Thank You Bob!

“We don’t make mistakes here, we just have happy accidents.

We want happy, happy paintings.

If you want sad things, watch the news.

Everything is possible here. This is your little universe.”

BOB ROSS (1942-1995)

I've always been mesmerized by painters like Bob Ross. I credit Bob for encouraging me to be an artist from the time I was a little girl. He's the reason I love oils. In college I carried his picture in my wallet, only partly because I thought it good nerdy fun.

I've always appreciated watching people who are really good at what they do. I once watched a professional window washer in awe, tossing rags through the air with ease, flipping the squeegee with the grace of a good baton twirler. Last week I was watching PBS and One Stroke Painting by Donna Duberry was on. Watching these painters is amazing to me, the way one stroke creates a flower complete with highlights and shading. But Bob Ross was the master of the couch painting painters. Who couldn't love his soothing voice, oozing with persistent optimism, talking about populating his painted world with "happy little trees". He taught me to look with my artist's eye at everything around me. To be brave with my art. Go ahead and paint a giant black rock in the foreground of a pastel sunset and make it work. Thank you for your inspiration Bob!

Choose Your Own Adventure

When I was a kid I loved reading books in the Choose Your Own Adventure series. They were interactive books, the pre-internet, the wireless video game. You'd read along in these books and in certain parts of the stories you could make a choice "To choose to take the magic diamond turn to page 136, to choose to use your secret potion turn to page 130". The page you chose would lead you to other choices and the culmination of the choices you made would lead you to a certain conclusion to the story. I always wanted to keep track of my choices so I could be sure and read the book with every possible combination of choices fulfilled but I was too lazy to keep track.

The internet is my new Choose Your Own Adventure and I have just as much trouble putting it down these days as I did those books when I was a kid. There's just so much to look at, so much to learn, so many links leading you to a different destination and the time keeps sneaking past, I go to bed way too late, my butt gets numb, my eyes get all wonky but I just can't tear myself away. Maybe the next click will show me something wonderful, maybe the next thread will teach me something important. I just don't want to miss something.

As a side note, I did an etsy search to see if there were any crafts made from my beloved series and apparently in the craft world "Choose Your Own Adventure" is commonly used to mean you get to choose color of the object. I find that disappointing. I guess I was hoping for something more interesting and intriguing, like the books.

It's Just Natural...

I'm in a treasury! No I'm not conceited, the title of the treasury is It's Just Natural. That there are fabulous items from the natural state! It's curated by dogwoodlane, a fellow AREtsian that you may remember as my first Weekend Feature and my first etsy purchase. Thanks Sally! Be sure to check out the beauties currently in her etsy shop, She has brand new bicycle seat bags! Oh, my Contemporary Asian mini album is what was featured, top left. It has left my shop for the moment but when I get relocated I'll start giving my shop the attention it needs and it'll be back.

NOTE: My shop The Beehive is now Papercut Kitchen! Please visit my shop Papercut Kitchen by clicking here.

Weekend Feature: Crosswalk Photography

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I found a wonderful surprise among my hearts the other day, Crosswalk Photography. It was just what I was needing, beautiful photographic reminders that God is everywhere! Jamie does all that work photographing and working on etsy and all proceeds go to her youth group! Way to go Jamie! You can check out her wonderful ongoing photography project, Worth 350,000: Taking a Photo a Day for a Year. Keep reading for her interview and be sure to check out her etsy shop.

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Cross 67

Cross 74

All photos used with the permission of Crosswalk Photography

Interview with Jaime of Crosswalk Photography

What do you do for a living in the daytime?

During the day time I am the Director of Youth and College Age Ministries at Saint Paul United Methodist Church, in Lincoln, Nebraska.

Tell us a little about your etsy self

I just recently opened my etsy store, but have been an etsy shopper for a little while longer! It is such a great place to go for creative expression I love it!

Tell us a little about your non-etsy self

I have one beautiful daughter named Mara who is 20 months old, a very great husband-Jeff, two dogs named Gertie and Sprocket and I love to read and play outside.

What do you make and why did you start making it?

I do photography, I have always loved to take pictures and started in high school. Just recently I got the idea to take pictures of every day items that were in the shape of a cross and sell them for a fund raiser for my youth programs and mission work here at church.

What inspires you?

I just think it so amazing to find little snippets of God everywhere, once you start looking for crosses you can't stop finding them, it is such a constant reminder that God's love is everywhere, and easy to find. What advice do you have for people trying to sell their crafts? Well, I am so new I would love to have the advice of others actually! But I would just say get your name out there and love what you do! :)

Trying On Optimism

I'm painfully aware that the blog I started to be mostly business, crafting, art and etsy with a smidge of personal life is now majority personal with a smidge of the aforementioned. I've maintained a bit of etsy, since I'm still lurking there, but crafting and business have fallen by the wayside. Creating anything has become a casualty of my current temporarily single, stay at home mom in flux situation. It's a little disappointing. I started out gungho, working hard, creating every moment I had, learning about business and had some pretty good sales happening for being a beginner. That was before we learned, only a few short months after I opened shop, we'd be relocating. Now my momentum has been halted and I'm a little concerned I won't be able to get the fire back even when we are moved and settled. Having a dedicated studio/office will probably be a pretty good kick start though!

And about the house, I'm warming up to it and even getting to appreciate it a bit. It's not so bad, pretty cute actually and not so much horribly outdated as it is a clean slate for me to have fun with. We're still waiting to see how it'll all pan out. Financing is tight but I'm fighting my nature and going optimist. I'm slowly beginning to pack, dust, sort and realizing how much there is in our house that I have overlooked on a daily basis but is so blaringly junky, dusty, dirty now that I'm digging in. Whatever happens it'll work the way it's meant to and hopefully I can just take it all as it comes, I'm warming up my zen attitude.