For Dad:





My brother and I got a gift for this past Christmas that was, well, less than worth celebrating. My father shared with us that he had cancer and he underwent surgery this morning to treat it. The wonderful news in all of this is that the procedure went well and the doctor said that it has not spread to other parts of his body, so he is more than likely cancer-free now. <3

Now, the people who know me best know that I am a bloody pessimist. My father is the polar opposite and I wish I could have inherited his outlook on life! The way he shared this bad news with us was just amazing to me. He was calm, matter-of-fact and explained what the various test results meant, what his prognosis would be with each of his treatment options and seemed so accepting of his condition. I, of course, went straight to my room and cried but later thanked him for the way in which he broke the topic to us. Information is second only to attitude in cases of illness.

I asked him how he could be so calm in the face of something so scary. His response was (and I am paraphrasing here) "Well Steph, the way I see it, this might upset my life in the future, or I can let it upset me now. I'm not going to let it take away what I have now."

This one's for you, Dad. Thank you for the positives you bring into my life and for the strength you share with me. There's a box of delicious petit fours in the mail for you to aid in your recovery (nothing beats a good petit four!) and a big hug waiting for you when I can schlepp across the country again.

Hello and Happy (late) New Year! I have some more mind barfing to show you. Turns out my laptop is not the ideal artspace afterall and I have resorted to using actual paper, pen and watercolors to sketch while I've been spending the last few weeks at my father's house in Salem. So I drew what was most available - his dog, Cookie. ;)

I think these ones are my most favortie. They're probably and inch tall in real life. :)



A page of sad Cookies, though she is rarely ever sad.



And a page of sad tampons and frantic ghosts. I can't give the ghosts more context right now, but hey, they exist :)



Oh yeah, I did a dozen or so stickers for the next Little Big Planet DLC pack. Those be my skulls and crossbones in them thar background! I don't think they've announced the rest of the content yet but when they do, I will post them here. :)