Close up of a tortoise shell cat sleeping with her paws up close to her face. One paw is facing up so her pink toe beans are visible.

Sleepy little old lady cat. #cats

I heard stories of people who've fed crows, and been given gifts in return. It sounded charming, so I began doing that.

Then, one night, there was a rapping on my bedroom window. I stumbled up and opened.

A crow flew in and spoke: "They're coming for you. You must flee."

I only just made it out.

Picture of Marjane Satrapi alongside a quote from her. The quote reads: The world is not divided into countries. The world is not divided between East and West. You are American, I am Iranian, we don't know each other, but we talk together and we understand each other perfectly. The difference between you and your government is much bigger than the difference between you and me. And the difference between me and my government is much bigger than the difference between me and you. And our governments are very much the same... - Marjane Satrapi, Iranian-French graphic novelist

Thinking about this quote from Persepolis creator Marjane Satrapi again.

We kan daunse yf if plese us
We kan leave thy friendes behinde
For thy friendes daunse not
and yif thei daunse not
Then no friendes thei are of myne
Ich saye, we kan wende wher it plese us,
A place thei shal nevir fynde
And we can act lyke we come from Brocéliande
Leave the real worlde far behinde

I had this meme saved years ago because of som BS from work that said “you all realize I’m going to snap one say, right?”
So prophetic because here I am, snapping because of work.

Thanks Chloe. It’s very difficult to have to admit it, it’s still pretty new (damn menopause), and so it feels like I’m a terrible person. But I know that’s just my own insecurities talking and people will be understanding.

The problem with coming out of a depressive stage, or trying to, is not knowing how to reach back out and how to apologize for disappearing into yourself. This is all new to me and I’m hating it.

The belly laughs I had when my husband sent me this footage. I love our squirrel neighbour so much.

Happy January

When you have a literal library, but nothing to read.

Squirrel sitting in a pine tree with snow in the background. Squirrel is holding a pine cone in its mouth, ready to eat.

We have a little squirrel living in our tree. It’s always so thrilling to see them running around or, in this case, enjoying an early lunch. #squirrel #nature #photography #yeg

vt.tiktok.com/ZS5bG4WrW/
This little one has been living in our tree, it’s always so thrilling to see them. #squirrel #nature

☕️📖 Nothing like spending a cozy morning curled up under a blanket with a cup of tea and a book on my lap to keep me company while I endlessly scroll my phone

Ink drawing of a little cartoon dog with pointy ears and fluffy tail. Styled like a Shiba Inu dog in a reddish brown colour with lighter tan colour chest

Day 24 Art Advent Calendar
Happy final day of #ArtAdventCalendar
Little pup to close out out time here
#art #inktober #drawing #puppy

Resin octopus sitting on a wooden table. Octopus is teal blue and is full of glass shards to make it sparkle. The colour varies across the piece as the octopus thins out for the legs or thickens in the body.

Day 22 Art Advent Calendar
Resin octopus in teal blue with glass mirror shards and gears
#art #ArtAdventCalendar #steampunk #octopus #resin #yegart

Image shows an altered altoid tin lid on its side. The lid is set up on 2 old thread spools painted to look like wagon wheels and has a paper doll girl with a moon face holding a star on the front of it. Inside the lid is a harlequin pattern green background with thick chard board words saying “relic” and “be true”. Other mixed media elements include microbes scattered on the background and tiny flowers. The whole theme is like an old fashioned circus train car.

Day 21 Art Advent Calendar
Relic
Mixed media altered altoid tin lid, designed to look like an old fashioned circus train car with a paper doll moon girl.
#art #ArtAdventCalendar #mixedmedia #handmade

Extreme close up photo of a tortoiseshell cat face. Picture is slightly blurry, focusing on the pink cat nose and her green eyes. Her mouth is black lined against her cream and tan chin and cheek area. She looks slightly confused, as if she’s unsure how to take a selfie photo.

Day 20 Art Advent Calendar
My favourite picture I’ve ever taken of my old girl, Mystique. It’s a little blurry, but the comedic value of this picture is priceless. She looks slightly confused, as if she’s unsure how to take a selfie photo. #art #ArtAdventCalendar #cats #caturday

Pictures is of an altered altoid tin with shelves inside, pieces dangling off the side and a chicken foot as a stand. Tin is standing on a pot of paint with other pots of paint blurry in the background. On the shelves are curios, bones, skulls, and other found objects in miniature made to look like an apothecary cabinet.

Close up of the altered altoid tin interior shelves. Includes handmade items like jars with micro beads, handmade unicorn horn, eyes, charms, creepy doll, stacks of skulls and other objects.

Close up of the handmade chicken foot stand. Shows a three toed chicken foot with a spur type toe in the back to provide stability to the art piece. It’s very thick for a chicken foot so it can hold up the tin. Painted in black with silver highlights.

Image shows the front of the altoid tin as seen through a magnifying glass. Magnifying glass is small, about one inch, and is steampunk in style. Provides magnification of the bottom shelf of the tin focusing on a jar, little doll, and unicorn horn.

Day 19 Art Advent Calendar
Baba Yaga’s Apothecary
Handmade altered Altoid tin with a chicken foot, apothecary shelves, handmade and found objects.
#art #ArtAdventCalendar #mixedmedia #assemblage #steampunk #apothecary #handmade

Painting that is primarily red with sky blues, yellow, and green. Canvas is chaotic with colours randomly covering it and doodles in ink over it. Canvas is leaning against the wall and is 12” x 24”

Day 18 Art Advent Calendar
Red Chaos Canvas
#art #ArtAdventCalendar #painting #mixedmedia #yegart

Photo of a drawing of a black and white poppy done in a stylized way. Poppy is open with the petals spread out. Petals are coloured in with ink in a greyscale with details added in white ink.

Day 17 Art Advent Calendar
Inktober drawing of a poppy flower in India ink
#art #ArtAdventCalendar #ink #drawing

Photo of an old sign pole in the middle of the desert. Photo was taken standing on the San Andreas fault line and depicts how many miles it is to certain destinations. Canada is 1614 miles away from the San Andreas fault while Mexico was only 90 miles away. Sign pole is very tall and is casting a shadow to the left across the desert. In the background are sandy hills and blue skies.

Day 16 Art Advent Calendar
My favourite picture I took while on a tour on a business trip in November. Take on the San Andreas fault line, and showing directions (in miles) to different places. #art#ArtAdventCalendar #photography #SanAndreas

Ink drawing of a four legged octopus. Octopus is in purple gradient and features a pirate eye patch with a scar underneath implying the octopus is both a pirate and lost an eye. Octopus also has an anchor tattoo. Saying above the octopus is “don’t be a salty bitch”

Day 15 Art Advent Calendar
Another Inktober drawing, the prompt was “salty”.
#art #ArtAdventCalendar #Inktober #drawing #octopus

12 in by 24 inch canvas painting that is very busy with different colours, patterns, and designs doodled ob it. All colours including green, pink, yellow, blue, and orange in a kind of patchwork random pattern in the background and on top of that is little doodles in white ink or black ink. Painting is propped on on the desk, leaning against the wall with paint pots in the background

Day 14 Art Advent Calendar
Chaos Canvas
A mixed media painting I did years ago, 12”x24” in acrylic paint and ink.
#art #ArtAdventCalendar #mixedmedia #yegart

Small handmade frame painted to look like antiqued silver with a clear centre with a crystal sticker inside to catch the light. Frame is held by my right hand in the light with a spider plant in the background

Day 13 Art Advent Calendar
Work in progress, a resin sun catcher. I made the frame from resin and painted and patina’d it then created the interior where the light shines through with more resin. All handmade. #art #ArtAdventCalendar #resin #workinprogress

Altered playing card. Card has been covered in paint and texture with a suit of cards texture pattern in the background and micro beads and pebbles creating more texturing in the top right and bottom left hand side of the card. Card is painted in copper and highlighted with green and teal to suggest verdigris aging. The centre of the card has a metal plaque that says Collections

Day 12 Art Advent Calendar
Altered playing card. I can’t remember what card this was, probably a club. It was part of an altered art project I did that altered one playing card in a deck/week. I need to finish that project 😅 #art #ArtAdventCalendar #altered #mixedmedia #steampunk

Close up photo of a cluster of white mushrooms growing on a log. They have a long, slightly shaggy cap and a couple have the edges of the cap beginning to curl up and turn black as they age. Green forest in the background.

Day 11 Art Advent Calendar
Mushrooms growing in an Edmonton park. #art #ArtAdventCalendar #photography #mushrooms

Life sized plastic human skull that has been altered and painted to look more realistic and aged. On top of the skull is a fake candle with wax dripping down the face. The fake wax pools in the right eye socket and drips down the face. The fake candle is lit up using an electronic candle. Skull is held up by my right hand.

Day 10 Art Advent Calendar
Altered Skull
I made this using a super cheap Halloween prop that looked so fake. I painted it up to look more realistic, aged the skull, and created the fake candle wax and candle. Made to look like a prop on a wizard’s table #art #ArtAdventCalendar #mixedmedia #skull

Ink drawing of an armadillo with a taco shell instead of their own shell. Taco is a hard crunchy shell type and you can see ground beef, lettuce, and tomato inside. The armadillo is lying on its back with its feet and tail in the air. It’s hand drawn and coloured in with ink markers.

Day 9 Art Advent Calendar
Travelling (or trying to, yay delays) for work so enjoy an older Inktober picture, a rare, Taco Armadillo #Art #ArtAdventCalendar #drawing #inktober

Thanks!

Small Altered Altoid tin filled with books, skulls, weird charts, and an owl. Handmade with shelves holding the books, papers, weeds to look overgrown, a cage, owl, skull and handmade telescope. Alter tin is small, approximately 2”wide and 3” tall, both sides of the tin are filled in with the objects.

Day 8 of Art Advent Calendar
Wizard’s Study
Altered Altoid tin filled with books, skulls, weird charts, and an owl (Archimedes). #art #ArtAdventCalendar #magic #assemblageart #mixedmedia