Happy 2010

As if I need more hobbies.... I think I am going to make some Terrariums.
It all started while showing Ray my new calendar by Wolfie and the Sneak. I was drawn to the April images of the Terrarium and BOOM it hit me, I want to make one! Or three...
Then tonight while watching "The Yellow Submarine" with Sarah May she came across an article in Martha on them, which I must have forgotten that I read last week. So really its meant to be.
Tomorrow while running a zillion errands with Sarah May we will stop by my favorite library who has a neat book on Terrariums (again, hello, meant to be!) to do some research.
In the mean time, here are a few that look really neat.

I love Orchids!

Mostly I just like this photo, but I am going to get the book its from tomorrow at the Library.

The shape of this bottle is really neat and the layers in the dirt and sand are just like how I want mine.Butt-errarium

While looking on Wolfie and the Sneaks site for the image of my calendar I came across some amazing things like this print.

I love feeling inspired again!

And some words....

I am pretty glad the holidays are over. Don't get me wrong, it was nice seeing old friends, getting amazing gifts, and having a few days of relaxing, but they just aren't for me. I am excitted for the New Year, but got thinking too much about why it matters. Why we make these decisions and goals based on a certain day every year and most break them by the 2nd week of January. I feel like I make "resolutions" every day. I finish my day and think "what did I not like today and how can I make tomorrow better? How can I make myself better?" So, "New Years Resolutions" for me: continue to make life great and continue to make yourself who you want to be. So far, off to a good start.
Spent my NYE (after reading it 1987498 times on FB this week, I finally figured out what it stood for), exactly how I wanted to. Today I spent my day organizing, cleaning, and working on projects. It was really nice spending all morning alone, getting things done. Tomorrow Sarah May and I will go thrifting for new clothes and hopefully boots, Nevada Fine Arts for my own 1-shot paint so I can start Pinstriping again, and Terrarium research. Its going to be a good day!
So 2010, so far is a keeper, and I plan to make everyday better than the last. XOX

peace out holidays

its really funny re reading all your blogs. things change so fast and you really don't even notice or remember things that got you here.
i found the blog after the night of our first girls pizza night. that was an incredible string of nights that lead to an amazing year of love and learning. its just so hard to not look back. but i have plenty more nights and plenty more learning to do.
christmas was better than expected, well, i was better than i expected. i think it is, as i am sure it is for a lot of people, hard not missing people you wish were here to spend the holidays with. i spent christmas eve with the 2 most important people to a friend who died over a year ago. it was so hard not wishing she was there, but i know she would have been so happy to have brought us closer. and an empty house that once was not, a lonely place on christmas night. but i made it through and in a few days the holidays will be over and i can start a new year.
my new years resolutions... well, i don't know i guess. nothing specifically, but a million little things. maybe i need a list, i do love a good list.

little boxes

I love when I get super excited about something and I dive into my closest to dig through random paper scraps, stamps and pictures searching for the thing that will express it just right. And the words fly around in my head and I rush to document them before I forget. And I can't decide which song to listen to, so I have to listen to them all. And there I am, middle of my mess, screaming the lyrics to some hardcore song. I LOVE THESE NIGHTS!
Blah blah blah... and your words were the inspiration.

"It couldn't have been made more clear"

future tattoo
future r.votolato song
Redo

Cha cha changes

Last night Cynthia(new room mate) and I rearranged the living room. Our goal was to make it more cozy and get the TV out of the fireplace so we can make fires this winter, for ambiance, not heat. I am sooo excited for how it turned out that I have to share pictures.
If you have never been to my house you do not yet know of my obsession with color coordination in each room of my house. I am a weirdo I know, but I love my house. I mean, look at it!
And last week I built a fireplace screen out of 2 old windows, which match the ones hanging in the picture window of my kitchen.
Entryway rearranged complete with my favorite record player and pink Xmas tree. You can see my Damask etched windows in the kitchen in the back ground, amazingness, I know.
Last week I spent 2 nights making Xmas cards, 3 if you count the one I spent cutting and printing my lino block for them. I am really happy with how they turned out, mostly I am happy to have spent time working on art again. Although it was a little lonely it gave me some thinking time, not sure it got me anywhere, but the cards are cool.
Well that is my exciting weekend of creativity and motivation. I am off to watch the Sandlot and wrap and work on presents. Peace out.

the small things

I don't know if its the lack of spare time, the weather, or the fog in my head that has drained me of my art motivation lately, but it is safe to say it has cleared. The down fall is that I missed the time frame to design another ski for Moment and have been really down on myself for not getting things done. The up side is that all the hard work at my job has paid off and I have officially been promoted to "E-commerce Manager". Where my mind fits into all this, I still have no idea. Seems like the fog clears just long enough for me to over analyze some other random nonsense. But whatever, I AM EXCITED AGAIN!
Today me and Sarah May went antiquing for Xmas gifts and while I did find some things for other people, most importantly I found some things to make me happy. Not to mention the Xmas gift from Sarah to me; a set of glasses with gold numbers in circus font. AMAZING!



I decided I wanted to buy myself a nice big ring and I found just the one. It is big, and pretty, and I cant stop looking at it. On the way out of the Antique Mall I spotted the most amazing Gold Seagull necklace which I couldn't live without, not for only $3.







The most exciting find was an old letterpress type face box, which after I saw Sarah's all completed for the first time, I decided I needed. Both being Joseph Cornell fans, it makes sense why we have an obsession to make small, 3-D, boxed art.



The box is not complete and will change often with my flighty OCD, but here is the start. (And look how great it goes with all my favorite pictures).









It is mostly things I have found or made that are pretty or mini inside jokes to myself.
*Things I found today include house photo, lures and white seal.










*Top to Bottom -Deer and shells, "389" match book piece, smooshed coin, key, button, paint swatch, old house photo from antique mall, Kinder Egg wooden Mouse.














*Top to Bottom - Seal and Shark, "R" type key, Queen Domino, Paper Cranes, vintage fishing lures.
















*The deer Sarah May gave me with shells from my first time shooting.













*A smooshed "I Love You - Reno" penny from last winters photo field trip with Sarah May.
An old key from a jar.
A hand made button by ADA.
A green paint swatch "Wheat Grass".







I have recently realized how important the smallest things are to me and how I have only a few people in my life that really get that. It is putting feelings into perspective for me, and whether that is a good or bad thing, time will tell.

number numbers

when 10681 seems so long gone and 389 seems like a never ending battle, it makes me wonder if i will ever be at the same place as the person i love. is that even possible. when we are constantly changing and growing, does that mean we are constantly growing apart? it seems like we make these ideas of what we want, what we think we need and then once they are fulfilled the whole idea changes and we are back to square one. wanting, needing, something totally different, something out of our reach. at least for me. if these wants are what we think will make us happy, and they keep changing, will we ever be satisfied. maybe i dont want to be. maybe somewhere in my mind the striving is what keeps me going. i am not one to settle, at least i try to be that person. but some nights all of these thoughts just fly around in my head and all i end up is confused and lonely. and the memories of times that i now remember being good, that at some point i gave up on and decided they were not, flood my mind and make me wonder, will i ever even know what i want? does anyone ever really know? i know the feeling i want, i feel it so many of these nights, but then there are these nights that leave me disapointed and wondering what the fuck i am doing here. waiting. because i know one day, this, will be exactly what i want. but sometimes i wish the waiting was over and they just let it be.

beating like a hammer

i hate the feeling when you have no idea how you are feeling.
i wonder why i only feel inspired when my heart hurts and lately i have been wondering if it ever really has.
you can tell yourself you are over someone, but how do you know you are feeling it and not just thinking it. same goes for love. how do you know if you really love someone or if you are just telling yourself you do. the other night i spent a lot of time thinking about that. how do you know if any of it is even real. and maybe that is just something you don't ask yourself for fear of losing all hope.
what i decided: it is his smell that makes me believe it. of all the reasons, that's why i believe it, what sort of logic is in that.

"if i tremble, they're going to eat me alive. if i stumble, they're going to eat me alive"