(255) Night Wath Tower

Tonight I completed another wet-on-wet style painting. My technique was good (I was pretty excited that I remembered had remembered because I had not painted for a while), but I coated the canvas with too much liquid and got a little bit of a sagging effect in the paint which I was battling with through the process.

Regardless, here is the results:

(256) The Nollkamper Holiday Portraits

Though I posted the photos to my family blog, here is a link to my creativity for the day -

http://www.nollkamper.com/2010/12/s-squared-and-benny-holiday-photos.html

(257) Baby Shower Banner

Tonight despite being exhausted I pushed myself through the process of creating a banner for the shower this weekend for little baby Addison.

I can't wait to use it this weekend. It turned out super cute!

(258) Another Photobook for the Holidays

For those who follow somewhat...back in February a did a photo shoot with my friend Dave & Stephanie to highlight the new addition to their family Liam. As a surprise for the holiday I put together a photobook for them and Dave's parents (as they are family friends).

Here is the final result: http://www.mypublisher.com/?e=OHm3Q8zJl3RcfNgCXMEW4TsL29jJECtN&_mp=H/rHHKNPuBsrl8Ht6gt9l6AxVELqnXDk%0A

(259) Latch Hooth from the 70s...

Today I started a latch hook project that Tiffany got me at a garage sale. It is a 70s-tastic orange an yellow with seagulls. I managed to get about a third done.

Pictures to follow soon.

(260) Shutterfly Photo Book

Click here to view this photo book larger

I chose Shutterfly to create my first photo book. This decision was mainly based on the influence of a Groupon promotional deal I purchased several months back.

The photo book tracks the several years of Greg and I dating up through our honeymoon and has a snap shot of many of the adventures we have shared together.

Here is my project if anyone wants to take a look!

(261) A Little Quilled Object

A little sun for Jason:






















A red snowflake for my Mom:

(262) Ladybugs!

The other project that I need to get underway is a ladybug mobile. I had been searching for patterns to di-cut some (svg files) ladybugs for the invitations and came across this site: Everything Ladybug

It's amazing to me that there is a whole site dedicated to ladybugs. Ah the internetz!!! They had some great svg files though and I am going to happily put this to use. I already used it for the invitations. I am also going to put them to use on the banner. But I digress...

Now I am looking for ideas for the mobile I am designing. I have some super cute polka dot socks in various shades of pink, white, and green. I think for this set I am going to do the cross patterned embroidery wings (like I did for the owls).

Here is the only inspiration I could find, but it is a pretty boring mobile -

(263) ABCs Book for Benny

So this is still a work in progress, but I decided for Christmas I wanted to design a book of ABCs for Benny. I saw a friend had done one for her daughter and it was adorable (thanks for the inspiration Lisa).

I think this way when he starts to talk more he will have a picture book of the familiar items around him and he can keep it when he gets older.

A = Aunt Amber
B = Bath-time or Baby Benny (haven't decided which one yet)
C = Cuddling Cat
D = Dreamy Dad
E = Enormous Elephant?
F = Family Feet (Skye has a super cute picture of their family feet)
G = Grandparents (Grandma + Grandpa)
H = Happy House (picture of their home)
I = Ice, Inset, Iris, Ivy?
J = Jack-o-latern, jacket, jiggly, jello, jet, jellyfish?
K = Keyboard Kitten, Kite, Kayak, Key, Kazoo, Kettle, Koala, Kangaroo?
L = Leaf, Ladybug, Lollipop, Lamb, Log, Lion?
M = Marvelous Mom (picture of Skye + Benny)
N = Nifty Nollkampers
O = Overhead Owls (his baby mobile)
P = Prancing Porter (their dog)
Q = Quality Quilt (Picture of his baby quilt)
R = Rascally Raccoon
S = Sleeping Scale (cute pic of Benny asleep in a scale)
T = Toby the Terrier (the family dog that passed away this year)
U = Unique Uncle (Greg)
V = Veering Vine?
W = Winding Waterfall (I have a great picture of the Walla Walla Falls)
X = X-Ray (might put an ultrasound here, but it could be kind of creepy)
Y = Yellow Yarn?
Z = ZigZag Zebra?

These are totally not set in stone and I am looking for more ideas. I am trying to tailor it to things I think he will want to remember when he grows up so some are geared towards home and family.

(264) Oakland, Oregon Adventure

Since I do not start my job this week, Chris and I decided an adventure was called in order. Last weekend in Eugene a friend had mentioned that they liked to travel to Oakland for antiques. Oakland, Oregon? Well neither Chris nor I had heard of this city, so we decided that would be the destination for our adventure. Along for the adventure I had invited Skye and Sir Benny.

Overall it was a long ride with little reward other than the conversation with Chris, Skye, and Benny (who even chimed in with some noises here and there). I was not even that inspired to take all that many pictures. I noticed I did not even get any Skye and Benny shots. Probably because I was enjoying holding Benny and the buildings were somewhat boring.

The neatest thing (and I would never have even know this with out Chris pointing it out) was seeing a Frink fixture in the restaurant we had lunch. The chandelier, now converted for electric, has a tube around the bottom that at one point held kerosene and mirrors on the inside to reflect light. It was interesting looking to say the least.

(266-265) Baby Shower Planning Invitations

My creativity this week has been baby shower planning for my sweet friend Karly. She has split her friend and family into two showers.

The first shower I decided to go with a lady bug theme, as she has decided this very theme for her nursery! Here are the invitations:

For this shower I would like to do would be a banner and I have a cute idea for the take aways, but don't want to spoil it until the actual shower.

I did end up reusing an idea I liked from Jen's shower where each person brings photos and advice/wishes to put together on a scrapbook page. Then all the pages are put together at the end of the shower for the mom to be. I thought this would work well since Karly's family will be attending the first shower.

I also looked up and found some cute ideas for lady bug foods. I am not going to attempt making the cake for this shower, but did ordered one through my favorite cake shop in town - JaCiva.

(269-267) Quilling

While at the craft store this week picking up supplies to create baby shower invites, I came across a beginners kit for quilling. The patterns looked interesting and I am a sucker when it comes to trying new things, so I picked up the set.

Quilling, also known as paper filligree, is a form or art that uses paper (in strips) as its main medium. The artist uses a quill to coil the paper around and then shapes the paper in different forms. This has been around for many thousands of years and was quiet popular during the Victorian era.

Saturday when playing passenger on the drive to Eugene I did my first quilled creations. My first attempt was a dragon fly and followed it with a duck:











I love how quickly you can see results with this form or art. It is fairly easy and opens the mind for a ton of creative options on what to apply the filigree work to. On the down side that the gluing is a bit messy (but nothing permanent as the glue can be easily cleaned). Paper is inexpensive and the strips could be created on your own if you were really ambitious. Most of all, the technique is surprisingly relaxing.

Sunday on our drive back up to have dinner with the Glennons, I made a snowflake ornament for Barb:















Now I am waiting on a book I ordered on Amazon "The Art of Paper Quilling" to by Claire Sun-ok Choi to arrive so I can read more about different techniques.

(273-270) Sock Monkeys Ready to Play

Here are the sock monkeys for Jen and Tom. We decided they look more like robot sock monkeys...they kind of took on a life of there own during the project. Greg was very proud that he was able to sew one of them himself too!

Monkey #1 " Smiles" & #2 "Hot Lips"

Monkey #3 "Surprise" & #4 "Happy"

Final Mobile :

Hand made card and final wrapped present:

To top off the gift I hand made a card with some quiet scrap book bird paper and a couple -cut pieces. With a special note for the mom and dad to be. It just so happened that the green ribbon worked perfectly for wrapping the gift together.

I'm Back!!!

My plans got a bit disrupted by life. Though there are many things that are creative about a wedding, I took a break from my precarioussoul blog until the wedding project was complete (as I know not everyone is fond of hearing all the gory details of a wedding). Now I am happy to report today is our one month anniversary.

After almost a six month hiatus I am trying to get back on track with my goal - documenting things that make me feel creative for a year. A sub-part of this goal was to try to complete 356 creative projects.

My year is ending in December and I feel pretty good about the reflection on things that made me feel creative through out the year. However, looking at it in the aspect of the 365 projects, I think will be nearing one third of my goal by December. Not too shabby!

Perhaps I was ambitious as I originally hoped to document daily, rather it is each week that I am finding something that captures my mind creatively. But my vow is to keep on track with my original goal and keep creating until I complete 365 projects. This will take much more time to create, but I am a goal setter and this will help me to create and in blogging I am hoping to inspire more people to do the same.

On that note I am off to bed to dream of some new inspiring creative adventures.

(276-275) Sock Monkey ProtoType and Sock Monkey #1

Today I prototyped a sock monkey to find a way to work the design with one sock. The prototype was looking a bit more like a cat sock animal, so I tweaked the design and also decreased the size so it would be right for a mobile (used toddlers 22-24 month socks). Here is the first monkey:


Greg volunteered to sew the twin monkey.

Tonight I cut the socks for set #2 and tomorrow the plan is to sew round #2. Later this week I will get around to figuring out how I will embroider the mouths. Just in time because the baby shower is November 13th.

(277) A Photo Book for our Honeymoon

I put a draft together of our honeymoon pictures on Shutterfly. I started to get annoyed with how limiting Shutterfly book design is however, so I began to research online publishing options. I checked out:
Lulu
Blurb
Costco
Picaboo
Snapfish
Shutterfly
Tiny Prints
Smilebooks
MyPublisher

I had never realized how many competitors there are in the market! Thus far it seems like a lot of recommendations point to: Adormapix.

I found a couple of review articles here:
Digital Thoughts
TheDailyDigi

Anyone have suggestions for advanced photo book design options and photo book print qualities?

Thanks in advance!
~Amber

(278) Dan's Birthday Panda

So I have been doing creative projects, but am falling sorely behind on posting them.

So here is a quick easy one. Today to wish our close friend Dan a happy birthday we created a special Photoshop image -

It was super silly, but made me feel creative for the day.

(283-279) The Beavers Have Arrived...

Though I was a bit under stress in the production mode, the beavers turned out to be cute buggers. I hope Kate & Corey enjoy them and can't wait to meet their little one!

Here are the first set of beavers:

Sock Monkey's!

Okay I am totally getting ahead of myself because there is another set I need to complete before I start on the monkey's, but I found a design pattern. Now I am in search of socks to complete this goal...http://melbourne4mothers.wordpress.com/2008/10/19/sock-monkey/

Need to turn my motivation on so I can go shopping today!

(284) Chris's Jesus Birthday

Okay so perhaps a little faux pas-ish, but here is the invitation I Photoshoped tonight for Chris's 33rd Birthday.

I think it is pretty silly, but am sure that I will want to look back and admire it in all its splendor sometime in the future.


Here is a more close and personal look at CHRISTopher:

And my personal favorite:

Margaret Cho

Tonight I went with Chris & Jason to see Margaret Cho @ the Schnitzer. She is a talented performer. It was the launch of her new tour Cho Dependant.

I think one of my favorite liners all night was something to the effect of "Gay men can get spit all the time. I would love to get spit. In one end and the other like pork BBQ and Korean's love f@ing BBQ." I was not huge on the whole song part of her routine, but it had its moments. I would have to say that I would definitely go see another of her performances.

I think inserting comedy into ones life is a great way to inspire creativity. At times comedy can boarder line raunchy, but it is these defining boundaries and experiences in life that make us explore who we are and find beauty in even the strangest facets of life.

~~~
After the show Chris and I stayed up watching some cheesy TV shows, talking about life (family), and were shamelessly bad ordering our favorite late night deliciousness from Hammy's.

Life is sweet.

(286) Boat Race Photographs

This was indeed my first boat race gathering. The environment seems to be filled with drinking, drama, and speed. I am not so sure that is a great combination.

So despite the races not being my cup of tea, it was a challenging subject to capture. I definitely would need a higher powered telephoto to do justice, but here are some of the images I was able to capture:

Ghost Town Adventure Planning

This week we are prepping for our ghost town adventure. Apparently a friend of mine (Jason), went on a similar trek that we are mapping out for our ghost town excursion.

He mapped it out though our ghost-town trip to Eastern Oregon - where the "pins are color-coded: red = nothing left (ie. don't bother visiting), yellow = a few minor remnants (ie. meh), and blue = plenty to explore!" He also referenced this: a PDF I created comprised of 3 separate ghost town trips. And pointed out the Ghost Towns website. Marcus is planning out our trip, so I will have to do a comparison once he puts together the proposed route.

Mobile Ideas

So I was looking for ideas on what mobile to pursue next and just thought I would put a shout out to one of my favorite sites - http://craftschmaft.com/

This is where I got the original pattern to make Skye's mobile. This started my mobile addiction. Now I am creating patterns of my own.

(287) Coastal Pictures

At the beach.

Pretty flower in Long Beach.

Coast from Fort Columbia.

The Battery.

Inside the Battery

Battery tower.

Decay.

Beautiful rust.

Door at the Battery.

Home again.