Brain Flotsam V2.007

I ran away to the circus.. er, Renaissance Festival today!
It was pirate weekend, so I got into a pseudo-costume (I wore jeans), and met Donna, Jon, Lando and some friends.
It was a long drive, by the way. Geez. It seems so much shorter when there is another person in the car.
This is us in front of the waterwheel by the carousel, which was the designated "let's all meet here" location.

More from the Quilt Show:


( photos )

Look what my friend Keet made for me!
He's keeping Luna company on my office desk now.

:D

She has an Etsy store full of these (not Snape, but cute little dolls) over here.

My portrait just came back from the framer, and it looks pretty awesome. I think I'll hang it in my office until I make something even more awesome.
It really came out well.

This is based on this fabulous portrait photo, remixed under Creative Commons.

Almost done with the portrait for class...

Man, I think I love these pencils.

We're having a good time!



So are the Storm Troopers!



More photos to follow when I get a spare minute to process them. Plus of course we're going back to the Festival tomorrow.

More photos:

( ew, yucky burn under cut )
The burn photo is tiny.


Completed sketch, with 14" ruler for scale. It's actually a bit too dark, I may have to use a lightbox and re-draw it.

It was such a great exercise, I should probably make a point of drawing right-handed regularly.

Since my left hand hurts and it's hard to draw, I decided to start my art homework right-handed, using a grid.


The photo and its grid. Mom and I bonded over Viggo Mortensen in The Two Towers while I was working.


The sketch in progress.

Mom said it was "black tie and tails" for dinner, and we couldn't eat until we had drawn our black tie and tails on our post-its. So we all drew something and stuck it to our shirts.
The hippo candle holder served as cake stand-in for the singing and candle-blowing portion of the evening.
(Dad's birthday is Wednesday, but he's off on a business trip tomorrow so we had dinner last night.)

So last night Mom and I attended the Harris County Democratic Party's fundraising event as table guests of a friend of ours who is a judicial candidate this year.

There were some great speakers, a lot of laughs, a really good video, and lots and lots of hobnobbing candidates. Gen. Clark gave a fantastic keynote address. It's exciting to see so much enthusiasm and real hope for change.
It was also wonderful to see old friends that we haven't seen in ages, and catch up with them. Mom and I fangirled Senfronia Thompson when she spoke, too.  Yay standing ovation!


Retired General Wesley Clark Keynote Address            Crowd shot




Judicial Candidates Roll Call                                        New buttons join the collection!

I finished this a little while ago, and drachenmina just got it in the mail, so here are the photos.
The center piece is an illustration from Mina's fic "A Most Impractical Cat" and there are some choice quotes from the piece free-motion quilted into it.





You can see the whole process at my Craft Projects Flickr Set

( more under cut )

So I'm officiating a wedding on Saturday and have this great green and brown ensemble to wear. I just needed shoes - here I am, tons of brown clothes and no brown shoes. Egads.
So Mom and I braved the sales and lo, if we didn't find the perfect pair of wedding shoes.

( the perfect shoes )

w00t!

At my class this morning at the Urban League, several people read it and gave me funny looks, but only one lady asked, "Hon, what's Hogsmeade?"

Ok, I don't actually remember tons of details but I'll try to do a Portus recap at some point. Basically it was awesome with a few moments of blah that I quickly got over. Note to self: never travel without digestive biscuits or something. The breakfast offerings at most places are terrible on my stomach.

So, here are some photos:

Zephre the Cat helps in cape production at home, four days before Portus.


Snarry Meetup - I've labeled the faces I remember with notes on Flickr. Feel free to add your own notes if you know who's who!


OMG it's me with Voldemort EEEEEE! (And this Voldemort is also a member of Ministry of Magic, bigger SQUEEEEE!)


My Dark Mark tattoo, my Portus badge with various accoutrements. The badge holder actually acquired more button pins ("I learned about Justice from Umbridge", "I learned about Compassion from Snape" and a Slytherin Prefect) before the end.


"Hermione" by Fox Estacado, in the Art Auction.

My whole Portus 2008 set, crappy snapshots and all, is right over here.