music suggestions needed

I'm still reading through the book "What a Great Idea!" I'm getting more tips on how to come up with creative ideas.

It says that "largo movements from classical and baroque composers improves concentration and accelerates learning." I've had a hard time concentrating lately.

Classical music is not my specialty. Anybody have any suggestions of some good largo movements? I'm sure my brother would have some ideas.

I'm still here.

Just a short post to let everyone know I'm still here. I just have not felt like posting much lately. I've been short on inspiration and interesting thoughts or doodles. I'll try to think of something new to say soon!

today's cartoon

This was a doodle that I had in a sketchbook for a while, and I drew it in Photoshop. Ever feel like this?

doodles and stuff

I have not felt incredibly inspired lately.

Some days I fill up my little sketchbooks with brilliant ideas. I have not had much of anything new for a number of weeks.

I got a new book called
What a Great Idea!: The Key Steps Creative People Take.

I finished the intro. about Dr. NakaMats, world record holder of over 3,200 inventions. These flying shoes look like fun.



Here's some recent doodles from a waiting room.

Did you know?

Did you know that you can help homeless animals by donating used cell phones and ink cartridges?

I read about this at my vet's office. I brought in an old cell phone, and there is a place that will give money to help needy animals in exchange for it.

I googled this to see if I could find out who's doing this, and there's everything from dog rescue to save the African Gorillas. So if you go online, you can take your pick.

Thank you to everyone who prayed for my Grandpa's surgery and recovery. Thank God it went great. It ended up being a quadruple bypass. He got out yesterday. He can already drive and go back to work at his shop, back to all the things he loves to do, he's just not allowed to swim or get into a car accident (those sensitive stitches!).

a couple of things

Lately I've been creating these "dogmobile" license plate frames. People like them and have been buying them. I'd say most popular are this doxiemobile, then Corgis, Schnauzers, Shelties, and Yorkies. And of course Keeshonds, which were the first ones I was selling and the reason I decided to make more. You can take a look at them here at my shop... if you don't see your breed, it's coming soon!

More Dog License Plate Cover Links:

Affenpinscher license plate frame
Afghan Hound license plate frame
Airedale Terrier license plate frame
Akita license plate frame
Alaskan Malamute license plate frame
American Eskimo Dog license plate frame
American Foxhound license plate frame
American Bulldog license plate frame
American Pit Bull Terrier license plate frame
American Staffordshire Terrier license plate frame
American Water Spaniel license plate frame
Anatolian Shepherd Dog license plate frame
Australian Cattle Dog license plate frame
Australian Shepherd license plate frame
Australian Terrier license plate frame
Azawakh license plate frame
Basenji license plate frame
Bassett Hound license plate frame

my little robin

About a week ago I was sitting out on my back porch reading, and watching a robin collecting nesting materials out of my yard. She kept taking them into the bushes right next to the deck.

I looked in there later and saw her nest. After another day there was one egg. So now she's in there all the time sitting on it. She doesn't like me looking at her, but I took this picture from a distance. Too bad I don't have one of those paparazzi lenses.


I wonder if a nest that low to the ground is a good idea. Not good if a cat comes along, but we have a lot of hawks that are always stealing from birds' nests. Maybe the hawks won't notice her down there.

a prayer request

Today we were in the hospital visiting my Grandpa. He's having triple bypass surgery tomorrow morning. I think he will come through just fine, but I appreciate any prayers! Thanks!

I'm still here.

I haven't been blogging a whole lot lately just because I've been busy with a project. A cartoon I draw every other month for a dog magazine. Then last night I bought myself a book of Sudoku puzzles, to see what all the hype is about. I spent this morning working on those, and now all day I've been thinking I'd like to do just one more before I go to bed.

I'm hoping those things really have some benefit for my brain, because they sure are addicting.

A Cartoon by Ann Telnaes

I get cartoons like this emailed to me every day from Slate magazine.
Click here to see more.

a pencil reunion

Here's a cartoon I drew a while back.

learning flash... slowly, eventually

I am finally starting to read my book on Flash animation. I have had this for so long, quite a few years, and it just seems overwhelming to learn. So I'm just taking baby steps with it, reading an hour a day.

Here's one thing I learned so far. If you design a website, you don't want it to end up here: www.webpagesthatsuck.com

The polls are closed. The results are in.

Out of 11 votes, 7 said boy, and 4 said girl. If you said girl, you are correct!

"Christy Moore, 9, makes friends with monsters. They are Marshal Billy-Bob Fritter and his dog, Fritter-Bitter." (From the inside cover of National Geographic World).

"That's Pat!"

Today's Quiz: Is this a boy or a girl? Vote on the right. Answer will be given as soon as I have enough votes.

thought of the day

Another little thing I've kept taped to my monitor from my
Don't Sweat the Small Stuff Calendar.

after the rain

We had a nice rain tonight.

more stuff

After the comments about my junk drawer not being a junk drawer, I'm posting these photos of my closet. This is where most of my junk resides. And it is usually not this clean. I spent hours cleaning it last month.

Looking at these photos a person would get the impression that I am very neat. Actually I work with piles of papers and stuff all around me, and it's not until I'm finished with a project that I go on a cleaning extravaganza, and then the piles start over brand new.

I like these little drawer things I keep in the closet. One is labeled "air pump needle." I love knowing where little things are when I need them.

my junk drawer

Here we go, another blogger photo exchange. This time the theme is junk drawers. What would you expect me to keep in my junk drawer? It's full of doodles. Doodles, and little scraps of paper with ideas written on them.

There is my one-armed Popeye. George glued the arm back on for me, but then it came off again. I was keeping that on top of my monitor for inspiration because somewhere I read that the guy who created Popeye worked like three jobs to make ends meet and drew his cartoons at night.

Below the drawer are the instructions for my micropets, tug and chop. There's a piece of blue fabric the same as my couch cover. I was keeping it in case I needed to match the color to something else, I don't know what, another chair or something.

That black thing is a letter opener that you can put a business card into. Right now there's no business card in it; there's instructions on how to open it and stick your business card inside.

Kaboodle

Thanks to Emma Sometimes at The Bee's Knees for introducing me to Kaboodle. I finally have a way to organize my bookmarks. I had pretty much quit bookmarking things because my bookmarks are so cluttered, I can never find anything there anyway. This site allows you to organize all your favorite stuff and share it with friends.

It also showed me that Safari has a Bookmarks bar, which I didn't even realize I had. So now all the sites I visit daily have buttons in a nice neat row at the top of my window.

I've only started adding things to this a couple of days ago, but here is my Kaboodle.

Also check out the new Cafepress shop by Emma Sometimes. More images will be added soon.

some animal doodles