New Year's Resolution...

I was thinking a lot about this today...

And it was hard, because there are so many things to resolve NOT to do... and for me there are plenty of possibilities there. But I can still fit into a size 10... so thank goodness dieting isn't one of them...

So my question tonight is... What IS a resolution? Is it something you stop?... or something you start?

Stopping is really hard... but seriously...so is starting sometimes! And this next thing has always been an especially hard one for me to start.



And I mean being thankful for everything! The joy and the pain, the good and the bad, the ups and downs, the effortless and difficult, the springs and the winters... inclusively... because everything's exactly the way it is, for a purpose! For our good. And everything is it's own "gift" for us to accept in whichever way we choose. (This has always been such a difficult thing for me to wrap my mind around.) And I have SO much more to be thankful for than I could ever NOT be thankful for, in a million years. A million years! It's all... perfect. It is. So why do I keep blabbering to myself in such negative ways sometimes? I'd give examples, but I don't want you to hear them.

(Ya'll really have no idea how hard this is going to be for me.. do you?)

So that's my resolution for tomorrow... and then the next day after that... and the next day after that.

I'm going to give it my best shot.

Anyway...sorry for confusing the holidays.

My Christmas Eve Thoughts...

I left work a little early today. My boss let me. The roads were crazy. Crazier than usual. And the people in the cars I passed looked pretty crazy too... And it just made me wonder about where everyone was going and about all the things they felt they just "had to do"... by tonight! And I guess I just felt really, really thankful... that I have absolutely nothing at all to do tonight... for once.

Well, except for maybe this...

Finale-eeeh...

I can't say I hate drawing, but don't know that I'll ever do much of it again. It's just SO time consuming, and I'm not sure I'm really that good at it. But anyway...

Most students on finals night get to go in, take their test... 45 minutes max, right?... and leave. Not us? We got to spend the full 4 hours doing whatever we wanted to. (???)

So I spent my 4 hours darkening up this background. Over and over and over...



There's a scriptural passage somewhere that talks about opposition in all things... in other words how one can't fully appreciate pleasure without having first experienced pain. Well all I know is that I am finally going to be able to appreciate the immense pleasure of cleaning my house for the first time in 14 weeks!

Two more classes to go towards my degree!... and then what? Not sure.

C'est Moi, non?

Voila!



And that, folks, is the extent of my memory from French class, which incidentally was my first back in 2001 when I first embarked on this crazy degree.

And also, seriously... this sketch (haha... sketch... it's 22x16!) looks tres, tres better in person.

Egads!...

When will this endless class ever end?



At least I spent LAST weekend with my family so I had absolutely nothing else better to do over this entire Thanksgiving weekend. "Thankfully" I had no need of a clear dining room table...

Here's what's left of my pencil...

A Thankful Mom...

I was just thinking today about all the things I have to be thankful for... (how timely!) There is just so much! A warm home, a job, health, family, friends, two cats... a fun and fulfilling past and present...

And then I squint my eyes... and what I see MORE clearly than anything is how thankful I am to have had the wonderful privilege of raising two beautiful daughters... and of all the memories I have of them growing up. And then.. I think about how it was in those moments of sending each of them off to college, and being scared to death knowing they were now out there all alone and facing the world on their own... and missing them. It was really hard! And sometimes it all seems like just weeks ago!

So really, what I ended up really thinking about today is how very thankful I am that both of them (as impossibly far away as they could ever be from me nowadays) are at this moment now each surrounded by their own wonderful family... who love them every bit as much as I do! At least!

So... not too shabby a thing for a mom to be thankful for on this day of thanks, eh?

Comfort Food...

Today is one of those days that reminds me of all those cold and chilly Sundays growing up. It was always grilled cheese and tomato soup for lunch after church.



I tried to continue the tradition for years with my own girls until one of them put her foot down and made it perfectly clear how much she hated tomato soup. So then we switched to quesadillas.. which then somehow became the new tradition and ended up being pretty good comfort too.

But now all alone on these cold and chilly Sundays I, again, get to fix whatever I want for lunch...

I'm just really missing my girls today. All of them! Here's my newest one.



I have this thing about color coordinating....

A Charcoal Effort...

This was my first time doing anything like this, and it's not perfect... but I still have tomorrow night during class to fix it.



I started with a blank page of pure 40% charcoal and then just added and subtracted... Interesting that you can do that and come up with things like this, no? Just wish I had more and better artistic tools...

Meanwhile... I miss my granddaughter Rachel! What a beauty! Didn't get any great pictures on my trip to Idaho since I was pretty sick the whole time and plus, my camera sucks. But I still feel like I should be sharing pictures of HER right now... and not just a drawing of some tea-kettle.... *sigh*

Waiting for Whit to send me pics...

This Is Harder Than It Looks... or maybe not.

Basically, it just involves an entire Saturday of crosshatching... from sunup until sundown. Wash, repeat on Sunday.

Yardwork? pffffft...

Project SEARCH Silent/Live Auction Fundraiser

I remember when I used to work for a bank...

Oh, I still do, of course, but sometimes I forget. Because for the past year I've been working with a group of awesome individuals towards this event to raise funds to expand the Project SEARCH program across West Michigan.

What IS Project SEARCH? Well, it's a school-to-work program that takes high school seniors with physical or cognitive disabilities and places them into an actual work situation over the course of the school year, with the goal of finding gainful employment upon graduation.

The Auction to Benefit Project SEARCH will take place this coming Thursday, November 4th at Noto's Italian World Dining in Grand Rapids. A chance to do some early Christmas shopping (from a choice of incredible items!) while at the same time, supporting a great cause. Not to mention sampling a heavy course of some of Noto's most delectable hors d'oeuvres and desserts!

(Updated: This post was from last year! And this year's auction to be held again at Noto's on Thursday, November 10th promises to be even better... with a "Strolling Dinner" added, along with some even more incredibly awesome items to bid on! Scroll down for the link to our current FaceBook page for a preview.)

As for my part.... (besides hauling them up to our super secure storage room and eeeing and oohing over every single wonderful donation that came in)...


Save The Date


Poster


ThankYou Cards for donors


Ticket...


The Program...


300 programs in a box ready to go...

Anyway, it's been tons of fun living my dream of being a graphic designer... while still earning a weekly paycheck!

Please contact me if you're interested in attending. It's gonna be a SUPER fun night! And by the way, the auction items are WAY cooler than my artwork. *g*


You can find us on Facebook!

Rachel Mae

October 27, 2010

7 lbs 8 oz

Priceless...



Everyone's fine.
and resting...

But Daryn, did you do her nails first thing? Because folks are asking...

Tutu Cute... and also probably her last day being my only Grandbaby...

I don't know whether to laugh or cry or what! So adorable this one... What a beauty!

Daryn should be calling me at any moment about grandbaby (Rachel) number two!

It's Really Great Having My Kitchen Counter Back!...

Because this took me nearly three weeks!



The culmination of a homework assignment, which was to create a still life drawing conveying a light source, line value and texture (but without the use of shading.) That will be our next lesson I guess...

I haven't even thought of what to name this piece. Any ideas? Just off the top of my head I'm considering "Things That Haven't Been Out of My Kitchen Cupboards in Probably 10 Years"...


P.S...

I figured I'd share my classroom project in this blog as well. Same concept, same assignment... except that it's WAY more enjoyable to do these things at home, sitting in a cozy chair, listening to my own music rather than standing at an easel barely tolerating the freakish music my Professor chooses to play.

The upside to this classroom project, however, was that I didn't have to clean it up...

Drawing One Oh! One...

It's no coincidence that I didn't have any artistic talent prior to my discovering PhotoShop. Because I didn't. But then I got hooked on it and got this wild and crazy dream about going for a degree in Graphic Design. (no less!)

I've held off as long as I could on this ONE required class... But since I'm finally down to my last three I figured it was finally about time to go for it. But you see... I've never even been able to draw stick figures adequately! In my opinion, PhotoShop is a much tamer beast than the pencil!

So I'm now into my third week... and trust me, so far I've drawn a lot of junk! The first week was absolutely laughable! But at least now I've been given a few tools with which to make it all make sense.

A ruler... for one.

I think I've done about 15 pages like this so far. I've drawn, let's see...things from my kitchen drawer, my junk drawer, my yard, antiques, my bathroom, my garage, my lamps, my furniture, my basement, my guilty pleasures...pretty much everything and shoot, well, I'm still sure I've forgotten some. But they're all on the grading table right now except for this one, which I did this afternoon... of things in my refrigerator... which thankfully managed to meet the minimum number of 6 required items...



It's really strange how I'm now looking at everything I see...wondering how I can draw it. The whole concept of drawing is bizarre though. It's amazing how we don't ever really see things the way they really are. You really have to LOOK! So, hopefully, if I learn nothing else from this class, that will be an important concept that I can improve on.

Here's my first ever "Still Life"...


And another one... using "the ruler"...


I'm trying really, really hard to be positive and hopeful... even though I only got a C+...

It's Finally Here! The Weekend Forecast!

I actually thought maybe I'd dreamt it or something...






Single available at iTunes.

And if that wasn't enough of a Benji fix... check out this trailer for his movie Leading Ladies. This movie is currently only being shown in select Film Festival venues... but keep your eyes open because it's getting amazing reviews!

Hmmm... Wonder if I have the nerve to drive to Champaign, Illinois on September 25th...

I Wonder How Many Others Might Be Out There...

So somehow I got tagged in a photo on FaceBook from an old friend from my theatre days who, as it appears, had this picture of me that I'd never seen before. I don't know why that seems so strange. I guess I figured I'd seen about every picture of me ever taken...

I mean, pictures are pictures. And usually I just try to avoid being IN them as much as possible (unless of course Daryn has just finished doing my hair)...

I DO have a scrapbook... and my theatrical career is definitely preserved in it, enabling me to relive it over and over whenever I want. But seriously, when a new picture like this one surfaces?... well, it's like I never even lived it before... until now. And then I get to live it again for the very first time.

Does that make sense?

Anyway... I just LOVE this picture! Because there is just SO much going on in it!

In other words... it's pretty much a "Word Bubble's" dream!...


L to R: Me, James Bontempo, Rita O'Connor, Stephanie Eley, Tracy Shayne, Mikhail Baryshnikov, Jamie Torcellini.

And speaking of the devil.... this just in!...


L to R: Tracy Shayne, Gay Marshall, Sachi Shimizu, Wanda Richert, Jannet Moranz, Rita O'Connor ~ Pre-recording for "Baryshnikov On Broadway."

Wow! I guess it's true about how if you build it they will come...

Fast Forward to September...

Ok... well August sure flew by!

Had a great time at the Clay/Ruben concert and my seat was excellent. Only 6 months to go until I see him again in Ft. Wayne! But this time with a Meet & Greet... courtesy of my friend Julie! I know, I know.... I'm suppose to be over him. And I am, for all intents and purposes, but a M&G with my best Clay buddies? Well, you're just never too old to look forward to being 14 again. And I am SO looking forward to it!

Anyway... here's how I spent my last week of August...

* Co-hosted a baby shower for my youngest daughter...

Isn't that just the most adorable diaper cake ever? It was made by my older daughter, who is expecting twins and hopefully didn't bemoan the fact that she was giving all those diapers away.

(Here's a pic of my two preggie daughters.)

No intended disrespect directed towards that wonderful miracle of motherhood, but honestly?... it really is a cuter word than "pregnant." Don't you think? And aren't they cute?

* Attended a pseudo family reunion at Aspen Grove (near Sundance) in Utah. I call it pseudo because there were really only about a dozen out of... a lot of family... who were there the whole time. Most people came and went, or showed up for a day... or a night. But it was still fabulous! One of the most relaxing weekends I've had in ages and I thank my mom so much for doing all she did to arrange it.

Here are just a couple of pics... Ok... nevermind. There are too many. If you want to see 'em you can go here.

*I went along for crib, big girl bed and BIG car shopping!

*Spent some good quality time with my folks and was able to show my mom for the 125th time how to save photos to a folder on her computer.

*Ate WAY too much... packing it away for those lean winter months.

*AND I got a totally awesome backwards arm hug from granddaughter Jade...

Which in itself, was almost worth the price of the plane ticket.

But oh, I forgot to mention the thing about Marzipan (my ever so fat kitty) and how just before leaving for a week realized he hadn't pooped in like well, forever. And he eats alot! Anyway, lets just say that heaven reserves special places for friends who are willing to step in at the last minute to help out our furry friends in those kinds of moments of crisis. And so thanks to Cheryl, who dealt with carting him back and forth to the vet multiple times in my absence, along with the aftermath... Marz is now still an ever so fat, but totally regular, guy...

And now it's September, but it feels like October. We just had a cold front blow in and I'm already mourning the passage of summer.

School busses start Tuesday... but my bus is already running. My drawing class began last week. I know you're all waiting with bated breath to see what I come up with...

Only problem is... I can't draw.

No, really.

So this should be a really fun Fall.

Evangelists and Microphones...

I didn't have really high hopes for this tour, I'll be honest!... But the two of them play off each other like Tommy and Dick... like Tim and Harvey... like Peaches and Herb!

They are hilarious together! And their singing's not too bad either.

This should definitely be a SNL skit and perhaps someday it WILL be...



Can't wait for my one and only concert coming up in 6 days!

SpittleClack...

I am such a huge fan of Clack Goddesses! I don't know how it is they do what they do! It must be really, really, really hard and stressful work!

I mean, most of us get to go in, sit down and just enjoy the show!... while those "often taken-for-granted few" are just beginning their evening of gruelingly hard work... at times risking their admission, cameras, video cards, cell phones and even their own pocketbooks!

So as a habit, I don't do it.

(except for once in Indianapolis...)

And I did it with this big ole' honkin' video cam of all things!

I hadn't yet acquired a state of the art, tiny little digital one with which to do the work so I just stuffed my old faithful big crappy one in my oversized bag (the same one that I'd used for the last 10 years to tape the thousands of dance, soccer, choir, band, pom pom and every other imaginable silly, cute or memorable moment of my kid's lives) ... and walked in.

Security must have been really lax that night...

And it did the job!... And I got some really good stuff! But I seriously had no idea how to share it... as much as I wanted to!

(Keep in mind, this was 5 years ago after all, and some of us were much slower in developing our techno savvy skills than others.)

So these tapes have basically just been sitting idol in my tape drawer for the past 5 years now... Until last night when, for some reason, watching the new "Juke Box Tour On Crack" clack, made me want to pull them out and watch them again!

(except that I no longer have a VCR to watch them ON!!!)

And so... it's in times like these... when we realize that our techno savvy skills acquired over the years... have finally begun to pay off!

Here's just one (and quite hilarious, I might add) little sample... from it.



Lightbulb moment!!!

Looking for another NINE little gems sort of like that one!

Clay's New Backup Singer..

Why can't I ever seem to escape it?

But good for her! And HERE'S to continuing employment.

The song sort of resonates in me too...

Shoot, you'd think that I'd at least be able to somehow finagle another pittance of a Meet & Greet out of it...

But a year from now I'm sure that link won't make any sense at all... and I'll completely wonder what the point was.

Updated 2015... Nope, I still remember.

The Timeless Juke Box Tour (on Crack)...

And so we're off! On a 17 city tour!



I'll be downloading continuously I'm sure. It's been a heck of a long time!

Today I tried to "left click and save!" haha

Anyway...they are absolutely hilarious together!

Can't wait for my one and only concert...

in Hammond, IN.

*sigh*

A Sad, Sad Day...

But it's time, ya know?

Today I peeled about 30 pages of old theatre reviews out of a magnetic scrapbook and tried to salvage them as best I could. Please, don't ever put anything thats important to you into a magnetic scrapbook!

And that was just the beginning...

Please... to all you future Camp Directors! Never, ever give your swimming champs ribbons made out of felt, embellished with macaroni alphabet letters. Just don't!

Hopefully I'll be able to salvage some of the other stuff that was in that scrapbook...

Anyway, the time comes eventually, for everyone I guess, when you figure you just don't really need to keep ALL THAT STUFF anymore. I've given most of it about 40 years... I looked at it all once again just now... and realized that this one moment of a memory was probably the reason I've been saving it for all these years. And it was worth it I guess because it was one sweet afternoon of memories.

Some of my memories even got an outdoors photoshoot!


My Lambie...

His Profile...


I can't even remember when Bunny wasn't in my life...


This is really, really hard!


And it gets worse!!!

But after reading a dozen or so entries that said pretty much "Didn't do anything today" or "Danny said he had to pretend not to be my boyfriend or his friend would tell his mom" I figured I could probably live out the rest of my life without it... along with the cheap pink nail polish.

But the very saddest of all was this one.

Mom made for me when I was 3 and she sat on my bed for probably 10 years. But since then she's been sitting in a box in my basement for nearly half a century... and somehow cardboard boxes don't bring out the best in maintaining a healthy and youthful glow and they also promote major mildew....

*makes note to self to keep the really important things in my life on my bed from now on...*

But I guess if I was finally able to toss out these (ruby, custom-made) shoes from the "Hollywood/Ukraine" tour... you can pretty much believe I could probably toss out just about anything...



(Thank goodness I accidentally left my bag of Chorus Line shoes on the subway after my last performance so at least I don't have to deal with THAT...)

All this... even after seeing "Toy Story 3" and sobbing!...

But for sure all my kid's stuff stays! Or at least until they come back someday to claim it...

Shocker!...

Well, I'm not exactly sure how THIS happened, but I'm really glad it did... and I'll wear it proudly!

Except that I SO prefer it in Chartreusse...

Finally... Finis!

This has been a really intense 7 weeks! But tonight I turned in my final project. A revision of our very first design.

You may remember the assignment from part one where we were asked to create a design depicting an image of ourself along with a graph which represented our proficiencies in the various Adobe applications.

No?

Then I'll remind you...



The biggest critique I received was that there didn't seem to be a light source, given such a bright day. The second was that the bubble "splat" was unrealistic and it wasn't clear that it was actually the "Apple" bubble that had burst. So those were the problems to solve. The first was easy. The second?... well, I am still only so-so on bubble making so creating a realistic bubble burst seemed incomprehensible. So I decided to rethink the whole thing...

And this is what I came up with.



I also submitted a couple of extra credit ideas for a new bp logo. Yes, they're pathetic I know. As is the whole tragic situation.

So not to make light of it or anything but...



...and



Anyway... Let the summer begin!

My Graphically Designed Summer... part yadayada

Only one class left!

I was gonna take the second one... during the second half of the summer but I think I'm gonna pass. Graduation will just have to wait a couple more months.

Because enough's enough for now, ya know?

So far I think I've probably got a "B" I think. Imagine that? After ten years of maintaining a 4.o. Guess I'm just not up to snuff as a professional designer yet even though this IS only "Graphic Design ONE" for goodness sake. I guess we'll see.

Perhaps the extra credit project of redesigning the BP logo will save me.

anyway...

Our assignment this week was to create a personal logo. So I created three...

The first one is really just a possible banner for my blog (but not really because I already have one sort of like it...)



The next two I created as possible logos for my (maybe) future sideline.

And well, also because my Professor told me I had to...



I think this one is my favorite.

Perhaps I'll use it.

Class is over on Monday.

How many days until Tuesday?
!!!

My Graphically Designed Summer... part Three

Ah, the color wheel. Let's not forget the color wheel!

Assignment was to design displays of the various color groupings:

The Full Twelve Hue
Complementary
Split Complementary
Analogous
Triadic

The journey was a trip! And it only cost me three vacation days!

Ridiculous...

Anyway...

(Please feel free to click to enlarge... and I hope you're viewing this on a Mac! *g*)

The Twelve Hue



Complementary



Split Complements



Analogous



And this one, just for schnicks...

Triadic


...which just reminded me to stash away that $20 to gamble away in Hammond, Indiana on August 13th!

ON to creating a personal logo...

Karen 'eh!... I think I may need your help!!!