Doodles by Andre Jordan

While I plan to post a delicious little recipe for some hobbit sized treats later this week, I thought I should give you all a little something to tide you over until then. Really though, I was just looking for an excuse to introduce more people to the wonderful twisted honest and sometimes dark humor of Andre Jordan.

Andre Jordan is a British cartoonist that now lives somewhere in the middle section of America with his wife and blind pit bull named Little Man. He started doodling in 2005 (before the wife, the dog and the house) as part of therapy to deal with his depression. Eventually these dark and tragic doodles led to a book called If Your Happy and You Know It which was later followed by another doodle book, a memoir, titled Heaven Knows I'm Miserable Now. In addition to books, he also has a doodle series that he does for the BBC on the topic of mental health.

So you're probably thinking to yourself, jeeze this is all a bit heavy and what does it have to do with gardening or homemaking? Well, in addition to his other projects, Andre Jordan also does a weekly doodle for the gardening blog A Way To Garden. In it he shares the joys, frustrations and the inherent comedy of life in the suburbs.  His doodles cover the spectrum of life's events from the constant back and forth of keeping up with the Joneses, planning sweet revenge against your neighbor who mows his lawn at 6 am on a weekend, the battle of wills between a husband and wife who both garden or the pitfalls of desperately trying to grow things outside your climate zone. Since I didn't ask for permission to post them here, you can follow  a link to his doodles here and below I have linked to a few of my personal favorites. He's done a lot so I promise these can keep you occupied for quite some time.

We've all been here.

                                 Compromise in the garden.

                                 My all time favorite as I've lived through it.

                                 Dead Heading.

                                Enjoy!

Is Anyone There?

So I know it's possible that I have lost all of my devoted readers after my 6 month hiatus, but hopefully after I call all five of you later this evening we will once again be up and running as a wonderful blog about my little slice of domestic life. Just in case this blog had some silent followers out there who aren't relatives and therefore have been left in the dark as to where I've been, or you are simply one of my devoted readers who would love to hear a recap of the last six months, here you go.

First, I did this...

I couldn't have asked for a more beautiful ceremony or for better friends to share it with. Everyone who was a part of it either as a member of our family, the wedding party or simply as a witness was a blessing and made the whole day exactly what we had hoped for. Oh and my brother's shirt never officially came off, so I count that as a victory indeed.

After the wedding of course, we did this...

Thanks to my mom we were able to spend a little over a week in Florida at Disney's Vero Beach resort and on the Disney cruise ship. We were both battling colds for much of it, but luckily I married a guy who took care of me even when he felt bad too. Our first day on the boat felt like we were sailing straight into a hurricane, but the final day (when this picture was taken) was so smooth it looked like we were drifting across an ocean of glass.

Since there is no rest for the wicked, we returned just in time to gear up for the wedding of our dear friend Helen (which I unfortunately have no picture of) followed directly by....

With the weddings and honeymoon I must admit we missed Halloween all together. Not a single decoration went out, but we did get to enjoy Thanksgiving and Christmas. I managed to get my Christmas cards out in the first half of the month and attend/host several different Christmas gatherings all filled with the joy of good people and good food. 

Even with the wonderful madness of the holidays, I did find time to try out one new craft....

I've been toying with the idea of an etsy shop again lately and decided to try out some new crafts to see if anything would stick. The above is my effort at glass cutting. It was exciting because it involved fire and explosions. I have since learned a new not so exciting technique involving hot water but its far more efficient so alas, bye bye fire.



So where have I been since Christmas/New Years? Watching television!!! It takes a lot of forethought to get projects going and since I hadn't had time for that sort of planning I found myself in January with nothing in the works. I am gearing back up now though and look forward to the rest of the winter which will be filled with some home improvement projects and spring garden planning! Thanks for coming along for the ride.