OMG, an alien!

That’s Oggie, Camila’s shi-tzu.  Camila is going to Brazil in January so Oggie is going to stay with us while she’s gone. Oggie needs to get used to sleeping here and such, so yesterday we took him home with us and he stayed the night.

He’s only 7 months old, still very much a puppy, and a little heart breaker in disguise. At first everyone (including Zaphod) was all WTF? What is that!? What are we supposed to do with it? Which end is the front?
But he’s growing on all of us and I’m really looking forward taking him in He’s so social and cuddly, he follows us around the apartment and every time someone sits down he wants to come and sit in the lap. Slightly different from Zaphod who once he lays down won’t leave his bed for anything less than fires or the vacuum cleaner…

I think it will be great for Zaphod to have a dog companion and it will be fun for me “trying out” a new breed. I’m not used to dogs that small. Or that hairy *lol*
My biggest fear is that I will accidentally break him somehow o__O Or that grooming all that fur will drive me completely nuts so that I, in a burst of lunacy, end up shaving the whole dog.

Nah, I’m sure we’ll be alright. I’ll just make Markus hide the electric razor *cough*

Oggie tries to steal a kiss from Markus. And Zaphod is looking jealous in the background..

I’ve thought a lot about reindeer lately.
It started with an exciting new project at work involving said animal (I’ll show you later when it’s done). The project hasn’t officially started yet but I already have a whole herd running around in my head. Waving their antlers around and pooping in the corners and what not…

And as a result I have an increasing number of reindeer sketches piling up on my desk.

And as a result of that I had to go play in Photoshop.

Before I knew it I had a new layout and even though it’s not really December yet I couldn’t wait, as you can see I uploaded it right away!

This is the actual reindeer in the header. I just scanned it and darkened it to a silhouette.

Some of my sketches. And yes, that is actually a reindeer furry -__-;

Where I grew up there are reindeer everywhere (and I mean everywhere!) certain times of the year. And they can be quite a pain in the ass to be honest.

In Sweden all Reindeer are owned by the Sami people. The animals roam free in the woods like wild animals, but the Sami cares for them. As a result the reindeer are half-tame. They don’t approach people and will run if you try to approach them, but they’re not THAT afraid. Like… they have no problem coming into your garden to eat from the flower bed and vegetable patch And there’s no guarantee they’ll move for cars and such. Sometimes it doesn’t matter how much you honk and rush the engine, they just stand there…
I got stuck for almost 40 min(!) behind a reindeer herd once. It was about 10 animals and instead of getting off the road and let me pass they decide to start trotting along the road! And not very fast either I might add… The snow was really deep so I guess they found it much more convenient staying on the ploughed road. I’ve never in my life been more tempted to kill an animal.

But on the other hand… They’re one of the most beautiful animals in Sweden if you ask me.
An adult bull in winter coat with fully grown antlers running trough the snow is a pretty sight. Not to mention the all white ones. No matter how stupid and useless I sometimes find them I can’t deny that they do make an attractive addition to the fauna. Truth is I’d probably miss them if they disappeared.

Ok, enough talk about reindeer. Can’t imagine anyone caring but me so I’ll shut up now

I saw this at Angelica’s site and decided to give it a go.
It’s almost scary how easy it is to find faults and defects in ourselves, and how hard it can be to think up something good and positive. It’s like our brains are programmed to only remember the bad things and lock good stuff away in the basement
So… a little self-appreciation might be in order!

Rules:

List three things you’re good at, three things you like about your life, three things you like about your personality and three things you like about your looks. Then challenge five people to do the same.

My answers:

Three things I’m good at:
1. Pixeling.
2. I’m pretty good with dogs. As in teaching and training them and such.
3. I’m really good at remembering names and faces. It’s convenient most of the time, but not always. Like when people think I’m a crazy stalker for remembering them even though we’ve only met once some 6 years ago. Or when I remember the entire cast of some movie and people think I’m a huge fan since I “know all about it” when in reality I didn’t like it at all.

Three things I like about my life:
1. I have the most amazing little family in Zaphod and Markus. I seriously don’t know what I would do without my boys
2. I love the place I live in. Only 20 min walk to the town centre but still with the forest just outside my window. It’s a perfect mix of urban and rural.
3. I have a job that lets me be independent and creative and I like that a lot.

Three things I like about my personality:
1. I’m strong and independent.
2. I’m funny (or so I’ve been told *lol*)
3. I’m open-minded. In my world people can do/look/act/live however they want as long as they’re nice.

Three things I like about my looks:
1. My slender hands.
2. My legs (only part of my body that I can say is toned).
3. My eyes. They can’t see worth a damn, but they’re pretty *lol*

And I challenge anyone who reads this and would like to do it
I’m sure I’m not the only one who could work on acknowledging and appreciating our good qualities rather than the bad.

I had a great Halloween, the best for many years actually We started with drinks and Guitar Hero at Johan’s place, then went out to a local bar/disco.
We don’t really celebrate Halloween here so most people don’t care about it, but there were lots of dressed up people. Mostly witches and devils, but a few Joker’s (from Batman you know) and even Santa himself

I was going to be an American Indian, but then I found the most amazing pants at the Red Cross and simply couldn’t resist! I tried to create some sort of 70′s hippie theme around them with a wide brown top and lots of jewellery (I had braids in my hair, bright blue eye-shadow and cool platform shoes too, but they don’t show in the pics).

A few more photos can be viewed at Flickr >>

My outfit for the night
The photos really don’t do the pants justice, they’re so much more awesome irl.

Camila, Zaphod and me. Zaphod is all “Mom… wtf?”

The Blues Brothers, also known as Markus and Johan.
Definitely the coolest guys in town that night.

Peace maaaan!
Hanging at the bar with Camila.

A few more photos can be viewed at Flickr >>