time for a pathetic desktop...

It's that time once again, time to change the desktop calendar to June. The Pathetic Popsicle is all melty, and I'm pleased to say, that the weather here in Chicagoland is appropriate for melting frozen treats. Not terribly hot, but just right for June.

Now, download your Pathetic Popsicle calendar desktop calendar, and get ready to enjoy the upcoming warm season...

the no pain way to get a tattoo...

Amiable Anchor, Sanguine Skull and Hastened Heart are all finished and in the shop. I really like how they turned out, and can't wait for the next things that will feature the Tattoo Tots: a baby undershirt, and (crossing fingers!) temporary tattoos. I've done some searching on kits that you can get to run through your inkjet printer. They aren't too expensive, and how cute would that be, right? But has anyone out there had experience using them?

getting back to it...

If you're in America and reading this, I hope you had a nice holiday weekend. They always seem too short, don't they?

I'm very excited, because I feel as though I've gotten back into the creative swing of things. There are new ideas, and some old ideas, that I'm aching to see come to fruition. Of course, the only trouble is, I can tell that this is shaping up to be a busy week...

my tattoos...

Okay, so really, I have zero tattoos. And I can say with almost certain certainty, that I will never have one. (Needles? I don't think so!) But a few weeks back, I started sketching some classic looking tattoos. But cute versions.

And then, my cousin and his wife had a new baby girl, named Lydia. She's really cute, and being a newborn baby, has the same number of tattoos that I have. But when I heard her name, all I could think of was the Groucho Marx's song, "Lydia the Tattooed Lady":

Oh Lydia oh Lydia, say have you met Lydia,
Oh Lydia the Tattooed Lady
When her muscles start relaxin’,
Up the hill comes Andrew Jackson
Lydia oh Lydia, that encyclopidia,
oh Lydia the queen of them all!

Which is how a less than one week old baby inspired me to get back to working on the tattoo doodles. I plan on getting the digital drawings done soon, then have them made into buttons in the shop by the end of the week...

overheard...

Have I ever blogged about the website Overheard Lines? Sometimes there are questionable things, but those aside, it's a very funny site. My brother even submitted a line that was published on the site. But the best lines come from those you know:

"What's my smell?"

Sweet little Grace came up with that today...and the reply from my brother? "Your smell is grace!"

my creative endeavors as of late...

You may recognize this photo as one of the spots where I take photos. The kitchen counter. What you see on there is the creativity I've been up to lately. That's right. Nuthin'. Try as I might, none of the new things that I would like to get to have happened.

However, I have been encouraging my sister in photographic pursuits. I mean, just look at this picture! She needs to keep at this, and I really want to see her selling prints. You'll want to take a look at the rest of her photos here.



Now, I think I'll get off the internet and make something...

folk svenska...

A couple of years ago, I took a trip to San Diego with my sister, and one of the places we stopped was a used bookstore filled with only children's books. It was called The Prince and the Pauper. This book was one of the things that I bought. The interesting thing is, I forgot that I had it.





I was thrilled to rediscover it though, because it combines the two things that I've been exploring lately in my doodling. Fairy/folk tales and my adoptive Swedish heritage. The initial Swedish illustration doodles were the jordnöts, but still in the works are a collection I call "Folk Svenska". Plus some other fairy tale type things...



When doing a bit of online research, I read the story "Lars My Lad", which is pictured above. (Odd how I had the story and didn't know it...) A great tale, sort of like Aladdin's Lamp. I especially the baffled king as things in his kingdom change unexpectedly. You can read the story here...

And as these doodles take shape, they'll show up here and at the shop...

my mouthwash...

I love spotting good design in unexpected places. Like my bottle of generic mouthwash. It uses a combination of green, blue and orange that just works. So I made an Etsy Treasury to reflect that color combo.

Obviously my hygienist wasn't feeling the generic love though, because she told me that my mouth seems to have built up an immunity to it and that it is no longer working. Time to switch. So she suggested that I start using Crest Pro-Health. But, she said, make sure to use only the clear, not the blue mouthwash. Why? Because apparently the blue has been known to stain teeth. I'm thinking blue teeth...strange. But actually it can make your teeth turn brown. And get this, according to the Crest website, brown staining can be a sign that the mouthwash is working! Um...no thank you!

the rest of the lanterns...

Today I realized that although I had finished these remaining lantern stamps, I had never photographed them. And since most everything I've been working on lately has been real work, and not the stuff I like to blog about, I figured these happy little lanterns would be something fun to share. I'm still working out mounting them for easier stamping. And I'm not entirely settled on what I'll be stamping them on. But I did just find a fresh pack of brown kraft bookmarks that may need some lanterns added...

folklorique...

Just about a week ago I encountered these sweet little dolls on Etsy. I described them to my mom and when she heard the bargain price of $6.50, she told me that I should snatch them up. They arrived yesterday from France (I'm still amazed at the speedy delivery!), and I'm so glad I took my mother's advice. They are just the cutest thing! I was so pleased with this purchase that I'm sure I'll be finding more from her. Petitbrocante ("small secondhand shop") has a large collection of odds and ends for you to love too! Check her out!

last minute mother's day...

Just a quick post to say, check out the amazing printables from Canon for Mother's Day (Father's Day too!). They really make the printables I have pale in comparison. Although, part of that is because you need a degree in engineering to come up with some of their 3D designs. Anyway, there's still time to make something adorable for mom!

bliss for mom...

I've already reminded one person that they had better remember their mom this Sunday (He was thankful that I saved that relationship!), but just in case, consider this your reminder too. By a small miracle, I remembered to actually order a gift for my mom, and today it arrived. Since I'm more than certain that my mother doesn't read this blog, I'll share my prized gift for her. I picked up on her hint that she wanted I Remember Mama, an Irene Dunn movie. And as a surprise, Someday is a delightful children's book about a mom and daughter...I'm hoping for a tear or two.



And to go with it, this card (which she's seen already) featuring the Blissful Bloom. You can download the printable file and make one for your mom too!

what I overheard...

The kids were watching a Shirley Temple movie.

My 8-year-old brother: This is too scary!

My 6-year-old-scared-of-everything brother: Then just close your eyes or leave!

MmmHmm...

it's pickly and it's cold...

Maybe the title of this post seems slightly questionable, but it's an actual quote taken from the Bob's Pickle Pops website. What is a Pickle Pop you ask? It's basically frozen pickle juice. That's right, frozen pickle juice. And supposedly it's tasty. Or something like that. I'm not much of a popsicle fan myself, so I'm thinking that this isn't something I'll be trying anytime soon. But they have a cute mascot, and there's a catchy song you can listen to. So, I guess, here's to Pickle Pops!

the fifth of may...

I may have blogged this before, but it's worth another post, on this, the fifth of May. Some years back, a family joke was started. My mother very innocently asked, "So when is Cinco de Mayo?" We very seriously replied, "Um, the 5th of May." She maintains that she was asking what day, as in, Monday, but we don't buy that for a minute. Now every year we ask each other this question. I even got the above ecard from a friend with his personal message: "So when is Cinco de Mayo?...a question that will live in infamy."

In honor of this holiday, I made fresh corn tortillas for dinner. This was my second try at them, and they are pretty good. (I just keep forgetting to snap a pic in the midst of rolling them out and cooking them up) They are so good that I was thinking that my life would be easier if I had a tortilla press and I could make them more often. So I did a little search and found this DIY Tortilla Press. I think I'll go for it...

little blue bird...

I've never done a trade before, but this little birdie is for kettleofish, whom I connected with on Flickr...

one stop blog spot...

Maybe I'm the last person to discover this, but may I just say, "Bless Google Reader." I've been known to fall behind lately with a few things, and keeping up on my blog reading has been one of them. But with the help of Google Reader, all my favorite blogs are there and I can scan through them in minutes. Then star the entries that I need to look at more in depth. A huge timesaver! Now, the one one downside is that you miss out on the charm of the lovely blogs out there, but when I need a fix, I can still stop by the real deal.

But seriously, check it out.