Wednesday, September 2, 2015

A Peek Inside My Sketchbook


Thought I'd share a few pics of my nightly ritual of recording days.
  This is my Hobonichi and it's a  "cousin" size.
They sent this pen along with it and it reminds me of a coleto or the old fashioned
Bic multicolor pens.  I don't use this pen in the book; instead a Lamy or Twsbi fountain pen with 
permanent ink .  So here we go.... don't laugh; and no critics allowed; aww scratch that
you can laugh. 
Laughter is good medicine :)  

Here you will find  nothing to be exact at all... stick people are even allowed.  
I love stick people.  :)  
There are no rules in this book, 
it's messy and chock full of life.
Flipping through the pages of the year, I'm finding these  little pictures spark 
so many memories. So here we go.... 
This one was of Addie running up ahead of me on one of our daily walks.  
We have paths cut across our pasture and I can just glance at this and see my lil Addie Doo. 

 This one still makes me laugh out loud when I see it.
Aspen had an appt at the vet to get her stitches out after getting spayed.  
When I went inside, the lobby was full of people and dogs.  They were so busy that day.
Teresa; who works there said, "Lea bring her around to the rug and just roll her over." 
So right there in front of God and everybody... poor AspenRose laid spread eagle on the floor
while Teresa clipped her stitches.  She did really good inspite of having all those other strange dogs and cats watching.  
 Here she is again... 
I'd just taken her swimming in our pond.  She loves
the water.   
 Baked the fam chocolate chip cookies this day.
 This page reminds me to check my boots 
before putting them on because I think I got 
bitten on the foot.  
 This page reminds me of the very first zinnias,
and the coneflower that opened up at the base of the bottle tree.
It was green like that.  

On this day I was puttering in the potting shed.
Ophelia the cat was snoozing under my desk, 
and the sunflowers were bowing heavy with seed.  

 Here I cleaned the commodes at the shop.
 And here the coneflowers were prickly. 
 I drove to Diamond city on this day and 
found my Dad unable to walk. 
 Had to call 911 and 
just seeing this sketch brings back the feelings 
of following the ambulance carrying him to the hospital.  
 A blue jay feather was found.
 My waterlily bloomed 
and I discovered the dressform in the potting shed
was full of wasp nests!!!!
 Picked the first yeller squash and fried it up right.
 This was a day our son was in the hospital and
we watched monster fish with him on the tv. 
Saw a fox on the side of the hwy driving home,
and thanked God driving past the big cross
that's off the side of the interstate.  
 Went fishing with 
Myguy.
 The orange butterfly weed bloomed in the pasture
and we had rabbits everywhere.  
 Here I remember getting off the lawn mower to move a frog.  
And dragonflies were at the waters edge.  
 This one CRACKS me up.  
So, I had driven to Russellville and was pulling into Hobby Lobby.
Belks is just before it, and I was driving right in front of it.  
There was this old lady standing straight across from Belks 
right at the edge of the parking lot full of cars.  One other car was in front of me
and I was looking up ahead but had noticed this woman standing out there.
So then it's my turn and I stop.  She was standing right there and looking at the store
like she was wanting to cross and after all there is a pedestrian crossing there.  
It's the law to stop and let pedestrians cross right?  
So I'm stopped, and I'm stopped and looking at her then I motion  ever so sweetly 
yall and SMILE ... waiting for her to cross... and yall...
she had herself a FIT.  She was spittin mad... STOMPED her foot like a two year old,
motioned at me very meanly... and I couldn't hear her but I'm pretty sure she was spewin something awful.  I guess  she was just standing there and not wanting to cross and who knows how many people had stopped and motioned for her to cross but whatever... she unloaded on me.  Right there.  
I remember as I went by... throwing my hands up in the air at her palms up, and mouthed 
"I'm SORRY" to her as I passed.  I wanted to just pull over and give her a hug but she would have probably kicked my butt!  -- so...  I drove on and found my parking spot at Hobby Lobby and just sat there a minute... Her ridiculous lashout was unbelievable.  It even shook me up!   It was like road rage standing still.
For the longest time I couldn't shake it off and kept thinking about her.  So then I prayed for her. 
Anyways the little sketch is ugly... but so was that moment!  So I dare share it here.  
 Shew I can breathe easier again.  
This is my straw hat that hangs on the door in the greenhouse.
 And my faithful olde lawnmower.

 This was the day I made my fabric midori.
I know the colors got jacked up but it's okay.
 On this day I put a new windchime on the shepherds hook at my Mommas grave.
It has a dragonfly like this on it and I was journaling how the last one I put on with a dragonfly;
someone stole it.  A ceramic rooster  my uncle once left on her grave; also up and walked off.
Pretty sad huh? 
So far, so good with this windchime...
no one has bothered it.    

 On this day I mucked out the barn.
  

 This is a picture of my new little gal I'm sponsoring through Compassion.
Her name is Pinky.
I just glued her photo on the page then journaled about her.
Also how I'm hoping to grow my hair out and not color it anymore.
Don't know if I'll beable to stand it or not, but I figure if I can; 
what I save on hair color and hair cuts ... will pay her sponsorship.  
Obviously I'll pay for it either way but... it's something I would like to do.  
So in a couple years I'm hoping yall will see me with one long grey braid.  
:)
Maybe even sketched in this book. lol  
 On this day I got out my pruning shears and cleaned out my prayer closet.
It had morning glory vines all over it.  
This is me in my red overalls sitting against the back side of it.  

 I tore up Myguy's Nissan here.  
Trent asked me to pull him in another vehicle here at the shop, and I think he set me up!
The bumper was in bad shape already, and he knows better than to hook something up to the bumper.  I just about tore it off... and when I got out, I was like "Oh mygosh!!!"  Trent said, "It's alright I've been tellin Dad we need a different one anyways and no one will do anything about it." ha
Well... I'll just say right now it has a brand new one made by Star Fab on it today. lol

 Here's another one of lil Miss Addie panting her head off after a walk.
She was wearing her blue bandana that day.
 We had fried spam samiches  and tomato soup for supper one night.
 On this day, I reached up in the cupboard to get a mixing bowl down and it 
had a brown recluse in it!!!  
So thankful it didn't get me.  
 Here our donks got trimmed.  
With all the rain their feet grew out so fast and looked like 
they were growing slippers.  Spirit hates getting his feet
trimmed and always has to get drugged.  
He's a pain in the butt for our wonderful farrier.  
 Looky here; donks again.
They got wormed here.
 Oh and this was the day I took the picture on my sidebar of Violet
sitting on her rump roast.  lol
 I remember this day... 
Trent and Rae came over and we watched cage fighting all 
cuddled up on the couch.  The guys fighting had weird names
and so we were calling them Hairdo and Eyebrows... 
... in love of course.  
 Myguy gets so mad at me when I weed eat and push mow til I get overheated.
I get a serious chewin out when I stay out too long and turn red as a beet.  
It happened on this day.  
:)  
(he loves me )
Had a wren visitor on this day.  
A friend told me they like to find junk to nest in and we had 
one up on our back porch snooping around.  I'd once seen a picture of a wren nesting
in a can so I painted a can for it to sit on.  

So see how quick little sketches and journaling can be a fun way to 
record sweet, not so sweet, and even downright ugly moments of life?  
I love looking through my book now.  It's packed full of life.  

I've already ordered next years book.  
These photos here are not of the whole pages; ... mostly, just little snippits and sometimes I have 
a hard time filling up a full page in this A 5 size.  So the next one is a little smaller and
it's the English version so I'll beable to read the quotes and things.   
Love my hobonichi,  and sketching life is something I'm  enjoying immensely.
 Decided to share more of it with you here in case any of you are kicking around giving it a try.  

Thanks for spending time with me today.
Love, Leaon Mary

3 comments:

Denise said...

sweet sis, thanks for sharing. I really love this, would love to do this. but, I cannot draw. love you bunches.

Anonymous said...

Lea, this is amazing, reading through your days and the sketches I think are just the coolest thing. I feel as if I was there with you sharing special and everyday moments. I really really am going to try this. Journaling is good but adding the sketches just makes the journaling come alive and is a great reminder when looking back over things that make us smile, laugh, cry, ponder! When I am out on my daily walks I shall take a note of what I see and save.

A thought just came to me from scripture "but Mary kept all these things and pondered them in her heart". Thank you for sharing your precious days. YOU are a BLESSING to us all.

Jx

Cora from Hidden Riches said...

I'm so with Jean and had the same feelings as I read your post today. Lea, your drawings, feelings, memories --- they are all so precious. Sometimes we think life is boring if we don't have the "biggies" and the traumas and adventures. Your journal is such a reminder that a great life is made up of millions of "little" precious things. I'm on a mission today to savor the little blessings of my day! Thank you for sharing this, my friend!