100th post Giveaway Extravaganza!

This blog post is officially my 100th post!! Party time!!
Very exciting event and I thought it called for a…
Giveaway Extravaganza!!!!

What does that mean?
That means…
4 sellers from etsy offering prizes
4 winners
Great prizes!

(Note: you MUST leave some way for me to contact you, or your entry will not be valid!)

So…let’s get started!

First I’m offering:
a set of (4) 4×6 Photos
Any of my photos (it doesn’t have to be something offered in my store, or pictures that match) it’s up to you!
Want it on your wall?
Want the same picture 4 times? Go for it. (please no black and white images of mine, my printer does not print black and white).
Some examples:



My etsy store
Also!
Free Shipping on 1 item from my store!

From Purple Pajamas
A beautiful purple pillow cover!



Made with a polyester-acetate home decor mix and measures 16″ x 16″.
It has a beautiful embroidering of soft lilac and dark purple colors.
and
$3 off one item in her store

From MyPeaceTree
a crocheted pencil case, a blue and white index card book, and two inspirational blank postcards

(everything is handmade!)

From
Janabolic
Handmade Rainbow (or custom) Keychain

So how do you enter?
Two very simple ways.
One:
Comment this post and tell me about your most recent project. (art project, craft, writing project, design project, etc)
Two:
Retweet about my giveaway and tell your friends about the awesome prizes! (note: retweeting more than once will not give you a better chance to win)

How will I pick the winners?
I will put all the names in a hat and draw 4 names! If you comment here and retweet about my giveaway, your name will go in twice! (note: you can only win once) From those 4 winners, I will randomly select who wins which prize package!

Winners will be chosen next Tuesday (February 16th), please make sure you leave me some way to contact you (email, blog, twitter etc)! If you do not leave a way for me to contact you, then you cannot receive your prize and it WILL go to someone else!

Good luck!

Monday Inspiration

How’s your Monday going?
Mine’s okay so far, I have some very exciting and amazing updates to put on my etsy tomorrow
and
BLOG GIVEAWAY! (tomorrow, keep your eyes peeled!)

(from A Collection a Day)

Studio Organization is a great inspirational tool!
This weekend, I began re-arranging and cleaning out my studio space. I replaced an ugly shelf with a table, I’m about 87% done and I am loving it.

(found via wehearit)

A beautiful mobile!

(from leptitpaillon)

Love is always a great inspiration as well

(found via weheartit)

Art from Summersville Sketch

The color red, just because



(found via wehearit)

Happy Monday!

10 things I love Sunday

1. 31 image composite image of the Solar Eclipse. Beautiful.

(found via Mental_Floss Blog)

2. Some beautiful pinhole images taken with unique pinhole cameras.





(images by Boy of Blue Industries)

3. Tutorial on making Sewn Envelopes by Sew, Mama, Sew

4. Just a beautiful picture

5. Surrealism Paintings by Charnine

6. Stripped Icebergs

7. A few cool finds on Etsy

Painted Shoes by ScholarlyArticles

Secret Book of Dreams by LahainaLynnJones

Miniture Matted Tree Print by TheHauntedHollowTree

8. A video of moving paintings by Reza Dolatabadi on Vimeo
View the Video

9. Some interesting art made from books



(Art by Mike Stilkey found via SlightlyWarped.com
)
10. And of course, what would SuperBowl Sunday be without
PUPPYBOWL! (featuring the kitty halftime show)

Name: Bandit
Breed(s):Border Collie Mix
Age: 10 weeks

Name: Carson
Breed(s):German Shepherd Mix
Age: 11 weeks

Name: Coco
Breed(s):Boxer Mix
Age: 9 weeks

Thoughtful Thursday

“The poet doesn’t invent. He listens.”
-Jean Cocteau (poet, filmmaker)

Poem Ending With Three Lines From “Home on the Range”
by Frank Bidart

Barred from the pool twenty three years ago, still I dove
straight in. You loved to swim, but saw no water.

Whenever Ray Charles sings “I Can’t stop loving you”

I can’t stop loving you. Whenever the unstained-by-guilt
cheerful chorus belts out the title, as his voice, sweet

and haggard reminder of what can never be remedied,

answers, correcting the children with “It’s useless to say,”
the irreparable enters me again, again me it twists.

The red man was pressed from this part of the West-

’tis unlikely he’ll ever return to the banks of Red River, where
seldom, if ever, their flickering campfires burn.

The little things

Sometimes, you just need a few little things to go right
in your life to make your day great
and make you feel good again.

Today, we did some fun experimenting with pinhole and paper negatives in my Lec/Lab 2 class. I think I love this class.
And I am in love with pinhole/paper negative.
I plan to check out some of the cameras from school Thursday and do some, so you will see some next week hopefully
For now here are a few from other photographers.

a 4×5 pinhole camera, so pretty!

(Anke Bohmer)

(Aprendiz Bruxo)

I wrote a poem!
It’s not the best and it’s for class but I think it’s decent enough!

(picture by ME!)

Then I got in a cleaning mood! When my space gets to be too messy I get very much in the mood to clean and organize.
I finally figured out how to organize my paper and not have to buy anything!
So excited

(picture by ME!)

I’m also working on a project, not sure if I’ll continue it but…

(pictures by ME!)
This has been sitting in my room for about 6 days, looks yummy huh?
(pictures aren’t final, just quickly edited/processed them to show on here)

And last but not least…
I made a sale today on etsy!!!
Only my second sale ever, I was very excited
If you haven’t seen it yet, check out my newest listing of some new photos

Remember, the little things in life are what make the difference,
something as simple as waking up on time (I never do),
having a great cup of coffee,
organizing your art supplies…
can make your whole better
only if you let it.

Monday Inspiration

I feel we all need some inspiration, again.
This week, some things from etsy!
(please click on image or artist name to get to original work)

Bamboo/Glass Butterfly Vintage Serving Tray by Princess Samy

Silver Plated Pendant with hanging glass beads by LOwusu

Amber Bib Necklace by LavenderField

Wuthering Heights Butterfly framed art by TerrorDome

Gentle original mixed media encaustic painting by PlanetJanetArt

las viejitas origianl oil painting by shantishanty

And a few new items in my shop as well:

Macro Plants – 4×6 fine art prints set of 4

6×7.5 Parchment Paper Hand Stitched Book

10 things I love Sunday

1. I am in awe at the things people can do with watercolors.
Oils, I get. But I don’t get how you can create such realistic paintings with watercolors.

(by Lorus Maver )

(by aliehs)

(by Keinyo White)

2. I wish I had a beautiful studio/office.
Some beautiful things from Pottery Barn

3. More things to lust after for decorating…
Factory 20
Industrial Steel Foremans Desk

Vintage Industrial Machinist Cabinet

Rustic Paper Cutting Table

Early 1990’s Apothecary Flat Bottles

4. This cool photo of books

5. Alice B. Gardens Pictures and Blog

6. Finger painting!

(by wounded625)

(by Kervin Photography)

7. Photography

(by fallenZeraphine)

(by juliadavis)

(by Jan Rufelt)

8. I actually survived the first week back to school!
Didn’t think I would!

9. 2 really cool videos of tattoos in progress (plus, the tattoos are cameras!)

Video 1
Video 2
(Videos by Dabe Alan)

10. Some really beautiful wedding dresses

(by Essense of Australia)

(by Alyce Designs)

(by Maggie Sottero)

Journals and Art Playlist

Today wasn’t a great day.
Not going into details, just stressful.

So I went to the bookstore….

Took some photos…

Started a NEW journal…with a different size than normal. it’s 11×8 in size.

my first page of this brand new journal, are promises to myself, it’s a “contract” with me.

And finally here are 10 of the songs in my “Art Music” play-list. Songs I listen to while creating.

I’ll be back tomorrow with my 10 things I love Sunday!

Thoughtful Thursday

This week I really wanted to share a poem by May Swenson, unfortunately the core of the poem rests in the visual and the way Swenson moves lines around and I cannot post the poem here on WordPress in the correct format.
So.
Here’s a link to the poem: The Universe by May Swenson

This is one of my favorite poems, I love the way Swenson plays with the visuals of a poem and lines up similar/the same words throughout the piece and how she is playing with different meanings/connotations of words.

So I will also share a few quotes.

“Literature and butterflies are the two sweetest passions known to man.”
“The pages are still blank, but there is a miraculous feeling of the words being there, written in invisible ink and clamoring to become visible.”
“A work of art has no importance whatever to society. It is only important to the individual.”

All three quotes are from Vladimir Nabokov, one of my favorite writers of all time.

Envy and Lust

I currently hate looking at my own cameras.

However, I am secretly lusting over the beautiful-ness of medium format (I’m getting tired of 35mm, I need a change!) and over some camera collections.

(above two images by: Dancing Weapon of Mass Destruction flickr)

(source: vintageindie blog)

(source: BelleMaison blog)

(above two from weheartit)

Some inspiring camera art:

(source: inspiredmess flickr)

(above from weheartit)

And finally, the camera I am currently lusting over

Oh to dream…