Illustration Friday - Old Fashioned

I didn't think I would have anything for Illustration Friday this week, but then I remembered this drawing I made a few weeks ago.



When I was working on this I wanted the hair and clothes to have that 70s/80s look. That counts as being old-fashioned, right?

An Explosion

I know I've mentioned this before, but Culinary in the Country is one of my favorite food blogs. I found a recipe for broccoli-chicken bowls and I decided to give them a whirl the other day. The dish calls for rice, and they recommend making the rice a certain way. You're supposed to boil it in a large pot of water for about a half an hour, drain it, put it back in your pot, then cover it with a towel. You then put the lid back on and let it sit for five or ten minutes.

So I make the rice.. I got through the boiling, draining, and covering part, and had the pot sitting on a back burner which was OFF! At this point I'm still chopping up vegetables for the stir fry when all of a sudden I hear a large POP! I see bits of something out of the corner of my eye.. and being the kind of person who likes my eyesight I immediately closed my eyes and turned away. When I opened up my eyes again I see pieces of glass everywhere! The glass lid that was on the rice had exploded. Yes, it exploded. I have never in my life heard of this kind of thing. The glass lid came with the pot so I'm assuming that it was meant to be used... and to top it off the burner wasn't even on! It was seriously strange.

This is a picture of what the lid looked like pre-explosion:


I gotta say, I didn't see this one coming at all!

Apology Retracted

Me: Are you mad about something?

Matt: Yes

Me: What?

Matt: You need to apologize to me

Me: oh.. well, yeah, you're probably right. You do deserve an apology.

Matt: I know I do.

Me: So how long are you going to be mad at me?

Matt: Until you apologize

Me: That's ridiculous. What if I never apologize? Are you going to be mad for the rest of your life?

Matt: Maybe.

Me: I would expect that from me, but not from you Matt.

Matt: Are you going to apologize?

Me: Actually, I'm not even sure what I should be apologizing for.

Matt: Because you accused me of something I didn't do!

Me: So if I think you did something wrong I'm not supposed to say anything?

Matt: You're not supposed to accuse me!

Me: If I never accuse you, then how will I know if you did the thing I think you did?

Matt: Ask.

Me: I gotta say, I don't think I'm in the wrong here.

Matt: You are. Trust me.

Me: No, I don't think so. I refuse to apologize.

Matt: You can't do that.

Me: I just did.

Matt: What are you, twelve years old?

Me: I don't like your tone. I think you owe me an apology.

Matt: What?

Me: Yes, and if you don't apologize, I'm going to take back every apology I ever gave you.

Matt: I'm not apologizing.

Me: Fine. I hereby retract every apology I ever gave to you.

Matt: That will be easy because you never apologize for anything.

Me: Yeah, well I'm smarter than you.

Matt: Whatever.

Me: I am. People are always coming up to me and saying "I can't believe your with someone who is so not as smart as you!" Then they try to give me money because they feel sorry for me.

Matt: Well people are always coming up to me and telling me that they feel sorry for me because I have to live with you!

Me: Whatever.

Matt: Whatever to you.

... and it goes on like that for another 10 minutes.

Zoo Pics and Photoshop

We took the kids to the St. Louis zoo last weekend. I don't especially like going to the zoo but I do like taking pictures and every once in awhile I get a good one. They have a butterfly house and I usually get a few good ones in there. But with butterflies, is it possible to get a bad one?!!



I did get a very, very lucky shot of Junie watching a hippo. Now the original picture I took had a great composition, but the water was really dirty:



I spent a few hours in Photoshop and managed remove most of the fish poop and reflections on the glass. I also worked on the color a little:



But then I used a plug-in called Photo Tools 2.5 and used a black and white filter... and I think I like this as a black and white even more.. right?



It's pretty neat and Photo Tools makes it easy. I actually got it free when I bought Photoshop and haven't done a whole lot with it, but there are at least a hundred different filters. Some of the effects like rain or snow take several steps in PS, but just one click in Photo Tools. You can also go back into PS and adjust the opacity because it's on it's own layer. It's certainly not perfect but I have had fun browsing through:)

~Am

P.S. Don't forget to enter my giveaway!!

New Giveaway!!

It's time to announce the next giveaway!!! This month, the prize is this 5x7 print from my shop:



I actually got the idea for this illustration from someone who had bought another print from me. She told me that when her daughter was little, she told her mom that their hearts were connected by a string :o)

What do you have to do to enter?? Just respond to this post~ It's that easy :)

I will announce the winner on October 1st. Good Luck everyone!

Giveaway Winner!

Time to announce the winner of my latest giveaway:D

Thank you so much to everyone who entered! I assigned each person with a random number, and two numbers if they wrote about my giveaway on their own blog. I then used random.org to randomly select a winner.



And the winner is... Izzy over at Stone Spirit!!

Izzy is soon to be proud owner of an original 5x7 drawing made just for her:o)



I'll announce another giveaway on Sunday, so be sure to check back!

Labor Day Sale

This is just a quick post to let everyone know that I'm offering FREE SHIPPING in my shop today and tomorrow only!

I also have several new ACEO's listed. All of these were drawn while Matt was having his surgery.. the first one is my own personal favorite:)


I Was Here First



Just a Little Tree in a Big World



I Miss You This Much

Also, if you haven't already, make sure that you ENTER MY GIVEAWAY!! The winner will be drawn this Friday September 10th.