Buckle your seat belts....

Ok so how long has it been since my last post on here? Way too long! The tornado called life just came in a sucked me up and spit me back out all tattered and torn. The one thing that set it all off was the move, as i mentioned in my last post. What a stressfull time that was. Luckily I have a great support system of family and friends who have helped me through this entire mess and now things are back on the up and up. Yay! My roomies and I have found, and somewhat settled into, a great place. Its new and clean and in a great location. As soon as we get everything squared away, Ill make sure to post some pictures.

Speaking of pictures....Ive gotten way behind on posting pictures to my online photo album. Well Im finally all caught up and everything is posted, including the late night dance party pictures from when Swaney came to Boston. Not sure what everyone has seen so just go to the main page and check em all out!

Grab some popcorn, sit back and get ready for a few laughs! Enjoy!

One down...

So for those of you who know me and follow my sporadically posted blog, you know that sometimes I set a goal for myself and I hit it up full steam ahead until low and behold life sets in and screws it up somehow. Well the last few weeks have been no different.

If you haven't been reading, shame on you!, I set a goal to create an illustration every week for Illustration Friday . My goal was to do this until my 30th birthday in October. Which would give me about 10 weeks of Illustrations. Well needless to say, after week 3 life hit me like a ton of bricks and it has been downhill since then.

I've had a couple going aways, a new project, work was insane and two concerts (of which I will soon be posting photos and video of) one here and one in Florida. Doesn't sound like all that much does it? Your probably thinking ok well even with all that going on, surely you could bust out a couple simple illustrations? Actually, no I couldn't. Why? Well because on top of all of this I received a phone call from my landlord saying that they would like to sell the house and we have 30 days to GET OUT! Man in that instant I felt like Snoopy in the movie Snoopy Come Home when he tries to go to the library and they just keep yelling at him in that deep voice "NO DOGS ALLOWED!". This was also parodied in the Family Guy episode Brian Goes Back to College

But chin up, all hope is not lost! I went online with one of my roommates and came to the realization that there definitely is a good chunk of places available! Whew! Now if only I can scrape up the cash to pay for the move Ill be all set ;) So instead of spending free time creating illos I've been spending it on Craigs List. But I wont sit here and complain about it because my roommate already has and instead of wasting my free time writing about it ill just leave this handy dandy little link for you to check out what he had to say about it right here.

Ok so enough of the whining, back to me! In an attempt to regain control of my goal I'm going to make one small exception. I mean it really is about completing the goal and not necessarily how you complete the goal, or at least in this case it is. So I am posting Illo #4 out of 6. Topic = Play. Its one I did in pastels on newsprint. I was really pleased with the way texture on the guitar came out. Most of you who know me know I'm a digital girl and cant really draw all that well. So when I do its really an accomplishment. Let me know what you think of it. Also...I will be working on this weeks current topic which is run and then hopefully I will work on week #5 whos topic was match. I'm really looking forward to that one because I have a great idea that I cant wait to implement!

So here it is #4 out of 6. Topic: Play

IlloFriday: Capture

Im 3 for 3!

When I first saw capture, I thought of a jungle or flag football. I took both ideas and started to work out some sketches but nothing seemed to feel right, nothing jumped out at me. Then the idea of someone capturing someones heart came to mind and it was perfect. Only problem now is that I had this vision in my head...and when I have such a clear vision I tend to get frustrated when my illo doesnt come out that way. I worked pretty hard on this and am happy with the way it turned out.

IlloFriday: Clean

So Im 2 for 2 with 8 to go! I dont plan on stopping once my birthday hits but I need to give myself a countdown, aside from my birthday that number gives it more substance for me, something to aim for.

So on to the illo....this weeks topic is clean and when I think of clean I think of the smell of oranges, clean laundry/soap, and for some reason white fluffy clouds in a crisp blue sky. So I decided to incorporate all of these elements into one piece. I orginally wanted to have just a couple large reflective soap bubbles over the text but I had a really hard time finding a good tutorial to create the right kind of bubbles. Anyone know of any good ones out there for photoshop? So after all its mant phases, this is the final piece I ended up with. Im suddenly feeling the need to go do some laundry ;)

IlloFriday: Opposites

Welcome back to me! I know its been a great long while since I've last posted and with no really good excuse as to why. What I can say is that this post comes with good intentions. I will be turning 30 in two months. Two months, what a great time frame for me to set some new goals and get some things accomplished. This post is part of my first goal: Post an illo every week. As most of you know I tend to get caught up in the daily rat race and then attempt to have a social life to counter balance the endless hours spent at work. In all of that time, I've never made enough time for my art. This is probably one of the more difficult goals I've chosen to accomplish but will be the most rewarding. I cant guarantee that each piece will be 100% complete but at least I will attempt something every time! Id love for you guys to stop by and let me know what you think...your critiques always encourage me to do more work and make each piece better than the last!

IlloFriday: Tea

So heres my post for this weeks Illustration. Tea. Not sure how I feel about this one. Could definitely use more work. I find it difficult to draw things from scratch in Illustrator. I probably should have sketched it and scanned it in. Oh well its good practice none the less.

Snow, Illo & Pics oh my!!!

So today was officially deemed with blizzard conditions, we got slammed with a foot and a half of snow between 1 am and 7 pm! We spent all day stuck in the house and the only time we went outside was to shovel. I do however, have something to show for my time stuck indoors...aside from eating alot of food and watching south park....

Here are a couple pics so those who live in sunny Florida or California can see the missery I had to deal with today. ChaCha and Jordan, stop laughing, not funny! Mind you these pics are after one of the first dumpings of the day...the piles of snow are much higher now!

Last weekend, thanks to my a good friend of mine, we got an invite to a VIP party at a bar in Boston called the Foggy Goggle. Im not a huge Foggy Goggle fan but this event entitled us to free Bud, Bud Light, and well drinks for a good hour. Good times had by all, as usual.

Foggy Goggle - Boston - February 2006

I also completed my Illo for this week! WooHoo! This weeks topic is Simple. After finding out the topic all I could think of is Simple, the shoe company. I have a friend who had a pair and man he wore those things out!! So I figured Id do a tribute to the nice little shoe companyTM. I think it still needs work but its a first attempt at drawing something in Photoshop...and without my pen tablet!

Yeah Pics!!!

So me and a few friends made our way down to Providence RI for a party at a friends house this past weekend. The party started out as a normal party would...people gathering, socializing, doing things sober people would do at a house party. Then the night progresses and I must say that 9 out of 10 times this ends up being the equation: 1 house/apartment + 1 computer chock full o tunes + this crew + alcohol = all night dance party!! I must say though...Ive yet to not have a good time!

Tony's - RI - January 2006

Pandora...

If you like music and discovering new music, then you should definitely check this site out. A group or musicians and music loving techies got together and compiled thousands of songs into a musical genome. Over the past 5 years these guys have noted all the qualities of over 10,000 songs. Whats the point you might ask? Go to the website and enter either the name of a band/artist or the title of a song. Pandora will put together a radio station made of songs that hold similar qualitites to the one you originally specified. Once you have a station created you can add other artists or song titles to expand the station. Or if you like, just creat another station. II just created a station and so far so good. Enjoy!

IlloFriday: Cats

WooHoo! I made time and managed to bust out an illo this week. So initially I wasnt really enthusiastic about the topic this week. Im seriously allergic to cats, and therefore not a huge fan, but also this topic just didnt inspire me. Until at some point, it struck me. I remember when I was younger I would watch Mark Kistler's Imagination Station with ChaCha and we would learn to draw cartoony things for hours. One thing I learned was to draw this cat. Ive always just loved it and my first reaction to drawing a cat is always this one. Im actually quite pleased with the way it came out.

Get your pics in....

So I know its been a crazy long while since Ive last posted...Jordan dont even say it!! Ive been sooo busy at work that I just havent had much time for myself. I have a ton of pictures that are way past due for posting but I figured Id start by posting this new batch. Id have to say my favorites are the pics from the Celtic Ray. Its a tiny little Irish Pub in my little home town of Port Charlotte, Florida. Man I had such a great time down there with my family and friends! Good Times, Good Times. Enjoy!

Celtic Ray - FLA - December 2005

Santa Pub Crawl - MA - December 2005

Jake Ivory's - Boston - December 2005

Hong Kong - Harvard Square - January 2006

Snow Thunder?

So I hear someone mention this today at work and thought it was a made up term. Id never heard of Snow Thunder. My thought was that we dont call it Rain Thunder, its just called Thunder. but after a brief moment of research I found out it indeed is a real term. Snow Thunder. I also found out that wintertime lightning is much m ore dangerous than summertime lightning due to the fact that the strikes in winter carry a much stronger current.

IlloFriday: Blue

So this weeks topic is blue, and holy crap I have one finished and its only Tuesday! WooHoo. For this piece, I decide to just play around with some images and some brushes in photoshop. I had this great photo of my youngest sister Chana that I really wanted to incorporate. Im on the fence about it right now, I think if I play around with it some more it will flow more smoothly. Any suggestions would be welcomed. Im sure Chana will throw in her two cents ;)

Walk the Line

So if you havent seen it yet, you need to! In fact, go right now. This is one of the best movies ive seen in a while. Joaquin Phoenix and Reese Witherspoon did an absolutely fantastic job with this movie, not to mention the fact that they did all their own singing. I just cant stop applauding this movie. Ill be picking this one up as soon as it comes out on DVD.

Whats your pilot say?

So you know your plane has landed in Florida when the pilot says this..."Ok folks, shouldn't be much longer now, were just a 7 iron from the gate." There obviously wasnt a lot of golfers on my flight because there was only a chuckle or two, including my own. The best part though was listening to the lady behind me ask her husband what he meant followed by him explaining it. This incident reminds me of the time I was flying back to Boston and a big Red Sox game was on and the pilot would chime in over the intercom and tell us the weather, what we were flying over, followed by the score of the game and a "Go Red Sox". Cant wait to hear what the pilot will have to say on my next flight.

My new toy...

So after almost two years of being ghetto fabulous with a broken digital camera, I gave in and finally bught a new one, a Nikon Coolpix 5200. Since Im going home to Florida in two days and I, as usual, waited til the last minute to order it, I had the camera Fed-Ex overnighted right to my sisters work in Florida. She got it today and called me after she opened it. Man I cant wait to start taking pics. Im sure Ill be sure to take a ton of photos while Im home for the holidays, especially ones of Charleen, plastered, on her 23rd birthday ;) Hope everyone has a safe and happy holiday!

Bubbles, Bubbles everwhere , but not a drop to drink...

Well I'm not quite sure what to think. Tim Kehoe, a 35-year-old toy inventor from St. Paul, Minnesota, has developed colored soap bubbles. I've always loved blowing bubbles. Its one of those simple childhood pleasures, something that could keep you occupied for hours. For me it still does. But what's with this thought of having colored bubbles? Man those fuschia ones rock I must admit, but one of the joys for me was having a bubble land and not pop and being able to see the rainbow of colors reflected in the bright sunlight. Like I said, I'm just not sure what to think. Guess Ill be picking up a bottle in February 2006 when they become available for purchase. Here's the website to check them out.

IlloFriday: Strength

So for this weeks topic of strength, this piece instantly came into my head. All I could think of was my mom, and all moms for that matter. They have to balance so many things in their everyday lives, and not just for themselves but for the entire family. That to me takes an enormous amount of strength! This is an older piece that I did. Its acrylic on cardboard.

Slacker! Who Me?

Ok so Ive gotten off my lazy behind and finally updated this site. I would have posted much sooner but I came to realize that I hit max capacity on my old photo album site. So Ive spent some time trying to find a new company, rebuilding some of the old albums and also adding a couple new much anticipated albums. So the pics below are the albums that ive posted, click on the picture and it will take you right to that album. Im going to be adding new albums as events arise and I want to try and get up some albums from past events. So check back, there will definitely be more to come. Leave a comment or two and let me know what you think, of the photos and the new photo album site. Enjoy!!

Pats vs. Bills - MA - Oct 2005


PHD Halloween Party - MA - Oct 2005


311 Concert - FLA - Sept 2005


Figawi Weekend - Nantucket - May 2005


Katie & George Wedding - NY - June 2005


JukeBox Off - NYC - April 2005

Tag Im It!

Ok so Ive been tagged and I have to post 20 random thoughts about myself so here goes...

1. I love coffee
2. I dont think I could live without my computer/ipod/digital camera
3. I dont eat red meat or pork
4. I am really tight with my family
5. I miss my close friends alot
6. The soundtrack of my life would be all over the board
7. Contrary to belief, brown is not my favorite color ;)
8. Im seriously thinking about a career change, but Im not sure to what
9. Im scared of losing loved ones
10. I am totally happy with my hair, curly or straight!
11. Im outgoing, yet have a hard time making new friends
12. I love Tim Burton films
13. Im seriously envious of people who can draw really well
14. My most favorite moments/memories are those spent with my friends and family
15. I love vegetables, especially asparagus
16. I love the smell of oranges and clean laundry
17. I work out at the end of my day to help me wind down
18. I still sleep in a twin size bed
19. I may be 29 but I still act like a 5 year old at times
20. I hate winter