kitty pics

Today I'm gettin' stuff done. My life's been so chaotic recently and it's starting to spiral out of control... I don't know what the cause of it was but I think the fact that my life is so spread all over the place and I spend half of my time in the car really has a lot to do with it. Either way I'm taking control back. Starting with sorting through some pics. :)

KITTY FEST KITTY FEST KITTY FEST

hopefully in the next couple of days we will be having a photo journal with the lovely little miss avaleigh..

PREVIEW:

sweet summertime

sweet summertime by clare-mulderink on polyvore


Broke down & got a polyvore.... made this one with dddulcie

may photo a day: 14, grass

Good morning :) I snapped this on my way to work. I love sun spots / flares in photography, they're quite wonderful. They add such interest to photos in my opinion.

It's funny because when I first got into photography, I didn't know diddly SQUAT about proper lighting. I still don't know as much as I'd like to but I can tell you that my knowledge is growing almost exponentially. Now lighting is EVERYTHING to me, as well it should be. /musings

may photo a day: 13, mum!

This is my mother!

She is like super woman. She raised 7 kids, homeschooling all of us, and also works at our church as the Director of Faith Formation. She loves her job, her family & her faith. She's written a number of books (which I designed the covers for, of course). Back in the day she was a craftaholic and made the coolest things. She's talented at anything she sets her mind to. (Well, except math - our family is chronically bad when it comes to arithmetic) We've had our ups & downs but my mom is a person who I can always count on to be there for me, to be willing to listen and to give advice. The older I grow the closer we get, and the more I appreciate her :) Today is the day dedicated to HER!

So to my mother I say: Thank you for all the words of wisdom you've passed down to me, whether or not I was listening at the time. Thank you for giving me healthy eating habits. Thank you for teaching me to treat everyone with kindness, to help everyone in need and to always be the smiling face in the room. Thank you for being a literary genius and for giving me a head start in life, academically.Thank you for always encouraging me to do hard things. You have given me all of my knowledge, talents & drive to succeed in this world. Where would I be without you?

Happy Mother's Day, Mom!  I love you!

May photo a day: 12, something that makes you happy.

Today my brother Ben, my twin sisters Emma & Rachel, and my best friend Dulcie and I packed up my 2 door Honda with all our belongings, and headed on our merry way to Tulip Time in Holland, MI. :)

Although an extremely mild winter and an early spring meant that most tulips have already come and gone, we brought our cameras and walked around the city for a few hours snapping some shots. It was too early for the carnival to be running but the ferris wheel still looked interesting, and the Dutch dancers were out in full force.

We stopped at The Peanut Store and stocked up on some candy as well... Pictures to follow in an edit of this post. After I get them on my computer :P anyway this place is awesome. There can be found a plethora of delectable candy options, and our favorite part is the bulk candy. For $5/lb. you can have your own little white sack filled with your personal picked favorites of sugary goodness. Needless to say, we bought almost two pounds worth...

Also, one of the things we sought on our quest was some classic fair food. Since we're allergic to half the crap (or more) that was being sold (gluten intolerance) we settled, finally, on cheese fries. After buying a bag of cotton candy for the road, we went to Meijer for some sandwich supplies for real protein ha. :) the kids felt so unhealthy.

A fantastic day. I love that my siblings are getting into photography, and I love how we're all older and can hang out like this :) happy Saturday!

may photo a day: 7, someone that inspires you

these are my parents!

they are awesome and have always inspired me to be the best possible person that i can be. they both work soooo hard, for me, and my brothers & sisters. they've taught me to be as nice as i can to everybody i meet, they've taught me to always be willing to help people, they've taught me to keep working towards goals. they've taught me how to survive in this world, they've taught me how to be 'in it but not of it', but most of all they taught me how to love. they are some of the greatest people in the world and they are my heroes in life.

:)

thank you mom & dad for being amazing, always.

may photo a day: 6, you.

ootd, created this beauty using a new app called pic stitch. ha.

thrifted dress, gifted shirt, necklace found at a hippie store in the middle of nowhere while out on an adventure with dulcie. pink hair again.

:)

The Artist is Always Working

     The thing about me that I sometimes can't stand is my overwhelming need to always be doing things. Like if I'm not working towards some sort of goal at almost all times, I'm wasting time. This is some sort of weird drive that I can't explain; I don't know what I'm striving for but I'm striving, alright. It's just like I've just got so many ideas and things I want to do, places I want to go and things I want to make. I feel if I sit idle for any amount of time, I'm wasting valuable doing time. I mean, this has its pros & its cons, but I often get too stressed out with this kind of lifestyle and think that if I could just slow down for a little while, I could sort the thoughts in my brain through a little better and be more productive, overall.

slow down, you move too fast

you've got to make the morning last

- simon & garfunkel / feelin' groovy (59th street bridge song)

     For the past few days I've been not as productive as far as art, or music, or reading or writing. I've been hanging out with friends and listening to music, looking at art all over the internet and photographs of all varieties. That weird drive is inside of me telling me "Dude, you haven't done anything productive in a few days. You're falling behind on your artistic pursuits here." Some people might be able to brush this aside but I'm also a person who is prone to feeling guilty often (ha). So these thoughts are naturally ones that I try to avoid. By doing things.
     But today I had an idea, in the car on a long drive (where I often have my best ideas). That maybe, art has two sides - an active and a passive side. I mean, think about it. Inspiration has to be refueled sometimes! And that's the passive part of it. Like the things I said earlier. Looking at pictures, listening to music, just kind of relaxing and... recharging? Haha.

     So maybe this is just me trying to tell the weird drive that it's ok to just chill sometimes, or maybe this is me trying to justify things. Orrrr maybe I'm on to something kind of cool? I don't know. Ha.

Here is some of the inspiration I've found the past few days.

  
 

aaand a movie i want to see. 

the dark shadows - out may 11th

i love tim burton :) & johnny depp.

may photo a day: 4, fun!

friday niiiiight

picked these up after the end of a verrrryyyy long work week. 

may photo a day: 3, something you wore today.

i made this necklace maybe a year ago when i realized i needed some jewelry with feathers on it. i only had one necklace with feathers at the time and i wore it almost every day hehe :) so i made this one to add to my collection.

believe

One Saturday afternoon last month, my friend Christina asked if I'd help her with a photo project. She needed it for a scholarship for art school. She had an amazing idea to start with - fabric leading from her sewing machine, spelling out the word 'believe' in the sky. We had only a faint idea of how we were going to make it happen, but armed with this information we hit JoAnn Fabric's, and then Meijer. During our extensive shopping trip we came up with the plan.

We bought a cardboard moving box, which came flat and was about 4'x2'. Christina traced out the word believe in cursive, and we cut it out with x-acto knives. We then spent the next hour or two hand sewing the fabric around the cardboard frame, trying to make it look as natural as possible. Then came the challenging part - hanging the thing up. We tied fishing wire to four points in the word, and used a piece of cardboard to measure the distance the strings would need to be from the ceiling. We wanted the word to trail up to the sky, so the strings toward the end of the word needed to be shorter (duh).

the set up

After that we tacked it to the ceiling with push pins. The cardboard frame was not as sturdy as we had hoped and we had to prop it up in spots with paint brushes and rulers. haha. So anyway, then we shot! These were the two favorites.

extras?

click to see the big versions! :)






It was a heck of a project, and took up our entire day but was well worth it. If only we could have recycled the lettering for another day :( but alas, it was too fragile. but we got some great pictures while it lasted.








hopefully she gets the scholarship. :)

what's in my bag

This video is quite different than my normal style. I blame it on Dulcie for introducing me to the world of YouTube glamour gurus. I just thought it'd be interesting and I've been really wanting to make some nice videos since I got my new camera and it records in HD. :)

So what do you think? Should I do more of these kind of videos? Let me know on facebook.

adios amigos

chictopia!

finally updated my chictopia  :)

click the pics to see more.

ta ta!

march photo a day

march 15. car.

STICKER HEAVEN

working at a sign company means i basically make giant stickers all day. sometimes i get to make some for myself :)

march 16. sunglasses.

I HEART YOU

i have this thing for funky sunglasses, what can i say. i got these from Everybody's Everything, this crazy costume store here in town. ♥

march 17. green.

SIGNS OF SPRING

or is it summer already? because it sure feels like it outside today. 75? really michigan? 

stay tuned for moreeeee

more march photo a day

march 12. fork.

iPHONE ART
feelin like absolute crap today, stopped by biggby to get some tea and saw this. wished i had my actual camera but the iphone photo will have to do.

march 13. a sign.

ART & IMAGE
i work at a sign shop so this was pretty much a no brainer. here is the beginning of a sign - printing. also some cupcake stickers i made for Dulcie. hehe

march 14. clouds.

FLYING BY

sick. yuck. losing my motivation to do this thing but i will not give up! snapped this pic while riding in a car. turned out surprisingly good.

stay tuned for more march photo a day :)

march 11. someone you talked to today.

march 11. someone you talked to today.

LAZY SUNDAY

woke up sick and didnt talk to many people today, but here is somebody that i talk to every day. rain or shine.

coming up next: forks.

march photo a day

the march photo a day contest is going on and even though i came in late, i'm determined to give it a shot. here's what i've done so far.

march 6. 5pm.

BABY YOU CAN DRIVE MY CAR

at 5pm today i was still working. i found out about this photo challenge at approximately 5:29pm today; thank you, Dulcie Stormo. this is the best i could do for an entrance, we'll see if the next few days prove more promising. 

march 7. something you wore.

LAST NIGHT'S PROJECT

my friend dulcie & i made jewelry last night & this is one of the pieces that i turned out with... a necklace made of odds and ends :) i love it.

 march 8. window.

SUN SPOTS

today was a blur for me. it was only around the time the sun finally set that i was able to slow down, and snap a photo. i love sun spots.

march 9. red.

CHARACTER

today was easy for me because a couple of days ago, i dyed parts of my hair that exact color. 'candy apple red' to be exact; thank you, special effects.

necklace courtesy of cindy sweeney.

march 10. loud.

THE HILLS ARE ALIVE

with the sound of music... dulcie & i went to riverview park today and adventured. it was like 57 outside, simply beautiful day for photos. saturdays in the park are to die for.

anyway dulcie started posing like this and it worked out pretty good for the photo challenge for today :)

look back tomorrow to see someone i talked to that day.