Bread!

Had myself a baking day! And combined with the Harry Potter marathon that was on TV all day--I was a pretty happy camper. Honey wheat sandwich bread and cinnamon raisin bagel recipes found here: http://www.budgetbytes.blogspot.com (my favorite recipe site)! It was my first attempt at making bread and my second at bagels. Both turned out good. The picture is my second loaf of bread--the first turned out okay but the crust had to be taken off because the oven in this house is ridiculous and I forgot to turn it down 50 degrees from what the recipe said (yeah--ridiculous). Anyway, if you find yourself with a day you don't have any plans and you like to cook I suggest trying these recipes. There's something pretty relaxing about baking, whatever it is. ...Maybe the fact that you get to eat it afterwards, hah.

Soul and Hands

My soul is a very restless thing. I'm always searching, wondering, analyzing; it pulls me in different directions at once all the time. Or just wants me to GO and DO in general without any idea of what it really wants to do or where to go.
It finds rest when my hands are creating something. To hold something in my hands and create a whole new thing out of something else...that makes me happy, that settles me down when my mind races or my heart pulls in some direction I can't go in at the moment.
Last night I sat down with a ball of yarn and a crochet hook and retaught myself how to crochet. A simple act, and nothing special about it; everything else just kind of took a back seat. I turned on some music and started working on a hat (you know, my need to make mostly functional things). I've realized all this before of course but the reitteration of it is always kind of refreshing to me. Even after a being this way since I was a kid, I can forget what it means to me to create things and then rediscover the meaning in it when I just let it happen naturally.

I can't deny my hands or my soul their very nature -- I'm a builder, a worker, a creator of things.

On another note completely--I found a place that has good, old fashioned basement shows pretty much every weekend here in Boone. FINALLY -- only took me 5 years. Checking it out this friday for a sweet sounding tape release party. Excited!

"My heart is anywhere but here..."

That road stretched out longer than it ever has before. I looked at it, curling on up the mountain and I just dreaded the rest of the trip back up.
My time here is done. My heart is elsewhere--if we're going to get specific, it's with Noah in Afghanistan--my head is elsewhere. Not even the mountains can whisper to me now and convince me to stay any longer than necessary.
My heart certainly isn't in Taylorsville but my body and mind feel more at ease there. It's a little easier being surrounded by family and the familiar when you're trying to make big changes (in this case beginning my photography career...and whatever other job I can find to support the beginnings of said career). So I'm honestly looking forward to going back. I don't plan on staying there forever...but until I figure out where I'm going and what I'm doing it's just the best thing for me to do.
So I guess my logic is--if I can't be where my heart is at the moment--then I at least want to be where my spirit feels more calm. This isn't that place for me.
In fact, I'm not sure this place has ever really been that for me. Maybe for a brief time. But it was so brief that the memory escapes me as to when that may have been.
I'm ready to leave. 3 months from today and I'll be able to do that. And then Noah will be home a few days after my last day of work...and then a month with him--traveling and just being together. I can't wait. And then when he leaves to go back at least I'll be at home where it's easier to deal with the fact that he's not here and be able to busy myself with getting started into photography and getting a better paying job. Just 3 more months....until then I guess I need to find some way to keep my mind busy.

Jellyfish Waters

So as promised (for once) here are some pictures of what I'm working on:

I don't paint often but whenever I do I get pretty into it and like it a lot. This one's for a friend who's moving into a new house--I was actually supposed to get it to her when she moved into her apartment last semester but never finished. So this time I hope to get it done asap as a housewarming gift. Just need to add the smaller tentacles which will bring the piece together a lot more/make it better compositionally, I think. This is really the first time I've worked with acrylic medium (gloss gel in this case) but it looks pretty cool and actually gives it a slimy jellyfish look as well as cool texture in general. I'm using string gel for the other tentacles so that should be interesting as well.

More pictures to come as it progresses!

"The Routine and the Repetition"

Ah, art blog--why haven't I been blogging? There's a simple answer to that--I haven't been doing any art.
Not really, anyway.
A lot has been going on these first few months of 2011. I was/am busy with work, Noah came home on leave for a couple of weeks :), and then I got really sick and am just now kind of back on my feet completely.
But it's not just that stuff--I feel like I've got no inspiration or motivation to do art at the moment. I get home from work and all I really want to do is crash or hang out with friends and my roommates. One of my old professors came in the store and was asking me what was new and of course I had nothing to report but "work and more work, really." He suggested I "just let the transition happen" (from school world to real world). It's been almost a year since graduation--I guess I've been trying to push myself to do art because somehow 5 years of art school left me in this "What do I do in my spare time NOW?!" freak-out-mode.
So I think it's time to chill. I'm taking down the Etsy store for a while and getting away from meticulous processes in art. Photography needs to come back into my life...and maybe just some good sketchbooking--nothing fancy. Just stuff that kind of flows and is easy for me. I keep thinking maybe if I make it fun again the inspiration and motivation will come. Plus, I'd been making books just to sell and something about making art "for sale" just takes something out of it for me. In the future I think I'll be making art first and selling it as an after thought.
Guess we'll see, huh?
At any rate, my goal is to post some pictures by Sunday of the painting I resumed (from a year or so ago) and a couple drawings I've done recently in my sketchbook.
Oh, and I'm considering making this blog a little more personal all around. Not just for art purposes anymore.

Snowy Wasteland

Well, it's that time of year--Boone has pretty much turned into a snowy wasteland. Regardless of the snow and ice--the store's been open so I've not had many snow days to catch up on art or anything else, really.
The holidays kinda came and went in a blur and being at home for a week kind of made me lazy. So I'm mustering up some art motivation and gonna dive back into the books soon, I hope.
Got my first book order of the year on my Etsy shop the other day, shipping that out on Monday. I'm pretty excited about it actually. I modified the perfect binding style I usually do. Typically the covers are glued on top of the spine (the way I do it), but this time the covers got wrapped with the spine. So it's a little more streamlined. I like the look of it and think I might start making my books this way.

In other news: my computer's hard drive crashed last night. I knew it was coming, I've been saying for months that I needed to back it up but did I take my own advice? Of course not. SO now I've gotta get a new computer because I depend pretty heavily on photoshop for my books and...the internet for my facebook and etsy addictions. You know how it is, right? ;)
This time around I'll be purchasing a terabyte external hard drive right off the bat and backing up everything. I'm also going to see if I can get my photos and documents recovered from my hard drive--here's hoping.

Anyway...once I get a new computer and all I plan on working on some new book forms/ideas. I want to dabble in recipe books/boxes and see what I can come up with. That's my next venture, I think. I'll post some stuff once I get into that for sure.

News and Such

Well first off, I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving!

My "Turkey Day" was good--good food, good time with my family--what else do you need in life, really? :)

As far as goings on in my art and craft world I've been doing some drawing lately. I really haven't drawn much since graduation (course--if we're going to be honest here--I don't really like to draw that much. and I don't consider myself to be that great at it. But it seems to be a tad more enjoyable now that I'm not doing it for a grade, so this is good.

I guess the big news is: My Etsy store is up!!! I've sold a couple of things so far and that makes me really happy. Not the money, don't get me wrong here--I'm just excited that people like what I'm making and my work is out there somewhere in the world being used and appreciated! Good stuff, that. www.themusingblog.etsy.com if you want to check it out!

Other than that I've been into cooking a lot lately. Kelsey, a friend from work, introduced me to this AWEEEESOME blog: www.budgetbytes.blogspot.com
You've gotta check it out. Affordable and delicious meals. None of them I've seen have been unhealthy at all either. I'm in love with this site and drool over it at least once a week, hah. Today I'm making a pizza from scratch using her pizza dough and sauce recipe. Smells amazing--can't wait to eat it later tonight :) I've made pumpkin soup, bagels and the spinich artichoke pasta. All of it amazing. None of it broke the bank. So yeah, check that out.

I'll post some pictures of my recent drawings soon.