Too tired to think of a title.

I should've updated this a while ago but that just seems to be the story of my blog. I've been hesitant to put this up because I'm never sure if my mom reads my blogs and what I'm going to post up now is her birthday present. I'm still working on hers, this is just a model. Also, My internet connection has been having major mood swings lately so there is a possibility of this post getting more and more sarcastic as I try to deal with the frustration.

Presenting: Rice Therapy Bags!

(Sorry for the quality of picture, it was taken on my phone)

Isn't it cute? It looks like a little owl! This is actually a rice therapy bag in it's cover. The cover is closed up top with 2 yellow buttons. Originally the design called for velcro but I had these buttons on hand that I wanted to try out. Next time, I'm gonna use velcro. I messed up big time on the button holes. I was trying to figure out the "button hole" setting on my sewing machine and it wasn't going too well

The blue rectangle is the actual rice bag, the owl looking thing is the outside bag that the blue thing goes in. I like it cause then I can wash the outer bag. 

I mixed with the rice some lime essential oils cause I really like the smell and it relaxes me. The odor has kind of faded from the use but it's still there. If you don't want to mix in essential oils you can always just put a drop or two on the outside cover.
 I found this wonderful pattern on this website----->http://sewmamasew.com/blog2/2007/11/rice-heat-therapy-bag-tutorial/ This is actually a really awesome website. It has a lot of cute tutorials on lots of different things. I want to try some of the pillow tutorials, they're cute. 

On a side note:

I just found out that I've had 498 page views on this blog!!  2 of those page views has been from Alaska and 1 viewer was from LATVIA! How cool is that?! This new layout also tells me who my top viewers are so Grandma and Devery! Thanks for reading my blog.  I love you guys! :D  

An *exclusive* look into the making of Collins the Pig

Meet Collins the Pig.

My first hand-sewn stuffed animal! *cue fanfare!*
Yessiree bob! I made this guy and I am immensely proud of him. I've never done anything really like this and I was stunned by how simple it is.

The idea for Collins came from this book:
I love love love love love this book. My only complaint is it doesn't have instructions for all of the animals. The creatures it this book are adorable and imaginative!

Collins was so incredibly easy to make. I made it out of 2 socks, 2 buttons, 2 beads, 4 cotton balls, some thread, and a bit of cotton. I recommend this book to everyone. Do not be intimidated by the hand sewing! It is so incredibly easy. Also, just keep one thing in mind. If Ricqui can do it, you can Definitely do it! I'm a horrible seamstress, not to mention worse hand-sewer but this was easy and I managed to create something that I'm proud of. Collins was created in just a few hours.
Currently, I've had a request from my husband to make a sheep. So that's what I'm trying to do and somewhat succeeding. The best part about making stuffed animals is that it's OK if things are disproportional or sewn crooked or lumpy cause all of those "Screw-ups" gives it character. It makes it yours!
I'm determined to create my own little misfit island of stuffed animals and even though some may come from a book, I still can claim them as mine!

Feminists every where are groaning in pain at this post

No, I haven't made a craft per-se...

My book is still MIA and in order for me to find it I will have to tear apart my storage unit and my house. At this point it's pure laziness that has stopped me from doing it. 

But that doesn't mean I have stopped creating things. I've been flexing my "creating skills" (is "creating skills" better than "nun-chucking skills"?) in multiple different facets. I've being toying around with card making and some books as well. But mostly I've been creating my house-wife persona. 

It's been difficult work and a couple of times I thought I was going to have a mental break down. It's that perfectionist in me that won't shut up. I beat myself up mentally and throw myself into these ditches that I can't seem to crawl out of.  Sometimes, I get into these unexplainable moods where all I want to do is just sulk and cry and wail about how miserable my life is. Thinking about it now a lot of those emotions show up in my journals. If anyone ever read my journals they would think I'm such a depressed person.

The fact is my life is wonderful, I love being married, I love being a wife so why do I want to be miserable? I toyed with the idea that maybe I have Depression. Though, I acknowledge a lot of people suffer from this, I also believe that they don't have to. So when that thought crossed my mind I quickly crossed it off because if I do suffer from such a "disorder" I didn't want to give me an excuse. So what if I do have it? I'm not going to let it define me or blame it every time something goes wrong. Anyway, I found something much more helpful than diagnosing me.

I've had these emotions well up inside of me that I would quiet because I thought they were ridiculous and unjustified. It's like trying to stuff a balloon inside a bottle; an impossible task but the more you press it down inside the bottle, the more air will be pushed to the top of the balloon creating this incredible pressure that one tiny prick or touch will cause it to explode. A couple of weeks ago I exploded. Earlier in the day, I decided it would be a good idea to rearrange my house, figuring if I did that it wouldn't seem so messy and maybe I'd have room to breathe. The way I decided to do this was by pulling all of my books off their shelves and arranging my furniture all at the same time. It didn't take long for me to become overwhelmed, frustrated and I quickly realized I do not have decorating or rearranging skills (They don't really offer that in High School, ya know!). But the admission of these feelings, to me, meant that I was admitting that I failed as a wife so I kept shoving that balloon in the bottle. I lost it when my husband came home for dinner. It was kind of a disaster. He left with me furiously trying to justify my anger. My balloon popped after he left. Trying to hold myself together, I called my mom then promptly shattered when I talked to her. To make an unnecessarily long story short my mother divulged to me the secrets she has learned and introduced me to FLYing. Over the past month I came to the conclusion that when I keep myself busy, do my daily "blessings of my house" (for all you little FLY ladies out there) and take care of me, I'm happier. That's it. Simple concept but revolutionary to me! I'm starting small and hoping I can become a wonder What I struggle with, I've discovered, is a common house wife issue. So slowly, I'm piecing my house together and trying to get into routines and it all starts with a shiny sink every day. I've switched mind-tracks. Does that mean I've given up on my dreams? Never!  There are just other things that need to be taken care of as well. I've signed up for singing lessons, I've taken up sewing, I clean, I make lists, I even bought a calender I'm not perfect. In fact I struggle with staying on track (This blog is living proof of that!) but the point is I'm not sitting and feeling sorry for myself any more, I'm giving myself a purpose. A divine purpose, I might add.
In conclusion I happily declare: Discovering my wife-hood is very enjoyable as long I stay out of my own way. Most of all, I've found that deflating the balloon is easier.

(http://flylady.net/ <---There is a manual to teach women and men every where how to live with out CHAOS...and the more you know....)

I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry

I'm sorry. I have no excuse why I haven't updated my blog. None. But if it makes all you loyal devoted readers out there any better my husband already verbally lectured me. I'm currently in the middle of a life changing move so I don't have anything yet. Once we get settled down and life isn't so crazy I will update this for real. I have A LOT of catching up to do. Thanks guys for your patience I'm sorry I haven't been more consistent.

Blog overload 12,13,14,15,16 & 17

Phew! I have a lot of catching up to do!

Friday: 12
"Buttons are quintessentially versatile:they are a tool (or an analogy) for closure, but can also be used as embellishments for fabric, paper, or even beaded projects."
Today was all about a button collection. Unfortunately, I had no buttons to start a collection. I went through all my clothes to see if I had any buttons on some shirts that I don't wear or pants or something. Instead I found some shirts I can make a present for a certain somebody for their birthday. Which got me started on someone else's  birthday present and then everyone's birthday present. In my defense my family has tons of birthdays in February and I'm poor so I have to work with the materials I have. I can't tell you or show you pictures of what I made because they have not received their gifts yet and I do want to maintain some illusion of surprise. Eventually, I remembered that I needed buttons. I had to go over to my parents house so while I was there I asked my mom if she had any buttons. In my childhood my mother kept this giant pink container full of buttons. I loved to take them out and look at them, seeing if I could match them up, feeling the texture of them. I loved it and figured maybe I could take a  few from there. I found out, though, my mom got rid of those buttons but she told me she still had some. It was in a pink sewing box with some other sewing things, needles and such. I found a cool old Gillette blade. It looked really old but I couldn't find a date on the package. So I grabbed some buttons that smells like my great grandma and started my collection! (No pictures yet...)

Saturday & Sunday: 13 & 14
"Fresh out of ideas? Consider using seashells, (or other sea-buffed natural artifacts) to augment or inspire new elements in your work" 
Oh boy...I have a confession to make. Well two confessions. I don't have seashells and I the only thing I did these past two days was cut out this seashell border that was on a card. After I cut it out I had no idea what to do. It's kind of sad considering this project gives you two days to figure something out and to create it. I figured all is not lost so I kept the seashell border and decided it would come to me.

Monday: 15
"Although many journals are filled with words, just as many are not. Consider a journal as a collection of items, a place to store what ever it is that awaken your creative instincts."
I actually enjoyed this one. I made a collage of my thoughts and feelings and opinions I guess. I would show you but if I did all of you would think I was announcing I am pregnant but I'm not and you know...a journal is a private thing so I'm also not going to explain it. :D

Tuesday: 16
"Sometimes the elements you collect will fall into place quite naturally, but other times they require a push or two. Keep this in mind, however: if the process feels forced or unfruitful, don't consider it a failure--simply walk away, give it a rest, and try again another time."
This was an interesting day. I figured it would be a good day to try and write something. It's been a while since I've sat down and wrote. For some reason I didn't get much opportunity to and had to wait until later that night. I've had this idea in my head for a couple of years now and so I took this opportunity to expound on my characters a little bit and the plot. I didn't get very far because I'm very out of practice but I did get some more ideas and was able to jot it down. I dunno this is definitely a project that I will be coming back to quite often. At this point I feel like it's never going to be down.

Wednesday: 17
"Sometimes, creative energy works all by itself. Let your hands lead the process (instead of your brain). You may be surprised by the results."
I took this project to the extreme! I found most of my problems start is when I over think things and get stressed out with creating something. So today I didn't think about it at all and literally let my hands do all the work. I talked to my husband the whole time and didn't look at my project very much. The results? oh....a disaster. Obviously when you don't look at your project it kind of ends up all over the place. It was so much fun though. It's like drawing a portrait of someone without looking once at your drawing. It ends up all over the place. Unless you're a very good artist...and if you're blind.

Scheming, uniquing and creating. Days 9, 10 & 11

Tuesday-

Oh my beating heart

"Theme and scheme is a simple tool for starting a new project: Pick a theme, pick a color scheme that reflects that theme, and begin creating."
Tuesday was difficult and I'm not really happy with what came out of it BUT that's life I guess. You get winners and losers sometimes. I was supposed to pick a theme and come up with a color scheme that represents that theme. Because I felt biased I asked my husband to think of one for me. His result? Complete Satisfaction
Thanks babe! Now I really had no idea what to do. First off I have enough trouble verbalizing and explaining things as it is. Second off it's not just satisfaction but complete satisfaction. It took me all day to figure something out. I finally came up with the colors, brown, pink, yellow and blue. I felt like satisfaction is a very calming feeling almost like chocolate and a sunsets mixed together. Next I thought that when you're feeling completely satisfied your in a state of homeostasis. You're not stressed out, you're not worried, you're just happy to be where you are. I figured the best way to represent that is to show a heart beat. My dad teaches that a heart beat is the first thing you hear as a child in your mothers womb, it's the first thing you listen for to feel comforted. For me it felt like the perfect depiction of satisfaction. I finished it and realized it reminded me of a banana split . I dunno... it's not the best thing that I've done but it's something and I think that's all that really matters. In this chapter they talk about a lady who does collages and she said "The more I create, the more I create." I agree. As long as I just do something the next projects will be easier.

Wednesday-
"Just as your choice of clothes, jewelry or shoes can give a stranger insight into your personality or character, your living space offers deeper reflection who you are and what you convey to the world."
Today was about taking a fresh look at my house and to ask myself some questions. Well my house was a mess with laundry we were doing and dishes that needed to be done I didn't want to take a fresh look at my house cause I am embarrassed about the mess. So I cleaned up a little first, organized and then took a look.

What are the items that show up over and over?: Uh...well books are definitely one thing that shows up a lot. We have tons of books. We have 3 book cases and they are all almost full of books, binders and things relating to books. The next thing that I think would show up would be pictures of me and Justin. We have them hanging up all over our house. In our living room, on our fridge and in our bedroom. Next would be pictures of Christ, The Family: A Proclamation to the World and the Living Christ. That's about it.

What are the themes that repeat themselves from room to room?: I don't really have a theme? Togetherness? Messiness? I dunno...that we're a happy couple?

What are the colors that you use to reflect your personality?: Since this is an apartment we can't really decorate it the way we want to. One thing about this apartment that I like and one thing that sold this apartment to us is the blue carpet. You can see it in some of the pictures. I guess we got to pick at least that cause all the other apartments had white carpet. Our pictures are also in black frames and are pretty elegant looking. Our bathrooms have funky curtains and tend to stick to some color scheme...what it says about my personality? Gosh...I guess that we care about what our space looks like. We didn't pick colors too crazy but unique enough to call it our own. So we're conscious of our area but we don't take ourselves too seriously.

What does your living space say about you, your life, where you are in your journey or how you approach the world?:  I think it says pretty clearly that we're a newly married couple, discovering how to live together and we're ready to take it one step at a time. It also depicts that we're tight for money and as cozy as a place we live in it's pretty bare too.

How can you relate the items you collect in your home to your clothing choices, your friends, or your relationships?: Uh...I have no idea. I don't have many friends and I don't think I relate the items that I collect to my friends or relationships. I don't collect many items. Maybe root beer bottles...but that's been just recently.

Thursday-
"Think of these collections as forgotten fragments of your life that can be reassembled, reorganized, or reused as art, as inspiration for new projects, or as craft materials. Alternatively, you can simply clean house, throw it all out, and start with a clean state--a process that can take your creative process in a completely different direction." 
Today's project: go through my old purses and create something with the items I find there. Another difficult one. I clean my purses out when I switch to a new one so I didn't really have much to go on. I found 4 sharpies one yellow, maroon, blue and lighter blue, 2 pens pink and blue, 2 pennies, an old old uneaten sour patch kid color orange, and some random papers and receipts. I was stumped. I decided  to start simply. I could use the sour patch kid as a small person maybe a fairy? Fairies usually are around nature like flowers that's where the pennies and the pens come in handy. I stripped the paper and using a hot glue gun layered them on each other then used the yellow and light blue/green sharpie and the pink and blue pen to draw the flowers. I used the blue sharpie as the sky and used an old receipt as the wings for my fairy and  layered those with a transparent paper

. 

Again this isn't the best thing  I've ever made but with the materials I had I feel like I've done a pretty good job. I'm not much of an artist as far as drawing goes so my flowers are really amateur but they're good amateur flowers in my opinion!

Days 6,7 & 8. Folk art and Story Time

Saturday & Sunday 6 & 7:

"Studying other forms of art is a classic way to inspire your own creativity. If folk art or its style doesn't resonate with you right away, give it time--assimilation of a new art may come gradually." 

Ain't that the truth. The next project is for the next two days and separated into two parts. The first part researching Folk Art. Well that was easy enough...I just typed in folk art in Google search and received a whole plethora of info. I looked at some exhibits in the Folk Art Museum in New York, some independent artists and I discovered a couple of things. First Folk Art tends to stay in the natural colors and tends to be in the categories of Quilting, Painting, Clay sculptures and the bizarre. Pretty much what Folk Art portrays is a very traditional art form. As the book describes it "Folk Art is the art of everyday". Well now that I researched and discovered kind of what to do, I had to figure out what was I going to do. Well...I can't quilt, I'm not very good at painting and clay is expensive so that's out of the picture....Well I had to go with my resources and that was lots and lots and LOTS of paper.
Side Note--As some of you know, for over 15 years my mom was involved in a major Scrapbooking company. Needless to say she has 15 or so years of scrapbooking stuff. When I moved out she unloaded a lot of that onto my sisters and I. I ended up with tons of paper which I am very thankful for.

So with my paper I decided to do kind of a collage of paper that looks like a quilt. Next, I just needed to find a subject. Well Folk Art usually expresses "cultural identity" of some sort. My cultural identity as I've found out the past few days is a mix of spirituality, stories and love. Hey! St. George is a mixture of spirituality, stories and love! What does St. George and I have in common? Well a lot actually. I have ancestors who helped found this area so my blood runs through this city (That might be stretching it a bit). The point is I decided to do something historically significant not only to the city but to me as well. I decided to do the Jacob Hamblin home. 
This historical sight was the first one my family and I ever visited when we first moved to the St. George area. I really enjoyed it then and still do to this day. It's a beautiful home sitting on top of this majestic hill with these fruit tree orchards surrounding it. I loved it and it looked simple to recreate. So pretty much all Sunday I worked on my collage. 

I'm pretty darn proud of it personally. The picture doesn't really do it justice and it looks tons better in real life. I just used the paper that I had, cut and pasted it onto some card board. It was fun. I dunno if I would call it Folk Art but it was inspired by Folk Art so I'm going to say mission accomplished!!

Monday day 8:
"A custom journal is a lovely gift, but don't forget to create art for yourself sometimes. Surrounding yourself with your own creations (rather than giving them away) can inspire new ideas, and remind you how creative you really are."
While I was working at Barnes and Noble I bought this book called "How to Make Books". I bought it with the intention that I would make my own kids books or just learn how to bind my own books and such. The thing is after I bought it, I never did anything with it. Today provided me the perfect opportunity to use this book. I decided to create kind of a mini journal with this idea that I've had for a while.

Front Cover of t

 I made the front cover and the pages about a couple of days ago but was stumped with the back cover and how it was going to come together. I took some inspiration from Saturday and Sundays Folk Art lesson and decided to use the resources I have. I took my National Geographic magazines and flipped through them till some sort of idea hit me. It did after the first magazine. Here is what I came up with:

Back Cover

There is a story behind it and you might not understand it or get excited about it as I did when I first thought of it. I love Greek Mythology and one of my favorite myths is the Kidnapping of Persephone. For those unfamiliar with the myth, it tells the story of the Harvest Goddess, Demeter's daughter Persephone. She is said to be of great beauty and very innocent and carefree. While she was playing in the garden of her Mothers, Hades looked up from his hellish throne, saw her beauty and fell in love. Hades, not being the most tactful or graceful god, kidnaps Persephone and made her the Queen of the Underworld. It didn't take long for Demeter to realize her daughter was missing. She searched for her every where and when she couldn't find her she fell weeping in her garden. The flowers and birds felt pity for her and told her of Hades misdeed. Demeter was furious and punished the Earth until she got her daughter back. Everything died, no harvest grew and people died. Zeus couldn't ignore the fact that people were dying so he demanded that Hades and Demeter come to some sort of agreement. They did with clenched teeth. Persephone was allowed to come above for 3 seasons but for 1 season was confined with Hades. So while she is above Earth Demeter is happy and everything blooms, hence spring, summer and fall and while she is away Demeter is sad and doesn't let anything grow, hence winter. My journal is modeled after this story. I picked a little girl to represent Persephone because little girls are naive and innocent. Then for Hades I picked a mechanical arm because the opposite of nature is technology and usually is destructive. I got really excited while I was doing this cause I loved the idea. This is my first time binding a book and I used the Japanese stab-stitch design.  I liked the idea that the story stretches across the covers. I'm proud of my little creation. It's not much but it was fun. :D

Day 5 The Power of Sacred Places

Friday day 5:
"Sacred places, such as temples, churches, and even outdoor amphitheaters, can serve two purposes--as a place to worship and reflect, but also as a potential source of inspiration for art, projects, or other creative output." 

Oh boy. Friday was difficult for me. The task was figuring out how spiritual places effect your art work and what kind of inspiration it provides you. Again it gives you questions as kind of a kick off point. The first thing it asks you to do is to go to your spiritual place and look around as if you were seeing it for the first time. Well I actually didn't go to my "sacred place" on Friday. I went on Saturday. Justin and I went to the temple and it felt like the first time all over again. It's indescribable how I feel when I go there. I'm supposed to reflect on pretty much everything. The details of the architecture, feelings, what I like, what I don't like. To tell you the truth while I was there I wasn't focusing on any of that. In fact my mind was pretty clear and open and I just enjoyed the experience. I do believe The Gospel does play a big part in my life and in my creativity. It would be hard for it not to. As to the question what kind of inspiration it gives me...I really don't know. I guess it could be the appreciation for beautiful things. For instance, the temple is beautiful. It's whole architecture is just stunning and unbelievable not to mention the purity it just seems to glow. I've guided my whole life to that place. My desire to be worthy enough to go through the temple and to be married in the temple has helped me pick my husband, my job, what music I listen to, what I read....and such. So naturally that would come through my writing and what ever art I do. I just can't really explain it and I'm not doing a very good job of articulating what I'm trying to say.

Days 3 & 4

Bear with me on this blog guys, it’s a long one!  

Wednesday-

“Today’s exercise is simple—Pull out (or better yet buy a new box!) of crayons and color to your heart’s content…”

My favorite page!

After I read Wednesday daily exercise I got very excited. This was like a dream come true…almost. It was perfect timing as well because I was babysitting my little nephew pretty much all day.  It was so much fun!! I didn’t buy a new box of crayons because I’m poor and jobless (You know 2 bucks can buy like a whole case of ramen noodles!). I borrowed some crayons from my sister and some paper from my mom and made a little book for Joseph. I didn’t finish it because Joseph was more interested in eating the crayons and ripping up the paper. I had to put it away before  my WFR skills came into play. Needless to say I’m actually rather proud of my little book. It was fun and I have some ideas for it to come in handy later on. I will finish it but that may require me to actually go out and buy some crayons. I can’t be a freeloader the rest of my life. I figured crayons are a good start to practice my independence.


Thursday-
Thursday’s task is a little interesting. Luckily I didn’t really have to create anything just reflect. I’ve had plenty of time to reflect today. I’ve spent the majority of the day in a car so I can meet up with my husband while he is doing an odd job. The drive was uneventful and pretty boring as far as scenery goes. Honestly though, I didn’t get to the exercise until later that night and I talked about it with my husband. I realized a few things about me and have come to the conclusion that I’m strange. I dunno why that was such news to me. I guess I’ve never really thought about how my mind works. Anyway…the day starts out with a quote:
“I believe we all have strands of creative code hardwired into our imaginations…these strands are as solidly imprinted in us as the genetic code that determines our height and eye color, except that they govern our creative impulses. They determine the forms we work in, the stories we tell, and how we tell them. I’m not Watson and Crick; I can’t prove this. But perhaps you also suspect it when you try to understand why you’re a photographer, not a writer…or why your canvases gather the most interesting material at the edges, not the center. In many ways, that’s why art historians and literature professors and critics of all kinds have jobs: to pinpoint the artist’s DNA and explain to the rest of us whether the artist is being true to it in his or her work.” –Twyla Tharp
It’s a long quote but I like it. I’ve always wondered how imaginations worked and watching babies play by themselves shows that it’s a natural thing and not something that’s taught.  After the quote the book asks a series of questions to help you reflect on your own creative DNA. As I read the questions I realized I need to talk this one out. Sometimes my mind just doesn’t work by itself; I need someone to hash things out with. Naturally, I turned to my husband.  He was so patient with me as I rambled on and on about really just random things. After I was finished all he did was just smile, kiss me, looked deeply in my eyes and said “Babe, you’re weird.”
Well I’m not going to argue that point. I know I’m weird I guess I just didn’t realize in what way I was weird.  Thanks to this book it’s all become clear now!


If you were born to produce just one type of work, what would it be?: At first I said an auto-biography. This might be the paranoid side of me but I’ve always felt like the trials or problems that I go through in my life are not only to strengthen me but so that I can help other people who happen to find themselves in the same situation. I’m awful at motivational speaking and things like that. The help is more like…if someone needed a listening ear or advice or a place to go to for comfort, I would know how to give them what they needed or asked for.  As I rambled on about that point, I realized it’s really not so much about the trials it’s about telling the story. If I told my stories about myself or about my relatives (present and past) or even a story about someone I made up if it could mean something to someone then I feel like I would have accomplished something. It’s telling stories that I enjoy and I believe that’s what I was born to do.


What is your unique view of the world, and how does it manifest in your artwork?: Oh this was a tough question to answer cause it’s kind of complicated. I view stories not a world. My philosophy is that everyone and everything has a story. The problem is that I can’t shut off my brain. I look at something simple like a water bottle and I wonder about the factory worker who made that bottle. What kind of life do they lead? Would they be happy? Are they Mexican? You know things like that. When I was talking about this to my husband he asked me to tell him the story of his hair. My mind instantly flashed to these tiny little cells with these hard hats on their…uh…heads lying on their death beds telling the mourning cells to promise them they’ll use their bodies for good. So they lock them up in these tiny little brown coffins and push them up through the skull while the cells wave good bye with their little hankies...How does this manifest in my artwork? Everything I create has back story. Even a tiny little doodle on the side of a page has a whole history. Everything has a story line! It’s amazing I haven’t gone insane yet.

What medium lets you best express your creativity?: Medium Rare.

Monday and Tuesday Days 1 & 2

I would like to apologize first for not having any pictures of Monday up. My pictures are on my camera which  at the moment is in my tiny apartment. My tiny apartment doesn't have any internet and what I have been using for the internet is about a hundred miles or so away from me so I have to borrow my mothers. 

Mondays task was relatively simple. I was told to write & keep a journal. The directions? "JUST WRITE". Huh. Go figure that's exactly what I'm trying to do. Journal writing and I have had a very off and on relationship. I write religiously for like 4 months then I stop for about that long as well. Soon I'll remember about it and take it up again and so on and so forth. My mother taught me that when ever a significant thing happens in my life (break ups, catastrophes...etc.) to  go buy a brand new journal and write about it. I have lots of journals. I love journals. I love buying journals. I love looking at journals. I never fill them up though. I still have a journal that I've had since I was 6 and it's not even half full. I've got journal entries written on random pieces of paper. I think I even wrote one on the back of my homework...I like to think one day I'll collect all of those up and put it in one place. Like make a book or something. Eh. Maybe eventually. 

Tuesday-
Tuesdays task was a little harder for me. Oddly enough, for me, it tied into Monday's task. The task today was go through some old photographs and play around with them. Try new things. It mentioned specifically to digitally mess around with them, scan them, photoshop them, whatever. Unfortunately for me, I don't have any of those items...No matter! I'd figure something out! My first step was to find some pictures. I figured my mom would probably have some and if she didn't my Grandma Reber would definitely have some. I snuck onto my moms computer and lo and behold she had a whole folder dedicated to the Jensen side of my family.  As I was going through these pictures I realized 2 things. 1: I have some very good looking ancestors. 2: I didn't want to mess with the pictures. Alot of these pictures were amazing! Some of them looked even professional. I didn't want to touch them. They looked great the way there were.

Isn't that adorable? I don't know who most of these pictures are of. Some of them look vaguely familiar but I really don't know. I think maybe I'm going to keep some of these pictures in mind. I might do something with them later on. I dunno. What ever strikes my fancy I guess. I might be cheating myself on today's task but I just don't know what else to do. I'll keep thinking about it and see what turns up. 

A new start

In light of a new year and a new life for me, I thought it would be fitting to start a completely new blog. This time, though, it will actually have a purpose!

Ever since I could remember I've always wanted to be a writer. Writing for me in many, many ways has been a huge passion and almost a sanity saver. I get these worlds, characters and stories stuck in my head that would just itch at me till I could find somewhere to jot them quickly down. When I was younger this really wasn't a problem I loved creating and all that's all that mattered to me. As I got older I became more self conscious and started to care about what people would think. I started to silence the characters in my head cause I was embarrassed of them. Needless to say, I became very creatively frustrated. I didn't enjoy writing any more because I didn't think it was perfect so I slowly stopped. Thus started my journey to finding ways to express myself that I wouldn't be ashamed of. I've tried many things, doodling, scrap-booking, card making, stamping I think I  even tried knitting. All of these were fun and interesting but I found that I get so upset with myself when I can't do it perfectly the first time.
 Now to the point of this whole blog. I want to get the stories and worlds out of my head and I want to do them in the best way I know how which is write. Though, I don't want to do it in just those ways as well. I'm a firm believer in having multiple outlets and I've found one outlet often leads to another. If I have such issue with myself and perfection why not try tons of new things to get out of the funk I'm in. While I was in Barnes and Noble I found this interesting book that started me thinking about all of this. It's called "The Crafters Devotional: 365 days of Tips, Tricks and Techniques for Unlocking your Creative Spirit by Barbara R. Call" Sounds cheesy I know and when I first saw it I almost didn't pick it up but the curiosity got the best of me and I ended up looking at it for a while. The philosophy behind this book is spend some time exploring all kinds of facets of art. They've split everything up into weeks that follow a day by day category.

Monday-Journaling
Tuesday-Recycle, Reuse or Revive
Wednesday- Collection, Stash and Materials
Thursday-Personal History
Friday-Noncraft Inspiration
Saturday & Sunday- Collaborate, Gather and Experiment

They have, with each day, a craft or an item that you make anything you feel like with that sticks to a theme. Like for example on one Monday they tell you to personalize your journal any way you want to. Fill it with pictures or decorate the outside or write something uniquely to you. It's all what ever you want to do but the point is to just do it! No matter how lame it is.

I realize to many people this may be kind of odd and you might not understand what this has to do with writing. But that's the point. I'm doing something unconventional cause that's what it takes for me to be OK with my writing. For years now I haven't been able to write a short story or finish a concept. I won't let people read them and I've been feeling ashamed of my old writings as well. This is a way for me to not only publish my lame little crafts but for me to realize I'm not writing/creating for other people. I'm trying to better myself as an artist. People don't have to like it and I will admit I'm doing this for purely selfish reasons. (That's art though right?) My plan is to follow this book and document my...progress? I'm planning on starting on Monday and I'll be taking pictures of my little crafts as well. What better way to practice my writing than to write about it?
So there it is. My new start. I can't guarantee that I'm going to post something everyday but I'll try to post often with pictures. You're welcome to join me on my journey or completely ignore me. Either way it's going to be fun!

"The artist has but one idea. He is born with it and he spends a lifetime developing it and making it breathe."- Henry Matisse