Sassy & Sweet Notes

Illustration Friday: Balloon

This week's Illustration Friday topic is "Balloon".
Tom Turkey got out of town, just in time!

Illustration Friday: Pretend

TRUE STORY: I was out in the chicken yard this morning feeding and enjoying the company of the girls.

Cinnamon, one of my little frizzle hens (28 wks old yesterday) was nervously going in and out of all the nest boxes, clucking and carrying on, and trying to burrow into the feathers of the larger hens (she would go between their legs and burrow into their belly feathers).

The other hens weren't too sure about her, and wouldn't stand still.

I picked her up to comfort her.... she snuggled down in my hands.... and laid her second egg, right there in my hand!

She laid her first egg last Friday, also while I was in the chicken yard.

I hope she doesn't expect me to hold her every time she lays an egg!

In honor of this experience, I whipped up this sketch. What a moment!

ILLUSTRATION FRIDAY TOPIC:
This sketch is also my take on the Illustration Friday topic "Pretend" which was issued on Friday, November 14th. I can PRETEND I look this cute in overalls...first thing in the morning...without a bra on. Hahahaaa! T.M.I. ??  Hahaaa!!!

Illustration Friday: Vacant

This week's Illustration Friday topic is "Vacant". I am certain that this isn't a very original take on the topic, but this is what I came up with.

Try as she might, Sugar just couldn't seem to keep a thought in her head. But she's cute, and that's all that matters when you're a chicken.

Illustration Friday: Repair

This week's Illustration Friday topic is "Repair".

For some reason, my old Ford truck came to mind immediately when I read this week's topic! So, here's my sketch. Not exactly "me" driving, and not exactly the model of Ford truck I had, but that's Miss Daisy and Mister Farley in the passenger seat for sure!

"Chicken Farmer REPAIRED the ol' blue Ford just in time for the escape plan to be put into action!"

"Ford: Fix or REPAIR Daily"

What's your story?

Illustration Friday: Late

The Illustration Friday topic for the week is "Late". This is my sketch. Haa!
She's blushing!
Poor fella...

PS: For those of you curious to know if this is some sort of creative way for me to tell you that we're expecting..... sorry to disappoint you! Although, what a great idea that would have been for an announcement -- except instead of wonky eyes, I'd have to give Alan dead X's for eyes!! *grin* 

And, if this was an interpretation of us, I'd have a very serious phone call to make to one girly-girl surgeon in Oregon. I had to have those parts removed several years ago. I have a mug shot photo of the offending uterus, too!

Alan and I will stick to fur and feathered children.

Illustration Friday: Strings

This week's Illustration Friday topic is "Strings"... here's my take on the topic, Grand Ole Opry style!
"Get along little doggies...."
"Don't fence me in...."
"On the road again...."

...what's he singing to you?

EDITED TO ADD:
I just *had* had to make a more "fem" hen. I give you Patsy. Notice the sparkles from her rhinestone-embellished guitar! (Don't you think she kind of resembles Jewel?) *grin*

Illustration Friday: Sugary

This week's Illustration Friday topic is "Sugary". This is my sketch...

"Mmmmm..... chocolate....."

Illustration Friday: Packed

This week's Illustration Friday topic is "Packed". With recent raccoon issues here on the farm, this little beauty is packed and headed out! I hear Italy's nice this time of year...

Illustration Friday: Clique

This week's Illustration Friday topic is "Clique". Here's my sketch.

"Hello, my name is Clair."

It would seem that the "in crowd" wears polka dots.

Great.

Illustration Friday: Island

It's been a while (ok .... so like a year!) since I participated in Illustration Friday (IF), so I thought I'd try and get back into the habit of doing a weekly sketch to the IF theme. Friday's topic was "Island". Here's my sketch. Don't know what Illustration Friday is? Read about it here, and see other artists who participate.

IF: Missing

"Three Cherries"

I've missed the last few weeks of Illustration Friday, but I'm back!

This week's topic is "MISSING". This is my illustration for the topic.

I have cherries on the brain... and strawberries in the fridge!

Illustration Friday: Twist

This week's Illustration Friday theme is "Twist". This is my take on the topic.

Twisted Balloon.
Pesky Powerline.
What a bummer.

This is just a quick watercolor illustration -- watercolor inks on Fabriano Watercolor paper, with a quick black ink outline for detail.

Illustration Friday: Camouflage

This weeks Illustration Friday topic is "Camouflage". I'm submitting this card I made today as my "illustration". Hope I'm not cheating! =) *grin*

For this card, I used two frog stamps by Whipper Snapper Designs (artist: Shelly Comiskey) and the masking technique to create the scene.

I find it easier to start in the lower right corner when doing masking stamping, so first I stamped Frog Prince in the lower right corner to start the scene. Then I stamped Fergus Frog (the one without the crown) over and over to create a mob o' frogs. (Hahaa! That makes me laugh!)

Each time I stamped Fergus, I masked his image with a post-it note so the next image I stamped wouldn't over-stamp the previous image. I really LOVE masking stamping!

This card measures about 5"x7", and was created using Pearlized White paper by Paper Accents, yellow dots paper by Chatterbox, black scalloped cardstock by Bazzill, green dots paper by Making Memories, and May Arts ribbon. The frogs were stamped in Black Stazon and colored with Prismacolor Pencils. I used various greens to color the frogs so they had their own personality (since it's the same image, I wanted them to still look unique). I used a Copic marker for the gray shadows, and Sakura marker for the doodled border.

Illustration Friday: Rejection

This weeks Illustration Friday topic is "Rejection". This is my illustration.

He Loves me, Loves me not, Loves me, Loves me not... This kind of rejection really stinks.

Thankfully, my love daisy ended with a 'loves me' petal. Hope yours did too...

The original piece is roughly 5x6 inches, done in watercolors on Fabriano cotton cold pressed watercolor paper. The painting was then accented with black fine line ink.

Illustration Friday: Suit

This weeks Illustration Friday topic is "Suit". Since it was in the 90s today and m-u-g-g-y I had swim suits on the brain.

Keeping with my polka dot and chicken theme for the day, here's my illustration "Penny in her Red Bikini".

I don't think chickens swim... float maybe, but not swim. But I bet all the girls would look marvelous in a red polka dot bikini!

New Blog Banner!

As we move into the warmer days of summer, I thought it was time for a new look here at Sassy & Sweet. AND, what better timing than on my 1 year bloggin'-versary! My first blog post was June 10, 2006...and what an adventure it's been since! Thanks for joining me! Thanks for your inspiration, kind words and laughs!

The new banner is a watercolor painting I did with inspiration from all the wildflowers we've had blooming here recently, for this week's Illustration Friday theme "Your Paradise". The flowers sure are purdy this year! =)

Edited to Add: The new blog banner is in place -- if you don't see it, you might need to reload your page view. If that doesn't work, you might need to clear your temporary internet files, since computers actually store graphic files to pages you visit so when you return to the page again later, the page loads faster. And, if you do this and you STILL don't see the new banner... hmm... well, then I'm stumped. =) I see the new banner, but I use FireFox as my web program, and NOT Internet Explorer, or AOL, or Netscape, etc.

Illustration Friday: Cars

I've been checking out a site called Illustration Friday since the first of the year, and finally thought I'd jump in and see about participating. If nothing else, it gives me something else to think about for my other creative endeavors, since the topics are easily done in any medium (photography, stamping, etc).

The site offers a topic of the week, issued on Fridays. This is my illustration for the theme "CARS", which was given as the theme last Friday. This Friday there will be a new theme. =)

This piece was done on watercolor paper, and is 5.5"x9". There is glitter on parts of the balloons, the car lights, and along the ground under the car. I wish my scanner picked up the colors a bit better on the houses and their lawns... seems the lightest color washes get lost in the scan. Sigh.