wow.

It has been OVER 2 months since I last posted. I have been a busy, busy bee! Here's a brief update:

Working retail consumed my life over the holidays. Daniel and I still haven't gotten to go visit my family yet and Christmas was over a month ago. Christmas was good even though I missed my family immensely. Daniel and I both had to work the day before and the day after Christmas though. It was not fun. We had a low-key New Years with a group of friends (some old, some new) and had a blast. January has gone by pretty quickly and is just slowing down.

My freelance work has picked up A LOT...which I am super-thankful for. I've been working on some projects for Armosa Studios (stationery, letterhead, packages, etc.), a few logos for different clients, business cards, tshirts, postcards, prints, websites...like I said, busy.

I will post a more extensive update (well, mostly just pictures of what I've been working on) in the near future...and I will also commit to posting more frequently again!

I should have things posted in my Etsy shop soon, so be on the lookout for that as well...AND I will be launching my new website sometime this week!! I designed it and my good friend and fellow (amazing) graphic designer Rowan Finnegan has been teaching me how to code it.

OH!! and I forgot my most exciting news! My friends Wes and Tera (of Armosa Studios) opened their studio/gallery space on Court Street a little while back...they have a huge basement that they are not currently using and offered it to me as a workspace...so I have a studio now!! I'm sharing it with my good friend Amy who is now working for them...she is also a crazy-good photographer (Three Photography) and I'm super-excited to be sharing the space with her. We painted last weekend and got the floor covered...it was really ugly linoleum. I'll be moving my stuff over there this week and should be back to printing things soon! Can't wait! And Daniel and I are both excited about my art/craft supplies NOT being all over the house. I really thought I'd love working out of my home, but I need somewhere else to print.

One last thing...I have made it my goal now to open a print shop. I will do it. I've been researching letterpress and have fallen in love with it. I will buy a letterpress and I will have my own shop. I don't know when, but I will. You can hold me to that. I am determined.

Cicada Screamers.

My husband's band, Cicada Screamers, played the Black Owl "Ballroom" this past Friday night. The show was supposed to be IN the Black Owl, but the owner of the building across the street offered his space to have the show since there's a TON more room in there. It didn't have quite the same feeling as a Black Owl show, but there was plenty of room in there for the crowd that showed up...and it was so much fun! I absolutely love Daniel's new band. I mean, I know I'm pretty biased...but even if he wasn't in the band, I would still love them. They're garage rock with a little surf influence and everyone that's heard them so far has loved them. The lights were pretty sucky in there, but I was decently happy with most of the shots I got.

update!

I've been a busy little bee...feels so good! I finished a logo for a contest the No'Ala is having next year called Shoals Perfect Wedding. They're giving away a free wedding to a bride...so awesome! Local vendors are donating their services and I was chosen to do the invites and other paper goods. I'm so excited! They also wanted me to do the logo for the contest.

I sent it tonight...still waiting to hear back and see if I need to make any changes to it.

I've been working on a campaign for a local community college as well. It feels good to get more freelance work! I also had a bride get in touch with me this week to do a wedding in December. I feel so blessed to be getting work.

Also, I've been making plans to start my own wedding-related business.........more on that later.

I'm SO CLOSE to having our new house in order! I'll post photos of it once it's done. =) I've got to finish painting our studio and kitchen and then get those in order...then all that's left is getting things hung on the walls. SO READY to have it done!

That's pretty much all I've got as far as the update goes. Photo post later from the Cicada Screamers show last Friday.

SOUP!

So, I know I said I would make a pot of soup every week since it's cooled off...but our life has been a little crazy lately. Daniel and I moved into a new house about a month ago, and I haven't been cooking very much because we've been getting settled and such. However, we're finally settled enough that I felt like cooking tonight. SO...here's the recipe I used for tonight's soup!

From myrecipes.com:

Roasted Red Pepper-Tomato Soup

Ingredients

-3 red bell peppers, rinsed, stemmed, seeded and halved

-3 tablespoons olive oil

-1 onion, peeled and chopped

-2 cloves garlic, peeled and minced

-1 can (28 oz) whole plum tomatoes

-1 tablespoon paprika

-3 cups vegetable broth

-2 teaspoons lemon juice

-salt and pepper

-creme fraiche or plain yogurt

-chopped parsley

Preparation

1. Preheat the broiler. Place the red pepper halves, cut side down, in a baking pan and broil 4 to 5 inches from heat until the skins are black and blistered, about 8 minutes. Let cool, uncovered, 10 to 15 minutes. Peel the peppers and place in a bowl, reserving any juices.

2. In a 3- to 4-quart pan over medium heat, add the olive oil and the onion; stir often until onion is soft, about 5 minutes. Add the garlic and stir until translucent, 1 to 2 minutes. Add the roasted peppers and tomatoes, along with their juices, and the paprika. Bring to a low simmer and cook, stirring occasionally, about 3 minutes.

3. In a blender or food processor, purée the soup in small batches until smooth. Return purée to the pan and stir in broth and lemon juice. Stir over medium heat until hot. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Ladle into cups or bowls and garnish with a dollop of crème fraîche or plain yogurt and parsley.

Yields 10 to 12 servings.

Nutritional Information

Calories: 72

Protein: 1.5g

Fat: 3.8g

Carbohydrates: 9.3g

Fiber: 1.5g

Sodium: 127mg

Cholesterol: 0.0g

This soup was so easy to make! I love tomato soup, but I wanted something a little different. I bought a roasted red pepper and tomato soup at Trader Joe's a while back and LOVED it. This was the first recipe I found when searching that didn't use store bought roasted red peppers. I wanted to roast them myself.

I actually ended up making a double batch of this because I want to freeze some...so it made a ton! So yummy! And it was extra-delicious with a grilled cheese sandwich.

Now...it's time to go cut the pumpkin bread I've got cooling on the stove. YUM!

slacker.

Again, blog-wise...not life-wise. I can't believe I haven't posted since late July!!! So crazy.

I am sitting in an airport right now with my good friend Kelli waiting on our flight to Dallas. We have a layover in Atlanta...and thanks to terrible weather in Atlanta, our flight keeps getting delayed more and more.

Life has been ridiculous the past few months. I started working a second part-time job at Gap. I love the people I work with...but retail is retail...not terrible...but definitely not what I want to do with the rest of my life. Daniel and I found a different house (PRAISE GOD) and moved about a month ago. I've been doing more freelance work/photos here & there, which has been nice. ALSO! I just started doing freelance work for one of the agencies in town...they FINALLY called me 3 months after applying. My first project is doing catalog covers, schedule covers, ads, and eventually a photoshoot (they were excited that I'm a photographer as well) for a local community college. It's my first freelance gig that I'll get paid REAL money for. I'm so excited!

But yes, I'm on my way to Dallas...Kelli got accepted to an art show and I'm tagging along. Well, my work got accepted too, but I wouldn't have known anything about it if she hadn't already been going. I'm excited, but pretty nervous. This is my first art show outside of anything school-related...well, that's not in Florence. It's my first time getting "out" in the art world (so to speak)...and the trip hasn't gone terribly smoothly so far. Yay.

Well, we're paying for internet at the airport...we figured it was worth it since we keep getting delayed, but I'm going to save the battery on my laptop for now and log off...I just bought 2 magazines to look through. I love magazines.

I'll really try to do better about updating more...especially since I put my blog address on the back of some postcards I made for the show.

getting back in the swing of things...

After a few weeks of being lazy (blog-wise, not life-wise), I'm going to try to post more consistently. I've just been working on so many projects lately, I haven't been on my laptop as much. However, more of the upcoming work I have involves technology, so posts will be much easier to fit into my schedule.

I have a few photos to share that I've been holding off on sharing because the content was supposed to be somewhat of a surprise...but they got the package yesterday, so I can share them now.

I've been trying to get back into printmaking, screen printing specifically (as I mentioned in my post last night) and my good friends in Sparrow + the Ghost are looking to get shirts printed...so, I decided to print one for them and see if they possibly wanted me to do them instead of having to order them through a print shop...especially since they're wanting to print some of them on vintage/thrift store finds as well as with different color inks. Here's what came of it!

Design in the screen before I added the screen filler...I did this the "down-&-dirty" way...didn't mess with emulsion or anything like that...just drawing fluid & screen filler. Maybe once I have more room to work, I can try the emulsion...I have it with the rest of my printing supplies, waiting to be used.

Annnnnnd...the finished shirt.

The photos turned out a little yellow...sorry about that. I just did a quick edit of them. I've been pricing better mesh, screens, ink, etc...the screen I have now is working fine, but I'm afraid it may not hold up depending on the number of prints I'll be making.

I've been working on re-branding myself...and I may have come up with a separate name for this printing endeavor...I'll share more when I have it all finished. I'm pretty excited about it.

Have a good Wednesday, everyone!

oh how i need...

A real studio space. My goodness. I've got so many projects that I want to get going and all I really need to make them happen is room. I love our house (which I am excited to share photos of once I can get it in order) but I would love it so much more if my art/craft supplies weren't everywhere. It's a good thing that most of my friends are the creative type and understand how it is to try to work & create in your living space.


I've been doing a good bit of soul-searching lately (dramatic, I know) and I think I've come to a realization...as much as I love photography, I don't want it to be my main focus anymore. I mean, I really, REALLY love it...and would probably fall back in love with it if I could get in a darkroom again, but shooting digital is a little too hands-off for me. Lately, I've been re-igniting my love with printmaking. I only got to take one printmaking class when I was in school, and in all honesty, I should've probably changed my concentration to it...or done a BFA in graphic design AND printmaking. I would absolutely love to have a print shop. Maybe it's something I can work towards...maybe I can run one out of the Art Hive when we get the building open.


Speaking of the Art Hive and the building...Olivia and I met up with our friend Tyler earlier. He's going to help us with a lot of the construction/renovations. I gave him our supplies list so we could go through and take measurements to get a rough estimate of all the supplies we need. The task of renovating the building seems so daunting right now, but meeting/talking to him earlier made me feel a bit better. He said there are a lot of things that we can get done right now just from spending a little money. We have leaks to fix, old wiring to pull out, things to sand & prep for later work, etc. The list of things to do to our building seems never-ending, but having an experienced person look at what needs to be done and be able to organize & prioritize that list was so helpful. I've got to get our paperwork done so we can apply for non-profit grants and such.


Sorry for the tangent...back to printmaking. I plan on working on some art prints soon...I'd like to screen print those to have to sell at First Fridays and on Etsy. I need a bit of a refresher course on screen printing (and printmaking in general) so I've been searching Amazon for some books...these are the ones that are catching my eye so far:

DEFINITELY want that last one...it'll probably be the first one I order. I really want The Printmaking Bible as well. I feel motivated...and I've felt more motivated for a while now. It's nice to feel like I'm figuring out what I really want/need to be doing. I'll still be shooting a good bit, but I definitely want to focus more energy on printmaking and possibly experimenting more on illustration too. 


I'm met with a friend earlier today about doing some product shots for her and she asked me to do a logo for her as well! I'm pretty excited about it. I'm meeting with someone else to discuss a photo shoot tomorrow.


Also, I mentioned something about possibly exciting news last week...heard more from them today, but I still won't know anything til the beginning of August. Fingers crossed.