a dino doodle

I'd been stressing all night about how to draw a dinosaur for this little card I needed, and a few minutes of sketching later, this little dude had evolved. He makes me very happy. Very very happy. 

He will be back in future creations. I am sure of that. 

a mixed media painting

I was inspired to do a little mixed media painting. I layed down a variety of papers, and painted it white. Then I got out all my stuff; pan pastels, dried tea bags, reinkers, carved stamps, acrylic paints and got busy. 

I'm not sure if its done yet, or if I will add some words. 

The Windy City

I finally sat down and just did it. Made the little Chicago mini album. I'm trying to do more, just stop thinking about how I'm going to do it, and just get stuff happening.

I started out with a little tin accordion album I've had for years.

I designed the main pages on the computer, sizing the photos, adding titles and text.

I had a few ticket stubs and extra things to add, but I couldn't figure out how to incorporate them with the limited accordion pages.

Last night, lying in bed, I had my genius moment. I used clear tape to add ticket stubs by laying the ticket stub on an inside fold, and adding a piece of each tape to either side, so that this new page/stub, could flip just like a regular page.

I attached my main pages overtop, to hide some of the joining tape. A bit hard to explain, but it was exactly what I needed to incorporate my extra items.

 

unplanned

Sometimes the unplanned things are the very best things in life.

I had an absolutely fabulous long birthday weekend. Crepes and mimosas. An old friend. A super rich ice cream cake. A cheesecake party. A day with my sister. Bacon wrapped scallops. A balloon animal party. Pounce. A napkin party. Some of my favorite people I do not see often enough. Laughter. Magic Mike. Inspiration. A walk in gumboots. Sparklers. Waffles for breakfast.

It was freaking awesome. And I never even saw it coming. Love that.

Today I've been working hard getting a little minibook finished. Pictures tomorrow! 

24

23 was a good year. Today was a pretty fantastic last day at 23. The year brought more travel than I expected. Huge changes I didn't see coming. Guacamole sandwiches. Near death experiences. Climbing waterfalls. Good stuff. 

In 24 I am looking forward to just as much travel. And to do more. Just get up and go. Paint. Make mistakes. Spend less time figuring out how I want to do it. And just do it.

Its starting off tomorrow with mimosas and crepes. We'll see where the day goes from there.

winding up 23

Today is my last day at 23. I have been busy putting together my accomplishments from this past year, and gearing up for 24.

23-

There were breathtaking moments. Heartbreaking moments. Moments that almost killed me.
Not all the things on the list got done. Not enough Spanish was learned or baking done.
Some pretty amazing things that weren’t on the list happened. I went scuba diving.
I saw the mountain gorillas. I discovered letterpress. I swam under a waterfall.

1. Run 5 km
2. Go on safari 
3. Sell at a craft fair
4. Take one picture on manual mode every month - Some months this happened, but the reality is I'm not any better at getting it done than I was a year ago. 
5. go parasailing
6. Give back
7. Cook or bake something new every month
8. get fake nails
9. Organize your life - A bit of organization happened, but there is such a long way to go
10. create an etsy store - I sort of lost enthusiasm for this one. Perhaps that excitement will come back again one day. 
11. eat more fruits and vegetables - I could have done better at this. But I was aware of it, and made an effort to change. 
12. drive standard - This, quite simply, just seemed like too much work 
13. go to san francisco -  I'm crossing this off because the trip is booked, and we head out in two weeks. 
14. go rafting 
15. have flowers every month
16. read a new book every month
17. learn 5 spanish words a month
18. go to the spa
19. hike the chilkoot - this is moving to next years list
20. try out buddhism
21. get into a first class lounge
22. go rockclimbing
23. have a picnic

So 15/23 done. Not bad. Next year is going to be even better! 

The List of 24 will be up tomorrow! 

good design

In February I took 3 online classes with Alma Loveland through Nicole's Classes, and I ended up winning another class. It was a hard decision, but I settled on: The Principles of Good Design. I am now busy working on the class and my mind is swimming with designs and fun stuff. Love love love these classes.

This was last weeks homework, a little info-graphic that I can also use at my day job.