violetismycolor

illo friday...magic...

***click on image for more magic***

pen name, Diana Banana...

Today, I actually read the first of the Lemony Snicket books (A Series of Unfortunate Events).  The coolest thing is that one of the main characters is named Violet!

And WHAT is a grown woman with (nearly) adult children doing reading a kids book, you ask?

I am a sucker for funny, interesting, fantastical, and odd children's lit.  I read every Harry Potter, as soon as it comes out.  I was never read to, nor even thought about, books till I was in high school and had access to a decent library.

My favorite thing to do when the kids were younger, was to read to them so that I could finally read all the books that I missed when I was a kid.

I did like the Lemony Snicket book (and I wish that I could come up with such a cool pen name!)  Recommended reading for the young at heart!

P.S.  My MIL is getting out of the hospital tomorrow. Yay!

illo friday...home...

***click on the illo for a larger view***

I thought I would celebrate the birth of my newest niece with today's Illo Friday theme of 'home'...what could be more inspirational of home than a gorgeous new baby?

I mis-spelled her name yesterday...it is Terese Christine.

...and NO, her ears don't look like that...it's called 'artistic license...

a new what???

Talking to my mom yesterday on the phone, I hear her say, "And I went to visit Heidi's new baby..."

Heidi is my sister-in-law, pregnant (I thought) with baby #6.

So, I reply (of course, who wouldn't?), "What baby? She's had her baby?"

Mom, clearly nervous, shuffles about a bit. I hadn't heard? No one had called me? NO...

Last Wednesday...a week ago! Stats: a girl, 7 pounds, 3 ounces, by caesarian, named Therese Christine, very cute and healthy...

I think this makes #37 grandchild. Seriously...remember, I have 9 brothers and sisters.

I may see her today, since I am driving down to Woodburn, to my parents' house to visit my sister, Joan, in town (briefly) from Idaho. Otherwise, it will be Sunday at our family (after) Christmas do...

holiday shopping nightmare...

Okay, who ARE you people out there cramping the streets of Portland into almost unbelievable uselessness?  I was downtown and trying to get from Powell's Books to Pioneer Place (this usually takes me about 6 minutes) and found myself stuck at every light at least twice and the entire exercise took me at least 25 minutes!

The store lines are so long that I have made several new sets of friends.

And what the hell?  Why does everyone in the world seem to want  to read Richard Dawkins' The Ancestor's Tale?  Adam wants it for Christmas and I ordered it online, only to be told inside my book shipment that 'Oh, sorry...we really DON'T have a copy and can't get one till who knows when!'  I went to about 5 bookstores, out of stock, can't get it from our distributor since they're out of stock.  I finally had to drive to BEAVERTON...this is asking a lot.  Beaverton is the vast no man's land of no zoning and zillions of traffic lights where I only travel to, if forced!  So, I went out to Beaverton yesterday...GOT the book...bless you, Beaverton...

Adam had a cold when he came home from Scotland, had that horrendous 30-hour flight home, and did some minor running around here...only to be felled by a 100+ degree fever.  He is slowly recovering.  Bonnie has already gone to the chiroprachter due to problems with pain in her neck (and no, I am NOT trying to be funny here...)  Ross is Ross...

they're home, now what?

So, the kidlets are back home and we are back to 'normal' family life.

Bonnie was the first one home (Thursday night) and she promptly got onto her laptop to re-connect with her college friends that she had not seen ALL DAY!  It wasn't long before the swearing began.  Seems the night before, she had downloaded something from the 'wrong' site, and now her computer was slower than the slugs that so delight in my garden.  I started to run several of my favorite spyware/adware programs and the first one, alone, found 116 'problems'.  Then, I noticed that there were several processes running that were not supposed to be there.  One of them kept bringing up Internet Explorer at random.  But what was scary was when I noticed that it was changing her registry files when it did.  Let's just say that it is a very bad thing!

This being beyond the scope of my abilities to fix, I shut it down and called Larry, the computer guy, who came and picked it up the next day.  We haven't seen it since, so she is now using my computers. Fair enough...

Adam got home Friday night,  from the UK after approximately 35 hours of travel time.  I kid you not.  His London flight got delayed and he missed his connection and, yeah, disaster!  He didn't complain, though.  He is ADAM, after all, who never seems to have a negative word cross his lips.  He did have a raging cough, though...the hanger on of a killer week-old cold.  And he still sounds horrible!  He was content that we had shown up at the airport with his chicken burrito with black beans, which he had requested when he called from San Francisco.

Last night, we all went out with Grandma to see Oceans 12...excellent, btw...and then had dinner.  It was tons of fun to be all together and talking about their experiences.  Tonight, Adam is in Salem with his Willamette U. friends and Bonnie is having a group of high school friends over at our house.

Life is good!

Illo Friday...adoption

My idea for 'Adoption'...(***click for larger image***)

I have adopted several kitties in my life.  My first-ever-cat-of-my-very-own was a little white kitten that I named Minet (pronounced 'mee-nay', means 'kitty' in French).  She was my cat in college.  I would give wash her every week with sweet-smelling shampoo, and she never really fought it.  Since she was white, she would get dirty-gray fast.  My roommate had a baby bunny and the two of them were best friends.

I have since then adopted kitties that I named Chutney, Sundae, and Biscuit.

Can't wait to see what everyone else at Illustration Friday has done for their 'adoptions'...

I'm trying...

Now that the house is all decorated, the (incoming) kids' rooms are clean and cozy, dinner is planned, etc, I have to get to the REAL business of trying to get my Illustration Friday design going.  Quit laughing.  This is hard stuff for me.

I have been tossing all sorts of ideas around in my head and have finally settled on one (and NO, I won't say what it is) and am doing some sketches.  Since this drawing/coloring-in thing always takes me hours and hours, I won't promise that I will be able to meet the Friday deadline.  I do have a daughter arriving home at around 6 p.m.  Since I definitely want to spend time hanging out with her tonight, I will probably forsake my Wacom tablet and Photoshop/Illustrator programs and just give up.  But I'm not yet ready to throw in the towel.

Oh, and if I haven't gone blogging-around, don't feel rejected.  I will be back to normal after the weekend (I think).  That is, if I have all my Christmas shopping done!

mad dash...

The Mad Dash to clean the kids' rooms in preparation for their arrivals has begun.  Bonnie left hers looking good to begin with, so it is only a matter of putting  her beloved flannel sheets on her bed and dusting/vaccuuming.  Adam, on the other hand, left his room looking as though a cyclone had hit it.  I sent 4 boxes of stuff to Goodwill (he who leaves his room trashed has to deal with MOM deciding what goes and what stays).

Bonnie comes home Thursday night and Adam Friday night...weeeee.....

photo Friday...abandoned

Here is my Photo Friday entry...Abandoned.

***Click on it for a larger version***

This was a hard one but I found this photo of a beautiful blue butterfly, just emerged from its cocoon. This was taken at the Oregon Zoo in Portland in August. They had this cool butterfly tent with tons of gorgeous butterflies flitting through it. Butterflies, like mermaids, are sort of sacred icons to me.

Bonnie's take on singledom...

My 18 year-old daughter is under the impression that since she hasn't dated yet, she may be doomed to be single her entire life.  Can we look up the word 'perspective' and perhaps get some?

Here is a funny entry from Bonnie's blog this week.  Apparently, this is how college-age kids see the world:

What I should have done from midnight-3am:Worked
What I did instead:Sat in the hallway in my friends and discussed relationships
What I learned from that conversation:Boys don't get hints, you have to be direct, my usual technique (send no signals whatsoever) doesn't work. At all.
How likely I'm going to be in a relationship in the near future:Not very
How likely I'm going to be an old spinster with a billion cats and a very large stick:Quite

Which elicited these comments from friends:

Friend: Been my plan for years baby!

Bonnie:  We can start a "destined to be an old spinster with a billion cats and a very large stick" club. There seem to be a disturbing amount of us out there...

2nd friend:  Oo! Oo! I've been predicting i'll be an old spinster w/ a billion cats since high school. and i think the very large stick is a nice addition. i'm not quite sure how i'll get a guy either. u and i have the same technique it seems. : P

Bonnie:  Big sticks are necessary to scare away small children, because I'll be old and bitter and therefore need to be not just any old cat lady, but the SCARY crazy cat lady.

2nd friend:  lol. ok u be the scary cat lady and i'll be the nice cat lady. (as long as those darned kids stay off my property!) : P

3rd friend:  Heh heh....and to think I was the one who was originally going to be a crazy old cat lady carrying a spiked cudgel around...and you were all shocked. ;)
Looks like it's been spreading though! I think you should definitely start a facebook group. *g* I will be the smelliest! Because according to Jess I'll live in the sewer, heh.

4th friend:  I prefer to call it "crazy old cat lady"
and that's what I'll be, too. We can live in neighboring smelly cat-ridden houses.
also, I have the same "usual method..." and you're right, it doesn't work. stupid boys not being able to pick up on our nonexistent signals...

Bonnie:  Yeah, stupid boys. I should start a "destined to be crazy old cat ladies" group on facebook. I figure I could get a pretty large membership considering boys = dense and not mind readers and girls = shy/scared

5th friend:  Haha, I soooooooo agree with that and where do I sign up :-P
Boys = oblivious (even to what's in front of their faces)...

6th friend: And yeah, count me in on the old cat lady fun. I'm naming all my cats after the cats in Barbara Michaels' books, starting with Henrietta Marie. You think I'm kidding--I'm not.

7th friend: I am having cats one way or another. My kitties. Dont ever take them away from me...

8th friend:  HeHe.  Cats...yummy!

9th friend:  Can I live in the alley with the rest of you? Except that I'm allergic to cats. I've got a cactus instead, and probably I'd get some crayfish or something to go with that.

I really enjoyed this exchange...were we ever this young?

Illustration Friday...security

Here is my take on 'security'. Click on it for a larger image...

For my children, it was always security in the form of some cuddly object to hold. 

Adam had a teddy bear and Bonnie had an old silk pillow.  These objects literally went around the world with them.  We took the kids on an 8-week-sabbatical trip to Europe when Adam was 5, Bonnie was 3, and Ross was 16 months.  You can imagine that it was not always a REAL vacation.  Anyway, their comfort objects traveled with them.  Only Ross didn't seem to need anything but Mommy...

I'm a real Bunko Babe...

So, for any of you out there who are veteran Bunko/Bunco players...I hit the jackpot last night.  My friend, Susan, has an annual Bunko party and this year, I was the STAR***. 

What, you ask, is so exciting?

I had 6 friggin' bunkos...so many that they could not fit on the card.  (Quick explanation:  a bunko is rolling your 3 dice and having them all come up the same number, that number being the current number being rolled for...example: we were rolling 6's and I got three sixes (worth 21 points) and on the next roll, I rolled 3 6's again). 

I got a good prize (fancy-smelling-lady-stuff) and got passed the Bunko Babe shirt, scanned in above, to wear at next year's party.  (This is a prize?  or a punishment?...the other one went to the person who lost the most games...)

My bunko karma was sure hot last night...now, if only this will work for getting great Christmas gifts...

who's the sexiest man on earth?

After watching Bridget Jones 2, I had a number of discussions about who was sexier, Colin Firth or Hugh Grant.  Though I find Hugh Grant handsome, his cad-like behavior (both on- and off-screen) leaves me absolutely cold.  I just can't get worked up over a guy that I find to be an arrogant jerk.  I had the same reaction to guys I knew when I was single...this isn't just a celebrity thing.

Getting to the point, I am trying to do a mini-survey to find out who all you out there think is gorgeous/sexy.  (And you can't choose someone non-celeb, like a husband or like my gorgeous ex-boyfriend, Jeff Engebrecht)  It has to be someone in the public sphere, so we can all see what your taste is.

I'll start...my sexiest-man-alive-choice is Daniel Day-Lewis.  I have my own copy of Last of the Mohicans and love to watch it.  Second would be Clive Owen (looks a lot like DDL, huh?)  They both have that dark hair and light eyes things going.  And that sexy Brit accent.  All good...

So, who do you choose?  And why?

Photo Friday: Reflections

Here is my Photo Friday entry...at least one of them.  I posted about 5...if you care to look they are at: http://valentinois.typepad.com/photos/violetismycolor_photo_fri/index.html

The juxtaposition between the Odwalla truck and the Ag Building at Oregon State University (my alma mater, btw), was just too much to pass up...

I thought this one was humorous, hence, posting it here.  The others are not, just serious nature studies.  But they are nice, too.  Go have a look...

Illustration Friday...bubble...

So here it is Thursday and I have worked all friggin' day on my IF project. Click on it for a larger view... 

For all you illustrators out there that just whip this out...I think this is HARD!  But I learned alot of new things by working on this. 

The theme this week is 'bubble' and I thought of a bubble bath.  I put in this 'window' with a picture my son sent me from Edinburgh.  This way I can imagine myself in a little hotel in Edinburgh, taking a bubble bath and getting ready to visit my Adam...

Take a look at all the other entries, as the weekend comes along, at the brand-spanking-new Illustration Friday website!!!

that mean lady...

My cat, Biscuit, refers to me as 'that mean lady'.  Okay, she can't really talk but I can see it in her eyes.  It's not that I have ever been cruel to her or anything, but I am not 'affectionate' in the way that my husband or my son, Adam, is.  I am allergic to her, number one.  Number two, I am the 'mom' setting and enforcing the rules, like no jumping up on the counters or no going up into the bedrooms. Ross is so allergic that if he touches a place where she has sat, then touches his face, then his eyes swell shut.  So, no sitting on the furniture. 

She is a rule-breaker, has been for the 10 years we have had her.  And no one but me actually produces consequences.  You break the rule, Bisky, you go outside to think about your behavior. 

This story has a point.

Yesterday, was going-to-the-vet day for my animals.  That means Bisky-in-a-box and she hates that box.  Biscuit has been outside all morning (her choice) and I know I have to entice her inside for THE BOX.  I go out on the deck and starting singing some nonsense like 'come home, Bisky...come home now...' to some or other tune.  Sure enough, I hear meowing...she is standing WAY across the yard looking at me suspiciously...'why is the Mean Lady calling me?' her eyes say.

I leave the door open and let her take her time, filling her bowl with food cuz I know the sound is an aphrodisiac to her.  Sure enough, she's in.

Now, the BOX.  I get it out of the garage and put it out of her sight.  Then, I find her snuggled on her heat register and try to canoodle her out of the corner.  She's not having any of it.  If the mean lady wants to pet her and pick her up, then something is very wrong.  She runs to the back door and starts to cry.  I try to soothe her, pet her, break down her defenses...then pick her up.  She's buying it.  She is thinking, that mean lady is not so bad after all. 

I'm walking and she sees... the box!  Her body stiffens in my arms and I try to put her into it.  All four legs meet the box edges and she tries to scramble out of my grip but she's in...and I close the top, saying 'It's not so bad, Biscuit' , as gently as I can. 

But I have, again, cemented my image...that Mean Lady, who doesn't let you scratch up the household woodwork, won't let you climb on the counters and lick the butter in it's dish, who shoves you into boxes and takes you to the vet.

I guess I'm just evil.