Living the Creative Life

I started working through The Artist's Way this week, part of which involves doing what is called "Morning Pages". Basically what you do is, first thing every morning, you hand-write three pages. No more, no less. It's supposed to like... unblock your creativity... or something. Although... as a card-carrying night owl, this totally terrifies me. How can I do anything first thing in the morning before my coffee, let alone write three pages long-hand? While I appreciate the novelty of such things, it's been awhile since I've actually hand-written anything. (Thank you, Internet). I thought maybe doing my Morning Pages on the computer instead of hand-writing might work better for me. I made the mistake of mentioning this idea to someone who's been doing Artist's Way off and on for decades. Apparently this is NOT the way "real" Artist's Way students are supposed to do their Morning Pages. It's like... a rule... or something. Which ...

A snippet of what I've been working on lately. 1). It's good to put on real clothes once in awhile. I love being able to work in my pajamas, but doing that too many days in a row can mess with your head. Putting on real clothes in the morning definitely helps get my mind in the working mode! 2). Naps are awesome. I love the make-your-own-schedule part of freelancing. It feels good to be able to take a nap when I need it and then work late into the night when my brain is actually more awake (I'm a night owl). 3). It really is all in who you know. It has been said that the best way to get new clients is through word-of-mouth from the old ones... and repeat clients are even better! I'm currently working on a blog re-design for one of my previous clients, which I never would've gotten if I hadn't reached out to her to let her know about my new design portfolio ! Don't be obnoxious when you're promoting yourself, but it definitely does your busi...

Sorry to be so MIA this month. I've officially finished school and begun my freelance life. So far that consists of adding to  my portfolio website , sprucing up my Etsy graphics shop , and also hunting for "real" jobs. I love the idea of freelancing, but also know that it might take awhile to get traction in that area. Hopefully I can do both for awhile! We're also a bit in limbo about moving, which is why I haven't mentioned it much. You could pray about that, if you like, that all goes well in that department. Long story short, my dad is trying to sell his distributorship so he can start his new area selling down in Northern LA area, but the upper-ups in his company seem to be dragging their feet on approving our buyer. We think we finally have all the i's dotted and the t's crossed though, so hopefully things should fall into place this week so we can make definitely plans. This whole thing has been hanging in the works for about a year now, so we...

Having just given a speech myself this week, the subject of speech-giving has been on my mind. Despite my being one of the most introverted people I know, I was actually the least-nervous-looking person presenting that day (according to my dad). Yes, I definitely was nervous, but here are some of my tricks as to how to not appear so: #1 - Pretend You're Not Nervous This is probably the best tip I have. It sounds too good to be true, but it really works. I got the idea awhile back when I was pondering how actors act. Basically, I just pretend that I'm someone who doesn't get nervous. The butterflies in my stomach try to disagree with me, but I try not to listen to them (much). #2 - Stare at the Back of the Room This tip I learned in my many years of high school and college choir, back in the day. Instead of actually looking into the crowd of people staring at you... look just above their heads at the back wall. They'll feel like you're looking at them, but you ...

So in my push to get my website done, I figured it was probably also a good idea to have a Facebook page ! Right now you'll see basically the same projects that are on my website, but I hope to soon include helpful links and tutorials on there as well. Basically if you love graphic design, you should "Like" this page !

I always find it interesting to hear what other people have on their iPhones, so thought you might be interested to hear what's on mine! Here are a few of my favorite apps. Solar This app is pretty fun - it gives you a visual color representation of what the weather for the day will be like. You can scroll up with your thumb to view up to 24 hours of weather data, or pull down with your thumb to view the 3-day forecast. You can have it set to your current location and also store other locations that you like to keep track of. The color of the weather changes based on what the weather is at that time during the day as well as what time of day it is (darker blues for nighttime, etc). (Available on iTunes ) Google Maps If you ever wanted turn-by-turn directions but didn't want to buy a TomTom or other GPS device, then this is the app for you. It's oddly accurate (as I'm sure you would expect if you've ever used Google Maps) and I love that it doesn't yel...