Final Art Project

I wrote a few days ago abut the final day at my internship!  Practicum is the class that goes along with the internship, and one of the requirements for that class is to create an art piece that reflects our internship experience.  So... here is mine:

The explanation is... 

1. The colored background - all of the different art materials and directives that I used

2. The hands on the bottom - all of the clients, and sometimes the other therapists that were pulling me in many different directions

3. The lady on the tight rope - many times I felt I was walking a thin line between success and crashing onto my face, but I survived and by the end I felt like I was capable of handling anything the site could have thrown at me (i.e. the lady is so comfortable on the tight rope she is doing a crazy pose!)

4.  Clouds - I just wanted clouds ; )

I hope it goes over well when I show it at our "art show" (a.k.a. last day of class!!)  I also hope you enjoyed seeing the piece!  Thanks for stopping by and have a great day.  

Flashes of Color

I am participating in a art journal swap via mail. All of us made our own 10 page journals and each month we mail it off to someone and we receive one in which we make a spread.  This was the spread I made the other day:

It has so many elements!   I really liked how it turned out though.  The picture really does not do the colors proper justice, but you get the idea.   Hope you enjoyed the peek!

Best CPR Dummy Ever

Last week was my final day at my internship for this semester.  I was quite sad, but the staff were super awesome to me!!  One of the girls made me smores bars!  When I went to get my final evaluation paperwork from my supervisor I came back to find this:

 A pink haired CPR Dummy in my chair!!

They just put a wig on a CPR dummy but it took getting a wig and spraying it pink and they kept it 100% secrete - it was soooo funny.

Its Occupational Therapy week so we also had a picnic that day w/ free food (and more goodies!).  And my supervisor gave me some company shirts and a travel blanket.

I had a great experience there and I am really happy that I got selected to be their intern.  I will use what I learned for the rest of my life!  I hope my next internship is just as valuable!

New Stuff!!

So a few new things to share with you.  Over the past 8 weeks I have been attending Group Fitness Instructor Training at my school's campus recreation center.  I did not mention it (at least I don't recall doing so) because I was not sure if my injury/disability would hold up and allow me to finish the class! I even contemplated dropping it the week before we were finished.  Thankfully I did not.  I auditioned this past Friday and I found out today that I have been hired!!!  I still need to pass the ACE Group Fitness Instructor Certification Exam - I will will be studying the manual like crazy!  Pending my passing that exam, I will begin teaching classes on May 13th!!  How fun right??

The other new things is this:

Yep.. I changed my hair again.  Here are a few more pictures:

Woo fun hair for summer!

So, friends, that is all for now!  Hopefully I will be able to share some more stuff with you soon.  Thanks for stopping by.

What You Deserve

Like I mentioned yesterday, the words for this particular journal page just kind of happened to be right next to each other and caused me to use them together for a page!  So, here it is:

Its true, right?  We all deserve less dram and craziness.  We deserve some quiet, calm, relaxing time.  We deserve time to make art!  I am really hoping to make more art over the summer - I am planning on having a travel journal kit and just take that sucker everywhere with me so that I always have the opportunity to do something arty when I have free time.  Do you have a plan to help yourself make art?  I'd love to hear it.

Mayhem

I was adding words and letters to my stash the other day and something just appeared to me - the words were all right there next to each other... I knew I had to make it into an art journal page.  So, here is the page:

The words that appeared to me were "why live in mayhem?"  Its a good question.  Something I need to work on - not causing myself unnecessary stress by worrying about things I can't control!  So, this page is kinda of message to myself - but it probably applies to a bunch of you as well!  Let's promise to worry less and enjoy life more!!

Art or Porn?

At some point over the past year (Christmas, perhaps) I found a picture that was very interesting to me.  Its a naked lady in a pose that is supposed to make her look sexy, but you can't really see her because the artist censored the photo with a flower.  Anyways... so it really just makes me think of porn - naked people essentially - even though its supposed to be art.  So, I kept the picture and wanted to use it in an art journal page.

I finally did that the other day.  I made it into my own art:

It is actually in one of my classmate's journals - since we are swapping and the homework we have leaves little time for working on art, the art I have done has mostly been either postcards (shocker, right?) or in other people's journals.  That's perfectly fine with me... I don't need to keep the art, I just need to make it!

I hope you guys enjoyed seeing this spread.  Thanks for stopping by, "see" you soon.

More Postcards!

Today I am here to share some more postcards that have arrived as a result of iHana's swap!  So...

This one came all the way from Switzerland!!

Thanks for the cute card Regula!

This one is from Emma Rivers.  You can learn more about her at emmajrivers.com

Thanks Emma!

My next card came from Jan in Iowa!!

Thank you, Jan!!

And today I have a 4th card to share with you!!

This card came from Tiffani!  I will certainly try to make the best art, Tiffani!

I hope you guys enjoyed seeing some of the cards I am receiving!  Thanks for stopping by today.  "See" you soon.

Postcards are Arriving!!

I participated in iHana's postcard swap and the postcards have already begun arriving!!  So, I wanted to share a few with you!!!

This one came from Cyndee Starr in Washington!!

Thanks for the awesome tangle card, Cyndee!!


And this one came in an envelope and I can't find it!  So, I am not sure that I am reading the card correctly, but I think it says the artists name is Ellen!

The next one came from Canada!!  It was created by Lee in Edmonton.  You can check out her blog at leekre.blogspot.com

Lee is one of the people whose blogs I follow!  I think that its awesome when I get art from those people that inspire me!  Thanks, Lee!!

I love getting all the pretty mail art - its way better than bills!  I hope you enjoyed seeing the art!  Thanks for stopping by today.  "See" you soon.

Worst Weekend Ever

Well this past weekend was one of my worst weekends ever!  I work up at about 230am on Saturday morning and had some sort of bug.  I was throwing up everything I ate, and having cold chills and then over heating and sweating and shaking.  It was like that until about 530pm that evening.  So, I missed everything I was supposed to do on Saturday. Thankfully one of my classmates brought me some ginger ale, Gatorade and Popsicles!  Otherwise I would have been far beyond dehydrated.

 Then on Sunday I finally stopped throwing up but I still had trouble eating and my stomach was still giving me problems and I was so weak from the previous day's antics... so, again, I missed everything.

Monday was better on most accounts, minus the terrible migraine that I had.  Even after taking medicine, my head would pound if I moved.  It was terrible.  I missed work and school on Monday - didn't want to take the chance that I was contagious - or that my immune system was compromised and someone at the hospital could make me sick again.  Better to be extra certain that I was healthy, right?

I am very thankful that I was able to do some get-ahead work on Friday morning before I got sick and therefore even though I missed all my volunteer work that was supposed to happen this weekend I was not behind on homework.

But, I just wanted to let you guys know about the craziness!!  Fingers a crossed for a better rest of the week.... but, almost anything is better than throwing up constantly, so the likelihood is good!

Thanks for stopping by - come back soon, I promise the next post wont be so yucky!

AJ Spread

Another AJ spread from one of my classmate's journals:

Its made in a regular $0.99 composition journal....so, I glued together several pages and gessoed them before adding random paint and then collaging.  The pages are still curling up around the edges because they still didnt want to behave!

I feel bad that the swap is in a few days and this is really all I have done in her journal.  I just have NOT had the time to do more.

Some random stuff

Wanted to show you guys some random shots that I have made it to the blog yet!

AJ Spread in a classmates journal

a Postcard I sent off to someone

Another AJ Spread from a classmates Journal

I'm doing a journal swap that's arranged via Instagram... here is my sign in page

The about me page from my swap journal!

See, I have been doing art even though I have not been posting about it.  I certainly feel like I have not been doing art frequently enough yet.  Hopefully this summer will be easier and I can make more art.

Thanks for stopping by today!

Its Okay Part 2

Ok...the rest of my "its okay" postcards:

Its okay to dance naked

Its okay to have a beard

And a few not-themed cards:

Sorry for the short (words at least!) post, have a great day!

Its Okay part 1

So, I am doing the Liberate Your Art Postcard Swap and got the email w/ my addresses earlier this week.  So, I had to get some done  - and it ended up being a theme!  The "its okay" theme.  So, here are some of the postcards:

Its Okay to dance in public

Its okay to sit and contemplate

Its okay to go for a walk

All right friends, that is all for now!  See you soon.

Feeling the Love!!

So, a few weeks ago I was on the front page of the Tallahassee Democrat (our city newspaper!):

And...also on the 2nd page:

Also on their website:
http://www.tallahassee.com/videonetwork/2219175972001/FSU-student-veterans-use-art-as-therapy

All because I helped coordinate the Peace Paper Project's visit to our campus to work with our student veterans.  It was pretty awesome - people have recognized me.  Its kinda odd, they will be talking to me for 5-10 minutes and then say "hey, was that you that was on the cover of the newspaper?"  I'm not going to lie - I like it!!

And there is more...March was Women's History Month.  I probably should have posted about that earlier in the month, but well life got in the way.  Anyway, I was delighted to be invited to attend two of FSU Women's History Month events!  The first was a Women in the Workforce Panel.  I was invited to be the speaker to represent women in the military.  Here I am, all dressed up for the event:

It went well.  I certainly think that being a good panelist comes with practice!  But overall it was a success and I think the young ladies that attended got something out it, and that was the whole point, right?

The next night I was invited to the Ladies Legacy Banquet!! Here I am dressed up for it:

Our program came with a Women for FSU pin:

Which was great, because the day before I was admiring the exact same pin that someone was wearing!!  Woo.

Also, I was selected as the Woman Veteran of the Year:

They even gave me flowers!!


So... as you can see I have really been feeling the love lately!!  I am so utterly happy that I chose to come to FSU for graduate school.  I am so blessed to have been given so many wonderful opportunities since I have arrived here.  I LOVE LOVE LOVE this school.  I will forever be a true Seminole!!

Long Time No See and Veteran's Ball

Well I really feel like I am failing at the whole consistent blogging thing this semester.  Not to make excuses, but truthfully Blogger has not been entirely cooperative with me during the last few months; sometimes I sit down to blog and the site isn't working!!

Anyways, it appears to be working right now, so I will take advantage and write several posts!!

So, recently the FSU Collegiate Veterans Association had its first annual Veteran's Ball!  The theme was 40s/WWII.  I wanted to show you some pictures from the ball:

We had a table-size cake!!  And yes, it was VERY tasty.

All the CVA Ladies w/ Mrs. Barron, the wife of the FSU President

A few of the girls with the WWII Vet that spoke

All of us vets hamming it up for the camera

It was a great time.  I am very happy that I was able to attend the first one, and that I will be here for another one next year!!

Hope you enjoyed the pictures.  Thanks for stopping by!! Have a lovely day.