Food Choice

When I met Matt I quickly realized how much he loved good food and how well he and his buddies could cook it. I had never spent much time cooking. I only made the recipes that I had known since I was a kid. Not to say these were bad, they just weren’t very creative and became repetitive. It became known that it was desirable for me to cook new and different things.

I rejected this and completely left the kitchen.

Until this past summer. We moved and Matt’s work schedule changed, meaning he was getting home after dinner needed to have been made. Added with, our own backyard garden, I had to start experimenting or risked loosing the fresh veggies we had laying around.

I opened new recipe books, flipped through magazines, checked the web, and just threw what I had in the fridge together. Some things came out delicious, other things burned, and some had no taste worth mentioning.

Now that it is fall I feel like I am blossoming. In part because last year I tried my hand at some pumpkin recipes. So, it wasn’t a stretch to make something more with them. Here is my first recipe I made up on my own that actually came out tasting like it is from a cookbook.

Husband’s Choice, experimental cooking:

I submitted the full recipe to They Draw They Cook and it should go up sometime soon. Thank You! Until then you should check out their site and all the delicious recipes they have to offer.

Frosty the Gourdman

My friend Dani and her sister Niki made a fantastic comic for Halloween this year. Frosty the Gourdman has risen this October so you better check him out while it is his season!

Given that he is such a rich character and I LOVE Halloween, I decided to make some fan art. I also wanted to have a Frosty the Gourdman sitting around the house.

For less pixelated-bigger pictures click on the images.

Happy Halloween!

Old-Fashioned

I have been giggling all week thinking about drawing this for Illustration Friday. I debated about being creative and coming up with an original idea but, I decided to go with what was making me laugh.

When I was a kid I watched classic comedies. I loved them and still do. It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad, World was among my favorites. I liked Mad World so much I watched the interviews with the cast about the making of and named all of my stuffed animals after characters from the movie.

In Mad World Jim Backus, Mr. Fitzgerald, plays an eccentric millionaire, who has an airplane. He agrees to fly Buddy Hackett, Benjy Benjamin, and Mickey Rooney, Dingy Bell, to the Big W. During the flight, as he is piloting the plane, he looks back at Mickey Rooney and in the most Jim Backus voice says “How about an Old-Fashioned?” Cracks me up every time I think about it.

So all week I have been repeating that line to myself and smiling and giggling.

If you haven’t seen this movie you should. It’s a long one, but worth it. Every comic star of that era has an appearance in this film. The word was, if you didn’t have at least a cameo you weren’t worth knowing in comedy anymore. People begged the director for MONTHS to be in this movie.

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)

Late Updates

September 15th was International Dot Day celebrating Peter H. Reynold’s book The Dot. I wasn’t able to make my dot for the day but, here it is now. On top of Sept 15 being Dot Day, Zoe who was born! So, this dot is for her.

Then a little follow up on the Urban Country Fair here is a link to my pictures. The day went well, a lot of people came by and chuckled at the specimens. To clear things up, the specimens are clay creatures that I have put in vials filled with tea colored water. I think everyone has a secret desire to be a mad scientist. These provide a smell free way to resemble one.

I also had magnets and prints available for purchase. I sold most of my small magnets and a few people checked out the prints I had available. It was a successful-fun day. I am planning to put the items I didn’t sell up on etsy so watch out for that update.

Thanks to everyone who came out and supported me and the rest of us vendors at the fair!

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”.

the First Step

I enjoyed making the comic page of Squirrel Assassin so much I want to make it more complete. Since, it is time for me to post animal Wednesday, but I haven’t finished the piece I have the opportunity to show you my process. Here is my first stage of drawing out the comic page, pencil sketches!

I spent more time on the characters so they aren’t just boy and squirrel.

Squirrel Assassin

Here is my first comic page after checking out a couple of books and attending a couple of seminars about graphic novels. It is still in rough sketch form. I was hurrying it last night as I was suffering a headache. I wonder if it was partially from my marker. The smell definitely took me back to college.

For a class I had to make 30 compositions with squares of varying sizes using vellum and black prismacolor markers. My entire class sat in a room with the door closed covering paper with marker. I am surprised we were able to walk away from the room without falling over.

Anyway, back to the comic page. If you have any comments or criticisms please post!