M. F. Squirrel

It's too good. It's all just too good. My newest Etsy crush is on Elloh (also known as Ellen), a gal in Philly making art, who also happens to have a strikingly similar taste in movies and TV as I do (the 80s, Hitchcock, Amelie, and a strong love and adoration for The Office). She's also got this Sarah Vowell thing going on with the obsession with presidential facial hair. I dig it.

So she's this week's "Stuff on Etsy I'd Like to Buy." Here are some highlights from her shop. You have no idea how hard it was to narrow it down.

Pam from The Office. In fact, Ellen has painted ALL of the characters from The Office. And not just the American version. The UK version too. You can find them in her Etsy store. They're amazing. Now that is a labor of love.



The characters from The Breakfast Club. This was the first one I saw where I thought, Okay, maybe I need to buy one of these. This would be an ode to my youth. My brother had videotaped this movie and Pretty in Pink (she memorializes that one too) off of cable, so I grew up watching it with all the curse words in it. I thought it was weird when I got to high school and didn't hate my parents.



I had a love affair with the movie version of To Kill a Mockingbird when I was in high school. We had to read the book, and it was great, but the movie is what really got me. Gregory Peck as Atticus. I love my dad and all, but having Gregory Peck be my dad was sort of a dream of mine. And of course I thought the world of Scout. This set of paintings of her is the best - I love Scout as the ham.



Also, Berkley Illustration is having another "vote on your favorite animal for Ryan to do up in people clothes" thing, and if you love polar bears and/or love me, you'll go vote for the PBs. Clearly I am doing a lot of kissing up to them but so far it has done me no good.

On the homefront, I should point out that it was discovered that the culprit of my plant upheavals was indeed a squirrel. I caught one in the act last week. I called Nicole (who has had similar problems) that morning and was like, "M. F. squirrels this!" and "M. F. squirrels that!" Except, you know, not abbreviated.

In addition to uprooting my plants from time to time, I discovered a wee pecan tree growing from a buried pecan in my hydrangea. I will also blame this on the squirrels. There seems to be a seasonality to the rodents bothering me. The birds eased up after the spring (migration perhaps?), so now we've moved on to the squirrels. What's next? It's like freakin' animal kingdom out there.

Meanwhile, when I get filled with squirrel animosity, I like to watch this video. If I had a yard, I'd get one and watch the squirrels go flying off all day long. The fun really starts at around 3:40.