Pepper Study

Tonight, I celebrate my almost-completed chicken coop (stay tuned for pics) by getting back to my drawing! It feels so good to have my pencils between my fingers again! So this evening, I busted out my colored pencils and took a stab at creating shadows using complementary colors. Mheh, it's okay, I guess. Gotta love goofy shaped peppers!

Thank you Siggy (I think)! I've been tagged!

Very talented and utterly amazing artist Sigrid Frensen tagged me and asked me to share 7 facts about myself. If you don't know Sigrid's work, you MUST check her botanical drawings, which make me totally envious!

Ok, these are the rules:
1. Link to your tagger and list these rules on your blog
2. Share 7 interesting/random facts about yourself on your blog
3. Tag 7 people at the end of your post, leaving their names as well as links to their blog
4. Leave a comment on each of their blogs to let them know they've been tagged!

1. I was born on Easter Sunday. That has always made me feel special.
2. I suffer from shortness. I'm only 5'2" so I wear heels to compensate.
3. I wish I could design and build houses (hence the "chicken house"). When I was in grade school, I designed a 4-story home with an indoor pool and all the amenities a young girl would want. I probably would have painted all the rooms pink if it came to fruition.
4. I don't like being hot. I've actually plan where I live to ensure cool breezes year round.
5. I am grouchy on only three occasions, when I have not had my morning coffee, when I'm hungry, and on occasion, when I'm PMSing. Other times, I'm rather pleasant to be around.
6. I am studying Greek language at the moment (Yay, Rosetta Stone!). I totally realize that Spanish is a more practical language to learn but ... I still have dreams of backpacking through Greece.
7. When I sit with my little fluffy chickens they make me so happy that I worry I'll be one of those "chicken people" that call their hens "girls" and talk incessantly about them. (It's already happening! Yikes!)

This is a little artcard that I drew earlier and is now in the possession of a dear friend, Mariana Musa, in France.

A birthday wish for Kate

This is one of my favorite drawings, which I did last year. I love it because it's just a little glimpse of things I saw while on one of my weekend walks, reminding to stop from time to time and enjoy the simple things around me. I'm posting this again in honor of Kate Rietz who celebrates her birthday today. This drawing is one of Kate's favorites too. Happy Birthday gurl!!! *party horns blasting* *confetti thrown about* *balloons and streamers floating around*

Creative, nonetheless

I've been decidedly absent from the blogging world recently, not because I haven't been wanting, needing to draw, but because I've been needing to take care of my recently acquired additions of two little hens. So, if you're a spoiled hen in my household, what do you need? A spiffed out, two-story condo complete with nesting boxes, roosts, and a flower box! I've been tempted to add a sound system but that would be overdoing it, yeah?

The coop will be raised on legs with a little ladder going down to the lower fenced "yard" where they can lounge on grass and sip MaiTais. The roof is removable to make the coop light enough to move around in case the chickens need a change of scenery. As you can see, I have a lot more work to do, including painting and adding trim and of course, the roof. Maybe I'll add a sun roof ... Hmmm ... Whatever I decide, I'm hoping the good life will inspire my hens to lay lots and lots of eggs!

If you want to see pics of the coop in its development and pictures of my hens, check out the coop construction page on Backyard Chickens.