Once upon a time there was a puppy who, at 3 months old, suddenly found himself riding in a car on the lap of a stranger, far away from all his brothers and sisters. He lay quiet and still, only shifting his eyes to take in his surroundings. A stark contrast from the lively puppy who was running around at the breeders just an hour before.

He was about to start his new life.

It only took a couple of days for the new puppy to become accustomed to his new family. He saw snow for the first time, bit the ear of his new “dad” in excitement, not knowing the strength of his new little teeth, and started to spend his days with his new family at their job. Soon enough he was a part of the family, and could not be separated from them.

The years went on and the little dog went everywhere with his family. On vacations, to work, and on road trips. He rode on planes and in motorhomes and traveled to many places. He met many new people and loved everyone. He even turned those most scared of dogs into dog lovers. He loved to lick peoples ears, and gently bite people’s toes - all signs of his love. He was a dog who knew nothing but love, and had only love to give to everyone he met.

At ten years he lost his best friend, his “dad,” and was never the same again. He aged after that, leaving much of the puppy he once was behind him. He still loved to run and play, but not with the same gusto as before. He was, after all, entering his senior years.

At the end of his life, disease swooped in and took him away quickly, allowing hm to suffer for as little a time as possible. At thirteen he’d lived a full and happy life. And now it was time for him to go be with his best friend again. He’s left behind many who have loved him, and whose lives he’s touched. He’ll never be forgotten, and we’ll all always be grateful to have had him in our lives for those 13 years.

R.I.P. Pookie baby. I love you and miss you so very much.

Wow. I totally did not expect that cupcake post to sit there for the eternity that it did, confusing and disappointing all who came here thinking it was a cupcake blog. For that, I apologize. Nope, not a cupcake blog. Just a blog of an illustrator who was momentarily obsessed with cupcakes. Actually, I still want to make them again, this time with PROPER ingredients, and hopefully some time over the summer.

But before I get into my legitimate explanation, I thought I’d chuck this illo in. I drew this last week for my boss. Then I drew it 1 meter high on a sheet, which her children later colored in and used at a Country/Western school dance. But I think the most fun was looking up fun country songs with my boss. Oh the COMEDY

So what could have possibly kept me away from here so long? Well I have LEGITIMATE reasons. Promise.

First off, my comic. Ya know, ‘Imy.’ It’s doing super well! Around the time I wrote that cupcake post, I was in the process of getting t-shirts printed up for selling on the site. From there things just got crazy! I got info about a convention (The Small Press Expo) that would take place at the end of April. I signed up for it and immediately started working on putting together merchandise, and planning out my table. This took nearly 2 months. it was a LOT of work, but I got it DONE! And it was a BLAST! You can read all about it, with lots of great pics, right here.

Right after that I went to the US to visit my mom for 3 weeks. It was an incredible eventful 3 weeks. Full of road trips, concerts, Starbucks, and a trip to the ER. But it was great, for the most part. I got to really indulge Jersey style. Walks on the boardwalk, pool and taking over jukeboxes at beach bars, gambling at AC (first time ever, won $30!), incredible Jersey pizza… *sigh*. These are the things that really make me miss it there.

But now I’m back in Sweden! I’ve been back a few weeks already. I’m still getting myself together. I’ve still been busy!

Last weekend I went to 3 (THREE!!!) Bruce Springsteen concerts! He’s HUGE here, and all 3 shows were sold out. I went to all 3 of them and even stood in line to get wristbands to get in the pit for all 3 as well. The last two nights I brought a “Jersey Girl” sign with me, hoping he’d play that song just for me, but he didn’t (he did choose my husband’s Jungleland sign though and played that!).

I never considered myself a Bruce fan before. But after seeing him in concert last year, and then 3 times last weekend, I’ve changed my mind. And I have a favorite Bruce song. I’ll link you to that one, and to my favorite live song!

Favorite Bruce Song -She’s the One (he didn’t play this at any of the 3 shows!)

Favorite Live Bruce song - American Land (he played this every night! It was so much fun to jump and dance to!)

My hubby has written reviews about all 3 shows over on his site, Rock Revival. You can also find the review for the Kings of Leon concert we hit while in Cleveland. AWESOME.

Anyway, now things are getting back to normal, for the most part. I opened up a store over at Imy. The books are going the fastest, which is VERY cool. I don’t have any other vacation plans except for a ton of concerts, which I’m sure to write about as I go along. Other than that I am just hoping for some good weather to come along. It was about 39F (4C) last week during one of the Springsteen shows. Even for here that’s weird for June! And I don’t like it!

So there we go. And now I’m off to bed, ’cause man do I need some sleep!

Perhaps they are the “Three Kings” making their journey since, after all, tomorrow is Three Kings Day!

Today was unbelievably cold in Stockholm. So cold that the air was FILLED with ice crystals. The skies were clear, but all around me the air glittered. I have never seen anything like it before. And as a result we got sundogs. But not just any sundogs. Bright and distinct sundogs. So bright, in fact, that they almost appeared to be extra suns. I have seen pictures before, but never thought I’d get a chance to see it in real life. So very cool!

(BTW, These are pictures of MIDDAY sun. Noon. See how low it is? Yeah.)

I’m glad I always keep my eyes on the skies. Other people don’t seem to notice these things. At least I know I can appreciate them!

Goodness. About 6 months since my last update. I’d apologize, but I won’t. Nobody is really looking for an apology are they? In fact, I’m sure no one even stops by anymore. Besides, I haven’t been slacking. My absence has been due to EXTREME creativity. My comic strip, which is now more than a year old and farther along than 100 strips, is going extremely well. Most of my creative energy goes into that and I have absolutely no regrets. It is the best thing I ever did and I am MORE than happy to dedicate all my free time to it.

Despite all of that, I hate having this blog just sit in limbo like this, and it would be good for me to break away from the world of ‘Imy‘ and illustrate some other things. Ha! We’ll see how far that goes. ‘Imy‘ is my priority when it comes to creative projects. Everything else will always take a backseat to it. Even in my personal life - I’ve had a bit of a rough 6 months. Nothing too terrible or tragic, but enough to get me down - real down. But I don’t want to discuss it. The point is that through everything, no matter what I kept ‘Imy‘ going. It’s extremely important to me that I don’t slack on that specific project. I have plans, and I want to go as far as I can with it.

I hope everyone’s holidays have been pleasant. As usual we spent Christmas with my husband’s family, and New Years here in my beautiful city of Stockholm. Other than that I haven’t been doing very much, except for taking care of my friend’s cat. And judging by how much he talks to me when I’m over there giving him fresh food, water and kitty litter, I’m imagining that when I’m not there he’s aiming darts at a picture of his owner.

I have been to so many concerts since I last wrote here, it’s ridiculous. The absolute best being Kid Rock in London! Oh yes, I DID get on a plane and fly to another country just to see a concert. Kid Rock doesn’t come to Sweden. And let me tell you, it was completely worth it. I have never screamed so much in my entire life. And it just goes to show that Londoners know how to party way better than Stockholmers. Sorry, but it’s true. I love this city, but you guys just don’t know how to let loose. I mean really just let it all melt away and have fun. Make a fool of yourself already!

Anywho, I think I’ve caught you up now. Assuming I’m talking to more than just the crickets…

And so I continue my concert madness summer! I thought that after seeing Kiss, the other concerts had much to live up to. As cool as Kiss was, the Lenny concert this past weekend takes the cake so far!

This show was in the way south of Sweden, but Lenny Kravitz is far too good to pass up, so we didn’t mind. Besides, it was in Helsingborg, a town we’ve been to before and love. So we decided to make a weekend out of it.

We had perfect weather, so the 6 hour drive was lovely. I love that drive becasue you drive down along Sweden’s second largest lake, and pass large farm fields with windmills.

And Helsingborg is right just a ferry ride away from Helsingör, a Danish island, with a lovely little “old town,” Hamlet’s castle and giant glasses of öl (beer).

But, of course, the biggest even was the Lenny Kravitz concert! Turns out Lenny was staying in our hotel, and he checked out just minutes before we checked in! But we caught the sax player on the way out and talked with him a bit. He was really nice and it really got us hyped for the show. By a stroke of luck we arrived to the venue just a half-hour or so before the gates opened, and still were among the first in line! Because of this, we ended up being front row and center! And of course, it was Lenny so it was SO COOL! He did so many great songs and played for 2 hours and 40 minutes! And I got FANTASTIC pictures!

Any of the upcoming concerts I’m going to will be hard pressed to match this one! Lenny even came out and grabbed my hand (among many others)! And one of the sweetest bits was right at the beginning of the encore, when he announced that a fan came up to him earlier in the week and asked if he could propose for him to his girlfriend. So Lenny announced it then brought them both up on stage and sang to them before the proposal. I have video of it that I took and put it on youtube right he-ah.

Anyway, it was definitely a show I won’t forget, and has earned a spot in my top 5! Next show? Kylie Minogue! (which was actually last night. So I’ll post, with pictures, about that over the weekend.)

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The whirlwind began Thursday evening when a couple of the guys from KISS were in town doing a signing. My hubby really wanted to go to that, and wanted me to go to take pictures. Which I did, even though they didn’t come out so great. But we met a guy while waiting in line who helped the time go by faster, and who we spent much of the rest of the evening with discussing our favorite bands.

Then Friday was the concert!

It was in Stockholm Stadion, which is an old open air stadium near the city center. It’s a cool place to have concerts, but you just have to hope and pray that it won’t rain. So far this year we are having a warm and dry summer, so we were very lucky. It was HOT all Friday, but fortunately the evening had cooled down enough that the. Of course, being how we’re way up north, the sun doesn’t go down until around 10pm these days, so it was pretty light throughout the show. But the temperature was perfect. And we had some visitors flying over the stadium too!

Right before the show started they played The Who’s “Won’t Get Fooled Again,” and when Pete Townsend does that famous scream into the mic, the dropped the KISS curtain over the front of the stage.

Björn Gustaffson stood right next to me for about 5 seconds, before he pushed on through to the front somewhere. So I snapped a pic of the man and myself instead…

And just as I did that the show started! And it was SO GREAT! It was the first time I was able to see KISS, and hopefully not the last! We had so much fun screaming and singing loudly to all the songs. It went by SO fast, though. But what I thought was REALLY cool, was when the concert was over, the first song they played over the speakers as we were all getting out of there, was God Gave Rock’n'Roll To You, and the whole stadium was singing along as we walked out.

Ah… good times!! So it was definitely a KISS-inspired weekend. Even my Thursday (so late it turned into Saturday) comic was touched by KISS!

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Well, the Eurovision Song Contest… whoops sorry! I mean the Eastern Eurovision Song Contest is over and it was a bust! I think Western Europe took a wrong turn somewhere and ended up at the wrong contest. Clearly we weren’t wanted there.

OK in all seriousness…

The first couple of hours were great with the performances. All my favs did an excellent job, especially Sweden. Charlotte did amazing! The singing was on and the energy was great! Much better than at the semi-final! I ended up voting for the UK and Norway, my two favorites other than Charlotte. But then the results came. And I just deflated. It was more than just disappointing. Well, here is how all my favs placed.

Ukraine - 3
Norway - 5
Turkey- 7
Iceland - 14
Sweden - 18
UK - 25

ARGH! Kudos that Norway made it so high. She was my absolute favorite for the night. Such a great song. A real song. Something you could easily hear on the radio and buy on a CD. That is rare in Eurovision. So it’s great that she got so high. But let me be a bit cynical and say I think the only reason she did so well was because she was the last to perform and fresh in everyone’s minds. Because, obviously, having a great song, singing well and performing well is not actually what people want.

Instead, Russia won. Russia. Russia. Which their cheap-sounding song and ridiculous ice skater. I keep going over and over and over in my head HOW they could have won. Was it because of the ice skater? Must be. Because the song was boring. And the singing? Terrible! The guy could barely even pronounce the words, and he sang in that awful vibrato the whole time. I just wanted to smack him. I never ever thought he’d win. He song is, at most, entirely forgettable.

Ah but he won, and no amount of complaining will change that.

And Sweden came in so low! Which I really don’t understand. For the first time, I really had faith in Sweden’s song. For the first time I really believed Sweden would do well. Last year, when Sweden sent The Ark, I laughed when we got low points because we deserved it. The Ark! PLEASE! But not this year. I was utterly shocked. I was convinced we’d make it to the top 5, if not win the whole damn thing. But maybe it’s too “old fashioned” a song, and people don’t want that anymore. In that case, maybe we should have gone with BWO as was my first choice.

Well anyway, if there was ever a high point, it was when Björn Gustafsson presented the Swedish voting results. He sat there and blatantly mocked all those countries who choose presenters who can’t speak a word of English but pretend they can. For the record, of course he has no problem with English. He’s Swedish for goodness sakes! I don’t know if any of the other countries understood that he was joking. But that’s the fun of it! It was the good hard laugh I needed by that time of the evening.

12 points to Björn Gustafsson!