Super Duper V Day Give Aways

Giveaway happening here. Lots of prizes.

Another here

Valentine Cutie

This sweetie is all set for candy hearts and roses.

I know a lot of single people are not in love with valentine's day. The dramatic wear black, the bitter post facebook rants, the embarrassed ignore it.

Personally, I delight in valentine's day. It easily wins the classiest holiday color scheme and all the over decor is cute enough to use year round. V-day has the dubious honor of being the only holiday I'll actually be festive for.

Some years I go to parties with friends, this year I'll probably be alone again, sipping pink whipped cream from my white-chocolate mocha. I love it all.

What's your favorite holiday?

Summer Reading

 I'm pretty certain that this girl is walking back from the library with some summer reading in hand. I never technically had summer reading assignments, but I have a little addiction to books and the library is one of the few places my parent's felt comfortable dropping me off for a few hours.

Parents want their kids to enjoy the library, but with all those suspicious librarians around, trying to corral you into the kids or YA section where they can keep an eye on you  it always felt like a form of rebellion, especially with friends. You get past the guards and sneak off into the depths of the library. Nobody knows where you are or what you're doing. You could be reading anything (no, seriously, anything). They don't know. You could meet up with anyone. They don't know. Heck, you don't know.

So in short, it was awesome.

My love affair with the library has waned a little bit since living in Indiana. The towns are smaller and so are the libraries. Worse, you can only get a card for your town. If you live in the city limits. If you don't live within the city limits of any town (a common occurrence here in the corn-field of America) - no books for you.  Should you desire access to other libraries you must pay for a non resident card, which can cost as much as $92 per year. or a PLAC, for the whole state. This year's is $50 - my local library did not advertise this option.

In Ohio you could get a card for any library. Or every library. They didn't care.
My mom had cards for at least four Ohio libraries and one more for a Florida library we went to during vacations every two years!

Indiana, free with guns, stingy with books.

All you need is...

Ok, so I have no new doodles for you. I've done new doodles, I just don't have anything scanned in at the moment.

To keep your minds off what a terrible blogger I am, I'm going to direct you to this charming giveaway that I'd prefer you not enter, because I'd like this necklace for myself and it's not available in the shop.

Won't I look cute in it?

Pajama Sale - Because early isn't bad enough

Every year the local merchants have a "pajama sale". They don't sell pajamas, but they do offer discounts which you have to be wearing your PJs to get. This is in addition to opening crazy early and ending all the best deals before 8 am.

I've gone a couple of years to photograph the people in their jammies, which are often outrageous. I don't think I can handle going again this year, but that doesn't mean I can't design some cute graphics for our Pajama Sale section to convince other people to go.

January Colors

I didn't live on a hill at all when I was a kid (or now for that matter), but there were parks nearby where we went sledding every winter and had a blast. 

 A wintery coloring page.
Feel free to print and color, but not to profit from or use in any other way. This is strictly a coloring page.

For a Dreamer

"When I dream, on my own

I'm alone but, I ain't lonely

For a dreamer night's the only time of day"

- "Sante Fe", Newsies

This drawing is base on memories of the house I grew up in. I moved my bed so I could sit up and look out the window at the stars whenever I wanted. 

Of course you can't see the stars as brilliantly in the city. So one of my favorite memories is of when I was really little and my parents would wake me and my sister up in the middle of the night and drive us out into the country to look up at the stars, usually when something special like a comet was going to be visible. 

Maybe that's why I love the stars. Maybe because they remind me of how small I am and how big God is. But a few years ago I was out deep in the country again and the stars were so stunning that, even though I was in a really rough patch between college graduation and gainful employment, everything felt right. The stars couldn't be so beautiful for nothing. And it was enough just to stand there and be in awe.