I love visiting my family. The bed is sort of cramped, the neighborhood is much louder than the Shire where we live and the coffee is about half (meaning it’s alright – not intended to be a bad pun about the coffee being half-caff), but I love being here. It’s very interesting how you can live somewhere for so long but after a few years of not calling it “your” home it begins to feel somewhat foreign to you. Enough that it feels like a vacation that also includes the stress and the seemingly constant running one does while trying to get away and relax a little.

I stayed up until 1am last night and was up by 6:30 this morning. A little bit of a bummer but I love getting to hang out here in the sunroom. A little chilly, sunlight bright enough to keep you awake, dim enough to keep you relaxed; quiet aside from the selections from John Coltrane’s “Sidesteps” that come purring out of my iPad. Tonight is my sister’s wedding rehearsal & dinner, a ritual I’ve not participated in since my dad re-married ~20 years ago.

My hope while on this little vacation is to get further into the creative groove I’ve finally started falling back into. I’ve been carrying around a sketchbook and notebook nearly everywhere I go and try to take advantage of any free time I have by putting something down on paper. Lately it’s been cartoons of Erin and myself that I’ve been developing over the last month or so. Some get sketched, others get inked, others make it all the way to digital. Here I’ll be sharing some of those pieces.

Erin, pin-up-esque with a rough, early design of Trudy (pencil/sharpie)

http://instagram.com/p/cOhdtPL2QI/

Me, after buying cookies and being asked “Are you getting cookies now or a milkshake later?” (pencil/sharpie)

http://instagram.com/p/cHnh0eL2SQ/

A very cartoony version of Erin and myself referencing a set of photobooth photos we had made in Gatlinburg one year. (pencil/sharpie)

http://instagram.com/p/cJl7Y6r2fR/

Me being very proud of my recent chest tattoo, letting the world know by removing my shirt (1/2) (pencil/sharpie)

http://instagram.com/p/bo8JDjr2So/

And me telling myself that nobody wants to see that… (pencil/sharpie)

http://instagram.com/p/bo8TzmL2S8/

And finally, me letting the world know one of the reasons Erin loves me – (originally pencil/ sharpie then scanned and re-drawn in Photoshop)