Studio Guest

This is my studio guest, Henry. He's our newest adoption, but he is little shy about integrating with our other cats so he's spending most of his time in my studio. There he has a comfy couch and a food bowl all to himself.

We have coffee together every morning before I head off to my day job. (I drink the coffee; he head-butts the cup and spills it on me). In the evenings he comes upstairs and sits on my husband's lap to watch television. The hissing and growling is subsiding when he's around the other cats so maybe I'll get my studio back soon.

Psychoanalyze This

Gorgeous Pink Fushia Polymer Necklace by Lisa of HiGirls

Anyone up for a little psychoanalysis?

I adore pink--soft wispy blushing pinks, in-your-face fushias, and every pink pantone color in between. Pink takes up more space in my closet than any other color.  In fact, I'm sitting here typing this post in a comfy bubble gum pink hoodie.

Growing up, carnation pink was my crayon color of choice. Perfect for coloring shoes in my princess coloring books. Yes, usually just the shoes. You can ask my sister about that weird fetish of mine. It left plenty of things for her to color.

I was faithful to "pink" through those years before she became popular--when no grown woman wore pink. Okay, I did go through a phase as a new female manager when I pretended to be "navy corporate," but the weekends belonged to "pink."

Pink makes my heart sing. So why do I so rarely use pink in my art?

Analyze away? 


About the photo: This is a piece by a fellow Polymer Clay Artists Guild of Etsy member, Lisa of HiGirls. She handcrafts each of this bicone bead necklaces in scrumptious candy colors. Of course her pinks are my favorite.

No measure of time

Love forever graphic created from vintage dictionary page

Rob and I celebrated our 18th wedding anniversary today. We went out to dinner out last night and enjoyed a quiet day at home today.

This is the card I made for the occasion. I found the image in an Etsy store called Life's Moments Defined. The owner, Anne, scanned the background from her Original Webster's Dictionary dated 1873.

The page features the definition for "vampire bat" complete with an illustration. Anne digitally added the saying on top. Quite a fitting tribute considering that we will close out the evening watching True Blood.

Ode to Migraines

The Cluster Headache by JD Fletcher

This image, along with more "migraine art" appeared on the blog "She Walks Softly" today. I love this blog because the author, Dana, routinely publishes wonderfully weird curiosities.

Thanks to this image, the next time that I have a migraine, and someone asks me how I feel, I am going to say, "I feel like the devil thrust his hand into my eyeball and is trying to tear my eye out of its socket, but other than that things are good :) "

Fortunately I don't get migraines very often anymore. I get tons of headaches, but not migraines. The only thing I can really credit it to is the fact that I cut back on gluten several years ago. I'm not perfect with it, but it is no longer a routine part of my diet. Or maybe it is just the fact that I am learning to let go of things a little bit as I age.

Up until a couple of years ago I had a migraine every month or so pretty much from childhood. In elementary school I was considered an expert at vomiting.

I vomited on the school bus. I vomited in my teacher's trash can when she refused to let me go to the nurse's office because she thought I was "faking it." I vomited every time I ate a nitrate-filled hot dog in the cafeteria. And I vomited in my dad's new pick up truck. Of all the things I've done over the years, throwing up in my dad's truck is the one thing he can't let go.

He never had a migraine. If he had, he would have been more understanding.

"Normal" with a Twist

Royal Wedding BMF/South Cape Cheese ad 

Humans are complex creatures with multiple personalities living within. Some of those personalities dance happily on center stage. Others hide, unseen by most.

For me John Hughes' 1985 classic, The Breakfast Club, depicts this inner dissonance beautifully as the characters comes to realize they are much more complex than the labels (athlete, basket-case, princess, brain, criminal) that they have accepted from the outside world.
 
While this complexity is completely "normal," I find myself struggling with how my disparate  personalities fit into my public brand image. As facets of me come out in my work, I often feel like a cat coughing up a muti-colored hairball. And I ask myself, "who in their right mind would want a multi-colored hairball?" 

It is a sensible question. After all, one of my personalities makes a living as a marketing director. This "me" knows that a brand needs to have a focus. One has to live within a niche in order to find the "ideal" customer.

Yet the "artist me" struggles against the marketing box. My fractured "brand" does not know how to categorize itself. Some days it basks in sweetness and sunshine. Other days it dances closer to the dark side. Which "me" represents my brand?

To answer this question, I sought the help of two former higher ed marketing colleagues of mine, Bevin and Tara, who recently launched their own creative agency, Firebrand Tribe. This weekend I spent more than 5 hours with them brainstorming that universal question, "Who am I?" in relation to  my art and my brand.

Lots of great ideas emerged, and I'll share some of them in future posts as things flesh out, but basically we came to a wonderful conclusion. There is no reason try to purge one of my personalities for the sake of "branding."

The dissonance between my outer "Mary Jane" and my inner "twist" is what makes me, well, uniquely me.  And that is where my best art lives.  
     

Best of Intentions

My husband is a real sweetie with a romantic heart, yet not all of his romantic ideas work out as planned. In fact on Friday his best intentions took on an almost comic element.

Things are really hectic in my day job so I worked Friday while he took a vacation day. He felt bad because I've been so stressed and he wanted to treat me to a worry-free evening.

I arrived home to a clean house. Nice! On the counter was a  bottle of wine with a note that said to enjoy a glass of wine, grab a shower or take a bath, and then we were going out to dinner. Nice again! But before I had a chance to contemplate my next move, the phone rang. My husband was at the grocery store without his wallet. So I hopped in the car and headed off to meet him there.

Back home, I pulled in the drive way and saw grocery bags piled up in front of the door. My husband was at the end of the deck trying to capture our cat Benjamin. The 17+ pound usually "slow, gentle Ben" had run past him and spazzed once he got outside. He wouldn't come to either of us. We chased him through the neighborhood, until he disappeared under a shed. My husband managed to grab his leg and pull him out. He was coated with leaves and spiderwebs and had a horrible stench. We took him inside and gave him a bath. Then we showered and headed out to dinner accompanied by a stiff drink.   

A Cautionary Tale on Overeating

Every family has its stories. Histories, comedies, dramas. Ours has those and an old fable--a cautionary tale of two foxes.

 I made these polymer covered eggs as Easter gifts for my family, and as soon as my sister opened hers, she started to recite the opening line from the story. Actually, she first mixed it up with Snoopy's "It was a dark and stormy night," but she caught herself and switched to "It was a cold ... something. Neither of us could quite remember what came next.

Even with the brain fog, all it took was the image of the fox to bring back the memory of being an elementary school kid listening to our almost 90-year-old Great Grandma tell us this story. It is cool how family has this short-cut language. I fox will never just be a fox for us.

It wasn't a pleasant story. It was a cautionary tale of gluttony, but we wanted her to tell it over and over again.

Basically there were two foxes that squeezed into a hole in the chicken coop floor. Since we lived on my grandfather's farm, Great-Gram always made the farmer in the story our PaPa. The one fox feasted all night on chickens. The other, realizing the escape hole was quite small, ate only a small amount.

When the farmer arrived in the morning, the smart fox escaped, and the other, well lets just say my Great Grandma described in detail, complete with hand gestures, what happened to the "piggy" fox. Sometimes she would tell it in German, but we new from the hand gestures exactly what was happening.

Now that is a great lesson on not overeating!
 
I did a post a couple years ago about a family recipe scrapbook that has some photos of her if you'd like to meet her.

http://creativesprinkle.blogspot.com/2010/11/recipe-scrapbook-project.html

Oreo Cameo and Insect Curiosities

From Scratch series: "Oreo Cameo #3" by Judith G. Klausner

A sampling of weirdly wonderful art

When my friend Stacy, the one who created "Tub Hair" art,  sent me a Facebook link to this Oreo Cameo, a light bulb went off in my head. Why not use this find to kick-off  a series of posts celebrating the best of the "weird" in the art world? So here is the first post in a this new series of weird to inspire your inner creative.

The work of Judith G. Klausner
This cameo, carved from an Oreo cookie was created by Judith G. Klausner, an artist from Somerville, MA. Judith does a beautiful job rendering traditional themes using unconventional media.  The Oreo is from her "From Scratch" series where she uses Victorian handicraft processes to transform modern packaged foods. In addition to many Oreo cameos, the series also features condiment wallpaper and a cereal sampler.

Off with Their Heads series: "Queen of Hearts" by Judith G. Klausner

I loved viewing her work in the "From Scratch" series in her online gallery, but I delighted even more in her work featuring insects. Judith creates the most wonderfully detailed miniature scenes using insects. She collects dead insects on her wanderings to use in these projects.  I think my favorite is her "Off With Their Heads" series that playfully references the fact that female mantises are notorious for decapitating their mates mid-coitus. Above is the "Queen of Hearts."  She also recreated the tale of "Judith and Holofernes" with mantises.

You can view Judith's work in her online gallery or purchase select prints from her "From Scratch" series at jgklausner.imagekind.com.

Virtual Collecting

Pinterest Virtual Collecting:

Margarets, Batgirl, and nympo librarians! oh my!

People collect some pretty cool stuff. And with the introduction of Pinterest Boards we are no longer limited by money, geography, or even the bounds of physical reality. I love "collecting" my precious internet finds on these virtual boards, cataloging them for future reference. I also love looking at what other people "collect." If you have a cool Pinterest collection give me the link in the comments. I'd love to check it out.

My Pinterest Collection

One of my favorite pinners is Margaret Almon, a mosaic artist from Philadelphia. Margaret collects things that speak to her life and her personality, things like other "Margarets." She dedicated a whole board to authors, artists, actresses, really anyone of interest she can find named "Margaret." Neat idea!

She also has a board of really cool librarian stuff. She shows a great sense of humor in curating this collection. Mixed in with her nostalgic library finds are a cover shot of Nympho Librarian and a poster of Batgirl trying to get you to return your library books. Did you know Batgirl was a librarian?

My former Librarian Life

These are just two of her 21 boards. See her collection at: http://pinterest.com/margaretalmon/

If you want to learn more about Pinterest, check out my previous post: Pinterest: 5 reasons you should be pinning. What do you collect?

Occasional Cat Photo

On my "About Creative Sprinkle" page, I warned you that I might share the occasional cat photo. Well today is one of those posts. About two weeks ago we added "Lucy" to our already overly cat-filled family. I was getting ready to leave for a doctor's appointment when I noticed my cat, Benjamin, fussing at the window. Curiosity got the better of me and I looked out to see what he saw.

This four-week-old (at the time) kitten was stumbling around under our pine trees beside the road. I watched for Mamma (one of the local feral cats) to come help, but Mamma was no where to be found. I already had 6 cats inside, but I couldn't leave for my appointment with her waiting to be run over or eaten by a hawk.

I went outside and scooped her up. I put her in a cat carrier in the basement so I could go to my appointment and then head to work. I told myself I'd take her to the Humane Society when I got home. Yeah right!

We did a feeble search for a home on Facebook, but she batted those eyes at my husband and me. Yes, she is staying. Out vet gave us the thumbs up to add her to our brood. We have three geriatric cats so we know at some point in the future we won't be the crazy people with 7 cats.

My husband suggested the name, Lucy, because Lucy in The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe found Narnia while wandering in the pines just like our Lucy was wandering under the pines.

Long story short, I'm not getting much creating done because I'm playing with my new cat.

Launch of Devilishly Festive

This is one of my latest creative undertakings: an original artwork to serve as banner art for my new blog Devilishly Festive Holidays & Celebrations. Don't worry, Creative Sprinkle will still be a big part of my life, but I needed a new forum to focus on future product lines. The plan is to mix helpful, fun articles and items from other sellers with posts about stuff I've created like wine stoppers, cake toppers, festive jewelry, and holiday decorations.

I've kicked things off this week with Marshmallow Madness Week. Stop by!

Marshmallow Madness Week
Day 1: Better Roasters
Day 2: Candy Turned Eye Candy
Day 3: Beyond Vanilla
Day 4: Specialty S'mores
Day 5: TGIF Cocktails

Simple tricks to avoid a typography fail

I saw this product in the store over the weekend. The packaging had me asking "what are 'bum pits' and why would I want to buy them?"  This is a great example of a typography fail.

It is easy in the design process to get caught up in the "shape" of the word and forget that the word actually has meaning. That meaning can be seriously distorted during the design process.

I understand that the company has merged the words "bump" and "it" for the product name. Obviously that was a non-negotiable for the designer. The designer picked a very clever arc layout that mirrored the shape of the product. Unfortunately placing the product name in an arc visually breaks it at the center, right where "bum" meets "pit"

There are lots of ways to provide a visual break in the proper place. Adding a capital "I" would be one option: "BumpIt." This solution is helpful when spelling out a web address in text to make it more readable: for example "WeAreCentralPA.com" instead of "wearcentralpa.com" which could be read as "wear central pa." 

Here are a few more ideas for breaking up run-on words:

1. Vary the font style
     Bumpit 
     Bumpit

2. Vary the color
     Bumpit
     Bumpit

3. Vary the size
   Bumpit
    Bumpit 

Notice how the top example in each set emphasizes the word "bump" to make it seem more important than "it." Of course, a designer can execute these techniques with a lot more finesse than I've done here. What other ways have you seen to address this typography fail?

Perfection not required for sainthood

 
I slipped quietly into my meeting this week, ashamed that I was a few minutes late. Our university's president was reading a passage about a woman, desperate for her lover's approval.

"All the while she lavished love without shame on a partner who made little use of it. But no matter: there was more where that came from, a passion that grew in amplitude and influence far beyond just one dead-end romance. Sainthood and the single woman. Sanctity without incredulity. Sexual love without regret. That’s the totally ordinary, amazing thing about Dorothy Day."

It was not our usual meeting fare.

I glanced down at the photocopied article in front of me, and realized he was reading from a NY Times editorial piece by Lawrence Downes, "The Passion of Dorothy Day."

One of the great things about being a newbie in a job is learning an institution's stories. The story of Dorothy Day is indeed one of those stories that I thought I knew, but clearly not. Dorothy Day to me was a strong Catholic woman who worked tirelessly to improve conditions for the working poor. She was a woman whose deeds were great enough to have a mission center on campus named after her; a woman who is under consideration for sainthood.

Of course, her real story was far more complex.

This synopsis is from a film about her that debuted at the Tribeca Film Festival, called  Dorothy Day: Don’t Call Me A Saint

Dorothy Day: Don’t Call Me A Saint tells the story of the New York writer and Catholic anarchist who at the height of the Depression unwittingly created what would become a worldwide peace and social justice movement. The Catholic Worker persists to this day in over 180 houses of hospitality and soup kitchens across the United States, in Europe, Australia, Canada and Mexico. Their tenet is based on doing works of mercy and living in voluntary poverty with no attachments to Church or State. And although the Vatican is currently considering Dorothy Day for canonization, she is no ordinary saint.

Caught up in the Bohemian whirl of 1917 Greenwich Village, Dorothy wrote for radical papers, associated with known Communists, attempted suicide and had an illegal abortion, a doomed common-law marriage and a child out of wedlock. The birth of her only child led to her religious conversion.

The film takes us through Dorothy's protests of the 1950's air-raid drills, her last arrest in 1973 with the United Farm Workers and to her death on November 29, 1980 at the home she founded for homeless women on New York’s Bowery.

Interviews with Dorothy, her daughter, and close intimates coupled with never-before-seen family photographs, personal writings and powerful archival footage paint a dramatic picture of Dorothy’s most difficult journey to create and live out a vision of a more just world.

Her story serves as a great reminder that people don't need to be perfect to do good things.

Zombie Romance

printable card from Pretty Messes

When I got my e-newletter from Amanda at  Kind Over Matter a few weeks ago, it had the subject line: Open at Your Own Risk (Mature Content). Not something you usually see from Kind Over Matter, so my curiosity was piqued and  I opened it.

Once there, I found an ad for the shop that showcases Amanda's other side called Pretty Messes. Like me, Amanda has a complex personality, an odd juxtaposition of super sweet and not-so-sweet.

It is in her Pretty Messes shop where I found this great printable that I turned into my husband's Valentine's Day card. One of  my favorite activities with my husband is watching the Walking Dead and discussing how we would survive a zombie apocalypse, so this card seemed perfect.

Amanda's Pretty Messes shop is, self-described as "off-color" so if you visit, be forewarned. So if you'd prefer to stick to her sweet side, try Kind Over Matter.

Punxsutawney Phil Pancakes

Punxsutawney Phil Pancake

These are Punxsutawney Phil pancakes that my sister Marcie made for her kids in honor of Ground Hog Day. I thought they were so adorable. It sure beats the yogurt I had for breakfast yesterday.

When you live in a snowy state you celebrate any sign of spring--no matter how small or how weird it may seem. Here in Pennsylvania we embrace the weather forecasting expertise of a ground hog named Phil. Yesterday he popped out of his hole and found himself shadow free! Yes, it's true. Phil didn't see his shadow so we are going to have an early spring.

Phil has become a national phenomenon, but if you have no idea what I'm talking about, or just want to know more about Phil, you can visit the Official Website of the Punxsutawney Groundhog Club.

Ghosts of Halloween Past

Yesterday was my office Halloween party, my favorite day at work. It is a day that brings back good memories of Halloweens past. Past costumes and past coworkers who have moved on to new horizons. I've stayed in touch with many of them on Facebook so I look forward to seeing their costume ingenuity even if it has to be from a distance.

The ghosts of Halloween past are also fun to explore through family memories. My soon-to-be sister-in-law, Ericia, created this cute picture of  my niece, Jessie, trying on the dress I wore this year. It won't be too long before she fits it. And it wasn't too long ago that she was discovering Halloween.

Hope your ghosts of Halloween past bring you happy memories! If you want to read other stories about the Ghosts of Halloween past visit the SITS blog. It is today's theme.

Delicious Indecision

When my sister and I were little girls, we looked forward to going with Mom and Dad to this old-timey general store called Buzzard's. Why? Because Buzzard's had a plethora of candy.

• gummy fish
• candy dots
• caramel cow tails
• wax lips
• plastic garbage cans filled with garbage-shaped candy 

So many colors. So many shapes. So many flavors.  Ah the deliciousness of indecision!

Today, I get that same feeling from picking out paint chips. My eyes hover over the blues, then drift to the purples. I pick up one here, another there, and before I know it, paint chips fan out in my hands like a winning poker hand. Delicious indecision!  Yet, at some point, a decision must be made.

I faced this dilemma when I painted my bedroom. I stood in the store, my hands filled with chips, calling to me to pick just one.

The indecision was crippling.
"Close, but not quite."
"Maybe this one?"
"No, definitely not."

Then I glanced at a warm gray, putty-colored chip. The color was nice, but it was the name of the color that caught my eye. Indecision, the paint was named indecision! I had a winner.

About the photo:  "Art Nouveau Paint Chips," a print made from a vintage image available at AllPosters.com.

Shape Shifters Among Us

I have a sneaking suspicion that my cats may be shape shifters. You know, humans that took cat form, but found life at my house so cushy they decided to never shift back. Many of their traits are far too human for mere felines.

Case in point, the other night, my orange tabby, Pumpkin, confirmed his grasp of the English language. I was talking to my husband about how buying new cat toys is a waste of money. Poor Mr. Squiggles, the stuffed hamster, has barely gotten any playtime since we brought him home.

Not too long after that conversation, Pumpkin came prancing into the room with Mr. Squiggles in his mouth. Pumpkin has NEVER touched Mr. Squiggles before he overheard our conversation about cutting back on the toys.

I don't know if I've been watching too many True Blood episodes lately, or if it is related to my short-lived Manimal addiction in the fall of 1983, but I find myself wondering if those all-knowing eyes peering at me really belong to the all-American domestic short hairs they make themselves out to be.

(Thank you dear readers for humoring me by reading a post about my cats. Those of you who saw my "About Creative Sprinkle" page have been forewarned that while infrequent, cat posts are fair content on this blog.)

Living Life's Adventure

A few nights ago my husband, Rob, and I were in the mood for a little light-hearted animated fare so we popped in the movie “Up,” not realizing that within the first fifteen minutes, we would be sitting together avoiding eye contact for fear that we would burst into blubbering idiots.
If you haven’t seen the movie, it begins with the main character, now a grumpy old man, as a child. He meets an adventurous little girl with whom he spends most of his life having those everyday adventures that we take for granted.

For me, the lifetime adventure started at 16 when I let a tall dark-haired “college boy” talk me into stealing away from a youth bowling night for a little alone time and one fantastic kiss.

Since then we have traveled life’s road together. From studious Penn State students in Happy Valley, to DC wannabe insiders, we chased the adventures we were meant to have. And, somewhere along the way, we settled into a comfortable rural life back in Pennsylvania.

Well, leave it to an animated movie to slap you in the face with the reality that no matter how much you love someone, your time together is limited by mortality. Thoughts like that really put things into perspective.

Those precious everyday adventures are happening to us—right here, right now, and I’ve been taking them for granted. I tend to get caught up with my day job or the excitement of launching my new creative business, and no matter how distracted I get, Rob is there cheering me on. I’m really lucky to have him, and I look forward to having adventures for years to come.