Penguin Doodle

(Semi) Daily Animal Doodle
(Full doodle list at bottom of post)


Pen-ga-win

One of my favorite animals ever. You should go watch this happy video and come back.


Our car is broken and so is our dishwasher. Help?


August Doodles:  Skunk, Armadillo, Moose, Frog, Robin, Mouse, Hummingbird, Camel, Squirrel, Penguin
Want to see more doodles? Check out June's here and July's here.

Squirrel Doodle

(Semi) Daily Animal Doodle


One curious squirrel coming right up.

I ran out of lead for my regular drawing pencils so I used some others that I had lying around. These new ones were much softer than I am used to - not sure if I like them better or not yet. They do make it easier to get really dark darks, though.


Want to know one of my favorite comfort / go-to / eat it when I don't know what else to eat foods? 


English muffins. Toasted to a crisp. With butter. And peanut butter. I usually have at least one a day.


Want to know something else? Today I had two of them. One for lunch, and the other for dessert after dinner. That's how much I like them.


I wonder how many english muffins I have gone through in my lifetime. 




August Doodles:  Skunk, Armadillo, Moose, Frog, Robin, Mouse, Hummingbird, Camel
Want to see more doodles? Check out June's here and July's here.

Catch Up

Alright. Now that I am caught up with life and life is caught up with me, I am ready to start blogging a bit more regularly again.


Let me just fill you in on a bit of what I've been up to lately.


Obviously there's the whole leaving my job and working from home bit. Obviously. And. So far I am absolutely LOVING it and am so thankful for this opportunity. And I can do things like ride my bike to the post office and then to Target in the middle of the day on a Monday.


But...I AM struggling a bit with using my time wisely. I am realizing that I need very strict schedules for myself in order to stay productive. But I'm still figuring all that stuff out - I'll be sharing more thoughts later this week. In the meantime...any advice from those of you who work from home? How do you keep yourself on track?


Besides that, I've also been having sleepovers with cousins, watching Kung Pow (Enter the Fist!), exploring the farmers market (documentation coming soon), trying to explain away Gepetto's crabbiness, reading Dandelion Wine by Ray Bradbury, going to birthday parties, watching Mad Men (Ummm today I watched the episode where Don Draper's little brother starts crying and that made ME want to start crying. Right there in my sweaty biking clothes. Who knew it was such a sad show?!?!) going shopping with my sis, getting feather extension-ified with the sis, having barbecues with friends, making smoothies with youth group kids, mint green nail polishing, watching Persuasion...and other stuff too.


Hmm. No wonder I had a problem with productivity last week.


Well. It was a fun week and I deserved it! 


Just kidding. We were just talking in our small group last night about self entitlement. 


Anyway. This week will be better. Productivity wise, I mean.

This is me and the hubs at Bar Lurcat for my friend Ashlea's birthday party. It was a fun and delicious time.


OK I have to go because I seriously need to put on more deodorant and change out of my sweaty bike clothes. Stay tuned for an animal doodle coming tonight!

Camel Doodle

(VERY Semi) Daily Animal Doodles


Here is the crabby camel that I promised.

Besides crabby, he is also disheveled, crusty, distinguished, old, and scribbly.


This drawing is obviously not my pride and joy. BUT we will make do. Since it's been over a week since my last doodle!!!!!!!!!!!!


Yikes.


August Doodles:  Skunk, Armadillo, Moose, Frog, Robin, Mouse, Hummingbird
Want to see more doodles? Check out June's here and July's here.

Life Some Days

Hi!


I'm still here.


And I still want to share about my recent trip, more daily animal doodles, and what I've up to during my first week of my new life (including my first ever trip to the farmer's market!)


BUT. I recently had a super hot deadline thrown at me for a project I'm doing for a client and it's kind've been taking up all of my free time.


And when I say kind've I mean VERY MUCH SO.


So that's my little update. Welp, see ya later. I hope to be back with a crabby camel doodle very soon.


To wrap this up I am including a picture of me and my bro. Because I don't think you've met him yet.

He's nice.

My Friend Pisica

Pisica is having a nice weekend.

So am I.


Yesterday was the last day at my job and on Monday I am starting a new chapter.


In the book of life.


Dramatic, I know.


And good.

My front porch. I mean...I don't have one.

The theme this week for Gussy's Inspiration Workshop was The Front Porch.


Since I don't have a front porch I naturally decided to take pictures of the front of my house.


Mainly because these guys have been sprouting up.

Awesome, right? And no, I did not plant them myself. I hate gardening, remember? The wonderful woman who lived here before us planted many flowers that in fact come up each year in front of our house. In the spring there are tulips (my fave), peonies in the mid summer, and sunflowers in the late summer. And I don't have to do anything except watch them grow!


Pretty spiff. That's short for spiffy.

Now that I'm thinking about it, this post would have better fit last week, when the theme was Gardening.


It's ok. I was gone last week. Plus the sunflowers bloomed THIS week. Everything works out for a reason, you know.


Still playing catch up over here in Pointsland. More stuff coming soon though.

Linking up with Gussy:

Click to see everyone else's linkups!

Hummingbird Doodle

(Semi) Daily Animal Doodle


Buzzzzzz

Last week at camp one day (Wednesday to be precise) I was waiting out at the high ropes course with my hubsie for the next group of campers to come and climb. I heard behind me a loud BUUZZZZZ!


OH NO! I thought. A gigantic bug!!!!


I turned around slowly. 


There was a lovely hummingbird buzzing just behind me. It gave me the stink eye and then flew away.


Welp, there you have it. My hummingbird story.


Don't worry, there are better stories coming soon.


August Doodles:  Skunk, Armadillo, Moose, Frog, Robin, Mouse
Want to see more doodles? Check out June's here and July's here.

AAAANNNDD we're back.

Hi!


I'm back from my vacation.


My trip.


Trying to gather my wits.


I mean, holy emails, facebooks, text messages, and over 200 things to read on my google reader!


I will be back soon with updates, pictures, and more doodles.


But for now, here is a bit of a sneak peak of what the scenery looked like this past week.

Mouse Doodle

(Semi) Daily Animal Doodle
I'm on vacay this week, but I was proactive enough to schedule some doodles ahead of time! Yay me!


I also had pet mice when I was a kid.

Ok do you want to hear a little story? When we were little, my brother and I got two pet mice. The pet store people said that they were two girls. But it turns out that they were boyfriend and girlfriend and they had lots of little mice babies. 


Then the mice babies had more mice babies and in order to prevent even MORE babies we separated the boys and girls into two different cages. Then the boys all fought and killed each other, and the girls died of old age. The ones that didn't get eaten by our cat or german shepherd, anyway.


We didn't get any more mice after that.


So. The moral of the story is this - pet store people don't know how to tell the difference between boy and girl mice.


August Doodles:  Skunk, Armadillo, Moose, Frog, Robin
Want to see more doodles? Check out June's here and July's here.

Robin Doodle

(Semi) Daily Animal Doodle
I'm on vacay this week, but I was proactive enough to schedule some doodles ahead of time! Yay me!


Here's a friendly robin.

Have I ever mentioned that I really like birds? Ya, I do. One of my favorite parts of our house is the bird feeders that hang right outside our living room window.


Ya, bird feeders make the world a happier place.


August Doodles:  Skunk, Armadillo, Moose, Frog

Want to see more doodles? Check out June's here and July's here.

In which I keep talking about myself.

Hi!


I'm up in northern Minnesota right now, and let's see, it's Tuesday so that means that I am probably belaying a bunch of teenagers as they attempt to climb at Carlton Peak.


Unless it's raining.


But. I need to tell you.


Today, if you head over to Paper Sparrow, you can read an interview about me and my animal doodles! Who knows, you might just learn something new.


So. You want to go read it? Click here!

Frog Doodle

(Semi) Daily Animal Doodles
I'm on vacay this week, but I was proactive enough to schedule some doodles ahead of time! Yay me!


I loved frogs as a child.

All amphibians, really. Frogs, toads, newts, salamanders, all of them. During the summer, we would keep some toads or salamanders in a terrarium (is that the right word?) and our chore for each day was to go out and catch grasshoppers for them to eat. My mom made us some homemade bug catching nets.


The nets usually had dark purple spots all over them. You know, grasshopper juice. 


August Doodles:  Skunk, Armadillo, Moose
Want to see more doodles? Check out June's here and July's here.

Moose Doodle and a Vacay

(Semi) Daily Animal Doodle


I might see one of these guys this week.

Want to know why? It's because I'm going up north to camp with my hubs. We'll be up near the Boundary Waters doing some canoeing, rock climbing, waterfall hiking, high roping, and hanging out with many many high schoolers.


There will also be many many hours on a bus.


And perhaps there will be a moose.


What about our precious kitties, you may ask? I know that you are worried.


They're worried too.

Don't worry. We have a kitty sitter. But thanks for your concern.


I worked ahead on some daily animal doodles, so they will be popping up here and there throughout the week. Assuming I can get that schedule a blog post ahead of time thing to work.  


If you don't see any animal doodles this week you will know that it's because sometimes blogging is hard.




August Doodles:  Skunk, Armadillo
Want to see more doodles? Check out June's here and July's here.

Armadillo Doodle

(Semi) Daily Animal Doodle


So. Do you remember that time when when I drew an armadillo instead of a platypus? By mistake?


Well. Imagine my luck when I looked at day four of August's doodle list. Armadillo.

Check.


I'm glad that my armadillo doodle will not go to waste. Sometimes things just work out. Ya know?




August Doodles:  Skunk
Want to see more doodles? Check out June's here and July's here.

A day in the life.

The hubs left for camp on Sunday, so it's not exactly a typical week around here. Just me and the kitties. And the occasional sister. But I'll let you in on the leeeetle details of my life these past couple of days.


Well, I wake up at around 7:30. There is much bemoaning and begroaning. Mornings are not my strong suit. (A couple friends gave me a birthday card last night that said, "If people were meant to pop out of bed, we'd all sleep in toasters." There's a picture of a very tired and disheveled person on the front. Oh how they know me so well.)


I try my darndest to get to work by 9am but it usually ends up being about 9:08. Ya, being late is the story of my life. Just ask my hubs. Or ask my whole family. Or my friends.

Pisica sniffing my lovely birthday flowers courtesy of Jacki and Jorgen.

I leave work around 5pm and then I go do other things. Depending on the day. Night.


Monday night I taught violin lessons.


Tuesday I went out with some lovely friends to Psycho Suzi's for my birthday.


Wednesday I went out to dinner with my brother. It had been awhile since we had caught up. Ya, he's pretty cool. Want to know something? Even though we are three years apart, our birthdays are only one day apart. August 2nd and August 3rd. I think it's awesome. And we scored free drinks. Shabam!


And tonight I teach more violin lessons.


On pretty much all nights, I hop on my computer to blog/email/format magazines/design/tweet...sometimes into the very wee early morning hours.


But since I am leaving my full time job in mid August, my guess is that the days (and nights) might start to look a little bit different! Hopefully I will be able to keep most of my computer work to the day time hours and I can save evenings for time with the hubs. He will be happy not to have to compete with the computer anymore. I will be happy to have more hubsy time.


I'll have to give you another update about my new life schedule when it happens.


Ok? 


Okaaaay!!!


Here are some pictures of my fun birthday night. A lot of the pictures turned out blurry, so I didn't have many to choose from. But we've got some good ones here. (Yes the hubs was gone for my birthday. But don't worry. We celebrated a couple weekends ago, and I had some fabulous ladies to celebrate with on Tuesday!)

Linking up with Gussy:

Click to see everyone else's linkups!

Previous Inspiration Workshop posts: week 1, week 2, week 3, week 4, week 5, week 6, week 7, week 8, week 9

Skunk Doodle

(Semi) Daily Animal Doodles


Stinky!

And fluffy.


Listening to Band of Horses with a kitty on my lap tonight. My new favorite. 


And I'm going to bed soon. Another favorite. Excited that life is going to slow down soon. Smiley face.


Want to see more doodles? Check out June's here and July's here.

Giveaway!!

AND.

I am part of a group giveaway over at Yellow Songbird today! I am giving away a 5 x 7 print - winner's choice. You should head over and check it out!

You know. If you want.

Weekend Recap - Thrifting and a BABY.

Want to see my favorite photo from this weekend?

That's my hubs holding my best friend's brand new baby. 


Whenever I look at this photo I turn into a puddle.


Want to see my other favorite photo from this weekend?

That's my sis. We went thrifting. She looks good in any hat. ANY hat. I tell you it's not fair since I look BAD in all hats.


I know why. It's because I have a huge head. Don't even try to tell me that I don't. Just look at any pictures of me and the hubs together. You will see.


You don't feel sorry for me or anything though. I just have a big head because I have more braaains.


Obviously.


But hats are a problem.