My youngest daughter needs to plant something, take care of it and see it grow into a plant. That is her project. So we got some seeds that will grow into pretty flowers. Lucky for us the weather is spring like and ready for planting.

I love having a natural history museum close to where I live. A whole building full of willing subjects who pose for me without moving at all.  The big dinosaurs can be a little daunting to draw but not every creature in there is that big.

Sometimes you just need something "ice creamy". Last monday night we had one of those times. Luckily we live pretty close to this great place! They serve it up old fashion style and we love it.

Yup, this is what I've been going through for a few weeks. I have too many exciting thoughts go through my brain when I go to bed and it is impossible to turn the thinker off and go to sleep.

My exciting life includes a lot of cleaning! It never ends. It never gets less and it never gets more fun.
I just keep reminding myself how much I love all the mess-makers in my house.

Sometimes I have to remind myself that it's "time to paint" and not make everything else a priority.
It happens way to easily that I miss a day or two (or three) of my daily happiness therapy:)

Sometimes I get way behind on my journal. I try to capture birthdays in some shape or form because it means so much to the kids when they look through them. Here is my youngest daughter birthday cake when she turned 13 in January.

Sometimes I feel like I live at Costco. I get all my produce there. I love how fresh their fruit is.
I always get a warm welcome coming home when my van is loaded with fresh fruits and veggies:)

Last night I had a hard time going to sleep because I kept thinking of all the places I want to go see this coming summer. I got out of bed and started to look through last years travel journal. 

We went on a great trip to Cabo San Lucas. The best part was the beach! Here is a drawing I did while laying on the beach. My girls were getting their hair done into corn rows and Dave was watching it happen. Now I want summer to come even faster!!

Since I titled this page "Breakfast for a Queen" I figured it would go well with my previous post.
I don't really like breakfast but I know that it is an important meal of the day. Therefore,  I eat but not until closer to 10.00 AM. By then I'm actually quite hungry for something.

I love musums, especially art museums. I admire the creative minds that produced all those beautiful paintings, sculptures and whatever else I can stare at for a long time. I grew up in Sweden so I visited different castles often. I loved the old paintings on the walls and the way the were painted.

I was reading the book "Art before Breakfast" by Danny Gregory and was inspired from one of the chapters to make my own quick drawing from an old painting. I chose this one of queen Elisabeth because the dress was so beautifully elaborate.

Every once in a while I draw a "selfie". I notice a few more wrinkles each time. I'm ok with that. Because if getting a year older means that I've had another year with my fiends and family, that I've had another 2-3 sketchbooks finished and a lot of laughs along the way, then every wrinkle is worth it!

I always carry a small sketchbook and pen with me wherever I go (even if it is only a cheap BIC pen) I used to think I needed expensive  and fancy tools to create a nice journal entry, then I got inspired by Andrea Joseph on "Sketchbook skool".  She creates beautiful art with simple tools such as a BIC pen. She has a great blog at "andreajoseph24.blogspot.com"

I must have "a thing" for  drawing comfy chairs. When I'm all out of ideas for things to draw...
why not a chair?....Except for I really should vary the things I write:) I guess I didn't realize that I was repeating myself!

Recipes are always fun to add to a journal. Truth be told, it is a great way to make sure you won't lose  one. That being the case not too long ago with the "single serve banana bread" recipe. Someone asked for the recipe and I couldn't find it. I remembered I had journaled it and "voila" she had an illustrated copy to boot. Here are a couple of my illustrated recipes.

 

One of the things I seem to enjoy drawing often is food. Maybe because we eat multiple times a day and it most often looks really good:) I tend to take a picture with my phone if we are eating at a restaurant and draw from it later. I don't draw as fast as I wish I did and my family likes it when I eat at the same time as they do:)
At home I often draw the food from life. I prefer doing it that way. Even though drawing from a picture makes the drawing look more flat (just my opinion) I often do it that way anyway because of the convenience.
Here I'm posting a few food drawings from my journals:

Still enjoying going through my journals. It is interesting how quickly they start to add up! In these last two years I have filled eight journals and started on two more for special projects. Some of these journals don't have a ton of pages since the paper is thicker but I still get that great feeling that comes from finishing a journal and starting a new one.

Here are a few more random pictures from these journals.

It is fun to go through my older sketchbooks and see all the drawings I've done the last couple of years. They bring back great memories. It is a great reminder to me of why I love drawing in my journal. Here a couple more pics from a year or so ago..

Here I go, my first blog and my first post. What should my first post be? Hm...I think I'm drawing a blank. :)
Why don't I start by showing some of my earlier drawings.

I drew a lot as a kid but I took a long hiatus between going to college, getting married and having 3 amazing kids.
I started drawing again about 2 years ago (these sketchbooks being my "grown-up" ones.)

So, here are a few examples from my first "grown-up" sketchbook.