Happy Thanksgiving!

I would like to wish everyone a Happy Thanksgiving. I hope you all enjoy the day with your family and friends. I am grateful for those of you who have supported me with my cartooning hobby. It has opened up the door to some unique opportunities for me. So, I'm sending out a big Thank you to all of you for reading my strip and following my blog. I hope to have more time to post more often and bring some more laughter to you.

Dressed For Success

Spinach

Leg Lamp

documentary

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10201976274873345&set=o.170723309769182&type=2&theater

Clara Cleaning Lady Intro

Cheryl Chef Intro

Mindy Maid Intro

Laura Laundry Intro

GET A GRIP INTRO

I have recently gained some more Get A Grip Fans thanks to Davy Jones and his comic strip Charmy's Army. Yup! I was kidnapped by an Ant. HAHAHAHA! It was really awesome! And Davy, well his story line is ingenious!!!! You can check it out at http://www.gocomics.com/charmy-s-army/2013/08/21 and http://www.gocomics.com/charmy-s-army/2013/08/23 If you're a comic fan, I suggest subscribing to Charmy's Army. Anywho, I am taking my strip to a different level. I will be incorporating multiple alter-egos into my strip at the same time so I decided it would be best to introduce most of them. I plan on having a lot of fun with this. I hope you enjoy the ride and make sure you GET A GRIP!

Get A Grip Designs

Sorry I haven't posted for a while. I've been busy starting my own business. Get A Grip Designs is up and running! I will be adding new designs on a regular basis. If you have a design idea for a product you want to purchase or just an idea, let me know (email getagripcomics@att.net). You can design your own products too. If you register for a user name and password you have access to the design tool and clip art. You can upload your own pictures/images as well. I have some spirit wear for highs school teams in the McHenry County area. I will add more for each team and sport.

http://getagrip.gigabitprint.com/

Artsy Fartsy

Back in February, I was looking for some new cartoon ideas and my friend, Stacy suggested doing something based on people and prices in an art gallery. (or something along those lines) I started brainstorming, the dog farted, artsy fartsy came to mind, then gas prices and this was the end result. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do. I had a lot of laughs doing this one.

Dirty Moms

                                                               Happy Hump Day!

Chin Hairs

Monday's Blow

This cartoon is based on my friend, Carol's, Monday morning greeting: "Monday's Blow!" Carol is a very funny and witty lady. We used to workout together at the gym and the inappropriate one liners we came up with made the male trainers blush. At some point I will cartoon some of our experiences in the gym. Anywho, although I agree that Monday's Blow, the MoJo in me says, "Ah, get a grip and suck it up!" and I immediately make the mind-gutter connection. Yep, I pulled a double funny... or so I think.

I've been doing a lot of brainstorming lately which has kept my family entertained. A new business venture in the works so stay tooned. This cartoon is a result of my husband poking fun at my blonde brainstorming techniques.

Scales Are Evil

I took Ryan in to see the doctor for a sinus infection this past winter. He kept asking me if he could take his boots off while we were in the waiting room. He was very persistent, but he kept them on. A short time later the nurse called Ryan's name and we went followed her to the weigh station. Ryan said, "Mom, I have to take my boots off". I told him it wasn't necessary and to step on the scale. That's when he told the nurse the scale probably won't read the right weight because he had his boots on. The nurse and I looked at each other and laughed. That's when she told Ryan that he must go with  his mom to her doctor visits. It's a girl thing. Scales are evil!

Package Deal

I love this cartoon because it is funny on so many levels. The depths of the dirty mind. You can thank the real Jerry and Angie as well as my husband for instigating its creation. About a year ago my husband, Justin, had a layover in New Mexico. He called up our friends Jerry and Angie and met them for dinner at Kelly's Brew Pub. They got a table outside and this was their view. A Brazillian Wax Salon right next to a drive thru wedding chapel. Justin took a picture and sent it to my phone. I was ROLMFAO!!! I had promised Jerry and Angie I would cartoon them. It was just a matter of time. I hope you all enjoy it as much as we do! I changed the wedding chapel name and added "Need A Quickie", but it really had a neon "Drive Thru Open" sign in the window.

Scandalous!

This one is considered a favorite by quite a few readers. It pretty much speaks for itself ;-)

Stina Stalker Hossa Style

 On Sunday, after a full day at the Softball field, we went to meet Marian Hossa. It was the perfect ending to a perfect day of family fun! I'm surprised we were able to pull it off! Our weekend was jam packed so I did this cartoon as quickly as I could. Marian seemed to like it :)

 This picture was taken after he read and signed the cartoon. It was pretty cool that he paused to read it before he signed it.

After the pictures he shook our hands, but they were shewing us away before he could shake Ryan's hand. So Marian stopped Ryan and game him a nice handshake with a smile. Very cool guy!

Flash

I believe this is what goes on in the minds of passengers as they flash through airport security or am I the only one? We do what we need to do for our safety, but we certainly don't have to like who's checking us out.

Justin and Ryan

My hubby, Justin, and our little man, Ryan watching the Hawks Game Wednesday night. It's not just me, we are a Blackhawks family :)

Hannah Hawkalicious

 This is a picture of a REAL Chicago Blackhawks Ice Girl.

 This is a picture of me having fun.

 This is a picture of my face cut and pasted on real Chicago Blackhawks ice girl. Pretty good match, huh?

This is Hannah Hawkalicious, the cartoon character. The only way I could possibly be an ice girl. I've had 3 kids. My body ain't what it used to be.

 This is me and my son, Ryan. We were being very goofy before watching the Hawks game.

 Ryan really likes to take pictures and I have a hard time smiling pretty at the camera. I feel more comfortable making funny faces like the one below.

So there you have it. Hannah Hawkalicious at her finest! I've been a Chicago Blackhawks fan since I was a kid. My dad was a season ticket holder so I was fortunate to go to a lot of games at the old stadium. My all time favorite Blackhawks player is Al Secord (#20). It's about 2:15am here, so I am hitting the hay.

This is a Hawkalicious cartoon I did for my friends. LET'S GO HAWKS!!!

We've been rather busy these past few weeks doing home improvements, going to softball games and having our daughter, Kayla, surprise us with her amazing artwork that was selected for her school districts art show. We are so proud of her! She had us in suspense for a couple weeks because she wouldn't tell us what type of artwork she had done. It was so cute watching her run upstairs to put her dress on for the show. There was no need to dress up, but we followed her lead and we all went to the show in style. I must admit that I shed a few 'proud momma' tears when I saw what my sweet and talented young lady had created. Kayla's art teacher shared with us that she eagerly awaits what Kayla will do next.  I will continue to buy Kayla all the sketchbooks, pencils, pens, and markers that her big heart desires :)

Mother's Day

I had a very nice Mother's Day. Justin was working and Kayla had spent the night at Grandma's house. Ryan  slept in which meant I got to sleep in. That was delightful! Grandma brought Kayla home and we picked up my oldest son, Chase, from his dad's house and the four of us went to Chili's for lunch. It was a lot of fun. I'm very lucky to have three polite, smart, loving, witty, and funny kids. They grow up so fast and it's so cool to see them becoming their own person(s). Justin came home in time for dinner. So we all sat down, ate pizza, and watched the movie, Brave. What an awesome movie! I highly recommend it. It was a nice touch for Mother's Day. As Mojo says, it's time to get a grip and get back to the grind. I hope you all have a great Monday!

Man Cup

The "Man Cup" is one of my favorites! A friend of mine, Alan, asked me to make a man cup. One that I could sell in the Get A Grip Store. So I thought about it for quite a long time. Then one night it hit me. An athletic cup is considered a "man cup" so why not draw one and stick it on a real coffee cup? I laughed for quite a few days over this discovery. So, I drew the athletic cup and put it in the old Get A Grip Store. I decided to draw it as a cartoon to see what kind of feedback I would receive from my readers. Well, 'String Bikini Lovin' Ron loved it so much that I decided to resurrect my store so that he (and anyone else) could purchase this unique coffee mug or shot glass or flask. If you're interested in purchasing the man cup or just want to look around the Get A Grip Store, please click on the Get A Grip Store link to your right. Thanks!

Boxer Rescue Logo

Sugar Crack

Good Morning! I've decided to do things a little differently with my strip. I'm branching out from the single panel Gag's to a multi-panel strip with a story line. I will still do some singe panels, but I want to see if doing a strip with a story line will make it easier to bring in new characters and incorporate the alter-egos. I'm trying the black and white, but may go back to color. Let me know what ya think.

The story behind Sugar Crack:
There's this really addictive game that I started playing on Facebook called, Candy Crush. I ignored the requests to play from my friends for a few months just as I had ignored requests to join Facebook. I caved and became Frannie FaceCrack. We'll see what happens with  Sugar Crack?! Stay Tooned ;-)

She's A Keeper

Justin and I had hung out with mutual friends for about a year before we started dating. This cartoon captures the moment when we realized there was a mutual attraction between us. I had been dating someone for a while so neither one of us acknowledged our attraction to other. On this particular day, Justin found out that I was no longer dating the 'other guy'. I had been baiting the line for a few weeks, but he wouldn't bite! Then I found out he was going on a blind date the following night and decided it was time for me to bust out the BIG guns and Beers. I was very blunt and to the point that day, but it worked! I caught him! Hook, line, and sinker! Needless to say, he never went on that blind date :)

BEAVERFEST

A friend of mine, whom we refer to as The Queen Beave, started Beaverfest quite a few years ago. It started out with around 8 ladies (I think) and grew to around 40. I'm sure you're wondering what in the heck Beaverfest is? Well, it's a Girls Day/Night out on the Chain of Lakes. Our sausages (husbands/boyfriends) drop us off at the train station where we board our rented school bus (no drinking and driving allowed) that takes us and our coolers filled with goodies to the boat rental place. Once there, we load up the pontoon boats with our coolers and our beavers. As I stated above, there is no drinking and driving allowed so each pontoon boat has a male driver (skipper). I think there was a waiting list for those positions. Anywho, after leaving the dock the drivers would take us bar hopping on the lake. We'd hit the sand bar before our final destination, Blarney Island (google it). Once our time is up, we head back to the boat place, hop on the bus, and head back to the train station where our sausages are waiting to pick us up. It is the best time ever!

One year Queen Beave had banners made with Beaverfest and the slogan 'If you don't have one you can't come' written on them. It was great! We got lots of cheers from the fellow boaters that year. It's been about 4 years since the last Beaverfest. Maybe this cartoon will revive the beavers!!

Mother Nature has been in a cold and nasty mood. It's officially Spring and we are expected to get hit with snow on Sunday. I tell you, this woman is crazy and she's making the rest of us a little crazy too. She needs to be put on the hot seat and toast her buns a little. Oh yeah, try to stay indoors on Sunday. We are expecting 30+ MPH winds. If you're not careful, you might lose a nipple.

Dancing On The Ceiling

      When the housing market plunged a lot of people, like myself, found themselves upside down in their homes.  The feeling was unsettling, but Lionel Richie was dancing around in my head singing, "Oh what a feelin' when you're dancin' on the ceilin'". It made me laugh and almost cry at the same time because he would not stop singing! I removed him from my head and put him in my idea/joke journal for future use. It was something like, 'If you're upside down in your house, how come you're not dancing on the ceiling with Lionel Richie?" It was a rough idea, but the concept was there.
       A few years later Toby Keith came out with his song, Red Solo Cup. I just about fell on the floor laughing when I heard the line, "Freddie Mac can kiss my ass". I immediately connected the lyrics from both songs which brought me close to closure, thankfully NOT foreclosure. I felt better after making the connection, but now I had to draw it out and have it make sense to the readers. It's one of those jokes where you either get it or you don't. It's challenging to convey an inside joke so that everyone gets it without rambling with explanations which can ruin the joke.
     Drawing Lionel and Toby was fun. I really pushed myself on these drawings. I have difficulty drawing hands and have refrained from doing so - whenever possible. They end up too big or too small. For example, Lionel has tiny hands and Toby has a very big hand. I'll figure it out at some point... as long as I draw more of them... ugh! Other than the hands, I'm pretty happy with how they turned out. I've made a lot of improvements. One thing I love about art and writing is that there is always room to improve and grow.

Resolution Board Part 1

I needed to light a fire under my rear and figure out a way to introduce Amy's alter-ego's without making things more complicated. Since becoming a better cartoonist is one of my goals for the new year I figured doing a resolution board would be a good way to introduce them and obtain some feedback from the Get A Grip readers. We all have different roles we have to play in life. These 'egos' represent those roles. I portray the female version in my cartoons, but men can relate to a lot of these roles as well or at least via their wives. What I'm having difficulty with is showing the conflicts between the ego's. For example, Cheryl Chef and Clara Cleaning Lady may butt heads when it comes to cleaning up the kitchen. I can draw it out, but will it look creepy since in cartoon reality it's the same person divided into many? I guess that's what I need to remember, it's cartoon reality LOL!

Cyber Pimps

There isn't much of a story behind this particular cartoon. I thought of it while listening to some internet dating horror stories from some of my single friends. I'm very thankful dating websites weren't around when I was single.

Bathroom Break

My apologies if the top panel is a bit hard to read. Bathroom Break is based on events that took place while my husband and I were out to dinner with some friends of ours. It was a strange evening, to say the least. For some unknown reason our waitress was a bit annoyed with us from the time we sat down. We were polite, well behaved, and very low maintenance. It may have started when the waitress asked Dee (I'm not using real names here) to see her ID when we ordered our drinks. We were razzing Dee a little bit and I think it made the very young waitress uncomfortable. About an hour and a half or so into our dining experience Dee went to use the ladies room. When she arrived back to our table, Dee informed us that there was an over served patron getting sick in the ladies room. This brought the topic of conversation to bathroom stories which prompted me to go use the ladies room. I walked to the other side of the restaurant where the bathrooms were and the frantic hostess blocked me from entering. I really had to go so I asked if I could use the men's room. That shocked the bus boy and the hostess a little bit. "Are you serious?" was written all over their faces. I thought it was funny. The hostess - not so much. The bus boy said I could use the ladies room and he would clean up the mess when I came out. The hostess wasn't too happy about letting me in, but she did rather reluctantly. While I was doing my business, I thought these people need to lighten up a bit and the light bulb went on. Wouldn't it be funny if I told them I clogged the other toilet? No, I can't do that. But it would be so funny. No. No. Aw, what the hell? It should lighten things up a bit. I finished drying my hands, put on my 'I don't feel so well' face and walked out the door. The hostess, a waitress, and the bus boy were all standing there waiting. I looked right at them and said, "I'm sorry, but I clogged the other toilet". The waitress busted out laughing, the hostess was horrified, and the bus boy was about to fall over in a fit of laughter. I smiled and said, "Easy now, I was kidding". The hostess was still processing what just happened and I decided I should go back to our table, quickly. When I returned to our table I shared my bathroom story and we all laughed. Our waitress cut us off about 15 minutes later and offered to pay for a cab to take us home. We were all pretty shocked seeing as though the most alcohol consumed by a person in our group was 3 drinks. I only had 2. Maybe I played a joke on the wrong person? Maybe they were freaked out by the over-served patron who got sick in the ladies room earlier? Who knows? We laughed it off, paid our bill, and politely left. I really like the restaurant we went to. We've never had a problem there before. I'll just wait a while before I return.

21st Century Walk Of Shame

I must give credit  where credit is due. My husband, Justin, and I were hanging out at home, having cocktails, listening to some tunes, while Facebooking on our phones. Pictures of our friends hanging out having a good time were popping up along with the comments and likes. I had a really funny smartass comment that I wanted to make to one of my friends (all in fun, of course), but decided to run it by Justin first. I wanted to make sure it couldn't be taken the wrong way which brought us to the discussion of waking up in the morning after a night of fun, in or out, and checking Facebook in the morning to see if there is any incriminating evidence of the 'fun' that was had the night before. Justin said, "It's the 21st Century Walk Of Shame! Cartoon that!", and I did.

Chicken - A La Lilly

Chicken A La Lilly was supposed to be Chicken Quesadillas.  ‘Cheryl Chef’ makes them with whole grain tortillas, grilled peppers, mushrooms, onions, and jalapeños. They are delicious! I cook the  chicken in the crockpot overnight so the chicken slides right off the bone. On this particular morning I drained the broth and set the crockpot in the sink to allow the chicken to cool. Using the sink was my brilliant idea. I thought it would keep the chicken out of our BIG puppy's reach. As soon as I turned my back to talk to the kids, Lilly put her paws on the counter in front of the sink and ate the WHOLE CHICKEN, minus the bones.  I was not a happy camper. However, the thought occurred to me that Lilly had smelled the aroma all night long. How could I blame her for wanting to devour the delicacy?  And then it came to me, Chicken - A La Lilly!  The kids and I ended up laughing. The funny thing is Lilly was only 8 months old at the time. She is a very BIG puppy! You think she is an adult dog when you look at her, but she’s all puppy!

ARTWORK ~ I haven’t done much with facial expressions. It’s something I am working on. It will make the cartoons better by showing the emotions of the characters. This was my first attempt at drawing Lilly. I will probably tweak her. I rushed myself to meet my personal deadline on Sherpa (gocomics). Cartooning is still new to me. However, I’m up for the challenge because I LOVE it! I plan to add more panels to some of my cartoons. Single panels are easier to do, but a lot of my ideas will require more, like this one.

Thanks for visiting my blog and feel free to leave any suggestions or comments.