Living the Creative Life

Wow it's Friday! Wherever has my week gone? Time flies when you're on Spring Break!! Yesterday I discovered a very fascinating art form called Zentangle. It's basically divvying up shapes into sections and then adding a basic repetitive pattern to each section. You can find out a lot about different pattern options on YouTube, or you can just make up your own! Here's the first one I did. It took about three hours and was done mostly with fine-tip Sharpie.

So basically what they're saying is... Mac people tend to be smarter and more artistic... Yeah, I'd have to agree w/ that. ;) via: Geek System

Hey everyone, it's that time again! :) This week we've got a special Meet Someone New Monday - we're linking up GIVEAWAYS !!! Do you have a giveaway on your blog or know of one that you're participating in? Link up below! Take a look around at my fellow hosts' blogs, if you have a moment. They're all great ladies and deserve a FOLLOW! { Lily } { Tranae } { Gina } And as always, here are my favorite posts from last week. Don't forget to grab a button from the sidebar if you've been featured!! :) Jess is Mor: 25 Before 25 Pink Lemonade: 10 Ways to Have a Great Day Framed Frosting: Jewelry Deli Giveaway

My mom told me about this theory she heard on tv about how having a cell phone within 5 feet of your head while sleeping affects your brainwaves somehow and keeps you from entering a deep sleep. Always one to test out a theory on myself, I decided I'd try it out and see. I've used my cell phone as an alarm clock for probably 10 years but had never put that together with my sleeplessness tendencies. I wasn't sure that it would make a difference, but... it was an interesting theory so I thought I'd test it out. This afternoon I was sleepy and since I'm now on Spring Break, I decided to take a nap. I purposefully set my phone about 6 feet away from my bed (up on my desk instead of right on my bed-table, where it usually lives). I kid you not, I could feel myself drifting off to sleep almost instantly. I can't remember the last time that has happened - usually I toss and turn for hours first, before falling asleep, but I just figured that was something weird ab...

A very strange story, but I liked it overall. Ray Garraty and 99 other teenage boys are on The Long Walk, a 5-day walk to the death, with only one winner. Last one standing wins. The weird thing about this book was that I never did figure out why they were walking in the first place. Why were they motivated to volunteer for a suicide march? What were they hoping to gain, or possibly, to escape from? I could imagine the government from The Hunger Games coming up with such a competition, but King never specifies or clarifies such a backstory, or any backstory for that matter. Besides the fact that there was absolutely no known motivation for the characters to be doing what they were doing, the story was quite intriguing. The characters were well-written and made me care what happened to them. I could feel every step that Ray took on this Walk, every friend he made and lost, every thought he had along the way. It was a very interesting piece of literature, that's for sure.

Okay I've never been to the East Coast, so I can't speak to that, but the West Coast stereotype is pretty right on. ;) What do you think?

Welcome to another week of Meet Someone New Mondays ! It's been fun to get to know some new bloggers and see what they're about! Here are some of my favorite links from last week's entries (in no particular order) . If you've been featured, grab a button from the sidebar! :) Pink Lemonade: Dear Heart, Framed Frosting: My First Shopping Haul Silo Tree Farm: Ribbon Shamrock And without further ado, here is this week's blog hop! Please follow the host blogs (and any others that you like!) and link up your own favorite post of the week so we can come visit you!

There are so many blogging "rules" out there, and while a lot of them are really good advice, some of them make me really wonder about them. Here are some of my ideas on how to throw out the rule book. Misnomer #1: Have something important to say. Not true. Or rather... it is true, but not in the way you might think. Everything you say is important, whether you realize it or not, because you're uniquely you and there's no one else who can say things in just the same way you can! Some people are really good at writing tutorials or doing "vlogs". That may not be you, but that doesn't make what you have to say any less important. We do want to see what your messy living room looks like because it makes us feel like we're not the only ones who have one. Lol. And if that's "all" you have to post, that's more than enough. ;) Misnomer #2: Include a photo in every post. Okay I actually do follow this rule. However... I don't think it...

Let's grab some coffee, blogger friend of mine. You and I. You and me? I'm not sure which one is correct. Anyway, come in, sit down, let me brew some coffee for you. Have I mentioned that one of my old roommates sent me this French Press from Denmark? How cool is that? So if we were really sitting down for coffee, I'd ask you about how your life was going. How is your life going, by the way? Has it been as busy as mine has been lately? I'd laugh as my cat jumped up on your lap. Which she would, by the way. If you were here. I'd tell you that I'm almost done with my second term of classes! How time flies! I've got a project due tomorrow, a project and final on Monday, and another final on Wednesday. Crazy times. Then I'll actually get a Spring Break! Haven't had one of those in awhile. Tell me, why is it that adults don't get Spring Break? Because they should. Everybody should. Then maybe we'd talk about the latest books we're...

Well after 2 days of searching, I finally found my cell phone's contract end-date ! (they sure make it impossible to find!). My contract doesn't expire until August, although they'd be more than willing to let me upgrade to a new iPhone w/ no extra fee. Lol. Switching to a GoPhone would be a break in contract though, of course. They just want to make sure they get every last drop of money out of me! Oh well, I tried to be fiscally responsible. That counts for something, right? Hopefully by August I'll be raking in the dough with a graphic design Etsy shop and it won't matter anyway that I own the most expensive phone on the planet. ;P ***** Have you linked up this week?

One of our professors was practically chaining us to our desks today (not literally) to get us to draw out thumbnail sketches for a project we're doing before he'd let us go work at the computer. We literally had to sit there for over an hour and draw and draw and draw. It was driving me crazy! I felt like I was being made to eat with my toes or something. It just didn't feel natural to brainstorm on a sketchpad. I realize that most designers start with putting pencil to paper, but that's still quite a foreign concept to me. I think much better on the computer than I do on paper, that's for sure. I don't know if this is because I've never really done much sketching before or if it's just a product of my being a digital native? Hmm... ***** Do you have any tips for getting used to thinking with my pencil? Should I just start drawing more or are there exercises I can do to get my brain into that mode?

It's that time again! Meet Someone New Monday is here! Link up with your favorite post from the previous week and then hop around and meet some new friends! Don't forget to subscribe to the Host blogs, and maybe a few others as well. :) As promised, here are some of my favorite links from last week's hop ! Grab a button on the sidebar if you like, to show your own readers that you've been featured!! :) The In-Between: Friday Five a la Mode: Wanderlust {WARNING: THIS BLOG CONTAINS AUTO-PLAYING MUSIC} Vanisha's Life in Australia: Weekend Getaway

So... here's what I'm pondering... What if I sold my iPhone (the iPhone 4 is going for around $300-400 on eBay), purchased an iPod Touch instead to use as wifi-internet access / media player (brand new would cost $200-300 from Apple), and then bought a pre-paid flip-phone to have on hand if I ever actually need a phone (which is a rare occasion these days - I think I called someone maybe twice last month). Crazy? I LOOOOOOVE my iPhone, but the truth is, I rarely ever use it as a phone. Instead, I'm paying through the nose to have instant access to the internet wherever and whenever I want. Which I suppose is slightly ironic since most of the places I go have wifi access. So I'm asking myself... WHY am I still paying monthly for my iPhone?? Is the convenience nice? Absolutely. Is it worth it when I don't currently have a steady income? I'm beginning to wonder. That $70+ a month could buy an awful lot of gas for my commute to school. And really... the...

I used to wonder about matte-cutting professionals. Have you ever seen their offices in craft or frame stores? I wondered if cutting mattes was hard and decided that it probably was if they needed professionals to do it. I also used to wonder if it was something worth learning to do and thinking that it might actually be kind of fun. Turns out I was right on all accounts! We learned how to cut mattes in our typography class recently, and while most of my class seems a little annoyed by the process, I've actually been enjoying it! I guess it's not hard so much as it is slightly tedious and time-consuming. Basically you just have to double- and triple-check your measurements before you cut or you've ruined the matte board that you just bought! 1. First you start by marking out the back of your matte. Measure, measure, and measure again! Make absolutely sure that your marks are correct and that the windows you're cutting are the correct size. Make sure you've c...

Well, since no one wanted to play along with " I Love My Cat " Day, you are going to get a million pictures of MY cat!!! Mwa ha ha ha ha... She's sleeping in most of them because that's when she's easiest to take pictures of! If anyone wants to buy me a really fast camera lens, I won't turn it down. ;P

My iPod shuffled onto this song yesterday when I was driving to school and it made me smile! It reminds me of my first apartment, when I was about 20 or so, living in Portland. My two friends, Jessica and Sharisa, and I found a little place a block from campus and we moved in there about a month before school ended for the term. It was so exciting! I've since lived in about a million generic apartments, but that first one felt the most special. That's probably true of a lot of firsts. They just stick in your head and heart for some reason! Pinch Me by Barenaked Ladies on Grooveshark ***** Do you remember your first apartment? Do you have fond memories of it or are you glad you don't live there anymore?

I'm excited to bring you my first ever Blog Hop, co-hosted by my new blog friend, Lily, over at As She Writes ! Meeting new bloggers is part of the fun of blogging. I've met quite a few kindred spirits since I started blogging, and now it's your turn! Link up below, using your favorite post from the past week. Put your best foot forward and show people what makes you you! Hop around to find some more fun blogs to follow! If you would like to help Co-Host this hop, grab the link below the hop and paste it into a blog post on your own blog! (The same list will appear on every blog.) Next week I'll feature five of my favorite links, so check back to see if you've been featured! I also have buttons for you that you can grab if you like, to advertise the blog hop or to show off that you've been featured!! This blog hop expires in one week, so get hopping!

My book-club book arrived!! Yeah!!! I've been meaning to read more Stephen King (more than the one whole book  of his that I've read so far), so this is perfect! I can't remember if I've mentioned it earlier, but I'm joining Sian and a few other lovely ladies across the US and UK for a Blogger Book Club ! Basically how it goes is, we've been sorted into groups of five, then we each pass around our favorite book so that everyone in the group has a chance to read it. I send a book to Jess , who sends one to Jen , who sends one to Jess , who sends one to Becca , who sends one to me. When I'm done with Becca's book (preferably each cycle should take a month), I then pass Becca's book along to Jess, and round and round the circle it goes, until 5 months later when I get my own book back! Sounds like a super way to find new books, no? I love the idea that I'm not choosing these books. I tend towards the same sections whenever I browse a bookstor...