Signs of Spring – A Photo Hunt
Karen recently posted a new photo hunt on her blog. She wanted us to show her what spring looks like where we live. As an added twist, she wants us to use a prime lens, if we have one.
The were all taken with my 60mm macro lens (my favorite lens!). The first two are from my visit to the Dallas Arboretum a few weeks ago. The next two are from a walk around my neighborhood, and the last one I spotted in my backyard.
Tattoosday – The Grand Finale
Move over San Francisco. I left my heart in London!
I love this tattoo (and it has quite the story attached to it). And I love it for several reasons… It is my most detailed one; one of my most meaningful ones; I have been to, or have seen, every single place pictured; it reminds me of the best vacation I have taken; it was designed by my favorite artist (and dear friend), which also makes it the most surprising one, that I never thought I would ever have (you’ll see…).
I was supposed to go to London in June 2020, but sadly had to cancel and postpone. Back then I asked my dear friend (and very talented artist) Brian if he would be willing to design a London tattoo for me. His answer was no. (See!)
Fast forward to 2023 and the day I spent with Brian in London. One of my daughters gave me a tattoo pen for Christmas (my wish list consisted of: tattoo, tattoo, tattoo, tattoo, money for a tattoo) and I had this pen with me and asked Brian to “tattoo” me, and requested this:
Unfortunately it didn’t last long and washed off pretty quickly, but was my inspiration (or Plan B) for my real London tattoo. I wasn’t going to ask Brian again to design it, knowing he would just say no anyway, but he was sweet enough to agree to send me the “I left my ❤️ in London” as an image I could print and include in my tattoo…or get on its own.
A day or two later (I was still in London) Brian and I were texting and he completely surprised me by offering to design my tattoo!!! WHAT??!! Really?!? YES! Please! (No idea what got into him. Lost his mind? Temporarily insane? Who knows? And I didn’t care, because this made me over the moon happy).
We talked about the design; I definitely wanted the “I left my ❤️ in London”, coordinates, and a skyline. I sent him a tattoo design I found on Pinterest for inspiration and as a guide to how detailed to make it, and we figured out the coordinates. I also made him a list of all the sights I saw and marked a few that I wanted included; any others would be a bonus. I left the design up to him (placement of the buildings, etc.) because he IS the artist after all. And then I let him get to work. Days passed. Weeks. I was dying to ask him about it, but I summoned all my willpower and kept my mouth shut because I didn’t want to bug him. Plus, I had (stupidly) told him to take his time (cos I’m nice like that).
Then one day in August I believe, he asked if I wanted to see what he had so far (as if he really had to ask!!) and… I’m not lying when I say my jaw dropped. WOW! I did NOT expect this level of detail! Holy cow! The list of attractions I sent him? Not only did he include the ones I had marked, but he included them all!
After some fine tuning I took the design to my tattoo artist to ask if this could even be done (I had some serious doubts and “Plan B” was already becoming “Plan A” in my mind). He asked one of the other tattoo artists for input and came to the conclusion that yes, it could be done… with a #1 tattoo needle, which he would have to order because he rarely keeps them in stock. We discussed cost and number of sessions, and set the appointment for just before Thanksgiving, but he called about a week before and asked to reschedule because he had not yet recovered enough after shoulder surgery. The new appointment was December 12, and that day I kept asking him if he was sure he could do it, because I was perfectly happy with Plan B. He told me that he was scared to death of it, but wanted to challenge himself at the same time. Considering I have known him for 9 years, I trusted him and knew that he would not agree to the tattoo if he doubted his abilities. Session 1 took about 4 hours. Pain wasn’t bad at all, except for the British Museum right on my wrist. I was glad he saved that part for last because he thought about leaving it off, then decided to include it after all.
February 20, 2023 was finally the day of session 2, which took about 2 hours and I thought it was finished… until I found a few things he missed, so back I went on March 15 to get it finished. The pictures and video really don’t do it justice because it looks so much better in person.
And here is a little video because you can see the detail much better. The darker spots are where the tattoo was touched up and hasn’t healed yet.
I’m really happy with how it turned out and I want to give a big fat THANK YOU to both Brian, and Daryl at Scarecrow Galleries Tattoo Company. This amazing tattoo will always and forever be my favorite.
Turtle Tuesday
When their tank needs cleaning (once a month) the turtles move into a plastic tub… although I’m sure they would love to roam the house and see what kind of trouble they can get into, and try to find the best hiding spots.
They’re not exactly happy about being stuck in a relatively small tub, and especially Jelly tries to climb out all the time. If you look closely, she’s standing on top of Peanut Butter in the first picture to help boost herself up a little higher. She’s gotten so big since these pictures were taken that we’ve had to switch to a larger (taller) plastic tub to keep her from escaping.
Throwback Thursday
Can you believe it’s been 4 years already since the sh*t hit the fan and all the stores were out of toilet paper? And then we all had to stay home? Thanks to this “toilet paper shortage house arrest” my concept of time is still all warped, especially the last four years. Anyone else feel this way?
Must.Have.Coffee
You know it’s going to be one of those days when it’s not even 7am and you’re already on your second cup of coffee.
The Daily Click 