My momma always said,

“Life was like a box of chocolates: Full of surprises, especially if a cheeky duck has decided to sneak into it.”
I think this is roughly how the famous(ly misquoted) line in the popular 1994 Robert Zemeckis film Forrest Gump goes? The duck insisted I got it just right.
Recreating the “Here’s Johnny!” still from The Shining for our initial Covid post was so fun that the duck and I wondered what the duck would look like inside other famous movies. So, here is my latest artistic endeavor: Forrest Duck!

Color pencils have always been one of my favorite art mediums (= one of the few I could somewhat control). So, this is what I decided to go with to eternalize the duck’s inner runner and outer chocolate lover.

Do you have a favorite movie quote? Is there a movie you like to rewatch every now and then?

A duck in February

In the past few years, I have gotten used to the advantages of digital doodling. To change it up, I tried my hand at (cheap) watercolors last year. I was not too impressed with the outcome. A few days ago, the duck spotted a mystery pouch among my art supplies and reminded me that I was once obsessed with Copic Ciao markers. They are considered the “affordable” version of the professional markers serious artists like to use. Still, the sheer amount of colors the duck discovered must have cost me half a fortune back when I was much younger (and apparently not yet super cheap). Delighted by my shock and excitement, the duck, possibly inspired by the “Duck in January” photo from last December, demanded I practice drawing the most important artistic subject of them all: ducks! So, here is “duck in the cold – February edition” (unfortunately, the scanner ate some of the lighter colors, so some of the subtler shadows got lost):
I hadn’t touched my old Copic Markers in a very long time; using them again made me wonder why because they were so fun to doodle with! I’ll definitely try to work with them more, now that I remember how much money I must have invested in them all those years ago. And who knows, maybe the duck will allow me to draw non-duck-related pictures someday…

Memory brownies

Do you have a food you remember fondly, not because it’s the best thing you’ve eaten but because you connect lots of vivid memories with it? For me, the first food that comes to mind is brownie bites! Whenever I find myself in a place where they are sold, I have to get a box and share it with friends because that’s how they became memory brownies. The last time the duck and I encountered brownie bites, however, we were surprised at how regular they tasted. I guess that particular situation was not suitable for new brownie bites memories. Or the duck and my tastes have changed throughout the years, or somehow the recipe changed? Either way, we decided to not let the fact that we had lots of brownie bites left over in the end (after several attempts at sharing them) sabotage their place in our hearts. This is why the duck and I created a new memory in the shape of this picture. I’m still not sure if it’s morbid or cute.
What do you think?
What are your (favorite) memory foods?

Lazy picnic ideas: An illustrated guide

It’s summer, the season of hot bedrooms and outdoor entertainment! The duck and I are lazy and prefer to spend most of our time inside. But we have been invited to a few outside exploration or catching-up sessions in the past that we thankfully accepted if we had the time. Whenever an outside activity includes a picnic or a general sharing of snacks, the duck and I usually try to come up with something simple and foolproof to bring along. We are decent bakers if we get to follow a recipe and only a minimal amount of decorating is involved. However, when it comes to cooking or improvising the results are usually hit-or-miss. To reduce our thinking-hard-about-what-to-bring-that’s-not-only-edible-but-actually-somewhat-enjoyable time, the duck and I decided to make a list of ideas to come back to if we want to contribute to the food situation at a picnic without betraying our laziness too much. And, because we’re generous, we decided to share it with you:

Walpurgis duck

Tonight is Walpurgis Night, a night that, while it’s named after and celebrated Saint Walpurga in the Middle Ages, is commonly linked with the imagery of witches having big celebrations on Brocken, the highest mountain in Northern Germany. Some Germans like to gather and dance around a big fire on the night of April 30th. Centuries ago, this tradition was said to banish evil spirits. These days, it’s mainly seen as a fun activity to greet the month of May. The duck’s favorite local custom is dressing up as a witch, as you might on Halloween, to gather with other like-minded makeshift magicians for a walk around the neighborhood. Since the duck has neither participated in nor personally observed this particular practice – and should definitely refrain from changing that this year! – I decided to create a virtual experience instead. And, because we’re generous, we’ll share with you our very own duck Walpurgis night witch costume dress-up doll set 🙂

If you were a witch or warlock what kind of clothing would you wear and what would your black cat friend’s name be?

When the duck is sleeping: A haiku

Dreaming of cookies
Happily dancing in space
On a rainbow cloud.

I’ve drawn several pictures of the duck and cookies in the years that we’ve known each other, but there was never one that adequately depicted what the duck’s dreams are made of. There still isn’t. But this picture has come the closest so far. It had been years since I used my (too) cheap watercolors and watercolor paper, so I had forgotten how bad they are. On top of that, I forgot everything that I had resolved to pay attention to for a less blotchy result. To diminish the chances of completely ruining this picture, I decided to use watercolor pencils for the small details. It’s far from what I imagined, but I don’t mind it (enough to redo it) – that’s the mindset you need for successful laziness! The haiku is descriptive enough, anyway.
I was inspired by Ricky Baker from the film Hunt for the Wilderpeople that I wrote about two weeks ago. So far, whenever the duck and I were in haiku composition mode, we tried to adhere to the form as much as we (as fauxets) were able to in English. Ricky’s haiku, however, merely follow the 5-7-5 pattern and, instead of describing seasons or sensations, they are about his current situation or feelings. We liked that. So we did that, too.

Corny Cat Corner

This year is crazy! And things are pretty weird for the duck and me on top of that these days. All this makes us miss having our very special friend around even more than usual. Well, we can still watch her through the window. But that’s not the same as having her lounge around in our bedroom, judging our every move, as she used to. So, the duck and I decided to build a little shrine so that we don’t even have to walk to the window anymore if we want to see a friendly feline face! Unlike the glorious image we had painted in our minds, it turned out very meager. But that’s okay. It still supports us in our quest for limitless laziness, so we’re happy!

This might be our last bedroom beautification broject in a while which is why we decided to be extra specific in our instructions on how to beautifully display your own accumulation of cat stuff (of course you can go with any other theme you like, but, trust me, this works best if you have immense admiration for the subject of your ‘art’ project):

A steady chocolate float ride…

This is the second time I repeat the terribly cheesy sentence that I used way back to describe my experience trying sakura flavored matcha KitKat for the first time. See, others would be ashamed of their corny attempts at fauxetry in describing the simple act of biting a chunk off a chocolate bar. Not us! The duck and I own up to all the weirdness we produce. In fact, we own up to it so much that we decided to adorn one of our leftover candle holders with exactly that: ‘a steady chocolate float ride through a peaceful matcha stream in the middle of (the week-long) cherry blossom season’, in a new installation of our bedroom beautification broject. The duck couldn’t wait for our art project to start. And, to be honest, I couldn’t, either. Being stuck inside and not being able to observe the change of seasons the way we excitedly did in Japan, the duck and I are trying to do what we can to remind ourselves of what the outside world is like (literally! As you can see by the chosen candle holder decoration theme):

Day 4: Turning mistakes into tea candle holders

Yesterday the duck and I wrote about how we were unpleasantly surprised when we found out that the Christmas tree scented candle that we had bought in hopes of having found the one Christmas candle that does not smell super sweet did indeed smell like a tiny tree on a mountain of gingerbread (well, I guess they might have advertised it as specifically Christmas tree scented, rather than, say, fir). Anyway, the duck and I took this mild disappointment and turned it into an exciting, somewhat Christmas themed, bedroom beautification broject! See, once the candle was gone and our room smelled like a cookie factory, we thought that we should definitely turn all our former candle containers into tea light holders, to give them another chance at not disappointing us!
This vanilla scented candle (which is a Christmas scent as you can tell by the golden glitter on it) did not look as neat as it does in the picture for long. I wonder what the duck was thinking about, casually looming? Well, it might have had to do with our plans of turning this innocent candle into a not as elegant looking colorful duck-display (keep reading to find out how):

100 memories

Soooo, this seems to be the duck and my 100th post (say what?!). First of all, we’d like to thank our approximately 5 unique readers (mom, thanks for the jam – it’s delicious)!
Looking back at the past few months of insane laziness, it’s kind of hard to believe that we actually wrote so much nonsense and even finished a video we never thought would see the light of day.
To properly celebrate this milestone, the duck and I thought that we should probably further decorate our bedroom so that it is truly worthy of the new royalty that resides in it – with a little photo wall that looks back on those past 2+ years (or, more precisely, the time we spent in Japan when we still managed to post on a fairly regular basis and took quite a few photos more than we do these days)! And, if you like, with our perfect step-by-step guide you can create your very own photo wall that celebrates the duck and my exploits!

To craft this thing that has truly never been done before, the duck and I didn’t need much:

• four small hooks that we ordered online for exactly this purpose
• wool that we found at the bottom of one of our drawers – of course that pretty dark grey would have been our first choice, anyway!
• a few clothespins that have shrunk in the wash (paper clips are an acceptable alternative)
• our beautiful photographs that you can get, too, by taking screenshots and removing the watermarks (just kidding, please don’t ever steal someone else’s art!)

Wow! It’s so easy! Let’s craft: