Brain overflow ... here ya go!

Well, I'm going away again. Sorta. For the next week I'll be at "Butler Project." It's the youth group mission trip for the summer! Even though we'll be in our home town, we'll be staying at the church. Butler project is something like Reach Workcamp, only on a much smaller level. There are three churches involved and three work sites. We will be working on the houses, painting...putting on new roofs etc! It's such a blast. We get to serve the Lord by helping people in need, and have tons of fun at the same time. Every evening after we're done working, we do something fun like go to the movies, or have a pool party! Not to mention the best cooks EVER feed us the most amazing breakfast, lunch and dinners. You would think we might lose a little weight working every day...ha! Noooo way!
Anyway... Everyone have a great week! Please be praying for us and our safety while on the sites!


(I uploaded another roll of fisheye fun! See HERE.)

I usually carry my guitar chords and pedals around in a tote bag, but recently I started to wonder if they were getting beat up from lugging them around so much. I remembered I had this little hard shell suitcase that I started to prime years ago. Somehow it got stuck in Dustin's closet and I totally forgot about it! It would be perfect for my gear! So, I finished priming it and gave it a coat of grey. I added these little flower decals that I got at a Stampin' Up party...and voilà! 



I don't think I'm going to redo the inside. I'm a little too lazy for that! Haha! Tested it out last night when we played at The Lemon Grove in Youngstown, Ohio. It was just right. So much easier to find stuff inside since it completely opens up. 

Thank you so much to the 3G Gallery for having me in this show! It was an honor!What a great evening. 

Travis (hubbie), Katie (Dustin's gf), Dustin (boy child) & myself
So LAST night I didn't bring my big camera because I was being lazy and didn't want to lug it around the Gallery Crawl. Sheesh. I learned my lesson. What was I thinking? So, the pictures above I stole from the 3G facebook page. All the other pictures I took were with my Fisheye file camera, which I have to wait to see. Man. I can't believe we always had to wait to see our pictures. It kills me nowadays!Over all I wasn't that impressed with the Gallery Crawl. I'm sure they differ from time to time but I really didn't see anything that I was super in love with. Don't get me wrong, I do love looking at any and all art. There just wasn't ANY surrealist types? Maybe I missed them? I did very much enjoy The Art of Akira at the Toonseum though! Either way it was fun to walk around with the fam, and then after we ate at the Spaghetti Warehouse. Delectable! 

Can I ask a serious question?
Do you mind when I post about stuff other than art happenings? I mean seriously. I never know if I'm posting too much random stuff or not.
The truth is, right now I'm working on commission work that is going to take time. Therefore, I don't have much going on in the art world that I can share. Sure, a few things here and there but ....*sigh*
SO. Travis, Dustin and I went to see Iron Maiden today! It was epic. I do wish they would of played more old stuff...especially from my personal favorite, Seventh Son of a Seventh Son. Either way, so fun. It was Dustin's first time seeing Maiden as well!



Sorry for the crap, crappy pictures. It SAID in their rules that there were to be no "professional" cameras...so I brought my old one. Only to get there and see a few others walking around with big fat DSLR cameras. Whatevaaaaaaaa!

As most of you know, I'm really not one to write a lot. I'm an artist not a journalists darnnit! Ha! So anyway, let me just say this year's Cornerstone was the best ever. It was such an amazing honor to play Gallery Stage. We met so many incredible new friends. . . I miss them all so much already. Even more reason to look forward to Cornerstone every year! So here's some of my favorite pictures from the week.
mewithoutyou
The Great Commission
Hand Drawn Mountains doing dishes at Mama Linda's
the girls! 
Hanging with Alex and Nathan (Check out Nathan Stiteler's music!!!!)
Dan Smith of Listener
Hand Drawn Mountains @ the Gallery Stage! :D
goober faces.
Sadly I am STILL not through editing all my Cornerstone pictures. I only had about 600. EEP! You can see HDM performance pics here and my random Cornerstone fun pix here. I'll be adding the rest of them soon.
I just wanted to say thank you SO much to Cornerstone for having us, to Mama Linda for her hospitality and to my wonderful husband for helping us all week. Love you all so much! 

Hi everyone! I'm back from Cornerstone and have been for a few days now. It's crazy getting back and being thrust back into normal life. I've been working hard to get the house back in order and also my brain. I've also been busy editing pictures (since I took over 600 last week!) So, I will post a real update soon....in the meantime, enjoy a few of the fisheye pics I took while away.





(see the entire set here)

I got a new toy!It's the Lomography Fisheye 2 camera! I am "Lol'ing" to myself...Right after I get my sweet new digital SLR, I get a crappy old school film camera.  HA!
This camera is anything but crappy though. . . it's loads of fun!(pay no mind to the dieing aloe plant in the background)All I had was a black and white roll of film so that's what I used.They turned out pretty darn nifty!Here are a few of my favorites:





You can see the entire set here.

Last year my band competed in the New Band Showcase competition at Cornerstone Festival, and earned a spot to play! Though the whole process we met a amazing musician, Nathan Stiteler who also earned a spot on the New Band Showcase. Since then, we've played with him here in Butler, and will again next week! I'm so excited!

I had the honor of painting for his upcoming album, "deathbed. flowerbed." Everything is ready, but he needs your help. If you pledge by pre-ordering the album, you will help make it all possible! His music is amazing. Take a listen! 

I had such a great weekend participating in the 20th Annual Grove City Strawberry Days Festival. This was my first three day show. It was so much fun to have my own little tent area that I could arrange all fancy. I met so many great artists and art lovers. I remember my first "craft show" back in December...I was terrified! Heheh!! I wanted to crawl under the table! Yea, I'm really shy, and sometimes don't know what to say or how to say it. I can see that slowly I'm getting better at this whole thing, because I just had such a great time. I love love love meeting people and seeing their reactions when looking at my art. It brings me such joy, when it brings you joy. Thank you everyone for being so friendly and showing so much love. I'm definitely going to try and do more of these shows, schedule permitting. 


And a few random highlights of the weekend:Amish Donuts. Pure bliss.
Dad, Mom, Mr. Storm Trooper & Dustin. 
It's me & Frownie!!!!
....I just can't get over this picture of Dustin eating his Donut. HHEHE!!!!
Thanks again everyone! 

I've been super busy lately.First off, we've been having band practice twice a week in preparation for Cornerstone.We've been working on our DIY CD cases that are amazing and fun!It's sooo much work, but it's going be so worth it. 
(Here's Kirsten working on a few...She's our drummer's beautiful wife!)
Let's see... Senior Night for our Youth Group was last Sunday.I was on the "committee" planning that. It was a "Geek" theme...and was a huge success! *breathes deep* (This would be my little bro as Dwight Schrute)
Pastor Dan showed up as Darth Vader... enabling me to capture this priceless shot.(For more pics from that night go here!)
Lastly I've been preparing for this weekends Strawberry Days in Grove City, PA!I've made a tons of button magnets, and replenished my stock of prints and scrabble pendants. As always at live craft shows, my prints will be a cool $10! Please stop by if you can and say hello! 
So yea. That's why I've been quiet.What are you doing this summer?

Congrats Melissa!!! You  were the 10th person to comment, winning "Like Dandelions!"
Ok, just so you all know... Allison got it right.
"Like Dandelions" was taken from the Five Iron Frenzy song called "Dandelions."
I was so impressed she got it...Allison is getting a prize too! :D

Some of the words are:
Lord, search my heart,
create in me something clean.
Dandelions
you see flowers in these weeds.
Just like Dandelions, a lot of people don't like Crows...Even though they are considered "weeds" in the bird world, I find beauty in them. So there you have it! 

Hi everyone! So, I said a while back that I was cooking up a May Giveaway, but failed miserably at actually doing it.  Please forgive me! So here it is...a post-holiday recovery giveaway! 
An original painting! "Like Dandelions"8x10" oval stretched canvas
How to enter:
1. Just leave a comment about...WHATEVER the heck you want!(or you can guess why I named the painting "Like Dandelions" if at a loss of what to say)2. For a second entry, post about the giveaway on your facebook, twitter or blog linking to this post.Leave a separate comment stating that you did so!
Make sure you post these as separate comments for separate entries!
I'll use random.org to select a winner on Friday, June 4th at 4:00pm EST.