Happy Halloween

from my new favorite ipad app, Paper by 53. Makes anyone look like they can draw, or at least it makes your scribblings look artistic. 

I Love Typography II

Yesterday I told you I had to sing a song for our first assignment in Typography class. Yes, it's true. It was our professor's idea of an icebreaker. The assignment was about type interpretation. We had to chose some lyrics from a song and interpret them only with text. No pictures, shapes, or even colors. Just black text on white background. Seemed easy enough until she threw in the caveat that there could be nothing representational in the piece. No text in the shape of kitties, bunnies, sunsets, or palm trees. Oh, and we could only use one font. [correct me if I am wrong my graphic designer friends, if I remember correctly, the font family I used is myriad pro.]

So, where does the singing come in? We have class critiques for each assignment, and for this one, our very first, where we don't know each other yet, we had to stand in front of the class and sing our song while our work was projected on the board. I volunteered to go first just to get it over with. Something I never would have done 20+ years ago. I guess courage comes with age. Of course, I had to preface my presentation with, "I am not a singer." Thank God I did go first, too, because the girl that went right after me IS a singer, and she sang her own original song! That lady has chops. Of course, I should have known, most people chickened out and just read the lyrics. I thought you were supposed to be more adventurous in your youth? Wimpy kids. ha.

I chose my favorite song, Little Wing, by Jimi Hendrix. I think you may have heard of him before. ;)
If you don't know the song, or just love it like me, you can listen to it down below.

                                                                                                   
                                              

As a bonus, because I love the song so much, I felt like giving it my full interpretation. 

This is how it makes me feel. Thank you, Jimi.

I love Typography

I am taking a typography class and I have never worked so diligently in any class before. Well, that's not entirely true. I have worked hard in all (most) of my classes, but this is the first one that I really wanted to work so diligently in, actually losing all track of time. For instance, I was the last one in class last night, literally. The professor locked the door behind her and told me not to stay too long. ha.

And don't get me wrong, I love photography, and I love to do the work, but there is just something about typography that has always interested me, since the first time I took it, way back when we actually used pen and ink on actual paper. I think I loved it then because of the feel of the pen nib on the paper. I just love it. I can't really explain it, other than it feels so good to glide that pen across the paper. I'm sure it's the same feeling an artist has when gliding their brush across the canvas, or watercolor paper, etc.

Now we do our work on the computer, and I was kind of upset when I learned that we wouldn't be working by hand in this new typography class. After we started our first assignment, using adobe illustrator, I loved it. Our professor even mentioned how we are worlds away from what I remember, and it's much more freeing with computers. The sky's the limit. Whatever crazy idea you have, you can do it almost instantly, unlike with pen and ink. So, my disappointment didn't last long at all.

Our first assignment in class; sing a song. What? Yes. I had to sing a song. Stay tuned and I'll explain.

Cheap Drop Cloth Curtains II

Last year I posted here about the phenomenon that is cheap drapery made of canvas drop cloth. I owe you a picture of the finished product. I did not go with any sewing. Instead, we used drapery clips. It worked great and it was so easy. I have yet to dye them or do anything else with them as I had originally planned.

The only two negatives were the fact that I bought the three drop cloths on the right years before the two on the left. So, the ones on the left have a seam going through middle, as you can see. Also, even though they were all washed, the ones on the left did not shrink up as much, so they are quite a bit longer. But hey, it works for my purposes, and it makes the room much cozier than having huge naked windows. 

I'm happy!

Foamhenge

There is such a place in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia called FOAMHENGE. I can't remember where I first heard about it, but I had been wanting to see it for a long time. So, on the first weekend of June, when we went on a camping trip and found we would be less than 30 minutes north of this replica of Stonehenge, we just had to go see it. 

It's hidden in the trees up on a hill. We could have stopped right here and walked to it....

...unfortunately, we followed the road around and drove up the hill. Look at the route we had to take to get up there! [The picture above was actually taken on our way back down the hill because I was too scared on the way up to even think about taking a picture.] You can't tell at all in the photo, but the land just drops off on either side of the road, with potholes that you have to weave around. 

It was worth it, though. I could have hung around here all day. The weather was perfect (something I definitely can not say about the past month of July).

Here's what the wiki page says about it:

Foamhenge is a full-size replica of Stonehenge made entirely out of styrofoam in Natural Bridge, Virginia.[1] The structure was created by Mark Cline of Enchanted Castle Studio[1] in 2004, with the pieces in astronomically correct positions.[2] Cline has described Foamhenge as his greatest achievement.[3]

What have I got to say about it?

It's pretty much the coolest thing I've ever seen....

...and you know what makes our Foamhenge so special? 

It has it's own Wizard!

Take that Stonehenge!

And! You can actually walk up to it, in it, and around it, unlike the real Stonehenge. 

☻☺

Yeah, it's very cool, but I admit, I am still dreaming of seeing the real thing. One day!

Muse by Lensbaby

Here is a picture* from back in April right before I was heading to History of Photography class to give a presentation and demonstration of the Muse by Lensbaby, a very fun lens that my bf bought...which I originally thought was a waste of money.....until he let me use it.....Then, I was hooked. 

It does all sorts of weird, funky, cool things to bend the light.

*EDIT FOR CLARITY: that is, a picture from a real digital camera, not my cell phone.

Take A Walk

We just took a nice nature walk that started in the most unexpected place, behind the local pharmacy in this small town that is surrounded by three waterways.

If I had known the town of West Point had constructed this nice walk/bike path along and underneath the new bridge, I would have brought my good camera. I guess we'll just have to make a point to come back here again. Such a nice cool breeze coming off that river today.

My Favorite Mistake

You know what we did this weekend? Two weeks too early? By mistake?

I really thought this coming weekend was Easter! Silly me.

Spring Cleaning...Out My Brain

I haven't been blogging for a while. I think about things I want to blog all the time, but then I think, "oh, who really cares?"

Maybe it's because I read too many blogs myself, and I think I have nothing new or interesting to add to the world because someone has already talked about it, and really, do we need more of the same? I feel like everything out there is just getting repetitive. I do love my decorating blogs, but those are where I get most exasperated. Everything is starting to look the same. And everyone's voice, their "blog tone" if I may say, sounds the same.

The kind of blogs I find myself most drawn to are artist's blogs. You know the type, with watercolor, acrylic, oil, pen and ink, pencil, and yes, even digital artists/designers. People who are creating things that I wish I had the energy to sit down and create. But, you know, even some of those look alike after a while. I guess that's what happens when the world is opened up to us via the internet. Ah well, I guess it's true. There is "nothing new under the sun".

But! At least all these people are actually doing something, while I am just sitting here doing nothing and complaining about everyone else's sameness. So, I'm thinking now it is better to do something rather than nothing at all.

So, maybe I will take out some of those paints, and markers, and canvases that I received for Christmas (and which are still neatly boxed up) and create something. Maybe I will even get inspired by something someone else made, something I really like, just to get the juices going. I look at the things people create, and wonder to myself how nice it would be to have ideas like that just pop into my head. If you give me a task with an idea, I can roll with it, but to just have ideas pop into my head? Not much there.

I am most inspired by the work of Ms Elsa Mora aka Elsita.

from: Elsa Mora's Blog

from: Elsa Mora's Blog

from: The Heart of Papercuts

Wow, she just amazes me. She does it all, painting, sculpting, doll-making, paper-cutting, and it's all unique. All her own. If I could just get an ounce of her creative juices, I'd be a happy camper. If you like what you see here, please do go check her out some more. This is just a taste of her amazing talent. She even has an etsy shop you can check out. (You would think I'm on her payroll with all this praise.)

Ok, now back to me. <sigh> I hope to get my own creative juices flowing here shortly. 

For now I will leave you with this lovely picture my boyfriend took while I was in the driver's seat last Friday evening. We pass this place all the time, and I asked him to take this shot since it looked so nice in the setting sun.

from: The World of Itchymax

We've been wondering what is going up around this gazebo, which is right next to the landowner's new horse training facility. There are all these rows of posts, all around the gazebo. My guess is that they are going to be growing grapes soon, but we'll just have to wait and see.  

Snowy Monday

Can you find the snowman above?

⛄

Happy Valentine's Day

After telling him my father got my mother a dozen roses for Valentine's Day: 

HIM:  @}-'-;----------

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ta-da!

 ME:  OMG!

That's awesome!

 HIM:  Happy Valentine's Day!!!!

 ME:  ha!

wait while I get a vase!

 HIM:  ha

ok