Living the Creative Life

I suppose this is the day to be making goals, no?  So let's see... in no particular order... 1. Learn French (basic conversational French, at least). 2. Complete year 2 of my graphic design program. 3. Try 10 new vegetables. 4. Finish 48 books. 5. Create a passive stream of income. 6. Pray and listen to God for at least 20 minutes a day. 7. Build my Etsy knitting inventory up to 300 before next fall. 8. Learn how to make linocut prints. 9. Build my powers of concentration. And just for curiosity's sake... here's how my goals last year went. First off, I plan to finish my first year in graphic design school! Yup! Did that with a 4.0! This year won't be quite that good, but I'm still plugging along! Secondly, I hope to build my Etsy shop bigger and better. My shop is definitely bigger and better, and made slightly more money than last year, but not by much. I think I'll have to add this one to my list again! Third, I have plans to unveil a gr

In case you missed it Friday , I'm studying up on my personality type: INFP. This is the second day in this series! Enjoy! INFPs, more than other iNtuitive Feeling types, are focused on making the world a better place for people. Their primary goal is to find out their meaning in life. What is their purpose? How can they best serve humanity in their lives? They are idealists and perfectionists, who drive themselves hard in their quest for achieving the goals they have identified for themselves. Yeah this is definitely true of me. While I don't generally prefer the company of others, I am very aware of wanting to make a contribution to the world with my life. It's probably why I keep striving to find something better to do with my life than be a receptionist. Not that that's a bad job, but it never felt like one that really meant something in the greater scheme of things. Doing a job, for me, is more about making a difference in some way than it is about getting a

Tip #1: Have as many listings as possible. Preferably over 100. Tip #2: If you have multiples of an item and are trying to get your numbers over 100, go ahead and list them as separate listings... just make sure to change the titles slightly from each other so Etsy search engines recognize them as different items. Tip #3: Learn how to use a camera. Tip #4: Keep track of what colors & styles sell best and make more of those. Tip #5: Keep trying new colors and styles whether or not you think they'll sell. It'll help pull more people into your shop and you never know when a new item will catch on!

Since I'm always talking about my personality, I thought it'd be interesting to investigate my INFP personality a little closer and talk about how it relates to me and my experiences. If you've never taken a Meyers-Briggs personality test, this is a super short version of it  that I've found to be surprisingly accurate. I'd love to hear what your personality type is and if you've ever done a more in-depth study on it! The "real" test is hundreds of questions long, if I remember right, so finding a short version that is accurate is great! Here's the other website that I'm using as a guide to spelling out exactly what my personality type is like. I'd like to go through it one paragraph at a time, so hopefully this won't be boring to anyone else. Here goes! As an INFP, your primary mode of living is focused internally, where you deal with things according to how you feel about them, or how they fit into your personal value system.

I don't know if this is just me, but I never really feel the need to keep in touch with people. And I don't mean that in a bad way, but just like... say, from high school, for example. Or even college, for that matter. I mean, they were nice people. I enjoyed them while I was there. But then I moved on and never really looked back. I'm just not sure if that's a bad thing or a good thing. Usually I don't really think about stuff like this, but then I'll run across someone who still hangs out with their high school buddies or who has get-togethers with people they knew 20 years ago, and it makes me wonder if they're odd or if I'm the odd one for it never having occurred to me to do the same thing. Granted, I'm an introverted introvert, so perhaps that has a lot to do with it. I've also moved over 20 times in my short life, so maybe moving on and not looking back is in my blood. Facebook has added an odd layer to this puzzle in recent years, a

Sorry to be such a slacker in the blogging department. I have not yet figured out how to blog consistently when busy with school! Anyway, about a month ago we took a field trip up to Portland to visit the Portland Art Museum. Even though I used to live there, I'd never gotten around to visiting the museum before, so it was so fun to get this opportunity! (Funny how you take for granted the things to do/see that you live around until you no longer live around them!) Here are a select few images that I took. (I probably have over a hundred photos from this day!)

We got back from Southern California last night from a great visit with my sister's family. New little baby Rachel is so cute and already growing so much! And now for a photo of my sister's other baby, Cinnamon! ;) She's not really a people-kitty, but by the end of our visit she was relaxed enough to sleep near us on the couch!

I wish you could see our graphics lab this week. Normally we're messy but somewhat orderly in our mess. This week, everyone's practically moved in. Papers are everywhere, blankets and pillows abound, food and lots of coffee clutter the kitchen in the corner. Finals week is upon us and everyone is walking around in a sort of zombie-like, half-asleep state, cutting, pasting, matting, drawing, and stippling (okay actually that project is done). Our normally talkative group is huddled over their drawing boards in a hushed panic as each deadline looms over our heads. If I wasn't right there with them, it'd almost be a little comical! ;) Oh, also... I have a new niece! Rachel Joy. Born this morning, happy and healthy! So adorable, isn't she?

Oh my goodness. Don't ever buy online from Utrecht Art Supplies . I don't think I've met such poor customer service in a long time. So back on October 15th, I ordered some tech pens that were on sale from them for a project at school. I figured it'd take a week or two to receive, and since our project wasn't starting for about another month, that'd be plenty of time. They're having a great sale and the item states that it's in stock, so... perfect! About three weeks go by, classes are busy, time flies by, and as everyone else in my class is showing off their new pens, I suddenly realize mine have never come. How strange. I go online to check the status of my order... it says "Processing". Processing? Was my card bad? What's the deal? And more importantly, why hadn't they told me about this sooner? I'd expected to receive my item by now and it still hasn't left their warehouse? What's going on? So I email them and

I just introduced a new line of iPhone cozies to my Etsy shop ! These are the colors I've got made up so far, but I'll probably be adding a few more this weekend. I thought it'd be fun to have a quick and easy item people could buy for stocking stuffers!

Just to be clear, I've only been watching this show for about three seasons, but it's already driving me nuts with it's strange rules that seem to reward randomness instead of actually playing the game. For one thing... why does it seem like every other week is a non-elimination leg? This doesn't seem like a very competitive way to set up a game. Can you imagine any other game giving someone a freebie every other turn? Why do they think that'd be entertaining to watch? I would think as a player, too, that it would make that leg feel like a pointless waste of time because you're not any closer to being the final team than you were a leg ago. What if instead of non-elimination legs, let teams earn a pass that would allow them to not be eliminated if they came in last. There'd only be one pass in the game at any one time, so teams wouldn't be eligible to earn another one until whichever pass was out there had been used. Teams could also choose to spen

I found a YouTube channel today filled with some great drawing tutorials! This girl uses Copic markers to fill in the color and shadows on some of her drawings, which I've never heard of before but now I really, really want!! Have you used these markers before? Would you recommend them? They look to me a bit like watercolors in marker form. Would that be an accurate description? Here are a couple of my favorite videos from this channel, although she has a bunch more if you have time to browse. :)

Here's a peek at what I've been up to these days... This is a pencil drawing based on a photograph of an composition of cash register tape that we arranged. It's supposed to look like a Christmas-style ribbon, all loopy, and if we shade it right, should demonstrate trompe l'oeil, which is French for "deceive the eye", meaning that the flat drawing should appear like a 3-dimensional thing actually extruding off the page. We've also got lots of reading, note-taking, and comprehension questions this year! It's easy to get behind on this since the actual turn-in projects always seem to take precedence. If I can find the money, I might get a bunch of next term's books to read during my Christmas break to get a little ahead of the game! That would sure save myself a headache as I get more busy with projects next term. (Easier said than done, of course, since I tend to like to relax on my vacations!)

Sorry for being such a bad blogger this Fall! How was everyone's October? Did you remember to set your clocks back this weekend? Have you voted (or do you plan to)? In other news, I re-joined Facebook this weekend. I deleted my personal account two years ago because I was tired of the drama of repeatedly discovering that they had "accidentally" reset everyone's privacy settings to "public" since "you all wanted it that way, right?". I hate that Facebook plays fast and loose with our privacy and never seems to have any accountability for that. But... I kept having people ask me, "You're on Facebook, right?" and I got tired of explaining all that. What's the point of a political stance when you're the only one making it? So despite my reservations about the direction of Mark Zuckerberg's moral compass, I've decided to put that thought aside for the sake of keeping in touch with everyone I've ever met. Oh and

I keep waiting until I have time to do a proper post... and then I keep not having time to think of something brilliant to say. So my apologies to anyone who has wondered where I've been lately. School has been keeping me BUSY!! It's the 5th week of classes already, can you believe it? I'm going to try really hard to just post little posts every day or two instead of waiting until inspiration hits me. Here's what I've been working on for the last couple weeks (there's acetate over the drawing so unfortunately I have a little ceiling light reflected across the drawing in the photo). Anyway, this is all done in pencil (mostly 4B and 6B soft pencils). It started as a rough sketch, then was scanned in and re-drawn in Illustrator, then printed out and shaded in about 5 times until we knew exactly how we wanted the final piece to look... THEN we transferred it onto illustration board and shaded it very carefully until it looked "realistic" (or as rea

I haven't had much time to stay caught up on the new Fall shows, but I've tried to watch at least the pilots of the ones that intrigued me. Here's what I thought... Via 666 Park Avenue   2 THUMBS UP Definitely worth watching. Reminds me of a Stephen King novel. A couple takes a job at a hotel where things aren't always what they appear to be. Arrow 1 THUMB UP Pretty interesting so far. Robin Hood meets Batman. Hopefully it won't devolve into just another villan-of-the-week show. Update --> 1 THUMB DOWN Upon further thought, I don't have time for this show. I'm several weeks behind and don't have any motivation to continue it at this time. Which... says something about the stickiness of this show... just saying. Beauty and the Beast UNDECIDED Pretty decent so far. I watched this pilot awhile ago and it isn't sticking in my head, so that's not a good sign. I remember enjoying it though, so we'll see if it continues

Hello from Busy Student Land! It's finally the weekend!! ;D I am so happy to have three new sales reps for Desert Rose Knits. Maybe you're next ? If you are an extroverted, marketing type and want to earn some extra cash promoting hand-knit items from the comfort of your armchair... you just might be the perfect candidate for the job! Also, in case you were curious... here's what Oregon is looking like these days. Isn't it wonderful? (No seriously... rain is my favorite weather, for some reason. Don't laugh, I've lived in Oregon 33 years, I can't help it!)

I want to try an experiment to see if I can get my Etsy knit shop off the ground. I'm a terrible marketer, largely because I'm a very introverted introvert, but I know that a lot of you are extroverts , so... How would YOU like to earn weekly commissions by becoming one of my sales reps? ;) Here's how it'll work. You'll get a 5% off coupon code to my shop. This code will be specific to you and any customer that uses it will get 5% off their order. Then once a week, I will send you a 5% commission based off the sales that you brought in that week. So you get a 5% commission and your friend gets 5% off their order. Win win! And yes, you even get a commission if you buy something for yourself using the 5% code (meaning a total of 10% off your order after you've received your commission for that week). The ideal sales rep would be: Someone who has 200+ blog followers, Twitter followers, or FB followers. Someone who feels comfortable promoting a wonderful

I get a lot of great comments on this blog, and I love replying to them as much as I can. I try to respond to everyone by email, which seems more likely to get a conversation going, and I try really hard to answer everyone, unless the comment is something like, "Nice," which is hard to know how to respond to. But in general, if someone says something interesting, it's nice to write back, and a lot of times it actually leads to a conversation about a subject we both have an interest in, so that's pretty cool. Lately though... I've been getting a huge amount of   No-Reply Blogger  comments. Are you familiar with this concept? Basically there's a setting in your Blogger profile that allows you to "Show Your Email Address", which all that really means is that when you comment on my blog and I get your comment, I then have your email address to be able to respond to you. If you don't check that option... it shows up in my email as being from   "

Greetings from student-land! How is life out there in the free world? Lol. Just kidding. ;P I really am having fun, but it's easy to remember the bygone days of summer (aka: two weeks ago) and wish I were able to knit and watch TV all day like I did then. I suppose in the long, overarching scheme of things, I'm going to school so I can work a job that can afford me time off to be able to knit and watch TV all day, so... that's something to look forward to, right? Lol. These are my books for the semester. I'm already behind, believe it or not. I was planning to read as I went along... and then the "real" assignments were assigned (meaning those that the teachers collect so they have to be done on time), so reading got shoved to the back burner. I made it the top priority on my "To Do" list for the weekend to finish last week's reading, start (and hopefully finish) next week's reading, and try to get a little further ahead than that i

Can I just say... if you haven't started watching Grey's Anatomy yet this season, start with episode 2 and then go back and watch episode 1. It'll make a LOT more sense. >>>>>>SPOILERS BELOW<<<<<< via First of all... I spent the first half of episode one wondering why Cali was crying so much. Had Arizona died? Did I miss something? Everything else (mostly) made sense, although it seemed strange that Meredith and Derek constantly referred to vague things like, "Are you sure you want to do this today ?" or "It's almost 5:00!" I hate it when writer's write a script that way, intentionally keeping something obviously vague. When they killed George (way back a million seasons ago), it was a much more elegant script-writing, I'm just saying. I mean, I didn't see that coming, during the episode, and after the reveal it made you think, "Wait! That was under my nose the whole time and I didn'

Here's a beautiful video of a fabulous artist. I love how her joy and love of life shines through so much in this video. It really makes me want to paint and draw and daydream. :) { Site } { Blog } { Etsy } New Orleans Artists – Rebecca Rebouché from Anthropologie on Vimeo . {Linking up with Kristen Victoria }

Today I started my biology project. We're supposed to study a single plot of land for 8 weeks and report on our findings each week. We were given a field guide with questions and tasks to guide us (find a leaf, measure the air temperature, etc) and are basically supposed to behave like scientists studying a new environment. We were told to try to find a site that measures roughly 50x100 feet; has meadow and trees, but no water running through it; is not mowed or cultivated; and is ideally close to home. So... as I half-heartedly observed my town, nothing jumped out as even remotely meeting the requirements. This is Oregon, so there's water everywhere (or blackberries, which are equally impenetrable). Also, do you know how hard it is to find a field that hasn't been mowed or isn't part of someone's wheat crop? I finally settled on the garden plot out in our backyard. We've let it go wild over the past year, so I think it qualifies on most accounts (although i