I’m currently participating in songwriting competition run by Music for the Cause, a nonprofit organization dedicated to raising awareness and funding for children with rare bleeding disorders. If you have the means, please consider donating.

I have two songs entered: Impostor Syndrome and Small Miscalculations. I’d love it if you would vote for one or both of these songs, as voting is open through May 16 and you can vote once per 24 hour period. Thanks for listening!

Another year over, a new one just begun!

2018 was challenging. Apart from being exhaustingly politically charged, my husband took yet another job in Silicon Valley, so we wound up uprooting ourselves yet again, after just having gotten used to life in the Central Coast. I did close the year by completing a series of pet portraits commissioned by a friend whose doggos I adore, so that was pretty cool. Check out Steve and Holly’s Doggos!

This year, like all years, I want to focus on building better habits. As such, I want to strengthen my “art muscle” by making a smol painting every day. Follow my progress on Instagram @an.effervescent.madness! The name derives from one of Neil Gaiman’s New Year’s wishes about being filled with “magic and dreams and good madness.” @goodmadness was taken, and I didn’t want to confuse people with taking @good.madness, so I went with the next best adjective that elicited the sentiment, and then some. I’ll try and make sure it gets filled with art bubbling over with whimsy… barring that, a lot of cute dog paintings.

Not only is it 2018, it’s the middle of August 2018.

Sometime around this time, last year, when I started painting, again, I started hand-coding a new version of this website from scratch. Obviously, that didn’t turn out.

I think I will stay within the WordPress framework, but an overhaul is in order.

In the meantime, I am very active on Instagram.

Trying out a new WordPress theme.

Ben and I returned from our deferred honeymoon to Japan on the 9th, but I am not adjusting very well to being back in California… probably because I don’t particularly have a schedule to adhere to, apart from my audiobook deadlines… of which the production schedule requires me to be up at odd hours anyway, though I haven’t recorded anything since we’ve returned.  So I should probably set alarms and take long walks or something.  Alas, it’s just not as exciting as sight-seeing every day.  Anyway, I made a little visual digest to the tunes of “Love Letter to Japan” and “Kasa No Hone” by The Bird and the Bee and Anathallo, respectively:

It’s been added to Video.

Well, almost-February!  I finally uploaded photos of the rather terrifying Very Bad Elf bottle cover I needle felted for my brother-in-law for Christmas.  That bad boy took seven hours… and that was just the head.

I still have to pick out the photos of the pug commission I completed earlier this month.  I regret not documenting it better, because I also made a cute little cardboard doghouse for him, too. Ah, well.

The project I’ve really been focused on lately has been the customization of my Batchix Mini-Machina Delta.  I finally finished the body blushing, which was a challenge because I decided not to unstring her to do it.  She’s already got some rubs, but since I was going for a sort of worn look anyway, I don’t mind, too much.

So much for monthly updates!

I’ve added a new page for Soft Sculpture. I’ve really been into needle felting lately.  I’d actually rather be doing that right this second (even more than sleeping, which I will probably actually do after I finish this post since it’s 2ish in the am as I write this), but I’ve been so far behind on documenting my work that I swore I wouldn’t touch anything until the websites got updated.

April is the cruellest month, breeding
Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing
Memory and desire, stirring
Dull roots with spring rain.

Here I am at the end of April, and no “real” update, again.  But we’re finally moved in to the point that I’m hoping to reboot some of my projects.  Next month, I hope to announce the re-opening of Shiny Jumble, as I have been working on some new jewelry.

I also hope to have my recording studio at least partially set up by the end of next month, and try to get back into the practice of recording again.  I will have to hijack Ben’s office closet, as my art supplies currently overflow into the garage.  So, we’ll see how that goes. :P

An update to say… there is no update.  My husband and I are a month in our new house so I’m a little sad to report I have no projects going except for home-improvement projects.

Here I am at the end of January just now updating! And only sort of.  Things have been kind of in the air, lately, because my husband and I are in the process of relocating.  But! I promised myself at the end of 2013 that I would start doing a monthly update on the main site so that you’d know I was alive, in case you don’t follow whatever project I’m most invested in at the moment.  Currently, that project is a new tumblog called Spilt Pixels, which is basically a reblog tumblr for art references.  I tend to use tumblr the same way others use Pinterest, so when my “favorites” get messy enough for me to sense a larger theme, I separate those entries out.  One day I might actually post original art on it. Alas, that day is not today.

After many hours over a period of weeks, I’ve finally funneled my site’s content into WordPress. The idea is that I would perhaps actually come up with new content now that it’s easier to manage. Not that the old format was particularly difficult to manage, but WordPress is certainly quicker and more convenient than making a new html page from scratch, every time.

At any rate, there are things I’ve cut away that I doubt will be missed… and things I have added! For instance, this year’s Comic Con costumes have been added to Cosplay.

Enjoy! Or not. To each, their own. ;P