Day 15/365: Baby it's cold outside.

Forgive me if this entry is a little distracted. I've become hopelessly addicted to an Oregon Trail app on facebook. I just wish I had a copy of the game I used to play. It was on an old Macintosh. But it wasn't the super old, like huge floppy disk version. It was like an updated version I played in the 90s, from a cd rom I think. I can't remember.

Anyway, let's get on with today's art. I cheated, and used pictures I've taken, because I had a brainfart while trying to think of ideas for drawings. I usually avoid wintery, cold drawings, mainly because I really hate winter. The exception being the occasional Christmas drawing.

You probably can't tell, but there was ice in that picture. Signifying the cold. Lol

I know. That's a loose connection, but today was one of those days where my muse was off getting drunk on a tropical beach somewhere that had no cell phone service.

Still. It looks cool. The trippy heart picture was actually a shiny holographic binder I used to have. Actually, I've still got it somewhere. For that picture, I was waving the binder back and forth and snapped a picture to see what it would look like. The umbrella picture was taken last spring. Early spring. As in, still melting snow and ice on the ground in spots.
Standing in the huge puddle of water here to take this picture was what led to me figuring out that one of my favorite combat boots had a hole in the bottom.

My day was pretty boring, except for the part where I made almond bark dipped strawberries, so there isn't much to report in that respect.

I'm off to be a slave to my facebook apps, then eventually to bed.

Day 14/365: Baby.

I'll tell you right off the bat. I feel like complete shit, and did while doing most of the work on today's drawing. So I didn't really give a shit. If it were one of my normal, "take a few days or even a week to complete" drawings, it would have been much more intricate, and less sloppy and thrown together.

I'm beginning to think this blog was a bad idea. Most of the drawings I've done for it have sucked, so maybe I'm just not meant to draw this much. I'm in a self defacing mood swing, but honestly, people are going to see the complete shit I post on this, and think that I'm a shitty artist.

And maybe I am. I know people who can churn out amazing works of art in less than half an hour, and they call it a rough sketch. Meanwhile, I spend hours and hours on most everything I draw, and it looks nowhere near as good.

Today has just kind of sucked. I have that "not quite there, nothing quite feels real" feeling. I hate it. Case in point? I just looked at the clock, expecting it to say 11:45 or even midnight. In reality, it's only almost 9pm. WTF.

Anyway, today's piece of crap.

My interpretation of "baby". Weird multi colored mermaids with no faces, or hands.

Really, I'm not very happy with today's entry. I should have left it as a sketch, I think. Because I just rushed through the coloring and didn't really give a shit. I like this concept, though, and I might revisit it at a later date.

I apologize. I will try not to make this kind of crap the norm. It's just really hard to care about what you're doing when you don't feel like yourself, you have a murderous headache, and you can count five other places on your body that are in pain.

I've been thinking of... I don't know. Maybe shifting to where I take pictures for each day more often, and keep the drawings for days that I can come up with something really awesome. My head hurts too much for me to care about contemplating it right now, so I hope tomorrow I can think about it with a clear head.

Anyway, tomorrow's theme is "Baby it's cold outside", and while I would be more inspired with that if it were, say, mid December, I can probably churn out something decent. There is still snow on the ground. Maybe I could take a picture of the thermometer outside our kitchen window. Whatever. I'll think about it later.

Now, to go OD on tylenol.

PS: You may have started noticing ads on my blog. This is on purpose, through AdSense. I don't think any of the five or fewer people that have read this will click on any of the ads, but what the hell. On the off chance that somebody does click on them, I could get paid for it.

Day 13/365: Award.

Hello hello hello and happy Saturday to all of you.
I've had a pretty good day. Slept until 9am, messed about online until 10 something, then mom and I went to Mason City to do some grocery shopping. I had a sample in Hyvee, and then like three samples in target. I felt kind of bad about the generic oreo, and the tiny cup of apple juice, because mom was like, speeding towards the checkout, and I just kinda rushed up, small talked with the sample ladies, grabbed the sample and rushed off. I hope they didn't think I was rude. Lol. I'm just not going to pass up a generic oreo.

My afternoon was good until about four hours ago, when I acquired this like, energy killing super headache. It's gotten a little better now since I took some tylenol, but honestly, I'm glad I don't have anything uber productive to do right now, because I wouldn't be doing it.

In other bodily news, my right shoulder, while it doesn't hurt as much as yesterday, is still plaguing me something awful whenever I try to pour anything (i.e. water, condensed soup into the pan, etc).
Anyway, before you all get bored and go home, let's get on topic.

Today's theme is award. It's the last of the letter "A" suggestions on the list that I'm using, which is here, in case you were wondering.

It's a little darker on my computer than it was when I edited it. The computer I edit most of these on has a LCD flatscreen, and I occasionally tend to forget that everything looks lighter on that one than it does on a regular computer screen.

Today's idea was a bit random, as I honestly had no idea what to do for today's theme. I ended up doodling a blue ribbon with a rather globby, messy blue ink pen and finding an old, bent nail to tack it on with. If you were wondering, that is one of the half rotten, didn't-last-as-long-as-it-should-have pumpkins that I'm still mad about, to a small degree. Lol.

Tomorrow's theme is "baby", and if you make any Bieber references, I will tie your ass to a tree and force you to listen to old, boring hymns for hours. As long as it takes for you to learn your lesson.

I already have an idea as to what I'll be drawing for that, so I'll be able to start in the morning. And avoid the "OMG why did I put this off" dread I experienced on Wednesday.

Anyway, I'm off to do facebooky things and to figure out what I'm eating for dinner.

Day 12/365: Autumn.

Today, I'm cheating again and using a picture I took in September of last year. Today, is not a compelling day for my art, or my sentence writing. Case in point? I had to write that last sentence at least 6 times before it sounded the way I wanted it to.

Ever since I woke up, I've been in this weird foggy haze or something. I haven't, at any point today, felt like I was really awake. I've had a "not quite headache, but still irritating dull ache" for a majority of the day, and my right shoulder hurts, for some reason. But only when I try to raise it a certain way. Such as, when trying to pour water from our water filtering pitcher, or to put plates away in our cupboard. It's probably just a pinched nerve but it's still bothering me.

Anyway. I suppose I should post today's picture before I bore you all to death

Clear Lake. Which is actually more of a green color, once you look at it up close. Not in any way clear.

I know that that picture still looks rather summery, because it was taken during the first half of September. 

Up until November, I could still walk to the lake in a tee shirt, jeans, and flipflops.  

Cheating?

I don't care. To me, once September hits, it's fall, and I start to get that "fall is nice, but winter is going to SUCK" dread.

Anyway, tomorrow's theme is "Award", and I literally have no idea what I'm going to produce for that. Maybe I'll draw a blue ribbon on a small piece of paper and tack it onto the half rotten pumpkins from halloween that are still outside.

Speaking of pumpkins, I'm still really angry. If you don't want to listen to me lament about a pumpkin, you're welcome to stop reading.

See, in October 2009, I bought a pumpkin from Econo foods to bring home and make a jack o lantern out of. But, I decided to paint it instead. It lasted for ages. November, December, January, February, and March passed. The pumpkin, which was still in the house, had not even started to rot yet. Then April and May passed. Pumpkin still looked new. However, mom was starting to get wary about it, so I took it outside.

So, some time in August, a pumpkin plant sprouted from the finally broken down remains of the pumpkin.

Since it sprouted late, we only got two pumpkins off it. The pumpkins I used for Halloween 2010. I painted those as well.

However, we left them on our front porch. Which is indoor, but not heated. Obviously, they froze, because mom went out there one day to two slouchy, half squishy pumpkins. That is where the "I'm still really pissed" part comes in, because I had hoped that those two pumpkins would last as long as the one that they sprouted from. There's still a possibility that the pumpkins that are now outside, half buried in snow, could sprout, but I was just really mad about that.

It might just be the hippie in me, but I feel a weird connection to plants that I've planted, and I felt like the pumpkin randomly sprouting was a weird kind of gift. So in a way I'm disappointed and kind of feel like I let the only two pumpkins that came off that plant rot. I don't know.
Anyway, I'm going to go do some dishes and brainstorm what I'm going to post tomorrow.

11/365: Apologize.

Look at that. I'm writing this entry before 11:45 at night. Amazing.

So, today I decided to take pictures, instead of killing my hands working on a drawing for three hours straight (and at least an hour before that).

Here you have it. My interpretation of today's theme.

Today was just kind of a random day as far as the picture goes. I knew I wanted a picture and some sort of "sorry" sign involved, but it wasn't until I went out to get the mail that I got an idea. Actually, it was coming back inside from getting the mail. I noticed a sunbeam on the floor and decided to take advantage of it.

If you're wondering why my flip flops were out... It was 40 degrees outside when I went to check the mail, so I wore no coat, and flipflops.

Actually now that I think about it, today was kind of a random day altogether. I made cherry cobbler at like, ten a.m., because we have a bunch of dried cherries we need to use up.

See, my mom works at a high school and is friends with the foods teacher. Sometimes we get leftovers she made for class, and other things of that nature. Well, the cafeteria gave the foods teacher a big bag of dried cherries because they had no idea what to do with it.

And then, the foods teacher didn't know what to do with it so she gave it to my mom.

So, I poured boiling water on some of the dried cherries in an attempt to rehydrate them. It worked pretty well, actually. So I made cherry cobbler.

Then, in the afternoon, I was bored, so I decided to make something else. I settled on an oatmeal cherry cookie recipe. Which didn't require rehydrating the cherries. So that's fun.

I did freeze a small container of the cherries. I may freeze another small container, actually. I don't know. I might try making like, cherry nut bread or something.

Tomorrow's theme is "autumn", and I'm not sure exactly what you'll get for that. It seems like it would be easier to just use an old picture, but I could always draw a maple leaf and then make it all trippy or something. Whatever. I'll think about it. Lol

Anyway, I've got some laundry to fold so I'll see you all tomorrow.

Day 10/365: A pair of...

Phew. I was beginning to think I was going to have to submit this late. Today, I learned an important lesson.

If you're going to do a complicated drawing for one of the themes on the list, do not leave it until the evening.

This. This is why. Stay tuned for a scan. I had to take a picture, because my dad just got off work and is in a pissy mood, so I didn't want to tork him off more by using our ancient, noisy scanner.

I literally spent probably three hours in a row coloring this, and my hands are killing me right now. This is why I don't do complicated shit like this all at once, I think.

Since there are only fifteen minutes until tomorrow, I'm not going to ramble. Tomorrow's theme is "apologize", and unlike today's entry, it will not be rushed. I have to warn you, though. You may get a photo. I don't know that I can produce another drawing like this without my hands legit falling off

Day 9/365: Antique.

Today, I am blatantly cheating. I took this picture last summer, but I think it fits today's theme nicely. And hey. It's new to you, isn't it? Also, this is MY art project, and I shall make or break rules wherever I feel like it.

Taken last August. I have no idea how long that thing has been there, but it's been there at least long enough for me to have ridden it when I was little.

My family has been going to a family reunion in this same park ever since I can remember. I have only missed it a couple of times.

Being in August, it usually signifies the beginning of the end of summer, and while I shudder to even say the words "end of summer" right now... usually by the time August rolls around, we're all kind of wishing fall would hurry up and cool us off.

My brother and I usually go on a bit of a walk around town, and Bussey IA really is a tiny town. Made up of a bunch of dilapidated, crappy houses, but it's got a certain charm to it, if you could call it that. I don't know. It's very photogenic for being such a dumpy town.

Here are a couple other shots I've taken in Bussey

That would be my brother, before he basically went and got a mohawk

Someone's lawn ornament through their chain link fence.

Very cute, friendly cat. I really wished the cat was outside, or that it were more acceptable to barge into strange people's houses, because I totally would have

A sign in front of an old heating/cooling repair place. But the e had fallen off. I don't think this building is there anymore, sadly.

A hole busted through an old shop's front door.

So, there. A few of those were taken with my old 6.3 megapixel fuji film finepix A600. I use a j38 of the same brand now, and it has 12 megapixels. Which I enjoy.

Anyway. Tomorrow's theme is "a pair of...", and I promise you, you will have a brand new piece of art for that. Either in photo or drawing form. It WILL be new.  You can quote me on that.

I'm off to throw together my food journal entry for today, and then I'll be around facebook if you care to drop me a line. If you want to add me, make sure you tell me you're from blogger or I may just think you're a random stranger. http://www.facebook.com/melodyevapope