Independence Day Kit!

OK, now I know a couple of people have asked me about digital scrapbooking - where do I get stuff, how to start, etc. Here is a HUGE free kit you can get from the wonderful Ahhh Scrap design team.

Isn't it GORGEOUS? I'm super excited about it myself!! It's a blog hop, but it's a small one - only about a dozen places to go, and you get this ENORMOUS kit from it! If you've been wanting to start digscrapping, now is the perfect time! Just start at the Ahhh Scrap Blog for the list of designers. I just finished hopping and I can't wait to start playing with the kit!!

Thursday Night's Notes

I love ITT Tech. A lot. But sometimes class is just BORING. Instructional Design is a hard class to teach, I'd think. It's a class about formulating instructions. How do you teach someone to teach someone something? Anyway, I tried to pay attentions, I really did. And I took a ton of real notes, too, I swear. But then I just couldn't handle it anymore and I started to doodle. First a teeny gnome, while I tried to resist the urge...

Then an entire page...

Then another!! I couldn't stop...

A quilt for Baby G

Have I mentioned that my sister-in-law is carrying my niece?? I'm pretty excited about it! Our last name starts with G, so they're calling her Baby G. No real name choices yet, but I can't wait to meet her! I didn't take pictures of the fabrics before I started because I didn't like them. My mom and husband picked out the pattern and the fabrics. But it came out really pretty, so here are some in-progress pics! 

This is a pile of blocks ready to be squared up:

Here they are after being squared up:

Laying out the blocks so they make a cool swirly thing:

Top all sewn together, I LOVE the swirly thing!!

I'm hoping to get it all quilted and sent to my mom so she can give it to my SIL at the shower in July but if that doesn't happen, I'll bring it to her myself when I get to meet her! 

Best Picture Ever

This is my son, hot tubbing in my mom's hotel room - not in the bathroom, this sucker was right in the bedroom - while he watches Lightning McQueen on a big flat panel TV. THe picture is horrible, but I nearly peed when my mom sent it to me!! Look at his happy little face while he floats and sings!

The Sword in the Stone

My first 3ds Max lesson!

This was super crazy fun!! I love learning a new program!!

Just some doodles...

A pretty girl...

A not-so-pretty one at the bottom...

This journal page was from a day when I really didn't feel like doing anything. Nothing. An indigo day. But I made myself. Suzi says keep the pencil moving, so I try, even when I don't want to. 

Angel

Just a sketch so far...

Ajae's birdie

Ajae issued me and Kelly a challenge to draw this bird!

There's mine :) 

It looks mostly like it, right? 

Fairy #2

I don't know about this one, either. Maybe I'm just not a fairy kind of chick.

A Day of Crazy Stamp Carving

Owl:

Hippo:

Rhino:

Thought bubble:

Cupcake:

Talk bubble:

More to come!

First Fairy

I've sketched a bunch of fairies for Suzi's class, but this is the first one I've painted. I can't decide if I'm happy with her. I really like the colors, but maybe she's not shimmery enough for a fairy.

 I sprayed purple on her face. Accidentally, of course, poor thing.

WTF? And yet AWESOME!

I am SO ridiculously amused by this I can't even tell you. They're balloon animal lamps. Is there anything on the planet better than these?? 

I'm a donkey on the edge!!

Father's Day

I recently read a blog post by a man who went ON and ON and freaking ON about last names. His family's last name was changed at Ellis Island (who's wasn't?!?) and he kept talking about how it was something fathers pass down to their children and ESPECIALLY their sons how it was this wonderful thing and connected sons to fathers and honestly, I wanted to vomit.

A NAME does NOT make a father. Do people really not understand what Shakespeare was saying with his super famous rose quote: "What's in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet." Basically that means: get the fuck over what something is called. It doesn't mean anything except what we DECIDE it means. My last name comes from an Italian grandfather that I never met and a father who abandoned my brother and I when I was a child.


I KEPT my name when I got married. I didn't take my husband's name, because I believe, firmly, that my name is my own. Why would I change it? It has NOTHING TO DO with my father or his family. It is the ONLY thing he gave me. Is that really something a man is proud of? "Sure I have a couple of kids out there. Nope, haven't seen them in twenty-five years, didn't go to either of their weddings, and I'll never meet my grandkids, but hey, at least they have my last name."


My son has BOTH last names. Does that make my husband less of a father? He takes Liam fishing, to the park, to the movies, they're season ticket holders for the Twins, he feeds the kid, gives him baths, washes his dirty underwear and stuffs it in his drawers when it's clean, but dang it, if only he'd been more of an ass when we were filling out the birth certificate. Oh, wait - HE filled out the birth certificate because I was sleeping off thirty hours of labor.


So, to the people who think your name is more important than being there for your child - thank GOD you're not around filling your kids' heads with your dumb ass ideas. To the ones who wipe butts and noses and kiss booboos and drive to hockey practice before dawn - Happy Father's Day.

Rapidograph

Suzi bought me my first Rapidograph pen - it was $35!! It's a "technical" pen and it's steel tipped, which I find VERY appealing. Most of the time when I buy super fine point pens, they're felt tipped and the tip sticks out really far and bends over when I'm trying to use it. Ridiculous. I've been trying really hard to find good pens for my cartoon journals and this is going to be THEM. I'm going to learn how to use them and love them. I found them on eBay for $55 for the whole set, bought some ink and made all of them work except one.

Becky!

Yesterday, a friend of ours from college just happened to be in town and we all had lunch. It was ridiculously fun to catch up and introduce her to Liam. I love going into the city, and this was a perfect excuse!!

Best playdate ever!

First there was dirt drinking:

Kelly is chasing it with water, clearly it didn't help:

Then some art:

Three-way collaborative painting - step one:

And Suzi telling Kelly she wants to take a serious picture:

Believe it or not, we also watch True Blood, got Caribou, carved stamps, drew and colored other faces, made dinner (OK, Kelly cooked, but I chopped stuff), and painted about a zillion layers of our collaboration. 

Aquarium Antics

The colors in this kit are FABULOUS! 

And here is Mini Me with a fish he caught - he makes Daddy throw them ALL back.

And here we were at the aquarium in the Mall of America. Liam LOVES all the animals.

Hubby's Moley

So, hubby gave me this little moleskine to decorate and he also wants me to design a logo for him - zombie chef. Seriously, he wants a zombie chef logo for his catering gigs to put on his coat. I try to be supportive, and you all know I have a thing for zombies, but NO ONE is going to use Zombie Chef Catering, that's just silly. So here he is, zombie chef. He's on the moley and is NOT going on the coats!

And for the back? Zombie bunny, of course!

New Silly Fun

How often do you look at something in a store and proclaim that you could do it yourself and therefore don't need it? I do that all the time, and sometimes I followthrough and sometimes not. This is one of those followthrough times!

I took this picture at Home Goods (same thing as TJ Maxx, but no clothes, just stuff):

And so I've been playing with pictures of buildings and turning them into these:

I have several more done, and am going to try a few more with more famous places - the White House, memorials, Empire State Building, stuff like that. Then I'm going to try and do more than one building/color at a time. Fun, right?