Author Archive
captain of the swim team
Here’s the quick remedy to my house portrait ennui. It’s not a squirrel, but it’s definitely not a house, either.
A while ago, I predicted that sloths would be the new owls. I was so sure! Well, it turns out that foxes are the new owls, and I have to eat my hat. But, I am declaring now, in front of my millions of readers, that sloths are the new foxes. Have you done an image search for “sloth”? You need to do it now. Fact: there is no number of sloth pictures that will desensitize you to the crazy freakishness of the sloth.
D&H PSA: Don’t “rescue” swimming sloths!
D&H bonus: I need a slow loris
Okay, back to houses.
2714 Race Street
Another house. Jeepers, I feel like I sure have done a lot of houses lately. Don’t get me wrong – I really enjoy working on them and collaborating with people to get their homes just right, but think of all of the poor squirrels out there going un-drawn! I think I’m going to have to make a concerted effort to do a little d&h drawing every week. You know, for the good of small mammalkind (and to get that squirrel at my window feeder off my back).
my neighbourhood
Well, not my neighbourhood, but those of two little boys who received these play mats for Christmas. I had the drawings printed up (by Spoonflower, of course) on square yards of heavy cotton twill and then I backed and bound them. I have to admit that these custom mats weren’t my idea. I met the boys’ grandmother while selling at a market last summer, and she was inspired by my aerial view of a (fictional) neighbourhood. Doodle doesn’t play with cars too much any more, but got out his favourites to drive around on these while I took some photos. Now he wants me to make one featuring our neighbourhood. Add it to the list, Dood. Add it to the list.
812 W Cottage Street
This is one of the house portraits that got unwrapped by somebody on Christmas morning. A couple of years ago, I did a portrait of this house’s neighbour!
The end of 2012 was a little rough at my house. Our new baby was born at the end of October (yay!), and we all promptly got sick (boo). Between nursing both an infant and the flu, someone a little more realistic might have considered not taking on any custom orders for the holidays. I’ve never been realistic.
little hammock in the woods
Ah, fall. Along with nut gathering and fat building, we’ve been busy around here preparing for Doodle and Boo’s baby sister to arrive. Any day now! I had forgotten about this fabric that I designed over the summer, but ran across it in my Spoonflower shop while ordering fabric for sewing up D&H Christmas ornaments. I love Christmas, but why does it always have to encroach on my fall?
I once spent the night in a hammock in a jungle in Belize. I remember being quite calm about the situation, despite (thanks to?) having my machete within arm’s reach as I slept. This summer, I was about 7 months pregnant when we went camping, so my husband offered up his hammock to me so that I could be more comfortable. Have you seen these newfangled camping hammocks? You enter from the bottom or the side and are then completely encased in your own little cocoon. Once inside, it didn’t take long for me to get a little panicky and gently request assistance in getting myself “out of this thing!!!” Maybe I’ll appreciate the cocoon more next summer when I’m a little more mobile and a little less like a turtle stuck on my back.
extinct or elusive?
So, here’s the question: is the ivory-billed woodpecker extinct, or just hard to find? There hasn’t been a very convincing sighting of one since the 40s, but the search for one has taken on crypto-zoological dimensions. Okay, so maybe they’re working on some better evidence than the bigfoot guys, but check out those “gone squatchin’” shirts – nice!
Speaking of large black, white, and red woodpeckers, I’m on a pileated hunt once again this summer after seeing my first one (and two, and three!) last summer. Apparently, one was living in a tree just off of my balcony when I was little, but I never managed to see it. For years, I was actually apprehensive about encountering one, because my dad originally described it as being up to my hip in size. I kept that size in mind all of these years without realizing that… um… my hip is a little bit higher than it was when I was three.
word is spreading
I can’t get over just how cute European badgers are. How could an animal possibly be so cute? Honey badgers are all the rage right now (I know, I know, he don’t care…), but I just can’t muster the affection for him or the American Badger that I have for their British brethren. I also imagine them to be intelligent, but that might just be the Trufflehunter effect. I’ve known about the badger cull in England for a while, but only recently heard that a cull would very probably promote the spread of bovine tuberculosis instead of controlling it. I can’t think of many things as frustrating as politicians . ignoring . scientists.
“leaf” your fingerprint. get it? get it?
My brother got married a couple of weeks ago. Fun! For the record, Doodle and Boo both looked adorable in their ring bearer/flower girl finery and performed their duties with shockingly professional attention and precision. Or something like that. Months ago, my now sister-in-law asked if I would make them a fingerprint tree for guests to add fingerprint “leaves” to and sign during the reception. I was like “whaaaaa?,” but then a quick Etsy search revealed that this is, in fact, a thing! Huh. Anyway, this is what I came up with. I figured that a delicate white birch was more weddingy than the gnarled oak I started with. It looks nice all leafed out, too (in shades of green and purple) and I’ll have to remember to get a picture of its finished state.
p.s. If anybody could tell me why I’m getting sooo many visitors from Poland, that would be fun. My referring links aren’t providing any clues and I’m so curious!
