Wales land of massive castles and origin of many of the Tales of King Arthur. Called Cymru in the native language, and the people are the Cymry.

Believed to be the standard of King Arthur, the Welsh Dragon or Y Ddraig Goch is the national symbol of Wales. The origin of the Dragon is a mystery, it may have arrived with Roman soldiers. It has been associated with Wales since before 830.

Y Ddraig walks across the letter of Wales, with Cymru am byth above.

The design is available on T-shirts in many styles and colors. Sizes from infant to 2X.

Also available on buttons, magnets, aprons, magnets and totes. If there is a specific zazzle.com product you want and it is not currently available on please contact me, and I’ll see what I can do.

The Farmhouse Collage is available in 3 different options; poster, large canvas and triple canvas.

Depending on size Poster start at $9.65 and up. There are three paper choices and framing available.

Depending on size and stretcher depth Canvas start at $78.00

Detailed description. Multiple images of a farmhouse, probably built about 1900, but now in the middle of an urban area. Some of the images were taken with an “incorrect” white balance so the sky appears to be a brilliant blue. In the background is a “faded” black and white photo. All of the detail photo were arranged to create a “lopsided” composite of the farmhouse.

Sometimes this style of collage is referred to as “Hockney” after David Hockney. This is not quite accurate in my opinion, as Hockney’s collages tend to be more ordered and grid like. I worked at making this ungridded and more shattered in appearance. Almost like someone was trying to piece together a memory of an old farmhouse.

Many have been “kilt” for calling it a “skirt!” (Don’t let it happen to you.)

The letters of Kilt and Skirt are a blue tartan pattern, with red accents.

The design is available on T-shirts in many styles and colors. Sizes from infant to 2X.

Also available on buttons, magnets, aprons, magnets and totes. If there is a specific zazzle.com product you want and it is not currently available on please contact me, and I’ll see what I can do.

Nothing says Scotland like a highland man in a kilt playing the bagpipes.

Though in truth non of those things is native to Scotland. Not even the Highlander, cute as he may be, sorry.

Sometime between the end of the Roman occupation of lower Britannia and medieval times, there was an invasion from Ireland and many of the indigenous cultures disappeared. Bagpipes were and are in widespread use across Europe, and possibly as early as the Roman era. Kilts or “plaides” did not make an appearance until the lat 16^th century. Plaide roughly translates to blanket. It was a double with of fabric each about 144 inches long and 30 inches wide, stitched down the center. It was an untailored garment belted around the waist and draped over the should like a cloak. And the whole tartan system developed much later.

So does any of that really take away from the modern glamour of the Highlander myth, no not really, they have really adapted it all to form a unique identity. It just drives me nuts when I see kilted Scotsmen battling the English in the 11^th century or worse the Romans. Besides my Scottish ancestors are were Lowlander Reivers and I feel obligated to take the invading scum down a notch or two once in a while.

I will admit to finding something irresistible about a pipe and drum band, marching a in their dress kilts. You have to hand it to Scots for forming a distinct national identity that most everyone recognizes, respects and admires.

I’m not a Crazy Cat Lady.

I’m the Crazy Cat Lady

and that’s Ms. Crazy Cat Lady to you!

Do people say you have too many cats, even though you have just the right amount? Can stray felines spot you a mile away? Does pitiful mewing melt your heart? Do strangers ask you for advice about caring for their kitties? Do you consider cat hair on your clothing a fashion statement? Do you think paw prints on the laundry are just a fact of life. Have you ever bought furniture to match a furry friend?

If you answered yes to any of these questions you may be an aspiring Crazy Cat Lady or full fledged Crazy Cat Lady. This is not the problem some in out world would lead you to believe, this is the choice of the future! So be proud!

There are many versions of this one:

Original Ms. Crazy Cat Lady at Zazzle ♥ A newer version of Ms. Crazy Cat at Zazzle ♥ An Organic Crazy Cat Lady at Skreened ♥ The Original Ms. Crazy Lady at Cafe Press  ♥ Another CCL Cafe Press ♥  Ms. Crazy Cat Lady at Printfection

I know I’ve said this before -like about once every six months or so- but I think I found a WordPress template I can live with. This one seems to be working really well for me. I do want to learn to build WP themes from the ground up, but that has proved challenging, since I only have time between semesters and I do not know PHP. I really love the transparent background in the text area, I can’t wait till I have time dig around a figure out how that was done!

For right now I would like to spend my effort re-organizing the site. It had become simply unmanageable with a separate page for each of my print-on-demand designs. I did a lot research this summer and I have concluded that I am not using WP to its best advantage and the site would be better off if I used more the BLOGing features to organize information.

Fall Classes

Back in school for nearly a month now. I’m adding Flash, 3D Animation and Digital Video to my repertoire of skills and software. I feel slightly nuts taking all of these at once, but due to the way they are scheduled this was the best option.

We are still working on the software basics, but my head is just spinning with ideas for projects. I want to get a jump on the artwork, so hopefully I can narrow down the possibilities soon.

Invictus

Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds and shall find me unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishment the scroll,
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.

by William Ernest Henley

The poem was written, in 1875 when Henley was 17. It was written in the hospital after Henley last his foot to a bone infection.

Originally untitled, the title Invictus (Latin for “unconquered“) first appeared in 1902.

One of the backgrounds I came up with was a very nice vellum parchment texture. (No, not the stuff used to line cookie sheets, old animal skin vellum like the Declaration of Independence was written on.) Supple tans and browns with all the irregularities of a hand-worked natural item.

Old Vellum by KelticKat
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Those are cool. I thought they were maybe somewhat plain, so I found an old medical illustration of a skull at various angles and ran a portion of it through some filters so I could vectorize it with autotrace in Illustrator. Then I decided I liked the skull and decided to put it on t-shirts and some of the other merchandise that doesn’t work with backgrounds.

So few of us take this threat as seriously as we should; I’ve decided to try help raise awareness.

Zombie Apocalypse by thekeltickat
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So many fascinating things. A lot of collage art work this year. As always quite a bit of pottery and glass, Toledo Botanical Gardens does house the pottery and glass guilds. I don’t know if could describe everything there if I was typing as I walked around. I would take a thousand pictures but a lot of the artists don’t like that. For some reason the “black cat from “Chat Noir” kept showing up. Recycling was big, too; there some really great stained glass incorporating old cut glass bowls and platters.

I’ve going to the art Festival for as long as I can remember. I wonder what Mr. Crosby would think of his old horse farm? It is now sculptured gardens, there are pieces modern sculpture, the stable is a conference center and the creek has large ponds. Not the place we used to run around as kids.

Anyway…

My sister got tickets for the preview party on Friday night. That really nice to wander around not in the noon sun, and when things weren’t so crowed. I went back Sunday morning to look again. I am feeling very inspired but I don’t know where to begin.

Wednesday I spent all day trying to assemble some two sides tri-fold brochures. The school printers do not print two sided, and the work tables are sitting height not standing height so my back was killing me by the end of the day. It was pouring rain and I got soaked on my way to my car. My car was acting a little funny so I was supposed to drop it off at the mechanic after school. I got on the highway and immediately realized my car was not up to the task and started aiming for the next exit, so I round the bend and what do I find? Stopped traffic on N475. It took me 2.5 hours to get home, usually takes 20 minutes even with the detour to mechanic it should have been more than 40 minutes.

For some reason I didn’t get any sleep that night and couldn’t concentrate on studying -the aching back and the stress overload from 2.5 hours in stop and go traffic in soaking jeans might have had something to do with that- so Thursday test in Typography did not go well at all, the word “FAIL” comes to mind. Then the instructor got mad at me for being confused. I got my car back in the afternoon.

Friday I got up ran some errands and went to work. A few hours later I went to go get lunch and my battery was dead, my power locks wouldn’t work dead. Someone jumped it for me, it ran for 10 minutes and died again. This wouldn’t have been so bad but I work on the other side of town and I didn’t have anyone to call to come help me. I had it towed to the mechanic and the the driver gave me a ride and my wonderful mommy gave me ride from there.

The terminals were corroded underneath and the battery wasn’t making contact. The mechanic fixed it for free because they missed it, which really was understandable, I looked right at the battery and didn’t see it either. I’m not very mechanically inclined but I can tell corrosion when I see it, I know battery contacts need to be cleaned sometimes.

My car got a severe scolding on the way home from the mechanics today. Which is slightly more effective than scolding the cats… but still completely useless in the end.

Do you see why I might like to hide in my house today?

But I did go out, went to the student art show reception. Even drove my mom and we all survived. Next week will be better hopefully.