Coming Back To Blogger

After trying to adjust to the new blog format of my website (then getting frustrated and not feeling the same closeness of the Blogger community), I am moving my blog back over here. I miss Blogger. I miss being able to see what everyone is doing and blog hop and all that good stuff. It just feels like home here... maybe because this is where I started out, rambling about dreams and art and all things good and true :) Here are some photos of what I have been up to lately...

Lucy is still large and in charge.

I've been taking walks every evening that it has been nice outside and just taking in all the small, beautiful things that oftentimes might get overlooked.

I've been feeling very inspired by music lately and am getting back into playing the piano. 

I, um, inherited a white wine fridge from some neighbors that moved out... just in time for summer :)

Pippa is still a little hellion and tests my patience on a daily basis. And I love her for it.

'Tis thunderstorm season... and you can usually find me hiding under a blanket in the fetal position. So scary!

I planted my garden with my mom in May and everything has been growing like crazy!

My friend Laura is having a baby (due September)... She is my first close friend to have a baby. I cannot stop buying stuff for him :)

And of course there are the usual summer things that I have been looking forward to since our winter that did not end... sketching by the pool, painting late into the night with the windows open, concerts, festivals, and wine on the porch. Summertime and the living's easy. I've been crazy busy with freelance projects lately (yay!!!) but have also found time to make an abundance of new work, with more on the way! Something about the sunshine turns my inspiration and creative energy up about 1000 notches :)

Hope all is well with everyone out there. It already feels better to be back here :)

New Website & Blog!

Oh my lord, where has the time gone? Just wanted to let everyone know real quick that I have been hard at work at a new website. Okay, by hard at work I actually mean obsessively working on it every chance I get because I just want it finished. It's almost there, complete with a portfolio, shop section, and blog, which is where this blog will be permanently moved. I figured out how to import all of the posts and comments, and am still trying to figure out how to redirect this blog to the new one.

So, moving forward, you can find my blog at: http://www.jenndalyn.com/blog

Anyone follow Alisa Burke's blog and/or Instagram? I follow both and am continuously in awe of her. She has a young daughter, busy life, yet always finds time to create really thoughtful and meaningful blog posts. I've been inspired to take my blog in a similar direction of hers, where lots of inspiration, photos, and overall lovely things will be shared on a (hopefully) very regular basis. Some of my ideas include sharing pages from the many weirdo books I have in my library (I love collecting unusual books!), my weekly favorite photos found on Tumblr, taking at least one walk (to anywhere!) each week and posting photos, and on Sundays posting my art journal pages for the week. The desire to have a somewhat set schedule is still surprising me!

Life is great, and it's almost SPRING! One of my favorite times of the year. I cannot wait to start going on adventures with my camera, capturing the new signs of life.

Oh, and on Friday (March 22) I will be turning 30! It's really hard to believe. While it seems like most people freak out and say they are 29 for the next few years, I'm very excited about my 30's. All the hard stuff is out of the way. Now it's time to just live.

Hope all is well with everyone and hope to see everyone at my "new" blog! :)

A Wintertime Walk

We had our second "significant" amount of snow here in Columbus last Friday. I missed the opportunity to take pictures after our first snow storm, so I was super excited to take advantage of this most recent snowfall. Even though I was dead tired after a busy Friday night at work, I set out early Saturday morning to a wildlife area outside of the city with my camera and an McMuffin. Oh yes, I got a McMuffin. There was practically no one on the trails that early, so it was completely silent... and much of the snow was undisturbed. Walking through the snow and the silence in the empty forest was magical. Here are the first of many pictures:

Even though winter starts to get pretty old around this time of year, the beauty of a new snowfall never does. Can't wait to start altering these to make some new wintertime art for my shop! Speaking of which, massive amounts of stuff to share within the next couple of days. New originals from 40 Works In 40 Days, new prints, a new series, love being so super busy! 

Day 22

Oh yes, this whole crazy idea is being finished  in the next 18 days. Sure, I started it back in October. What I like about the whole 40 Works in 40 Days story is that this project was started almost out of desperation. Okay... it completely started out of desperation: because times were tough and I needed to remind myself of why I was doing this. Why I quit a job with a perfectly great salary to start my own business selling art. The fact that it was interrupted pretty much exactly halfway through because I got too busy selling my art to keep up with it is kind of amazing. Now here I am... it has been more than four months since I have worked what society calls a "real job," and this seems like the perfect time to finish my 40 Works.

Right now, I finally feel like I have made it. The past four months have been a struggle to say the least. I don't think there was one time in those months that I felt like I had really "made it." I was working towards "making it," and now I finally feel like I am there. Everything keeps picking up in my shops and I can count on sales every day. In addition to that, I have found the two perfect side jobs to get me out of the house and add love to my life in different ways. One is babysitting every Wednesday for three young and busy boys. I have always loved working with kids and wanted something very casual yet regular involving that to add to my weeks. Done. The other is bartending every Friday and Saturday night at a very nice and established restaurant five minutes from my apartment. I have always loved bartending, and I have missed it. I've missed the fast-paced work environment, the networking possibilities, and the feeling of family that you have with coworkers at a restaurant. I could not have asked for a more perfect position doing so. I've only worked there for two days and am already in love with the job. And that's just a side job! And I'm already in love with the little boys I babysit for. Is that really a job too??

And... I am 100% fully completely in love with my full-time job as an artist. How can this be my job? How is this actually possible?? I hope I don't sound boastful, I just have a lot of moments of disbelief lately, that all this is happening. I am turning 30 in just a few months and while most people seem to dread it, I cannot wait to see what my 30's will have in store. Wow. 

So with that dramatic display of emotion aside (that is not how I originally planned this post to start out... talk about word vomit!), here is Day 22 of 40 Works in 40 Days. I've really been digging the scallop pattern style lately (and two works I've done in this style, "Flower Power" and "Wanderbloom," have quickly become two of my most popular) and want to play with it more. The background is multiple washes and splatters of watercolor, alcohol ink, and white acrylic paint. I used my hair dryer to speed up the drying process between the layers because I was feeling impatient. It's also fun to push the paint around with the blowing air! Then I glued more pages from my wallpaper book, then added some doodles. The colors are totally inspired by the upcoming "holiday" that is Valentine's Day. While this is a fun holiday for kids (making Valentine's mailboxes out of shoeboxes was always so much fun), I think it's pretty dumb for adults. Maybe that's the cynical single chick in me talking, but come on. You can tell someone you love then and appreciate them any day. 

Anyway, I will not go on a rant about Valentine's Day. We are two weeks into 2013 and it's going to be a great year. Life. Is. Beautiful.

A New Year, A New Life

Now the song Jennifer Hudson sings from those Weight Watchers commercials is stuck in my head. Soooo..... wow. Hello 2013. I cannot believe I am here... not just in the new year, but where I am in life. Currently, I am surrounded by a paper/paint/scraps/envelope explosion due to frantically packing up and shipping six orders earlier. My days of going to FedEx and buying one shipping envelope at a time seem to be over. The days right before and right after Christmas were pretty scary: I had a dry spell with ZERO ETSY ORDERS and about had a panic attack. But then, they came back in a big way. One day was so amazing that I was in tears. The cash register cha-ching sound that the Etsy app on my phone makes when I sell something kept cha-chinging away all day.

I remember last year at the beginning of 2012, I had so many huge ideas that I wanted to accomplish that year. And... I accomplished them. It is now 2013 and I have my own business selling my artwork. Wow wow wow wow wow.

So, I don't do resolutions. They are dumb and last until February then the coolness of trying to better yourself or something like that wears off. Instead, I do affirmations. Things I want to do. Since last years affirmations seemed to be pretty successful, let's make more for this year:

1) Start a new art journal. I fell out of practice with my old one when I started getting busy trying to keep the art selling business going, but I miss "playing" in it soooo much.

2) Volunteer someplace on a regular weekly basis. I'm thinking the retirement home that is a two minute walk from my apartment.

3) Achieve complete financial stability. Marvel at the fact that I did so by doing what I love: creating. And never take that for granted.

4) Take a vacation alone, whether it be two days or ten days. Take my camera and a sketchbook. Come back with endless ideas and inspiration.

5) Go on a cruise with my mom. We have been talking about doing it for years. It's time.

6) Learn how to play the piano, like well. I can play basic stuff and know how to read music... I also have a digital piano gathering dust. Time to give that guy some serious attention.

7) Pay off a credit card.

8) Start a "Future House Down Payment Fund."

9) Cook more. Oddly enough, I have enjoyed cooking lately. Not usually my thing.

10) Be a better person in general. In small ways and big... always being kind to strangers. Doing random acts of kindness. Paying it forward. Lately, that has been happening naturally, because I am so happy. Sometimes I think the post office people think I am delusional... the other night a guy that works there yelled to me and the other post office worker I was chatting with, "Listen to you two! It's like two women in the kitchen!" which got giggles from a lot of the people waiting in line. The ones who did not giggle were probably super annoyed that I was holding up the line. Sorry, just spreading some cheer :)

Aside from the art stuff, nannying has been going great. Right now I watch the boys every Wednesday. Sometimes when I leave, my stomach hurts from laughing because of the things that their way-above-average-intelligent three year old says. I think I know more about dinosaurs now than I ever did when learning about them in school.

Also, just because I've been kind of lonely and itching for the excitement (and money - hehe) of a part time bartending job, I saw the perfect opportunity on Craigslist Sunday. A nice restaurant about five minutes from me was looking for a bartender Friday and Saturday nights to work their 8-seat service bar - the bar that makes the drinks for all of the servers' tables. I always LOVED working the service bar because you have to be fast and on your toes. It is the best kind of stress and pressure and it's so much fun.  So I got that job yesterday and start Friday! And anyone who has ever worked in a restaurant knows how the staff usually is kind of like a big dysfunctional family, and I'm excited to experience that again. Plus, you make a lot of connections when you are a bartender. Also excited to see what could come of that!

Lastly, and really first and foremost for 2013, I am finishing the second half of my 40 Works In 40 Days project because HOLY MOLEY did I fall off the wagon with that!! I mean, I did because I was busy and spazzing and trying to do too much at once, but it's going to be finished. So far, I have created and made prints of the following things, in order of creation:

"Flower Power" 

Prints available HERE.

"Wanderbloom"

Prints available HERE.

"The Red Dress"

Prints available HERE.

"The Yellow Dress"

Prints available HERE.

Oh yes, there is going to be a blue dress, a green dress, a purple dress... if anyone has any unusual color ideas I'd love to hear them! A peacock dress maybe? Or perhaps different countries' colors: like a red, white, and blue dress? I have so many ideas lately. I may 'splode. That is an obscure reference to an I Love Lucy episode that my mom and I used to laugh at waaaaaay too hard. 

The original of "Wanderbloom" was actually up for grabs in my first ever giveaway contest! I loved doing it so much that the second one is already in the works, this time expanding to include people not on Facebook. As fate would have it, the person who won lives in Columbus and found me when her mom gifted her some prints she bought at the art festival I did back in December. Due to this uncanny and awesome coincidence, we met for coffee yesterday so I could give her the painting in person and it was just a fantastic morning. She is one of those people that us adults get envious of - she graduated from high school in June and is starting college next fall. Probably one of the most exciting times in life ever. And she knows exactly what she wants to do and where she wants to go and I couldn't be more excited for her. 

I can't wait to start my project back up - that is happening tomorrow! AND even cooler, I've now sold four of the pieces from it! I just packed one up to send out last week and whenever I do, it's kind of emotional, like a sign that what I'm doing is what I'm supposed to be doing. 

Also, I just wanted to say thank you to all of the people who have shown me support and kindness that I didn't imagine in my wildest dreams. There have been blog comments, Flickr comments, emails, Facebook messages... that have brought me to tears more times than I can count. Sometimes I am in the grocery store reading them on my phone and I just stop dead in my tracks. It's all so unreal and there are simply not words to express how much I appreciate your encouragement and support. Trying to put this into words right now is pretty impossible. But thank you.

Last paragraph I swear. Going to be better about blogging, so that I'm not disjointedly trying to cram 1000 thoughts/shares into one post. I also plan on starting to do tutorials, because I know I often Google how certain techniques work and get mad when the results I find are lousy. So yeah... big plans. Big big plans. This year is going to be AMAZING.

I hope 2013 is finding everyone happy, healthy, and full of love :)

Most Inconsistent Blogger Ever: ME!

Sooooo... I have been battling the idea of setting a pseudo-schedule for myself recently, because the craziest thing started happening in December... I GOT BUSY. There were days where I was spending five or so hours just packing and printing orders! Insane. This is what I've been working for and granted I have the holiday season to thank, but it's still amazing. Aside from Etsy orders picking up, a lot of other cool things have been going on around here lately....

On December 1, I did my first arts festival!!

After having a near meltdown (okay... a total meltdown) on Thursday night when my printer started to malfunction, everything came together on Friday and Saturday turned out to be one of the most amazing days ever. Aside from selling some things, I met people who completely blew me over with their encouragement, support, and kind words. Kind of shaking my head sitting here and thinking about it... it was a day the restored my faith in humanity. At least for a while :)

I don't know if the positive energy from that day was recognized by someone or something, but after that is when sales started taking off. Thanks to the amazing thing that is called technology, I was obsessively checking my iPhone constantly for email from Etsy notifying me of a sale. There are probably a lot of people milling about Columbus who witnessed this happening while I was in my car... and there was yelling and fist-pumping involved. And sometimes dancing. 

Also over the past few weeks, I started babysitting once or twice a week for a family who has three boys: they are three, 21 months, and three months. I was feeling like I needed something fun but schedule-based to do to add to my days, preferably something that also paid :) The boys are so sweet and BUSY. Good lord, they keep me on my toes. But I think I started to forget how rewarding it is to spend time with young children. They are like little sponges. I often call things "ridiculous" and the other day when I was trying to explain to the three year old what snow pants are, he shook his head and said, "That's ridiculous." They are so much fun and I'm happy to have them to shake things up... which they are very good at!

Then, I had the honor of doing an interview with Kim of Joyful Roots. Firstly, I must say how incredibly grateful I am to have met her through the amazing online creative community. Even though we have never met in person, I honestly feel like I've known her for ages. She's just one of those people who is a beautiful soul, and you can feel it by reading her words. I mean come on, her website is about adding more joy to your life. It doesn't get more awesome than that! Anyway, she asked some very thought-provoking questions and did an amazing job piecing everything together. You can read it HERE. 

Aside from all that, I've been making new things whenever possible. Here is a new style I have been experimenting with: 

They are really fun to make and kind of almost a zen-like experience. The one on the left is made using bits from wallpaper and pattern books. The one on the right is made from lots of pieces of maps. A perfect cure for my paper obsession!! I'm already scheming up what I can use to make another. A huge one could be really impressive. Or a black and white... decisions decisions.

So many things happening lately. I have another piece being featured somewhere in January, which I hope turns into something great. My mom has quickly become my biggest cheerleader and it's an amazing feeling. I've been doing so much thinking lately about what is important in life, and especially after yesterday's tragedy in Connecticut. Spreading love and joy is such an important thing and we need to surround ourselves with people who agree. If something is making you unhappy, do something to change it. If someone else is unhappy, do something to make their day. One of the random acts of kindness that a complete stranger showed me at the arts festival made my day, weekend, month, year. If you are capable of doing that for someone, do it. We need to stop focusing on the bad and making the good a priority.

Until next time, whenever that may be (hehe), I hope everyone is having a joyous and love-filled holiday season. Ten days until Christmas!!!

Post-Thanksgiving Thangs

Oh my gosh. Where do I even start? So as of last time, I had fallen off the wagon with my 40 Works in 40 Days project... due to stress, worries, self-doubt, blah blah blah. Life is a learning experience and I feel like sometimes we get this picture in our head about how certain things will go. Then when they don't go that way, we get upset. Angry. Disappointed. We dwell. We kick and scream. When I started that project, I envisioned 40 perfect days, creating a new original every day and all the while smiling and knowing that art is what I am meant to do in life. Well, then life happened. But instead of kicking and screaming and feeling like a failure, after many days of not following my plan, I simply started again. Expect the unexpected. When things don't go the way you thought, make it work the way they end up going. Getting mad and frustrated solves nothing. I sometimes babysit for two little girls; they are four and two. Last Saturday when I was watching them, they asked me, "Why don't you get mad?" So I asked them, "Does getting mad fix anything?" And at four years old and two years old, they both actually thought about it and both said, "No." So come on adults, let's remember that.

Anyway,  I rant a lot lately. So last Wednesday, the day before Thanksgiving, I started my project again. Here is Wednesday's (Day 19) piece:

After creating that, I drove home. To my parents' house. To the knowledge that I had to drop the bomb on them that I quit my job back on September 6th in order to pursue a career in art. It was honestly all I could think about. I didn't know when I would tell them, or how. So Wednesday night went by, then Thanksgiving morning, then the cooking of the amazing Thanksgiving dinner that my mom prepares (my mom is the best cook in the world... sorry other moms. she is unbeatable). Then we had dinner. 

Then after dinner, my dad and brothers started clearing dishes as my mom and I talked and the words just flew out of my mouth... "I quit my job." My mom blinked, looked shocked, and said, "What?" And I repeated, "I quit my job." And she said, "Oh... Like this week?" And I said, "No... like on September 6." She asked a couple questions, I gave a couple answers, and she kind of smiled and shook her head and said, "You know what I tell people about you? I tell them you are like the wind. That wherever life takes you, you will make something of it. I don't worry about you." And of course I cried. Like a lot. I don't know why I had all this fear and these doubts and horrible visions of being kicked out of the house on Thanksgiving day. Even though we are different in a lot of ways, my mom is my mom. She knows me in ways that no one else does, in ways that I probably don't even know myself. And she will always support me, no matter what. I love my mom. 

Yeah so I could ramble about that for about 20,000 words, but instead, let's jump to Day 20, which was the Saturday I came back home. Honestly, speaking, I was out of glue and had to improvise on what I was doing. Here is what I came up with:

If anyone is looking for some beautiful music to listen to, check out A Fine Frenzy. My two favorite songs (I am new to them so haven't heard everything) are You Picked Me and Ashes and Wine. Their music is so beautiful and haunting, and they just build and build and build. Great art-making music in my opinion. They are the inspiration for the text in Day 20's work.

Day 21 was Sunday, and after honestly kind of half-assedly drawing a henna-embellished earth, I got an idea for a new piece which I just finished tonight. Here is Day 21:

Okay, yes. I was still out of glue on Sunday. I have never paid such close attention to money and what I spend and what I need as of lately. It honestly makes me wonder what in the hell I used to waste my paychecks on when I was working the 9-5. Again, thing #3423423432 I have learned from quitting my job and doing this. So yeah, no glue. And I really like how little things like that force you to change your process. Because let's face it, I usually glue anything within reach to my work to make it as busy as possible. This was not possible on Sunday. After drawing the earth, little lightbulbs went off and sparked an idea for a new piece. I just finished that piece tonight and I'm not gonna lie... I love it. I don't hang my own art in my home because for some reason it seems weird to me. But I want to hang this print somewhere:

Simply put, most people walk outside to their cars, to the store, to the mailbox, wherever. And they don't notice anything. They just know they are going to the mailbox then going inside. They don't notice that on their way, the leaves on a tree have started to change, or there are baby birds in a nest, or there are particularly beautiful clouds in the sky. There are a countless number of little things that anyone could notice if they would just pay attention and look. The world is so beautiful and whatever I can do to help people to look closer is a win in my book :) 

Of course all this stuff is available in my Etsy shop.