...and relax. Just got back from Tattoo Jam to find Eleanor has already left for Milan - from which she then flies to Barcelona. Ouch. The best I can muster up for myself is to lie on the sofa, catch up on a stack of TV I've missed and make a vague attempt at figuring out where to start next.
First of all though, I'm home for at least a month (aside from the odd mini-trip) which means I can finally mail out some books - you know who you are if you've ordered stuff that hasn't landed on the mat yet. I'll be doing that today. They're in a box around here somewhere that we still haven't unpacked after moving. Also on the home front, the DOG thing is finally happening. He will kind of look like this:
This is one of the parents - the other one looks exactly the same. It hasn't been born yet but I guess it has to look something like this. He ticks all the boxes. Hair. Scruffy. Real dog size. Tail. Dirty face. What more could you be looking for in a dog? One of the things I've learned from this exercise is that as much as both of us would like to pull a dog out of the pound and make its life wonderful again, the vast majority of those dogs have been messed up by humans and we really don't want to have to deal with other peoples insecurities disguised as a family pet. No... the offspring of this canine will be fine, fine, fine thank you. I think we're looking at just after Christmas - bring it on.
This last week has been a blast. Busy - but a blast all the same. One of the nicest things about the shows is catching up with people that you like hanging out with that you haven't seen since the last show you did. Here's a snap of Scott Cole (ace photographer and owner of most of a van), Woody (much under-rated tattoo artist and owner of excellent jackets) and self.
I picked the waistcoat up last week on a whim. Wasn't sure if it would annoy me or not but I kind of like it. Paul Sweeney (all round good guy and funny man) christened me 'The Wizard' which came out of a "Look out Dumbledore has been shopping in NEXT" comment that I was oblivious at the time - I though it was a Roy Wood gag. There are worse things to be called. I can live with that if it happens to stick.
And if a link ever presented itself that you should use immediately, I came back from the show with Frank La Natra (genius creator and tattooer of excellent illustrative worlds) and we headed straight for "that platform" at Kings Cross to spend half an hour looking at wands in the shop. I must hit Kings Cross at least once a week and after the first time, you kind of take it for granted but I take my hat off to the entire Harry Potter world for the loyalty and enjoyment that it's created around the world. Pretty impressive when you stop to think about it.
I also stumbled across an illustrator at the show called Richey Beckett. After fawning over his work, I came away with a couple of prints that are seriously beautiful. Here they are:
His site is linked up above but here it is again - to go directly to his store to fill your own house with incredible art, you can go here. The guy is a force to be reckoned with. We will be staying in touch.
That's enough for now. More later - I need to go dig in some boxes, mail some things out and start chipping away at a rather large slab of work...
Let's do this thing.