Category: I might be insane

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Obviously

oh my god what is wrong with me?? It hasn’t even been a full month since I built that new website on Adobe Portfolio and I’ve already scrapped it! There was nothing wrong with it, I just had all my stuff spread over too many separate sites. So I just spent the last 3 days reconfiguring my WordPress Elfini blog site to do it all – portfolio, blog and online store. I even relocated the whole installation from a sub-domain to the root directory. Holy hell why do I do these things to myself?!

And then this morning when I thought all was well except a few more design tweaks, I found that I couldn’t upload images to WordPress! Oh that is not okay! So, I hit the google. And I tried all the things. Nothing worked. And I tried some more things. And then I totally broke the site.

::very external screaming::

So, knowing my poor blood pressure was going to hit unhealthier levels than normal (I’ll tell you about my blood pressure woes later), I reminded myself that I have backups. Lots and lots of backups (this ain’t my first website rodeo). So, I hopped back into the FTP client and deleted the whole shebang and then re-uploaded yesterday’s subdomain folder that I had downloaded before I moved it and ta-da! Everything is working and I can upload images and at some point I might even start breathing again. fuck. Don’t tell my doctor about any of this. Or any English teachers who would be appalled at my infatuation with run on sentences. I save all my punctuation for .php files.

Now, I just need to figure out how to hide the sidebar on the shop pages and make the portfolio page full width – it really shouldn’t be this difficult! And after I give up on that because I spent most of yesterday trying to crack that nut, I need to create a bunch of product pages because Big Cartel doesn’t have an export products function because of course they don’t. So…. yeah. Big fun happening over here.

But my birthday is Friday and we are going to Santa Cruz so cake and cooler weather. I’ll take it.

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Madness I Say!

Well, it has been 1 year and 2 days since my last confession. I am finally creating art again and that has led me back to the blog. The path from there to here was not peaceful or intended – it was more off a twisted ankle leads to rolling down a steep and rock-strewn hill and then crash landing in WordPress with multiple contusions and a bad attitude.

I started watching some Skillshare classes again last month, and that has reignited my creative mojo – thank the Maker! It feels so good to be creating again after almost a full year of making no art at all. Covid and all that goes with it has definitely done a number on me. So I’ve been making illustrations on my computer in Affinity Designer and Photo because fuck you Adobe and your damn subscriptions! and that has been fun.

But then I hit some Affinity snags while making this piece-

Affinity Designer has no Offset Path. Why??! And then yesterday I wanted to create a half tone and all hell broke loose! You can’t seem to make a gradient half tone without unwanted artifacts on the edges! The solutions offered in the forums were just crap Band-Aids to the bigger problem. I was already annoyed with having to constantly adapt the simple Photoshop or Illustrator steps to work in the Affinity programs and apparently yesterday broke me.

I went to the Adobe website.

Now I have been mad at Adobe since they started this whole subscription game. Just let me buy your damn program and be done with it until I want to upgrade! I’ve limped along with my precious Lightroom3 and who knows how old a version of Photoshop that I had on my old computer for years now. And when I couldn’t get Photoshop to work on my new machine, I downloaded GIMP and then searched out new alternatives. I wasn’t going to get sucked into the Adobe machine!!! Yet here I am today, seething as I hoist the white flag and don the shackles of a Creative Cloud subscription.

::thedeepestofsighs::

So how does all of yesterday’s ragey-foot-stomping-temper-tantrum-I-hate-Adobe!-drama bring me to the zombie blog today?? Well, apparently Adobe Portfolio (it claims to make pretty portfolio websites) is included with any CC subscription, and my annual Squarespace fee is due in a couple days. Why pay for additional (and expensive) website hosting on top of the Adobe Bullshit (Bullshit is much easier to type than Creative Cloud Subscription and soothes me so that is how we will refer to it going forward thank you very much). Let’s try to save a couple hundred bucks a year right?! Well that sounds good on paper, I don’t use Squarespace’s store features as I have a Big Cartel account so no problem loosing that, but Portfolio doesn’t have blog capabilities. Okay, since I was already down the rabbit hole, I exported all the blog posts from my Squarespace website and imported them into my old WordPress elfini blog. Ta-da! Now all the posts are together again and I can just add a nice link to the blog in the nav menu of a new Adobe Portfolio website and Bob’s your uncle and all that jazz. But that of course called for a blog refresh – removing old outdated widgets and installing a nice new theme – and apparently this morning I have a lot to say about all of this! So here we are. I’m bringing blogging back.

And we all know that writing a blog post is my favorite form of procrastination. When I finish here, I have to actual hit that purchase button for the Adobe Bullshit and then build a new website so I can let the Squarespace subscription go before it renews in 3 days. I just wanted to create a damn halftone. My brain sucks.

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Procrastination Nation

Hell’s bells.

I am avoiding something.

I think it might be something big.

And probably ugly.

Yesterday I spent the day playing video games after a long break. Today I am giving my website a complete make-over. I typically clean when I am in avoidance mode, so this is atypical and disturbing behavior. I’m dealing with code for fuck sake! And yes, I am positive there will be more swearing.

I think I am supposed to be writing. I started something a couple months ago and then let it fall to the side. It’s going to be another brain-fuck so I’m guessing that is the hesitation to pick it back up. I do not want a repeat of the mental state I found myself in last year at this time. It took me well into the summer to recover. And yes, I’m being a bit vague because I never did talk about any of that on this site. In a nut shell: a research paper on adoption for an english class coupled with the stress of getting Kyle graduated and into college broke my brain. But I think I really need to get this family stuff out of my head and onto paper (can’t afford a shrink right now) as I find myself over-sharing with random strangers.

hi. let me tell you about my fucked up family history.

yep.

So. Go check out the new shiny zoot suit I put on my website! And the previously named “Freeway Project”? It’s still progressing but at a glacial pace. This semester’s Fiber Arts class is giving my a lot of ideas as to how to deal with the sculptural elements of the project. In the meantime, Erin and I are weaving.

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A blast from the past on several levels

I opened up WordPress this morning to make a small change to my sidebar and then I was going to be on my merry way. But look! A comment on my last post! I’ll make a quick reply. Done. Happy. Now let’s get outta here and – wait. What is that?!

There! At the bottom of my post. Under those silly (but intentional – as in I remember adding that plug-in to my site) “Post to” buttons. Where the hell did those “You might also like…” links come from?? Sure, I’ve seen them on other sites. Might have added them myself to design jobs. But I have never seen them on my site before?? Have they always been there? Was the plug-in added and then somehow in the last week activated without my knowledge??

Elves? Sleep-coding? You never know… there has been a lot of Nyquil consumed this past week.

But while I was trying to wrap my head around how this happened (my head hurts and I haven’t had my second cup of coffee so I could very well be hallucinating the whole thing!) – I clicked one of the links.

Floor and Water… Doh!

A post from January 31, 2008 about making my dad’s Beans and Dumplings. Not only were my heart-strings tugged, but my stomach started to growl. The Plug-in is staying.  And I’m wondering if a couple of those ham-steaks will work…

 

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Duh Duh Done!

My semester is over this week. 2 days of critiques and them I am done until fall. Free to focus on painting, volleyball tournaments, and swim lessons!

Speaking of painting, I haven’t gotten to do much these past couple weeks as I’ve been  finishing up the  triptychs for class. But I am still in Mindy’s year-long True Free Spirit class, starting a week-long Gelli Print class today with Carla Sonheim, and wish wish wish I could take this class with Mindy and Alena Hennessey.

But before I go clicking any more ‘Add to Cart’ buttons, let’s go back to that second sentence up there. Volleyball tournaments. Yes, plural tournaments. In fact there are 3!! June 13-17 has Kyle and I in Anaheim for the SCVA Jr. Boys Classic. Then 2 weeks later we go to Reno for USAV Junior National Championships (also known as the Junior Olympics!) And that is the end of the NCVC club season. But Kyle went and got himself a position on the NCVA High Performance team and is going to Ft Lauderdale at the end of July for the USA Volleyball High Performance Championship. USA Volleyball!  And just so you know what that is all about, from the NCVA website:

Region High Performance Programs are the local branches of the USAV National High Performance Pipeline. The goals of Region Programs are the same as the National HP Program: to build a broader and stronger pipeline of athletes and coaches for our U.S. Olympic Teams and provide player developmentthrough training, evaluation, and competition opportunities. Region HP Programs are another way that USA Volleyball discovers and trains our future Olympians, working to continue our presence on the medal stand.

So yeah, kinda a big deal! And as much as I would love to watch Kyle playing against international teams (last years team came in 2nd to Cuba!), I will not be going to Florida with him. We’re gonna put him on a plane and then let the team chaperones take over. This summers volleyball is really putting a dent in my art class/supplies/saving for a Mom-erati piggy bank!

Oh wait! Before we start gearing up for all the club events, Kyle’s school team is still playing. They won the CIF Sections last week and tomorrow night is the quarter-finals of NORCALS! I have been assured that even if they take the whole thing, it will all be over on Saturday. I have my doubts that it will ever end…

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True ‘I’ve been too busy to rebel’ Spirit

So, let’s re-cap. My baby boy is 16. My spring semester has started and it is already kickin’ my ass. More on that later. I currently have art work in 2 group exhibits with a benefit show coming up at the end of the month. 2013 has been pretty exciting eventful exhausting so far.

I am taking a quick break between to-do lists to show you my results for the True Free Spirit class’s January project. This post showed you the beginnings of my first piece and a digital painting. Here is the finished 9×12″ piece:

Damn. There is a lot going on in th0se mere 108 square inches!

I also downloaded a new iPad app, Procreate, and made this:

And as much as I said I love the ArtRage app, this one is far more user friendly and has some fun textures. And between the 2, I can RULE THE WORLD!!

ahem   //smoothes skirt, sits back down

And then I jumped on a chance to donate another “heart” themed piece for the Hearts for the Art Benefit on Feb 26th. Why? Because I have obviously suffered a severe blow to the head. Having already ear-marked the only pieces I had that referenced the heart to the BodyTribe show, I was left having to create something new. So in an attempt to make things just a wee bit easier for myself, I decided to loosely recreate my True Free Spirit girl on an unfinished 20×24″ canvas. And that worked out swimmingly!

No muss, no fuss. Just need to build another frame for it and it is ready to go.

And as much as I would like to start the February project, I have a painting for my Illustration class due in 2 weeks! Back to the to-do list…