Let me see your dri'em lisen....

I was asked to produce my drivers license today. Not by a cop, but by my classmates.
We were drawing our letters in Typography today when one guy started doing the Budweiser frog sounds and some other joined in and we all started laughing. Someone asked how old that was and one guy said, "Oh it came out in like, 2000." I, of course, knew better, so I jumped in and opened my big mouth and said, "No, it was in a Super Bowl commercial in the early 90's because I remember I was still stationed in Fort Walton Beach. Everyone was talking about it at work the next day. I think it was, maybe '95 or '96." Everyone looked at me with wrinkled brows. I could see them trying to do the math in their heads. So finally someone asked, "You remember? How old are you?" I just smiled and said, "Older than you." They kept guessing, "I thought you were, like, 27 or 29." or, "Maybe you're in your early 30's at the most?" Finally one girl asked to see my drivers license and when she was done calculating the numbers she said "Nuh-uh, there's no way." I said, "Yes way!" That's when everyone else asked her "What does it say?" and she told them "She's 40." I just smiled and shrugged. I mean, I think I look my age. When I look in the mirror I see the sagging skin and bags under my eyes and the wrinkles there. I don't know why nobody else can. I'll take it though.
I wish I knew what my secret was, I'd sell it and be a millionaire! Alas, my friend Cathy looks younger still since she can pass for a teenager!

could drinking tea be my secret?

drawings of robots

In my Concept Design class, we are working on article layouts. We have to find articles in the news and make an illustration for it. We had to bring in three articles and some thumbnail drawings of our interpretation of it by illustrations. Here are a few sketches of two articles I found: the hacked BurgerKing tweet and a science article about robot-human relationships.

here are my sketches. I showed them to the class and
we tossed around other ideas for illustrations, but my
teacher ultimately chose the robot-human relations
drawing on the bottom

we made the layout in InDesign. First I made the picture
in Photoshop (we already know how I feel about that)
then I "dropped" it in my layout

Here is another version of the picture I
did in Photoshop. I think my teacher is
going to like this one, so I'm just
going to put both in my process
binder to turn in for a grade.

Now I'm listening to records (yes, records, on a turntable) and finishing some homework on this class. I have all the digital stuff done, so I can relax and have fun.

More classes? Yes please!

It's true, there are more classes in my future, but I won't be the student.
I visit my local scrapbook store as often as I can and when I do, the techniques I use on my pages usually tend to impress Patricia, one of the owners of Personal Scrapbook in Allen. She asked me one day a few months back if I would be interested in teaching a class or two and I thought "how exciting would that be to teach something super easy and get paid". I finally brought in a few projects and she loved them. One of the other ladies, Candi, also loved them. Patricia went through all the in's and out's about new samples, supplies and payment with me and said she would need to show my samples to Tara, the other owner. She was pretty sure Tara would like the samples as well, but they already have their calendar set up until May, so I would not get to have a class until June or July. But,  I'll have time to make my samples from the products that the store sells so the customers can get all their supplies at the store when they come to the class. It's very exciting and maybe from this I can teach other classes elsewhere!
Here are some pictures of what I took in:

Decoupaged canvas book

painted canvas book

inside of my painted canvas book

painted canvases before turning them into a book 

another shot of the inside of the painted canvas book

cover of my "Restaurant Passport" booklet

inside of my booklet - hand stitched binding

crafts and more crafts...

Well, I went to school today and drew a bunch of letters in Italics in my Typography class. I don't mind it, but I didn't finish my assignment in class, so I have homework. It's okay though because I got a call from work to say they have to cut hours this week and they decided to cut mine. Really? I was only going to have ten hours to begin with, now I have only five. I am currently looking for another job because I need 15-20 hours a week at least. But since I have a bunch of free time on my hands I can finish my homework and finish my "creative pay it forward" objects I started about a month ago. The only one I haven't done yet is for my friend Debbie. I know what I'm going to make for her, I just have to go find a few things first.  I hope to go to the nature preserve around the corner here and hunt for what I need tomorrow. Also, I am making some items to be able to convince the scrapbook store to let me teach a few classes I was asked about about two months ago. I am bringing an altered book (still working on that, need to finish before Saturday afternoon) a canvas book (like I made for my friend Christina, you can see here on my old blog) and something I found on Pinterest that I think is totally cool and am upset that I didn't think of it myself: a passport book to all the restaurants to try in your area! I learned how to make a few different types of bound booklets in my Typography class when we were studying about paper making, so I will use one of the easier techniques for that.
Right now, this is all I have to post: the bookmarks I've completed. The one with the cupcake is for a classmate of mine who asked me to make her one. She's paying me five bucks for it! That's two tacos and an iced tea on a Tuesday from Fuzzy's taco shop!

my bookmarks...I know, I should have used a better book
so you can actually see them....
if you behave well, then I will post a new picture!

why does Photoshop hate me?

Today I gave myself a pep-talk about using programs at school so I could go in and do my homework. I was there working along, doing things the hard way because I have no idea how to use Photoshop to trace an illustration and then color it. After, I met up with my teacher to ask him how I was doing. He decided to show me a few things that might make my work easier. I told him what I wanted done and he showed me how to do it. Easy, I thought. Then he left. I stared at the screen of my next picture and could not remember one fucking thing he just showed me. Thirty minutes I stared and went back to the picture he did and went back to the picture I was doing and stared and stared and stared. WTF?!
I got so upset I just left crying. When I got home (35 minutes later due to traffic on 75), I was still crying and couldn't stop crying even though I was over being mad at stupid Photoshop.
I hate hormones and I hate Photoshop.

wish I had drawn this, but I don't know how to use photoshop

new stuff I made

In addition to my schoolwork and some extra credit work (and going to work), I also made some crafts this weekend, too.
I love to do crafts. Plus, a month ago I signed up on Facebook to take part in a "creative pay it forward". Six people signed up to receive stuff I made and I have been trying to think of good things to make and send to them.
First, my friend Evelyn, a swell gal and good mommy, who is going to nursing school, asked me to make a beaded thing she could put on her hospital badge. Since she's not sure if she can even have anything on her badge, I created something that can dangle behind, but still show and also be removed if need be.
here is that:

back of Evelyn's beaded badge

Here are the other things I made so far. They are going to be attached to an elastic band for a bookmark. I think they'll like them.

for my friend Peggy. 

for my cousin, Mary. 

Here is a picture from my old blog http://queenofeverythingelse.blogspot.com of other elastic bookmarks I made a while back:

And, last, here is a necklace I made for my friend, Carlos. I think he'll like it. I saw a version of this on some guy at school. I told him I was going to steel this idea and he smiled and said that was okay with him....then I was going to ask him out, but he was wearing a wedding ring...pphhffttt.

That's all for now, folks! Let me know if I can make something for you!

email:  vmwillis1972@yahoo.com   and put "make something for me" in the subject line.

Yes! I made the beaded lanyard in my photo!

A friend of mine from my old job back in Amarillo asked about the lanyard I was wearing in the picture of me holding my painting. (photo courtesy of my friend, Sergio, a photography student at Art Institute)

In case you didn't notice it, here is another picture:

Guess what!? I make these!! And I could make one for you. I made one for a friend of mine at school who is in Fashion Design:

Donations for these start at $25 and I have lots of beads, so just let me know what you like. They are standard lanyard length of 18 inches.

email if you like: vmwillis1972@yahoo.com with the subject line "beaded lanyard"
<script type="text/javascript" src="//assets.pinterest.com/js/pinit.js"></script>

and now the rest of the story...

One day last week my friend, Nick, told me about Union Coffee Shop, which is by his apartment and how they want paintings for  a disaster relief fund.
"What kind of painting?" I asked
He shrugged, "I don't know, whatever you want, I guess."
"Well, what's the disaster relief for?"
Again, he wasn't sure of the details.
I threw up my hands and said, "I need more information!"
He said he was going to do something, so that night I started sketching out some ideas. I had a couple blank 11x14 canvases and lots of paint, so Friday I got started and completed this painting:

I call it "Glory in the midst of despair"

The bird is on a smaller canvas and is glued to the larger canvas. I thought it was a cool idea, something I've done before, except with a picture frame rather than a smaller canvas.

I don't care for it but I thought, "Well, at least they'll have something to put up and I can give it away when nobody buys it."

I gave it to Nick on Sunday, thinking he would be taking it right over there, you know, since he lives a block away, but he neglected it. So I rescued it from him and took it over myself and decided to meet my friend Sergio there, too so he could take my picture for my scrapbook.

I met Mike, the owner, a swell guy and I imagine an all-around good American, who seemed excited about receiving a piece of art for the fund (there is a map hanging up showing where some disasters happened and what Union will be funding). As I was standing at the table, holding my painting, his friend, Megan (I believe, sorry if I forgot your name) took one glance at it and readily asked "Oh my God! Is that for sale?"

I told her it was for the relief fund and she said, "I'll take it! How much do you want for it?"

Since I had already decided that nobody was going to actually pay money for this, I told her to just donate whatever she wanted, giving the money straight to Mike and I would just take a cup of coffee.

Done deal.  She wrote Mike a check, I got a cup of coffee and I gave her the painting, but not before Sergio snapped a few shots for me.

I have another painting in the works for the relief fund. I think I 'll take money for that one, if it sells, because when I was driving home, I looked at my gas gauge and thought, "Nuts, I coulda had gas money."

the artist and the painting

upset

We had midterms last week and I haven't received a grade yet for two of my classes. The one I did get a grade for was yesterday in my Concept Design class. I got a B and I'm very upset over that. Let me tell you why. This is a teacher who I like to refer to as "Willy Nilly" because he changes his mind about assignments and how to execute them. Nobody in the class knows what the  hell is going on at any given time, but I think I do well to keep up. I do ask questions, I even go to his office during non-class hours to be sure. We didn't have a midterm test, but we were supposed to show all the work we've done up until now. I had all my work on my flash drive, printed and on the Sdrive at school, so it was no problem to show him everything. I did three designs for three different companies, like we were supposed to do. The girl next to me did only one design and got an A. I asked what I could have done to get an A and it was basically did he like my idea better than hers? No, apparently not. I could have given my designs a bit more, some little thing extra. I understand this, but I feel that I did ALL the work, whereas the girl next to me did some of the work. Is it wrong to think I should have been graded on what we were supposed to do rather than was my design better than someone else's? I was glad the girl next to me did well, but she could tell I was upset about my grade and she agreed about the work part of it. I wonder what kind of grade he gave to people that hardly had anything to show?
So I am off to school today to make more designs from my thumbnail sketches. I'm not sure if this is part of the assignment due or not, I'm just going to do it. I can't get dinged  for doing more, just get a mediocre grade. 
These will be more complex than the previous so I wonder how well I'll do on this one.

Hello, Please....

Ok, so I stopped by Starbucks on my way home from work today to see my friend, Nick. When I went in, there were a few customers sitting there drinking coffee and chatting or doing computer stuff. Nobody was behind the counter though, so I yelled "hello?" and waited. One customer looked up at me, but didn't say anything. I looked in toward the back room and said again, louder this time, "Hello?!" and waited. Nobody came out. I asked the people at the tables if they had seen anyone and they said not for a while. I knocked on the bathroom door and nobody in there. I texted Nick but he didn't answer. I got tired of waiting so I went behind the counter and started to help myself. The people at the tables didn't do anything. One woman smiled at me. While I was trying to figure out the coffee grinder, a new customer came in and asked for a regular cup, so I poured him one and said it was on the house. I guess I looked like I worked there since I was still in my white shirt and black pants from Joann's. Anyway, when I was just about done with my coffee, Nick and his work buddy walked in and he said "Whoa! what are you doing?" I said "I'm helping myself, I got tired of waiting."
I got escorted out from behind the counter, but I got to keep my coffee!

So, tell me, do you think this was a true story or a fake story? post here or in the Facebook comments or email me: vmwillis1972@yahoo.com with the subject line as "real or fake?"

There I was, chin deep in pierogis....

So I was driving around today, looking for a sandwich and I found a hidden little gem-ski instead.
For You, Taste of Poland Cafe is tucked next to a pancake house and a skateboard shop, but could definitely stand all on it's own. It's small menu has all the favorites like piergogi (many types), bigos (stew served on sauerkraut) , sausages, borscht, galabki (stuffed cabbage)  and pork cutlets.
While waiting for my order to cook, I listened to a news show on t.v. that I couldn't understand because it was in Polish. The staff was yelling orders back and forth in Polish, too.
I had a plate of potato and cheese pierogi with a side of beets.

                            Don't make that face!

I know beets have a dirt-like flavor, but when you mix hot shredded beets with the delicious carrot and cabbage in vinegar salad that is served with the pierogi, you get a literal taste explosion! I added sauteed onions and bacon to my plate and just couldn't sit still. My happy dance was all over the place. According to my waitress, all the food is fresh and homemade. They don't use kraut from a jar or frozen-ready entrees. I truly believe her because there is no way food this delicious could be anything but freshly prepared. The food was so good, that I was mad when I got to the last forkful. Nothing more to tingle my tastebuds. I was stuffed. I wish I had gone with other people so we could all get different dishes and sample everything.
This place has groceries too so you can load up on all your favorites like plum pierogis, cheese blitzes, a variety of coffee and teas and jars of shredded cabbage, beets, and celery. Some nights also offer live music.

If you don't live in Plano, TX, I suggest you make a special trip!

my plate of potato and cheese pierogi topped with sautéed
onions and bacon, served with kraut salad and a side of hot shredded beets.
yummmmy!!

Hot Dish is the new Casserole

click here to watch a scene from the movie Fargo to get you in the mood to read this piece

On my way out of the library today, I noticed they were having a "Friends of the Library" sale. The library in Amarillo used to have these, too. Occasionally they would have a "Brown Bag" sale, where you pay $5 and they give you a large paper bag. Oh, boy did I manage to fill it! All the books I could carry out of there. It was awesome!
Today, though, I only casually browsed at what they had: Harelquin romances - barf- paperbacks of general fiction, magazines. Then I found some cookbooks. For those of you that know me, you know I collect unusual cookbooks, either by appearance or content. These I picked out for the content. One is called "Amana Colony Recipes" and it's all authentic German dishes. I will especially enjoy the kartoffel speisen section (potato dishes).
Now, the fun one. I found one of those cookbooks made for an organization like a ladies auxiliary club or some church. This particular gold nugget is from Cass County Electric Cooperative, Inc in North Dakota. I started flipping the pages and couldn't stop laughing. Seriously, where else can I find, in one book mind you, a recipe for "pickled smelt", "dang good hot chocolate mix" and "ice for ice cream"? I mean, I didn't even know you needed special ice to make ice cream. Five recipes in a row for "tuna hot dish" "best hot dish" and "super easy hot dish". Egads! In case you're wondering what "hot dish" is, it's what the good people up in that neck of the woods (ND, MN and the like) call a casserole. Here's a recipe for hot dish that calls for a can of "Franco American macaroni and cheese". I was unaware macaroni and cheese was produced in a can. I must have missed that aisle at Wal-mart. Another recipe for a hot dish calls for a "number 2 sized can of peas". I don't even know what that means but it sounds funny when you say it like Margie from the movie Fargo.
I can't wait to try some of these.
Not a bad day for fifty cents, eh?

I'm getting better...

Yesterday in my Concept Design class, we used (my favorite program) Adobe Illustrator to create our final pencil sketch of an illustration for an article. Then, we used Adobe InDesign to layout the article and insert our illustration. For anyone who knows how to use these programs, it would have only taken maybe 20-30 minutes at the very most. Then there's me, still struggling with remembering what buttons to push to make it do what I want. I took about 2 1/2 hours to produce these two things: the final drawing in Illustrator and the final layout in InDesign:

Illustrator

layout in InDesign

I thought I did ok, then I looked at what other students did and felt inadequate once again. They had used photos of stuff and traced it in Illustrator. We were allowed to do that, but I wanted to try to "free-hand" (so to speak) my drawing.
The teacher is the one that picked the article and the final drawing. I had four other articles and at least 3-5 drawings to go with each article.
Here is the sketches for the Girl Scout cookie article:

I was the only one to have a cartoon strip. I tried to be serious, but I couldn't! The teacher chose to cut the other girl and set of cookies out of the picture. I would have preferred to keep the comparison.

Instead of coal, Santa now gives bad children....flying sex snakes

I just know that tomorrow my writing teacher is going to ask us what we did over the weekend. My response last time was pretty mundane: "worked, goofed off on the computer". This time, I may have something to actually say out loud. So, Friday I, of course, worked, then met up with my friend Jerrad and went to our favorite barbecue place, Back Country BBQ, then went to Liquid Zoo for karaoke. I recorded him doing some songs and then we made everyone else either delighted or uncomfortable while we danced to other people singing Johnny Cash and Elvis songs. When I got home just after midnight (half hour drive back to Plano), my friend Nick texted me "are you awake?" I called him back and said "Fool, I just left Dallas! You couldn't have called half hour ago?" He said "Dude, when you're in Dallas on a Friday or Saturday night you should always text me!" Well, I did not know that!
Then he told me about a party he was having the next day. Now, on Saturday, before I worked, I picked up Jarred and we went to see Warm Bodies. This is an unusual zombie movie and I thought it was cute! Not like the Walking Dead or even Shawn of the Dead zombies. After work I headed over to the dorms to Nick's place where about ten people were idling around, watching "Anchorman" and goofing off. Sergio was cooking pork chops, so I had one with a tortilla. It wasn't a wild party, I had one drink and we all played Cards Against Humanity, kind of a local game which can be really fun. It's like Apples to Apples, but sleazier, more highly offensive  and more politically incorrect, hence the fun part. For example, the question being asked could be "What will always get you laid?" and the cards you have in your hand to  pick from could be: "date rape", "BATMAN!" "a deathray" "a Pterodadactyl egg" "72 virgins""GoGurt" "Ronald Regan". Which one do you think is the best, weirdest or funniest answer?

gettin' grub at the bbq

what some think of Cards Against Humanity...oh well