The Hairy Maiden, dog photos, Crafty Wonderland photos

Tonight I used the Shark Steam Cleaner I got for my birthday (ahem, check your calendar for that one) at the art studio and let me tell you, it was gleaming after a steaming. I've been there for almost one year, and I'll level with you that though I have swept, I have NEVER mopped the studio.
So now it's clean, and I sat down to use some watercolors, which are apparently my new thing.
I made this Hairy Maiden for my friends at Dovetail Bakery:

Let's see what they think. Here is a plain version for us:

I'll try to have prints of this soon, in case you'd like a
Ms. Hirsute U.S.A. 1922 of your own.

Here is a close-up of my Crafty Wonderland booth. The doilies were a hot ticket item this year.

This is on the last minute of the last day, after a week of working with wild abandon which culminated in fourteen hours of selling. I am wearing an orthopedic mitt.

And lastly, these two jokers who come to work with me, glad to have a nice clean studio floor upon which to set their dog bed.

Good Night!

xoxo
n.g.

Beija and the Calendar

Good Day.
Things I want to tell you:

1. Calendars are here! I am about to bag them up for stores and stick them in envelopes for humans.

Here is a picture of every month's image. Just so you know.
Everything is (c) Nicole J. Georges. What a drag.

Secondly and more importantly,
here is a photo of Beija Georges, taken by Carli Davidson.

Image (c) Carli Davidson. Do not download.

Wonder who Carli Davidson is? WELL. She is an animal photographer (she has worked both with wild animals and pets).
One of her specialties, and my personal favorite, is her "Pets with Disabilities" project, which must be seen to be believed.
You will find on her page a photo of a chihuahua and his seeing eye pug.
With her permission I drew them for this year's calendar.
Look at her page! Get your pets over there! Get some prints!

That's all I'll say.

Did I post this yet?

It's the cover of a practice zine we did with students at the IPRC Comic Certificate Program.

I drew the picture. Jesse Reklaw did the lettering.

I think that's all I have to say. Since I am unabashedly procrastinating right now instead of finishing the final final edits for my book.
EXCEPT:

Do you know who Julie Klausner is? Check out her podcast.
She has saved me from a world of man-driven podcast listening.
It gets so hard to keep a giant block of salt in your mind in order to digest the comedy of the Adam Carolla podcast without consuming the horrible horrible politics.
Thank God for her.
And her beautiful hair.

Beija Stars in a Halloween comic

This originally appeared in Good Dog by Nomad Editions.

Breaking News: Formerly landlocked Kansan leaves the continent, blogs about it

Hello from Portland,
city of giant tomato plants, cabbage-eating-aphids, and two geriatric dogs, one of whom sits in the kitchen while I am away and the other, the basement.

Before I left on my trip abroad, I posted a photo of Beija on Facebook and wrote "Au Revoir Beija
". The lesson I learned in this is: If your dogs is 14 years old and you make any mention of the word "goodbye" (or get a tattoo of her name for that matter), everyone will assume your dog is dead and start freaking out.
I had to tell everyone Beija was not dead, and that I was just bidding audieu online. Okay.

So after years of being landlocked and only crossing the border to see Canada and Mexico, I traveled to Europe (in particular Italy and England) to visit Jeb (who was on tour in Italy with YACHT) and Beth (who is staying in London).

I wanted to show you some comics & food highlights from my trip.

1. Sketchbook pages about the 24 hour trip there (click to enlarge):

I landed in Milan and at my first show of the tour found this:

2. Italian Food Highlights and lowlights

COFFEE: even from a machine in the hotel lobby you have delicious espresso with crema. It is what you get anytime you ask for coffee. I was in hog heaven.

ROADSIDE FOOD: When you stop at a "My Chef" or "Autogrill" in Italy, you will be treated to DELICIOUS olive bread sticks, pasta, some vegetables, possibly focaccia, and always olive oil with balsalmic vinegar in the dining area. This was a food highlight for me after years of touring in the U.S. where ketchup packets and the smell of Subway are the hallmarks of our road food.

PEOPLE FEED YOU. When you are touring Italy, it is customary for your hosts to both house and feed you.
Highlights of this: many courses of delicious food and wine, always finished with espresso.

Lowlight:a delicious but dubious pesto which, after a little post-dinner detective work, appeared to include "fromaggio".

LOWLIGHT: Getting charged $11.00 for two espressos when Jeb & I were set free in Milan with our unwieldy Italian. Damn you, service charge for sitting!

HIGHLIGHT: Eating redemptive gelato (senza latte) for $2.50 and taking a photo with my filthy Food Fight tote bag in front of the Prada store.

HIGHLIGHT: Swimming in the Adriatic Sea

NOW ON TO LONDON

ENGLISH BREAKFAST: Often including vegan sausages. Shown here is breakfast from a hotel with butter-soaked mushrooms but otherwise vegan fare (I hate the word fare).

HIGHLIGHT: BANGERS AND MASH AT THE S&M CAFE.
Kind of like long , sausage-shaped veggie burgers. Delicious ones.

MIXED BAG: SAF RESTAURANT
I went to Saf in London for a late dinner with six people.
If you ever go there, I recommend coming early (our top three choices from the menu were sold out). I enjoyed their drinks (including quinoa vodka) , appetizers (Ex:Caviar Blinis- Beetroot and fresh herb caviars served on sourcream, sweet potato blinis with chives and shallots), and my dessert (chocolate orange torte). Here are some entree details:

BEAUTIFUL, BUT WEIRD, TACOS
This taco trio arrived soggy, with each shell heaped full of a salsa or bland guacamole only. The side salad was delicious.

BLACKENED TOFU
This was the stand out dish from our table. The plating was lovely, and the tofu had all the flavor that I was missing from my sad risotto. Speaking of the risotto....

It's main selling point (from the waiter) was that it was "filling". That feature was missing from the very dainty tofu dish, but when you are fine-ish dining, do you really need it to be a giant hearty vat?

Anyway, the risotto was missing something. Most definitely salt. When we received some salt it was locked inside a hellish and non-functional grinder, maddening each risotto-haver at the table as we ground and ground the salt to no avail.

The longer the risotto sat around, the more oatmealish it became. It was a large, heavy portion that, though complex on it's own, could have benefited from some flavor diversity and something to lighten it up.
I think this risotto deserves to be a strong side, and not a weak main course.

My last meal abroad was this strict vegetarian snack provided by Delta, with it's own sterile grape holder and totally not vegan gelato (first ingredient: skimmed milk). In case you're wondering, there is a very decent mini baguette with vegetables and vegan pesto shrouded in that foil.


I leave you with this buck toothed fellow from the Natural History Museum in London.

Over and out,
n.g.

p.s. Here is a video of Italian highlights.

p.p.s. Here is an interview I did with Radar Productions about my upcoming writer's retreat in Mexico.

Diary Vibes

CLICK ME TO ENLARGE!

Food My Dog Family Eats

Hello! Stay tuned as I post new bits & pieces I found in my comic artist/hoarder spring cleaning today!

*Note: Beija does not eat as many kale stalks as she used to, as Jeb pointed out a certain gastrointestinal issue they were causing. Ahem. BUT! she still comes running for broccoli stalks.

Happy Anniversary, Beija Georges!

Good Morning, friends.

Thirteen years ago today I worked a grueling shift at Toys R Us then drove to the Wayside Waifs Shelter in Kansas City, Kansas and picked up 6 month old "Roxie", the dog you now know as Beija, who was to be a Christmas gift for my high school boyfriend.

Well. Obviously things between she and he did not work out, and so today I celebrate my 13 year anniversary with one Beija Georges, once billed as a dachshund sharpei mix, now known as a beagle corgi sharpei.

Happy Anniversary , Beija!




P.s.
Yes, those are bongos.

Beija dressed as Yours Truly

As you may or may not know, a lot of my recent work revolves around preserving and depicting the dignity of animals in the wild (versus the lack of dignity they experience in the world at our hands) .


That said...
Sometimes you take out the camera to get a photo of your part sharpei's face melting onto a pillow.

And then you add a pair of glasses....

And the next thing you know, your dog is in full Nicole drag.






I'm sorry! (Not sorry, would do it again). It's just so easy as she gets older to do things like this!
I promise that the other 364 days of the year, Beija retains a little dignity around the house. No booties or jackets, just a sporty bandanna and all the food she can eat / steal from Wishbone.

And with that, I say Good Night.

Updates from Little House

Here is your update from Little House Studios, a.k.a. Spinster Summer Headquarters, a.k.a. my residence and place of work:


A new narwhal has been introduced into the fold. He looks really really friendly and nice. You can take him home via my etsy page. I am hoping to make a small fleet of narwhals for the upcoming Craftypalooza this weekend in Beaverton. Go Beaverton!


In Other News,
Beija Georges got into the remaining Halloween candy. I followed the trail of punctured Nerds boxes to a small nest in my bed made up of foil wrappers and dog toys.
I will post this potentially embarrassing photo of my dog as punishment for her crimes:

snow day.

Snow Dogs.

Ghost Wolves: One week of madness

Dear Readers,
Sunday evening found me frantic, having sketched hard all day (if there is such a thing) at work in preparation for Ghost Wolves: What one recluse can do in One Week of Insanity.
The show, which is actually more about misogyny and trauma in lesbian cultures, earned it's Insanity Tag after being moved from FEBRUARY to JANUARY at the last minute, leaving me ONE WEEK to compose an entire art show.
There are a few pieces left from my Veganopolis world of animals show which found their way into this, but mainly every single other thing was created this week between 8 a.m. and 3 a.m., my working hours.
Here is a BEFORE photo, in between work and Fresh Pot, having starved myself all day as i floated outside of my body, and now stopping at burgerville and feeling quite foul.

and , after hanging the show with Katie Greenhoot, a feeling of relief washes over me and i am less nasty.




you can see the show in it's entirety at the Fresh Pot on mississippi and shaver in North Portland.
The Reception is January 10th, Thursday, from 7-9 p.m.

Thank you and good night.



p.s. i was left to make small talk with beija all week, at times feeling her harsh judgement as i sang songs from The Sound of Music to keep my hopes up (ex: I Have Confidence In Sunshine! I Have Confidence In Rain. I Have Confidence That Spring Will Come Again, But Most of What You See is I Have Confidence In Me.)

Gay Gardens

Dear Friends,

We watched Grey Gardens last night in bed with the sliding glass door cracked open to prevent mold inhalation. This movie was reccomended after I found out the mansion where i'm house-sitting is secretly nicknamed "Gay Gardens" for it's overgrown, dusty appeal.
To the left is the view from the drawing table.
I haven't done much drawing, as i've been sweating over the completion of a pet portrait that's been haunting me since july.

My sister is here , as well as Beija, Rorschach and Peeps B, the love bird. Don't move the poster on the fridge,
unless you want to breath in the spores of mold that live behind it.
I'm a little rusty at a public blog, so let's take it one day at a time.
Sincerely,
n.g.