Spread a little cheer

I just want to take a moment to express publicly that my Aunt Missy is by far my most favourite aunt, if not possibly my favourite relative altogether. As we were daily collecting packages from the post office for Lena's birthday, a giant and heavy parcel arrived for me. Inside were two sparkly eyeliners that I admired on my aunt and cousin during their visit and TWO 6-packs of Cheerwine. Cheerwine, for you ignorant Yankees, is carbonated cherry-flavoured Robitussin. It is best served with fried chicken and deviled eggs.

Missy has always been my favourite aunt. I don't know if this is because she is the closest to my mother of her three sisters, or because she's just an all around groovy person. When I was a child I knew that Missy and (now ex-) husband Tim were designated to be my guardians should anything happen to my parents, and as a result I harboured a morbid fantasy that my parents would die (quickly and painlessly, I'm sure) in a car wreck. I didn't want to kill my parents, I just wanted to live with my fun aunt and uncle. Looking back, a lot of their "funness" then might be attributed to being childless and that my uncle was embezzling money from the bank at which he worked, but 18 years of raising my cousin Taylor and now being married to an upstanding citizen has not diminished Missy's cool-factor at all.

So, thank you, Missy, for being the Best Aunt Ever!

Comments:
N8 said,
3 September 2007 at 1:40 pm · Edit
Hmm… childless people are more fun? I can get behind that. ;)

Seventy Seven-Sided Sapphires

Well, Dad and a few others may not care about Harry Potter, but I officially finished my HP:DH* picture this morning. Technically, I finished it a week ago, but I was at that time using a Warner Brothers-copyrighted image of Harry, and that wouldn't fly if I wanted to post the finished image, so I had to stake out the real Harry Potter and get a candid photo. Fortunately for me, he lives in Brackley, just down the road, and goes to church with us. (Who knew that Harry Potter was LDS?)

Little factoids about the picture: In Book 6, Voldemort comments that making 7 horcruxes ("horcruces" for you Latin purists) would be best since 7 is such a powerful number. Therefore, there are 70 seven-sided sapphires on the diadem, and the issue of the Daily Prophet is "vol. 7." Harry Potter is played by James Cowey, serious HP fan. The text above the headline reads "The Seven Horcruxes (horcruces?) by JBWolfer. July 2007. Copyrighted. Do not steal." The diary is modeled on the HP book. The Hufflepuff Cup should have a third badger on the back, just peeking up, but I felt that it's little claws cluttered things up. Thank you to Ariel who pointed out that the locket should be gold and not silver. Nagini (the snake) is smaller than would be expected (she's been known to swallow people whole), but then it has to be assumed that she's a magical snake and can shrink down to fit into my picture since Voldemort carries her on his shoulders. Written as an afterthought in my own sloppy handwriting across the diadem is the Ravenclaw motto "Wit beyond measure is man's greatest treasure." The whole thing was an excuse to make the diadem which turned out to be my least favourite thing in the picture. I will never paint metal again. Never ever ever. No, you can't make me. Livia believed that I should draw a tongue on the snake because "all snakes have their tongues hanging out." I thought it was too cliché.

This brings me to Livia the art critic. The other day, just exercising my computer, I did this little picture of a Camel Boy. I based it on a real picture, but I didn't trace it or anything, just looked at the photo for reference. Lena was all impressed and commented, "Wow, Mommy, you're a real artist," to which Livia immediately responded, "That's not art, that's just copying." Now, I don't consider myself a "real artist" by a long-shot, but that's not because I like to use references. However, the opinion of my 6-year-old had a lasting impact on me, so when I did the "Seven Horcruxes," I made a point to make each item from my head. I studied photos of badgers and boa constrictors, various metals in various situations, but not a single item is a copy of something else (okay, the diary/book isn't very original). I was redeemed when Livia came back and saw me working on the diadem, and asked me if I was going to order one from the Internet. She had assumed that she was looking at a photo, and when I told her smugly that not only did I draw it but that I had made it up completely without copying, she replied evenly, "Impressive," and then walked off, disappointed that I wouldn't be buying her one for her dress-up box.

Today it's 82 degrees with a light breeze. Tomorrow, it's supposed to be 65 and rain. Summer finally arrived.

*Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

Comments:
EvilGM said,
5 August 2007 at 8:56 pm ·
I thought that Jenny did a smashing job on the picture. The real indication of her merit on this is when she presented a copy of the picture to James, who modeled as Harry. He was ecstatic and said that he really loved it. He was mightily impressed that Jenny did it all by hand, as was I. I’ve never had much of an interest in pursuing art, but know talent when I see it. Job well done.

EvilGM said,
26 August 2007 at 9:18 am ·
I was able to print out the graphic at work on a large plotter printer and it looks magnificent. Good job working the colors. Great to see it come to life in big print.