Irish Fest 2010

Last time I went to Irish Fest it was hard paying attention to my surroundings- it was my first date with the Benj. Now that the tables have turned/done a total 180, I was forced to revisit it by working on the poster for this year's festival for my illustration class. The first version I wasn't terribly happy with- it felt drab and boring and sure, the sheep were kind of cute but that's really all it had going for it. In the second final I changed the background color to something that wasn't green green and attempted to have fun with that damn typeface.

Sharing the Love

And bragging a little bit, too. Here are the flowers via the lovely Benjamin (the pink vase is so cute and I love how the stems look in it) and perhaps the most bad ass Valentine I have ever received from my bud Marisa, featuring Michael C. Hall in all his serial killing splendor.

The rest of the Valentine's Marisa made are here, at her blog.

11 Croquet Critters

Dunno if I'm going to play with the line art colors... dunno if I'm going to whip up another version with different colors on a white/light background. Done for now. Due tomorrow. Done for the Penfield Children's Center annual croquet ball.

Also, I got flowers from the Arkansan. :) I'll post pictures later. <3

From Arkansas, With Love

I miss Arkansas.

Gambit, a parrot to my boyfriend's pirate.

Apollo, water to the sink.

Silliness that might get me killed for posting.

He wins for putting up with me. :)

Wizz Whiz

The Letter

So today my beloved key that is after M but before O i the alphabet died, meaig I am ow datig a cute boy amed Bejami (souds Frech, oui?). Poor kid has had to traslate all my messages because although my woderful father did maage to dig up a old keyboard (ever before have I bee so glad he works i computers) it's still kid of a pai to use. So, ow, I basically just have this perpetual cold that I type with, because it turs out a lack of that lovely letter makes for a great stuffy ose accet.

Teaching Harry Potter

Benjamin: Where did the scar on his head come from?
Me: From that attack when he was 1.
Benjamin: All it did was scratch his head?

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.

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).

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

Reads: The Time Traveler's Wife

Before I give this book its stellar grade I'd like to give a shout out of praise to my boyfriend Benjamin for dealing with me every time I was reading and began sobbing in public on the bus, and in my studio at eight in the morning, and also for taking me (somewhat) seriously when I instructed him to never ever get his feet amputated. He rocks.

Rating: 4.88 out of 5
Obviously, I loved this book. Along with Carol Goodman's The Lake of Dead Languages and Clive Barker's Abarat, it will gladly be listed off whenever people ask what some of my favorite books were. I think a lot of my love for it had to do with where I am right now in my life as a 21 year-old girl in the midst of a long distance relationship. I could relate perfectly to the main character Clare while she waited for Henry to appear again, counting down the days until the next day on the list he'd given her. (Speaking of which, less than a month until I see Benj again!) There was plenty of sprinklings of sex, ups and downs, and a cover photograph that is ingenius. Good book. I haven't seen the movie yet, so shut yo trap.

Cake of Awesomeness

Last night I accidentally deleted all the pictures off my camera. I was quite bummed, as all the photos of the gorgeous cake my mother slaved over had been on there, as well as the pictures from when Benjamin was up in August. Luckily, my father had taken some pics and though they aren't as spiffy as mine were and I look mildly ridiculous in each one, they are proof that the cake existed! It reminded me of Van Gogh. The frosting was lemon. I ate the last piece today, and it was glorious.

Fleurs From My Favorite Arkansan

<3>

Squirrelizer!

http://www.lutralutra.co.uk/squirrelizer/

Joseph and Nikki

Drawn for Benjamin's brother and his girlfriend, Nikki. I like the version with just lines better, I think.

This Isn't Your Second Grade Maze

MazeFrenzy.com

I gave up, frustrated beyond belief at this rotating maze of death after ten minutes of hell, but through sheer determination or perhaps sheery insanity, Benjamin kept at it for almost two hours before finally completeing it. Just thought I'd brag a little on his behalf, because the idea of doing that maze for two hours still gives me a headache.

(Also, sorry Benjamin but you're the one who took the screen shot, not me. You should have known I would post this all over the interwebs, dear. <3>

Ben's Package (har har)

When bored, I suggest sending out care packages. They may or may not consist of A. letters, B. official SPAM from the SPAM Museum in Minnesota, C. home-baked goods, and D. porn.

Example:

Bed Bug Safety

So Benjamin isn't plagued by bed bug reproduction, we (or rather, I, as the bed bugs are my responsibility) gave them condoms. Looking back, I should have chose a different color for that condom, because now it looks like a carrot.

On a side note, the female bed bug lays around five eggs a day. Continuously.

Pretty in Pink

Don't get me wrong, I love the south. The weather, the people, the tendency to refer to every single type of pop as "Coke". But I could live without the giant bugs (and I do for the most part, because I live in Wisconsin). Apparently, Benjamin found an honest-to-goodness call-the-fire-department-to-kill-it millipede in his bathroom a few months back and neglected to tell me. Now I'm paranoid that the poor boy is going to be eaten alive while he sleeps.

I'd rather he be surrounded by these cute monsters, the Shocking Pink Dragon Millipedes. So what if they can shoot cyanide? They're PINK.