Whoof! I am so behind on my updates!

But I have 3 new toons up over at my website. Two smallies and one regular one.

You can start here:
http://www.resafantasyarts.com/yetuntitled5sup.html

The extra toons are to celebrate the new movie ... and the mayhem and bloodshed (okay, not really bloodshed ...) that's created in Forks Wa. And also to celebrate my finally having figured out the mystery being RSS feeds. Yay!

New YET UNTITLED Strip!

The first of three for July! Yay!
http://www.resafantasyarts.com/yetuntitled.html
Enjoy!

- Resa

Yay! New YET UNTITLED strip!

It seems that I've found a way to post my new strips on time, even while I spend this summer in Port Angeles. So lookie! It's only the night of the 14th, and it's going up now for the 15th! Yay for me.

And it can be found:
http://www.resafantasyarts.com/yetuntitled.html

Enjoy! Hope you're all having a wonderful summer. It's been a bit wet here in Port Angeles. And wetter in Forks, my cousin tells me. Which surprises nobody.

Best wishes,
Resa

NEW WEB COMIC AND WEB SITE DESIGN!

It's scheduled for tomorrow morning, so it's a bit early. But here it is.

I'm in a terrific hurry -- for the next few months I will be living part time in Port Angeles where I have no internet connection. And wanted to make sure I didn't miss the deadline before going back to PA. Yipes!

Please!! Email me if you find any mistakes in the newly revamped website. It may be a week before I can read them and respond, but I would so appreciate it!

And also, Yet Untitled is the monthly (possibly bi-weekly for a while) web comic. It features Silver from The Cartoonist. And deals with life in Forks Washington, the Twilight Invasion, and various other stuff. May you enjoy it. I thought it was fun drawing.

Talk at ya later,
- Resa

Various Links for the New Year.

Hi there! I hope that the New Year went wonderfully for you! It was nice over here too. Though dry. It took about two weeks for our 2800 gallon rain catchment tank to fill completely. Though we did have over 2 inches, I'm told, the other day.

Okay! My Linkies!

Forks Daily and Annual Rainfall Totals.
It runs about a month late in the posting, but keeps track of every single day's rainfall.

Hillywood Show does NEW MOON.
These girls are scary good, with production values that rival, and sometimes surpass, the actual movies themselves.

And Leyna's tutorial on Digital Portraits.
Leyna is a fantastic portrait artist. And I'm thrilled to finally be able to see how she does her work.

And ... have a wonderful beginning of the New Year! With much fun and frolic!

Best wishes --
Resa

Olympic Peninsula Line Men

Know that we love you. And appreciate all that you'll be doing over the next four days to keep our electricity on. Stay warm.

- - -

Yes, another storm is coming in with high winds and flooding. It's already blowing, but the main system will hit tonight, with predicted winds up to 50mph, gusts to 75. And Monday brings in an even stronger storm. (sighs) But hey, it's winter. We're prepared.

Going into town, everything was closed but the Forks Outfitters. Which is where everybody was going to get supplies. The main drag was very dark under even darker skies ... except for on bit of brightness. Dazzled By Twilight. Which was still open.

I suppose even sparkly vampires need supplies ...

Just a note to any Twlighters reading this Blog

Dazzled By Twilight is having a small contest over at Facebook. The 1000th person to join gets a prize. So, if you're interested -- Go Here.

In other news, we have gotten an amazing number of thunder storms this year. In all the time I've been here, I think I've experienced only 3 or 4 thundery storms. But this year alone, I think I've up'd that total another 5!

The Cullens should be so pleased.

Best wishes --
I'm off to eat ribs! Yum!
- Resa

Water Rationing in the Rain Forest

From the Peninsula Daily News:

Forks officials last week asked residents to cut back on water use because city wells are about 30 percent below capacity.

It's been an unusually dry summer in Forks, normally one of the wettest towns in the United States.

Rainfall is about 23 inches below normal so far this year — and water use may be higher, too, because of thousands of visiting "Twilight" fans.

The Forks Visitor Center registered 55,600 guest book sign-ins in the first eight months of this year.

It had 18,700 for all of 2008.

Forks itself has only 3,200 residents.

Heh.
When I heard about the rationing in the local paper - The Forks Forum -- they only blamed those 23 less inches of rain this year. But I'm thinking it's the added 55,600 people we've had this year so far. And the main Twilight festival has yet to appear. And the hotels are already booked up. So, I'm thinking ... SCARY!
Heh.

Another good reason to go with a rain catchment system, eh?

The Cullens got in a little time playing baseball last night.

And it looks like they may get in time for another game this afternoon.

We don't often get Thunder Storms in Forks, Wa. I've only seen a hand-full in the last 9 years up here. But our house got rocked by one in the middle of last night, that seems to have fried the outlet we plug our computers into. Fortunately, our computers were unplugged.

In other news, I made another Twilight Plant Pot -- this time as a commission for my friends Jennie and Keesha. It's a Jasper Pot, and only up on RC-ForksWA currently, but I hope to have time to get it up in my main gallery soon.

Since I know Twlighters read this journal now and again, I should mention that the DAZZLED BY TWILIGHT store and tour company has taken over one of an old, closed restaurant to reopen it as the TWILIGHT LOUNGE. It's a giant building, and I have to wonder if they intend to have some kind of smallish Twilight Convention there on Halloween or at the opening of New Moon.

Along with this, Forks has one very small theater that has been closed for about 20 years. News is that somebody -- possibly again DBT -- is fixing it up so that residents and tourists can see the movie in town, instead of driving one and a half hours to Port Angeles to see the movie there. Lemmie tell ya, that would be nice!

Whoo -- a reopening of a restaurant and possibly our old theater! Jobs and movies! This rocks!

Gotta run. There's thunder! Gotta go see!

- Resa

I'm cold.

After several hot days in the 80s and 90s, and many weeks in the high 70s, Forks Wa has decided to drop back down to the 50s.

Yeek! I'm FREEZING! But I absolutely refuse to use the woodstove in Summer to heat the house. No. Nope. No way! And, how in the heck did I lose my adaption to cool weather in just a handful of days? I am ... so ashamed.

In other news, Forks had 16,000 Twilight visitors last month. Which was twice June's numbers and almost as much as all of last year's Twilight Tourists. And since Forks sports only about 3500 citizens, it's been interesting.

Gah, went to go re-read the article from yesterday to verify this on the Fork's Forum newspaper, but the article seems lost. But I can say for certainty, that it did seem EXTREMELY busy in town these last few weeks. Our one traffic light was quite over-whelmed. And I suspect we might really need a second one. My cousin Jatina, however, counter-suspects that the town will riot if anyone suggests another one.

Well, yes. She may have a point. We Forksters like our tiny, teeny towny. And two traffic lights is far too ... ahem "Southern California".

Pots and Plants, Deer and Eagles

I grew up in the lowland deserts of Southern California. In a parched dry little town that never saw snow, broiled in the summer, and gathered to it's breast very little rainfall. It was a flat, hot, and mostly treeless place. And I used to dream of forests and cloud covered skies, where things would be green and cool and vibrantly alive.

And so I find myself here in Forks, Washington. Where instead of a couple of inches of rain a year, I can get that in a week. Even stranger, as I told my cousin just the other day, I've adapted so neatly that I would have sworn that last month only had an inch or less of rain ... when it actually had 5.6 inches.

How the heck did I miss 5.6 inches of rain? And here I thought it'd been a rainless, sunny-full month. Jeepers -- don't I even consider it rainy until we have a full foot these days? Gah!

When I first moved here, I found the rain nearly mind numbing in it's continuity. I remember thinking that it NEVER STOPPED. That out there, somewhere, surely someone was building an Ark.

But that wasn't an unusually rainy year at all. That was just Forks. And now ... I hardly notice the rain at all. I don't even use an umbrella. Isn't that just bizarre?

In other news, I was quite excited to see several bald eagles in the last few days, and many many deer. The deer are even a bit cheeky. Refusing to run from my car as I slow down to look at them eating leaves and grass by the side of the road. I have even had to, on occasion, stop my car and get out, to coax the little buggers out of the street, when they decide to just stop in front of my car, probably chuckling silently to their little deer selves. Stinkers.

And, I have one new pot out at the Twilight, "Cullens' Baseball Field". It's nothing earth shattering. Just a pot painted black with a red apple on it, sporting a cherry red petunia. I plan to start on two new pots in about a week, of Alice and Jasper, to add to my slowly growing stash of Twilight plant pots out there. It may take a while to get them all, but eventually I'll have a full set. Maybe even Jacob, in his own little pot, sitting a bit off to the side and looking forelorn and lonely. Poor wee wolfy.

And lastly, I have many more bookmarks up now in my gallery. Which you can find HERE.

Best wishes, and have a wonderful day!
- Resa

Happy Happy Cows

Because I know the person who owns the land just next to where the (Twilight) "Cullen's Baseball Field" is supposed to be, I have good reason to be out there fairly often.

And I was out there again yesterday to see how my Edward and Bella plant pots were doing. I am happy to report that both Edward and Bella's painted faces are holding up quite well under Fork's rainfall so far. However, as I drove up, I realized that the "baseball" field was occupied. Not by sparkly vampires, but by escapee cows.

Now these cows are royal, little stinkers. It's a rare day in spring that they don't fly their coop, and wander all about the area, sneaking into people's yards far and wide, sampling strange, new grasses. And this time, they had their new babies with them, and I couldn't help calling out to them, calling them "sweeties" when I got out of the car. Because hey, fuzzy baby cows. How could I not?

They turned to look at me as I did so. Watching me as I wandered over to my pots to groom out the dead flowers. Then suddenly, one cow seemed to become terribly taken with me. It was a lady cow, a big ol'girl, with a very pregnant tummy. She turned joyfully, seeming to practically dance on her tip toes, while making tiny, happy moos at me -- before dashing in my direction, like some gigantic, treat-expectant puppy, seemingly over-joyed to see me.

Now, I don't know a heck of lot about cows. But I do know that they weigh about the same as a small car. And this small car was on a collision course. Would she crash into me? Was I misinterpreting territorial aggression for "joy"? And even if I was right, could she stop in time? How graceful is a cow when her tummy is so large that it's wobbling on each side as she ran?

I paused and considered my options. I had wandered a fair pace from my car. Should I dash behind one of the trees? They are quite big enough to stop a car, and keep standing. This was a possible plan.

Luckily, Cow-Lady seemed to take notice of my fast back-peddling toward my leafy barrier, and stopped. She looked at me with confused brown eyes for a moment, then threw her head up and made three long, loud, mournful sounding moos. And cows came out from behind everything. And then, she turned, and went down the road toward home, with her fellows trotting behind her.

Whoo -- I have my first thing up on Ebay!

I've used Ebay in the past to buy stuff -- usually used books. As I love collecting books. Particularly hard backs. But this is the first time I've ever tried to sell anything, so yay! It's now official. Now up on Ebay is my Twlight Print and Post Card set! Whoo!

I'd hoped for a "Buy Now!", set price auction. But you're not allowed to use that until you've sold several items, and you've proved yourself to be a honest seller. So, I've set up a Print/Post Card set with a starting bid of $10, and free shipping. Which is considerably less than the price now listed on my website. On my website, just the print is going for $13 -- postage included. So hopefully, I'll get a bite.

And, here we go. I figure, even if it doesn't sell, it should at least draw more attention to my website and art gallery online. And that's always good.

In other news: It's raining here in Forks, Washington.
I bet you're so surprised. Heh.

Yay!

Today was fun for me. I was out at the "Cullen's Baseball Field" (it's next to a piece of land someone I know owns) just in time to see a car drive up, and people ooo and ahhh over the new Edward and Bella plant pots.

I stayed discreetly away while they took several pictures of the pots. Close ups, far shots, shots with them in the pictures, and even a couple of the "Caution!" sign too. Heh! I loved that!! After they left, I did a small victory dance in my head, and pondered what else I can put out there later on. It's just such a rush to see people get so excited over something you've painted.

You know, it really is fun living in a town that's hip-deep in a fantasy novel. And it's been kind of a kick seeing what other people have done or crafted to take advantage of this. Like the Forks outfitters selling official employee name tags with Bella's name on it -- I thought that was terribly clever. Or how now, on the road leading out to the La Push, Quileute Indian Reservation and First Beach, there is a warning sign stating that "No Vampires Beyond This Point". Hah!

It just tickles me! I mean, I loved Forks, WA long before it was anything but a small blip on a map. And now, everybody loves it.

Heh.

-- Resa

Alrighty then -- my first official post here!

So, I've been busy, art-wise. I've done a few commissions, and been working on a set of art pieces/prints to have ready to go for "Bella's Birthday", or Stephanie Meyer's Day in my town of Forks, Washington.

My most recent commissions were of a Fire Dancer and a Hula Girl. Be fore-warned that they may not be work-safe, as they do contain some nudity. But I'm particularly happy with how the Fire Dancer came out.

I really need to try my hand at more work that focuses on the use of light and shadow, as I find this really fascinating.

Twilight-Wise, I've done several pieces of art. My main piece is my black & white drawing, "Intoxicating Love", which is now available through me as a 8 1/2 x 11 print on cardstock, as well as post card packs of 5 or more on my Forks/Twilight page. The original art is also up for sale, as well as the original pencil I did for the piece.

I've also tried my hand at a couple of Jasper book marks. And a set of plant pots featuring Bella and Edward that are now sitting out by the official "Cullen's baseball field". I've also recently added a sign out there too, which I've posted on another Forks/Twilight gallery of mine, since it's not officially "art", but still hopefully amusing if you're a fan of the Twilight books.

And lastly, I would love to do more of my famous bookmarks. If you'd like one done for you, I'm currently charging $20 (which includes US shipping). You can find more information on my Art4Sale page on my website.

In other news, we're waiting on a storm this evening here in Forks, WA. Spring storms are usually pretty tame, but we have candles and snackies just in case.

And I have been busily attempting to learn wood-working. So far I have successfully made one saw horse, and one less than perfect saw horse. Tomorrow I hope to attempt my first bookcase. If it comes out slightly better than shabby, I shall be thrilled! Cuz anything less than a complete disaster just means I can get better at it. Yay!

Hope you're all having a safe and wonderful evening.

-- Resa