white picket fence

why i love fashion blogs but could never actually be a fashion blogger

Starting in January, I decided to take a, more or less, daily self-portrait. This started out as part of a Project Life / scrapbooking thing that I think I am probably abandoning. (I admit to being terrible at following or obeying directions, and I have bad attention span and not great follow through, so a year-long scrapbook project is probably not for me.) Either way, it's been an interesting challenge and diversion for me, so I'm hoping to continue it for a while. 

At one time I read a LOT of fashion blogs. The numbers have dwindled a little bit but I still love a lot of daily wardrobe / what I wear kind of websites. Like a lot of other ladies I know, a small part of me always thinks "oh man, how awesome would it be to become a popular fashion blogger and have people send me free dresses and shoes? How hard could it be to take a few pictures of yourself every day?"

And, as it turns out. . . it's kind of hard.  I always feel like a weirdo taking my own photo. Like, GIANT weirdo. There is no way around feeling totally goofy while doing this. How do people that post photos of themselves every single day not feel like just a giant toolbox, seriously? 

So here are some of my shots from late January / early February. Please note that I only took a photo if I put on a decent outfit. Days of wearing gym clothes all day or bumming around the house in super holy jeans are not pictured. 

I love that chambray dress but seeing in a photo. . . oh man it is not that flattering. 

Realization: I wear a lot of navy and white striped shirts, or plaid shirts. My color palette stays the same too: gray, blue, red, brown. 

 

Oh, hi David. And my favorite bird sweater that MIke got me for Christmas!!

Norah makes an appearance too. Also, I think I look like a headache medication model in the second photo, but really I was just trying to think of something. 

So there's my little tiny foray into the world of fashion blogging. If I find the stamina to keep up with this project, I'll share more of these as the months go on. If you'd like to check out others, I'll suggest my two favorites right now: What Would a Nerd Wear and To Be Worn. 

my sacrifice this Lent. yeah, I'm a little nervous.

(an old art journal page about my terrible attention span. this is relevant.)

Soooo. Ahem, hrrrhrm. Here's my announcement. (I know that posting this on my blog & announcing it to the world will make this that much harder to slack off on.) 

I'm giving up the internet during the day, while the kids are awake, for Lent. 

Okay, so. . . maybe some people would laugh about this. Maybe you think "what's the big deal, I do that every day?" My friend Renae has given up the internet entirely for Lent before, and I tip my hat to her.

Listen, it's not entirely practical for me to give up the internet full time. I'm not even sure if you can be an active member of society anymore without email, right? Being online to stay in touch with my family, keep track of our calendar, and work on my fledging little etsy shop are all good and productive things that I don't think are necessary to remove from my life. 

But bear with me. Is this a scenario that looks familiar to you?: "Hm, I wonder what the actress from Punky Brewster is up to these days? URGENT QUESTION!! TO IMDB, POST HASTE!! Well, while I'm on the laptop I might as well check facebook and see if that Anthropologie sweater is on sale and and and etc." Then it's 15 minutes later and David's toast is getting cold or the baby is crying or whatever. It's a cycle that repeats a lot during my days at home and I've known for a while that it's just not the best for me or the kids either. 

I've been reading, hearing, and thinking a lot lately about Quiet. And not just in the auditory sense of like, sitting alone on a mountaintop. But also the, "am I able to tune out the internal distracting chatter to really be in touch with myself, and in prayer and communication with God?" kind of way. It's a question I'm hoping will be a lot clearer after the next 40 days. It's difficult to have internal quiet when you're rushing to fill every spare moment with new information. So that's my hope for Lent: eliminating the distractions, focusing on my family, and finding some Quiet. 

giveaway winners!

Hooray to you! Since I'm feeling generous, I decided to choose 2 winners for my paper pack giveaway. Here are the random generated numbers:

That means Carlene Taylor Simmons and Benzie (Renae!) are my 2 winners. Congratulations friends! I'll be emailing you soon. 

And thanks to all of you for visiting my blog and entering. I really and truly appreciate it. 

shut it down!

Are there any "Cutest Baby Alive" contests going on right now? If so, they need to be shut down immediately. Because obviously this baby is the clear winner. All other contestants, take your diapers and go home. 

Norah is almost 11 months old. Can you believe it? She's crawling and exploring and eating all kinds of messy food. She loves looking at books and stealing her brother's toys. She loves to be held by me (like, a lot, like. ... almost all the time. We're working on that.) She can wave and point and make the signs for "all done" and "more" and she looks so proud of herself. She also loves to share with me and can't understand why I don't want to have a sip of her bottle. So I've gotten pretty good at pretending. 

Her separation anxiety, constant need to be held, and her charming ability to dump the dog's water dish on herself at least twice a day can be a little draining, but come on. . . Look at that baby! I can't ever stay frustrated with her. 

walls notebook: patterns and text

I'm so glad to have my Walls notebook. It's a really nice distraction from other projects or a fun break when I just want to doodle a little. 

In all my graphic design studio classes in college, our professors would assign us unreal amounts of prep work. Like 30, 50, 100 sketches or thumbnails at the beginning of every project. Back then I resented it, and in my work life it never really applied, but I've always seen the value in it. When you force yourself to just keep generating ideas, really fun things can happen. So, that's a really long-winded way of saying: look at all these patterns! I want to draw about ten more pages like this. It was really fun. 

I was inspired by a post about Creative Experiments on the blog Daisy Yellow. Tammy recommended drawing the same word in at least 25 different kinds of lettering. So I took it kind of literally and wrote "over and over and over." ;)

And this. These words are from a Taize hymn (this part is based on Psalm 139) that I love and that we sing pretty often in church. I find myself writing out scripture passages or parts of hymns sometimes; working on hand-drawn typography feels like my own form of meditation. Just writing the words and filling them in and letting them sink into the open spaces in my head. 

What are your favorite things to doodle?

january pages (part 1)

Some of these have a story I need to share, and some stand on their own. The stories will come later. For now, everything else:

It really is too bad that you can't see these in person, feel the weight of the paper, see the textures. The paper in this vintage yearbook is just SO lovely and tactile. Of course, I realize this is because back in the olden days they actually chopped down trees to make paper instead of just endlessly recycling other paper. So hey! Making art from old things is not only aesthetically pleasing, it's also environmentally friendly! Score one for me and my weird art-making techniques. 

open for business

My shop is now open for business! Hoooo-ray. 

All available here. There are only a few items in the shop now. Since every pack is one of a kind, the process of putting them together and photographing them is a bit time-intense; I'm taking things slow and seeing what the response is before I add much more. I'm still playing around with styling too. (funny how my least favorite part of being a graphic designer--art directing--is following me into my non-working life, too.)

ANYway, a little backstory. Around Christmastime, my friend Kaitlyn and I were talking about meeting up. She mentioned wanting to take a look through my art supplies, but since we didn't meet at my house, I brought the art supplies to her. It was SO MUCH fun for me to put together a little package of special things for journaling and art-making. I enjoyed the process, and also realized: I am never going to use all this stuff up in my lifetime. 

For so long I have been hoarding art materials. I always feel like, "oh no! if I use it it's gone forever!" But hello! Every time I go to the thrift store I find a treasure. Which means, there's a lot more of this stuff out in the world, I might as well enjoy what I have. And since I can't possibly enjoy it all myself. . . I'm sharing it with you. 

Which brings me to. . . A GIVEAWAY. Boo-yah! Leave a comment and I'll pick a winner and send you a giant fun pack of paper-y awesomeness. Anyone welcome. Go for it!

Update: the giveaway is now closed. Thanks to all who entered!

new projects: little peeks

Just today I finished photographing a GIANT stack of art and projects I've been stockpiling for a while: an old minibook from last fall, my latest art journal project on yearbook paper, and a few little things for my etsy shop.

There's lots more to show, I just need to wade through the hundreds of pictures I've taken and I'll share later this week. 

I'm really proud of a lot of this. After working on my strange little books/collages/art journal pages/whatever they are over the past 8-10 years, I feel myself steadily improving, steadily getting closer to my ideal vision for my work. It's like I'm chasing after this magical feeling of my artwork really striking a clear bell in my heart.

And I know, uh, yeah, that sounds so fruity and flaky. But it's true. I feel really happy about where I am.

Until I start working on the next thing and find the goal further off again. But that's the fun of it, isn't it? Doing the work, day after day, year after year.