While I Was At Work

Just a quick little post since I haven’t put anything up in a while. I thought I’d share some interesting links I look at/use on a day-to-day basis. Maybe they will find their way into someone else’s bookmarks!

http://www.designspongeonline.com/
One of my all-time favorites. I read this blog daily, as many others do, for DIY ideas, interior design sneak peeks, information on independent businesses, and lots more!

http://www.mint.com/
A must-have for the financially inadequate (aka ME). Since I’ve started using this site, I’ve learned a lot about where my money goes and how to be more efficient with it.

http://amphora.cias.rit.edu/
This is the blog for my New Media Team Project. Check it out if you’re interested in seeing the super awesome startings of a project.

http://www.i-do-it-yourself.com/
Sure, it may be about weddings, but it’s got tons of awesome DIY projects, which you already know I am a huge fan of.

http://www.marthastewart.com/
Who doesn’t love Martha Stewart? I especially love the crafts section (go figure). I was looking at a great recipe for Valentine’s Day treats today that I think I’ll make for friends.

52 Weeks: My Mission

Note: Blog posts that start with 52 Weeks are posts built from topics in 52 Weeks of Blogging Your Passion, an interesting digital book that I hope will help me out with posting more and getting my thoughts down in writing.

Creating My Mission Statement

What fuels my passion?

I love to create with digital and traditional tools.  I am always trying to find a balance between creating digitally while still maintaining an aspect of traditional art and design.  I am inspired by many, many things, some mundane, others exciting: acrylic and watercolor paintings, driftwood, the wind, scraps of fabric, instrumental music, the inner workings of a piano, whiteboards, others’ blogs, fashion, scrapbooks, buttons, cats, and many others.

I have always loved art for as long as I can remember.  Back to the first computer my family had, I remember creating an ocean scene in Paint with my aunt Claudia and siblings.  I remember finger painting in kindergarten, with my mother as a guest helper.  I remember creating a clay wall hanging in Sunday School during my early teen years, making patterns by pressing plants and objects into the soft surface.  I would buy disposable cameras and take what I thought were ‘artistic’ photos at the time, in junior high school.  I took art, technology, and music classes in high school, always excited to learn something new.  I learned screen printing as a senior and hunted for ways to use it as art.  I bought my first professional camera as a graduation gift to myself and started snapping everything I could see as interesting.  I decided to major in New Media Design and Imaging at RIT to further explore my interest in digital design.  In my sophomore year, my parents bought a Minolta for me from a friend for $20, which I treasure, even though I don’t shoot as much as I used to since I like to develop and print myself, which I cannot do without a darkroom.  To this day I am loving where I am.

What do I create?

Right now, I am particularly interested in digital design, handmade paper goods, crafts, and abstract photography.  When I have an open-ended project at school, I tend to lean towards interactive experiences, application design, and websites.  I also enjoy creating print pieces based on digital mixed media, and books for the creative nonfiction stories I write. Currently, I have a small business (required for an Entrepreneurship class) called note. (site coming soon), which focuses on handmade cards.  This is a brand-new venture, started in December 2009. After this quarter is over, the business will also finish, because I enjoy making cards and other crafts for people out of love, not for money. I have explored many areas and styles of photography in years past, and I feel that as I go along, I get better and better.  I am not professionally trained, besides a few classes in high school and college, but I believe that to be good at something, you don’t necessarily need a degree in it.  I wanted to minor in analog photography in college, but that is not offered as an option.

What do I hope people will gain by reading my blog?

Since I will be writing about my life and my interests, it might seem mundane to most people.  I am using this as a documentary process, writing my thoughts down to easier understand them.  If anything, I hope readers of this blog would be inspired to do the same thing.

Mission Statement

My blog is a place of reflection and thought, saving my words for the times ahead when I am stuck in an inspirational rut.  Through this format, I can explore different art and design styles, and hands-on projects.  I will share links to sweet websites, photos (good and bad), and talk about other artists’ work to better understand how the creative mind works.  I hope to inspire other readers to take their own thoughts and write them somewhere, whether in an online blog, or in a handwritten journal.

Let’s Try This Again

Another blog? Yes.

I will continue to blog on WordPress until I get my new domain name up and running, and then I will switch everything over there.  Design will be better.

Instead of having this blog be about one thing in particular, it will be about everything.  Things I like, things I don’t like, things I’m not sure whether I like them or not.  Starting with, this post about nothing in particular.

I will use 52 Weeks of Blogging Your Passion to get an inspirational head start on what to write about.  I won it from a contest on Indie Fixx.  Great blog!

I am currently filling in at the School of Print Media office because everyone is either at a meeting or teaching a class.  I have never worked here before, but I was taught how to answer the phone and transfer calls, so that seems to be a pretty good training foundation.  My only complaints are that I am working on an old, humming Dell and the keyboard is resting on my knees.  Upside: free candy bowl on the counter and the phone hasn’t rung once since I’ve been here (about 45 minutes).

For my Entrepreneurship class, one of the assignments was to create a business that makes money.  As in, your grade depends on your business making money.  I created note., which is a handmade cards and paper goods venture.  I am currently working on a minisite which will be complete by the end of the day.  Just in time for Valentine’s Day!  Any takers?  Cheap prices with a handmade flair.