4 posts tagged “holidays”
Thanksgiving is almost here in the U.S., heralding the start of the holiday season and the first of many meals where you might be confronted with a traditional dish that you happen to find disgusting. What holiday food do you hate to see on the table?
Oh, that's easy. I'm a true food lover, and I honestly do really enjoy most holiday foods, but there are a few glaring exceptions. For instance, let's have a look at Exhibit A, shall we?
Now, granted it could be in part because my mother never would have even tried to serve us anything that looks like that hot mess, but I really hate green bean casserole. Actually, I didn't even realize that everyone else ate this monstrosity every Thanksgiving until I was much older. I'm not the biggest fan of green beans in the first place, and putrifying them by way of a can of condensed soup does nothing to improve my feelings on the matter. And the French fried onions? I really don't understand why those are even there, apart from simply making that whole used diaper of a dish even more confusing to me.
And now on to Exhibit B. I know this one won't make me any friends, but hey. Whose blog is this, anyway?
I know a lot of people are all about egg nog, but it positively nauseates me. It really does. I'm not really the biggest fan of thick, rich drinks in general -- (I'm generally of the mind that drinks should be refreshing) -- but the real barf factor here is the knowledge that this one contains actual beaten eggs. In my opinion, eggs have no business being anywhere near anything I intend to put in my mouth, so I'm not nuts about the idea of them hiding in my beverages. Just... no. Get it the hell away from me.
This is the first of my winter-themed images for the season, the first of many I'm sure, as winter is my favorite time of year for so many reasons. I knew when I started it that I wanted to be an angel of some sort, but different than the typical angel one might expect to see around this time of year... maybe a bit darker. What I came up with is this character, whom I'm still in the process of deciding who and what she really is.
My feeling is that the light in her lantern represents Truth, as many of the lanterns I like to use in some of my pictures often do. What exactly she is searching for is up to the viewer to decide. Just know that, whatever it is, she is seeking it out via the guidance of her lantern rather than that of her eyes. I like to think of her as a sort of a take-off on the Blind Justice image we are all so familiar with.
So for once I actually got quite a few things done today. I finished up the commission project I've been working on off and on for a while for one thing, so go me! I think it looks quite nice, and hopefully the client will agree. For the moment though, I'm kind of free to work on some personal art if I like, so maybe I'll open up Photoshop later on tonight and play around. I've really, really missed working on my own stuff, so hopefully soon there will be some new things to share with everyone within the next few days. I can't wait!
I also went through my entire print shop and fixed it up for the holidays. Deviant Art recently switched a lot of things around as far as the shops were concerned, so anyone who's been by recently has probably noticed that my prices have looked kind of wonky. Well, that's fixed now. I went through and corrected everything that was wrong, and even lowered prices on a bunch of things, so if you've been waiting for me to get my ass in gear so you can make your Christmas purchases, you're clear for take-off. For now I'm kind of considering the lower prices to be a holiday sale, but if I see a huge jump in items sold, I may decide to keep them lower. We'll see.
It really tried to snow this morning. Truly it did. We woke up at about 8:00 this morning to lots of big fluffy flakes falling, but unfortunately there wasn't enough snowfall for it to stay around too long. The only evidence that it snowed at all is a patch or two of white out on the grass. Oh well. I'm sure there's plenty more where that came from. The sky looked pretty forbidding last time I checked, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed.
As for now, I'm getting ready for a nice quiet evening at home with Seth, who will be home shortly. We bought Superman Returns on DVD the other night, so we're planning on cooking up a pizza and watching it while we stuff ourselves. We both kind of have little colds, so that's about all the action we're up for right now.
Since it is the season, I thought I would fall in line with what some of my friends are doing today and list a few things that I'm grateful for today. I'm including little things as well though. I think they make more of a difference than people usually give them credit for.
♠ I'm thankful for Seth being in my life. He's the best friend I've ever had, and it means more to me than I could ever express to him that I am finally with someone who accepts and loves me for who I am. I waited a long time to find myself in this type of loving, healthy relationship, but it was definitely worth waiting for.
♠ I'm thankful for NaNoWriMo. By finally convincing myself to sign up and participate this year, I've learned that I really do have an inner novelist. I'm only sorry I didn't find that out years ago.
♠ I'm thankful for the stuffed clams I had for breakfast. There's something about eating such things first thing in the morning and then being left with a plate of actual clam shells afterward that makes me feel like an wild, enchanted sea thing... a mermaid or an ocean witch maybe. It sounds weird, but it's kind of a nice way to start your day if you're me.
♠ I'm thankful for the people in my life who have been true friends to me. I am also thankful for the ability to forget about the people who haven't been, not letting them permanently cast a shadow over my life or my self-image with their negativity.
♠ I'm thankful for Angels in America, which I've wanted to see again for years and is now playing on HBO. The creative images and plot, as well as the exceptional dialogue, helped me get over a mild creative block that was putting a crimp in my novel-writing progress recently. I am thankful for how little things like that, which might seem insignificant, come along at just the right time.
♠ I'm thankful for my artistic talent, and for how being an artist gives me a way to express things I have inside of me that I can't really do justice to with mere words. I am also thankful for how every so often, my art touches someone else and inspires them to do something they've always wanted to. It reminds me that I'm important, and that I do make a difference, and I think everyone needs to feel that way in one way or another.
♠ I'm thankful for wonderful smells, and for how something as simple as the scent of impending rain can completely turn your day around if you give it a chance to.
♠ I'm thankful for the increasingly cold weather. Any day now, I am going to wake up to snow on the ground. I am also thankful that I am someone who can appreciate such a thing the way that I do.
♠ I'm thankful for the internet because of the way it makes it so easy to learn about anything I like, meet people from all over the world, and share my creative work with anyone who would like to see it.
♠ I'm thankful for the ham and the other tasty things we have in our fridge just waiting to be cooked for Thanksgiving dinner, and for our plans to turn our meal into a romantic candlelit dinner just for the two of us.
I'm sure there are many more things than that, but those are the ones that come immediately to mind right this minute. What kinds of things, both big and not-so-big, are you thankful for this year?
