To: Being strong enough not to let people be the reason.

College life: Friends, tea, music, studies.

Friends of forever

“If ever there is tomorrow when we're not together..

 there is something you must always remember.

 you are braver than you believe, stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think. 

but the most important thing is, even if we're apart..

 i'll always be with you.”

~Winnie the Pooh

Tea of the day

Music of the hour

Studies for the moment

I never considered that my life is abnormal...but here i am in a foreign land loving the beauty that God has placed around me. There is something peaceful about today and the things above have made many blessed moments turn into a glorious day. 

Thankful that God makes all things new.

Timoun Bondye A

The wonderful thing about growing up in the life that I have is that my mom (and dad) have always encouraged my sisters and me to see the beauty of art in everything, everyday. I don't think of myself as an artist but more that art is just apart of how I see things. It is the glasses that I view life with. With that said I truly appreciate that I have been given this outlook for life. It has not only made me a better person but it has made me a happier person. 

I have been home from Haiti for a short while and I am still flowing over with the inspiration that I acquired while I was there. I hope to sketch all of them, but for now I will take one at a time:)

Quick back story: I was in Ouanaminthe, Haiti in March 2011. I went to the construction site of my friend's house. His name is Esperance, I call him Pèpè. 

Pèpè and his house August 2011

While I was at his house I had three small children, a boy and two girls, run up to me and want to hold my hand and take pictures of them. So I did...

March 2011

March 2011

These children are malnourished among other things but please look at the smiles on their faces. 

March 2011

March 2011

March 2011

These children brought so much joy to me in March of this year. As well as after being home, they encouraged me, and inspired me to smile and find the joy in life. Thinking I would never see them again, I continued to pray for them and clung to the inspirations planted in me by their smiles of beauty. ~ This past July-August I was visiting in Haiti. Again while visiting my friend's house, I was blessed by three smiling faces that seemed so familiar...

August 2011

August 2011

They have indeed grown a bit and are living in slightly better conditions, but they continue to face mostly the same dilemmas of life that are often experienced by a child in Haiti....All with a smile on their face.

August 2011

My prayers continue daily for these three children that I do not even know the names of. And I pray that I will have the courage to find the art in my world like these children have clearly found it in their's. <3

First Dress

There are many wonderful women that have blessed my life,

 one way or another that sew. I have been blessed with a mom that is extremely talented with everything she touches, she is always here to give advice and help me fix whatever i mess up. My grandmother (mom's mom) even though i wish she was here to share her wisdom with me herself, i get a lot of it through my mom and also her old sewing machine a Bernina that was quite special in her day and is still extremely helpful and useful in mine. Also my Nana who left her stashes of wonderful fabric that i appreciate being able to sort through and find something to make a treasure out of every time. This project was originally hers.

I found this dress already pinned and cut out in one of my Nana's old sewing boxes. Not typically the kind of thing that i would be attracted to i passed it by for a while, until i figured that i was too worried about messing up a planed project that i decided it might be good for a try.

So yes this is not quite a 'me' style and um well remind me too much of the 90s, but none the less i conquered!

I also was able to learn a lot as a sewer. I made button holes, buttons, lace, pockets, and bias tape all for the first time! Plus i made the bias tape with my awesome bias tape maker. It was also my first time making a shirt color and button casing, which i am quite pleased with. So all in all not too bad of a project:)

The finished dress

Bias Tape

I have been having my little share of artful inclinations lately which regretfully puts me behind on cataloging them. None the less here some are:)

I was definitely blessed when reading through MADE I found a tutorial for making my own bias tape. This is yes a very small piece of sewing but it is used quite often and quite frankly is very tricky to work with matching colors of material and bias tape. After I saw the tutorial i bought myself a bias tape maker (clover brand--which i love) and decided to use it on/for the project that i was working on at that time. 

The very easy process of bias tape making...

When my projects are finished there will be more enjoyable pictures of how it looks sewed on the finished project.

Makeup!

I am finding more and more of my conversations looking like this:

Random Person: "What do you want to go to school for?"

me: "i am thinking about art"

RP: "Oh so you are an artist! What do you paint?"

me: "um...i don't really paint"

RP: "I thought you said you were an artist?"

me: *sigh* (oh bother...)

So here is me expressing that art is much much more than just painting

 ***

INTERUPTION

painting is wonderful and i am not taking anything away from those talented joyous dears who spend their time doing just that , just saying that it is not my preferred medium...confession...due to lack of skill at it. 

***

Art for me came first in my love for makeup and realizing that one could express themselves through it. Even though i am not the one to wear it everyday, i do enjoy the dramatic possibilities

Does it still count as painting since i used (my sister's) paint brushes? :)