Artist’s Alley: Lovely Ladies

 

Here’s some more art work that I have sketched recently ~ one thing that is good about my RSI is how it has me doing a lot more drawing than I was.  I forget how much fun it is.  : D  Although I do hate staring at a blank page wondering what to draw!  I have so many ideas, yet it seems that I have to be in the right mood or I don’t want anything to do with them.  Do you ever find that happening to you? 

It happens to me far often then I would like, but sometimes it is helpful because I either think up a whole ‘nother idea or I push past the block; the pushing doesn’t occur very often, but sometimes. 
> <   The thought that I like to keep in mind with it is that anything I do is practise, and any practise is good.  So it doesn’t matter if it’s not the most amazing piece of art I’ve ever done, if it moves me forwards then that is enough.  Practise makes perfect! 

Hmm.  So maybe I should take my own advice and stop chickening out of colouring my line art.  > . >’  I’ll let you know how that goes!!  : P

xox,

bonita

Zentangle Inspiration

I was surfing the Net when I came across an art form called Zentangles, and was instantly intrigued.  Basically, Zentangle art is a method of creating an image through repetition of patterns and lines.  It’s simple and easy and anyone can do it because there are no rules besides repetition ~ Zentangles are just that ~ a tangle.  I thought the concept was pretty cool and wanted to try it out myself.  Just as I suspected, it’s quite relaxing and fun! 

I think that doing this kind of “doodle” art is actually a great way to unwind and clear your head.  Plus, there’s some well cool patterns out there that you can get ‘instructions’ for.  And the fantastic thing about Zentangle art is that you don’t need to have any drawing experience or skills ~ you just pick up a pen and go!  You could do this:

  

Or this: 

  

And hey, here’s some tangle pattern tutorials to get you started:

  

   

I did a few of my own tangles:

   

   

Mine aren’t quite as pretty or polished as some of the lovely tangles out there, that’s okay.  I am going to keep doing these just for the fun of it!  Plus, when I want to draw and can’t think of anything to do{yay, artist’s block…}, a tangle is a great way to get started. 

For more tangle~y goodness you can visit my Zentangle Pintrest board; and of course there’s always the ol’ Google images for loads more inspiration.  So what do you think ~ to tangle or not to tangle?  That is the question…..  ^ ω ^

xox,

bonita

Down and Dirty

Okay people, it’s time to cross a line.
  
And by that I mean it’s time to get personal.    Now please do not get me wrong ~ I do not want to spill my guts about how so-and-so is doing the perfect job of ruffling my fur or how living in a large household of seven is somewhat daunting; rather I mean it’s time I talked about some of the things that have been going on in my life.

Warning:  for those that have a strong aversions to reading a stranger’s thoughts, please pass by and we’ll all be happy. 

Let’s start with the “why”….  

You may be asking any of the following:

~  why has she suddenly gone mental?

~  why am I even bothering with this?

~  why does everyone seem to succumb to the need to spill their guts on the internet?

~  why is she wasting my time?

~  why is the sky up and not down?* 

*okay, that one only if you have a really short attention span… 

But the plan and simple reason for why I feel compelled to go all personal on y’all is basically this:  I do not know what else to blog about at the moment.

The thing is that I have been trying to keep up with Depict This when I realized that I miss it when I don’t blog.  But the stage of life I am at right now seems to be severely hampering my creative mind and as a result I do not have anything in the usual fields that Depict This touches on to post about.

I have been wondering what other bloggers do when life/writers block strikes and it seems to me that you have three choices as a blogger.

One:  You can keep on forcing yourself to post about your normal topics.  I have heard that having a regular schedule helps with this.

Two:  You can take a break.

Three:  You can blog about the stuff that is relevant to you right now.

Well, I’ve tried the first two methods.  Forcing myself to post ended up in blogger burnout with a five-day update schedule.  Bad idea!

Secondly, I tried the break trick but I missed it too much.  I like writing, even when the things I have to write about are not that inspiring.

So I thought I could try the third option.
 
Now I know you will not want to read a whole bunch of “Gee, I really do not know what to write today" posts because I hate it when that’s all you get for a month from on one of your favourite blogs.  And I do think that a schedule would be a good idea.   How do Tuesday and Thursday updates sound?   And I think I will try to throw in a little som’thin som’thin on Saturdays too. 

But would you mind if the topics are not just about vintage, clothes and crafty art stuff?   If I mixed it up say, with stories about my husky Amabelle.  Would that be interesting?

Or stories about ginger bread house making?  Or the clean floor challenges?  Or desperate dying disasters ~ hair dye that is!!

I know I have briefly touched on personal topics before, such as where DH and I are off too, or trying to buy a house {still in the middle of that one folks!}

But as a lifestyle type blog, I wonder whether topics about my life in particular, not just life in general, are permissible.  

What do you think about mixing general and personal?

xox,
bonita

Crafting Craziness <3

It began with the reading of blogs.  Sewing blogs got me pinning over fabulous 40s frocks, marvellous millinery, and stupendous shoes.   Then I found the cute blogs devoted to kawaii and kanji and crafts….

My foray into the world of frill {read as Hime Gyaru and sweet Lolita with a dash of Gal style thrown in} has resulted in a sensory overload.  Apparently there IS a thing as too much inspiration!

For the last two weeks I have been sitting at my computer absorbing all these really cool ideas, such as How to store lashes in a cake, or  How to make cute rose hair clips, or Purses covered in bows and lace and pearls, or Stud Earrings or….   ><

So much cuteness, so many cool ideas!!!    *meltdown*

Slowly but surely, some ideas started to reach to the top of the bubbling cauldron of my mind so that they could hop out and into my hands.  They took their own sweet time but they were worth waiting for.   

Clockwise from top ~ Pearl necklace with the bow & heart locket added by me, Big black ribbon broach/hair bow crafted by me, silver bracelet with half~pearls set in by me, black double bow ribbon ring crafted by me.

 

The backs of the hair bow and ring.

I have also been inspired by this tutorial ~ Decoden Ear Bud Headphones ~ for decoing  my own not~so~crazy~but~still~cute{I think} ear bud headphones.

 

 

I ♥ them sooo much!  I think they turned out really well.  I now have diabolical plans for future projects which include doing up my iPod and speakers and my phone.  Although with my phone I am tempted to try a full on decoden just to see if I would like it all.  I mean, I love how it looks in photos, but I am just not sure that I could live with it all the time…..  ;_;

To be perfectly honest, decoden scares me a little bit ~ it’s just so….  so…..  so…..   over the top.   I love cute, pearls and sparkles….  But my philosophy has always been “Less is more”.    Which does beg the question, why am I so attracted to the uber sparkly crazy cute decoden style? 

But upon further reflection I wonder if I could do it, but do it with a b. flare…  That of course means the bows, pearls, and lace as normally found in decoden, but only in black, white and red.  Silver is also acceptable. 

So not totally decoden as I know it, but another creature altogether.  Much like my fashion style which seems to want to be hime gyaru flavoured one day {in black and white naturally} and 40s vintage the next.  {I will put up photos of the tribute outfit to hime gyaru soon.  I wore it tonight on a date with my gorgeous husband   -_^ ~ ♥  but so did not have the time to take any pictures.  I will repeat wear the outfit and get photos this time.}

It is kind of hard when my clothing style swings quite dramatically from chic and elegant to cute and frilly without much thought, but at least I have one thing about my style straight.  I like skirts and I like heels.  And I will always adore anything in black with bows, pearls and lace. 

Beyond that who knows where it is going to go!

xox,

b.

 

~*~  Tutorials/Inspiration found at  ~*~

♥  ~  http://violetlebeaux.com/tutorials/

♥ ~   http://lolita-charm.blogspot.com/

♥  ~  http://blog.tizzalicious.com/

♥   ~  http://hearty2.blogspot.com/

Feature ~ Words of Wisdom

some days…

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… it’s just nice to pull out my colored pencils and outlining markers. Go through all the images on my computer and just sketch.

Creativity is a funny creature. Sometimes it likes to play nice and give you oh-so-many lovely ideas and motivations. Other times it goes to hibernate and hangs a big ol’ “do not disturb” sign on it’s door. This year has been a huge growing period for me in understanding how my creativity works, that it sometimes goes into remission and that it’s okay to give it a rest to recharge. For long periods of time I’ve been uninspired by my ideas. I’m grateful to my sister especially (who is another creative soul) for encouraging me to keep doing things, even though I felt the ideas were sub-par. Not to let it go completely, but to gently cultivate it even though there wasn’t much to cultivate.

It actually wasn’t until quite recently that things started to feel less forced and more like the way I remember them. I finally finished the sketchbook I started in January (I usually go through 2-3 big sketchbooks a year). I had been picking out sewing projects that inspired me and also were useful to fill gaps in my wardrobe. I gave myself “permission” to just create something if it caught my eye (and I had the time to do so). Even seemingly mundane, daily tasks like doing my hair or makeup I tried to view through the lens of being creative in a small way. Infusing that sense of wonder and excitement back into the littlest things was important.

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I know many others go through dry periods too (whether or not you are “creative” in the art sense, or your talents lie in another area!). We all hit bumps in life that throw us a bit harder than we expected and sometimes it isn’t as easy as getting back up right away and dusting ourselves off. Sometimes you just need to lie still and heal a bit. I’ve come to realize that that’s okay and not to censure myself for feeling any less than 100% creative. But to enjoy and be thankful for it when it’s there.

Have you ever been through a “creative dry spell”?

~ Hooo boy, have I ever!  The reason I’m re-posting this post I found on Casey’s Elegant Musings is because I do find that I go through long creative ‘dry’ spells and it frustrates the heck out of me.  I hate it when you sit down with a pencil and paper and find that the ideas just won’t come…   You prod, you probe and you try desperately to seek out that elusive being known as “Inspiration” ~ but alas, if you push too hard it flies away faster than you can chase it and your left sitting in the dirt otherwise known as writer’s block (or artist’s blank). 

I have heard the theory that if you refuse to succumb to the dreaded block (in whatever form it may appear – sewers know it as ‘losing the sewing mojo’) and keep on pressing on, eventually you’ll get into the habit of just working through it and then it won’t bother you any more.  I’ve also heard that changing projects is a good idea as well.  This is the first time I’ve ever heard of someone saying “Just let it be.” 

To be sure, Casey isn’t saying to drop it altogether, but rather to gently work on what you can, and if you can’t do much, not to see it as the end of the world.  I really like this point of view.   ~ I’ve come to realize that that’s okay and not to censure myself for feeling any less than 100% creative. But to enjoy and be thankful for it when it’s there. ~  The main reason I like it so much is that I’m always beating myself up for not being 1oo% creative all the time!!  But just like I’m slowly accepting the fact that I am never going to be able to focus on just one particular medium to express my artistic creativity through, I guess I can learn to accept the fact that neither am I going to be able to burn the flame of inspiration all the time.

And this is why it is important to be connected into a community of like-minded people.  They can help you realize things that may take you years to learn on your own.

I can be a Michelangelo-type artist, but more importantly, I don’t have to be producing stuff all the time.  I can let the creative juices simmer away.  Maybe if I learn to let them rest I can create better end results with my projects!  In the mean time, I can not be afraid of producing mediocre works.  Somewhere along the line I have gotten the idea that each piece should be a master piece or it’s not worth it.  Rather, I think I want to start thinking of the average pieces as practising the lessons.   The results may not be the best, and I may never show them to anyone, I may even just screw them up and throw them out.  But at least it’s practise!

Thank you Casey for helping me work another knotty problem out.

xox,

b.