Ollivander Crebs the III

Last night we had a snuffling, snorting little visitor (no, not Meghan, the OTHER one!)


My godson came on down to meet the kidzos and make my mother swoon. Success on all counts! Except for a little kerfuffle with Sekiah involving mister Ollie thinking she was a chew toy things went splendidly.



Sekiah was fine. Scared more than anything. (You are such a BULLY mister Ollie). But we put a princess band-aid on her arm anyway. Hilarious.

Meg begins to tell me a story about how Ollie got into the Worm Tea (nasty!) while she was getting his stuff together to come down and visit us. Bad puppy. She was laughing, saying he kept licking loudly like he had a sour taste in his mouth he couldn't get rid of and she was late (Meghan is ALWAYS late) becuase she had to try and clean him up.

I see you peeking Sekiah!

That'll teach him to not mess with the worm farm (Also WHO has a worm farm?! Dear Meghan, you CRAZY!).

It was so, so good to see her.



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earlier in the night I skipped my workout to go drink beer with Jessie and get my hairs cut.

While there she told me about this app for her iPhone called fatbooth that... well... makes you look fat!

Here are my own hilarious results:

gross.

I wish I had the picture of Patrick beacuse he still had his stubbly "beard" when she took his picture and he wound up looking like Peter Griffen from Family Guy.


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In an attempt to tire out mister I-don't-know-how-to-play-nicely-with-other-dogs-Bailey Sekiah and I took him to the beach. Ethan was asleep from one hectic play date they had had at the park so I suited her up and we headed down.




Please do notice the PRINCESS hat. I do not expect it comes in any color other than pink. And here she is playing on the rocks, rocking out to life.

I can't wait until this beach is sunny and 100 degrees. Come on Summer! We need you!

Sunsets are awesome!

Now, back to the drawing board for this little Tana.

Water Wheel & Allagash

No art updates today, intrepid fans!

Dad carved me a pair of handmade Ducks. Isn't he the sweetest?

Instead we have a few real life-updates.

The first is that the water wheel is being fixed across the pond today.

Patrick noticed it when he came in to pester me this morning.


Truth be told I don't remember the water wheel being taken out of the water before.

Like, ever.

I still think we need to put a generator on that thing.

So that's worth a few snap shots.

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I took the original Bailer outside to check it out with me before grabbing some coffee this afternoon, and when I tried to take a picture of his handsomeness on the wall he moved too fast.

Where's Bailey?!

But then I got him to stay still inside the Jeep. So that worked out.



He would like you to please play ball with him.

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This weekend I went to Portland Maine which boasts no less than 3 breweries! And even though it was cold out the town itself was beautiful. If I had to live in Maine I would totally live there. There is this super cute bakery on the water that made THE! BEST! Raisin, pecan rolls that were to! die! for!

So many exclamation points.

We took a tour of the Allagash brewery and I fell in love with their Curieux brew. It's basically their Tripel beer aged in old Jim Beam bourbon casks which results in a fantastic blend of carbonated bourbon flavored beer. Bourbon beer! Better than everything!

Soaking up some sunshine before the tour got started.

Well, not everything.



The lady who led our tour was really cool. Lots of beer facts and Allagash brewery facts and we talked about Boston and beer-making and Belgian monks.


I have never toured a brewery before and it was quite nice. Right up my alley, as they say.

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I found a few more pictures hiding in my phone from the Chicago trip.

Here is Kais doing her impression of the Unabomber in the amazing taco place we hit up on my last day in the city:



And here is a hilarious license plate I saw that says "My Ford" on a Chevy somewhere in middle Illinois:


And that is it for updates right now.

I'm still trying to get everything sorted before my life turns topsy-turvy again in May.

Oh! And I lied there IS going to be art in this blog post, after all!

Here is the SMO 2011 design for this year's 200 mile race!

See how I tipped the HRC logo on its side there, for 2011? Nice touch, right?

And a shot of last year's impromptu SMO design.



We've got our first team meeting this Friday at Fay and Robyn's and I for one am SUPER excited about the food.

Holl-er!

C2E2

Chicago? CHECK!

Rawr.

So my first comic book convention is officially over.

And what a ride it was!
Literally. I drove halfway across the United States all by my lonesome twice in one week. Talk about traveling!

The Prism booth. Go Gays!

The con itself blew my mind in size and scope.

I rolled up with StevieD to unload some stuff a day before the con opened.
You could see the red carpet they had thrown down for the event almost glowing from the floors below.


When we arrived on the actually opening day (The morning after St. Patty's day, let me just remind you. and I had to be up at 6:30am!) I got Zan and we met Kris Dresden and Tony Breed at the booth and began to set up. Unfortunately Southwest lost one of Zan's bags (actually they sent it to Reno) so we only had half of the items we needed to properly set up the booth.



We did the best we could!

There was a food court on the second floor that overlooked the con which made a great spot for taking photos. The place was huge. According to some con veteran's, though, the size was unimpressively average. Maybe I am just easy to please?


StevieD let me be his shadow for while he roamed the con floor for awhile. He is the host of Comic Book Queers and everyone there knew him. Then he saw an ex-boyfriend of his:


I hear that guy's married now... to some news reporter or something.


There was all kinds of STUFF at this con.

3 different booths that sold swords (really, swords?!) one place that made custom furniture for geeks. Drawers that pulled out and were actually long boxes and custom storage for your game controllers, a dining room table that opens up into a Magic The Gathering table. It was Uber Nerdy and VERY cool. You know that fingerstache thing everyone does? (Everyone being all of my friends.) The Geek carpenters (Geek Chic) also made little wooden mustaches so I got one.

SO FUN!

Who wants a mustache ride?!

Of course there were toys and collectibles.



Booths of comic book retailers selling new comics and golden age/silver age stuff.

The costumes were impressive.

The first guy I saw was Spiderman complete with Web-backpack. Sunday was kids' day and let me tell you, toddlers dressed as superheros warms me to the very soul.



"I'mma back!"

Mario came by our table and we hung out. He showed me a bunch of funny high-fives and fist-bumps. I already knew "The Snail" and the "Turkey" but he had all sorts.

(Don't know what I'm talking about? GOOGLE it)



There were a pack of folks from Mortal Kombat (and of course a Storm Trooper):

Scaaaary!

There were Stormtroopers (Or Clone troopers? Or Sky troopers? I don't know the damn difference, they are all Stormtroopers to me!)

Thumbs up if you love blasters!

The costumes made of foam core were my favorite. The big guys, Thing and Juggernaut and Apocalypse were legit. I was impressed!

He's totally packing.

Big & Beefy plus Dracula?

I did an interview for Comic Book Queers with PattyBoom, my new gay boyfriend.




We went to the hotel bar and just chatted for awhile. I drank Jameson and gingerale (much needed and much loved). I'll post a link when that episode goes up.


Um, they had reverseable corsets. Anyone in the market for one of those?




My book did really well. I got lots of great feedback from fans and fellow creators and I found out that two of the books put out by Northwest Press, Glamazonia! and Teleny and Camille! are up for a Lambda Literary Award! Go check that out y'alls!



I drew a Powergirl sketch in StevieD's Powergirl Sketchbook:



Then the con was over and we all packed in and headed "home".

For me, that meant going to hang out with Kaisa and spending all of my last day sight-seeing in Chicago.

My favorite thing was the Bean:

Watch out Kais! You're slipping!

Kung-fu Awesomes!

Then we went to the top of Hancock Tower for a drink and to see the view. there is some dirty saying about this like Getting a drink at the cock, or something but I forget what it was exactly. You get the idea.


Our drinks were good (which here means adequately alcoholic, yet overpriced) but the view terrified me. We live in a post-9/11 world after all!

And that's the wrap-up I've got for you all from Chicago.

Up next: Boston Con! April 30th and May 1st.

And I promise to try and make this ART blog more about art and less about running all the time.
I caught some flak for that this weekend.

Now, to catch up on some sleep!

16 hours driving across the country really takes it out of a girl!~




(Til we meet next time Chicago!)

Ras PR!

My 3 year Anniversary of Running!

Just a quick note to say that the Ras na hEireann this weekend was a huge success.

Despite having gone out dancing and drinking the night before AND losing an hour of sleep due to daylight saving time, I still managed to set a personal record in the 5k!

8:45/pace, 27:10 0verall!

No one is more surprised than me.

I owe it to Alecia for snapping her fingers and pointing to the ground beside her saying, "You! Here!" indicating that I would be running beside her. She kept us cruising along until about mile 2 when we caught up with the other folks we came with and Alecia stepped it up a notch passing me off (more or less) into Liz's care.

We commiserated about having our periods, being exhausted, Regan's training sessions kicking our asses and at the end I was actually able to sprint down the bike path to glory.

Will wonders never cease?

I look a little doofy in both these photos but my dogs were barking and my hammies were tight.

(Yeah, I said it!)

Go Team!

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And here's another page, intrepid fans!

See you in Chicago!

page 39

(Again, I KNOW there are typos -forgetting the F in Family- but I corrected them in the final. Just not in the jpegs. )

Finished! Order Away!

Page 37 is here!

All of them are, actually, since the book is OFFICIALLY done!

Cover, edits, more edits, printed up a few copies, found more things to edit, and now! A box or two of them are hot off the presses and waiting to be driven to Chicago!

Would you like your own copy of this fancy little volume?

It measures 7" x 8.5"

Well check out that little button in the sidebar (----->)

Now you can click it and (for $2 shipping) you can have your very own copy! Do it now! You know you want to. Why read for free what you can pay good money to own? Click that button. you know you want to.

Would you like to see the most adorable thing on the planet? Well here he is!

Ethan came out of Corinne's living room wearing these last night. I believe Santa brought them for Josh last Christmas so that he and Auntie Marae could box each other and let off stress. He made his "Hulk muscles" which made me laugh and laugh.



Oh, Hulk. How you amuse me.

A here is my little namesake miss Tana Junior, known far and wide as TJ. She's looking more and more like me with every day that passes. That's one lucky girl, right there.

(Her real name remains 'Lila Noelle')

Finally in cuteness-overload news, guess whose little godbaby grew twice his neck size in just one week? That's right! Little mister Olliver Anderson. If his cuteness doesn't get you just imagine the snuffling snoring that is constantly occurring when he sleeps.

Just a little lump of love.

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A few programming notes.

The mad rush before C2E2 is in full swing.

I have a million and one things to do before setting off to the windy city (all by my lonesome! YIKES!). If you pay attention to the Twitter-machine I do that. You can follow me HERE. Or, if that link doesn't work (and it might not, computers aren't really my thing) then just search for "tanaford" and you'll find me.

I plan on actually using it when I am away (unlike now, when I like to pretend it doesn't exist) so if you want trip-updates, here's your chance!

In a perfect world I would know what I am doing and be prepared and have lots of great art and prints and stickers and things ready to go, but well, I'm a noob. Bear with me.

So there it is, intrepid fans!
4 days and counting until I hit a comic book convention near you!
(Provided you are in Illinois, somewhere in the greater Chicago area).

I am ALSO celebrating the 3rd anniversary of my running debut this Sunday at 11am at the (as Alecia calls it) "Ras Na Naa Naaaa." I am very excited despite the fact that this may very well be the slowest most painful race I have ever run since I will have been out dancing all night the night before (tonight) and there is talk about doing PRE-race Irish Car Bombs the morning of the race (provided, I suppose, that bars are even OPEN that early. Any of you alcoholics out there know one way or the other?)

So, there it is. This is the last big update before I make-like-a-baby-and-head-out (ba dum dum ch!)

Happy Weekend Everybody!