Friday, December 15, 2017

Shecember Days 8-12

In case anyone here is interested, here are my latest Shecember drawings:





Next year is going to be great, right?

Celebrate The Small Things - December 15



The good news this week is that we got a buyer for our townhome. I initially didn't want to let it go because it's the house we were living in when we had our first baby. It has been on the market since last summer. We really needed to get rid of it because we couldn't afford it any longer. I finally came to terms with letting it go. I prayed for someone to buy it. The next morning, our realtor called to tell me there was a legitimate offer. All the previous offers did not work out. Today, the paperwork was done and the ball is rolling. 

Since our TV died last week, we were able to find a cheap one that was the same size as our last one, but with a sharper picture. We were going to have a movie night at home last Friday, but had no TV. It was funny because we had the popcorn ready, but nothing to watch. Our smaller TV was in another room that had no couch to sit on. I ate the popcorn anyway sitting on the couch looking at a black TV screen. The popcorn was good.

I learned that Samsung has a problem with the capacitors blowing out on their TVs. You can fix it yourself by watching YouTube tutorials, but you need a soldering iron which I don't have. My husband didn't want me to mess with it, though and didn't want to go out and get a soldering iron.

Days after our TV died, our clothes dryer died. Why does it always happen at the end of the year? Looking on the bright side, we have a drying rack. Hahaha! Celebratin' the small things...

I hope you have good things to celebrate!
 
I am part of a blog hop hosted by Lexa Cain and co-hosted by L.G. Keltner and Tonja Drecker. Please be so kind as to visit their blogs and participating blogs listed below.
 
Have a great weekend!

Lexa Cain @ http://lexacain.blogspot.com/
L.G. Keltner @ Writing Off The Edge Tonja Drecker @ Kidbits Blog
1.Lexa Cain2.Fiction and Film
3.Writing Off the Edge4.Kidbits
5.TheCyborgMom6.Thoughts and Ideas from Deanie Humphrys-Dunne
7.Intentional Insights with S. Kelley Harrell8.Constantine
9.My Miracle Life10.Writing, Reading, and the Pursuit of Dreams
11.Lara Lacombe12.TF Walsh
13.Life, Yoga and Other Adventures14.Suzanne Furness
15.Elizabeth Seckman16.Avalon
17.My Baffling Brain18.Planet Kimberly
19.Shah Wharton20.Victorian Scribbles
21.Tanya Miranda22.Ann - A Friend of Jesus 2013
23.Special Teaching At Pempi's Palace24.Square Pegs
25.Patricia's Place26.Anne Higa
27.My Antimatter Life28.Bouquet of Books
29.Lightravellerkate30.Curious As A Cathy
31.Glennie's Random Ramblings32.In My Own Words
33.Tamara Narayan, Author34.My Creatively Random Life
35.Yvonne Ventresca36.On Becoming a Writer
37.Decadent Kane38.Stacy Uncorked
39.Sharon Himsl--Shells, Tales & Sails40.Cloud Nine Girl
41.Our Simple Life42.Our Prime Years
43.Allison Bruning

Friday, December 8, 2017

Shecember days 6 & 7


My focus was the 50s style for these. I wanted to do a Fred Moore (from Disney) style, but it didn't turn out that way at all! I'll keep trying.

Celebrate The Small Things - December 8, 2017




This was a crazy week. I made Christmas plans with family members who didn't want to deal with each other and managed to get through it fairly unscathed. So far so good. Festivus for the rest of us. lol

We had another prowler last night caught on our security camera. That's the second in about three years. Too many. I met a lady who lives a few houses down from us who saw a couple of guys casing the neighborhood a few nights ago. We shared information which was very helpful. A police officer came to our house. He seemed to be on top of things and gave us some good information.

The city fixed our sidewalk this week. The roots were lifting the sidewalk up which I complained about a few years ago since people were tripping and falling over it. They didn't want to fix it back then. They just put tar over the crack. It has gotten higher since then. I'm surprised they came out to fix it. They are fixing these types of cracks in the whole city. Maybe someone tripped over one and sued the city for injuries.

When the workers broke up the old sidewalk, they broke all the sprinklers. Today they fixed them all and the new sprinklers appear to be even better than before! Yay! Let's hope they're actually functional as opposed to looking shiny and new. I won't know until they are completely done. The cement is still drying and the grass next to the sidewalk is in disarray. They'll probably come back next week.

I had to download a few of my husband's animated shots from his old job so he can use them to get new jobs. The studio required him to download iBackup to get his shots. I had to do it for him since he couldn't do it from his current job. No other studio has asked to do this before. I had so many problems with iBackup! I have never been so upset with a website in my life. I was screaming obscenities at the computer for about an hour. It was worse than dealing with Blue Shield health insurance over the phone being put on hold for over an hour and then getting disconnected. Just the login process is enough to make you want to start a fight club. I managed to get through it, download all his shots, and cancel iBackup, hopefully before they charge us the monthly fee. It was a horrible experience, but fantastic when I got everything to work.

The fires were raging in southern California this week. The air quality was bad, but celebrating the small things, we weren't near any of the fires. :o/ Our TV died, but luckily we had another one for me to keep up-to-date with the fires. I don't watch much TV anyway.

I actually got a few pages of my book done despite all the craziness. That's looking on the bright side. I probably could've gotten more done if all these things hadn't happened.

I hope you had good things to celebrate! Have a great weekend!

Please check out the blogs below. They are part of a blog hop hosted by Lexa Cain and co-hosted by L.G. Keltner and Tonja Drecker. Please be so kind as to visit their blogs at: 

Lexa Cain @ http://lexacain.blogspot.com/
L.G. Keltner @ Writing Off The Edge Tonja Drecker @ Kidbits Blog

1.Lexa Cain2.Fiction and Film
3.Writing Off the Edge4.Kidbits
5.TheCyborgMom6.Thoughts and Ideas from Deanie Humphrys-Dunne
7.Intentional Insights with S. Kelley Harrell8.Constantine
9.My Miracle Life10.Writing, Reading, and the Pursuit of Dreams
11.Lara Lacombe12.TF Walsh
13.Life, Yoga and Other Adventures14.Suzanne Furness
15.Elizabeth Seckman16.Avalon
17.My Baffling Brain18.Planet Kimberly
19.Shah Wharton20.Victorian Scribbles
21.Tanya Miranda22.Ann - A Friend of Jesus 2013
23.Special Teaching At Pempi's Palace24.Square Pegs
25.Patricia's Place26.Anne Higa
27.My Antimatter Life28.Bouquet of Books
29.Lightravellerkate30.Curious As A Cathy
31.Glennie's Random Ramblings32.In My Own Words
33.Tamara Narayan, Author34.My Creatively Random Life
35.Yvonne Ventresca36.On Becoming a Writer
37.Decadent Kane38.Stacy Uncorked
39.Sharon Himsl--Shells, Tales & Sails40.Cloud Nine Girl
41.Our Simple Life42.Our Prime Years
43.Allison Bruning

Tuesday, December 5, 2017

My Shecember Posts - Days 2-5

Julia Thorley (http://juliathorley.blogspot.com/) asked if I was going to post my Shecember drawings here. I post them on my art blog (www.smallkeedtime.blogspot.com) but she got me thinking that I should post them here. Thanks, Julia! Julia has an interesting blog, by the way. She's a good writer and she's funny.

Since I posted my drawing for day 1 of Shecember in my last post, I won't post it here again, but days 2-5 are below. Drawing women is my forte, but trying to find something I REALLY want to draw takes hours sometimes. In my head, I have these creative images I want to get on the page with energetic lines and brilliant color, but when I draw them, they are nothing like what I saw in my head. It's very hard to take risks and throw that image on the page. This has been my problem for years.

I added crayon colors to this later, but I like this plain version better. Day 2:
This one reminds me of art school, haha. Day 3:

This one is Morticia Addams. Day 4:


This last one was done with Crayola crayons and white pencil. Day 5:










Friday, December 1, 2017

Celebrate The Small Things - December 1, 2010



 

I'm celebrating two weeks worth since I missed last week. Last week was Thanksgiving for us here in the U.S.  I made it through without pigging out too much. It helped that I couldn't eat most of the food because it wasn't gluten free. I avoided meat as much as I could too, so I basically just ate side dishes. 

We went to buy our oldest son his first phone over the weekend since his birthday is coming up and he has been on the Principal's Honor Roll for years. They had a good deal at the store with two free phones, so we ended up getting phones for all of us. Our youngest son got on the Principal's Honor Roll for the first time recently as well, so it was justified. Early Christmas presents for us all! Birthday and Christmas combined for the big kid since the phone is still expensive with the taxes and plan...

We went to the CTN Animation Expo and got to spend time with some old friends. They had free costume drawing sessions outside all day. I bring my sketchbook with me everywhere, so I made some drawings and was able to fill up my sketchbook. Yay! I hate that sketchbook and was happy to be done with it. It had metal clasps which were cumbersome and damaged the books in my bag. It's a nice looking sketchbook, but good riddance to it! Haha! (Figuratively kicking it to the curb).

I started a new sketchbook which has Ravenclaw (Harry Potter) on the cover. I chose it because I liked the color better than the Gryffindor one.

Today starts the first day of Shecember which is an informal art challenge to draw a woman every day in December. I picked up a flat, capenter's style pencil that I've never used and a few of my kids' old crayons and came up with the drawing below. I thought working with crayons would be horrible, but the colors came out pretty nice. 

My friend, Brittany, texted me yesterday reminding me that Shecember was coming up. I hadn't realized that December was already upon us until around midnight. I quickly scribbled this out before I went to bed a little past midnight. It might have taken me about 15 min. I should time myself next time.


I hope you are celebrating wonderful things this week. Have a great weekend!

Please check out the blogs below. They are part of a blog hop hosted by Lexa Cain and co-hosted by L.G. Keltner and Tonja Drecker. Please be so kind as to visit their blogs at: 

Lexa Cain @ http://lexacain.blogspot.com/
L.G. Keltner @ Writing Off The Edge Tonja Drecker @ Kidbits Blog

1.Lexa Cain2.Fiction and Film
3.Writing Off the Edge4.Kidbits
5.TheCyborgMom6.Thoughts and Ideas from Deanie Humphrys-Dunne
7.Intentional Insights with S. Kelley Harrell8.Constantine
9.My Miracle Life10.Writing, Reading, and the Pursuit of Dreams
11.Lara Lacombe12.TF Walsh
13.Life, Yoga and Other Adventures14.Suzanne Furness
15.Elizabeth Seckman16.Avalon
17.My Baffling Brain18.Planet Kimberly
19.Shah Wharton20.Victorian Scribbles
21.Tanya Miranda22.Ann - A Friend of Jesus 2013
23.Special Teaching At Pempi's Palace24.Square Pegs
25.Patricia's Place26.Anne Higa
27.My Antimatter Life28.Bouquet of Books
29.Lightravellerkate30.Curious As A Cathy
31.Glennie's Random Ramblings32.In My Own Words
33.Tamara Narayan, Author34.My Creatively Random Life
35.Yvonne Ventresca36.On Becoming a Writer
37.Decadent Kane38.Stacy Uncorked
39.Sharon Himsl--Shells, Tales & Sails40.Cloud Nine Girl
41.Our Simple Life42.Our Prime Years
43.Allison Bruning

Friday, November 17, 2017

Celebrate The Small Things - November 17



I'm celebrating the return of Lexa Cain, the host of this blog hog, after a long illness! Yay!

I went to Disneyland with my family last Saturday. We had to use a pass (bought during the summer) before it expired on December 19. Since the holidays are coming up, I figured we might not have time to go later on. The park was decorated with Christmas stuff so it was really nice. The weather wasn't too cold which was good. We might've been able to even wear shorts if we wanted to without freezing. I'm sure it'll be much colder next month. It was 82 degrees a few days ago and I did wear shorts to walk my dogs. Weird weather.

I've been neglecting my art blog for a long time, but I started posting my trials and errors as I do my graphic novel. It might help other people going through the same thing. I posted the second entry to my process yesterday.

Our vegetarian diet is going pretty well except for the weekends. I found the Yummly app which is formatted to the things we buy at the grocery store and the way we want to eat. I told it that I wanted to see vegetarian and vegan dishes. It comes up with recipes for dinner, desserts, sides, etc. I use the Quick and Easy section most of the time. If you have something in your refrigerator that you need to get rid of, you type that item in and it gives you recipes you can follow to use that item or items.

So far, my family has liked almost every recipe I made from that app. If you made something that you like, you can rate it and let people know what you added or left out to make it better. You can also see what other people did with the recipe. You can do what they did or it can give you ideas to add other things. My family loves that we're eating a variety of dishes now instead of the bodybuilder's diet of chicken breast and broccoli. I'll be happy if I never eat chicken breast again!

We substituted chicken for tofu at the Thai restaurant we go to and the dishes were still good. We left the chicken in the coconut soup, though because my husband said the taste would change if we left it out. I ate the soup, but left out the pieces of chicken.

I lost weight, but we all have been tired lately. Maybe we're missing specific nutrients from meat... I did eat meat at the Indian buffet, though. I couldn't resist it! Indian food is so good! It wasn't much, though. For the most part, I'm happy not eating meat.

I finished a good book this week called Missing 411: North America and Beyond. There are so many bizarre, sad, and shocking cases in there. I'm starting the next one today and ordered two more.

Here are pictures from Disneyland. The castle was decorated for Christmas. It's a Small World was just opened a few days ago after remodeling. I believe these colors are just for Christmas. Now there is an animated short that overlays over the buildings every 15 minutes which is only for the holiday season.

I hope you had wonderful things to celebrate this week.


Have a good weekend!
Check out the blogs listed below for your reading pleasure and please visit our hosts' blogs:
Lexa Cain: http://lexacain.blogspot.com/
L.G. Keltner http://lgkeltner.blogspot.co.uk/
Tonja Drecker http://tonjadrecker.blogspot.com/

1.Lexa Cain2.Fiction and Film
3.Writing Off the Edge4.Kidbits
5.TheCyborgMom6.Thoughts and Ideas from Deanie Humphrys-Dunne
7.Intentional Insights with S. Kelley Harrell8.Constantine
9.My Miracle Life10.Writing, Reading, and the Pursuit of Dreams
11.Lara Lacombe12.TF Walsh
13.Life, Yoga and Other Adventures14.Suzanne Furness
15.Elizabeth Seckman16.Avalon
17.My Baffling Brain18.Planet Kimberly
19.Shah Wharton20.Victorian Scribbles
21.Tanya Miranda22.Ann - A Friend of Jesus 2013
23.Special Teaching At Pempi's Palace24.Square Pegs
25.Patricia's Place26.Anne Higa
27.My Antimatter Life28.Bouquet of Books
29.Lightravellerkate30.Curious As A Cathy
31.Glennie's Random Ramblings32.In My Own Words
33.Tamara Narayan, Author34.My Creatively Random Life
35.Yvonne Ventresca36.On Becoming a Writer
37.Decadent Kane38.Stacy Uncorked
39.Sharon Himsl--Shells, Tales & Sails40.Cloud Nine Girl
41.Our Simple Life42.Our Prime Years
43.Allison Bruning

Friday, October 20, 2017

Celebrate The Small Things - October 20, 2017

 

This week, I inked my first graphic novel page by hand. It turned out pretty good.

I had to watch several YouTube tutorials on how to color it digitally in Clip Studio Paint since I haven't used the program in several months. It was frustrating trying to find specific functions, but I eventually got it. It's almost completely colored.

At one point I was watching a tutorial made by a kid who is probably in grade school or middle school! Wow. How the heck did he get so good at the program? I guess he doesn't play video games. Haha.

I went to San Juan Capistrano over the weekend. We went into a Native American shop where I found an ointment for mosquito bites. For some strange reason, a lot of people in my area are getting lots of mosquito bites including myself and my family. We are in a drought, mind you, so where the mosquitoes are coming from is baffling. Anyway, I tried the ointment and it actually worked! I put it on in the late afternoon and by morning, the itching was gone. Interesting. This is what I used:






In San Juan Capistrano, California we ate at a French restaurant for my sister-in-law's birthday. My kids tried escargot for the first time. I'm surprised they actually tried it. They liked it. They especially liked the garlic butter sauce it was in.

I wasn't able to avoid meat but I didn't eat red meat or chicken. I had a salmon salad and a couple of escargot. Not exactly vegetarian, but I'm taking baby steps.




The vegetarian dishes I made this week turned out pretty good. I made a Japanese pumpkin dish that I sort of messed up, but tasted good nevertheless. I also made gluten free pasta noodles with zucchini and mushrooms in a marinara sauce. We have to find a way to get more protein in our meals, though. It's a learning process. I admit, I'm lost. It's all so foreign to me having to change our meals completely. What I'm used to cooking is out the door.

I found a recipe for zucchini muffins that have 10 grams of protein per muffin! I'm looking forward to making that!

My Filipina friend told me where I can buy bagaoong in my area. It's shrimp paste which isn't really vegetarian I guess. Pescatarian maybe. I think most Filipinos eat it with rice and onions. I've had it a couple of times and it was delicious! I'm hoping we can buy it this weekend.

I hope you had wonderful things to celebrate this week.


Have a good weekend!
Check out the blogs below for your reading pleasure and please visit our hosts' blogs:
Lexa Cain: http://lexacain.blogspot.com/
L.G. Keltner http://lgkeltner.blogspot.co.uk/
Tonja Drecker http://tonjadrecker.blogspot.com/
1.Lexa Cain2.Fiction and Film
3.Writing Off the Edge4.Kidbits
5.TheCyborgMom6.Thoughts and Ideas from Deanie Humphrys-Dunne
7.Intentional Insights with S. Kelley Harrell8.Constantine
9.My Miracle Life10.Writing, Reading, and the Pursuit of Dreams
11.Lara Lacombe12.TF Walsh
13.Life, Yoga and Other Adventures14.Suzanne Furness
15.Elizabeth Seckman16.Avalon
17.My Baffling Brain18.Planet Kimberly
19.Shah Wharton20.Victorian Scribbles
21.Tanya Miranda22.Ann - A Friend of Jesus 2013
23.Special Teaching At Pempi's Palace24.Square Pegs
25.Patricia's Place26.Anne Higa
27.My Antimatter Life28.Bouquet of Books
29.Lightravellerkate30.Curious As A Cathy
31.Glennie's Random Ramblings32.In My Own Words
33.Tamara Narayan, Author34.My Creatively Random Life
35.Yvonne Ventresca36.On Becoming a Writer
37.Decadent Kane38.Stacy Uncorked
39.Sharon Himsl--Shells, Tales & Sails40.Cloud Nine Girl
41.Our Simple Life42.Our Prime Years
43.Allison Bruning

Friday, October 13, 2017

Celebrate The Small Things - October 13, 2017

 

This week I finally started a Tumblr account for my web comics. I'm a little confused about how it works, though. Hahaha! I spent about an hour or more this morning trying to figure it out. It's getting clearer...I think. My Tumblr account is https://kimberlyrobello.tumblr.com/  I re-blogged images from other artists I like, but it doesn't distinguish my own pieces of art. *shrug*



I finished reading Sarah Glidden's Rolling Blackouts graphic novel. It documents her trip to Turkey, Syria, and Iraq with her journalist friends. It was an interesting and informative book, a glimpse into areas of the world that few of us are brave enough to venture.


My husband and I watched the documentary What the Health and are now freaked out about eating meat and dairy. This weekend, we are going to buy more vegetables, fruits, and legumes. Some former vegans and vegetarians that my husband knows did not recommend that we go vegan, but we are going to cut out meat as much as is healthy for us. I don't like meat anyway, so it won't be that much of a problem for me. I don't like steak and I'm happy to never eat chicken breast again in my life. I hate chicken breast! We ate it almost every day ever since we started working out at the gym eight years ago. It came to a point where I was thinking that I would rather starve than eat a chicken breast dinner. Our kids are pretty excited about eating more fruits and vegetables, too.


What will be hard for me is giving up dairy. I love milk and cheese and other foods that contain dairy products like CHOCOLATE. The grocery bill should be a lot less expensive though. We're looking forward to that as well.


I'm listening to The China Study audiobook and that has a lot of good information, too. My cousin suggested that I read it and I'm glad she did.


I started Inktober and posted my comics for the first time on the internet. It makes me feel like I'm moving forward with my career in comics albeit in baby steps.


This week I made an effort to be more active on social media since I need to establish a web presence for my comics. I commented on an art piece that one of my favorite artists posted on Instagram. She actually responded! I know it seems like a small thing, but I was jumping for joy. My favorite artists are like rock stars to me.


I hope you had wonderful things to celebrate this week.

Have a good weekend!
Check out the blogs below for your reading pleasure and please visit our hosts' blogs:
Lexa Cain: http://lexacain.blogspot.com/
L.G. Keltner http://lgkeltner.blogspot.co.uk/
Tonja Drecker http://tonjadrecker.blogspot.com/
1.Lexa Cain2.Fiction and Film
3.Writing Off the Edge4.Kidbits
5.TheCyborgMom6.Thoughts and Ideas from Deanie Humphrys-Dunne
7.Intentional Insights with S. Kelley Harrell8.Constantine
9.My Miracle Life10.Writing, Reading, and the Pursuit of Dreams
11.Lara Lacombe12.TF Walsh
13.Life, Yoga and Other Adventures14.Suzanne Furness
15.Elizabeth Seckman16.Avalon
17.My Baffling Brain18.Planet Kimberly
19.Shah Wharton20.Victorian Scribbles
21.Tanya Miranda22.Ann - A Friend of Jesus 2013
23.Special Teaching At Pempi's Palace24.Square Pegs
25.Patricia's Place26.Anne Higa
27.My Antimatter Life28.Bouquet of Books
29.Lightravellerkate30.Curious As A Cathy
31.Glennie's Random Ramblings32.In My Own Words
33.Tamara Narayan, Author34.My Creatively Random Life
35.Yvonne Ventresca36.On Becoming a Writer
37.Decadent Kane38.Stacy Uncorked
39.Sharon Himsl--Shells, Tales & Sails40.Cloud Nine Girl
41.Our Simple Life42.Our Prime Years
43.Allison Bruning

Friday, September 22, 2017

Celebrate The Small Things - September 22, 2017

 


This week I finished laying out 211 pages of fairly detailed thumbnails for my graphic novel. I am so glad to be done with that! The last seven pages were tough. It was like being in the desert and seeing a mirage. You crawl toward it, but it seems to get farther away.

I scanned all the pages in and thought, now what? I debated whether or not to draw the final roughs digitally or by hand. Drawing digitally is so painstaking, but if I can master it, it would make the process faster. I don't think I'll get used to it anytime this year, so I've decided to hand-draw the whole book. I'll color it and maybe do the lettering and word bubbles digitally. All of the people who make comics that I admire draw their comics traditionally with ink and paper, so I don't feel as bad about not going completely digital.

The art store that I frequent just ended their big sale a couple of weeks ago. Just my luck. That always happens to me. During the sale, I don't need anything, but as soon as it ends, I need something.

I went to Blick Art Supply this morning because they had a buy-one-get-one free sale on their Strathmore drawing pads. I had to rush because the only parking spot I could find was a 15 min. metered one. I like to browse art stores, but this got me to hurry up. When I got there, the sale didn't apply to the particular paper I needed. Bubble burst. They didn't have half of the other stuff I needed. It was just as well because I had to get back to my car.

Since Michael's was nearby, I went there and found almost all of the stuff I needed. They even had a BOGO deal on canvases which I had to get anyway since my cousin wants me to paint vintage style Hawaiian paintings for her house.

I had to buy the Winsor & Newton Series 7 size 2 brush on Amazon which was actually cheaper than if Blick actually had the items in stock.

Overall, even though it seemed like I had bad luck, it actually was pretty good. The 15 min. parking got me to hurry up so I was able to pick my kids up from school on time. It was a minimum day for them, so if I had stayed any longer, I might've been late. I did save money in the end.

I started reading Recipe by Lucy Knisley. It's about her life growing up with parents who cook gourmet food. Her parents and their friends consist of chefs, caterers, and food critics. When she was in preschool and had a birthday, instead of the standard cupcakes that kids bring, her mom brought a blowtorch and made crème brûlée. How lucky is that? She drew out recipes in this book of some of the things she ate. It makes you hungry.

Here's a quick sketch I did of my kids at a Japanese restaurant:



Have a good weekend!
Check out the blogs below for your reading pleasure and please visit our hosts' blogs:
Lexa Cain: http://lexacain.blogspot.com/
L.G. Keltner http://lgkeltner.blogspot.co.uk/
Tonja Drecker http://tonjadrecker.blogspot.com/
1.Lexa Cain2.Fiction and Film
3.Writing Off the Edge4.Kidbits
5.TheCyborgMom6.Thoughts and Ideas from Deanie Humphrys-Dunne
7.Intentional Insights with S. Kelley Harrell8.Constantine
9.My Miracle Life10.Writing, Reading, and the Pursuit of Dreams
11.Lara Lacombe12.TF Walsh
13.Life, Yoga and Other Adventures14.Suzanne Furness
15.Elizabeth Seckman16.Avalon
17.My Baffling Brain18.Planet Kimberly
19.Shah Wharton20.Victorian Scribbles
21.Tanya Miranda22.Ann - A Friend of Jesus 2013
23.Special Teaching At Pempi's Palace24.Square Pegs
25.Patricia's Place26.Anne Higa
27.My Antimatter Life28.Bouquet of Books
29.Lightravellerkate30.Curious As A Cathy
31.Glennie's Random Ramblings32.In My Own Words
33.Tamara Narayan, Author34.My Creatively Random Life
35.Yvonne Ventresca36.On Becoming a Writer
37.Decadent Kane38.Stacy Uncorked
39.Sharon Himsl--Shells, Tales & Sails40.Cloud Nine Girl
41.Our Simple Life42.Our Prime Years
43.Allison Bruning

Friday, September 15, 2017

Celebrate The Small Things - September 15, 2017

 

This week I'm celebrating a printer that actually works! My mom gave us her old printer that she wasn't sure even worked. I bought cartridges for it, but it wasn't printing color. After about an hour of failed attempts, I was able to find a print driver online that worked. I printed out something for my son's project and was amazed that it actually printed out in color! Technology is great when it works. I was proud of myself for that one.







I tried the one-meal-a-day diet this week that mainly consisted of vegetables. It lasted three days, but I'm calling it a week. On the fourth day, I added Jalapeño sauce to my veggies. A couple of hours later, I had a stomach ache and it wasn't hunger pangs. I think it was the hot sauce burning my stomach. I ended up eating a salmon burger. My stomach ache went away and so did that diet. I did lose a pound or two of weight and my belt went down to the last notch, so that's what I'm celebrating.




This week I learned to use a Japanese/Chinese ink stone and ink stick. My uncle was cleaning his house and wanted to get rid of them, so he gave them to me. I tried using them before, but the ink was watered down. I thought it was defective or cheap. Good ol' YouTube taught me how to grind the ink stick properly. Yay! It's tedious and I didn't get any good drawings out of it, but that's beside the point. I discovered that all of my Chinese brushes are crappy except for one which is decent. I'm going to have to give it another go after I'm done with my graphic novel layouts.

I spilled some of the dirty ink water on my desk which almost ruined a day's work of drawings for my graphic novel. Geez! That was stupid! It was against my better judgment to test out the ink on the same desk I use to draw my GN, but I did it anyway because I was too lazy to move. Laziness does not pay.

This week I listened to some of NPR's "I Built This" podcasts. Those are great! They interview very successful people about how they became billionaires. It's inspiring! I highly recommend listening to those. They are free from the iTunes store. I put some on my husband's phone so he could listen to them on the way to work this morning. He doesn't like extra stuff on his phone and resists the podcasts I suggest, but he called me before he got to work very excited about what he heard. It lit a fire under him and now he has great plans for projects.

My youngest son tested for green belt in Kyokushin Karate last night and did well. He didn't train for a year because of a broken foot, so this test was long overdue for him.

My mother came over today, brought food, washed my dishes, and told me some good stories about the things that happened with some terrible neighbors we had when I was a kid. I really should write about those neighbors some day. They are responsible for tormenting, ruining, and ending lives of several people in our neighborhood. I'm not sure how to approach the subject, though. Maybe in fictional comic book form without naming names.

Here's a drawing to leave you with that I drew in my sketchbook:


I hope you had a good, productive week.

Have a good weekend!
Check out the blogs below for your reading pleasure and please visit our hosts' blogs:
Lexa Cain: http://lexacain.blogspot.com/
L.G. Keltner http://lgkeltner.blogspot.co.uk/
Tonja Drecker http://tonjadrecker.blogspot.com/
 
Lexa has been sick and hasn't been online since June! I'm very worried about her and hope she makes a full recovery. Please send prayers or good thoughts/vibes her way.
 
1.Lexa Cain2.Fiction and Film
3.Writing Off the Edge4.Kidbits
5.TheCyborgMom6.Thoughts and Ideas from Deanie Humphrys-Dunne
7.Intentional Insights with S. Kelley Harrell8.Constantine
9.My Miracle Life10.Writing, Reading, and the Pursuit of Dreams
11.Lara Lacombe12.TF Walsh
13.Life, Yoga and Other Adventures14.Suzanne Furness
15.Elizabeth Seckman16.Avalon
17.My Baffling Brain18.Planet Kimberly
19.Shah Wharton20.Victorian Scribbles
21.Tanya Miranda22.Ann - A Friend of Jesus 2013
23.Special Teaching At Pempi's Palace24.Square Pegs
25.Patricia's Place26.Anne Higa
27.My Antimatter Life28.Bouquet of Books
29.Lightravellerkate30.Curious As A Cathy
31.Glennie's Random Ramblings32.In My Own Words
33.Tamara Narayan, Author34.My Creatively Random Life
35.Yvonne Ventresca36.On Becoming a Writer
37.Decadent Kane38.Stacy Uncorked
39.Sharon Himsl--Shells, Tales & Sails40.Cloud Nine Girl
41.Our Simple Life42.Our Prime Years
43.Allison Bruning

Friday, September 8, 2017

Celebrate The Small Things - September 8, 2017

 


My son who hates reading chapter books finally likes the book I chose for him to read for his reading log! Yay! Every so often I would ask him, "Do you like the book so far?" His answer would be, "No. It's boring." At the end of chapter 8, I asked the question again. To my surprise, he said, "Yeah. It's pretty good." What, what, what? Hallelujah! He actually likes Ender's Game! I didn't realize there were a few bad words in it, but at this point I don't care. It's not like he doesn't hear those words out and about. Especially at school, I'm sure.

He came to the realization yesterday that Ender's kind sister, Valentine, reflects the good part of Ender. His evil brother, Peter, is the bad part of Ender. They reflect both sides of Ender's personality. Wow, I was blown away when he said that. I didn't even figure that out myself.

My son has not been doing well in school, but I've been helping him with his homework religiously now and found that he's pretty darn smart. He figured out a couple of math problems yesterday that I couldn't wrap my head around.

My crazy dog, Bumi, is pulling on his leash a lot less on our walks this week which is a small triumph on my part. Usually, he just wants to go after every dog he sees on the sidewalk or hears behind a gate. If people get too close, he gets aggressive. He gets my other dog, Korra, riled up then she starts barking. I don't have the time or money to take him to obedience school. What I've been doing is running with them past houses with dogs. If he starts to dash after them, I tell him, "Let's go!" and we keep running. Maybe it's like running with a pack and he feels like he has to stay with us. Whatever it is, it's working.

There was a guy working on the street lights next to the sidewalk. I thought, Oh crap, I hope he doesn't try to bite this guy. I pulled the leash short and ran the dogs past him. There wasn't much of a struggle which was great.

My husband was burnt out from work last week, so for Labor Day weekend we only went out once to eat and stayed home for the rest of the 3-day weekend. It was great. I didn't have to wear makeup or change into nicer clothes. I got to work on my graphic novel and read. We didn't go to the gym either, so the kids were happy, too. They got more video game time which is what they live for.

I saw Michael Rashid's video about how he eats only once a day. He's a bodybuilder who used to be vegetarian. The dude is massive. He talks about how eating too much taxes the body. It works hard to constantly digest food that end up building toxins in your stomach that make you sick. Interesting theory. He eats baked vegetables, sometimes with salmon and turkey bacon. He drinks a protein drink with bananas and coconut milk, but not every day.

I want to try his baked veggie recipe. That day I had two servings of lettuce with carrots for lunch. I was starving at dinner. He is probably four times my size, so I don't know how he does it. Mind you he eats a lot more veggies than that, but still, it's not a lot. My older son said, "He said the first four days are hard." That's good to know. I'm hoping to buy the veggies this weekend so I can try it out. My husband is skeptical. Michael Rashid said this diet clears your mind. I've heard that people who fast think clearly, too. Interesting. Here's hoping I make it past day one. Ha ha!
We watched Dr. Steven Greer's new movie documentary called Unacknowledged. Wow. He talked about how there are plants at all the major TV networks that are paid by the richest people in the world to steer the public thought. There are a lot of things to ponder on. It made me think about Donald Trump and that maybe he's not such a bad guy after all. We're being duped. We are the sheeple. Russia, North Korea, and China may not be our enemies... Hmm.

Anyway, I don't want to talk politics here. Let's get back to writing! Drawing! Creating!

Here's a thumbnail of a character I want to use for my comics. It's based off of how I looked as a kid, with short crooked bangs and a gap between my teeth. I drew it super quick this week on paper that is probably as old as I am.




Have a good weekend!
Check out the blogs below for your reading pleasure and please visit our hosts' blogs:
Lexa Cain: http://lexacain.blogspot.com/
L.G. Keltner http://lgkeltner.blogspot.co.uk/
Tonja Drecker http://tonjadrecker.blogspot.com/
1.Lexa Cain2.Fiction and Film
3.Writing Off the Edge4.Kidbits
5.TheCyborgMom6.Thoughts and Ideas from Deanie Humphrys-Dunne
7.Intentional Insights with S. Kelley Harrell8.Constantine
9.My Miracle Life10.Writing, Reading, and the Pursuit of Dreams
11.Lara Lacombe12.TF Walsh
13.Life, Yoga and Other Adventures14.Suzanne Furness
15.Elizabeth Seckman16.Avalon
17.My Baffling Brain18.Planet Kimberly
19.Shah Wharton20.Victorian Scribbles
21.Tanya Miranda22.Ann - A Friend of Jesus 2013
23.Special Teaching At Pempi's Palace24.Square Pegs
25.Patricia's Place26.Anne Higa
27.My Antimatter Life28.Bouquet of Books
29.Lightravellerkate30.Curious As A Cathy
31.Glennie's Random Ramblings32.In My Own Words
33.Tamara Narayan, Author34.My Creatively Random Life
35.Yvonne Ventresca36.On Becoming a Writer
37.Decadent Kane38.Stacy Uncorked
39.Sharon Himsl--Shells, Tales & Sails40.Cloud Nine Girl
41.Our Simple Life42.Our Prime Years
43.Allison Bruning