Here's our 10 month old having what I called a "Vulcan Nap." Check out his hand...isn't that the Vulcan greeting Mr. Spock used? He'll either be a Trekkie or an opera singer, judging by these photos. The open mouthed photos were just taken yesterday.
"Look ma, no caviteeeeeees!"

A woman crashed her car while attempting to teach her dog how to drive.

No, I'm not kidding! I wish I was! This is today's weird news.

I think there are some dogs smart enough to drive, or at least to manage 4 way stops in Snellville...but it's that whole no opposable thumb thing that makes steering difficult.

I know my dog gets that hair 'tween his toes and it would make gripping a steering wheel especially hard. (He's a Shetland Sheepdog).

I wonder what type of dog this was. Here's the LINK.

Crest and Crackers - Here's another drawing I did in micron ink pen yesterday in the same sketching session when my boys were eating. Not as good as my previous masterpiece, Bills and Bananas (yesterday's post).

This sketch shows the general disarray of my house right now. I think the Crest was on the kitchen table from when my daughter went to a friend's house for a sleepover. The toothpaste just never made it back to the bathroom.

I could sit here and talk it up as fine art -
"the crackers symbolize the skyscrapers of modern society on a miniature scale and parallel man's search for meaning in minutae" or some such crock. But nope, it's just a scribble and it took me about 5 minutes to do. I think it looks like it took only 5 minutes to draw.

But I am intrigued that the first sketch started with the letter B and this second sketch was the letter C. It's giving me an idea for a children's book. I could go all the way through the alphabet, but I have no time for a project like that right now.

What came first, bills or bananas?
Just a little 10-minute sketch I did in black Micron pen while my boys were having a snack today.

"-- Leading astronomers say Pluto is no longer defined as a planet, The Associated Press reports."
Not kidding...I get news updates by email from CNN and this is what it said today!
Link
Gotta go rip up some science textbooks.
Harcourt Brace Jovanovich and other textbook publishers are having parties today in celebration of the new textbook orders they will receive.

That's what I get for stretching!
I wrenched a back muscle really bad yesterday morning.
You know how they always say, "stretch before you get out of bed."? Well be careful of that advice, if you are going to stretch and then jump out of bed quickly to answer the telephone at 7:30 a.m., or you might hurt your back. I got it worked out mostly and relaxed and then it struck again suddenly, with pain that felt like a knife going across my back. It was very quick and intense pain and there really isn't anything you can do about it when that sort of thing happens. I think my bad posture plays a role in this. Hunching over an artwork a lot can't be helping it either.

Everyone recommends a heating pad, but my brilliant massage therapist (and I'm not being sarcastic, she's great) recommends ice. Her advice was perfect the last time I hurt my back...so I grabbed something cold out of the freezer. Let me tell ya, a frozen Chimichanga pressed between my back and the chair really helped. (A Chimi is sort of like burrito)
A back pain reliever is about all that Chimichanga is good for now, it's been in the freezer for so long I don't remember when I bought it. LOL!

Then my daughters missed the bus, so with their girls help, we packed Little Man (age 3) and Little Guy (age 10 months) into the car under much protest and shoe searching. I drove very carefully so I wouldn't twist my back.

Got the girls to school with just about 3 minutes to spare before the first bell rang.
Went to the grocery store to get a few necessities, had to finish dressing the boys in the car before going in. Still, we must have looked like a dishevelled gang in there.

Working at home is just so invigorating. You really must try it.
I'm doing much better today, thanks for asking LOL.
I hope you have a good day today, thanks for dropping by.

:)

Whoa. I knew something had to be going on today. My email requests for information on portraits have gone through the roof, and I looked at my site hits, and they are waaaayyy up today too.

Wondered what on earth was going on. Decided to try logic. (nice for a change, huh? ...laughs!)
The last time my site got so busy, I was a featured shop on PayPal Shops. So I just went to check it out, and sure enough, my link is there! How exciting! PayPal used to email me and give me a heads up that my site was featured. Because I have been featured on there before, they already had the graphic to use. I think they use me as filler whenever they are waiting on an ad from someone else.

You won't find me complaining! This is free advertising better than any advertising I've ever paid for. The only problem is keeping up. I'll be printing out the customer inquiries and probably calling them from my car later today so I can have some privacy and peace and quiet to be able to chat with the nice folks who are emailing me today.

PayPal Shops Link

Portrait of Cyrus, the final pencil illustration for the book!
I had drawn him previously in a side view, but he didn't look as much like a real person that way. I used two images of Cyrus - one a painting and the other a sculpture - and came up with my own first version (the side view portrait). I decided I didn't like the sideview version, so I used my first drawing as yet another reference and turned Cyrus toward us.

Cindy had her baby and he's SO cute it's unbelievable! Congratulations!!!
Link

It's Clean Off the Desk Day.
Here are the business cards I found. It should be like snooping through my desk for you. :) Now they're off to my business card sleeves in a binder I have.
Maybe you'll find something of interest!
Happy Clean Off the Desk Day!

Cheep! Cheep! purses, jewelry, etc.
Art by Christel
Thistlecraft Designs - Milly Roland - Faux Stained Glass
Lori Peterson - 2muchstuff2day.etsy.com
In Craft We Trust
Ruth Thompson - Tarnished Images, Inc.
Tracy Johns McLaughlin - Rockdale Mortgage Company
Tammy Bowles - Story Blox
Courtney Young - Art Therapy Onesies
Lisa Boggs - Web Design www.pbdesigns.us
Centaur Riding School, Loganville GA 770-466-2934
Mortgage 4U of Georgia Inc - Gina Cooper www.mortgage4uinc.com
Debbie Bloomer, Atlanta Parent Magazine www.atlantaparent.com
Honey Creek Mortgage Company, Pam Bessette 678-313-6856
Sue Vetsch, Realtor www.vetschteam.com
Evelyn Williams, Cakes by Evelyn 404-368-3845
Donna Willard, Ewomennetwork.com
Debra Williams, Prudential Georgia Realty debrawilliams.prudentialgeorgia.com
Inspiration Lane Sterling Silver Jewelry and Gifts www.inspirationlane.com
Edwards Embroidery and Monogramming 770-978-6198
MA Designs - Original Notecards & Greeting Cards ann.deignan@comcast.net
Jittery Joe's Coffee, at the new Snellville location in Crestview Plaza 1711 Rte 78.
Hope Marketing and Web Design www.hopemarketingandwebdesign.com 404-414-6510
Cakes by Shupan - Lawrenceville GA 770-682-6630
Jodi's Dixie Doodles - artist Jodi Nicholson
Hardwood Flooring - Chris and Blaine Mullins 404-392-0772

Yesterday was Little Man's 3rd birthday!
Here is a very short video (14 seconds) of him blowing out his candles.
Link

...and I thought I was behind before...

My 10 month old spent all of yesterday in non-sleep, only cry mode.
He must be teething. I had a list of things to accomplish and I just had to set it all aside.

The house is a wreck. Oh well, I'll get caught up. As FlyLady says, "you're not behind, jump in where you are!" so I guess I will just keep repeating that to myself.

Whew, it has been a busy week so far. I have spent the last couple days doing some needed home repair, and I am beat. I painted the front bathroom. The girls helped sand down the seams of the wallpaper, then we painted over the 20 yr old wallpaper with Kilz primer. It is a so called 'odorless' primer, but I can tell you it's NOT odorless! .... I am either fighting a cold or the fumes have gotten to me.

The bathroom is sort of a too-bright green in my opinion, but the moulding is a darker green, which helps. I did stenciling near the ceiling and around the tub.

I had put off this work too long already. When we had the new tub put in and had some drywall work done, it was spackled, but needed to be painted ASAP and I didn't do it.
So before any water problems developed around the tub surround, I realized I just needed to jump in and get it done.

I am NOT a muralist. Seems like it would be fun, but it is very physical.
I found muscles I had forgotten I had. I've had to take Tylenol over the last couple days. My hands definitely prefer the pencil to the brush and roller!

So you want a mural painted? A faux finish, stencilling, you say? Why hurt yourself, hire a professional. Hey, don't look at me, go to this page of my website that has muralists. Link

I'm glad to have that done and behind me so I can do my usual artwork!

Check out this newest video of my 10 month old baby crawling around and roaring.
Yes, this is cine-ma at it's best folks! Link

Here is the pencil drawing of Daniel (Daniel of the Bible). The final illustration for the upcoming book, What Really Happened During Ancient Times . ( Bramley Books ). There may be some changes done to it, but this is how it looks now.

Almost all the pictures I could find of Daniel depicted him as extremely young or extremely old. Because the action in the chapter of the book deals with him in about mid-twenties to his thirties, I drew him around that age.

Now how I got my photo references is going to sound really loopy but here goes. I found a random photo on the Internet of a guy around the right age I was looking for. I was looking for a guy who looked gentle yet of a solid character. Strong but not ego-macho, gentle but not wimpy. That took some time (LOL). So I found this (not an American) guy, altered his picture in my graphics program, and printed that out to work from. Then when I drew him, I changed several aspects of his features, changed his coloring, hair color, removed his modern shirt and tie...etc...so now he is a new 'invented' person to depict Daniel. So we could loosely say that "genetically" this artwork of Daniel is related to the real person whose picture I found. But even the person I based this on wouldn't even recognize himself. Whoever you are, thank you!

Here is the finished version of Eve. Based on comments I received from the voting for 'Eve 1' or 'Eve 2' on my website, I made changes that combined the best of each version of Eve.

I came up with the base image of the woman by first finding a royalty-free image of a Middle Eastern woman. Using my computer graphics program, I did a 'mirror' image of the lady, and did some alterations to the image using artistic effects. I forget now what exactly I did. I just played around in the graphics program so I could change the picture. Then I printed out the picture and created her hair out of my imagination (the lady in the reference photo was wearing a hijab). I use the computer to manipulate images but then I completely hand draw using the photo as an art reference.

Of course, it still might not make everyone happy (everyone has their own picture of Eve in their mind's-eye), but the publisher and I think this is a good representation for use in the book. It is of Eve several years after her son Cain killed his brother Abel. So although many site visitors said they thought the hair would look a bit messy (before the invention of the comb and conditioner!) I would think by the time her children were older she would have figured out some way to get the knots out of her hair. Well let's hope, anyway!

Thanks to everyone who voted! Your opinions were really valuable and I love to hear from you.

Darla
www.darladixon.com