a gaggle of geese

they sold these ceramic measuring cups last christmas at anthropologie for an absurd amount, so i didn't buy them. instead i found them at an antique store in lumberton, texas in plastic. maybe not quite as classy, but definitely more economically friendly.

super glue

not a good thing to get stuck on...

turkey

i hope you had a good thanksgiving. it was good to see you if i did, and i missed you if i didn't.

happy thanksgiving

from the deer.

chapstick

what gets me through the winter...

a cursing ferret

this is one of those animals that i drew several times in a sketch book and decided to put down on paper for my senior design show. i'm not sure why he's using expletives, but it's probably because i like to use expletives.

piglet

from a picture that carmen took in africa.

garden

i started enjoying planting things when i lived on elmwood. i had a little patch of space under the staircase there, and i got it cleaned up with the help of my family and started planting things.

then anthony referred me to an article by michael pollan which spurred my interest even more. when i moved into 4306, i decided that i had plenty of space for a garden and should use it.

this weekend my parents helped me to make three raised beds that are growing lettuce, cabbage, spinach, celery, dill, parsley, peas and onions.

i hope that the harvest is good and that i will do my little part in helping our world to take a step toward green. if only the squirrels weren't trying to thwart my efforts. they don't believe in global warming.

sad dog

these on the graph paper are from my sketch journals. i went through sometime last spring and scanned the more interesting parts of them in the hopes to someday make a book of them...

i'm not sure where this dog came from. maybe just my imagination, but possibly a photo of one of the many dogs in italy. the europeans like their pets.

owlish

i'm sorry that i post so many pictures of animals. i guess it's thematic...

did you know that there are owls in thailand? i found this out on election night. i'm not sure how that conversation came up, but we researched on the internet and found that there are owls in thailand. who knew?

butterfly

hummingbird

giraffes

my point exactly.

i voted

it's funny how we're still being rewarded with stickers if we do something good. i would think adults were a little beyond this practice, but it seems that people are into it, because i get the feeling that if you don't have a sticker, you are automatically less cool...

i probably shouldn't be surprised that reward and bribery have their place in making one prone to care about their civic duty. i was on the bus at the beginning of the school year and saw an advertisement from the UT police department reading "Report a crime and receive a free pizza from UTPD." i was appalled by the thought that someone would report a crime for pizza instead of reporting a crime for justice. but maybe that's just me...i like justice and having a voice. i also like pizza.

other than stickers, businesses are giving away free things. starbucks is giving away coffee--and i will be getting some. ben and jerry's is giving away ice cream. free bus rides from cap metro. a krispy kreme doughnut. tattoo removal? basically everything that i need to get by for one election day in austin...

i like to think about why people vote. living in a neighborhood where the majority of the people vote, it's easy to get excited and feel like things might change. then again, i think about the fact that i live on the little island of austin, so it's easy to forget the rest of the state i'm surrounded by. some people get angry, and they vote or they don't vote. some people are just ready to move on from the past. some show up at every election to vote, because they feel they have a civic responsibility. i'm excited about this election because i feel like it's getting so many people involved. everyone from all angles, showing up to vote, because it seems to be important this time. that and plus, they really want a free sticker and cup of coffee...

a little birdie

cactus

my cactus may not love the rain as much as i do.

plastic monkeys

i went to the lake a few months ago with carmen and my parents, just before carmen left for africa. my mom had these plastic monkeys that sit on the rim of your cocktail that i had never seen before, and she was utterly astonished that i said so.

"you've never seen these plastic monkeys?"

her disbelief bordered on disdain.

"we used to love these monkeys when we were little. we would get so excited if we got one on our drink."

"um, well mom, no. i've never seen these plastic monkeys. i think i would remember."

on the way home from the lake, i would find a red monkey in the hidden pocket of my purse. a few hours later while unpacking, i would find a green one at the bottom of my bag. a blue one at the bottom of the leftovers she had packed for us. and a few weeks later, after carmen had left, i found the orange one in my makeup bag.

it's hard to say what makes my mom do things like this. i imagine that she really tickled herself by hiding a full set of plastic monkeys in my luggage. i can't think about it without getting a little tickled myself. she always gets a bigger kick out of her jokes than anyone else does.

ollie cat

lamp

i brought carmen's lamp out into the kitchen, and it lights the computer area now. it's got a warm light that makes the kitchen about 300% more cheerful and cozy. it also takes up less space on the desk, allowing for a little more organization and mouse range of motion.

home

this drawing isn't finished just yet. i'd like to add some faint pecan trees at least to the background, but the house itself is done. it's my home and my family's austin meeting place.

scissors

there are some stories that are just not appropriate to post on the internet. but i have some good ones about scissors.

right now, i have so many pairs of scissors. a purple pair, a clear pair, two blues, an orange, two pinks, and some straight up metal ones. i'm not sure why i have all of these scissors, but it seems that when i desperately need a pair, none of them are anywhere to be found.

whisk

the cooking in my kitchen is getting more complex. a blueberry buckle was prepared on friday night from a recipe that alton brown made. it's kind of like a coffee cake with blueberries--minus cinnamon, plus nutmeg. the sugary crumble crust is always my favorite part. there's still some left over if you would like a snack.

greyhounds

when i was little, my family had a dentist named dr. mattingly. he raised and raced greyhounds in his free time, and he would invite us to visit the puppies, because greyhounds need exposure to people as they are quite timid in general. i have good memories of going to play with the soft-faced little puppies, who would eventually grow to be dogs so fanatical about racing that they, if given the chance, will run themselves to death.

snails

my house has a rather large colony of snails. i've been collecting their empty shells on an electrical box outside the backdoor, but sometimes i'll come outside and find that one of them has walked away.