On the Road with Mr. D. Duckie

from the travel Diary of Mr. Devil Duckie:

Arrived at my hotel room after a harrowing drive. It took almost three hours to get from PA to VA; the entire first hour it was raining so hard the world looked white and I could barely see the car in front of me. I made it safely in any case, so I am settling into my room.

I have chosen the firm pillows, and I am glad to see they were clearly marked by the courteous hotel staff.

There is also a mini fridge with a coffee counter, which is nice but will not do me too much good since I can't stand coffee.

Oh, well!
I guess now I will take a bath and go find something for dinner. I have a big day tomorrow!

Oh No She Didn't! Chibi Wings!

Oh yes she did!

I have created the ultimately adorable chibi-stlye feathery angel wings!

For those of you who do not know, chibi is a term used in reference to anime charaters that have been simplified into a child-like or diminutive style.

So here is Cherubial!

Introducing Odette!

This is my newest small fairy wing design which I have dubbed Odette (as in the Swan Princess). It is actually a minaturized version of my very popular Bella wings.


Adorable!!! This is number two, done in magenta and navy.

I was updating my facebook profile a few days ago and I had to pause at the favorites section. Can anybody possibly pick just one favorite movie or book or band that they adore above all others?? I know I can't. They don't give me enough room to mention all my favs so I usually just end up writing too many to mention.

I actually rotate through a random list of "go-to" band of the moment when it comes to music. Sometimes it is new, sometimes it is old, but always fantastic. At the moment my Go-To Bands are Ra (Black Sun) and Muse (Origins of Symmetry).

New Mask: Monarch

I am beginning to include some animals and insects to my mask line, so here is the Monarch:

I was going for a stylized butterfly that would work for either a light or dark charater. The design is both carved and painted and the antenne are made with non-tarnishing gold artistic wire with glass crystals dangling from the ends.

In other news, I finally dragged myself to the hairdresser on Saturday and put my hair through the ringer. I have very thick long hair that tends to friz more than behave, so out of desperation, I got the Kerasmooth treatment. It is like a perm that straighens instead of curls, if you have never heard of it, and this one is formaldehyde free-big plus in my book. After they wash off the chemical goop, they straighten your hair with a flat iron and you can't wash it for 72 hours, so at the moment, my hair is poker straight and kind of jaggedy-looking.

Anyway, I like to have music or movies playing in the background when I work, so yesterday I turned on Rurouni Kenshin (guilty pleasure! don't laugh!) and sat down to finish up some new wings. After a few minutes I realized that my hair looked just like the cartoon characters. If you have ever watched any anime, you will see that some of them have a very specific way of treating hair: it is usually stiff, straight, jagged or spikey and continues to move sometimes even after the charater has stopped. Which is exactly what mine is doing now! I have anime hair!

Too bad halloween is not for another 10 months!

Upcoming Event! The Rock Bass Rainbow Fest!

Mark your Calenders! Update your Blackberry! Block out some time in Outlook!

I am going to be at the Rock Bass Rainbow Fest on Saturday December 12th!!!
The place is 2424 Studios - Philadelphia/Fishtown's newest workspace and gallery!
The event is sponsored by the Cohoquinoque Crew and Skybox Productions and there will also be a food drive for Philabundance during the festival.
So stop on by from 10 am to 6 pm!

In other news, I am making updates to my UftA website! (finally right??)
I added four new wing designs yesterday:
Kaylee
Jaenelle
Odette
and Selene (sorry no pictures yet, but they will be coming soon).

And today I spend several hours building products under my Bejeweled catagory for customizable crowns, mini-crowns, tiaras and hair combs. I need to finish editing the pictures and create swatch pages for all the crystal and bead options, so they are not active just yet.
So stay tuned-more lovelies on the way soon!

Deep Thoughts about Personal Labels

"Security is mostly a superstition.
It does not exist in nature,nor do the children of men as a whole experience it.
Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure.
Life is either a daring adventure, or nothing.
To keep our faces toward change and behave like free spirits in the presence of fate is strength undefeatable."
~Helen Keller

I was having some deep thoughts yesterday, something that has been happening more and more frequently of late, and I came to the realization that I spent way to much time labeling things. Society conditioning has convinced most of our race that every one and thing must be neatly labeled and placed in appropriate boxes. Look at relationships for example: there are a progression of labels that help people figure out how to relate to each other, particularly in social situations. They include acquaintance, friend, best friend, boyfriend/girlfriend, partner, spouse, ex, and so on. Each of those labels is applied to attempt to define how you relate to each other, and can be changed if the relationship changes.

I have friends in my age group (pre-30 but getting scarily close!) who are getting very upset because their label of "single" or "girlfriend" has not changed to "wife" yet, but it occurred to me that this is just another label tragedy. Shouldn't the most important thing to focus on be your connection, not what you call your relationship?

So what if there were no labels? What if you related to people based on who they actually are, not how you are attempting to define them?

There is societal security in labels: it is an easy way for people to relate to you and define you. And it is really sad because that label, if you buy into it, stops you from exploring who you are and lets you place other people in limited categories as well.

How can life be a daring adventure if you spend your time trying safely categorize and label the people in your life?

Revel in our interconnectivity and let the adventure begin!

Hello December! Good Bye Christmas!!!

So you know what time of year it is: the twinkle lights are out in force, Christmas trees are on sale and holiday trappings are everywhere you look begging you to buy presents for everyone on your list. I actually thought it would be a really cute idea for a while to put a picture of our cats wearing Santa hats on the Christmas cards this year. The cat's didn't go for it. And they still have not forgiven me for trying to make them wear hats.

In any case, for those of you that know me, I am so not into the whole holiday thing.
Would it offend you if I told you I really did not feel like celebrating a bastardized pagan holiday mainstreamed by a religion I have no connection to and savagely commercialized by companies so desperate to turn a profit that they pepper your every waking moment with advertisements that belittle you for not emptying out your bank account to buy presents for anyone and everyone you have ever met?

So I've decided to give up Christmas and start my own holiday!
This year I am going to celebrate HAPPY BAKING HOLIDAY!
That's right! The only true delight of the holiday season is in the crumbly sugary goodness of the all the baked goods and confections created and consumed with relish (and guilt!) from Thanksgiving to New Years Eve!!! So while you roast your turkeys and dream of sugar plums with presents stuffed under your ornament laden trees, I will be in my kitchen, whipping up endless batches of chocolate chip wonder cookies, lemon coconut angels, Magnificent cocoa brownies, coconut marvel balls, truly evil pound cake, vintage spice cake, cheesecakes, sugar cookies, peanut butter blossoms, peanut butter Tandy cakes, oatmeal chai spice cookies, butter creams and peanut butter bull eyes (just to name a few).
Hahahahahah!

And what better way to celebrate Happy Baking Holiday than to share these treats with all of your friends and family so they can enjoy the sugar high while silently cursing you for contributing to ever expanding waistlines since everyone knows you can't just stop at one!!

That being said, since J still wants to celebrate Christmas, so we will have the tree and presents as usual. *sigh*