He cooks, he supports my habit -- AND he makes art for me!

Okay, this is a major first. You know The Husband is my personal Art Enabler. He's encouraged me to go to both Art & Soul last year, and Artfest this year. He waited patiently until I got up the nerve to sell my notebooks on Etsy, and at the holiday craft fair at work. He thinks my stuff is cool.

But this time he went beyond... and made art for me!

Sci-Fi Bride, by The Husband

As I said in the last post, we're both big sci-fi/fantasy fans. So The Husband created this piece to express our shared lurve, and love of sci-fi. The collage was created using six public domain images, plus one of our wedding photos. (I bought me some hair for the occasion.)

I look like the Creator and Destroyer of Worlds. With a veil and a pretty little bouquet. Cool.

He also made and framed another poster, this one to celebrate our adoration of "Little Britain". (Warning: major time-suck -- do not visit that site unless you've got time and privacy.) He used to hate the "We are Ladies" sketch, in which the two comedians play not-very-convincing transvestites who love Victorian-era dresses. But he found more public domain art of men in Victorian drag, so I guess The Husband couldn't resist.

Yes, he's wonderful. No, you can't borrow him.

Happy fifth anniversary, sweetie

Don't stand too close. It'll take a chunk outta ya.
I might've mentioned in an earlier post that I make art for The Husband each year for our anniversary. It's our fifth, so the traditional gift is made of wood. But really, who wants a wooden gift that hasn't been altered? Then, under the influence of Jane Wynn's Altered Curiosities, I realized I had the foundation of this anniversary's gift.

The Husband and I share a love of Terry Pratchett's Discworld. One of the recurring "characters" is The Luggage, as described on Wikipedia:

It is a large chest made of sapient pearwood (a magical, intelligent plant which is nearly extinct, impervious to magic, and only grows in a few places outside the Agatean Empire, generally on sites of very old magic). It can produce hundreds of little legs protruding from its underside and can move very fast if the need arises. It has been described as "half suitcase, half homicidal maniac."

So I started with a balsa wood box I'd gotten for another project. I painted it with bronze paint, then patina.
I cut "teeth" into the top and bottom, then painted the teeth off-white, then added more patina over the tooth paint. (Really should've cut them before I painted the box, but I was so excited about trying the patina!)

Oh, and then the Dremel cutting wheel comes out! Oh, yeah. There is nothing like the smell of friction-melted, amputated toy soldier legs.
Except for friction-melted, amputated fake Barbie legs, of course.

And you can add McDonald's action figurine legs for variety. I attached them with epoxy putty from the hardware store.
Again, try not to jump the gun with the paint... like I did... again. You'll need to attach one row of legs, then paint, then attach another row. Otherwise you'll need a really skinny paintbrush to get around the corners to paint everything.
I lined the inside with a textured red paper, and then collaged the tags.
The Husband immediately put it up on the mantle. He knew what I was making, but he still liked the way it came out. Oh, but you have to see the art he made for me!

"Spring: winter, only not as cold." -- Me, 1998

29 Mar 2008, about 6:45pm PST:
Screw the cute little robins that have been hopping around our yard. It ain't spring yet. It ain't spring yet.
See, this is why I don't get excited about decent weather this time of year. It disappears and reappears just to mess with your head, until mid-June. But no -- still nothing to go wild about, because our week and a half of summer doesn't show up until oh, late July. Rain on Independence Day is the norm, not the exception -- and yet we still have fireworks shows.

No, I don't know why we bother.