New Items on Etsy

I've added some items to Etsy just in time for the holiday season.  I'm hoping to post more soon!

Summer of changes

It's been forever since I've posted but I haven't exactly been bored lately.  I bought a house and moved and started an awful commute to work and school and back every day.  I'm taking two summer classes which are coming to a close and getting really intense.  I've also decided to make an effort to start working out.  I will be getting married in a year or so and I better start now working on it so I can fit into a wedding dress. 

I've been reading Mama Laughlin's blog and was inspired to work out even with everything else I have going on.  She runs and watches her diet but also she used Jillian's shred dvd to drop some extra pounds and tone.  I already own that dvd so I thought I'd use that.  The workouts are only 30 min long and it's all small exercises in a circut so it keeps it interesting.  In the time it takes to completely dry an extra large load of laundry (thank you L.G. dryer, you are amazing), I can have a whole workout done.  I'm on day 3 of 30 and going strong!  On day one it was miserable and day two seemed endless, but today on day three it's not seeming so bad.  It gives me more energy in the morning and makes me want to eat better throughout the day.  Today for breakfast I'm having oatmeal (which I put up to the refrigerator door to get water and instead put ice in my oatmeal) and Oikos greek yogurt.  John Stamos, I don't think your commercials are that clever, actually they are pretty darn annoying, but the greek yogurt you promote is the best of all of them.  We will see how this goes.

Wrapping up the semester

Here are a few images of projects I've completed this semester.  These are children's book illustrations using poems created in Mrs. Huffer's 2nd grade class:

The next images are from my Photography final.  I chose to tackle a delicate subject.  A girl in one of my photo classes made the comment, "Overweight women can't be beautiful".  These are a few images of my response:

Meet Floyd!

Illustration class this semester has been quite fun. I haven't done this type of work well... ever that I can think of. I'm learning how to work properly with colored pencils and learn their quirks. It's neat to study reference materials then put them together on paper. This is Floyd, a character I created for my first project.

Some lessons are learned the hard way.

Let us begin with a conditional statement... an "if, then" exercise if you will. The "if, then" statement is depicted below: as you can see, the series of photos clearly states the following:

HUGE FROSTED FUDGE BROWNIE + GEORDIE = EMERGENCY

This is what we experienced in real life around 11:00pm last night. I had a giant frosted brownie from Panera which I was saving because I am sick and cannot taste anything. I had it on the table, a huge mistake on my part, because Geordie's motto is "if there's a will, there's a way" and he takes it to the extreme. I think Daniel and I were apart from him for maybe 15 minutes but that was enough. I discovered after supper that the box containing the brownie was not on the table. I searched in the kitchen... then went to our room. Behold! There lie the box, open, empty and with claw marks on the side. We called Geordie's foster mom who 3-way called the emergency vet clinic who, after hearing the weight of the brownie compared to Geordie's weight said we better get in there QUICK. Our poor little boy had to be made to vomit and was pumped full of several drugs to coat his stomach. They kept him OVERNIGHT to monitor his heart rate and to provide any emergency care he might need if he should seize. Luckily this morning we got the call at about 11:00am saying he could go home. Now he is cuddled up in a blanket on the couch sleeping off a HORRIBLE night.

New bracelets

Here are a couple bracelets I recently finished. This one has bright colors and a bit of a wavy texture because the lavender beads are slightly larger than the others. The next one has an awesome one-of-a-kind clasp that I found at Von's in West Lafayette. I used the confetti pattern with lime, gold, light blue, and lavender.

Both bracelets will be up on Etsy soon. I'm fighting a nasty cold that's really taken all my energy away. Here's my Real Simple (like the magazine) tip: Put your kleenex travel packs in the same drawer/cabinet as your candles and then when you blow your nose it smells really good!

Water Marble Nails

This technique involves layering polish on top of room temp. filtered water, swirling designs with a toothpick, and dipping your nail directly on top. I watched several you tube videos to see how others were doing it. Several people said it's not easy to get good results the first time but this was my first try and I thought it was pretty easy. I used Orly "Goth" and Sally Hensen Xtreme Wear "Mint Sorbet". I used these because I'm not sure what the effect of dipping the brush in water is but I don't want to mess up my OPI. The brush doesn't have to be submerged in water but if you don't get a good drip of polish on the end, you have to touch it to the water. I highly recommend masking your nails using tape as much as possible. It does require cleaning up with polish remover.

I have a couple of new wide-width bracelets coming up on Etsy soon.

Trend Tips Review

Okay so I am officially a believer in the Trend Tips. They lasted without a chip for 4 days! I put them through the tests by washing dishes several times and I didn't hesitate to use my nails to peel labels off bottles at work (something that normal polish chips with). The reviews I'd read said they were a pain to remove and boy, yes they are! Six cotton balls later I had them pretty well off but even had to use a little scraper to get the rest off. So these would be ideal for a vacation or other event that will last a few days and you don't want to worry about touch ups.

Here's what I did next:
This is Essie "School of Hard Rocks" with a topcoat Sephora by OPI: Traffic Stopper Copper.
It's nice because the glitter is in the top coat so you don't have to pile another coat on top of it to seal it in. So far it's held up to 2 days of wear.

OPI Trend Tips

So I bought these yesterday at Sephora because I'd always wanted to try them. They are basically stickers for your nails called "Trend Tips". They are really cute for a special event or night out. Supposedly they are "long lasting", and for those of us to do our nails we know that means we might get 2&1/2 days of wear out of them rather than just 2 days...

They were really a cinch to apply and my nails are small so I actually got 2 uses out of one regular sized strip. I applied it then cut around it and applied the other half to my opposite nail. I was surprised how thin they were. I really don't feel like I'm wearing anything thicker than regular polish. I applied them directly to my natural nail (without base coat) and then I applied Seche top coat just to seal in around them and hopefully prevent wear. The package says to just remove them with polish remover but I've read a couple reviews that say it's not that easy. It took a little longer than applying regular polish just because I hadn't used them before. If you decide to try them make sure you press them down really really good in the corners and fold them over the tip really good. I used a wooden nail stick thing (no idea what it's called) to make sure they were firmly down in the corners. Then I lightly filed DOWN (don't be tempted to go UP with the file because it will pull up the corner) and then I was able to pull off the excess easily.

Anyway, CUTE and we will see how well they last.

Etsy Site Updates

I know I haven't been updating this recently. School/work/life has seemed to get the best of me. I made some updates to my Etsy site so the bracelets on there are available now. If you live local please ignore the shipping charge. I can get it to you. From LEFT to RIGHT:

1. Grey with teal flowers and silver centers, $10... the clasp is getting a little tarnished.

2. Wide peyote stitch, black, pink, lavender, and lime green with gold-colored accents, $20

3. X's not O's (shown on my Etsy site), $15

4. Tourist black and lime (shown on Etsy), $15

5. Tourist plum and gold (shown on Etsy), $15

6. Netted bead, black with lime accents, $10

7. Netted bead, tortoise with gold accents, $10 (It says $15 on Etsy but I need to edit that.)

8. Bailey lavender, black, and clear, SOLD



I know my inventory is slim. I have several projects in the making but aren't finished. Refer to my Etsy site for more accurate coloring. I took this photo in a hurry.

Surrealism Project

This is probably my first attempt at a surreal piece of work. I liked the idea of a water faucet pouring into a large body of water. I decided to explore the idea of a very large solid object becoming liquid. Here I rendered a photo of a train to look like a water droplet. I wanted a burst of color so I included inverted umbrellas dotting the scene. My next major project is a midterm project. Again, I am doing a surreal theme. I have a fairly concrete idea but now the challenge will be to find images to help me create the piece.

The Aged Face

Here you can see briefly the process of creating this projecct. I found the photo of the homeless man from a source of free stock photos. I then arranged my model to sit and dress like the elderly man then I used tools in Photoshop to take pieces of the elderly man's face and place them on my model's face. I lastly added the cracks in the photo as an overlay. Note that one hand is young and the other is old. Also the highlight on the cheek bone of the elderly side makes the face look less full.

Latest Work in Photoshop

Here's the latest project. We needed to turn a photo from today into an antique. This was created in Photoshop using channels and adjustment layers and my very favorite... blending modes. Here is my favorite assignment so far. This is a warhol-inspired portrait of Geordie. We were asked to do a portrait of a human but being inspired by Warhol, who loved his dogs, I thought it was appropriate to do a portrait of the little love of my life, Geordie! This was also created in Photoshop and the photo of Geordie is white. Each layer is a different blending mode. This really shows the different effect of each mode. I used a smart blur for the outline.

Website Finally Launched and Fall Semester 2011

Lots of exciting things have been happening lately. First of all the Summit City Sighthounds page is now officially up and running. You can check it out here:

http://www.summitcitywhippets.com/


There are several dogs listed there that need homes and many more are on the way! I hope the new site I created will be helpful to those considering adopting an I.G. I want to make it the most up-to-date website for prospective families. I am working on a project to remember dogs who have passed away and I hope people will get on board with it and send me their photographs so I can share them there. I'm doing the same thing for dogs now in their forever homes who were adopted from the rescue. That's a little less sad so maybe more people will be willing to share that with us. The site has been up for a few weeks now and there have been NO responses! It's a bummer.

Also I started classes at IPFW last week so I can complete my BFA. I should have done this in the first place but you know life never works out the way you think it will. I am following my heart and that's what's most important. I've been very busy the past couple weeks but it's been the most happy I've felt in quite a while. One of my classes is Computer Art & Design where we are learning Photoshop and Illustrator. As I sat in class I didn't know whether I wanted to laugh or cry. I was overcome with emotion thinking about how powerful these programs are. I am totally blown away by their capabilities and it's like a drug, I just want to learn more and more. Here is my first project. I turn it in tomorrow so I don't have any feedback on it yet. Our assignment was to create a "hybrid human" of sorts. I was lost on an idea until I remembered my Dad's words in my head. He often refers to car people as "gear heads" so I thought it might be fun to create one:

First necklace

I estimate it was a 26 hour project but she's finally done!

What's New in the Studio

Here's a look at what I'm currently working on: Freeform peyote bracelet. I'm pretty excited about this one. I got some bright pink/orange colored beads and paired them with some lime and matte yellow, luster sky blue, and black and silver of course.

This is my first attempt at a freeform necklace. It's a bib-style necklace but the mistake I made was to choose beads with different sizes so it's made the necklace bend in weird ways and I'm afraid I'll end up taking it apart and starting over again with more uniform beads. Trust me, this is HOURS of work I realize I'll waste.

This bead embroidery cuff has been a work in progress for quite awhile now. I just finished stitching around the edges but found that I have gaps now between the two parts. I'm taking inventory of what beads I have left in pink so I can fill that in.

If you don't mind I'd like to take a moment to vent. The ONLY stand alone bead store in Fort Wayne, Bead Source is NOT a great bead store. I've found that the seed beads she sells are not of the best quality. They are not uniform in size and I have to weed out many many beads. ALSO I've purchased small quantities of certain colors, such as the pink I used here and when she runs out of this color, she doesn't re-order it again. So now I've got an incomplete project with no way to get more of this color of beads to finish it! This has happened with several really great colors of seed beads and she doesn't have any more in stock AND didn't have that much in stock to begin with. So if you're living or visiting Fort Wayne and make a trip to her store, purchase with caution and with this knowledge.

I'm sure her other large beads and findings used for STRINGING beads are fine but a store that is exclusively for beads should offer quality beads of all sorts.

Ah, well I am about to be saved though because I got my Fire Mountain catalog in the mail and I am very excited to make my first purchase from there. I looked through it yesterday and marked things I wanted. Now I have to narrow down all the things to fit within my budget!

Last weekend I stopped by Creative Fish's Art Blast 2011 and LOVED IT! I know it wasn't a very large event but it was great. There were some really great artists there. One I particularly liked was Jennifer Black of Black Rock Design from South Bend. Please go look at her things. They are awesome! I bought a necklace from her and she's just so nice and had the best and most professional booth there. She has some great pendant necklaces and really cute earrings.

http://www.blackrockdesign.com/home

http://www.etsy.com/shop/blackrockdesign

Geordie takes a boat ride!

Geordie went on his first boat ride this weekend. We got this awesome pet vest at Ride the Wave in Angola but you can find one at many different sites online if you search O'Brien Pet Vest. It's got adjustable straps and fits really well. It's perfect for I.G.s.

He hung on to Daniel's waist for dear life! By the end of the trip he was almost asleep!

New jewelry!

I've got some new items hitting my Etsy site:

Here are some rings I made that I won't be posting quite yet but are available for $5!

This is a lariate necklace with a fleur-de-lis charm. The beaded chain is really delicate.

Next are two netted bracelets. These are really cute and can be worn if you want to dress up or down. The first is tortoise colored with gold accents and a violet bicone crystal bead as the toggle clasp. The second is black with lime green accents.

I will be posting these over the next few days so keep checking out laurengstudio.etsy.com!

Geordie is an amazing little dog

This past weekend was AMAZING. It was so fantastic to see SO many Iggies just running freely and playing. The ride down was less than fun. Daniel was sick (and still is...well now we both are) so he wasn't in the best mood and Geordie decided to follow right along and be a whiner nearly the entire 2 hour drive. When we arrived we had to go through a maze of gates and fences. Seriously, it's 3 or 4 different sets of gates to go through but is very necessary when you have a room full of a hundred free Iggies. We walk in and Geordie is going nuts pulling at the leash but I'm scared to let him go. It was like a mother seeing her child leave for the first day of school, but I let him go and wow, did he GO! Geordie's foster Dad assured me he would come around once in a while to check on us and sure enough he did! Every 15 or 20 minutes he would come running up to us for a quick hello and then off he went! Geordie sure knows how to get in trouble. The main area was fenced off to another side where the restrooms, food and the photographer were. When I went to the bathroom he pushed down the entire fence to try and get to me. And later his foster mom's nephew walked up holding him and said, "I found him by the food table by himself." He had figured out a way to get the fence open. Aside from those adventrues we just saw him whiz by with other Iggies. He had a fantastic time. By the end of the day when I picked him up he rested his head on my shoulder and started falling asleep. He barely made a sound on the way home. And today, I'd like to share that for the FIRST time Geordie played tug of war with me... for 5 seconds, but 5 seconds is amazing to me! Playing with toys is something he rarely does and I don't think was ever taught to do, so this is a huge victory for us. Here is a pic of him watching tv the other night:

We had a little scare the other morning when Geordie woke us at 2 am just crying in pain. We couldn't figure out what was hurting him but anywhere I touched he cried out. I finally narrowed it down to his ears. He moved around fine and when he finally calmed down he went underneath the bed to hide. The next morning I took him out and touched near his ear and he shrieked again. I called the vet and took him in for an emergency appointment. Of course when we arrived he decided nothing hurt and made no sound anywhere the vet touched. So she couldn't figure it out but did see a wax plug in one ear that could have been irritating or painful and also found a small bug bite by the ear which could have been it too. He's been fine since then so I really don't know what happened. Atleast we know if there's something wrong at all with him, he WILL let us know.

On a different note I've created some new bracelets which I'm pretty excited about. I'll post pictures soon.

Iggy 500 Here We Come!!

It's finally here and tomorrow I will be traveling to Noblesville to my first Iggy 500! While there I will have 2 pieces of artwork being auctioned to the two highest bidders. I will be creating charcoal pet portraits of the winner's Iggy. Here's the one I did of Geordie, along with some others I've done in various mediums:

"Geordie" (top) & "Jake" (bottom)

"Lenny" (top) and "Baby" (bottom)

I hope people like the idea. 100% of the profits go to support the Italian Greyhound Rescue. Supposedly there are Iggy games like howling and tail wagging so I definately want to take the video camera! I've been helping out the rescue as well working on an update to the website. I'm having to learn Dreamweaver software so when I finally figure it all out I'll post links here so you can see what I did.

If you're interested in learning more about italian greyhounds visit http://www.indianaigrescue.org to see available Iggies for adoption or http://www.summitcitywhippets.com for links to breed information (this is the site I will be working on).