May the 4th be with You (And Revenge of the 5th)

Yes, I'm a proud nerd! And so I say, May the 4th be with you!!

It seems like a lifetime since I last posted anything. A lot has happened in the last couple of days, namely my Grannie suddenly passing away. So it's been a devastating week all around. At the moment this is an experimental post.

 

Creative-wise I actually haven't been doing too badly. I started this post yesterday (Star Wars Day :P), but just didn't have the heart to finish. Anyways, I did get a lot of crafty stuff done yesterday. I painted 2 pictures (water colour!), and did a sketch of The Forks again.

 

Side bar, The Forks is a pretty big tourist destination here in Winnipeg and probably my favourite place in the city. It's super historic (previously established that I'm nerdy that way), there's lots of cool original shops, and it's beautiful to just sit by the river. Anyways, I went there last Friday on my last day of holidays and it has since become my favourite place to sketch (apparently). I've done 2 now (see below), and after tagging The Forks in it via hashtags, they've liked both of my pictures right away on Instagram. It might not seem like much, but I personally am SUPER STOKED!! I'm pretty excited that my artwork is starting to get noticed.

Which means that now I really have to update my Instagram personal info and let people know that I'm actually selling stuff now... Ugh... Work... It was also really exciting that my cousin recognized right away what I drew. I'm kind of all about artistic interpretation. When I try to draw something exactly how it actually looks, if it doesn't look EXACTLY like the actual object I get super down on myself. Even though I really shouldn't (I'm still pretty new at this, and am for sure not a camera), so I've decided to stop trying. If it looks close enough to what it actually is, I'm good.

I've also taken my first step towards official abstract painting. I couldn't think of what else to paint, so I just grabbed the colours that I liked and kinda smeared them all a page. When I was done I kinda thought it looked like fireworks, but when I showed it to my sister and cousin they both agreed that it looked like autumn leaves. That really intrigues me! It wasn't supposed to be anything, just a smear of colours on a canvas, but it turned out to be a possible 2 things. And that's just from the 3 of us. Mind blowing right?!?

This has kind of been a therapeutic post, I'm still incredibly out of sorts and not quite myself. Now I can definitely see how art and writing can be used for therapy. I feel slightly better already :)

Thanks to all who suffered through:) I should be more myself and back to my regular endeavors next post (hopefully).

Spring?? Where did you go??

I walked to work this morning in a parka, toque and mitts... It's April... Not that this is uncommon in the great frozen North, but still. Come on, enough already!

Alright, rant done moving into actual content now :)

So, I've been kind of away from the whole Social Media from a couple of days now, been feeling kinda bummed out and stressed. Why? Well, I kind of figured it out yesterday when I was telling a friend how tired I am. She told me that she hardly slept last night, and I agreed yes, I don't sleep super great. Then I started adding up all of the things I'm currently doing/just finished/are coming up... It was exhausting just writing it! Anyways, here they are in their glory:

• Marketing Director for the Manitoba Animal Health Technologists Association Board (having to meet multiple deadlines in the next couple weeks)
• Company Softball team
• Active Member of the Manitoba Living Historical Society
• Just finished a very intensive Certified Insurance Professional course
• Filling in applications and making content for Farmer's Markets for this summer (most are due by 3/30/16)
• Doing an application for an Artist Mentoring Program
• Just applied for a new position at work

Whew... Oh and plus trying to have a life at home too with my hubby and dogs... Wow... So yeah, needless to say I'm going to be making up a to do list today with deadlines for everything!

Anyways, on the brighter side of life, I might be having a few guest posts in the next little while on here! I'm super excited about that! I'll also probably (hopefully) be doing some guest posts on some other blogs as well hoping to get a lil foot traffic around here, and just because I love to write.

Speaking of writing, the first Letter to the Editor I submitted to a big local paper has been PUBLISHED!!!!! Mine is the first letter in the link. Operation Bombard Local Papers with Letters to the Editor until they give me a Job is well underway!! Yay!! On the writing side of things, I'm also starting to brainstorm ideas for a literary non-fiction (writing in 3rd person, not super great at that) to submit to another magazine competition. It's kind of ironic that I was so worried about how I would write two short fictions, when now I'm having even more trouble writing a non-fiction. But hey, once I start things kind of just write themselves.

I'm also working on my weaving. I'm now on creation #3 and loving every minute of it! I REALLY need to get some new and fun yarn though... I need more vibrant colours and different textures for my weavables!!

Well, that's all for now!! Things are looking up for the moment, even though it's cold as sin outside!!

 

PS - This is what I got from Starbucks today to warm up! Yay for winning work draws!! 

Monday Blues...

So, I have had an interesting and eventful weekend... I managed to get Friday off for "studying." Then, I got my reply from the scholarship I had applied for to go to a meditation retreat in Seattle in a couple weeks... No dice, and after looking into prices found that it's a little too much money to spoon out right now... So needless to say I spent most of my weekend in a bit of a funk amd as a result didn't really do too much crafty stuff.

However! I managed to drag my mopey ass over to Chapters and Micheals and got 2 new journals and a sketch pad. That helped considerably😜 I still haven't written in them, but it'll come😜

I'm also continuing on with my looming experiments, which are going REALLY well! When I was at Micheals I was also browsing through the yarn, but my will power held out and I didn't buy anything! Yay! There's lots of different thicknesses and textures that I can't wait to try out on my loom. And, of course, the bright colours. So many bright colours! I may have drooled a lil bit!

I also have plans for the sketchbook (other than the obvious sketching). I'm planning on trying to make an adult coulouring book (or kid if I can't make it intricate enough), and do a trial run with it at farmers markets this summer and see if anyone buys it😊 Pretty excited about that actually! Just have to get started now! Probably on lunch tomorrow (felt sick as death today). The bus ride blogging is also not really helping😜

I digress! The journals I have no plans for, but to add to my intricate collection of journals and maybe try art journalling... I should probably try to do some actual journaling too... Hmm...

I also REALLY want to start painting with my acrylics. Previously I took a couple classes on actual lifelike landscapes, but I think I kinda want to try abstract? Maybe? Look out for it on Instagram! @renaissance_renegade

Although I'm pretty bummed about not getting to go to Seattle, things are actually looking up for me😊 My next entry I'm going to be touching on being called an artist for the first time!! ...I'm mostly writing it down here so I don't forget...

Until tomorrow!!! ...probably...