Returning soon

Today is the last day of my vacation. I'm eager to return to blogging since I have a lot of great stories to tell and lots of pictures to show. It's hard blogging at someone else's home.

I had a lot of adventures and brainstormed a lot with my cousin. I'm really inspired to begin working on some great projects too!

Hope everyone had a nice Easter. I'll be posting with pictures tomorrow.

Country Roads..

At 6 a.m. I'll be hitting the road to go to West Virginia with my sister, my nephew and my cousin. We will be staying with relatives in Blue Creek...Elk View. I can't wait.

As hard as I tried to blog today about something creative, which I've been doing a lot of lately, I had to pack and clean, go to work, then to a meeting, and finally, drop my car off to get the brakes fixed. (My sister is driving her car on the trip).

While I'm in West Virginia, I will be blogging. I plan on making artists trading cards on the trip. ATCs don't take up much room and I'll be inspired by my surroundings.

I'll be posting soon!

Reformat....Relief!

After almost of week of h*ll with a really bad computer virus, I had to reformat my computer. So, I'm back in the business of blogging. I lost a lot of programs, so I have to spend some time loading them onto my machine, but I don't mind. It's just great to be back.

I will be going on a vacation in a few days (West Virginia), but hopefully I can blog a couple of times before I go and maybe even while I'm there.

Thanks for your patience and be careful of downloading games and applications. There might be a sneaky virus there waiting for you.

Virus and Trojans

Bare with me as I try to fix my very infected computer. I believe I got several viruses, Malware and Trojans from downloading a game from facebook. I'm not sure, but that's when this craziness started. I have spent hours and hours trying to fix this and am considering reformatting my computer.

What a shame that we live in a world where nasty people take so much pleasure in causing so much pain. For every hour that I have spent trying to fix my computer, I could have been blogging or creating.

I've lost my desktop, I keep getting booted off the Internet, I'm redirected during searches, etc.

So, on the weekend I'm going to spend some time working on this. I look forward to my weekends where I can create for hours at a time, catch up on housework and just relax. Hopefully I can take care of this in only a few hours.

Wish me luck as I try to nurse my computer back to good health!!

Magazines to Inspire

If you are like me, you love to look at the works that other artists create. There are some great magazines available today and I thought I would share with you my favorites.

Somerset Studio is a great magazine full of artwork. If you enjoy Artists Trading Cards, assemblage, altered art, or mixed media, you have to take a peak at this magazine. There are theme based challenges, interviews with artists, tutorials, and spotlights. If I only had one of these magazines, I would get enough ideas to last me years, yet, when I see a new issue, I'm always tempted to buy it. If I look inside, I've committed myself to purchase it. I'm so glad the Joann's lets the customer use coupons on their books and magazines, because they can run from $8.99 to $15.99 . The image you see above is of the Somerset Studio Gallery addition. It showcases the amazing work of many talented artists (more than 400 projects in this addition.)

Art Doll Quarterly is another magazine I really enjoy looking at. I'm always so inspired when I browse the pages. Like Somerset Studios, this magazine has interviews, tutorials and hundreds of wonderful images. There are paper dolls, polymer clay, fabric, found objects, and altered dolls. Some are odd, some cute, and others are amazingly beautiful.



I recently found this magazine, called Cloth, paper, scissors. When I saw this cover, old paint tubes with sculpted faces, I had to have it. The whole magazine is filled with great projects, really emphasizing recycled items. beautifully designed collages, and a great article on journaling.
At the back of the magazine are several ads for art retreats which inspired my friend Mary Ann and I to start planning our own in the late summer. She has a rustic cottage in northern Michigan, a perfect place to immerse ourselves in art.

Finally, my favorite magazine is called Where Women Create. The work spaces that are featured in this magazine are wonderful. The women spot lighted in this magazine are artists, designers, and writers. Just when I think I've seen the most amazing studio, a few pages later I'm in awe again. If you are trying to plan a perfect work space for your craft, Where Women Create will surely inspire!
What I love about these magazines is that the only advertising you see is for art supplies and it's usually near the back pages. The quality of the magazines are superb too. There are pages and pages of free tutorials, descriptions of techniques, and free paper samples. Once you start collecting them, you'll never tire of looking through them, so even though the cost is a little more expensive than Cosmo or Woman's Day, it's well worth the investment.

Colored Pencils

Enjoyed the morning light a few days ago and took some pictures of colored pencils. If you like the pics, feel free to right click and save. You never know when you'll need a graphic of colored pencils.

Trying to find a sense of myself

This last week has been really tough on me. Imagine my mind is a pin ball machine and the balls in the game are my thoughts and ideas. I have been bouncing ideas around inside my head for days now, I can't focus and I'm falling behind.

To give you an idea of some of my ideas, I'll number them.

1. Do craft shows in the fall
2. Don't do shows, send post cards to businesses and sell wholesale.
3. Quit my job and do summer shows
4. Work more hours at my job
5. Send free Christmas ornaments to shops to promote my clay
6. Stop doing cute clay and make "artsy" stuff
7. Forget about the artsy stuff and do the things I've been doing for years
8. Buy a tent
9. Don't buy a tent
10. Start making fairies (I bought four fairy books on amazon)
11. Sell fairy books on ebay
12. Make weird looking stuff
13. Do country and primitive stuff again (got a $19.00 subscription to Country Business Magazine)
14. Stop doing clay altogether and paint gourds
15. Ordered a bunch of gourds off of ebay..might turn around and sell them on ebay..still don't know
16. Do a trade show and sell primitive items
17. Do a trade show and sell Christmas ornaments
18. Don't waste money on a trade show, build up my website instead
19. Website doesn't get that many orders, don't waste my time
20. What if my website did start getting orders, then it wouldn't be a waste of time
21. Do more canvas paintings and embellish with clay
22. Make clay embellishments to sell to other artists
23. Make clay buttons
24. Take classes on making ceramic tiles
25. Make faux ceramic tiles
26. Make artsy jewelry
27. Make a lot of cake toppers


Then there's the whole graphics "ideas"..

1. Make a portfolio of my work and try to get a job as a graphic designer
2. I go to school, so I can't switch jobs right now, my job is really easy going with classes
3. Make banners for websites
4. Make clip art
5. Make images for people to have for their websites, jewelry, art work
6. Scan images and sell on ebay
7. Scan images and give away
8. Make business cards and signs, etc for crafters
9. Make a collage Cd full of ephemera

As you can see, the clay/art list is so much bigger than the graphics list, yet I'm going to school, getting a degree in Fine Arts...? Graphic Arts? Even there I can't make up my mind. (similar, but what will the end result be)..

I seriously think I have Adult Attention Deficit Disorder.

While writing this post, I stopped and took the test. Funny thing is, one of the questions goes like this...

21. My thoughts bounce around as if my mind is a pinball machine.
Not at all
Just a little
Somewhat
Moderately
Quite a lot
Very much

I did this test after I described my mind as a pinball machine. I guess I'm not the only one who feels like this.
It's hard to feel like one's mind is cluttered. Or as the test describes it; many channels of television going off at the same time.

In my daily life I battle these thoughts..

1. Buy a house
2. rent a house
3. rent an apartment
4. move up north
5. move to florida
6. Get rid of a piece of furniture
7. Keep the piece of furniture
8. Rearrange my studio
9. Keep it the way it is
10. Paint?
11. Not paint?
12. Get married?
13. Stay single?
14. Make more friends?
15. Get rid of more friends?
16. Love my job?
17. Hate my job?

I feel debilitated by this. I think I'm ready to seek medication for it. I tried many years ago to address this in therapy, but it was dismissed. When I saw that I wasn't being heard, I quit going.
I think it's time to re-address this problem. I can't handle it any more.

I found a great website that seriously speaks to me. Artists & AADD. Check if out if you have Attention Deficit Disorder and don't want to feel alone.

If you find me missing from the blog for a few days, say to yourself, "Debbie's AADD must be in full swing,"

My plan was not to write this posting today. I was going to feature some books and magazines that I find inspiration in. I was also going to show some work I finished. But, the batteries in my camera died and have to be re-charged. Then I felt compelled to share this problem with you. I try to keep this blog interesting and creative, but sometimes real life takes over.

After the batteries are back to full juice, I'll share those books and magazines with you and show you my latest creations.

And the Winner is...

Congratulations to TheClayMuse who won the bunny pin. All she has to do is send me her address and I'll get it out in the mail as soon as possible.

This giveaway did not generate much interest. I am still trying to figure out how to get people really excited about my little contests. Either my work isn't that good or people don't trust these or people are shy. I'm going to keep trying though!

I'll be having another one when I get back from Easter vacation.

In the meantime, I'll be showing some work later on this evening. Thanks again to all of you who keep returning.

Bunny Pin

Just a reminder that my contest ends this Friday. If you want to have a chance to win, please sign up as a follower. (Upper right hand of this blog)..I'll pick a winner from the followers.

I know that many are subscribers, but I can't access that information. Good luck~