Easter Egg Smash

Inviting dinosaurs to an Easter egg hunt seemed like a good idea at the time...

Dog as King

In celebration of Easter and in antsy anticipation of the extra guilt I'll be feeling for leaving the church this past year, I felt it would be nice to do some spiritual research. While I've officially renounced my beliefs in the J-man (that's *my* personal belief, and I'm not even beginning to think or assume that I'm right), I DO like the idea and believe that there is something out there larger than myself. Whatever name He/She/It goes by, I feel that there's a bigger energy at play. So I signed out a couple books from the library and am TRULY enjoying this book: God on Your Own : Finding A Spiritual Path Outside Religion.

The current chapter I'm on is delving into the history and concept of God as King and King as God in various religions throughout the ages. The problem is, I can't seem to read those lines without thinking "Dog as King" or "King as Dog." And let's be honest, dogs would make better deities than some I've read about, and a better kings too. 

SO a Dog King I drew. Complete with biscuit minions, a frisbee follower and a disgruntled cat. Because even with a dog for king, there's no sense in hoping for or expecting a totally peaceful nation. Meow.

Aimes-tu ma jolie jupe jaune?

Sort of based on a phrase from last night's french lesson. Learning colors and clothing. Won't even go into full detail of the the rabbit trail that led to this. Consists of a college memory involving a homemade yellow banana lamp, barrels of monkeys, Rhonda Wall's 3D fine arts class, and me being too naive to know what the word phallic meant. And not realizing the definition for another 3 years. I'm still embarrassed about it.

So barrels of monkeys, yellow banana lamp, yellow skirt, Duolingo french lesson, today's lunchdoodle.

What a tangled web my mind weaves.

Des Poissons

I've been a little absent on the Lunchdoodle front. My apologies. I've been spending my lunchtimes either going out or reading. Sorry excuses, I know. Good news is, I only have one and a half pages left of my lunchdoodle book! Which means it's time to buy a new one. Thinking I might splurge on a watercolor Moleskine. We'll see.

In other news, I'm re-learning French on Duolingo. I studied all through high school and for a few years in college. Even made it my minor before my design class schedule suffocated all chances of taking anything else but design classes. It's been fairly easy getting back into it and my favorite are how random the practice phrases are. So many of them make zero sense, but I like that. 

A fun one I had last night was:

"Des poissons mangent du riz" or "Some fish are eating rice."

Couldn't help but draw it. I think these lessons will be providing quite a bit of lunchdoodle inspiration!

Sloth in a Bubble Bath

This past weekend was a pretty productive one. I got about halfway through a sizable freelance project, baked and cooked a bunch, ran errands, dominated some laundry. All from the comfort of my sweatpants. Sweatpants make even the busiest weekends feel lazy. Felt very sloth-like despite being productive. My favorite slothtime activity, when I really am being lazy, are bubble baths. Sloths really miss out living up in the trees. If they were doing it right, they'd live in much closer proximity to bathtubs. Bathtubs with LOTS of bubbles.

Best Buddies

Went to the zoo this past weekend for both general and lunchdoodle inspiration. And just for some general sunshine-filled-zoo-going funtimes. Cause who doesn't like the zoo?? Of course, EVERY animal I encountered was my favorite. Especially any and all large cats, monkeys.

And everyone knows the best spot to scratch a cat, especially a large cat, is the base of the tail. Monkey knows what's good. He'd rather be friends than lunch.

Ingredients

I've been cooking a lot lately. Today's lunchdoodle represents what I hope to make tonight: homemade pizza with Guinness caramelized onions, bacon, arugula, goat cheese, and possibly roasted cherry tomatoes and mushrooms. Might be overkill, might be delicious.

I'm also hoping to blog a bit about my cooking experiments here. And am thinking of incorporating illustration more than photos. And actually designing the site a little. Could be a nice little showcase and a creative outlet free of pressure, free of clients, free of computer screens (well, the cooking/illustrating part anyway). I've attempted food blogging in the past, but focused more on baking which I do significantly less of nowadays. We'll see if this sticks. It could be fun. Or it could be a pain in the ass. 

Buddha Brain

I've been reading this book, The Buddha Walks into a Bar, and just love it. This is the second Buddism book I'm working through and what I love the most is every time I have something I'm thinking too much about, struggling with, or if there's just too much clutter in my headspace.. I pick up where I left off and generally find some chapter or paragraph that puts everything into perspective.

Acknowledge the crazy thoughts, the turmoil, the pull and push, and then move on. It's refreshing. Anyway, that's where my mind is at today. Working on being mindful and letting my brain take a breather in Buddha's hands.

Also, I had a surprise root beer float at lunch today. It was lovely.

Hamster Hampster

I'll be honest, wasn't really feeling the doodling today. Drew a hamster on a hamster wheel. Didn't turn out how I wanted. I wanted him running, but it kind of looks like he's on his stomach. The background also ended up being super muddy. Wah wah. Can't wind every doodle every day. I may be going back to pen outlines and watercolor instead of all watercolors. We'll see.

Also, dunno the last time you checked out hampsterdance.com, but it's not what it used to be. Kind of disappointed in its overcomplication. 

Happy Presidents Day!

I'd trade a Snack Pack for Cheetohs. Especially to ol' Abe. Wouldn't you? Then again, I don't know how well Cheetohs would do with George's wooden teeth and all. It's a presidential lunchtime quandary.

Kitty and Rex

If you know me, you know I love cats and dinosaurs. But really, who doesn't love the two? They're inseparable in my book. And since I LOVE them both so much, why not make today's VDay-themed lunchdoodle a little homage to kitty and rex. BFFs forever!

I would lick your eyeball

In celebration of Valentine's Day week, I'll be posting VDay themed lunchdoodles. It's gonna be cheesy. Deal with it. If you're a Valentine's hater, it's cool, you just might want to wait til next week to check back in. :-)

Anywho, I was at PetSmart this weekend and was mesmerized by a wall of various lizards/geckos/salamanders, etc. They're so cute! The one kept licking its eyeball, which I found totally fascinating. If I were a gecko, and had a gecko boyfriend, I'd totally lick his eyeball for him. Out of true gecko love. ::slurp::

Shy Little Oreo

Today's lunchdoodle is animated! I haven't been able to get Vine app to work and today it was updated. So exciting! 

Also, I had Oreos. They were Double Stuf.

Dancing Cheetohs

Two Lunchdoodles today! I had a little extra space on two sheets of my lunchdoodle sketchbook. Perfect for some snack dancing. I wish I had time to paint a cheeseball dancing too. I'll bet you'll enjoy eating Cheetohs so much more now that you know how much they love to get down! I'll bet they like to crunch to some dubstep.. wub wub.

It's Take Your Avocado to Work Day

I've had a lonely avocado hanging out in my kitchen for awhile. And not being one to want to waste something so delicious, I brought the little guy into work. Can't have him turning my other vegetables bad too! 

Asparagus

• I had asparagus for dinner last night.
• I'm über busy at work today.
• I love ümlauts.
• It's süper dark in the office because the weather is sad and miserable.
• I wish I had a scanner at my desk and not my crappy iPhone.
• I'm going to have asparagus for dinner AGAIN tonight. And I can't wait. 
• ÜMLAUTS.

Happy Day

Sometimes days are just really good ones. Like a Diana Ross song kind of day. Today's one of those.

ONE: went to lunch with a good friend I hadn't seen in a long time, which is ALWAYS a good time (and also why this lunchdoodle is late). She's one of those people who is genuinely cheerful, making it impossible to spend time with her and not leave in a good mood.

TWO: This friend also said it looks like I've lost a little weight (which I have! Not a lot, but a little bit, more than a few LB's. So I was pretty happy to hear her say that).

THREE: It's 70º outside. Seven-Ty Degrees. Outside. In January.

FOUR: I've gotten SO MUCH stuff done today. Just obliterating my to-dos. Feels fairly awesome.

FIVE AND THE COOLEST. Chris Guillebeau re-tweeted my sketchnotes from his event last night!!!! !!!!!! !!!!! I maybe squealed a little with excitement. So happy they were well-received.. by the author himself! I am too delighted. :-)

And the day isn't even over! I plan on making and eating an awesome dinner. Might go for a long walk. Might draw stuff. Or work on some side stuff. Or read some books and snuggle my cats. Or also clean, which isn't exciting. BUT maybe when I'm done cleaning, my living room will magically fill up with puppies! Lots and lots of puppies. 

Man. Puppies are the jam.

What? What.

Walruses are goofy, cheerful and make funny sounds. Cats are only cheerful when they want to be, and not often. And are way too dignified to be goofy. Plus, the only funny sounds they make usually involve thrown-up kibble and hairballs. Walruses have the best senses of humor. Unless you're a cat. Then walruses are straight-up jerk faces. But so are cats. So I say, go Mr. Walrus!!

Scaredy Bunnies

MOAR BUNNIES. I love bunnies. Part of the reason I started doing lunchdoodles again was to improve my color/watercolor skills along with sharpening my drawing/doodle/idea-creating skills so I thought it would be fun to try a doodle that plays with light and dark. I need to get bolder and more experimental with colors, but overall I like this one. Plus, it was fun. Cause anything involving bunnies is probably going to be fun. Just sayin.

Also, I wouldn't mind investing in a small scanner for my desk. Working with iPhone photos isn't the greatest.

I LOVE love.

Today's Lunchdoodle is brought to you by love. And hearts. And romantic music.

For as single as I always am, I probably shouldn't love Valentine's Day as much as I do. But I LOVE IT SO MUCH. It's my next favorite holiday, second to Halloween. It's free from family drama, expensive travel, and has super-cheesy potential. All the reds and pinks and hearts and puppies. I can't help but enjoy it. So what if Hallmark came up with it (is that even true?). I say, way to go Hallmark and thanks!

In the spirit of the holiday I generally make a Valentine's Day music mix. Usually of current and old favorites. This year I'm totally bucking the system and going with old school tunes. Jazz and motown ditties that make me smile. No wonder old folks stay married for so long, their music is so romantic!

If you aren't a hearts-day-hater, you can enjoy my mix on Rdio. I'll be adding to it gradually throughout the "season."