Savannah clinging to her teddy bear, Polk-a-dots, on a lazy afternoon.

My version of “Cling” for Illustration Friday. Check out the others.

Thanksgiving came and went so quickly this year. I sat drawing this last night, thinking to myself…it’s over…why did it go by so quickly? When I was a kid Thanksgiving day seemed to last forever. Well we had a wonderful time anyway. We got to eat in our “new” dining room. We had Jason, Micki and Grace and Jason’s parents here as well as my mom and dad (who are staying till Saturday). The dinner was delicious…the turkey, perfect. The time with our families…what more can I say. I am so thankful that my parents are still together and will be celebrating their 40th anniversary in 2005! I am thankful that they are pretty healthy and can make the trips to come and visit. Our kids just love to have them here. It is such a special treat for them. Savannah has already asked if she can go home with them. Last night, after the kids were tucked in bed, Sam and I went to see National Treasure. It was a good movie, we both enjoyed it. Well, all of us wanted to do some shopping today, but I will be surprised if we do, it’s almost 9:00 and noone is out of bed yet, except for me and the boys. So we’ll see. I don’t particularly care to fight the crowds and stand in line. I haven’t even really thought about what to get anyone yet. I would really just enjoy a day to relax and hang out with my family…of course, this weekend we have 3 days to do that…so maybe…

Sitting with our backs to the sun, I sketched the shadows cast by the sun onto the ground.

Sunday after church we hurried home, and I was off to sketchcrawl as soon as I changed my clothes. I met Mary and Julia downtown.



We drew for a while…but it was like 40 degrees…and after a while we were really feeling it.



So we headed down the street to see if the coffee shop was open. It wasn’t, but Bella Notte, one of Jackson’s more upscale restaurants, was. So we had a bite to eat. I had french toast with cinnamon butter and maple syrup…it was so yummy.



After we finished eating and got warmed up, Mary and Julia had to get home. So I decided that I would go home too. I came home, put the kids in bed and took a nap all cuddled up in my flannel sheets and warm blankets. Aaahh…Sundays and naps – definitely go together!

My sketchcrawl experience was not the drawing marathon it was supposed to be, but it was fun to sit with my friends and draw…just to draw. So I would say it was a good experience. I would like to do the marathon thing someday…but it really doesn’t work out real well being a mom of three little kids. It is not practical for me to take a whole day when I am not working and draw, because I would have to be pretty oblivious to everything else, which you can’t do if you have kids to take care of. Maybe someday, when Sam and I have a whole day together without kids, I could do that sort of thing, because he doesn’t mind watching me draw or waiting for me. He likes to see me drawing. And another thing…SKETCHCRAWL needs to be in the SUMMER!

I spent the weekend painting our dining room. We had big dreams last week of having our dining room and half bathroom redone and finished by thanksgiving…it’s not going to happen. The dining room may be finished. Both projects had unforeseen disasters which caused the entire thing to take twice as long as we anticipated. I do have the walls in the dining room finished…I love the color…it’s kind of the color of manilla envelopes. It looks great with our carpet though, which is the thing I was most worried about. I will post a picture when it is really done. Now I just have to paint the trim. As for the bathroom…well, our sink is on our kitchen counter and the tank of the toilet is still in the kitchen sink, and the walls have only been primed…it is waiting for me to create the faux bricks (with texture paint) that will become the alley walls…Don’t ask. You’ll have to see it to believe it…SO WILL I! We always wanted to do a theme in that little 3.5 x 4.5 foot room…but I never imagined something like what we will be creating…After deciding that our toilet and sink will not fit with the theme, we ordered bullet hole decals to rough them up a little. It should be interesting.

Tonight was my last drawing class. I have enjoyed teaching it. I feel l could’ve done better in some areas though…oh well…I am glad to have had the experience. I sat up a still life…I drew this during class.

Forcast for tomorrow: Cold – high 48 and dry…yeah!

Today we are spending our day cleaning, doing laundry, painting our dining room, priming the bathroom, putting up icicle christmas lights and hand cut paper snowflakes – 40 of them – on our front windows. See ya!

Oh, and sorry I didn’t get illustration friday done this week…”Regal” sounded like a cool word to illustrate. Check out all the other illustrations over at Penelope’s site

Today was a kind of strange day. I had NCA meetings scheduled for the morning…while I was in the meeting Sam called to inform me that Jasmin was not going to come to babysit today because she had the flu…which I am sure she caught from the kids…anyway, they found someone to cover my afternoon classes and I headed over to pick Savannah and Andrew up from preschool. Cyndi was at my house with my kids and Alyssa. So we came home, ate lunch, and Cyndi left to run erands while I watched the kids. They played great. I snoozed a little while all the little ones were down for their naps. Savannah and Andrew watched Shrek. When Cyndi came to pick up the kids she mentioned she smelled gas…I had also smelled gas when I turned on the stove to cook our grilled cheeses at lunch…so I called Consumers…they act like it is so serious…and told me to leave the house. Well, Karson was still sleeping, but I decided to wake him up and bring the kids outside to play while I raked the leaves into the street. (Tomorrow is leaf collection day – nothing like waiting till the last minute!) Anyway, while we waited for the Consumers guy to show up, Savannah fell off her bike and Karson sat in a mud puddle. Max was my little helper, picking up one leaf at a time and walking all the way to the leaf pile and dropping it on the top, while announcing to the world that he was helping. It was so cute. It was one of those moments you hope to never forget. How simple a child’s mind is…to think that carrying one leaf to that huge pile would make a difference. Well, I guess it did, because I noticed it and gave him a big hug for helping. The consumer’s guy showed up and after I informed him that we had paint fumes from painting our dining room with KILZ, he shook his head as if to say “that’s why you smell gas.” Evidently if you are painting or staining and the fumes are lingering, any time you are operating a gas appliance, the smell of gas that is normally there, but usually unnoticible, is intensified…When my sister came to pick the kids up, I had been running the dryer and it vents into the driveway which is where we could smell it the most. I did not know that, so I learned something new today. But he also found a small gas leak in our funace which he repaired, so I was glad that I called him.

I should apologize that when I tell stories I go into so much detail…that’s how I am…all about the details. It drives Sam crazy. He is always telling me to get to the point.

In my drawing class on Tuesday, I brought in some Christmas ornaments to draw. We talked about color, and I showed them some techniques with color pencils, watercolor pencils and pastels. I drew these with watercolor pencils and then used my waterbrush on it. I really like them. They were fun to draw and it got me excited about getting all the Christmas stuff out next week. I hope to be able to buy some new ornaments and decorations next week. Maybe mom will come with me. Mom and Dad are coming on Wednesday to stay for the whole weekend. I am really looking forward to having them here, but we have two big projects to complete before then…1. Our dining room…needs to be painted with texture paint, then glazed. 2. Our half bathroom…Needs drywall to repaire the crumbling plater, primed, painted with texture paint and painted some color…I was thinking RED. I also picked up some Oops paint from home depot that is lime green – the future color of my kitchen, to replace the Tea Rose wallpaper.

We started an artists community group at our church on Wednesday nights. I really enjoy getting together with the other ladies that are in our group. It isn’t necessarily a women’s group, but it’s just been the seven of us so far. We bring stuff to work on, we ask each other advice, we talk about art (sometimes) and we pray together. It is something I find myself looking forward to each week.

I am also looking forward to sketchcrawl on Sunday. I only know of one person who is coming for sure…I hope we have more and I hope the weather is decent enough that we can draw. It’s been really rainy lately.

Check out new Durogear from Cafe Press.

Click here to see everybody’s illustrations.

Sorry to all of you who like to check my blog daily…I have been way too busy…something to go to every night and exhausted when I get home. I plan to post soon in response to the comment on the previous post.

But until then, thought I would give you something to consider. I found out about Sketchcrawl through Danny Gregory’s site. So I am organizing the event in our small city of Jackson, Michigan. We are planning to meet at 1:00 at the Clock Tower and then “crawl” around town and draw everything we can. I hope that we can meet up later in the day at a local restaurant and share our drawings. Anyway, if you live near here, you should consider joining us on November 21st. If not, why not get a group of artists to Sketchcrawl in your city?

Savannah has been busy the last couple of days designing ipods…she draws them from some punch out advertisements we have…on the more recent drawings she has added her own personal touch – flowers.