Nose to the Grindstone

It's hard to stay positive about the book-writing-illustration world when you hear news like this. But as my agent said recently, look at a market downturn as an opportunity to grow, to try different things, to reinvent yourself. Great advice to keep in mind.

Last night I doodled while we watched Antiques Roadshow. It took my mind off bad news and also, doodling makes TV more interesting. I'd call these blind-contour ramblings. The show cut between headshots and items being discussed-- I was focusing more on the heads.



















There was one woman who just would not stop interjecting while the expert was telling her about her find. In the bottom right corner I scribbled what she said. I wanted to yell at her-- Stop talking, and listen, puh-leese! You'll learn something! (I can't even remember what they were talking about, she was so distracting!)

Anyway, it felt good to keep the hand moving, and good to keep drawing.

Tree Trunks, Firewood, and Illogical Language

We had a truckload of tree trunks delivered to out house last week. Call us crazy, but this winter we're going to try to heat the house with wood, mostly. We'll still have oil as a backup, but it's just too darn expensive. And I like to stay warm.
















Now I know why a cord of seasoned wood is so costly-- it's a ton of work to cut and split! (But hubby loves any excuse to pull out the chainsaw.)












So here's a question-- how would you explain to a non-english speaking person why you cut a tree "down" but you cut the wood "up?"