Drive by posting

     If you have any time to fool around or happen to be curious about the current "mood" of the world, you have to check out this cool website, very easy and interactive. You can just click on the screen and find emotions, or choose a particular emotion from the top menu and add a location and date too, or you can click on the menu on the lower left and see interesting trends. This is one of the coolest interactive sites I've ever visited. I have it on my favorite links now as well. These kind of discoveries make me so happy and inspire me. I want to build cool sites like this someday! And how am I feeling? I feel fabulous!!!

We Feel Fine

College Day 2!

Typography

     I had my first Typography I class this morning, bright and early at 8 a.m. If you know me at all, you know this was very difficult for me, since I am not a morning person, I'm barely an afternoon person for that matter. But I am trying to retrain my brain and hopefully one day, I will be an early bird. I have read about body clocks and about being born wired a certain way, but I refuse to accept it. I am so much more productive on those days when I am up early, for whatever reason, and I love that feeling of accomplishment, especially when it isn't even noon and I've already completed several projects or chores. But I digress. 
     I LOVE this class! The instructor is very passionate about type, it's history and all the design possibilities connected to type, both print and digital. I thought this class would be all book learning, but we will be working on projects and presentations throughout the semester, I am sooo geeked! As a passionate wannabe web designer/developer, I think understanding type is so important. It can relay information AND design at the same time, how cool is that? But, for those who don't already know, what makes type more readable in print does not pertain to screens. Serif fonts, like "Times" and "Georgia," are great for print media. However, sans serif fonts, like "Verdana" and "Arial" are much more readable on a screen. Conversely, when you are creating a bold headline it is the opposite for both. How bizarre is that? And, the leading, which is the space between the letters of a word, has to be increased for screen print. And there's more, so much more, but I am just learning myself and don't want to get carried away here when I still have so much to learn. But I think it is easy to see why a good understanding of type and fonts is crucial to the creation of any good web design that incorporates any kind of type.
     I feel so lucky to be on this road to web design. My husband has been so supportive along with my parents and my friends. Sometimes I feel like I could just burst apart at the seams, I am so full of joyfulness and thanks. Oh, it is so good to be alive!

 


This is our textbook for the class, but anyone interested in typography would enjoy this and should have it as a reference tool. 

"Potential" Digital ATC

Potential ATC 2011

     The day started with a bit of anxious insomnia, but that was to be expected. I was still up and raring to go at 7:15 a.m. I left early to get my books, and holy moly, my C#, aka C sharp, book is the size of a metropolitan area phone book! Only slightly intimidating...and of course it was full price being new, as were all my books, sheesh, no breaks this year. I meant to order them all on Amazon, but ran out of time. Live and learn, again.
     It was nice to have just one class today, especially considering that it was my C# class. The instructor is very knowledgeable and has a great syllabus along with a solid timeline for the class. I enjoyed it, even though I am so taken aback with the size of the text. Overall though, I think this is going to be a great class, learning to write programs in C#, using Microsoft Visual Studio. I'll keep you posted...
     I actually had time to create an ATC tonight. Using Photoshop, I  built it in layers, using several brushes along the way. I made my virtual stitches blurry somehow, so I will have to go back in and figure out what I did and undo it. Troubleshooting is a good thing though, I need lots of experience.
     Can't wait for my new classes tomorrow, so exciting!

Last Day of Winter Break

     Well, it has been basically a month since the fall semester ended, the spring semester starts up tomorrow. I enjoyed my break immensely. There was lots of quality family time, visiting and catching up with friends, "doing" the Christmas and New Year's holidays, creating art, cooking, reading, organizing, cleaning and keeping my blog updated often. I felt all the tension leave my shoulders and upper back shortly after Christmas, when I really had no serious commitments left or due dates looming. But as I sit here typing, taking a break from one last home project that must be finished today, I feel those butterflies returning to my stomach. I don't carry them around all the time, just in the beginning, before I've gotten the syllabuses and heard what the instructors will be requiring for my new classes.
     I actually did very well last semester, grade-wise, I got a 4.0, and made the part time Dean's list for a third semester, though I can say I've never gotten a 4.0 before, at least not since high school. Even my college career at CMU never included a 4.0 semester. But I worked very hard for those grades, made a lot of sacrifices because I wanted to understand the materials, programs and concepts well enough to show someone else, which I have always believed to be the true measure of "learning," the ability to teach it to someone else. Dreamweaver is the only problem. I got a 4.0, but learned hardly anything that I did not teach myself in that "Web Design I" class. What a mess it was, I'm still lamenting over the money and time I wasted by taking that class. I did complain, but there was nothing that could be done. I bought a Dreamweaver CS4, "Classroom in a Book," publication and had planned to go through it over the break and teach myself. However, I found that I needed  serious down time. I needed to recharge and reconnect with family and friends more than anything else. So now I will take my Dreamweaver book with me to class, and in between classes, I will go chapter by chapter and teach myself Dreamweaver this semester, bit by bit.
     I believe that if you want something badly enough, you have to just go get it and not let a bad experience keep you from achieving your goals. In the past, I would have felt like I was the problem, incapable of learning the complexities of the program, but luckily, with the passing of the years, has come real wisdom and insight. I can actually see where the real problem is, assess my own abilities and limitations and rework my plan to get what I need. Sadly, I watched many of my classmates, most of them just out of high school, struggle and eventually give up on that class. I showed anyone who asked or who I sat near, whatever I could to help them, but there was so much we didn't learn, it was frustrating for everyone. But as I've said before, I'm on a mission. I want this more than I've wanted anything for a very long time. I want to work as a web developer, comfortable with the coding side and design side, for the rest of my life, as a career, as a way to make a living. So I'm dedicated to this mission, extremely focused and will not be deterred by any obstacles, whether they are external or of my own making. I have to add that I am so passionate about this area, I have loved everything I have learned to date and cannot wait to learn the rest! Bring it, BRING IT!!!!

Under the (Winter) Weather and 2D Design Portfolio part IV

Winter from my front window.

     I took this winter photo a few weeks ago. We had a winter storm and it left our streets completely buried, no sign of the road at all! We were snuggled up inside with our fireplace on "high," eating comfort foods and watching movies. I love cocooning every so often, but once we are halfway through January, I'm ready to start getting out more and staying in less. But here in northern Michigan, that is really not an option, lol, the weather is what it is. But it sure does bring my family closer together.
     Speaking of the weather, I am under it today. Started with a scratchy sore throat  and is evolving into a scratchy throat with cough, sheesh. I really don't have time for this. I'm whining to be sure. My last weekend before school starts and "bam!" Of course, being under the weather also means I have to alter my plans to clean and organize my room. Instead, I can pull out my visual journal supplies and create! So maybe I'm supposed to be making more time for creating instead of cleaning, right? At least that is what I am choosing to get out of this whole being sick situation.

Analogous color collage

     Back to my 2D Design portfolio. This is another color collage exercise, this time using analogous colors from the color wheel. Red, red violet and violet. Once it was finished though, all I could think of was the Red Hat Society, not at all what I was going for, to say the least. Nothing against the RHS, but those colors have become so iconic, one they are together, that is all I can think about. A good lesson though. Again, I used my visual journal supplies and techniques to create this piece. It is actually 3 dimensional, with some raised birthday candle letters. There was a purple plastic frog on it too (yeah, I know, kooky), but it fell off, obviously something that really didn't belong. I am really going to miss not having this type of class this semester. So nice to break up the textbook learning and computer programs with hands on art. Maybe next fall I'll have another art class.

2D Design Portfolio, part III

Split Complimentary Color Collage

     When we moved into the color portion of 2D Design, I had a blast with the collages we had to create. This is the first one, which is an exercise using split complimentary colors, textures and movement. My good camera would not pick up the correct "blue green" color, so I had to adjust it in Photoshop to show the most accurate color. I'm still not happy, so I obviously have more to learn with Photoshop, since you can do everything with that program! We were allowed to use any mediums in any combination to create these collages, so I used my visual journal supplies.This was my instructor's favorite piece and probably mine as well. I hope to adjust the color and repost this at a later date. I'll post another piece or two tomorrow from the color portfolio.
     And we have winter back in full force here, lots of snow falling and more on the way all week. It is beautiful, but honestly, I've had enough already. Wonder if Calgon still takes you away?

2D Design Portfolio, part II

Figure ground exercise

     This was one of my favorite exercises, I loved playing with the figure ground concept. Creating an image that can be seen one of two ways, depending on whether you focus on the black or white components. Of course, that is not the technical definition, lol, but that is how I interpreted it. We spent several weeks on figure ground exercises, so I think my instructor likes them too. Within the next day or two, I will post some of the color pieces. Again, I just loved this class and learned so much!
This first image is my first "text" figure ground image. I was focusing on web design and just played around with lettering until I was happy. I hope to use this piece on my website someday, maybe as part of my online portfolio.

Figure Ground Personal Image

This second image is also an exercise in figure ground, but we had to create a personal image. I wanted something that represented web design and could be used on a business card or as a logo on my website. After numerous attempts using a "web," computer screen, spider and text, I finally came up with this one, which I am still very happy with and intend to use in the future as well.
     This final black and white piece was an exercise using texture. We had to go around the class room, building, inside and out, and create rubbings with graphite sticks. After we had collected a variety of rubbings, we had to create a still life by cutting them out in several assigned shapes and within a measured format. I am not good at drawing, so this was so much fun for me, more of a montage with the layering of texture and shapes. After we had the shapes rubber cemented down, we had to shade and highlight the whole thing. In case you can't tell, my still life is composed of two bottles, a pumpkin, a pear, an egg, a square block and a mushroom. I would love to do this again someday, collect some great rubbings from around town and then create a still life that represents this area. We'll see, I always want to do everything, but of course, there are not enough hours and days in my lifetime to do everything, sigh.

Texture Rubbing Still Life

Happy Birthday Sophie!

Happy Birthday Sophie!

     My youngest turned 11 years old today. She is my millennium baby, born right after the new year in Texas. Bright, energetic, sensitive, creative and affectionate, she is a bringer of joy. I watched "Toy Story 3," last night for the first time and sobbed uncontrollably at the end. My kids thought I was over reacting, even though I almost always cry at movies. But this was different. The movie showed the end of an era, the end of Andy's childhood and since these movies began when I had a 5, 3 and 1 year old, it represented the end of their childhoods for me as well. I'm getting all choked up just thinking about it again. Not sappy, just the heavy thud of reality. Heartstrings tightening up in response to a particular loss of sweetness that can never be recovered. I miss those days, when they were young, innocent, full of open affection and curiosity. My birthday girl was not around for the first movie, and I long to keep her in that "baby" mode at times, but I don't want to keep her from developing into a healthy teenager, so I have to let go, be less mothery at times, and just hang onto all my sweet memories. I know everyone tells you that it is going to fly by so fast, but while you are living it, you don't pay attention to the time, you can't, or you will forever fret that you are not doing enough, being enough, spending enough time, all of that. We do our best, we enjoy as many moments as possible and make a million little memories. Thank goodness for cameras and recorders. So Happy Birthday Sophie, my tween-ager extraordinaire, you are so loved and wished a wonderful life full of love, learning, art, adventure and kindness! Someone pass me the tissues...

2D Design Portfolio, part I

Irregular width straight lines

     Part of my 2D Design class last semester involved creating a portfolio with all our assignments. I will add a few of the pieces with each blog post for the next several days, since I don't want to overload anyone. The class was taught using the "Bauhaus" method, which apparently is a old and well respected way to teach 2D Design. We started with simple dots, then straight lines of the same width and kept expanding from there. I am not going to show the very early pieces, they are nothing special. But some of my later pieces I really enjoyed and received good feedback from my instructor. I learned so much in this class, I would recommend a "Bauhaus" method 2D Design class to anyone interested in design, no matter the medium. I absolutely loved this class and was very fortunate to have an excellent instructor.

Irregular curved lines and straignt lines

I struggled to learn to use the exacto knife properly in the beginning, but eventually got the hang of it, only cutting myself once, and just a little nick. I am not a photographer and I struggled to take good photos of my work, but some of the images came out "crooked," even though the actual pieces are very straight with even borders. We were graded on craftsmanship, so I did work very hard to make sure everything was straight, even and clean. I have always been a "messy" artist, so the effort it took to create "clean" work was nothing short of super human for me, lol, but I have to admit, I learned how to create clean work and how to use a metal ruler to my advantage. I'd never spent a lot of time with a ruler until I took this class, what a revelation! So now I love my metal ruler and exacto knife and plan to use them whenever I need to create straight lines and cuts, beats a pair of scissors any day!

5 assigned shapes, overlapping allowed, seen as a cutout

     Tomorrow I have three more black and white images from my portfolio to share and then I'll move onto some of the color images I created. I am only selecting the most interesting pieces, and again, I am a beginner, beginner, beginner! I can make glass beads, jewelry, visual journal pages and I can cook. However, before I took this class, I could not draw a straight line or create any images with paper, ruler and exacto knife, not to save my life. Seriously. Ask my mom.

Blueberry Muffins, Take Two and My Big Fat Greek Feast

     I had a ball cooking today. Started with an attempt to make the blueberry muffins from "Bubby's Brunch Cookbook," following the directions correctly this time, and they turned out great! With frozen blueberries, though, they have to go at least another 5 minutes in the oven. They have the lightest crumb, taste more like blueberry cupcakes than blueberry muffins. The recipe also makes 24, not 16 muffins, which is a bonus. An old friend of mine from elementary school sent me an autographed copy of this cookbook for Christmas and it is wonderful. I'm hoping to actually cook my way through this one since I love brunch but don't have much of a brunch repetoire. Tomorrow, I am making blueberry scones. They call for 2 cups of cream, so they should be amazing! I love a good scone, with a lovely cup of tea and a good book, a little bit of bliss in the afternoon.

My Big Fat Greek Feast!

     But after I made the muffins today, I started working on the my big fat Greek feast! I used three recipes from my favorite Greek cookbook to date, Jeff Smith's, "The Frugal Gourmet Cooks three Ancient Cuisines." Souvlaki (shish kebab), stuffed grape leaves (dolmas) and Greek tomato sauce are the three recipes I used from this book. I also made hummus, but I make it pretty often and wing it these days. But I do add a couple extra ingredients, a little tamari, cumin and paprika. The rice was just a simple white rice with olive oil and butter. The lovely pita bread came from the local food co-op, Oryana, it is the most authentic in town and I love it. We had company, so I made extra and I think my whole family was happy. Although it was hard for me to see my almost 11 year old "unwrap" the stuffed grape leaves after all the work my oldest daughter and I put into making them, lol. Oh well, at least she ate the filling. I had so much fun making this dinner, but it did require the washing of two loads of dishes (and we don't have a dishwasher), lol, I think I used every pot and dish in the kitchen. But it was worth it. Cooking is one of my favorite creative outlets. Although I do use recipes for many things, I am not above making changes when I have to or when I think something might be better with the addition of a certain spice, condiment or other ingredient. I love to feed people too. My family is the most convenient, but I also love to feed my friends whenever I get the chance. It brings me joy. I know when school starts up again next week, I won't have this kind of time for cooking, but I will have time to work on my journal, make beads and jewelry, so I'm just wallowing in the cooking medium right now, loving every minute and making messes all over the place!

Drive by posting

     My friend Andrea posted this on facebook this morning, and I love it! One of those things that inspires and can help give us a new place to start. Dream big, live with intention, don't waste time on negative thoughts, deeds or things you cannot change. Squeeze every drop out of your life and do what you love as often as you can. Be kind, be generous, be honest. Never stop learning, teaching and noticing details. Love and forgive yourself. Don't do guilt. Welcome change. Learn from your mistakes but don't live in the past. Celebrate something everyday.  Find joy and spread joy. Make time for you and art everyday, even just 5 minutes. Loving all the while you are living.

Purple Lotus Art: Giveaway!!

 Here is a link to a fun giveaway if you'd like to visit her blog. I love to win things, don't we all? Feeling lucky?
Purple Lotus Art: Giveaway!!

Fresh Eggs and Cooking

Fresh Eggs from 9 Bean Rows

     Yesterday morning found me at 9 Bean Rows bakery. I bought a loaf of our favorite bread, Fennel and Sea Salt, a couple of fabulous croissants, a baguette and for the first time, since I had not seen them before, a dozen of their farm fresh eggs. They were lovely in shades of cream, brown and one blue green Araucana. My cell phone camera, once again, failed to capture the beautiful blue green of the Araucana egg, but you can still tell which one it is. All the way home, I thought about what I would make with those gorgeous eggs. Egg Foo Yung for dinner, fresh scrambled eggs for breakfast the next day and then what? I knew I would have three or four eggs left after breakfast today, and wanted to have a plan, since I wanted to prepare all the eggs within 48 hours.

Rice Pudding

After perusing cookbooks and asking for suggestions on facebook, I narrowed it down to three things. Vanilla custard, flan or rice pudding. The rice pudding won out. My sweet hubby had mentioned a hankering for it a few days ago, and as a welcome home treat, I decided it was just what the doctor ordered! The recipe is from a family cookbook my in-laws published just for the family one year, as Christmas gifts. It has lots of family recipes, many of them German, which I just love. Also, there are some family stories connected to some of the recipes, which makes it a fun read too.
     So now all the eggs are gone. They were a wonderful find on a cold morning, my treasure of the day, but I had a great time cooking them and eating them up, and my kids did too. I am hoping my hubby will love the rice pudding and then those eggs will have contributed to the happiness of five people. Five very lucky people...

Sunshine and Snow

Sun shining through snowfall

     I am not a fan of winter. I don't like to be cold or cold and wet, or chilled or being wrapped up in multiple layers in order to keep warm. That said, I do love the look of winter, especially when there is sunshine involved. This morning, I had to take my son into town and as soon as I stepped out of my front door, this was the image that greeted me. I took a picture with my cell phone camera, but it doesn't quite capture the snow that was falling, which made the whole scene very magical. Sometimes beauty can distract me from discomfort, isn't that wonderful? It was 1 degree outside, 1 degree, a single lonely digit. But the sunshine made the snow glitter and shimmer and it was ok, better than ok. It was the beginning of a lovely day.

End of the Season

Holidays 2010 Survival Badge

     The Epiphany has passed and for me, so has the Christmas and New Year holiday season. The spirit remains, but all the decorations need to be put away, the radio is back to pop and oldies from the 70's and 80's, as well as NPR, my very favorite station. And although my new badge says, "I survived the holidays 2010," I enjoyed every minute. I love family time, cooking, visiting friends, decorating and remembering what the holiday is all about. The Reverend at our church gave a wonderful sermon on last Sunday. The part that stood out the most was to envision myself with a "team Christ" shirt on at all times. Although he didn't put it quite that way, you get the picture. Would it change the way you live your life if everyone could see that on your person? Would you be kinder, more forgiving, more pleasant, more honest...all those things that you feel are Christ like characteristics? I'd like to think I would be, but recently had it challenged. While visiting a friend, the conversation moved to less kind words about a mutual acquaintance that had burned many bridges over the last few years. And although I wanted to be kind and forgiving, it was very difficult. How do you forgive another person's lack of kindness? And then how do you tell your friends that you are over it without making them feel that you are preaching? They may not be ready to move on yet and still need to vent to a friend. I know there has to be a healthy balance, but I think it will take me a long time to really find it, but I am intent on finding it. And I respect everyone's religious and spiritual beliefs. Or lack of, for that matter. No judging, no bible thumping, no preaching. We all have our own journeys and adventures in this life.
     What do I see on the horizon lately? School starts again soon, Valentine's Day is around the corner. I want to make a few Valentine's Day cards before school starts, since I may not have the time once my classes are all under way. So I'll be collecting some fun images to play with and hopefully, I'll have a couple cards finished by next weekend. I am also being pulled by my torch and know that I have to spark my torch up this weekend, no matter what! Glass needs to be melted and beads need to be made!!! And then there is my kitchen. Enchiladas want to be made today, so I think that is what we will have for dinner. Either that or a caprese salad type pizza. I know, so completely different, but what can I say, the taste buds want what they want. More snow here as well, hoping to spend the weekend all snuggled up at home, creating, creating, creating...!

Christmas, New Year and Cooking

Christmas Trees Christmas Card 2010

     This is is the second Christmas card I made this year, which I said I would post at a later date. Again, created with visual journal techniques. The Santa card is my favorite, but my husband liked this one too, so we sent both styles out this year. I really love the freedom of creating these types of images using so many layers and mediums until I'm happy. It is pure play, and I'm so joyful when I have all my art supplies out and can just create with intuition, doing whatever makes me happy in that moment, I highly recommend it.
     Moving onto the new year. I made a list of resolutions in my last post, but later realized I left one out that I have to include. So resolution #14 is to have three meatless dinners a week. My intention is not to eventually become a vegetarian, I am a professed meat lover. However, considering the latest research about red meat (which is my favorite kind of meat), which is less than favorable, and considering that I don't think I get enough veggies in my weekly diet, I want to try this idea out and see what happens. Will I feel better? Lose weight? Save money? Lower my cholesterol? Thrill my family? Try new veggies? Create new recipes? Turn into a vegetable? Who knows, but I can't help feeling that this is a good thing, so on the list it goes! I'll keep you posted. And by meatless, I mean nothing with a face, no fish, no fowl no animals.

"Sorta-Bubby's" blueberry muffins

     And now for my baking fiasco. I made muffins. Blueberry muffins. All wrong. I got this wonderful new cookbook from my friend Jo in New York, "Bubby's Brunch Cookbook." It has a wonderful blueberry muffin recipe that I couldn't wait to try. Soooo, a couple nights ago, I woke up at 4:30 a.m., which I rarely do, and decided to whip up some muffins and surprise my kids at breakfast. I gathered the ingredients, preheated the oven, and began. I decided that the muffins would be better if I used my new demerara sugar instead of the white granulated sugar the recipe called for. Sigh, first mistake. Since I had to cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy first, I realized almost immediately my mistake, but too late. The demerara sugar is much coarser than the white sugar and would not completely dissolve and create that light and fluffy mix, and I beat it f-o-r-e-v-e-r! Oh well, I thought, just add the rest of the ingredients and pray that they are still edible. So I finished up and as I was scooping the thick batter into the muffin tin liners, I thought, "this batter is really thick, too thick." I finished filling the tin with batter and placed it into the oven. Then I sat down with the book and reread the recipe. It called for 12 Tbls of butter, which I believe is = 1 stick of butter, at 4:30 a.m. At 5:15 a.m., 12 Tbls is = 1 1/2 sticks of butter, because that is when my brain is fully engaged! And I still had another batch to bake, lol, and since the blueberries were already folded in, there was no way to add more butter, oil or anything. The muffins did turn out well enough. Out of the 24 I made yesterday morning, there are none left this morning, a good sign. But I now know that I should not be near an oven before 5:30 or 6 a.m. So, what I made were "sorta-Bubby's" blueberry muffins, and they were "sorta" good.

Happy New Year!

Me and my hubby New Year's Eve 2010/2011

     I love a new year. A mental chance to begin again, to start over or to start or begin something new altogether. Last year found me starting college, again. This time, in pursuit of a new career in Web Design. I have loved being back in school and the new path I've chosen. It has felt like a rebirth at many times. New passions, new experiences, intensity and focus, purpose and dedication. Although there have been some struggles with certain instructors and limited amounts of time for studying and projects, I have relished the whole year and I am excited to start my new semester in two weeks.
     Last year, my daughter graduated from high school, and I was so proud to see her graduation ceremony. She also started college with me and has done well and "likes" it so far. My oldest son got married just before Christmas last year, so he just celebrated his first anniversary in Texas. He also graduated from his initial Navy schooling program and then called us a few weeks ago with news of impending parenthood! I'm going to be a grandmother next summer, holy moly! How much fun will that be? I have always loved babies and children, so it will be fun to spoil my son's baby. My other son was in Oklahoma this year and played the bad guy, "Jud Fry." So different from his natural personality, but he did a wonderful job, so proud of him too. My youngest took up the oboe and loves it. She is getting it quickly and enjoys her lessons and practicing, which just blows me away, since the other three have had lessons for various instruments over the years and I always had to "push" them to practice. My husband's business is going well, new accounts and new employees this past year, all good. So overall, although it would be nice to be a little more set financially (which I say every year), it has been a wonderful year.
     So what are my resolutions, hopes and dreams for 2011? It is kind of like making the 44 things I want to do before I turned 45 post last year. How about 12 things (one for each month) I want to achieve, do, see before 2012? That sounds good to me...and away we go!

1.)   Create a bedroom retreat.
       *Involves purging, organizing, painting and decorating.
2.)   Take a yoga class.
       *I bought a pair of yoga pants this week...now to find a class and make the commitment.
3.)   Clear out and organize my basement.
       *I have seen "Hoarders" and do not want to ever be mistaken for one and also want to "take back" my basement! This is a small house and every square inch is too precious to waste.
4.)   Create and publish my own personal "art" website.
       *http://www.queenoftides.com...coming soon!
5.)   Create 10 websites for other people.
       *Mostly friends and family right now. But 2012 will be wide open!
6.)   Write 1 app for my cell phone or other small device.
       *Just something simple so I can get my toe dipped into that crazy pool.
7.)   Go to church every week we are in town, healthy and able.
       *I love Grace Episcopal church and feel so wonderful every time I attend. The sermons make me cry and make me want to be a better person. The best gift I could give myself on this list.
8.)   Read non-college required books, at least 5, preferably 25.
       *I have a stack of books I have been wanting to read over the last year and barely made a dent. So hard to spend all day with textbooks reading and trying to understand things and then to read for pleasure after, which I love to do. But I borrowed my one of my husband's new Christmas gifts and started reading this week, "The Last Lecture," and it is wonderful!
9.)   Use my pasta machine.
       *I love fresh pasta, but the local market that used to make and sell it no longer does this. Sooo, I bought a pasta machine two years ago and it is still in the box. I have to open it up and make some, I just have to!
10.) Use my tortilla press (probably going to do that today!!!)
       *I had some homemade "style" corn tortillas from Meijers, our local grocery store, and they are out of this world! So I bought a press this fall and took it out of the box this week, I'm almost there!
11.) Work with my visual journal supplies at least twice a week.
        *I love playing with all the art supplies I have for visual journaling. My Christmas cards were created with the same technique and I feel so great after finishing a piece. I have to make time for this particular art in my life, no excuses!
12.) Exercise in some way, shape or form for a total of 20 minutes everyday.
       *Ok, this is a "should" that should be a "need" and a "want," but to be honest, I don't make it a priority. But I'm not getting any younger, I do have aches and pains that I couldn't imagine having 20 years ago. By putting it on the list, I am making a commitment to move this into the "need" and "want" part of my life.
13.) Ok, one more that I just have to add: Get on my torch and make some beads!
       *Although web design in my main focus, visual journal at the forefront of my creative mind lately, I do love melting glass and creating beads. But I do have make the time if I don't want to lose all my skills. Beadmaking does require practice or you lose the fine motor skills you develop over time. It is what it is.

Merry Christmas!

     Wishing everyone a wonderful holiday season and new year full of art, joy, peace, love and good health! This was one of two Christmas cards I created this year using visual journal techniques. Water colors, neo-color II artist crayons, sharpies, gel pens and Pitt markers. The lettering took forever to get just the way I wanted it to look, but it was all a labor of love. I'll post the other card later this week. Cheers to you all!

At last...

So things have been insane for me since I started back to school for my second semester in September, which is evident by my lack of time or energy to post on my blog.But yesterday, I turned a corner. Why? How? Well I'll explain. My web developer classes have been kicking my booty all semester, very challenging and time consuming to say the least. On top of that, I was worried that, although I have dreamed about becoming a web designer for ten years, once I took the classes I would find that either 1.) I am not intelligent enough to understand the material, or 2.) I would get the material but find that I didn't "like" it after all. Until yesterday, those two fears were still lingering in the back of my mind.
    The day started off normally enough. My first class at 8 a.m.(I am not a morning person for those of you who do not know me personally, so this is a rough start to any day for me!) is Web Design I, where I am learning how to use Adobe's Dreamweaver CS5 program to create and publish web sites. Up till now, I have been very disappointed with this class. The instructor is not familiar enough with the current version of this program and we have not had enough hands on time to really get immersed and get comfortable with it. However, yesterday, she shifted gears and gave us our final project (actually, our only project), which was to come up with ideas for a web site and to create a simple sketch of each idea. Then, as I thought about what I would like to do and then sketched my four different ideas, I went back over them to figure out what my limitations would be in executing each idea. And as I visualized what it would take to turn my sketches into web pages, I realized that I could execute all of them, that I knew enough to actually bring those designs to life in the way I imagined them! I actually know enough now to be quite dangerous!!! It was a wonderful  epiphany. But it gets better...
     My next class is right after at 10:15 a.m., Introduction to Computer Programming Logic and Design. In this class, we are learning about programming logic and design using a program called Alice, which eliminates the syntax issues involved in actual programming, to help us learn the basics of writing good code. As the instructor was going over the solution to the homework we turned in, I realized that the solution he was showing had many more lines of code in it than what I had turned in, even though my program worked just fine. Then he said there was another solution to the problem and showed us that piece of code, but again, this one had several more lines of code than my solution, which had only one line of code. I was really feeling bummed out that I had not "gotten" this solution. But then, he said there was one more way to write the code to solve the problem, "probably the best way," is a direct quote, and then he wrote out what I had come up with on my homework!!! I could have flown to the moon and back! I'm getting it, I'm getting it, I'M GETTING IT!!!! That is all that kept running through my head, lol, and this feeling of relief and joy. Relief because I am getting it, and joy because I love it! Champagne all around...but wait, there's more...
     My last class of the day is at 5:30 p.m. and honestly, it is the most difficult. It is Interactive Animation, where we have been learning to use Flash CS5, Fireworks CS5, Soundcut Pro and lately, a little bit of Java with the action scripting 2.0 portion of Flash. There is soooo much homework in this class, a quiz every week that requires a re-creation of some sort of animation, exercises thrown in here and there, that also require creation of some animation, and then we have a big project always looming, since the beginning, each of which takes hours upon hours to complete. The instructor lectures almost from start to finish for two straight hours and crams so much information into that two hours, that I always feel like my brain has been used for "kick the can" by the end of the night. Sometimes, after this class, I go visit my friend Julie to unwind, and she can verify that I have been basically incoherent after class at times. But I digress. During last night's class, the instructor was showing us how to add action scripting to buttons to make them do certain things. At one point however, she ran into a problem and had to come up with a solution on the fly. Her solution involved creating a second button layer in the timeline, which is really not something you want to do. In my head, I thought I had a better idea and while she gave us a break so she could create a solution, I created my own solution and not only did it work, but I did not have to create a second button layer. Talk about icing on the cake, with sprinkles and even a cherry on top. My brain is connecting the dots. I understand most of what my instructors are talking about and if not, know I can figure it out between my textbooks and online resources. My questions are about things two steps ahead and based on combining what I have learned in all three of these classes. And I love, love, love it all! What a day...I'll be riding this wave for a very, very long time. Christmas? Nothing for me Santa, I'm good!

Baseball and Fireworks

Me and Hubby at the Ballgame

     We went to the last regular game of the Traverse City Beach Bums baseball season tonight. What a blast! Baseball is my favorite spectator sport, I just love sitting in bleachers or other seats and taking it all in. The weather tonight was perfect, cool, sweatshirt type stuff. We took the kids, including the two teens who wanted nothing to do with the game last week, and they had a great time too. The ball park was packed to the gills. Lots of families, and they made an announcement at the end of the game, which we won, that an attendance record was broken tonight, how cool is that? Over 8,000 fans were there. The Beach Bums also made it into the playoffs for the first time ever, so there will be a couple extra home games next weekend and we hope we can get tickets. After the game, they let all the kids ages 5-12 run the bases, which took about an hour because every kid wanted to get on the field and do it. After that, it was dark and they had a spectacular fireworks show, really wonderful. They normally have fireworks after every Friday night home game, but since this was the last game of the regular season, they had one. It was so much fun cheering with the crowd, watching my kids enjoy themselves and watching the game too. My hubby and I took a picture together, in our shades. You can see what a good time we were having. It was really a perfect end of summer evening with my family. It was good to take a break from my school work and play, I needed it more than I thought! Life is good.