Made a Mini Menegerie of My Friends

 When I was in school I hated sketchbooks, especially new ones. My biggest fear was wrecking it with a less than perfect pictures which I would inevitably rip out, leaving me with a very sparsely populated sketchbook at the end of the year. Dear hubby on the other hand tore through his in quite another manner....obsessively filling them with one master drawing after another. He can draw from life, from pictures, from memory, from whatever! This amazing talent of his of course did nothing for my ego and so once I  progressed beyond the sketchbook requirement phase I never in my wildest dreams considered continuing the practice.

Instead I developed the habit of doodling out my ideas on scraps of paper. Loose little tiny bits and pieces that float around for awhile and then of course disappear, which in more than one case proved quite unfortunate. 

My latest scrap doodling obsession is thanks to Pinterest where I was overjoyed to discover an abundance of wee wooden doll reference. I know the concept over in that neck of the woods is to "repin" the image on your own board and be done with it but my brain doesn't work that way. "What if," it says "you suddenly decide to make make a penny doll of your own and you want to remember this leg or that hairstyle but you know turning the computer on will kill your inspiration then what? Nothing that's what...nothing at all!"

That's why, when I spied this little clearance treasure of a notebook at Staples, today I was inspired to give the whole sketch book practice a second chance. A mere 3x5 inches.....how big of a mistake could I make in it?

 I did, however think it best to warm up a bit with some inspiration from Tottie the little penny farthing doll from Rumer Godden's The Doll's House.

 And a bit more inspiration from my very own wee one Lily Red!

Now let's see how long before I start ripping out the pages. Good thing I have some little helpers willing to lay it all down to prevent such an occurrence.