The results are in...1st Creative Briefs

1st Beginner Brief - French Riviera

I was thinking this stripe on a full skirt that hits just above the knee. I'll need to learn how to make digital mock-ups!

1st Intermediate Brief - Meadowland

This became a collage of sorts from pages of my sketchbook. Much softer and organic.

1st Advanced Brief - Pop Art

As I mentioned before, I struggled with picking my final design submission. However it may have been the most successful. The hardest part of all of this may overthinking and second guessing. 

Check out the artist galleries from the first briefs. Beautiful!

http://makeitindesign.com/blog/2016/08/12/summer-school-2016-the-first-galleries-are-live/#more-22823

Make It In Design Summer School

Soooo, I've decided to throw my hat into the Make It In Design Summer School. AND like the optimistic fool I am, I signed up for all three tracks: Beginner, Intermediate and Advanced.

 Variations of an umbrella sketch for the 1st Beginner Brief: French Riviera 

This has definitely been a challenge for me so far! I love to doodle, sketch, paint, etc. but I have zero experience in creating technical patterns. Most of my time has been spent learning bits and pieces of Illustrator. That being said, I ended up liking my basic motifs than any patterns I put together.

Part of my sketch I incorporated into the 1st Intermediate Brief: Meadowland

This is certainly an area I need to work on, but I have enjoyed the challenge so far! First creative briefs have been submitted today and now there's no turning back. Sometimes for me the hard part is learning when to stop messing with the colors, angles, etc.

Sketchbook doodles... Actually parts of this sketch were incorporated into the Intermediate and the Advanced submissions.

I really struggled with the advanced brief, Pop Art. To be honest, this theme does not come easy for me. I changed the motifs, colors, ect. one more then the other two combined. Finally I just had to stop and go with my gut, even it I'm still not sure that it's legit Pop Art.

It took me hours (and many YouTube videos!) to learn how to "cut" this piece out of my original sketch in Illustrator. The struggle is real people.

A little watercolor exercise also found its way into my final design for the 1st Advanced Brief:
Pop Art

Anyway, so far this has been a wonderful experience and I highly recommend you check it out if you'd like to push your creativity.  Can't wait to reveal my final submissions! Now time to make a sandwich...

Painted Porch Ceiling

I've been thinking about painting our porch ceiling a version of haint blue for a while. I went in the store looking for a lighter blue, but came out with this. Ladonna Teal from Valspar. It's a much stronger color and I think it will stand up against the strong lines of our brick front porch. It just makes it feel cozier too, ya know?

Well hello green, it's so good to see you!

Dinosaur World

A couple of summers ago we took a trip to Mammoth Caves in Cave City (aptly named), Kentucky. Along the way we stopped in at Dinosaur World which to me is a cross between a zoo and a kitschy amusement park. Giant life-sized dinosaurs? Um, I have four boys, so yeah, we're there.

Once they spotted this bad boy from the highway they were hooked.

Drew doing a lil' dinosaur daydreaming...

 Show me your pearly whites Kai!

Sometimes as moms we need to turn the camera over so we get in some photos too.

We couldn't leave without the "act like it's chasing you!" photo.

Scary-looking creatures behind me? Meh, Ethan knows a good photo op when he sees it.

This is one of the rare moments Trey volunteered to let me take his picture.  

I guess being in a dinosaur head makes it okay.

I have to admit this was one of those stops that I wasn't too excited about making.  Giant fiberglass dinosaurs seemed a little weird to me but it ended up being fun for all of us.  We made a long weekend out of it and visited Mammoth Caves and Abe Lincoln's birth place as well.  As you can see the dinos wore them out, the husband included by the looks of it. 

Winter Sunshine

Short sleeves in February? We'll take it! The boys headed outside to soak up some winter sun.

Ethan earned a high test grade so he got to pick something out of the class prize box. He chose the cross necklace instead of a plastic toy and has worn it ever since. This makes me a happy Mom.

Notice the shirt. Sliding in the sunshine in February is better than any video game right now.

This is another thing that makes Mom happy.

 

Butterscotch Superdog and Kai. Our little puppy passed away Sunday unexpectedly. We miss her terribly but she made us happy while she was here, and we hope we made her happy too.

Happy Veterans Day

This was taken from an old catalog.   It doesn't give any credit to the picture or the words, but I love the sweet old man taking care of the flag.  Thank you veterans and those currently serving.