To hell with popcorn brownies

Yeah, you heard me. I said it. That's because I convinced someone to bake me brownies with Cadbury Mini Eggs in them. I'll post the results after I get them on Saturday.

*Ding Dong* CANDY!

I was woken up at 8:00 by the doorbell. Who the hell would be ringing my doorbell at 8:00? I made it to the door in time to see my mother driving away and a bag tied to my door handle. Inside was a nice card and cards from my brother and sister* as well as a heart shaped box of Lindt chocolates. Now that's worth being woken up for. As a bonus my mother also learned how to use the front porch door to get to my doorbell this time. Go Mom!
Now if she'd only stop by sometime while I'm awake...

* They were the Valentine's cards that kids give out that come like 20 to a box. Hey, they're 8 years old.

Tattoo Time pt3

In my ongoing coverage of my ink I present to you the outline for the 3rd piece. It's got tiger lilies and Hibiscuses (the correct pluralization even though it sounds incorrect) with leaves as filler throughout. When completed it will be 100% filled so that there will be no spots of bare skin from the wrist to the elbow. There will also be a sun on the shoulder cap set behind and above the topmost lilies. It will have rays coming out of it that reach up to near the collarbone and back over the shoulder.
So the reason for this piece? It's a companion to the flames in a way. Knowing the reasons for that one I decided that I wanted this to be a celebration of life. It represents many things; creation, happiness, beauty, and love. All the good things that make life worth living. I decided that the timing for starting this one would be one of 3 things; A) When I was feeling happy again and wanted to signify that, B) if it took too long to become happy again I'd get it to maybe kick start that, or C) if I just couldn't wait that long and got the itch to get some more ink ;-). Luckily it was A.
This piece was started in August and should be done in the next 2 months or so. The outline in this picture was done in 7.5 hours in 2 sessions. The overall estimate is 30 hours. There's more progress that's been made in filling but I wanted you to see it in its skeletal form first to appreciate the process.

Tattoo Time pt2

Here's my 2nd tattoo the blue flames half sleeve. If you've heard that tattoos are addictive then you've heard correctly. I got this one month after the bacon on the same arm*.
I'm all for people getting whatever they want tattooed on them but for my own art it has to mean something to me so you'll never see me with a comic book character or any kind of brand icon no matter how much I like Subarus. Basically I was at a point in my life where I was really unhappy. I was unhappy at home and at work and this tattoo was a promise to myself to burn away the unhappiness by either fixing the situations or getting rid of them (as it turns out in both cases I opted for the "getting rid of" options as both situations turned out to be unworkable). It was to be a constant reminder to myself to not put up with anything less than what I'd want in the future and to never get myself into a similar situation, or at least if I did to do something about it right away.
I chose blue because as this was a cleansing fire natural gas burns cleanly as opposed to say an orange flame which leaves carbon residue (think campfire). So clean flame equals clean start. Oh, that and I really like the look of it which is, of course, important.

Here it is with just the blue done the day after the first session:


And here it is completed with the white accents and fully healed:


*I'll save you the time; the flames cooking the bacon joke has been made.