Change

a budding peony stage I photo by m.diaz

Well, as my regular readers have deduced I have slowed down on the blogging through these past few months of July, August and September.

There is a reason and some up and coming behind the scenes changes that I've been working on for the last 3 months that I will soon reveal here on my blog.

But first a word on the word change...it seems to be the 'hot-button' word for my place of work this school year as is the notion of 'accepting it'. This ofcourse implies that the change is thrust upon you and not self-initiated. Fortunately in this technologically savvy world we're living in, I'm a big believer in innovation, stepping into discomfort in order to bend, stretch, learn and rustling ancient architecture. I also believe you can never stand in the same river twice...

However, I'm not a big fan of changing just for the sake of changing, or accepting changes that are counterproductive or an impedement to seeking your best possible life, or providing no actual improvement to the potential of learning. And I believe if you find yourself in one of those latter aforementioned negative states of change, you should not just accept it- in fact I believe you should never just accept daily discomfort and discontent, but instead change again, and again, and again until the process yields a journey of fruitful gains and you find yourself in a state of workable calm.

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Make a Wordle!

my blog Amarettogirl's Wordle One of my students just taught me what 'Word Clouds' are and they introduced me to Wordle. Now I'm hooked!

A word cloud scans a body of text (or a blog or website) for key/repetitive words and pulls them, then it arranges them in a funky layout. You can modify font, layout stye and color palette. If you're a blogger (or not) try it it you'll like it...also imagine doing it with a poem or interviews or anything! Its a fantastic graphic design toy!

If you make a wordle because of this post- leave me a link to it in my comments so that I can see it!

-Ciao Amarettogirl

Back to Basics...

It is such a good feeling when an all-consuming project/obligation and ultimately accomplishment, is over.

Now I can get back to the basics...the little things you do just for the sake of doing them.

For me, that's much more than my full-time teaching, its rolling around with the pups, starting our summer garden, working on the Indie BIZ, reading up on raising chickens (my summer project), sewing, crafting, blogging and maybe, just maybe, learning how to make french macaroons...finally! I also have a little role in a dinner theater production this Spring- anybody know any good memorization apps?

digital manipulation of a glass sketch by marisol diaz

In the end it's like having a whole field of possiblities open wide in front of you. Still, the key to wonderful and productive next 6 months will be to have as little self-imposed stress which means avoiding projects with hard-pressed deadlines- those just kill me! Though judging by responses to this last exhibit, putting me under pressure cooker settings can actually produce fantastic results.

I'm pretty bad at avoiding such opportunities so a major goal will be to STAY STRESS FREE.

BTW, I recv'd two more penpal letters Yay!! and some super cute, made-with-love notes.

Still working on that new giveaway for you all...and I'm wondering - even doing something you love for a mandated date can turn it into 'work' - So how do you stay STRESS FREE??

-Ciao Amarettogirl

I WON!

I can't believe I won a GIVEAWAY Too! I know many of us like to go around saying that we never win anything, but seriously people the last thing I won was 10 years ago in Coney Island with one eye intensely focused on a scary clown's open mouth while I aimed and shot a stream of water from a pistol straight into it. The secret - strategy and a low number of competitors.

Actually come to think of it, I did get a stuffed pink animal from the claw machine two weeks ago with my mom (she's addicted to claw machines) but that doesn't count since the machine lets you play UNTIL you win.

But I digress, I won! And I did so on a day that I couldn't have been more tired, down and out, and just flat sad. Laura Belle is a full-time designer and maker from Minnesota. Her blog and shop is called OH HI! and she recently had a birthday giveaway- I had to write about my fave birthday gift. YAY! You can see that post here. The handmade piece I won from Laura Belle of OhHishop phot courtesy of OhHI!!

Next post I'll be showing you the flyer to this weekend's gallery opening, I ended up having too little funds to order a postcard this time around, and so I had to resort to making a flyer (old school).

- Ciao Amarettogirl

New Work...is on its way...

Since I have to get back to work (art making that is) for my up and coming exhibit at the Azucarera gallery (April 10th - 30th), I spent the majority of yesterday preparing the ground on my paper. I revived good 'ol tea-staining and experimented with marbling. I actually love the results and then I stood up until 3:30am starting the first piece. Thought you all might like to see what I'm up to.

If you're interested in tea-staining be sure to have a whole night - the results are much better with good quality rag paper and an overnight soak.

black tea staininga detail shot of the overnight results of tea-staining prepared grounds with experiments in marbling and my first piece on its way pic by m.diaz my newest piece in progress by marisol diaz a detail shot art and photo by marisol diaz

I really don't know what direction this will all go in - but its seems I'm still caught up in the last Unearthly woman concept...We'll see where it wall takes me.

-Ciao Amarettogirl

Illustrations for Two More Pen Pals and Indie shop Owners!

Ok so hopefully I could get back to doing some artwork for the exhibit coming up and stop being distracted by the urge to draw for my pen pals since these are the last two on my list!

Just call me the 'Queen of Procrastination' (though wouldn't it be cool to have a whole solo show on pen pal illustrations tee-hee) just kidding. Seriously I have to get serious...but for now here is some fun stuff.Little Illo for my penpal Marcie owner of Redstarink by m.diaz

First we have Marcie who owns a wonderful paper printing co. named REDSTARINK which you must see! My typography-fan readers will appreciate her clean, organized design aesthetic and her products to help you live more efficiently!
As you can see I reversed the words star and ink in my illo - hope Marcie doesn't mind the play with the words.

Then we have Bri who makes gorgeous head bands with butterflies and/or flowers- you need to check out her blog at Little Miss Famous to see! All my hipster lady friends will so want to buy one of those!

Little Illo for my penpal Bri owner of Little Miss Famous and maker of butterfly headbands by m.diaz

Well thats that for today. Thanks to all the wonderful responses I got to the last pen pal post about what kind of cupcake you would be if you were one- I got such creative and revealing answers!! And reader Emi found a seriously thorough what kind of cupcake would you be quiz that you should totally try.

Its hard to rival such a great q&a session but lets try...so in keeping with the cupcake you said you would be in the last pen pal post what would the ideal drink with which to accompany your cupcake be if one were consuming you?

P.S. It's not to late to join the April 4th Basket Giveaway Raffle! For some of us Spring Break has started and the challenge to stop by has just become more difficult so your chances of winning are actually good! Just comment on every post since the GIVEAWAY post AND be sure to leave a NUMBER on your last comment on April 4th before 9pm!!

Free 4x6" Print for Kawaii Easter Basket Giveaway!

'Sweetness' illustration for my Basket GIVEAWAY!!

Basket will include this small 4"X6" print on matte photo paper and signed by me. I just did this watercolor illustration last night for the lucky winner of my April 4th Giveaway! I hope you all like it!

I tweaked it in photoshop after it was done, hence that weird effect in the icing.
Anyhoo, I've had such a great time preparing for this GIVEAWAY and appreciate everyone's support. If you're interested in WINNING the basket please be sure to read the rules of eligibility (which-BTW it's open to all!) in the GIVEAWAY post.

I've also been working on illustrations for my new penpals from my Indie 2.0 class - I'll show you those soon!

-Ciao Amarettogirl

A Unique Giveaway!

So in my internet escapades through crafty bloggers, I came across a pretty unique giveaway. As many of you know, giveaways through crafty/creative blogs usually exist of craft supplies, handmade products or various things like that (which are ALWAYS wonderful).

However, blogger, Yourstrulydear from Utah is one-upping the traditional giveaways to a whole new level! So here's what you get:

A 5'3 x 7'5 Zebra Print Rug from CSN!

So if you're interested these are the entry options and what you have to do:

TO ENTER

1. be a blog follower on YOURSTRULYDEAR and leave a comment saying so (1 entry)

2. leave a comment telling YOURSTRULYDEAR your favorite animal (1 entry)

3. blog about this giveaway [&leave the link] (1 entry)

4. tweet about this giveaway [@yourstrulydear] (1 entry)

**giveaway will close monday (march 15th) at midnight. us and canadian residents only

Hope you all enjoy and that someone I know gets lucky! ;) -Ciao Amarettogirl

Another Amazing Stop Motion...

I was hopping around the blogosphere and I came across Angela Kohler's wonderful blog through checking out my new classmate Breanne Sinibaldi's blog (she's a photographer and graphic designer). I had to post about this for all of my students who have a stop-motion animation soft-spot like me!

Ballroom Dancing and Blogging with the IPhone!

So Tony Dovolani was a no show! He cancelled at the last minute (or the day prior), which left the organizers of the event quite perturbed...but all was not lost because the ballroom dancers still performed and they were stellar! I wish I remembered their names but alas I do not, though some are current champion dancers.

To make this post even more extraordinary, it was all done with my IPhone! As if the capabilities of my phone (and the way it has deeply rooted itself into my life) weren't amazing enough as is, I can now use two pretty cool apps to blog on demand!! Photoshop's app called PS MOBILE allows me to to adjust my Iphone images taken with the phones camera (and in this case in pretty severe low light I might add) and my Squarespace website platform have now made an app called Squarespace which allows you to post while traveling without a computer. So now when I say
I'm so going to blog about that, I am, anywhere and anytime!!

Ok so I never officially found out who my secret donor was, but while I was there one of my student's parents came up and handed me a raffle ticket in the form of a diamond/crystal (they were selling them all night at $100 a pop) and with a tender squeeze of my hand told me 'Good Luck!'- I was deeply affected. I didn't win the raffle, which was for a pair of $40,000 diamond earrings, but it was one of those moments where I was reminded that the energy we give each other (even unbeknownst to us) helps us get through, and thanks to someone's generosity to my school and too me I did win the gift of the evening there.

- ciao Amarettogirl

Update on Monday, February 22, 2010 at 10:49AM by Amarettogirl

Thanks to a former student I learned the dancers pictured here are none other than, Iveta Lukosiute and Gherman Mustuc who have a wonderful website entitled Why do I dance...Why do I breathe! These two are internatioanlly reknowned and are the reigning World Professional 10-Dance Champions, which features both Latin and Standard-style dancing. They also are United States and North American Professional 10-Dance Champions! Ahh how awesome - you can see videos of them dancing on Youtube as well.