About

Once upon a time, I had a cooking blog, a creative writing degree, and by some miracle, a really fantastic job. I love my job. It's challenging, innovative, and I learn everyday. I get to travel, meet new people, and because of my job, I got to move to our nations capital this past fall. DC is arguably the USA's city with the richest culture, history, and, as I am finding out first hand, amazing people and young lifestyle. There's just one problem... it does essentially zilch for me artistically. And I am a person who requires a creative outlet in my life.

Writing is how I usually fill that outlet. I am trying to edit a particular manuscript right now and, God willing, will be sending it out into the world soon. In the meantime, I wanted something to do...something to write. And while my cooking blog IS creative, I really needed more. Something more creative. So, I made this other blog. And then when that broke down and got distracting, I decided to combine my two lovely blogs into one ULTRA cool blog. However, the writing part was still hard. I need writing in my life to appear to be sane but, with all this editing of what I'll call my "manuscript from Hades", I just couldn't commit to something intensive. I needed something just for fun, just for me, and maybe just for a laugh. Added bonus if anyone got interested, could maybe provide some feedback on my writing and I'd set up a web persona that could add something extra to my file for prospective literary agents.

So. I had to figure out WHAT I was going to write. I don't tend to write "deep" pieces, erring on the side of comedy and fiction. I didn't want something too demanding that would distract me from my manuscript and overall goal but, I didn't want to do something that isn't creatively challenging either.

A web comic! Or illustrated short stories! Or an illustrated blog! The seed was planted and I quickly began flipping through some of my favorite comics to see what clicked, imagining myself as the protagonist:

As often as I had always dreamed of having Hobbes as my BFFE, (best friend for ever and ever), the strip comics like Snoopy's and those found on xkcd all weren't quite working for me. I drafted a few (truly tragic) attempts at strip comics but there was never enough writing involved to click. The layout of Hyperbole and a Half though, inspired. There are several blogs out there that have illustrated posts besides H&H, and as I began delving into all those type of sites I could find, the inspiration began to take root. My own protagonist, a doodled cartoon self, began to take shape in my spiral notebook, along with stories from my life, outlined and scribbled out on the page.

Eventually, my spiral was rather full and I was feeling pretty proud of my little cartoon me and the way my adventures and thoughts were all taking shape. I liked the way it looked on the blue lined pages, the crooked lines, and playing with crayons and colored pencils. Nothing complex, but fun to doodle. I couldn't help thinking it would be a shame to re-create all the images in my clean cut computer.

That's about when I decided I wasn't going to. This blog is mine and, as my space (not to be confused with myspace), I am deciding that I don't have to make it look perfect. Therefore, I present to you all: The unedited, uneven, and unorganized creations of my scribbled notebook! All done freehand, in a basic spiral, with black pens and colored pencils. Posted here among recipes, crafts, and general geeky facts of my life. Hopefully you guys find them even kind of as amusing reading them as I found them while creating.

You are now entering a straight-edge free zone.

And yes, my ruler only goes to 8. Fun fact, 8 and 12 are my two favorite numbers. Bonus fun fact, I misjudged the length of that ruler when I was numbering it.