Oh, Deer!

New illustration.  I'm proud of it.  My scanner is small and I didn't feel like piecing it together, so this is just the main part of the picture.  But you get the idea.

Swept...

Here's my "Swept" theme for Illustration Friday this week.  I haven't been participating, or I've been half participating (meaning starting something and not finishing it or starting something and going off on a different tangent).  But, I like this one.  It looks better in reality.  Scanning always seems to mess with my stuff. Oh well.

Toybox Down the River...

I got some happy news today that I will have a sweet summer job as a Library Assistant at the branch near my house.  This is good news!  It means extra money for me and something to put on my resume that isn't retail.  Unfortunately, it is only temporary.  I love libraries.

Anyway, here is a recent drawing...

It's too big for my scanner and the photo isn't wonderful, but I am happy with the way it turned out.  I was going to add some watercolor washes, but I was told to leave it alone.  Maybe next time I will.  Maybe I'll even participate in Illustration Friday this week.  We'll see...

Some days...

I just like to chew with my mouth open.

Cat's Pajamas

So, I decided to buy this huge amount of natural clay to play with.  When I was in school, I only had one 3D art class which I did very well in.  I was told to pursue a career in sculpture or pottery, or something along those lines, but my heart has always been in 2 dimensional work (drawing, painting, etc.)  It still is, but I am kind of combining my skills and creating these small clay sculptures, which I then paint on.  I'm pretty pleased with the way they are coming out.  Here is my first one:

I'm currently working on a monster with a little girl riding on the back.  It's still in the clay stages with no paint yet, but it looks pretty cool.  Now for some fun!

It's getting so nice and springlike around here in NJ.  I took my daughter (Izzy) and my neice (Rhiannon) out the other day to play and explore.  Here's some fun pictures.

The girls.

 Me and my Girl.

 Me and my neice.

 Little Izzy.

I worked really hard on that crown.  They wore it for 2 mintues. 

I love them both a lot. They are a lot of fun!

Shop Promotion...

I decided to off a 20% off coupon code for now in my shop to anyone who reads/visits/follows my blog.  I don't know how long I'm going to offer it, but for now it's an open invitation to all.  All you have to do is put in the order and type HONEYBLOG into the coupon code area.  Thanks to everyone!

Stir... Illustration Friday

It's hard work making food for all of the forest spirits.

Here's my submission for Illustration Friday for the week.  Since the topic is stir, I thought I'd include my favorite cookie recipe as well.  Here ya go: 

Butter Cookies

Ingredients


2 cups butter, softened
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 eggs
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
4 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt

Directions

1.In large bowl, cream together the butter and sugar. Beat in the eggs one at a time, then stir in the vanilla. Combine flour and salt, then mix into the creamed mixture. Shape dough into logs about 2 inches in diameter. Wrap in waxed paper and refrigerate until firm.

2.Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Unwrap the rolls and roll them in sprinkles, decorating sugar, or nuts, whichever you like best. Try to slice them as uniformly as possible, so they cook evenly. Place slices 2 inches apart onto ungreased cookie sheets.

3.Bake for 8 to 10 minutes in the preheated oven. Do not brown. Remove to a wire rack to cool completely.

Dear Bald Guy...

At Costco with the Harley jacket on, I realize you are a hairdresser and you're stuck on people's hair, but really there are more important things in life. Nothing gives you the right to be rude to anyone and if by telling me, my mother, and my hair dresser sister that we all have split ends you were looking to get new clients, that is a really bad sales strategy. No, I haven't had a haircut in about 2 years and yes my hair is probably pretty split up, but that doesn't make it okay to say that to 3 total strangers. And maybe before you open your mouth you should think about the fact that you're a bald hairdresser!

Illustration Friday- Warning

This is my submission for Illustration Friday this week.  The theme for this week is "Warning".  I thought about doing something like a caution sign or something like that.  Or depciting something dangerous, but it seemed like a lot of people were doing that.  And then the proverb popped in my head, "red skies at night is a sailor's delight, but red skies in the morning is a sailors warning."  So that is what my image is based on. 

Dreaming... Literally.

I had this crazy dream last night that I can't stop thinking about. It's been a while since I had a dream I could remember. And lately, the ones I do remember have been lame at best (the kind where you go to work and wakeup thankful that you're not really at work). This dream was like a horror movie. And I like horror movies a lot.

I'll just say the gist of it. The main character (i was seeing her point of view in the dream) was this young girl who went away to college and she is returning home to see her family. Her family consists of her father, who was very distraught since the mother had died recently, and a younger sister who is still in high school. when, the girl left for school the house and property was in disrepair due to the fathers depression. Upon returning she sees he has a new vibrancy and the house is completely taken care of better than ever, except in the backyard there are all of these small shrine-like buildings made of sticks. The father is just constantly working on the fixing up the property and the girl realizes that whole town is into this new home improvement craze.

The sisters figure that something weird is up after a while and one day the older girl goes into this trance state and starts working on the yard as well. She starts lifting objects that are far too heavy for her to carry and ends up hurting her back and legs. She puts it together that the people in this town are somehow being possessed and working themselves to death in preparation for something major. More evil things happen and there are animals walking around with out skin, they look like walking meat. So disturbing. It is revealed that the younger sister is a virgin and is pregnant with the Antichrist. The town is preparing for the arrival.

I didn't get to finish the dream, unfortunately. Pretty crazy though. It probably just means i am stressed out about providing for my daughter or something. It would make a good movie though.

No more shampoo?

There is nothing wrong with my hair in particular (besides the fact that it's really long because I can't decide what I want to do with it).  I just think it gets a little dull and oily sometimes and I do not like to wash it everyday.  I wash it every other day. 

Anyway, I have been trying to live a little more natural lately.  Eating better.  Trying to improve myself.  So I've decided to try an experiment in using natural household items on my hair.  I found an article on using baking soda and apple cider vinegar on your hair.  Yes, the apple cider vinegar smells a bit nasty.  I've used it once thus far and my hair was definitely clean, but I don't like the smell of the vinegar.  If anyone has any suggestions on that, I'd be open to it.  I was thinking maybe I could mix a strong smelling oil in it or something like that. 

The portions were 1 tbsp baking sode to one cup of water and rinse it out.  And then 1-2 tbsp apple cider to 1 cup of water and rinse, but use this sparingly if you have oily hair.  I'm going to give it a shot for a while and see how my hair does. 

Isobel

I just made a new acrylic painting.  It looks great in reality, but when I scan it, not so much.  The light is reflecting so bad off all the little canvas bumps.  You miss out on a lot of the detail.  I'm going to put it up, but keep in mind how much detail it's lost.  I'm going to try to take a picture of it and see how that works out.  But for now, here it is:

I'm pleased with the way it came out.  I just have to figure out the fuzzy bump issue.

Ergh, not again!

I'm so tired of snow!  I can't stand driving in it.  I don't like the cold.  I just want to move somewhere that its room temperature everyday.  I don't know if that place exists, but I'd like to go there.  I've also been getting these terrible headaches everyday.  Don't know if that is weather related.  But it is annoying. 

All this indoor time should be good for my art-making, but my headaches are kind of destroying my motivation.  I'm trying to get an acrylic painting done, but it's slow going.  There's so many things I want to make, but I lack the time and motivation I guess.  I would post the painting here, but it really is in the beginning stages and not sure if it's worth seeing. 

Resolutions IF...

The theme this week for Illustration Friday is "resolutions".   My resolution this year is to relax and enjoy the world more.