Category Archives: 2011

Finished Sketchbook Project

Fearing that I would not have time to get to the post office on Saturday due to my son’s second birthday (HAPPY BIRTHDAY LUCIEN!), I wrapped up my sketchbook Thursday night and shipped it Friday. A few hours later I got the email about the extension. . . doh! I am happy to all who were able to take advantage 🙂 Honestly I got so sick between Friday and Saturday I have been in full recovery mode until now. Some things are meant to happen the way they do! As Oogway from Kung Fu Panda says “There are no accidents” Yep my son and I watched Kung Fu Panda on his birthday so it’s fresh, plus I love quoting movies.

Now for the sketchbook project. I was hoping to complete more pages. In the end I illustrated on 64 pages removing 14 drawing pages-this counts front and back. What is below doesn’t carry a story, most are little hits from life with Matt. In the sketchbook a spread from last week’s post goes in between each of these spreads, expect for the first two spreads below.

We drove through a blizzard after lots of crazy planning to help all the people flying so we could get everyone to VT.

Yes an hour before our wedding ceremony my Step-Mom, Rebecca, broke her femur. She is a trooper and she sent my Dad back to keep the wedding going! We visited her the next day.

Scul Ride!

Disco Murder Mystery from Wedding Anniversary. Matt looked so gross in his wig.

Lucien helping with the snow plowing from this year’s blizzards. He is using a plastic toy lawn mower.

Yes this really happened.

There you go! My sketchbook project and some windows into my life. I am going to put together a file of all the pages for better viewing. Just give me some time to figure out how I want to do that. If you also did a sketchbook project and have some ideas, drop me a line.

Wild Man

Up!

A bit higher

A little higher

And very high!

These are Matt’s heros, Parkour. I am sure most of you have seen this style of stunts at least once in the James Bond film with Daniel Craig, Casino Royale. Like them he takes all necessary precautions before performing any of these stunts, they are dangerous, he does get hurt from time to time, so, DO NOT TRY ON YOUR OWN!

For more fun watching this is his current favorite video of Parkour acrobatics.

The Accident

The whole story (I am pulling from old posts; so, there will be repeats but, even on those pages some changes have been made):

And in case you miss the comment from Sean: Anyone interested in some more details of the story might be interested in the blog post I wrote shortly afterwards:

http://sean-graham.com/2005/03/10/a-is-for-accident/

and if you want to go Dr. House, here is a post with some X-Rays:

http://sean-graham.com/2005/06/09/as-promised/

Load-Bearing

For the next pages in my sketchbook project I am going to work on stories Matt has told me. Most involve hospital trips in the end.

This story has been told to me, to others while I listened, and by me(because I have heard it so many times at this point). The story has grown and taken on new stories after it’s telling. It ends with two significant view points and is unbelievable. I love this story, I hope I do it justice.

First is the night before. Ridiculous antics in the hotel room at the ski slope. It all started with climbing the balcony in whatever ways seemed impossible:

Magical Nature Hike

This continues off of the pages where Matt ran up the flight of stairs. After I caught my breath for 20 minutes we ended up walking alone. We traversed narrow ledges over the river, climbed logs that had fallen in the river, and found this pillar which we climbed and sat on.

Taking Leaps

Having a kid was taking a leap. Before we had to go through labor we talked about how much fun having a kid would be. Part of having a kid is fun, but boy that process of bringing them into the world. . . the is a good reason they call it labor!

More stories from my life with Matt. Watching the sunrise as Matt tries to calm me down at only 3cm.

Another leap is the blog layout has had some work done. The sketches of design detail are now my own creations and I have added some buttons and links for my store and groups I am currently participating in, PiBoldMo and The Sketchbook Project. Check them out!

My other leaps have to do with preparing for the holidays, cards, ornaments and presents! I have been going at 110% for too long, as I am dropping off sitting at my computer. Need to keep going for a day and a half more! Then I am hoping I can really take Thursday off; eat some food and sleep the rest of that day.

The Beginning

Today is the last day to sign up for my giveaway. Go to my post 100! and leave a comment by 11:59pm tonight and you will be in! I will announce the winner tomorrow morning with a sneak peak of the new Snow Dreamer piece I am working on. Unfortunately due to a cold the post will most likely not go live till the morning. So, any night owls that will be watching my blog tonight around midnight will have to wait!

I like dreaming about snow. . . and that I have anxiously awaiting blog readers.

Husband’s Choice! Today I am changing things up with my Tuesday posts. Instead of ideas from Matt I am going to be posting Sketchbook Project pages which, are about Matt. My husband is a crazy-acrobatic-wild man. I think we get invited to most parties just so the other guests can see what ridiculous stunt Matt will pull.

Today’s is one of my first experiences with Matt. We went to Dryden NY for the Halloween Party and visited the neighboring gorges. The gorge we went to had a trail that was 100s of stairs leading straight up to the top. Matt being in fabulous shape ran up these steps full out. Given that this was our 5th date I thought it would be a good idea to try to keep up. We fell behind everyone because I had to rest for 20 minutes after getting half way up and nearly puking from overexerting myself. Although, then we did have a magical hike all alone.

My theme is “It will be fun I swear”

Drag Mama Up the Cliffs

Here is the second installment in my sketchbook project. I am not going to draw the events in any particular order, just as the images come to me.

This moment happened very recently, just back in June, when we wanted to hike a nature trail from the Jordan Lake House in Maine. The Jordan Cliffs trail was the shortest mile wise, so it seemed the best option. We were with my Mom and my Step Dad. My Step Dad was cool with this. My Mom, she expressed herself with some very shocked faces when we reached the rocks. There were iron poles bolted into the rocks to ensure we could climb up the rock face to reach the summit of this trail. The rest of us were working under once you start there was no going back. We kept telling her, “it will be fun, we swear!”

The trail took all day, but the view was worth everything. It was an amazing day. I feel this moment encompasses how ridiculous this hike was.


(click on the image to see it full size)

My Acrobat

Two birds with one stone here, Illustration Friday and the first page to my sketchbook, of Sketchbook Project 2011!

I chose my sketchbook theme because of how many times I hear “It will be fun, I swear” from Matt. And, you know what, it is always fun. So, I am planning to draw all the fun things he has convinced me to participate in thus far for the first half, then all the fun things he is talking about doing for the last half.

The hand writing is inspired by a friend of mine from grade school. I always loved the way her notes looked, I still have a couple of them. She is also someone who used to tell me, “It will be fun, I swear”.