Inspiration Friday

This has been a great week full of learning and positive growth.

1 thing I learned this week is how important it is to do things for people to show I care.

I'm going to work on creating things for my friends and family, surprising them, because they expect to get nothing. I just did that this week! I created a picture of my two instructors sort of in cartoon form.

What kind of gifts do you treasure most?

Inspiration Friday

This Friday I spent time on two different projects inspired by people I know.

The first was inspired by a friend of mine that loves music and languages. She is fluent in Spanish and now we are learning Arabic together. She's about 36 years older than I am and she picks things up so quickly. I don't think it's really true what they say about youngsters being more absorbent of languages, at least not this youngster. I won't say I'm doing badly with it, but I know it takes effort on my part to soak it in.

My friend also plays the violin and lately she's been getting me to play. I quit orchestra after my freshman year, partly because I disliked our teacher, playing tests, our nun-ish orchestra dresses, and I wanted to replace it with an art class.

So for my friend, I am creating a violin pendant necklace out of polymer clay. I think I'll write her name in Arabic somewhere on the pendant as well, or make another pendant with her name.

The other project I'm working on is a caricature of my two instructors that I have for a 2 week course I'm taking right now. They are being our instructors completely free of charge, and they arre so genuine! So I thought to capture the fun personalities that they have in a caricature would be nice.

I will hopefully be posting pictures of what I end up with soon. :D

Inspiration Friday

Oops. I missed writing this past Friday :/

This week I have been inspired by cats. Yes cats. Just today I spent some time with the furry creatures, 2 adult cats and a cute, mischievous kitten named Pooka (not the kitty in the picture-- that's another friend's cat).

My step-dad was drinking some wine and Pooka was trying so hard to get to it. It was awfully cute and funny.

Even before spending some time with our friends' cats tonight, I had been thinking about writing a zine about my old cats, Cooper and Cesar.

I have lots of hilarious stories about those guys. Like how Cooper curses (yes! curses!). How Cesar crossed his front and back legs in the windowsill, and how we tried training the cats to use the toilet.

I want to write the zine not only to share my stories of my kitties with other people, but also to help me remember them. To find out what happened to the kitties you'll have to read the zines when they come out :D -- possibly in a brand new shop on Etsy!

Inspiration Friday

I know I haven't been posting here much lately. I have to admit blogging is pretty new to me.

I've decided from here on out Friday is "Inspiration Friday". Usually by Friday I've come across shops, people, movies, or things in nature that inspire me. So now I am going to obligate myself to sit down and write each week on Fridays about something or someone that inspired me.

So for the first Inspiration Friday I want to feature Captain Cat, the art and design shop of Zelda English and Rodrigo Neto. They're absolutely awesome. http://www.etsy.com/shop/CaptainCat?ref=pr_shop_more

The image on the right caught my eye when it was featured on Etsy's front page. Captain Cat makes these Raccoon Masks out of recycled materials and paper-mache.

I love the photography and the fantasy-like mood of the picture. If you have not looked at Captain Cat's shop, you must check it out!

What really inspires me about Captain Cat's masks is that they make these wonderful masks out of recycled materials! I also am trying to make items for my shop out of recycled materials and it's great to see others being so successful and innovative!

Pikaland

Today I found a great blog, Pikaland.

They feature illustrators on their blog and are an indie publisher of zines.

I also discovered that Pikaland has a virtual school for artists, Camp Pikaland.

So if you are an artist or are interested in the art you should check out their website http://pikaland.com/

30 Day Picture Challenge- Jewelry Edition :P

If you're a facebook user you've seen or at least heard about the 30 day picture challenge.

If not here's a brief explanation.

The facebook user creates a new album (i.e. Monica's 30 Day Picture Challenge :D ). Then in this new album each day, for 30 days, they upload a new picture that follows the instructions for the 30 day picture challenge. For example, "Upload a picture of you and the person who you've gone through the most with".

So that got extremely popular, at least around the young people I have as friends on Facebook. I saw it, went through a few people's albums and decided "Neh. That's not for me."

I like to play by my own rules and yesterday while halfheartedly getting ready to go to work, I had an idea. BING! People are always suggesting that jewelry makers wear one of their creations each day. Why not take a picture and post it on my blog and fan page? I know it's going to be fun and get me motivated to make more jewelry. Plus I'll get more feedback from you guys. That's what this project is all about-- what you think.

See here's the plan.
1. I wear a piece of my own jewelry everyday (preferably a new piece of jewelry everyday...) for 30 days consecutively!

2. I photograph myself wearing it. Then I post the pics on FB and my blog.

3. For fun and to up the interest factor I will also be posting comments and reactions to this new project, in terms of what people are saying about my work. GOOD or BAD! I will be posting honest opinions.

That last step may sound like artistic suicide, but I think it is completely constructive. In art class we did critiques of each other's work on a regular basis. How can I improve unless I receive some constructive criticism? Anyway I've got tough skin and I can take it. And most people I've talked to about my work have something nice to say.

So please stay tuned. I will be posting the first picture of the 30 day picture challenge this evening! WOOT!

And who knows if I like this and you like this, I just might make the picture challenge a regular feature on my blog and facebook fan page!

Plane Tickets are Headaches

I have been planning to go to Norco, CA this summer for a convention that will be completely in Arabic. Sound daunting? Well, I went last year with a group of friends and understood tidbits. It will be interesting to see if I've improved after a year has passed. I had tons of fun last year. We went to a walima, the Arabic word for party. There was fast paced dancing, a sort of circle dancing where people clasped hands and did some kind of skipping foot motion to their right. I was too shy to join in (besides I wouldn't have been able to keep up), but this year I may get the courage to jump in there. We also went to the beach, Balboa Island, but we didn't get in the water. Another thing that will have to change this year.

So anyway I am very excited about going to California, the only problem is the silly plane ticket prices. They go up and down at the drop of a hat it seems. Do they have a "Buying Plane Tickets for Dummies" at a book store? I need it desperately! Really, last year it was all arranged for me, all I had to do was show up. This year it has been such a hassel. I don't know what to expect the price to be. I bought 1 ticket for a friend that is traveling in our group of 4, and went back to the site to buy another ticket and the price had jumped $89 in one hour!

If you happen to be reading this and are not as inexperienced with buying plane tickets online, I would greatly appreciate your help and insight. None of my 3 friends that are traveling with me fly very frequently or have experience arranging this kind of thing. It feels like we got thrown into the water before we learned to swim. Of course, I know it can't be that hard, but as a college student with a part time job and lots of time spent volunteering (and making art :) ), I do not want to pay $89 more than the reasonable price I got for my friend. Your help would be very, very, very much appreciated!