Week One

Well, as I said in yesterday's post, I'm starting the fifty-two week photo project this week.  I was so excited that I started right away, despite the rain, wind, and cold weather yesterday.  I took over 100 photos, but I'm going to share the best ones with you, starting with the photo I chose to represent week 1 of this project.  Enjoy!

 Definitely one of my favorites. There's Week 1!!!  Feedback appreciated...as well as suggestions for future photos.  <3

Fifty-two Weeks

So, I am sad to say that I quickly failed to keep up with an entry a day for my art journal, thanks to my stomach flu.  I'm about a week behind.  That doesn't mean I'm giving it up...far from it...but I probably won't have an entry every day.  Instead, I have decided to try a new project (in addition to the journal of course), and hopefully it will be one that is easier to keep up with. 

A Fifty-Two week photo project.

For all of you who read my last blog post, I left a little link at the end to a photographer on Deviant Art who has some amazing photos.  Over the past year =Ronaaa  http://ronaaa.deviantart.com/ did a "fifty-two week photography project." The basic idea is to post one self portrait photo a week, each photo being a diary/journal entry of sorts, to document your entire year. 

Those of you who know me well, know that I love taking photos, and for me, I find that inspiration for photos comes far easier than inspiration for drawings or writing.  I feel that, if I can achieve this goal, I will feel more accomplished, and confident in my artwork, and maybe it will inspire me to do more with it.  So, starting this week (10/25/2010) I will do my best to post one self portrait photo a week on my deviant art page:  http://goodnightclover.deviantart.com/

I'm hoping to post the first one today. 

To close, I'd like to post a few of the photos from =Ronaaa's project that inspired me to start my own.  If you like them, I'd encourage you to go check out the rest on her profile.

Pointless Entry

I've been away from the internet for a few days, so I'm sorry for the lack of updates.  The stomach flu is a good enough excuse, I hope.  Haha.
 However, I am well on the way to recovering now, and while I don't really have a topic to talk about today, I thought I'd stop in and let you all know that I am still alive.
I suppose there is not much more to say.  I am healthy again, its a lovely, warm fall day, the tree outside my window is turning yellow at last, and I found out that I will be able to visit home in less than a month.  Overall, today is a great day.

Found some pretty photos that I feel reflect my mood today.  All of them were found on DA.

Also, go check out http://ronaaa.deviantart.com/ on DA, she takes so many lovely photos!

Pumpkin, Part 1

Over the weekend I babysat some wonderful little girls, and we carved pumpkins.  Those of you who know me, know that pumpkins are one of my favorite parts about this time of year.  I love gutting, carving, and cooking pumpkins.  Pies, breads, cakes...pumpkin anything, but today I was working with seeds.  Roast pumpkin seeds are absolutely amazing! 

Not only is it fun to gut the pumpkin and separate the seeds from the goop, but cooking and eating those seeds is wonderful too. 

Since I don't have too much to say on the topic to convince you of how great they are, I'm just going to keep this entry short and leave you with a simple recipe so you can try them yourself!

You Need:
1or more pumpkins to remove the seeds from.
Cookie sheets
Veggie oil or butter
Salt

Start by removing the goop from the pumpkin, and remove the seeds from the goop.

Wash the seeds under warm water until all of them are goop free and sparkly clean.

Dry seeds and spread in a thin layer on a cookie sheet.  Use cooking spray or tin foil to keep the seeds from sticking.

Sprinkle about one to two teaspoons of veggie oil or melted butter evenly over the seeds.

Sprinkle on salt as desired.

Bake in oven at about 300* for 20 minutes.  Pull out and stir seeds, then bake another 20 minutes or until seeds are browned.

Let seeds cool, and soak up excess oil if desired.  Add salt if desired.

Then, eat! 

I am going to experiment with other "flavors" with my next batch.  My husband suggested garlic pumpkin seeds, or honey roasted.  I'll have to try a few different styles.  Experiment!  Yay!

So, I hope you will give this recipe a try, and enjoy your pumpkin seeds.
Its quite likely that several more blog posts before Thanksgiving will contain recipes, so keep your eyes peeled if you enjoyed this one.  <3 

Art Journaling

Art journaling.  I love the idea, and I have been confronted by it twice in the last month.  Therefore, I have decided to start keeping my own art journal. 

I first saw the idea on the deviantART profile of a friend.  Her mother had suggested she get into art journaling, and really, she the pages she has decided to share in her gallery are beautiful. 
The second time I saw the idea for art journaling was on Facebook.  I follow the Dick Blick Art Supplies page there, and they posted it as an idea for parents to encourage their kids to get into art.  And of course, I thought it was a great idea.
So I started my own. 
The basic idea is to put on the page whatever you are feeling that day, sort of like a diary.  The artist is encouraged to draw, paint, collage, stick, paste, tape, sew, craft...whatever they want...in their journal.  The goal is to keep the journal going for 30 days, one entry every day without fail.  More, of course, is always encouraged!
As a result of the art journal, hopefully, the artist is learning not to be worried about how their work will come out, or spend too much time thinking about what they want to draw (which is my problem) thus losing the idea...Put whatever comes to mind on the page, don't think too hard, just do it.  

For that reason alone, the confidence to draw or paint or scrapbook whatever comes to mind, THE MOMENT it comes to mind, is why I decided to start an art journal.  I have too many problems with thinking my art through, with correcting and correcting and correcting, and in the end, sometimes I'm still not happy with it...I hope that this 'exercise' will help me be more confident and spontaneous in my art...and get my art to reflect my feelings...
Below are my first two art journal entries.

 I'm looking forward to filling this sketchbook with many more pages just like these, and hopefully better.  Perhaps I will post some here from time to time to share my progress.  If not, and you're interested, just look me up on deviantART because I will be sharing quite a few of the pages there.  http://goodnightclover.deviantart.com/

That said, I will now end this entry with some great art journal pages I found on Google.

Homesick

I apologize in advance, but today's entry is mostly a chance to vent.  So, if that does not interest you, don't read any further.

I miss home.  My childhood home in NY.

I can't get over the fact that we had to sell it, and that it won't be my home anymore.  And yet, I also miss my new home too.

 I miss my family, and while I love my husband and our home here in CO, and the life we have together, I hate that I can't live closer to them in NY.

 I miss my pets.  Don't get me wrong, I love the three I have now, but I miss the ones I left behind, and I'm upset that I couldn't be home to say goodbye to the ones that we've lost since I moved...

 I miss the NY nature.  All of the trees, the rocks, the streams, the weather, and the fresh middle of nowhere air...

I miss being able to have a huge vegetable garden and water that I don't have to filter before I drink.  I miss fresh venison for supper all the time and my Aunt Rita's pumpkin pie.  I miss Grandma calling me up on the phone and asking if I could run down the hill to hang her curtains or put in her storm windows for winter.  I miss family property and being allowed to walk wherever the hell I want to walk, whenever I feel like it.  I miss the smell of hay on my cat's fur when I would pet her.  I miss blueberry picking, and creaky old houses, floods and collecting firewood for the winter.  I miss hearing my chickens every morning.  I miss Grandma setting off fire crackers in her front yard and scaring our dogs.  I miss the back roads and the small town, and running into old friends at the grocery store.  I miss my job at the library.  I miss Manor's awesome chinese food, because the chinese food out here just sucks.  I miss being able to climb trees, and hike through the woods in my leather boots and pirate shirt.  I miss Mom's cooking, and family gatherings at Grandma's house where you never know if you might get hit by a flying dinner roll.  I miss the 3 feet of snow, the colored leaves, and all the flowers in the spring.  I miss living in the middle of freaking nowhere, where my only neighbors were family and close friends, and even then you had to walk at least 3 minutes to reach the nearest house.  I miss babysitting my little cousin Conner, even though he is a little terror and I usually have to sit down with a heating pack on my neck after watching him for the day.  I miss my gravel driveway, and Grandma yelling at me for walking everywhere barefoot.  I miss having no internet (weird, I know), and still having a million other things I could do without it.  I miss my bookshelves and my random collected trinkets.

I miss sitting on the highest point of the roof and just admiring the scenery, and I miss when the cats would join me.  I miss camping in the middle of the woods under the stars and listening to Grandma rant about how we would get eaten by bears.  I miss taking random photos with my sister, no matter where we were.  I miss visiting Trina on her dairy farm, and baking with Anne in her mother's kitchen.  I miss home movies and Grandma's fried potatoes, Mom's artwork, and Dad's secret venison jerky recipe.  I miss sewing and designing my own dresses, and then wearing them to work because the ladies at the library didn't mind.  I miss Aunt Mary trying to teach us to cook, but always choosing recipes that we didn't like.  Haha.  I miss Aunt Jeannie always asking that we come and take pictures of her dogs, and Aunt Beth giving us free hair cuts and telling us to move out of town.  I miss Grandpa and his old time stories that took hours to tell.  I miss visiting Dad's side of the family and letting everyone look at my sketchbooks and tell me how weird my art was.  I miss apple picking every year with Dad and Eva, baking fiascoes with my sister when Mom's not home, and Mom always having to remind me to wash the dishes.  Yuck! 

I just miss home.  My first home.  I have nothing against where I live now, and honestly, I am very happy with my life.  I have a wonderful husband, two very strange cats, and an annoying dog. We live comfortably, but too close to the city, and we have too many neighbors who are all strangers to me.  Right now we don't have much of a choice.  My husband is in the army, and until he is out we can't really move too far. 

Still...he would like to continue living in CO once his contract is up...
He says he never wants to move back to NY, but I do, and I don't know how to convince him otherwise.  I know that he is very adaptable, but I am not, and I've already been away from the things I know and love, the things that I grew up with, and the things that I am most comfortable around, for far too long. 

I guess I still have two years to convince him...

Fall is Finally Here

Fall is, without a doubt, one of my favorite times of the year.  Its not too hot, and its not too cold.  The air smells cool, yet warm at the same time.  Its fresh air, dried maple leaves, and people starting to burn their wood stoves.  Its pumpkin pie and turkey and fresh bread just out of the oven.  And then there's the colors...
As an artist, I love color, so naturally I love fall.  Nothing is more beautiful than seeing the trees turn from that late summer green to vibrant reds, oranges, and yellows.  Even when they fall to the ground and the trees are bare and skeletal, the beauty of fall isn't over!  The trees have just shared their color with the grass that is steadily turning brown, and that brings us to the best part of the season...
Leaf piles.  Yes it sounds so juvenile, but even now if I had the opportunity, you would find me raking leaves into a pile just to jump into them.  They're so soft beneath you, with that warm, leafy smell in your nose, you could simply lie there forever, staring up at the clouds in the blue autumn sky and its like nothing else in the world ever mattered...  Its like the world is gone and its just you and nature.

 Fall has finally arrived in my corner of the country, but I am sad to say that its nothing like fall back home.  I miss the maple trees, and the birch, and the cherry, and the hemlock.  I miss the rolling hills, covered in fall colors.  I miss the sound of the stream outside my window and spending my days sitting at its banks.  I miss staying outside til well after dark, lying in the leaves, and watching the sky for shooting stars. 

Fall has no color here.  There are rocks, and there are pines, neither of which change color.  The aspen trees do turn yellow, but they are few.  This year I won't have the vibrant colors.  I won't have the smell of fall or the pile of leaves in my front yard. 

I will miss you, autumn.  Let's meet again sometime.

Coincidence? I Think Not...

Yesterday I asked you for advice.  Should I write the book that I've always wanted to write despite my lack of self confidence, or should I forget the whole damn thing and find something else to do with my life.

Several of you left me encouraging comments and several others (mostly family) told me in person to just "Go for it."  I really appreciate all of the support and encouragement.

But then, this morning at 4 AM while I was on Facebook, I found that one of my favorite authors linked to a blog in which she was interviewed.  I wasn't going to read it...but i didn't really have anything better to do at 4 AM.  Most of the interview questions were about her book, some about her personal life, but then it got to one question where I felt the answer was directed straight at me...

Any advice you'd like to share for us aspiring writers?

Try to finish something. If your goal is to publish a novel, force yourself to write one, complete novel. Don't think about how crappy it is or all the things you want to change while you're writing it. Just FINISH it. You'll learn more from that process than from anything else you''ll ever do or read.

Is it coincidence that just as I was doubting myself I stumbled across this?  I think not.

Some things, I think, were just meant to happen the way they happened...  And this happened too perfectly to be mere coincidence.

So, my decision is made.  I'm going to write my book.  I'm going to fight writers block and my horrid farm-girl grammar, and I'm going to write.  As a result, someday I hope you'll be seeing my books on the shelves at Barnes & Nobles, or in your local library.  That would be a dream come true.

To those of you who encouraged me to continue writing, I thank you so much, and I hope you will continue to support me throughout my whole writing process--I know I will need it!

And now...I do believe I'm off to write something.  <3

P.S.  The blog in which the interview was featured was Ebysswriter

The author interviewed was a local NY author who's books I absolutely adore, Michelle Zink.  <3

And now for some pretty, inspirational pictures--Here for your enjoyment as well as my writing inspiration.

To Write, or Not to Write

Yesterday, my Mom told me that I should write a book.  I have the plot ideas.  I have the characters.  I have settings.  Hell, I even have most of them named!  But...I just don't know if I have the talent.  

I LOVE to write.  I've been writing stories since I was a child, but that doesn't mean they were any good.  In fact, I'm quite positive the only stories I've ever written that were even decent were fan fictions.  Go figure.

Such has been my mindset lately, and so I have not written in some time.  I feel that every time I do my words can not do the characters and places I have created any justice.  How am I supposed to write a book if that is the case?

Do not misunderstand me...it is my dream to write and publish a book.  It has been for a long, long time.  I just don't have the confidence in myself to carry through with it, and I don't know how to fix that problem.

I want to write.  I have the ideas and I NEED to put them on paper...  But the story-lines in my head are so wonderful to me, that whenever I try to translate it to paper, I fail. Its just not the same, and I can't seem to settle for just OK.  It has to be exactly like the pictures in my mind or its not good enough for me.

This is getting depressing, so I digress...  My question to you is:  Should I try to write my book, or should I just... forget about it?