organized chaos

Apparently not everyone has heard of Etsy.com.

Since I finished the drawing for the winner of the Fall Drawing Giveaway a couple days ago, I decided it was time to part, and send it off. It was a bit painful, as is everytime I send off one of my babies. I get a little attached to them. Sniff, sniff.

But really, I was happy to send it to it’s rightful owner and move on. And there I was at the post office walking back and forth down the small counter trying to find the right tube, then a pen that worked, and hey! Where exactly do you write an address on a round tube? There’s no center!

All the while three gremlins and a baby threatened to rip every cute teddy bear off their pegs. Which begs the question, “Why do they sell teddy bears at the Post Office anyway?”

And Jackelope whined that he really wanted one of those new Star Wars stamps to put on his hand. And Socrates was forced to hold a heavy Cuteness while I scrambled around trying to figure out, on the fly, how exactly to send that drawing without inflicting any damage to it.

Finally, I got up to the counter all prepared and asked the nice lady postal worker if those tubes were indeed free on the website. (Something I had heard from a friend. You know who You are.) She confirmed that little nugget of gold. Yippers.

Then in a moment of nervous rambling I blurted out that I would love to get some free tubes because I was selling my drawings in my Etsy shop.

“Oh,” she said. “Your Etchy?”

I mumbled back, “Uh, no. That’s ETSy.”

She looked embarrassed and out of the loop and for some reason I felt really dumb just then, like some kind of internet freak trying to explain HTML to her 80 year old grandmother.

But when I left I thought, “Well, Etchy is close to Etch a Sketch, and maybe in her mind it was some kind of new fangled way of describing art?”

I’m all about giving folks the benefit of the doubt.

So now that the drawing is mailed off, I can now show you the results. The winner was very pleased with her preview and I’m pleased if she’s pleased.

I’ve included the photo I worked from, which pains me only because I just know someone out there will pick apart the differences. Mainly me. But that’s drawing. It’s not reproducing detail for detail. It’s capturing the essence and character of a person. And that’s what makes the likeness happen visually. That’s what I’m all about, capturing invisible things like rainbows and leprechauns and quiet moments.

And don’t forget, another giveaway is coming soon in commemoration of my turning another year older.

Comment #20–Sharon from http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/momn4boys/! I’ll email you soon with your instructions. Hang tight!

Man! You guys warmed my heart with your excitement over my drawings. I had to fight off the temptation to tell everyone to forget the rules and why don’t I just draw one for everyone who took the time to enter. But alas, I have responsibilities. Like unclogging toilets and scraping peanut butter off the knives that should’ve been clean from a run in the dishwasher.

In case you’re wondering my process of choosing, go here. It was painfully quick. I felt a little like a cheater and had images of putting numbers in a hat and making one of the gremlins choose.

But wait! I have news.

Since so many people expressed interest in something I thought I’d never be able to pursue again, the drawing of portraits for a humble living, I decided to set up my very own Etsy shop. If you’re at all interested in this, hop on over there and check it out.

And never fear. This giveaway amused me greatly. There might just be another one on the horizon because I also feel generous on my birthday, which is about a month away.

So tune in for more madness around here, and you just might be glad you checked in!

It happens. If you’ve been reading this blog for any amount of time, maybe you’ve wondered if I ever get reflective. And yes, there are a few posts sprinkled here and there that are not about something I’m cracking up at.

And you may have noticed, had you explored some of the categories that I write music and have never found a way to put it on here. I only sing at our church, and I’m content doing that.

Recently I’ve become obsessed with making slideshows with my new Photoshop Elements program, and so I’d like to present two things I love to do and share: my music and my art/photography.

I hope you don’t find that a little too narcissistic. But art is for sharing and you always have the option of clicking yourself out of here as fast as you possibly can.

Oh! and before I forget, the recording was a very basic one, with just me on the piano and nothing else added.

If it doesn’t work, please email me or leave a comment. It works ok on mine as long as it’s fully loaded first. Enjoy.

My grandma got a new digital camera.  My grandpa says she is now a new woman.  I can understand.  She gave me her old one. 

It’s my first digital.  I really like my Canon EOS.  I inherited it from My Man when we got married and claimed it for my very own ever since.  Sometimes he takes pictures, too.  But only when I let him.

But, alas, film is too slow for this highly impatient girl.  I’ve belonged to the Club O’ the Right Now since infancy and have drooled over the instant gratification a digital camera would give me for a few years now.

It’s not one of those fancy pants cameras that you can do all the tricks with or attach the fancy pants lenses to, but it’s just right for me and what I want to do with it.  I can’t wait to read the booklet and find out all the tricks it does do.

Here’s some fun I had with it tonight. 

Here we have My Man wanting me to give him a kiss.  No thanks.  And The Cuteness with his new favorite things.  His fingers.

And this is the face Socrates gives me when I tell him “No more Playstation for tonight, you need to read a book.”

And Jackelope is just happy to have his picture taken because he is fulfilled for the night, having had a significant drop in adrenaline from waiting all week to open his presents.

A macro shot of my trumpet vine that opens in the evening.

Another of the same bloom.

And it’s interesting how much difference the flash can make. This was right after the previous shot, same light and everything.  It suddenly looks like night time.  Very dramatic I think.

Oh, and never ever eat this plant.  I realize you probably don’t go around consuming trumpet vine, but just in case, it’s poisonous.

Poison Ivy, evil leaf

your oil covers now our skin

they say to scratch is not to spread

then why’ve you moved right down my chin

my forehead’s itch, it makes me wimpy

I cut my bangs, I now look gimpy

Benedryl, you’re not effective

the scratching has lost all perspective

Gremlins moaning all day long

yet Jackelope escaped

You cannot touch him, Evil Leaf

no matter how you scrape

Round Up is thy enemy

I’ll shoot you down I swear

I know it’s only temporary

But I’ll do it again next year

You’ll always be there in my yard

waiting for our skin

to thrust your itchiness afar

and rest upon my chin

Aside from the satisfaction of capturing a person in a drawing, there is the vanity factor.  If you can stand drawing a picture of yourself, from a photograph, mirrors are infinitely harder, it’s a good exercise in objectivity and you get the added bonus of changing little things you don’t like in the photo, but won’t change the overall drawing too much.  For example: Here’s a drawing I’ve been working on the last few days of me and The Cuteness.  Scroll down to see the actual photo. Click on the images to make them bigger.

And here’s the real thing

In this case, I just changed that stupid piece of hair right above my ear. It’s funny how something so small can make me hate how I look in a photo, but otherwise it’s a nice picture.  So I broke out the pencils and fixed that little thing.  Good times. 

Aren’t you thankful for spring?