I've been browsing the internet for hours, trying to learn a few more things about this whole blogging business. You see, the writing isn't an issue for me - it's the formating that I'm struggling with. I mean, I know the basics - but then I come across these amazing blogs that just make you want to weep for all the accomplished polish they boast. Buttons! Links! Hyperlinks! Shopping carts! ARRGGHHH!!!
So when I came across this fun picture just now, I knew I had to share it - it made me a feel a little better just now:
Monday, May 31, 2010
Playlist of an Artist
Ever since I was a child, I've had a love of music - there's a soundtrack to just about every major event in my life and everything in between. As a teen, I used to sit at my desk with my homework, music playing and often talking on the phone with a girlfriend - I actually couldn't even concentrate on homework without music! Talk about multi-tasking at its finest...
As an aspiring artist, I find both inspiration and emotion in music. Depending on the mood I'm in or the project I'm working on, I have a different playlist. Classical and new age music is good for detail-oriented tasks like cutting out intricate shapes or writing in a journal, but I love Oldies or chart toppers for just about anything artsy. I tend to listen to Etta James, crooners like Dean Martin, Ella Fitzgerald and even big band music when I'm writing. There's something about being transported to a totally different time that just makes the words pour out!
This is the part where I have to plug iTunes - their different ways of suggesting music you might like based on past purchases is far more accurate than any other website with a similar program. Amazon and Netflix, for example, still don't have the first clue about my taste - based on over 500 rated items. EEK! So yeah, I love my iTunes!
A lot of the music I "discover" comes from either the suggestions on iTunes directly, or actually from tv shows I download and watch. If there's even a snippet of a song that sounds like something I might like, I'm on Google typing in snatched words from the lyrics to see who the artist is and what the song is called...and then it's off to my trusted iTunes to listen to a sample and, more often than not, download the song in question.
Another way that I've discovered some interesting music is through watching arts & craft videos on YouTube. I love how creative some people are beyond the "point and shoot" approach. One girl from did a really awesome video of an altered journal - the soundtrack she chose not only worked brilliantly but actually served to inspire me to look up the artist (which she had kindly inluded below the video) and gave me some brilliant ideas! Check out her video:
Today being Memorial Day, though, I wanted to share a particular montage that I discovered and absolutely love. Since a wonderful history teacher inspired a fascination and interest in WWII during my last two years in high school, I've looked for and collected items that relate to the era. Both of my grandfathers served in WWII, and my husband's side of the family has a long tradition of military service. So both my interest in WWII and my love of altered art come together in this fabulous display of patriotism:
So I'm going to end this post by wishing everyone and all a safe and happy Memorial Day!
As an aspiring artist, I find both inspiration and emotion in music. Depending on the mood I'm in or the project I'm working on, I have a different playlist. Classical and new age music is good for detail-oriented tasks like cutting out intricate shapes or writing in a journal, but I love Oldies or chart toppers for just about anything artsy. I tend to listen to Etta James, crooners like Dean Martin, Ella Fitzgerald and even big band music when I'm writing. There's something about being transported to a totally different time that just makes the words pour out!
This is the part where I have to plug iTunes - their different ways of suggesting music you might like based on past purchases is far more accurate than any other website with a similar program. Amazon and Netflix, for example, still don't have the first clue about my taste - based on over 500 rated items. EEK! So yeah, I love my iTunes!
A lot of the music I "discover" comes from either the suggestions on iTunes directly, or actually from tv shows I download and watch. If there's even a snippet of a song that sounds like something I might like, I'm on Google typing in snatched words from the lyrics to see who the artist is and what the song is called...and then it's off to my trusted iTunes to listen to a sample and, more often than not, download the song in question.
Another way that I've discovered some interesting music is through watching arts & craft videos on YouTube. I love how creative some people are beyond the "point and shoot" approach. One girl from did a really awesome video of an altered journal - the soundtrack she chose not only worked brilliantly but actually served to inspire me to look up the artist (which she had kindly inluded below the video) and gave me some brilliant ideas! Check out her video:
Today being Memorial Day, though, I wanted to share a particular montage that I discovered and absolutely love. Since a wonderful history teacher inspired a fascination and interest in WWII during my last two years in high school, I've looked for and collected items that relate to the era. Both of my grandfathers served in WWII, and my husband's side of the family has a long tradition of military service. So both my interest in WWII and my love of altered art come together in this fabulous display of patriotism:
So I'm going to end this post by wishing everyone and all a safe and happy Memorial Day!
Saturday, May 29, 2010
Mail Call!
Much to my surprise, I'm happy to report (no, not happy - ECSTATIC is more like it!!) that my Stampin' Up! Starter Kit arrived in the mail today. Woohoo - I am now officially in business! I feel a little bit like the squirrel in that hilarious animated movie Hoodwinked; right after they give him coffee. Stamps! Ink Pads! CARD STOCK! It's all just too much excitement. :)
This is the part where I'm going to tell you how I came about becoming a Stampin' Up! Demonstrator. My husband is in the military, so we move where Uncle Sam sends us. This is sometimes annoying (such as having to sell your gorgeous 1950s house with the immaculate refinished floors and imported Mexican tile...sigh!), but also has its advantages. Aside from the fact that you get to live in places you might otherwise not even have traveled to, you also get to meet lots and lots of different people. At times, this comes with its own challenges. You get along with some people, not too much with others. You miss your friends from your last duty station. You wonder how old your best friend's children will be the next time you see them - and whether they'll even remember you. But it's all part and parcel with being married to a soldier!
I've always been a very creative person - I love to write and I have a collection of amazing collaged shoe boxes that stem from the time before I left home for college. But I was never really into papercrafts at all - admittedly in part because I wasn't really aware of that whole "world" until after I got married. I was too busy living life!
After I got married and moved in with my wonderful husband, I met lots of great, interesting women - one of whom told me she was a scrapbooker. At the time, that really didn't mean anything to me. Scrapbooking? EH? Might as well have been Tagalog to me! So when she and I went over to someone else's house one evening and I worked on an embroidery project, she set up shop on a large dining room table - and within minutes you couldn't see the surface anymore. And then there was this strange-looking piece of luggage that, apparently, served as a storage device for all her "tools of the trade". I laughed to myself (although not nearly as much as I do now at the recollection) because I thought, quite honestly, that the whole thing was completely ridiculous. Of course it's not nearly as ridiculous now that I have entire storage containers devoted to stamps - not to mention the prerequisite wheeling tote that is a total must-have for any "respectable" scrapbooker!! ;)
But I'm getting ahead of myself (you'll see this is a recurring theme). Three years ago I met this woman called Carol. I don't really remember how I met her - I think it was through an online group and because she offered me a ride when my car was in the shop. The how, where and why is really not that pertinent. Carol was a Stampin' Up! demonstrator. I had no idea what that was - but when we started hanging out, I saw some of the fun & creative projects she did...and I liked what I saw! Here was a hobby I had totally underestimated. Scrapbooking had seemed like a rather dull hobby - you know, crop some pictures, glue them on a piece of paper, slap some stickers on, file away never to be looked at again. But stamping suddenly gave what had seemed like a mundane pastime a totally new dimension - now the possibilities seemed endless! And before you could say "unmounted stamp set" I was totally hooked.
Now I love papercrafts. I don't consider myself a scrapbooker, or a card maker, because I love experimenting with all different aspects of crafting. I've done some mixed media projects, altered journals, artist trading cards (ATCs) - and I continue to do scrapbooking and make cards when the mood strikes. Sometimes, the desk in my "studio" (or rather "box room", the appropriate term in the local vernacular) ends up looking like a bomb exploded - and I look like the "before" picture in a Lysol commercial. I've had an ink cartridge explode in my face (really rather hilarious, although not quite so funny when I tried to explain the splotches that I couldn't scrub away for days), glitter all over my clothes, paint and glue on my hands...and I love it! I admire people who are organized, tidy crafters, but I sure am not one of them. When I get into a project, I go all out - I use my hands, my tools, my desk, everything around me. I love trying to find new uses for old things - whether it be vintage notions, pieces of packing or scrap paper that most people would throw away, or everyday items that seem destined for the recycling bin until I have an AHA! moment.
So today I'm particularly excited, because I'm looking forward to experimenting with my new craft supplies! :)
This is the part where I'm going to tell you how I came about becoming a Stampin' Up! Demonstrator. My husband is in the military, so we move where Uncle Sam sends us. This is sometimes annoying (such as having to sell your gorgeous 1950s house with the immaculate refinished floors and imported Mexican tile...sigh!), but also has its advantages. Aside from the fact that you get to live in places you might otherwise not even have traveled to, you also get to meet lots and lots of different people. At times, this comes with its own challenges. You get along with some people, not too much with others. You miss your friends from your last duty station. You wonder how old your best friend's children will be the next time you see them - and whether they'll even remember you. But it's all part and parcel with being married to a soldier!
I've always been a very creative person - I love to write and I have a collection of amazing collaged shoe boxes that stem from the time before I left home for college. But I was never really into papercrafts at all - admittedly in part because I wasn't really aware of that whole "world" until after I got married. I was too busy living life!
After I got married and moved in with my wonderful husband, I met lots of great, interesting women - one of whom told me she was a scrapbooker. At the time, that really didn't mean anything to me. Scrapbooking? EH? Might as well have been Tagalog to me! So when she and I went over to someone else's house one evening and I worked on an embroidery project, she set up shop on a large dining room table - and within minutes you couldn't see the surface anymore. And then there was this strange-looking piece of luggage that, apparently, served as a storage device for all her "tools of the trade". I laughed to myself (although not nearly as much as I do now at the recollection) because I thought, quite honestly, that the whole thing was completely ridiculous. Of course it's not nearly as ridiculous now that I have entire storage containers devoted to stamps - not to mention the prerequisite wheeling tote that is a total must-have for any "respectable" scrapbooker!! ;)
But I'm getting ahead of myself (you'll see this is a recurring theme). Three years ago I met this woman called Carol. I don't really remember how I met her - I think it was through an online group and because she offered me a ride when my car was in the shop. The how, where and why is really not that pertinent. Carol was a Stampin' Up! demonstrator. I had no idea what that was - but when we started hanging out, I saw some of the fun & creative projects she did...and I liked what I saw! Here was a hobby I had totally underestimated. Scrapbooking had seemed like a rather dull hobby - you know, crop some pictures, glue them on a piece of paper, slap some stickers on, file away never to be looked at again. But stamping suddenly gave what had seemed like a mundane pastime a totally new dimension - now the possibilities seemed endless! And before you could say "unmounted stamp set" I was totally hooked.
Now I love papercrafts. I don't consider myself a scrapbooker, or a card maker, because I love experimenting with all different aspects of crafting. I've done some mixed media projects, altered journals, artist trading cards (ATCs) - and I continue to do scrapbooking and make cards when the mood strikes. Sometimes, the desk in my "studio" (or rather "box room", the appropriate term in the local vernacular) ends up looking like a bomb exploded - and I look like the "before" picture in a Lysol commercial. I've had an ink cartridge explode in my face (really rather hilarious, although not quite so funny when I tried to explain the splotches that I couldn't scrub away for days), glitter all over my clothes, paint and glue on my hands...and I love it! I admire people who are organized, tidy crafters, but I sure am not one of them. When I get into a project, I go all out - I use my hands, my tools, my desk, everything around me. I love trying to find new uses for old things - whether it be vintage notions, pieces of packing or scrap paper that most people would throw away, or everyday items that seem destined for the recycling bin until I have an AHA! moment.
So today I'm particularly excited, because I'm looking forward to experimenting with my new craft supplies! :)
All Introductions Aside...
After much contemplation, pondering, and not an insignificant amount of frustration induced by craft elements and glue residue that seems to end up somewhere entirely different than its intended destination, I decided to take the plunge and head into cyberspace. So here I am! Is it a blog? Is it a journal? Is it an amalgam of rantings and ravings by someone hyped up on too much caffeine (thank God for extra shots of espresso)? Yes to all of it - and then some.
Here's my story. Once upon a time there was a crazy little girl who didn't understand the concept of conformity. When other kids played with mud, she made funny doodles. As a teen, she snubbed the call to arms by smoking bandits and wrote short stories instead. In college, textbooks and hours spent reading, proof-reading, editing and typing - and, yes, copious amounts of caffeine - were followed by inspiring travels and the meeting of minds all around the globe. Ah yes, the folly of youth!
But I digress...Fast-forward a decade or so, and I'm a happily married military wife with an uber-active creative mind. This blog is foremost about my adventures as an artist, but also as a wife, a girl-about-town, an inquisitive woman looking for inspiration in the world around me.
I hope you'll enjoy the projects I'm going to share with you - mine and those of others that I think are too amazing & wonderful not to share. Feel free to comment, make suggestions, ask questions or just drop me a line because you love coffee too! :)
Here's my story. Once upon a time there was a crazy little girl who didn't understand the concept of conformity. When other kids played with mud, she made funny doodles. As a teen, she snubbed the call to arms by smoking bandits and wrote short stories instead. In college, textbooks and hours spent reading, proof-reading, editing and typing - and, yes, copious amounts of caffeine - were followed by inspiring travels and the meeting of minds all around the globe. Ah yes, the folly of youth!
But I digress...Fast-forward a decade or so, and I'm a happily married military wife with an uber-active creative mind. This blog is foremost about my adventures as an artist, but also as a wife, a girl-about-town, an inquisitive woman looking for inspiration in the world around me.
I hope you'll enjoy the projects I'm going to share with you - mine and those of others that I think are too amazing & wonderful not to share. Feel free to comment, make suggestions, ask questions or just drop me a line because you love coffee too! :)
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