Home Project

We've repainted our upstairs guest bathroom all white, and it looks sooooo much better than it used too. There was a country blue floral border along the top, and the wall color was an off-white, brown, cream grossness. I wanted to puke every time I passed it. Well, since we were expecting guests to stay with us for awhile, we decided that now was the time to give it a bit of a face-lift. We took out the shiny brass sliding doors to the bathtub that had crackly glass and a delightful stenciling of flowers. blech.. Than we took out the 80's studio vanity lights, and the country bumpkin vanity mirror off the wall, and replaced it with what you see now. And we couldn't feel more refreshed with it.


In all the excitement, I painted a simple painting to put above the toilet. I'm still working on the small shelf that will be put below the painting to hold some small baskets of stuff.
Thought I'd share, since J.D. worked so hard to put it all together!

IF: 80's

Nana, who was in her 80's, didn't live in an area where a lot of people lived. Alfred, having the memory he has, baked a lovely cake for Nana for her Birthday.

IF: Buzz

Phew! I made it. I had this sketched out in my book all week, but only had time tonight to carry it out. I thought I'd try something different. Wanted to use colored paper and play with the negative space... obviously need a little more work.
I took a stencil tool and pushed the outline through velum onto the cardstock. Took a blue and green colored pencil to highlight the lines and shade the areas. After scanning it in, I did a little digital cleanup.

And for those of you who must know... if this were me, I would have pushed the clock over onto the floor by now!!! (I'm soooo not a morning person) :)

Nando: Clocky

anticipation is killin me...

well, first, my thoughtful parents got me a wacom intuos tablet for xmas this year.. unfortunately they had to return it to exchange it for a smaller one. So I've been waiting oh so patiently for that to arrive, so I can start playing around with it!!! Come on Mister Postman!!!

Secondly, I went out to Plaza Artist, and bought a new moleskine sketchbook. I've almost completed my first moleskine, (a large graph lined notebook), which has been a wonderful starter. It's also the first sketchbook I'll ever be completing, front to back, so this is a very exciting accomplishment for me! (it doesn't take much!)
This time I got the large sketchbook moleskine with plain thicker pages, so ink (hopefully) won't bleed thru. I'm dying to take it out of it's plastic sheeting, and open it.. feel the pages, take out all of my pens, pencil and markers and start experimenting with what works on its surface and what doesn't. oooh.. I'm sooo anxious to open it..

By the way.. I've updated my sketch dump blog if you were interested!

Cheers!

IF: Phoenix

there's always one in the bunch that wants to live on, so it found the Fountain 'O' Youth!

Yip-Yip, Hooray!!! One full year of blogging has past, and I'm still blogging! I have Illustration Friday to thank for keeping challenged. I also have you to thank for viewing my posts, leaving messages behind, that draw inspiration and motivation to keep sharing. Thanks for celebrating with me!!! Happy One Year Blog-iversary!!! Woot, Woot!

IF: Peace

IF: Help

This started out, last friday, as a few simple notes, then a head inspired by the cartoon Avatar. For the next four days I kind of let my mind go wherever it wanted. This is incredibly mindless, but it really helped me out, creatively, to just let my mind and hands do whatever without too much thought. It was a fun exercise. (By the way, this is a two page spread from my sketchbook, which is why there's the split down the middle.)

Here's another view of it sideways, so you can see the other face. Thought it looked kinda neat this way too.

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.