Bottom of the River

I saw this on Drawn! blog and just had to repost it because it is simple and gorgeous and creepy and awesome.

Tom Fun Orchestra-Bottom of the River from trunk animation on Vimeo.

Catherine Campbell

If Marisa doesn't like this stuff, then I deserve to have my eyes scooped out of their sockets with a melon baller. All from the kick ass Catherine Campbell. More here.

Cute Little Monsters

They may maul 74-year-old ladies half to death (read here- Benj has excellent timing when it comes to sending me articles he thinks I might find amusing), but damn, raccoons are cute. And still some of my favorite animals. I'm just not dumb enough to, you know, go poking at them with sticks.

For an uber-quick poem illustration:
(And I say uber because Benjamin was here all weekend, therefore I started and finished this baby tonight. Why I am staying awake to post it here, I have no idea whatsoever. Call me a masochist.)


I kind of want to tweak the opacity on the garbage stuff... but since I was tired and did the garbage like three different layers that it didn't belong on in the first place, that's not gonna happen. Not sure what I think of the author's name being cramped up in there, either. It was cute fifteen minutes ago, now it just looks... squashed and uncomfortable. I'm moving that sucker.

Get Used To Dealing With Ridiculous Feedback

What left-brained clients would say if artists turned these famous paintings in. It made me giggle. And, of course, a Comic Sans joke. I feel embarrassed for whoever designed that font, it's the butt of every designer's jokes.

More here.

Rodent Shoes

I've been in love with these flats by Marc by Marc Jacobs for much too long.

Almost Too Cute, Even For Me

And I consider myself an expert on all things disgustingly chubbeh and cute.

The Evolution of Milwaukee

This was regarding an article about the Visual Resources class MIAD offers, where Communication Design students go out and work for companies in the area. The students get valuable real world experience and something great to put on their resume, while the companies get good, cheap labor.

Tight Sketch

The first version of my final art, which I disliked greeeeatly.

My final art. Luv!

The art we actually went with for the article. I don't love it as much as I did my original final art- in my opinion MIAD is a lot harder to see in this version (something that was mentioned in critique-- I had to grit my teeth through the suggestion to stop from telling my designer "There was a REASON it was there before") and I felt like the dotted lines in the previous version made it a lot cuter and more light hearted.

This Is MY Coffee

Even the best of us get bored at work.

Love Is Blind. And Hungry.

I know this is an event almost everyone comes across at one point or another in their life, right? How to mail a cake across the country 70 degree weather? Well, first, you make a cake. You make it marble (his favorite) and slave over fondant for... what? Three hours? Dude, fondant is hard. It seems hopeless at the beginning- you're basically trying to knead powdered sugar and water. It's phenomenal that it can turn into something so smooth and cool looking!

The design is a circuit board (he also got a trinket box made out of circuit boards and a subscription to Maximum PC- I like themes). The best part, in my opinion, is that he got the thing below and still thought it rocked. Which shows that he's either a sweetheart, visually impaired, or just a hungry hungry hip-er, boy.

I do think it's quite cool that the green fondant melted into the blue fondant. That deeper green you see around the edges was the buttercream layer between the fondant and the actual cake, it was colored from a different cake I'd frosted. It was wrapped in a plastic bag, and then bubble wrap, and then the box was stuffed with newspaper so things wouldn't jostle (like my mother's glass plate).

Reads: The Amulet of Samarkand

Rating: 4.89 out of 5

This is another book I think very highly of, and I never hesitate to recommend it to anyone (unless they're a soulless type without a sense of humor or love of fantasy). The cover on the left is the kind of cover style featured on the trilogy that I own. I also own a hardcover with the cover version the right (which I greatly prefer, so pretty and subtle!) but I believe they stopped making nice covers with the other two in the series... unless I've just been internet-disabled and can't find them. Not that the one on the left isn't nice. It's very.... nice. It's fine! Oh god, new topic.

These books are funny, clever, with a good plot and likable but different characters and a setting that is unlike anything else I've run across. There are tons of little historical references that Stroud ties in with the magical context (which I love) and a great deal of footnotes because one of the main narrators has the ability to think on more than one level of consciousness at one time.

Sex Education Has Never Looked Quite Like This

You know how when ladies are really quite pregnant and you can see the little hands and feet of their babies prodding out through the mom's flesh? Well, it's kind of like they're saying "yo", isn't it? ...I just never imagined that I'd ever see one come out grinning with his arms upheld already about to beg "up? up?"

It's from a German childrens' book, some of which my favorite translations are "They kiss each other. Father's penis is growing large." and "Mother and Father lie down on the bed. They put the penis in the vagina. They play with each other. Father and Mother rock to and fro."
(From boingboing.)

Childing Rearing

[Benjamin was watching an episode of Supernanny involving some very whiny children.]

Benjamin: Wooooow. Her children are pathetic. lol
Abigail: Our children are going to be little vikings, okay?
Benjamin: LOL I don't know...Vikings are pretty violent.
Abigail: well... then.... uh...
Benjamin: How about little Romans?
Abigail: LOL <3
Benjamin: haha
Abigail: ...didn't the romans drink their own pee?
Benjamin: I have no idea, but they were smart and strong.
Abigail: I am CRACKING UP >.<
Benjamin: LOL Whyyyy?
Abigail: now I'm worried our kids will drink their own pee

Thomas Nast (and Santa)

The illustration for my Thomas Nast essay. I was amused.

Electrical Sockets... A History