4 Great Things About Taking a Photo Walk

Lately I've spent a lot of time putting on comfortable walking shoes, slinging my camera around my neck (or cramming my phone into a back pocket), and finding some nature to get lost in. Taking a photo walk is a simple practice that helps me calm down after a busy week and stretch my creativity in new, satisfying directions. It's something that can be done almost anywhere, with little to no investment or decision-making involved. Sounds awesome, right?

Here, in no particular order, are four great things about taking a photo walk.

1. Clear your mind. 
Taking a photo walk is a great way to practice a little bit of mindfulness -- it makes you slow down, take notice of what's around, and find beautiful moments even if you, like me, happen to be a stressed out, sweaty, anxiety-ridden mess. It helps me clear my head of the collected weekly junk and forget about the conflicts, nonsense, and cringe-inducing moments that otherwise might run in a brain loop 24/7.

2. Get your body moving.
Let's be real; exercise is awesome, but it's not always something that fills me with intrinsic motivation these days. Adding a creative component to something that already feels great? That's what gets me excited to hit the trails and get moving.

3. Rediscover familiar places.
Looking for interesting details can help you find new, exciting things about places you've been a million times. I've been hiking the trails at some of my local natural places since childhood, but through a camera lens there's always something new to discover, some detail to share that wasn't there the day before. Sometimes you can even meet new friends!

4. Find a quiet place to read. 
There's always a new spot to discover; this is my current favorite place, but anywhere can work in a pinch. Even when out hiking I'm seldom caught without a book.

I've been exploring some of my favorite local parks and naturey places on my photo walks, including Bucks County's Peace Valley Nature Center.  What's your favorite place to explore on a photo walk?

On The Bright Side Blues

So far this year my declaration of the "Year of Explore" has been a bit of a bust. In some ways I've learned a great deal; at work my position has changed twice, offering me the chance to adjust, break, and grow. I've met new people, managed new responsibilities, and tried my best to accept change with a cheerful, flexible attitude.  That hasn't been easy, and my creative life has definitely suffered. I haven't made anything new in ages and am tired and a bit sad.

On the bright side, I have:

• Read a few good books
• Taken up meditating 
• Saved a bunch of money
• Spent time with loved ones
• Eaten a lot of amazing food

What's a girl to do when she feels down in the dumps?  Blog her way out of the blues?

It's probably not a great idea to overshare here, but some things do help. Taking pictures helps. Taking naps helps. Spending time with my pets, spending time in nature helps, exercising helps, playing games helps. Advice seems to say that if you want to be creative, create every day -- even if you don't feel like it, don't feel up to it, can't bring yourself to do it. If it were as simple as that, well.

Today, though, sharing a little bit here helps. Writing this helps. Taking pictures helps. One moment, one day, one week at a time. 

Another No Mail Day: A Year of EXPLORE

If you live anywhere vaguely near where I do in the United States, you know that it's cold outside right now. Snow, freezing rain, the whole deal. And I'm sick. Sick and feverish and stuck in bed sick, feeling glad that my cat loves the warmth of my feverish existence and has decided to curl up next to me while I catch up on old Rookie playlists, languishing somewhere between sleep and being horribly, crushingly awake.

Still managed to read a little Flavia.

Musing more on 2014, let's talk Another No Mail Day. Instead of trying to do weekly wrap up posts, in 2014 it is my intention to occasionally check in with one word, and use this word as inspiration and guide for decisions.

In 2013, I made some great things happen -- chiefly, I became a full time youth services librarian and became comfortable planning awesome, fun, literacy-based programming for kids on a regular basis. I read a lot of books, finished a few craft projects I'm proud of, and felt more confident being myself. My boyfriend and I spontaneously spent Halloween at Disney World.  It was kind of the best. I made some big decisions and was lucky enough to be able to hold off on making others.

Alongside all that wonderful stuff, though, it seems like life has lost something; more weekends are spent inside, more time is spent watching television, more time not thinking, more time not acting. More time being exhausted. More time worrying, stressing, and trying to figure out how to deal with that. Everyone goes through these slower, quiet times, and I don't regret taking things easy and spending plenty of time relaxing with loved ones... but feeling exhausted and down takes a toll.

Rounding the new year and thinking about how things feel in my life and how I would like to feel in the future, it was easy to choose this year's theme: explore.

Thinking about the feelings and experiences I value, explore kept bubbling up and wouldn't let me go. I love learning new things, feeling adventurous, creative, and brave. I love examining things, finding things, trying things, traveling. I love discovery. I love sharing, connecting, organizing, and documenting. I've come more and more to love the practice of gratitude, and I love shining a light on and appreciating amazing things. These are all vital and as things move forward in life they're things that I don't want to lose.

After all that, dear friends of this digital age, what better way to stay committed than write up a post sharing your not-actually-very-lofty intentions?  And hey, here's this shiny blog just left sitting here -- let's fix that!

In 2014, let's explore together. Let's see where we can go. We'll figure things out.

Also, I made this graphic for some reason. Ta dah!

Read More Stuff: Flavia de Luce

Thanks to the wonder that is Edelweiss, I recently had a chance to read an advanced copy of the newest installment of Alan Bradley's excellent Flavia de Luce series, The Dead in Their Vaulted Arches. I've been on the edge of my seat since the previous volume ended with a most unexpected, thrilling, series-changing cliffhanger.

You know the feeling. It's been, literarily, agonizing. Flavia's one of the most unique and intoxicating narrators I've encountered and in the past few years a new Flavia installment has been one of the highlights of every year... and with such a cliffhanger?  Agony!

As the series title would suggest, these slightly cozy mysteries introduce the reader to the positively marvelous Flavia de Luce. Flavia is a clever, curious young girl with a passion for chemistry (specifically, poisons) and a knack for observation. She lives in a stately-but-quietly-decaying country house in 1950s England along with her eccentric, emotionally distant family. Since she's the heroine of a mystery series, she manages to get herself into all kinds of trouble when strangers and happenings wander into her life -- bodies in the cucumber patch, for example. She's constantly a little too clever for her own good, one sharp comment away from trouble, and one step ahead of the police. Or so she'd like to think; it's possible she's not the most impartial of narrators.

No real series spoilers here, but the new book swiftly deals with that cliffhanger and broadens Flavia's world and family history in nigh-unbelievable, serious ways. She grows up a little, learns a lot, but remains Flavia de Luce through and through. The things revealed in the new book left my mind reeling, wondering how certain revelations would color my view of the previous volumes... and so I've decided to kick off 2014 with the Great Flavia Re-Read! Despite having a stack of things to get to, here is a picture of my immediate reading future:

Did I mention the design of the books is just gorgeous?  

The first in the series is The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie -- if you haven't read a Flavia yet, definitely start there! I've read that there's going to be a television adaptation of these at some point, and that Bradley is going to be writing more adventures for Flavia beyond this first "arc," so I'm currently filled with an abundance of fannish glee. 

Have you read the Flavia series? Do you have a favorite "cozy" mystery series that you can't help but recommend when the discussion turns to books? 

Let's Make 2014 Amazing.

A cat on your blog to start the new year?  That's a lucky omen.

Happy New Year, world!  2014 -- we're really on our way to the future now, aren't we?

On the first day of the new year, it seems only natural to post something on this oft-forgotten blog. Thoughts for the new year, intentions, resolutions... everyone knows the drill. For a while I've been working on pinning down some kind of actual goals that I would like to meet, things I'd like to accomplish in my life this year... and nothing comes up. And that kind of stresses me out and then I stop thinking about it but can't stop thinking about it because shouldn't I be thinking about it or know what am I even doing if I don't know. So I think I'm going to resolve to stop thinking about it for a while.

And maybe that's fine?

For now, that's just fine.

So instead?

Let's keep things non-binding and light.

In the next year I hope to explore more, have more fun, be brave, create, and express my sincere gratitude for all of the 100% double top wonderful people and things in my life and in the world on a regular basis.

Think about work less. Be outside more. Try to devote more of my energy to things that are awesome, and less to things that don't rock my world.

Share more.

Be kind.

Enjoy everything.

Needle Felting Project : Peppermint Butler

Catching up on comics today!  Well.  Trying to, anyway. 

Loving the first issue of the new Adventure Time miniseries Candy Capers -- a noirish who-done-it starring Peppermint Butler and Cinnamon Bun.  Adventure Time?  Mystery?  Noirish?  I am so there.

Of these three on the cover, I'm not sure who weirds me out the most.  But hey, everyone likes tea time?
 

Reading this reminded me that I had never taken a good picture of my felted Peppermint Butler!  He's not my favorite character from the show (just... so... unsettling...) but he was definitely fun to make in my own style. Bows are always really fun to felt for some reason.  Trying to make them actually look at all ribbony is always a challenge!  

Agatha Christie Challenge

Believe it or not, I've never read an Agatha Christie novel.

Gasp!  For shame! What kind of reader are you?

The "Queen of Mystery" and I have, of course, encountered each other. She's almost impossible to miss! At least one of her novels sat, unread, on my shelf for years when I was a kid mostly uninterested in mysteries that weren't aimed directly at my age group. My friend picked the Agatha Christie episode of Doctor Who as the episode that would serve as my introduction to the show, and it left me hooked on the Doctor. My Netflix queue is littered with Marples and Poirots -- I've devoured the movies and the shows over and over with great relish and know their plots and characters by heart -- Agatha Christie's Marple with Geraldine McEwan is my favorite right now. Her books are in almost constant motion at the library -- right now we have a beautiful collection of the newish edition trade paperbacks from William Morrow. Patrons often check them out and excitedly recommend them. They're "classics," right? 

So, I'm starting here:

Since Marple is my favorite to watch, I've decided to start with the slightly less familiar Poirot and Tommy & Tuppence, with The Mysterious Affair at Styles and The Secret Adversary respectively.

Why now? I'm in a YA slump right now and nothing is appealing to me, no matter how much it had excited me in previews. I'm a few books away from finishing the Phryne Fisher mysteries and just can't bring myself to come up to date -- then I'll have to wait longingly for the next one!  And, one day, while catching up on my book blogs, reading Stuck in a Book's report on her power as a slump-buster left me feeling like maybe Agatha might do the same for me, despite our different levels of familiarity with her work.

So we'll see!  I hope to report back with good results.

Small and Happy Things

Lately life has felt like static -- a series of small happy events and moments enveloped in a haze, eclipsed by unhealthy, negative emotions.  Trying to live with these feelings, or deal with them, has been a full time occupation. Things don't seem to be getting easier, but it's important, I think, to believe that every day is a step in a better direction -- or make each day one.

&

Find your direction and follow it, right? If I am ever going to snap out of this funk, I'm going to have to work every day to achieve my real goals and not get mired down in the nonsense that happens every day. So much of what I do at work, for example, is wonderful -- connecting children with books they enjoy is the best feeling in the world. It's important to remember that when horrible nonsense comes up, when people are awful, and when my thoughts won't stop spinning in negative circles.

I have been working on a few new projects, but everything is coming together slowly. I'm needle felting a large and thoroughly ridiculous ladybug-inspired daruma, getting back to writing in my journal to drain myself of whatever daily nonsense I can, and working on a few other fun things -- one step at a time.

&

Today it was cool enough to go hiking. Spending time alone in the woods, it felt like my head was clear and calm, like everything was far away. Remind me to be more active, spend more time doing what I love, and remember what makes me happy. Remind me to take the time to make sure that I love and care for myself and what is really important.  Remind me to stop giving my time and energy to things that aren't.

A new octo-ish felted friend says "hello!" Trying to get back to being creative and making things is tough after a long, uncrafty spell -- it's hard to get back into the habit.  So I hope you enjoy this guy while I try to get back to something resembling a productive schedule.

Announcing Wee Felt Worlds!

Greetings everyone!

Whew!  Time has just been flying by here in No Mail Day world.  It's already a new year -- the start of 2013 means that we're officially in The Future, and that means... well, I'm not sure what it means yet but it's exciting.

Now that it's finally here (well, almost -- the release date is February 15th!) I'm excited to announce that my work has been included in an awesome new needle felting project book from Lark Crafts and Amanda Carestio, Wee Felt Worlds: Sweet Little Scenes to Needle Felt.

Here's my copy -- the cover is so whimsical -- the purple blobby alien is one of my projects!

 Here's the official description:

"There's something magical about things made in miniature—and now you can create whole wee worlds of them, with three-dimensional critters and scenery. It's easy to do with needle felting, an oh-so-simple process that requires few tools. Choose one of ten fun felted scenes with 50 individual items, including a prehistoric landscape with dinosaurs, volcanoes, and Paleolithic plants; a camping adventure featuring an adorable bear cub; a sweet sewing room, and even a galaxy far, far away with UFOs! Along the way, readers get tons of techniques and tips from the designers—from basic felt shaping to creating joints—and lots of helpful step-by-step illustrations. "

It's been about a year since I finished these projects, and seeing them here feels a little surreal! I contributed two "scenes" to the book, a space scene and a fun science scene, for a total of 11 little projects. It's such an honor to be included alongside such super talented needle felting artists, and the great photography and adorable styling really brought everything to life in a way that completely exceeded my expectations.

And of course I couldn't resist a few fun photos: 

Alien Girl explores her bio and instructions!

Approved wholeheartedly! < 3

Anyway, you can pre-order (or order, it looks like) Wee Felt Worlds on Amazon, and hopefully find it at other bookstores after February 5th. If you've ever thought about giving needle felting a try, it looks like this will be a good place to start!

Title: Wee Felt Worlds: Sweet Little Scenes to Needle Felt

Editor/Author: Amanda Carestio

Publisher: Lark Crafts

ISBN: 978-1454703938

End of September Blues...

September's almost over already!  Where it went is anybody's guess -- the following things can only have added to it:

- New Job!  I got a new job in youth services (!), at another library.  This is very exciting to me since it's basically the next step in my professional development, but I'm still getting used to the hours.  It's an exhausting change that has left my head spinning, a little bit! Needless to say, this has been at the forefront of my mind lately, and crafting and blogging have sadly had to take a backseat for the moment.

- Fall Activity Extravaganza!  When not busy being exhausted, I have been throwing myself at autumn with everything I have.  Apple picking, hiking, pumpkin-themed foods... this year I'm determined to do it all! 

Apples!  That I picked myself!  Off of a tree!  And they were all, without exception, somehow amazing.

- Time Spent With Friends is Time Well Spent.  Enough said, but somehow it always seems like too much time passes between spending time with good friends.

In a way, this time of year leaves me feeling down -- summer's over, and that means that winter is on the way. But fall... fall is just the best.  It's my favorite season, my favorite time of year, with my favorite activities and tastes and holidays.  At the same time, it's only a matter of time before fall is over again, and winter comes. That's always in the back of my mind, and it seems to add a sense of melancholy to everything. It's important to just enjoy everything while I can!

Weekend Wrap-Up: Long Weekend Love

Happy Labor Day, and happy Monday! This long weekend was a bit of a whirlwind -- it's nice to have a chance to get my head together every once in a while. I'm starting in a new position soon and am very excited about it.  But any new position means new stresses; change itself is stressful, sometimes, even good, awesome change.

The first stop of the weekend was Barnes & Noble for a few hours, where I indulged my magazine-lovin' side with the new Vogue and Games magazine.  I love doing puzzles, it's such a good way to de-stress and take some time to myself to think.  I've also been reading Jillian Larkin's third flapper novel, Diva, which I picked up at the library late last week. This series is so much glamorous YA 1920s fun -- I hope that this one brings things to a fabulous conclusion! 

Yesterday my friends and I took a day trip to Green Lane Park to go hiking.  It was damp and a little rainy, and we found a ton of really interesting mushrooms and fungi -- really productive, and I got a lot of satisfying photos!  Going on mushrooming photo walks is such a good way to find inspiration. I'm really terrible at identifying, but love the huge diversity of shapes and colors that can be found in even just a small area of the woods. 

Thirty Days of Lists

This September I've decided to try my hand at participating in Thirty Days of Lists, a very cool creative project run by two inspiring bloggy ladies, Amy of Lemon and Raspberry and Kam of Campfire Chic. The basic idea of the 30 Lists project is to complete a list every day during the month of September in whatever format you want -- scrapbook, digitally, in as much or as little time as you'd like!  

I'm a huge lister (fan of lists? list-maker?), and the idea of this project was so enthralling that I just had to sign up. It's so awesome to see all of these interesting, creative people joining together around the simple art of listing and I'm excited to see what everyone comes up with this September. 

I was thinking about doing the project digitally, and still might use Photoshop to play around with my physical lists. Instead, though, I've decided to challenge myself and start with blank index cards.  I have a bunch of paper crafting supplies, and hope to combine these and illustration to make each list and card fun and unique. I'm going to house them in this cute little box that I bought at Staples so that the project seems complete and has a place to live after the month is over :)

I started simple, making a cute insert for the card box out of things from my It's Paper, Dear! August box, which was filled to the brim with super cute paper bits -- I hope to post a full review soon!

If you're interested in listing along, make sure to go check out the project's website, 30 Days of Lists!
 

How do you use lists in your daily life? Are you joining in on 30 Days of Lists?

Hello Monday -- Late 2012 Goals

Hello everyone, and a late hello Monday! It's a bit late in the year to be thinking about goals, but really, is it ever a bad time to think about and re-evaluate?  Lately my life has been feeling a bit muddled and I thought it would be a good idea to take a step back and rethink what I really want to do with my time so that I have a framework for planning accordingly. 

- Write several posts each week on this blog. I really do like writing things for this blog and feel better when I am able to keep up with it. Create more, be honest.

- Take more pictures, write more, share more life. Looking back at the past few years, I really regret that I have not done enough of any of these things. Let's minimize such regret in the future! My picture-taking has gone up since getting my first DSLR, but I want to get better and capture more. As for writing, this is a "several-fold" goal -- I want to continue working on my middle grade and picture book ideas, and hope to self-publish one of them some day!

- Read more books. Always ends up being on my lists, for excellent reasons.

- Make more tutorials! Start making and sharing printables. I hope to work and improve my illustration and PS skills to make some printable materials or blog stuff some day, and one day illustrate and craft my own picture book.

- Don't base my self worth solely on my day job. This is a tough one, and is something I don't really talk about here. I have been job hunting since finishing graduate school, and as time passes it's tough to keep my spirits up. Work to realize that success might not look like what I expected. And along those lines....

- Follow and continue to develop my passions. Open myself to new experiences, and work to make my own opportunities. Work, work, work :) I'm so grateful for some of the wonderful chances I've had over the past two years, and hope to make the rest of the year as productive as possible!

- Explore more. Take more chances. Get out of the house and travel more. Being down makes me want to stay inside and mope and watch Netflix for hours on end, but for the rest of the year I hope to do just the opposite! Go to new restaurants, new places, and search out new experiences.

I hope to set small goals each week and keep things manageable, accomplish a little bit at a time. No being discouraged, just keep swimming :)

Are there any goals you're currently working toward? How often do you re-evaluate your goals?

Weekend Wrap-Up: Carnival!

Fireworks night at the carnival was this weekend! We managed to make it out, at least, for some photos and some carnival food fun times. I'm a little wary of rides because I am prone to motion sickness just standing around, but love the buzzy atmosphere, food, and lights.  It's fun to just go and walk around people watching -- it was crowded, sticky, and very much summertime. 

 

And funnel cake... well, funnel cake is one of my favorite summertime nostalgic foods!  Every time I have some I wonder if you can make it at home, and a simple google search revealed that yes, it turns out, you really can! I hope to try out at least one of those recipes sometime in the future, and will report back with (hopefully) delicious results!

Humidity does amazing things to my hair.

We didn't manage to stay on-site for the fireworks (I got tired after working at the library yesterday and we're trying to save up money and carnival fun is too spendy for me!), but are lucky enough to live close enough to have a terrific view from one of the fields near the house.  It's great to be able to go home, wait for the earth-shattering kaboom, and run outside like excited kids to see the wonderful show just over the trees. 

What's your favorite thing about summer?  Have you made funnel cake at home?
Do you have a favorite, nostalgic summertime food? 

Share a Book -- Elsa Beskow's Children of the Forest

Happy Thursday! Today I managed to get some writing done, which felt really awesome. I thought I would celebrate by drinking a cup of coffee, taking some photos, and sharing a book here on the blog.

Children of the Forest, by Elsa Beskow, seems like it should already be on my bookshelves. My coworker over at Darling Petunia found this at the library the other day and was kind enough to share it!



The story is a peek inside the life of a family of forest people, specifically the adventures of four mushroom-hatted children, Tom, Harriet, Sam, and Daisy. We learn about their animal friends, meet their forest-dwelling neighbors, and follow them throughout the year to see what fun they have during the winter, spring, summer, and autumn. It has mushrooms, hedgehogs, and wonderful, detailed nature illustrations -- just about everything I love.

The illustrations in the book are delightful, and I wanted to include a few here!

"Wild strawberries and mushrooms grew by their door and they had all the pots, pans, chairs, beds, tables, knives, forks and spoons they could possibly need. Sheltered under the pine tree branches, they hardly felt the autumn gales and if it rained, the children crept underneath a giant toadstool to keep dry."

"Soon they were in the middle of harvest time and everyone had to do their share. The little brown cupboards in the roots of the pine had to be filled with bottles of berry jam, dried seeds, 

nuts and fruit to last through the winter."

Hedgehog parade!

According to her biography, she is often called the Beatrix Potter of Sweden -- I can certainly see why! Her life story seems very interesting and inspiring, particularly her involvement with the Swedish women's movement and education. I would love to read a biography, and hope to have a chance to pick up and enjoy more of her picture books sometime.

Are you a fan of Elsa Beskow? Do you have a favorite classic picture book?
Be sure to share with me below!

Adventure Time SDCC Fan Experience Wrap-up!

If you follow my Twitter, you might know that a month or so ago I was lucky enough to be asked to send some of my needle felted Adventure Time fan art to be a part of the Adventure Time Experience fan gallery at the New Children’s Museum during San Diego Comic Con. It was such an exciting experience for me to have my felties in any kind of gallery setting -- I was flattered to be included alongside so many talented folks, celebrating such a mathematical show. 

Also exciting was finding the above picture of my stuff in the exhibit in the write up on one of my favorite comics blogs, Comics Alliance! Probably this represents my fifteen milliseconds of fame.

A couple days ago my art made it home safely, and I was happy to find that they had sent the gallery labels for each set of work back to me with my artwork!  I love the illustration on these, it's so cute and whimsical. Hot Dog Princess also approves.  

AND THEN!  A few days later, I found a mysterious package in the mail with a big Adventure Time label on the front. What in the what! Inside was this totally awesome Finn tote bag, a Jake necklace, a keychain, and the bossest thank you note ever!  

A hero of art! Why yes thank you. And all in rhyme!  What a super surprise -- it was a pleasure just to be included in the exhibit. I've already worn the necklace to work a few times.  Because I'm totally an adult and professional. Yes.

The Cartoon Network really went above and beyond here, I want to thank them for really providing such a terrific fan experience for me!  I can't wait for the next fan art whim to inspire me... maybe finally make that Lady Rainicorn... 

Aaaaadventure Time!

Weekend Craftiness

Weekend greetings! Now that I am in the process of reconsidering and revitalizing this blog, I thought it might be good to do some kind of weekly craft post or posts, showing either my own work or interesting bits and bobs from around the internet.

My newest felted creature, the fellow pictured below, is my largest felting attempt yet!  He's so large that it has been difficult to take pictures of him using my normal photography set up.  I managed to capture only a few, including these two:

I love making large projects, but they're quite time consuming! A needle felting project of this size generally takes more than 8 hours to finish, depending on the scale -- larger ones take several days of work to look "finished," or for the fibers to bind together and look "felted."  This dinosaur was made by wrapping fiber around a wire armature and the legs are semi-posable.

This guy doesn't have a name yet, so if anyone has any suggestions feel free to leave them in the comments!

Needle Felted Tree

Happy Wednesday, gentle readers! 

I am in love with tiny landscapes lately, and decided to try creating my own using needle felting supplies. I'm aiming to make some terrariums one day, but since I had a few of these small terra cotta planters left over from another project, this seemed like a good alternative.

 

There's something very calming about looking at tiny landscapes, for me -- terrariums, bonsai, and so on -- whether they're real, or crafted.  It's a joy, I think, to bring a tiny piece of nature into our lives and homes, and really make it a personal experience!

No Mail Day Tutorial: Little Egg Doll

Little Egg Doll 

(an easy needle felting tutorial)

Welcome to my first needle felting tutorial! This little doll is inspired by both Russian matryoshka nesting dolls, and also by Japanese daruma. Make a cute orange friend, or experiment and have fun creating your own design with different colors and shapes!

Tools
Felting needles or a felting tool
Foam block or mat

Materials
Polyester fiberfill, about a handful
Wool roving in dark orange, light orange, light pink, and black, less than 1/4 oz. each

I usually get my wool roving from HiFiber Kits!