Wednesday's Wacky - Animals Wearing Suits by Ryan Berkley
In the event that you noticed, I've changed this in the weekly lineup from Wacko to Wacky/Wacko, thereby giving me much more blogging fodder - could now be a person, place, or a THING....

Let me just continue with that thought, and say that sometimes (e.g. in the case of me), wacky is a thing, and indeed, a good thing. Happens to be the case today. First, a shout out to my long-lost college drinking buddy and fellow whackjob (another case of good whack-hee.hee), Marty. He posted a photo of a polar bear cake on Facebook a few weeks ago that his friend Amy made for him (long story), which is how we arrived here...

Here it is... the (good) Wack 'o' the day... Berkley Illustration. Check it out if you get a second, well worth a click or two.

http://www.etsy.com/shop/berkleyillustration. Few examples (and I do mean, a few...there are hundreds)





I'm enamored. I'm easily amused, People, not necessarily easily enamored. In this instance, guess we could say I'm amused and enamored. Ryan Berkley is an fantastic artist/illustrator, as you will see if you scroll down through his Etsy.com page. PS. If you are not familiar with http://www.etsy.com/, that makes you a ginormous ding-dong. Just sayin'. Incredible stuff - NOT MADE IN CHINA.

From what I gather, Ryan's wife Lucy is an amazing part of the equation (Sorry Ryan, but...you know...behind every man...), writing the blog (http://www.letsshare.typepad.com/), keeping up with fan mail, helping him handle stuff on the marketing/business end. Sidenote - you can see a photo of aforementioned cake, and wayyyy bigger/better photos of Ryan's work on their blog. It's such a great blog, combined with great art... lots of fun. Why don't I ever get to have kooky/kewl people like this for neighbors???

Anyway, his images of animals wearing suits struck a big fat chord, and I've decided to do a whole wall in Riley's bedroom with these fantastic prints. Wondered if Riley would be down with the plan. He's thirteen and prone to irrational outbursts. Kidding. Turns out, he really digs 'em. They are very reasonably priced, and kewl, kewl, kewl!!! Please tell me, how in the frick am I going to choose five? Think it's gonna have to be seven.

I also very much LOVE the Limited Edition prints, but haven't found another wall, or place in the budget for them yet. The previous Limited Edition set, called Champion Festival, is FANTASTIC. Not many left, so check it out. My personal favorite is called "Judge's Choice". There were a bunch of other neat ones, but I think they've been sold out. http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=36359037. Did I tell ya? Fun stuff. Love the seagull (think he's a seagull??) pushing from behind.

I actually sent Ryan/Lucy an email when I discovered these treasures, to see if I might be able to commission an original. He sent me a note back saying that he's swamped at the moment, but to check back. fyi, Ryan, I am now on a mission. They have a great selection of animals already available for purchase, but there's one special animal I would really like to immortalize in a portrait, and if it was wearing a suit it would be that much funnier. Was thinking that I could get it for a combo Bill's b-day/Father's Day gift. Now shooting for Summer 2011.

For those of you who aren't familiar, will now digress and drag you into the story of the nyest (pronounced 'n-yeh-sh-t' in Hungarian) that has been haunting my family for...well, to quote a Kiwi friend, "donkeys' years". A nyest (otherwise known, in English, as a Marten) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marten is a carnivorous animal, found all over Eastern Europe, and is related to the wolverine, mink, and weasel. This particular nyest (let's call him Hamish), relocated his family to our roof way back in 2001.

Poor Hubby spent months, years, hours, and lots of hair (he is now completely bald) trying to get Hamish and Co. to take the hint (i.e. make like a bread truck and haul buns), to no avail. Eventually, we had to call in a nyest specialist. Wish I was kidding. Not kidding. Spent 1 million Hungarian forints ($5k) to nyest-proof the roof with galvanized tin, so that the little bastards couldn't get back in. Economic considerations turned out to be the least of the problem. They are nocturnal animals, so would return to their cozy spot in the roof at exactly 4am every morning after the hunt, which was coincidentally right above our bed. I would sleep like a log through the whole thing, but Bill was a wreck. You know that sleep-deprived-gone-a-bit-mad look? He had it every morning.

Swear, it was the nyest, not me, that has taken those years off his life. As an added bonus, our unwelcome squatters would leave rotting chicken heads and other fantastic surprises in the roof. This was okay in the winter, but left somewhat of a lingering, undesirous smell in the summer. We really thought Hamish had taken off after we installed the tin contraption around the entire roof, but found last summer that he had not only returned to the roof, but somehow managed to get in the garage and under the hood of the car, chewing all the cables in his path. I do realize that this is not going to make the 'Top 10 Anecdotes of 2010' list, but wanted to give you the background on my need for a portrait of this specific animal

On that note, will wrap it up. Check back for Thursday's Thirst Quencher. Haven't really figured out what that means yet, but will do so tomorrow morning. xo.