What Color Is The Sky?

In an effort to just do something with some inspiration I was feeling this morning, I decided to follow my own advice to my mom and make something using the Illustration Friday theme of the week, Sky.  This piece is entitled What Color is the Sky?  It was inspired by the latest thing I heard on a radio podcast, of the show Radiolab (such a great show by the way).  If you listen to the 20 minute story about the fact that the color of the sky could be under discussion, you may perhaps feel like you understand my piece here a little more.  :)

This week I taught my first ever section of the Advent Calendar class!  Here are my happy customers and their very fine calendars:

Destined

This is me at at 2 and a half!  My mom found this photo and sent it my way this week.  Don't you think this was destiny?

Here I am  33 years later, wearing the one original thing I created today: ear warmer head bands.  Now that the weather is cooling down (today's temps excepted--it was in the high 70s here!), I need these to bike with in the mornings.  They work great under my bike helmet. Yep, pretty stylin'.

Speaking of stylin' on your bike, check out this amazing new website: urban-spoke.com.  They sell great stuff for women to help incorporate biking into everyday life!  And, guess whose bike bands are for sale in the accessories area?  :)

Take a Class!

In the last few weeks, I've been working on a new kind of advent calendar. It was made as a gift for two friends of mine on occasion of their wedding in Illinois this weekend.  It was so cool.  Something to use at any time of year, incorporating the seasons, the moon phases, the couples' names (in case of birthdays or other person-specific special occasions), and the equinox/solstices (they were married on the fall equinox).  Then, I wrapped it and gifted it and remembered later that I FORGOT TO TAKE PHOTOS!  Ack!!!  Hopefully, once they're back from their trip to Vegas, I can get them to send me some photos, so I can post them here for you to see its awesomeness.  :)

Meanwhile, here are some prototypes of the advent calendars (for Christmas) that I've created to teach in a class!  Yes, indeed, you can take a class to make your very own advent calendar to use this December.

Please get some friends together and sign up to take a class!  Check out my website for more information (click on Classes).  You can learn either how to make an advent calendar or how to make a lot of Christmas cards (or other kind of cards--doesn't have to be Christmas) in one setting.  There are three dates for the advent calendar class, one of which includes wine.  

Sign up today!!

September Challenge

My friend Sarah and I have determined that by the end of the month, we need to have accomplished some goals.  My goal is to offer a class this fall in how to make your own advent calendar.  Another friend in art, Franklin, says: Participation Breeds Appreciation.  I love this.  The more people who participate in making advent calendars will then appreciate the ones I make and then become even bigger fans, and then will tell their friends (or buy advent calendars for them) and then I'll be an "overnight" success!  Right? 

So the question has presented itself: how can I teach (just) a 2-hour course on how to make a cool advent calendar to a potential person who may not know how to do some of the stuff I know how to do, and without sewing?  This has been a fun design challenge over the last two weeks. Here are the prototypes I've come up with so far:

Neither one is complete yet, but still works in progress.  I like how the red one has turned out a lot, although the process of making it wasn't simple.  So I have been working through how to make it easier and for the blue one, I've developed a simpler process (using stencils for creating the doors).  I plan to make a couple more prototypes in order to take good photos and then advertise the course around town (this is a part of the goal that Sarah and I have in common: flyers!).  One of the versions will be using pockets.  I just haven't figured out how to do that in a durable and simple way without using sewing.

In other news, check out my NEW ART ROOM SINK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This was lovingly custom made by my very handy husband.  I sit at my art table and find myself staring at my new sink with tenderness and love.  This is truly a dream come true. 

American Made

Even though I have never made an actual edited video before, today I managed to put this neat video together in about 4 hours, using some tips from my computer-savvy husband and the internet.  And hooray for free downloadable software (Microsoft Movie Maker)!

The story:

Martha Stewart is hosting a competition called "American Made."  I learned about it about a week ago and determined that I had mostly a complete application, thanks to the work I did in February for the Creative Capital application.  The deadline was today at midnight.  Due to demands of my day job at the beginning of the school year, I had no brain space during the week to consider it at all.  Thanks to supportive friends, though, I had confidence that I would be able to give it a shot this weekend, and so today I made this video, fine tuned some photographs, and uploaded a 1500 characters-or-less essay.

Words cannot tell you how proud I am of myself about this video.  I saw in the rules of the contest that it had to be a certain type of file (.mp4--check!) and less than 500MB (check!).  And so around 1:00pm this afternoon, I clicked 'submit' on my application, excited that I had a video to present, which most other applicants did not.  I thought it might set me apart.  

I got a pop-up message from the Martha website saying it would take awhile for my application to submit, with all the photos and stuff. For hours, I watched the little circle-cursor twirling round and round.  Finally, when I got home from grocery shopping at 8pm, Paul said it probably didn't work and I should try to submit it again.  So we did.  I uploaded all the stuff again and clicked submit.  This time, it did something different, indicating that it was working, but at the last minute, it said that my video had to be under one minute.  My video is 1:26.

Under a minute? I hadn't seen that requirement in the guidelines. Well, I had plans this evening with friends and was already running late, and I was so happy with the outcome of my earlier efforts that I couldn't imagine shortening it in the time I had.  So I had to submit my application without the video.  As we clicked 'submit' this time, Paul noticed the tiny grey font next to the "Upload Video" button that said, "less than a minute, this kind of file, and under 500MB."  Boy, was I ever disappointed.

After time spent with some lovely people this evening and a couple glasses of wine, I am less frustrated.  I am proud of my application and I figured I'd put my video out there anyway on my blog, website, and Facebook.  This way, in case someone clicks on the links on my application page, maybe they'll get to see the video after all.

You'll be the first to know if I make it to the top 100 that the MS staff will select.  :)  Here is my official entry: Parsley Art Studio for American Made.