Hockey, Yoga, and Bridal Showers

A healthy combination, if I say so myself!

First and foremost the news that is on almost every proud Nuckers mind. The awesome win against the Chicago Blackhawks by the Canucks! Awesome! Granted I was painting while I was listening to the game, but I caught enough of it to know it was damn exciting. Also judging by Andrew's hoots and hollers it was damn good to watch.

I was going to add a picture of the double rainbows we saw right before the game started out our window. I'm pretty sure that was a sign of good luck - and look how well it worked! I have a picture at home, will upload it's awesomeness later. Of course I remember to upload the pictures of the paintings, but not the rainbow *Sigh*.

[update] and here are the rainbows as seen from our window yesterday! 

and speaking of the painting I was doing...

A bit of Yoga to calm down the hockey fever we were feeling. I've been dying to do these for a while and finally found a spot of time to do them. I want to do one more but havent found a position I like to fill the third. I'm thinking a cloudy-midday sort of sky for the background.

This is another one of those times I wished I had sketched first, but I kind of like the fluidity and almost ... i don't know the word for it, maybe abstract parts of the body.

On Saturday the Bridal Shower was held. Here are some pictures of how it went:

Some Gifts. Yeah. I'm shexy.

 

 

 

Toilet Paper Bride Wars:

 



The Good Wife

Yesterday was quite a productive day all in all.

Work was a good, productive time. Considering I had felt like the dumbest of dumbs earlier this season, I feel like I am getting a lot better, learning a lot more and accomplishing a lot more. This is a good.

Then when I got home I had enough energy to not only make dinner (gasp and awe!) but to actually put away some of the laundry that has been piling up. Not all of it, granted, but a bit.

And then came the Bridesmaid meeting. Mixed feelings and the potential for too much estrogen do add in, but aside from that it all went well. We got the main idea of what we wanted to do. And I am so stoked!!! Lasertag and amatuer strippers! The best of both worlds! So many exclamation marks! Theres going to be games and other stuff, but I'm mostly excited for lasertag.

I couldn't sleep for a while becuase I was so excited and had so many things running through my head. One of the major worries is how we are 1 month and 2 days to W-Day and that equals only 2 paycheques. Eek! And now is when the big money goes out. DJ, Food and Alcohol. I'm a bit scared if we're going to be able to manage that and bills... one will have to be forgotten till after, and I know which it will end up being.  But we will get back on track, we have to. I have high hopes. 

Aside from that everything is coming all together and I have a serious amount of dollar store shopping that needs to be done this Friday.

Also, I was such a good little wifey in training that I made Andrew's lunch... in as an embarrasing manner as possible in hopes he won't ask me again. (Of course I know Andrew doesn't get embarrased, and will just find it funny...or just roll his eyes at me).

I also am probably the only person who finds my sandwhich smiley-face-with-bologna-tongue-sticking-out funny, but I am sharing anyway.

Marilyn Monroe - Deirdre style

Big project this weekend, and, what a treat, you get to be part of it!
I'm taking you through a step by step look at my painting process. So here we go!

First comes the inspiration, or in this case a request. My awesome nail lady: Jen wanted a lil something-something for her nail room. She mentioned Marilyn Monroe, and found me a pic of a pose she liked.

Not too sure where this is.. but yeah. So it was in search of finding an image that was a little bit easier to see. Not to hard as Marilyn Monroe is a pretty commonly searched woman.


So then it's sit down to sketch to see if I can even draw her! Turns out I could. Usually what I will do is print out a picture and draw over in permanent marker the main facial characteristics. Shape of the face, eyebrows, nose, mouth - you get it.

Then it's off to drawing. This didn't take me that long.

I have started to realize how important a pre sketch is. Usually I just sort of go at the painting - which has actually worked out well in the past. This was one where I was glad I did.

Just like when you write down notes, I remember better when I draw. So as I am drawing I am thinking of how this will translate to paint and paintbrush. The proportions, what I need to make sure is highlighted first - blocking off and shading certain areas first. Basically the sketch outlines more then just what I'm going to create - it outlines my plan or strategy.

Then comes the canvas work. Jen wanted a pretty large canvas, so I knew it would be a bit tricky going from a sketch book page to an 80 * 70 cm canvas. Woo big difference! So the I decided to rough it in.  It's obviously pretty rough. The picture changes a bit in size as I decide where her hair will go, and shoulders.  Placing the eyes, nose, and lips help with the proportions. I can see here that I drew way too chubby of a Marilyn (uh), but when you're sitting looking at a giant canvas, sometimes the details are hard to catch. Or in this case the obvious is hard to catch.

So now I start painting. I started with marking down some "landmarks" like eyes, and lips. Then i started blocking off where shadows and highlights would be.

This is one of the points where I start to think more like a sculptor. I'm doing the highlights for the forehead and moving down the to the nose, suddenly I'm thinking of stretching my finger along a statue - or my own face- seeing how the skin stretches over some places and sinks into others.

Proportions change here as well. Once I put the nose on (ish) suddenly the eyebrows and eyes had to change their position.

Further details are added. Shadowing in the eyes. I remember my art teacher explaining how to draw eyes. They are round, and our lids are over them. Marilyn Monroe has quite heavy eyes, bedroom eyes. As such the creases around her eyeball would be deeper and more shadowed. I also started lightening up some of the shadows and added the bit of eye, cause, well, it was kind of creepy.

I started adding more shading in the nose. I took a lot of time on the nose and kept narrating to myself for some reason. The "trick" to a good nose is a combination of soft and hard lines - is what I would say to myself. Unlike our eyes or lips, which are naturally outlined, the nose isn't - it's all shadow and highlights. so I had to do that. You can see it working in here, as well as adding the eyebrows. Everything is connected to the nose. It's like the belly button, everything comes together there.

The creases in the eyes change with where the nose is, how the skin flows from that, etc. So I tried doing the nose as my first detail. The eyes are always SO tempting - but I was trying to refrain.

You can see the nose has come a lot farther, though in this picture it's a tad fat at the top. My first clear sign that the right eye is too far away - see, it's a good thing I didn't do the eye details!

More shadows and highlights, added color to the lips and lightened up the complexion a bit.

Now it's on to more details.

Though i saw the Eye was an issue, I still kept going with it. Here's a case of how hard it is to see the big picture when you're working on the details. I, obviously, outlined the lines and tried to get the heavy top lid right. It is hard to not make her look Asian when her eyes are so "squinty" so it takes a bit of work. I went over the top lid a couple times, as you can see on the right side, to get this right.

Some more shading as I went along as well.


Added more highlights and more shading around the folds of the eyes. I haven't moved the right eye over yet, but I am starting to see it needs to be done. The "circle" of the eye is moving closer to the nose,  as well the eye brow starts closer.

Ah the big move of the eye. With a seriously miss-shapen eyebrow!

It takes work to get it back, but it also takes some drying - after a couple layers of paint, it's too sticky for the blending I needed to do.

Oh we have eyes! The shape of the eye has gotten a bit better. That eyebrow is still horrible. I am also changing the shape of the face a bit, outlining where I will "skinny" it down.. More highlighting and adding shadows.

She's starting to come together. Though still not a Marilyn Monroe look alike.

More background and hair.

Lightening the face up some

Somewhere in the process the nose was skinny-ed up a bit. Lips made a bit bigger. Its always good to go back to the basics when drawing a face. I remember my elementary school art teacher telling us how our pupils line up with the corners of our mouths.


Added more background color and working on the hair. It's not easy doing hair, never is. even in my sketch I avoided it.

So when I was doing her hair I was trying to think, not in color, but in light and dark. Where did the light catch? Where was the shadow?

I did have to sacrifice some parts as the problem i found was that using grey scale colors her hair looked old.

I also started  her neck and framing her face a bit better.

Now the fun part, I got to add more detail! I was waiting for this!!!

It's always one of the funnest parts doing the feminine details. I fixed the eyebrow - a bit, looking at it now I still could have done a better job.

Another good part about being a girl is that I know how to pluck my eyebrows. That means all those cosmo self help plucking techniques suddenly came in handy! Basically if you place a pencil at the tip of your nostril pointing towards your eyebrow there should be a direct line from your nostril - to pupil - to the middle point in your eyebrow. Also move the pencil to go nostril- inside corner of eye  and that will show you where your eyebrow should start. Same system for where it should end: nostril - outside corner of eye = point eyebrow should end.

As you can tell my eyebrows on my Marilyn don't exactly meet my own standards. But again, this is why breaks should be had.

Finally we start adding color to her lips! Marilyn Monroe has some seriously iconic lips, so I took a fair amount of time on them.

These  pictures look pretty similar, but now it was getting down to the nitty gritty. Fixing the nostrils a bit, as well as the shape of her face.  I also gave her some lip liner, because, well - she's cool like that. I also revised the shading on her chin and jaw line as I realized it was giving off he right angle I wanted.

Highlights to the lips where added as well as showing for the teeth. I would like to point out that while I flirted with the idea of teeth detail I decided it was just to hard. Seriously, I can't think of one picture with teeth detail that looks really good. If there is, please show me so I can study it! When it comes to teeth I have always figured it is best to imply them but not actually draw them.

Also let's note that they are really grey - not white, same with the iris in the eyes, it's actually a bit darker of a grey. Your eyes and teeth are not pure white, so it's better not to paint them that way.

And then comes the final masterpieces.  Signature added after the fact along with the date. I used to never date my pieces but I read up a bit and it was suggested if you want to ever pursue painting as a career, who knows, i may. It gives people who study your work, or art collectors, and idea of what "period" you were... or something like that.

So what do you think?

I know Jen is happy as this will soon be hanging in her nail studio, hopefully gaining praise and lots of new commissions!

Closer to the beginning

Wedding plans are rolling along, and as we get closer to the date - I start thinking less about my hobbies. Yes, they are falling to the wayside as W-Day (as it is becoming ever-known to me as) gets closer and closer.

Had our weekly Bridesmaid Meeting (BMM) and put chocolates and mints in all of the favors/centerpieces. Woot! It only took 1.5 hours! (and I didn't even have to bribe them with wine)

I know there are tons of things to still do, and the scariest part is the large amount of things I can't buy in the last 2 months before the wedding. The biggest and scariest - the food. Some of it (most of it) we can't buy until the week before the Wedding. That means crazed grocery shopping at Costco, and god help us if they don't have what we're looking for.

So far though everything is going great. My Maid of Honor has been amazing - I couldn't have asked for a better second in command, though honestly she's a bit more like the captain then me lately. Yeah, been playing too much Mass Effect 2 on my time off.

So don't plan on seeing any posts particularly relevant to anything as we get closer to W-Day. They will probably become more insane and illegible. Probably like slowly watching a crazy person go crazier. Well not so slowly.

On a side note this weekend looks like it may be one of the few relaxing ones I'll have for the next month and a half.  Shopping and sketching/painting is all that is on my to do list.

So any Bride's out there with any advice?

Oh the Excitement!

This week has been a week of very high, highs, and some lows.

After the weekend of moving and fighting and everything previously mentioned, this week has been a welcome escape.

On Tuesday I met my Aunt at Michael's and we got the silk flowers for my bouquet. Also the flower girl basket and charm that will hold my Grandpa's picture. (1 on the excitement meter)

On Wednesday Andrew got my wedding band. And of course I tried it on and made sure it was perfect... and it is! (Lets put another notch on the excitement meter) We also went and saw the hall - perfect the design for the wedding, checked the plates (and ohmygosh their kitchen is awesome!), general seating and placement, got to see what has been done so far on my bouquet (FREAKING SO AMAZING!) and perfected the processional and walk with my song! (10 notches on the excitement meter) I then went and had a Bridal meeting at my MOH's new house. Gave my niece her nurse watch thinger, and got some stuff ready for the Bridal Shower, and generally got to bask in the amazingness that this wedding is becoming. (another 3 points). So basically Tuesday and Wednesday were amazing.

Yesterday, of course, had to counteract it a bit by having my car refuse to start, me have to take my day off work and send it in to get fixed. But at the same time it wasn't as expensive as it could be, Andrew had his first day at the new job, I got my nails done by En Vouge - Nails by Jen.  Which were freaking ah-mazing! ..see! She hand painted the designs on them! Man is she good!

Plus I got my Bridesmaid gifts and some other smaller items like picture frames and bridal shower favors. All for super cheap!

The other crappy part of yesterday was that Andrew's hours at work can go up to 13 hours, and since he started and they were already a week behind - plus they had to go through Vancouver to get home since the bridge at Coquitlam had an accident, and then they were locked out of the gate - he was exhausted when he got home. I'm fine with that, except I expected him home 3 hours before he did get home. So dinner was made (then eaten by me) and I got all the presents and did all running around then went grocery shopping. Which ended up taking me 2 loads because they were so heavy and it's been 3 months since I've had to buy food for lunches. Ugh!

But I am still riding high off of all the wedding stuff.

Another plus, I get in to work today and boss tells me "we should discuss me going up in pay" sweet! I guess her day yesterday was as eventful as mine.

Speaking of work, I am off to it.

PS: Yeah I get to go see Riverdance tomorrow with my Aunts and Mom! Thanks to my Auntie Marilyn's new husband, Lee, for giving up his ticket - so I could benefit! I am so excited. I've wanted to see Riverdance since I was a wee one! Woot!

Family Drama

I have often considered writing a series of books of the drama that is my family.  I have gone so far as to plot out a basic outline for each novel. It came to 25 novels, not including what happens after this year but spanning back to my grandmother's time.

I am always reminded of this whenever confrontation arises in the family, and this weekend was no different then any of the others.

Once again, I sat amidst the screaming, yelling, sobbing and wailing (some of it my own) and thought, damn - I should write this down.

I have also considered the amount of contracts and privacy agreements I would have to sign in order to maintain any sort of relationship with my relatives after writing them. Perhaps a family project? A really messed up family tree by novel?

Didn't people do that before? Was that what a family bible was? I always thought it was just a really old bible.

I know there is a series out 'there' with a family that has novels spanning hook-ups, break-ups, divorces, marriages, children and death. Is more than one of these 'series' too much for the market? Is a romance novel with divorce even saleable? And why am I not tweeting this to #askagent?

More importantly, should I start the first of these novels - instead of continually procrastinating. I mean I need to interview Oma, who is already so stuck in her youth that I need a translator to speak to her.

So what do you think?

Have you ever been so convinced your family is dramatic enough to be entertainment for the public?

PS: I love my family and wouldn't change them for the world - despite how frustrating and painful it can be sometimes. The pros of my family far outweigh the cons. We fight passionately, but we also love and protect with as much heat.

The only plus side is that no matter how screwed up we are, we are not the Cyrus-es or Gosselins... or any of the families that have been in the media too long. Hmm, does the same fate fall on families that were written about (in a non tabloid way)?

The Panic of the Bride

It has set in. Officially.

In less than 2 months I will cease to be Deirdre Randall. I will be Deirdre Puff, or Deirdre Randall-Puff, haven't necessarily decided yet.  Either way. I will no longer be just Deirdre Randall. I haven't even started practicing a new signature yet!

I'm starting to panic though, well and truly panic. I have moments at work where I'm all "la dee da" working away and then it hits me and I'm searching for a paper bag and my cell phone to call my MOH or the lady at the hall - who I am sure died or came down with some mysterious disease that prevents her from being able to use  A FREAKING PHONE!

So you want some history on my outburst? Andrew and I have been trying to get a hold of the lady of the hall for 2 months, since before he left. We have left numerous voice mails. No response back.

I'm sure our voice mails started out nice: "Hi this is Deirdre and Andrew, we have a wedding May 21, can you please call us back so we can give you the money?"

To what it is now: *high pitched panicky voice* "Hi this is Deirdre. you know, the bride who has been trying to reach you for two months now. Yeah. Just wondering if you could call me back at your earliest convenience *clenched teeth* so we could make sure that we can actually GET MARRIED AT YOUR HALL. And yes we would love to give you the deposit, and I need to see the tables and chairs for decor. Oh and did I mention the wedding is now in LESS THAN 2 MONTHS! no? well it is. So as you can imagine I am one *very* panicked bride. mm k. Thanks. Call. Now. <phone number>"

...I better get a call.

I have now resorted to emailing community "leaders" in the area to see if she died or something. I may feel bad if she did... but honestly I probably wont. That sounds mean. Ah the onset of the True Bridezilla. Should I rename my blog that?

But the hall isn't the only thing. There's rings. Andrew's is ordered. Andrew hasn't even thought about mine, well ok I don't know if he has. I have the bridesmaid gifts waiting at the jewelery store. Groomsmen gifts need to be bought and engraved. and then there is the whole matter of FOOD AND ALCOHOL!!!!!!!!!

My drinks for the night are taken care of. I can get Andrew's bottle. We need wine (and it will be cheap) for the tables. But what about the rest of the part?

I need to confirm how long the DJ will be there for - and therefore how much money I need saved for him.

I need to send him pictures.

I need to send him our music choices.

I need to make sure Lysh has her speech written - but not know what it is.

The guys need their freaking tuxes.

*searches for paper bag*

I am a normal human being who can handle this. I have an amazing maid of honor who will help. I have amazing bridesmaids that will listen to me bitch. I can do this. I can do this.  *repeat until feeling better*