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Madness I Say!

Well, it has been 1 year and 2 days since my last confession. I am finally creating art again and that has led me back to the blog. The path from there to here was not peaceful or intended – it was more off a twisted ankle leads to rolling down a steep and rock-strewn hill and then crash landing in WordPress with multiple contusions and a bad attitude. I started watching some Skillshare classes again last month, and that has reignited my creative mojo – thank the Maker! It feels so good to be creating again after almost a full year of making no art at all. Covid and all that goes with it has definitely done a number on me. So I’ve been making illustrations on my computer in Affinity Designer and Photo because fuck you Adobe and your damn subscriptions! and that has been fun. But then I hit some Affinity snags while making this piece- Affinity Designer has no Offset Path. Why??! And then yesterday I wanted to create a half tone and all hell broke loose! You can’t seem to make a gradient half tone without unwanted artifacts on the edges! The solutions offered in…

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Updates and then some…

wow. I logged into my website 2 days ago and realized that not only had I missed posting about the last 2 shows I was in, but I also hadn’t added any of the new work I had done this year!The past eight months have been hard and I have been grieving and depressed for much of it. So much so that my daughter titled one of my recent paintings “The Great Depression of 2017”. damn. But like always, I paint what I feel. There has been a lot of positive things among the sad and in the big picture view life is still very very good. I have just allowed myself to be present and feel everything as I moved slowly through all the emotional ups and downs.  And although I feel like I have been creatively off my game, I actually have been painting quite a lot this past month. So, yesterday I photographed the new pieces and updated the galleries. I am always struggling with how to organize the galleries on this site. Currently the pages are by medium, but should I include work that is over 2 years old? I’ve already pulled all photographs off the site.…

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A blast from the past on several levels

I opened up WordPress this morning to make a small change to my sidebar and then I was going to be on my merry way. But look! A comment on my last post! I’ll make a quick reply. Done. Happy. Now let’s get outta here and – wait. What is that?! There! At the bottom of my post. Under those silly (but intentional – as in I remember adding that plug-in to my site) “Post to” buttons. Where the hell did those “You might also like…” links come from?? Sure, I’ve seen them on other sites. Might have added them myself to design jobs. But I have never seen them on my site before?? Have they always been there? Was the plug-in added and then somehow in the last week activated without my knowledge?? Elves? Sleep-coding? You never know… there has been a lot of Nyquil consumed this past week. But while I was trying to wrap my head around how this happened (my head hurts and I haven’t had my second cup of coffee so I could very well be hallucinating the whole thing!) – I clicked one of the links. Floor and Water… Doh! A post from January…

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How do you solve a problem like Elfini

damn this blog. At least the zombie genre is still popular, cause this blog just won’t stay dead. And that’s not really what I want anyways, but what to do? Add to my general apathy to write anything (insert Social Media killed the Blog argument here), there is the issue of the name “elfini”. It feels over for me. It was a past life that doesn’t resonate anymore. Yet to change it isn’t the answer either. So I made a new banner. And got rid of a sidebar. There. New year, new look. Still nothing to say. So it goes. But, since we aren’t ready to give up just yet, I will make an effort to post here more often. Something. Even if it is only pictures of Erin for the Uber-in-laws. Hey! Speaking of the Ubers – they are having their 50th wedding anniversary this month! That’s pretty damn awesome. And my job is to scan 50 years worth of photos for a slideshow. I scanned 36 pics this morning and have many many envelopes still to go. Here are a few of my favorites so far: damn. This is making *me* feel old. Look, Hobbits! Aww, a six…

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On zombies, birthdays, and sewing machines

7 months later, it appears this blog has once again risen from the dead… BRAAAAIIIINNNSSSSS!!!! There have been a couple times these last few months when I thought about writing a post; Kyle’s 15th birthday, Easter (for the whole ”it has risen” thing and pics of Kyle being taken down by a 3yo with a squirt gun!), Erin’s 5th birthday, but today is the day! So, let’s catch up. That new drug? After playing around with the dosage, I’ve found a balance that makes my migraines much more manageable and the side-effects minimal. So that is huge and has improved all our lives – cause it was getting bad people. Let’s file that in the “good news” column. There were some holidays. Fun and merriment had by all. In January we went to Florida to visit my parent and freeze our butts off at Disney World! There were a bunch of birthdays. (Not mine. Don’t worry, you didn’t miss it!) Too much cake had by all. It has just about been a whole school year since my last post. I have 2 semesters under my belt. Lots of good stuff there. Kyle has 3 weeks left of his first year…

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Look at what I cooked up!

So, this here blog? elfini? It’s all Julie Tilsner’s fault.  4 years ago she said “Hey Dawn, you should start a blog!” And when Julie says “Jump”, I say “Fine… if you insist. But I’m not going to enjoy it.” And I think we all know how well this turned out. Anyway, a couple weeks ago, Julie finally said “Hey Dawn, you should redesign my blog!” And I jumped up and down, said yes, and insisted she bail on the evil Typepad and migrate to Wordpress. And a word of advice here – do not get me started on Typepad and the Six Apart world. The seething raging hate!! Luckily Julie bent to my will and is now happily hosting Bad Home Cooking on a spiffy new Wordpress installation. And it looks something like this: www.julietilsner.com Now click the pretty picture and bask in the glory of the new and improved Bad Home Cooking! Same old funny wrapped in a shiny new package.

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