I’ve been in a slump over card ideas, and finally made a new one tonight. Not the best ever, but oh well. 

The inside text says: “So I ate it!”

I thought a yellow bear wearing sunnies would be totally cute, but I was wrong. The card turned out to be quite pedestrian, and even after I added some running-stitch circles, I still wasn’t too happy about it. 

I made this card for YOUR niece, WHATT!!! Also, your niece plays basketball. Thought you should know.

Okay, so admittedly I haven’t been absolutely up to my game when it’s come to reading these past few months, but a few weeks ago I finally felt like I had free time again, and I’m intending to go crazy reading. Last night I went to the bookstore, and ended up buying two books, the bottom two titles. The Tan and Morrison books are ones I already had, but haven’t read yet. And yes, I admit, the Lieven title was selected by my mom. But I intend on reading it anyway.

Now this fat pile is what I have been reading for the past month or so. Really, the thing with short stories is, I have to read them in one go, and it’s not like a novel where you read a hundred pages without stopping. After I read a great story, I have to stop and let it float around in my head for a few days, so that has definitely slowed me down. I’ve read quite a bit of the Granta short story collection, and just started the Oates novel yesterday. Other than this, I’ve been listening to a lot of fiction podcasts on the newyorker website, they’re great for discovering new authors. http://www.newyorker.com/online/podcasts/fiction/?currentPage=1

What are you reading right now?

Just some late-night lovelorn doodling in my notebook.

And then in the afternoon I drew a big, ugly colourful rose. Still happy about it though, it was a half hour well-spent.

Just some colour-pencil lip studies in my sketch-book.