Holiday Season Quotes

Christmas cards, or any personal mail, is fun to recieve, especially from friends and family. I've been sitting here for hours, trying to personalize each and every holiday card that I'm going to be sending out, because it'll make it that much more special for the recipient when they get our card, (plus I won't feel like I wasted so much paper by simply writing our names on it.) When I got stuck with trying to personalize something, I remembered a colleague of mine had looked up quotes to use in a card. I didn't use all these, but thought I'd share some I liked with you, and inspire personalizing those holiday cards!

1. One kind word can warm three winter months. ~Japanese proverb
2. A little smile, a word of cheer, A bit of love from someone near, A little gift from one held dear, Best wishes for the coming year… These make a Merry Christmas! ~John Greenleaf Whittier
3. One of the most glorious messes in the world is the mess created in the living room on Christmas day. Don't clean it up too quickly. ~Andy Rooney
4. Nothing's as mean as giving a little child something useful for Christmas. ~Kin Hubbard
5. Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night! ~ Santa Claus

eeeg... I've been tagged!!!

I've been tagged by a very talented artist, and old friend, Michelle Lana! Yay!

Okay. Rules of the game: List 5 favorite Christmas Songs that you can think of and then tag 5 other people and see what they come up with.

Let's see.. 5 favorite Christmas Songs;

1. Old Toy Trains - my favorite song that I've only heard a few times growing up, but sing it to myself every year, the forester sisters version!
2. Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire
3. Driedel, driedel, driedel - The South Park version :)
4. Jingle Bells - Bare Naked Lady's version
5. Winter Wonderland

Belgian Waffleness

I wanted to show my friend how excited and grateful I was to receive this package in the mail the other day! I begged him not to get me anything, but he was a persistent little bastard. See, he's working on his major, and for one of his class projects, he asked for my constructive criticism on a kids guide to the D.C. Cherry Blossom Festival, which I tore up (thanks for still being my friend!) Thank you, thank you, thank you, I do not deserve such cute waffle-ness. *drool* Can't wait to see his Kids Guide. If I can get more information about the organization he's helping, I'll post that up too!

IF: Might

... and with the mighty wind, he sang with all his might, wishing the one he loved that they might hear him wishing her a goodnight...


See the original sketch from my sketchbook pages!

Post-It Art

This is my one line guy! i put the pen on the paper and didn't lift it from the paper until I was done.

Another Post-It drawing, this time on the plain yellow square stickie. This was the view from my office window of a hotel.

IF: Smoke

Can you find the word?!

IF: Wind & Ghost

i've gotta make time to do this stuff in illustrator or something.. I haven't quite gained control over colored pencils or pens yet, and it's driving me nuts! I think I'll try to go digital for this friday's challenge.. I owe it to myself...

IF: Smitten

What a hard theme for this week. I kept wanting to do something a little different, but I couldn't think of anything. I stopped thinking about it for a few days, thinking I'd have to sit this one out until today at lunch a few ideas started to come out.

The Prison Break (in)

no, not the show... we made our own little break to the Lorton prison! It's been closed down for some time, and is being prepped to become a huge art center, and condos. Before they start all that, J.D. and I drove out there to hopefully get some great photographs for his parents who will be moving near the prison. We had a lot of fun exploring the spooky halls, and climbing the spiral stairs to the clock tower.
We wanted to "break in" to the prison to take photos of the actual prison cells, but they had it pretty well fenced off. boohoo. We came out alive, there weren't any convicts left behind in any of the abandoned rooms or holes in the walls.
We even came upon a footpath that lead to a bridge and creek. It was incredibly peaceful to be in a place where there wasn't anyone else around, and listen to the water run through the rocks, and listen to the wind through the trees... *sigh

I put the photos up on flickr if you'd like to take a peek!

Muh New Toaster!

It gets me from point a to point b, it's great on fuel, and it heats up a mean toast! I drive a toaster!The Scion XB; you can't get anymore toastier than that! I actually enjoy this car.. I guess I would have had too, or I wouldn't have bought it! It's unbelievably roomie inside and has a lot of neat features, and if I get bored, I can customize it to look a bit like this...

haha!!!.. I joke with J.D. all the time about Hello Kittying my car out!
but for now, I guess I'll have to drive it like this!

Strange things hide in trees. I've been watching too much Discovery Channel nature shows during my down time! I love trees with interesting bark, and I've been feeling evil lately, so watch out or you'll be in trouble! muwahahaha... It's so time for Halloween!

IF: Quiet

It's been awhile! I think I was burnt out from the pressure of sketching, creating and finishing up home projects, and was soooo relieved that we actually had a few weekends to relax. I'm starting back up again! I'm also in my interior decorating mood, and have started planning, laying out, measuring, etc... all the upstairs bedrooms, halls and bathrooms!! I'm a little slow on the uptake, so this weeks effort was a little weak, but I wanted to contribute to help get me motivated again.

She's enjoying a nice cup of cocoa in a big comfy chair in a quiet coffee shop, after a brisk walk in the bitter cold. yum.

Not-so-booples

:::UPDATE::: I've been told that Booples already exist :( so sad.. mine are cuter!! So they can no longer be called Booples... Any name ideas???

I'm couldn't think of anything else to call them, so Booples seemed fitting. I'm thinking of painting these guys on three pretty decent sized panels. Most likely will use acrylics, since I'm ok with them. Any thoughts and ideas?

moleskine sketch page

Vandals in a Quiet Neighborhood

While driving home from a day of shopping, we took this shortcut through a quiet neighborhood. It's a long, long road, so they've placed 'Hump' signs all along it. The last one we went over, something caught my eye, and I noticed a little guy in front of the big guy. Someone made a little dude out of duck tape, and stuck him up there. I made J.D. turn the car around and drive back through the hump, just so I could get a photo, it was so funny!

Stickerific MooDude

MooDude sent me a wonderful package of his stickers this past weekend! I had had a long day at the office, and recieving this colorful pieces of stickiness really made my day!

Illustration Friday: Farm

ok.. so... uh... yes, so, this relates to the theme 'farm' because it has a cock and bulls.. haha.. i didn't intend for it to come out that way. He is a little mad, probably because he's made out of metal, and it's hard to move around, and he cuts himself all the time, and well.. let's face it, what lady wants to be around a cock like that. hehheh.

Moleskine sketch

Illustration Friday: Safe

We had an eventful Labor Day weekend. Our poor little Jado potato suddenly became sick, and wouldn't eat or drink, so we took her to the emergency pet hospital, where she stayed for two nights. She was abso-toot-ly awesome when we took her there and back. She stayed in J.D.'s arms the entire time, and would tuck her little nose into the elbow crack whenever she was uncomfortable.


She's feeling alot better than she had, but we're keeping a good eye on her. She had a bunch of wierd things happening. Something looked like it was stuck in her small intestine, she was constipated, had a urinary tract infection, and had high toxin levels in her kidney and liver. On top of that she scraped her mouth and has what looks like a blackhead on her lip. Poor Jado :( We have to give her medication twice a day, which a pure pain because it requires both J.D. and I, one to hold her body, and one to open her mouth and squirt the medication down her throat.. ugh..

Moleskine sketchbook page

Anyway, thought I'd post photos of our kitties. They look alike because their sisters.

Say Hi to Jade! She's posing with her favorite toy, a fuzzy little hedgehog stuffed with catnip, yum!
And Hi to Maya! Our little princess.

Charmed Gel Pens

A friend suprised me with these today at work! They're so cute! I've already tried each one out, scribbling hello's and squigglies on my stickies. They work incredibly great, the ink runs smooth and the colors are really vibrant. I threw the box away, so all I have to tell you is that they're gel pens, and I'm going to have fun with them.

aaaarrggh

I've switched over to the beta-blogger, which has super cool features, except for the fact that I can't post comments on non-beta blogs, which google's trying to fix. I know it's a beta and it's going to have bugs.. This is actually more of an apology to those who I'd like to leave comments too on their blogspot blog, but can't rather than a full rant. So, SOWWY... :(

:::::UPDATE:::::
Google has fixed all these bugs and then some! Yay Google!

random illustration

Thought I'd share few old sketches. This was sketched out years, and I mean yee-ears ago. I have always thought of doing more with it, like an life-size painting with this style. I've done a bird using this illustration style, but stopped there. sigh.. one of these days!