I'm Still Here

Hi everyone!

Life has been busy over the past year since I started this blog.  It's been the best year of my life thanks to the decision I made to quit my job and go back to school for design.  I've met new people, had some great teachers, learned gobs of new things, and created like a mad woman.  And it will be continuing for another year.

This semester, I'm taking 3 art classes- life drawing, digital drawing, and art history; and 2 web design classes- HTML and Dreamweaver, and Flash.  It's been a crazy start to the year!  I have no doubt that I'll continue to learn at least a handful of new things every day.

Lately my mind has been going crazy with plans for the future.  I have a new idea at least once a week.  Business ideas, specialty areas, websites I want to create, freelancing, new techniques to try... the list goes on and on.  My husband hears me say all the time "Andy, guess what..." and then I get all serious and excited with probably this crazed look in my eyes like an animal that's been in a cage for the last decade and now is finally free to roam around.  I guess I'm nuts; but in a good way.

A fun project I have in the works right now in my digital drawing class:

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the saga of the pastels

I mentioned in my last post that I've been struggling somewhat with using soft pastels in drawing class. 

Well, here's how it all started. 

I spent a whole day doing this drawing, my first pastel drawing, and then about 10 minutes after finishing and cleaning up, I was hit with the worst stomach flu ever of my life.  I then spent the next two days feeling sorry for myself and for my also-sick husband.  And I began associating my horrible nausea with my pastel drawing; therefore scarring me for life. 

Seriously, I couldn't even look at my art supplies or those cups or reindeer or any part of that still life for days.  When I had to go to drawing class 3 days later, I was practically horrified. 

But alas, me and pastels are working on our relationship, and I think it's about back to 100% okay with each other. 

Sooooooo, back to this assignment.  We had to set up a still life with an analagous color scheme and draw it using pastels, with some parts realistic and some parts abstract.  We could pretty much decide how it would all work together, but it was practice for our next 3 big in-class pastel drawings, which are to be realistic, then abstract, then non-representational. 

Here's how the drawing went.  I decided to simplify and abstract the tulips, ornaments, and apples.

And a side by side for my mom :)

I'm happy with how it turned out, but ARRRGGHH that was a bad day!!!




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Illustration Friday- Wings

I've been seeing some bloggers and artists mentioning the website Illustration Friday and I thought I'd go see what it was all about. 

It's a fun weekly art challenge that anyone can participate in.  Each week there is a theme, and you can draw, paint, create, doodle, etc. your interpretation of the theme, and then link up your image for all to see! 

I think this is a good chance for me to try new techniques and topics that I may not do for myself or for school work, and it will be a good way for me to learn more and experiment without any pressure to make it 'perfect.'

This week's topic was WINGS.

I drew this in ink in my little 7x7 sketchbook, and I didn't even plan it out right and it ran off the page, hence the obvious break in the page right at the swan's head. 

Then I scanned it, painted it loosely in Photoshop and then ran the sponge filter on the paint layer. 

It's actually based off of a bird called the whooper swan I found in an article in National Geographic magazine.  The pictures were so beautiful; the swans are really plain bright white with black feet, and the setting was a snow covered wonderland. 

Are there any other art/ drawing challenges I should know about? 

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This update brought to you by...

Hello from little Pep Pep!

I've brought out the "big camera" as I call it and have started practicing with it again because I'm in a digital photography class this semester!

We have not one, but TWO local professional photographers who are team teaching it; and I feel like I have just won the lottery!  Not many people get this opportunity, I don't think. 

Classes are going well, and this semester will be different because I have two classes that are not art related.  One is business math and one is computers.  I'm actually excited for the math class because unlike a lot of people, I really like math.  In fact, it was my first college major!  Ha...  me and my majors have been around the block a time or two.  But me and math didn't last too long once I sobbed my sorry way through Calculus II. 

You guys, I am trying so hard to find time to blog, but after taking some time off around the holidays, I'm slow getting back into it.  I've been brainstorming what it is I REALLY want to say, show, and talk about.  Is it school?  Design?  My career change?  Literacy?  Daily life?  DIY Projects?  I'm trying to figure it out, but I hope to be back more regularly soon. 

Is there any type of post you like the best?  Should I have a focus, or just do what I feel like from day to day? 



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Sweet Christmas

Andy and I have been having fun, relaxing, and spending lots of quality time with our families this Christmas vacation.

I gave my father-in-law a gift for the family band that I had designed and it was a big hit!  Here's my victory cheer.

 

The dogs were not quite as impressed...

 

We got tons of snow on the 26th and we were all snowed in!



So I spent the afternoon and evening drawing this flower smorgasbord!  It started as a quick sketch to try out my new watercolor pencils, but then I liked it so much I spent a lot of time going back over the outlines, varying the stroke widths, adding a few contour lines and some shading.

How do you think it turned out?  I'm thinking about scanning it and coloring it digitally... I've been wanting to make note cards for my Etsy store- do you think this design would make a good note card or thank you card once I add color?

How was your Christmas?


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i am now an old lady for real

Last Sunday, I turned 29.  !!! 

(We forgot to buy the "9" candle, so actually, I was only 28 again.)

And I have to say, Andy spoiled me rotten.  Rotten, I say!  It was so amazing to have my birthday on the weekend, so I got to choose what I wanted to do for the whole day.  Really, I was like a little kid, it was great!

On the agenda was:

church
out to eat
presents & cake
wrap Christmas gifts
Starbucks
drive around to look at the lights

Here's what I know about being 29.

 Your husband buys you your favorite red velvet cake even though he doesn't like it!

You throw your head back and belly laugh with glee.  See?  I told you I was like a little kid.

 You get way too many gifts; your mom makes sure you don't open hers before your actual birthday; and then your husband says, "Take a picture of me on your birthday!"  Ha.

You take pictures with your cats.  You should be embarrassed, but you're not.

You get reeeeaaaallllyyyy excited about your new laptop!  So much more designing and blogging can get done when you're not sharing the computer with your husband who is taking an online class in the evenings!

Your cat weighs herself, and then falls asleep on the pile of laundry waiting to be folded.  



Thank you, Andy, for the best birthday!  I love being 28 again.







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fall colors + a train and a bridge

Hi guys!

A few weeks ago, we had an assignment to draw a landscape using gray paper and charcoal.  We had to use the same techniques as in my pumpkin drawing.

I had a couple ideas of what I wanted to draw, but I decided to drive around for a while to check out some spots and see if anything caught my eye.  I knew I would be spending a few hours outside doing this, and wanted to find something good! 

Look what I found! 

How beautiful was this spot?  This awesome bridge goes across the Mississippi River downtown.  I saw this view as I was driving and probably about wrecked my car as I was looking around to see if there was anywhere I could park to get out and draw. 

I ended up sitting in this little grassy median, right as cars were making their way up the ramp onto the bridge.  I'd say approximately five million people passed me on that Saturday afternoon, and each one was wondering what the heck I was doing.  If I happened to be looking up as they passed, we definitely made eye contact as they craned their necks to check the crazy girl out.

But honestly, I could not pass up that gorgeous yellow tree, the train which Andy loves, and the way the shape of the bridge cascades into the distance.  Love!

Here's how it turned out.

And a side by side, or up and down, for my mom again :)

I don't think I nailed it as much as my pumpkin drawing, but I really like it anywho. 

Has anyone else been out driving around to soak up the last bit of fall before winter strikes?

Oh, and P.S. Trick or treat night was freezing this year!  We had easily only half as many kids as last year!  Did anyone's plans get ruined because of the cold weather?




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Happy Halloween!

And now for the scariest Halloween greeting of all:

 Sorry about that.  It seemed like a good idea at the time...

But now for our cuties.

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Anthony, My Love

You guys, I love the Red Hot Chili Peppers.  LOVE!  LOVE LOVE LOVE!!!

I still remember the day we first met.  It was Christmas break of my junior year of high school, and I happened to see a music video.  We were at my grandma and grandpa's house, and they had cable, which we did not.  And I was enthralled.  I fell in love right there and never looked back. 

Since that time, I've fallen hard and we are now inseparable for life.  Well, me and Anthony are.  He's my real one true love.  No worries that he turns 50 next week.  Happy birthday, my love.

But back to what's going on: WE'RE GOING TO SEE THEM IN CONCERT TONIGHT!!  I may die of love.  If I never come back, you'll know why.

So I went around the house yesterday documenting all the RHCP stuff we have.  I knew we had a lot, but even I didn't remember I had collected this much over the last decade or so.  Whoa, I just said decade.  Yes, it's been over a decade since I was in high school.  Scary.  

1. Concert shirts

 2. A love collage I made from their article in Rolling Stone

3.  Our RHCP cd collection- yep there are some duplicates from before we were married

4.  Book collection

5.  Magazines they've been featured in

 6.  Anthony's book Scar Tissue on cd- read by Rider Strong from Boy Meets World of all people

7.  DVDs

8.  A record I bought in Paris that we framed

9.  A wall hanging Andy bought me as a gift when we were in college

10.  Finally, here's where my design career began. Yes, my wonderful Anthony inspired me to design this shirt that I wore to their concert in 2007.  

Anthony, I can't wait to see you tonight.  Remember that one time you proclaimed you felt great kinetic energy coming from the left side of the stage?  Yes, that was me at Lollapalooza in 2006, and it was my love energy that you felt.  Yep. Me and you forever.  It's okay, my husband understands.


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everyone deserves a treat now and then... or every night

See how I bought the special 1/2 the fat ice cream just so that I could absolutely douse it with hot fudge and marshmallow topping?  Yep, I'm tricky like that. 


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One of those weeks

You guys, last week was one of those weeks.  You know, the kind where nothing is really wrong, nothing horrible happens, but it just feels like something is off.  You know?  Like you wonder if you have a weird aura surrounding you, or like you need to go to a yoga class or a chiropractor or something?  Just little weird things happening one after another, added to just a busy school week.  Here's a few things that I remembered to write down...

1.  I spent time packing a lunch for myself, then put it in the freezer for a shot of cold before I left.  Then I forgot to bring it, of course.

2.  When I went to the campus Subway, they weren't taking credit or debit cards, and I didn't have cash.

3.  I had to buy black foam board to mount my final brochure design, and it ain't cheap ($5 a pop), but I measured and cut it for just one page, instead of both pages together, so I had to buy another board, measure and cut it again.  I was left with a bunch of small pieces that may or may not be able to be used.  Lame.

4.  On Tuesday, it was 4:00 pm before I realized I had my underwear on inside out.  Weird.

5.  On Wednesday, this was how much of my 2D Design project I had completed.  We had to mix paint to color match the correlating square from the actual picture we chose, to create an enlarged, pixelated version of the picture.  There were 768 squares and at this point I was averaging 30 squares an hour.  Oh and it was due Friday.  Total nightmare.

6.  I walked to and from my car in the rain at least 4 times this week.

7.  On Wednesday morning, I decided to treat myself to Starbucks and get rid of this bad aura surrounding me.  It wasn't until I had pulled forward and looked in my mirror to see the person behind me rolling down her window that I realized I didn't order!  Then I was stuck in the line with no way out and had to embarrassingly drive right by the window and get back in line.

8.  I had to spend 13 hours painting on Wednesday and Thursday to finish my project on time.  It was down to the line, for sure.

I'm sure more weird things happened, but I forgot to write everything down.  It was just one of those weeks. 

BUT, everything turned out fine.  I finished my projects, had a great weekend with Andy, and said to myself after each little thing happened "If this is the worst thing to happen to me, then I am a very, very lucky lady." 


Anyone else have a weird week?  


 


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Name that TV show!

I'm going to say something that I've been needing to say to you all...  I LOVE T.V.!  Whew, okay feels good to say that out loud.  Or type that out loud?

Some of my favorite shows are no longer with us, and have moved on to that big T.V. place in the sky; some I have watched faithfully for several seasons; and some are new.  And I love them all.  Such a big waste of time, I know, but until I have kids, my nights are free to stare at a screen and pretend the characters are not only real people, but real people who would be my friends in real life... that's normal, right?  Ah well... 

So, fellow T.V. lovers of the world, are you ready to play?  Name that show!

1.  Nick and Jess are totally meant for each other... and I can't get enough of Zooey Deschanel.

2.  When I was in high school, my family visited Wilmington, North Carolina, and I'm proud to say I bought a shirt that says "Pacey's Girlfriend."  And I may or may not still have it... and wear it...

3.  Even though I've seen one too many horrible explosions, crashes, tragedies, deaths, and breakups, I'm still a faithful fan of those Seattle doctors.  At least Meredith is somewhat getting it together.

4.  Just when I'm ready to say Jay is my least favorite adult on the show, he does something so heartwarming that I fall in love with the old man all over again.  But I just can't live without Phil or Cam... they are hi-larious.  And yes, when something is really funny, it is pronounced high-larious.

5.  If I were rich, I would totally have Jeff remodel my home.  But only if I could meet Gage and Jenni.

6.  Theresa is killing me on the reunion show... I mean what is going on?!?!  She used to be one of my favorites but now watching that show is almost so stressful I can only take it in small doses.

7.  Haley and Nate... one of my favorite couples.  And I loved him, but gosh darn it Lucas, open your eyes all the way!  Not every scene requires all that squinty serious emotion. 

8.  Sheldon:  "This is silly.  It's just a blue jay, not a dangerous bird like a swan or a goose!"

9.  Ted, I love you, but I'm ready for you to find your wife!  I mean honestly...

10.  A long long time ago, a man named Ben loved a girl who made a really bad hair decision... but that's actually when he realized he loved her.  And then they kept screwing things up for themselves and each other... did they even end up together??  There was also a coffee shop and a loft... and a swim team.

I would LOVE for you to name these shows!  And let me know if you love them too!  Are there any good ones I'm missing that I should definitely be watching?


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Four Years

Happy fourth anniversary to my main squeeze!

Let's take a walk down memory lane, with some photos of how we've spent all the October fourths since 2008...

We were lucky enough to take amazing vacations our first two anniversaries to Mount Rushmore and Hawaii while I was on fall break from teaching.

See that picture of me in front of the train?  I look slightly crazy because even though it was barely October, it started snowing!  We didn't even have coats... you can see I'm wearing all possible layers and still freezing.  Oh yes, and we rode back in the nice 'open air' train car.  Too bad it wasn't the middle of July.

Andy is there going through the small space which you had to get through before signing up to go into this cave.  Well, he made it, but we missed the last cave tour.  Whoops.

Hawaii... oh Hawaii...  Oh if we could only be so lucky as to go there twice in a lifetime, it would make me the happiest person alive.  Ever.

Happy Anniversary, Andy :)

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some things that make me say YAY!

1.  Colorful jeans that were on sale!

2.  Boot wearing weather! 

 3.  Showing my displayed charcoal drawing to Andy and 

my best friend Erin who came to visit!

 4.  Um, marbled mocha breakfast bread at Target?!?  

It's like my favorite Starbucks drink in bread form.  Hello, YAY!

5.  My pop art reinterpretation of Van Gogh's Sunflowers painting. 

 I'm so proud of how it turned out!  

Completely unnecessary disclaimer:  Van Gogh's original is on the left.  No, I am not claiming that work as my own.  It was used as a template for this educational project.

What makes you say YAY?

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losing my mind?

In the last two weeks, I've lost my mind in the following ways:

1.  grabbing two paper towels instead of two plastic bags to line the trash cans

2.  trying to put toothpaste on my toothbrush with another toothbrush

3.  rolling down my window instead of turning on the turn signal

At least they've all made me chuckle...

How have you been losing your mind recently???  Tell me I'm not the only one... 

Happy weekend from Pepper!

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yummy fall

Could a Saturday get any better?

A salted caramel mocha and pumpkin cheesecake muffin.  I mean, honestly...

Add that to an unexpectedly fun art project, crisp fall weather, sleeping in, and a movie date to see The Campaign, and it was a pretty awesome Saturday.

What was the best part of your weekend?


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i've been working on it, i promise

I swear, you guys, it's coming.  And it's going to be wonderful.


This week I loved:

Watching a squirrel cross a busy four lane street safely.

Seeing the "Welcome Back Art Students" sign at the local art store.

Overhearing a mother checking out math books from the library so she could work with her child at home.  Seriously my eyes may have welled up a little.  Go mom!

Catching up on the Housewives of New York episodes I've missed.  It's crazy town over there.

Eating those candy orange slices.  Could anything be more gross,  yet so good?  Okay fine, maybe they're just gross.

Opening the windows and letting in some fresh, almost fall, air.  Heaven!


Happy Friday, everyone!




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kittens in dishwashers...

You guys.  Art school is full of projects.  This should come as no surprise, but the amount of work required for 5 art classes is out of control (each syllabus says to expect 6 hours of work outside of class each week).  Thankfully, I'm still loving it!

Currently, my projects include:

Make a small book and include in it 8 collages that illustrate the 8 principles of design, including our own artwork.

3 still life sketches using charcoal, one that must have imaginary texture applied to the objects (like covering a glass bottle with feathers or carpet.

A photo montage using Photoshop, showcasing a decade of our choice as the theme, with text added to look like a poster.

A poster using InDesign giving information about a font family, in a 2-color design that includes the history, designer, all of the lower and uppercase letters, numbers, punctuation, etc.  

Choose a famous artwork and recreate it with our own interpretation using the drawing tools in Photoshop.  

Isn't school fun?!?!?  I'm so thankful to have the chance to be creative every day.  It's such a blessing.

I've been feeling like a bad blogger and blog friend these past few weeks, because I've been so busy.  I'm sorry to any of you reading if I have not commented on your blog recently!

And finally, because no post is complete without pictures, look at our sweet old man with litter all over his face, and some oldie but goodies of little Pepper the week we adopted her.  Awwwwww, right?

I love Baby's face in that last one.  Hahaha... he's like, is this really happening to me?



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