Muerta Skull Tattoo

Earlier this year my brother Aaron charged me with drawing up another tattoo for him (before the ship).  This one was inspired by one of his son's shirts:

I know I ended up doing the entire drawing twice because the first was much larger than he wanted.  I'm pretty sure this image is the first drawing (though the second was a near exact smaller copy, plus color):

 

He got it inked in late May at Fatty's Tattys by Ryan Ford:

 

Pirate ship tattoo

Remember back in September when I took my vacation and finished the drawing for my brother's tattoo?

Well, he got it done shortly afterwards.  Just a few simple alterations by his artist Ryan Ford of Fatty's Tattys and he got the "deep tissue massage" he had been looking forward too. 

 

Now, I won't claim that the idea was original.  Aaron sent me 2 specific images that he liked, one for the structure, the other for style.  The end result was a marriage of the two hand drawn in graphite.

The structural one is easy to find (via Tumblr or Google image) though the original source is unknown to me and the style one was just too small of a file to do much with so I had to do a bit of improvising:

Check and Check

I finished a couple items from the to-do list.

The first, Aaron's tattoo design:

I think he's going to take it down to his favorite artist sometime very soon to get it done.


The second, my family picture wall:

It's a good start I'd say.  I got the mirror shelf from my parents the other day and the wall shelf from DJ's today.  I have a few frames I'd like to get pictures for so there's a few holes for now.  I'm glad I've got what I've got up for now.



Another little guy:

I got another little shelf from my folks that works perfectly for temporary spice storage until I get a proper rack.  I love having this counter free now that the microwave is on a stand.


I spent most of Saturday working on 2 projects.  The first: the milk crate bench seat.  I spray primed the crates and have been waiting for them to cure properly to connect them (with zip ties).  I still need to finish the cushion.

Second: hand-stitching my necktie rug, a project that's been in progress for years.  I'm not sure why I decided to bust it out this weekend but I've made some progress and will eventually post pictures.

I spent most of Sunday at my parents house working on my buckets for the yarn revamp.  I need to get hardware tomorrow, drill the buckets and attach everything together.

I've also been working intermittently on my pink project.


Update complete.

Todotodotodotodotodo

I've been meaning to make a to-do list of projects I'd like to tackle during my 6 day vacation from work that starts Friday.  I have sort of a long complicated love/hate relationship with paper lists that I won't get into right so I've decided to make this one on my blog.


1.  Yarn Storage Revamp Project:  Right now, I store my massive yarn stock in old plastic milk crates I got back in my Wicker Park JJs days.  I'm looking to use those crates for other various projects so I need a new alternative.  After combing Pinterest for ideas that could work for my specific needs, I found one picture from a fellow blogger that inspired my revamp project:

 

Pic courtesy of YarnBombLove

The blog doesn't say how the storage is made so I've done some creative problem solving which will be economical and free!  My little brother manages a fast food restaurant and has access to plenty of 5 gallon pickle buckets.  I found that a good scrubbing with my Norwex cleaning paste takes the gross smell out of the buckets.  I plan on sawing the rim of each bucket off just below the hinge part that holds the handle so that it's flat outside all around.  Plus shortening the bucket brings it closer to the actual size of a yarn skein.  It looks to me like this blogger used something like large pieces of pvc pipe and brackets to mount them.  I like the idea of my tubes having bottoms so that I can potentially take them down and transport them upright.  I also think that I'm going to bolt the tubes into rows of 3 and will likely hang them from the ceiling rather than the wall.  I will probably hang them in some sort of pattern, calculated in some way.  I'd thank this blogger for the great inspiration and look forward to posting pics of my successful completion of my Yarn Storage Revamp Project.

2.  Milk Crate Bench Seat:  3 of my (17) milk crates have already been reserved for this project for Sky's room.  Another project that I cruised from Pinterest which will of course have all of my flare.  I'm not easily finding the source of this pic but the link to the pin is here.  My crates are a variety of colors so I want to prime them white for this project and possibly do a bright coordinating color to match with the rest of Sky's room.  I already have a piece of the pink gingham from the window treatments measured, cut and pinned to size for the cushion.  I either need to stuff it with white stuffing or cut a lining for it because the gingham has an embroidered flower pattern with holes.  I'll probably attach it with a ribbon or strips of the leftover gingham.  I'm going to bolt the 3 crates together.  I already have baskets to fit in the crates that match other basket storage in her room.  The successful completion of this project will mark a near completion point on Skylar's bedroom decor.  I've been excited about this project for quite awhile and I'm looking forward to it.

3.  Milk Crate Plant Stand:  This project may not happen over my vacation time, but a girl can dream can't she?  I saw someone posted a pic of a shelving unit made from 5 milk crates in a sort of W shape on their edges.  I'm not really set on any particular pattern yet, I just want an economical layout that will allow plant life to flourish on my little deck.  I have to complete my yarn storage revamp before the crates will be free for me to play around with layouts.  For the time being, I don't really feel the need to prime or spray paint the crates I'm using for the outdoor shelving but eventually I'd like to do them right.  I plan on just bolting them together into the best suited pattern and putting them to use right away.  We'll see if this happens...

4.  Family Picture wall:  I have a wall that I've designated for my family pictures in frames but I have yet to put any of them up because I need to get my wall shelves from DJ's place.  Once the wall shelves are up I'll have space for all the table top frames and can determine where to put the wall frames.  This is one of the last move-in details (though more seem to pop up daily) that I want to get taken care of.  This has to happen...

5.  Outdoor family name sign (for Aaron and Terri):  I plan on spending some time at my folks house while I'm sawing buckets for the yarn project so I figured it would be a great time to cut down a piece of wood for a project I meant to do months ago for my older brother's family.  I did one last Christmas for my little brother's family.  His just had our last name in simple font burned into a long narrow piece of walnut.  I had some nautical hooks I painted to look aged and my dad helped me attach them along the bottom of the sign.  I covered the rest of the board with sand and seashells from a family vacation years ago.  For the new design I plan on a more fancy or Gothic style font and a softer wood that will burn more easily.  I don't have hooks for this one but I still plan on using the same sand and seashells.  That will be extra special for them since it was the family trip with their beach side wedding proposal.  For the most part, I just want to get a jump start into this project.  Just having the surface in my possession will help me start moving forward with it.

6.  Sky hooks:  Another project to just get a jump on since I'll be sawing it up with my dad.  I want a cloud shaped piece of wood to mount the wooden letter SKY hooks that I got earlier this year on mega clearance at work.  I just want to paint the cloud and the letter hooks, mount the hooks on the cloud and then mount the cloud on an over-the-door hanger for Skylar's bedroom door.  I don't think the total project will take long once I have the cloud shape but it's not a major priority on the to do list.

And a few little 'tweeners:

*work on my Pink Project: I'm several layers deep already and looking forward to slowly building it up

*work on Aaron's pirate ship tattoo drawing: He wants to get the tat done in early September so I want to finish it up before the vaca is over.

*make baby hats:  it's never too early to get a jump start on my inventory for winter craft shows.  I've made a few hats over the past week or so up to the point of assembly.

That's it, I think.  Ready? Set?

Gooooooooooo!

Consumption

This whole food journal thing isn't the first time I keep track of what I ate over a period of time...
Back in 2007, I participated in a basic drawing class homework exercise that I initially thought was bullshit.  It was early in the semester and I was still feeling out the teacher a little bit in terms of his methods, discussion tactics, and leniency in terms of interpretation/attendance.  I remember the class was a Monday/Wednesday-nights-from-6-9pm class.  He gave us the basic task of tracking everything that we ate or drank (as I took to mean consume in general) from the end of class one Wednesday night til the following Monday's class.  Five days.  I was pretty pissy about the assignment and used my frustration to spur a strange abstraction of what I really consumed that week.  The drawings are geometric deconstructions of everything that passed my lips during that 5 days.  Upon returning to class, I found I was one of the half in the class that actually accomplished the assignment and one of the very few who took it very seriously.  Like I said, my frustration with being assigned such a juvenile task drove me to invent a way to make it more interesting to me.  I feel it turned into playful depiction of a third-year art school student's diet.  Knowing what foods I consumed then makes me cringe now a little but really that's part of the college experience.  I mean, I'm pretty sure one of these drawings represents a strawberry strudel pastry and blazing buffalo Doritos!  At any rate, I rarely get to share the book that this project spawned one of my few prized artist books.
So here it is: Consumption

Papasan

I want one.  I want one right now.

Something like this one:
http://www.pier1.com/Catalog/Furniture/Furniture/tabid/519/CategoryID/158/List/0/catpageindex/2/Level/a/ProductID/567/ProductName/Papasan-Chair-Stool-Frames--Brown/Default.aspx