Daily Life 100 Themes: 11 Memory

I have a great memory. Honestly, I do. Which is pretty awesome when I play trivial pursuit or Scene It. It's great when I'm gabbing with my friends. My memory comes in handy when I'm looking for some obscure thing I saw at the library, in my basement, or on the internet. There is one place that it always betrays me, though. Names. Not names of things, characters or people in general. I'm talking about the names of people I've just met. After meeting a bunch of people in a group "Hi Jeffrey, this is Danny, Amy, Ryan, Susie and Bob." I'll field the question about whether I go by Jeff or Jeffrey (incidentally, I wouldn't introduce myself as Jeffrey if that wasn't what I go by) and then promptly forget everybody's names.

Is there a cure for this? It's not like I mean to forget, I just Do!

Until next time, take care and be good!
Your friend,
Jeffrey

Photo Roundup For The Third Week Of May

I can't believe that I forgot to post these on Monday!  This seems to just be one of those weeks :) So here's this weeks photo roundup, all these pictures were taken on my iphone and processed with instagram. You can follow me if you want too! My user name is redherringjeff.

 

Sitting outside on the swing, I was checking mail while the kids played and Abby asked me to take her picture. This is her pose...with her eyes closed. Ha-ha-ha! This is actually intentional, and just cracks me up!

Abby's god mother got this book for her for her first birthday, and it's probably one of my favorites. It's hard to beat a combination like Neil Gaiman and Charles Vess in the first place, but the poem is just fantastic, and speaks about the things fathers want for their daughters. I don't want them to be perfect, but do want them to be happy, healthy and responsible. It often frustrates me how little good literature there is out there for little girls, but it IS there.

 

Working on some new peg people. I've seen several on pinterest that are pretty nice, but not really what I'm looking for...This is what happens when someone with art training and several years as a serious miniature hobbyist/gamer  becomes a crafter. I hope that this first set of Doctor Who peg people are well received. If not, then I had fun making them!

 

Speaking of art, I do graphic design and illustration as my day job. (In case you didn't know, ha-ha-ha!) These are a couple of character drawings I did last week. I'm thinking if I don't have time to get the new Daily Life finished this week I might throw some color on them for Friday's post. 

 

The girls and a little Crafternoon Delite.  I forget sometimes just how capable Olive is, because she doesn't really talk yet...That kid is smart. A lot of construction paper, foam stickers and cutting going on here.  It's cool seeing how into making things they are.  Speaking of Crafternoon Delite, Tonite (Wednesday, May 23) we are hosting a crafting event at Fusion in chesterfield mall from 6:00 to 9:00. Grab some of your handwork and come on down and hang out with us!

 

We found these costume glasses the other day at Deals, for a dollar. Olivia thought they were really cool, and looked SO cute in them...unfortunately, they broke the next day. It kills me that even something that only cost a dollar has no real longevity.

Well, that's it for this week! Until next time then, take care and be good!

Your friend,

Jeffrey

That Zenbot Sure Loves His Sammitches!

I did this little illustration for my friend Andrea at Zenbot Baby as a promo piece for her awesome sandwich wraps.  I decided to color it just for fun, and then share it with you all.  I hope you like it, and I hope you go check out her fantastic, eco-friendly creations!

Until next time, take care and be good.
your friend,
Jeffrey

Photo Roundup For the Second Week Of May

 All these pictures were taken on my iphone and processed with instagram. You can follow me if you want too! My user name is redherringjeff.

 

This is the most hilarious side effect of owning a Mr Potato Head.  I think at one point or other, all kids try on the glasses, don't they? Olive will put them on and then come and tell me either "glasses" or "eyes" depending on her mood. 

 

A couple of weeks ago, I went and did a presentation about being a freelance Graphic Designer and Illustrator to a high school graphic design class. Remembering my speech classes in college, I was worried that I'd talk for about 5 minutes and then run out of things to say. What I forgot is that I really like to talk about what I do. I think blogging for the last 10 years or so has really made that easier, because I know what it is that I WANT to say now, ha-ha-ha! The other day I got this thank you note from the class. I think my favorite is "Thanks Jeff, you're pretty legit. props"  Ha-ha-ha! how awesome is that?

 

The other day, Abby came out of her room wearing one of the super hero masks that Mrs Handmade made for her...and a GIANT sombrero.  "Who is this masked amiga?" said Amy as she took a picture. 

 

A second later, Olive comes out wearing princess shoes and this smaller, straw sombrero. Ha-ha-ha! The perfect sidekick for her Quixotic sister!

 

The view from my chair at this weekend's farmers market down at Tower Groves in Saint Louis.  We couldn't have asked for a better day, 74 degrees and sunny. There was a good crowd, and we had great neighbors. 

 

Speaking of our great neighbors, here's Beqi and Lauren B. Both do awesome work, and are fun, funny and just generally pretty great. All day, Lauren was just GUSHING about corgis. I think Beqi was getting a little tired of it by the end of the show, but of course it didn't stop. Ha-ha-ha!

Until next time, take care and be good!

Your friend,

Jeffrey

Daily Life 100 Themes: Breathe Again

When I worked in an office, Spring just meant the beginning of the hot, wet, Missouri summer. That was really the only difference from any other day, any other season. Now that I'm home full time, Spring has become something to look forward to. The bright, sunny days where the kids and I can go out on walks or play in the yard. Hanging laundry on the line. Working in the garden. Allergies.

My allergies are terrible, actually. Ha-ha-ha! I spend about a month feeling like my nose is twice as big as it is. With itchy eyes, and a stuffy head. I even sometimes shuffle around like a zombie. Ugh, allergies. When pollen season is pretty much over, I'm so glad that I can breath again.

Until next time, take care and be good!
Your friend,
Jeffrey

Photo Roundup For The First Week Of May

All these pictures were taken on my iphone and processed with instagram. You can follow me if you want too! My user name is redherringjeff.

It's been a busy week! We started things off with Olives second birthday, spending the morning at Monkey Joes playing on inflatable bounce-climbers and then went to Dunkin Donuts for lunch. I just can't resist their coffee, and honestly is there any difference between having donuts for breakfast and having them for lunch?

 

I wonder sometimes whether the projects I work on outside will convince my neighbors that I'm a terrorist...This is three sets of tent weights to hold our tent down when we do outdoor shows and festivals. Actually, only one of these sets is ours, the other two I made for some crafty friends.

 

I learned a lesson on this project...if you listen to the subversive, anti-authority, indie-crafter in your head and ignore the picture of a guy wearing gloves that's on the concrete bag (who by the way, your 4-year-old was smart enough to point out), your hand will end up looking like you tried to destroy a horcrux.

 

Our tent set up at the first Tower Groves Farmers Market here in St Louis. We were expecting rain all day, but all we had was heat. I wasn't about to complain about that :) It was a really great start to the show year, and I'm looking forward to going back this week! If you're in the area, come on down and say hi!

 

These two love each other and really do enjoy spending time together. I guess sometime I should get a picture of when one hits the other so you all don't get the idea that everything's perfect all the time...but usually they're pretty good to each other.

Until next time, take care and be good!

Your friend,

Jeffrey

Illustration Friday: Hitched

Still running behind, but wanted to make sure that I DO actually make good on my promise to have some artwork up here this week!  This weeks Illustration Friday topic was Hitched.  I did this illustration a little while back for a couple that is sending out their Save The Date announcements, but didn't want to use a typical photo for them. She had the idea to do a cartoon version of themselves as the couple from American Gothic.  This is a pen and ink illustration, colored digitally in photoshop.

I hope you all had a great week! It's been busy here, but we're keeping up...mostly :)
Until next time, Take care and be good!
Your friend,
Jeffrey

She Never Lets Me Get My Heart-Rate Up Enough To Call It Excersise

Abby tells me she's a really good trash hunter...and she's right, she is! Most days when it's not raining, we go for walk on the just over a mile circuit of our neighborhood. We have a sit and stand stroller, which means that Olive gets a seat with a view in the front, and Abby can either sit or stand in the back. It also means that she can get in and out pretty easily.

I don't know how many of you ever go on walks with a 4-year-old, but it can fall apart pretty quickly if they actually have to...you know, walk. Ha-ha-ha! So this set up works really nicely for me as it gives them some fresh air and sunshine and I get to do more moving around than laundry and vacuuming allow. I've learned though, that I need to take a bag with me. My neighbor made a joke that it was for picking up poo if the girls had an accident, which got us talking for a minute about Abby's obsession with picking up trash. She says our neighbors are being naughty throwing all this trash on the ground, and I thank her for being a good citizen.

The pace of our walks is terrible. We (Olive and I) do a lot of standing and waiting, starting and stopping. Sometimes we find some kind of gross stuff. Often we have to walk past the soggy, shredded advertisement "newspapers" that are all over the fronts of driveways and yards. Sometimes we have to carry back pocket fulls of junk because we forgot a bag...But it's so nice to spend the time in the sun, teaching good citizenship to my industrious little girls. Being a stay-at-home dad with them is pretty awesome.

Until next time, take care and be good!

Your friend,
Jeffrey

Photo Roundup From The Last Week Of April

All these pictures were taken on my iphone and processed with instagram. You can follow me if you want too! My user name is redherringjeff.

Much as I hate to admit it sometimes, we do watch television. I think that even though it's not like I just plop them down in front of the set and then go and do...whatever it is grown-ups do, it still feels like it sometimes. Ha-ha-ha! It's always interesting to see how they react to the content of different shows or episodes. This was an episode of Yo-Gabba-Gabba about nap time, and Olive got out a little pillow and layed down to watch.  Something I noticed about this picture as I uploaded it is the little blue sock in the corner...Socks are for some reason everywhere in this house.

 

I walked into the living room the other day and Ken was lying on the floor...naked...with no head. I asked Abby where his head was and she told me she was playing with it. I asked if I could put it back on his body. No. She was playing with it. She had a school bus going to school with Bert in an easy chair, a can of soda, an apple, and kens head. Being driven by a suit of armour. Okay...

 

While we were at I Am What I Am on Main Street in Saint Charles, dropping off some merchandise for the 1 year anniversary party. Abby wanted to make sure that her Barbie who she's named Aveena got to see what was going on. While we were there, she decided that Aveena was getting cold with no clothes on, so she dressed her in a paper towel. And tape. Lots of tape.

 

We had a pirate party for Olive's second birthday. This is Zoey peeking over the couch, looking for buried treasure. After it was all over, and everyone had gone home, Amy asked Abby if it was a good party. Abby said it was "the BEST party ever!" Yikes, best party at four? I guess she's in for a lot of dissapointments from here on out then, ha-ha-ha!

 

Abby winding down playing a little Leap Pad after a busy day. Sometimes, the light hits them just right...

Until next time, take care and be good!

Your friend, 

Jeffrey