So it's May...

Opa, it's February!

I doubt my dad has ever seen the episode of the Simpsons where Homer hums this little ditty, but he's heard the rest of us say it often enough that it's stuck, and now it's kind of one of his things. 

This is the second month of his Christmas present calendar.  He is a pretty content man, and rarely wants or asks for anything for his birthday or Christmas, so it's hard to think of good gifts for him.  I got input from some of my siblings on his most popular phrases, and then we went with the ones that didn't have cuss words in them.  HA!

You can see January here.

As you were.

Love Shelley!

Merry Pretty Late Christmas, Opa!

Happy new year, all six of you!  : )

Okay, I spent the last couple of months tying up some loose ends, and now I'm ready to focus again.  Honestly, I haven't been making anything too artsy-fartsy, to my eternal regret.  Now I'm a little rusty, but still as eager as ever to create.  

The very first thing I did was over-commit.  Don't look so surprised, you know I do this every single time. 

I decided that for Christmas, I would make my dad a calendar full of hand-lettered quotes of all the things he's known for saying.  Of course, I didn't make the Christmas deadline, but I'm on it now.  I have six or seven drafts, and here's some work-in-progress shots of the first one.

I lettered it myself, so if you're a typography wizard and you see kerning outrages or issues with my descenders, don't bother pointing the finger at anybody else.  It's all me.

When I finished the lettering, the brown and black just seemed to hang there.  Boring.  Alone.  Unloved.  So I added some warm colours to make the whole thing seem a little happier.

It's hanging up in my parents' kitchen; now I just have to get hustling and finish the other 11 months.  (gulp).

Guess I know what I'm doing for the next little while.

Love, Shelley!