We’ve been long overdue for a date night, so this weekend T and I left Danielle to fend off the vicious baby-beast for a few hours while we enjoyed an evening to ourselves. It started with dinner at one of the six billion steakhouses in the greater Bangor area, where the hostess, mistaking us for sports fans, seated us on wobbly bar stools inches from a giant flat-screen TV that was blaring something about football. How… romantic? I had an internal debate with myself–do I want to be one of “those” people and ask to move, or should I suck it up and deal with it?  I decided on the former, because as I told Tim, if I wanted to eat steak in a rickety chair next to a giant TV, I could do it at home–and for much less! But once we were settled in a booth, the crab-stuffed filet and the pomegranate margarita more than made up for it.

Dinner was followed by the late showing of Alice in Wonderland, during which I could barely keep my eyes open. I literally nodded off four times. It could have been the result of being up past my bedtime, but honestly, I don’t think so. The 3-D made me dizzy (odd, I don’t usually have that problem), the characters were flat, the pace was rushed and the story felt sloppy. Our movie choices recently have been hit or miss, leaning more toward the “miss” side of things. Oh well. If nothing else, it got us out of the house for a few hours!

In unrelated news, it’s been a while since I’ve posted gratuitous baby photos, so here you go. Insert lamentation about how fast she’s growing, how I wish she’d stay little for longer, how I can’t believe she’s almost 15 months old, yadda yadda yadda. I’m too entranced with her sweet face and those adorable pudgy cheeks to be coherent about it.

I probably jinxed myself by writing my sick post so early in the season, but I spent the weekend sleeping and cuddling with my new friend, the toilet. The toilet isn’t all that cuddly, actually, but I didn’t have much choice in the matter. I think the bathtub is jealous of our new, special relationship, but I can’t say I’m all that thrilled about it. The toilet is kinda clingy and co-dependent, and I’ve seen far too much of him in the last two months.

And no, I’m not pregnant! I’m just unlucky enough to have the pleasure of two stomach viruses in two months. Yay, me. At least the toilet’s getting some action.

Before The Sick fell upon me yet again, I worked up this little woodlands doodle. I freely admit to tracing from a photograph the deer you see in the distance, because I got frustrated when my version looked like hunchback aliens with tentacles for legs. I was reminded why I don’t draw for real–like with pen and paper–because I suck at it! Yes, I’m an illustrator who’s totally dependent on Illustrator. There’s a reason I use the word “doodles” instead of “drawings” or “illustrations,” and Attack of the Killer Alien Deer from Outer Space is one of them. Frolic away, little woodsy creatures, knowing you’re safe from my poor non-existent hand-eye coordination!

(Crosspost coming through!  Apologies if you’re seeing this twice.)

It’s that time again! I’ll admit this one isn’t particularly inspired, but March is not exactly an inspired month in Maine. It’s rainy. It’s gray. It’s not particularly warm when you factor in 40 mph winds. I’ll have something more exciting to offer come April, I’m sure. Until then, here you go:

Just a quick note to say the Calobee Doodles shop has been updated with lots of new stuff, and I’m writing about them in the Calobee Doodles blog.

We’ve had a rather lazy weekend here… lots of playing with Miss Ellie (and by “playing” I mean “reading the same three baby books over and over and over”–at least it makes her happy), some Wii, and more doodling on my part. The rainy, overcast weather is starting to get to me, but at least it’s relatively warm!

And the mania subsides… hopefully not for good. I finally reached a point last night where all I wanted to do is collapse into bed super early and sleep. I decided this is a good time to start writing, pricing, researching, and all the other mundane things involved in running an online shop.

In the meantime, here are the fruits of the week’s labor:

Some of these are new, some old, some repurposed. I’m starting three new sections in my shop that I’m excited about–three new sections means three new products!

Last weekend was a whirlwind of creative energy. So many ideas! So many new things I want to try! I’m blaming the strangely warm weather we’ve had this February. It’s pulled me out of my winter funk and straight into spring mania (I don’t have the heart to tell my muse it’s not really spring yet).

First things first–I got new glasses on Friday, and I am in love with them. They are purple and just geeky enough to be “me.” I tried to get a self-portrait but I am so out of practice I couldn’t do their awesomeness justice, so I’ll have to wait until Tim can help me. In the meantime, these are my new frames–I think “spiffy” is the appropriate word here.

Second, I’ve been doodling like mad since last Wednesday, and I’m ordering no less than 15 test prints from my printer this week (!!!)  That’s an insane amount of new work for me. I wrote about the new “numbers” colorways (above), and I took a few minutes to put up a new banner in the Calobee Doodles shop. There are several new prints and products coming soon, too! And I’ve been chipping away at custom orders amidst everything else, so all in all, I’m kind of floored by my own productivity. Where did this crazy-high-energy person come from? Can I keep her?

Finally, on Sunday we hung out with our long-lost friend Danielle and played lots of Wii. Tim picked up Super Mario Bros., which brought me back to my childhood–I spent many hours watching my brother play Super Nintendo, all the while yelling at him to go left, right, go back and get that coin, you missed a pipe, etc. I’m not only a backseat driver–I’m a backseat gamer. I can’t boss Tim around like I used to my bro, but it’s not for lack of trying.

All this fun and I didn’t even have to leave the house! Now, I must keep up with this productive streak and get back to work.

It’s probably a little silly to talk about last weekend fun when last weekend was, oh, 4 days ago, but that’s about how much time it takes me to wake up–so, a recap: My parents came to visit, and much fun was had by all. We ate chocolate mousse, I got my ass kicked at Wii Sports, and Ms. Ellie reveled in the extra attention.

While we were at the natural food center, Mom convinced me to try my hand at sprouts. Contrary to popular belief, the strange stuff now growing on my counters is NOT mold, thank you very much… these are radish sprouts:

They’re highly nutritious and taste like little radishes, but without all the washing and dicing and slicing my fingers open–I can pop a handful of these in my mouth and save myself the trouble. So easy!

We also decided to take advantage of the extra space in my parents’ van and buy some new garbage cans (I know, exciting stuff). Our old cans have been violently molested by the killer squirrels who live in our back yard–they’ve chewed squirrel-sized holes in the lids, making it that much easier to spread trash all over the back yard. The homeowner’s association loves us, I can tell you.

So Dad and I went off to Home Depot to pick up some new bins. While we were there, I found these planters:

Aren’t they cute? Not that I have any plants for them, of course. They’ll probably end up holding pencils.

All in all, an excellent weekend! I have high hopes for the next one, too. I’m feeling inspired by the mild, spring-like weather and have lots of new projects in mind. Stay tuned!

I collect links the way some people collect magazine clippings for an inspiration board, and Google Reader allows me to star and share interesting tidbits I find as I’m reading. Here are some of my recent favorites:

• How did Modish know this is just what I needed today? – Things are looking appropriately bleak around here–it must be February. This colorful post cuts into the gray nicely.
• These illustrations at The Shiny Squirrel make me vaguely uncomfortable – But as one of my favorite authors once said, “Art is not comfortable.”
• I wish I’d grown up in this house, via Design Sponge – It’s like a cross between a funhouse and a thrift store. I especially like the birdhouses in the kids’ bedroom.
• Artwork by Kate Pugsley at Celebrate Odd Etsy – You never know what eclectic Etsy goods you’ll find at Celebrate Odd Etsy. This particular illustrator’s work caught my eye because of the teeth drawing.

Find these and more at my shared favorites on Google Reader!

A couple weeks ago I started to notice odd things happening with WordPress when I’d try to create a post… images wouldn’t upload properly, I was getting odd error messages in bright red text–not good! After talking with my husband (aka the WordPress Genius) we determined it was because I was attempting to run two separate WordPress sites from one host. Apparently that’s not a good idea. Who knew?

So I’ve moved Calobee Doodles over to WPWebHost.com, and so far, so good. No more errors, and this new host has a great setup specifically for us WordPress geeks. Sixhours.net is still hosted with 1and1, but depending on how things go, I might just move it over, too.

All this tech-babble to say, I know I’m a bit late in getting a February desktop wallpaper out there… but here it is! And this whole thing got me thinking, at some point I may just remove the calendar part completely to make them seasonal (and reusable!) instead of straight calendars. Until then, I have a slew of custom orders to work through, and I should really get started on a March wallpaper to avoid being late again–the end of February always sneaks up on me.

My germs, let me show you them.

Let me just say, I truly underestimated the sheer amount of sickness that having a child in daycare brings to the family. Before Ellie came, I used to joke about my immune system of steel. Oh, I was so cocky.

Now every time El brings home a bug, it’s almost guaranteed I’ll get it, too. Cold, stomach flu, pinkeye–you name it, we’ve had it! And while Ellie is miserable for only a couple days (if that), whatever I catch seems to linger. (Meanwhile, Tim, who’s normally the infection-prone one, has hardly had any problems. Go figure.)

I’m beginning to wonder if the daycare is just a front for a government-run germ-manufacturing facility whose real purpose is to develop new agents for biological warfare… and we’re their unsuspecting test subjects. Paranoid? Me?

I’m just kidding, of course. Fighting The Sick in a daycare is a losing battle that not even a truckload of disinfectant could win. Babies are little germ factories.

All this complaining because Ellie is down with cold number I’ve-lost-track, and I’m watching for the next cold symptoms in myself–because you know that’s how it will go down. I have to keep reminding myself that no family can exist in a bubble, and at least she’ll be well-prepared for the germ bath that is grade school.

As for me… well… there’s always Nyquil.