Working out the Kinks

Well I spent some spare moments this weekend working on the design for my next print in my print making course. We will be carving this one out of linoleum, so there will be no shadows, just line and if I'm creative, texture.
This is weird for me because I rely heavily on shadow when I draw, I think it helps bring "life" to the imagery, but this is what I got so far:

I plan on repeating the pattern in on the right all the way up the side, and of course more detail with the tree texture.  This line drawing is a far cry from my usual drawings, where I try to avoid line and go with mostly shades, like this (sorry, a bit blurry):

Learning Impulse & Art of Thrift

I am not really an impulsive person by nature. I am a planner, a long time thinker, a gatherer of opinion. I usually mull over whatever my decision is for a while, then I start talking to friends and family about it, then I might make a decision after that.
So I did something totally impulsive on Friday, and got some new tattoos. I was inspired (of course) by someone else's tattoos of words with personal meaning, and that night I went home and thought about what words have personal meaning in my life? For me, right now, those words are "inspire beauty".
As an artist, you want to be an inspiration to the world around you, you want to bring some of you own personal beauty into it. I am finished with all my core curriculum at school, and it is art from here on out, but I find my creativity stifled. I wanted something to remind me everyday to look at the world with a creative eye, and to never forget what my passion is no matter how hard things get.

So while we are on the subject of being impulsive, I also did a sort of "impulsive" scrapbook page yesterday. I just printed a recent picture I took and just put it together with the first things I grabbed (instead of laying it all out, moving it to different positions, switching out patterns, etc.) It took me about twenty minutes, and I am pleased with the result. Hey, if I could be this quick every time I scrap, maybe I might actually get some more pages done.

Supplies Used: Paper-Cosmo Cricket, Stickers- Sassafrass, October Afternoon (labels) and KI Memories (lovely), Rubons- K & Co., Plastic Flowers- Heidi Grace, Letters- Sandy Lion, Other- Simplicity Sewing pattern, Catalog page, Doily, Receipt, Staples

Guess my next impulse move should be to clean my house....-XO K.

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Deja Vu (Why do my Dreams Happen?)

I'm going to let you in on a little bit of my weirdness for a second here.Anyways, if this has ever happened to you, or if you have any insight, I'd love to hear from you!
So, ever since I was a little girl I've had dreams, and a short while later they happen. Deja Vu, right? It's weird, however, that the dreams never really occur about something significant, just daily life sort of dreams. I never read anything into it, until it happens in real life.
Lately these Deja Vu experiences have had a physical effect as well. I actually feel a wave of dizziness come over me and feel like I'm in a dream, but I'm not, I've just dreamt it before.
Happened again today, and it was strange because a couple months ago when I had the dream. Because it was weird that I was me, but I didn't look like me. (Umm, now I know why, my new haircut!) But at the time I had the dream I'd given no thought to changing my hairstyle. 
Weird, right?
Crazy, right?
My theory is it is a sign that comes along at certain points in my life to let me know I'm on the right path. Does anyone have any insight, or similar stories. I really don't want to be crazy, ok? -XO

This is Where She Always Wants to be...

... and poor girl hasn't been to the park at all in the past few weeks. Hers and her mommy's schedule are so busy, there's hardly time for play! 
Yesterday morning I made a list on my chalkboard wall at 4 a.m. Four things I wanted to accomplish that day. Four things. Bake pumpkin scones. Take a picture of this van I saw. Write a post for my print class blog. And go to the park.
I did two of those things. Can you believe it? Those are simple, quick things, and I could only fit in two? Celeste asks to go to the park nearly every single day. Horrible Mom that I am, it's always some excuse, have to make dinner, have to do homework, have to, have to...

Well Yesterday I made time for her, and it was nice, just the two of us, playing monsters at the park. -XO K.

Repurpose Your Junk Mail

If your like me, the junkie sort of newspapers you receive in the mail every week are briefly flipped through and then tossed in the recycling bin. Though, occasionally it is spread out across the table for painting or play dough. And maybe sometimes I clip a two-for-one dinner coupon... but if your like these amazing crafters, you find a whole new use, or turn it into a work of art: 

Newspaper Gift Bag

Newspaper Dress

Create a Gorgeous Garland

Make Your Sweetie a Bouquet

What would you make with your newspapers? I think I might try to make the pretty leaf garland as a Fall decoration this year. -XO K.

Adventures in Thriftland

So my little girl and I checked out a couple thrift stores yesterday. None of which I had been to before. I took my camera along, because the first two assignments in my photography course are to take pictures of "walking around" and of the "urban landscape". It feels really awkward to be inside a thrift store snapping away. I need to get over it though, some really cool pictures are to be had. Below are a couple of my favorites.
I would have liked to have spent all day thrifting, but I became exhausted (I've been sick) and had to go home. I ended up napping for a couple hours. Boo to you cold, you zapped my weekend... I came home with a $.50 sewing pattern, to use in scrapbooking or to accentuate art prints, a $2.00 box of transparencies also to use in scrapbooking or printmaking, and, my find of the day, a $10 Yashica Electro 35 GSN camera!! I just have to replace the seals and I will be able to test this vintage beauty in all its glory- XO!

Guest Blogging at Ink Your Heart Out Reno

One of my classes this semester is an introduction to printmaking course. So far, not at all what I thought it was going to be! That being said, I am having a lot of fun there and it is definitely causing me to branch out in my artistic abilities. And for that, I love it! So far my typical style of art (portraits, nudes) doesn't translate in the detail I like to the print processes we are currently using. It's all experimental at this point, and I am creating a lot of things I wouldn't normally think of on my own. And that challenge helps fuel my drive. 
One of our "assignments" is to participate in the class blog. So as of now, I'm writing for two blogs. I kinda feel important. Anyway, I did my first post over there tonight, so if you want to check out my post about a wonderful print artist named Mandy May Leschon, go here.

Let's Revisit

I wanted to revisit this post from last year. The title caught my attention when I was browsing back through my list of posts. On an unrelated note, it's almost been a year since I started blogging! Anyway, I couldn't remember what "The Egg" was all about. This is why I love having this blog, the memory of this moment had totally escaped my busy mind, but here it is, captured for me, by me.
I can't help but wonder what else is escaping me as days turn to weeks, weeks turn to months, and all of a sudden my dear little baby is six years old and reading and writing. I really need to write this down more often, so I let this short, sweet little post from last year serve as an inspiration. We change all the time, we just don't notice it until later, when we start to forgot who we once were.
Who knows, maybe next year I'll look back at this post and laugh at myself for being so mushy and nostalgic. So be it, it's who I am right now. -XO

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 29, 2009

The Egg

Tuesday evening Celeste and I were making banana chocolate chip bread. It is a delicious combo! After mixing all the dry ingredients, and most everthing else, it came time to add the eggs. I had two left, perfect! Except one was apparently cracked and had seeped out enough egg white to not notice, but to effectively "glue" it to the egg crate. GREAT! So I went to the garage to ask boyfriend how much one egg matters to such things. When we decided we had no choice but to go on, I returned to the kitchen... To find the egg had burst, and Celeste had dissapeared....
Down a winding hall, and sniffling under her covers was my sad little girl.
"What's wrong?" I ask.
"I-I just was helping. (Sniffle) I didn't mean to break it mama" and she burst in to tears.
Poor thing thought she broke the egg. I am always adament about her not handling the eggs, and she wants to prove she big enough to, and CRACK!

Wish I had More Time

Oh how I wish I had more time for everything I want to do. I'm actually sitting in one of my classes hurriedly typing just to squeeze in this post. I told myself I'd be much better at updating this semester, but everything is happening so quickly!
I'm having fun though, I guess that's what really counts. I miss Celeste a lot. They seem to be taking it pretty well. It's only four month intervals at a time, right? Anyway, no pictures with this post (Boo!), but I have a case of the sniffles. Better go-XO!

Only in Ikea UK!

Oh how I just love this! Let's release a hundred cats in Ikea, great idea. One cat is named Mr. Bean, too cool, another Leo, like my fluffy man (kitty). It is pretty fun to watch, must have been a blast to witness, and the shots they they pull together in the end bring a smile to your face.

A Week in Review

Hopefully with taking a photography course this semester I will have the pefect excuse to upload to the blog more often! Just to give a little taste of my schedule restraints though...
4:00 a.m. Wake Up
5:00 a.m. Start Work
9:00 a.m. Go Home to see Celeste off to school and pick up D. for work
9:30 a.m. Back at work
2:30 p.m. Go Home
3:50 p.m. Get Celeste from bus stop
4:00 p.m. Help Celeste with home work, make dinner
5:45 p.m. Pick up D. from work
6:40 p.m. Go to class
8:45-9:30 p.m. Go Home

Fridays are slightly different, I wake up at 3a.m. and work 4-8 a.m. and my class is 9a to 2p. Yesterday, I fell asleep when I came home and slept until 5:30p.

I am so excited about all my courses this semester. My studies are spaced out over the course of years, mostly online, mostly the core foundation studies, like english, political science, biology, math. Now it's all up to the fun stuff, the ART! The first class I'm taking is Digital Media, where by the end of it we will be able design our own website. I can't wait, I'm hoping to put it to use by making my blog extra cute and one of a kind. The second course is digital photography, which I hope will give me a better understanding on how to appropriately use the manual functions on my camera, and the last course is a print making class. In this class we will learn about and experiment with different forms of print making. Next Friday we will be screen printing. So I this weekend I need to look around for supplies, various surfaces to screen print, and of course come up with some designs!

I hope this semester will get my creative juices flowing again, I feel like I have been stuck in the monatanous world of retail life for so long, I can't find all my wonderful ides in my mind. I know they are there, but all this daily living hoopla like schedules, bills, and work keep locking them up.

Okay, so going to my first classes this week has pretty much filled my time, but we did manage to go to the rib cook off last night. I am glad we did. I love all the street vendors, local artisans with their handcrafted wares, the beauty of their creations is very inspiring. One of the first assignments in photography is to just walk around and take pictures, and that is what I did. These ones here are some of my favorites. I also talked to the creator of one of our local clothing companies about his t shirt screen printing process, wouldn't it be so fun to put your own design on a shirt? Maybe that is something I will do for my class next Friday?