My Multi-Prize Giveaway!

Hey everyone! I hope you enjoyed your Thanksgiving holiday, whether it was spent stuffing your face or stuffing your stockings for loved ones (and yourself, hehe).

So, it's finally here. I'm really grateful to my internet buddies and fellow Etsians. I've reached 300 followers on Twitter, and over 100 on this blog. I sure hope it will continue to grow as the days go on! In lieu of this community, the holidays, and just good ole fun, I present to you..

My Multi-Prize Giveaway!!

Some Etsy sellers have graciously donated their items to this giveaway in the spirit of giving. Please take the time to visit their shops and peruse their items and their sales. (You'll want to do this anyway for entries!)

ONE lucky winner will receive this prize package, valued up to $60, after being selected by Random.org. Here's what is included, and how to enter:

First Item



Tina from FlockTogetherCrafts has donated a beautiful Guinea Hen Feather Headband. Love it!

Second Item



John and Donna McLean from LaughingFridge has donated one of their adorable magnets, the Pirate Fat Cat Aaaaarrt Magnet! :3

Third Item



Tricia from SimplyUniqueKreation has donated a gorgeous Red Wave Ring. It is a size 8, but the ring size can be adjusted for the winner.

Fourth Item



I am offering a 3-card set of a mystery printmaking design, as well as the pretty photo album shown above. Album contains 10 plastic sleeves, sized approximately 6x6".

Fifth Item:



Haley from Haleysscrapbooknook is offering one item from her store valued at $7.50 or under. Check it out!

Sixth Item:



Danielle from 7SeventeenGallery is offering a lovely little original painting titled A Little Windy. It is already framed!


How To Enter!!

MANDATORY: Visit each shop and pick out your favorite item. Then come back and post in a comment the items you picked, whether by name or URL. Please do this all together, for it counts as 1 entry only! Don't forget to put your contact info for all entries.

Extra Entries:
1) For EACH shop you heart, including mine at laurart, you'll get ONE entry. Please list your Etsy username. Do separate comments.
2) If you buy an item from one of the shops before the deadline, you'll receive a whopping 5 entries! Just post the item listing with your Etsy username.
3) Follow my blog using Google connect. 1 entry
4) Subscribe to my blog feed. 1 entry
5) Follow me on Twitter AND post a tweet about this giveaway that includes my name @spektorish. Please include your Twitter username and a link to this status. 1 entry
6) Follow @Flock_Together. Leave your Twitter username. 1 entry
7) Follow @uniquekreation. Leave your Twitter username. 1 entry
8) Follow Tina's blog for 1 entry, Tricia's blog for 1 entry, and Danielle's blog for 1 entry.
9) Become a Facebook fan of FlockTogether for 1 entry.
10) Blog about this giveaway, then comment with the link to it for 1 entry.

This giveaway will run until Saturday, December 12. The contest will close at noon or 12:00pm CST. Later on the winner will be picked, and I will post their name with their permission the following day.

So many entries to be had, wow! I am so excited, it has been so long since my last giveaway. I wish you all the best of luck. Tell your friends! :)

This giveaway ends December 12th at noon CST. Any posts after that will not count. For shipping costs, this is only open to the U.S. and Canada, sorry!

Short Saturday.

In short, here are my plans for the day:





Also, putting last-minute touches on the giveaway to come soon! I decided to wait until I'm back home to put it up. And I even have an idea for a future one around the Christmas holidays. ;)

Giving thanks.

Give thanks to your neighbors,
and strangers on the street.
Give a happy smile and cheer
to everyone you meet.

Forget our troubles, differences,
just have a happy day.
And please forgive my poetic attempt
at what I'm trying to say:

Have a Happy Thanksgiving, everyone! :)

No Friday Featurette, since there's shopping and whatnot to be done. Don't worry, though, because a lovely giveaway will be coming up! :D

How refreshingly NEW!

So, what's a good way to procrastinate doing my schoolwork?

If you guessed updating my blog layout, you'd be correct! I know it's very naughty of me, but I couldn't resist. I thought the old one wasn't cutting it for the theme and purpose of my blog. I think this is much better. I'm aware it may appear wonky in other browsers, but hey, I'm no bloggin' whiz. I used to be a layout whiz, back in the days of yore as a bored 15-year-old internet addict, but no longer.

Please, let me know what you think! I'm so happy to have a 3-column design instead of just two, leaves lots of room for links (advertising? *wink*) and more!

OH! I've already passed 100 followers, hooray!! As promised, a big giveaway is coming up. I won't spoil everything, but I'll just say that there is more than one Etsian involved. ;) Keep a look out shortly.

One more to go!

Wow, I'm already just one follower away from 100 Google friends! That's amazing! You know, I never saw myself being a blogger. Activity has died down a bit, sure, but that's not anyone's fault but my own for my busy-ness. Don't forget, I'm thinking of cooking up a giveaway when I reach the 100th. It could be a shop gift certificate to a featured Etsian, could be an item I'm giving away myself... just stay tuned. :)

In the meantime, speaking of giveaways... therikrakstudio is hosting an INCREDIBLE giveaway! And when I say incredible, I mean just absolutely incredible. It contains a huge prize package worth over $450!! WOW! And ONE lucky winner will receive it, picked by random.org


So head on over and enter! Great gifts for the holidays, for sure.

Quick update!

So, today was my first "sick day." I didn't attend class this morning because I've finally caught the sickness. I had a perfect streak going of zero absences in all my classes! Luckily, the other two classes for Mondays were cancelled, so I've been able to get rest. I still feel bad, and I think it's stress. All of this is piling down on me once again. I ran into my neighbor earlier, and after discussing finals he humorously added, "And then the crying starts." No kidding!

But, a little ray of sunshine to peek through this mess: I won a giveaway! Well, two to be exact, I just mentioned one on Twitter. First, my dream of owning a pair of feather earrings came true thanks to Tina of Flock Together Crafts! And today, I got an email from therikrakshop about winning the fabulous Sponsor's giveaway. So there are some happy pieces to my stress puzzle. Hopefully the luck will continue! :)

(Edit: Just found out that I won this giveaway, too! A while ago I won an eyeshadow color from Orglamix, featured on my pirate Halloween outfit, and now I won a collection!! I am so excited! This makeup is divine, I encourage you to take a look.)

One more thing, before I go. I love dripping and splattering, experimenting with direction, and also different media. For a few days I've been building up on a 18x24" canvas layer after layer of coffee, tea, and India ink. Here is the result:


Should I put it in my shop? :) What do you think? Should the presentation be different? (Flip around, sideways, etc.)

One last thing... it's getting close to that time. I've been unable to produce a good one so far, but it's about the time for a giveaway. I'm two away from 100 followers, I'm over 300 on Twitter, and it's near the holidays. Once that 100 is reached, I'm going to produce a giveaway, hopefully one to blow your socks off! Stay tuned! (Tell your friends *wink!*)

Friday Featurette.

Today's goes to Kneehighsnpigtails, a lovely little jewelry shop I've recently come across. I love their antique style, and the items are reasonably priced. Even the banner is really attractive! :)



They even have a section called "Over the top earrings," which they can be but I still love the look. Not sure about wearing some of these items on casual Fridays, but they're gorgeous any way you look at it.

Woodcut: Final Result.

Hey guys, remember that woodcut I was semi-griping about? Well, after 8 1/2 hours of cutting, cutting, cutting, proofing, and printing 18 editions, here is the final result...

"Brushes" 2/18, 9.25x12"
Oil ink on Masa rice paper

Half of the editions look like this (as much as it can, considering we don't have a printing press). I'm turning in the other half that has more residual marks on the white table, which looks nice. Tonight I matted an edition. I'm contemplating selling it among other things at the VAS Holiday Sale. Do people really like buying editions, even with only one being matted? How do you package it?

Oh, VAS stands for the Visual Arts Society. It's a nice little club here at Tech that I just recently joined, and I'm excited about being a member. For the holidays they have a craft sale where members can sell their work, so I'm really looking forward to it. It'd be my first professional sales booth thingy. The main problem I'll have is deciding on prices: I always have trouble with that! I don't want to overcharge, but don't want to get duped either.

Well, ideas for my finals are coming along. I just hope they turn out the way I imagine them to be! What are your plans for the next few weeks?

Wordless Wednesday.

(Forgive my slow postings, the art finals are approaching and they are more than just tests, they're accumulative, comprehensive works that take much time and attention. Please bear with me!)

The PLT.

I just want to say, the PLT is not easy. Don't think about cramming for it the night before. Many factors play into this test. Studying for it is the main reason I could not post a Friday featurette or anything, sorry.

For those who aren't familiar with the PLT, it is the Practice Learning and Teaching test. It is part of the Praxis II, tests taken by future teachers. The PLT questions depend on which one you take. I just so happened to take K-6, upon hearing from a fellow Art Ed. classmate that it was the easiest. Well, it isn't, really.

The PLT K-6 deals with educational psychology and theories/practices of teaching. The test has four case studies with three response questions for each. Then there are 24 "discrete" multiple-choice questions about theories and so on. The m.c. questions were fine, but it's the case studies that suck. You're expected to finish all of this in only 2 hours! Your answers to the case studies must be thorough and relevant, and well-written. You've technically got 25 minutes for each study and its set of questions. I don't do well when pressured to write nicely under a short time limit. I get nervous and sometimes don't articulate myself well.

For those who are somewhat familiar, the study questions basically consisted of two questions in each question: give TWO ways of doing something better (or two things done wrong, or two ways a teacher did something), and explain those two with strong reasons. The practice books I read in my local store did not have these consistently, so I was surprised by it. I'm.. not too confident, to tell the truth. Hopefully I will have passed my state's standard. I'll find out by December 11th.

For breakfast, I had good ole brain food. If you're preparing to take an important test, consider brain food!! I had wild Alaskan salmon, brown rice, and a Cranery drink. Açai and blueberry drinks or the fruit itself are incredibly good for your brain, along with authentic cacao dark chocolate, 70% or higher. (I hate dark chocolate, unfortunately.) Bananas work, also.

I don't know if I'm really cut out to be an art teacher! :(

3 years. <3

Patrick and I on my 18th birthday, 2007

Today marks the 3-year anniversary for my sweetheart and me. I can't believe it! Time goes by so quickly when you're in love. ;)

To celebrate, we're... relaxing. Exciting, yes? A nice little movie night with snacks as we cuddle on the couch (or the floor, depending on which system we use).

In high school I never thought I'd meet the "someone just for me" until after college. I wasn't really bothered, and my self-esteem was pretty low. However, my senior year brought me Patrick, who just happens to be the brother of my best friend. Coincidences are spooky sometimes!

Our love is only growing stronger. We have our ups and downs, but we accept each other completely with warm hearts and loving kisses.

Ah, sorry for the sap. May you enjoy your love, be it of friends, family... or that someone just for you. :)

Woodcutting.

Woodcutting is not easy. No, really, it isn't. The first couple of assignments in Printmaking involved cutting linoleum blocks, which wasn't the easiest thing to do per se, but at least linoleum is soft. (Tip: placing the block in contact with heat makes it even softer. I put boiling water in a small tin, covered it with foil, and placed the block face-down on the foil.)

Woodcutting is our weapon of choice now, and it's difficult. The block has to be bigger (minimum 8x10"), and we're using wood (mine's some sort of poplar). The tools have to be continuously sharpened, and they've been used so they aren't in perfect shape (too expensive to purchase on our own). You have to consider carving against the grain, and around knots. I tried my best to purchase blocks that had little to no knots on either side. Even then, it's still arduous, and it's so easy to slip and knick an area. Once it's cut, you can't get it back. The one pictured above is a re-do!! :(

I just like the look of my pen drawing, which is there to simply mark my areas as guidelines. I'm really worried about getting to the details of the metal handles on the brushes... not sure how to go about cutting those correctly.

Any experienced woodcutters out there to lend some helpful tips? :)

Friday Featurette and Halloween!

Hey everyone, sorry it has been so long. The internet going on and off doesn't help a blogger, that's for sure! Here's a quick featurette of a journal-maker (I'm obsessed, remember?) and some Halloween photos!

This week's featurette goes to BlueToad. The name itself is pretty cool. This store specializes in journals with beautiful OOAK covers for very reasonable pricing. Usually handmade journals, even of small sizes, can be expensive. Also, some ACEOs are available. Here is the shop description:

Entwined Journal, $14

"Welcome to Blue Toad, a collective world of the creative mind, a place that will take you on a creative journey offering a variety of items to meet your whim and bring a smile.

BlueToad, a part of Tremundo, was the featured artisan on HGTV. Additional information on our shop profile and more creative collection at tremundo.etsy.com and visit us online at tremundo.com"

Peaceful Moments on Pale Blue Journal, $14

I'm definitely hearting this shop and keeping a close eye on it for the holidays. Several of these designs relate to this fall season, so they'd make perfect fall gifts for writers and sketchers alike. I'm so glad I found it! :)

Okay, so Halloween was a blast. Lots of good food, good costumes, and good dancing. Saturday night was the main one where I took the most pictures. Sunday was more of a nerd party, not so much dancing, but still fun.

1) Merrilee and I dancing away! 2) Merrilee, the artist hippie; Drew, the boy wizard; me, the pirate lass! 3) Cupcakes!!! 4) The nightlight set up (featuring glow-in-the-dark splatter paintings). 5) My pirate outfit. Yar!