motown in the mountains

currently working on this among other things. i'm selling tickets if anyone is interested. i'll have a website link in the upcoming days.

halloween illustrated

with halloween around the corner, it's been a crazy madhouse around here. which is both good news and bad news. the crafting/designing bug is back after a super long hiatus. nothing like my love of the holiday to do that to a girl. but it does look like a crafting bomb exploded all over the house. creating costumes, planning and decorating for a party, and keeping after an active toddler has got me burning the candle at both ends.

once again we're doing our annual pumpkin carving party. this year the party is a little bigger and a whole lot better. at least i'm planning more than i did last year. tonight i spent some time working in illustrator, probably more time than i should have, making labels. i'm pretty happy with the way they turned out but it took me a whole lot longer than i expected. i'm so out of practice it's pathetic. hopefully i'm back in the game cause even though it took me long, i actually enjoyed it. yay graphic design!

i'll post pics after the party so you can see them in action as well as all my other creepy food and costume creations. happy halloween everyone!

bella on board

this past weekend we had irina's baby shower. (she's due august 7th, so baby bella's arrival is just around the corner.) i just wanted to share some of the craftiness i did for the shower.

the invites:
it was decided we'd do a beach-themed shower. (if you couldn't tell by the decor in the first pic.) i was able to find a hibiscus image that sorta seemed girly but not too girly. and since the colors of the invites were brown and pink, my first diaper cake followed suit.

diaper cake:
ideally i would have loved to have used brown hibiscus flowers but i don't think there is such a thing. in the end i had to settle for these gerber daisies. i used about 70 size 2 diapers and one bottle to make the innards of the cake. tissue paper, 2 different ribbons, a feathery boa and gerber daisies contribute to the "icing" on the cake. all in all i was really happy end result of my first diaper cake!

the shower was a great success and my brother and sister-in-law are very well equipped for bella's arrival.

club tres

it's hard to believe the little guy is already three months old, soon to be four. above is his month marker shot. i actually took a little time and messed with the levels and whatnot in this pic. i muted down the colors to give it a somewhat aged look. below are two more versions of the same photo. the first being the original, the second a super saturated version and the third a color highlight.

i quickly threw these together, just imagine how stunning my pics could actually be if i took/had some time. but for now these will have to do! yes, i know, my kid is really, really, ridiculously good looking. :) lol! if you've seen zoolander then you'll get this reference.

cloning

aaron's office is having a holiday party on thursday. one of the projects they're doing has something to do with baby/childhood photos. they asked me if i'd scan the photos and put them in a powerpoint presentation. no problem. one of the pics had seen better days, so i decided to do a quick edit to it with the cloning feature in photoshop. not too shabby for 10 minutes of work. if i took a little more time, i'd be able to fix/adjust some of the lighting and tape stains/watermarks. i mainly worked on the creases and tears. pretty cool.

arudegirl production

shop production has begun.

loco for gocco

i finally busted out the gocco machine i bought months ago. i've been hoarding it, waiting for the perfect image to reproduce. (bulbs can only be used once and screens can not be cleaned and re exposed with a new image) knowing this, i may have never used it! well i decided to bite the bullet and find a decent image to give it a test run. i watched a few "how-to" videos this morning and this afternoon i started the presses.

this is the original image i got from istockphoto. it's a simple, clean image that i converted to grayscale. at first i had it completely black and white but i noticed while i was thumbing through the example booklet that came with the machine it had grayscale screens on some of the images. (all the instructions are in japanese, hence the video watching) so i went back and added a 30% and 50% screen on the trees. unfortunately, when i exposed the image, i lost all the grayscale screens. not sure if it can't do screens or if my screens were too light. i'll figure it out eventually.

the image is still decent so i went ahead with test run. i spread brown ink on the screen and began printing. it takes some getting used to. knowing how much ink to use and making sure it's spread evenly. i was able to print about 20 in the brown and after cleaning and reapplying red ink, printed about 20 more. i used the ink sparingly. it's supposed to print up to 80 with a good inking. all in all it was a good test run. now that i've started, i may not stop.

coming to a mailbox near you

i finally made some relocation notes to include in our christmas cards this year. here's the image i used. it's a portion of our tree skirt that aaron's mom made years ago. i would have modified it a bit, but aaron is insistent we get them out sooner than later. look for it in a mailbox near you soon!

one a day

they've come back to haunt. garden gnomes! when in asheville a few weeks ago, our lovely host had an abundance of these little devils sprinkled throughout her yard. i started snapping away, knowing i'd be doing something with them somewhere down the line. first project: gnome notes.

man, does it suck not having a desktop publishing program. quark, indesign, anything is better then using microsoft word. i was able to punch out 3 sets of cards before my printer went kaput. inkwell is now dry. i gave a set to jill for her birthday and am selling the other two in my swap shop. i'm not too happy with the colors...wanted them to pop. once i get the bugs ironed out i'll make some more. hopefully i'll be designing aaron's office website and i'll be able to afford creative suite. how to break down the difference between programs: creative suite is equivalent to a lexus where microsoft word is a fiat. dumb comparison, since i haven't ridden in either. but you get the gist.

my swap shop is basically a place for my practice projects. i've been trading practice projects for more materials, i.e. buttons, fabrics. it's kinda nice having that option. they'd be going to waste otherwise. i've gotten a few cool items, but i'm finding my style and everyone elses are very different as far as finished products go. so basically i've been sticking to supplies.

i've also found that i need to give myself goals. otherwise i push things off and they tend to never get done. i've decided to do a project a day. at least attempt to. five items. two for practice and three to sell. unless, of course, they are perfect from the get-go. i am finding i am a little OCD when it comes to setting up shop. the sewing needs to be perfect, the photos have to look great and the marketing materials have to shine. at this rate, i should be open....never! ;)

update your files

right before we left for our week in the nc mountains, i was able to finish the birth announcements for baby ethan. i think i might just have to pat myself on the back cause i love the way they turned out. they were a lot of work, but in the end well worth it. i made moving announcements for the baima clan as well.

all in all, i was happy with the outcome.

yes, we finally closed on our house in boone on monday. we are the proud new owners of 115 martys road. it was a hassle getting all our ducks in a row, but in the end everything worked out and we both are quite happy with our purchase. we stayed there all week, living on air mattresses and the bare minimum, no tv, internet, video games. danny accompanied us on our trip and we had a fun-filled week...hiking, biking and fishing. the weather was perfect and i really don't have any anxiety about moving there. i actually can't wait to get my hands on the house and yard. so many ideas and plans. it's almost overwhelming, but it'll be fun.

i've got a mountain of projects to work on. and an impending move to plan for. kristin wants me to put knock-out material on the back of a shade she bought for baby max's nursery. it's proving to be more difficult than i anticipated. i guess if it functions that's all that really matters. it's not my best work by any means. and yes, we did get to see baby max twice in the last week. once on our way to nc and once on our way back. 10 days old and oh what a handsome little devil!! almost want to have one of my own. in due time my friends.

i was jonesing for my sewing machine while we were away. i get to do a rockabilly/pin-up girl swap this month. it's where i create 4 projects and my partner creates 4 projects and then we swap what we made. i'm looking forward to it cause it pushes me to practice my sewing skills. brian also called me and told me one of the ladies at his church wants me to make her the same handbag i made irina and i had another girl emailed me about swapping for a messenger bag. maybe i can start making an income sewing things i like. oh the possibilities. now to get back to work.

the space

i posted this as a bulletin but for some reason my bulletins aren't showing up...i think tom has it in for more. probably a good thing. i was going survey crazy.