Squirrels and Octopods

I'll get to our animals in a minute. Though squirrels get into everything, including birthdays. And January brought in a very special birthday.  

 

Tom enjoyed a very squirrely b-day. The card he's holding talks/ screams at you in a tiny voice when you take it away from it's bag of peanuts to read it. It was pretty funny. On the actual day Tom and I went for a fancy dinner at The Gastropub, which is an awesome restaurant. They have amazing food.

 

These two didn't really get what all the hype was about. But they did get lots of squishing from me. I miss have animals around.

Last weeks theme was giant stores. I started it by venturing into the new IKEA with some friends and have since gone back with Tom for what is probably the fastest visit ever! It was around 20 minutes. Our other giant store was the not quite as new T&T Asian food store. There were three or four aisles of noodles! Fruits and vegetables I'd never seen before. It was pretty neat, I'll probably stick to the much closer markets in China Town. 

I wish I was the baby in this sign. mmmm bread.

 

As we walked down one aisle Tom found a bunch of these. Dried octopus. Poor little guys. I bet that would be really chewy. 

Here's my latest artwork. I'm still trying to decide how best to show it on my other blog. I think I'll have to create a water mark to put on these types of images. They are the first illustrations for a book I'm working on. It's working title is "Cowboy Boots For All Occasions".

For walking on the moon.

 

For being mummified.

For leading a ninja attack.

The ninja attack is the only completed one so far. I'm using water based oils so they take a fair while to dry.  They are quite small too, only about 8"x 6". I've set up an assembly line with a few boards in various states; gessoed, background only, and waiting for finer detail. Then I complete them one by one. So far it's working, though I have close to 30 to do, so we'll see if I need to up the production speed. I'd like to be putting the book together in April or May.

This photo serves two purposes. 

1. To show off my newly organized and decorated living room, thanks to my visits to IKEA. 

2. To show how we are accumulating squirrels. We've got a vinyl decal on the wall by Tom (we have two), the black pillow is a giant squirrel named Wilbur, and Tom's birthday present from me, a squirrel playing rugby with an acorn on his t-shirt. Turns out I'm the culprit for acquiring all of these. I should probably stop before it gets worse...

Well, too be fair we're inundated with both squirrels and octopus/ octochairs. This piece is one of my last lithographs. It's a study of different pattern lures the octochair uses to catch people so it can force them sit on it. It's one of my favourites and makes me miss the media a bit. If only they made mini stones and presses.

This is just gratuitous table pride. On Monday as well as popping into IKEA, Tom and I visited the Micheal's craft store in search of some house paint. Tom thought it would be nice to paint the bottom of the table and suggested green (he's currently obsessed with a very bright shade of it). Our only choice was a tamer version and it looks amazing! We had a bit of a furniture fix up as we did a some restoring of the vanity against the wall too.

I can't stop looking at our table.