The Life Pursuit: San Smith

Photos and doodles update!

Oh my gosh - I can't believe how fast last week zipped by! Sorry for only sharing one post. I feel like I've been so busy that life is zipping past me, eek! I have been drawing a lot though, working on a ton of freelance, visiting with friends, and writing blog posts that I plan to share with you guys... but sometimes there just isn't enough time in the day to finalize it all :)

  

see the bigger version at my flickr!

I thought I'd do a little photo and sketch post of stuff I'm working on and what I've been up to. I visited with my pals last weekend and we watched the last Conan episode over some drinks... so sad! I hope he gets back on the air soon. The above photos are from that night... How do you like the pizza I made to bring? I'm such a good guest. :P

I also met up with my internet pal, Sarina (sparkly sushi), this weekend but we forgot to get photos! Blargh! I guess I'll have to try again the next time she is in town. We ate burgers with her friend at the Vortex in Little 5 points - I had a lot of fun and I'm so glad I finally met her! Also, she gave me a lovely blue flower hair pin that she made, I'll take pictures of it later... it is very pretty. The rest of the weekend was spent working on small projects, visiting with family and then relaxing.

A lot of the illustrations I'm working right now are either for projects that aren't complete yet, or personal doodles that I've sketched on paper but haven't had time to digitize. Not the most exciting stuff for blogging :\ I just finished up a portrait from work, I'm working on sketches for a character design project and little witch doodles (both below) that I can't wait to finish... and I think I'm pretty close to wrapping up a house illustration for a wedding invitation.

Anyhow - this post is kinda all over the place! But know that I'm thinking of you guys. Love love you all and I enjoy your comments so much... I've had such nice emails and comments from you guys lately and it really makes my day. I want to give back - so I'll try to fit in more posts this week! Hope you are all doing well <3

brrrr

Now that I'm back from vacation, I'm trying to finish up a freelance project that is due today... but my office is SO cold!!! :( I'm using a cup of tea to heat my fingers and nose right now. I feel like I'm turning into a snow man! Brrrr! I have two pairs of socks on, fingerless gloves, a giant scarf, two shirts, pants and a dress. Why am I still cold!?? Ridiculous!

As soon as I'm done working I'm going to go run around outside to warm up! Maybe make some tasty warm dinner. Hope you guys are doing well and staying warm. I'm excited to share my second post on goal making tomorrow!

Free gift tags + Facebook!

This is going to be kind of a random mish mash of things since I have a lot to share! First... I wanted to make some gift tags for you guys! I thought it would be nice to make some printable tags with my illustrations on them, so you could use them to spice up some gift wrapping! Free to take, just please don't reproduce them to sell or anything ;)

click here to download

I also spent some time last night goofing off with make up. I really wanted to try to do my make up like Dita Von Teese's after watching these two tutorials: Pixiwoo's tutorial and Panacea81's tutorial. I don't look much like her other than dark hair/pale skin, but it was fun to play a bit of dress up! And no worries - I didn't get rid of the pink in my hair!! I just styled it sneaky-like to hide it for photos :)

Look at that teeny tiny little beer mug! So cute. It goes with a new bunny figurine I got recently:

Her name is Jun, and its a Revoltech from the Dokodemo Issho video game. I got Chris her little Robot companion, so hopefully we will take some fun pictures of them soon! I love all the figures in the set, they are so funny! Do you guys collect toys? I wish I could collect more but it is sort of an expensive hobby. I would love to have a huge collection of funny toys some day though!

And one last thing... I finally made a face book page for my website! Its still pretty new, but I'm going to try to figure out some neat things to do with it soon. Maybe a contest :)

click here to visit and join my facebook page!

Whew! That was a pretty picture heavy post.
Hope you are having a good week so far!

Coffee coffee coffee

Oh man... So I got my Christmas gift from Chris tonight. He was so excited, he insisted I open it now! And it was a bean grinder!! I've never had one before, so we walked through the steps and I ground my first little beans here in the house today. I think it might be the best cup of coffee I've ever made at home! But now I'm wired - ahhh! Oh well - I'm excited to make another cup tomorrow.

Now my mind is buzzing about latte art! I'd love to try to learn how to make cute designs in my coffee - I might put it on my list of things to try to learn in 2010. Check out these amazing cups:

1. latte art, 2. Saturn, 3. パンダラテ,
4. Cafe Latte, 5. Учусь новому искусству Latte art, 6. Latte HeArt

I would love to know how to make that panda! Or even just a little heart... And while I'm on the topic of coffee, I really wanted to share this video with you guys:



I favorited earlier on youtube - I forgot how cute Tenorikuma is! :) Makes me want to draw some little latte making raccoons!

Photo update!

I thought I'd do a little photo update to start the week off...

This weekend Chris and I went to REI to get winter jackets! I didn't really have a winter jacket - just lots of goofy girl fashion coats that look greaaaat but don't provide much warmth :( So I ended up getting a cute little brown jacket that actually does a good job! I really like it - it has a ridiculous amount of pockets, and even a sneaky little inside pocket that is hidden! Oh and a hood!! Which lead to me putting the hood on and making ridiculous faces. Cause you know, I gotta break in the jacket... or something.

Also - very exciting  mail arrived- my Moka pot!! I've been doing a lot of experimentation trying to figure out how to best use it this weekend. I'm so fascinated by it! Its pretty much the coolest coffee device I've ever used. I switched from illy ground espresso to whole beans ground slightly larger, and tried that today... it doesn't taste nearly as yummy as my old espresso so I'll just have to keep tinkering with it. hrmm.

I also went to my cousin's this weekend for a little craft party. We made salt dough ornaments. Mine is the wacky green mitten. I also made a little red heart to be a magnet, but my dog ate it before I could attach the magnetic part to it >:( Argh.

Hope you guys had a nice weekend! I'm spending the rest of the day working on arts and crafts and hopefully getting some stuff on my etsy.