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Creative Casey's Blog

Monday, May 5, 2014

Art and Adventure Updates!

This past week was crazy busy but wonderful all the same.  As the end of the academic year winds down and the summer moves forward I find myself wrapping up the old and thinking about the new.  Below are updates on what I've done recently and where I'm heading this summer.

 Work related wrap up and coming adventures:
1.  We had our annual Student Development luncheon this past Friday.  Unexpectedly, I was given the Student Development Staff of the Year Award! This was awesome to receive after a busy adventurous work year.  I few years ago I won the New SD Staff of the Year award and never thought I'd get another award. It was a very pleasant surprise.


  • Here's the leftovers from the SD luncheon. I got enough to feed my mom and I. Yummy!!! Oh we had already ate the cannoli's for breakfast!

  • My art therapy intern (who was extremely good) surprised me on our last group day and gave me this awesome t-shirt!



2. I finished my grad classes for this semester and next week will start my 3 day a week internship that will go for about 10 weeks this summer. A week after that I will start my summer class which will go for 6 weeks 2 nights a week. yuck! However, it seems like a useful class. I'm looking forward to both.  Even better is that after this summer I will have one class left, my capstone/thesis next spring.

3.  I'll be teaching an ACS class (freshman seminar) in the fall and am looking forward to this new adventure.

4. I'm working with a professor of mine to develop a research paper on creating a creative arts therapy program within a counseling center in higher education. Specifically I'll be taking a look at my data on the art therapy groups I offer to reduce stress and tying them into the self-authorship theory of student development. My goal is to publish the paper in a higher edu. related journal and put out a proposal this fall to present at the AATA conference on my program next summer.


Updates from this past week on art and other adventures and upcoming adventures.
1.  I received my 10th and 11th zendoodles from the Art Community Swap. These came from Mexico and Bolivia. Just waiting on one more.  I signed up for the next swap so stay tuned to see what I create and what I receive.




2.  I was a juror for the Mental Health Association Creative Wellness Coalition annual art show "Serendipity" this past Friday night.  The art work chosen will be presented at the Memorial Art Gallery on May 13th in conjunction with the opening of the Reel Mind movie series.  This is my 2nd year being a juror and I love the opportunity. The Creative Wellness Coalition is an amazing free resource in the Rochester community for those struggling with the affects of mental illness. This event and the Reel Mind series shows the public that people are more than their illness. http://www.mharochester.org/Default.aspx?RD=1801



3. My mom came up for a girls pamper weekend. We had a very busy awesome weekend.  Here was our line up of great things that we participated in:
  • 50 min. Massages at Onondaga School of Massage (mine was amazing and I signed up for my first 100 min. massage at the end of the month with this person because she was so amazing.) http://www.ostm.edu/
  • We unexpectedly came across the Mayday! An underground Crafts + Art festival. This was it's 9th semiannual show and yet it's the first time I've heard of or been to this show.  It was held at the Village Gate which is a perfect venue for the show. There was around 60 different venders exhibiting all handmade arts and crafts. You can check them out at; MaydayUnderground.Wordpress.com. Highly recommend.


  • We then went to my neighborhood's biannual yard sales.  Of course we have yet to experience spring here in Rochester so it was a cold and rainy day. Because of this there was only about a quarter of the amount of yard sales that there normally is. However, my mom and I still got some great finds! See future art adventures for further info. on what I found.
  • Saturday we found ourselves at Veritas Wine bar; http://www.yelp.com/biz/veritas-wine-bar-rochester.  I had purchased a groupon a while back with the intention of it being a neat new place for my mom and I to check out.  So we went and had our glass of wine, chocolates and macaroons.  It's a quaint little place with a front room, and a comfy back room.  While we were there a huge thunder and lightening storm occurred. When we left we were shocked to see huge hail balls all over the place. Global warming anyone?

  • Sunday we woke up and got pedicures at TK Salon. I love the woman who manages the place and provides most of the services.  My feet were a hot mess from all of the months of distance running while training for the half marathon. She worked miracles on my feet. She did mention they were pretty beaten up and I should get a pedicure like every 2 weeks in order to regain my cute feet. Something tells me that won't happen.  Well, at least my feet loved the attention!  I even talked by mom into getting a chic haircut there. Even my dad noticed and complimented her when she got home. http://www.yelp.com/biz/tk-salon-monroe-county
Before: 5 black and blue toenails. The picture doesn't do it justice. I also had lost one of the toenail's Christmas Day.

After: Amazing!!!

4. So, adventures for this summer include: 
  • I purchased a ton of patio pavers from someone off of craigslist a week ago and I started to dig last night. My goal is to expand my brick patio I built last summer. Boy, with all of the rain I thought it would be easy digging, unfortunately being wet makes the soil very heavy. This is going to be a process.
  • At some yard sales I picked up a cute little kids bench and a sturdy little wooden stool.The total was 5 bucks. I'm going to repaint them both and put them out at my Little Free Library.  My homemade bench and stool are a little wobbly. ;)
  • I'll be heading to Ann Arbor, MI in July to visit my new friends. I'll be there during the huge Arts Festival they have annually and we may go sky diving. http://theguild.org/art-fairs/ann-arbor-art-fair/
  • I'll also be heading to SC for a couple of weeks to hang with my nephew and to be there for my nieces birth. This is a highlight to my summer!
  • I've mentioned in a previous blog entry that I'll be at least partaking in a few fun runs this summer. I'm sure more will be added as the summer progresses. 
  • I also have plans to attend some art related classes at The Brainery and the Arts and Crafts meetup group. Just have to find some classes that match my free time.

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