Illustration Friday - Worn

For this week's Illustration Friday theme, "worn."

From Here to There and Back Again

A zillion photos/sketches/stories to share, but a paucity of time. Drat. Family in town, fireworks on the 3rd (yes, the 3rd) and the daily workload are keeping me occupied. Summertime.

I highly recommend visiting the Woodman Institute if you are ever in New Hampshire. It's chock-a-block full of a huge assortment of preserved birds and beasts, complete with a four-legged chicken specimen. And a pangolin.

I actually went to the Woodman Institute for my kindergarten field trip way, way back. And the polar bear in the entrance? It still seems as enormous as it did to me then. I'm glad age/time didn't diminish its arctic awesomeness. I'm most definitely going back with a sketchbook next time around though.

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There's new episodes of Poirot on tv - oh yes. That and a bowl of Mango Ice Cream are on the agenda for this evening, which considering the perpetually dreary weather, sounds pretty good about now.

Silver Linings

Well here's a bit of good news I got last week.

June

Here's a bit of what's what. She's nearly finished. Some hemming still to do.

Wild strawberries, picked Saturday morning ended up in strawberry scones Saturday afternoon. This scone recipe is the best; make sure you eat them as soon as they emerge from the oven.

Bunchberry from the woods, taking up residence in a washed out paint bottle.

The Shot Heard 'Round the World

Meandering around the gardens attached to the Buttrick Mansion, it's easy to forget those cranky colonists were raising Cain a few yards away. If you haven't been to Lexington and Concord before, go. We poked around the grounds, crossed the North Bridge and I tried to remember the finer points of freshman year American History (with mixed results)*.

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I've got my nose to the grindstone with work, and we've got people coming and going here, so posting will be a bit sporadic (advance warning/apologies).

*The professor used to refer to it as "Con-cord" instead of "Con-curd," which would make me wince.

Likability

Things I like a lot: gingersnaps, theremins and the regrettably canceled "Pushing Daisies."

A Distant Day

Because sometimes you get an idea in your head and can't rest 'till it's been hashed out.

So you threw the key away...

Yes, I have been on a Decemberists kick as of late. And a vanilla iced coffee kick too for that matter.

Flit and Float

A wedding card, almost 364 days late for a college friend visiting this week from Belize. We managed some antiquing, lunch* and I survived rush hour traffic. Barely.

*Ohmygosh those veggie burgers. Mmm...

The Wheat Fields

Need some wall art? Get one of my illustrations for free over at the Indie Fixx "Feed Your Soul, The Free Art Project."

Objects in Mirror Are Closer Than They Appear

If you squint hard, those letters spell "Chess Club" in between the windows. Don't you kind of wonder who would be a member of a second story Chess Club? I feel like there's a story here somewhere...
Don't worry. I wasn't the one driving. And as I recall, I didn't feel as peevish as I look.

I've been slacking in the drawing-from-life department. Too many things to do, this just seems to slip through the cracks. I've been looking at the Charles Bargue drawing book (courtesy of my mother), which is pretty old school, but seems like the kind of artistic calisthenics I could use right now. So that's what's on my plate.

Oh, and I can't believe this one slipped my mind. You should check out former co-worker /illustrator extraordinaire Erik Evensen's new blog, "Daily Deity" featuring drawings of all manner of mythological beings. Thoroughly entertaining. And educational.

Ennui