Zip-a-dee-do-dah!

Zip-a-dee-ay! My oh my what a wonderful day! (This song has been stuck in my head all morning....read on to find out why.)

After a long blogging hiatus, I've returned! As usual, school was to blame for my absence. I was running on about 4 hours of sleep per day, and generally too busy for anything other than work, school, and freaking out. My very last class of the fall semester is tonight. My projects are completed and all that's left is to present them. Hallelujah! *Clicks heels together in the air*

Other good news today? I'm featured in an Etsy treasury! Check out my Snow Penguin print in the lower left hand corner. A big thank-you to AceQuimby for choosing my print for her treasury.

A little while back, I was also featured in a blog. Another big thank-you to Across The Pond. Her shop is lovely, by the way. You should definitely check it out. I'm totally in love with her Czech glass button cocktail ring...and also her antique clock hand earrings. I'll post pics later if I get permission from the seller.

Anyway, I have a lot of things to talk about so you can pretty much expect me back here. That is, until spring semester starts up again, anyway...

It's November 4

What are you doing sitting around reading this blog? If you're not registered already, some states (including mine) let you register at the polls. Go vote!

(Then you can come back and read blogs. Lol)

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.