Don't you love my self-centered post title?!
The Portsmouth Herald ran a piece on me today, based on an interview I did last week. It's a little exciting to have a little press - and I think the writer did a wonderful job. Especially considering my wacky ramblings! Read it here.
I'm off my morning schedule because of it, but will be getting over to my drafting table for my 21 day exercise ASAP!
Thank you to everyone who made it to the opening on Friday! I thought the event was a great success. It seemed busy and active the whole time. The show will be up until at least early June so come visit if you find yourself in Portsmouth. Kids welcome of course!
I kept telling Robert that I am notorious for blinking in photos, but ironically he is blinking in the picture I grabbed from my Dad - sorry Robert, it was the only group shot he had. (You'll post a better pic on your blog I just know it!)
Me, Robert, Tess, and Teri. You can see Teri's lovely watercolor spread above my shoulder, David McPhail's work behind us at eye level and Robert's work just below. My work and Tess' is just out of sight here. Other illustrator friends who paid a visit were Vita, Andy, Eric, and Nicole. Ok, now back to work!!!
Since May is Celiac Disease Awareness Month I'm going off topic here to share some information. I was diagnosed 5 years ago and don't often talk about it, but it's a health issue I believe everyone NEEDS to understand better. If you read below, the first fact is the most shocking - so many people are undiagnosed, and doctors in America are often VERY misinformed about how common this disease is. Other countries, like Ireland and Italy, they actually pre-screen at a young age because it is so common (particularly for these countries, but alas, how many of us have Irish or Italian roots!)
Here are some facts, pulled from the American Celiac Disease Alliance website:
"The number of people living with celiac disease in the United States is estimated at 2.2 million, yet only about 90,000 have been accurately diagnosed.
Symptoms of celiac disease include: anemia, osteoporosis, arthritis, diarrhea or constipation, and infertility.
Without treatment, the condition can be life threatening and has been linked to an increased risk of certain types of cancer, especially intestinal lymphoma.
Individuals with celiac disease are unable to eat foods containing gluten, a protein found in wheat, rye, and barley. For them, gluten sets off a reaction which causes damage to the small intestine, impeding the body’s ability to absorb vital nutrients.
The only course of treatment for CD is strict adherence to a gluten-free diet – no prescription drugs, injections, or invasive medical procedures."
Living with CD really isn't too tough, but it would be MUCH easier if everyone understood the disease a bit more. Because of a lack of education, the average delay in diagnosis is 11 years! If you're interested in getting your representative to cosponsor the current legislation please visit this site. It's very simple and quick to send an email using their form.
Sometime last week I looked up from my work and realized... my office is a disaster! The room is one of two left in our home that has yet to be re-sheetrocked and trimmed out (this house had 2 layers of wallpaper in most rooms over unprepped wallboard so it ended up being easier to just put thin sheetrock over the walls rather than strip the paper and repair the serious damage to the walls.) So I've been dealing with what I find to be HORRIBLE wallpaper by just sticking stuff all over the walls with tape and thumbtacks. Another issue is the trim-less window. When we had new windows put in this winter we saved money by not paying for someone to trim the interior, my husband will do that sometime this spring. So I had tacked up an old shade, then pulled it off to the side rather than get a blind that will end up getting tossed in a few months.
So yesterday, when I should have been working on a poster for the NESCBWI conference, I cleaned. Here are some before and after pictures. Even Otto looks more peaceful in the cleaner space!
My drawing table and the former 'wall of crap'
The only remaining thorn here is tucked underneath - cables!
Ahh, that's better.
I find so many artists blogging about their collections and today I thought of my own history of collecting. I love small things - odd toys, rocks, shells, gadgets. But through the years I've slowed down the rate at which I pick things up. Partly because as I get older, I try to get rid of things. To simplify. Having so much 'stuff' is extremely overwhelming. I've been in my home for almost 6 years and it's shocking how much we have now. Gone are the days when I could stuff it all in my car (or even a small u-haul).
But in the past I collected this group of little finger puppets. They
have followed me to almost every job and sit on guard near my desk on a
bookshelf. The guy with the nickel gave me a fat-lip once via my
husband and on-the-job antics. My last boss commented that they were
like the tsotchkes people bring to bingo, for good luck or something.
I'm leaving them throughout our collection of jade plants and cacti until my husband finds them. He is the main plant-waterer in the house and NEVER reads my blog. I rather like seeing them in their new jungle-like home but I might actually miss having them look over me as I work!
Believe it or not, these are my sad little pineapple experiments that inspired my blog name. They've actually done quite well since I potted them just a few months ago. My biggest failure was leaving them to root for about 9 months longer than they needed, for no good reason. The back plant still has a few of it's original leaves (they are supposed to fall off in place of the new growth in the center). Just think, about 24 months from now (if I'm lucky) I'll have a home-grown NH pineapple sibling to my honeymoon fruit. I just hope they continue to do well once I bring them inside for winter.
Introducing, bok bok! He was a birthday gift from the talented Clara, creator of many things, not the least of which are her and her husband Alex's Dollies. Go check them out! Bok bok joins bubblegum and two mao maos in my studio. And if you want to have a good laugh, listen to the interview between Lumpy and Eggy here, I might have to listen to it again myself...
On my way to the farmer's market today I had a mini-revelation that really made my day.
Some of you may know that I eat Gluten-Free (GF) because I have Celiac Disease. Before I went GF, my main noticeable symptom of concern was my feet. One day I noticed I couldn't feel my toe. This progressed over a few years until I was diagnosed with mild Peripheral Neuropathy (PN). The short answer is that my nerves were killed off by malnutrition caused by untreated Celiac Disease. For me at it's worst, this meant numbness, tingling, severe hot, severe cold, and pain that kept me awake a bit at night. PN is usually associated with diabetics and it can range from my mild symptoms to major pain and losing all muscular function. Worse still, it starts in your hands/feet but can work it's way 'up' your nerves. Just doing research on this was highly upsetting.
So I've been on the GF diet for four years and all I kept my expectations low that I could reverse my PN. When people ask wide-eyed 'What happens?' when I tell them of my allergy/disease I don't bother with the long explanation. I knew that I needed to stick to the diet because I wanted my feet to get better. And even if I didn't notice a positive difference, I didn't want to make things worse!
Then today, driving, I started thinking about my feet. I hadn't noticed pain or burning lately. I hadn't noticed night issues. It's been about 7 years since I first noticed my foot issues so I'm not sure I know what 100% normal is anymore, but maybe being on this GF diet has changed things. This alone makes me quite happy. The secondary lesson I'm learning from this is that sometimes good things take time and blind faith. Like leaving my full-time job to work as a full-time illustrator. It's been painfully slow on the children's illustration front but I have faith that if I keep working and making the right choices, good things will follow.
Oh, and I got 4 beautiful tomato plants at the farmer's market for just $4! And while I'm on the topic of earthy crunchy things like plants and organic farmers, here's one of many pieces I'm working on this week for licensing...
As requested by my Dad, here's a detail of the countertops. We like them a lot but we tend to like things that are a bit more contemporary than most... Click on the image for a slightly larger version.
And here's the reed glass. This area I jokingly called 'Kristian's station' because I felt like he should just work there and I could move freely through the rest of the kitchen uninterrupted. Alas, the kitchen feels huge now so we'll try sharing the whole space! And we will be replacing that TV with something smaller and hopefully mounted to the cabinet so it can fold out of view. I was NOT thrilled to see that land on the countertops yesterday!
Are we done you say? No. They were really close but they messed up a cabinet. It doesn't quite function and it's a big problem. Hopefully it gets solved this week. We also now need a plumber for our complicated sink/gb/dishwasher and maybe someone to hook up our range hood b/c it will need to vent out the roof. The old one recirculated throughout the house via the attic and AC vents. It was gross to smell tacos several hours later...
It's a bird, it's a plane, it's.... super otto! This is a really old sketch. He's not really much of a superhero. Right now he's upset about the workers in the house again so he's mouthing his puppy bed and doing his famous high-pitched whine/cry.
So I've been tagged for the first time by Mike. Tagging sort of feels like chain mail. I don't know if I can tag 7 other people but I'll get a few for sure. Here we go:
1. I have something called Celiac Disease. It means that I cannot eat wheat, barley, or rye. This means no 'normal' bagels, breads, pastas, fried foods, etc. I don't love talking about it but I feel like the more people that know about it the less aggravating it will be for me someday when I tell someone that I eat "gluten-free". No, I won't keel over and die if I get a crumb from your butter on my GF toast. It's complicated but I won't feel well and I just need to stick to my diet 100%. And I'm proud to say that I haven't cheated on the diet for about 2 years now. Although I would kill for some fried clams this summer!
2. I was my husband's intern, how scandalous! It was my first job out of school and we liked each other for a very long time before dating. Well, maybe I liked him a lot longer. Either way we tried to be very professional and not let dating get in the way of work. We used to work together VERY well, that is no longer the case. How do you say, 'separate offices'? But we get along VERY well in life and that's more important.
3. The most exotic food I had before college was Chinese food. Going to Syracuse was great for making friends with lots of different ethnic backgrounds who shared their culture and cuisine. Now I absolutely love Indian, Thai, and Vietnamese food. To me, these are my comfort foods. And this works out great since most of their staples are gluten-free.
4. The first time I flew in an airplane I was 16 and I went to Ireland. It was an amazing trip. I was greatly influence by the hills and valleys with these delicate roads carved between. It was also where I had my first pint of guinness. I have been back twice since but I must return so I can see the Giant's Causeway.
5. My first car was an '81 Ford Granada. I'm not so old that it was actually a new car by any means. It cost $50 thanks to my Dad's junk auto business. He bought another one for $50 to repair a missing front end. Total cost for the car: $100. Total cost for car insurance for a 16yr. old in Massachusetts, $1600! I paid for it myself thank you very much with money from my bakery job. The car was chocolate brown and stalled everywhere it went. But I loved it more than the next 6 cars...
6. I talk and type too much (albeit quickly). Can you tell by the above 5 posts?
7.I will never ski again. I think. One bad trip with people on a ski team did this to me. I don't enjoy the feeling that I'm probably going to fall at high speed and injure myself. And isn't the whole point of a recreational activity to have fun?
