Back in Business!!

Greetings, people of the Interwebs! I have overcome my Post Project Blues and am working once again on Broken Robot!! All it took was some epic classical music and the *obvious* solution of putting the storyboard panels back on my wall to drag me out of the Slough of Despond. (Slough is any excellent word; we should use it more often.) Anyway, I have nothing to say, really; just that I am back in business!

 

sincerely,

me

Storyboarding done!!!!!

I am pleased as peaches to announce that I finished my initial storyboarding of Broken Robot yesterday! Look how long it is!!! 

So yeah, I'm pretty stoked! I have 102 panels so far, though that number will probably change. There's still a lot of touching-up to do, but it's so good to have a beginning and an end in place.

To celebrate, I had a cup of Black Apricot tea in a fancy tea cup!

Oh yeah, hope everyone had a nice Valentine's Day. Jon gave me a bouquet of pine cones! Flowers may wilt and die, but pine cones are forever!

sincerely,

me

The Ever Changing World

Last week, last Friday to be exact, Dresden, one of my very best friends gave birth to her first child. (Even typing that feels weird.) She and her husband Dan decided to keep the gender a secret till the baby arrived, so everyone was kept guessing right up to when Calvin Christopher showed up. I've had a week now to adjust to this news, but it still feels so strange.

In general, I'm fairly indifferent to babies. Don't get me wrong, they're great, but I'm definitely more drawn to small, fluffy animals. However, all of that changes when the baby belongs to one of your closest friends. Suddenly, I am awed by this new, little person who has entered the world. Suddenly, my friend has become the mother to a son! I feel like I'm entering a new stage of life and I'm not even the one with the baby!

The world has shifted under my feet and I am still trying to adjust. Change is always a bit unnerving, especially when it pushes you further into adulthood. I pretty sure that I'll never actually become a real grown-up, but somehow that doesn't excuse me from going through all the grown-up things. Still, I'm doing my best to flow with whatever season life decides I've arrived at. It may just take some time.

sincerely,
me

P. S. If this post comes out disjointed and ramblish, I blame it on being sick. In fact, I should probably be sleeping right now.

TOMS

So, I don't talk that much about clothes and stuff, but........................

I got my first two pairs of TOMS a few days ago!!

When I first heard about TOMS, I figured they were just another overpriced, hipster shoe. Then I did some research about the company and found out that they're actually really cool. In addition to their charitable purpose, to provide a pair of shoes for a child in need for every pair they sell, TOMS shoes also pays their overseas workers fair wages. Plus, their shoes are SUPER comfy; a win-win-win situation!

I'm still in the process of breaking mine in, but I can already tell I'm going to love them; having an article of clothing that conforms perfectly to your body is the best thing ever! I may never buy another type of shoe again.

sincerely,
me

The madness that was November

I figured I should get at least one more blog post in before November ended. As I predicted, this month was crazy busy! I admire the people who blog every day, no matter what, but I just don't have that kind of stamina. Anyway, here's a short run down of my life the past few weeks.

Writing: Lots of it, in fact. NaNoWriMo ends on tomorrow. My word count is nowhere near the target 50,000, but I'd definitely consider this a good experience (although, if I ever do NaNo again, I'm going to outline my story ahead of time). Writing class fired up mid-November and it's really good. The beginning was a bit heavy on the "rules of how to write correctly," which is not my style, but I got over it. I really like being a part of a class with homework again (yes, I am fully aware of how ridiculous that sounds). I was even a bit bummed yesterday when I got all caught up, knowing I'd have to wait till tomorrow for the next lesson.

"Cabinning": Jon and I stayed at a cabin in Ricketts Glen National Park a few days before Thanksgiving. We pretty much had the park to ourselves, which I loved. We went on a hike, saw way too many waterfalls, explored a lake, read books, burned junk mail (it made the prettiest colors!!) and still found time to just do nothing. I also activated my inner photographer and took a ton of pictures, most of which wouldn't be interesting to anyone but me.

Thanksgiving: After our lazy vacation, we came home and made 5 pies plus dinner rolls for Thanksgiving! Fortunately, someone else took care of the rest of the meal, which ended up being the most exotic Thanksgiving I've ever had. One type of stuffing had truffles, those crazy expensive mushrooms no normal person dares to cook with. Needless to say, I felt pretty fancy.

Visiting Family: The Saturday after Thanksgiving, Jon and I went to see his cousin Lauren, who also happens to be one of my best friends, and her family. She lives pretty far away, which makes spending time with her difficult. We had a lot of fun hanging out together and I survived a somewhat traumatizing arcade experience. And, one of the dishes I ate for dinner had saffron in it; fancy food item number two!! Then Lauren got engaged on Sunday, which was the most epic finale possible for this over-the-top week!

Wow, that turned into quite a ramble! I think I'll be done for now.

sincerely,
me

NaNoWriMo and other adventures

Welcome to November everyone! Hope your Halloween was fun. Ours turned out to be pretty low key, due to laziness and Hurricane Sandy (which thankfully we weathered just fine.) Jon and I started replaying the Legend of Zelda series, starting with Ocarina of Time, which, in my opinion, is the first real Zelda game. But enough about that.

With the coming of this month, I decided to unofficially participate in NaNoWriMo, National Novel Writing Month. The goal of this program is to write a novel of 50,000 words in 30 days, averaging around 2,000 words per day. I've already begun my story and am up to 5,227 words!

And, since NaNoWriMo is clearly not insane enough on its own, I also signed up for a writing course that starts on the 14th. There's also an art show I should submit to, a mini vacation I'll be taking with Jon and Thanksgiving. Yeah, I'm probably a bit crazy.

Now, to go fill my world quota of the day!

sincerely,
me

So I was bored last night...

Last night the power went out and I couldn't sleep (as usual). Somehow, the idea of reading Crime and Punishment via flashlight didn't sound very appealing, so I devised a low tech way of amusing myself. By my bed I had a stack of post-it notes, (in case of late night inspiration) on which I started drawing. After four or five attempts, I'd switch on the flashlight and see what they looked like. Here are some of the best ones.

Not too bad for not being able to see at all. And, in case you're having trouble telling what they're supposed to be, here's the list top to bottom: mountain landscape, door, tree, sewing machine, lighthouse, eye, wolf, building and hand holding pencil. 

sincerely,

me

Another conclusion written

Remember that story I've been working on? The retelling of the Frog Prince fairytale? Well, I'm pleased to announce that today I wrote the ending!! The first draft is complete!! Currently, the work is about 50 pages long, although hopefully that number grows a bit by the end.

The arduous labor of editing will begin soon, but for the moment, I'm pleased just to have made it all the way to the end of another writing endeavor. ^_^

sincerely,

me

My birthday.....oh, wait

(I didn't actually miss my own birthday, I just missed blogging about it.)

Anyway, my birthday was really good. Jon and I dressed up fancy and went to the Melting pot. He gave me a really sweet note and a pair of giant, awesome headphone. My mother-in-law also gave me a set of water mixable oil paints, which I'm extremely excited about. They have the same properties of oil paints, but you can clean them up with soap and water, which is really good if your someone whose renting and doesn't have a utility sink (like me). 

Oh, and one of my friends gave me this.

How much more epic can you get than a giant birthday fortune cookie?!!

sincerely,

me

1 year of blogging!!

365 days ago, I started Art + Everything Else! 

(This is the part where I get all introspective and stuff.)

Having (and sometimes even updating) this blog has been an interesting experience. Here's what I've learned so far.

~I actually know what I want this blog to be about (sort of)

~That, while I (sort of) know what this blog is about, my focus will probably change over time

~Blogging takes effort

~ I'm not very good at exhibiting said effort

~I am hopeful (if not woefully deceived) that over time, I will get better at the aforementioned effort 

~I still have lots of hopes and dreams for this blog, some of which might even come to fruition someday

There you have it. I'm sure there's other stuff, but I can't think of anything at present. Thank you to everyone who ever read, commented, followed or encouraged me in any way. You all are the best!

sincerely,

me

Shirking

That's a pretty good description of my life a present. It also explains why I haven't posted in forever. I've been slacking on as many of my responsibilities as possible in favor of writing.

Apologies for being a bad blogger.

sincerely,
me

2 year wedding anniversary and writing stuff

Yesterday was Jon and my wedding anniversary! It's been an interesting two years spent with the best husband I could ever imagine. ^_^ 

In other news, last week was a bit crazy in the writing department. Monday through Thursday was spent writing out some bits and pieces for a story I'm currently stuck on.  To more fully express what the process was like, I drew this cartoon.

Yup, that about says it. Mood swings seem to be an inseparable part of the creative process.

However Thursday, a new story idea descended upon me while I was trying to sleep. (Inspiration is apt to strike at the inconvenient times.) I was up till 2 o'clock brainstorming ideas and writing notes. On Friday, I wrote 16 pages, which is the most I've ever done in one day!

The new idea is based on a re-imagining of the Frog Prince fairy tale. That story always bothered me because the princess is an absolute brat and she still ends up with the prince! Anyway, I have great plans for taking the original story apart and turning it into something completely different. While I haven't managed to match Friday's epic page count, I am making reasonable progress.

sincerely,
me

I'm back!

I'm finally home after a weekend of camping and an unanticipated week with my parents. My mom had an emergency surgery and I decided to stay with her while she got better. (She's doing fine now, just to let you know.) Camping was loads of fun; much better than I feared it would be. We waded up a river,  ate tons of yummy campfire food and didn't get attacked by a bear! 'Twas a good time indeed.

It was also great to hang out with my mom. I think we talked about everything there is to talk about; art, dystopia, politics, family stuff, mythology and the awesomeness of Terry Pratchett. It's been a while since we've been able to just sit and discuss whatever came to mind. I thoroughly enjoyed it.

So, now I'm back to reality after a week and a half off. Although it was nice to get away and see friends and family, I am looking forward to getting back to work.

sincerely,
me

The Wilderness must be explored!

Puns are the best. This one always reminds me of my cousin Meredith, because I first heard it from her.

This weekend, Jon and I will be venturing forth into the wilds of western PA for a three-day camping trip with some friends from college. Needless to say, I'm a bit anxious about the whole thing. I've never been on anything this ambitious before (my camping experience consists of one overnight with my family back in high school) and I'm getting rather overwhelmed trying to figure out what we need to bring. Despite my fears, I am determined to face the unknown with bravery, even if it's of the fake variety. Jon, who has more experience with camping than I do, assures me that everything will be fine.


sincerely,
me

Artifacts

I was out on a walk today when I passed by this beside a pile of garbage.

As you may have guessed, artist mode kicked in big time. After making sure no one was looking, I scooped the majority of it into my purse. (Why does is seem so sneaky to take other people's trash?) Anyway, I dumped out my purse out at home and here's what I found.

Pretty neat, huh? I really like these little, unnoticed bits of life that get left behind, as you can probably tell from my collages. They're artifacts of sorts. 

sincerely,

me

2012 wall + These are a few of my favorite things; April and May

I know I'm cramming a lot into this post, but I wanted to keep up my monthly pattern of checking up on my 2012 wall and updating my current non-art interests. Due to reasons I can't quite recall, I forgot to post at the end of April, so I'm writing an entire for the past two months. 

So here's my 2012 wall. Admittedly, I haven't done much with in as of late, but hopefully I'll get some new stuff up there soon.

My in-laws went to Hawaii in the beginning of May and brought me back some nifty post cards.

And now, my favorite parts of April and May.

Learning the bass. I decided randomly at Easter that playing the bass guitar might be fun. I was much better about practicing in April than I am now, but I'm still plugging away. Jon is planning on writing music soon and I'd like to be able to assist him in the process.

S'mores! We made s'mores almost every night for a couple of weeks. Since a campfire was not readily available, we used the toaster over, which worked fairly well. 

The Earthsea Trilogy. I've been reading Ursula K, Le Guin's Earthsea books, The Wizard of Earthsea, The Tombs of Atuna and The Farthest Shore. They're an excellent example of well-crafted high fantasy. I'm especially fond of her magic system, which is based on calling things by their true names. So many authors have used this idea in other stories **coughcoughChristopherPaolinicoughcough**, but I'm pretty sure she was the first to come up with it.

Gardening. This year is my second attempt at maintaining a garden. I tried starting some things from seeds, but sadly only a few Zinnias and Morning Glories have gotten anywhere. My mother-in-law also gave me a bunch of tiger lilies, which I'm hoping with flourish. Pretty much everything else was already there. Maybe I'll add a few other things later in the season. 

The Legend of Korra. This is so totally my new favorite show! ^_^ It takes place about 70 years after the events of Avatar: The Last Airbender. The world, characters and story line are all awesome and the art style is gorgeous. The creators did a very good job of giving the show its own unique flavor while still keeping with the spirit of The Last Airbender. Jon and I have to watch it online because we don't have cable, which you can do on the Nickelodeon website. The hardest part is waiting for new episodes to come out each week. It's been awhile since I followed a show that hasn't been completed yet and this series has lots of cliff hangers.

 That's about it. Hope everyone has a good night!

sincerely,

me

A weekend update

Just wanted to post a quick update on how the weekend went. Turned my work in for the art show on Thursday. God was extremely merciful to me because I felt completely calm and unanxious the entire time! After that, I helped paint at my church. We painted grass along the nursery walls and a large elephant, whom we named Harold, on the wall of the 3 and 4 year old room. I should totally have taken pictures to show you all, but of course I forgot.

Today, I found out that one of my pieces (the collage I did on the back of the canvas) wasn't accepted to the art show and had to go pick it up. Although I'm a tad disappointed, I can't say I'm that shocked that it didn't make it in; it was a risky project to enter. But that's what making art is all about, experimenting with new and possibly unpopular ideas. I still plan on working with the concept.

So there you have it, my weekend. On a whole, it was much better than I'd anticipated.

sincerely,
me

Blah....

Do you ever have days were you don't want to do anything but stare up at the ceiling? Where it takes sooo much effort to get yourself off the couch? When you feel like you have an invisible leech sucking away all your energy? Well, that was me today.

I have been managing to get things done, but its been an uphill trudge. Tomorrow I drop my artwork off at the art show. To be honest, I'm actually more nervous about getting to the show location than whether or not I make it in. Going to new places often times triggers the anxiety. I know that I'll be fine; I've gotten a lot better at dealing with those sorts of feeling when they come. (This week has already had its fair share of inner battles.) Although it's never an easy or pleasant experience, it is encouraging to see your self improving in an area that was once so overwhelming. But I digress.

New art shall be coming, I promise. I've had a recent epiphany about some long term art goals and dreams that I'm looking forward to sharing with you, so be sure to check back in a few days. Until then, have a good rest of your week!

sincerely,
me

The Gerbils!

I figured it was high time I posted some pictures of our little rodent children! In fact, I probably should have done this way sooner. Oh well. Better late than never, right? 

Anyway, meet

Eva

Scheherazade

Toph

and Fang.

Aren't they the cutest! ^_^ We've had them for over a year now and still enjoy watching their antics.

Some day we hope to get a couple of cats and a dog, but for now, the gerbils are doing a good job of filling our pet quota. Have a great weekend!

sincerely,

me

On Being Brave

I've never considered myself brave. I always looked up to the plucky, spitfire heroines of books and movies who could stand against anything. They were the girls I wished I was but could never really be. But recently, I realized something about bravery; it only exists in the presence of fear. If there isn't any fear involved in the situation, then there isn't anything to overcome. You can't be brave until you've first been afraid.

True bravery isn't bounding carelessly forward into the jaws of danger and certain death. It's not letting the things that scare your socks off stop you from moving forward. That kind of courage doesn't look as nice and shiny as the warrior princess or super hero variety, but it's legit bravery none the less.

sincerely,
me