that with my DEIP procedure (insert bilateral, radical mastecomy here) if there would be anything to attach an implant too.
I really like Mark and respected his ability to say he had limits - it takes a strong person to tell the that kind of truth, but it was a hard pill to swallow thinking that my chest would forever look like a fat boy's. I guess I didn't realize how much I needed to hear that there was the possibility that I could look like a female again.

Off Darcy and I trekked to Vancouver to meet Peter (very nice guy) - Oh how I love getting half naked in front of a total stranger - please take a look at my scarred chest, with fake, un-tattooed nipples that look more like cat tits...but it was worth it, and then to meet Peter's nurse, Toni - who for the first time in over 2 years, made me feel pretty and normal and like a real woman just by letting me put a stupid little saline bag in this special bra. I looked in the mirror and saw someone I hadn't seem in years - me! (Nearly lost my cool, right there - took every ounce of flesh on the inside of my cheek and lip to hold that composure.) Of course I wasn't beyond begging for the ability to get to keep this special contraption, but alas I could not persaude Toni to give me her magic bra.
Of course with everything that is Me, I couldn't have just all good news, there had to be some catch to it all - I must wait 6-8 weeks for the medical system to decide if I'm worth getting boobs, and of course the 18 month plus wait to get a surgery date with Peter. But I don't care, there is a possibility that with in 2 years I could not be mistaken for a guy, that no nurse will call me "Sir", and that maybe I might just turn my husbands head again.

Why Bother?

Ever get to the point where you wonder - Why Bother?
Every now and then I do, usually after having to deal with stupid people who hurt my brain due to their dim-wittedness, but today it's different. I'm not sure if it's because I've been trapped in the house on my days off due to being so sick and 'cabin fever' is setting in, or if I'm getting trapped in my own world of perplexity!
Damn you TV and your mind sucking, social skill preventing, deathly quiet when off, evilness!