Dear Beatrice,

“I will love you with no regard to the actions of our enemies or the jealousies of actors. I will love you with no regard to the outrage of certain parents or the boredom of certain friends. I will love you no matter what is served in the world’s cafeterias or what game is played at each and every recess. I will love you no matter how many fire drills we are all forced to endure, and no matter what is drawn upon the blackboard in a blurring, boring chalk. I will love you no matter how many mistakes I make when trying to reduce fractions, and no matter how difficult it is to memorize the periodic table. I will love you no matter what your locker combination was, or how you decided to spend your time during study hall. I will love you no matter how your soccer team performed in the tournament or how many stains I received on my cheerleading uniform. I will love you if I never see you again, and I will love you if I see you every Tuesday. I will love you if you cut your hair and I will love you if you cut the hair of others. I will love you if you abandon your baticeering, and I will love you if you retire from the theater to take up some other, less dangerous occupation. I will love you if you drop your raincoat on the floor instead of hanging it up and I will love you if you betray your father. I will love you even if you announce that the poetry of Edgar Guest is the best in the world and even if you announce that the work of Zilpha Keatley Snyder is unbearably tedious. I will love you if you abandon the Theremin and take up the harmonica and I will love you if you donate your marmosets to the zoo and your tree frogs to M. I will love you as the starfish loves a coral reef and as kudzu loves trees, even if the oceans turn to sawdust and the trees fall in the forest without anyone around to hear them. I will love you as the pesto loves the fettuccini and as the horseradish loves the miyagi, as the tempura loves the ikura and the pepperoni loves the pizza. I will love you as the manatee loves the head of lettuce and as the dark spot loves the leopard, as the leech loves the ankle of a wader and as a corpse loves the beak of the vulture. I will love you as the doctor loves his sickest patient and a lake loves its thirstiest swimmer. I will love you as the beard loves the chin, and the crumbs love the beard, and the damp napkin loves the crumbs, and the precious document loves the dampness in the napkin, and the squinting eye of the reader loves the smudged print of the document, and the tears of sadness love the squinting eye as it misreads what is written. I will love you as the iceberg loves the ship, and the passengers love the lifeboat, and the lifeboat loves the teeth of the sperm whale, and the sperm whale loves the flavor of naval uniforms. I will love you as a child loves to overhear the conversations of its parents, and the parents love the sound of their own arguing voices, and as the pen loves to write down the words these voices utter in a notebook for safekeeping. I will love you as a shingle loves falling off a house on a windy day and striking a grumpy person across the chin, and as an oven loves malfunctioning in the middle of roasting a turkey. I will love you as an airplane loves to fall from a clear blue sky and as an escalator loves to entangle expensive scarves in its mechanisms. I will love you as a wet paper towel loves to be crumpled into a ball and thrown at a bathroom ceiling and an eraser loves to leave dust in the hairdos of the people who talk too much. I will love you as a cufflink loves to drop from its shirt and explore the party for itself and as a pair of white gloves loves to slip delicately into the punchbowl. I will love you as a taxi loves the muddy splash of a puddle and as a library loves the patient tick of a clock. I will love you as a thief loves a gallery and as a crow loves a murder, as a cloud loves bats and as a range loves braes. I will love you as misfortune loves orphans, as fire loves innocence and as justice loves to sit and watch while everything goes wrong. I will love you as a battlefield loves young men and as peppermints love your allergies, and I will love you as the banana peel loves the shoe of a man who was just struck by a shingle falling off a house. I will love you as a volunteer fire department loves rushing into burning buildings and as burning buildings love to chase them back out, and as a parachute loves to leave a blimp and as a blimp operator loves to chase after it. I will love you as a dagger loves a certain person’s back, and as a certain person loves to wear daggerproof tunics, and as a daggerproof tunic loves to go to a certain dry cleaning facility, and how a certain employee of a dry cleaning facility loves to stay up late with a pair of binoculars, watching a dagger factory for hours in the hopes of catching a burglar, and as a burglar loves sneaking up behind people with binoculars, suddenly realizing that she has left her dagger at home. I will love you as a drawer loves a secret compartment, and as a secret compartment loves a secret, and as a secret loves to make a person gasp, and as a gasping person loves a glass of brandy to calm their nerves, and as a glass of brandy loves to shatter on the floor, and as the noise of glass shattering loves to make someone else gasp, and as someone else gasping loves a nearby desk to lean against, even if leaning against it presses a lever that loves to open a drawer and reveal a secret compartment. I will love you until all such compartments are discovered and opened, and until all the secrets have gone gasping into the world. I will love you until all the codes and hearts have been broken and until every anagram and egg has been unscrambled. I will love you until every fire is extinguished and until every home is rebuilt from the handsomest and most susceptible of woods, and until every criminal is handcuffed by the laziest of policemen. I will love you until M. hates snakes and J. hates grammar, and I will love you until C. realizes S. is not worthy of his love and N. realizes he is not worthy of the V. I will love you until the bird hates a nest and the worm hates an apple, and until the apple hates a tree and the tree hates a nest, and until a bird hates a tree and an apple hates a nest, although honestly I cannot imagine that last occurrence no matter how hard I try. I will love you as we grow older, which has just happened, and has happened again, and happened several days ago, continuously, and then several years before that, and will continue to happen as the spinning hands of every clock and the flipping pages of every calendar mark the passage of time, except for the clocks that people have forgotten to wind and the calendars that people have forgotten to place in a highly visible area. I will love you as we find ourselves farther and farther from one another, where once we were so close that we could slip the curved straw, and the long, slender spoon, between our lips and fingers respectively. I will love you until the chances of us running into one another slip from skim to zero, and until your face is fogged by distant memory, and your memory faced by distant fog, and your fog memorized by a distant face, and your distance distanced by the memorized memory of a foggy fog. I will love you no matter where you go and who you see, no matter where you avoid and who you don’t see, and no matter who sees you avoiding where you go. I will love you no matter what happens to you, and no matter how I discover what happens to you, and no matter what happens to me as I discover this, and no matter how I am discovered after what happens to me happens to me as I am discovering this. I will love you if you don’t marry me. I will love you if you marry someone else – your co-star, perhaps, or Y., or even O., or anyone Z. through A., even R. although sadly I believe it will be quite some time before two women can be allowed to marry – and I will love you if you have a child, and I will love you if you have two children, or three children, or even more, although I personally think three is plenty, and I will love you if you never marry at all, and never have children, and spend your years wishing you had married me after all, and I must say that on late, cold nights I prefer this scenario out of all the scenarios I have mentioned. That, Beatrice, is how I will love you even as the world goes on its wicked way.”

                        —Lemony Snicket

And that was the BEST thing ever.

Lord of the Rings Legos

Does anything else need to be said? Maybe, "bout time!" or, "where were you when I was little enough to justify buying these?" Such is life.

A Bit of Magic for the Holidays

I found this monstrously cute dwelling on Mark Shea's blog. Do yourself a favor and click on it.

.... Ahem, however, I'd rather do without the compost toilet. I've actually had to use one of those before. I don't plan on repeating the experience.

By the Way....

It's Rubeus Hagrid's birthday!

Drawing by Cory Godbey. I love the little Harry! 

"NEVER-INSULT-ALBUS-DUMBLEDORE-IN-FRONT-OF-ME!" -Hagrid


"What's comin' will come, an' we'll meet it when it does." -Hagrid

Carried Off by a Murder of Crows

Yes, I am still alive. Have some health issues that seem to like tmaking sure I am working hard, but, somehow things always work out.

.... Hopefully. My commissions and things ain't gettin themselves done. Sigh. What I wouldn't do for a bit of health. Maybe it's best this way. Keeps me from being a Drawing Terror of some sort.

Back to the drawing. This is a quick sketch I did inspired by the book Wildwood by Colin Meloy. It's been rather charming.

I thought a little quick sketch of someone's little brother being hauled off by birds was more engaging than more anatomy lessons.....

Latest GK quotes via my Dad:

"A man cannot be wise enough to be a great artist without being wise enough to wish to be a philosopher.  A man cannot have the energy to produce good art without having the energy to wish to pass beyond it.  A small artist is content with art; a great artist is content with nothing except everything." -GKC, "Heretics"

Steampunk Mary Poppins

What?

Indeed.

Close your mouth... we are not a codfish.

I started this for a steampunk T-shirt contest. I have a bit that has to be done to the file before I can submit it. If I can do that, and if I send it, I will post the link so you can go vote for me!

I think I will also put this on a few items in my zazzle store. Any suggestions? My sister has already said she'd like to have it on a bag.

Cuteness Alert

I love this blog. She. Is. Adorable. Kind of like Ponyo- which I just watched. Made my night so much better!

If you want to die of cuteness, I suggest Ponyo. As well as Howl's Moving Castle. I love Hayao Miyazaki.

A Bit of Nonsense Really

   In the past week there have been reports by one sibling (ONE sibling mind you) that there is mouse in the house. I for one don't mind- we live in an old house, so it's only right and decent to have one if you ask me! Anyway, while no one else, not even Brenna the kitty, has seen a trace of this mouse, it did, erm, inspire me. If this bit of nonsense even deserves the word "inspiration." Funny, I am working on an respectable  painting of monumental proportions, and I feel more accomplished by this mouse balderdash than I do something like my painting.
    Yes, I did use my Mac Dictionary/Thesaurus for a few of those words. But hey, maybe I learn a bit of nomenclature that way.
     In any case, I haven't written any rhymes since I was little- and even then it was no deluging amount. The only things with which I've provided such quantities to this earth are all those horse drawings I did when I was little. Hundreds I tell you! Thousands!
    As it were, so to say, the point is, it has been awhile, and I've not done much- so be merciful. I was rather thrilled when this burst out of me, and I only hope it makes some sense.
    Ahem:

There's a Mouse in the House!

Grab your shoes! Grab your mop!

Cover your feet, don't ever stop!

There's a mouse in the house there's a mouse in the house!

It'll nibble at your toes, and away they goes!

Over the hills, or far away?

You'll never know, 'cause you'll have to stay.

Unable to move, that's how you'll pay, 

For not keeping your little toes at bay!

There you have it. Exceptionally sensational, is it not? I even illustrated it:

   Now, just why the mouse is holding a tack, I am not positive. I just wanted him to have a weapon, and it seemed to me that a mouse might heft a tack.                                         

" I Am A Bear of Very Little Brain....

.... and long words bother me." -Winnie the Pooh

      Well, yesterday evening working at the library was slow. I had straightened shelves, and sanitized sticky kid's books and counters..... twice, and had to find something else to pass time so my brain wouldn't explode or melt. I usually read articles, or research something- but yesterday I decided to copy some little drawings out of a Winnie the Pooh book.

There's a little girl I sometime see at work who has some sort of disability- she can't seem to form real words when she talks, and while she seems to be able to hear, I've seen her family use sign language to communicate with her. Anyway, she gave me a little drawing of two fairies last time I saw her, and I thought I might give her a drawing next time I see her. She's very cute. She has an odd posture and body shape, but has the cutest little face, pale complexion, rosy cheeks, freckles, and dark hair. I was going to post her little drawing as well... only, I kind of left it in my pant pocket in the wash, and now it's in little flakes all over my laundry and closet. Makes me sad. I was rather proud of that little drawing.


    I am looking for some words of wisdom from Winnie the Pooh on the internet. I have a friend who has a little book of it, and I am having some difficulty finding them on the internet- at least, with my poor internet connection. I hope I can finish this post before it escapes entirely.      

    In the mean time, I am listening to Stephen Fry read Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone on youtube. It's rather fabulous listening to Jeeves read such a delightful book- he is a great narrator! (yes, it's on youtube- at least for now, before it's discovered and removed)
    I found some cockamamy (new word of the day!) yet entirely sensible and delightful wisdom from Pooh Bear:

"Don't underestimate the value of Doing Nothing, of just going along, listening to all the things you can't hear, and not bothering."
- Piglet, Pooh's Little Instruction Book, inspired by A. A. Milne



"My spelling is Wobbly. It's good spelling but it Wobbles, and the letters get in the wrong places." - Winnie the Pooh


"Some people care too much, I think it's called love. "- Winnie the Pooh


"People who don't Think probably don't have Brains; rather, they have grey fluff that's blown into their heads by mistake."
- Pooh's Little Instruction Book, inspired by A. A. Milne


They're funny things, Accidents. You never have them till you're having them.
- Eeyore


And finally.....


"If ever there is tomorrow when we’re not together.. there is something you must always remember. You are braver than you believe, stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think. But the most important thing is, even if we’re apart.. I’ll always be with you."
- Winnie the Pooh

May 4th, 2011: DRAW SOMETHING!

   I know I haven't drawn much... and I do have some legit excuses... But, legit or not, I have not been drawing, and my heart is sad. And so this just burst out of me about 10 minutes ago while I was uploading pictures for my website, and listening to get 'er done music.... I will tape this somewhere like over my bed, so maybe I will awake with awareness of my heart's longing ache to draw. It's worth a try anyway. 

     I made it a little larger so you can read the Alice quote. Not sure how it relates to the whole idea, but some how I thought it fit the the sentiment.... 

     Maybe someday my hair will be that long and awesome......

     I want rain boots like those! And a little mouse with a kerchief when I cry. Where is Despereaux when you need him?! 

     You know, if this here mouse keeps making an appearance in my work, I will have to name him! Any ideas?