Doodle Sketching

sketch
 
For the past week (maybe longer), I have practiced doing some simple doodling. Staying with it, and adding more and more just to see where it goes. This is a fun challenge for me, this intentional daily sketching/doodling. Its not something I’m very good at, but its fun to try something new!
 
I have challenged myself to only using black pens on white paper this week, not worrying about adding any color. Keeping it simple, eliminating choices. I got some fun new watercolors recently and, although I’m excited to use them, right now they overwhelm me. So, no color. And no stress over what to draw
And just doodle (which isn’t as easy as it sounds some days).
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Blogging it Slower

blogging

Sometimes all these colors feel like too much. I want to pick just. one.

I have been blogging in this space for almost 8 years. Eight years. That is actually the longest I’ve ever stuck with any type of journal-keeping of any type. Now, of course, it has all changed quite a bit since I started. Back then it seemed like there was only a handful of us. I knew nothing about google reader. I checked blogs the prehistoric way, by clicking on a saved bookmark. I didn’t have a smartphone, there were no Ipads, If a blog wasn’t updated, I’d just check back later. On my computer.
Reading blogs and making friends with bloggers was an social outlet for me. I was at home with small kids all day, some days feeling lonely and other days a little nuts. It was sanity-saving. I was thrilled to be a part of it.
But over time I realized my own blogging changed. As an example, for a while I experiemented with advertising on the blog. While overall it was a good experience, ultimately it wasn’t for me.Once (or maybe more than once) I nearly stopped blogging altogether. Had I said all I wanted to say? Had it all run it’s course? Are blogs relevant. For some reason I didn’t stop, but I never really answered my own questions.
I’ve felt disheartened towards blogging in 2012. Maybe you’ve noticed it? Things online seem to swirl at a speed that no one person can possibly keep up with. If this is what a blog needed to do, did I want to do it? My love hate relationship with Pinterest is the perfect example. It’s my “5 minutes to kill” eye candy, purely because it all comes at me so quickly. I love getting inspired by Pinterest, but funny thing is, there is a tiny percentage of pins I have ever actually looked at. Many blogs I click on to sparkle with rotating content, clickable this, downloadable that. It was an inevitability that blogs would make this jump and I don’t pass judgement on anyone who runs a blog like this (I read some of them). In this day and age, blogging is done with a lot of gusto and energy.
Over the holiday break I thought about all this, and what I want from this space. I asked myself some hard questions. Some I still haven’t answered. Here’s what I know:
What do I want my blog to be? I want my blog to be an expression of me and what I do. Blogging in my own way is important to me.
What is my blog about? With the support out there from you, blogging has made me realize I am an artist. I want my blog to be about what I make and my creative life.
And all this thinking brought me around to the book I’m working on. Based on the lightening speed of the internet content, sometimes I’ve wondered, why bother? I get discouraged some days (which is all a part of the creative process, but it still sucks). Do people read craft books anymore? Thinking thoughts like this have brought me to tears more than once. Work on a book, as many of you know, is a long and sometimes grueling process. By the time my book is done, it will most certainly feel like some sort of birth.
Where am I going with all this?
Today, I felt overwhelmed by the many things I needed to get done, I am worried about money (being two self-employed people, let’s face it, when are we NOT worried about money), health insurance costs rising, you name it. I needed an escape. Not just for a minute or two, but a real escape. And I realized that two specific things felt really right at that moment.
1- Curling up with a stack of books. With beautiful pictures to give me ideas about how to freshen up our very beige hallway. With beautiful, inspiring text to read. To flip through and read at my own leisure. I get what I missed about printed pages more than ever.
2- Writing this post to you. Just sitting down and writing a blog post about my true feelings around this whole crazy online world and my feelings towards it. It feels incredibly good to write all of this out to you this way.
There has been talk online from others about savoring time, Erin wrote brilliantly about the idea of slow blogging, and consciously relaxing in the new year. Apparently alot of us are thinking about it in some way. I, myself don’t quite know where this talk is leading in my mind. Except to say that I am excited and giddy about the book I’m writing all over again. And that feels really good!
And I realized that I have new energy for the blog. In some form.
If you’ve read this far, you deserve a gold star sent to you.
Snail mail, of course.
Thank you for being out there,
Blair
 

DIY Doodle Rock Craft

 
rock craft
When we were in New Mexico last week, we took a walk on the Paseo del Bosque Trail, which runs along the Rio Grande. I brought home a few rocks from there, because you know we love rocks! Later in the week, I spent some time in my father-in-law’s art studio, painting the rocks. It was so fun to do I thought I’d share.
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Gray Day Photo Lighting Trick

photo lighting
This is a simple trick to help to better photos in the natural light, without resorting to flash. Photo lighting in tricky in Seattle most of the year, but especially when it is as gray as it has been this season. I take almost all my photos in front of the sliding glass doors in our family room, it is almost the only place that works for photos in our dark house. During the darkest winter months, I may only have a couple of hours at midday that photos would work at all.  I could resort to turning on lamps or purchase a reflector, but I don’t like the yellowing of artificial light and this trick works just as well as a reflector. Using this homemade reflector  can bounce the light and soften the harsh shadows that show on the side of the object not facing the window.READ MORE

DIY Washi Tape Garland


DIY Washi Tape Garland

This may be the one and only Christmas holiday I’d like to do in neon, so I’m going to just go for it wherever I can. I pulled out my stash of washi tape and created a quick garland for my studio. I think I’ll get the kids to make some more while watching the Macy’s parade on Thanksgiving Day. It easy and bright, just the kind of project I like.
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Emma's DIY Desk

 
DIY Desk
Another project we did for Emma’s room redo was fill the need for a dressing table and chair. There is a bit more mirror time these days before school, and I thought it would be nice for her to have a place to keep all her earrings, lip gloss, and… slingshot.
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Crazy Star Quilt

Crazy Quilt

 As I suspected, finishing unfinished projects seems to be good for the blahs. I put my nose down toward the sewing machine last week and finished the crazy star quilt I’d started a while ago. I held my breath as I used the walking foot on my Bernina for the first time to quilt straight lines across the star, then continued to hold my breath while I free motioned the entire quilt around the star with loop-d-loops. (Are these out of style? Oh please say they aren’t!). Everything worked just like it was supposed to (I love my sewing machine!) and I finished hand-stitching the binding while Peter and I watched Alaska State Troopers on Saturday night (don’t you want to party with us?).

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Random

 

I’m not gonna lie, its been a weird week. Kinda good, I mean Fall! I love Fall… but kinda blah… maybe cause that rain they told us to expect never came. Maybe I just need more chocolate. I know I really need to get myself organized. If I do that over the weekend, next week will automatically start out better.READ MORE

Emma’s DIY Headboard

DIY headboard

A budget- friendly, DIY headboard project Emma’s room. A little history first- Emma has slept in a great wooden sleigh bed since she moved out of crib (here’s a post from 2006 that shows this bed). It is well-made, really lovely, but the footboard definitely created a visual barrier in a room that stays pretty messy most of the time. I thought it would be fun to change her twin bed to a simple, metal bed frame and make an upholstered headboard ourselves, to give that corner a cozy feel.

 

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