the end or the beginning?

2011 is coming to an end, can you believe it? So much has conspired in my life this past year, and yet looking from the outside, my life might not seem too different. I usually don't really make New Year Resolutions, but a recent event is making me break my non-habit and make one.

I recently joined millions of others in getting a Pinterest account (username: mykmyk) for a couple of reasons. 1. I love gathering inspiration from other people's pins. 2. It's a great way to keep things that I like or want to do organized on a site that I can access from any computer with internet. 3. It's a great way to promote company's or self-promote one's art!

I can't lie, number 3 outweighs the other reasons a bit. So, yesterday I pinned something from my blog... Remember those Harry Potter posters that I had made? Well I pinned one of those to test out the whole system of pinning. So imagine how happy I got today when I saw this on my screen...

That's right, 18 likes and 70 re-pins! That means that more than 70 people saw my poster and could have possible traveled on over here to my blog. This soooo inspires me to really dive into my art. The economy is tough right now for everyone, especially all the artists in the world, but with sites like this that help spread inspirations, literature, and art things are looking to me like 2012 is going to be a new beginning! 

Long story short: new years resolution... work even harder on my side projects and art! 

Christmas Company Party

The company I currently work for, Stampington & Company, had it's Christmas Party yesterday. During lunch a Panini food truck was parked in our parking lot and we were able to place our orders and then eat and be merry with our co-workers. There was also a Tacky Christmas Sweater competition that was going on, and I was in it to win it. The night before I had rented a movie (which ended up being horrible) and decided to make my own tacky sweatshirt*. Anyways, I won 2nd place and got a nice little goodie bag. Our company photographer, Johanna, snapped some pictures of the three winners (Nichole, Me, and Cynthia) and they turned out pretty funny. We tried to do our best "awkward office photos," and I think we succeeded. I then played around with the saturation, levels, contrast, and colors a little bit in Photoshop to make it look a little dated. All-in-all, it was a nice little break from the work-day!

Did your place of work do anything fun this year?

*I bought the red sweatshirt and turtle-neck from K-Mart and then cut green triangles out of different colored green felt squares. I then combined all the triangles into a pattern to form one giant tree and tacked them on with stitching glue. Each triangle represents an employee, so I wrote everyone's name in permanent marker under the triangles (tacky enough, right?) To finish the whole thing off, I used used some puffy paint to add ornaments to the trees and to also write "Stampington and Company" at the top. Ta-da! That sounds like a lot more work than it really was, the whole thing only took my about a hour (at most). 

Newport Beach Boat Light Parade 2011

Last year I experienced my first Christmas boat light parade and decided that for as long as I live in California, this experience is a must every winter season. This being my second year, I was a little more knowledgable about where to go to get a good seat so my pictures turned out much better than last years (still not great, but I can't complain when taking pictures with my phone!) I picked up Jessica after church and we made our way down the peninsula, almost to the wedge, and sat on a wall facing Corona Del Mar. Anyways, the noisy crowds of families, the cheery music, the chilly air, the reflection of lights in the sea, and the sand below my boots really put me in a west coast Christmas mood! These pictures don't do these million-dollar-lit-yachts much justice, but hopefully you can get the picture.

Follow up: National Tie One On Day

I know that this is Christmas season, but I had forgotten all about this post, until today when I was checking out Stampington & Company's new blog. I was happily surprised to see a photo of my apron-wrapped loaf of pumpkin bread in one of their posts. If you'd like to see what my end result was, click here. I bought the apron from Ross and made a label on illustrator using a quote I found online by Ralph Waldo Emerson. I hope this brought someone some joy on their Thanksgiving.

Thanksgiving quote reads:

For each new morning with its light,

For the rest and shelter of the night,

For health and food,

For love and friends,

FOr everything Thy goodness sends.

-Ralph Waldo Emeron

Family Christmas Card 2011

final outcome

Last year I made my family a Christmas card to send out to family and friends. I wanted to go bigger and better this year and had a vision. About a month ago I was surfing the web (do people still use that lingo?) and I came across a really funny image from one of my newest favorite shows, It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia. The image was so cheesy... goofy.... funny.... the image was so... so.... my family! Over Thanksgiving I discussed my vision with the family, and to my happy surprise, each member was excited to give this concept a try. So I mapped out where everyone was to stand, we color-coordinated our outfits and had my uncle take a few pictures of us using Summer and Steve's brand new amazing camera. Everyone nailed the expressions perfectly.

Now came the tough part... Lot's of photoshopping and color correcting. I decided to cut up two different images into clipping paths and replace them together, moving myself to the outer left side and squeezing us all together a little bit closer. I played around with the hue/saturation/level/and brightness a bit until I was happy with the outcome (I wanted it to be bright). Then the background was made, shadows were added, and the text was the finishing touch. Taaaa daaaaa!

Hope you all enjoy the time spent preparing for the Holidays, I know I am!

Inspiration: It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia

Original Photo 1: Used Summer, Me, Dad, Kipp, and my Mom from this image 

Original Photo 2: Used Steve, Nickee, and parts of the table from this image

Last years Christmas Card, a little more classy haha