Success!

Imagine you're hearing the theme song to Rocky.

Do any of you remember the huge business card project I did for school last spring? How all of my homework from that semester disappeared along with my teacher? That included all 300 artist business cards I collected for my final project. Originally, he said all our work would be returned to the Continuing Ed office two weeks after our class was done. Four weeks after the semester finished up, I took a day off from work to commute into the city and pick everything up. Nothing was there. Concerned, I wrote to my teacher. He wasn't even in town but promised he'd deliver it soon after he returned. Then I never heard from him again. And the work never appeared in the school office.

Fast forward to this semester. Apparently, several of my fellow students were also concerned about the disappearance of their entire semester's worth of work. One of my classmates even exchanged e-mails with the head of the Continuing Ed department about it. Still no word.

This weekend, I attended the Fort Point Open Studios. I know my teacher is involved in that, so I tried to track him down at the show. No luck.

That is...until last night. A different classmate informed me that all our work was now waiting for us in the continuing ed office. He had picked his up two weeks ago! Two of us (myself and the girl who had written to the Continuing Ed department head) raced down before class began last night and made an inquiry at the front desk. The woman was really nice and showed us to a back storage room. There was the entire semester's worth of work for our entire class neatly packaged! We enthusiastically began scooping everything up (including the projects of fellow students who were upstairs) while cheering "Woo-hoo!". This caused the continuing ed lady to exclaim, "I feel like Santa Claus!" I laughed and said, "I feel like you're Santa Claus, too!"

My Rolodex with all those beautiful artist business cards is now back in my hands. I plan on posting those long-ago promised pictures of it this weekend. Yeay!!!

Logos...

...are really, really hard to do well. We're currently in the middle of a branding project for one of my classes. I've been working on a logo design due Thursday and...Oh. My. God. So many decisions to make! Logos may look deceptively simple, but I can't think of anything more difficult to accomplish than the appearance of simplicity. Wish me luck!

My life in a hamster wheel

Ever feel like this? I do.

This weekend, I took a much needed break to attend the Fort Point Open Studios. Fort Point is a community of live-in studio spaces for artists. My friend Jen was one of the artists who opened their home/studio up for people to view and purchase her work. My husband and I couldn't stay very long (he had to work later that afternoon), but it was nice to stroll around and see what other artists are working on. Plus, I bought this awesome print from Jen. I love her work.

It made me really miss illustration life and creating my own paintings (in fact, I have 3 mail art pieces that have been sitting in my studio for over a week, waiting to be finished up and mailed out. Sorry MAA. I'll get on it, I promise!). School has absorbed every ounce of free time I have. In fact, spending that single day on something other than homework threw my entire weekend into turmoil. Now, I'm really far behind on the huge list of things I need to get done for classes Wed/Thurs. I somehow have to find time to do all of them in the little time I have after work. This is why having a life is absolutely not an option while I'm in school. I should've known I'd pay dearly for a second of down-time.

To compound my troubles, I have officially upgraded my old PC with clunky 100 year old design programs to a new Mac with new programs. Sounds fantastic, right? Not so much. My new Mac can't read any of the homework I previously created on my PC. That typography project I've been working on for the past 3 weeks? Yeah. I had to re-do that last night. And...come to find out, my scanner is not compatible with my new Mac. The scanner company has zero drives available for it. I have to get a new scanner. Of course, I find this out by trying to use my scanner for homework. I can always order a new one, but in the meantime what the heck am I supposed to do this week? Looks like I'll either have to head over to my mother's house or try to sneak a scan at work.

Don't get me wrong, I love my Mac. It's a beautiful piece of equipment. I just wish I'd been able to afford it this summer when I could've a) had time to figure out how to work the thing b) had time to update my scanner and other equipment and c) had not started massive projects on my PC then had to switch over. I could continue to complain about how busy/miserable I am, but I think I should wrap it up now.

Hedgehog Update:

I got so many wonderful caring e-mails on my last post regarding our beloved hedgehog's terminal cancer...so I thought I should keep all of you updated on his health. Baxter has been accepting his pain medicine. Or...he did for the first couple days. The vet flavored it with honey and he was really enthusiastic about lapping it up (he even tried biting the dropper!). This Saturday was a different story. He wouldn't take any of it. His swollen foot is still awkwardly rolling under him, and he just seemed like he couldn't get comfortable on my lap. He kept poking his head out of his little sleeping bag and looking at me confusedly, then going back in to sniff and circle around like a dog trying to find a good spot to lie down. Poor baby. I think this week, we'll switch over to his winter fleece-lined sleeping bag since it's been getting cold here already. Maybe I'll buy more crickets, drip the medicine on them, and see if Baxter will accept it that way.

Hedgie Hospice

We found out from our vet tonight that our beloved 3 year old hedgehog, Baxter McPrickles has bone cancer. I saw the x-rays and it was devastating. The doc gave us the animal equivalent of ibuprofen for him and sent him on home with us. There's nothing we can do about it except keep an eye on him and make sure he's comfortable.

He's been his usual hedgie self - running in his wheel and eating like a pig. The only things that tipped us off were some skin issues...and last night we noticed his left front leg was very swollen and he was limping. I was hoping it was nothing more than a minor injury and that we could put some sort of tiny cast on him for a while (maybe give him a teeny crutch? Haha). Come to find out, that's where the cancer is.

As much as I tried to keep a stiff upper lip in the vet's office, I have to admit I wasn't successful. My heart is broken.

Since Baxter is Honeydew Studio's mascot, I thought I should let you guys know. Keep my little friend in your thoughts. This is going to be rough going for a while.

Mail Artists Association

The Mail Artists Association is getting along swimmingly! We even have new mail art posted on our brand-new Flickr group. Here are some pieces that I've sent out recently. You might recognize a few of the images. I've been using my 21 Day Challenge doodles to spin off into tiny paintings. See, that challenge was good for something! (Don't worry, I'm only posting artwork that has already reached its destination. I won't ruin the surprise!) This one went to sparklerama:


This one went to AlwaysAmy:

This one went to LaMiaDesigns:

In return, sparklerama sent me this:

I thought it was rather ingenious that she sent me mail art in a cd case. She just put the mailing label on the inside, taped it shut and away it went! Inside the cd case were to little envelopes full of goodies (also pictured above). The next thing I received was this lovely fabric brooch from LaMiaDesigns:
Little did she know that one of my favorite fall outfits involves a t-shirt and jeans with a blazer over the top. I usually pin a fun brooch to the lapel of the blazer. What fun! (And perfect timing!)

And last but not least was this adorable fairy bookmark from Tamarasherbes. Now I don't have to dog-ear my Typography text book!

I'm working on three new pieces to send out this week. I wish I had more time to work on this group than I do. (Too bad I have to work full-time and am attending night classes...darn homework. Haha!) I have so many ideas. Including how I can recruit a few new members. And I still have to create an avatar for our group. Anyway, I hope everyone is having fun. And if you're not yet involved in the group (but want to be) just send me an e-mail at honeydewstudio@gmail.com

As soon as we have enough newbies, I'll send out an updated member address list to our group.

Soooo....sleepy...

Yaaaawn!!!

This is how I feel today. My class ran over last night. This means that (with the commute) by the time I got home, it was 11:30 at night. AaaaAaand...I still had some final bits of homework to complete and print up for tonight's class. Which means I got a grand total of about 4-5 hours of sleep last night. I got about the same amount on Tuesday night. I am exhausted. This working/school thing is going to be the end of me. The only way I even survive the drive home is by singing REALLY loudly in my car to my iPod and having a snack.

On a happier note, a couple envelopes were waiting for me when I got home yesterday. One an Etsy order I've been waiting for, and the other was a mail art piece (SO adorable - I'll make sure to post it soon). That kind of mail really does make everything better. It's the best, it really is.

I'm so glad I started up the Mail Artists group. I already have some new ideas for it. Someone suggested a blog link exchange -- which would be good. I was also thinking that after a while, we could come up with "themes" every month for our mail exchanges. Let me know if you have any other creative ideas!

That's all for now. I think I'm off to heat up my leftover coffee from this morning. Hey - desperate times call for desperate measures!

Quick Blog

Illustration from "David Goes to School" by David Shannon

Just wanted to write a quick blog since I haven't been writing very regularly as of late. Most of you already know this but for any new readers -- I have a full-time job and am working towards an additional degree in graphic design. I attend evening classes two nights a week which are an hour commute away from my house (sometimes it takes as long as 1.5 - 2 hours with traffic).

I feel like I've been struggling through classes so far this year. I try really hard not to vent my complaints on here, but I am really frustrated right now with school. So, if I drop off for a while just know I'm tackling my homework...or my brain hurts. Lol.

In more positive news, the Mail Artists group I put together is up and running! Everyone received their little letter packet and is gearing up to start mailing mini art pieces to other members. This weekend I sent two pieces out, myself. If you'd like to spy on what we're up to, you can take a peek at our Flickr group. We just barely started mailing each other, so there's not a lot of work posted yet. Stay tuned!

Music and jewelry

I've talked about musician Ryan Love, in the past. This year he released a self-produced record, Life in Orbit (which is available both on his website and through iTunes). For full disclosure, he does happen to be my best friend. But honestly, I wouldn't promote him on my blog just for that reason. I'm writing about him for the same reason I've posted about fellow artists, illustrators, or Etsy sellers here before -- he's talented.

That said, I have new Ryan news that I thought was worthy of a blog-mention.

This week, he came up with an idea which I find really creative and interesting. Instead of selling the usual band t-shirts and buttons to help promote his album, he'll be releasing a jewelry line for both men and women. Each piece will be created by Ryan and will thematically match one song on the album.

He's a creative jack-of-all trades and his jewelry designs are lovely. Of course, I can speak from personal experience, since he blew me away this past week by presenting me with 3 pieces of hand-made jewelry of his own design for my birthday. I would describe the set (it was a necklace with matching earrings and bracelet) but I think it's better detailed in Ryan's own words:

"It features champagne Swarovski crystals with freshwater pearls hanging on an adjustable (and interchangeable), chocolate-satin ribbon with matching earrings and a bracelet running on a trio of silver chains."

The strands if pearls themselves run from your typical white pearl to a cafe-au-lait color. Gorgeous! This set coordinates with the 8th song on his album "I Do". His jewelry line will be released in 2009, so sign up for his mailing list to stay posted. Keep an eye out for it...I'm trying to get him to sell the line on Etsy!!! (o: