May 11th - Haiku Festival

I haven't tried my hand at haiku since Mrs. Atkinson's 7th grade English class.

So when Elizabeth mentioned that she and a friend were planning a blogoshphere Haiku Festival I thought it would be fun to join in. (Remember the "Door" themed day from last year? Turned out to be a great way to meet new bloggers and travel the world vicariously.) So save the date- May 11th- and drop Elizabeth a comment if you'd like to be added to a list of participants.

Here and here are a few sites that explain how to write haiku, if, like me, you need a little refresher course. Let's make Mrs. Atkinson proud!

Monday Map: Windy City Neighborhoods

These little locator maps for TimeOut Chicago are always fun to do.

Friday Fun: Blueberry Girl

I teared up hearing this read by Neil Gaiman. Maybe it's that I've been thinking a lot recently about certain women and girls in my life, and what I wish for them. The words and pictures are beautiful. Enjoy.

Dept. of Freelance: How to Get Work

1. Start making progress on your own projects, and real work will come in the door.*

2. The best way to get lots of work is to plan a vacation.**

* Meaning the kind that pays bills. (This is a good thing!)
**Haven't tried this one in a long time, but it really works!

New Piece: First Stage

This is the first stage of a new piece I'm working on. (Here's the sketch.)

I've transferred the drawing to watercolor paper and started drawing with colored pencil. Next comes the paint. The first layers of watercolor always soften up the pencil line, an effect I like, then I can go back in and redraw/strengthen the line as needed.

Maybe I'll post the different stages as I do them. Although there's always that inevitable point where I hate the piece and think it's dreck, in which case I think I'd just die if I posted it. (Reminder to self: that's normal, keep working!) We'll see.

The Visitor

This plump fellow paid us a visit during spring break last week. He pranced around the backyard for a while, and then zipped off into the woods.















Turns out he was preening for a few lady friends, who promptly ran away. I guess they were camera shy.

Monday Map: Garden Madness

'Tis the season for prepping the garden beds. The husband has cleared and tilled and put up most of what will be a very-big-deer-fence for our "Victory Garden." I finally started my seed flats. It's been a late spring around here, and we want to be ready to plant once the weather turns around for good. Perhaps come August I'll hold a blog vegetable give-away, with any luck!

... Can't figure out how to make the video below fit to the correct width. Darn you, blogger!