Endlessly Entertaining

This just made me laugh.

Americans are so funny sometimes (yeah, both the ones who are in the picture and the one who made fun of them). ROTFLMAO.

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I have her blog in my feed reader a while already, I just never got around to posting about her. So it really is about time now to introduce you to Andrea Joseph’s Sketchblog.

The name of the blog pretty much says it all: the lady likes to draw - mostly with ballpoint pens - all kinds of stuff, from old sneakers to her camera. Whatever catches her eye, I guess.

What you can’t really see on these small pictures I posted is the amazing detail she puts into those drawings (sorry, I really can’t call them sketches). I did that on purpose, because I want you to hop over to her blog and check out the big versions of her pictures. Honestly, go and have a look, spend an hour going through the archives, and enjoy.

I’m especially impressed that she is using ballpoint pens to draw her pictures, because you can hardly just erase a mistake and try it again as you would when using a pencil. Also, I never would have thought it possible to get this delicate shading done with a ballpoint pen.

Seeing those pictures, however, makes me want to get out my pencil and do some drawings myself. Needless to say they would never be as perfect and beautiful as hers, because I have neither the talent nor the patience to achieve that kind of perfection. But drawing stuff used to be fun, just in and of itself, regardless of the end product. If I dig into some old boxes in the attic, I am sure I could find some old drawings I did at university (biologists draw one thing or another all the time and I’m pretty sure the drawings are more or less the only things I kept from my studies).

I found this a couple of months ago at Darla’s nichtzusagen-blog and had it sitting in my draft folder since then. Since I can’t think of anything else to post right now I figured I might just as well finally use it.

Type the answers to these questions into Google Images and select one image from the first page of results.

1. Age at next birthday:

2. Place I’d like to travel:

3. Favorite place:

4. Favorite objec:

This, by the way, is supposed to be the internet. And, yes, I am aware of it not exactly being a physical object. But I don’t care.

5. Favorite food:

6. Nickname:

7. Place you were born:

8. Town you live in:

9. Your middle name:

10. Your last name:

11. First job:

ROTFLMAO

12. Bad Habit:

LOL, this is so true!

13. Grandmother’s name:

14. Favorite book:

15. Favorite color:

16. Favorite smell:

17. Favorite drink:

18. Favorite animal:

19. Favorite band or singer:

20. Favorite author:

21. Favorite dessert:

Gee, is that just me or is it really that hard to actually decide on one “favorite anything”? Especially with food and drinks - I never really think about what is my favorite. I just classify food into “like” and “don’t like”, but actually deciding if I like food A more than food B is damn hard for me. Tomorrow this list would probably look completely different.

A graphic designer from the UK, whose work blew me away at first sight.

I don’t remember if I saw it first on NOTCOT or FFFOUND or one of those places, but I was instantly impressed by his meticuluos linework and his flowing, graceful style, especially in the animal pictures, but also in his typographic pieces.

All of his stuff is hand-drawn with fineliners. Imagine the patience that takes. Bloody amazing, if you ask me.

I have to find out if there are prints  of some of his works available somewhere, because this is definitely something I could see on my walls. There is, however, a t-shirt with a print of the swan available on Threadless. For myself, I would prefer a shirt with this koi, though:

check out his website for more examples of his work:

www.siscottstudio.com

This would definitely be a product I would buy - if I was one of the poor schmucks living in the city, who are forced to clean up their dog’s shit.

Yes, that’s right, these are dog poo bags. They come in 8 different, pretty cool designs and apparently they have an innovative kind of folding technique that prevents you from actually coming in contact with your dog’s excrements. Also, they look pretty stylish, while you have to carry them around looking for a bloody rubbish bin. You have to check out the website to find the details. Their slogan made me smile:

Shit happens. Just be prepared.

Literally true. Could almost be a good name for a blog as well.

I for one very much like the idea, but I am glad I won’t ever actually have to use those things (because I live in the country and my dog can shit wherever she likes and nobody cares, yay!).

This looks pretty tasty. I can hear my dad grumble already (he doesn’t like food that he has to assemble first), but I think this is what’s for dinner tonight.

Ok, I promise I won’t turn into a food blogger, but since I use this blog more or less as a notepad and idea dump you will just have to endure food posts from time to time. Especially posts that do not go well with diets. Deal with it.

Now let’s get to the interesting part of this post: Banana Cream Pie. I never knew a thing like that existed. Oh joy.

My ignorance in this regard isn’t surprising, since pies in general are not exactly well-known in Germany. At least not in my family. I only learned of pies when I lived in New Zealand, so I still have some catching-up to do. Quite a lot, apparently.

Now, if somebody could explain to me the difference between whole wheat pastry flour, bread flour and just plain normal run-off-the-mill flour… The recipe looks like a bit of a pain in the behind, to be honest. Luckily I don’t get too hung up on recipes normally, I just regard them as general guidelines and make things up as I go along. Works fine, on the whole.

Interesting (or not) factoid about me: normally I don’t like fruitcakes. Or pies. Just anything with any kind of fruit in it, or on top of it. Or pretty much anywhere in the vicinity. The only exception until today was apple cake/pie. If there are no raisins in it, because raisins taste exactly like tadpoles to me. *yuck*

From the look of this pie, though, there will be another exception from now on. And another blog in my feed reader.