The Quest For The Enchanted Fashion Boots

Good evening everyone. Hope you all enjoyed your weekend. The week started off a bit rough with Mia staying home from school due to a lingering fever. She got through it and made it to school the next day. We were a bit worried she'd still be ill but not say anything to her teacher. I texted my father in law from work on my break and he said she was feeling better when he picked her up. Phew.
Wednesday after school, I took Mia shopping for the coveted black fashion boots. We have looked EVERYWHERE! Payless, Target, Kohls, a kids resale place etc. Nothing. I was getting more and more discouraged.So was Mia.

 All hope was crumbing...but we had one more idea..One more thought that just maybe they'll have some boots at Justice at the mall. Justice is another kids store that focuses on girls her age and older. Lots of bright pinks and blues splattered all over the clothing. In other words, a perfect place for her. We looked through their very small selection of footwear and just about when I thought they didn't have anything for her, we found one pair in her size in the style she liked. She quickly tried them on. BOOM. Fit perfectly. She was so incredibly happy that she found the shoes she wanted. They were on sale too. Bonus. As we walked out, she was smiling so much it made my heart happy. I know they're shoes which shouldn't be a big deal, but to see her that happy about something she's going to wear till she can't fit in them anymore is fantastic. One of the main reasons why she wanted a pair, was to attempt to match Jill's boots. Jill is her role model and she aspires to be and look like her all the time, while at the same time, can create her own look that gives her confidence.

She immediately tried them on when we got home again. Perfect. She couldn't wait to show Jill.
Thursday, I had left a lunch note that in my opinion, was one of the best drawings I've done. I spent the majority of my Wednesday drawing a picture of Rey from Star Wars-The Force Awakens for Mia. She's the reason why Mia is liking the franchise and Mia really likes her. I was curious if she knew who the drawing was of when she opened her lunch. She didn't know at first, but when her friend Ryan told her it was Rey (who coincidentally dressed as Rey for Halloween) Mia said "Oh yeah, I knew that". Drawing-wise, I'm getting way more confident with everything I've been drawing the last week or so. Some, I haven't put a lot of effort in, but the ones that I really put a lot of work into turn out fantastic. This was something different for me to attempt and I'm very happy with the final result. For tomorrow, I drew a pretty rad Ursula.

Saturday, she had dance class and I missed Chelsea's win in the FA Cup match. 4-0. Easy peasy. Missing tomorrow's big match against Liverpool but I'll be damned if I miss the early 6:30am game against Arsenal on Saturday. After dance, we drove to my brother's house for his kiddo's 4th birthday party. Mia had a lot of fun playing with the cousins.  Sunday, we didn't do a lot. Mia drew some beautiful portraits of Jill and I before I went to work.

This week, not a lot going on except dance on Saturday and the match. I've got some soccer stuff to design up and an oil chance Wednesday.

Have a great week and thanks for reading!

Beyond The Music

Good evening everyone. Hope you all got to enjoy the weekend. I know some are upset today about the Packers losing, but hopefully you can move on. The week was a pretty busy but mostly enjoyable one.  I've been really stepping up my lunch notes for Mia this week. I had sort of a misfire with the Alice and Cheshire Cat, but overall it turned out okay. The ones I'm most proud of were Mr. Big from Zootopia and Naveen in frog form from The Princess and the Frog.  Both images, I used a single color pencil on and was able to create the images close enough to the real thing. I'm very stoked about it and hope to keep up the good work. My GoPro Hero 4Silver came in over the week as well. I have yet to really dive into what it can do but I can't wait to explore it. I've basically put a battery in it and make sure I've got all the parts and SD card. I looked online for a good camera for months and after some dead ends, I decided with some Christmas money to look into a GoPro. We're planning a trip to Hawai'i in a year or two and it would be nice to have a camera that can be used in water, but still have good solid quality. I also want to use this for Torrent games, videos and Flood Supporters Group images as well.

Last week my all-time favorite band Less Than Jake performed a live "practice set" on Facebook. I don't always listen to them, but they are and have been my favorite band for so many years. Mia even likes them as well. It was great to watch them perform even a short set. Wednesday, I picked up Mia from school and her friend Noelle and Mia walked home together. It was nice and fun for the girls to walk home and talk on their way. It's fun having a friend from school in the neighborhood that sometimes gets to walk with Mia. Noelle typically takes the bus but since the weather wasn't that bad, the kids walked home. Mia got her homework done and we relaxed before dinner with Jill. My tattoo artist Marcus had given me two stencils he hand-drew for Mia of foxes and I tried to put one on her and messed it up. I'll try it again another time.
Friday was inauguration day. I completely avoided watching the circus show of Trump getting sworn into office. It totally proved that even a lying celebrity with zero political experience can some how get to rule the free world. Our country is indeed, in some serious trouble. On a better note, the weekend was pretty enjoyable. Saturday, Mia had dance and loved it. She loves to tell us that she's doing better each time. Later, her and I went ice skating while Jill went into her new studio space to do some work. They had free skating day at Eble Ice Arena so you can imagine how busy they were. Mia had a blast and always loves going skating with me. She only fell once but it was because the diva kept jumping while holding my hand and when we went around a turn, she jumped and she let go of me. Silly kid.

Later, we met up with Jill and went to my brother's hockey game. His wife, kids, mother in law AND my parents all joined. Even though they lost, it was a fun outing. After wards, Jill, Mia and I got pizza and a movie.

Sunday I watched the Chelsea vs Hull City match. Great game and well-deserved 3 points. They were struggling at times trying to break through the back line but they got the win they needed. Mia unfortunately got a fever Sunday and was laying around most of the day. Jill said she would wake up from time to time to eat some apples but that was about it. When I got home from work, she was asleep but woke up to change into something cooler before going back to bed. I'm pretty sure she's staying home tomorrow, but I hope she can bounce back and make it.

That's all for now. Thanks for reading!

Ice Ice Castles

Good morning everyone! Middle of January and its already shaping to be a busy few months here. Mostly, art wise dividing time between graphic design projects with the Torrent/Flood and my newest project, which will be commission art for Jill's new photography studio space in Downtown Waukesha. Very excited about that and look forward to selling art in a store front. The week was pretty busy at work and by 'busy" I mean downright depressing. From getting screamed at by an elderly customer Friday, to the car wash busting at work its just been a real pain. Saturday, Mia started her 2nd semester of dance class. She's been looking forward to starting dance again for weeks. They added another girl to the class totally 3 kids. After wards, I watched 20 or so minutes of the Chelsea vs Leicester match before we drove to Madison to meet Jill's family.  The Blues ended up winning 3-0 picking up 3 points and are comfortably ahead of the Spurs. We had lunch, and drove to the ice castles. They were absolutely beautiful. It was super cold out but we tried our best not to freeze. Yours truly was the biggest idiot forgetting to wear a 2nd pair of socks. My toes were absolutely freezing.

We waited about an hour to go down a 2.5 second slide. Mia loved it. I smacked my arm into something and bruised my tailbone a bit. Overall, the castles were a lot of fun and well-worth checking out of you don't mind being cold. Later, we grabbed some dinner before heading home for the night. Mia fell asleep almost immediately after turning on Star Wars-A New Hope. Kid was totally worn out. She stayed asleep till 9:30 the next morning. Sunday, her friend Noelle stopped over to sell some of those Girl Scout cookies. The kids played for about an hour while we chatted her her Mom. The girls are pretty adorable playing

This week, lots of graphic design work. Today, Mia got MLK Jr. Day off so we're going to relax and enjoy the day before I go to work. None of her friends were available to hang out, so we're just going to chill. The weather isn't the best so we'll take advantage of the time together.

Thanks for reading.

Working Week

Good morning everyone. Back to normal work/school week for Jill and Mia. Although Mia didn't have to go back till Tuesday but Jill went back Monday. I'm back to drawing lunch notes for Mia experimenting with new color pencils and different texture paper. It's fun trying new paper because you honestly don't know how the pencil will effect the paper so I get to learn new techniques again.

Wednesday was a frustrating one for the Blues. Chelsea's long run of 13 wins in a row stopped at 13 when those dirty rotten Spurs ruined the run at White Hart Lane. Wish we would have played better but we did win over the weekend in the FA cup 4-1. Despite the red card on Terry, they finished strong and will move on to the next round. Saturday I took Mia to Cascio to get her violin tuned and working. She LOVES this thing and has been playing it a lot. We're most likely going to be investing in lessons come Summertime when she's not as busy with everything. When we got home, Mia wanted to watch The Force Awakens. WHAT? Really? Okay. So I skipped through some darker scarier scenes and she really liked it and NOW wants to watch the original trilogy.

Later, we met up at our old favorite place to eat in Waukesha Steaming Cup with Jill's family.
I had a Flood meeting later that evening. It sort of was a bust because some of the guys that were supposed to come forgot or blew it off. We did however meet with one of the members of The Barons (who want an MLS team in the state) and they'll be joining The Flood with supporting the Torrent at the 2017 games. The stadium is way closer to my house and a lot of bars in the area so we're hoping to march to matches. Looking forward to the busy season.

Later we went to see Sing at the theaters. The girls saw it in Ohio but wanted to see it with me. Good movie. Sad moments but the saddest thing about it, was that the main character (to me) was far from likable. He wasn't memorable for the movie. Everything else was really fun and enjoyable but the koala was just not that exciting of a character. Sorry.

Sunday I watched the FA Cup Chelsea match. We did some cleaning and later I went to work.
This week, more art, hopefully not a lot of snow and Mia's back at dance on Saturday.

That's all for now, thanks for reading!

End of 2016, Hello 2017

Good morning everyone. Well, what was supposed to be a relaxing rest of my week while the girls were gone turned into a freezing disaster. Last I left you, I was taking the girls with Jill's Dad to Midway airport. When I came back, the temp in the house read 46 degrees. ARE YOU KIDDING ME?? Long story short, we had a guy come look at it the next morning and the very next day, he replaced the central board for the furnace costing over $500. Not exactly what I'd want to be putting out right after the holidays. From Tuesday till Thursday evening, I had no heat in the house. I can't tell you how incredibly cold it was in here. I had no motivation to do any art because I couldn't hold a pen or pencil. I didn't really want to go to work because I knew there was a possibility I'd come home to a house with no heat. Luckily, he had it working by Thursday night.

Saturday morning, I watched Chelsea triumphantly beat Stoke 4-2. What a great way to end the year. Later, Jill's Dad and I met and drove to get the girls. Took us way less time to get to Midway this time so we had a lot of time before they even left Ohio to land in Chicago. Midway may be one of the least exciting airports I've been in. Nothing really to do. No shops to look at or anything. Just a kiosk that sells over-priced sandwiches. When they finally arrived, we got their bags and were gone. On 294 in Chicago, we got a flat. My father in law must have hit something rough, and we were stranded for about an hour. He couldn't get the tire off as poor Mia was standing out upset exclaiming "we are gonna miss NEW YEARS!!"

The guy arrived and was able to blast the bad tire off wit ha 4x4 piece of wood. He got the donut on and we were on our way. Made it home by 10:30, all very exhausted. We watched the ball drop and the star rise (in Chicago) and that was it.

2016 was a busy year. I have never been more busy graphic design-wise doing double duties with both the Milwaukee Torrent and later Ian Bennett's clothing line. I have been drawing a ton for Mia completing a lunch note sketch every day. They range from mildly easy to pretty damn difficult. It's been great to use this daily routine to get better at drawing. Speaking of art, I was very fortunate this year to start and complete my 1/2 sleeve Hawaiian-themed tattoo. I love this piece and would go back to my very talented artist in the future. Mia graduated 4K and started Kindergarten. She made a ton of great friends and somehow, started liking boys again (specifically ONE boy from preschool has her heart) She got to travel twice this year via plane. Florida and recently Ohio. Mia enrolled in a tap/ballet dance class that she loves and did some art classes over the Summer. I got to see The Falcon and meet one of my all-time favorite musicians. With all of the positives, there were definitely some negatives in 2016. Our dishwasher broke, the control with in the furnace broke. Trump became President, Chelsea had a really bad 15/16 season and a slew of amazing musicians and actors passed away. Hoping for a better 2017.

My goals are simple: More art. Better shape. This week, today is Mia's LAST day before she goes back to school. I've got a Flood meeting Saturday. Other than that, that's about it. Have a great week and thanks for reading over the year!