Positive Thoughts

As I was eating my fruit bar today I saw these tiny snowflake type crystals. They reminded me of a book I had read called "The Miracle of Water" by Masaru Emoto. Dr Emoto has been doing water-crystal research for years studying the effects of words and language on water crystal formation. He has found that positive words like love, beauty, and peace create the most symmetrical and beautiful crystals while negative words create misshapen and deformed crystals. The significance of his work is tremendous because the human body is made up of approximately 70% water. Many of us have been conditioned to accept negative self talk as a necessary part of life. If negative thoughts and words can do this to water what is it doing to our bodies? How many of us have health conditions that are the result of this negative thinking? It was a good reminder to me to be mindful of the words that I am not only saying but also thinking.

I also had the thought that this fruit bar must have been made by happy people...

An Inspirational Quote

"The way of the Creative works through change and transformation, so that each thing receives its true nature and destiny and comes into permanent accord with the Great Harmony: this is what furthers and what perseveres."
~Alexander Pope

Killer Prints from Don Kilpatrick!!!

Don is a good friend of my husband Dave and me. He is a great illustrator and image maker and teaches at CCS with Dave in the Illustration Department. Over the last couple of years Don's been slowly acquiring a few letterpress presses, supplies and knowledge and is now pulling prints with them. Dave and I are lucky recipients of a few of them and I wanted to let everyone know about them as they are available for purchase in Don's Etsy shop Little Buffalo Press. Here are a few images of the prints that we got. (Please excuse my photos...they are a little washed out. My camera is dying and seemingly beyond Photoshop help.)







You can see more photos and read about these prints on his blog here and here.

Perfection and Perceptions

Today I was reflecting on my yoga practice. I was contemplating the the idea of "letting things be as they are", a phrase quoted often by my teachers, realizing how important of a lesson it is for me. It made me think of all those years I spent trying to be perfect and feeling like I was never good enough. Now I notice I am enjoying the imperfections because when a moment of perfection does occur, the perception of it seems heightened and I end up feeling truly blessed.

I Bake Therefore I Run...

Not me really but my friend Kim. Kim is one of my good friends from high school. We became friends in band through many hours of rehearsals and performances. She is one of the sweetest people in the world and I have been lucky enough to reconnect with her on Facebook! Recently she made a comment on Facebook about wishing she had a shirt that said "I bake therefore I run" with a cupcake or a piece of chocolate cake on it. I thought to myself "What a cute idea!" So I asked her if she wanted me to create one for her and she said yes! I thought it would be a great way to work on my Adobe Illustrator skills. Right now I have 3 different cupcake designs and one cake design. Eventually I would also like to add a couple of pie designs and another cake design at least. Here are the designs so far:





And the final on a shirt:

If you like them, you can find them in my CafePress shop.

Tuesdays Ten Tiny Things Challenge 2009

I have been following Funky Art Queen's blog for a while now enjoying her work, interests and sense of humor. This Tuesday she issued a challenge (which you can read about here) and it intrigued me enough that I decided to take part. So here is my Tuesdays Ten Tiny Things Challenge...



My items from left to right are:
1. Vintage enameled frog stick pin
2. Vintage enameled mouse stick pin
3. Vintage enameled caterpillar stick pin
4. Cicada shell
5. Mini Michael Graves teapot pendant necklace
6. My baby ring
7. Vintage glass Mexican man stick pin
8. Vintage glass Mexican woman stick pin
9. Shell
10. ??? -I think it's a nut or maybe a seed pod but I don't know what kind.

Here some closeups...












If anyone knows what this last item is please drop me a line-- I would love to know!

"I live in Michigan, I want to work in Michigan"

For the last few weeks I have been working on a website for a PSA that promotes the Michigan Film Incentives. The PSA itself is an amazing collaboration among many people both in front of the camera and behind and I am sure you will recognize the impact it can potentially have. It's been a great project to be a part of.

Initially it was a project that just my husband (not me) was involved with. He was asked to do the story boards for the PSA and then was also asked if he would be one of the people filmed for the spot. That was pretty exciting in itself, but when he heard that they needed a website done, he got me involved as I needed the experience and work to build my portfolio. It's been a great way to put to good work the knowledge from my classes last semester!

I have been working closely with Teresa Leming at Mid America Cine Support who has been the go to person on this project and been great! It is my first "official" website and it has been an amazing learning process. I still have a few little tweeks that I would like to make to it but please check out the site and let me know what you think.

Please support the Michigan Film Industry!

"I live in Michigan" site