Athena Dreams Design

The Notebook : Pinterest-ing Pins

I am a notebook girl. I love a good notebook, and I carry one with me everywhere. One notebook (or journal) gets everything. I write. I sketch. I jot down ideas. I write down reminders and messages. I write notes to myself and notes in general. I make lists and I make little illustrations. And when the notebook is full, I put it on a shelf in my studio and move on to the next one.

Some of my specific wants in a notebook: lines but lines that are not printed too dark, they have to be subtle, they have to be optional use. Pockets are also good, a pocket in the front or back to stuff things in. And paper. The paper needs to be heavy enought to handle a Pitt Artist Pen without bleeding through, and also soft and creamy and smooth enough to handle a .04 Sarasa Gel Pen.

I've pulled together some of my all time favourite notebooks, since you too might be a notebook girl {or boy} and want new notebook finds. What do you love in a good notebook? Please share!

Handstitched Journals by Paperblanks
The Leuchterm by Kikkerland
The Ubiquitous by Moleskin
The Decontructed Journal by Studio Oh and Orange Circle Studio
Markings journals from C.R. Gibson heavy paper, nice
A Cup of Latte from Bold Ideas {in Thailand}
and the Smash from K & Company

For more paper, more journals, more notebooks, visit my Paper • Stationery • Notebooks board

- - - - - - -

Each week a different topic illustrated with some of my favourite images from Pinterest.

If you are a Pinterest user, pinning on pinterest please remember to "Link with Love" and credit the maker, the creator, the ideator, or the originator.

If you'd like to share on Pinterest you can find me here!

Is There Enough Life in Your Life's Work?

We all go through periods of getting intensely wrapped up in our work, in our goals, in our dreams. It's part of being human. It's part of being self-employed. It's also part of that little habit of putting work before anything else for any number of reasons. {I will not use the more formal word, but you can maybe guess what it might be.}

So my thoughts for you this week on Scoutie Girl: Are You Leaving Enough Space for Your Life in Your Work?

8 Weeks In

• I've been painting just about everyday, and have several ideas for several series. I wake up with such a different kind of purpose when I'm painting. It's like purpose and joy. Pur-joy? Joy-pose? Yeah, no. Purpose and joy.

• 2 smallish earthquakes were centered just a few miles from my house last wednesday and thursday, and they were the kind that made it feel like someone smacked the side of your house. Not ever to be confused with the rolling, more merry kind of earthquakes.

• There have been earthquake alerts all over the place. I realised, for sure, that I would rather not know. It just makes me worry.

• Does this happen to anyone else? You do like, 5 loads of laundry, you bring all the clean clothes up to the bedroom, you fold and put everything away and then you pick up the clothes that have been deposited on the floor since you started the laundry and the basket's full again. {sigh}

• PG&E shut off our power saturday night, they were doing work on the lines, and I lit all the candles and read by flashlight on the couch with a pile of quilts and a cat sitting on top of me. It was Sweet.

• Having the power shut off at 8pm, encouraged me to go to bed really early. There's only so much to do with a flashlight in your hand, no electricity, and a very dark and chilly house. 

• Does anyone know how to re-grout bathroom tile? We need some serious help with that old grout. So far I've googled and come up with a lot of information that I need an interpreter to help me with, and I've stood in the bathroom and stared at the old tiles and grout, hoping they'll send a message.

• The dog that lives 2 houses over figured out how to get under his fence and into the vacant lot next door to us, his presence there sends my cat running into the house with tail 5X bigger than usual and a lot of cat talk. He's still separated from her by a fence, but I guess a 2 fence separation is more comfortable for her than 1.

• Oh, and just so you have some perspective: the dog might be just a tiny bit bigger than her, and I'm talking a tiny bit. She could so take him.

The Dream Big Award: Nominate Someone!

Is there someone in your life who has consistently inspired you?

Is there someone in your life who has inspired you to dream bigger?

Is there someone who inspired you so much that you
put that dream you'd been hiding in your back pocket into motion?

Nominate him or her for the Dream Big Award!

Beginning this week, with the Dream Big Award, the website CreateMixedMedia will host a series of 3 more awards all centered around Christine Mason Miller's book Desire to Inspire. (see below) Each award corresponds to a chapter in the book, and each week, Christine will share a bit about the chapter and how the award links to the book.

• The DREAM BIG Award (boldly making one’s dream a reality)
• The MOUNTAIN CLIMBER Award (overcoming great challenge with a positive perspective)
• The MAKE-A-DIFFERENCE Award (inspiring us to be of service to others)
• The LIVING IT FULLY Award (offering a beautiful example of being present in every moment)

At the end of each week’s post, you are free to nominate your special someone, by leaving a comment explaining who you wish to nominate and why. {Please include a link to this person’s blog or website if they have one.}

Each week, everyone who comments will be entered to win a copy of Desire to Inspire, and then on March 15, the winners of the four awards—who will be selected by a specially appointed panel from CreateMixedMedia—will be announced on Christine Mason Miller's site.

Haven't you always wanted to nominate someone for an award? Well, now's your chance!

For ALL the details: you can visit Christine or CreateMixedMedia.

aquarius : pinterest-ing pins

We are nearing the end of the sign of Aquarius, and I just wanted to do a little visual tribute to all my Aquarian friends. 

Aquarian Symbols: The Water Bearer. Element: Air. Favourable colours: Turquoise. Ruling Planet: Uranus. Lucky Gem: Turquoise. Gemstone: Amethyst. Flower: Orchid. Kewyword: Truth.

Aquarians are thought to be fiercely independent, unique, even eccentric, deep thinkers and deeper humanitarians.

(clockwise from top left):

Summer Beach by Cuba Gallery
Turquoise and the Sea on Black by Knitalette
Owls from Clayliscious
Amethyst Crystals from Design Seeds
Orchids from Joélisa
Aquarius by Cursive Arts

- - - - - - -

Each week a different topic illustrated with some of my favourite images from Pinterest.

If you are a Pinterest user, pinning on pinterest please remember to "Link with Love" and credit the maker, the creator, the ideator, or the originator.

If you'd like to share on Pinterest you can find me here!

Pantone Memories

I've had a deep and abiding love affair with Pantone since my first year in art school. First year in most art schools means having to take a class in every discipline, even if you think you already know what you want to focus on, and I groaned when I saw that Design 101 was on my schedule.

Design was so not what I had come to art school to do, and funnily enough, it turned out to be fun, and something I was good at... funny how that works, skill and desire for something I never would have done on my own.

The first assignment was about illustrating a word. I got the word "naked".

We were given a list of materials we could use to complete the project and off I went to the school store to look at what my options were. It was then and there that I met Pantone papers, then printed by Letraset.

I had never heard of Pantone, never knew you could buy sheets of printed paper in colours that stretched though more hues and shades and tints then I had ever seen before. I was smitten. I was, truth be told, delirious. And if I had had thousands of dollars would have purchased one (and in some cases three) of everything. I did purchase a few in my favourite colours, and then purchased 5 shades of "naked", and completed my first design assignment (pre-Photoshop, Illustrator and etc).

In this wonderfully modern age of electronic everything, some things have gone the way of the dinosaur, and the pantone papers are no longer made, but you can find them here and there, every once in a while.

I still have some 3" x 5" sample sheets that I use sometimes. But mostly, I look at them and arrange the colours and remember the first time I met Pantone.

 

And what got me started down this particular memory lane? Well, just in time for NY Fashion Week, Pantone released their Fall 2012 Colour Report.

turquoise : pinterest-ing pins

Turquoise has always had a way with my heart... so shimmery, ethereal, and somehow, mysteriously it remains so grounded and deep. Turquoise is the colour of one of my favourite stones, the mediterranean sea with the sun shining on it, a perfect spring sky, or a beautiful shining pool.

In the last paragraph of Victoria Finlay's book Color: A Natural History of the Palette, she says:

When I was two days from finishing the first draft of this book, a friend called from New York in great excitement. "There's a text message on CNN. They say someone's found the color of the universe."... I grabbed my pen and wrote down that scientists at Johns Hopkins University had discovered the color of the light in the universe. And that it was pale turquoise*. I had no idea what it meant, but it suggested that my journey was not over. And that there was a whole world - no, a whole universe - of color stories still to find. -Victoria Finlay

*Johns Hopkins later changed their findings and made a second and slightly embarrassed announcement that the "colour of the universe" was not actually turquoise but beige, due to a computer bug.

Beige? Really? Personally, I am sticking with the first finding, that it is indeed Turquoise and not Beige that reflects the colour of the universe.

Enjoy some turquoise!

(clockwise from top left):

Painting by Alessandro Twombly
Turquoise Piano from Addicted 2 Decorating {via Classy Clutter}
Turquoise cupboards by Heinrich Ingenson
Turquoise Accents from SAS Interiors
Twinkle a photograph from Irene Suchocki
Glass Jar Tutorial from Martha Stewart {pinned by Mercedes A Averbuch}
Marrakech curtains from Anthropologie

- - - - - - -

Each week a different topic illustrated with some of my favourite images from Pinterest.

If you are a Pinterest user, pinning on pinterest please remember to "Link with Love" and credit the maker, the creator, the ideator, or the originator.

If you'd like to share on Pinterest you can find me here!

Are You Sweating Something?

It's that time of year to gather the receipts and get going on the taxes. It's also that time of year when I get deeply into berating myself for not having kept up with the receipts and the spreadsheets every month. But this year I decided to stop that, and found that working with my natural inclinations and leaving aside the berating worked oh so much more smoothly. Visit Scoutie Girl to read the whole piece.

pattern designers: pinterest-ing pins

pat·tern [pat-ern; Brit. pat-n] 
a noun

1. a decorative design, as for wallpaper, china, or textile fabrics, etc.
2. decoration or ornament having such a design.
3. a natural or chance marking, configuration, or design: patterns of frost on the window.
4. a distinctive style, model, or form: a new pattern of army helmet.
5. a combination of qualities, acts, tendencies, etc., forming a consistent or characteristic arrangement: the behavior patterns of teenagers.
6. an original or model considered for or deserving of imitation: Our constitution has been a pattern for those of many new republics.
7. anything fashioned or designed to serve as a model or guide for something to be made: a paper pattern for a dress.

There are 15 definitions in the Webster's Dictionary for the word pattern so I took the top 7.

I love that Patterns can be a both repeating habit or action, and a visual and decorative motif that forms an "arrangement".

Pattern design is one of my great-est loves, the combination of colour and image and repeat contains a magic that I never grow tired of. Looking at the patterns that others have created, the colour palettes that they choose to work with and the imagery they choose to create and repeat is always a huge inspiration for me and my own work.

So please have a visit with some of these über talented pattern designers represented here: You can go and visit my Pattern Design Board on Pinterest, or just click on the links below.

Enjoy!

(clockwise from top left):

Retro Floral Pattern by Rachel Cole {pinned by me}
Fields of Honey from Harmony Art {pinned by me}
Flowers & Butterflies by Helen Dardik from Lagom Design UK {pinned by me}
Bolts of fabric from Amy Butler {pinned by me}
Victoria Dark Blue a wallpaper pattern from Camilla Meijer {pinned by me}
Valadier Fabric from Tricia Guild {pinned by me}
Blue on White patterns from Vintage Rose Garden {pinned via Vintage Rose Garden}
The Bees Knees designed by Terrie Mangat for Freespirit Fabric {pinned by me}

- - - - - - -

Each week a different topic illustrated with some of my favourite images from Pinterest.

If you are a Pinterest user, pinning on pinterest please remember to "Link with Love" and credit the maker, the creator, the ideator, or the originator.

If you'd like to share on Pinterest you can find me here!

February 2012 .:. Biz Goals

 

So this is my cat, spying on the cat next door who's spying on a crow in the grass. It somehow seemed the perfect Meetup photo for this month. I think first because it made me laugh, and second, I love the intensity and focus that both of the cats possess. And the crow, well he/she knew the cats were there, and just ignored them. There was a deck and a fence between them, and the crow was busy picking up seeds.

They all kept their focus on the task at hand, and they all stayed on task. SO it's my new metaphor for getting the tasks at hand done: think cat spying on cat spying on crow, and crow continuing to do a crow's business.

January came and went, and since the goals I listed for January are really about Jan-Mar, they are MORE my first quarter goals. I've made progress on a few things, and getting close to completion on a few more, so I am going to leave this list up and keep updating and crossing out till it's DONE (and dusted), and then move on to the second quarter. I'm testing this out as a new way to function and a way to keep up on those larger goals as well as all the small actions that accomplish those larger goals.

Am feeling ready for February and good about my progress so far. Wow. that feels good to write!

JAN-MAR 2012 Goals

1. Identify and contact 2-3 potential licensors over the next 3 months - Have identified 5, and now need to put together queries.
2. Get packages off to the 2 companies that are interested in my design work
3. Re-work and FINISH artist statement for website and for portfolio - working on it!
4. Pattern design - create 2-3 series
5. Start flower painting series for licensing. 12 images. Seasonal. Pen & Ink and Paint.
6. Put a list together of 10-12 people I know and ask them about what methods they have used to market their work.
7. Write announcements and press releases about my current work. Target 10-15 blogs and SEND them out!
8. Work more on branding and ask for testimonials/words from peers. - putting a list together of people to ask for "praise".
9. Re-evaluate ALL of these things as the days and week pass, and listen to my own voice and re-evaluate their importance/priority
10. Add to this list with any new ideas/possibilities
11. Create for FUN and JOY.

February is making it's entrance, and now for the year that winter never really, truly arrived in many parts of the world (I know some of you have been snowed in but not to many) so, will Phil see his shadow on the 2nd? Hope you all have a great start to February!

And for anyone working at better writing skills, better branding and beng an alla round better publicist for your own work: a new book is available called: Recipe for Press by Amy Flurry. I just ordered my copy, and hoping to get some great tips.

________________________

IF you are new to The Meetup or would like to play along, here's the scoop:

• Post a list of your business related goals for the current month on the 1st of each month on your blog. {If the 1st falls on a weekend, post on the following Monday.}
• Come back over here and leave a link to your goals blog post in the comments of my current month's goals.
• And then {and this is the most important part, since we are a community} visit all the links in the comments, stop in and say hello, have a conversation, meet and greet and etc.