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Ahh, my birthday’s on Saturday! I’m so excited – I get to go eat some fabulous meals at all of my favorite restaurants with different members of my family and Max is taking me on an art supply shopping spree. What more could I want, honestly? It’s kind of interesting, though, how just one year ago my wish list was filled with clothing, accessories, and artsy odds and ends, and now, as I’ve gotten a little older, all I seem to care about is practical things! I haven’t bought any new clothes in months and instead have been trying to make new outfits with what I’ve already got. This year I am launching a business, though, so I guess it makes sense that I’d now want to be a little smarter about things.

Most of all, I want to organize and stock up my studio with fresh supplies like different kinds of paper and some sleek black pens, but I also wouldn’t mind a little spending/bill money, a pack of nice new markers (the Copic double-ended ones up there are ridiculously expensive, but a girl can dream, right?), a new book by my favorite author Haruki Murakami, a gift card to Home Depot so we can fix up the house (never in my wildest dreams would I think I would be asking for one of those for my birthday) and, just for kicks, a white iPhone would be pretty cool (I left my phone in a movie theater last night when we went to see “Hugo” and I have a feeling I’m going to have to buy a new one this weekend – probably not an iPhone though!).

Hope you’re all enjoying your week and looking forward to some exciting weekend plans as well! I’ll try to pop in on Friday with an Illustration Friday post – it’s been long overdue!

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I’ve been on a triangle kick since, say, 10th grade?! I mean, who hasn’t, right? They’re everywhere! I’ve been collecting different uses of triangles on my Pinterest board a lot lately and thought I’d share some with you today. They’re so basic yet so versatile… from wallpaper to artful collages to modern architecture to graphic clothing to eclectic place settings to colorful quilts – triangles look good just about anywhere. They’re simple and graphic and you can change the pattern up in so many fun ways just by switching up colors, the formation, or the medium you use to depict them. It’s no wonder why triangles are a mega-trend that just won’t die!

Here are some more great pieces of artwork that use triangles in unique ways:

[MATT W. MOORE]

[ERIC HURTGEN]

[MÉLISANDE]

[CATHERINE CAMPBELL]

If you haven’t checked out my art & culture blog, The Flood, lately (or ever) you should! I spent last week redesigning the whole web site. I can’t tell you how much the old layout bothered me. It was too bright, loud, big, and messy, and I just couldn’t ignore it any longer. Now it’s a little more subtle, cleaner, and has way prettier fonts. I also gave myself permission to change the all-caps logo that appeared in the header and on the cover of every zine issue. It worked perfectly for a printed magazine because it was a long font (so it could cover a larger area on the cover), but my eyes really enjoy looking at this new, sleeker version a lot more. Don’t yours? Maybe you don’t quite remember… and that’s just fine with me!

Now that I am finally happy with the design of my blogs, I can focus more on filling them with great content, and that gives me a happy feeling! Next on my agenda: Creating new portfolio pieces, experimenting with products for my Etsy store, and working on this crazy house of ours.

It’s the day of love! If you’ve been too busy to whip up nice things for your sweetheart, I’ve made a last-minute valentine card you can print out right now on standard white printer paper. If you have nothing else to give, why not express your heartfelt feelings? Those mean so much more than all of the frills, anyways. That’s why the inside says this:

So there’s tons of white space to write exactly how you really feel about your valentine!

1. Download the template here.
2. Print it out & fold it in half twice.
3. Write your true feelings.
4. Give to your valentine!

Hope you all have a wonderful evening with friends, family, and/or that special someone! Max is making me dinner and I baked him some secret pink cookies. Can’t wait. ♥

We’ve had such a mild winter here in Minneapolis so far (which is totally unlike last year’s snowpocolypse), but I figure it’s gotta snow sometime so, as an early birthday present for myself, I crocheted a nice warm scarf out of some beautiful greenish blue yarn that I got over the holidays. It’s super comfy and especially beautiful when it catches the sunlight. Matches my blue eyes, too! I just learned how to crochet and this is only the second thing I’ve made (and the second scarf) so I’ll have to get a little braver on the next project and try to learn some new kinds of stitches.

I haven’t made any plans to celebrate my birthday at the end of this month yet (besides a wish list full of art supplies), but I have been thinking a lot about where I want to be in my life as a 22 year-old. I’ve revamped both of my websites and I’m ready to get crackin’ with my creative business dreams. I think it’s a year for building some good foundations in that area and I’d like to work on fixing up our house a lot too. It needs a lot of love… and paint. I still have 12 days left of being 21, though, so I might as well make the best of ‘em!

Yesterday I finished going through all of the pages of Christine Schmidt of the Yellow Owl Workshop’s gorgeous book, Print Workshop. If you didn’t catch my first post, I’m trying to read at least 12 books this year because even though I love reading, I have a lot of trouble making the time to do it. I’m now thinking that maybe my problem was that I didn’t choose interesting enough books to read because it’s only February and I have been on a roll! I’ve finished 3 and gotten halfway through 2 other really great books that I’ll have to share with you soon. Anyway, it’s not really about quantity but quality, right?

Print Workshop is definitely high-quality! It’s so beautiful that it made me want to smother every page. I’m one of those people who drool over fantastic book design and this one is definitely drool-worthy with bright pigments, nicely styled photographs, and ya gotta love that handwritten font.

Not only is it beautiful to look at, though, author Christine Schmidt teaches you how to make beautiful things of your own with plain things you already have around the house and a helpful guide to the massive amount of craft store supplies that are available. In the front of the book there is a briefing for people who have never been formally introduced to the concept of printing and tips & tricks for those who have already done quite a bit of printing of their own like I did in school. There were quite a few projects and printing processes that I have never thought to do or make and it was refreshingly eye-opening to realize that I can pretty much print my designs on anything I can dream of… and so can you!

Some of the cool projects that this book talks about include printing your own picnic blanket (see above), making your own stationery, creating image transfers, travel journals, mobiles, pillows, scarves, playing cards, and lots lots more. There is definitely something for everyone in here.

Did I mention it’s really pretty?

If you’d like to embark on your own printing adventure, Print Workshop by Christine Schmidt is available on Amazon starting at $9.00 or maybe you can even find it at your local library.

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Oh turquoise, how I love thee! I’ve been pinning images of turquoise beauties to my Pinterest board Turquoise Wonderland like crazy lately and I thought it would be mighty nice to share them now that I have a matching turquoise background on my blog to go with it all. Bring on the Spring! I also found my dream bedroom recently from a post on House of Turquoise:

I would love to spend a Sunday morning curled up here with coffee, a good book, my cute little kitties, and Max, of course! I may have to start infusing some extra turquoise into my own room soon…

Anyhow, after a full weekend without working internet (how depressing!), I’ve been spending lots of time catching up on blogs and gathering inspiration for the Half Asleep Studio shop which I have now decided will be launching this summer! The exact date is yet to be determined but it’s all very exciting and a little overwhelming at this point. So far I know for sure there will be hand-dyed fabric pillows in interesting shapes, colors, and sizes, screen-printed tote bags, typographic prints in hand-painted frames, and I have ideas brewing for lots of other cute dreamy things, too! For now this is a time for research and product development so I probably won’t have too much to share on the subject for a while longer, but I have lots of other crafty home projects up my sleeve to share in the mean time.

See you soon, fellow dreamers! ♥

I love February! In fact, it’s my favorite month of the year because it’s all about love. Besides Valentine’s Day on the 14th, my step-mom’s birthday on the 6th, my uncle’s on the 9th, and my great-grandma’s 90th birthday on the 13th, there’s now an anniversary to celebrate because Max and I will have already been together one year as of this Friday! Whew, where did the time go? It doesn’t end there, though, because it also happens to be my birthday month and I’m turning 22 this year, on February 25th. I wasn’t kidding, February is a serious love & birthday fest around these parts.

So, in order to get in the spirit of this wonderful month, I decided it was time to switch up my inspiration board. In my studio, I keep a bulletin board full of art, photographs, and magazine clippings as well as a list of goals for the month, the year, and things I’d like to do “someday”. It hangs smack dab in front of my desk to give me some extra motivation while I’m working in my studio and it feels good to mix it up once in a while to keep the energy flowing. It also gives me a chance to clean up and refresh my studio a bit which is always a good way to start a new month!

Here are all of the lovely things I’ve gathered for February’s inspiration board:

P.S. You can use the heart pattern at the top of this post as a desktop background if you want to get yourself into the February mood, too! Just right-click (or press ctrl & click if you have a Mac) on the image and then click “Set as desktop background.” Make sure you select “tile” in your desktop preferences so the pattern repeats. : )

It’s been over a month since Christmas & Hanukkah, but I finally finished my present for Max! It was going to be perfect… he just got a new MacBook Pro last December so I wanted to buy him a laptop case to go with it, but none of the ones I saw really screamed his name and most were a little too expensive. So, I decided to make my own. It was going to be right on time for the holidays too, but life happened in all of its craziness and it sat lonely and half finished on a shelf waiting for me for a little too long. Nonetheless, here it is today in all of its fully finished glory…

For the actual laptop sleeve, I just ordered a light-colored laptop case off of Amazon like this one for 15″ laptops or this one for 13″ laptops (the one I used doesn’t seem to be available anymore) and then picked up a couple of super inexpensive soft fabric paints from the craft store. I decided on a triangle pattern in some of Max’s favorite colors and marked my design in pencil directly onto the bag before I started painting. I wrote “R” for Red, “G” for Green, or “Y” for Yellow in the spaces that I wanted to paint those colors so I could be armed with a plan beforehand.

Here are a few tips for working with fabric paint (that didn’t occur to me until now):

• It’s smart to hand wash the laptop sleeve and let it dry before you do anything because it helps the paint stick to the fabric easier. (I didn’t actually do this, but rule #2 on Michael’s “FAQ’s about Fabric Printing” claims that it’s essential.)
• If there are parts that you know that you want to keep unpainted, like the straps or zipper, either remove them if you can or cover them up with tape. I was naive enough to think I could just avoid those areas and it didn’t quite work out the way I had hoped.
• Don’t mix the paint with water like you would when painting with regular acrylic paints on canvas or something. It creates uneven shading because the paint has to absorb into the fabric and you’ll just end up having to go over it again (trust me).
• If, when the paint dries, it feels all hard, you can hand wash it after the paint has cured (usually 72 hours to be on the safe side) and it should come out feeling a bit softer.

Voila! Now you have a completely custom made, one-of-a-kind laptop sleeve to protect your baby from life’s little accidents. You’ll be the talk of the coffee shop, I just know it!

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Here’s to sleeping in and getting lost in the depths of dreamland… I’ve only been able to remember small snippets from my dreams here and there lately, but I did have a dream recently where my mom was renting out a little cottage in the woods in Paris, and I came to visit her with a couple of my friends. All I can really remember about it now were the strange plants she grew in the yard. I also had a really cool dream where I could consciously change the color of my eyes just by thinking about it. In the end I decided on sparkly purple, of course.

Maybe it’s just because it’s January, but I’m ready for an adventure (or some time off). An entire day to myself sounds like heaven! What would you do if you had an entire day to yourself to do whatever you wanted? I only get one like that once in a blue moon. I’d probably crawl lazily out of bed around noon, take a bubble bath, and go out for coffee and magazine-reading. After that, I’d come home to make myself a late lunch of some kind of crazy spaghetti avocado masterpiece, spend some quality time with my sketchbook and watercolors, and end “alone time” a bit early to go out with Max for shrimp tempura sushi and tofu spring rolls with peanut sauce. Some late night yoga wouldn’t be a bad thing, either.

But that’s all just a daydream for now, because there are too many other things to do in real life at the moment! I’m hoping to be able to share some of them with you soon…

]]> http://halfasleepblog.wordpress.com/2012/01/27/beautiful-dreamer/feed/ 1 ledeluge beautifuldreamer http://halfasleepblog.wordpress.com/2012/01/25/updates-the-flood-shop/ http://halfasleepblog.wordpress.com/2012/01/25/updates-the-flood-shop/#comments Wed, 25 Jan 2012 21:21:57 +0000 Natalie http://halfasleepblog.wordpress.com/?p=1830 Continue reading →]]> I’m all about tying up loose ends right now… You know the things you find yourself adding to every single to do list you make, yet it never seems to get done anyways? I’d like to put all those super annoying recurring items away once and for good.

Something on my list that has probably been on there the very longest is to finally get around to updating my Etsy shop for The Flood (my art zine & blog project). I’ve had some of these t-shirts since last summer and never quite got around to adding them online. I designed them all myself and only have a few left so perhaps you’ll use coupon code SHOP30 to get 30% off everything in my shop (including zines, stickers, and t-shirts) ’til February 1st and help me clear away some studio space for new projects? Go take a look and see if anything strikes your fancy: http://thefloodshop.etsy.com.

Next step: Christmas & Hanukkah were a month ago now and I still haven’t finished the crafty present I was making for my boyfriend Max. Luckily he’s a nice guy and doesn’t seem to mind too much, but this is getting kind of ridiculous… will share soon!

Happy Sunday! Here are some of the lovely things I’ve been admiring this past week:

Let it Be Beautiful – This is the coolest zine project I’ve seen in a while! Elizabeth Barker and Laura Jane Faulds have set out to create 300 zines using a story or essay inspired by each and every song by The Beatles. They only have 6 so far, but they look awesome!

Nothing is New Shop – I don’t know why exactly, but I’m strangely drawn to this hanging wall tapestry by the Nothing is New shop. They design a lot of other cool unique stuff too.

Eloise Renouf – This is a giclee print from a shop owned by a really awesome textile and stationery designer living in Nottingham, England. I love how simple the concept is, the variations of texture through line, and the interesting color palette a lot.

Leather Triangle Mobile – I’ve been really attracted towards decorative mobiles like this one from The Little Tiny, probably ever since I was gifted the one in this post. There’s something really odd and beautiful about them. I’d like to learn how to make my own!

Matthew Kavan Brooks - My favorite artist changes at least once a month it seems. This month it’s this guy and his awesome graphic illustrations. The typography, the quotes, the colors, and the whole collage look = all very big right now. Some of my other favorite artists (of all time) include Kime Buzzelli, Winston Chmielinski, Chrissie Abbott, Alyssa Nassner, & Francoise Neilly.

{P.S. I’m now on Pinterest if you’d like to add me and see even more stuff I admire!}

I plan to spend the week ahead tying up some loose ends so I can finally begin to move on to new projects & discoveries! See you in a bit. <3

This year I’m making it my mission to read at least one book per month. I know it doesn’t seem like that many, but I tried to do the same last year and failed by 2 books. I mean, ideally I’d love to read hundreds, but who has the time?! So, in order to keep myself accountable and as a fun way to reflect on what I’ve read, I’ll be posting reviews on my favorites throughout 2012.

My first completed book of the year is The Handmade Marketplace by Kari Chapin. I thought this book was absolutely awesome! I’m always looking for new (and fun) ways to make more money and have been seriously considering starting up my own online shop for a few months now. This book came out in early 2010 so it’s pretty up-to-date and has SO. MUCH. useful information on how to sell handmade items online. Not only that, but the gorgeous design and cute illustrations by Emily Martin of The Black Apple make it really fun to read.

In the beginning, the book introduces several experts in their respective fields of online handmade selling and then little blurbs of handwritten advice appear throughout the book relating to each topic. The book starts out talking all about the importance of branding, marketing, making connections in online and offline communities, blogging, advertising and getting publicity, and eventually moves on to speak about the craft fair scene and helpful advice for selling online and offline. I’d recommend it both for people who know nothing about selling handmade AND people who think they already know everything because I think it’s so refreshing to get a reminder about all of the ways you could be improving your business in such a friendly and organized format from people who have had proven success in the field. The content is arranged in a way that still makes it interesting to read even if you’re “stuck” in a chapter on a topic you think you’ve already got covered – it’s kind of written like one big blog post, actually!

I think the author, Kari Chapin, did a really knock-out job with the whole thing because It’s also kind of like reading a big personalized book full of advice from really awesome friends who genuinely care about you and want you to succeed at your dream. I’m really excited to look over all of my notes over the next few months as I begin to build my own online shop!

The Handmade Marketplace is currently available on Amazon.com starting at just $7. I’ll keep you updated as things start to come along over on this end!

Here it is, The Flood #6! If you already read The Flood’s blog, then you probably know all about it by now, but if you don’t, then what are you waiting for? Go check it out! I’m so proud of this issue because I really feel like the zine has come such a long way. Last night, I took out all of the past issues for the first time in quite a while, even the first one (before I had any idea what I was getting into), and it was kind of cool to see the progression from one to the next.

The Flood #6 is brighter, bolder, and contains articles that are geared more towards inspiring and helping creative people start a buzz about their own work. I got up the guts to contact artists that I would have been too afraid to talk to before and the results were well worth it! It has been such a rush to forge connections with people that I consider to be rockstars of the art world… and so rewarding, too.

Each page definitely has its own personality. Each spread tells the story of the artist/designer/photographer it presents through their own unique visual language and point-of-view. The thing I struggled with the most was the lack of space – I wanted to include everything! There were too many gorgeous entries to narrow down that I actually ended up adding 4 extra pages in the end, making it the bulkiest issue so far.

Here’s the workspace where all of the zines are assembled with my own two hands. As a recent college student who still has yet to make my big break, I don’t have a mega budget to produce these issues, so I order them as color copies and then trim off the corners before stapling them with a saddle stapler. I have to admit, I do like how the finished format straddles the divide between handmade zines of the punk era and modern magazines that you would find on the shelf at Barnes & Noble. Typical handmade zines can be crazy, messy, and often hand-written, but that’s exactly what makes them so much more personal than a mainstream magazine. I think The Flood contains the best of both worlds!

All of that being said, you can’t really experience all that The Flood #6 has to offer unless you actually get your own copy! I’d personally recommend ordering a print copy because you can hold it in your hands and, after all, it’s the format that was intended, but the issue is also available as a digital download in The Flood Shop. All profits will go directly back into The Flood so it can continue to inspire creativity and promote artists, designers, and photographers from all over the world. Speaking of which, I’m already accepting submissions for the Spring issue if you’re interested!