I didn’t actually manage to make physical cards this year, but I did manage to draw this.
This holiday goat was named Gypsy, a sweet gal who was rescued by the caring souls of New Moon Farm Goat Rescue & Sanctuary, from severe neglect. She had four months of loving kindness and quality care (including this snazzy jacket to keep her warm as she regained weight) before sadly passing away at the beginning of this December. The accumulated damage from her long years of neglect were too much, but she knew kindness and comfort at the end. I loved watching Gypsy’s updates and progress, and I was so disappointed she didn’t make it. Rest in Peace, sweet lady, and happy holidays to all living creatures.

OMG, I'm freaking OLD. I just re-read what I just posted, and the entry I posted before this one, and realized how much I repeated the same sentiments. I can't keep track of what I wrote just a few days ago, haha... OH BRAIN. I know it's a struggle! :D

So, I've been on a roll drawing lately, as well as reposting a lot of my old HP art on my Tumblr and website. I'm very eager to get back to drawing at least SOMEWHAT as often as I used to, now that I'm settled for a bit and should be reducing/changing my work hours. Currently on a "Psychonauts" kick, which is like, the best video game ever. I played it ages ago for the first time, but only did one fan art because I was at Heifer and hardly had any time to draw. But now I've replayed it and am all inspired again!
I mostly post art on my Tumblr these days, just because it is soooo easy. I also keep my DeviantArt page up to date. I wish there was a handy way to add art updates to the LJ. There probably is ,but I haven't figured it out yet. :B So in the meantime, here is the latest fan art I've done:


Parody of Bottecelli's "Birth of Venus". I don't know why this idea popped into my head, but it was super fun to do. :B

I drew quite a few new HP Tarot cards awhile back, and hope to get working on those again soon, too.

And now I should really go to bed.

I'm not really sure why I don't really write in my livejournal anymore. It's kind of sad, really, when I look back at the older archives and how I chronicled my life journey over a time that was very meaningful to me, as well as being very painful and difficult, as well as joyful. I know I would benefit from journalling again. I sort of have a "manual" pen and paper journal going, but I'm sooo much faster at typing that I think I would probably do better with the LJ. I wonder what changed over the years where my desire to write here suddenly turned off? I mean, obviously much of the fandoms I used to be involved with on LJ have simmered down or my interest has waned, but I used to mostly journal about my life anyway. Huh. Maybe it's just getting older and struggling more to have enough energy to get through a day, let alone write about it.

So, let's see.... I am doing relatively well. I am hopefully going to change my hours at work within the next couple of weeks, to where I will be working during the day (for the first time in many years), and also fewer hours. I HATE working at the hospital with a firey passion, and realize that it is only holding me back. I have 4 ewes and a ram, and 2 does and a buck (soon to have a second buck, because my current buck isn't putting out, LOL... only once before have I seen a buck with such a low libido). I want to move forward with my livestock, and I want to milk the sheep and goats this spring and sell or butcher the boy lambs and kids. I want to start a poultry project, and try to make some money selling eggs and eventually meat. Working during the day will let me get to the pasture to milk them/check on them/feed them at decent hours, instead of at midnight, like is currently the situation. I want to do art more, and try to sell more of that, too. And my most creative time is after dinner, but currently working in the cubicle/office at that time stifles my creativity - on this scehdule, I only manage to draw on my weekends (which are already super busy) or else hope that I catch a manic surge of energy to draw late into the night after work, but then I always suffer for it the next day. So, I am very excited about making the change to working Monday through Friday, from around 9 to 3 or so. This will also enable me to have a social life with humans again, and maybe even try to date. We'll see, LOL... there are so many other things I want to do, first.
I am currently taking a stained glass class, because the medium interests me. I've only gone to one so far, but I drew up a pattern of a portrait of Gabby, and am excited to try and make it.
My health is still somewhat in the shitter. The doctors have been generally unhelpful, wanting only to put me on heavy immunosuppressants. I would rather exhaust my more benign options first, which includes reducing stress and doing what I believe I was put on earth to do (farm and art). I have been diagnosed with Celiac, so I am currently tackling my inflammation problems from the diet angle, and getting tested for food allergies and once my schedule changes, want to invest more time in eating well and experiementing with exclusion diets to try and find answers. The naturopath has been the most helpful clinician so far. I am feeling a bit better overall, though, since starting the gluten-free diet - my joint pain has reduced significantly, which is wonderful. Still feeling a lot more fatigue than I would like, but part of this is because I dont' sleep well. This is something I hope moving to a daytime schedule will correct.
I am in the fortunate position to have family support, so it's time to really take that leap of faith and try and create the life that I want. I've taken crazy leaps of faith in the past to pursue a dream, so I just need to work up the guts to do it again.

In the meantime, here is the latest artwork I've done. It's a fan art of secret Psychonaut agents (and my OTP from that game) Milla Vodello and Sasha Nein, from the most excellent game Psychonauts. I drew one Psychonauts fan art a million years ago, and always meant to do more, but that was during my "moving all over the state of California and beyond, working on goat dairies and living out of my Toyota" days, so not much art was completed. I'm replaying the game and rediscovering my love for it, so here we go. I am super, SUPER pleased with this and have been posting it all over the place, from Tumblr to Facebook to Deviantart, haha! :)

For those of you still reading this sorely-neglected journal, I've announced over on my slightly-less-neglected Tumblr (http://nasubionna.tumblr.com/ that I’ve reopened my severely-neglected Harry Potter Artwork website, after a fairly long hiatus. My current plan is to upload one drawing every weekday or so, until my entire catalogue of HP art is up there - no small task! A few pieces/sketches might pop up that never made it to the website in the first place, for various reasons. I’m rescanning many of the images and uploading them larger, to keep up with the times and the fact that monitors are MUCH larger these days than they were over a decade ago when I first started the website (not counting smartphone screens, I suppose...)!
I am sure I will miss days here and there, as I’m still busy working full time and tending to my livestock, and my health has been rather poor lately, leading to extremely low energy levels. But it’s fun going through the archives again, and I think this will be a fun winter project. I hope people enjoy looking at some old work along with me, too.

I should also mention that a decent number of new work has been done on my Harry Potter Tarot project, so check that out too, if you thought I'd abandoned it! :D

Brought home my new ruminants: three purebred Tunis sheep ewes. Tunis sheep are a rare American heritage breed, and I think they are so beautiful, with their cream-colored fleece and copper hair. Martha is the fluffy one on the left, she was born this January and hasn't been sheared yet. Esther is the ewe on the right, she was sheared a few months ago, which is why she's sleeker. And little Hattie is Esther's lamb, born in April. I am so excited about this new adventure!

They travelled nicely in the back of my car with minimal complaints, and unloaded pretty easily and started grazing almost immediately. The goats weren't quite sure what to think at first, but after a few investigatory sniffs, everybody started grazing and more or less ignoring one another. I am glad that B.J. didn't give half a crap about the sheep, because I was a little worried that she might get aggressive with them. I am happy to report that has not been the case so far.

Their registration papers are in the mail, and I plan to borrow a ram and reed Esther and Martha in the fall... I don't think Hattie will be big enough, but we'll see.

I love watching them just graze in the rain. They are perfect for western WA - when the rain comes, the goats run for the barn and eat hay under cover. The sheep hardly even looked up from grazing when the deluge came. Wool coats can come in handy.

The goats got some new climbing spools and they are having an absolute blast playing king and queen of the mountain. I posted a bunch of pics on my Tumblr, because I'm sorry, I love LJ but posting pics on Tumblr is a million times easier for me right now.

If you'd like to see the pics, click here to go to the Tumblr entry.

So, either my meds are kicking in or spring is springing and the extra sunshine is invigorating me or all of the above, because holy moly, I actually have done a little bit of drawing!

First up, a quick little sketchy fan art of the creepy twins from the latest Double Fine video game, The Cave, which I highly enjoyed. Maybe I'll get around to drawing the other 6 characters... we'll see.
See it on my DeviantArt page.

Secondly, two versions of a sketch of Miss Piggy & Kermit the frog dancing. I referenced a picture of Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire, but swapped gender roles so that Piggy's leading (it just made sense, lol!) I can't make up my mind between having Kermit holding a top hat or not, so any votes one way or the other are welcome.

( See them both beneath the cut...Collapse )

I think something is goofy with Kermit's top eye, but I haven't quite figured out how to fix it yet. And obviously Piggy's dress furls at the bottom need a LOT of work. Fabric folds are my nemesis!

And with that, I am going to bed now. Yay, drawing!

I wrote this entry on my Tumblr a few days ago, and decided to repost it here when I got the chance, because Jerry is/was so incredibly cool.



I think I had some sort of psychic moment today, I am not even kidding.

Even though it is August, I was listening to the soundtrack to “Muppet Christmas Carol” in the car on the way to work this afternoon, and I specifically was thinking about how awesome Jerry Nelson is, and how he seemed to be heavily featured on almost every song. He was the Ghost of Christmas Present, Jacob Marley, and of course Tiny Tim. I mean, if you listen to the Ghost of Christmas Present’s song right next to Tiny Tim singing, you would never in a million years think it was the same dude. His vocal range is incredible. In addition, I was particularly enjoying picking out his voice as various background/minor characters (“It’s even worse for mouses”). So I generally spent a good 2 hours today thinking about him and his massive amount of voice-acting, singing and puppeteering talent and how much I love him. I thought about the fan letter and drawing I sent him about 3 months ago, and wondered if he’d ever write back.

And then I get home tonight after an extremely long day, and think I should go to bed but instead turn on the computer “just for a second” before going to sleep and low and behold, find out via various Muppet Tumblrs that Jerry passed away today. So, naturally, “just a second” has turned into an hour of lighting a candle in his honor, scanning a photo out of one of my Muppet books to add to the internet, and making this post, all while listening to him and Louise Gold singing a beautiful song at Jim Henson’s funeral.

His passing is not a huge surprise, as he was 78 years old and had been having serious health troubles for some time now. But it is still incredibly sad. As Tough Pigs puts it, he’s had a hand (or voice) in Muppet/Sesame Street productions in the last 6 decades, his latest voice performance being just this year. That’s incredible. I LOVED that he reprised his classic role of Muppet Announcer for the movie in 2011. He’s just always been there, and always been happy to be involved in Muppety stuff, despite his health setbacks. It’s so sad that that won’t be the case any longer.

Jerry was probably my favorite Muppeteer after Jim Henson himself. I am in awe of his vast vocal abilities, and there’s something else about him that I just love. He does so much heavy lifting for very little public recognition. He was generous to fans, kind and responsive and funny, open with his thoughts and memories. I think part of my love for him is that he reminds me of my Dad in many ways, both physically and just something about the way he carries himself in interviews. I love his characters. I love listening to him sing.

His talent and the vast amount of good works that he has put into the world cannot be overstated. He was pivotal in my development as a human being, and I will always remember him fondly and with much love. I wish I could have met him and heard that voice in person. I hope that he got my letter in time to read my appreciation, but if he didn’t it’s OK because surely he must know how much the world loved him.

Rest in Peace, Jerry Nelson. Thanks for everything.