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? :)

Purple Slouchy Hay

Random piece of information: My favorite things to knit are HATS!! 

Knitting hats are so wonderful because you can try whatever kind of pattern or yarn or new needles without having to commit to 200 hours just to find out that you really hate the pattern or yarn or new needles. Hats are simple and quick. Even when you do 7-8 stitches per inch it still doesn't take a very long time. This hat only took me a couple hours and I thoroughly enjoyed making it because 1) i used new needles (U-nit Bamboo size 7-not my  favorite but cheap and got the job done) 2) this is the first hat that I have made without a pattern (yes all by myself and my cunning execution) 3) the yarn I used was absolutly fantastic, i never got sick of feeling it or looking at it (Loops & Threads-Santa Fe striped roving, best part: MACHINE WASHABLE & DRY-ABLE) So this was by far my favorite knitted project ever completed and i hope to make another similar with grayish yarn.  Again this hat went to my sister (most of my wearable creations do) hopefully i can get a picture with it modeled to show how wonderful it looks on. 

BLOOMERS!

Okay so I still have bunches of projects to post about that I have already/recently completed. BUT yesterday I finished practically my favorite project i have ever made! Reading through sewretro.blogspot.com hopeful to find a pattern for shorts, I stumbled across a pattern for bloomers. They were so ridiculously cute I couldn't pass it up, plus I wanted to make some pajama shorts so I figured they could easily double. I am rather satisfied with how they turned out and would definitely use the pattern again with a few minor adjustments. I used black and white checkered fabric (one of my favorite fabric designs) that was thin and ruffled really easily that I found in an old fabric stash of my Nana's. I loved making these so much and I would like to try using this pattern for swim suit bottoms. In total this project took me about 10 hours (with a few interruptions).

 Front

Back

Seed Stitch Neck Warmer

I was looking around for hat patterns when I stumbled across a picture of a neck warmer. I have never liked to make scarves because I find them tedious and I do not personally like to wear them. But there was just something about the neck warmer that stole my attention. After a while of having it on my mind I was buying yarn and decided to pick up some chunky fisherman coloured (Lion Brand-Wool Ease) in case I got the whim to make it. Now I really don't like making things that I don't have a purpose for but beings my sister was back at school with her terribly cold weather I figured that even if it didn't turn out how I wanted she would still appreciate it. So taking my yarn, size 10 needles, and a couple buttons from my grandma's button box, I seed stitched what came to be a lovely neck warmer.

Blue Beret

This is actually the project that spurred me on to taking an art class for school. I loved this hat and quite frankly I spent so much time on it that I would consider it an injustice not to continue crafting after completing such a piece. I ended up spending over 45 hours on this hat and gave it to my sister as a Christmas present.

This beret is knitted with super fine fingering yarn with 2 and 4 circular needles. The yarn that I used to make it is Heritage by Cascade Yarns (supporting locals!) Here are a couple pictures showing the shape and stitch design. 

Explanations...

I am starting an art class for school credit, but this isn't a typical art class. I will be taking some classes at local shops, searching through tutorials and patterns online, reading books, as well as igniting my passion from daily inspiration. These projects may be, but are not limited to, knitting, writing, sewing, drawing, photography, makeup, nail designs, wood carving, and jewlery making. And I will keeping tabs of my progress, ideas, and motivation all right here.

To kick it off here is my first piece of inspiration:



A photo of my mom and dad at 20 years old.