Maple-Girl

If anyone plays Pokemon X or Y and has spare vivillon I am in needs of a few to collect my set.

Icy Snow, Tundra, Archipelago, Sandstorm, River, Monsoon, Ocean, Jungle and Pokeball.

My natural wings are High Plains.

Spread the word.

Or link me to a vivillon trade post. ^_^

Y'know those dogs in the movie Up? And how they get distracted all the time because of squirrels?

Yeah. I'm one of those kinds of people.

Kinda.

I love art, I wish I was what I considered a 'real' artist. I know what I am - I'm a remixer. I can't look at a blank page/canvas/pattern grid and go, "Okay to make a dog shape I do this!". I have to go and find something and then study it, and adjust it and then make it my own. I can backwards engineer like it's my day job. ^_^ (Horrible confessions much?)

That's why cross stitch patterns I do are art from other people.

Or based on other people's stuff. I try very hard to not make it a direct copy in this case!

Oh wow. I totally squirreled. 

Okay, what I meant to talk about was not my confessions as a remix artist, but why I can't do a 365 project.

I can't stick to one subject. (Like Noah Scalin's 365 Skull-a-day thing)
I can't stick to one medium. I bounce between that which I truly love - beads, yarn, pixels and random art projects. (See my tattoo trolls.)
I will miss a day due to ____ fill in blank. I squirrel.

So yeah. I'm going to go for once a week at least. And then school gets out and I can have the kids help me to clean my house (only a few hours a week) so that I can dig my beads out and do beady stuff. I haven't been able to since last Thanksgiving properly, and I'm DYING to get back. (And then I get distracted or start but realize how much I need to get done and spiral out and end up a pile of mush on my couch. I think I need anti-anxiety pills for those moments.)

Ah life! ^_^

*Better late than never SPOILERS ALERT!*


I love the original story of the Ice Queen. It's about a sister saving a brother from a woman with icy powers. It's about family love and the willingness to go to the ends of the earth for them. And in a way, Frozen captured that. My issue with the movie is not about the love between the two sisters.

It's the plot holes so large you could ram two 747's in there and they would never touch. It's the hype that surrounded it, which got so big and so crazy that when I finally did get to watch it (on a DVD in my own home) it was a huge let down. The expectations just did NOT get realized.

Personally I think it's a minor Disney flop.

But Disney is doing something right by letting the creators of Once Upon a Time have free reign with characters from the classic Disney movies. Otherwise the dwarf we all love would not be called Grumpy.

And I am enjoying the Captain Hook/Emma Swan hook up. Not so much the thought of Regina getting screwed again (seriously! the poor woman never gets a break) by bringing Maid Marion back to her husband. They looked so cute together and now the wife is back. Although kudos to Robin for not telling Regina that she killed his wife. Or that he thought she did. Yay. Time travel. Secretly I was hoping Marion was a young Maleficent or the witch from Hansel and Gretel or someone else. Someone interesting.

But the new tease for the next season is a figure we all know pretty well now. That and her earworm of a song "Let it Go". (Seriously I can't get that song out of my head for days, and when I do it gets slammed in my ear again.)

Elsa of Frozen is the new villain/interesting character for Once Upon a Time.

Can she be properly evil this time? Can she wreak havok with the hearts of people? Can we please not have her whine about her powers? 

Although I must admit I liked the demise of Peter Pan much more than The Wicked Witch of the West.

I had to share.

This is how my Mother's Day began. My eight-year-old son had a dream he was peeing only to wake up and was actually peeing. In bed.

His choice? Tiptoe into my room, whisper "Mommy! I peed my pants!"

Credit must be given to my angel husband who rolled over when I poked him and asked him to take care of the problem. He did it without complaint. And my son knew what to do, he just wanted Mommy which was sweet.

So, no breakfast in bed, or sleeping in, but I had a great Mother's Day. And I don't really care about those things. I spent the day with those I do care about - my family. So in a way, it was a perfect day. I couldn't have crafted a better one.

And since I experienced it nine years ago I can tell you that a calm Mother's Day is MUCH preferable to a Mother's Day going into labor.

So anyone who knows me knows I won't ever be getting a tattoo. For various reasons including against my religion, can't handle the pain (even though I've been through childbirth - twice!), I don't like something long enough to get it tattooed on my body and then have to remove it ten years later, and I think tattooing names on my body of those I love is . . . well . . . silly. But those are my reasons, take it or leave it. ^_^

But I love great tattoos! Some of them are just plain works of art! (Audience: "well duh!") I saw this phoenix tattooed on someone's back so well done that when she raised her arms it looked as if the phoenix was flying.

And if you've seen my newest random art post (and I am random, I've got knitting, amigurumi, poetry, pixel art, etc.) then you might have seen Yakuza Troll. And the light went on. I can draw (albeit poorly) my favorite tattoo styles on trolls, and if I don't like one, just get rid of it! Ha!

So now I'm delving into cultural tattoos. I've already ripped the hair out of another troll (I need some adhesive remover for some) and put in new hair. It's a different kind of yarn and no matter how much I brushed it out, looks like Polynesian hair. This beautiful full, thick, and luscious hair that I wish I had.

That means the next troll (which is larger than Yakuza) is going to be Ta Moko Troll, enjoying my depiction of a beautiful cultural tattoo art form. I need more trolls, since a good deal of them just aren't suitable for it. I have some with weird shoe-feet. I think they originally had Christmas-themed clothing.

I'll probably tire of this in a while, but right now I'm enjoying this aspect of my creativity. I'm dying to do beadwork to be honest. But my craft room isn't unpacked and put away yet after the massive cleaning out I did. T_T Soon . . . Life just keeps getting in my way. Now I'm whining. Sorry, I'll stop. ^_^

Well now this mental dump is over! Take care!