A Lovely Day

The Mencats made a lovely Mother's Day brunch this morning for me and my awesome Mother-In-Law...

The boy came up with the menu. Bacon and cream cheese stuffed French Toast.

He chopped and fried the bacon, then beat the eggs.

 The Wonderhub was the head supervisor and dish doer. 

 I'm a vegetarian so my French Toast was stuffed with berries and cream cheese. So fine!

The boy made me a little heart carved out of oak.

This is the boy with my amazing Mother-In-Law. She just got back from Burma.

This is what my hub wrote about his mom,

"My mom rocks!

She taught me how to make hospital corners and do sutures like a nurse (I'll show you the scar later) She taught me how to re-finish furniture.

When a teacher wanted to send me back a year because of my dyslexia, she got me tested, but then wouldn't let them move me up a year.

She taught me how to grow tomatoes like a farmer and how to curse like a sailor.

She once got in trouble for riding a donkey through a hotel rec-room on a family vacation.

Because of my mom, I love travel, shows on PBS and drinking tea. Sometimes I spell color with a 'U' in it.

Because of my mom I love to read and cook. I can iron.

She's the first person to call if you are hurt or in trouble, because she will get you out it and/or tend your wounds--then threaten to beat the crap out of you.

My mom rocks!"

In case of the zombie apocalypse or getting stranded on a desert island these are the two people that you want on your team. By sundown you would have running water, electricity and be sipping a cocoanut cooler in a handwoven hammock in a two story treehouse.

Tonight we are hanging out with my mom. :-)

Happy Mother's Day!

Marilyn.

--

Let us be grateful to people who make us happy, they are the charming gardeners who make our souls blossom.  ~ Marcel Proust

Spring in the Garden

Spring is here!

 

I went to Little India with my friend Aleta yesterday and picked up some delights. We both love to cook so it was a treat to just wander through all of the spice shops and small groceries. I bought Rooster sauce, chapati, garum masala, lovely fennel (so fragrant), broad beans and a used sari from the thrift store.

  

We hung the sari on the gazebo. It matches the tablecloth I made... and the cat.

(Fabric from the outlet store = nine bucks) :-)

 

The pond is doing well and the two new GIANT fish, Odin and Big Pink have settled in. I love to watch them swim around, so relaxing. We've had a few waterlilies so far.

Mister Turtle getting some sun. A student gave him to the Wonderhub because she wanted to make sure he had a good home and didn't think that he would survive at her house. 

Mister Turtle is fat and sassy here.

We have four blueberry bushes. The berries never make it into the house. We just eat them as soon as they are ripe.

The zucchini is coming along in the back raised bed. We have tarragon, thyme, lettuce, spinach, chilies and a huge amount of basil. Bring on the summer pesto!

Artichokes tonight!

The tomatoes are doing well.  The wonderhub planted everything from romas to heirlooms. We grow them in pots because the soil here is adobe.

Limes are done, lemons are coming in.

We had home grown broccolini the other night. Delish! 

 

 The Wonderhub is working on a few new guitars and ukuleles. 

He's also making some very fine pens if you are interested. They make lovely gifts.

Lovely hand turned exotic wood pens = thirty bucks plus S&H.

 

I'm working on two books, more about that later, and waiting to here back from the fabric company about my design submissions. The boy has another six weeks of school before summer vacation. 

What creative things are happening at your house? Do dish!

Marilyn.

--

 "Let the beauty you love be what you do, there are a thousand ways to kneel and kiss the earth." ~ Rumi 

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Wonderful Wondercon

My love affair with comic books started at an early age. Every summer my family would jam into our car and drive to Mississippi. It was a four day drive fueled by watery Koolaid, ritz crackers and comic books bought at gas stations. Once we got there my grandmother had crates of comics from a drugstore that had the covers torn off, remainders that hadn't been sold. I was in heaven reading my way through Richie Rich, Wonder Woman, Lil Lulu, Dot, Batman and all the Classic Comics, illustrated versions of Shakespeare and Dickens.

One of the lovely perks about being an illustrator is getting pro passes to Comic Book conventions. I've been going to the San Diego ComicCon for somewhere around twenty years but this was my first Wondercon.

Cosplay - Characters in Costume

There were a ton of people in costumes of all kinds, superheroes, elegant steampunk adventurers, Storm Troopers and Wookies, anime and video game characters. Here are a couple of my favorites...

 An adorable Angel Castiel from "Supernatural"

 My favorite for innovation, "CatDog" from the Nickelodeon cartoon.

I saw lots of Doctors from Doctor Who, mostly Tens and Elevens, but also a couple of Fours with long scarves and a Five, complete with celery boutonnière. This guy in red is Doctor Horrible from the online musical.

Small Press

My favorite part of going to comic book conventions is seeing the small press sections, indy self publishers. In the last couple of years the San Diego ComicCon has grown so huge that these small visionaries renting small tables have been replaced by slicker money backed imprints. But here at Wondercon they were out in full force.

A few of my favorites...

Wylon Robotical the world's only flower delivering robots...

I bought a little field guide to these innovative creatures. See more of them here:

http://barrymcw.com/wrylon/

 This array of whimsical handmade toys is from Victoria Rose and Ann Sidenblad's booth, Rawrz Toys. Lovely stuff! http://rawrztoys.com/

This caught my attention, Tapastic. It's a website that hosts webcomics, similar to the way YouTube hosts videos. The interface seemed very elegant and accessable for iPads and other e-readers. I look forward to checking it out. http://tapastic.com/

 How can you not love "Penguins Vs. Possums" http://www.penguinsvspossums.com/


All in all, it was a great event. When I first started going to comic book conventions I was one of the few girls in a sea of guys. Then about ten years ago I started seeing a mom pushing a stroller or a bored girlfriend with her fanboy boyfriend as well as indy tables with female authors and illustrators. Around six years ago I started seeing more Anime and girls would attend wearing hats with kitten ears. Now, I am happy to say that half the people are female, dressed as superheroes, Frodos, angels, Edwardian Adventurers, My Little Pony, Tintin, warriors and yes, Doctors and even Captain Jack Harkness.

It makes me happy to see doors opening and a new generation of women reading comic books, making comic books, writing, drawing and dressing up like heroes. 

Do you have a favorite character? Who would you dress up as?

Marilyn


Here's a photo of my own video game character offspring on the right, Xemnas from Kingdom Hearts. He is posing with a cute girl in a blue dress holding a fanged brain. I can't pretend to know that that means.

Spring Me

Spring comes early here. All the rest of the country is freezing cold and dark. We are planting and planning. The wonderhub built a bunch of new raised beds and cleaned and replanted all the pots.

 My adorable mother-in-law bought us a flat of heirloom tomatoes and basil at Roger's Gardens. They had a special event called Tomatomania, which is the perfect name for a place that sells two hundred varieties of tomatoes. They had everything from romas to beefsteaks, tiny yellow cherries and pink blushes, black zebras and Amish varietals. Now, I'm dreaming of summer pizzas and tomato salsas.

So now are 'maters are in pots up to their necks in good soil, with three aspirin at the roots in full sun. They've doubled in size in the last week.

  

 We had some beautiful guests over last night. Joel and Tori McKinney and their daughter Abby. They are artists that live on the Banks of Plum Creek, in Walnut Grove, Minnesota. http://www.blackhawk-studios.com/

We noshed on cheese and baguettes, drank beer and tea and talked about art. We talked about making art, learning art, art in the schools, selling art,  teaching art. Joel and Tori lead summer workshops in bronze casting, ceramic tile murals and fiber arts. How cool is that?

 

 Tori is an amazing weaver and fiber sculptor. She told me about a spraying diluted bleach on stencils tie-dye technique for dark fabric that I have to try.

 Big Joel and Little Joel. We named our kid after this guy.

 Joel 2.0 and Abby hit it off great. Abby draws Manga and they were off talking their own language.

One of the things that we talked about was how little art education kids get in schools. Big Joel talked about taking middle school kids to an Artist Co-Op and having them pick several artists and write about what they liked and didn't like didn't like about their work.

Art teaches critical thinking, decision making, planning, hand eye coordination. Making art tethers you to the real world and lets you think past it. Making art is a gift that we should give our children.

What are you making this week?

Marilyn.

--

 "Invent your world. Surround yourself with people, color,
 sounds, and work that nourishes you." ~ SARK

The Sewing Project.

I'm wearing the sassypants today. Can't find a teeshirt that fits in a decent color?

Made one!

 

 Like the way a ten dollar sweatshirt feels but don't want to look like a giant raisin?

Remove the cuffs and hem. Cut a slit down the front and bind it with left over scraps. Instant kimono jacket.

Take that closet!

--

Use the talents you possess – for the woods would be a very silent place if no birds sang except for the best. ~ Henry Van Dyke 

Buell Children's Museum

The Mysterious Math Carnival

http://www.sdc-arts.org/buellchildrensmuseum.html

 The Buell Children's Museum made life sized versions of the toys from my new e-Book "The Mysterious Math Carnival for an exhibit.

http://www.sdc-arts.org/buell_current.html

 

Kids can roll the turtles in  The Turtle Arcade.

 

 

Feed the Picky Parrot

 Grumpy Monkeys

And the kids can play "Counting Clown Fish"

They even filled a display case with all my paper toys. I am tickled pink.

The Mysterious Math Carnival will be available to buy as a PDF download soon. Let's make math fun!

Wishing you a creative week,

Marilyn.

--

"A mind is a fire to be kindled, not a vessel to be filled."  ~ Plutarch