My Video Interview (from RAW:Omaha Expressions)

On May 23rd I participated in an art showcase put on by RAW: Natural Born Artists in Omaha. It was an awesome night. Each of the artists had a video interview filmed, and they were released on YouTube yesterday.

Check mine out! I'm talking all about my Aquatic Avenue Crew jewelry line (check out my watercolor submarine shop for examples). I like how it turned out, but it's always strange to hear or see yourself talking. The first thing that goes through my head is, "Do I really sound like that?" I guess I do - I have recorded evidence!

Find Your Voice Week One

One of my never ending goals is to continually challenge myself creatively so that the things I create will forever be evolving - whether it's a new line of items for Tangents, a fresh recipe for supper or a new idea for a comic for my blog. So, to encourage my creative spirit this summer, I've joined a free online storytelling seminar called Find Your Voice (Check it out HERE.)

The first week of the seminar involved a worksheet with a variety of questions about storytelling and what it means to us as individuals. I finished my written "homework" and decided to expand upon one of the questions for my journal. I was especially interested in exploring what my favorite stories are and who my favorite storytellers are. A lot of my favorite storytellers are musical artists (Paul Simon, Colin Meloy, Gordon Lightfoot, plus thousands more.) I love how they can take a minimal amount of words and make them work to create an image in your head. So, I used my minimal paper-crafting skills to make a journal entry with some of my favorite lyrics to remind me of how I want to practice writing.

My 'journal' for the workshop.

Some writing inspiration - I'm obviously not a paper-crafting genius, but I try my best.

Flower Garden Update

When I planted my flower garden this year (not all that long ago, by the way) I notice that an ornamental squash was growing in one of my front flower beds, most likely accidentally planted by my Halloween decorations from last year. Being the plant lover (or hoarder?) that I am, I couldn't bring myself to dig it up. Now, even though my impatiens refuse to grow, my squash is definitely doing well. However, it definitely does not belong in my flower bed. See for yourself:

Yuck, right? All you can see is the silly squash! But, I still can't pull it. I feel too invested in its growth now. Ok, now, take a few moments to get over the fact that it's obvious that I haven't pulled any weeds in a while, then check out a couple of my gardening *wins*.

For example, this lovely basket filled with impatiens that are cooporating with me:

And this small pot of gorgeous pink begonias:

 

See? I'm not a complete gardening klutz. Now, if I could only get over my weed hoarding tendencies, perhaps my large flower beds would look just as nice as my potted plants!

The Longest Day of 2013

Today is the longest day of the year. I had this great list of things to do planned out that involved mini-golfing, ice cream eating, and bike riding, but apparently "more sunshine than any other day of 2013" doesn't make today a national holiday. So, work is still happening, which I think is a complete crime. All Americans should be out soaking up the extra sun rays today - it's a good source of vitamin D, and thus a national health issue!

So, I'm not able to partake in all the exciting activities I had planned, but I did get some fun stuff accomplished - like my new blog banner which can be viewed at the top of this page!

Also, when I went home for lunch, I finally took a picture of this cute little bird's nest that some crazy critter built right on top of the motion sensor lights on our garage.

 

There are currently two adorable baby birds inhabiting this nest. I wanted a picture with them in the nest, but they're old enough to fly. They're also fairly skittish, so they flap their little wings as fast as possible and fly away every time I get near them. Luckily for you readers, though, I was able to draw a fairly accurate representation of the little bird twins. I don't want to brag, but it's almost a photographic replication.

 

In other nature news, while driving back to work from lunch today, a small deer ambled out onto the road in front of me. I slowed the car down, and, in a panicky, knee-jerk reaction, locked the doors as if the deer were a crazed hitch hiker trying to hop in my vehicle. This is what happens to people who learn to drive in the city and have years of their mom reminding them to "Lock your car doors or someone might jump in at a red light!" Every time I sense danger while in my car, the first thing I do is lock the doors, even if it doesn't make sense. A deer would look pretty darn silly trying to open a car door with his hooves... he doesn't even have fingers let alone thumbs! Oh well, better safe than sorry, right?

Woodland Home Project Complete!

As it always seems to happen for me, once I started my project I just couldn't stop. So, I'm already finished painting my woodland creatures "Home" sign. I also made a second sign which I'm calling "Gnome Home". I like them both, so it's going to be difficult to choose which one to keep, and which one to use elsewhere. All that's left to do now is to seal and add hangers to each log slice. I think I'll definitely be adding some items like these to my Etsy shop - I really like how they turned out!

The animals are complete (fox, owl, skunk and squirrel) - but it still seems to be missing something...

Adding an outline to each of the letters makes it feel finished!

Gnome Home, this one reminds me a little of the seven dwarfs from Snow White.

Woodland "Home" Project Report 1

I love collecting unwanted items and giving them new life, as do many people who are involved in the "repurposing", "upcycling", etc. world of crafting. Sometimes, however, I collect things without knowing what I'm going to do with them, and I have to contend with the haters who tell me that I'm collecting junk. It's not junk - it's art supplies!

One example of my non-junk, art supplies include my dusty crate full of little log slices that I rescued from a fire. They weren't actually on fire when I took them. They were just sitting on a table enjoying the last few moments of their former life as rustic, candle holding, wedding decorations. But, I was told that I could take what I wanted, and that the rest would be used as firewood. Therefore, they were rescued from a fire.  I've already used some of my log slices for little woodland critter paintings, but it's been awhile since I've created anything from my salvaged wood stash. This morning I felt like my crate of "rescued" log slices were glaring at me - "MAKE SOMETHING FROM ME!!!", they were shouting at me. So I've come up with a new project for them. I've decided to use four slices at a time to spell the word 'Home', which I think will look adorable above my TV, in my kitchen, or really hung anywhere in my home. To add to their cuteness, I'm going to paint little woodland animals on them as well. I started the project today - mostly I just planned, sketched and painted the lettering. I've posted a preliminary photo, and I'll be sure to keep you all updated as the project progresses. If they turn out adorable enough I'll probably be offering them in my Etsy store as well, but we will have to wait and see the final product!

My crate of rescued log slices

The first step in creating my new 'Home' sign

In other creative news, I have decided to expand my storytelling (and hopefully scrapbooking) abilities with a free online course this summer called Find Your Voice. It sounds like it should be an interesting and fun challenge to encourage me to be creative and expand my horizons this summer. I'm sure I'll be posting about my experiences on my blog. Class starts on Monday! If you're interested in joining you can check out the details here: http://rukristin.blogspot.com/search/label/Find%20Your%20Voice Can't wait to try new things - maybe after the course, I'll feel confident enough to finally put together my wedding scrapbook that I *almost* started over a year ago.

Spider Revenge

It took me awhile to get over that weed eating ruckus last week. (click HERE for a recap, in case you missed it) I figured, spiders on my leg, that's pretty bad and probably doesn't happen all that often.  I thought, that's probably all the eight-legged encounters I'll be having for some time now, because what are the odds of two horrifying arachnid incidents happening within a week of each other? Well, I guess the odds are higher than I thought, because yesterday when I went to put the mail in the mailbox the following horrifying ordeal occurred:

 

SCENE ONE: It's a bright, shiny morning as I reach to open the Schmit Home Solutions mailbox to send a few friendly letters on their way.

SCENE TWO: When said mailbox is opened a gigantic eight-legged beast emerges from the dark depths of the box, furiously gnashing his teeth and probably saying something like what I've shown in my comic. Of course, I can't be certain what he was trying to communicate to me, because I do not dabble in spider speak.

SCENE THREE: My eyes open wide, my hair stands on end, and a small scream erupts from my mouth. This can't be happening, what type of ungodly beasts are these things? They lie in wait for me around every corner. (I don't think I'm being that dramatic, am I?)

SCENE FOUR: Mail flies into the air as I run from the mailbox of doom. The hairy monster giggles, knowing he has won this round.

Eventually, when he was done laughing at me, Jason came to my assitance and used his bare hands to sweep the spider out of the mailbox and onto the ground. We then jointly made the decision to let him live. As long as they're outside, I think that bugs should be given the simple right to live. Plus, when they're working how they're supposed to, spiders eat a lot of other creepy crawlies that I'd rather not come into contact with. 

This story does have a depressing ending, though, because when I went to take the mail out to the box this morning, the eight-legged avenger was back! Seriously. The same spider, and he was erecting a nasty little web  in the front of the mailbox. I decided then that he had to die. I feel some remorse for the squishing death that was inflicted upon him, but I can't have something like that sneaking up on me and nearly causing me to go into cardiac arrest every morning.