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

I Should've Been British

I don't regret being born in the heartland of the United States. Omaha, NE is as good a place to grow up as anywhere else. More and more though, especially this year, I've found myself surrounding myself with British influences.

Take for instance these singers I love.

1. Corinne Bailey Rae, my doppleganger some say. I wouldn't say I idolize anyone, but I do like her music, style, and curls. And guess what--she's from the UK.

2. Adele is amazing. I love the heart she puts into singing "Rolling in the Deep". And of course, like Corinne, she calls the UK home.

3. Another UK vocalist I like is Lily Allen. I listened to Lily Allen's "The Fear" over and over again. You can tell with her music that it comes from her own creative voice (as in it's her take on things) and I like that.

I also love Florence & the Machine, Coldplay, Estelle, The Beatles (of course!), and some Amy Winehouse. My affinity for British music is not where it ends. Recently, thanks to the watch instantly feature on Netflix, I've watched 2 BBC miniseries. If you haven't them, you owe it to yourself to check them out.

1. Wives and Daughters. No spoilers here, but the basic plot is that the main character Molly Gibson's father decides to remarry suddenly and without consulting with her. Her new "mama" has her own take on house rules and her own beautiful daughter who also moves in. I think the producer, Sue Birtwistle, puts it best, "Wives and Daughters is about the ordinary mysteries of life...where love comes from, how it grows, how it can break our hearts, how it can bring happiness and fulfillment. It's about the mistakes we make and the secrets we have to keep."

2. North and South. This is now contending with the Bollywood Epic love story Veer-Zaara
for the position of my favorite movie that I can watch over and over again. I am not a real lovey dovey person. I don't believe in love at first sight. I hate movies where strangers meet and make out and then sleep together the first day they've met. I love this story because it was as if they had to earn the love and respect of the other. I guarantee you will love the ending scene!

This post could go on forever if I were to show you all the British art I love. I think you get the point. Maybe it's normal to like all of these British things. I don't know. I just wanted to share it all with you :-)

Cheerio!