Taxes and treasures

I finished my taxes yesterday! Knowing I had to tackle them has been looming over me for several weeks. What a relief to be done!!! We celebrated with DQ in the afternoon as soon as I hit “Submit.” In the evening, sweet hubby decided we needed to go to Longhorn for dinner so I wouldn’t have to cook. Who am I to say no?

To celebrate the occasion, I thought it would be fun to share some of what I took out of the attic last week. I brought home three special boxes. Inside the first were eight sketchbooks from my high school years. That was a l-o-n-g time ago!

I remember spending hours drawing after school. Even then, portraits were my favorite, but I also drew my hands, my feet, horses, and pictures out of magazines that were around the house; magazines like Family Circle, Better Homes and Garden, Sports Illustrated, and National Geographic. Some of the magazine pages were still in the sketchbook next to my drawings. My brothers and I were involved in competitive swimming, so I also drew lots of athletes, especially after the 1976 Olympics. Swimmers and gymnasts were a favorite.

I was excited that most of the sketchbooks were dated. Generally, they have aged very well, although some of the pages were a bit warped. I didn’t do a very good job of scanning those, hence the shadows in some of the photos above. I was also somewhat surprised that my style of drawing really hasn’t changed much through the years.