Fine Art Felines Friday: Gato De Los Muertos by Laura Barbosa

Posted in Animals, Art, Cats, Entertainment by Marci

I’m starting a new Fuzzy Undertones feature today: Fine Art Felines Friday! Every other Friday (my “extra” day off of work, coincidentally), I’ll be posting a piece of fine art that features a cat in some way or another, and tell you a little about the artist. I stumbled upon today’s featured painting just by googling around the Interwebs, and what made it stand out in the crowd was its bright colors and style. I LOVE Day of the Dead art, so this painting, Gato De Los Muertos by Laura Barbosa, really caught my eye. In browsing through Laura’s work online, I found her art to be colorful, abstract, emotional and very textural, and I really connected with her style. Check out her website if you’d like to see more!

3Mar2014

Gallery post format: no photo glue or decorative scissors required!

Posted in Blogging, Entertainment, Events and Courses, Hobbies, Tips and Tricks by Marci

The other day, as part of the Zero to Hero program, I published a post in a “new to me” format. The new format was a gallery post, which arranges a bunch of pictures that you specify in a grid that is attractively laid out to highlight your photos. Today’s post is a follow-up to that post, which (if you remember) was called Kitty Derps, starring my cats in their most candid moments. Awwww! So cute! I really liked the gallery format, so much so that I used it on my new page, My Fuzzy Family, to feature my pets that are gone but not forgotten (in addition to the presently living ones, of course).

The reason that I chose to explore the gallery format is because I’ve always been drawn to layouts and organization in print media. I used to be a cartoonist, and after that, I had my own ‘zine (the Goyal Talk Times). I LOVED arranging panels and pages to make eye-pleasing visual arrangements featuring both text and illustrations. More recently (oh, the last fifteen years or so), I ventured into scrapbooking, and then went all-digital the past several years. I use Photoshop Elements to design my pages, then get a hard-bound book of my pages for each year printed through Shutterfly. Everything is organized and arranged just so! I go through phases of digital scrapbooking mania (it takes a lot of creative energy), but I’m always happy with the product. Want to see a few of my favorite pages? Well shucks…here you go, then!

So there – you’ve learned another little nugget about my anal-retentive personality – graphics have to be done just so, and when things aren’t arranged perfectly, it really bugs me. That’s why the gallery format post is so wonderful – you don’t have to line anything up yourself! Just pick out your photos and they are all sized, spaced and placed just how you want them. Just like magic!

And you don’t even have to lug around a big craft tote full of paper, templates, scissors, glue, stickers, glitter and all the other madness that scrapbooking entails (unless you’ve gone digital, of course)!

18Jun2013

Game of Thrones is Ruining My Life!!!

Posted in Books, Entertainment, Home Life, Humor, Me Me Me!, Movies and TV by Marci

I’m soooooo happy that I’m on book 5 of the Game of Thrones series. Why? Because book 6 hasn’t been published yet. Which means I can get my freakin’ life back. Because ever since Kellie convinced me that I needed to read the Game of Thrones series, all of my free time has been held hostage by my NEED, my THIRST, my OBSESSION to read these books. Let’s see how my life has suffered, shall we?

1. BOOK CLUB. Ok, each month I’m supposed to read a book for book club. I’ve been pretty good about finishing books…until a few months ago. Each GoT book is between 800 and 1200 pages, which means that I have trouble reading GoT AND a book club book. Guess which one wins???

2. BRAINY GIRLS. Poor Brainy Girls. I haven’t had time to put the archive for the last issue together, nor write almost anything for this issue. Which SUCKS, because the theme for this issue is insects, which is awesome, and I’m running out of time to adequately cover the subject. Can I just finish this last GoT book already so that I can get back to doing quality Brainy Girls work, please???

3. ROLLER DERBY. Ok, not really. I’ve been able to stay pretty much on top of practices and events. Chris and I even went to the Rose City Rollers Hometown Championships a couple of weeks ago at the Rose Garden. It was awesome!!! HOWEVER, I did volunteer to set up and maintain the Storm City Roller Girls website (what was I thinking???) and that has fallen a little behind, too.

Guns N Rollers battle it out with the High Rollers for 1st place!

4. DIGITAL MEMOIRS (aka scrapbooking). My 2012 book is almost finished except for the covers and title page. I put in sooooo many hours working on that book and I just have to cross the finish line…however, finding out where Arya Stark is in Braavos is apparently more important than finalizing the record I have for everything I did in 2012.

5. OUR YARD. I will not post pictures. We have a guy who mows our lawn, but I’ve been meaning to get out there with the weed whacker for WEEKS. There are weeds in our back yard that are 6 feet tall. We have not planted our garden (except for the weeds). Shameful.

6. MY SLEEP. I’ve been sleeping HORRIBLY lately, and I suspect it is because I stay up late reading GoT. I wake up and think about GoT in the middle of the night and can’t go back to sleep. It’s starting to catch up with me.

7. HUMAN INTERACTION. I’ve become a recluse. My only social outlet is now online, and I’m behind at that (see above).

So, THANK YOU, George R.R. Martin, for hijacking my life. I’ve watched seasons 1 and 2 on Amazon and am waiting for season 3 to come out.

Oh, crap – are you kidding me??? I can’t wait to be done with your epic stories and find out how this all ends. I can’t wait to resume life as a regular human…that is, until book 6 is released…

19Apr2013

And for those of you who read or watch Game of Thrones:

Posted in Animals, Cats, Entertainment, Humor, Movies and TV by Marci

Our House Sigil:

Shit. It’s my turn to do the litter tonight. :o(

19Feb2013

And I didn’t take a single picture!

Posted in Entertainment, Hobbies, Travel, Vacations by Marci

Oh, Reno, how you love to take our money away. It’s ok though, because we enjoy your biggest-little-city can-do attitude, complete with sprawling casinos and “European” gymnasiums (whatever that means). Also, your lack of homeless people hired to shove little pictures of naked ladies at passers-by is non-Las-Vegasly refreshing, so Thank You, Reno, for that.

This year, it just happened that my birthday, Valentine’s Day and President’s Day (yes, President’s Day) fell reasonably close together to have a four-day weekend out of town. Chris and I have stayed at the Peppermill Casino three times now, and it’s rather lovely – it’s all Italian-themed (except for their Chinese restaurant, Chi, which is Chinese-themed) and they have a fantastic spa, casino and restaurants (including Chi). We arrived Thursday night and spent much of the weekend losing money, enjoying drinks (perhaps a little too much on Sunday night), and luxuriating in our ridiculously over-sized suite. Well, the suite itself wasn’t over-sized, just the furniture. But it was awesome! Also, someone might have eaten the Famous Amos chocolate-chip cookies from the honor bar. I’m not pointing any fingers, but that someone might have been me, or as Chris identified as the culprit, Snacky McSnackerton.

Anyway, here is a picture of the slot machine that ate all my money. If you see it, I suggest walking in the opposite direction. The tigers are tricksy and false…their fancy jewels flash and you hear them roar, but they just take without giving. Damn you and your scatter bonuses, Siberian Storm!!!

Additional Reno places of interest that took our monies: the spa (hello, facial and pedicure…I’m pleased to meet you! Why yes, I’d also like to have one of those luxurious robes as well, thanks!), Romanza the Italian restaurant (so happy that we got in on Valentine’s night, although the lobster and shrimp and sea bass that we enjoyed might not have been so pleased), Atlantis casino (just a quick jaunt down the street and…why, I’m so happy to meet you, Sumo Kitty slot machine! Here, take some more of my money!), and the Peppermill Poker Room (Chris can fill you in there, although I will say that the craps table was most uncraptacular. Chris scored pretty well with the dice!).

We were having such a good time that I insisted upon staying another night in our suite instead of heading home late in the evening. And it all worked out…the cats were even happy to see us home. Happy birthday / Valentine’s Day / President’s Day to us all!

24Dec2012

Getting Our Paint On

Posted in Animals, Art, Cats, Entertainment by Marci

Look at us getting our painting on! Chris and I took a painting class at a studio called The Loaded Brush, where you get all the materials you need for a painting, plus beer and wine if you’d like. It was so much fun! We signed up for the Chat Noir class, and had a great time. It was really interesting seeing how everyone’s paintings differed, even though we all painted the same picture. The instructor was very good and did a great job going step-by-step throughout the process of creating our paintings. We think we might even go back for another class sometime!

21Oct2012

Murder Mystery Dinner!

Posted in Entertainment, Friends and Family, Me Me Me! by Marci

Oh my! A wedding is interrupted by the death of the best man, and everyone present is a suspect! Who did it? You’ll just have to attend a Murder Mystery Co. dinner to find out!

Me, Chris, Johnny V and Jen dressed up in our fanciest duds for “Til Death Do Us Part”, a murder mystery dinner! My outfit resembled something that Peggy Bundy would wear, although Chris looked dashing in his wedding suit.

The bride (Summer) and groom (Neil) during their wedding ceremony. The hangers in the background give it a nice touch of class, don’t you think?

Oh no! Bob, the best man, is dead! Washed-up 80’s rocker Dick Johnson was on the scene to call Doctor Candy, who wasn’t really a doctor after all, but a stripper (get it? Candy Stripper?)! Don’t worry, it was a wholesome show and there was no actual stripping involved (at that point, anyway).

Looks like Johnny V made a friend!

Incredible coincidence, but the “volunteer” actor at our table was a crazy cat lady. I was asked to dress up as a cat to make her feel more comfortable.

It was a really fun evening with friends! The cheesy reception hall, the over-the-top acting, and the humor of everything was fantastic – we all had a great time!

2Oct2012

Crafty Weekend

Posted in Entertainment, Hobbies by Marci

It had been a while since I’d gotten out my sewing machine, and since I had a few project ideas and some extra time I figured this weekend would be as good a time as any to relearn how to load a bobbin (and it was easy). I just bought a new laptop so I picked out a set of coordinating fat quarters and sewed up a little laptop lid cozy, which you slip over the screen part of your laptop before closing it to prevent the keys from scraping up against the screen. This is useful for when things land on your laptop, like a leaping overweight cat, for example (in our house, this scenario is extremely likely to happen). Anyway, the laptop lid cozy is fully lined and reversible so you can have four different fabrics on the top.

See? Now my screen won’t get scratched from flying cats landing on my laptop.

Additionally, I saw an article about repurposing old belts and scarves into camera straps so that you can look all stylie while you’re annoying your friends and family by taking pictures of them all the time. You just cut off the ends of the scarf or belt, sew in some hardware, and voila! Super cute camera straps that are interchangeable with your outfit and the weather! You can take a look here for some ideas.

I took a couple of old belts and some of my Granny’s scarves (they still smell like her perfume) and attached different hardware to them so they can clip right onto my camera.

5Sep2012

Finally done! And it’s not 2019!

Posted in Entertainment, Hobbies by Marci

Hurray! I’ve finished my 2011 scrapbook! I’ve been putting together 12×12 scrapbooks for each year (and additional books for various trips, cruises, etc.) since about 2001, and switched over to digital scrapbooking for my 2005-to-present books. I hate calling it scrapbooking, because it brings up images that don’t quite describe me. But that’s ok – my move to digital rectified most of my issues there. I simply GAVE AWAY most of my scrapbooking supplies, tools, totes and everything else; I think I sold my largest tote packed with supplies for only $90. I’d probably spent over $1000 on all that crap, too.

But doing digital layouts is much better – you don’t have to lug supplies around, get everything out, clean everything up, deal with paper, stickers, glue, and things that don’t quite match. I use Photoshop Elements to create all of my pages, and EVERYTHING can be resized, recolored, reshaped and replaced just the way you want it. It’s still time-consuming, but all you need is a laptop and your digital pictures! Yay!

Anyway, I did finish 2011. I’ve even started on 2012. I used to try to catch up on the oldest years, but I decided to just work backwards instead. So, I still have to do 2007 – 2010, but that’s not so bad, right? Right??? Riiiiiiiight.

So I’m happy to share my 2011 book – feel free to check it out on my share site! You can look at it full-screen (keep in mind that it’s not full resolution, but it still looks pretty good). Click here http://marcikoski.shutterfly.com/27 to see!