Polaroids

So last year for Christmas, I asked for an instant camera. They still make them today, some that produce photos as small as a credit card. But ask my dad, who collects old cameras, well he had a few old Polaroid cameras of his own in his collection. He gave me this gem, a Super Shooter Plus.

Luckily, Fuji Film still makes film for this beast. I wanted to use up my B&W film to make way for more color film for fall. I decided to use the film to take pictures on my 5.5 mile bike ride to campus. Thank goodness for the beautiful October weather we had!

T-Shirt Contest

This year for the first time Freedom By Design, the student organization I'm a part of, is having t-shirts. This is very exciting, since we've never had them before. The submissions are being taken until November 3, but I want no other competition, since the two winning designs get them for free! Here is my submission. The color is still up in the air, any other suggestions?

Beginning Knitting

Several Christmases ago I asked for knitting stuff. Probably because I love learning and making new things and knitting sounded like fun. Well, I never learned. Never taught myself. Got lazy. Pick an excuse. Either way, I have all these yarns sitting around and haven't done anything with them! Then I found out about this killer place called Sewtropolis, that offers classes on sewing, knitting, crafting, and crocheting. This is my kinda place. I signed up for a Beginning Knitting class (sacrificing a Friday night), and BAM. Learned to knit.

Our project covered the very basics, but now I have the motivation to continue with it. We worked with an awesome super bulky yarn, and made a Cowl/Neckwarmer.

My yarn ran out before the cowl got long enough, but no worries, I've already hit up Joann's for more yarn. I found some awesome purpley-gray yarn from Martha Stewart's collection, and I am so so excited to make a scarf and hat for this winter season. I hope this class will push me to learn new techniques so I can start getting more "wild" with knitting. Woo!

Hopefully I can start pumping these out fast enough to get some Christmas presents under my belt! We will see..

Watercolor for Henry

This last Thursday I also got some watercolor in. I recently bought a watercolor techniques book in hopes that it will encourage me to paint more often and more professionally, so to speak. I really just love the way it looks and love feeling accomplished.

Today I broke out my watercolors for my nephew Henry. He was born just over a month ago on September 12, 2011 and it is my first time being an auntie! I am so very proud, he's a great addition to our family.

My sister has unfortunately moved back up to Morris, which is quite a hike from the cities, but I wanted to paint something cute for his bedroom. I was perusing through all sorts of animal pictures, and have been stuck on giraffes. I found a really cute photo of a mom and baby giraffe nuzzling, and started that one. I then did a more cartoon-y watercolor that is whimsical and cute. I'm not sure which one I'll give her, maybe both. I have to finish the realistic one first. Either way, I very much enjoyed painting! I need to push myself to do this more often. It's such a fun and relaxing thing to do.

One of Many Upcoming Postings

So I realize the last time I posted was back in June, but this isn't to say that I haven't been doing design work. It just means I've gotten lazy with posting. While you should fully expect one large "things I did this summer" post, I'm going to post about the projects I completed just this last week (there were several).

Thursdays are my day off. I have two part-time jobs, one M-W and the other F-Sun. Thursdays are for me. Thursdays are for design. This Thursday, I was finally fed up with not having anywhere to put my earrings. I generally toss them in one of my candles so that my naughty cat won't bat them around and lose them. What I really needed was an earring holder, to keep them all in one place.

I located a picture frame in my house, and using some lace and hot glue gun, voila! Beautiful, functional, awesome earring holder.

It's not perfect, but it does exactly what I need it to do. I'm very pleased with my crafty-ness today. Stay tuned for more projects!

How I Love to Draw.

Sometimes my passions get away from me. I forget how much I love things like drawing and writing. Last Monday I picked up a pencil and paper and started drawing. Not quick rough sketching, but really drawing. And I adored it. Here is what I came up with. I will likely add color, as I have been drawing on watercolor paper. 

The first two really came from nowhere. The last one is a neat pattern/logo I saw on my sandals. At first, I disliked the asymmetrical form of it, but then I came to love it. In the middle would be the shoe company name, but instead I put one of my favorite songs/sayings to live by.

Sorry the quality isn't fabulous, I hope to photograph them better next time. Until next time, I intend on drawing much, much more.

Nighttime Digital Work

I know I said earlier that I was going to be spending most of my summer doing hand-drawn, -sewn, -painted, -shot things. But I did manage to sprinkle this little gem in today as well. In July, I will be headed to South Dakota for 2 weeks to participate in RAW Dakota 2011. RAW, standing for Real Architecture Workshop, is a program based in Minneapolis that finds clients and projects that are quick and very hands on for its participants. They allow anyone to apply, and architecture students are generally the ones interested. They travel to the destination, and for 2 weeks do a complete design-build with the client, the outcome being a lookout tower in a very picturesque landscape. I'm thrilled to be given this opportunity, and I look forward to the real experience it's going to give me. For this design, I followed a tutorial on a little badge for the workshop this summer. It's fun to do some digital work again :)