Orlando Museum of Art

Back when I lived in Huntsville I would pass the art museum all the time, but never went in to see any of the exhibits.  In hindsight I was totally slacking because admission was heavily discounted for students.  So when I moved to Orlando, I didn't want to make the same mistake and added visiting the Orlando Museum of Art to my 30 Before 30 list.

National Geographic Women of Vision: Maggie Steber, Kitra Cahana, Amy Toensing, Carolyn Drake, Diane Cook, Lynn Johnson, Beverly Joubert, Jodi Cobb, Stephanie Sinclair, Erika Larsen and Lynsey Addario

A couple weeks ago I finally went!  There was an exhibit called 'Women of Vision' displaying work of various female National Geographic photographers.  It was amazing!  I found myself walking from photo to photo imagining what it was like to capture.

Lynn Johnson "In the Footsteps of the Apostles" March 2012 Odisha, India

Maggie Steber "The Secrets of Sleep" May 2010 Miami, Florida

When I was in college, I majored in photojournalism, but as I went through the classes, I started feeling like it was only news reporting style photography.  So I drifted away from it and towards the more artistic studio photography.  Walking through the exhibit really reawakened my interest in photojournalism. 

Stephanie Sinclair "Too Young to Wed" Haijah, Yemen

The photos were more storytelling and anthropological in style.  It was awesome for me and I kept saying to myself, "This! This is what I wanted to do!"  It was great to find that connection.  I want to take that inspiration and use it towards the photo stories that I want to shoot more of.  I just have to find the stories to tell.

Beverly Joubert "Lessons of the Hunt" 2007 Botswana

In addition to the Women of Vision exhibit, I also visited the African art collection which was very inspirational color and design wise.  I think my favorite pieces were the love note necklaces.  I think it would be awesome to design something using the colors/meaning for Lamar.  Hmm... anniversary/birthday gift maybe?? I think I'll start planning! ^.^

Zulu & Xhosa Love Note Necklaces - Art that Speaks Exhibition

 The last section I visited was the contemporary art.  My art lovin' heart jumped out of my chest and danced around the room and then my body followed!  I'm so glad I was alone in the exhibit.  I'm pretty sure I twirled! lol! I loved the colors and there was so much energy in the pieces.  Everything was gorgeous eye-candy.  The photo below is of one piece that drew me in straightaway.  The motion in it was... mesmerizing. Unfortunately, in all my awe, I forgot to make a note of the artist.

Contemporary art pieces at Orlando Museum of Art

Contemporary art pieces at Orlando Museum of Art

After I'd been there for a couple hours, my friend Cherie came by and we went back through Women of Vision.  On my second go through, I felt like an excited butterfly zipping all around ^.^  The last thing we did was stop in the gift shop and snap a couple pictures of the statue installation outside.

Horizons Sculpture by Steinunn Thórarinsdóttir

It was an awesome trip and definitely something I'm going to do again.  One more thing to check off my list! Woot Woot!!  I'm hoping to be half way through the 30 Before 30 list by my birthday.  So that leaves me 4 days to finish 3 more items o.O  EEP!

Shooting Film

Hey there :)

I decided to bring my Pentax out to play on Thursday at the last Art Stroll.  I was feeling experimental after reading a tutorial on double exposures :)  However... the tutorial I read did not work properly, so I ended up with a bunch of split exposures.  Even though they didn't come out exactly how I dreamed, they are still interesting. Here are a few of them.

Left side: double exposure of my & Lamar's faces. Right side: double exposure of my lap/a plant.

Left side: the other side of the lap/plant double exposure. Right side: half of a plant/Lamar double exposure.

I also took some regular exposures around the Art Stroll.

Atlanta-based musical group, Unknown Lyric was the live entertainment.

Post stroll eats at Sam & Greg's. They have great pizza and gelato.

Honey Goat Cheese gelato... sounded terrible... tasted AMAZING!

Accordion player outside of Sam & Greg's.

That's it for my film photos. The next roll of double exposed film will be proper doubles. I can't wait. I think I'm going to plan out the shots before so that they are specific and not just of my lap and a plant... lol. I hope you had a wonderful day.

Peace :)

Another Sabbath Crafting

Hello there ^.^

I am so very excited to tell you about my Sabbath crafting!  I finally did some dye work!! Hurray!  I have been watching lots of videos on youtube about dyeing yarn with food coloring/kool-aid and I really wanted to try.

I used a ball of off white Paton's Classic Wool (thrifted), food coloring, and white vinegar. I wound off 3 hanks of roughly 48 yards each. [48 is one of my favorite numbers... if you were wondering.]  Anywho, I dyed the first hank a deep, saturated red-orange.  When I tell you it was stinkin' awesome to see how the dye absorbed into the wool and cleared out of the water, it really was!! I want to dye everything now! lol... Here's a picture of the first dye-bath:

  Before putting the yarn in the dye, I soaked it in water/vinegar mix.

 

Yum, looks spaghetti-ish :) 

And this is how the water cleared out when the dye was finished.  Cool right?

At first, I was only planning to dye one hank of yarn, but after the first one I couldn't help trying other techniques. The next hank I did was my attempt at a 2 color space dye.  I wanted to have spaces that were yellow and spaces that were red. By the time all the dye was absorbed, I had learned that space dyeing

is harder than it looks and red dye pretty much takes over everything... every... thing...

The last hank was first dyed yellow and then I added a very very diluted red to the bath to create a pretty yellow-orange color. It actually reminds me of sweet potato. I didn't take progress photos of  the second and third dyeings, you get to see the finished products.

I'm planning to make a beaning with this yarn. I haven't fully decided yet tho... I'm just really proud of how they came out. I think they're very pretty & I can't get over how deeply saturated the red-orange yarn came out.  It's so beautiful...  But now... I'm looking at the red and yellow space dye attempt and I'm considering re-dyeing it tomorrow. It has light spots where not much dye got in & I don't like the unfinished look... we'll see how I like it tomorrow in the sunlight.

Well, goodnight! I've got to get some sleep because tomorrow afternoon is the Fiber Art Work yarnbombing. I've got most of my pieces together and hopefully it won't be lame. Wish me luck!

Tuesday [on a wednesday] Favorites #6

Good morning :)

Here I am, yet again, returning from randomly being ghost on my blog :-/ Let's see... my last post was a week ago... what has happened since then...

• Thursday: I went to the Art Stroll and picked up these 'wishing stones' from a glass artists. My plan is to use them as worry stones, but so far they've been on my nightstand waiting to be needed. And that's not such a bad thing.
  
• Friday: I spent HOURS cleaning and purging things to donate to the thrift store.
• Sabbath: Lamar & I went to Madison Mission for church. It was truly a blessing.
• Sunday: More cleaning... no crafternoon :(
• Monday: I honestly cannot remember what happened... and this was 2 days ago... That just means that I got up, went to work, worked, came home, played with my dogs, hung out with Lamar... the usual :) shrug

_________________________________________________________________________________

On to the Tuesday [on a wednesday] Favorites!

1. This song is quickly becoming one of my favorite sweet songs. Thanks to Pandora for finding it!
   
   
   Hazy by Rosi Goland feat. William Fitzsimmons
   
2. I am reading Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert. It is really good so far. The way she writes is very conversational & I find myself laughing out loud at times. :)  Yesterday evening, I decided to set aside an hour to do nothing but read. It was very peaceful. I think I'm going to do something like that everyday... set aside a deliberate amount of time to do a specific thing only.
   
   
3. I was suppose to go to a Knitting/Crocheting group at this yarn shop across town called Yarn Expressions, but when I got there, it was pretty empty & since I was really nervous about being alone with strangers I gave up on that plan very quickly.  All the way over there, my stomach was all fluttery and I kept thinking things like 'what if they think I'm weird...' & 'what if it's a bunch of old ladies and no one will talk to me...' on and on...  So I went home and started working on a new bag design.  Here's a little peek:
   
   
   
   It's worked in the Crosshatch stitch aka Crazy Brick stitch and it's a bit hard to see in the picture, but there are 3 shades of grey in it. So I suppose you can call it color blocked.  I'm writing the pattern down so that I can reproduce it once I get the kinks out :)  I'm glad I got a good chunk of creative time in last night. I felt physically/mentally well when I went to sleep (even though it was past 1am).

Well that's it for my Tuesday Favorites.  It was a good day. Hopefully today will be just as nice, or even better for me and for you. :)

Thrifty Thursday #5

Hey there!

I am very excited to share my thrifting finds of this week with you!  I went to ThriftMart twice this week and pretty much scored some awesome things. ^.^  On Tuesday, the visit was mostly a relax-after-work trip, but I did find two items that had to come home with me.

 The first was this hairpin lace crochet tool.

I've seen them in craft stores and have been interested in learning to crochet lace, but the cost was always higher than I wanted to spend. When I found this one for $0.75, I figured why not. So, I guess there will be crochet lace in my future. Maybe I can make lacy scarves for the shop... who knows :)

The next thing I found was a Stellarscope Star Finder.

I was super excited about it because when I was younger, I use to sit on a chair out in my front yard with the encyclopedia looking up at the stars.  I memorized so many stars and constellations... but weird enough, I still can't find the North star o.O... Anywho, I was a chronic star-gazer and in a time when my life was getting to be rather stormy, the stars gave me a sense of calm. Like no matter what happens, they'll always be there.  If I looked up, found the Big Dipper, and followed the arc of the handle- I'd always find Arcturus. So yeah, the stars have a special place in my heart.

This is what it looks like when you look into the Stellarscope.

 The last thrifting score was a Speedball Silk Screening Kit.

I looked it up online to see if anything was missing from the set and, lucky me, it's basically complete- only missing the instructions and a paintbrush. Neither of which I need.  On top of it being a complete kit, I got it for half off because of the 4th of July sale :D So it was only $13 and change. Such a STEAL!

The best part of this thrift haul is that I got the last two things for considerably less than their retail prices. I looked up the Stellarscope & it sells in the National Geographic Store online for $49 & I got it for $6 with all the pieces except for a keychain flashlight.  That's roughly 88% off... The Silk Screening kit retails for $59.99 & the rubber tipped squeegee sells for $9.99.  With the 50% discount I got on it on the 4th... I snagged all those supplies for about  81% off!  I pretty much killed... I really think this was my most value filled thrifting trip (aside from furniture purchases).

I hope you had a great and safe 4th of July.

Art Adventures: pt. 2- Fiber Art Works

Hi there :)

This is part 2 of the Arts Adventure that Cherie and I had yesterday afternoon.  After leaving the Flying Monkey Artist Market, we stopped by Fiber Art Work. Ms. Anastasia's shop is so lovely.  She's really friendly and makes you feel at home as soon as you come in the door.

I planned on maybe picking up a ball of yarn or something on the visit, but definitely ended up picking up wool for spinning. Luckily, her prices are very reasonable for fiber and a lot goes a long way. I picked out an ounce of a really pretty teal/turquoise blue wool for $4.

Now, Mrs. Anastasia does not run a 'hands off the equipment' type store.  When I picked out my fiber, she says, "Ok, now you need to run it through this drum carder. Do you know how to use it?" Of course I didn't. So she gave me a crash course in drum carding and sent me on my carding way.  Cherie took lots of pictures of the process :)

The wool was partially felted from the dyeing process, so I had to pull it apart to feed into the carder.

Considering adding to my blue... decided not to.

Mrs. Anastasia taking the wool off the carder.

Sorry for the goofy grin, I'm super excited about this...

Mrs. Anastasia is really passionate about her shop and my clear excitement over my spinning-ready wool put her on another level, lol.  She kept trying to get me to add other colors/fibers/sparkle to it.  I decided to keep it straight wool since I'm still learning and I don't want to learn on something nice & lovely.

While we were checking out, I mentioned that I'm planning to yarn bomb something in July and Mrs. Anastasia said that she wants her store bombed. She said that if we plan to get people together to bomb the outside of her store, she'll feed us.  Cherie and I were like sounds like an awesome Crafternoon outing for the end of the month.  That definitely gives me something to work towards & gives my yarn bombing a concrete date to happen. ^.^

So yeah, Cherie & I left Fiber Art Work with a new batt of fiber for me, a couple rolls of fabric for her, and a plan for new experiences to come. :) I'm claiming Fiber Art Work as my personal Local Yarn Store. :)

Art Adventures: pt. 1- Flying Monkey Arts- Artist Market

Hello there :)

Yesterday, Cherie & I went to the Artist Market at Lowe Mills- Flying Monkey Arts.  This market is held each Saturday afternoon from 12-4 and there are booths/studios of local artists and a really cool bookstore called The Beloved Community Bookstore that sells used books.

The entrance to the Flying Monkey.

Art this way!

I think it's really cool that most of the signage in the Flying Monkey is hand-painted not machine printed.  It shows another aspect of the artistry within the location.  This is only my second time going to the artist market, but it's just as inspiring as I remember it being years ago when I first went.

Cherie and I made our way slowly around the whole market before going back to purchase things. She snagged a few books from the Beloved Community Bookstore, a little cameo ring, and a loaf of Spinach Feta bread. This guy was buying 2 loaves while Cherie was deciding what bread she wanted & says to us, "This bread is SO GOOD!!!" lol. (He wasn't lying)

Adorable door painting.

I found the craft section!

She got this ring for $5 o.O It's so cute!

I love the little details of the Flying Monkey. Like the scraps of cardboard they have tucked here and there that say 'LOVE'. It makes for an unexpectedly positive environment. Like you can't help but smile at everyone.  There was also a bench or church pew with an old handmade quilt on it.  It was so tattered and reminded me of the one my mom had when I was little. Her grandmother had made it, but sadly, it fell apart long ago. :-/ Anywho, this quilt brought back a pleasant memory... and made me want to hurry and finish my quilt.

The Flying Monkey is definitely a place where you have to remember to look up, otherwise you'll miss other details. Example, these hanging decorations.

Origami cranes

Blown Glass

Blown Glass

I noticed these blown glass ornaments hanging in front of a window on the way out of the market.  I really liked how the colors shown in the bright sunlight.

I hope this post wasn't too photo heavy. I had a great time at the Artist Market today and hopefully we'll be able to go more often.

Tuesday Favorites #4... on Wednesday...

Good morning!
So I'm a total bum because I thought & thought about this post yesterday while compiling a really cute collection of free printable craft posters, but I never sat down to write it. ::rolls eyes::

I decided to look for printable artwork for the walls of the Apt-203 crafting workspace since I went total overhaul cleaning it last week.  I will do a little walk-thru on it later when it’s more complete.

Anywho, this all began Monday after I finished the bulk of my office tasks.  I was doing my daily blog reading & spent some time going back thru Curbly.com.  There, I found a post featuring lots of free printable artwork.  Naturally, I browsed the options (you can take a look at that post here).   There were a bunch of really cute posters, but the one that caught my eye and wouldn’t give it back was this one:



From: compulsivecraftiness.com



And! Not only is the poster awesome, the blog is really interesting too. I was probably reading through her posts for another half hour or so J… It is now hanging above our inspiration board & project organizer.  Let me tell you, it’s perfect for us!  So, of course when I got back to work on Tuesday, I had to find more of these adorable printables to create a photo/poster collage.  This leads me to the Tuesday Favorites list!  ::happy dance::

(Click poster to be linked to original post on the artist's blog.)

1.       May Your Bobbin Always Be Full

From: mypoppet.blogspot.com

2.       Tim Gunn Make it Work

From: amymorby.com

3.       Keep Calm & Get Your Craft On

From: funkypolkadotgiraffe.blogspot.com

4.       Hello Lover: Sewing Machine

From: missiekrissie.blogspot.com/

5.       Hello Lover: Camera

From: missiekrissie.blogspot.com/

6.       Happiness is a Warm Glue Gun

From: manmadediy.com/

Searching for these was a much needed creative break from office monotony.  Currently, #1 and #3 are framed and hanging on the wall, while #4 is framed on our craft book shelf.

The only thumbs down I had with this whole search was that there were virtually NO knitting or crochet themed posters available.  But hey, that just means I need to pull out my computer & design a few of my own :D

That’s it for my Tuesday Favorites on a Wednesday J. I hope you enjoyed & are having a pleasant day!

Not So Blue Monday #7

Good evening there :)

It seems that I've been bitten by the quilting bug and this Not So Blue Monday has been made better for it.  Work went well, which is great to say. But on to my list!

Good things for Not So Blue Monday

1. getting up an hour earlier than normal & easing into the day
2. work productivity
3. catching up with my photo-a-day on instagram
4. talking to one of my college friends after a long while
5. "Sew on & Sew Forth" poster for the craft area. (I got it -here-)
6. clean doggies
7. roommate being home & crafting with her
8. watching Coraline
9. sewing two more flowers into my quilt
10. telling my mom & dad about my quilt progress & them being happy about it
11. text msgs from Lamar about how he saved $2 on donuts

I feel like I could keep going!  Evidently, this was a really good Monday.  I think it was the easing into the morning that I did today. I took an extra long shower & spent most of it sitting down in the tub praying.  It was very relaxing... so much so that the annoying things that the office manager did today didn't bother me as much.  I guess I'll try to do this again tomorrow & maybe make it a regular thing... That is, if I stop having these late late crafting nights, lol.

But seriously... what are the chances of me crafting less??  Slim...
-------------

I tried to create a collage of photos that go with my list, but I'm sleepy now & don't feel like fussing with it anymore tonight... Maybe I'll add it tomorrow.

Goodnight :)

Thrifty Thursday #3

Hello there!

I'm back from a week-long "vacation" to my bestsisterfriend's wedding. Anywho, there will be an update post just to explain the shenanigans & tomfoolery that Lamar & I experienced in our last few days up north.

SO! Lamar & I went thrifting this evening after I left the office. Sadly, nothing we picked up was on sale, but everything we picked up was awesome ^.^  I got a few bags of yarn, one containing a full skein of Lion's Brand Fisherman's wool, which I've been drooling over forever, but was always $10+ each (a bit rich for my blood).  It came with 2 other Lion's Brand skeins of something or another for $9. That's much more doable for me.

The BEST part of the evening was finding an embroidered Serenity Prayer for $2.  I LOVE that prayer. I have a bracelet with the extended prayer on it that I wear everyday.  So of course when I saw the piece of fabric beneath all the bags of yarn, I had to snatch it up! It was the perfect size to frame & hang on a wall.  When we got back to my house, I pulled out the trusty staple gun & got to DIY business. :)

Frame: $1 Prayer: $2

Close-up of the stitching.

Progress Shot: Staple gunning...

Okay. I don't know if it's just me... maybe I'm just a serious weakling, but using a staple gun is HARD WORK! Does anyone else have trouble squeezing the trigger? I practically have to stand on the thing! Ugh!

Here is the finished project posted to instagram.

I'm really glad I found this piece. It came out very well & once I find my picture hanging wire/whatnot, it's going up on the wall by my bed.

That's all for tonight! I hope you are having a good week & are looking forward to a great weekend ^.^