Picture Book Marathon 2011 - Day 6

Plot Summary: our Main Character (let's call him Quentin) loves his little metal cars so very, very much.  And the blue one happens to be his favorite.  And then it goes missing.  And Quentin goes to every room in the house blaming his brothers and sisters for the disappearance.  In the end it turns out to be somewhere Quentin would never have guessed.

When I was a kid I was always losing things.  And with 5 siblings there were plenty of people to blame it on instead of myself.

This cover is based on a true story.  Early this morning when my wife went down to the parking garage she noticed that the car was gone (kind of hard to miss really.)  We both immediately thought the car was stolen.  Bad news.

After my brain woke up a bit more I vaguely remembered driving the car to a friend's house on Saturday but I didn't recall driving it home.  Turns out that I left the car at this friend's house for a couple of days and just walked the two blocks home without thinking about it.

That's the biggest thing I've ever lost.  Good thing it didn't go far.

I Love Sewing

A couple of weeks ago I got to use a sewing machine for the first time.  Honestly, sewing by hand is just stupid.  It takes longer and doesn't look nearly as nice.  I still don't really know what I'm doing, but I'm having fun learning.  Notice my glee and intense concentration.

So, after some effort I came out with this guy.  His name is Brutus.  He is loved by adults and children alike.

Sometimes Brutus likes to pretend that he's one of the couch pillows.

This photo is really just for size reference.  I swear.  Also, Brutus has a wicked underbite that is very had to duplicate by non-monsters.

More plushie monsters to come.

Crayons at the Restaurant

So, the penguin on skis was my wife, Tiffany's idea. It came about one night when the two of us were on a date. We went to Macaroni Grill, which happens to be one of my favorite places to eat. It's not my favorite because of the food (though it is pretty good.) It's my favorite because of the crayons. Most restaurants will give you crayons if you ask and they might throw a kid's menu at you to draw on. But at Macaroni Grill they cover the entire table with white butcher paper. Woot!

So, a couple weeks back, whilst waiting for our food to be delivered to our table I asked Tiff what I should draw. She suggested a penguin. I asked what he should be doing. She suggested skiing. So I drew this:

And then, yes, when we left I tore a big chunk out of the table cloth and took it home with me to use as a rough draft. What? I bet it happens all the time.