Going back home to Indiana for a little R & R and to see my family. Backyard cookouts (with corn on the cob, of course!), mini-golf, neon-glo bowling night, going out for ice cream and a couple of trips to the movies. Oh, yeah...it will be nice. See ya on the flip side.

IF - drifting

Wise Owl is drifting off to sleep. For Illustration Friday this week. Why are owls considered wise, anyway? Inquiring minds (like mine!) want to know, so I got this from Ask Yahoo:

"Owls are nocturnal birds and function extremely well at night. Their ability to see in the dark has elevated owls, in some cultures, to manifestations of wisdom. In Western folklore, owls are commonly associated with studious scholars and wise elders.

Perhaps the earliest known link between owls and wisdom is their association with Athena. The Greek goddess of wisdom is often depicted holding an owl.

Because of their close kinship with the night, owls are also associated with magic and witchcraft. Merlin was known to have an owl, and in the Harry Potter series, young wizards communicate by owl messengers instead of instant messengers.

Some have viewed owls as manifestations of a more sinister darkness. Ancient Romans believed the screech of an owl foretold death and that witches transformed into owls and sucked the blood from babies. Many other cultures share these fearful views."

IF - unfold

"Sara's eyes grew wide as the story unfolded."

For Illustration Friday this week. I did this just for the challenge this week, but it has special significance for me because I finished the illustrations for the children's picture book I've been working on for the last 4 months. Yep, I'm done! and the discs with all the illos has been sent off to the designer to put it all together for printing. I think the word "unfold" is appropriate for the end of that little chapter in my life. I took the words on the pages, combined them with pictures and they unfolded into a book. It was an awesome experience and I really hope I get to do another one. And soon, too! I miss it already. It's weird to work so hard to get something done, then when it's finally done, I'm sad because I won't get to do it anymore.

This illo was done with a combination of Illustrator and Photoshop.

new shoes

new shoes, new shoes...wasn't there a song about how great it is to get some new shoes? It is great! This is my 4th pair of Privo's...pretty soon I'll have a collection! I just love them, they are so "me". Getting these and a couple of ultra soft tees from the Gap, I'm all set for summer.

IF - craving

For Illustration Friday this week - of course I'm going to use sweets as the answer to this topic of craving. I mean, really, usually when you have a craving for something, it's sugary. I guess I have an occasional craving for a crisp salad or a crunchy apple, but mostly it's the sweet taste of sugar. Oh, yeah baby - ice cream, cherry pie, cookies.....yummmmmy!

This is an older illustration, done when I first started doing art on the computer, but I still like it.

new summer stamps

I like to show off my favorite stamp image (that I designed, of course!) with every new release that A Muse comes out with. I haven't done it every time, but I'm making up for it today, because there were so many favs for the latest summer release, I couldn't pick just one, I picked 6!

I thought my favorite was the submarine (love it!), but then I kept looking at the Hippo and he's so darn cute! Did you know that hippos are actually so aggressive they are considered one of the most dangerous animals in Africa? It's true! This little guy is an exception, I think. He's just too cute to be mean! Then, of course sand dollar is so sweet and pirate bird is so funny. You get the picture, it was hard this time!

I did this little layout in A Muse style with the circles behind the images. If you haven't checked out their site, it's quite fun with fresh colors and clean design elements.

new banner

Wowie! It was 85 degrees today here in Seattle and my blog banner still said "Happy Spring". It sure ain't spring anymore, so I did a quickie summer fun banner. I used some elements from a previous Illustration Friday illo and squashed 'em to fit in the tiny blog banner size - not perfect, but I guess it works OK. It's probably about 110 in our upstairs bedroom, so that's not good, but I love the heat, it's a great excuse to drink Frappuccinos and eat ice cream!