Day 33- Angel riding a Dolphin

I wish I had a clever title for today, but I don't. My sis-in-law Kristy who gave us the elephant I posted yesterday texted me a picture of this beauty today. She said she got it for our anniversary this year and was sorry she missed it (honestly though, who remember those things for other people besides yourself and your parents maybe?) It's a soap dish. I can't say much more, I don't think there are words out there to do this justice.

 Just realized the picture is out of focus from when I snapped a picture of the sketch with my camera. Whoops, you aren't missing out on too much though so don't worry, my drawing didn't really do it justice anyway and I was looking at a tiny half inch picture on my phone when I drew it.

Day 32- Elephant

I love this golden elephant, and I will draw it again this year. Today is just a quick sketch of it, eventually I will do a more detailed one, it has a metallic finish and ridges etched into it which makes for lots of dramatic differences and lots of fun shading. But for today a sketch. My sis-in-law Kristy gave this to Steve and I one year for our anniversary. When she gave it to us I was kinda like what the heck does an elephant have to do with our anniversary, but I freaking love this thing and it is always front and center in our house, he is just so cute, I can't explain it, I love him and he is so perfect! There are a few things I don't quite like about the sketch but I was tired and didn't care too much. Things being the ear not being rounded right and the little bit of shading in the front that I did do looks awkward, and I made his trunk curve forward to much. I didn't do this cute little guy justice, so I will definitely be doing him again eventually, and it will probably take a couple of hours instead of 5 minutes.

Day 30- Alligator

I told Simon tonight that I needed to do a drawing and he said he wanted to help me. Sadly, he did not help with the actual drawing today (that would be a nice excuse for the way it looks like a kid drew it, but no it was me). I got him some paper and crayons and a blue marker so he could draw too at the same time. He told me wanted me to draw an alligator, so I attempted an alligator from my imagination. I am horrible at drawing things that I can't actually see. I could never be a cartoonist or anything like that, because if it's not realistic and I'm not looking at a picture or the real thing, it's gonna look like a little kid drew it. Case in point:

Day 29- Cell Phone

Earlier this week Desi dropped my cell phone into the dog bowl. Luckily I still have Steve's old phone hanging around just in case something like this happens. I actually keep it in the diaper bag in case we are out when this happens. Prepared, I know. Really I just know my self and my kids and what we are capable of. I'm honestly surprised my phone still works with as many times as it's been dropped on the ground, thrown onto the ground, stepped on, dropped in water, etc. I've had this phone since November 3, 2009. That's a pretty long time, and this thing has held up to a lot of abuse. But anyways, after Desi dropped in the water bowl, I screamed and grabbed the phone out of the water. I tried to pull the case off so I could take the battery off quickly, but of course I couldn't get the case off. The case falls off every time I, or Desi, drop the phone, but of course this one time I need to come off quickly, it doesn't. While I was trying to yank the case off I saw the screen light up everytime I pushed the buttons accidentally, so I knew it was still working but I didn't want the water to fry something. I finally got the case off, pulled the battery out and stuck the battery and SIM card in Steve's phone. Of course this happened on a day when I was trying to schedule meeting up with two different people who's numbers I did not have because they were on the phone not the SIM card (back up all your numbers onto your card! Now! Go! I'll wait!) Anyways, I let my phone sit for a day just in case even though I was pretty sure it was okay since it was turning on while I was taking the case off and it was. I love my phone. I've only had Samsung cell phones and they are the best, I beat the crap out of them and have never had one break or die or screens crack or anything like that. Love my Samsung's! So without further rambling I present to you a slightly out of scale drawing of my dear cell phone!

Day 27- My baby helped me draw today

Not only did my baby help me draw today, my baby did the whole drawing. My Desi-boo isn't a baby anymore. He is a toddler. He is 16 months and 1 day old. He loves drawing. He's just started copying everything his brother does. Things like kicking and splashing in the bathtub, acting like a goofball, telling secrets. He has also in the past few days started saying words (finally!) I was really starting to freak out about his verbal development. Whenever I get the camera out he says eeeee, eeeeeee. He loves his doggie, his brother, going outside (another word he started to say) even when it is freezing outside and he is barefooted. He loves to play in water, throw Moby's food into his water bowl, sing and scream and jabber all day long. Before today he had given me exactly 3 real kisses in my life, and today he doubled that number in about 2.3 minutes. I have now been lucky enough to be the recipient of 6 baby boo kisses. He does not give kisses often, but he will allow you to kiss him. He will give you his head or cheek and let you kiss him on it if he wants to give you kisses. I love my little baby. He is the happiest, funnest little guy, in fact my sis-in-law just babysat for us and said that he is the happiest baby she has ever been around, and she used to daycare for a living. But man does he have a temper! Major temper on this little boy, but it just makes me love him even more when I see that cute little face all scrunched up and crying because he definitely milks it for all it's worth. So in honor of my little boy getting older, and him stealing my pencil while I was drawing and screaming when I tried to take my pencil back, here is a picture by him in my sketchbook. (I held onto his hand and helped him write his name and the date.)

This weeks pictures were all very small. All 6 of them were on one page in my sketchbook.

Day 26- Chair and another peek at what my house looks like

I mentioned earlier this week that my parents were in town. They left yesterday to head back home before the weather took a turn for the worst. While they were here we went to a bunch of thrift stores and antique stores. I managed to make it through lots and lots of stores and only bought a new-to-me cast 9 inch cast iron skillet and a bag of duplo blocks. Oh and a skirt and a dress that were only $2 each at a sidewalk sale at a cool local store called Junkee. Half of the store is vintage and used clothing and the other half is antiques, junk, and dustables. I got my clothes on the clothing side and on the other side my parents found a desk and three cool chairs that I think used to be dining chairs. They managed to get the desk, a nightstand, all their stuff, and one of the chairs into their car. They left the other two in my garage until next time they come or we go up to see them. The one they took was painted a shiny gold color, the other two were mostly white with bits of orange, and turquoise with bits of white, heavily distressed with bits of wood showing though. Steve and I both thought the chairs were so cool looking and fell in love with them and so I decided to bring them in the house until they can go back to my parents. I put them near our front door where I always dump my purse, diaper bag, church bag, and jackets when we come home. They look so awesome. I'm trying to convince my parents to sell them to us because we really like the way they look in our house, and we love the way the chairs finish looks. Here's a quick chair sketch. 

And a very blurry picture taken from a similar angle of the turquoise chair (and the dog leash)

 And one more for kicks of the whole little area. This is after you come through our front door and to the left before it steps down into our family room. I am sitting on the stairs taking this picture. I painted that picture above the chairs when I was in high school. I love it!

Day 25- Anniversary Flowers revisited and a few guilty confessions

I may have cheated on my picture a day blog already. I have may have cheated more times than I have let on. Today I cheated. This week I cheated. A lot. I drew both shell pictures on the same day. I also drew yesterday, today, and tomorrow, and the next day all on the same day. :/ :) Why am I telling you this? I don't know, but I am, and I'm still dating them all with different days and pretending they were all drawn on each day. They are still a drawing a day, just not drawn on that day. And hey, it's my blog, I can do whatever I want right. Right? And you'll keep reading even though I am cheating sometimes? Right?
Today is another quick sketch of that pretty lilly from the anniversary flowers my sweet husband gave me almost 2 weeks ago... How's that for yet another confession on this post. The flowers have been nearly dead  for a week and sitting on the table still because I love them. Nothing to get you to clean up like having company over!

Day 24- Anniversary Lillies

My anniversary flowers are mostly dead, but they were so pretty I kept hanging on to them. We are having company over though, and it's a little embarrassing to have these dead flowers sitting on the table, so I took a few pictures of the dead flowers so I could draw them. All that's left now is a sprig of eucalyptus and some purple flowers that I'm not sure what they are. The stem on of the big beautiful lillies broke and the lilly was hanging upside down, but I thought it still looked very cool so here it is. Just a quick sketch, very quick, like less than 5 minutes, which compared to the 2+ hours others can take is, well, quick.

Day 23- Ammonite sketch

Today's picture is another version of yesterday's drawing. Just a sketch of the ammonite. Ammonite is a fossilized shell. Ours is from Madagascar 120 million years ago. We bought it at the Rock Shop up in Virginia City once when we were on a date there in the winter time a few years ago. Virginia City is fun, but it's definitely a lot more fun in the summer, and there's more to do there in the summer. This past fall Steve and I went there and took my mom, dad, and sister Leslie. We went and did a ghost tour. It was a little hokey, but pretty fun I thought. After the ghost tour we went to the cemetery in town that was featured in the show Ghost Adventures. That part was spooky and I was pretty scared at first.

This is the Ammonite

This is my sister and dad in Virginia City last fall

Day 20- Candlestick

Tonight I sketched a candlestick while watching the movie Elektra with my dad and husband. My mom went to bed early, I think she was probably tired from driving up from Vegas. I am so excited my parents are visiting, and I think it's cool they get to see my side of the picture a day blog, the part where I actually draw a picture every day, and they get to see the process of me drawing and how long it actually takes. It was neat. SO here is today, a candlestick. I have a pair of these. Steve and I found them at a thrift store in Sparks after we bought our new house. They were only $.97 each! This same thrift store is where I found my pottery barn pillows with down inserts form $2.97 each! A steal if you ask me. This one probably took me 1-2 hours while we were watching the movie. Probably closer to 2 because I don't remember all of the movie which means I was not paying attention because I was drawing.

picture taken later at different angle and with different lighting than when I drew it

Day 13- Nightstand

It's late, I'm tired. I don't want to come up with something to draw, but I'm carrying all my stuff in to my room to plop down into my bed  and draw something. So I set it all down on my nightstand, my sketchbook, my can of pencils and pens, and my phone. Why do I carry around the whole can? I almost always use the same pencil anyways. I think about doing a "gesture" of my lamp, but then decide to just sketch my nightstand and lamp area. I love this little vignette. A picture of my sisters and me from a long time ago, a vase of orchids, a sculpture my sister gave me (it was from a previous marriage of hers), a picture of the Reno temple, a painting I did for fun one day in college at that same sister's apartment, and my lamp. I made it, out of ribbon, fabric stiffener, and a large bouncy ball.

Day 4- Island in the Sun

Day 4. Less than a week into this and I almost cheated and took a day off. After showing our new house to a family member for the first time the other day, I was so embarrassed that our house didn't look as nice I would like it to (and there was laundry everywhere, almost all clean, but still everywhere! and dishes in the sink and counter), and that's it not totally decorated and done yet, that I got motivated to work on a few projects in our house. The boys have a playroom downstairs that is intended to be pirate themed. So far all we have down there is really cool pirate flag banner from my parents that has like 12 or so different pirate flags and we have it hanging around the top of the wall all the way around the room. And I sketched some palm trees on the wall before my parents last visit so it would look like I was in the process of doing more with the room. Well I finally started painting the palm trees, and I was doing it with a too-small paintbrush so it was taking me forever and I was tempted to say my painting the palm trees on the wall would count for my drawing for today. But I decided I can't slack this early on or I'll never make it through the year, so I did a quick sketch of some palm trees in honor of the ones I am painting. These drawn ones have a lot more character than the ones on the wall though, I think these ones are a little more spunky and fun and energetic. What do you think? Should I give these posts more exciting and creative names? Writing's not really my talent but is Day 4, Island in the Sun a better name than just Day 4?

*Pencils used, either a Staedtler Mars Lumograph or a regular number 2, they are pretty much the same thing...

Day 1

Day 1 is a little drawing out of my head. It started out as a doodle that ended up being the bigger of the birds' wings. Then I decided to make a tree, but had this random squiggly line doodle thing beside me tree, so I made the squiggle into a dragon looking bird type thing. I like to make doodles like this one, just swirly free flowing lines, you will probably see them a lot during the year, especially when I'm not sure what to draw and let whatever wants to come out of the pencil. That's what happened today.

So there's the picture for day one! What do you think?

*I used a regular normal number 2 pencil