much success! a guide for goal achievement and such

So lately I've been hitting some of the goals I set out for myself, like paying off my student loans, making fun stuff for people, and .... that might be the entire list. (high five ya'll)  People have been asking me "DAMN JILL, how you be doing that?"** So I thought I'd share some tips on how to, you know... accomplish goals.

Here are my thoughts:
1. Believe in yourself, damnit. You have no idea what you're capable of, so go ahead and try something new. I was asked this weekend to run a 10k race with a friend. I have never run that far in my entire life. But I had two choices: Yes or no. If I said yes, I'd either fail or succeed. So why not try? And guess what, I did it! Here's another example: I wanted to go to dental hygiene school. But as a nine-fingered 30 year old, I put the doubt in my mind that I would most likely fail. But I also promised myself that I'd do whatever it took to reach my goal. True, I sacrificed a lot. But now I'm a full-time dental hygienist and part time educator. Who would have thought two years ago that I would be where I am today? Honestly, not me. There's no reason why you can't try something new, so stop making excuses!

2. You'll fail sometimes. But who gives a shit if you fail? Most likely, you'll be the only person who gives a shit. But instead of being all pissed off at yourself, just remember: You didn't have to go out on a limb and try. But you did! Be proud of trying something new. It takes balls, and now my friend, you've got balls. Be proud of those balls! Do you think I woke up one day and was like I'M GOING TO SEW A MOTHERF****** QUILT AND MAKE A SHIT TON OF STUFF OUT OF TIES!!!? Nope. Friends, I've been sewing since before I could drive. I've had MANY MANY sewing fails, including a shirt that LITERALLY split open at the seams while I was at a party. I've even machine sewed my thumb by accident. But did I give up? Naaah.

3. If you fail, then don't beat yourself up. You're human, not a damn robot. Life is full of ups and downs. You know the expression when it rains, it pours? Guess what: THAT EXPRESSION IS PURE BULLSHIT. It makes you think that when one shitty thing happens, then other shitty things will pile right on top of it until you're covered in shit. Here's what people don't tell you: The rain brings out the beautiful colors in life, like the brightness of the leaves on trees after a rainstorm. Which means, sure: Bad shit is going to happen. But take a look at everything  around you. When you take a minute to realize how fortunate you really are, the one shitty thing happening can't ruin your day like it use to. 

4. If you want to feel like shit, then go right ahead and feel like shit. Or be happy if you want to be happy. The lesson is, don't let anyone tell you how to feel. You're your own person. Don't let others dictate your feelings or make you feel small.

5. Treat others how you want to be treated. You know how I go around being nice to everyone? Guess what? It's because I'd also like people to be nice to me.  I have a real problem with people that are shitty to others, either because they judge a book by their cover, they are prejudice against their race, religion, sexual orientation, or hell, because they're nerdy, overweight, skinny or whatever the case is. We're all human, damnit: Nothing makes you superior to the person you're judging.

So, that's my life advice. Technically I'm allowed to give advice now that I'm in my thirties. But hey, just remember: You're taking advice from a person who has zits, twirls, wears children's hats, gets nose bleeds, hangs out with butterflies and mimics a child eating ravioli. You're welcome.

**More like, "good for you", and no mention of a question asking me how I did these things. 

over-over-overdue

Like the title says, over-over-overdue!

I'm taking my national board exams tomorrow. I already completed 4 of them (clinical exam, jurisprudence, local anesthesia and CDCA/NERB). Once I complete tomorrows 350 question grueling exam, I will be OFFICIALLY DONE with my understudies to become a dental hygienist. After that, alls I need is a license to practice! Which means...


I SHALL RETURN VALIANTLY TO THE WORLD OF ARTS, CRAFTS, FREE-TIME AND GENERAL RELAXATION! HUZZAH!

LOOK! Here I am contemplating things! Like, what kind of art project will I start on Wednesday? Do these glasses magically transport me to 1980 when I'm asleep? And, if I hold this pose long enough, will people think that I'm actually contemplating something?

spooky skeleton: college work

So in my absence of actually creating works of art, I decided to donate some of the things that I did as anatomical studies in college. The first college. You remember, the sculpture, the sewing....? The stained glass? ...No? Well, it's been awhile since I've posted, so I don't blame you for forgetting.

I might try to post a past project about once a week since well... you know... I don't have much time for anything else but fulcruming, rock n' rolling and probing. Now that I write that out, I realize that you probably have no idea what I'm talking about. Ah, the Dental Hygiene life.

I think I did this skull back in... 2004? So almost a good 10 years ago. It's literally been sitting in my parents basement since then, freaking them out on occasion when they need to go get a gravy boat or a Christmas wreath, then BAM! There's a skull IN YO' FACE. I had almost completely forgotten about it, until one day I was thinking... WAIT A DANG SECOND. I need to know all of these muscles allllllll over again, just like I needed to know before... so why not pass along the skull so people can study from it? So it's going to my Dental Anatomy teacher in the hopes that people get a kick out of it. It's not going with the glasses though. Those are mine. 

did I accidentally sculpt duck face?

F! F! F! F!

Lord knows I haven't been F'in around lately. I've been busy as F. Why the F am I talking like this? Because I have a big F'in F I'm working on. NO. SERIOUSLY. I'm making a 40" tall wall-hanging F. My sister was looking for a giant F (the first initial of her last name, not an odd ode to F) for their den, but she couldn't find something that was F'in big enough. And most were F'in expensive. So I told her I'd give an F if she'd like me to.

Onto the F'in details! First of all, I had a lot of help from an amazing tutorial over at Green Zebra Crafts. I used some different materials which I'll explain below. You know, my original idea was to use flexible wire mesh covered with paper mache. Which sounds like a horribly F'in tedious idea. Idea fail.

a giant paper F

First, I literally needed to print out a giant F. Microsoft Word didn't quite work for me, so I went into MS Paint to create my 40" tall F. Here's a F'in tip though: DO NOT make your letter in solid black. Adjust the font to a light grey tone, and print it on scrap paper so you're not wasting ink and good paper on something you're going to throw away.

two cardboard F's

Once the F was printed, taped together and trimmed of excess paper, I traced F out on enough cardboard to make two F's. Regular ol' scotch-tape worked just fine, but I think masking tape would have worked better to join all the F'in F pieces together.

Then it was onto making the two flat F's into a 3D F. Out of the F'in scraps of cardboard, I cut 1" wide strips and joined them together into a massively long 1" wide strip. I took my time and affixed this strip to the interior of the bottom F with hot glue. I used making tape to sure-up the seams on the outside. Then, it was onto attaching the top F. This I did just out of masking tape. A LOT OF MASKING TAPE.

VOILA! I had myself an F'in giant 3D F.

Crystal at Green Zebra Crafts then covered her letter with paper mache. I was on the verge of going to buy some when a 1/2 used gallon of joint compound caught my eye. F'IN BINGO. Right now I have two F'in coats of the joint compound on the front and one on the back. This weekend I'm hoping to get it completely F'in covered and textured, and paint it a glorious F'in yellow.

help!

As you may remember (I certainly do) I started working on my quilt back in September of 2011.
Wait... September 2011? 14 months ago?!

Ah, remember all those fun pictures? I had such a great time sewing a row of bright colorful fabric, pressing them off in between each new addition and sewing all the blocks together. Anywho... every time I walk into my studio space, I see my unfinished quilt and it makes me sad. I want to pick it up and finish it, but I feel like I'm at an in-pass. I have the quilt top. It's not perfect, but it's my first one and I'm proud of it. I have the batting and the backer fabric. I basted them all together. I even quilted a row... but I don't think I did it very well.

 

I've been thinking a lot about it lately, and I believe it might finally be time for me to ask for help. Something I don't do very well, but to complete this project successfully, I think it would be a great idea to send my quilt to someone who knows what they are doing. And doing so will probably require a lot of prep-work on my end. I need to remove all the basting, as well as the row that I quilted. I need to make sure that the backing fabric and the basting are exactly 3" longer on each side. And they need to be square. So does my quilt top, for that matter. I don't want my quilt to cause whomever is helping me headaches and irritation.

So I'm waiting to hear back from someone if they will accept my quilt as a project. I hope they will have as much fun with it as I did!

when the cat's away, the mouse will organize

It's no secret that I like organization. Lou jokes around that I am ze German because I love ze oerdaa (order) and following ze ruules. So on Saturday I decided to tackle a project that I long put off.

Organizing the spice cabinet.

Now, I know it sounds lame. But I had so much friggin' fun. You know why? CAUSE I LABELED EVERYTHING. I can't take total credit for the idea, though. The jars and labels were a hand-me-down from my Mom. Who also loves oerdaa. Ve arrr ze o-pit-o-mee of oerrganizaachun. She lent me her P-Touch label maker to add spices that she didn't have, and I went to motha-f'in TOWN on those jars.

I pulled up a nice section of carpet in front of the television, which was blaring episodes of renovation awesomeness and cooking awesomeness, and started the spice transfer. Do you know I had three things of dill? And three things of cinnamon?! WHY?! I also found bouillon cubes that expired before Lou and I started dating. Grossness.

Boyfriend Future Husband isn't totally thrilled because none of the spices have shaker tops. Possible fail, but maybe I can make a special spice shaker spoon?

fond memories

Yesterday I had the pleasure of running into my former sculpture professor while I was hanging up fliers for the Bike Art & Student show at the MRAC (<-- another story, for another time). I had just paid for my large iced coffee at the local DD, when I turned around and instantly recognized her. And I was so flattered that she recognized me as well. With our coffees in hand, and my bike in tow, we walked back to her home where we discussed our activities over the past seven years. I was surprised that she remembered my bark and latex figures. They were something that I've always loved to work on, and should do so more often, now that I think about it.

From the way I was explaining my so called 'art-goings-on' it honestly sounded like I was trying to convince not only her, but myself of my involvement in the art world, if you could call it that. I've done a good amount of work in the past couple years... but... I don't know. Nothing extraordinary, I guess. And no, I'm not being hard on myself. It's the simple truth. I'm an artist with professional training with a full time accounting job. I try to allot the time to work on pieces on my 'off-time', and sometimes I simply cannot. Sometimes I feel like I've failed already.

Seeing her again... It makes me yearn to begin new sculptures. It makes me want to finish the work that I have already begun. It makes me sad that I don't have a functional sculpture studio space to work in. Sure, I have my 'office' that doubles as my sewing room, where I can cut stained glass and paint... but a sculpture studio, it will never be. I'll either ruin the floor, muck up the walls, damage the stairway to and fro, this or that or so on. Sigh.

Will I ever work on sculpture ever again? HELL YES I WILL. I don't know when, but I have so many concepts that I want to explore. I wonder if other artists have gone through similar periods in their lifetime. First and foremost, I have to finish three projects that I've already started. None of which I'm keeping myself. Only one of which I'm being paid for. I have to stop doing that, too.

ASL story

Last year, I recorded my final "exam" for ASL 1.4. I love signing: It's such a beautiful language. One day I'd like to take more classes, and hopefully be able to teach art to kids and adults alike through signing. I thought I'd share this because art isn't always something you view in gallery or on a wall. It's something you can experience everyday, from anyone.