An Argument FOR Social Media

I've been up to a lot, but haven't been blogging much. First, I flew to California to visit family for two weeks. My Grandpa was in the hospital (he's fine now) and I was able to visit with family I haven't seen in years.It was a great visit, and my baby girl, me and my mom drove back to Texas, our rental minivan full of vintage goodies from my grandparents' place. (They used to be antique dealers, and I got some great vintage kitchen stuff!)

When I got back I was exhausted. Certainly that played a part in me being unable to draw anything. Every idea I had seemed weak. Every doodle was destined for the trashcan. I was deeply and obviously in a rut.

I decided to keep trying, taking a break to share what I thought was a pretty blah sketch on Facebook:

And boy did I get the feedback I was looking for! I got seventeen fantastic comments suggesting how to strengthen the sketch and take it to the next level:

It was just what I needed because I was thinking I should dump the sketch and start on something else. More research, rearranging and sketching got me this:

And I realized that the birthday banner was going to have to change, until I ended up with this:

Now all I need to do it add some color, pattern and shading and voila! I will have a piece of art worthy of sharing.
Thanks, guys!