And the award goes to.....

I am bloody awful at making decisions and want everyone to be a winner, but like the highlander, there can be only one! Hey I liked that film before anyone says anything.

I tried to stick with what made me laugh the most, using strict guidelines such as lmao, pimp, rofl and lol. So without further ado I shall announce the winner.

The Winner is Kai! She was trying to horrible about my teeth but as its my sister and not me in the picture, that just made it funnier (Sorry to my sister and her teeth). So let me know what you want in your doodle and I will try not to be too horrible in it.

Nobody loses with me,its just that you have not quite achieved the high status of making me rofllmaopimplol yet.

Gold star = Nissa was pretty damn funny but no biscuit this time, it was bloody close though!

Silver star = Thriftcriminal if only he had said 'pot of gold' :)

Bronze star= For the best llama tongue inspired caption, there were quite few but tazdog pipped you to the post.

Special award= Most likely to score with Llama
Adrian! Which is better than scoring a creationist/dinosaur I suppose :)

Thank you for all being inspired by llama shagging and snogging.

Mr.GorillaSushi aka Jason needs some thanks for putting this together although only three people joined this time, with the carnival I mean, not my little caption thing.
I know lots of you love doing caption contests!
Read this post Carnival of Captions and think about joining in on the next one. You make up your own rules in regards to prizes, length of time for caption contest etc.

Want to do it again sometime?
(the caption contest)

Clown Hookers and Doodle Boobs

First things erm first? How did my Make Up trial go, Clown or Hooker? neither! Make up trial went really well. I suppose I shouldn't be surprised that you liked the idea of a clown hooker, you read my blog after all. For those that don't know what I am talking about, yesterday I went for a make up trial for the wedding next week (I am a bridesmaid, not bride). I was more than a little apprehensive as I don't wear a lot of make up and have pale skin. This meant there was a higher than normal chance of looking like a crazy oompa loompa/clown/hooker in my mind. I suppose there is still a chance I could turn out clown/hookerish on the day though.

Elsewhere in blogland;
A while back Mr.45 expressed an interest in my doodles, well that's what I thought he meant anyways. After some confusion and one of us feeling silly (not me), I decided I would have a whirl a doodling something for him. Boy is he demanding, he wanted all sorts of daft things! Like rainbows, clouds, teddy bears and love hearts. After cyber bitch slapping him and getting him to man up, I suggested pole dancers, pussy (cats) and other cool things.

Phase one turned out okay but was lacking something and the doodle boobs weren't quite right.

Phase Two was much better! I even managed to fit in Scallop Man!(The story of Scallop Man). Mr.45 then fiddled with it some to make it fit in with his theme. His latest post explains a bit more about what is going on. There you can read about how I successfully managed to talk him out of doing a love poetry blog.

For the full effect check it out on his website.45 Caliber Headspace

I am still deliberating over the Caption This contest, be patient children.

Caption This!

CAPTION CONTEST IS NOW CLOSED!
Mr.Jason aka monkeyrawfish aka GorillaSushi is hosting a caption contest carnival thingie.
He mentions it here Carnival of Captions.
So I decided why not have a whirl at doing my own caption contest.
This provides me with the perfect opportunity to not write much and post a picture!

So CAPTION this!




The winner will be whoever amuses me the most!

What do they win?
A personal doodle by me, a nice post with said doodle and a bit of link lovage.
CAPTION CONTEST IS NOW CLOSED!
Now I have to pick a winner, which is hard as there is more than one that I really like. I may put it to a vote over the weekend.
Thanks to everyone that played along, especially the new folk that hopped over. My regular commenters know I love them.

There will be blood!

I love thinking of snappy post titles and before you worry, no I haven't gone postal (yet) and rampaged through the village in a crazed frenzy.
The mum aka cupboard monster has finally gotten her operation date! It will be a week today and there will be blood!

Read here for more mum info *the Mum*. It is a humdinger of a operation, I last mentioned this way back in December Operation bionic leg is go go go and it has took this long for the doctors to get their shit together. She will go into hospital on the Wednesday and then they operate on Thursday at some point.
Then the wedding is on the next day,nice timing isn't it? So that adds a wee bit of stress, but I am just glad she is having the operation at long last.
I am going to be mad mad mad busy up till then, with coursework to be done, last minute wedding stuff and the mum. Tomorrow I am going for my make up trial for the wedding which will hopefully not make me look like a clown or a hooker or worse a clown hooker!

Excuse me while I spontaneously combust.

Treasure Box Wednesday: Looking Ahead to Summer

As spring gives way to summer, we look ahead to warmer weather, vibrant flowers and well-earned vacations. For the thrifter, however, the summer months are not always the best. Thrift store shelves become increasingly bare as spring cleaning yields to summer leisure. Yet today, I don't think you'll be disappointed, since there's always something to talk about in the Treasure Box.

I'd discovered-- really by accident-- a painting on Ebay which pretty much demanded I bid. And perhaps it was due to the impending summer and the lure of the gentle outdoors that meant the usual competition was nowhere to be seen online.

You see here my purchase, a full-fledged Victorian painting done by a "G. Verdier"...


And I imagine with that full view, you've also noticed the painting's unusual and delightfully humorous element. The lady, who looks rather pleased at whatever the outcome of events has been, smiles hopefully at the horizon as the Cupid lies-- asleep? knocked out cold?--- legs akimbo in an upset of roses and arrows and overturned furniture.

Whatever has happened, it's been a serious ordeal for the chubby god of love...


So this has been a real delight for me this week. My only real thrifted goody came in the form of this trio of chicks... Or The Andrews Sisters, if you will. :)


They'll be great for Easter.

Other little joys involve the beauty you just can't buy. The garden is just beginning its summer blooms, and I'll give you a small preliminary tour. Like Big Red here... the first of the roses original to my house.


And here we have a ruffled columbine which planted itself in a compost heap a few years back, and which was transplanted to a little better location...


I don't know what this pink groundcover is, and I don't honestly recall planting it last year, but it's doing marvelously...


A previous year's investment of foxglove means this year, I have foxglove aplenty. I love their impossible-looking spires...


The yard itself looks a bit rough around the edges, I admit. Some of my topiaries haven't made it and need to be removed, and some of the roses need a serious trim. There's still a lot of work to be done in this tiny space...


But as day turns to night, the colors just continue...



I hope you're all having a beautiful summer so far.

• For those who missed Sunday's post on the artist R. Atkinson Fox, click here.

• And for folks who enjoy a chuckle, you may appreciate the gardening tales on my humor blog, Of Cabbages and Kings. Click here for that.

And as always, thanks to each of you for stopping by and hanging out with me. I really do appreciate your visits.

Treasure Box Wednesday: Looking Ahead to Summer

As spring gives way to summer, we look ahead to warmer weather, vibrant flowers and well-earned vacations. For the thrifter, however, the summer months are not always the best. Thrift store shelves become increasingly bare as spring cleaning yields to summer leisure. Yet today, I don't think you'll be disappointed, since there's always something to talk about in the Treasure Box.

I'd discovered-- really by accident-- a painting on Ebay which pretty much demanded I bid. And perhaps it was due to the impending summer and the lure of the gentle outdoors that meant the usual competition was nowhere to be seen online.

You see here my purchase, a full-fledged Victorian painting done by a "G. Verdier"...


And I imagine with that full view, you've also noticed the painting's unusual and delightfully humorous element. The lady, who looks rather pleased at whatever the outcome of events has been, smiles hopefully at the horizon as the Cupid lies-- asleep? knocked out cold?--- legs akimbo in an upset of roses and arrows and overturned furniture.

Whatever has happened, it's been a serious ordeal for the chubby god of love...


So this has been a real delight for me this week. My only real thrifted goody came in the form of this trio of chicks... Or The Andrews Sisters, if you will. :)


They'll be great for Easter.

Other little joys involve the beauty you just can't buy. The garden is just beginning its summer blooms, and I'll give you a small preliminary tour. Like Big Red here... the first of the roses original to my house.


And here we have a ruffled columbine which planted itself in a compost heap a few years back, and which was transplanted to a little better location...


I don't know what this pink groundcover is, and I don't honestly recall planting it last year, but it's doing marvelously...


A previous year's investment of foxglove means this year, I have foxglove aplenty. I love their impossible-looking spires...


The yard itself looks a bit rough around the edges, I admit. Some of my topiaries haven't made it and need to be removed, and some of the roses need a serious trim. There's still a lot of work to be done in this tiny space...


But as day turns to night, the colors just continue...



I hope you're all having a beautiful summer so far.

• For those who missed Sunday's post on the artist R. Atkinson Fox, click here.

• And for folks who enjoy a chuckle, you may appreciate the gardening tales on my humor blog, Of Cabbages and Kings. Click here for that.

And as always, thanks to each of you for stopping by and hanging out with me. I really do appreciate your visits.

Flower time

Do some work damn it!

In case you have trouble guessing what this doodle is about, it means Doodle Claire aka me is messing about too much here and not doing enough bloody college work!
I am pissed off at myself and woeful inability to do my college work, look I am even blogging about not doing work, instead of doing bloody work!

Confused about R. Atkinson Fox? Parrish the Thought!

Around the 1930s, artist Maxfield Parrish's advertising art, calendar art and decorative prints for the home became so popular, a number of imitators came onto the scene. One of these, Chester K. Van Nortwick, we've talked about before. (Click here to check out that post.) But one of the more well-known of the Parrish "imitators" was R. Atkinson Fox. And Fox proved to be a versatile and prolific artist in his own right.

Today, with the prices for early Parrish prints in the hundreds of dollars, collectors have turned to the works of R. Atkinson Fox to capture a similar decorative look and feel-- often at more affordable prices. I've managed to get Fox prints for as little as $5-$65 at flea markets, antique malls and those rare times they show up at thrift stores. Antique shops most often will price them at around $125, though they can be seen well up to $300, the common price for a Parrish. (And no, I do not buy them then--as you know, I am cheap.)


The subject matter of R. Atkinson Fox prints touches on many of the elements we're familiar with in Parrish paintings. The craggy orange mountains in the background... the paintbrush shaped trees... the "enchanted" girls lounging in magical settings... the skies and water of amazing blue.

Vendors can often be seen implying a Fox or other imitator is a Maxfield Parrish (I've lost count the amount of times I've seen a Van Nortwick or Robert Wood listed as, "Fox? Parrish?" and sporting a hefty price tag, as well!)

But you can see a difference between the typical Parrish print and those of R. Atkinson Fox. Parrish's work has a bit more interaction with the characters in the scene. They tend to seem more expressive and engaged with telling a story, whereas Fox's girls tend to have less expression and interaction, are often solitary and appear to be there more for aethetic purposes rather than the emotion they convey. Often, too, they are seen more at a distance than Parrish's characters.

Here for instance is Parrish's The Lute Players...


And this is Fox's Sunset Dreams...


Notice the Greek toga-styled costuming of the girls in Parrish's print, while Fox's girl is in dress typical of the 1920s/30s. This isn't always a way to tell them apart, but it's a useful cue.

You can see the use of distance at work here in Fox's The Valley of Enchantment...

This picture is more about the beauty of the garden and the figures with the pigeons than it is about telling a particular story.


In additon to the "enchanted girl" prints which are my personal favorites, Fox painted hundreds of landscapes, rural scenes, cows, dogs, horses, portraits, western art, hunting scenes, and historical figures.


And for Fox collectors, one of the most intriguing-- and challenging-- facets of his work is that a portion of it does not even appear under his own name. The book R. Atkinson Fox and William M. Thompson Identification and Price Guide by Patricia L. Gibson lists a number of pseudonyms under which Fox painted-- sometimes at the publisher's request to make it appear the publisher had a wider range of artists working for them. And sometimes simply because Fox didn't care for how the painting had turned out and didn't want his name on it.

Known Fox pseudonyms include:

• J.H. Banks
• G. Blanchard Carr or B. Carr
• John Colvin or J. Colvin
• Arthur DeForest or simply DeForest
• Dupre
• Elmer Lewis
• Muson, H. Musson, Ed. Musson or Edw. Musson
• George W. Turner
• Wainright, Charles Wainright, Chs. Wainright, C.N. Wainwright, C. Wainright, C. Wain, F. Wainright, Thos. Wainright or simply Wainwright
• George White, George W. White, George White
• George Wood

Note, George Hood, Robert Wood and George Hacker are NOT R. Atkinson Fox pseudonyms-- they are separate artists who often employ a similar style.

Confusing, I know!!

For more information on R. Atkinson Fox, check out the R. Atkinson Fox Society here. They're an avid group of collectors and are very helpful in identifying true Fox prints.

And with that-- and hopefully little more knowledge about one of the popular artists of the 1930s-- I leave you today... And we sail off into the sunset...

• Click here if you missed last week's Treasure Box Wednesday, where thrifting meets gifting...

• Or here, to see last Sunday's post on the Regent Square Neighborhood Yard Sale.

Have a happy Memorial Day and a picture perfect week.

Confused about R. Atkinson Fox? Parrish the Thought!

Around the 1930s, artist Maxfield Parrish's advertising art, calendar art and decorative prints for the home became so popular, a number of imitators came onto the scene. One of these, Chester K. Van Nortwick, we've talked about before. (Click here to check out that post.) But one of the more well-known of the Parrish "imitators" was R. Atkinson Fox. And Fox proved to be a versatile and prolific artist in his own right.

Today, with the prices for early Parrish prints in the hundreds of dollars, collectors have turned to the works of R. Atkinson Fox to capture a similar decorative look and feel-- often at more affordable prices. I've managed to get Fox prints for as little as $5-$65 at flea markets, antique malls and those rare times they show up at thrift stores. Antique shops most often will price them at around $125, though they can be seen well up to $300, the common price for a Parrish. (And no, I do not buy them then--as you know, I am cheap.)


The subject matter of R. Atkinson Fox prints touches on many of the elements we're familiar with in Parrish paintings. The craggy orange mountains in the background... the paintbrush shaped trees... the "enchanted" girls lounging in magical settings... the skies and water of amazing blue.

Vendors can often be seen implying a Fox or other imitator is a Maxfield Parrish (I've lost count the amount of times I've seen a Van Nortwick or Robert Wood listed as, "Fox? Parrish?" and sporting a hefty price tag, as well!)

But you can see a difference between the typical Parrish print and those of R. Atkinson Fox. Parrish's work has a bit more interaction with the characters in the scene. They tend to seem more expressive and engaged with telling a story, whereas Fox's girls tend to have less expression and interaction, are often solitary and appear to be there more for aethetic purposes rather than the emotion they convey. Often, too, they are seen more at a distance than Parrish's characters.

Here for instance is Parrish's The Lute Players...


And this is Fox's Sunset Dreams...


Notice the Greek toga-styled costuming of the girls in Parrish's print, while Fox's girl is in dress typical of the 1920s/30s. This isn't always a way to tell them apart, but it's a useful cue.

You can see the use of distance at work here in Fox's The Valley of Enchantment...

This picture is more about the beauty of the garden and the figures with the pigeons than it is about telling a particular story.


In additon to the "enchanted girl" prints which are my personal favorites, Fox painted hundreds of landscapes, rural scenes, cows, dogs, horses, portraits, western art, hunting scenes, and historical figures.


And for Fox collectors, one of the most intriguing-- and challenging-- facets of his work is that a portion of it does not even appear under his own name. The book R. Atkinson Fox and William M. Thompson Identification and Price Guide by Patricia L. Gibson lists a number of pseudonyms under which Fox painted-- sometimes at the publisher's request to make it appear the publisher had a wider range of artists working for them. And sometimes simply because Fox didn't care for how the painting had turned out and didn't want his name on it.

Known Fox pseudonyms include:

• J.H. Banks
• G. Blanchard Carr or B. Carr
• John Colvin or J. Colvin
• Arthur DeForest or simply DeForest
• Dupre
• Elmer Lewis
• Muson, H. Musson, Ed. Musson or Edw. Musson
• George W. Turner
• Wainright, Charles Wainright, Chs. Wainright, C.N. Wainwright, C. Wainright, C. Wain, F. Wainright, Thos. Wainright or simply Wainwright
• George White, George W. White, George White
• George Wood

Note, George Hood, Robert Wood and George Hacker are NOT R. Atkinson Fox pseudonyms-- they are separate artists who often employ a similar style.

Confusing, I know!!

For more information on R. Atkinson Fox, check out the R. Atkinson Fox Society here. They're an avid group of collectors and are very helpful in identifying true Fox prints.

And with that-- and hopefully little more knowledge about one of the popular artists of the 1930s-- I leave you today... And we sail off into the sunset...

• Click here if you missed last week's Treasure Box Wednesday, where thrifting meets gifting...

• Or here, to see last Sunday's post on the Regent Square Neighborhood Yard Sale.

Have a happy Memorial Day and a picture perfect week.