I find that on days I don't have to work, it's hard to get up the momentum to start working on anything. Most of the time I get some little thing cleaned, or I create something, if I'm in the mood. But it's very hard to post here for some reason. I don't know why - I like creating things, I like taking photos of my creations, I like sharing myself and my creations with the world.

That being said, I am in the middle of a 4-day weekend, so we'll see how my writing goes. I'm hoping I can keep the momentum going because I'm posting today, and it's going to be a triple-day post.

#30DaysofCreativity Day 10:
I did post about this, but my 10th day of creativity was spent planning out some photos for the June Photo Challenge over at Photohuntchallenges.com.
I spent some time thinking about all the 20 items and where I could possibly go to take photos of all these things. I don't have anything tangible for this day, but I feel I did some good creative groundwork for a large creative endeavor.

#30DaysofCreativity Day 11:
Because I was so inspired by my previous day of photo planning, I took out my camera again and took some more photos. I set up my tripod and took photos of my beautiful cat, held captive by sleep in his spot next to my desk.

Isn't he cute?

#30DaysofCreativity Day 12:
I went back to my scrapbook desk today and made a mini book from old photos and paper. I used one of those fold-out wallet inserts that people use for photos of their kids. I filled it with people (and animals) I love.

Here's a gallery of the whole thing:

So there we are. All caught up. I have some exciting news coming soon, but I will share that next week. You'll just have to come back to see what it is!!!

Happy Creating!

While I was driving to work this morning, a very annoying new song came on the radio, but instead of changing the station, I started making up my own lyrics. And when I heard it again on my drive home, I had almost finished re-writing the chorus!

What was this annoying song? Katy Perry's "California Girls". I know some of you probably like that song, and that's fine, but I find it annoying. Here's a video with the lyrics if you don't know the song I'm talking about. (The music video isn't out yet, so lyric videos are all that I could find)

Beware, it's catchy!

Chorus lyrics:

California girls, we’re unforgettable.
Daisy Duke, bikinis on top
Sun-kissed skin so hot we’ll melt your popsicle.
Oh- - - - - - - - - -
 
California girls we’re undeniable.
Fine, fresh, fierce, we got it on lock.
West coast represent, now put your hands up.
Oh - - - - - - - - - -

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

And now: My new lyrics, special for MINNESOTA GIRLS!!!

Minnesota girls, we’re unforgettable.
Big snow boots, and parkas on top
Bright white snow so cold it's like a popsicle.
Eh- - - - - - - - - -
 
Minnesota girls we’re undeniable.
Ya! You betcha, we got a pot luck.
Midwest represent, now put your gloves on.
Eh - - - - - - - - - -

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

So, what do you think? Play the video again and sing the new words - catchy, right? I'm going to be singing my new lyrics every time I hear that song on the radio!

I had a lot of fun stretching my creative muscles on this one today.

Happy creating!

It has been raining here today. All day. And when it finally stopped, I took the opportunity to grab my camera and take some photos of the rain-soaked world.

Click on the first photo to open the gallery of photos I took today.

I love the deep, rich greens. I also love the select focus and blurred backgrounds. I've been working hard lately on getting just the right settings for my camera to get the photos I want. I barely had to fix these photos, mostly just cropping!

I also took a few photos of a daddy-long-legs spider I saw near our front steps, but when I uploaded the photos, they gave me the creeps and I could not handle looking at them. I'm a wuss, I know.

Thanks for visiting!

Happy Creating!

Another scrapbook page! it's amazing!

This one is of my sister's adorable kitty, Maddie.

She's a funny cat. She loves to be around people and 'talk' to you, but hates to be held! She has beautiful green eyes, and I'm so excited I found some paper that matched! And it's purple, too! (purple being my sister's favorite color!)

Thanks for checking out my site and my creative products for the last 6 days. I'm hoping I can keep up with this 30 days of creativity project - it's really inspiring and pushing me to just DO something!

Happy Creating!

Today's creative endeavor is this website! I started putting together my portfolio! You can check it out on the upper right of this page.

I created galleries of projects I have done.
The galleries are pretty cool - you click on the first (or any) picture and it brings up a larger version of the picture with an explanation below it and arrows to navigate the gallery. I really like how they turned out.

I have some more things to put up and I will be adding to my portfolio occasionally as I find more and make more. Please check back every once in awhile to see some new photos!

Ok, I missed a day, shame on me!

Today, I will simply leave you with a haiku inspired by a game we played tonight at a friend's house.

Bee, Soup, Frog, Shoe, Key
Much hilarity ensues
It's Huggermugger!

Thank you, and goodnight!

Today's creative result is a scrapbook page.

I have books and books filled with scrapbook pages; I have done it since I was in high school (13 years, if you're counting), but lately I've been so preoccupied (and enthusiastic) about other projects, scrapbooking has fallen to the wayside.

Tonight, it made it's triumphant (if brief) return to my creative workspace! Behold: a scrapbook page!!!

I have a uniquely-sized (12x6) scrapbook that I keep of all the celebrities I meet or get an autograph from. This one is from Robert Verdi, star (at the time) of "What Not To Wear" on TLC. He came to Minneapolis one summer and my mom surprised me and brought me to Macy's to meet him. Unfortunately, she forgot her camera! So I found a picture online. That's what took me so long to make this page - I didn't have a photo to use. But a quick stop at Google Images and here it is!

Curious to see who else is in my autograph scrapbook? Well, here it is:

Ok, so I have 2 designers and 4 scrapbook-related celebs.
So I'm a bit of a geek.
So what?
:-)

I also have a large stack of ticket stubs I've collected from concerts I've been to, I just haven't figured out what to do with them yet.

And thus ends Day 3.

Happy Creating!

Day 2 and still going! Yay!

I got a late start tonight, so I made something easy. Magnets!

Four large and four small. All nature/woodsy themed. All adorable! We've got trees, birds, owls, a worm and a beaver. I think my favorite ones are the tiny owl and the tiny worm. They are the two on the far right. You know, the two that are the hardest to see!

They actually have to dry for about 24-48 hours before I can attach the magnet backs to them. The black magnet squares they are sitting on now are just so they can dry without sticking to the cardboard box lid. Why are they in a cardboard box lid? Cause my cat will play with them and ruin them the moment I walk away. Putting them in a lid or box or anything makes them mobile, and therefore hide-able. They are now safely hiding at the back of one of my shelves that is conveniently unreachable by cat. *insert evil laughter here*

I'm struggling with how to photograph them well. The light bounces off the glass creating reflections, the lens has trouble focusing on the pictures instead of the glass bubble, and the glass distorts the pictures, which in real life is awesome, but hard to capture the true image on camera. Anyone have any suggestions on how to photograph these better? I will be selling sets of these in my Etsy store eventually, so I'll need to photograph them well.

The added bonus of creating something every day is that I also have to post every day. And that will create some great habits for me as well as keep me honest.

I have also vowed to find a new blog or site or person in the online creative community every day of this challenge. Do you have any suggestions for me?

Thanks for reading!

Happy Creating!

For the month of June, I've decided to participate in the #30DaysofCreativity movement.

From their site:
Inspired by #30daysofbiking by @patiomensch, 30 Days of Creativity is a social initiative encouraging people to create stuff, anything, every day for 30 days.
This was launched in May 2010 by folks in the Minneapolis creative community. Follow#30daysofcreativity on Twitter. Make your pledge to create by contacting @createstuff.

So today being June 1, it's the first day! Today was also the first day of my summer job (working in my preschool's office instead of teaching), so it was a day of beginnings on all fronts.

I started simple in my creativity today. I didn't want to set up a standard that would feel unattainable in the upcoming days. So this is what I made today:

Best thing I've ever made? No

Cute & fast & creative? Yes

And that's the point.

I'm going to try to post what I make every day. Please comment, it will keep me honest in my creative promise.

So - are you participating? You can start any time, you can do the month of June or just 30 days from when you start. Show me your creations!

And thus ends Day 1.

Happy Creating!