I'm all over the place.

Right?
Vampires, monkeys, Dorothy and the gang...
And now a bear...wearing a hat...holding a bunting. What's that about?



Well, whatever. I like him. He's cute and small and crackled and sad. Perfect. :)
If you think so too, you can find it here.

All of our thoughts are with my nephew right now.
Love you Shane and will be thinking of you everyday.

Weekend Doodles

Well, you can't sketch one without doing the whole gang. :)

IF - Old-Fashioned

His was that old-fashioned, forever kind of love.

FOREVER LOVE

Ahhhh, who'm I kiddin'?

I know I said I was gonna fancy this up, but simple is good too, right?
Besides I'm anxious to move on to my next sketch.
Here's a sneak peek:

Autumn Stroll is in my shop.
And I promise to get back to the carnival girls once I get all of the "fall/halloween" out of my system.

HAPPY THURSDAY!

Autumn Stroll

I love her, but feel like I might want to spruce her up with a pretty wire or ribbon hangar. Maybe some beads or charms.
Maybe. We'll see.

How could I resist?

When I was so nicely asked to create a sister piece for I AM A Bat, how could I refuse.
Well I couldn't, so here she is. She'll soon be off to France to join her brother.

So I think that's about it. With the exception of a few things for family members, I think I'm caught up and free to make whatever I want.
It seems like I'm forever striving for this. And then, of course, when it happens every awesome, creative thought I've ever had suddenly doesn't seem so awesome. And I'm like, "I don't know what to paint".
Well, not this time Mister!
So be on the look out for new artwork in my shop. Soon. :)
I mean it.

Friday Catch-up

Well, I was trying to wait to post this image thinking maybe it would fit the Illustration Friday theme, but they haven't updated the site yet and I've got things to do.
I've already been sitting here for 2 hours listening to Aaron and Jesse on the radio.
Unfortunately, although you could tell their live performance sounded good you could barely hear it. It was a college radio station and apparently not really set up for live performances. Or maybe Aaron just wasn't close enough to the microphone. Who knows.
But, the tracks they played from the cd sounded really good, I think!
We'll see what they have to say when they get back home.


In other news, my poor Penny is not doing so good this week. Not sure if it's from the pills she was taking for her skin allergies or what, but she's stopped eating and is unable to go to the bathroom. They had her on IV fluids all day yesterday and she's back home, but not doing any better as far as I can tell. She'll drink a little water, but that's it.
Hopefully things will turn around soon. I hate seeing her this way and plus I'm running out of money. :(


So that's the bad news, but on the upside I got my attic all cleaned up. So much more room to move around up there. When it's like this I can really imagine what a great master bedroom/studio space it would make. Maybe someday.
For now I've got my little painting nook.
It's where I painted this, "Take My Hand, Little Monkey"
It's available here.
Have a great weekend!
Happy Birthday, Dee!!
Feel Better, Penny!!!

Poppin' in...

Ruca is just poppin' in to say you should go and listen to her daddy and her uncle (Aaron and Jesse from Flyght) on the radio.
They are playing live on the radio here at 8:00 am.

New Paint

No new art to show, so I thought I'd share some pictures of the newly painted dining room.
We usually are all about the color so this is taking a bit of getting used to.
I'm going to work with it for now and see what takes shape. It's looking kinda bland right now.

I brought the Presidents down from the attic, but I'm not sure if they are staying.

I'm kinda all over the place...not sure what direction to take.
I've been stealing things from other rooms.

And even broke one of my precious figures out of her box. :)
Gah! The table def. needs painted too.

I've also been up in the attic. Trying to get rid of stuff. Again. Small window of opportunity to be up there between too hot and too cold.
I'm making some pretty good progress I think.
I'll keep you posted.

IF - Proverb

A bird in the hand...
well, you know the rest. :)

See more proverb illustrations at Illustration Friday.

Have a lovely weekend!!!

I'm finding it so hard to blog lately.

And that's not really like me, is it?
So what have I been doing that keeps me away.
Lots of stuff and nothing at all, I guess.

Well, with back to school came birthday time around here. For Mike and me that is.
Instead of buying each other more Penguins merchandise (go pens!) we decided to get a shared gift of new Pottery Barn curtains for the living room.


I know, that sounds like it's just for me, but the plain white curtains made daytime t.v. watching very difficult. And there are sometimes football and hockey games on during the daylight hours, so.....


And, of course, anytime you get something new for the house, it makes you realize how dingy everything else looks.
In this case it was that not-all-that-old paint color in the adjoining dining room.
So my Sunday project was painting in there. An off-white of all colors, Again, that's not like me either.
But I think I like it. I know I like it better than that last color, which reminded me of the stuff Melvin (our grade school janitor) used to throw on vomit before he cleaned it up.



So yeah, that. And also on Saturday, Flyght had their biggest show yet at the South Park Rib challenge. They were one of the bands opening for Fuel. The released their new EP at the show and sold lots of copies. You should have seen the people around the merch. table after they finished playing! They were so good! We were very proud.
This show has already led to them being booked to open for Cavo at the Altar Bar in Pittsburgh in November!



So those are my excuses. School, redecorating, Flyght shows... throw in a bit of Mike needing the computer for official Ringgold Hockey business, and all of us being under the weather at some point over the last few weeks and there you have it.

The sketches you see here are what have been coming from my pencil when I do get a few minutes to sit down with my sketchbook. They are a little different for me, but not too much. Like 'em?

Okay so, if anyone out there is interested in a Flyght cd just let me know.
Only 4 songs on it, but each one is better than the next. You'll listen over and over. I listened at least four times while painting the dining room. :)
Aaron wrote all of the songs on it with the exception of Everclear which he and Jeremy both wrote.
It is a little heavy, but not too heavy. Mostly just awesome. :)
I will warn you there is one count of profanity. So if you are sensitive to that this may not be for you.
Anyway, $5 plus $1 for shipping.

Trying to find some balance.

A new school year seems like a good time to get organized, take inventory, and look a the way you spend your days...
oh, and to JUST BREATHE.