Overwhelmed

Hi all, just a quick post tonight, more later this week.  I'm still gathering my thoughts and working on my projects from CREATE this past weekend.  I had an absolute blast in Michelle's workshops, but I still can't begin to put it all into words, and I need to take better pictures and get them onto my computer, so I don't have much to post yet.  I'm also gearing up for a new job, so I'm swamped at work with tying up loose ends and transferring projects and stuff.  But I did want to put up a quick post acknowledging that Diana Taylor at Velvet Moth Studios has kindly nominated me for the Versatile Blogger Award!  Thank you Diana!  I didn't even know what it was, but here it is:

Now there are rules, it's kind of like one of those things on Facebook where someone says "post one word about how we met and then repost this on your wall" except that this time I'm actually going to play along.  But I'm bending the rules.  Here they are:

1. Thank the person who nominated me and leave a link to their blog. {check!}

2. Include the award image in this post. {check!}

3. Give 7 random facts about myself. {oh boy...}

4. Nominate 15 other bloggers for the award and leave a link to their site. {I don't even keep up with 15 bloggers regularly - link list notwithstanding}

5. Let the other bloggers know they've been nominated. {okay!}

So here goes... seven facts about the Carrie...

1. I hate spiders.  They are terrifying and evil and scary and I hate them.  99% of nightmares I have involve spiders.  And they keep insisting on taking over my herb pots. 

2. I've lately discovered a fondness for tending plants.  I won't go overboard and say "gardening" because I don't have a garden, I have a few pots.  But I like taking care of them.

3. Speaking of plants, I love lavender.

4. I also love tea.

5. Yes, I associate lavender with tea.  Also with other edible things, like scones and ice cream (I swear I'm making lavender ice cream before the summer is out.)

6. Speaking of tea, I can't drink coffee. 

7. I struggle with depression and anxiety, both of which come and go and neither of which are pleasant but generally I get through.  Art helps.  So does dancing.  And to be honest, so does a daily dose of SAM-e. 

Moving on to the blogs that most inspire and impress me, in alphabetical order so as not to imply any particular rank:

Michelle Ward:  http://michelleward.typepad.com/michelleward/ (my hero ;))

Nathalie Kalbach:  http://nathaliesstudio.com/ (just met her this weekend, and already I love her blog!)

RunningWave:  http://runningwave.blogspot.com/ (a good friend of mine from work, and a very cool collage artist)

Soul Aperture:  http://soulaperture.blogspot.com/ (found through Crescendoh - I just love her photos, they're so calming and beautiful.)

Velvet Moth Studio:   http://velvetmothstudio.blogspot.com/ (is it cheating to nominate the person who nominated me? I don't care, I love her soft and elegant pieces, and her eye for color)

Zingala's Workshop:  http://zingalasworkshop.blogspot.com/ (my mom! she's the source of my crazy creative gene, and my art ADD, and she's currently making fantastic jewelry)

If I nominated you, don't feel pressured to play along.  Just know that I check in on your blog every day and think you're pretty freakin' cool!

Adventures

Again I've let the blog sit a while.  I've got a bit of stuff to show for it though.  First, remember those culinary adventures I embarked on?  The third was lavender scones.  They were delicious:

I used the formula from this blog post:  http://www.goodlifeeats.com/2011/03/buttermilk-poppy-seed-citrus-scones.html  So easy to follow, and what I added to the basics was some ground dried lavender and some vanilla extract.  I sprinkled some lavender sugar on top before baking, too. 

Well those turned out so well that the next week I made blueberry scones.  Look at these:

I love blueberries.  And they make scones so good.  It's like a blueberry muffin but better :)  Try that formula the next time you want scones, it works out perfectly.

My other adventures have been in color.  I did make tags for Father's day and a belated Mother's day tag.  Unfortunately I forgot to take pictures.  But they were fun color schemes... one was brown and red, the other was blue and gold.  Not too much of a reach for me, but I'd like to play with them again.  Since then, though, I've gone Summer-crazy:

Mom got us each a set of the new Tim Holtz seasonal ink colors.  So I thought they'd be perfect with my new Michelle Ward stamps and stencils because some of those have a very Moorish or Indian feel which makes me think hot weather which makes me think bright colors and now you know why Picked Raspberry, Salty Ocean, and Mowed Lawn seem perfect for OnWard & UpWard.  Welcome to my weird free-associating brain.

This is my favorite background I've done so far.  I added some Ripe Persimmon from the Fall seasonal colors to sort of kick up the heat.   Sort of inspired by The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, which you should definitley see if you like British actors in character pieces.  It's fabulous.

I had lots of fun with this ATC background, but I didn't know what to do with it.  I now have a plan for it, but I was getting a little frustrated at creating backgrounds and not having a clue what to do with them.  I like to do a project all at once.  So on this next one, I did that...

This one cools things down a bit.  And I liked the swallow swooping along the streak of blue sky across the tag.  The contrails behind him are painted on with Distress Ink by swiping a wet paintbrush on the blue ink pad, and then I added white Perfect Pearls to make it shimmery and white, like trails of cloud, or jet trails. 

I'm looking forward to making some sprays with the reinkers for these colors.  Hoping to play with them a bit this afternoon.  I'm off today because I had some doctor stuff to take care of (routine, no worries) and I wanted to spend at least one day of Alex's vacation with him.  So once I was done with my doctor stuff, he took me to the movies to see.... BRAVE!

If you've seen the trailers or any of the promo stuff and you know me, you might be able to figure out why I'm so excited about this movie.  I love the Middle Ages, I love Celtic-y stuff (my go-to station on Pandora internet radio is built off of medieval and Celtic music - here), and... well... look at Merida, then look at me:

See the resemblance?

So did it live up to my expectations?  YES.  It's visually beautiful, the characters are great, and the story is classic but compelling.  Fantastic movie about mothers and daughters and how we both need to communicate, understand each other, and meet somewhere in the middle when we clash.  It's also about being, well, brave.  And badass.  And other b-words as well, but that might be spoilers ;)

By the way, that's Mr. Pocket's sword in that picture.  He's been learning 14th Century German longsword fighting.  It's only the coolest thing ever.  See what an adventurous life we're living?

On a Roll

Culinary To-Do List item 2 is finished.  And delicious.  I've been wanting to do this since I saw it on my friend's Pinterest (yes, I'm using that too now).  See, I love my Le Creuset pots.  They're so versatile.  And finding out that I can bake bread in them just blew my mind.  So, following the instructions here, I embarked on my latest culinary adventure.  You saw the pic at the end of my previous post with the just-mixed dough waiting on the kitchen counter.  Well I forgot to take a picture before turning it out of the bowl the next morning, but it had risen quite a bit and taken over the full bottom half of the bowl just about.  This is how it looked all shaped up and floured, looking kind of like a little Adipose baby (Doctor Who reference, for those who watch):

Except instead of fat, this is all flour.  And stuff.

While it baked, Mr. Pocket and I were practically drooling from the fabulous aroma of baking bread that completely filled the downstairs of our condo.  And when it came out, I kind of wanted to do a faceplant right into the pot.

Totally worth burning my face off to get a bite of that, right?

Unfortunately we couldn't taste it right away because we were going out.  But we had some with breakfast this morning and oh my.  Definitely going to be doing this again, and trying different variations.  It's a little sticky and chewy, whereas I usually like a somewhat drier bread (the better to soak up olive oil or butter, teehee), but it's awesome.  Mr. Pocket says it reminds him of the fresh bread his grandmother in Germany gets every day.  Works for me.  I enjoyed it again with olive oil for dipping, cheese, and strawberries for lunch. 

My kind of lunch!

If you have an enameled cast iron pot, you really should try this.  It's totally worth it.  And it's really easy.  I can even do this during the work week, now that I know how easy it is.  It takes seriously less than 10 minutes to put everything together (and that's if you're slow and dithery like me) and then you just leave it alone for almost an entire day.  And while the baking part seems time consuming, the only real effort you have to invest is in forming it into a ball, and then in not burning yourself on the hot pot.  Just be careful when you clean up your floured surface.  I tried to dump the excess flour off my pastry cloth into the sink, and it kinda went *pouf!* everywhere all over the counter.  *sigh*  And I had done such a good job of not making a mess with this one...

What Have I Been Up To?

Sadly, not a lot of art being made around here.  Mom and I did take a class that I enjoyed, doing a Tim Holtz project:

It's not really my own ideas and design, so I can't really claim much credit, but I like it, and the class was fun.

At home, I've been focused on other stuff, though, and it seems that my mind has room for only one creative pursuit at a time.  Currently, that creative pursuit is Middle Eastern dance.  I started taking lessons last year, and I'm really enjoying it.  And while I don't practice perhaps as often as I should, I'm starting to put things together on my own a bit.  And I'm designing costumes in my head, which I'll actually sew once I get myself to settle on some fabrics.  There's a sale on at JoAnn Fabrics this weekend, and while I don't usually shop Memorial Day sales (too crowded, and our vets didn't die for 50% off at Stuff-Mart), I might actually get that going.

I've also established a tiny little garden in pots on our balcony.  I wanted to grow tomatoes and herbs this year, along with my one pot of lavender.  And since the only one of our balconies that gets sun is the one off our master bedroom, our tiny little kitchen garden is upstairs instead of near the kitchen.  That's okay, once we get tomatoes on the plant, then if I wake up hungry I can roll out of bed and pick breakfast ;)  Mom and Dad came over and planted it with me last weekend, since I squandered my youth not helping them in the garden and therefore don't know my way around a potting shed.  Here are some glamor shots:

The newly planted tomatoes are in the red-covered Earth Box with some marigolds; lavender in the center and herbs in the pots to the sides.  Parsley, rosemary,thyme, chives, and mint.  Still have to get my basil.

My lavender, and marigolds on the downstairs balcony.  I've been playing with Instagram, too.

This weekend, work is closed Friday and Monday so I've got a forced long weekend.  I've got quite a long to-do list for myself, which includes cleaning up the Spare Oom so I can more comfortably get back to my art, finishing up a couple of art projects I started ages ago, and a few culinary adventures.  The first of those culinary adventures is done:  lavender lemonade!

First you pick your lavender lemons:

Just kidding.  That's a tiny lemon that didn't get used, I couldn't resist posing it in my lavender.  It nestled in so nicely!

Anyway, what you really do is make a simple syrup and steep dried lavender in it for about 10 minutes, then strain it.  Then you proceed to make your lemonade with equal parts syrup and fresh squeezed lemon juice (borrowed my mother-in-law's electric juicer - so much easier!), and dilute it with water til it tastes the way you want it.  It turns out looking something like this:

I'm sad I can't share some with you all.  It's delicious.  It's even Mr. Pocket Approved.  The herbal/floral flavor of the lavender is a really nice accent to the lemon.  I'll definitely be making it again.

I'll try to post more this weekend, with my continuing adventures in the pocket-sized kitchen.  And yes, our kitchen is pocket-sized.  Anyway, coming up next is bread, to be baked in my enameled cast iron dutch oven... here's a teaser...

Let the Wind Carry You Home

I hadn't worked on much in a little while, except a couple of tags for a friend's baby shower, but there's an idea that had been poking at me for a while, ever since I found black-primed canvases at Michael's.

I knew I wanted to use it for a project based on the Alter Bridge song Blackbird.  I love Alter Bridge.  They've really become my favorite band.  To be honest, I liked them on the radio but never really followed them until I realized that Edge, one of my favorite wrestlers, entered the ring to one of their songs.  I'm glad I noticed.  They're one of those bands whose albums surpass their singles.  When Edge suddenly had to retire or else risk paralysis or death, I started to think of their song Blackbird as his new theme.  It's possibly their best track, but I'll let them speak for themselves:

(I always think Myles' vocals are a little weird live, but still... Note the Beatles homage at the beginning and the totally sweet Tremonti Series PRS Guitars - a Maryland guitar company :) )

So....

I had sort of started the project a good while ago, but wasn't happy with what I was getting.  Trying to stamp on stretched canvas is pretty hard, especially when it's not stretched very taut.  So I had walked away from my sloppy gothic text stamping with Michelle Ward's Printed Matter stamps and let it sit there for a while.  But this weekend, I finally followed through with what I wanted to do.  At worst, I'd have to paint black over it and start over, right?

 First things first, I needed a custom mask.  So I printed out the image I wanted (the blackbird from the Blackbird album cover) and stuck some Tim Holtz mask material (I like it cos it's already sticky on the back) on it and started cutting.  And why cut a mask and discard the rest of the material?  So I was careful to not make any extra cuts so I could have a stencil too. 

Yeah, that little guy was a beeotch and a half to cut out.  But so, so worth it.  Because I peeled off the paper, stuck him down where I wanted him on the canvas (ok so the sticky didn't so much stick, but it worked well enough), and swiped over him with some silver paint.  And some red paint.  And some black paint.  And I'm pleased with the result.

It's the first piece of Alter Bridge inspired art that I've finished.  I've got another project that's been sitting half-done for a while that I need to get back to.  I just need to fit it in between the dancing and the mending and the just being too tired to do anything but sit and play video games after work. 

Sanguine

This spread is an ode to my favorite color.  It's my favorite color of nail polish, of lipstick, of balloons, of flowers... It was also an opportunity to "restrain" myself and let the color breathe on the page.  And that's something I needed to do, because Michelle's Last Crusade is a challenge to leave some space in our work.  To decide when enough is enough, you must choose - but choose wisely.  I've got lots of stamps I could've used to showcase my favorite color, a lot of embellishments I could've used, a lot of powders and glitzy things and fibers and crap.  But I chose a simple application - just paint, paper, and little tag swatches.  I hope I chose wisely.  What do you think?

I tried to bring different shades but not make it elaborate.  Still a lot going on here, but I tried to keep things solid.

The paper strip has different terms for shades of red written on it.  Hard to cover the whole thing.

So I'd have a record, I wrote in what colors of what materials I used.

I actually managed to get this posted early, so I might manage to squeeze in two entries this month.  It's Springtime, and I tend to go lighter this time of year, so I'm sure I'll come up with something :)

P.S. Mr. Pocket and I were watching Heat Seekers on the Food Network while I posted this; a lot of what they were eating could've gone into this spread.  But I'm not touching that stuff!

First!

This post is somewhat of an update on my previous post.  I finally sat down and bound my little favorites art journal.  I used waxed linen thread and worked from this tutorial:  Tortagialla's Coptic tutorial.  Nice tutorial, very clear, good pictures.  I realized on my 9th of 12 gatherings, though, that I was doing my kettle stitches in the wrong direction.  So I switched for the rest and they looked a bit better.  I did have trouble with thread tension, but hey, it's not like I'm selling it or giving it to anybody else.  It's mine.  It's not consistent and it's not pretty, but it's done, and it's mine.

Not terrible for a first attempt working only from a website and not a real live teacher.  I think next time I try a coptic binding I'm going to use un-waxed thread.  The wax kind of made the thread stick to itself and everything else, which aggravated my thread tension issues.  Opening it between each gathering and wiggling it a little helped settle out the stitches along the spine, so I'm hoping that with some use, the thread will settle out more evenly.  We shall see!

Less Than Three

Before I get to the real post, I have to take a line or two to honor a hero of mine.  Davy Jones passed away today, and I owe a lot of my self-confidence to him.  Rest in peace, Davy.  You meant a lot to me.

Michelle's penultimate GPP Street Team Crusade was to showcase what we love.  I realized that I couldn't decide what to showcase, and that this would be a great opportunity to finally start a whole art journal to showcase the things I love and the things that inspire me.  My favorite things.  But, this being me, I couldn't just buy a journal or sketchbook, I had to make one.  So, with some buffered paper, book board, and my new paper cutter, I cut and folded myself a nice little text block and covers.  I plan to do a Coptic binding (my first ever, from online tutorials) so that it lays flat when it's open, so I had to cover the boards before I bind it.  So rather than just cover them, I went ahead and decorated them too.

Front cover

I haven't sewn it together yet, but when I get the chance I'm going to go ahead and take a stab at this Coptic binding thing.  Since it's just for me, I don't really have to worry about it being perfect...

Then it took me a while, but I finally decided what the first love I would showcase in my new journal would be.  Sepia tones.  They're my go-to palette, my neutrals that go with everything, my antique paper look.  And Tim Holtz's Distress Inks come in all the right shades.  Now, not having much art mojo for the last couple of months, I'm a little off my game.  But last night I managed to pull this together.  Not perfect, but it's something. 

I did the coloring on parts of the flourish with one of the new Distress Ink Pens.  Wow.  Love the pop that it provides.  Will definitely be accumulating more of those for more tone-on-tone details.  I do love me some tone-on-tone. 

Not sure what the next set of pages will be, probably an homage to the color RED.  Another favorite color.  But there will be sure to be some books, some bands, some movies, and more colors making appearances in the book of loves.  I intend for this to be an ongoing project, maybe even revisiting pages now and then, keeping everything a work in progress.  We'll see.  Stay tuned.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

It's been a while again, but I want to be sure to say happy holidays to everyone who reads my blog.  I also want to participate in Michelle's latest Crusade, the goal of which was to simply get yourself in a picture.  I didn't get in front of the camera much, but I do have a picture from when I finished a project for another challenge. 

My favorite shop The Queen's Ink had a contest for decorating little houses for Christmas.  Apparently the project came from the magazine Cloth Paper Scissors.  Anyway, Mom and I did one each, and mine is a little alpine gnome home.  This is how it looks all finished, with me in there for scale ;):

The roof has pine cone shingles and the candles in the windows are toothpicks.  The curtains are paper doilies.  And the gnome was a stamp from Paper Source.  I had so much fun putting this together!

Of course, what makes things better is the iPhone game I've been hooked on.  Cut the Rope.  If you have an iPhone, Android, or iPad, get it.  It's the cutest game ever.  It's a puzzle game, where you have to get a piece of candy from where it is dangling from a rope to a little green monster named OmNom who eats candy.  They released a holiday version for free, too, and it had a little holiday card generator where you could add OmNom to your own photos... so of course... he had to visit the gnome home.

This was Mr. Pocket's and my first Christmas married.  We decorated our condo and hung stockings by the fireplace and everything.  I was trying to make him a stocking but I ran out of time, but it will be done for next year. 

In another photo for the Crusade, my mother in law got me an awesome Ravens hat:

Sorry there's not much crafty stuff to show in this post.  Since the gnome home and a tag class at The Queen's Ink, I've been kind of burned out.  I did do a few Christmas tags, but the photos of them are scattered across my phone and my real camera, so I might have to post those after our weekend away for New Year's.  See you in 2012!

Nemesis

You know, Pocketeers, sometimes things just don't work.  I have been struggling with some of the most basic of stamping skills, and it's driving me crazy.  But I realize that sometimes there's just something that is jinxed and you should be able to do it but it just won't come out right, so I have decided to share mine with you so maybe you won't feel so bad if/when that happens to you.

It all started with this:

I embossed the leaves using Gathered Twigs Distress Ink and clear embossing powder, then inked over it with Ripe Persimmon Distress Ink.  Now, look closer:

 The embossing powder refused to cooperate.  I tried everything.  I polled the GPP Street Team group on Facebook.  I took their advice.  I used a little brush to wipe away stray grains outside the stamp.  I wiped it with a dryer sheet before stamping to avoid static cling.  Nothing worked.  Eventually, I found one discussion forum that talked about having no end of trouble with the particular brand of embossing powder that I was using, so I decided it must be a powder problem and accepted it.  I inked the orange on first, dried it with a heat gun, let it sit overnight to be good and dry, and did my stamping over it.  The result:  little orange stray embossing dots.  Better than off-white at least.  And my background is finished.

That was last week.  This week, I'm still having trouble with the embossing powder not distributing evenly, but at least it's not clinging everywhere it's not supposed to.  But there is of course a new problem.

Ladies and gentlemen (do I get any gentleman readers?), meet my Nemesis:

I love these stamps.  They're the "Pumpkins & Flourish" set from Inkadinkado.  And when I ordered them I couldn't wait for them to come in.  Now I am about ready to throw them out the window.  I love clear stamps.  I love the designs that come in clear stamps, I love that they're so compact, I love that I can see through them to position them exactly where I want.  I do not love that my Distress Ink beads up on them more than rain beads on my Rain-Ex coated windshield.  Because then you get this crap:

See how bubbly that looks?  What The Fruitcake?!?!  Even with the awful embossing, the regular rubber leaf of last week at least took the ink evenly.  Without embossing, this is some of my copious amounts of testing:

(Ok there's a little embossing on the right side of this image)

That damn leaf will NOT come out solid.  Not in this color, not in these colors:

Incidentally, Archival Ink works just fine:

Again I turned to the intarwebz.  Taking advice from various online sources, I tried letting Archival Ink dry on its surface (FAIL - all it did was come off with the Distress Ink), I tried using an eraser to clean the manufacturer's finish off of it, I tried sanding it lightly with an emery board, I tried washing it with soap and water... All I got was a big bucket of FAIL.  The best image I got at all with the inks I wanted to use was this:

Still not solid, still not crisp.

On a whim, I experimented with Distress Clear Embossing Ink.  The stamp finally seemed to like that and gave me a clear, solid image.  So I tried a different embossing powder.  

It's obnoxiously perfect.  So I guess all I have to do is not use Distress Ink in any sort of color on my clear stamps.  Which is extremely frustrating.  I use those inks because I love the colors!  So I can either continue to beat my head against the wall (figuratively) by trying over and over again, or I can limit how much I can use in my work.  

I don't like those options. 

Stupid stamp.

Experimental Dinner

I have to share my dinner with you.  In a virtual way.  Because I made it up, and I'm very proud of how it turned out:



I wanted to write down the recipe and share it, but I made it up as I went along, so I can tell you what I did but the measurements will be imprecise.  In case you want it, here's the how-to:

Italian-style Stuffed Acorn Squash
Serves 4
You'll need:
2 acorn squash
olive oil
3 cloves of garlic, minced
about a half pound of ground beef
about 1 1/4 teaspoon of dried sage
a handful of parsley, chopped coarsely
salt and pepper
a 14.5 oz can of diced tomatoes, drained
a little over 1 cup of stuffing mix or if you're like me, the heel of a small loaf of french bread, cubed and toasted in a skillet because you have that but not stuffing mix and you want bread cubes in the filling
grated parmesan cheese
a large skillet
a baking dish
knives and stuff... ok you get the idea

So you preheat the oven to 350 degrees, and while that's preheating, lightly grease the baking dish (I sprayed it with olive oil), halve the acorn squash, scoop out the seeds, and lay the halves cut-side down in the baking dish.  When the oven is ready, put that in and set a timer for 30 minutes.

While that's in, coat the bottom of the skillet with olive oil, heat it over medium heat, and put the garlic in.  Try not to burn it like me.  When the garlic is nicely sauteed, stick in the ground beef and brown it.

Season the ground beef and garlic with the sage, parsley, salt and pepper until it tastes good.  Really, this was trial and error.  (Try to account for the fact that you will be adding more stuff and over-season it just a smidge - otherwise you'll end up adding more after the next step like I had to.)

Add your (drained!) diced tomatoes, your parmesan, and your bread cubes/stuffing mix.  Stir it all up and let it simmer for a few minutes while the squash finishes roasting.

When the timer goes off, check your squash to make sure a knife will easily pierce the skin - that's how you know it's done (according to the interwebs).  Take it out of the oven, flip the squash halves over so they're little bowls (yes they will probably roll around a little and not sit straight), and fill them with the mixture.  Spray with a little olive oil to keep it all moist and sprinkle parmesan on top.  Stick in the oven for another 5-10 minutes to get the cheese a little melty, remove, and serve.  Easy peasy lemon squeezy! (As my Latin professor used to say.)

Okay, so I'm not likely to be publishing a cookbook anytime soon, and the world is a better, less frustrated place for that.  But if this sounds good to you, give it a try and let me know what you think!

Once Upon a Midnight Dreary

Happy Halloween everybody!  Are you dressed up?  After spending an exhausting day appropriately surrounded by mold and decay, I'm not actually dressed up tonight (except in my Halloween pjs and Little Miss Spooky shirt from Target...), but Mr. Pocket and I went to a Halloween party on Saturday, and... well, do you recognize me?

Not the least obeisance made he; not a minute stopped or stayed he;
But with mien of lord or lady, perched above my chamber door.
Perched upon a bust of Pallas, just above my chamber door,
Perched, and sat, and nothing more.

...

And the raven, never flitting, still is sitting, still is sitting
On the pallid bust of Pallas just above my chamber door...

 (Dunno how well you can see it, but behind me in that pic is a "trick or treat" garland that my mom made me :) )

You know how much I love a good Raven reference.  Ever notice that the Baltimore Ravens wear black and the only other color mentioned in the poem - purple?  

And the silken sad uncertain rustling of each purple curtain

Thrilled me---filled me with fantastic terrors never felt before... 

Their mascots used to be Edgar, Allen, and Poe.  Now there's only Poe, but it's ok because he's adorable:

If only the Ravens were playing Monday Night Football tonight.  That would be appropriate. 

So, are you giving out candy?  Are you giving out good candy?  We haven't gotten any trick or treaters, not that we expected many.  We only had a few KitKats left anyway.  I have no idea what happened to them...... Must've been eaten by ghosts....... or something.................... *innocent grin*

This is my I-didn't-eat-the-KitKats face :)

I Believe

I believe I've been away too long again.  But this time I have to get in before the deadline for Michelle's October Crusade.  The Crusade is all about what you believe in and who you are as an artist.  So I've thought about it off and on all month, and a few things stick with me.  I didn't get around to creating anything to show it all, but I can tell what I believe in and what makes me make stuff.

I believe in aesthetics.  I don't know anything about the whole philosophy of aesthetics, but what I mean is that I believe art should be attractive.  Sure, express yourself, make a statement, whatever.  Just make sure it looks good.  I'm willing to make exceptions for realistic depictions of things that aren't pretty to begin with (spectacular zombie makeup, for example), but really, there's enough ugliness in the world.  I believe in using our powers for improvement.

I believe in the power of art.  Art in its many forms can be cathartic, uplifting, depressing, any number of emotional influences.  I like it best when it puts a smile on my face, but any effect a piece of art has means it has an impact.  As previously stated, I believe we can and should use this power to improve the world, even if it just means giving someone something pleasing for a few minutes on a bad day.  Every little bit helps.

I believe in the power of little things.  That thing I just said about giving someone something pleasing... it doesn't make life suck less overall, but it certainly adds to the awesome column.  To put it better, in the words of The Doctor, "The good things don't always soften the bad things, but vice-versa, the bad things don't necessarily spoil the good things and make them unimportant."  This is something that I find difficult to keep in mind myself, but when I'm feeling grouchy about things, I try to remind myself of what I do have going for me.   When depression is getting the better of me, it's not the big abstract things that make me feel better - it's the little tangible things like a cup of tea, snuggling with my husband, re-reading a favorite book, or working on my art that make me smile.  Accumulating enough of those little things gets me through until I balance out again.  I guess if anybody is going to believe in the power of little things, it should be a tiny, pocket-sized person like myself.


A couple of parting notes.  In the same Doctor Who episode from which I pulled the previous quote, an art historian says the following about Vincent Van Gough, and it brought tears to my eyes because it said a lot about what I love about art: 


"He transformed the pain of his tormented life into ecstatic beauty. Pain is easy to portray, but to use your passion and pain to portray the ecstasy and joy and magnificence of our world, no one had ever done it before. Perhaps no one ever will again."


And lastly, this Cowboy mouth song really speaks to me and says a lot about my beliefs as well.  Take a listen, and see if you feel the same way.




P.S. If you've never listened to Cowboy Mouth, catch one of their shows when they're in town.  They just might change your life.