But, I have a tremendous lineup of artist interviews coming up that I’m so excited to share! Jenna from Whimsy + Spice, Jihan from Geronimo Balloon Troopers, Shauna from Something’s Hiding in Here, and Caroline from Paloma’s Nest all have agreed to share their passion filled artforms with us and why they do what they do.

So check back soon and if you think of me, please pray that we will survive this move with both the children (and ourselves) intact. :)

There are so many stereotypes designers fit into. I’ll admit – I fit in a few. But, for years I felt there might be something wrong with me because I felt I didn’t exactly fit the mold. Now I’m at the point in life where I can embrace my quirks and differences and still be {relatively} confident in what I do. Let me make it clear that I don’t have anything against ANY of these things; my intention isn’t to make people feel bad. It’s just a way for me to say…embrace what makes you different. Even if it’s a flaw. Embrace your limitations (see #1). You don’t have to do or wear or own any certain thing to be a creative person. Just be you. So with all that said, I’m a designer. And these are my confessions.

I don’t use a Canon or Nikon. I use a cheap Panasonic Lumix camera for all my photography.

I don’t drink Starbucks. Or any coffee for that matter.

I do all my design work on…wait for it…a PC! I don’t have anything against Mac, it’s just what I’ve always used. And it works for me.

I don’t own anything Eames. Someday though.

I don’t own a Keep Calm poster.

I can’t really bring myself to buy anything retail. Unless it’s a really good pair of jeans that fit *perfectly.* And then I’ll just wear those for ten years until they fall apart.

Speaking of clothes, I’m terrible at putting outfits together. I just don’t have the personal sense of fashion or creativity or boldness, or whatever to do it. Promise does though. So does this girl.

I didn’t go to college. Everything I’ve learned has been self-taught in the area of web and graphic design. This was an insecurity of mine for a long time. I was confident at the time about my decision not to go to college, but people along the way definitely made me doubt myself because I didn’t receive formal training. I’m over it now though.

No one can make you feel inferior without your consent. -Eleanor Roosevelt

OK, I broke the ice. Now it’s your turn to spill the beans!

Today I celebrate seven years with the man I love. I can’t imagine spending my life with anyone else. Even through the rough times, it’s always been truth – God put us together – and we are inseparable. I love you Kent Shaffer.

The birth was thrilling, but also one I’m not eager to do again anytime soon. I think exhaustion has been the hardest thing to deal with this year, that and trying to do everything else too. But, oh what joy. I just melt inside thinking of the joy he brings in my life. So it’s been hard, and character building. And this post is dedicated to him.

Journaled at 7 Weeks
You are the embodiment of everything beautiful in my life. You are sweet and peaceful, thoughtful and content. You began smiling at me about a week ago, and though you don’t smile ALL the time like Eli did, you seem to have a distinct look of intention and focus behind your smile, and it’s so endearing. The first week you were born you would lock eyes with me and your gaze was so intense. You seem to have such depth and personality already at your young age. Your eyes are deep blue and your toes are always flexed when you are awake, almost like you can’t relax.

You are very strong. Sometimes we will find you turned a 180 from where we set you down – you can maneuver around quite well for an infant! You can also hold your head up by yourself if I’m holding you upright. It’s very impressive! One time you even nose-dived off my pillow to try and retrieve your pacifier…and you succeeded.

Journaled at 4 Months
You still eat 4-5 times a night, and every 2-3 hours in the day – which wears me out, but I really don’t mind too much. Your joy is expressed with your entire body, it starts in your eyes, then creeps down to your mouth, and then your arms and legs join in. Sometimes you look at me so happy and your eyes water…which inevitably makes me tear up too. In the rare occasion that we get to nap at the same time, you like to touch my face all over and then fall asleep. You have developed the cutest dimple in your left cheek despite the baby fat that’s been stored there. It shows every time you smile. I hope it stays. Eli has been interacting with you more and you love it. You seem to have already idolized him as your big brother. You love to watch and be involved with whatever he is doing. He is great at helping with your diaper and always says, “whoooaaa” just like I do. Haha!

Journaled at 9 Months
All within the last two weeks you’ve started crawling, saying mama and pulling up to a stand. In public, EVERYONE comments on your gorgeous blue eyes, and I’ve been told more than once that they just sparkle.

Journaled at 10 Months
The other morning I woke up with your cute little baby foot about an inch or two from my face. It was awesome. Your feet are so cute. You’ve been sick with an ear infection for several days. So if I thought we were joined at the hip before, this week has pretty much soldered us together. All you want to do is cuddle cuddle cuddle. I don’t mind, I love holding you. Your brother minds though. I don’t think he likes the extra attention you are getting. Changing your diaper sometimes takes two people, one to wrestle you down one to slap the diaper on your bum. Yes, now I can mark the one off the list “let a 10 month old get the best of me.”

Unfortunately you still aren’t a good sleeper. Waking up 2-3 sometimes 4 times a night still. And you started this new thing where you just roll and thrash your body around until you or I finally succumb to what you want (nursing or pacifier). I get a good laugh out of playing chase and hide and seek with you around our couches. This is the most fun. I get a little jump out of you every time I come around the corner you aren’t expecting. And giggles. Lots of giggles. It’s funny feeding you. I’ll set something yummy in front of you and you grab it by the fist full and shove it all in your mouth. Sometimes you use two fists. And then, if I bring something else that you think is yummier, you throw down or spit out whatever you are eating to make way for the new, more yummy stuff. When you don’t get what you want, it’s like the world is ending. You throw your head back and raise your arms and cry BIG tears then throw your self back or forward without caring about the consequences. Sometimes you even bang your head against the floor repeatedly. Aren’t you too young to be doing this? I think so, but you’ve seen your big brother do it plenty of times, so I guess you had a good teacher.

I feel like 75% of the time I’m watching you, you have something in your mouth, or you are about to put something in you shouldn’t, or I’m fishing multiple things out. You are so fearless. You do things that make me so nervous, and I really can’t keep you out of my sight for too long. That and your brother pesters you alot. You like to be right in the middle of things, in the thick of the action. You don’t like being on the sidelines. So that bothers your brother alot, but he will get used to it. You still cry ALOT. Anytime I put you down in your crib, you cry. Anytime I put you down at all, for any reason (and walk away), there is a good chance you will cry. You just still like being right by me or being held by me. It’s exhausting, but you know, I love you so much I would never ever wish it away. I’m just glad I have the time margin to be able to baby you while you are still a baby.

—-

Abe, you are so loved. Happy Birthday my sweet boy!

No, I’m serious. I’m not being sarcastic or facetious. I love seeing my ideas used in other places. I love it when people build off them and create their own beautiful things. Let me explain further.

I believe art and creativity should be:

The topic of being generous with art has been on my mind a lot lately. I believe anything good is worth giving away – that includes ideas, art, beauty, design – I believe it should be shared. I’m tired of stingy artists. I’m tired of artists laying claim on a certain idea they had, and possessing it in such a way that no one feels like they can reproduce it. I’m tired of the inconsistencies. We steal ideas from others and boast about it, but then get mad if someone does it to us.

A creator is neither a slave nor a master, he is one who gives, and gives abundantly. -Berdyaev (via my brother, Jason)

C’mon, be honest and admit it. You’ve copied someone else at some point in time. I know I have. As a graphic designer just starting out, I copied what other people were doing. It made my own skills better and helped me discover my own voice as an artist. The point is not to stay there. It’s to grow and begin to discover your own originality and uniqueness. My friend, Promise, has a great post about that.

It is a shame when people intentionally steal other people’s work down to the very detail in order to make a profit. There are many reasons this is wrong, and they are obvious so I won’t go into them all.

If you steal an idea from somewhere else, you should definitely NOT try and pass it as your own original idea. Credit MUST be given. This keeps you honest, and it keeps the person you are stealing from from potentially being hurt emotionally or economically. Respecting other artists is key and actually keeps you from harmful stealing.

“Nothing is original. Steal from anywhere that resonates with inspiration or fuels your imagination. Devour old films, new films, music, books, paintings, photographs, poems, dreams, random conversations, architecture, bridges, street signs, trees, clouds, bodies of water, light and shadows. Select only things to steal from that speak directly to your soul. If you do this, your work (and theft) will be authentic. Authenticity is invaluable; originality is nonexistent.”—Jim Jarmusch

You should remain humble in any type of art that you produce. Creativity flows through us, we are not the Author of it. We are merely the vessels to get it out there – to make something from nothing is god-like. We are like God in that way, and that is humbling. If I’ve learned something about my creativity this year, it’s that I can’t take credit for it. I know it comes from a higher Source.

“It’s not where you take things from—it’s where you take them to.”— Jean-Luc Godard

I loved this article I came across recently, How to Steal Like an Artist. In it, Austin says, “You are, in fact, a mashup of what you choose to let into your life. You are the sum of your influences. The German writer Goethe said, “We are shaped and fashioned by what we love.” The artist is a collector. They only collect things that they really love.”

“Every idea is a juxtaposition. That’s it. A juxtaposition of existing concepts.”— Steven Grant

We should be inspired by other artists. Producing derivative works and building off existing art is what makes art grow.

Nothing is original anyway. Twyla Tharp says, “Baby, it’s all been done before.” There have been several instances I’ve found this to be true in my own creating.

Ashley’s doily runner // My doily runner (hers is way prettier)

A year ago I had an idea to make a runner out of doilies. I was truly impressing myself with my original idea. Then a few weeks later I found my friend Ashley’s post on her doily runner. Boy, did I ever feel silly. That’s when I truly realized – People CAN have the same ideas. It’s dangerous to see someone’s work and automatically assume they’ve copied.

It seems like artists all over are sort of paranoid about unintentional piracy of another artists work. Even I will go Google something and make sure no one has done it before so I won’t be accused of copying. This is a real shackle to the creative community. A young Helen Keller was accused in 1892 of plagiarizing Margaret T. Canby’s story The Frost Fairies in her short story The Frost King. She was brought before a tribunal, where she was acquitted by a single vote. She said she was worried she may have read The Frost Fairies and forgotten it, “remained paranoid about plagiarism ever after” and said that this led her to write an autobiography: the one thing she knew must be original. (source)

The art and creative community should be just that, a community. A brotherhood, or sisterhood. As my friend has said, our claws shouldn’t come out if someone else is using our idea.

So please, steal my ideas. Steal my artwork and designs. Copy my stuff. Copy my blog layout. Steal my projects, make them yours. I really don’t mind. I hope it builds you as an artist to find your own original ideas and builds the creative community towards a more giving, sharing place.

{ Except where otherwise noted, all quotes via Olivia Verdugo }

Images above all from my pinterest

I have somewhat of an addiction. The addiction is to beauty, in all it’s forms. Art, photography, crafts, ideas, typography, design, and even fashion. The invention of pinterest only feeds the content beast. It’s easy to be addicted because beautiful things that people create are all around us. Besides pinterest, there is flickr, twitter, blogs, magazines and more all with the focus of seeking and finding beauty and inspiration.

The trouble with all this beauty is it can breed discontentment. Maybe discontentment with our own skill sets. Or discontentment with what we have or don’t have. It also creates an insatiable appetite for more. Maybe I’m weird and I’m the only one like this. Or maybe not. But this is something I’m constantly having to keep in check.

My worldview was profoundly changed one year ago when my husband went to Kenya, and I saw these amazing people who had so little, yet found beauty and meaning despite their ugly surroundings. I immediately took a few phrases out of my vocabulary:

If you think about it, the context in which those phrases are heard and said in our culture seem pretty silly when you compare them to the true needs of others.

My blog also took a different turn. I stopped blogging about things with a consumeristic approach and started working on more of my own creative projects. That has helped immensely with my own personal creativity, and has helped me stay balanced.

I do believe you should have inputs. As Twyla Tharp, author of The Creative Habit says, “Everything is usable. Everything is relevant.” Every artist should feed into themselves somehow. But I have personally found I need to set limits on inspiration I look for via the internet. Otherwise, it inhibits my own creativity and it just makes me feel empty instead of full. These days I’d much rather go on a walk or visit a beautiful place or even explore an old run down building.

I wonder if we could just shift our mindset to see things online and not think thoughts like, “I wish I had thought of that” or “I’ve got to have that” or “I need that.” I wonder if we could see beauty and just appreciate it. To appreciate the talent of the artist. To admire and respect. To let it feed into us as artists and let it change us.

For discussion: What makes you seek out beauty and inspiration? Do you feel fulfilled by it, or does it leave you wanting more? Does it inspire you to create? Does beauty exist simply for our enjoyment? Or consumption to regurgitate it out? Or does it exist to inspire and motivate to action? To create change? To give people hope? I’d love to hear your thoughts!

Also, a special thanks to Craft Magazine for highlighting my paperclip earrings today!

The instructor was great. He’s a very talented realist painter well versed in pretty much every medium I can name. Since it was the first class, he showed us the basics and suggested painting a very simple shape in black and white. I’m very excited to paint next week. I think my inspiration will come from this photo by Laura Evans.

I think the soft moodiness will lend itself well to the fluidity of oils. I’m so excited!

Have any of you ever painted with oils?

Thanks to Miss B. for the lovely wreath graphic download (see above)

What a contrast in photos: one holding a precious human being and one holding a chicken. Sorry, I couldn’t help myself.

These are two of my heroes since my early teens, both great women for completely opposite reasons. My husband says I’m a cross between them both, and while flattering, personally I think I only possess a few of their qualities in a much smaller measure. Here is what I love about Martha:

• Ambitious
• Professional
• Does things very well
• Loves beauty
• Creative

And Mother Teresa:

• Selfless
• Pure motives
• Completely committed to her call
• Not about the 100′s, about the 1
• Didn’t care about what the world had to offer

When I took the Clifton Strength’s Finder test a few years ago, my #1 strength was Empathy. What?! That’s what I thought. My top strength is feeling sorry for people? But, no. That’s sympathy. Empathy is by definition:

1. the intellectual identification with or vicarious experiencing of the feelings, thoughts, or attitudes of another.
2. the imaginative ascribing to an object, as a natural object or work of art, feelings or attitudes present in oneself: By means of empathy, a great painting becomes a mirror of the self.

So I’m empathetic and creative. I have to think that this combination of qualities is for something. Somewhere at the intersection of art and heart lies my true passion. That’s why I started A Beautiful Idea last year. We raised over $900 together, with 58 participants. But I want more. The “Martha” side of me wants more. More artists to catch the vision of creating art with a purpose. More money raised to see suffering eased. Will you help me?

If you are an artist, and haven’t joined A Beautiful Idea, please consider it. This year I’m opening it up to any artist – photographers, writers, musicians. Everyone is invited. You also get to decide how much to give. It could be 10% of your profits, maybe 100% of one product.
If you helped last year, and would like to participate again, drop me a line in the comments below.
Thank you for reading this!

Pippin + Pearl is a brand new shop with lots of handmade goodness, all by local artists. So if you are in the OKC metro area, make sure you give them a visit!