Niki came through for her second session of her native wildflower woman inspired half sleeve. Stay tuned to peep the next session soon!

So, homie Andy, aka. Tuff came through to finish off his shoulder piece. The saying is significant to him because it encompasses his insatiable and positive outlook on life. This is his first tattoo, and he sat through it like a champ.

At the turn of 2010, I wrote out a list of new years resolutions. I’m going to attempt to measure out the success of these goals being met over the past six months. Here’s the list:

Newyears Intentions/Resolutions
1. step up my tattoo game, LARGE (and soon to be in charge.)
Well, I’m on my way to that. My drawing has improved GREATLY since I started working with Derek, but there’s no way I’m going to stop here. So this is going to be one of those ongoing-type thangs.
2. train 6x a week and master the art of footwork and getting hit without being phased by it.
Before my accident (say what!? ..more on that another time) I was actually 7 weeks into training for my first amateur boxing bout. I was training 6x a week, including sparring 2-3x a week, and was feeling amazing. Boxing has taught me many (MANY) things, so I’m not about to stop any time soon.
3. kill the last 1.5 credits of my degree.
AND I graduated. Convocation and all. DI-DONE fi’ good.
4. make more time for relaxation, family and friends. grounding and balance is more key than i sometimes think!
WAY more key than I ever thought. It’s been good.
5. draw on the regular and learn how to use photoshop again.
Consistency always creeps up on me. I will get a handle on this.
6. take a cooking class or some other equivalent I’ve conceptualized with the Ladies.
Opted against the cooking class, but started baking and cooking more.
7. take a dance class (ie.) ballroom/salsa/breaking. time to turn twinkle toes for once on all yo asses.
THIS I MUST DO. I’m thinking krump or just doing straight up breakin.
8. finally open up an RRSP account. only grown up woman business here.
I did open up a tax-free savings account. I’ll get on this asap.
9. learn more Tagalog. Roots, what?
Thank you, iLearn Tagalog app for my iphone.
10. get physiotherapy for my mashed up knee. girl be running now, here’s to no more obstacles.
I’ll admit, I fell off this one. $$$
11. complete my M1, do my RTI course and purchase a motorcycle. long time coming.
Have you met my new girl, Emily?
12. cut out smoking things completely.
Cigarettes are out for good, it’s been longer than I can remember now. Mary J still makes an appearance every now and then.

Not too shabby. Keep on’ keepin’ on.

Check out this piece I finally got to finish today:

Tonight, I had the pleasure of watching Ivie and Derek‘s band 9 yrs at the Silver Dollar. These guys put on a great show, and have now whet my appetite for their first album that will be coming out soon!

While watching their band play an energetic eight song set, I became reminiscent of the time when I was just entering highschool and joined a couple bands. I need to find some pics I used to have of when we’d play at the Kathedral for Supernova shows. My band used to cover songs like Metallica’s Orion, Black Sabbath’s Paranoid, Tool’s Sober, and a few NIN tracks too. And then it became more about partying like a rockstar, and less about making music. I really miss playing guitar. I still wake up in the morning singing. I’ve also got a set of turntables collecting dust in my laundry room. Something needs to happen with these things.

The purple Reverb building at Queen St. West and Bathurst is now being demolished to put in some more shoebox stacks, also known as condo’s, which is a strange thing to realize. Alot can happen in ten years. Just another reminder to really make the most out of the next ten!

Check out this under the naval rocker I drew up for my bossman, Derek. Stay tuned to check out the first session of linework. This thing’s gonna be bad ass!