11/3/11 to 11/11/11

Claire: What should I write in my blog post?
Mike: That you love Mike Brown, and you don't care who knows it.
Claire: No. 

10/25/11 to 11/2/11

Sorry Ben. This entry does not include a drawing about the everlasting love story between Mike and Arrow. However, it does include a cameo from "the world's cutest dog": Boo (a.k.a Mr. big head).

Quote of the day from Army of Darkness:
Arthur: Are all men from the future loud-mouthed braggarts? 
Ash (Bruce Campbell): Nope. Just me baby... Just me.

Postcards and a pinch of Buffy

While I grew up, I collected postcards of artwork I liked from museum visits. One of my favorite postcards was of a disproportionate girl in a red dress holding a cat. In college I wanted to start making ink drawings where I made no initial sketch, so I was forced to live with all of my mistakes. I started this experiment by copying the artwork from my postcard collection. Does anyone recognize this piece? I can't remember who it is by, and I can't find the old postcard with the art information.

To find out about what I have been reading check out this Chronicle blog post.

Quote of the day:
"I laugh in the face of danger! Then I ... hide until it goes away."
--Xander from season 1 of Buffy the Vampire Slayer

Moonrise Kingdom still

I'm watching you . . . 
Most of the time if someone was watching me with binoculars I would be pretty creeped out; but if that someone was standing on an adorable lighthouse in a cute dress with knee high socks, I would probably just be flattered that such a pretty scene thought I was worthy of being watched. 
This is a watercolor of a still from the awesome film Moonrise Kingdom. Yay Wes Anderson and Roman Coppola!

From Moonrise Kingdom:
Sam: It's possible I may wet the bed by the way. Later, I mean. 
Suzy: Okay. 
Sam I wish I didn't have to mention it but just in case. I don't want to make you be offended. 
Suzy: Of course, I won't. 

Allen and Anne, my grandparents

I'm lucky that I got to know three out of four of my grandparents. I did not get to know my grandfather pictured here, as he died when I was too young to remember him, but I am thankful that he at least got to meet me as a baby. My middle name if his first name. I did not realize until I got older that it is not common for a girl to have a male middle name. 

10/16/11 to 10/24/11

Not much to say besides, go Giants!

Poundcake the bear unicorn

This was a commission for a friend of a bearicorn. (You know those, right? A bear mixed with a unicorn--super common.)

My favorite giants game moments from tonight:
Huff huffing home
Matt Cain wearing his nonplussed expression while Romo pitched the final inning and the crowd went wild 

10/7/11 to 10/15/11

This weekend I went to Elie and Scot's wedding. I've known Elie since third grade. Here are some of the things we have shared in the time we have known each other: acting in follies and singing such gems as "welcome to the emereld city"; the viewings of many Harry Potter movies; living together in IV; watching all seasons of Felicity; playing for the Burning skirts, where I threw her many goals at the front of the stack; a love for Pride and Prejudice. But  perhaps the most important thing we share is that we are both parents of fictional children. Stelie is Elie and Steph's lovechild, and s/he is part woman, man, and goblin. Finnegan is Mike and my awesome son and his first and only word is "MEH." They're both winners...well, at least Finnegan is. 

9/28/11 to 10/6/11

So these entries are from almost a year ago today. The weird thing is that this time last year one Molly left my work and a cardboard Johnny Depp was put in her place to help us cope with the loss. Now the other Molly has left, but thankfully Johnny is still around. Good old Johnny. 

Conversation with Mike
Mike: (singing something to me)
Me: What?
Mike: Are you ignoring me?
Me: No, I'm just doing something else, so I barely even heard you. 
Mike: Yeah, that's ignoring. 

9/19/11 to 9/27/11

Sleep rocks my world. My ideal amount of sleep is 10 to 11 hours. (I know! I'm a sleep slut.)I rarely get to sleep that much, but when I do, it makes me do a little jig inside. 

9/10/11 to 9/18/11

 Lately I have enjoyed: watching Woody Allen films; reading a lot of young adult books; eating tomato, basil, and avocado salads; drinking iced chai and black iced teas; and listening to podcasts and Nat King Cole. I guess all of those usually apply, except watching Woody Allen films.

9/1/11 to 9/9/11

In July I went to Japan and had a great time. Here are just a few of the things I enjoyed about Japan: Studio Ghibli; the waterfalls and deer on Miyajima island; the cute uniforms; feeding monkeys; the trains; meeting Tomo; seeing the all-women production of Footloose; and eating pineapples.

Glinda and 8/23/11 to 8/31/11

Glinda: Are you a good witch, or a bad witch? 
Dorothy: I'm not a witch at all. I'm Dorothy Gale from Kansas.
Glinda: Oh. Well, is that the witch?
Dorothy: Who, Toto? Toto's my dog! 


Scarecrow: I haven't got a brain...only straw. 
Dorothy: How can you talk if you haven't got a brain? 
Scarecrow: I don't know....But some people without brains do an awful lot of talking...don't they? 
Dorothy: Yes, I guess you're right.

Beauty Crossing and a Special Heart

Excerpt from a conversation with Mike.
Me: You have special written on your heart.
Mike: No.
Me: Why not?
Mike: Because that's weird. 
Me: If you could have any word written on your heart, what word would it be?
Mike: I don't know . . . special, I guess. 

8/14/11 to 8/22/11

8/5/11 to 8/13/11

I'm back. So I recently had a zombie nightmare (I hate zombies). In the dream, I had a friend who became a zombie, but she was able to cure herself of annoying zombie traits (such as an uncontrollable hunger for brains) by drinking a lot of beer. As I was telling Mike about my terrifying dream, he laughed. I can't really blame him. And then he made up this song: "Anti-zombie drinking party. Keep drinking that beer y'all." Now when I get scared of zombies, I just sing that song . . . and I'm still scared . . . but then I'm also amused. 

7/27/11 to 8/4/11

"He had a certain air of being a handsome man--which he was not; and a certain air of being a well-bred man--which he was not. It was mere swagger and challenge; but in this particular, as in many others, blustering assertion goes for proof, half over the world." --from Little Dorrit by Charles Dickens

7/18/11 to 7/26/11

So for two weeks I am trying not to consume gluten, dairy, sugar, and alcohol. My stomach hurts, but I don't know if it is because of the restricted diet or from pilates today. If you have any good recipes without any of those ingredients, let me know. Counting down the days to milkshakes, fries, and cheeseburgers. 

7/9/11 to 7/17/11

Baby it's cold outside . . . and inside. My house is freezing. Thankfully the holiday spirit is keeping me warm. Arrow sleeping at my feet is also keeping me warm. 

6/30/11 to 7/8/11

So about a week ago, I got a call from Santa telling me that he has been recieving a lot of letter requests from people asking for more blog posts from me for Christmas. Seeing as how I love Christmas (and letters), I told Santa I would be happy to start posting again. 

Birthdays and Bell Book and Candle

I am awful at remembering people's birthdays. My dad recently had a birthday--which I barely remembered--and I made him this birthday card. The image is from the film Bell Book and Candle. I have never seen the whole movie, but it features the lovely Kim Novak as a witch and James Stewart as the man she bewitches. This painting was a bit rushed, and I could not get the eyes right. Oh well. That is what I get for not giving myself enough time. At least I got to stare at Kim Novak for a bit while she stared back at me. 
"Hasn't this cat got anything better to do? Couldn't you give him something to read?"--James Stewart's character, Shepherd "Shep" Henderson

6/12 to 6/20

Things that remind me of my fairy godmother (my grandmother Anne, my father's mother):
Ladybugs
Betty Boop
Royal purple
Mystery TV shows
Gypsy cold care tea
Anne of Green Gables


Things that remind me of my grandmother Mardy (my mother's mother):
Peanut butter and jelly 
Large barrettes
Clip-on earrings
Soap
Piles

Terrarium Magic

A couple of weeks ago the lifestyle group at my work went on a field trip to Workshop, a cool DIY craft workshop in SF, where we made beer cozies and terrariums. I know everyone is going on and on about terrariums, but when you make one, you do feel the magic. Now I have my own little magical glass jar world. And did I mention the deer? There is a deer! Awesome. 
(Don't judge the magic based on my crummy photo. That's why I spend time drawing and not taking pictures.) 
So I am thinking of starting to bike to work, but I am a nervous nellie, and the idea of biking in the city terrifies me. Riding next to cars scares me; riding next to other bikers scares me; me on a bike scares me; you scare me; Anne Hathaway scares me. The only thing that doesn't scare me is terrariums--unless there is a mini zombie in the terrarium--a mini zombie in a terrarium scares me.

6/4/11 to 6/12/11

I need to have more conversations with kids. When else do you seriously get to discuss buried treasure, mermaids, and gnomes? More conversations about pirates please; less conversations about deadlines and whether a word should be capped or not. 
Things I liked to draw as a kid:
Dolphins jumping through hoops
Asian women in restaurants
Mermaids
Paper dolls
Cows hanging out in pastures
Elephants with carriages on their backs 

5/26/11 to 6/2/11

Current things that I fancy:

Fashion: This dress worn by Marion Cotillard in Midnight in Paris

Songs: Stardust sung by Nat King Cole (Stardust 4 eva) and Fantasy by Mariah Carey

Drinks: Pimm's Cup or a Chi Chi

Films: Rebecca and Midnight in Paris

Sayings: Gee wilikers

Cuteness: Socks for my chair

5/16/11 to 5/26/11

Sharing is caring and I'm a Claire Bear, so today I am going to share two things with you: One, I'm a robot; two, I'm gay for Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Okay, both of those things are false (except the gay for Buffy thing), but I do have two other things to share.

I recently submitted a post on the Chronicle Books blog titled Do You Have Post-Potter Depression? It is all about how to overcome the depression that comes with the knowledge that there is no more Harry Potter to look forward to (cue desperate sobbing).

My brother started a daily picture diary blog called 1 per Day. He is traveling for three weeks, so he probably won't be adding new content for a while, but you should check it out.

And that is my sharing for the day. I hope you enjoyed it. Until next time.

5/8/11 to 5/16/11

4/29/11 to 5/7/11

Things I have been up to:

Trip to Seattle (Some things to note from the Seattle trip: Lydia, the gnome who lives in Doe's purse; the church "You either have to join them or you want to kill them."; moldy tent; Keala skying Miranda; Oompa Loompa; yummy food; sultan of cock block; hanging with my ladies)

Midnight show of Harry Potter (so awesome, but my heart feels a little lost without Harry)

Picking out paint for my bedroom

Avoiding working out

Drinking a milkshake from St. Francis

Skirt of Arms

In honor of the skirts alumni team that I am going to play with at the end of June/beginning of July, I created a coat of arms, or as I like to call it, a skirt of arms.

Here is the key to decoding the skirt of arms, from bottom to top:

Ardens Desiderio means Burning Desire in Latin (or at least I hope it does) because skirts have got "the juice, the fire, the burning desire."

Flames obviously refer to the burning and also represent zealousness.

The arrow in the center of the shield represents readiness for battle.

The B and S are for Burning Skirts.

The heart represents skirt love.

The snake represents wisdom, but more importantly is a reference to the brilliant movie Stomp the Yard, which the skirts refer to for both battle and dancing tips (the film is so multi dimensional).

The ladies are representations of the strong and sexy skirts of the past, present, and future. They wear the skirts uniform, including the "DOM" headbands. DOM=dominate. The ladies get there pose from, can you guess?, Stomp the Yard. (Wow, that film offers so much. What else can we learn from it? We can learn that a ripped man with his shirt off on a lawn mower=sexiest ride ever.)

Between their hands rests a circle with wings. This circle represents a disc, a snitch, a ring (a la Lord of the rings), and a monocle.

The wings on the disc also are in honor of Billy Bob Batman. (OK I made that up, but he had to be mentioned. He threatened to eat my first born if I did not give him a shout out.)

And there you have it. If you are now asking yourself, "so your whole damn basis for this coat of arms is based on a stupid dance movie?" I would like to respond by saying "yes, and skirtie love." Here are some inspirational quotes from the oh-so-wonderful Stomp the Yard:

Sylvester: Payback's a bitch, ain't it?
Zeke: I'll see you at Nationals.
Sylvester: Yes you will.

Duron: It's not just about you. It's about us, we're a team.
DJ: Well then this team' bout to double up on their asses!

We rep'n skirts, skirts, skirts. We rep'n skirts, skirts, skirts. We repin ooo, ooo, ooo, BOOM!

4/21/11 to 4/28/11

Another year, another cool camp. I can't wait for:

Waterfalls

Reading

Falling asleep under the stars

Looking for shooting stars with little Claire

Hanging with my cool camp family

Having Alden cook all my meals for me (muhaha)

Listening to Emilia talk about how much she loves Ronald Weasley

Cards

Eating watermelon on a hot day

4/12/11 to 4/19/11

I have an awesome elephant necklace. I named my elephant Celeste after Babar's wife and also after a sweet lady I knew who died too young. Tonight I was reminiscing about her while I went through an old box my mother had found in her garage. Shortly after telling my mother about her, I pulled out a picture of her. This is probably the only picture I have of Celeste, and it sat there forgotten in a box, on a night I happened to talk about her. Seemed like weird serendipity.

In loving memory of Celeste, gone but not forgotten. Aloha.

4/3/11 to 4/11/11

The girl in this photo is my old principle. As you may have noticed, I like to paint pictures from film stills. For Christmas one year, my brother gave me a book of Hollywood photographs. In it was this picture of Dana Andrews with his family. And there was Susan, sitting on the stairs getting her hair pulled. How strange to have a part of your past present itself to you in such an unexpected way. Dana Andrews is in Laura, one of my all time favorite film noir movies.

Lyrics from the song Laura:

Laura is the face in the misty light
Footsteps that you hear down the hall
The LAUGH that floats on a summer night
That you can never quite recall
And you see Laura on a train that is passing through
Those eyes how familiar they seem
She gave your very first kiss to you
That was Laura but she's only a dream

3/25/11 to 4/2/11

I saw a dear old friend I had not seen in two years last night. We had a yummy dinner, played writey drawey, and chatted it up. Hats off and drinks up to old friends (since I'm too old, shy, and cranky to make new ones).

3/16/11 to 3/24/11

I went to the dentist today and had my teeth cleaned by a woman named Queenie. What a great name. She told me she was getting married soon. In my imagination her soon-to-be husband is named Kingey or Kingsley. Some of the unique names of people I know:

Teiwaz

Castle

Alden

Zanna

Teja

Pepper Ann (Okay, I don't know a Pepper Ann, but I do know a girl who might as well be Pepper Ann, who goes by the nickname Chaco)

When I was growing up, I fantasized about having a son and naming him Tuppence the lovable chimney sweep.

1/9/05 to 1/16/05

Here is another old entry. This one is from January 2005--the days of skirts/ultimate Frisbee, college, Santa Barbara, sleeping in late, and part-time jobs. It is crazy to realize how long I have been doing the daily drawing entries (although it has been on and off throughout the years). I started looking at my old journals to find out when I started it; 2004 is the magical year. The old entries are pretty funny. It is interesting to see how my drawing style has evolved and to see what in my life has changed and what has stayed the same. I think I may start posting more of my old ones, interspersed with the new ones.
Changed:
My life does not revolve around ultimate Frisbee
Alden has long brown hair instead of short blond hair

Stayed the same:
Mike Brown
UCSB sweatpants
Sore shoulders

A Monkey, Alligator, and Bird

Cadbury Caramel eggs are the bomb diggity.

3/7/11 to 3/15/11

So my journal and I took a little break between November 2010 and March 2011, but we are now going strong. I haven't missed a day since 3/7, and I intend on being faithful, even if Timothy Olyphant knocks on my door. Okay . . . that is a lie. All bets are off if Timothy Olyphant shows up.

Conversation Mike and I just had:

"You look pretty with your earrings and hair like that."

"Yeah, it was a cute day for me."

In case you were wondering, I was the one complimenting Mike on his earrings and hair.

So long Elizabeth Taylor . . .

So long Elizabeth Taylor. May your afterlife be littered with diamonds.

"The problem with people who have no vices is that generally you can be pretty sure they're going to have some pretty annoying virtues."
--Elizabeth Taylor

"It is strange that the years teach us patience; that the shorter our time, the greater our capacity for waiting."
--Elizabeth Taylor

11/18/11 to 11/26/11 larger version

Here is a larger version for those of you who actually read the journal entries and don't want to use a magnifying glass.

11/18/11 to 11/26/11

When I get really stressed out or am trying to distract myself from a memory I find unpleasant and/or embarrassing, I start talking to myself. Often times I mumble distracting questions and proclaim things like "NO" and "It's okay" out loud and to myself. Today I was appalled to find out that, if distressed enough, I also mumble these things while people are present. Not good. Nice defence mechanism. Way to make a bad situation worse. Oh well.

This entry was made during my birthday. My wonderful birthday. In case you were wondering what's so great about my particular birthday, let me tell you, it's because it's my birthday, and Harry Potter movies often come out on my birthday.

28 is a good age. You already have 26 and 27 under your belt---the years where it hits home that you are leaving that golden age of working out without stretching, no wrinkles or gray hairs, and an awesome metabolism. By 28 you have come to except those terms and are just happy to be in your twenties. It is kind of a content, settling age where exciting things still feel possible. Stay classy, 28. Peace out.

Everything Is Going to Be OK

This is the beautiful book cover of a recently published book at Chronicle Books.
5 reasons to check out this book:
1. I have two pieces of artwork in it.
2. It's upbeat and positive, so you can give it to your happy friends or bunny rabbits.
3. It's upbeat and positive, so you can give it to your cynical, depressed friends to piss them off.
4. The cover is super sexy.
5. I'm super sexy.

As Linus would say, "Those are good reasons." It is currently selling at Urban Outfitters and you can buy it on Amazon. Let me know if you are interested in getting a free poster of the cover art as there are currently some available. I have the poster hanging at my desk, and when I get really stressed out, I stare at it for hours, until I realize it is 4 in the morning, and I should go home to bed.