Website Changes

I've been doing some thinking, and I've decided to create a secondary website for all my dog stuff. It will be my "kennel" page, whereas this site will remain my personal/portfolio website. I will also be starting another blog on my kennel page, but it will be for recording my team's progress - strictly mushing-related posts.

I'm sure some stuff will leak over from that blog into this one, and vice versa, but I think it will help those who strictly want to read about dog stuff.

It might be hard to believe, but I DO have other things to write about, other than dogs. And I think this separation will force me to focus on some of my other interests... some of which have definitely been neglected.

So, in the coming year, I hope to blog about the following:

• Food - I love to cook and I love to eat. Hopefully I'll have some interesting recipes or restaurants to review.
• Art - Drawing has always been a huge passion of mine, and I admit I haven't been honing my skills. I'm hoping to create more art and share it here.
• Photography - My photo-taking has dwindled down to pictures of the dogs. I'm going to get back in gear and start photographing some other subject matter. (And the dogs too, duh)
• Homesteading - This is the main reason this website isn't just a simple portfolio hub for my work. One of my main aspirations is to create a food-producing homestead by keeping a successful garden and small animals. Obviously, this is somewhat on hiatus until A. it's warm enough to plant and B. I'm able to legally raise chickens. But there are always things I can read and write about, in preparation for my future plans. And I need to get my butt in gear.

So there you have it. I'll be setting up my kennel page within the next week or two, and I'll post the link somewhere pretty obvious on this site. Stay tuned!

Art is Scary

When I was in elementary school, I remember borrowing Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark from the library. There were three books, all written by Alvin Schwartz and illustrated by Stephen Gammell. Can we just stop for a moment and recognize how TERRIFYING these illustrations are? No wonder I'm not afraid of crappy horror movies. I'm pretty much immune. I was probably about seven-years-old when I read these things. And yes, I eventually bought them.

This illustration was from a story about a bride who hid in a trunk during her wedding (some sort of hide-and-seek game). Nobody found her, she got trapped, and then she died... jeez. Not only freaky, but really depressing.

And this... this was from a story about somebody who found what they thought was a weird looking dog. It ended up being a mutant rat or something. Talk about nightmares. Anyway... I just thought I should share. I'm sure plenty of people my age can reminisce about these books. Goosebumps books were scary, but none of them stand out in my mind quite like Scary Stories books do.

By the way -- my love of creepy art doesn't stop at childrens' books. Here are some of my favorite, freaky pieces of fine art. Sure beats paintings of fruit and flowers.

Study after Velázquez's Portrait of Pope Innocent X (1953) by Francis Bacon

Untitled, known as Saturn Devouring His Son, Devoration or
Saturn Eats His Child (1819–1823) by Francisco Goya

Soft Construction with Boiled Beans (Premonition of Civil War) (1936) by Salvador Dalí

Etsy Favorite: Birdnerd

I’ve always adored the artwork of Chelsea Groves. Now I’m super excited to move into a new house, so I can buy some of her adorable prints and decorate empty walls.

Check her stuff out on Etsy: www.etsy.com/shop/birdnerd

Viva la Vida!

I was surprised to see Frida Kahlo, one of my favorite artists, as a trending topic on Twitter today. I thought only Justin Bieber and the World Cup would be trend-worthy. Regardless, I’m happy to see someone worthwhile up there.

I’m going to continue browsing her art today, in remembrance of her birthday. Viva la vida!

Hippie Day

I'm a day behind with most of my blogs posts as of late. Again today, I'm posting pictures from yesterday. I won't do anything interesting today, in order to catch up tomorrow.

Yesterday I was dressed in one of my "hippie" outfits. Long, flowery skirt; plain, white razor back; messy hair and a head band. Oh, and my parrot earrings from Epcot. They're so cute. To coincide with my peace-loving ensemble, we decided to eat at Saladworks for dinner. (O.K., so a restaurant chain isn't exactly "hippie", but salads are. Plus, they're just an L.L.C.!)

No pictures of the food since I didn't have my camera on me -- but it was tasty. They give you a whole lot of food and the staff is friendly. They gave us extra hot peppers and olives, even though our salads weren't supposed to come with them. It's a little on the pricey side, but it's not outrageous. I got the "Tivoli" salad: lettuce, tomato, mozzarella, chicken, pepperoni, macaroni noodles and a bunch of other things. Rob got some mandarin orange thing, which was a bit more exciting.

So if you're ever in need of a quick lunch, and Saladworks is one of your options, give it a try. They even have sandwiches and wraps if you don't like salad.

Moving on... there's a lot I want to do in this blog, and just, in general. I need to paint my bedroom. I also want to sand and repaint all my furniture, since I plan on keeping it when we move. Another goal is to assemble "grown-up" outfits that I can wear once I start working in the office (instead of from home). All of this I want to document in blog posts, but I have yet to get the ball rolling.

I am doing a lot, which explains my delay. On top of working full-time, I'm designing an issue of Jagazine for two to three weeks out of every month. I've recently begun doing volunteer design work for a husky rescue. Oh, and then any free time after that is spent on my commission-based job (Garden State Apartments). It's no wonder most of my time is spent online.