Pencil Me In

Illustration Friday: Caution

2009-08-27T07:36:00.004-05:00

2008-09-24T16:45:00.000-05:00

Life 1962

2008-06-21T13:21:00.004-05:00

subteens ?

Illustration Friday:Baby

2008-06-05T19:40:00.001-05:00

UFO House

2008-05-29T20:45:00.002-05:00

The Piano

2008-05-10T17:32:00.004-05:00

Framed

2008-05-08T20:43:00.001-05:00

Zoe

2008-05-06T08:58:00.000-05:00

It's been almost a year since I've posted anything. In my defense, I've been unable to scan new images in for some of that time. My sister Lisa helped me solve that problem on Sunday. She then said," Now, put something new on there. I'm tired of coming to your blog and seeing that same old drawing! (I'm sure she was speaking for the rest of my family, too).

This little sketch represents our favorite things to do when we all gather at our mothers' house.....coffee, Scrabble, and eating. (of course there's talking, too....that's why our Scrabble games take so long!)

ILLO. FRIDAY-Camouflage

2007-06-28T22:28:00.000-05:00

Wolf in Sheeps Clothing......

Your Paradise

2007-06-08T07:22:00.000-05:00

Over at Illo Friday, the topic is Your Paradise. This little house on beautiful St Simons Island was my paradise last week while on vacation.

I'm very rusty with a pencil, but I drew this for Zac, who keeps reminding me that it's been six months since I last posted.

ILLO.FRI. MASK

2006-12-16T21:43:00.000-06:00

ILLO.FRI. WIND

2006-11-05T23:22:00.000-06:00

He knew he would be in trouble when he got home.But it had been a rough day.He needed to stop at the ol' Rusty Nut to unwind......

2006-10-09T09:12:00.000-05:00

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, ZAC!

10-9-81

I love you! Mom

ILLO. FRI. PHOBIA

2006-09-27T00:30:00.000-05:00

Alektorophobia....fear of chickens
Motorphobia....fear of cars

I don't have any phobias.I'm not afraid of cars, and I'm not afraid of chickens; although I must confess....riding in a car with a chicken can be just a tad...er...uncomfortable. I once had a neighbor who was a little...um....odd.She called one day to ask if I wanted to go shopping with her. She owned a really ancient big old sedan.(half the time, it wasn't in running condition.)...and it was always ....well....rather messy inside.
When she pulled into the drive, I opened the passenger door, and started to get inside......"Ackkk!"..."What is that?" I asked. There, in the passenger side floorboard (glaring at me!) sat a chicken....A Chicken!
"Oh, that..." she said.." I didn't drive my car for a few days, and I forgot and left the window down. The chicken flew in, and laid her eggs in here, so now she's setting". Sure enough, she had laid her eggs on a pile of old papers, (and who knows what else.) Now, anyone else would probably have moved the eggs and chicken to another place (but not my neighbor....this was right up her alley...sharing her car with a chicken!)
"Well, are you getting in, or not?"
Long story short......I carefully climbed in, and rode the eight miles to town with a setting hen between my feet.She glared at me with her beady little eyes the whole way. The more I thought about it, I realised I didn't want to disturb this passenger any more than I had to.
We pulled up at the grocery store. "Well.... are you coming, or not?"my friend asked. "Ummm....er...no, I really didn't need anything ( I lied)....I just came along for the ride.....

2006-09-26T08:01:00.000-05:00

Happy 19th birthday, Nick! love always, Mom

PLAY

2006-08-19T17:19:00.001-05:00

I had posting problems the other night while trying to download this for Illo Fri's subject "Play". ....Too late for Illo Fri, and not the best drawing I've ever done, but it's been so long since I've added anything new, I'm afraid everyone has given up on me.
I played clarinet in high school band.A few years back, I dug out my old clarinet, drove an hour away to the nearest music store to buy a reed for it, and after returning home, found that I could still play the Marriage of Figaro from memory. Fast forward to a few days ago......I dug it out again to draw for this subject, but play it? No such luck......oh, I could still remember the fingerings, but it seems that in my "old age", I have absolutley no lung power to play. I managed a few hideous sounding squeaks. Let's face it, my clarinet playing days are over........however, I recently learned on one of those "do it yourself" decorating shows on TV, that a clarinet can be turned into a pretty nifty looking lamp.Maybe I'll give that a try...
On another note.......thanks to the few of you who haven't given up on me yet, and still check to see if I'm still here! I've just been really busy.My little blog is now one year old. I hope to get back on track, and post more regularly.
*I gave up on the lamp idea, and hung my clarinet on the wall;it made for a neato art piece.

Rain

2006-06-29T14:20:00.000-05:00

Dance, Dance

2006-06-22T23:34:00.000-05:00

THINGS

2006-06-13T17:34:00.000-05:00

I once read that if you had a blog, you must post your 100 things.I love to read the "Things" about other people, but I really don't think that I could come up with that many things of interest about me. (I may not even come up with 10).....so we'll see how it goes.....

1. I'm 5' 11'' tall....I've always wished I had that one more inch. (more height is helpful, when you begin to get more wider).
2. I blush very easily (I hate that). The first time I remember really blushing was in Mrs. Prices 6th grade class. She always chose our 6th period class to hang out in the teachers lounge, leaving our class unsupervised.One day, a group of boys pulled a mean prank on me. All of these years later, I still turn red when I think of it.( silly, I know).
3. I played the clarinet in the high school band ( and blushed crimson if I ever had a solo.)
4. Salty snacks are my downfall (I prefer them over chocolate.)
5. When I was a kid, I lived about 3 blocks from the public pool. We always had a season pass, and went almost every day. My brother, sister and I all could do a 1 1/2 flip off of the high dive.
6. We once sneaked over the fence at the pool, and were just about to dive in for a moonlight swim when the cops pulled up. We hid just in time.
7. We had the best childhood ever, except for the neighborhood bully and his evil henchmen. (have you ever watched the movie The War?)
8. My favorite movie is To Kill A Mockingbird. (I wanted to be Scout when I was young.)
9. My first car was a white 1970 Dodge Challenger with black leather interior, and stick shift.I LOVED that car. I was parked on the street outside of my work eating lunch one day in my car.I got out to go back to work, got right inside the door , and my car was struck by 2 other cars and mashed flat. I still have the Challenger emblem I picked up off the street.
10. I was a late bloomer......I was still building treehouses at fourteen.
11. I love the smell of freshly mown hay, water out of a garden hose, and sawmills.
12. My grandparents lived in front of a sawmill (where my grandfather worked) when I was a kid. My brother, my cousin Bo and I played hide and seek there every evening when we stayed at my grandparents. I'm sure we worried my poor grandmother to death.( we slid down the huge belts of the saw, and swung by chain over the creosote vat, just to name a few stupidly dangerous things.)
13. My brother and I are the same age for 11 days every year.We were stuck together like glue all of our childhood until he discovered girls.
14. I can roof a house.
15. I'm also pretty good at finishing drywall.
16. I drink too much sweet iced tea.
17. My favorite carbonated drink is root beer.
18. As teenagers ( with my brother as our guide) we and our friends often explored the caves in the valley below our house.You had to lower yourself down by rope to enter, and crawl through a tunnel knee deep in water. (quite a few people have been lost in those same caves, and had to be rescued.)
19. My favorite meal to cook.......roast w/potatoes and carrots, and green beans and cornbread.
20. I have 2 sons. (When you have boys, and you come home crying with a bad haircut, they laugh at you and tell you that you look like George Washington.)
21. When I was 10 or 11, there was an old fashioned tent revival in town. The preacher ( a pilot), promised a plane ride to all of the kids who attended every night of that week.My brother, cousins and I went every night, just to ride in the plane at the end of the week.
22. My husband proposed on our third date. We were married 3 months later.
21. When I was a kid, my uncle owned a tavern with a pool hall in front. We were allowed to play pool after closing hours. I'm pretty good at shooting pool.
22. I'm not too good at dancing.....so I only danced back when The Bump was in fashion.( if you're too young to remember, it was the late 70's.)
23. I think I'm a pretty good singer, but I only sing when I'm alone in the car( and really loud.)
24. I still have a pair of jeans from high school w/ peace sign and Woodstock patches sewn on them. ( I could probably only get my feet into them now.)
25. My favorite flavor of ice cream is butter pecan. (When I make homemade, I always make cherry.)
26. When I was a kid, I used to climb on the roof, and make scary noises through the furnace vent pipe to scare my younger sisters.
27. My sister Lisa and I used to iron each others curly hair in the mornings before school.
28. I have always wished that I could play guitar. (is it too late to learn now?)
29. I was fourteen when my youngest sister was born. I was also learning to sew then, and liked to practice by making clothes for her. I hope I didn't make her wear anything too tacky!
30. My first brand new car was a 1979 Chevy Camaro. I paid $6, 400 for it. I still have the paperwork.(I can't seem to throw things away)
31. I wish I were more outgoing...although I'm getting a little better as I get older.
32. I hate shoes! They are the first thing to come off when I come home. I will run outside to the mailbox on a frosty day without stopping to put on shoes.
33. I wish I was a person who could wear hats.(it would make bad hair days so much easier)
34. I'm terrified of snakes, even the "good" ones. I don't even want to see them on T.V.
35. I rarely go to bed before 11p.m. But I still get up early in the morning. I always plan to sleep late on the weekends, but never do. My husband goes to bed by 7 p.m, so he is always up by 5 or 6 a.m. He always raises the shade, and says, " Get Up Get Up The Sun Is Up !" This REALLY ticks me off!
36. As teenagers, it was no longer cool to swim at the pool, so we swam in every creek, river, lake and old strip mine within driving distance. Although I was extremely bashful, I was a real daredevil. I once jumped off of a VERY TALL cliff to impress my brother and our friends (all guys ). None of them were brave enough to do it. ( I really regretted it the moment my feet left the edge, but it was too late to turn back then!) It was a terrifying descent to the water!
37. When paying for something, I always like to have the correct change.
38. I don't own a cell phone. I just don't want to talk that much!
39. When I was a toddler, I "drowned". My dad worked 2nd shift, and as he got out of the tub, and dressed for work, my brother and I stopped the tub back up and sneaked into the water to play. My mom found me , not breathing in the bottom of the tub.She ran with me to the next door neighbors. He performed CPR on me for a long time, but finally told my mom it was too late. He told her they should call the police and my dads' work so they could tell him when he got there to turn around and come home.....but at that moment, I began to cough......
40. I have a very large scar on the back of my leg, right above the kneepit. When I was 13, I was climbing back over the chain link fence after retrieving a wayward football. I slipped and ripped a long gash in my leg.My brother actually had to lift me off of the barb. I still remember..it hurt like ##**##!!!!
41. I love to go to those tiny old timey movie theatres.On vacation in Ashville N.C. this week, we found one there, and went to see Garrison Keillors' Prairie Home Companion. The whole audience clapped when the movie ended. ( they just don't do that anymore, do they? It was nice!)

Well, I'm out of "things" for now, and thought I would stop at forty. I threw in one extra. Geez! How do these people ever come up with 100?

2006-05-27T23:22:00.000-05:00

I've never been one to wear much makeup. Some years back however, I looked in the mirror and realized I had no eyebrows to speak of.They needed a little help...just a little filling in with an eyebrow pencil.Soon after this discovery, I realized I also needed glasses.Anyone who wears glasses will tell you it's hard to apply your eye makeup with your glasses on.Add to this problem the fact that the lighting over my bathroom mirror is horrible.So, once I am in the car, in the light of day, I always lean over and check my makeup in the rear view mirror.I can never seem to do matching eyebrows.....I always seem to have one cynical raised eyebrow!
Maybe it's not just my eyebrows that are fading away.....maybe I've lost a coupla brain cells, too.How else to account for the discovery I made one day in the rearview mirror.... What? Did a shiny object capture my attention,and I just forgot to draw on that other eyebrow?This sent me scrambling for a no.2 pencil from under the seat, to finish off the job.....

Then, the problem seemed to be solved. My daughter in law left some makeup at my house. One morning, I couldn't find my pencil, so I looked through the makeup she had left.I found the perfect pencil...it went on so smoothly....I drew the perfect eyebrows. I felt no need to check them in the rearview mirror.I went grocery shopping,and left the house on a few more occasions, never checking the rearview mirror. Then, in the car one day, I turned to look at my son. "Mom!...Why do you have purple eyebrows?" ......"What?" I said.(in horror). I leaned over to look in the mirror. "Oh MY God!" It was true ...I had PURPLE eyebrows!!! I could have died....I had been to the grocery store this way....I had been out IN PUBLIC!!

When I got in the house, I rushed to get the pencil...I took it to the light...it was not an eyebrow pencil....it was some sort of eyeshadow/liner....the color?......GRAPE...yes,GRAPE!!

Maybe Whoopi has the right idea...... No eyebrows is so much easier!!!

2006-05-22T07:27:00.000-05:00

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

2006-05-21T01:42:00.000-05:00

Happy Birthday to my dear brother Ronald!
I love you very much!

2006-05-19T07:34:00.000-05:00

DEVILED EGGS
I'm too late to link to IF's challenge of Angels and Devils this week, but it's been so long since I posted, I felt the need to do something.....anything. I have just been uninspired lately, as you can see. Now, there's a new topic....SORRY....gosh, that's gonna be a hard one!

ROBOT

2006-04-25T00:39:00.000-05:00

Life on the run was hard......

SPOTTED

2006-04-18T10:12:00.000-05:00

Here's my fish. He has some spots.But he really has a lot of dots...