June/July Books!

Hi folks,

June was a good month for reading, however July might beat it.  After over a year and a half of living in Raleigh I finally got a library card July 3rd.  I strongly believe that the reason it took me this long is because my husband decided to use his library card as an ice scraper this winter completely destroying it, leading to him not really wanting to go and ask for a new one.  It was just too much bother.  I ultimately got Bryan to take me to a library by finding a great trivia night event to go to for our double date night with his younger brother Davey & Davey's girlfriend.  (Post trivia, which Bryan and I actually won, we headed to Mellow Mushroom for an awesome dinner.  Then we headed back to our house to introduce Davey's lady friend to some anime she would like in the form of Fruit's Basket, an all too adorable series that involves a cute overload and decent amounts of comedy to balance it out.)

Anyway, since then we've swung by the library twice and I've loaded up on books big time.  But I need to recap the June books before I get too absorbed with the news ones I've picked up.  So, as I mentioned before I was reading Pinterest Power, which I have not yet finished, and The Long Earth by Terry Pratchett and Stephen Baxter.  I was really enjoying The Long Earth with the aspects of possible earths, other species, and exploration with what is essentially a fully sentient android.  I was enjoying it a lot....and then it came to a fast cliffhanger ending, because it's the start of a series, which I did not realize until it was too late.  I don't really mind, but will now need to go find the next book.

Other things I've read recently are Changers: Drew Book One by T. Cooper and Allison Glock, The Fault in Our Stars by John Green, The Reluctant Reaper by Gina X. Grant, and Relish by Lucy Knisley.

Changers: Book One Drew was an interesting read that revolves around the idea that a small part of the population will spend a part of their life living in different bodies to experience being both male and female, as well I would assume other races in future books.  So in part this book looks at sociological issues that accompany differences in appearance.  It's a pretty good read if the idea of being in someone else's shoes is something that intrigues you.

The Fault in Our Stars, which the recent movie of the same name was based on is a book I've been looking forward to reading for a while.  Bryan, however, had convinced me to wait until after watching the movie to read the book.  Usually I read before watching the movie, but I agreed to try out Bryan's idea this time.  I feel that the book isn't all the different from the movie, and enjoyed both pretty equally, for various reasons.  The additional characters in the books and more teenage feeling conversation between characters was an interesting contrast to the slightly older and more lonely feeling movie characters.  I like the individuals cast in the movie quite a bit though, and felt they did a great job translating the book in a way viewers could connect to.

The Reluctant Reaper was a fun little read that reminds me of the TV show Dead Like Me (a good series headed by one of my favorite writer/producers Bryan Fuller).  To summarize, a stolen soul gets sent to hell and starts to understand living for the first time.  It's a light book targeted to a YA audience, and the start of a series, which I'll probably get around to reading more of eventually.

Finally Relish by Lucy Knisley is a graphic novel I've been looking forward to reading for a while now.  The book is a bit of an autobiographical look at how Knisley grew up and the large part that food and cooking played in shaping her experiences.  There are recipes included at the end of the chapters that I look forward to trying out in the future, as this is a book I'll probably be buying soon (if it's not something I get for my birthday anyway).

I've also started reading Twelve Years a Slave by Solomon Northrup, Galileo's Daughter by Dava Sobel, The Madonnas of Leningrad by Debra Dean, and am about to pick up volumes 17 & 18 of the Fables series of graphic novels, plus many other things from the library!  All the library choices will be prioritized by what I feel like at the time, as I really like being spontaneous and having several book options available at a time so I can choose as my mood dictates.

Til next time....
Love, Lydia

Days 155-161 New things

Welcome everyone,

Blog News
So this week has been a busy one between a bit of work, family time, and various other projects.  For starters I'm thinking about making some changes to my blog.  I'm sure you all have noticed that I've been talking about much more than art lately, and while I expect art to be a continued focus I am contemplating giving my blog a new title to reflect to many aspects of what I feature.  I'll be brainstorming and getting back with an announcement about that as well as an accompanying new look for the page design soon.  As it is I'm trying a new format here with added subject headings to help you find the sections you're more or less interested in reading about easier.  I'm also looking at joining a blogger community or two to help me come up with some fun idea for my writing and get to know more bloggers and readers!  I'd love to tell some more stories and allow more creative details from my to be shown to you all.

Art
Next up there's lots of new things on the horizon as I'm working on a new art history themed project that I don't want to share too much about just yet.  However, I can say that it will involve some fun learning experiences and lots of research and work on my part.  This week I've been laying out some ideas, but should have introductory content ready by late June or early July.  If it all goes well it could be a very big series of work for me, which would be a great new challenge.

I've messed with bits and pieces of projects, and should have some finished items to show soon.  Though it will depend on what projects I'm able to focus on next week.  The last few weeks I've been more focused on photography with my new camera and all.  Then I'll have inventory going on at Anthro next week too, so things will be extra busy!

Pinterest
I'm working on the Pinterest project too, and will have the finished post and tutorial up next week, because I wanted to put a little more polish on some of the photos and have been delayed in finishing it this week.  It's coming along well though!

Games
Otherwise I've been working on getting a Pokemon RPG game started (yes the kind with dice) along with a bunch of family members.  It'll be a fun summer game with each of us writing our own stories of what kind of trainers we'll be an my husband acting as GM (game master) throwing different scenarios and Pokemon our way.  We'll be putting aside our bi-weekly Magic games for it since one brother who's home for the summer dislikes playing big group card games, so it's a nice trade off.  Plus we get another "brother" to play too, giving our group people 5 plus our GM.  Normally I cook when we have our Hackmaster RPG nights, but for this I think we'll be gathering at Bryan's parents with the whole family for dinner.  Because, yes, they still have family meals....it's really quite nice!

Besides that we're still working on the randomized game of Pokemon Platinum, which we are approaching the halfway point of now.  So many silly things happen on the random settings, it's just great.  My Charizard managed to have about the best move set ever with powerful fire, ice, flying and ground moves!  And then there's my poor Drifloon, which will never evolve because if it does his ability will change to normalize, making all its ghost moves fairly useless.

Books
During April I read The Good Earth by Pearl S. Buck, which I enjoyed, though not as much as I did Pavilion of Women.  I'd still recommend it, but I think I simply found it less relatable in some ways.

In April/May I also read Solaris by Stanislaw Lem, which is a sci fi book with a really interesting story.  I don't want to give too much away, but some strange things happen on a remote planet with some well thought out ideas about possible first contact with another life form.

Additionally in May I read The Nazi Officer's Wife by Edith Hahn Beer.

It's the non-fiction account of a Jewish woman who married a Nazi and managed to stay alive in Germany throughout WWII.  I found it particularly interested because she was very well educated and during the war acted as a passive housewife.  Only after the war could she go back to her chosen vocation, shocking her husband and being a strong precursor to the feminist movements that were to come in the next few decades.

Now I'm a quarter of the way through The Long Earth by Terry Pratchett a book that examines the idea of parallel earths, and also just picked up Pinterest Power by Jason Miles and Karen Lacey, and book on how to use Pinterest in new and interesting ways.  I'll write more on them once I finish them!

Conclusion
As you can see I probably could have broken this into 3 different posts and gone into more detail, but I'm always working on new ideas and am horrible about simply writing the small posts frequently so I won't overwhelm you all with information!  For now the heading should help, but it's something I'm trying to work on, so keep giving me feedback and I'll see you all again very soon.

Love, Lydia

Days, Oh the Days...57-78

I'm sorry, dear readers, that most of a month has flown by without a peep.  The past few weeks I've been kept busy looking for jobs, and even showing up for a couple of interviews.  I get pretty absorbed when I'm working on that kind of thing.  However, nothing has come of it so far except two great interview experiences.  One with Anthropologie, a lovely women's clothing and home goods brand, and the other with Gann Memorials, a fantastic little family company that makes plush toys for people like - Nintendo, My Little Pony, and the giant bunny featured in Iron Man 3.  I would be happy to work for either company, though I'm no longer a candidate for one of them.  And I'm still looking and applying to places too, though I'm leaning towards not worrying about it as much as I have the past few weeks.

Other news:

We've had ice storms at least every other week, though at least it's given me a little relief from spring allergies.  haha  It's also kept us from trying out the fire pit we were given for Christmas.  I'm hoping we'll have a break in the weather soon so we can invite some people over to enjoy it with us.

We went to PA for my grandfather's funeral two weekends ago.  While I wanted a little trip for a change of routine it was sad that it was for an event like this.  He had dementia for the past few years, and really couldn't remember any of his family anymore.  After a recent fall he had stopped eating and within a short time passed away in his sleep.  He lived into his mid-90s and was fairly healthy right up to the end.  I think we all feel peaceful about how it all happened, and it was nice to see so many of the relatives I see so seldom.

Twitter, it's just been an awesome way to find out what's going on in the art world.  I've probably sunk some of the time I should've been writing here into that lately, but I'm trying to get things more balanced, so you all will see me here more consistently, twice a week minimum!

Speaking if posting more I'm exploring way of making this blog part of my work.  There were some interesting ideas Here at the blog Just Between Friends in regards to a lot of the areas I was curious about.  If you have a blog that you want to develop more I suggest you check it out!

In addition, I've been thinking I'll start doing a Pinterest experiment each week as part of my blog features (that would probably give me a third posting each week!).  I've got a ton of great ideas to try out from art techniques, recipes, DIY projects, and home cleaning fixes to photography challenges.  I've got over 4000 just waiting to be tried out.  And you can take a peek at my pin boards here at http://www.pinterest.com/lydiasdesigns/

In tomorrow's post stay tuned for an art update with plenty of pictures!

Love, Lydia

Days 43-49

Hello everyone,
Today I've been going through old notebooks.  I have a stack of them kept from about the time I started college.  There's some class notes, but a lot more in the way of personal notes and journal entries.  It's always interesting for me to revisit them.  I can see how I've changed, and how I've been impatient for all the things I thought I should have in the future.  Everything is always different from how you think it will be.  Being content and making the best of things as they happen is sometimes the best we can do.  I definitely have a lot on my mind right now, as you can probably see.

I'm going through some transitions in what I'm doing careerwise.  I've been applying to jobs daily and looking for more.  Some art related and some not at all.  My application to Penland is in and I'm waiting to hear back about that.  I'm still working on art, but not nearly as much of my time is going into it as I would wish.

Stay posted for updates, photos and new pieces are a bit delayed for now though!

Love, Lydia

Days 39-42

Hello folks,

My weekend was filled with taking care of my poor sick husband...who had food poisoning or some other nasty illness.  I'm still not quite sure he's over it, but he's doing better at least.

Otherwise my Kickstarter is over, and as predicted in my last post didn't make its goal.  I'm ok with that, though it means a lot of hard work from me for the coming months.  I'll be keeping tabs on job openings, making art, and finding various ways to earn extra money on the side.  I've really already been doing these things, but will have a little more time to do them now.

On the side of good news I got my application for Penland School of Crafts in the mail today.  I'm so nervous about it, and hoping it will arrive in time even with all the snow and ice the weathermen are promising here.  I'm glad to have it off, and will be checking the tracking number at least twice a say until it makes it to their doorstep.

Bryan and I worked on our budget today, which is continuing to look good.  We have a long way to go before we can feel relaxed, but we're getting there, slowly but surely.  I look forward to having emergency money saved up and debts paid off, and we're closer to that each day.  In the next few weeks I'll do our taxes and hopefully we'll get a refund we can put towards our debt.  For some reason I really like doing my taxes.  I'm not sure if it's because I like the feeling of knowing they're completed or simply enjoy the process.  I think it might mean I'm a bit crazy either way.  haha

In book, news I read an article shared by a friend of mine via Facebook on Alternate History Novels.  I've loved this kind of book and idea for a while now, and have added many of the books from this list to my "To Read" section of www.Goodreads.com.  (If you're wondering, my "To Read" section is enormous...I'm always seeing great looking new books.  I can only hope to get around to them all.)  Right now I'm working on 1632 (Ring of Fire), which I got for free as a Kindle book.  I'm betting it's still free, and you can read it on most platforms with the free Kindle book app (computers, tablets, smartphones).  It's been interesting, and Bryan and I also decided to give Darwinia, The Aquiliad, and The Peshawar Lancers a try.  We got the physical books for those though.  While I like reading though Kindle it'll never be the same as having a book in hand.  I've also been working my way through the graphic novel series Y The Last Man, having finished number 6 out of 10 volumes.

Beyond all of that I've been continuing work on art pieces and should have at least one if not more completed pieces to show everyone in my next entry here.

Until next time.

Love, Lydia

Days 37-38

Hi guys,

So, There's just one day left to my Kickstarter, and I think I can let you all in on one of the new projects I was talking about.  Really this is the biggest one that I've been working on this week.

I'm applying to take a summer course at Penland School of Craft.  I've been creating my scholarship/studio assistantship/workstudy application the past few days.  Today I completely revamped my resume, and have been calling in the folks I will use as references.  It's an exciting process, and I don't mind the work.  It feels good to be doing some solid work towards a goal.  I didn't know if the Kickstarter would work out, but this is something that I can handle.  I know I can get it done and sent, even on a tight schedule.  The application is due Monday the 17th, and if all goes well I'll have sent off everything on Tuesday the 11th.  Penland is here in North Carolina, but up in the mountains so it may need the time it will take to get there.  I'm applying to two different classes, one is a photography based course that would involve darkroom work, learning new techniques and ways of working that I think would go quite nicely with my collage work.  Some of which should be out of darkroom techniques that I can use existing negatives, photos, and digital files for.  The second class is a collage class that would survey a variety of techniques within the scope of collage, plus encaustics, and monotype printmaking.  (Monotypes are a printmaking process that creates a one time only printed impression or uses a base that will print fairly or even very differently each time it's used.)

I like the idea of both the classes, and honestly can't decide between the two.  The photography one has a possible assistantship, but no possibility of full scholarships.  The other could yield a full scholarship, but has no assistantship available.  Then both could have workstudy or partial scholarships, though that would mean I'd need to pay some portion as well.

So, it's exhilarating to see things come together, as taking a class at Penland is something I've had in mind for several years now.  Ever since one of my friends went and came back raving about how great it was I've been itching to go myself.  While she's not able to make it this year, I'm still happy to try for it on my own.  It'll be a fantastic way to meet some new people and shake things up with my own work.  A kick in the pants is just what I need!  haha

Other than all that I spent my evening with my husband and my brother in law, having dinner together and watching the opening ceremony of the Olympics.  While writing a letter of intent for Penland too of course.  It felt like college all over again...not that I mind!  I've also been working on the "Bianca" piece too, but at the moment I'm not rushing it with the Penland app unfinished.  I was still able to enjoy the ceremony, and I always love seeing each country's Olympiads carrying in their flags.  The nods to great Russian artists throughout the production were great to see as well.  I just hope we've seen the last of the failures to finish preparations in time so that all will run smoothly for the games.  I always look forward to watching them, and this year I've got lots of willing family members to get together and watch with.  I think my biggest problem is wanting to see all the events and only having so much time for viewing.  As a kid I loved the figure skating routines, but I grew to love pretty much all the winter sports as the years went by.  Do you all have favorite events or do you like all of them equally?

Until next time!

Love, Lydia

Days 32-36

Hello dear readers,

Over the past few days I've been hard at work promoting my Kickstarter - http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/lydiadickson/art-for-all-year-2014  Any help spreading the word and getting pledges in would be fantastic!  Things are close to the end, but haven't progressed too far.  However, as I said in an earlier post I'm not giving up hope on accomplishing my goal of creating at least one piece per week.  It will just be a harder later in the year if I end up getting another job to go with it.

In any case I've got lots of works in progress, the character portrait, which is to be titled "Bianca" is progressing nicely.  And I'm also working on a couple of other projects, but I'm keeping them under wraps at the moment.  Once I get done with the Kickstarter I'll probably be able to mention more.  I feel like I'm being very secretive this past week, and I'm kind of sorry, but most of it is just having a lot to do, and being more of a private person in general.  I do have things to share with you all, they just don't always flow out of me steadily.  Also, sometimes my life is a bit boring.  I keep busy making stuff, and do housewife stuff.  (All the while planning crazy trips to new places and scheming to make things happen which may or may not ever pan out)  At least I dream big!

So, going on to the next topic.   I was thinking earlier today and wondering what music people favor when they're working on creative projects.  I'd love to hear from you all about particular songs or albums that you've found helpful or inspiring.  I'm always looking for more new music and have found that lately I'm listening to a lot of the same thing.  I have a lot of music, but am looking for some new perspective too.  So please hit me with your best shots!  As for me, lately I've found Fleet Foxes album Helplessness Blues to be pretty inspiring and I'm starting to get into the latest Avett Brothers album as well.  They're rather similar in feel, so they don't cover all the moods I need music for while working, but are good for many occasions.

Beyond my creative work I've also been working on health plans and such to keep up with my goals there.  I've been keeping track of my food intake and monitoring it to see how it compares to what my ideals are....and was surprised to find I'm not quite as great at estimating everything I'm doing.  Some days I'm great, but other days I don't realize at all!  So I'll be keeping up with tracking things for a while longer until I see more permanent changes in my habits and choices.  I'm trying to keep things vague here because I don't like talking about numbers, it gets to being very specific to an individual person and I don't want to make anyone's ideas any worse than our society is already making them.  I'm also keeping up with exercises, between dance games on the Wii, yoga, walking, and doing a challenge focused on squats.  The biggest thing I'm looking for is getting more energy and feeling better.  Over the past couple years I've had a very noticeable dip in my energy levels, which is partially due to some thyroid issues, but something I want to overcome if possible.

Sorry I'm all talk and no pictures this time, but I want to hear back from you all.  Let me know what you think, I want to get some conversation going!

Love, Lydia

Day 24

Welcome to my blog,

So today I've been thinking about goals.  I happened to read a post by a guy named Mike Hyatt who owns a publishing house and blogs about writing, among other things.  The post he wrote is about mistakes people make when setting goals.  You can read the article here.  It's got me thinking about some of my big goals for this year and I thought I'd share them with you all.

Most of you who read this already know about my Kickstarter and the goals that go with it.  If I meet the low goal I'll be able to create a piece of art every week this year and end up with 52 pieces.  The larger goal is making a piece every day and ending up with a full 365 pieces.  The more I work on these goals, sending out messages via Etsy, Facebook, Twitter and the like the more determined I am to at least get the 52 pieces made, whether or not I have the funding.  If I have to I'll make paintings on whatever scraps of paper I have left if I can't afford to buy more supplies.  I've at least got the watercolor paint to make it through a year of that, though collages and other art forms wouldn't have the same luck.  And so far I'm right on track with that, having finished 3 pieces at just over 3 weeks in.  I've got another 8 pieces in progress and ideas for lots more written down.  I think half my trouble comes from finding what to get started on first!

I have some other goals too though.  Some more personal ones like finding a good church to go to here in Raleigh.  Sometimes I feel like that's hard because Bryan and I grew up in really different styles of churches, though our personal beliefs are really similar.  I'm not going to go into the spiritual parts of it all, because this isn't the place for that.  However, I really look forward to finding a place with good community because I miss having friends here.  I have lots of family that so far has filled in very well, but I know I need to have friends outside of relatives.  I think of all of this as things that will feed my emotional stability and improve my mental health.

I also want to get my art established better here in the Raleigh area, and I would really love to participate in a couple of shows my the end of the year.  I've also thought about showing my work in other areas too, and would like to be able to that.  And I would like to join some artist associations so I can get to know other artists. network, and just get in the loop about things.  All of that is a little more dependent on money, which brings me to the next big goal.

Working on tackling our finances.  I've got student loans, we had our car get totaled a couple months back and had a huge rise in car insurance simply for living somewhere there's a risk of being rear-ended, plus the costs of a "new" car.  However, it's taught me how to be a couponer, and we're now masters of making and sticking to budgets.  We also eat out a lot less than we used to.  Recently I switched to an Obamacare plan, in my case it cut my insurance costs in half compared to my husband's employee insurance!  Next month things will start looking up as we've finally caught up to all the things that were setting us back so much the past few months.  We're buying a fantastic photograph from Matthew Alexander, a fellow CCAD alum as a way of celebrating making this goal!

For mental stimulation I've vowed to read at least one new book each month, which if you know me isn't a huge goal.  I was the 10 year old kid who read over 100 books one summer, because a kind library patron saw that the summer reading program wasn't enough challenge for me.  She asked me to make it to 50 instead, and then gave me a gift card for a local bookstore.  I kept going and hit 100 books before school started that fall.  However, I read a lot less when I was at CCAD, and making art in high gear cuts down on my reading time.  Since it's also some of my best mental fuel I'm making a point of keeping it around!

Lastly I've also been making more effort than ever to be healthy.  Simply getting in more fruit and veggies and less junk, eating more organic and local, and putting more exercise into my daily routine.  I'd been doing dance workouts about twice a week for most of the last year, but now I'm also adding in yoga 1-2 times a week, some weight training, walking, plus other routines too.  And last year I gave up keeping soda in the house, so these days I drink a lot more water.

So, all this is what's going on in the background each day, and what keeps me going.  Sometimes I feel like it's not a big enough deal to talk about on here, but really, all the little details are important to my story.  I'm guessing you all feel the same way about your lives, some of those details are what make us feel ourselves.  Hopefully you all have made it through all this, and I hope even more that it's been interesting, showing you more about who I am.  Until Monday.

Love, Lydia

Days 11-13

Well everyone,

My weekend did not go as planned.  haha  Just show what I get for trying to be an overachiever!  Saturday our power went out around lunchtime...right before we made lunch.  So, we hopped in the car and headed to Bryan's parents home, picking up something to eat on the way.  We played a lot of Magic the Gathering and I got my press releases written and sent out.  Since we'd reported our power outage we got a call around 8pm saying "not to expect a return of power until 6am Monday.  So, we were just a touch panicked and went home to pack up the contents of out refrigerator and pack overnight bags thinking we'd stay with Bryan's parents.  When we got back to our home the power was on and things were fine.  We returned for dinner (and to collect all the things we'd left thinking we'd be staying a while), more Magic, and some episodes of Doctor Who with Bryan's family.  (Yes my geek side will be showing up here sometimes too...it just means if you want some fun fan art or original game/tv/movie themed work I might just be your gal!)

Sunday was spent doing all the little boring things around the house we didn't do Saturday, and I really still have more to get done, though I've been working on it today.  I also completed my first piece of the year today.  It's very unlike my usual pieces, but I had a hankering to work on a self portrait for the first time in years and gave it a go.  I'm pretty pleased with the results.

This piece was created with some found paper, Neocolor II Wax pastels (some of the new ones I got for Christmas!), pencil, ink, and iridescent lavender tone acylic from Golden(on the white stripes and background area as well as the glass portion the the glasses), all on a 5"x7" oval canvas from Fredrix.  It looks like I'm going to have to go back to Askew Taylor (an absolutely fantastic local art supply store!) and pick up several more canvases like this one.

Today was the kind of day where I was having some hints of depression tugging at me, and almost just did nothing except be lazy.  However, when I started thinking about doing the self portrait, I knew it was just the right thing to do to help.  So this piece was done from start to finish in one day.  I have 10 other pieces started, but sometimes I work better if I interrupt my routine with something like this to give my emotional energy levels a jump start.  I've now got much more energy to work on a couple of the other pieces, though they'll have to wait a bit til I'm done here and with a few other projects online.

This piece is going to go up in my Etsy shop ASAP, and hopefully I'll have some more newly completed pieces for tomorrow as well.  Remember, my Kickstarter is up and going HERE and if I'm unable reach at least my minimum goal I may be retiring from art for quite some time, which I really don't want to have happen.  The thought scares me and is half the reason I deal with depression these days to be honest.

So, lots of brutal honesty here today.  Hopefully not too much for you all.  I look forward to seeing what tomorrow brings and am glad I get to share it with you for at least a little while longer.

Love, Lydia