Flashback Friday: Pumpkins and Gourds

Here is the final Flashback Friday from 2010, a picture of some pumpkins and gourds. I actually remember drawing this - pulling the pumpkins from the black wire rack where they were displayed and setting them on the table. I also remember feeling terribly out of practice as I really wasn't drawing much at the time. 

From the drawing:

On Sunday we went to Schaake's pumpkin patch to pick out some pumpkins and take Chloe to ride the wagons. Every year it seems to get bigger with pumpkin slingshots, mazes, chickens, pigs, cows, and food. At 2 1/2 Chloe isn't too interested in anything but riding in the wagons.

Flash Back Friday - Interstate Sign

This is a highly appropriate sketch for this week's flashback Friday as we just got back from a road trip to New York for a wedding. It involved lots of driving and not much downtime so I feel like if you replace the fall color on the trees with green, it would pretty much sum up my past week. 

This actually comes from 2010. 

Flashback Friday - June's Dunes

Growing up, when we went on vacations we went to a town on the panhandle of Florida called Destin. Back when we first started going it wasn't a huge place. It has beautiful white sand beaches and water an emerald and blue color that doesn't look real. Every trip down there, it was always a special treat to have breakfast at June's Dunes. It was a little house right on the water. There were picnic benches lining the wall next to open windows to catch the ocean breezes. Every morning, like clockwork, dolphins would go swimming past while you ate your waffles. It was a pretty great place.

Destin, like all good things, was eventually discovered by many more people. It's quite a different place now than when I grew up. A few years back June's was sold. There are some high rises in the area now - but there is also a public beach access with a plaque honoring June. 

My parents asked me to make a drawing of June's Dunes - by that time it was already gone - but luckily we had a picture. 

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.

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. 

Castle Tea Room

I've been wanting to do a series of sketches of my city's downtown area. A new year and a new larger formatted journal have made me decide no time like the present. This sketch has eaten up bits and pieces of my daughter's nap time for the past week. My favorite part of the drawing-the tree in the upper left corner added as an afterthought. Go figure.