Path

Day #31 Challenge:  Make a path for people to follow and invite people to try it out.

No.  No, thanks.  This challenge really doesn't interest me.  I am a little antisocial when it comes to being creative, despite creating an large interactive piece for my BFA thesis a few years ago.  I am not comfortable with this challenge as it's spelled out, but I was thinking of something I could do instead that relates to the basic idea of it.  My mind directed me to map-making, so I made a map.

First, I thought of everything I'd love to see on a map, if time period and geographic location were not considered.  I made a list of things I wanted to see, drew a rough sketch, then started my map.  To begin, I crumpled a piece of sketchbook paper then un-crumpled it for a rough effect.  I lightly stained it with some tea, dried it with a hair dryer, then started drawing:

This map has no supposed treasure, but does have a nifty tire swing!  It also features a Farm House, chicken yard, crops, Fairy Flower Garden, an apothecary's hut, Shipman's Cemetary, Spooky Woods, sheep pasture, mud pit, North Castle, Lake Louise, and Lake George, which was supposed to be River George but I messed up and didn't know how to undo the writing without things turning out icky.

I had a pretty good time drawing out this map!  I remember being fascinated by the maps included in books growing up, namely in the Chronicles of Narnia and Winnie the Pooh books.

Here are a couple detailed views of my map:

No time left for you

Hello!  Between work and concert-going, I have little time to complete today's challenge, so I hereby summon the power of Locust House to hold interest, circa 2007, where three heartbroken girls lived, laughed, and drank to cure the blues.  Oh, and listened to Dolly Parton:

Here is a photo of a mantle to a (fake) fireplace, outfitted with several personal items and candles to create quite an impressive shrine, if I do say so myself.  You will find in this picture (and have I never mentioned my keenness for lists?):

• One framed photo of Dolly Parton, surely from sometime in the 1970s, wearing a cowgirl outfit with a beer in one hand.  She is pretty much our hero, and if you think I'm joking, think again.  She might have a ton of plastic surgery, but her songs are full of positive messages and I have a feeling she lives life to the fullest.  Plus, she does great things to promote literacy and reading.  End Dolly promotion. 
• The letters S O S tacked above, which stand for the super secret name of an stupendous society (gettin' crazy with the alliteration) that's still floating around these days.  I can't divulge the details, didn't I say it was super secret?
• Four (4) short figurines of The Beatles, in Yellow Submarine style.
• No fewer than five (5) framed photographs of who-knows-what.  I think one is of me and my dad dancing, and one is of me and my roommates.
• The very first bronze sculpture I ever made that I almost sold once but am quite glad I never did.
• A tall ceramic vase, made by one of my high school Art teachers, purchased for me as a gift from my parents.
• Various candles.
• A small golden ceramic bowl that I made in pottery class, which I later gifted to my good friend, Samantha.
• A string of small decorative lights, because any time of year/holiday calls for small decorative lights.
• A tiny snow globe of the Duomo in Florence, a little souvenir from my Study Abroad trip in 2006.

Thanks, former roommates, for being so great.  We had some really fun and memorable times (here's a link to Erica's blog too).

These fabulous girls and I still hang out from time to time when I have the chance to visit their city (I'm the jerk that moved away for grad school).  I will post more info about upcoming craft sales that we are signed up for once the dates get closer.

Big 30

Challenge: Play time.  Work with toys: if you don't have any, borrow some from a friend with kids, and maybe even work with the kids.

Yay, play!  I brought my sister's Legos out to our living room to keep in a corner for easy accessibility.  I didn't have a lot of time today, so my short-and-sweet creation today is the letter L:

L is for Liz, yeah, but I've also been watching a lot of Laverne and Shirley lately.  I love those gals!

#29

Challenge: Make a disguise for yourself, a friend, a pet, or an object.  See if you can fool anyone with it.

Of course, where does my mind naturally go to but here: kitty mustache.

I drew a mustache on a piece of paper, cut it out, and taped it to a toothpick.  Then, I took pictures with the kitties - yep, there's 2 of 'em at my place.  Here's Lola, whom I've mentioned before:

I'm totally fooled!  Who is that cat!  I don't even know anymore...

Finally, we nabbed a really good shot.  I was cracking up the whole time I was taking pictures of her, and my sister's cat, Stimpy:

Stimpy looks a little bizarro because she was laying in a chair, so I rotated the pictures to show the mustache right-side up.  Seriously, this challenge was super easy and totally fun, even if I didn't really try to fool anyone with this awesome feline disguise.  

School days

Challenge: Back to school.  Use traditional school materials like number 2 pencils or lined paper notebooks to make something nontraditional.

I started by sketching a leaf onto a piece of blank white paper.  I don't actually have any lined paper, or I would've used it!  With clear scotch tape, I loosely taped around the outline, colored inside the tape with crayons, then removed the tape with the hope of seeing some really cool leaf with a sort of funky outline, but it turned out kind of just ok.  So I didn't take a picture of it, I tried again instead with painter's tape.  I know, it's not really a traditional school material, but by this point, I was determined to make my tape-outline-colored-leafy project work.

So here are some pictures throughout the process:

I wasn't super thrilled with the outcome, though I really enjoyed the concept and the process.  I think that the first image might actually be my favorite, with just the tape outline.  I decided to outline the leaf with green marker, still didn't love it, so I cut it out and liked it a bit more:

I don't know how to really make this more appealing to me.  I think maybe the un-crispness of the crayon lines might be the thing that isn't working for me visually, maybe colored pencils or markers would've been better, or some kind of pattern instead.

I don't think I'm going to be able to post tomorrow, busy day ahead.  Goodnight!