Werepatch

Sometimes I find little sketches in the margins of my sketchbooks that have no context. It took me a minute to figure out what the hell this one was.

santa, reindeer, elves, etc

animal fair

My grandfather used to sing me this song:

I went to the animal fair,
The birds and the beasts were there,
The big baboon by the light of the moon
Was combing his auburn hair.
The monkey he got drunk,
He sat on the elephant's trunk.
The elephant sneezed and fell on his knees
and that was the end of the monk.
(the monk, the monk)

d.i.y. haircut

10 easy steps to giving yourself a haircut at home:

1. Find scissors
2. Remove ski hat
3. Begin cutting boldly
4. Add 'layers'
5. Remember that you are likely cutting more off the left side than right, as a result of constricted elbow movement due to a very very small bathroom.
6. Using hand mirror along with medicine cabinet mirror, view back of head to see if cut is even
7. Cut more off the left side, forgetting that mirrors reverse things
8. Cut lots off right side to compensate
9. Review results
10. Replace ski hat

that there's a lot of knitting

If this had been my knitting project I would have stopped midway through the first St. Bernard and tucked it neatly in a drawer somewhere that would remain closed for one or two years. This lady's got some discipline...

fatty mc'squirrel's glad he's fat now

Right about now, lil' squirrel's probably glad he stole all that halloween candy and those ears of corn and those pumpkins and that birdseed- It got below zero last night and it's that enormous squirrel belly that's going to help him make it to spring...

Twilight

With and email titled, 'I made my own awesome fan art', Vanessa sent me a picture of these Edward and Bella finger-puppets that she made for her friend's baby shower. You might be wondering if she's serious. She is.

od

pants

Pants. They're what separate us from the animals.

old sketches

cold cat

Marley was crouched under my car last night when I was leaving my house to walk to dinner. I picked her up and realized she was shivering. It was 20°F. Her owners (my neighbors) weren't home. You'd think with a multi-million dollar home they'd be able to afford a damn cat door. I set up a little basket with a hot water bottle and some towels in my mudroom and left the door to my back yard cracked so she could come and go if she wanted. If I weren't allergic (and if I liked cats) I'd totally steal her.

mild identity crisis

What if this was actually my blog? (And actually my life?)

http://jasonandsarahnelson.blogspot.com/

Or this one?

http://www.seeme4energy.com/blog.htm

What if this was an article about me?

http://www.uxweek.com/speakers/sarah-nelson

Or this was my jazz music?

http://www.myspace.com/sarahnelsonjazz

Or this was me on Twitter?

http://twitter.com/nelsonsb

Or this was my Gingerbread Shoppe?

http://www.grasmeregingerbread.co.uk/

Or this was how I expressed myself using a pYzam™ Myspace layout?

http://www.myspace.com/sarahnmichael4eva

line-up

non-verbal communication

The dogs at the humane society always have something to say. Some take longer than others to say it...

11 days

crappy cellphone photo taken 10/28/09


crappy cellphone photo taken 11/8/09



The trails were barely even muddy today, only 11 days after 18" of wet snow fell, breaking tree branches (and whole trees) under its weight and canceling schools and work across the state. Then from winter back to autumn and a fantastic mountain bike ride to celebrate.

beaded stitches

Some co-workers and I decided it would be pretty awesome if I had asked my dermatologist to leave the strings long when he has put in the stitches that he did earlier this week. That way I could have beaded them. This is what it might have looked like... Pretty, right?

Wednesday meeting notes

The funny thing is that I actually do pay attention during these meetings. I just draw while I'm listening...

Tree-heads

Halloween Squirrel

I know it's really hard to see in this picture, and I'll draw it soon to give it the full attention that this situation deserves, but one of the two fat squirrels that live in the giant pear tree in my back yard has been eating Halloween candy. I noticed him this afternoon when I was washing dishes. I left a bowl of candy out by my front door last night in case trick-or-treaters stopped by while I was out for the evening, and I was pleased to see that there was a lot missing when I got home. I now realize that the squirrels may have had something to do with that... If you click on the picture above to enlarge it you'll see that this little guy isn't even using his paws. He just has the whole damn piece of wrapped chocolate hanging out of his mouth like he's some crazed neighborhood kid, drunk on sugar and daylight saving...

Nathaniel turned 3

And this is the picture I drew on the brown paper wrapping paper of his birthday present.

Sunday Morning Chainsaw

Some people go to church on Sunday mornings, and some people make a pot of coffee and read the NY Times. I prefer to have my landlord and his wife show up at 9 am with a chainsaw and a paint scraper so they can simultaneously work on scraping the paint off my bedroom windowsill and cutting down branches of a tree leaning against my house from last week's storm. It's nice that they thought to bring their little yippy dog, too, who likes to bark at things like leaves and air, and then get yelled at by my landlord's wife. A cup of strong Chinese tea and a handful of miniature chocolate bars left over from Halloween for breakfast... I'm pretty sure this as good as it gets.

way beyond the recommended 8 hours

But not only sleeping- sleeping hard. So that I didn't wake up while a tree fell on my house or my phone rang or my alarm went off. And it seems that after 2 hours of being awake my throat starts to ache, which makes it really easy to crawl back under the covers and re-enter my hazy dream world while my body fights whatever it is it's fighting...

love note

This is a love note I slipped to a coworker in a meeting a while ago.

shufflin'

fox-bat

He's called fox-bat because he's part fox and part bat. (But all kite...)

September 22nd- bring your squid to work day

backpack

concert tees

today's meeting

I paid attention in a meeting at work this morning. The only notes I took were actual written words that were relevant to the topic being discussed. I am not sure what came over me, but I'm guessing it had something to do with the doughnuts. I ate 2.

skull-turkey warrior

I made this 'turkey' from two skulls and some feathers that were from the fields surrounding the industrial park where I work. It sits on the windowsill in my office next to my cactus. The little skull is from a prairie dog (they do spring cleaning and bring out their dead so the fields are sometimes littered with skulls and other morbid little pieces of the deceased members of their families) and the large skull is maybe from a raccoon? Or a small fox? One morning when I came to work the action figure was perched on top of the skull-turkey. I call him the skull-turkey warrior.

legal pad

cat boys

I've known some cat boys in my days.

ridiculous target

As a product designer, part of my job is to design products that can be sold at a specified price while still making money for everyone who needs to make money when the product is sold at retail. I'm given a 'target' that I must 'meet' or 'hit'. I'm guessing someone mentioned a price that seemed a bit low when I drew this...

another meeting

I found this drawing on a page of notes from a meeting. I wonder if I drew it for anyone else's benefit or just to amuse myself. Either way, I'm guessing the meeting was pretty productive...

prairie dogs

mixtape

...when all the woodland creatures gather 'round to share the music...

walk with my brother

Lisa took these with her Holga. Lisa and Todd always show me such beautiful parts of LA when I visit...

Saturday afternoon

It's not the first time I've seen a cat hanging out with a deer, which is sort of odd maybe. Or maybe it just means that [domestic] cats and deer get along. Which is funny since the wildcats in the neighborhood are likely the deer's biggest threat... When Marley [the cat] was done napping she stretched and left my yard through a gap in the fence. The deer stood up and followed her, and stopped at the fence, watching her walk away.

porcupines

high fashion

Note that these fashion drawings don't have the year, just 'spring-winter'. That's because these looks are timeless...

I like the one in the middle

Those showgirls sure know how to wear a pressed men's shirt...

weekend in la

How creepy and nice is this? Very. The answer is very.

wedding guest

This was one of the guests at my friend Vanessa's wedding last May. He was so damn excited about that balloon. I think he may have been drinking. It's hard to tell with turtles...

from a while ago

This is a zebra that I made last year for a baby shower, as a gift to a friend's baby. It was really soft because it was from a worn gap t-shirt from the thrift store.

chili socks

Today I am wearing my Texas Chili socks that I got at a dollar store in 1999. They have a recipe for Texas Chili on them. The fact that I'm wearing them today means two things:

1. I own a pair of socks with the words 'ground beef' woven into them.

2. I really need to do laundry.

9 am meeting

These are two drawings I did during a meeting I had this morning.

post-it 2