Other Adventures...

Part of the reason I have neglected blogging lately has been due to my efforts to spend time with my niece and nephew, enjoying my new SO relationship and being being in love, meeting new people and getting out and around in my new city to see what it has to offer.  Here's some of the adventures I've been up to:
1. Weekend in Asheville, NC with Mr. Pilot - Amazing food, art galore and the Biltmore Estates tour

2.Taking part in a new bookclub through MeetUp- books read:
-Offshore by Penelope Fitzgeral * not good at all
-Agenda 21 (read on my own) by Glenn Beck ***.5
-All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr ****

3. My apartment complex had a wine and cheese night which had great food and I got to meet some cool people that live here. They also had door prizes and I won a gift card out to eat!

4.  I was a mentor for the Girls On The Run race/program and ran with an awesome 5th grader during the race. She came in 1st place for her school.  Mr. Pilot was the best and came with me and we volunteered to help with parking before the race. We had to be there at 5am which was way to early and it was freezing out. He was such a trooper!!

5.  I started participating in a Sat. morning running group. They run a couple of different distances but a few weeks ago without training for it I ran 10 miles with them. It was a bit painful towards the end but I was so proud of myself. I plan to go again this week if I can get rid of my sore throat and congestion.

6. I'm signed up for the Myrtle Beath 1/2 marathon in March and Mr. Pilot and I are planning on signing up soon for the Disney World Star Wars 1/2 marathon in April. Stay tuned for more news on that one!

7. I just recently joined an Arts and Craft Group on MeetUp. I was suppose to go to the first event Monday night but I had a wicked time flying back from NY Monday. I could have driven the distance in the time it took to fly. Needless to say I didn't get back in time to get to the MeetUp but I can't wait for the next one!

Stay tuned for more projects and adventures...

Pottery Christmas Gifts and More...

I went back to Madd Platter in early Nov. to create a travel mug for my dad for Christmas. His mug turned out really well. I tried to make it about nature and animals since. I got to practice with foreground, middle ground and background which went well. I just hope the main color was manly enough so that he will use it. While making it I saw the "horny mug" on the shelf and thought of my friend Libby. :) This was perhaps one of the most difficult paint jobs due to the fact I decided to use stripes.  I use painters tape but it still left uneven lines with white spaces in between the stripes.  It was challenging to do 3 coats of each color while not hitting the others. It took forever but the results was pretty good.  My niece and nephew loved the mug.  Of course I wouldn't let them read the inspection on the bottom nor will I show you the viewer. It's a private comment between my friend and I. :)

I continued to think of gifts I could make and saw the ornaments.  I knew on my trip back home to Western NY for Thanksgiving I was going to see a couple ofmy Naz peeps and wanted to give them a little something. So I created these ornaments. I later designed an inspirational notepad with one of my images on it for another Naz peep who was in ned of some inspiration. I made that through York photo where I made my Christmas Cards this year.  I them realized I had to get a gift for one of the referral sites I work with at my new job for stupid gift exchange they do each year. I went back on York photo with a 40% coupon and used my images and created some designs and had a mug made for around $11.

I forgot to take a pic of the ornaments after they were fired and I gave them away this weekend.

work gift.

dad's travel mug

the horny mug!!

Inspirational Sketchbook Completed

Early November I completed the last few pages in my sketchbook for a year project.  I started it last Dec. over the holiday breaks. Once I finished the last few pages in the book I went back through and looked over what I had created over the past year. It never ceases to amaze me how a project like this can result in a visual representation of my life over the past year.

While at times during my life I wish I had different strengths like a technical mind, a majority of the time I'm so grateful for my creative mind.  It has not only helped me to create things for others but it's helped me to express myself and work through my feelings in ways I'm not able to verbally communicate.  Also, I turn believe it's helped me to learn skills and values such as being resourceful, creating awesome things while on a budget, and appreciating what I have.

Finally Sketching Again

It's been a crazy week here in Columbia, SC.  The flooding that occurred was insane and because of it my work was closed 4 out of 5 days this week. In my area we are still under a water boil advisory.  I can't say I've done a ton with my time off other than finally relax and enjoy my new apartment and catch up on sleep.  I did go through some boxes my storage area and bring some more stuff to Goodwill. I also caught up on 6 months of filing. Yuck! And I started working on gathering the information I will need to apply for my LPC and the equivalent of the CASAC in SC.  In addition, I tried to work out most days and I helped my sister out 3 of the days watching my niece and nephew because daycare and schools were closed all week.

I read a few books and watched a few movies. Got caught up on my blog. And last but not least I finally opened my pocket art journal and started creating again.  I will admit, it's been almost 2.5 months since I last created and I was a little intimidated at first. I just had to break into creating not worrying or judging myself for what I created.  Below are 4 images that I created over the past few days.

Other South Carolina Adventures

So here is a quick overview of what I've been doing over the past couple of months in the art and running scene here.

1. Checked out First Thursday here. It was a bit different from Rochester's but is supposedly up and coming monthly event.  I was able to meet many artist in the area and fun projects and events going on. I met some peeps similar to me and even heard of an art therapist in the area.

2.  I've continued to go to Soda City Market when I can get there and join the yoga on Saturday morning outdoors. I've had fun looking through the art stalls and being inspired.

3. I went to The Comedy House and had a blast there. Will definitely go back there!

4.  I found a soul sister at The Lipstick on a Pig store in Newberry, SC. She doesn't have a Facebook page or a webpage at all and is only open the first weekend of the month. I discovered her through craigslist where she post some of her work toward the end of each month under furniture for sale. She get's all of her business through craigslist advertising and word of mouth.  She is just like me but more amazing in her creations. She is so creative! She takes old worn down pieces of anything and either refinishes them or breaks them apart and puts pieces onto other pieces creating something totally new. Check out the pics below to get a feel for her work. My dining room table, ladder for quilts, skies for shelving and tv stand/buffet came from her and only cost $500 total. Her prices are way to cheap for the material and time she lovingly puts into each creation.

5. Joined a book club and made a couple of neat connections with a USC counselor and a woman on the board of GOTR. I've also read some great books. So far I've read:
Everything I Never Said by Celeste Ng 
The Danish Girl by David Ebershoff
Now I'm on to Offshore by Penelope Fitzgerald 

6.  I've also joined a couple of races. I've joined the Southern Spartan group and have been training for the Spartan Sprint mid-November and Girls On the Run 5k a week after that.  I've joined the GOTR volunteer team to do the run with a girl who is running her first 5k. I'm also helping out the morning of the race under the Celebration Tent and hope to be on the subcommittee for fundraising in the future.  I'm also working on getting the courage to sign up for the Myrtle Beach half marathon in March 2016. I think this would be a good thing to work towards over this winter.

The Art Academy Jewelry Bowl Making Class

I found a Groupon in Aug. that I jumped on for a place near my new apartment that offered pottery classes. It was a two for one deal and thought because the project I chose to do would interest my sister that she would want to go with me. BUT she didn't. She didn't want to actually make the piece just decorated. So not having made any friends here yet I asked one of my sister's friends who is creative if she would like to join me and she said YES.  

We went a couple of weeks ago to The Art Academy to make jewelry bowls from scratch.  It was interesting from the beginning. We walked in on time but many others were there and had started already. The young man gave us very short not helpful or detailed instructions on what to do and didn't even give us a pottery lesson. I ended up answering many of the questions my table had.  There was about 15 people in all at this class.  

We got a sheet of rolled out clay, used paper bowls to cut and lay the clay out in and molded the clay to the bowl. We could then use tools and cut outs to add to the mold (though the options were very limited).  You then used the ONE blow dryer they had to dry your piece to a place where you could peel it out of the mold and it would keep shape.  Then supposedly the clay could be glazed right away which I had never heard of. So we glazed our pieces and left them to be kiln fired.  

It turned out the pieces technically aren't waterproof because the bottoms weren't able to be glazed. Many people made regular bowls but I wanted one for my earrings so I made a jewelry one. Well, it turned out to be a flop!!! The glaze made it look better but the flower I tried to make in the center ended up looking like a Georgia O'keefe if you get my drift. And the holes weren't close enough to the edge so most of my earrings couldn't fit right on it.  Needless to say this adventure was fun but the product was a flap. The bowl is now in the goodwill bin!!!

It turns out the guy teaching the class was in his first week of work. Very nice but has some work to do on actually teaching a class. He's an artist but not a teacher yet.  The other cool thing that happened is at one point I looked at the woman next to me and did a double take...I recognized her from my plane trip from Columbia to Rochester in July after my round of interviews. She recognized me to. What a small world we live in!!

This is the unfired piece of my sister's friends piece. Her's turned out really well.

My unfired piece.

Pics of finished piece.

The Madd Platter

I was excited to find a cool pottery painting place soon upon my arrival in my new city.  Since pretty much none of my belongings were here and I needed to create I asked around and was told of the Madd Platter; http://www.mymadplatter.com. I went after work one day and checked it out.

I fell in love almost immediately. There was only a few people there which made for nice 1on 1 assistance. There was a ton of pieces to choose from to create and a lot more techniques then I was shown in the pottery place in Rochester. I was taught this new technique of silk screen printing on the piece which I loved! It was pretty easy and made for a professional looking piece.

I focused on making a traveling mug for my friend (now boyfriend) who was coming to visit. He is a pilot so I created a piece that was all about traveling and flying and gave it a vintage feel.  If you silk print with a darker color you can then water down a glazes and paint over the print giving it a water color/vintage look to it.  Below you will see the rough draft of the piece. I swear I took finished project pics but can't find them!!! Trust me it turned out awesome and he loved it!

The pen burns off and wasn't seen in the final product.

I ended up signing up to go back for my birthday which was this past week. They were having a breast cancer fundraiser. I showed my sister pics and how easy it was to create and she agreed to come with me and try something new.  At the fundraiser there was food and drinks and raffle prizes. My sister won some SC hot sauce.  I think she had a good time and it was a great night out for me.  I created another travel mug and used the silk prints again. I think I could make a mug for everyone I know I have so many ideas!  I may have to make this a monthly place to go!

Here's the finished products:

The Art Bar experience

About a week ago it was a cloudy Sunday afternoon. I've been staying with my sister and her family for the past 5 weeks until I could move into my apartment. I had gotten hollered at yet again and needed to get out of the house.  I researched art places in Columbia, SC and came across Studio Cellar; http://www.studio-cellar.com.   It's one of those places where you can go to a paint class and paint something specific that is instructor led OR they have an Art Bar where you can go and pick a canvas and use their paints and just create.  You can order some finger foods and some wine and create what you want.  

I loved this place. It was just what I needed on that rainy afternoon.  It's a beautiful brick building with hard wood floors, exposed brick walls and exposed wooden beams. It's decorated great with artwork all around including their bathrooms and there are the clear strands of light all around.

I got a small 6x6 canvas, saw an image I liked, ordered a mimosa and went to town painting for a couple of hours. I had great conversation with one of the college students who worked there who is an art major and learned about the art scene in the area.  I ended up creating my own image where I used the Palmetto logo for SC on my painting.  This was a great time and reasonably priced. The drink was a bit expensive but I decided to splurge on it. I'll definitely be going back!