It gives me fabulous prompts of things to draw. I really got it for hopes that it will make me a better artist… making me draw things I would never think of drawing.
One of the prompts was a fire escape:
It’s a sweet escape.
I got so excited about drawing such a simple thing that it made me realize that sometimes the suburbs are kind of boring to me.
I miss seeing things like fire escapes on buildings.
Windows high up in the air with flowers.
Cats looking down at you.
Street hot dogs.
Happy Thursday every one… I’m going to get a hand cramp from all my doodling :)
Some people have relationships and all sorts of other ships.
I being a bit on the awkward side would like to take this time to announce that I don’t really do well in relationships… mostly because I have only have a makeshift raft of relations:
It stays afloat and everything… but it has no sides… it’s not really going to protect you from the water or sharks or anything. Actually it isn’t really helpful unless you need to be marooned on Gilligan’s Island… or you want to hang out with Tom Sawyer and Jim…
I think those last 2 sentences alone explain why I have a relation-raft.
Also the fact that today I am so excited to be able to stay at home by myself… explains a lot of it too. I mean I’ve just had something to do every night for the last 2 weeks… and tonight screams “Let’s wear sweatpants and watch romantic comedies while you illustrate.”
Any who happy Wednesday!
And how does everybody keep their relationships/rafts/buckets afloat?
I have always found the ladies of yesteryear amazing. Be they someone’s awesome grandma, a movie star, a was hero, a writer, or a pin up girl. My favorite things to read about them are always when they reflect on their life and their careers. They always seem to have it figured out, because they have been through it all, and lived it up. And also that is when people say crazy things like “Alfred Hitchcock stalked me.”~ Paraphrased Tippi Hedren. I suppose it’s because they realize the best things to be are honest… because it’s what happened after all. And why should they be afraid to be truthful? Also seriously Tippi Hedren… I’m sorry about Hitchcock… he was all sorts of creepy.
I get carried up in that story about Tippi sometimes, because most girls have been in that situation. Even in modern times. A superior who is all hands… Gross.
Now another one of those ladies who figured it out and lived it up was Bettie Page. Now I have always understood her to a certain degree. She not only has totally rad bangs like me (I’m going to say I never copied her bang style. I have actually had bangs since I have had hair.) She was really mischievous… and I have been called that a few times (a week.) And people are super crazy about her, (sometimes in an unsettling way) without ever taking the time to understand her as a person, not a visual object.
But don’t worry I won’t get too much into that. I’m here to celebrate the good. One thing I have always like about her is she always seemed to be having fun, and making the most out of anywhere she was.
Pretending to be attacked by a tree… happy.
Sitting with leopards.. happy.
In weird plastic-y outfits… happy.
Being straight up naked… happy
Wouldn’t it be great to be that happy all the time? I think so.
Well one of my favorite quotes from her is super important for both boys, girls, and people who like to be happy near trees (in or out of clothes):
Thank you for being you Bettie.
I have always liked that quote, it’s simple and true. Be yourself and never apologize for it. You will thank yourself for it someday.
Also.. bangs are fantastic, they may be why both Bettie and I are so happy… it’s just a theory.
And I really like when that happens because, I can make something super nice for someone!
Apparently last year when I drew myself as a mermaid I started a frenzy of other people I know who also never got to realize their mermaid potential. I was hearing right and left from others who felt that they too needed to be a creature of the sea!
One of those wonderful people was Sarah! The adorable sister of Jimmy!
And even though I took a moderate eternity to finish it… Here she finally is…and I would like to present to the entire internet.
Sarah my mermaid homegirl:
She’s fishtastic! No wait she’s mer-iffic!
It’s so hard to be a mermaid in the Valley. But she’s totally doing it everyday complete with a classy, flashy, fish friend. She has the best mermaid style is all sorts of sparkly purple, has constantly color changing follicles… and is the best caretaker of sea horses in the whole Pacific.
This is pretty much on her business card.
I hope you like it Sarah! And I hope everyone has a super great weekend.
I’m off to the beach… to celebrate my bestie Isabel’s bachelorette party this weekend and not necessarily to become a mermaid.
Have a nice weekend everybody!
♥Lauren (who is going to be a mermaid no matter what)
i feel like some Gwen Stefani right now without spectacular abs…
My life has been like super crazy hectic lately.
I don’t know when it happened… But my boring drawing-in-my-pajamas-lifestyle is disappearing.
And it’s being replaced by the life of someone who to keep dates straight… has a calendar.
A CALENDAR for crying out loud!
I now have to know when dates of the week are… and well that has never been one of my strong points. And then I have to remind myself to not doodle over days on said calendar.
And for a first time calendar user. I can tell you I’m not super into it. It’s severely cramping my lifestyle. I’ve always relied on being an “artist” and just wafting all about… like one day I’m here next day I’m some place else. Following my proverbial sun to wherever I need to go….
Will I call you back? Will you see me before the seasons change? The world may never know.
And now there are schedules, and deadlines. And for some reason… I just seem to keep failing at all of them.
Meet you here at this time? I’m either super early, or nope… I forgot this and now we have to reschedule…
And now I’m stressed out. And the only way I can de-stress is to make light of my last week of failures.
and now without fail….
Lauren’s week of Blunders:
– Losing my pants… where did they go? I have no idea. But the weather is changing and I don’t want to wear tights under my dresses everyday. This is not practical. I’m about to put out a flyer looking for them.
– Forgetting how calendars work… why are we arguing about days of the week??? Because I was looking in the wrong month. Yeah, I am not used to calendars.
– Falling to the earth for no apparent reason while standing and talking to my mother. She probably thinks I was drunk. Every time I do something strange she assumes both alcohol & drugs.
– The always dangerous, the dress you are wearing is see through… And now everyone has seen your superman underpants. Why do dresses not seem sheer when you are trying them on? Why do superman underpants show through everything?
-Everything I have done at work… I mean EVERYTHING! Any time I try to do things the right way… and I end up crying… and my boss has not been super nice to me lately either. I have contemplated becoming a gypsy and a hot dog attendant at weinerschnitzel several times in the last week. Or a combination of the two “Gypsyschnitzel” has a great appeal to it. I imagine a lot of tambourines and sauerkraut.
– I also can’t find my sneakers and think there is conspiracy happening… where did one pants and one shoe go to? I’m thinking Jack White stole them…. and I can’t explain why.
-And everything pertaining to relationships (part of my need for a calendar) Apparently people get upset when you tell them… you have no time for them.
I’m done with my blunders… Okay this all seems kinda negative.
So onto some positive things
– I have been doodling more lately… which is better than all the nothing I was drawing last month.
-New TV is on and by that I mean… “The Mindy Project” & “Parks & Recreation”. I seem to watch nothing else.
-My internet adds are all for new shoes and yeti merchandise.
-I’m getting pizza in a few minutes and I feel like this:
If someone hired a private eye to find out all my secrets they would probably be legit bored with their findings. So they also should say in their contract that the Private Eye must sing “Private Eyes” by Hall & Oates to make this deal lucrative in any way:
And today in all my giggly boredom. I have decided to wiki-leak myself.
Now why would I do that?
Because well, this is one of my most fascinating secrets:
I have so many toys with weird joint locations and animals I cannot even fathom what they are… and even something called a zwinky.
That is all.
And if you already knew this…. I already said my confessions were probably boring. But I do have a crazy awesome collection of incredibly lame toys. They both fascinate, inspire and terrify me all at the same time. For example this thing:
Stomach face toy of yesteryear. Oh the memories of scaring Isabel with this!
Until my next cool confession, you go ahead make a few calzones and have a great day!
Today I’m going to share a little bit about American history. And by that I mean you will learn very little about American History if you continue reading.
It’s actually about one of my latest favorite things.
And much like me, they are a little on the peculiar side. And they keep coming up in such strange ways.
One of them is Alexander Hamilton.
Alexander Hamilton… just chilling like he does on the $10 bill
Yeah, that guy from American money.
And no I’m not like that guy from the milk commercial, I’m not that super into Hamilton.
I mean seriously, there is something so serious about the straight up coolness of Alexander Hamilton. He was a major political figure who was born in the West Indies, and was sadly orphaned at 11. He grew up into a fancy gentleman that steamily created our National Bank system. And if you aren’t already sold on his hot face, and steamy bank system… He also created his own political party… I mean we would never have had the Federalists. And aren’t they fantastic? He was also a political rival of Thomas-All-The-Ladies-Were-Hot-For-Him-Jefferson. He didn’t even give a crap when he was supposed to support another Federalist running for government positions, he wouldn’t support them if he thought they were the worst. And kind of because of this… he was shot in New York in a fight, because he’s cool like that. And true story, he is the hottest guy on American money.
Seriously.
I mean with Ben Franklin and Andrew Jackson as your peers… Hamilton pretty much has this on lock.
My sister says she prefers Grant. But, come on look at Hamilton on that 10 note. He is just asking for you to pay someone a large amount of money in 10s so you can say you are paying them handsomely. Actually, this is a new goal of mine.
And now I know I’m right because there is others who agree with me.
Mindy Kaling, queen of all that she surveys-and-being-a-hot-mess, agrees with me:
See Mindy agrees!
So basically I feel vindicated as heck.
And here’s the doodle I have used to commemorate this entire event.
This is some of the things that Mindy and I have in common… we can talk about this for hours.
Did you learn anything?
No?
Sorry, I’m not a real history teacher.
But now you know that Alexander Hamilton is amazing.
And now that you too are super into Hamilton you can get this commemorative bobble-head.
It’s a super great piece to add to any Alexander Hamilton collection. Available via Amazon, and places that sell exquisite things.
Viciously Sweet 