Do I have pictures?

No. Why? Because I'm an idiot!
I've been busy, with creating things- I swear! For example. For some reason, around this time of the year (the hottest part of the year), I tend to bring out the knitting stuff. (ex: here) So I've started knitting a purse. I got the pattern from a book called "weekend knitting"- which has a bunch of great patterns. This one however is being altered because it's a checkers/backgammon holder, and I would prefer it to have a pocket on the outside...so that's what I'm doing. So far I'm 70+ rows into the front of the purse (and only screwed up on 3 of those rows!!)...I still have to go and knit the back, the strap, sew on buttons...make a linning...ok, you'll get pictures when it's finished...in the year 2012.
Also- I knitted 2 black hats this past week and weekend. One of the hats is called a "roll brim hat", I got the recipe from a blog that I've been reading, which is absolutely histerical- Crazy Aunt Purl (although I have to warn you, there is one blog post that I found myself crying while reading...I was at work people- crying at work is not good). I'm the kind of blog reader, who has to read all the archives before I can start reading the new stuff, so I'm currently on January 2008- it's taken me 2 weeks of work time reading to get that far, and I've laughed out loud, so many times that my co-workers officially think I'm nuts! (especially with the crying) I actually stumbled on the "roll-brim hat" post because I was looking up free patterns for hats, it was the first one that popped up on google. Anyway, totally sidetracked- I made the other hat from a made up pattern, to get the brim, to not roll up, but stay flat. Why don't I have pictures? Because I made them for a guy who my boyfriend works with, who I've been told is kind of a germ-a-phobe, so I wanted to get those suckers into ziplock baggies as quick as possible so I didn't shed on them, or dust didn't manage to weave itself inside the knitting. Thus, knitted goods in ziplock baggies just doesn't photograph as well.
Let's see, what else did I do this weekend? hum....
Oh yeah- I attempted to re-do the header for this here blog. I suck. It didn't work out too well for me, so I'm going to keep attempting to fix it, until it works- in which case you will be able to see that fine work at the top of this blog. There won't be a post needed for that, I assure you.
That may not seem like a lot (or maybe it does, I feel like I could have done so much more this weekend), but with the purse still being unrecognizable, and not taking ANY pictures, I feel I have let whoever actually reads this blog down. I'll take pictures as things progress.
OOOOOHHHHH, yeah, I did also draw one picture last week. It's a Christmas present for my mom, so I can't post pictures yet...not until Christmas. All I can say is I actually colored it with colored pencils. One person down for Christmas presents, 80 to go :P

Amy's little girl

Here it is. It's done. It took probably a total of 5 hours for the whole thing. I used H, B, 2B, 4B, and 6B pencils. I'm not 100% happy with how it turned out, but there's only so much cuteness you can capture in a drawing. FYI, the drawing is on the right, photo on the left.

Oddly enough, drawing all of these little babies for everyone, still doesn't make me want any of my own (a baby, not a drawing...I like drawings). I like to be able to sugar them up and hand them back in time for the vomiting and all. I'm evil like that. They are cute in small doses. (Not your baby Amy, I'm sure she's the greatest little kid on the planet!)

Amy actually told me back when we were in High School that I would make the coolest mom if I had kids. That I would let them do anything and be ok with it. While I'm not sure exactly what she meant by that, I'm sure it has something to do with the fact that she helped me get out of my house on my 18th birthday and go get a tattoo. A tattoo that is like a "fish tail" to my mom. Every time she tells someone about her unruly daughter's tattoo, it grows. Originally she used to say "my daughter has a tattoo, it's big", now it's progressed to "my daughter has a tattoo, it covers her entire back". Sadly, it's what someone might call a "tramp stamp"...sorry mom!
But seriously, if I have kids, they can totally get a tattoo. You know those parents who take their kids to get their ears pierced when they are like... a day old? Yeah, I'm just going to go take mine when they are a week old to get tattoos. Perhaps that's why I don't need children?

One more...bigger:

I'm impatient, but I finished

I don't have my camera with me today, so I don't have any shadowy pictures to show of the drawing I JUST FINISHED!
Amy! The drawing of your baby is done! DONE! I'm so excited for you to see it! I wish I had a portable scanner...or my camera!
It's a really cute picture, I promise (for those of you not familiar with the actual photo I'm drawing from, it's a baby girl, with an adorable smile holding a ball...you'll see it). The plan is to go home, start the laundry (as is what I do every Thursday night), and commence with the scanning and adding copyright, etc. etc. (one of those "etc." means post it to my blog...)

If anyone is curious to know why i don't have my camera (which I know EVERYONE of you is interested in the "why"), it's because I have a severe sunburn. Sunburn caused by me being a complete moron and going to the Parker County Peach Festival last weekend and thinking it would be great to forget the sunblock. Or a shirt for that matter. Spaghetti strap tank top- not a good idea. So now my shoulders are actually doing something I've never seen before- I look like I have scales, hard nasty, discolored scales. Anyway, they're painful- so I can't wear my back-pack to work, I have my purse- which can only hold a book, wallet, and all of the pencils I own so I can draw. No room for my camera :( I'm fair warning you about this because I may or may not take pictures of the grossness and post it later. Why not, I shared my horrible dental experience with you already, what's a little shoulder scaling? FYI, next Dental appointment on August 4th, I'm not however getting all remaining dental work done, because I'm a weenie, and I'm also going ahead with a periodontal treatment, because I'm a weenie. The dentist scares me, ok?

FYI for anyone reading this and thinking "hum, it's July, I wonder what Amber is going to get me for Christmas..." here's a hint...It's hand made, and either knitted, or drawn- I hope that's ok. I'll have to restrain myself from posting those pictures. I might draw what the knitted projects look like, and knit what the drawn pictures look like...to throw you off the trail.

I will post pictures of the drawing that was mentioned way back up there at the top either later tonight or tomorrow!

I told you I knitted

First- Thank you Sawa for posting a comment! Thanks for the kind words about my drawings. And thank you so much for commenting! You don't know how good it is to actually know that someone is reading my blog (you know, aside from family and friends)!!! YEAH!!! I'm not just typing to myself!!! (big happy face and dance of joy now!!!)

I know, I know! Why is there a pile of leaves sitting on my living room couch? Actually, it's not leaves...well I'm sure in yarn world they could be considered that, but actually that's the scarf I've been working on for close to 3 years. HA!

Was it complicated? you ask...NO! That's what's so rediculous!

I actually started this way way way back in the grand old year of 2006, right before I got laid off for my dream job. Then I was unemployed for 6 months- which- HELLO! Is plenty of time to finish a simple knit every row kind of a scarf, but apparently watching TV and wishing my life would end (and totally not looking for a new job) was way more important than a silly old scarf.

I do not have the exact measurments of this with me, unfortunately (although I know, at it's widest, it's 10" and I think somewhere in the ball park of 56" long...I could be completely lying to you, but I won't know until I go home and find the tape measure). But it is for sale! That's the great news! It'll be going up on my other website for sale early in August for about $20.00. But I'm posting it here, now for $15.00. If you are interested in purchasing "the easiest scarf that took 3 years to make and looks like fall leaves all over the place" then hit me up. And if that link didn't just work, because I'm a slight moron with the hyperlink stuff then just send an email to: ASBTSF@gmail.com. First come, first serve, if you want it and you get an email in response that says "too slow" I appologize, maybe we can discuss a different knitted project for future dates that won't take 3 years to make...maybe.

Now that we have the 3 year project out of the way, I thought it was high time that I show off the "poncho" that I made for my boyfriend. It has only taken me 2 years to complete on a freakin' knifty knitter. That's how slow I am. (not really)

I'm actually pretty sure that my current boyfriend (you know, the one who had the tree fall on his car back in April...on his birthday) only started dating me, to insure that he would one day receive a "poncho" that I promised him. I started on this right during the key layoff period. This guy who had been following me around like a lost puppy dog who would treat me to lunches, and bring Pepsi's and donut holes to my desk every morning (when we worked together...um...hum), and I was completely oblivious to the fact that he might actually like me (when I, in fact, knew that I liked him)...anyway, I figured it was a fair trade for a pepsi- Maybe I need some back story here. He, being hispanic- and not at all politically correct, thought that it would be hilarious to get the "knitting white girl" at work to knit him a "poncho". The joke is on him. 2 YEARS! He's had to date me for 2 YEARS to get the stupid thing. And it's not even a PONCHO!!!! Short of me going insane last night to finish the stupid thing, he looked at me with those great puppy dog eyes and said "you can just leave it like that and I can wrap it around myself"- where upon I asked "wait, so I don't have to connect it? Are you just saying that so I will stop complaining about the 2 year old poncho that's not done?" and he said "yes". So there it is. The wrap/almost poncho- which I totally screwed up at the very end. (binding off using a knifty knitter is hard...unless you actually read instructions...in which case, it might be easy...I don't know.)

There. It's done.

No one ask me to make them a poncho. I don't make ponchos.

Ah drawings

This is my friend and former co-worker, Bryan Wallace's Daughter. Such a cutie pie! Anyway, I'm trying a few new techniques (new to me- I'm sure everyone who draws is way up to date with this...I'm behind on the times). Normally an 8 1/2" x 11" drawing takes about 2, maybe 3 hours to draw. Well that was back when I was using one pencil. A 2B pencil. With this new techinique...yeah, it took 9 hours roughly to draw this little angel. I used H, 2H, 4H, HB, B, 2B, 4B, and 6B pencils to give it a little bit more depth than my other drawings. My favorite part is the ribbon on her hat. It pops :)
Let me know what you think. Bryan certainly seemed to like it in the email I sent him last night. Let's just hope the digital image is representative of the actual drawing, hum?
Anyway, I've got another little cutie pie that I will be drawing this week- I'll hopefully be able to post it up this weekend (or sooner).
Also, I have knitted goods to show! Oh my! I haven't posted anything knitted in quite awhile! They're good, I swear. :P

no art work today

I'm in a not so great mood and would love to share a story with you today.
I went to the dentist yesterday. I've hated the dentist for a very long time- that doesn't mean I don't like taking care of my teeth, and that doesn't mean that I don't want straight teeth. I just hate the dentist because I associate pain with that whole practice. If the dentist had actually told me when I was younger that if I didn't get braces while in junior high, I would start getting migraine headaches because I have a cross bite, I would have listened, and begged and pleaded with my parents to get braces. If they had shown me the correct way to floss my teeth, so i didn't have to endure an hour long cleaning that I'm pretty sure entailed the hygenist ripping my teeth one by one out of my head with a pick to clean the gums violently with a stream of sand and then ramming my teeth back into my head- all while assuring me the procedure was not painful and shouldn't require me to breathe Nitrous Oxide, I would have flossed 10 times a day, the correct way. If I had a degree in dentistry I would have found out much sooner that the dentist I had gone to, to get my crown originally didn't do it right: meaning the whole "getting a crown after a root canal" was a really pleasant experience for me to start with, should have been the giant red buzzing light.
I hate the dentist. Still. But I started going to a new dentist recently because I needed a cleaning and my crown was bothering me. Here's how that all went down:
1. Dentist: "You have a cross bite do you suffer from really painful headaches?" me: "yes" dentist: "it's because of your bite. You HAVE to get braces. Well you HAVE to get them if you want your headaches to stop. If you're ok with the pain, then you don't have to get braces, you can just have crooked teeth"
2. Hygenist: "you don't have periodontal disease, you're gums just bleed, so we need to start you on a 3 session cleaning treatment" the bill: "periodontal hygene treatment" me: "Why the F*** am I paying for this if I don't have periodontal disease?"
3. Dentist: "You have 2 fillings that are metal and they are leaking, we have to replace those" me: "why?" dentist: "because they are leaking" me: "why are 'metal fillings' leaking?" dentist: "because they are old" me: giving up the arguement because he doesn't see where I'm going with this.
4. Dentist: "Who was your last dentist?" Me: "Dr. Meadows, in Dallas" Dentist: "Well whoever it was didn't put a post in to do the crown, so your crown that you have now is basically just hanging on...and it's fractured at the base, which wasn't even securely put on and you have a huge gap under the crown- this is bad, we have to do this" me: "how much will that cost?" Dentist: "well it doesn't really matter the price, you need to have this fixed".
5. Dentist: "See this crack on this tooth here? Yeah, we need to seal that before it turns into a cavity" me: "um, why weren't my teeth sealed to start with, so I wouldn't have to have it done now, and I would have never have needed fillings?" Dentist: *blink*
6. Cashier/Receptionist: "Ok, we don't want you to be homeless just to have beautiful teeth, but your bill is $2,000,000,000,000.00 of that your dental insurance will only pay $500.00
7. Me: "So can you tell me exactly why there is such a thing as dental insurance if they won't cover the full cost of a proceedure that is NEEDED because a previous dentist botched the job?" Cashier: "Because the insurance company wants you to go after your previous dentist to get the money. It's all about making their shareholders happy really". Me: "Insurance sucks" Cashier "yep".
So basically I had 2 major things done yesterday- the cleaning (which I'm cancelling further treatment for because it hurt so bad), and the replacement crown, which currently is only a temporary (and I really hope the post was permanent, because that was quite possibly the most pain I have ever felt in my entire life- including 2 broken bones and a sprained ankle). I scheduled the rest of my $8 gazillion dollar treatments for August 4th, asking if they have a payment plan. The way I look at it, I'll have everything completed August 4th and be paying it off until I'm 412 years old. Oh, well I'll actually only have my dental stuff fixed by August 4th. I still have yet to set an appointment with the orthodontist to correct this horrible bite, which will only cost me another 2 gazillion dollars, and my insurance will cover nothing.
Moral of the story: Parents- never let your children suck their thumbs, bottles, or pacifiers- it will only lead them down a horrible path of dental pain, and a growing hatred for the scary people who are in the dental profession.

100th post!!!

Yeah, I know I just posted. But I forgot about a drawing I had done last weekend, that was about to get forgotten about- for good.
I have this book that I got sometime between the time I graduated from High School and when I graduated from College, called "Anatomy For The Artist" by Sarah Simblet, Photograhy John Davis. HA! Ok, the director on The Ant Bully- A little known movie that I may or may not have my name at the end credits as the "Assistant Office Manager", was named John Davis- and I just now saw the name on this book, so that makes me laugh...
Anyway, getting back to my point here, I often draw from this book. I can't afford to take figure drawing classes right now, and I work during the day, so I can't really audit the life drawing classes at my former college. But this book has some really great poses, great lighting, etc. Recently I've been looking for some more figure drawing books to use, because...well...I've had this one for several years- so I've either drawn or painted almost every figure in this book.
But last weekend, I was in a figure drawing mood, so I drew this:
I know the face is pretty jacked up- but when you are drawing on black paper, with a white pencil, making adjustments is kind of difficult, so the face is bad. Hopefully the rest of it doesn't look to horrible. But I just wanted to post it up- because I have actually been doing stuff, just haven't had a whole lot of time to scan and update the blog. Let me know what you think. Or if you know of any Life Drawing classes in the DFW area that happen after 5pm, and don't cost hundreds of dollars to get in to...because I really miss taking those classes. It's great practice, for any artist.

Eye See You

Yep, that's right. A post I promised that I would make, and a post on a Saturday! What is going on???
Seriously though, I've had a fascination with people who are able to paint in photoshop and make it actually look like they painted with "real" paints, or they paint something in photoshop and make it look realistic.
I can't do that. So I found a book to give me a few tips and tricks that my college education didn't give me (I love that AID showed you a picture of something someone did in a program and tell you at the beginning of the quarter "when you get really good at Photoshop or Illustrator, you too will be able to make something similar to this"...then the entire quarter goes by and they teach you nothing that has to do with "painting" pictures in the program, only how to make textures for video games...)
Anyway, getting over the irritation, the book that I used to help me with photoshop is called "Digital Character Design & Painting The Photoshop CS Edition" by Don Seegmiller
I know I linked it to Amazon- it's probably cheapest there, if you are considering purchasing the book- but also because that's where I bought it. I'm a fan of Amazon.com.
Anyway, back to the actual picture posted- that's my eye. I took a picture of my eye, up close, and painted it using the techniques discussed in the above mentioned book.
I hope to have some more stuff painted in photoshop soon. But like I said, I'm new at it, so it may be awhile before I post anything like this again.

Scary Leaf Head Baby and other sketch book goodness

I started a new sketchbook last week, and figured since it was the 1st of July, I should maybe post some of the stuff I have been doodling in it :)

I used to have this re-occuring nightmare as a small kid about a giant who killed my only flower (it wasn't actually a giant, just a really big brown shoe). I still remember this horrible feeling that would sweep over me from the loss of the flower. I really think it was my first taste at the emotion "hate"- because I would wake up crying that "the monster killed my flower" Which yes, I have since read many-a-dream book and decoded the message from that dream. But I decided it was time to put the "monster"/"giant" into drawing. Only he came out looking like he has guilt, and he wanted to pick me a new flower to make up for killing the one I had in my dreams as a kid. Conviently he picked it at sunset, so it would be fresh for me in my dreams. Hey, it's cheaper than therapy...
I did this, with the complete intent on painting it in photoshop. I'm slowly teaching myself how to paint using photoshop, but I get bored. I taught myself how to paint an eye using the help of "Digital Character Design & Painting the Photoshop CS Edition" by Don Seegmiller. I have yet to post up the eye, but maybe sometime this weekend I'll get around to uploading it. I was pretty impressed. I'm actually quite sad with myself that I didn't express a greater interest in photoshop while attending The Art Institute of Dallas- maybe I could have picked up these tips and techniques much sooner...and on the schools time, instead of my own. Ah well, I'm not a team player anyway. Probably better that I learn on my own. I hope to share the end result with you once this one is painted.

And here's my pride and joy. I did this yesterday at work. I like to call it "Scary Leaf Head Baby". It's actually much more frightening in this drawing than the actual picture. A friend had sent one of those email forwards with a ton of cute random baby pictures and I couldn't resist. But this one is seriously creepy. It still makes me laugh though.

Ah well, hopefully I'll get some more sketches done soon to share with everyone. I did join deviantart.com last week, but have yet to post anything. I don't know why, I have social akwardness even on website forums. It's not even that I'm affraid of critisism, it's more of a "hey, I'm going to post to get feed back" and then I get nothing. Not even a look at my post...