A Twibbon For APRIL.

Last night Tracy @Tracy4Autism piped up on Twitter wondering if I could design a Twibbon -  April is Autism Awareness Month (in the US that is. In Canada I believe it goes down in October, but no matter - the more awareness everywhere, the better). There are many passionate autism parents and advocates on Twitter and Tracy felt this could be a good way to help raise awareness.  I thought, what a freaking great idea!

Here's the design. It's a "complete" puzzle - no pieces are missing. It's also a "listening" person with two people talking on the left and the right. The middle piece is round and the others are square giving a kinda keyhole shape. Spreading awareness is key! Get it?

<-- This is what it looks like as a Twibbon. GO GET YOUR TWIBBON!! You can resize it with the slider, and drag it anywhere on your avatar. It's hashtagged #AustismAwarenessApril which should make it easier to find others wearing the Twibbon.

UPDATE: I noticed that many people are having trouble getting the twibbon to display properly on their pic. You must first LOG IN to Twibbon before clicking on the Show My Support button. Then you can resize it and move it around.

I recently donated my drawings to help lil' Deeds get his Autism Service Dog, and was touched by the specialness of the people involved - they are deeply caring and loving. Spend a little time on some of these family blogs, they have amazing stories which will move you and make you smile. Let them make you aware of autism.

I'm not an expert on the subject of autism, so I asked around for some links about Autism Awareness Month which are here and here. If you want to blog about this Twibbon please feel free to grab the image and link up.

Links and inspiration were kindly provided by:

Once Upon An Autism blogger, Tracy @Tracy4Autism
Special Happens blogger, Gina @Special_Happens
Tam's Ramblings blogger, Tam @TMBMT
Kidlutions on Facebook, Wendy Young @Kidlutions
A Dog For Deeds blogger, Bobbie @dog4deeds
and Living with Logan blogger, Caryn @Ihave7monsters.
And a large number of groovy people on Twitter and Facebook who gave instant feedback on the design. Thank-you!

Now go get your Twibbon.

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YOU. Aaron the LumberJACK.

This little boy's name is Aaron. He just turned a cool six years old. Why is Aaron here? Because he's my biggest fan! Apparently he's driving his mom insane by watching this cartoon over and over again and singing the LumberJACK song at the top of his voice. Awwww... Kids, eh?

It's his fondest wish to be drawn as a LumberJACK so here he is: TADAA...!
UPDATE: Aaron's mom is getting this drawing as a tattoo!

Aaron's mom is the lovely @mommyamc AKA Angela. Is her little boy not awesome cuteness ready for bed?

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The LAST Snowman.

Last week it snowed. It was prolly one of the last snows of the winter, and it was lovely sticky snow, really perfect for making a snowman. I was in the kitchen making dinner and I watched the 14 year old girl through the window. This scene unfolded before me...

When she noticed that I was watching, she waved shyly. I thought, "that's so sweet; she's fourteen but she's still a child..." When I showed her this drawing, she denied being embarrassed, but a mother knows these things.

* * * * *

DISC SCRATCH!

There is more to this story but I've removed it from the blog and here's why:

The LAST Snowman has been expanded (more drawings) and released as an ebook! Find out more about it here or just go straight to Amazon. Because stories! And hot chocolate!

Thanks for reading and stay tooned.

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The ULTIMATE in MAN Stripper Footwear.

Part 4.
WARNING: Talking goldfish.

Now that we've established how you can tell a naked stick figure from a clothed one, it has to be said that @WhyIsDaddyCryin's stylish MAN Stripper footwear are my new favourite thing.

A big high-five to @BetterHalfMommy for suggesting the gold fish and to @suzspetals for the crocs.

Maybe I should make these into a t-shirt or mug or something...it would deffo be a conversation piece. I mean these are "WTF...?!?" material for sure.

I never intended it but this turned into an awesome series.  No idea what to make of it? You need to check out the MAN Strippers in Part 1.

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Stickie Nakedness AGAIN.

Part 3.

WARNING: Possibly more nudity. Maybe.

In the last post, I asked how one can tell if a stick figure is naked or not. I'm just gonna rip the bandaid off this one and go for it. The thing is, if the stick figure looks like this:

...then it's pretty much impossible to say. Why? Because there's no point of reference! There's nothing 'missing'!

Indulge me. If we dress the stick figure in ONLY a pair of pants, look what happens:

He's suddenly topless!

And if we dress him in ONLY a t-shirt...Voilà! Pants Optional!*

*Pants Optional Friday was all the Why is Daddy Crying's idea BTW.

Finally, if we dress our stick figure in NOTHING but stylish footwear, he is naked simply by virtue of the absence of the rest of his clothes.

Anyhow, after that last post there was some, uh, discussion on Twitter about the scale and relative sizes of certain stick men. So just to clear things up, I've done this character line-up. It's worth noting here that objects are actually larger than they appear in the mirror.

There's @jpJeremy, @WhyIsDaddyCryin, @JosephGier and me. I threw Pickle Weasel in for fun cuz @VlasicStork wanted to see him in a bow-tie and it tied in really nicely with the whole Chippendales thing. And @kathym425's suggestion of Uggs was genius for hawtness levels. 

Everyone has awesomely stylish footwear!! Yes, those are goldfish - blame @BetterHalfMommy. And crocs (@suzspetals' idea). With twine (that was me).

And so it goes that the dude has been naked everytime I've drawn him. Except for that one time when he's wearing a Snuggie.... or those Spiderman PJ's...

If you love those shoes, then go to Part 4.

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Naked STICK Figures.

Part 2.

WARNING: Some more nudity. Sort of.

Last we left them, the MAN Strippers were shakin' it to the dulcet tones of Tom Jones...

And so @WhyIsDaddyCryin crashes yet another of my blog posts. Pretty sure @jpJeremy and @JosephGier will like him once they figure out why he's crying and why he's always going on about Pants Optional Fridays on his side-splitter of a daddy-blog.

Shameless plug - go vote for "Why Is Daddy Crying?" and he'll be your best friend and invite you to dinner. You may end up locked in the basement for a few weeks but it'll prolly be worth it just for the great memories.

Is he #UsGuys material? Who knows! But let me ask you this - how can you tell if a stick figure is naked or not?  
Find out how in Part 3.

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OMG Look at the MAN Strippers!

Part 1.
WARNING: Some nudity.

This one's just too complicated to fully explain. Suffice it to say that it started with an innocent Twitter Striptease, and the next thing I knew, the Ladies were crying out for some man-flesh in a bow tie. I won't name names it was totally @EllieM72 and @rmalove.

Luckily some dudes just know when they're being voluntold.

Doing the hawt and sexy Chippendales thing we have @jpJeremy of Winding Staircase LLC on the left - I do believe he's blushing!  And grooving to Tom Jones dulcet tones we have @JosephGier AKA Joseph Grier on the right. He looks rather comfortable in the spotlight doesn't he?

Anyone from the #UsGuys stream gazing upon this awesome depiction of abs, pecs and footwear, should prolly just think of it as an exercise in barefaced keyword pimping, SEO fun & games, world class customer engagement, and ...oh yeah - "building community".

Either that or it's just plain silliness.

See Part 2.

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YOU...logy. Dame ELIZABETH Taylor.

I'm having an emotional reaction to the passing away of Elizabeth Taylor. I can't explain it. 
She was an inspiration to me for so many reasons. And she had beautiful eyebrows.

Dame Elizabeth Taylor, you've done so much good. I pay tribute to you and your vision.

The Elizabeth Taylor Aids Foundation.

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Pickle Weasel can FLY.

On the day that he was born, Pickle Weasel leaped off my blog and started his own Twitter account (without my permission, the naughty thing). There's just no controlling some cartoon characters!  Well, as long as he behaves himself I guess I don't mind too much.

The Pickle Weasel has very interesting DNA, as you can imagine. So it's going to come as no surprize to anyone that he can fly.

He's such a rascal.
I wonder what else he can do....?

You can make someone else smile by sharing.

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YOU. @jillsmo

Here's the winner of the Feeling LUCKY contest, @jillsmo ...!

You prolly know her as a stick drawing on twitter and her "Yeah. Good Times." blog. And she claims (rather defiantly I might add) that no actual photos exist of her other than a very interesting one of her in college. So here we have a stick drawing ...of a stick drawing!

If you wanna know what the heck "POOP DECK!" is all about, just crawl around on her blog. You may actually find yourself rolling on the floor laughing before you find it, cuz she's hella-funny! And don't let the snark fool you; she's a real softie-mom of two (one autistic) beautiful boys.

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Feeling LUCKY - WINNER.

That was fun. 57 comments and a total of 54 entries all in a matter of half a day. I can see you guys like the whole "I Draw YOU" idea. And that's a good thing too., cuz no one guessed the actual number, so not only am I going to DRAW the winner, I also had to DRAW the winner.

There were:

"But why 61, JC? WHY?!?"

Cuz. That's all that would fit. Obviously.

Count them! Oh yeah and there was only:

To DRAW the winner, I gave each entry a number from 1 to 54 and got my Random Number Generator (AKA the 11 year old Boy) to choose one.

He chose number 48! Congratulations @jillsmo!! And by the way, her guess was "0" heh, heh.

Hey wait a minute. She's already a stick figure. So should I draw the real life Jillsmo? Or should I draw the stick figure Jillsmo? Remember, I'm drawing her wearing the Leprechaun's lucky hat.

Go see how that drawing turned out.

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Feeling LUCKY?

Happy St. Patrick's Day!!

There, I said it. Now on with the Impromptu Contest.

Underneath this hat, there are some

and some

Your task is to guess how many four leaf clovers there are.
CLUES: The clovers are shown actual size. They are not overlapping.

WINNER: The one who guesses correctly wins.
If more than one guesses correctly, I'll draw from those entries.
If no one guesses correctly, I'll draw from all the entries.

PRIZE: I'll draw the winner wearing this hat. Contest closes tonight at midnight. Winner announced tomorrow night.

Leave your guess as a comment, you know the drill. Don't forget to leave your twitter @, email, or some way of contacting you.

GOOD LUCK!

Find out who won.

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BEING The CHANGE.

Last week everything was good. It was March Break and the kids were home from school. I was hanging out with the 11 year old boy and one day I said, "C'mon Boy! Let's wrap up all the loose change in the house!"

At first he complained, but he couldn't resist my enthusiasm.

We collected all the dimes, nickles and pennies, and wrapped them up in rolls.

Then came the fun part: counting the money. It came out to a whopping $45!! Enough for a pizza party.

But we decided instead, to donate the change to "A Dog For Deeds", to help him get his autism service dog.

Three year old Deeds needs that dog more than we need another pizza party.

I felt happy. Everything was good.

And then this happened.

Ohhh...Japan.

I tried to grasp it. And I became afraid...

Then I wept.

But most of all, I felt ...powerless.

And then I remembered that I was not alone.

There are, in fact, quite a number of us. And in our own small ways we are all hoping, praying, giving and working to make things better.

Wrapping up loose change is a really, really great activity to do with your kids on March Break.

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Happy BIRTHDAY To YOU.

Ahem. When it was My BIRTHDAY, many of you stopped by to wish me Happy Birthday. So if today is your birthday, then I wanna give you a present!

So let your eyes wander over these gifts and think which one you'd like to have* and leave your name, birthday and link as a comment. I guess you could also leave your mom/dad/friend/husband/wife/son/daughter/sister/brother/family-member/girlfriend/boyfriend/boss/colleague/cleaning lady's name and birthday too and then send them here to "look" at their gift. Why not?

*They're drawings, not actual real stuff. You got that right?

And look, if you want to print it out and make a real card, here's the bit that goes inside it.

It's free. You're welcome!

The Bandaids were suggested by @IamPickleWeasel.
The Chinese Cleaver was suggested by @Res_Eve.
"Giraffe in a Box" was suggested by @YouGoMedia.
@renni_e suggested a steering wheel cover that looked like a boob, but I couldn't really see it so I drew a triple-threat alien booby mug instead. 
Blond Mermaid Cat-Woman was suggested by @lifeonprint

You can suggest a gift too. If I like it and if I have time, I'll add it.

This post was inspired by @CollinsBat whose birthday it was on February 12th.

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