Lepre-con man

Happy St. Paddy’s to yis all!

Princess and the Pea

Still kind of a work in progress, but wanted to get in on the “Tell a Fairy Tale Day” fun!

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The Princess and the Pea

by Hans Christian Andersen

Once there was a Prince who wanted to marry a Princess. Only a real one would do. So he traveled through all the world to find her, and everywhere things went wrong. There were Princesses aplenty, but how was he to know whether they were real Princesses? There was something not quite right about them all. So he came home again and was unhappy, because he did so want to have a real Princess.

One evening a terrible storm blew up. There was thunder and lightening, and the rain poured down in torrents. It was really frightful! In the midst of it all came a knocking at the town gate. The old King went to open it.

Who should be standing outside but a Princess, and what a sight she was in all that rain and wind. Water streamed from her hair down her clothes into her shoes, and ran out at the heels. Yet she claimed to be a real Princess.

“We’ll soon find that out,” the old Queen thought to herself. Without saying a word about it she went to the bedchamber, stripped back the bedclothes, and put just one pea in the bottom of the bed. Then she took twenty mattresses and piled them on the pea. Then she took twenty eiderdown feather beds and piled them on the mattresses. Up on top of all these the Princess was to spend the night.

In the morning they asked her, “Did you sleep well?”

“Oh!” said the Princess. “No. I scarcely slept at all. Heaven knows what’s in that bed. I lay on something so hard that I’m black and blue all over. It was simply terrible.”

They could see she was a real Princess and no question about it, now that she had felt one pea all the way through twenty mattresses and twenty more feather beds. Nobody but a Princess could be so delicate. So the Prince made haste to marry her, because he knew he had found a real Princess.

As for the pea, they put it in the museum. There it’s still to be seen, unless somebody has taken it.

There, that’s a true story.

Princess and the Pea

Threw together a sketch for our upcoming celebration of “Tell A Fairy Tale Day” on Saturday, February 26th. I’m hoping to get this all finalized and colorized by then! Also looking forward to seeing what my fellow Doodle Diners come up with!

Post-Holiday Doldrumoids

Post-holiday Doldrumoid (as seen through a microscope.)

We’ve always known of their existence, but for the first time ever, caught in mid listless, despondency, is what experts commonly refer to as the Post-holiday Doldrumoid…in the flesh……or rather, in the doodle.

No matter. It’s official. We have a Doldrumoid pandemic on our hands. They are here and we have got to deal with them. It’s suggested that you move this matter to the top of  your list of resolutions.

Some effective methods for coping with these ubiquitous yet unwelcome creatures are as follows:

1. Ignore them. Doldrumoids have been known to eventually lose interest in their host and reluctantly disappear after a week or two.

2. Keep that crunchy Christmas tree up for another month, along with the exterior icicle lights and the inflatable snow globe on your lawn. Do this while ignoring the fact that the holidays are over. This method seems to keep the Doldrumoids at bay, but leaves the door wide open for Lackus Deselfrespectus spors to take hold.

There are no easy answers, but…

3. For those of us who need to get back to business… pronto, there are some drastic measures that can be implemented. Take tree and exterior lights down, box up Christmas decorations, shove said boxes up in garage rafters, eat salad, go to the gym and then actually make that deadline for your employer/client as opposed to staring blankly at the computer monitor (close mouth, wipe drool off chin, mind don’t get any on the keyboard.)

In the event none of the above methods prove effective, one can always hold on until February 14 when a virulent strain of Guiltus Cupidus overcomes the weakened Doldrumoids, offering minimal relief to some sufferers.

This has been an important public service announcement for all of our Doodle Diner friends. Thank you.

a break from our sponsor

On this sixth day of Christmas Teri has six geese waddling their way to The Doodle Diner, a wee bit later. In the mean time, please enjoy this commercial break.

on the Fifth Day of Christmas

Portnoy had originally planned on sending Priscilla her present by mail. But being a wise pig he decided to do it in person, er porcine.

Oh, and seriously, at the end of the day, which golden ring gives you more pleasure, the ore or the onion?

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The Twelve Day of Christmas continues at the here at the Doodle Diner and we’re having a blast. Stay tuned for more, and if you have moment, check out Day One, Day Two, Day Three, Day Four, Day Six, Day Seven, Day Eight, Ninth Day and Tenth Day.

on the Fourth Day of Christmas

Since neither ATT, T-Mobile nor Verizon will give cell phone plans to birds, our fine feathered friends must resort to the few pay-phones there are left.

The Second Day of Christmas

On this second day of Christmas Candace has some fabulous turtle doves winging their way to The Doodle Diner, a wee bit later. In the mean time, please enjoy this little turtle dove teaser.

The First Day of Christmas

Sadly, being a partridge, Penelope possessed poor reading skills. So it was only after having trained vigorously to become the next pear-eating phenom that Penelope realized the sign, in fact, read “pie-eating contest”.

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Although the tradition and history of the Twelve Days of Christmas is deep, complex and fascinating and the twelve days typically begin on December 25th and go to January 6th, we at the Doodle Diner decided to break tradition and start our twelve days today and go until Christmas Eve.

We’re just rebels like that.

So, the Doodle Diner denizens would love it if you would check back each day until Christmas Eve to take a gander at what illustration goodness we have in store for each of the next twelve days.

Check out the Second Day , Third Day and Fourth Day.

Oh, and make sure to have yourself a merry little Chrismahannakwanza!

of Whos and snowmen

When someone asks me what my favorite holiday book is, at the risk of being cliché, I just have to say (hey that rhymes), it just has to be How the Grinch  Stole Christmas by Dr. Seuss. This book has been part of my holidays since I was knee high to a who, and whether it be the book or the animated television show created in the 60’s, it just wouldn’t be Christmas without the grinch and max with his one reindeer antler.

I’d also like to add another book that has charmed me. I love Snowmen at Night by Caralyn Buehner and illustrated by Mark Buehner mostly because it was a present from my husband, who knows I have a thing for all things snowman. But I also love the funny, lively, whimsical illustrations. It mostly takes place at night (hence the name) and the lighting that Mark Buehner is able to pull off with his brush strokes is nothing short of magical.

The rhyme is very charming and fun to read out loud to kids, but it’s not the book’s strength. But put the rhyme together with tobogganing, hot chocolate swilling snowman images and you’ll have yourself a few giggles and some mighty warm heart cockles.