If you would like to continue following me, I’m posting more regularly now. Instead of trying to make the blog following a specific topic, it will be more just whatever I want to post about. Lately that’s been a lot of bike riding adventures, routes around ames, gardening, and home fixing up.

I’m just about finished with the manuscript for my first book, so I’ll be posting more drawings starting in September. I plan on coupling my bike rides with drawing tours too – so definitely a lot more sketch book work going on.

Thanks for following me here on Krostudio.com, I hope you will visit me at my new blog home on Kristinmroach.com!

See you soon!

Kristin

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Something about that “cuchunk” just drives me wild. After much thought, deliberation, and number crunching, I took the plunge. I bought a ream cutter so I could trim Craft Leftovers Monthly myself. Not to mention a million other paper based project. I’m really excited. I can cut up to 360 sheets of paper all at once!

The paper cutter came in the mail today and I immediately went to work cutting down more issues of Craft Leftovers Monthly. And then trimmed down sketch book paper for my daily drawings! Hooray for paper cutting!

I’m not sure if any of you remembered the winter issues and how when you got to the center the pages were sticking out further than the rest and caused some reading awkwardness. Well, no more! I was getting them trimmed at Copy works and a lot of times they would give me a heavy discount because I was in there so much, but I know it’s supposed to cost 1 dollar a cut and since you can only trim about 4 issues at a time, that’s an extra .25 cents/ issue. Bah to that.

This little beast cost $300, but I’ve been saving up for quite awhile, my first wholesale order gave me the rest I needed. I think it is worth every cent. I bought it from Factory Express. They were pretty slow to ship it out, but once they did it got here really quickly. From order to in my studio it took just 8 days, that’s not bad at all. I guess there are a lot of counterfeit ones on ebay, so be careful.This little guy is made out of cast iron parts and aluminum. It has bolts instead of screws and is really well constructed. Very sturdy. Very heavy.

I’m happy to say that this little beast was completely as advertised. You can clamp down you paper so it won’t shift and “CUCHUNK!” use the lever to lower the blade and cut your paper.

With the edition of this beast to my studio, Craft Leftovers Monthly is now produced 90% in my studio. Only the covers get printed at copyworks now. My toner won’t stick to the recycled grocery bag card stock. I print, cut, and fold every issue by hand in my studio. That is exciting! Before I know it, I’m going to have my own little indie print shop.

And on that happy note I’m going to call it a week. Or call it the weekend and go play for a little bit before I jump back into the insanity of finishing those projects I overloaded myself with.

Happy paper cutting!

Kristin

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I’m still not totally digging these colored pencils on this paper. But that’s okay. It’s all just playing around.

The mural project has totally hit a snag today. I’ve done what I can to resolve it and now I’m just waiting to hear back from the property owner. I’ll give you more details as soon as I find out what’s going to happen. Worst case scenario is that we have to reschedule for next year at a new location… which would not really be a bad thing. We would have the time to really get everything in place without all the frantic running around. I’m still really excited and I’m also sure that this project will still happen. Just maybe not as soon as I would personally like. Thank goodness we hadn’t put out our call for submissions yet. THAT would have made this current situation epically more disastrous to Ames C.art.

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The plan was to post something each day, then each week… but I ended up not posting at all. It worked out okay on my end. Craft Leftovers is going great and I’m feeling like I fully have my shit together again. It’s been a weird series of events these past few months: I released the new Craft Leftovers Monthly, started work on my first ebook, my MacBook broke down, two relatives died and gave me a quick jolt that I’m not immortal, I’ve been sick off and on, started a non-profit, and in general running around crazy. But this week, despite the macbook going under and the crappy cold, I feel really good.

In the beginning of 2009 I posted about some of the goals I had for the upcoming year. Mainly three if I remember correctly: be more mindful, draw daily, get fit. I really feel that I’ve done well with all three.

1. Be More Mindful - This is a hard one. If you aren’t mindful that you are not being mindful, how do you know? Well, training yourself to think about what you are doing as effecting yourself and others directly is hard. I’ve messed up. I’ve done well. It’s a journey and as long as I stick to it I feel I’m meeting my goal.

2. Draw Daily - I wouldn’t say I “failed” but I am a bit disappointed at how hard this has been. I wanted to post drawings daily here, but that started to be a problem because of the time/effort involved with snapping the photo or scanning and then uploading and whatever. Well, I have my studio all in one place, the lightbox is always set up, the scanner now works with ease.

I have started a drawing group and that has helped. We are all trying to make drawing a daily habit, so we get together every other week, crack open our sketch books and show and tell, then we get down to business drawing what’s around us. And I’ve been creative in a lot of ways I did not even imagine.

Ames C.art has taken off and we will be an official non profit by the second quarter of 2010. We are actually painting a mural – and I’m the creative director! So I would say specifically drawing daily was so so for last year as far as goals met goes, but being more creative and indulging in the studio side of life has succeed.

3. Get Fit - This was a failure and a success all at the same time. I did establish some really great habits of going to the gym and working out on a regular basis, but it’s only in the last week that I really have felt on track. I was eating crap. And overeating. I gained about 10lbs this past year + the 10lbs the year before.

I’m still not “fat” but I’m “overweight”. I know I need to be around 115 – 125 for my size and shape. And at the beginning of the month I was sitting at 145. I know this isn’t horrible. But there is a lot of obesity in my family’s history, so I know that 10lb a year is a bad thing.

I have finally embraced fully the simplest, best, tried and true diet: eat well, eat often, eat less, exercise like a mother f–ker. Seriously. And since over eating is a big problem for me, I’m retraining myself by counting my calories. If I want to eat a lot, it’s going to be a salad so I can stick to that 1275 calories a day.  I’m using LiveStrong.com coupled with their ipod touch/iphone app. Then not only can I write down what I’m eating right after eating it, but I can also look things up on the go before I even put it in my mouth.

Since I started counting calories and eating how much I should be, I’ve lost 4.5lbs! I’m back under 140!  And I’m continually trending down. I know there is a daily and even monthly flux in weight, but it’s on a downward trend as I continue to workout like mad + eat better food.

Goals for 2010

You know, it’s pretty much the same. I made progress last year, but I’m not satisfied with where I am. So I’m going to keep my 2009 goals for 2010 and throw a few more into the mix. I feel like getting fit and being mindful are habits now, so I’m going to place priority on the top of the list and work my way down:

1. Draw Daily – This is broken into two phases. Phase one is to make it a habit to draw daily. Phase two is to post those drawings here daily. I won’t have anything to post about if I don’t draw it first so that’s my primary goal.

2. Post on KroStudio Regularly – Coupled with drawing daily I want to post about the other things I’m doing that aren’t related to Craft Leftovers.  From drawing daily, to mural painting, to getting my first sweater pattern published, I want it to find a home here. And I’m going to share some posts between KroStudio and Craft Leftovers, mainly the Crafty Business series I started back up on Wednesdays. So my plan of action is to post on a Monday, Wednesday, Friday schedule. We will see how it goes, but that’s the plan. Hey, it’s Friday, and I’m posting, go me!

3. Get Financially Sound – continue to pay down my debt, be frugal and creative and thrifty, don’t spend money unless I have to, get an emergency fund. So far so good, but it’s hard. I have some savings built up and I’ve continued to pay more than the minimum on my credit card each month + not use the credit card at all. In fact, I don’t remember the last time I charged something, and that’s a good feeling.

4. Continue the Supply Diet – Craft leftovers has helped me wonderfully in retraining myself to look to the stash first. So much so that I only bought 7 skeins of yarn in all of 2009. 2 skeins of sock yarn (one is now socks, the other is wip), 2 skeins of delicious cotton while in San Francisco (stash), and 3 this christmas to make my mom and dad gifts (wip). And add to that: I used up more yarn than I can count! I made a 1 1/2 pairs of socks, 2 sweaters, a hat, fingerless mittens, mittens, and more random stuff I can’t even remember. Oh a ton of dishcloths, facecloths, and coasters. Hooray! I know I used up at least 20+ skeins of yarn and my stash went from being more than would fit into my closet to fitting comfortably into 2 rubbermaids. I still have a long way to go, but I’m going there!

5. Keep Getting Fit - I’ve been establishing habits to help me get fit and I want to keep solidifying those: going to the gym 5 days a week, eating well, eating snacks, making more homemade meals, making more from scratch, keeping my portions in check.

6. Being Mindful - mindful of myself, of others. Of the little things and the big things. Meditate regularly. I went to my first yoga class last Sunday and I’m going again this Sunday. It’s a small step to daily yoga/meditation practice.

And that leads me to the next part of this post. I really love Zen Habits and the author has started up a new blog called 6 changes. It’s interesting, without even thinking about it, I made 6 goals. So I’m going to go ahead and try his approach to making them habits. I’m going to start with Drawing Daily.

I also came across this great article called “Out of Control (or why balance is overrated)“. I know I have a tendency to focus on balancing – just look at my Crafty Business post on Wednesday – and I tend to tell you how important I feel it is to give it to your urges and go crazy on one thing and leave it all behind.

A good example is Craft Leftovers Monthly. I got an idea. I went nuts and made the first issue start to finish in a 16 hour concentrated session. It was a birth of a wonderful thing. And I had to pull an all nighter the next day to finish my homework for class. Was the imbalance worth it? Absolutely!

I think a lot of my struggle comes from that very impulse. How to make it so I can go with it when I need to and still meet all my obligations. If I can spend 5 hours a day on “have to’s” and 11 on “want to’s” it’s a good day. That’s what all this daily routine and schedule and task lists are all really geared towards. Anyway, read the article. I think you will like it.

And then going back to talking about balance in a good way. The Simple Dollar talks about how being too frugal can be bad too: The Other Side of the Frugality Fence.

And with that I leave you. Enjoy your first day of the year!
Happy Crafting!
Kristin

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I went through two shelves this week (very hard work for me) and purged a box of books I know I will never read. And I did something for the first time – I took them to FireHouse books and exchanged them for $12 in store credit, which I then turned around and used on 1 book I really enjoy. You see, I have put together a box of books many times, but they never actually make it out of the house, furthering the clutter issues. 

The book I traded in for is “Voiced of American Homemakers”. It is a collection of interviews conducted by the Oral History Project of the National Extension of Homemakers Council.

Beulah Rawlings, 76, of Indiana said when asked about food preservation, “We raised what we ate, and ate what we raised. You didn’t go into town and buy it, so it really was important to put your garden out and really take care of it, and take care of it when it was ready to harvest.”

It makes me feel a little guilty about putting my garden out late, then only half assing it these past two months. If it was crucial to me vs a hobby, and granted I love that it is not and we won’t starve if the weather sucks, maybe I would have made it more of a priority. I do have a few cucumbers, but not as many as I could have if I would have planted them when I should and watered them like I knew I was supposed to. 

“When I was a girl up North, before pressure canners, we never canned much vegetables because it was all put in the cellar. We canned fruits and tomatoes, but that was about the only thing we canned…. In our cellars we put in our carrots and potatoes and onions and turnips and we even had a big bin fixed up from celery…” – Elsie Gould, 86, Florida

I really like the idea of a root cellar. Mike (who owns the yard where the garden is and is in on it with me) has a nice semi finished basement and we are going to try to store all our potatoes and onions and garlic down there. I sure hope it works okay and we can enjoy our harvest as long as possible. 

We have a load of basil, dill, parsley, and other herbs. Plus many cherry tomatoes and some peppers on the way. I decided to do some small batch preserving this week for the basil that is plentiful. Pesto was totally the answer to how to keep basil fresh for the winter months. Once we get more tomatoes, I’m going to make some marinara sauce and can that too – I’ll post about that when the time comes along with my favorite recipe for sauce. 

You can read about my pesto exploits on Craft Leftovers, I posted about it today for the Thrift Kitchen post.

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1. I really want to do a good job so they will keep letting me teach drawing and painting, add other age groups, and maybe even adults – so I’m feeling the fear of failure here, which I do okay ignoring.
2. I really respect the woman I’m working for, she is amazing and I want her to think I’m amazing, haha. no. seriously, I do. So a little more stress.
3. I’ve been teaching fibers lately even though painting and drawing is my favorite thing, adding this to my cv will help me to get other drawing and painting teaching jobs – so don’t f it up right?
4. I was 5 when I decided to be an artist. Seriously. I started art lessons when I was 6 and have known ever sense that I would be an artist – often to the dismay to everyone who asked me “what do you want to be when you grow up” well here I am, an artist, so suck it all you doubters. Anyway, point being, I know that having a good experience of learning and playing with art at the 4-6 age can directly impact whether a kiddo starts to identify as an artist. Or not. So this 1 hour a week for 4 weeks is important to me. More so than others may feel it is warranted. More stress.

To help alleviate this stress and pressure I was self imposing, I decided to over prepare. I started by having a meeting with the education director and talk about what her expectations are for the class. We talked about what other teachers have done, what she has done, and worked out a general lesson plan/class plan. Then I did research – what do kids that age generally draw, what do They need at this age? Then I looked up project ideas. and then I even started reading about cogniative development of 5 year olds and found some really interesting info about how their drawings can express if they are feeling confident or inferior or if they are at a more detailed level or more symbolic abstract level. All very interesting. I’m ready. Still anxious, but ready.

Today I reviewed and had a really good pep talk from my mom (who works with kids that age every day and then some) and went to head out the door. Where are my keys? Oh no! My keys to the building were gone. (ferrets? I think so) I just used them last saturday when I worked at stam so I knew they were there. Keyssssss!!!! Shit. Okay, don’t panic. I’m prepared. I’m not prepared. Where are those f-ing keys! I was going to leave really early (another help to relieve anxiety tactic) so I have time. I searched for 20 minutes. It’s coming down to the wire. Okay. I’ll call. Hopefully someone will be there. Ring ring. Okay lost keys, no not stolen, I just can’t find them. Great. You can open it up for me? Perfect. I’ll be there in 10 minutes.

I get there and it’s all good. We square away how I will lock up and all that. It’s all going to work out. I go upstairs, unlock the public door. All set. Now to set up for class. Why is that door closed? It’s locked. The door to the studio is locked. Are you kidding me? It’s never locked! Go back down stairs.

It’s locked.

What’s locked.

The door to the kid studio, all the supplies are in there, not to mention the short kiddo tables and chairs.

Oh, oh shoot.

She makes a few calls and it turns out they have to be locked because some admin stuff is going on in there and it needs to be secure, which means I can’t teach in there. Oh no, what to do. I meet the director upstairs, and we hem and haw. What class are you teaching? Kids foundation drawing and painting for 4-6 year old. Hmm, I don’t know what to do. Are you sure it’s tonight (flash of doubt). Um, maybe no one signed up. If we check my folder we can see if there is a roster in there. There is not. She says “we should call beth” (lady I really respect and want to think I’m awesome). Umm.. wait! Let me check one more thing. I grab a schedule from the rack. There it is plain as day. September 23 – Foundation drawing and painting…. sigh. The class doesn’t start until next week. I had the wrong day written down in my calendar.

The director was super nice about it and we had a good laugh. I apologized for “causing such a fuss over nothing” and felt like an ass in general. She turned it on its head and said “Well, I’m glad you showed up and not the students instead of a whole class showing up and the instructor is no where to be found”. I hadn’t thought of it that way. Thanks for that. Then she said she had heard a lot of great things about me and was happy to meet me, which also made me feel better. And I didn’t freak out or anything this whole time. I was calm and cheerful and only slightly frayed around the edges (mostly when I first called about loosing my keys, but okay by the time I got there).

Moral of the story. I’m not sure. But at least now I know I need to find my keys by next Wednesday and have my class plan finished. And how could I possibly botch next week more than this? Nothing to worry about. I will be just fine and I’m sure the kids will have a great time… next Wednesday!

-Kristin

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And I realized something very strange, ironic, interesting when I spotted the second one – it is the exact same kit my grandpa and I made together when I was a kid – which my dad later helped me fix up because my grandpa’s hands were getting shaky. I loved this doll house so much and I remember being the the basement playing with it for hours, and in the process of loving it so hard, trashing the hell out it. I am pretty sure it ended up in the dumpster. 

Honestly I would like the second one more, sentimental reasons + functionality, but it’s about $50 more than the first and the first one comes with the windows, siding and shingles. Hmm. Maybe it would be stashing more money away for. What do you think? Check out how sweet this backside is:

It actually has a full attic in addition to the 2 full stories. The first one only has a half attic and 1 story. There is of course also the issue of space, where in the world would I put a doll house? I think it would be nice to make it a spotlight of my studio. 

And that gets me to the point about why I want a doll house in the first place. I started working with stop animation my last semester in university – the setting was my current doll house – which is awesome, but it’s also huge, it’s hard to find items for it because it’s not the standard 1 1/2″ to 1′ scale. It’s also hard to shoot in because the roof lifts up vs the back being open. I do love it though. My dad made it for me so my Pink Panther (12″ tall) would have a home. He was my childhood favorite doll that went everywhere I went, that I made many many clothes for, including boxers with a tail hole and a robe, haha. 

Second idea is that I want to set up some scenes for photographs. The idea is to sell them as greeting cards. 

And then thirdly I think it would be a really fun project. I’ve always enjoyed making things on the miniature scale and this would give me a place to put all that effort.

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The 3 topics that I feel I have the most room for improvement are:

• Grammar as it relates to creative writing — it has been a long time since I diagramed a sentence; I need a refresher. I never even learned grammar in the context of creative writing. More just “when you are being creative, grammar doesn’t matter.” Well, let me tell you now, that’s crap. Period.

• Creative Non Fiction – The majority of the writing I do falls into this type. Time to read up. It’s amazing how much information there is out there on the topic. What are the different ways to insert dialog into a story? How do I develop plot? Maybe I want to start writing longer short stories. I think this will help

• Interviewing – I love talking to people about what they love to do. What their amazing work is. When I go to ask them questions or keep the interview on track I get lost. Interviewing is a talent not all possess, but I’m going to stick to the idea that it is a craft that can be learned, or a least sharpened a bit.

I know, those are 3 pretty broad topics. When I went into Barns and Nobel today and asked the info desk queen where I could find the books on writing, she asked what type. I said, “Well, Grammar, then there’s non fiction writing, and then, oh, short story fictional writing”. To which she responded “You know that covers three different sections right? that’s not just one.” What the hay. She made such a big deal about it I thought she was going to lead me all over the store to three different sections… and it was really just 3 sections all in the same aisle. And well, geesh.

I have been thinking about taking advantage of the university here and take some classes. They have a pretty good writing program. Not this semester. Maybe next fall. Maybe not at all. Right now though, tomorrow in fact, I’m heading to the library to check out some books on writing.

Here are the three books I found on Amazon that looked interesting and are housed at the local library:

1. Writing Creative Nonfiction: The Literature of Reality

2. Writing Tools: 50 Essential Strategies for Every Writer

3. Line by Line: How to Edit Your Own Writing

I’m sure I’ll find a few books on the same shelf as these that might be of interest, but until tomorrow it will remain a mystery. I’ll report back later and let you know what I think of them.

Do you write? Do you keep any books on hand that are must have for aspiring to experienced writers?

Talk to you sooner rather than a month out from now!
Kristin

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I spent the last 4 weeks of absence from the blog working on some top secret projects. I hope to share them with you soon, but not yet.

I have also been drawing daily. So even though I have not been posting my drawings, they are still there – just in my sketch book, not in my camera. {Or the 40 hour binge drawing for the September issue of Craft Leftovers Monthly on my computer}. Hopefully tomorrow, my first day “off” since getting back into town two months ago, I will get some pictures taking and tell you about the drawing group we have going for Ames C.art.

Since I finished one project that involved 80 hours of knitting in 3 weeks time I have not picked up knitting, until today. I had a booth at Market Day at the Market Street Foundry and took my socks to work on. After finishing the heel flap, turning the heel, and starting the gusset, I am hooked all over again. Look for more knitting patterns soon. The Market went well and I set up two interviews and met many really neat people — always fun.

I wrote my first article for the Ames Progressive that is now available in print around town and on the AP website {link}. My first article as the new DIY column editor. Yikes.

The September issue of Craft Leftovers Monthly has been the most successful ever. I am hopeful October will be the most successful month ever again. And so on. I’m happy to say Craft Leftovers is now my full time gig.

I had an epic failure with my kitchen stencil project and I will be posting about that tomorrow. It was a series of simple mistakes that is leading to a delay in posting the project, fun color being added to the kitchen, and hours of extra work. Just another reason I need to be working 1 month ahead in my project posts – so a 4 hour redo doesn’t through my schedule to the wind. I am working ahead in Craft Leftovers Monthly, the October issue is already started and the Holiday issue is well underway too.

And I started writing more, but realized it was better suited for a separate post. I think I’m finished with all the updates I can mention – I’m bursting at the seams keeping it all in.

Second post time!

Kristin

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