One week ago I returned from what was probably the best vacation I ever had. My husband and I flew down to Gran Canaria for a week. We were “stranded” for an extra 1½ days, thanks to Eyjafjallajokull. But really, how could anyone feel stranded in Gran Canaria? Especially when the agency you flew with is putting you up in a super nice hotel with free meals? Anyway, it was absolutely lovely. It was warm and we went swimming every day.

When we returned I had SPX almost right away (which was great!). But, during the lulls of the festival, I was able to finally sit with my Moleskine and work on a little drawing. This one was inspired by my trip. It doesn’t depict any specific scene, but just incorporates a few things from my trip. The main thing being the dunes. At the southern tip of Gran Canaria is a large area of massive sand dunes which were created by the sands brought over by the winds from the Sahara. They take a long time to navigate, but are a LOT of fun.

I hope it’s not too long before I return.

Drawn in my moleskine with pencil then inked with micron pens 005, 01, 02, 03, 05 & 08.

When I was around 4 or 5 my family took a road trip across the US from NJ to Cali (and back) in our Winnebago in just 2 weeks. Even though I was so young, I remember many key moments of the trip. Riding the elevator to the top of the St. Louis Arch, powerful thunderstorms & my first rainbow while driving through the plains in Oklahoma, breaking down in the Mojave Desert, riding down a raft on the Colorado River in the Grand Canyon, walking the crooked road and riding a trolley in San Francisco - to name a few. I also have specific memories of my sister, Karen, teaching me the Lollipop Tree song while sitting at the Winnebago’s kitchen table, driving somewhere through the plains.

Even though the full song depicts a tree that has lollipops growing on it that you can pick, I always pictured a tree made out of lollipops like the one in the illustration. The final verse of the song is about the tree yielding ice cream cones in the winter, and again I thought of a tree made from ice cream cones, instead of a tree where you could pick ice cream cones. Only the first verse and chorus is included for space reasons. Maybe I’ll continue with the ice cream verse another time

Excuse my handwriting. I have terrible handwriting to begin with, and even trying to write slowly doesn’t work so well!

Also, I found these lyrics online, and the version Karen taught me might be a bit different.

Right. Um. Hi! Yeah… You know I’m busy with my comic, so I shouldn’t have to write anything more about why my last post was in August.

But, gosh, 2009 was a crazy year. Most of it was pretty awesome. Went to fifteen concerts, got kissed by a rock star, went to and had my own table at my first comic-con, put out a bunch of merchandise, did a pretty damn good job with my comic all year long, met a comic idol of mine, met and shook hands with Jack White, finally got a telescope (!!!!), spent 3 weeks in the US where I saw my mom for the first time in 2 years, and did a road trip to the Rock’n'Roll Hall of Fame and Amish country (hey… it was pretty cool). I’m sure there’s more if I think about it, but I can’t right now. But reading all of that back to myself makes me realize how kickass 2009 really was.

So what’s in store for 2010? I guess we’ll see I don’t like to plan too much. I like to just see where things go. I have 4 concerts booked already for the year (plus a spoken word show with Henry Rollins! woo!). I have to see my mom again at some point. She’ll be 70 this year (even though she looks about 20 years younger and is as active as someone 30 years younger)! I do plan on doing the SPX (comic con) again at the end of April.

Oh yeah. And at some point this year I’m going to turn 30. But I’m trying not to think about that too much.

So, bring it on twenty-ten! (that’s fun to say!)

I’m not sure if any kisses from rock stars will be in the schedule for 2010, but who knows, right?

Anyone who comes by here new is going to think this is a site about baking and pastries. I swear it isn’t! It’s illustration! It just so happens that my posts have been about pastries lately. What can I say? They’re oh so good.

Anyway, like I mentioned in my post last week about the redesign, I’ve been slowly becoming more and more obsessed with cupcakes. I am not a baker, I’m not very good at it and I don’t really have the patience for it. But I needed to have cupcakes! I can only remember ever baking them with my mom one time to take them into school. I must have been around 8. Other than that I’ve never made them. And I’ve only eaten them on rare occasions. It’s safe to say that it’s probably been 10 years since I last had one. At least. I really think it’s closer to 15.

ANYWAY…

So today was “Cupcake Day.” And I finally made cupcakes. I decided to make vanilla cupcakes with vanilla frosting. And here’s the photo journal…

Batter prepared and ready to go in to the oven!

Cupcake breech!! I’ve learned my first lesson already: double cup the cakes! But a quick taste test shows that they taste fine, despite their awkward proportions.

Frosted! Which didn’t go as planned. It came out too soft, and I couldn’t make it all pretty with one of those cake decorating things squeezy things (see how much of a baker I am NOT?!). The end result is a little messy looking.

A completed cupcake, in all its glory. Can you hear the angels singing?

But the real question is - how do they taste?

The answer - Eh…

Ok. I have a few theories on what went wrong. One, or all of them, can be true.

Theory 1: - I had to use eggless recipes because my husband is allergic. I can’t make a whole batch of cupcakes JUST for ME. So eggless it was. And eggless cakes often have a vinegar/baking soda combo in them to give them some air. Unfortunately, the cake was still quite delicate and sort of falling apart under the weight of the frosting. But actually, I don’t think this has anything to do with the flavor.

Theory 2 - I used an American recipe and only had Swedish ingredients. Meaning, I had to use a few substitutes. Actually, I only had to make one substitute, and that was using unsalted butter in the frosting instead of shortening. That may be why it went so soft… maybe… Geez, I don’t know.

Theory 3 - Oil. I messed up with the oil. And I knew I had, but I refused to be patient. I meant to look up what kind of oil I needed, and I forgot. Then I went to the store and totally didn’t even think about buying oil. So I was left with either using olive oil (which I know shouldn’t be used for baking) or waiting another day to make them. I went with the olive oil risk. And I can taste it in the cake. And I think it’s ruining the vanilla flavor the cake should have as well.

Theory 4 - I’ve been living in Sweden so long that I have become intolerant of the sweetness of American cakes. This one IS true. It’s something I’ve noticed when I’ve gone back to the US on my trips. It’s good healthwise, but bad for messing with my memories of things.

Anyway, this is not ending the cupcake adventure. I will try again! I will get the proper oil (what kind should I have anyway?), and I will look up a different frosting recipe that won’t send me into a sugar coma. oh yes, and I’ll remember to double (or even triple!) cup the cakes

I drew the above image about 6 years ago. I found the illustrator file recently, and decided to put it together and color it for this post. If I were to draw it today, I probably would do it differently. But I think it was good enough to post here!

Aerosmith is my favorite band. They have been since I was 12, and probably will be forever. But they are much more to me than just kickass rock music.

When I first discovered them, I was just about to turn 13. Cryin’ and Livin’ on the Edge were the current hits, and I was already in love. My best friend had already bought Get a Grip, so when I stepped out to buy my very first Aero album (on cassette) I wanted something different. I knew nothing about the band, so I just blindly chose a tape and bought it. That tape was Permanent Vacation and remains my favorite Aero album to date. It became a permanent fixture in my walkman until I branched out to buy more. After that I bought Toys in the Attic, and soon after I was getting my hands on every album possible. They had already had more than a dozen by that time. And so my love affair with Aerosmith began and it hasn’t quit since. From those first years of listening to every tape non-stop, and learning to do the logo so that it could be found all over my school papers, binders and backpack, to going to concerts and record signings over the years, and up to today, when I bought Aerosmith Guitar Hero. I was so excited about it when I walked into that store this morning! I felt like I do when a new album comes out! I haven’t played it yet, but I have the whole weekend!

As of today I own numerous copies of Aerosmith CDs, including all albums, some double or triple according to different continental releases, bootlegs and singles. Plus the Pandora’s Box and Box of Fire boxsets, and a Shadowman comic book that features the Bad Boys of Boston. I’ve been to 11 concerts and even seen Draw the Line, an Aerosmith tribute band, on numerous occasions at one of my favorite rock clubs in Jersey, the Wreck Room (now closed ).

To say that I’m a big fan is an understatement. And I think you can agree. But now to get to the deeper bits. Now you’ll read why Aerosmith has become much more to me than just the music.

Story #1
One day in the fall of ‘94, I was 13, I was listening to Rock in a Hard Place and flipping through the album cover. I was paying special attention to the band members because Joe Perry and Brad Whitford had left the band by the time that album was made. I noticed one of the names was “Jimmy Crespo,” which I found amusing since “Crespo” was my mom’s maiden name. So I took the album to my mom to show her, just for fun. “Look mom! This guy has the same last name as you!” She looked at the name and then the picture and said, “I think that’s my nephew!” Turns out I had a cousin I never knew about. The last time my mom had seen him was more than 10 years previously. He was butting heads with the family because he wanted to be a rock musician, and they weren’t all too pleased. No one knew where he was or had heard from him in all that time. But my mom still had an old address of his, so she decided to write him a letter.

About a month later we got a call from his wife. And she confirmed it all! He definitely did play in Aerosmith and he was so happy to hear from the family. I talked to him for a while and they got me tickets and backstage passes to what would be my very first Aerosmith concert (first concert in general too!) a month later. I got backstage and met the entire band and got pictures with all of them. My best friend and I ran out of there screaming with joy! A couple of years later, Jimmy started playing in Rod Stewart’s band, so when they came to NJ, Jimmy got my whole family tickets so that we could finally meet him. We went backstage and I met my cousin for the first time, and my mom met him for the first time in over a decade. It was brilliant! And, as far as I know, because of all of that Jimmy was able to finally get in touch with his family again. And I still have contact with him today. He now plays in a band called Phoenix in Las Vegas.

Steven and me in ‘97 the second time I had backstage passes, I was 16

Story #2
By the time I had found out about Jimmy, I was a member of Aero Force One, the Aerosmith fan club for about half a year. I loved having penpals and they had a penpal section in the quarterly newsletter. Right after I found out about Jimmy I sent in an ad to the newsletter to get penpals. I knew that writing that Jimmy was my cousin would get me a lot of letters, and it did! I got over 30. I answered every single one, even though most of them were from people who wanted tickets (argh). I kept up with a lot of people for a shirt while, but they soon dropped off, and I was down to 3 which I wrote to for the next 4 years. One of then was a guy in Sweden… (see where this is going??)

Fast forward about 3 years and I decided it would be grand if I invited this guy in Sweden over so that he could finally visit NYC, which he had talked about a lot, and so that he could take me to my senior prom. To my utter amazement he accepted the invitation, and after just about 4 years of writing to a fellow Aerosmith fan I finally met him for the first time. Within a day I realized we would be the best of friends. A week later, we were more than that. 2 weeks after that he decided he’d move to NJ. And now, 10 years (almost exactly) later, here I am in Sweden and married to him.

Of those 11 concerts I’ve been to, 9 have been with him. The signings and tribute band all happened after we got together. We’ve pooled our CD collections together to create a mega-Aerosmith album collection. We have numerous autographs from when we met them separately and together. It’s great to be with someone who shares the same feelings as I do about the band and the music.

So there we have it! Loving Aerosmith has brought a family member back into my family, and it has resulted in me meeting my soulmate. Without the band my life would be entirely different right now.

And at this very moment I’m going to log off, get a Corona, and fire up ^A^ Guitar Hero. The perfect game for a fan like me! (Besides, if we don’t get to play soon my Aero-lovin’ husband is going to have a fit.)

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Back to chilly, snowy Swedeland. I just spent a week in Tenerife. It was lovely. We did this last New Years (when Daniel proposed to me!) and so we decided to go again for the week over New Years this year too. We went to Los Gigantes instead of Playa de las Americas this time. It was a little less touristy and much warmer and sunnier. I spent every day laying by the pool and swimming in it too. I will have pictures up eventually… probably.

But like I said, it was great. Of course, we will disregard the stomach bug I caught the morning of the trip there… The total and utter discomfort of the 6 hour flight was worth it to spend a week in sun and relaxation.

But I am happy to be home, and in my own bed.

Just don’t remind me I have to go back to work on Monday. I haven’t mentally prepared myself for it yet…

GOD FORTS?TTNING! (Swedish for…er… “Good Continueing” … it’s jut something they say after the holidays are over for about the next month. And GOTT NYTT ?R!! (happy New Year)