New blog!

In case you're wondering where I went, you can find me here. Maintaining multiple blogs was getting ridiculous.

I bet you thought I forgot about this.

I've been blogging rather sporadically since spring semester ended. Mostly because I've been working on my other creative endeavors and completely immersed in the creativity challenge. HA! I bet you thought I forgot. Witness the Etsy link to the right and the new blog banner above. Disclaimer: I'm still working on my banner and need to take better product pictures. I never said I couldn't profit from the creativity challenge. Heck, I if I profit, it's all the better, no?

Since I'm almost finished with Hypermedia, which was a refreshing change from W&I drill camp, I'll have even more time to get my creative sh*t together. Because I'm nuts, I'm also thinking about taking an online digital photography class. I think it would be fun and clearly I need some assistance (see: disclaimer) in that department. I will say, my camera is crap and I'm planning to buy a new one so that could be part of the problem. I have to hold down the stupid "take picture" button forever before the thing actually goes off. Yes, the batteries are fine. It does this with new, old and everything in between batteries. The poor thing served me well, but it's on its last legs and it's time for an upgrade. Two upgrades, actually- this one and this one.

I'm going to California for vacation the first week of August and it would be really nice to have a decent camera to take pictures of the scenery. Although, with the situation out there, the scenery will be all burned brush and fiery hillsides. Hopefully, they'll get that under control soon. California's too awesome to go up in flames.

Wuzzup with Harrisburg?

I feel as though I need to explain Harrisburg to those people who may have been ever-so-slightly mislead by my rants about suburbia. Harrisburg is actually a city, a small city, but still a city (about the size of Portland, ME- which is a very cool city, by the way). Harrisburg proper is located on the banks of the Susquehanna River. On the opposite side of the river there are an assortment of towns that all run together (Mechanicsburg, Camp Hill, New Cumberland, Lemoyne and Wormleysburg). This area is collectively referred to as the West Shore and it makes up part of the greater Harrisburg area.

For all my ranting, you would think this place is a total suburban nightmare, but it's really not. But since I'm more of a coast or big city person, small cities make me feel like I'm in suburbia. Although, if I was in actual suburbia, I'd probably be much crazier than I am now.

So, for all those who I may have mislead slightly, here's some Harrisburg info- Harrisburg Hello

Summer, coding, and craftiness

I'm taking Hypermedia this semester and I'm not sure what to do with myself since I'm not drowning in projects and homework. Not that I'm complaining. This is a welcome change from the insanity of Words & Images. But really, code is boring. I understand why I need to know it, but actually going through the process of learning it kind of makes my eyeballs roll back in my head. At least the instructor is amusing and makes an effort to make it interesting.

So, since I have all this free time, despite taking a 3-credit summer class, I'm making some major efforts to get my etsy sites up and running.

~(Tangent: I'm obsessed with etsy. It's a problem. I waste large amounts of time perusing that site. It's fabulous and it never gets old because there is a constant stream of new, fun things to buy. I justify the large quantities of cash spent on etsy by reminding myself that I'm supporting fellow artists, artisans and crafters. Kind of a "you buy mine, I'll buy yours" thing.)~

So, anyway, back to my etsy sites. I have two- one for paintings and digital art and another for jewelry designs. Right now, it's looking like the jewelry design one will have items first. I took inventory of my supplies last weekend, made a list of what I need and made a few pair of earrings. Sometime in the next week or so, I'll order the missing supplies and make a bunch more earrings and a few necklaces. Time to start making some money.

Another summer endeavor of mine is to get my other (personal) blog back up and running because, let's face it, there are some things you just don't want to put on a blog that professional colleagues are reading.

Lastly, because I constantly have to be learning something new and stretching myself as a crafter and as an artist, I'm going to learn to make soap. Luscious, smell-good soap. This will probably warrant pictures as it will most likely be somewhat akin to a 2-year-old attempting to paint.

Downtime in review (otherwise titled, Back to the grind)

My (way too short) break between semesters is over today. I did manage to do a lot of the things on my list, although I didn't get to a few important ones (see, painting/drawing on the deck and watching DVRed LOST episodes). Whether or not I slept sufficiently is also up for debate. Why must dogs pee at 2:30 in the morning?

I did, however, catch up with a few friends (combined that one with cleaning out the closet). And I went to Ocean City, NJ for part of Memorial Day weekend (I'm now convinced I need to move there and open a surf shop/art/design studio and streak my hair with purple dye. If you think I'm kidding, think again). We also bought some decent deck furniture but since it rained for most of the week, the new furniture didn't get used much. Rumor has it there's better weather on the horizon. Of course, most of these activities involved wine. Lots of wine. And a few martinis. Mojito martinis. Consumed while enjoying this view:

Downtime

So the weather this week has been abysmal and has completely foiled my plans for moving out onto my deck for the week. We even bought new deck furniture, but it's sitting forlornly in the corner, getting soaked by this incessant rain. Maybe when I get back from the beach on Sunday I'll be able to do some jewelry design, painting, drawing or something otherwise crafty/artistic on my deck.

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I haven't gotten my final grade for the semester, but since every grade I got so far was A, I believe it's safe to assume the final grade will follow suit. Allison and Stephanie had two pieces of advice, 1) Write for someone other than engineers (no kidding) and 2) Read more stuff/put more stuff in and especially stuff other than magazines like Lucky, InStyle, et al. GREAT! I wish I had recorded them saying that because the bf is not happy about my continually growing piles of magazines. Tough crap. I don't like his Bart Simpson (EAT MY SHORTS) poster hanging right inside our front door. He can deal with my magazines.

So, in an attempt to follow Stephanie and Allison's advice, I plan to subscribe to the following magazines: Ready Made, Plenty, Wired, CRAFT and Real Simple (I already read this one every month anyway, so I might as well subscribe). And, because I need to get back in touch with writing (real writing, not copywriting), I will also subscribe to either The New Yorker or The Atlantic.

As for the first part of their advice, I need to start pursuing more freelance writing opportunities. I also love creative writing (fiction, literary non-fiction, poetry, etc) and I have a ton of ideas for essays and a novel in progress. I was also a published poet in high school, but I've let too many cobwebs grow over that part of my creative self. What better time than now to dust them off and start again?

Ah, summer.

As much as I liked this class, I'm glad the semester is almost behind me. I learned a lot and have a few new portfolio pieces. However, I'm looking forward to relaxing. At least for the week and a half between the end of Words & Images and the beginning of Hypermedia.

Stuff I'll be doing between doing lots nothing:

• Sleeping
• Cracking open a bottle of good wine and reading the stack of magazines I've neglected for months
  
• Painting and drawing outside on the deck
  
• Going somewhere for Memorial Day weekend
  
• Cleaning out my closet - it's time to make room for new stuff!
• Shopping for deck furniture
• Catching up with friends
  
• Watching the entire DVRed season of LOST