Flash Back Friday - Peppermint and Graham Crackers

Another flashback from 2010. Apparently I have a thing for drawing tea bags when I have a headache. Keeping a sketchbook - just a journey of self discovery I tell ya. 

Courageous

Inspired by the events of yesterday's post, I made a little sketch of my daughter.  When she saw it, she stopped, got a funny look on her face and asked if it was her. Then she went back to singing the Do Re Mi song from the Sound of Music.

Here's the sketchbook page I pulled the illustrations from for yesterday's post.
 

Aquamarine - The Gem of Courage-us-ness

 This is a necklace given to me by Anita after Chloe was born. It has an aquamarine heart with three small diamonds set above it. Aquamarines are Chloe's birth stone. Over the weekend, Chloe was inspecting Anita's necklaces that feature her grandchildren's birthstones. Chloe got curious about birthstones. She remembered a National Geographic Kids magazine she had that featured an article about gem stones.

She was reading the article aloud to us. There were the dates and different facts about each gem and also what each stone represents. When she got to March and began reading, her eyes widened. The aquamarine, her birthstone, represents Courage. Her chest puffed out and you could see the shock and awe on her face.

At that point everything became about her courage. I got out the aquamarine necklace and she wore it proclaiming, "It makes me more courage-ous." She even challenged us to "Courage Games" to show how "courage-ous" she was.

It was pretty delightful to see how her whole idea of herself changed. For that evening at least, she viewed herself as brave.

Lucy's Booties

I finished these up last week, but as they were a gift for a baby shower I held off on sharing them until now.

I love this pattern. They are fun and simple to knit up and they do actually stay on. Cute and useful. The holy grail for baby knits. I also enjoy playing with the space on top of the bootie and duplicate stitching patterns onto it. To do this I just grab some graph paper and mark a rectangle that matches the size of the top of the booties (9 x 12 if memory serves) and then grab some colored pencils and have at it.

I tried a few different designs but decided to keep it modern and simple with a pink chevron pattern (the color is less red than the photo shows). I'm happy (and/or slightly disappointed) that I didn't end up with any obscene designs like the last time I did this. 

Flashback Friday (on Saturday) Walking Stick

Another old one from 2010. That particular year we had a ton of the walking stick bugs in our backyard. Now that I think about it, I haven't really seen any this year...

Spotted this on an outdoor cushion in the backyard. At first I thought it was just a stick stuck to the cushion and was about to take a broom to it until I saw it move in a way unnatural to a stick. It was at least five inches long.

Happy Father's Day

I cannot stop making these stupid cards.

"A guitar slide WILL NOT make you a delta blues musician. It WILL make you feel like one, which is way more important."

Flash Back Friday - Corolla, North Carolina

In starting up sketching more regularly, I noticed that there are bits of my sketchbook that haven't made it to blogland yet. I'm going to try to add one (or a few) every Friday to get caught up. This week we are traveling back to 2010.

First up, a summer trip to Corolla, North Carolina. A trip notable for the fact that it was a three day road trip to get there with a toddler who had potty trained herself exactly two weeks before the trip. It actually went remarkably well. No sketches of that - but there are these. I'll type out the text under them to make sure it's readable. 

The key to watching sand crabs is to get low. They don't notice you when you're belly down on the sand. However, once you see how many there really are on the beach you may find yourself wiggling your toes to excess just to let them know you're there.

There are smooth shells and sticks between the steps from the house and fine sand next to the shore. Once you see water lines in the sand, flip-flops are abandoned quickly.

When I was sketching this yesterday, I got wrapped up in doing the top of the house when I started to hear thunder. I looked up to see a massive thunderstorm rolling in. 

Currituck Beach Lighthouse

On a 100 degree day we decided to visit the lighthouse. There were still a surprising number of people there - mostly New York, New Jersey accents - but a few southern ones as well. I think a woman with a southern accent took my picture. 

The Bird of Our Country

On Memorial Day my daughter noticed the bald eagle on the tip of the flagpole. She wondered why there was, "that cute little eagle there". I told her because the bald eagle is the bird of our country. *

It sounded ridiculous and for whatever reason, my cousin and I were highly amused by the phrase "the bird of our country". Try singing it in a bitchin' 80s rock voice. Pretend like you're doing the jingle to a beer commercial.

My cousin's birthday was a few days ago. 

Happy Birthday Seth. 

*Seriously, what is it really called? I think maybe the national emblem?