will & kate

Congratulations to the royal family!!!  Caroline and I were up to see every moment of it! And she is still here... a little late for school ;)  Wasn't it a beautiful ceremony? It was one to remember. Life needs fairy tale stories like this ♥.  I think, though, that a nap will be coming this afternoon!!! Have a great day!

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Part 2

I just had to say that I love the Google picture for today!  I have been having fun discussing the wedding with my Mom, who is a Middleton and who's family is from England... and goes back to the Myddletons of Wales. So, William Prince of Wales, you have my respect as a wishful subject! We just loved the ceremony and her dress. The rules of the Church require covered shoulders and it was so nice to see that respectfully done. It reminded me of the dress Julie Andrews wore for The Sound of Music:

The sleeves and neckline were all silk instead of lace, but very elegant and complimented her figure (without the tacky poofs and adornments that so many dresses today have.) Catherine did it exceptionally well with keeping the jewelry minimal to her beautiful diamond earrings (presents from her parents) and she wore her engagement ring on her right hand. American women tend to wear way too much jewelry at once, making it look cheap instead of one statement ring or necklace or earrings such as in this case. I hope the trend turns toward elegance again in fashion. Unfortunately the American tv show announcers on morning tv and even Barbara Walters made their own fashion faux pas all morning... not a surprise.

Caroline has informed me that she wants to live in Great Britain now so I guess that means either I move too or rack up the frequent flyer miles!! ;)  Maybe she can try college there first.  I am looking forward to a quiet evening and going to bed a little earlier than usual!

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Part 3

Nathalie posted this quote which I remember hearing and I love it so much too:
"Be who God meant you to be, and you will set the world on fire." ~ St. Catherine of Sienna

IF: bicycle

Who didn't love their banana seat bike?!  I used to ride my bike to school in Fifth Grade because I lived right down the street (five houses to be exact) and to make it worth my while, I circled the long way around by my friends' houses. By then I had moved up to a ten speed but my favorite bike will always be that first two-wheeler-- blue with white wall tires. sweet.

 I also found out that Gimp does color in RGB but my printer needs it to be in CMYK so this won't work. I guess Photoshop is the way to go. This is totally exasperating.

royalness

Still time to bid on Rob's plate over here! (until midnight London time). All proceeds go to Shelter. 

Caroline wants me to get up at 4 am to watch the wedding live, but since I'm not a morning person, I'm not sure my eyes open that early! I'm taping it just in case. I was thinking about making a little Union Jack banner for people to print out... that doesn't seem to happening either because I spent the morning watching the storms roll by, hiding from the tornados! It seems everyone has had to deal with these storms this spring. So... off to try to get a drawing done before the kids come in from school! I'm really not lazy... just juggling too many plates right now!

white kitchens and other dreams of a lazy housewife

I have been thinking a lot lately about one simple word: action.  About how one simple word can make all the difference between accomplishing something or just dreaming about it. It seems almost too easy to say that someone will be successful if they just take action. But I think it's really true. How much time have I spent daydreaming about what I'd like to do but never really do it?  Maybe I'm afraid of failure and I really think that's mostly it... but the only thing to fear about failure is not learning from it, because it's bound to happen as you work your way to success. It's really a given. So there's not as much to fear about that. Maybe it's about making excuses for the things I need to do first, so I never get to those things like drawing or creating that I really need to do. But at the end of life, am I going to be so happy that I got that load of darks in the dryer before bedtime?? No. Maybe it's time to pull out that book about being effective with my time again. But then I'm spending my time READING instead of DOING. I would like to say this is a lightbulb moment but I have thought about this before... so what does that say?!! I think I will write the word "ACTION" on index cards and stick them all over my house!

While we're on the subject of my house, I am falling in love with all white. Really, I always loved all white which is why it took so long to paint the walls red here in my kitchen. I wish I would have realized this before we painted all the walls red! Lynne posted about Tricia's white kitchen which immediately made me think I've made a huge mistake and should paint my walls and cupboards white. Sarah Richardson seems to always do her kitchens in white and she loves color. This is a good argument to use when I casually mention to Craig that I love all white kitchens. (And before he tells me that I'm completely crazy and I will live with this red until we sell the house!) 

SO... if I were a woman of ACTION, then I would just go buy some paint and get busy myself. This is exactly why I am writing this post. I will daydream about my white house but I am guessing that the chances of that happening are very, very slim. So I will be a woman of small actions and focus on drawing white kitchens any chance I get and maybe someday we'll move and my white kitchen will become a reality. That's not what you were expecting the conclusion to be, right?! :P

Well, just to let you know that I'm not totally a lost cause, I did just buy some new lights because I really didn't like the ones that were in my kitchen and am now putting in the ones I originally loved. It's a start in the right direction! And I will make tomorrow a real work day and get some illustration done. Small bites. That's my goal for now!

gimping it out

I hope everyone had a good Easter weekend! My kids were off of school today and we spent the afternoon with friends, enjoying the hot, sunny weather. It went from being chilly here to being like summer. I hope spring comes back. 

I have just been beside myself with joy at finding Gimp which is a free downloadable program, very much like Photoshop (which is very expensive). Caroline has used it at school and then my friend Silvia told me about it during our last class together. I figured out how to scan my drawings in and color them! I've been experimenting with some pictures I already did (I'm sure you recognize them). The first one was a pencil drawing and I was able to change the color of the pencil to brown and then add in the color in layers...

 In this one, I added color, texturized the skin and the green shirt, and then I added in a photo of gingham fabric to use in the boy's shirt! I'm trying to figure out how to keep a more traditional look but still use this program which works well with my Wacom tablet. The good news is that I can use this for my book illustrations since I send computer files to the printer anyways. I was having trouble scanning the colored pencil and the watercolor to come out correctly.

I know this isn't really big news to anyone else but it just made my life ten times easier and I actually can't wait to sit down and work now!  If anyone needs to know how to do this too, there is an online tutorial.

new stuff

Just some things I've been working on the past couple days for the second Pikaland Bootcamp Class: "How to Survive and Thrive as an Artist Online".  I came up with this name for a possible etsy shop too!

I also sketched this little drawing out as I was thinking about Illustration Friday's word "Journey" but I just ran out of time to do something with it this week! It's from a photo of a Nash-Austin Metropolitan which is two-toned and has matching whitewall tires!! Too cool. I love vintage cars like this. They used one in the Nancy Drew movie and I fell in love with them!

Well, the weekend has officially started... Have a Happy Easter!!! (sorry no bunnies on the blog this year...though I did get some chocolate ones for the Easter baskets). See you after the weekend.

powerful

California dreamin'...

Today was sunny and 70 degrees with a slight breeze.... PERFECT! It reminded me of Northern California weather and all I could think of was that I'm moving there. I don't know when, but I am. I started looking at real estate in Santa Rosa and Novato. I even know what kind of house I want. Not too big but with an open layout and light and sunny with windows and doors that lead to patios that are surrounded by flowers. They say if you picture something and want it badly enough, it just might happen so that's what I'm going to do. In the meantime, I'm just enjoying all the green that's popped up here in Lancaster. And tomorrow is already Friday! Can you believe it?

jamie oliver's food revolution

I don't know if any of you caught last night's episode of Jamie Oliver's "Food Revolution" but that's a bus full of 57 tons of sugar-- the equivalent to the amount of sugar the kids in the LA School District eat and drink in a week!! It was horrific. He has a petition to sign to get flavored/sugared milks out of our schools and let the kids drink good old plain milk. These sugary milks have as much sugar as a can of soda pop, which by the way, is not allowed into schools anymore! The LA School Board didn't want to let him in the schools... most of them look like they are all sickly, so no wonder. What I wish Jamie would have said was that there are now tests that show when kids ingest sugar before a test or exam, their scores drop. If schools were really concerned with achievement, you'd think they'd do everything possible to help themselves look better and the kids to do better.

Go here to sign Jamie's petition and find out more!

i love charlie brown

 Imagine how excited I was when I saw this photo (above) from the Charlie Brown Cafe! I did a quick search and found out that I have to go to Hong Kong or Singapore, just to enjoy some Peanuts Gang treats! DRAT!

I'd rather go back and visit Charlie at the Charles M. Shultz Museum in Santa Rosa, California. It's a gorgeous town and the museum is full of interesting facts... a little more for adults than children but I'm sure all enjoy it. I added my own sketches to a visitor sketchbook sitting out for contributions!

I'm also sure Charlie Brown misses me... ♥

IF: bottled

It's been awhile since I posted to Illustration Friday but I came up with this little sketch for the word "bottled".

they draw & cook

I found the perfect site for those of us who love illustration and cooking: they draw & cook!  If you're bored of reading regular recipes, take a look at this collection. Don't forget to try "dial-a-dinner" too...  it's lots of fun!

my maps

My last assignment for the Bootcamp Class!  The second was supposed to be a map of my mind so I did a stream of consciousness drawing... start at the pen and then follow the pictures. One drawing led to the next drawing. I left it like a doodle in black & white, like the doodles I'm usually doing in my sketchbook. I'm looking forward to the next class and also working on my illustrations for our book!

maps

from "Eloise in Moscow"

My assignment this week is to do two maps and I intend to do that... but while I was thinking about it, I remembered this map from the Eloise books, drawn by Hilary Knight who I think is a master genius at children's illustration. I could get lost in looking at these type of map drawings, imagining being there myself.  I posted it in class so I thought I would post it here too. I also loved Richard Scarry's towns and you probably remember those. Hopefully I will have something good to show you by Sunday!

listen

"Silent and listen are spelled with the same letters" ~ Albert Einstein

"Listen III" by enrouge on etsy

This has been another busy, quick week and here it is already Friday!  I am going down to Central Market next for my weekly groceries, but I wanted to wish everyone a good weekend!  I will hopefully be finishing my last assignment for the Artist Bootcamp I'm in which is due by Sunday, watching another soccer game, taking Caroline to her tennis lesson, cleaning and cooking as usual, and a few other weekend things.

In the midst of all of this, I want to focus on listening. Specifically listening in prayer. I think this is really hard. It's easy to do all the talking. Sometimes posting seems like a one-sided conversation until someone comments!  My last post led to a great discussion with a good friend (we tend to do that via emails instead) and I like to listen to people's points of view.  I've noticed also how I sometimes give God the personality of people I've known in the past and that's not always good. So when I do that, I try to think of Him more like Fred Rogers, who is one of my life role models. Then I want to sit and be silent and listen to whatever it is He has to tell me!

"When I say it's you I like, I'm talking about that part of you that knows that life is far more than anything you can ever see or hear or touch. That deep part of you that allows you to stand for those things without which humankind cannot survive. Love that conquers hate, peace that rises triumphant over war, and justice that proves more powerful than greed." 
— Fred Rogers

I hope you have a good weekend!
♥

ifit live

One of the greatest inventions of late is the ifit programs that are now on treadmills and workout equipment.  When our walking trails were closed off (for two more years) because of construction, we decided to get a treadmill so we can walk whenever we wanted to. Little did I know that ifit would totally change how I work out! Besides being able to work with a trainer, it has what I think is the greatest feature: Draw Maps.  I can run or walk in any part of the world I want to... on any route! I can go to any of my favorite cities, such as San Francisco and set my course. As I walk, I can see the sights as if I'm really walking it, on the hills and past places I've actually been! I've walked in the neighborhood I grew up in (I passed your Mom's house Becky!), the city of Rome, the streets of Paris, on the beach in Hawaii... I could even walk a course in my own neighborhood so I could train for the next local 5K! You can also join a live competition on the dates that they are held. My kids love this feature also. Now I just have to figure out how to get Elle on it so she can get some exercise too on rainy days! This really beats standing in line for a machine at the gym and seeing the same old thing every day.

Why are people so tired on April 1st?

....Because they just finished a 31-day March!"   
Did you laugh? ;)

"Long stormy spring-time, wet contentious April, winter chilling the lap of very May; but at length the season of summer does come." ~Thomas Carlyle Those warm sunny months are just ahead! "Oh, to be in England Now that April's there"

~ Robert Browning
I can't wait to see the royal wedding!!! I know it's probably silly but I love stuff like that!

the chair revisited

I had a thought about one of my Eames chair drawings and it led to this little watercolor sketch of the idea.  Just something fun... or dark... who knows?

sun salutation 3

Finally finished!  Feel free to click on it to enlarge and print out... and do! Great way to start your day!

Happy April!

Just playing around with my Wacom tablet and Illustrator, thinking about chairs for class. I used the image of my old Eames chair from my childhood... one I have so many memories associated with. Unfortunately in the hands of my sister, it was broken and when I got it back, it didn't last too long and had to be discarded. It has such an iconic shape... it was fun to play with the image.

This week was so busy and then Friday, we got a huge April Fool's joke when we woke up: SNOW! The daffodils and the forsythia bushes were already blooming and it decided to freeze everything. But it disappeared and the temperatures are slowly climbing. We need spring weather around here. I spent most of yesterday cleaning the house and I now need to take boxes around and purge stuff and donate it. I did get some good news too-- the book I'm working on can definitely be printed! We found an affordable "on demand" printer and so we can move forward with the project. I've now started telling people about it, so it's time to get busy drawing!

Other things-- saw a special doctor in Philadelphia and found out that I am suffering from adrenal fatigue so I now am being treated (naturally) for that. The good news is that my cholesterol is great (raw milk and eggs are good for you!) and my blood sugar is so perfect, I don't have to worry about it for another 10 years. I treated myself and the family to some Greek pastries from Market this weekend. I won't do that all the time, as I cut out most sugar, but it was good. I've decided to add a trip to Greece to my bucket list: gorgeous scenery, the ocean and fabulous food!  We also just planned our first of a few little summer trips-- in June we're going to see U2 in Baltimore and spend the next day doing a little sight-seeing. We are such big U2 fans... we're in nosebleed section but it still should be an experience of a lifetime!

can you see?

Have you looked outside today? Do you appreciate what you have? This made me think.

I had such a good week this week because I was lucky enough to hear this man speak. Blessed.♰