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!