Boy I am a PILL when it comes to medicine. Stubborn stubborn stubborn.
I also don’t loathe much more than I do cough syrup, and that being combined with my bed-time crankiness... whew!
My public apologies to Austin, who was just being helpful and made me take some so I could get better and sleep.

Doodling more...

Hahaha. There is just something about whales and propellers, I guess.

Austin and both I HATE Rilo Kiley, therefore we will not be going to see Jenny Lewis and her annoying voice play this Thursday at the Gallivan Center. Ha.

In other news.. look!

They are all colored and are in production.. cute 'lil A1 size cards and embossed French™ cherry envelopes. Aw!

The month of June holds the first day of summer. Our month of June held a few firsts in our new house, and not to mention a few repeats... and I've been feeling like this summer will be awesome.

Alden got the tab



Pretty sunsets


Baby Miah came


Little heirlooms


A bit'o luck


Austin had my car detailed


Haircut


And more!

I was working out in the front flower bed one Saturday morning, and I could hear a bird purring. Yes, purring.. over my right shoulder, behind me in the bushes. It was a quail for sure, but making the strangest of noises.

I went over to see what was going on, and there were two quail chicks in the gutter. The mother and father were up near the sidewalk in the bushes, calling down to the babies, who were much too small to climb up themselves.

I lifted one and placed him in the bushes, and after Austin snapped a few quick pictures I put the second little guy back with his family.

That evening I was doing the dishes and just outside the window I could see the quail family relocating across the open lot next to us; Mother running first, Father pulling up the rear... eleven babies darting along in the middle. Austin said they "had enough kids to spare; you should have kept one". I told him not to say that, because I really did want to. I love quail.

Two days later I went into my art room and could hear a peeping through my open window. A quail chick had fallen in to the window well. I went outside, jumped down in and scooped him up. We went for a little walk around the house, the lot next door, the trees across the street... I couldn't find any other quail that could have been looking for him. In a hurry to make my orthodontist appointment, I put him in a box with shavings and placed a heat lamp over him until I got home. I didn't want the neighborhood cats to get him.

Austin said it was that same 'eleventh chick' come back for me; sought me out to be my own little bird. That's about when I started getting attached.

I picked up some poultry starter feed at a farmer's supply store on the way home and placed it in the box with the chick. There are so many cats wandering near here the little guy would never stand a chance on his own, so I didn't want to just put him out in the dirt and expect him to make it. So, we sat on the lawn for a good half-hour; me assuming the chick's little peeps and chirrups would bring his parents around.

No luck.

While I was out with Carrie Austin tried the same thing; letting the baby chirp and chirp to see if the adults would return, but again, no results. Austin went inside and left the box in my art room below the open window so the peeping could be heard outside.

But, when I got home that night the little quail had gotten so cold that he lay sprawled in the shavings, motionless on his side.

We thought for sure he was dead.

I scooped him up in my hands feeling so sorry for the tiny bird, and suddenly he gasped for breath. I immediately went under the heat lamp and gently rubbed his tiny body over and over until he started to fluff back up and get to his feet.

Austin found a syringe in the medicine cabinet and filled it with water. While I held the chick Austin carefully, and one drop at a time, gave the bird a drink.

We were up until two am with the little thing making sure he was warm and hydrated. Once he bedded down with tired eyes we let him be.

The next morning while I was at work Austin took the chick up the street where a quail family was finally found and so the little bird was released.

He was so cute... I hope he's now one of the bigger quail I see running around.

It really isn't all that often I get to sit down and concentrate on a sketch.

Sometimes I can start, but I never get to finish as I'm pulled away for one reason or another.

But I did sit down and I drew this, and then sent it to Austin while he was at his softball game.

I like 'em. They're for sure going to be a little card.

5.28.2009

I have artistic ADD. It's true.

I can't focus on one thing long enough before my mind wanders off, conjuring up some big new idea I get all itchy about. I dump everything on the current project to pick up new supplies and get crackin on the new project I just now thought of.

It's kindof unhealthy. I mean it.

I have hundreds of sketches in miscelanous places; my art room, various folders and books, my filing cabinet at work, my purse... all with little notes on meangings and color of the things I want to draw and paint some day.

I get excited and build up a ton of energy for each new idea. I don't often have time to work on my art, so time passes before it is ever completed. More often than not I'm busy building up all new excitement for an all new idea that I don't want to lose or forget about before I even finish laying out the first idea on paper. I need to tame the brain!

One of these avenues I keep venturing down is the Ricky & Po way. Cutesy, soft kid-type stuff with little friend characters and stories. I've always wanted to write and illustrate kid's books (even before that lame job fair in junior high), and as I spoke with local artist/author/publisher Corrine Humphrey about self-publishing her own book The Tao of Rudy, one thing she told me I needed to do was to get a press name.

So, with me not being able to decide "what to draw all the time" and certainly not being able to "choose my style", needing a press name for future books (wink wink nudge nudge my own self), and rounding up all these different (and variously varried) ideas, I give you:

The Westfold Press.




It will act as a parent company for all the other little ones I sort of decided I kind of need, and it's going to help me publish things like The Random Cards™, books, and everything to do with Aidan (see previous post here). It is called The Westfold Press because I was born and grew up on a street called Westfold Way, and that's basically where all the art began. It's where I started building memories and got inspiration for the art I make now.

So there you have it. More rambling to follow. In the meantime, The Westfold press has a domain that forwards to candacejean.com, and a little Etsy store that's just beginning, found here. So far all that is listed are the six random cards I currently brought back from 2006, but I imagine, with the way my head works, plenty of stuff will start rolling in as soon as I can make time.

Besides the boys that live here with me..

Besides that we're in a little township called "Millcreek", besides the quail that run around the yard, besides the fact I actually have an entire room dedicated to all of my art stuff..

... I think that one of my favorite things about this house has to be the key to the front door.




Yup, that really truly is my house key. I love, love, love it.

We were told that the front door is original still from 1929.




Isn't it the neatest door you've ever seen? Still alive and well and functioning with a skeleton key for goodness sake.
Can't get much better a door than that.

The potted wonders brought home from nurseries keep lining the east wall of our garage and the west side of our patio as I unload someone new from my car almost every day after work.
I need to get them in the ground, but first need a plan and a mountain of stepping stones.

In the meanwhile, a few details to share:

With any kind of luck I'll soon be living like Tasha Tudor.

If the image in my other entry didn't give it away... I chopped off all of my hair.

To have it done I went and saw Nicole, my old friend from junior high and high school.
We used to be band nerds together. Seriously.

It's been a couple of weeks now and it still feels weird. She cut off my pony-tail and set it on the counter in front of me, and still had a few inches left to go before she was finished. My hair was long.

I thought it would be a nice change and definitely good for summer.
Plus, it was for a good cause.