What was in your Easter basket?

Happy Easter, whatever that means to you, and I mean that in the nicest possible way! I'm not a religious person so it doesn't have the same meaning for me that it may for many of you. Right now my thoughts simply go to my children and family. April is a special month for me and as you saw in Kelli's post yesterday I decided to celebrate in a slightly unusual way - by getting a tattoo. It was kind of hard to see the actual design in the other photos so I thought I'd give you a close up - I know, don't do you any favors right?

Years ago this would've been the farthest thing from my mind but things change. Big events in your life have a tendency to make that happen and I wouldn't do something this permanent unless it had big meaning for me. Like Kelli said, going through the whole cancer thing was certainly a big event and makes you think about a lot of things. There was also another big event - it happened 8 years ago - I found my daughter. I'm a birth mom, a member of the adoption triad. She was born in April and she was 22 years old when I found her so basically I spent 22 March's dreading the April's. It meant remembering a lot of painful stuff and was very difficult to deal with. Well now of course I get to celebrate her birthday and let me tell you, seeing my 3 children together for the very first time was one of those life altering moments that's impossible to describe! Now my daughter has 2 moms (thankfully she sees that as a good thing) and I have all 3 kids in my life. So, in honor of the power of "3" there's the triquetra for mind/body/spirit and my 3 children's initials winding through it. I had Amazing Hubby help me with the design - he's a genius with Photoshop.

Getting a tattoo on Easter weekend (or any time for that matter) may seem like a really nutty thing to do, but for me, having a design that Amazing Hubby and I did together to commemorate life and reunions was the perfect thing to do.

Have a beautiful day,
Peace,
Carlynne

PS: have you ever microwaved a peep?

Tattoo Day!!!

Hey All,

If you thought yesterday was just Good Friday, you would be wrong. So many momentous things happened, I barely know where to start. Of course there was the First Friday Art Walk in downtown Ocala, and yes, we both sold one piece. But, even more importantly, my creative partner on this blog, Carlynne got her first tattoo and her sister-in-law, Leigh Hershberger got her 4th!! Leigh is the sister of Amazing Husband whom Carlynne has blogged about in the past.

I am honored to have been invited to my very first tattoo party at Fat Kats on the square, and I tried my best to document the event. You can see Carlynne in the chair above as hers is just being finished. I was very impressed with the artwork in the shop, the collection of art books and tattoo designs, the cleanliness, the friendliness and the professionalism of the guys there. (Well gee whiz, what did you expect my reaction to be? I've never been in a tattoo parlor before. Do they still call them parlors? Maybe it's salon.)

You are probably asking yourself why did Lynne want a tattoo? Based on what she has said and what I am assuming myself, it has something to do with being a woman past the age of 50, surviving cancer, and recognizing that family is really all any of us have. Even though at this point, I am not inclined to have this done on me, I understand it perfectly. After all I never colored my hair until I was 50 and it had nothing to with grey. Now I am thinking about going a really funky color. But, enough about me.




Here is a shot of what Leigh's design looks like just as it 's getting started, and before she passed out. OK, not quite, but awfully close. (Note to self: if I should ever decide to get a tattoo, make sure I eat first. Even my acupuncturist tells me to do that.) But don't worry, Leigh is alright now. I hand fed her chocolate as she laid in a stupor on the reclining chair and she drank some wine afterwards. Below you see Leigh in the process.

Carlynne's finished tattoo, an original design created by her and Amazing Husband with the initials of her children intertwined. Personally I am not too keen on elective surgery, especially when I am awake, but she said it was not nearly as painful as she had anticipated. I thought she should just wear a vial of their blood around her neck, but that would involve hurting her children to get the blood and she just refused to do that. I saw the tattoo several hours later and it was barely even a little red and not swollen.

Watch here for a complete unveiling in future posts.

Peace and Love to all,

Kelli

It's April

It's April, it's a new month. This is a month of meaning for me. This month my oldest child turns 30! This month will be the 9th anniversary of my quitting smoking - that's a biggie too. This month I get my first tattoo - that's tomorrow! Kelli said she wants to document it with photos so maybe you'll see it here. And yes, for a short time I fell for the Google/Topeka name change thing. LOL! The lengths people will go to for April fool's day.

Anyway..... above is one of the pieces I finished today. I just couldn't get the violet color to show up the way it really is which is warmer in tone and more vibrant. Oh well.

I know I've been absent from here recently but I've been focused on painting. This is a good thing! I've been working on a hopefully promising project. If it pans out I'll share more info so keep all of your fingers and toes crossed for me. In the meantime I'll be breathing through the tattoo process and then setting up for the First Friday Art Walk in downtown Ocala. Come say hi to me and Kelli. We'll be on the square from 6-8 tomorrow night at the Sushi Bistro of Ocala.

Peace,
Carlynne