Illustration Friday: Crowded?

When I first heard the Illustration Friday theme was "crowded," I thought of my favorite Shel Silverstein poem, "Crowded Tub."

There's too many kids in this tub.
There's too many elbows to scrub.
I just washed a behind,
That I'm sure wasn't mine.
There's too many kids in this tub.

My ideas for my illustration varied, but I settled on these peas. And in honor of dear Mr. Silverstein, I offer this poem:

There's too many peas in this pod.
There's too many veggies to prod.
If I were a carrot,
I'm sure I could bear it.
There's too many peas in this pod.

Chocolate hangover?

Did you survive the post-Easter-marshmallow-Peeps-sugar-high let down?

I hope so.

Listen here, Easter Bunny?

Man, am I tired. Today has been filled with preparations for Easter. I got up, didn't drink enough coffee, then started running. Went grocery shopping, started cooking the various salads for lunch tomorrow (I don't suggest making carrot-raisin salad if you don't have a food processor...I have the orange shredded fingers to prove that.), then took a break for a family egg hunt. The kids were so cute gathering their eggs! Resumed cooking for Sunday, made dinner, then started coloring eggs.

The egg coloring was a true adventure, as it was with little brothers. At one point I felt like I was in the "Family Circus" Easter Special. I used to watch that every year. The kids were plopping eggs in dye left and right. And I think someone might have started singing "Listen Here, Easter Bunny." That might have been me. I was pleased with how well 5-year-old PJ did...and 3-year-old Max...well, let's just say that all dye has been cleaned up. But we do have a big bowl of beautiful eggs.

The only thing I didn't get to was the cut-out cookies, which makes me kind of sad.
Now I'm about ready to drop. But, I really enjoyed all that I did today. At one point my mom mentioned that I seemed much happier today that I have the last few days. And she was right. I've felt depressed lately, but today was good. Being busy was good. Accomplishing things for my family was good.

And now, in preparation of Easter, I invite you to enjoy a new favorite site around my house: I Love Egg.

Illustration Friday: Bloom?

Today I started drawing some little doodles, and I ended up drawing sad food. Most items had bites taken out of them. A little odd, but I could imagine printing or stitching them onto things. (Another thing to add to my to-do list!) Anyway, then I drew this sad little bloom, scanned it and painted it in Photoshop. Nothin' fancy, just a doodle.

Nice and spicy?

This not posting thing has become a bad habit...

The other day I discovered Spicy Brown. They have adorable t-shirts, but that's not all! They also have lists of restaurants categorized by types of food (all appear to be in CA.), and recipes that look delicious. I can't wait to try them! So if you're in the mood for shopping and lunch, check out Spicy Brown.

Crafty?

Falling under the categories of "Sew more" and "Craft more" on my list of things to do, today I started plans for things I want to make. I won't go into detail yet...plans may change...but I've drawn up some ideas for pins, keychains, wallets, and bags...plus what illustrations might go on them. I may do one, or all. We'll see how things go. And if they go well, I may even try and sell them. Whoa. That could be interesting...

Illustration Friday: Ancient?

I had a number of ideas for this week's theme of "ancient." But they were all so literal. But once I started thinking "Ancient Greece," this picture came to mind. I'm always up for a play on words. The one thing I really dislike is the outline. As soon as I started adding it, I knew I shouldn't have. Ah well, next time I'll know.

So much time, so little to do?

Wait. Strike that. Reverse it.

It seems like no matter how much time you seem to have, there are always more than enough things to fill it. And so many of those things get pushed to the bottom of the list. I figure that if I post my list, I may be more likely to work on it. So here is my list of things (in no particular order) that I want to do:

Create a portfolio site (the domain has been registered!)
Update my portfolio
Update the design on this blog (ideas are brewing!)
Draw more
Paint more
Sew the pouches I started months ago
Finish the knitting projects I started years ago
Craft more
Print up some fun cards on my Gocco
Take more photos (with real film!)
Experiment with different digital illustration techniques
Set up and use my computer's drawing tablet
Read more
Add to my sketch and collage journals more regularly

I guess I had better get busy!

Playing with type?

Robotype is the most fun I've had with type since my Computer Type Design class in college. This online "toy" allows you to take individual letters and move, scale, rotate and flip them. It reminds me of several school projects. So, this link is dedicated to my teacher Janice, who loved type, and would come into class and discuss the poor typography used on various television shows with me. (via MetaFilter)

Coming up blank?

Today I discovered B L A N K, a community blog about design from a Christian perspective. I like all of what they have to say, but I was especially drawn to this post by Paul Rustand of Widgets & Stone. He talks about how we often think that our passion and profession must be two separate things. They should be the same thing. After all, wouldn't God want us to put our passions and gifts to use? But too often time and/or money prevent us from taking a leap of faith. And sometimes, even when we have found a way to make them the same thing, and we have the security of a job, we leap. We leap and wait to see how God has plans to use us.

Creepiness of The Brothers Quay?

Perhaps instead of creepiness, that should be sleepiness...

Let me explain. A year ago, my friend told me about The Brothers Quay. He described their stop action films and told me that he didn't know that I would like their work. That it might be too creepy and weird. They sounded interesting, but I soon forgot about them.

Recently, I came across someone online that mentioned them again. I remembered what my friend had said, and decided to find some of their short films. I did, and on Monday night my sister and I watched.

She was the first to fall asleep. She soon woke up and went to bed. Shortly after, I started drifting in and out. Don't get me wrong, every part that I saw, I loved. I can't wait to see more. It's just that there is something about the soft music and the movement of empty doll heads that was comforting enough to put me to sleep. Yes, it was creepy. But it was good creepy.

Sadly, the video had to be returned. But I'll be checking it out again soon. This time I'll be sure to be less sleepy.