Oh Dear

Well it's happened again. Too much going on in life and total lack of posting. My quick and dirty "creative" activity as of late is snapping instagram photos with my newly acquired android phone, welcome to 2012! (And a big thank you TING for offering data plans that don't break the freakin'  bank! As much as I would love an iPhone, Ting doesn't offer them...only amazing pricing that's to hard for this cheap-o to pass by)

Instagram is a simple quick and fun activity to artistically document day to day life. Lots of train related photos either on the train or at the stations and featuring of course my favorite fuzzy children, Lanie and Morgan. So for some visual fun here are the last three I've snapped.



I plan on posting more soon, because I've been rocking out some cool stuff for ruvacards.com and we are getting a new holiday site up soon. So exciting, I'm keeping my fingers crossed that the site design gets impletment soon and looks good (cause I did it!)

On a more personal note it's been an interesting 2012, I hurt my back in February and it's been life lesson after life lesson since. I'm on the road to getting better and feeling  better. Someday I'll figure out this whole life work balance thing and actually get things posted on this barren excuse of a blog. LOL!

Lake Valley Camp Presentation..it's for the Teens YO!

A couple weeks ago my friend Jamie asked me to be part of a panel discussion on careers for their teens for Lake Valley Camp. (Which is a super cool organization by the way so check out the link.) So I whipped together this digital portfolio of my "regular" full time work, my freelance card design for RuvaCards, and my rubbishREMADE art/craft.

The other panelists came from totally different walks of life and everyone had a different story to tell. The teens were really nice, but pretty quiet overall. I imagine it's pretty overwhelming to hear all the information that was presented. It made me think back to the time I was that age and how much I really didn't know about what I wanted to do for the rest of my life, about going on to college and general adult stuff that wasn't really on my mind yet!

It turned out to be really fun experience and less nerve racking then I expected it to be. I've always been a bit shy of public speaking, but as I grow older and more knowledgeable and confident in my skills and abilities talking about stuff I actually do is really not all that bad at all. I'm out for now, but hope to be back sooner than a month!

Bloomin' Days!

Well it has been quite a long time since I've posted. Not very good at this blogging thing. But I've been busy. I now have an etsy store rubbishREMADE. Woot! It's been keeping me busy even though I don't actually have a lot of product posted in there at the moment.

Some of my rubbish will make its way to Kenosha's Bloomin' Days, thanks to my friend Jen Moran. She is the owner of Greenola and Solidarity Clothing and has booth at Bloomin' Days and these lovely bowls and beads will be a few of the many awesome things featured there.

So if your in the K-town area June 6th check it out. Unfortunately I will be missing out on the Bloomin' Days fun due to a trip to Mexico. My friends getting married and I'm so excited. Puerto Penasco here I come!

Click Here to Check out the Slideshow in Full Screen!

Crafty

Ohh boy so a big epic fail on my part. I was totally into the whole blog thing for like a week and then I apparently got busy and stopped trying to output creative ideas on a consistent basis.

ANYwho... I've been busy with creative crafty things, just not design. I like to make things, I especially like to make things out of materials that might be considered garbage or something to throw away. Recycling/Upcycling whatever you want to call it - I'm all about it. It's become somewhat of an obsession of mine in the past year. I've come to the conclusion that I like handmade, usable art objects, and I like them to utilize materials that you have on hand.

So here are two examples of fun little holiday projects for friends. My beer cap ornaments and paper beads, made into bracelets. The beer cap ornaments were something I came up with last year. My sister recieved two of them for Christmas. A New Glarus, and a Leine's Red ornament I believe. I liked them so much I decided other people should get them this year as well, and I would like to have a few to adorn my tree as well.

The paper beads are not an original idea - I think I first heard about the idea on instructables.com from a threadbanger how to. Then I did more searching on the web and found a few different resources and saw some really neat stuff. Paper beads rock. I've coated mine with a clear acrylic so they should be somewhat impervious to water. I wouldn't submerge them or anything but if they get "splashed" on I think they'll hold up fairly well.



One last note: I'm totally against Christmas being out before Thanksgiving, or Halloween for that matter, especially in stores and on the radio - but when you handmake most of your presents you kind of need to plan ahead. I will probably be posting more artsy craftsy stuff for a bit here. I have plans for other handmade things so that, instead of sketching will be filling my time.

Peace!