She lives in the forest in a house between the roots of a big old tree. She likes feathers and playing.

Her father likes fishing and cooking, her mother builds things. Mostly furniture.

I can't get the claws the way I want to. Guess this means I have to draw a lot of dragons...

Late night doodling.

Guess what I signed up for...

The lovely Jess from Borked Planet needed some guest fumes so I drew her a dragon!

Go check it out!

I've done a drawing over at InkBlobChronicles every day for roughly two weeks now and for almost two weeks before that I did one almost every day. I guess the habit slowly forms. One of the drawings resulted in me changing my twitter icon, because I really like how the drawing on the side turned out (a self-portrait with new hat).

Yesterday Nano hurt herself again during our walk, and she started bleeding from her paw. Today I went into the hospital and had some blood taken. This week has already turned into a bloody week. Wonder what else will happen in the next few days...

I drew this daily in my pocket moleskine sketchbook and feel a little torn. I like the pre-printed dates in the planner, which works as an extra stimulant to draw every day. On the other hand, my colours bleed / shine through a lot which causes a few annoyances on my side. And on one side I can get over that, like how I get over the pre-printed lines. On the other side, I just like it more when it doesn't show that much.

The added benefit of using an 80-page pocket sketchbook: it fills up much faster which works as a great motivator too. One of these days I will actually fill up an entire sketchbook ;)

So, for now, I think I'll switch to the sketchbook. As my friend said, I can always change my mind again.

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After the sofa day came a grape day, on which I ate a lot of grapes and messed up the colouring of my drawing. I suddenly turned brown!

It had nothing to do with the grapes, I just messed up the drawing.

On tuesday my veggie-box arrived with fresh new veggies! It always feels like a little surprise-package. On Wednesday I did my grocery-shopping at the mall and treated myself to a few stickers and some decorative tape, aaah. It looks so shiny and pretty.

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I had a sofa day. Not the entire day, because I did do some drawings, just most of the day.

Nano and I went for a firm walk in the afternoon, and then crawled back on our spots on the sofa to watch MacGyver.

I also made a drawing about a recent event in the hospital, where certain body-parts got squashed between a very uncomfortable machine. I prefer not to repeat that.

These past few days I've made a few autobiographical drawings with myself as a cartoon character. I also did a few of Nano, because she plays a big part in my life. I used to do these drawings / cartoons (I might dig them up and scan, no promises however!) and stopped doing them when I started to do 'serious' drawings. I now feel I can do both, so I do :)

Today we visited a few monuments in the city of Alkmaar. We nibbled some cheese and one stand had free poffertjes. Though the official recipe uses buckwheat flour, most poffertjes-makers these days use plain wheat-flour to make them. As did these. I can't tolerate wheat very well but couldn't resist nibbling on one little poffertje with lots of butter and powdered sugar. And then I had one more. And another.

The following tummy-ache did not make me happy. But eating poffertjes did. It made my week, aaah!

I recently purchased a new rucksack.

Yes, another one.

Some people buy shoes, or clothes, or purses, or gadgets, or games. I buy rucksacks.

Because of my RA I can't carry regular bags easily and shoulder-bags pretty much kill me. No joke, I seriously ended up at the ER once (with Christmas) because I carried one and it gave me horrible tendinitis that left me in so much pain someone had to drive me to the hospital. I easily get tendinitis in shoulders and neck, and a rucksack seems to work best in preventing it.

This one weighs less than a kilogram on its own, has its own rain-cover and it came with a separate pouch you can either hang on that loop on the inside, or attach to the waist-belt.

Bonus-points if you guess who I have hanging on it. *[RA]: Rheumatoid Arthritis

Last week my new worm-bin arrived. Even though you can easily make them yourself, I decided to go for a prepared bin because I don't have that much excess energy.

I set it up according to the instructions and held a few of the worms. They haven't grown to their full size yet, I think, measuring only 5-8cm roughly (2 to 3 inches). They wriggle a lot and I fed them some cabbage and teabags.

I've only had them for a week so I don't know how it will go. I do like them though, always wanted a worm-bin as a kid. I remember this time my mother and I got up really early to look for them and to dig them up. She let me do crazy things like that ;)

I made a page about the worms with some freehand drawings and the actual bin. The bin drawing ended up a bit wonky due to the tendinitis in my neck and me shifting position. Close enough though.

I recently read somewhere to get good at drawing you need to draw something you love.

Well, I love marmite -- on ricecakes with cheese, in soup, in sauces -- and I love maggi sauce -- in soups, in sauces, with canned artichokes (yes, I have weird eating habbits) -- I've drawn them both.

Mmm, marmite and maggi sauce. What would I do without them!

I can't tolerate wheat completely, and they make maggi sauce from wheat. Luckily for me, I can tolerate that, woohoo!

I've never drawn my scar before.

It feels quite intimate.

I had to draw it from a photo because I don't have a large mirror in my flat.

I did it quickly, hasted even.

And now, I celebrate.

The writing says:

Scars They show our power to heal and overcome adversities. Don't hide them or feel ashamed. Celebrate.

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Yesterday I went to the Efteling, a Dutch amusement-park that I've visited often as a child. It started out with the fairy-tale forest and grew larger, with rollercoasters and fun rides. We did go into those too, and before we went I decided I wanted to draw the dragon in the fairy-tale forest. As a child, I loved and feared it.

In the afternoon, when others went into the rollercoasters I went to the forest and drew the dragon, a musical mushroom and one of the mushroom-houses. These mushroom-houses have doors through which kids can enter and look around. Some have moving parts; the one I drew had a door that opened and a little fellow looking out to see who rang the doorbell.

The dragon has a treasure chest in front of him, and if you try to take the crown, it'll growl, move his head and flap his wings. He also has smoke coming out of his nostrils and his mouth opens while he dives at you.

It moved a lot while I sat there drawing. Some people watched me draw, an entirely new experience for me since I usually try to hide and draw.

I had a great time!