My First Santa of the Season

I sure hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving. I ate so well that it's going to take me a month of riding my bike to burn the calories from that one meal. Then there's the leftovers.  Is it any wonder my winter and summer weights can be so far apart? Next week I start my Christmas baking and I'll need to make sure everything I bake to give as gifts and serve guests is up to my standards so there's going to be a lot more calories to add cushioning to my mid section.

I've been keeping myself pretty busy working on my ornaments plus other projects and don't see things slowing down any time soon. You realize that there's only 26 days and a wake up until Christmas. I'm so behind already that I don't think I'll catch up. I usually have my Christmas cards ready to be mailed before Thanksgiving but this year I haven't started on them yet. I also haven't gotten any decorating done. Now if you know me you know how far behind I am as I always have things going the day after Thanksgiving. I'm not one of those people who shop Black Friday (well maybe a little bit of shopping) as I use that day to get started on my decorating which usually takes weeks to complete.

Anyway, the reason for this post is to show you something that I've been working on the past couple of weeks. This is my first Santa since July 9th and thought I'd show him to you before he gets boxed up for his trip to his new owner.

sleigh bells ring, are you listening? 

a bundle of switches for naughty children, what's that all about?

I'd say about two axe handles, agreed?

Okay, that's better. I see the vintage teddy bear and the doll in the pocket. I love those over sized pockets. I wonder if there's candy in the other one. Well, that's all for now, I've got to get back to work.

As always, thanks for stopping by.

More Adventures of Donovan and Baby Bear

One day Grandma, Donovan and Baby Bear decided to take a walk. Since it was going to be a long walk they took the stroller.

“Make sure to hold on to Baby Bear so that he doesn’t fall out of the stroller and get hurt.” Grandmas told Donovan. Donovan said he would hold tight and wouldn’t let Baby Bear fall.

As they walked along they saw some big black birds that said, “Caw…caw…caw.” Donovan tried talking to the birds by saying, “Caw…caw…caw.”

Then they saw a big unfriendly looking dog and Donovan was a little tiny bit frightened but he didn’t want Baby Bear to be frightened so he held him close and told him the doggy wouldn’t hurt him.  This made Baby Bear feel better and he wasn’t afraid.

Grandma asked Donovan if he would like to go to the ice cream place and get a cone. Donovan said he and Baby Bear would like some ice cream so that’s what they decided to do.

While Donovan was waiting for Grandma to get their cones he showed the other people in line how Baby Bear could dance. Everyone said that Baby Bear was a very good dancer.

They went outside of the shop to the little court yard and sat on the benches under the trees to eat their ice cream. Donovan shared his with Baby Bear.  While they licked their cones butterflies flew over the flowers that surrounded the bench where they sat. Donovan and Baby Bear liked the ‘Flutter byes.’ Soon they were finished with their treat. Baby Bear managed to get melted ice cream all over his face and down the front of himself and so did Donovan. Good thing Grandma had plenty of wet napkins.

As you can see from these four drawings, my skill with colored pencil has diminished considerably. Blame it on the bad hand and the failing eye sight. I didn't even notice that I'd failed to color Grandma's shoes until after I'd taken the pictures.

I found a couple of photos showing the real Donovan and Baby Bear and thought that I would share them with you.

The first one is a copy of the actual photo that was taken the day we went for Donovan's 18 month portrait and Donovan found Baby Bear.

Sorry for the sparkly finish. The photo paper has a sheen that makes copying difficult.

This portrait was taken exactly three years after the one above. Donovan insisted Baby Bear had to have his picture taken too as it was his birthday. We used to have birthday parties for Baby Bear as he really did become a part of our family.

I mentioned in the previous post that this story was based on the relationship of my grandson and his teddy bear but I failed to explain that everything that I've related in this little tale is true. I also should tell you that although many years have passed, Donovan and Baby Bear are still together.  I haven't seen Baby Bear in years but the last time I did see him you could tell he was getting up there in years.

I'm not sure I want to complete coloring any more of the drawings as the paper they are sketched on isn't very good quality to begin with and if I were to spend any more time doing this I'd want to start from the beginning and redo all of the illustrations on higher quality paper with either water color of acrylic paints. I thought there were 11 original sketches but have found two more that aren't completely drawn. I may or may not post the rest of the story but haven't decided when or how I'll go about it. 

At this time I'd like to tell all of you out there on the east coast who are in the path of hurricane Irene that my thoughts and prayers are with you. Please be safe and let us hear from you.

As always, thanks for stopping by.

The Adventures of Donovan and Baby Bear

The day that Donovan first met Baby Bear was the day that he and Grandma had gone to have his picture taken. They had just left the photographer’s and had decided to visit the toy department. As they were walking through the aisles of shelf after shelf of toys, Donovan saw him. He was sitting on a shelf with other stuffed animals and toys, but all Donovan noticed was the little bear.

“Look Grandma, look at the baby bear,” said Donovan. “I want him to come home with me.” Donovan ran over to where the little bear was sitting and took him off of the shelf and started hugging him. He was hugging him so tightly that Grandma had a hard time finding the price tag to give to the sales lady so they could pay for him. This is how Donovan discovered Baby Bear.

When he got back to Grandpa and Grandma’s house, Donovan could hardly wait to show Grandpa and his great grandma, whom he called Gee Gee his new friend. They both thought Baby Bear was a very nice bear and they were glad to have him come live with them.

Donovan and Baby Bear did everything together. They ate together…they played together…they watched television together with Donovan explaining the parts that Baby bear didn’t understand. They spent every moment of every day together. At night when they went to bed Donovan would hold onto Baby Bear and slip his finger through Baby Bear’s tag. The tag formed a loop and Donovan told Grandma that the tag was a finger house.

Donovan and Baby Bear made up games to play. One day they were playing in the kitchen and Donovan decided to press his face against the glass of the French door and make his face look funny and flat to make Baby Bear laugh. Uncle Ken was there that day and he was laughing along with Baby Bear. Uncle Ken told Donovan that they should let Baby Bear press his face against the glass to make them laugh. So Baby Bear pressed his face against the glass but when he did his face went blank. He was so soft and furry his face seemed to disappear.

This is the beginning of a book that I wrote and illustrated some 20 plus years ago. It’s based on the relationship between my grandson and his teddy bear. I finished the story and drew eleven drawings but never finished the illustrations as other things were always getting in the way. I thought it would be fun to share this first bit of the story and because these are the only drawings that got colored it’s as far as I can go at this time. The paper is old and yellowing and the drawings are done in colored pencil so I must apologise for the quality of the photos. I tried scanning them first but the scanned pictures were even poorer and the colors were so different that they didn't even look like the same drawings.

I hope you’ve enjoyed seeing the beginnings of my great novel. Grinning here.

As always, thanks for stopping by.