Studio Kiekje

Happy Birthday to Sean

Today is my sweet boyfriend's 26th birthday.

 

Happy Birthday dear Sean. May all your birthday wishes come true! (Especially if they involve giant cupcakes.)

xoxoxoxo times a million,

Kiekje

Dress sketches

I'm sketching some dresses for some illustrations I have in mind.

(This is from my sketchbook so please excuse the scanner fog!)

I had a very particular look in mind - something loose and summery and a bit quaint. Like something a girl in a Carl Larsson painting would wear. 

I looked to some of my Flickr favorites for inspiration, and  it didn't disappoint.(Of course I won't be directly copying the photographs for the final drawing, but this was just to get a sense for how the clothes should be constructed) I would be quite happy with any of these dresess in my wardrobe!

 

         1. brown dress, 2. mustard gingham, 3. Thrifted Dress - $5, 4. a lot

Eggstreme Eggcellence

We had some friends over for a delayed Saint Patrick's day dinner tonight. I made this torte again - And decorated it with a powder sugar stencil shamrock.

When I lined up my ingredients for baking the five eggs required for this recipe were staring up at me looking like a little family. So I decided to give them the faces they were silently asking for.

 

May I present Molly, Gertrude, Sarah, Frank and Bill.

How d'you do?

Every time I see this picture I start telling stories in my head about this family. Perhaps about how Bill ended up with a baby bird on his head, or how Frank got into competitive bicycle racing, or how Molly enjoys the smell of a new picture book.

Feel free to leave me a little story in the comments!

Have a lovely weekend, from the l'Oeuf family and me!

Autumn drawing and New chair

Here is the new drawing as promised:

 

This summer I started a series of seasonal drawings of a book-loving girl reading at different times of the year. This is the Autumn one, and my favorite so far. I haven't shared the other two yet - mostly because I'm thinking of redoing the Summer one. But I'm looking forward to drawing the Winter one. I'm thinking a fireplace, pajamas and hot chocolate will have to be involved. (In the drawing, not real life.) (Ok, who am I kidding, in real life too)

detail?

As always, you can click for a bigger image.

And, the promised dumpster find from this weekend.

:drum roll:

This rocking chair! It is so comfortable, and it reminds me of something you would find in Hemingway's Key West house. We found it  next to the dumpster, but the cushion had been put in a plastic bag, so clearly someone was hoping that it would be picked up by a chair-searching soul rather than thrown away. There was also a nifty and sturdy cart on wheels which was initially mostly ignored in the happiness of the new chair, but is now being recognized as being extremely useful! (The embroidered pillow is one I've had for years - I think my mom picked it up for me at a church craft sale. There are literally hundreds of french knots all over it. I should really take a closer picture of it.)

We've been taking turns at sitting in the chair.

We haven't fought over it though. Yet.

Ship Castle

Another sketchbook drawing inspired by an image in the Beauty and the Beast book I last posted about. The detail of a tower topped by a ship caught my eye and stuck in my brain.

 

In other news, wow, it's kinda cold around here. All of a sudden all of the leaves fell off the trees.
Evidence:

The view from one of the living room windows this morning.

I do enjoy the shapes of bare tree branches against the sky, as well as all the abandoned bird's nests being revealed. However, there is a new difficulty: Do I need to wear my winter coat yet?

Let me explain. Every year I agonize about whether or not it is time to wear my coat yet. Not because I dislike my coat, but because I know once I have to start wearing it, I'll be wearing it pretty much constantly until April. So once it gets cold I agonize before leaving the house whether I can get away with another day of a jacket or a big sweater. Inevitably this will lead to a day where I should have worn my coat and didn't. It hasn't happened yet this year, but we expect it soon.

This conversation happens a lot around here:
Me: Do you think I have to wear my coat yet?
Sean: I don't know. It's supposed to be pretty cold out.
Me: Do you think I can get away with just a jacket if I wear this sweater underneath it?
Sean: You're always cold. Why don't you just wear your coat?
Me: But I DON'T WANNA WEAR MY COOOOOOAT!!!

And repeat, until Sean wises up and lets me learn my lesson the hard way.

So dear readers, what do you think? Do I need to wear my coat yet?

The best costume

The weekend is almost over, and so are the last little bits of Halloween. Before I move on here is a sketchbook doodle of the best costume I saw this year:

This boy was a hot air balloon! This was so clever, and was considered amongst my friends the best costume of the night. It was clearly a home-made costume, which made me love it even more. What was the best costume you saw?

Well, goodbye Halloween! Today I saw Christmas and Hannukah decorations were up in a local shopping center. I'm not certain my brain is ready for that jump already.

Have a lovely week!(Hopefully you remembered to set your clocks back :) )

Leonora, Lady Detective

A new little character from Studio Kiekje - Leonora, Lady Detective.

 

I think it would be fun to do a series of drawings of her at some point. I can imagine her peering seriously into mysterious corners, dusting fingerprints, and examining footprints, all the while wearing a series of fabulous vintage-y outfits. (Oh, and please forgive the random lines on the left side. Leonora was a sketchbook creation, and had to share her space with another creature which has not been deemed blog-worthy :) )

True story

This little guy reminds me of the cat bus in My Neighbor Totoro. 

Yes?

A Jack o' lantern-lope

Here's a Jack o'lantern-lope come to wish you a very Happy October!

He's aspiring to be like the jackalope. Jack o' lanterns deserve costumes too.

Pink is for nightie

Inspired by the little drawing by Maurice Sendak mentioned in this post. I thought there needed to be a Studio Kiekje version: