A Day on the Beach or How We Almost DIED

Last weekend, I wanted to celebrate my birthday with a day trip to the local lake. Like much of the country, our area has been blessed/plagued by unusual summer rain storms, and we knew there was a high likelyhood of rain that Saturday. Nevertheless, I was determined we would at least have a fun drive even if we couldn't swim because of the weather!
Things started out pleasant enough. The sky was overcast but it wasn't super cool, maybe 65 degrees outside. When we arrived at the shoreline, there were a surprising number of people out on the beach enjoying the cooler day. True, most of them were fully dressed and lounging in chairs, but we felt encouraged by the high numbers. If everyone else thinks its a good beach day, it must be....right?
We found a spot that wasn't too close to other people and settled in.



Joshua decided right away that the water was a little too cold for his liking,




and after daddy stopped forcing him to try again, he was content to wrap up in a towel on the beach to watch the seagulls.





Elora was much braver, and made her way in and out of the water several times, usually accompanied by daddy.




She was having fun finding rocks and throwing them with a splash, after which she would run to the sand and wrap up for a few minutes with her brother.



I think she was most excited about wearing her new swimming suit as she'd been asking to go to the beach every day since we bought it!

"I'mmm nnot c-c-cold, mommy!"




Joseph made an exciting discovery at one point: A beached walrus...or is that a whale?



For some reason, the poor stranded creature reminded Joseph of me,



so he then took some hilarious shots of me with a beach ball inside my shirt. Oh wait, we don't own a beach ball. As for myself, I don't know why everyone else thought it was so cold out, I was enjoying the cool water and overcast sky!



We had at least a good half hour of more mugging for the camera (seriously, Joshua posed for this picture, it was pretty funny),



and adventuring into the shallow water before darting back to the safe towels.




But soon, a foreboding wind filled the air.
"Mom, I think the wind has suddenly become foreboding. Maybe we should go?"



Joshua was wrapped in his towel on the beach, while I was about ten feet away taking more pictures of Elora and Daddy. Suddenly, this huge burst of wind rushed at us from the south, surprising everyone with it's intensity. I could hear Joshua freaking out behind me, and no wonder: while my legs were getting thrashed by projectile sand, he was sitting facing the wind and the same sand was blowing right into his exposed face and body!
I rushed over to him as soon as I could, Joseph and Elora running behind me. All the other beach goers were hurriedly gathering their supplies and heading to cars, and we were certainly going to do the same!
I had just reached my frightened little boy when another gust of wind hit us, even stronger than the one before. I gathered Josh's towel around him and huddled next to him, turning him away from the frightening spray of sand. I was getting blasted as were Joseph and Elora, and I kept telling Joshua to close his eyes. He clung to me saying, "Okay, okay!"

(We now bring you this calm seagull picture, as the unfolding events are too intense for most blog viewers to handle.)
As soon as this second vicious attack let up, I wrapped Elora in her towel and had Joseph grab Joshua, sending them toward the car as I gathered the rest of our things together. The wind continued to grow in strength, lashing us with sand and debris...man, that stuff stings your legs!

I was carrying our last few bags and walking with my head down when I heard both Elora and Joshua start screaming frantically. I looked up to see that Joseph had lost his grip on the bag full of toys he had grabbed, and they were bouncing and tripping across the sand into the water. Joseph was trying his best to chase them down without dropping Joshua or the other things he carried, while Elora followed behind him, her towel quickly slipping from her hands as it whipped around her.

The wind was picking up in intensity as I yelled to Elora to stay there, but she was still trying to follow Joseph and seemed confused and scared. I was able to grab the toys and the bag, then I walked to the car with Elora clinging to my leg the whole way. We reached the safety of our vehicle not a moment too soon, for at that moment the clouds burst and rain deluged the abandoned beach.

It all turned out okay in the end-we got to eat out with the birthday money my mom gave me(including raspberry shakes!) , and the foggy drive home was beautiful. I just hope Joshua isn't permanently afraid of sand, the beach, or water! (That night at bedtime, he kept saying he wanted to be safe in the car, and it took a while for him to understand our house was just as safe.)

(Okay so maybe we didn't almost die, but it was exciting, right?)

Portraits of Neighbor Girls #1

Summertime and, I suppose, pregnancy, have caused me to work a little slower on these latest portraits for which I've been commissioned. Its hard to justify not taking the kids outside for too many days in a row! But these two girls have some very cute photos for me to work with.

This portrait is 11x14, so again I am taking photos of the drawing rather than using the scanner, resulting in varied color results. Can you tell which side the window was on when I took this picture?


One thing I love about the reference photos is they were taken outside...so much more interesting than a plain color background. Plus, the photos were obviously taken with a nice camera, as the background is perfectly out of focus, and the girls stand out from the scenery well, even though the grass matches their hair very closely.
The photographer obviously softened and otherwise manipulated her work in photoshop, which looks great for the photos, but makes it slightly more difficult to get accurate colors and details in the faces. It shouldn't be a problem though.




In the photos, the picture is much farther away and I zoomed in so it was more of a facial portrait. The only issue this caused is there aren't as many visual clues to show that she is standing in grass, as the focused pieces in the foreground would be out of this frame. Hopefully, you can still tell what kind of setting she is in.



Probably the most difficult part of this drawing isn't the grass - which is fun- but the polka-dot dress, which is cute but tedious and took forever! Seriously, this part of the dress that is finished below already took twice as much time as the rest that is done. As this is the bigger paper again, it has more texture, which as I've mentioned makes it harder to do small details accurately. Needless to say, the dress definitely counts as 'small details'! I colored the white dots first, because otherwise they were getting too much red mixed in and looked pink. The red part took three different pencils to get the right color of red, along with purple, blue, brown and orange in the mix.




For some reason the previous photo has more accurate colors from the drawing, even though I fixed this one the same way in photoshop. So picture the colors from that one above on this lower one (warmer and more yellowish). I spent a few days finishing the dress and adding all the layers, then finished off the other white sleeve. I spent a final day or so adding more detail to the background and working on the face, trying to make it look more like the subject.
Again, the original photo was softened so some of the facial details weren't obvious for me to see in my reference picture. This girl still lives by me too, but has a different haircut and is older now than in the photo. You'd think it would help, but it actually made it more difficult trying to reconcile the photo with what I know she looks like in life.




So this is the final drawing for now, but you may see an amended post if it turns out I need to work on it some more! For now, I need to start on the drawing of her sister... before I have the baby next month!

The Princess and the Pest

Hi guys! This is Joshua.
My sister probably told you Grandma got her a cool dress, huh. I didn't get a cool dress.
Mommy was taking pictures of Elora in her pretty clothes, and I got a little jealous. So I sat myself right in the middle of the shot. Aren't I funny?



After mommy stopped telling me to go away, she decided she could take pictures of me too... because I am cute even in my regular clothes. So Elora helped me to pose for the camera. Isn't she the most helpful sister?



She even held my hands because she is my friend. Mommy thought we looked so cute and serious standing that way.



Kind of like kids posing for a picture a long time ago!



I wanted to walk a bit after that- I don't like holding still for the camera! Mommy said it was okay to leave, and



Elora let me walk all around with her, because she likes me.



She even let me play with her for a minute! Whew, that serious stuff was getting too tough for me.




I'm so glad mommy took pictures of me too. I know I made them twice as cute as those ones with just Elora!

The Birthday

What cool stuff did Joshua do for his birthday?
First off, he woke to balloons everywhere! (Hey, it worked for Elora's birthday.) Then he got his really cool present right after breakfast, so he could play outside while daddy was home. He rode it really well, too!




After lunch, it was time for the cake! Isn't mommy an awesome cake decorator? (Read with a touch of sarcasm.) Note: the presents from mom and dad aren't the nicely wrapped ones in the front. Hey, he doesn't care, right?



We sang happy birthday to the big boy,



And he blew out his candle all by himself, of course.



Then it was time to check out the awesome presents!

Our snake charmer in training:




Cool tools from Grandma and Grandpa:



Whew, this one was tough! (And when he opened it and saw his new sandals, daddy asked if he wanted to try them on. Josh said, "No, put lid back on." I guess shoes aren't quite as cool as toys.)



A metal water bottle so he doesn't have to share with Elora anymore in the car!



And of course, eating the cake was the most exciting part...it was pink! Joshua chose it at the grocery store all by himself.



Hope you had a great day, Joshua!