Keri Smith

For any creative type who needs a little humor and a gentle nudge in a productive direction, take a look at Keri Smith's Web site. For the most fun and a lot of creative ideas, choose the "Play" link, and don't forget to check out her portfolio while you're there.

Great work, great ideas and a great inspiration to the creative community.

Shop around

Well, I finally got a CafePress storefront put together with lots of stuff to show off all these kid's illos. Here it is:

www.cafepress.com/nora_thompson

Lots of clothes, of course, for big and traditionally-sized kids, a tote bag, teddy bear, pet accessories, journal, mouse pad, mugs, cards, stickers, magnets--whew! I culled the images from both my traditional and twisted styles, and tried especially hard to match up the images with the product I placed them on. Not an easy task!

My favorite? Hmmm. That would probably have to be the Jeeraffe journal (pictured above). I think he fits perfectly in the space.

Take a peek or a long look around, and don't forget, holidays are just around the corner...

Flash

Been learning Flash and loving it. I'm still taking baby steps, but I've got so many animations and Web sites in my head, I have to keep pushing myself to get there.

Birthday!

Stu's birthday today. He didn't want anything special, just to stay at home and enjoy the evening.

The cake was marble.

Hand Lettering

Here's a preview of a new area I'll be uploading to my site: Hand lettering. I copied the "Kids Pix" to my other site (www.nora-jayne.com), and as soon as I'm comfortable that the word has gotten around that it has moved, I'll post samples of some hand lettering that I've done on my graphx site.

I won't be making fonts from these, at least not anytime soon. I just like the way hand lettering allows letters to hug each other. It feels more live, and more personal than an un-manipulated font. Not that fonts are bad -- no way, I love them. These ones are just...different. But I'm not a calligrapher. They're way better than I could ever be. I'm just a hand-letterer.

Career

Met with my friend, Rose, this afternoon to talk about the direction of our illustration careers and what our next step(s) would be. Of course, we met at Panera. What a productive afternoon! My friend Alice even popped in unexpectedly, neither of us knowing the other would be there. Anyway, Rose and I talked about studying, drawing, blogging, taking museum and gallery field trips, and our April Illustrator's Conference field trip to New York.

I guess you could say I got a little over-stimulated.

Cold cold cold

Pretty cold here tonight. Only 16 degrees and snowy. I'm sure you folks in Anchorage would probably think that would be a heat wave, but for those of us in southwestern PA, that's a wee bit chilly.

We built a fire.

New Year's

Here's my idea of a new year with the potential for lots and lots of drawing and painting and illustrating.

Putrid

Trying to teach grids to the graphic design students. I'm not sure why everybody wants to complicate things. A simple layout with white space works great.

This is Halloween, Everybody make a scene

Not as excited about Halloween this year. Went to see "Nightmare Before Christmas 3D" this afternoon, but that didn't even help. I have the DVD (and the VHS), so I've seen it a gazillion times before, but I just thought seeing it in the theater would really get me out of this melancholic haze.

Nope.

Issues

Having some issues with students. I feel like somebody needs to teach them how to be students before I should be expected to teach them how to be graphic designers.

Let's just say not a good day.

Lost and Found

Went running this morning and found two purses and the stuff that was inside scattered through a corn field just off the side of the road. I mean, driver's licenses, social security cards, credit cards, whole wallets. Everything that would be in a purse except for the money. Had to call the state cops, and found out the purses had been stolen a few days ago. I didn't turn things in for any kind of reward or anything, but a little more gratitude (like a "thanks") would have been reward enough for me.

A note to all you future wallet losers:
An unprompted "Thank you" goes a long way.

Up too long

Don't know if this had anything to do with the wine we had last night, but I woke up at 3 am and couldn't get back to sleep. Once that happens, then I'm up all day until it's time for bed that night. Finally made it there by 10.

Merlot

Finally figured out tonight that
I don't like Merlot.
I'm not a big wine fan as it is,
but the faces I made tonight
kind of cemented the Merlot
thing for me.

Give me Mountain Dew any day.

Four years, two months

Our anniversary.
Four years and two months.

Memento

Just watched that time-warping movie, "Memento."
Very postmodern. The scenes are all stitched together backwards, and there's lots of writing and polaroids involved.

Just watch it, and you'll understand.

High School Class Reunion

Frazier High School.

I went this time, believe it or not.

This was our school symbol.
They have a cast metal sculpture of this flame
at the front of the building.

Matt's 21st

Today would have been Matt's 21st birthday.
This one's for you, honey.

Love you more
than you'll ever know.

Spinach and feta

O.K. I know this doesn't look good, but we had pizza again tonight for dinner. This time it was spinach and feta at The Boulevard. Excellent.

A Day in the Life

It was another one of those not-enough-sleep kind of nights. So I spent three hours working on a syllabus. Got a run in. Got another postcard designed and ordered. Pizza and pretzels for dinner.