Mai S. Kemble Illustrations

So I have a plan in the works to get my fiance and my stuff down from Portland toward the end of April! that's exciting for me... I miss him a lot.

meanwhile... I of course, need to try and really kick some butt on these illustrations and finish up one of the books!! Yikes!

I listened to Beck's Seachange at work today and remembered one of the first dates that Josh and I went on... back when we lived in Long Beach... it was one of the times I remember that I knew he was the one for me... we were sharing his I-pod, sitting on the metro on our way up to LA to window shop. Well, that was the first time I heard Seachange. Funny, that an album based on someone's heartache made me feel totally at peace with the world... I felt like the person next to me and the music and the scenery passing by in the window were like those moments when everything feels pretty darn good. That was a good day :)

I drew this little sketch a while ago... but forgot to post it. I was watching the Mummy one of the days that I was still feeling pretty ill and trying to sort of get back into the swing of feeling normal and drawing... but I always liked the costume in that movie- as cheesey as it was and possibly, totally inaccurate??? I don't know??? I really love the Mummy movies. ;) Anyway, I also think about one of my favorite novels The Hero and the Crown
(or) The Blue Sword (both written by the ever-wonderful Robin McKinley)... but I imagine a little baby girl princess of ancient Damaar and sort of drew this with those stories in mind as well.

I know that there are people who are sort of ... drawn toward the desert and those that are drawn to the ocean... etc etc... I guess that's how I feel about Japan. I will have to see when I visit again if it is as strong of a feeling as I remember. Does that happen to everyone? I've often wondered...whether "home" is something that you find in another person or in a place or in yourself?? Or maybe it's all those things... I know that I feel at home in different ways with different people and different places. I suppose I'm lucky. I guess it might be for all the places and people I always feel so out-of-place.... :P

Anyone else jealous of all the rad children's clothing at Target right now? I sometimes peruse through there to get ideas for what to draw on my characters and also because I have nephews and nieces... My mom dragged out a box full of old dresses we wore when we were little girls- all hand sewn by my cousin!! She is SUPER talented and when I finally get a camera or am near a camera, I promise to photograph them all before she gives them to my nieces... these were ... the kind of thing you find and just oooh and aaaahhh over the detail and the pattern and the pleates and the buttons ... it's very, very, very hard to not want to keep them all so I can just pull them out and hug them every so often.... but they deserve to have them. :)

(to think I hated wearing dresses when I was a pre-teen/teenager... now all I want are boots and dresses... wish I had more).

Anyway!!!
enough about me...
hope you are all doing fantastic!