Self-Portrait #6

I swear when I decided to do this I had all of these great ideas and then I did two...and I got sick, boring and forgot all of my ideas. I'm still pushing ahead. I really hated #5 so I see #6 as an improvement but I still feel like I'm barely functioning above the artistic level of an 8th grader.

Tonight, while trying to drown out Bad Veins practice with my new favorite album, She and Him: Volume One, I played around with my old watercolor pencils for a 4x6 self-portrait which accomplishes two goals at once!




Back to She and Him. I've been having a hard time being impressed by new music lately so this record is a breath of fresh air. Some of the tracks remind me of the "oldies" that my best friend Sarah and I used to listen to while driving with her mom tapping her thumbs on her steering wheel when we were in middle school. Zooey Deschenel,you may remember her voice from movie Elf, has that sweet nostalgic voice that is reminiscent of singers like Peggy Lee or Dusty Springfield. My favorite track on the record is a cover of Smokey Robinson's song You've Really Got a Hold On Me. Her collaborator on the album, M.Ward another favorite musician of mine, duets with her on this song and it just sounds like a lazy, tired summer night which I love. I also adore the cover art.

Self-Portrait #5

Apparently I forgot how to draw and I'm not sure what I look like. Does that ever happen to anyone else? I just don't recognize my face sometimes. Maybe it's the cold/flu medicine.

Self-Portrait #4...The Doctor's Office

I got out of bed today to go to the doctor only for her to tell me
that I have the flu and there's nothing that she can do for me. She
did comfort me by saying that the first four days are usually the
worst. THE FIRST FOUR DAYS!?!? I think I feel better then yesterday
so I'm hoping my immune system is better then average.

Sick Sucks

Self-portrait #3. Fever going down. I went from 0 to sick over night.

Tired Monday

Self-portrait #2 - I ran out of time at work today so I had to bring some home with me since Ben had locked himself out of the house. I decided to take a break and snap my second self-portrait with my iPhone. I look tired and pale.

Follow Up To Previous Post

The Knife- Heartbeats
I love this video. It makes me long for summer and skateboarding.
I'll fix the format later. The iPhone can only be so perfect.

Again In One Week?!?!

Yes, it's true!
Quite some time ago I bought a few tools to try out cutting my own stamp. The supplies have sat in the bag that they left the store in for what I'm guessing is a year. The other day I finally gave it a try and here are the results. It was pretty easy and just from the first try I've learned a few things to do differently. I played around with filling in the stamp with my Micron Brush pens.
Then I made a card to send to Nanny (my grandmother that is still living).



These are two little paintings that I hate.



I've been feeling really uninspired so I've been trying to find more sites with illustrations, paintings, and drawings to get me out of this. I sort of blame the weather too. I added a few to my blog roll including:
Yellow Monday
Poppytalk Handmade
Lily Moon




I've also given myself a little challenge. I was reading Artsy Crafty Babe's blog where she was doing a 365 self-portraits challenge. I'm sure I won't last a week but I'm going to give it a try. My first picture really sucks...it's blurry and has horrible lighting but I thought it was a good self portrait to illustrate how I don't understand how to use my camera still and how I'm not photogenic...even my feet. I was making my grandma's famous butterscotch squares in my favorite apron that was a Christmas gift from Stephanie. Her Christmas gift is still in a box in my studio....yikes.

iPhone video test

I know the whole world has seen this awesome commercial with Jose
Gonzalez doing Heartbeat which I think is originally by the band The
Knife. I've had this song stuck in my head this morning...afternoon. Well this didn't work quite like I had expected so I had to edit the old fashioned way...on a computer...how primative. I decided to add this commercial as well since I thought it was fitting for my blog.

iPhone Test

This is an iPhone test and if this work my mind may explode. This
dude from CinWeekly, a local Cincinnati newspaper, set something like this up for Bad Veins to use to
blog while we are at SXSW. I'm hoping to be able to blog on our week
long trip too! This is Oscar being cute.

Word Search

My spell check isn't working so I've decided to make it into a game. How many misspelled words can you find in this post?
Anyways, I haven't been as productive as I would like but I'm trying to fix that today. I have the day off in honor of President's Day which is pretty funny to me since I probably can't name the most ten recent presidents. Sad but true. I started the day off watching the final episode of My So Called Life. I've been watching the entire season on order from Netflix and reliving how uncomfortable and awkward being a teenager really was. After some reflection I retrieved Ben from his studio and we went to lunch at the Blue Jay with Rick where we talked about how artists represent themselves on the internet. Should they use myspace, should they have a site, should they have a blog. There is no real road map to follow because technology is changing so fast and it's turning the art and music world upside down. It's sort of exciting to watch but nerve wracking to be a part of through Ben. I'm feeling sort of talkative today which happens when I have a few days from work to let my mind clear of all of it's clutter.

This weekend has given me some time to play with my sewing machine. Last week I made this pillow cover. It's not perfect but it was good practice. I apparently didn't iron it enough on one side. The iron and I have a bad relationship because I neglect it so. The pillow has two different sides so I can flip it when I get tired of one side...that and the fact that I didn't have enough fabric for an entire pillow.











My second pillow cover was more successful. I made it for the couch in Ben's studio. I ordered the fabric from Lucky Kaeru Fabric & Supplies. It's hard not to go crazy buying fabric when it is this cool.

R.I.P. Polaroid

I don't really have any projects photographed right now to post but I just read that Polaroid isn't making Polaroid film or cameras anymore. That depresses me. The other depressing thing about this day is that I went to yoga for the first time and I'm SO out of shape. I'm probably going to need help putting on my own shoes tomorrow.

I've Already Failed

I've already botched one of my goals. I didn't blog last week, I could list my excuses but that would be a waste of time. I did finish another onesie for my nephew. He's just getting to the size where he can wear them. I'm hoping my sister sends me some updated pictures soon(hint, hint).
Our friend Rick was also kind enough to give us one of his paintings. Ben and I have been hinting for a while and he finally broke down. We love it! It looks great in our living room and it's nice to have art other than my own hanging in the house.

Next week I will post my first completed sewing project!