A Little Bit About My Fit Bit

I'm trying out the Blogger app on my phone for today's post because  I am literally too lazy to go get my laptop out of the car. I probably should not be that honest, but if we are going to be sharing every day for 30 days, there's really no telling just how honest it might get, so buckle up.

I bought myself a Fit Bit back in December. It's a handy little gadget you can wear in your pocket or on your arm that can help you track your activities. It's a web based application that uploads the data from the gadget on your arm or in your pocket via a wifi plug in much like the one that came with your wireless mouse. 

I haven't actually figured out all the tricks it can do. I wore it for a couple weeks after Christmas, but when it needed to be charged again, it ended up on the bathroom counter for a few months. 

I charged it up today and have it on my wrist. That's the first step, right? Tomorrow maybe I'll actually give it something to do. 

That one little light is indicative of how much I moved today. Tomorrow I'll try for at least two dots. 

Do you have a Fit Bit or a similar gadget?  What do you think of them?  What are your favorite healthy living apps?  I'd love to hear your thoughts.

Nite friends!  Sweet dreams!

<3 Lori

Rigging Up an Art Bag--30 Days of Blogging--Day 2

That's a really long title.  Sorry about that. I thought I'd give a 30 day blog challenge a try. I wrote a post yesterday, so I already have a head start.  In order to keep this thing manageable, though, I'm going to try to keep my posts really short and use a lot of pictures instead of my usual habit of using too many words (Faulkner was a favorite of mine in college).

Someone clued me in recently that Harbor Freight carries canvas bags, called "Rigger's Bags".  They make most excellent bags for carrying so many arty things on the inside.  Since they are made of canvas, they also make an excellent surface for art on the outside.

I don't know what "riggers" (whoever they are) carry in all the handy little pockets, but they are perfect for colored pens and pencils, erasers, water pens, White Out, washi tapes, ink pads and stamps.  The inside is so roomy I could load it up with too much to carry if I'm not careful!

When I carry my new art bag, I'm a happy camper.

Here's my Happy Camper bag with one I made for a friend. She very sweetly let me have my way with it, which is my favorite way to do commissions.  I'm not sure where the flower cat came from, but I really like him.  He may show up again.

You can find the riggers bag at a Harbor Freight near you.  Won't your husband be surprised when you suggest a trip there!?  If you'd like a bag custom painted for you, I'd love to do that!  Shoot me an email.

Come back tomorrow for another installment of the 30-Day Blog Challenge.  I haven't the foggiest notion what I'll write about, so we'll both be surprised.

Until then, may the good Lord provide you a little sun on your face.

<3 Lori

Fact is Stranger than Fiction

I'm tempted to start this post with "Once upon a time.." or "It was a dark and stormy night..." or "I was born a poor sharecropper's child...". This story seems so far-fetched it must be fiction.

 Check out beanforest's shop of cute (and snarky and some inappropriate) buttons here.

Even so, it is not, and I'll begin at the beginning.  

On a normal day last week, I was sitting, minding my own business when a message came across my phone that I'd made a sale on Etsy. (YEA!!)  Making a sale on Etsy is one of my very favorite things.  I do a little happy dance in my head.  If I'm home, I do an actual happy dance outside my head, as well.  Etsy encourages that because the app provides a rather realistic cash register sound when the volume is up on the phone.  That is a very happy sound.  The volume wasn't up this time, which was good because dancing right then would have been highly inappropriate. But the push notification is happy too!

I hastily clicked over to see what had sold.  I didn't even really get to see which piece it was, though, because I didn't make it past the message from the buyer.  I  nearly dropped the phone when I read it.  It looked kind of like this to my eyes:

 ::commence hyperventilation::

::search for paper bag::

Okay. 

Seriously.  

This doesn't happen to me.  

I was pretty sure I was being punked.  But it looked real.  I got the real message from Etsy. The art was actually sold.  The verbiage didn't seem like it could have been written by my son or my husband.  There was a legitimate address and a phone number and THIS PERSON WANTED ME TO CALL HER... ON THE PHONE!!

::puts head between knees and breathes into paper bag::

After some practice introductions with myself, I called the number and spoke to a very nice and very businesslike television art buyer who tried her best to explain it all to me.  She pretended not to notice how it seemed as if English might not have been my first language.  I appreciated that.  

A lot.  

The rest is kind of blurry but included contracts and releases and some kind of tax form to sign, which all got included with the painting in the overnight FedEx delivery the very next day.  Television moves very fast.


After the art was on its way, I ran over to Hulu.com and began a marathon catch up of Nashville, a show I had never seen.  I spent almost the whole time looking over the shoulders of the actors at the art on the walls.  There's a great article in Nashville Arts Magazine here about how art is used on the set.  My art is going to be in Rayna's daughter Daphne's room.  The episode is scheduled to air Wednesday, March 19 at 9 CST.

So that's it.  My art is going to be on television. (Eeek!)  I'm not really sure what that means, though.  It may only show up in super slow-mo or with someone's head in the way or barely visible in the dark.

Here's the thing, though. 

I don't even care.  

Someone I've never met went to Etsy looking for art to decorate a little girl's room. She entered her search terms, which no doubt resulted in hundreds of offerings.  Of those hundreds of thumbnails, something about my painting sparked that person's interest and spoke to her and told her it was made for that little (fictionalized) girl. 

That's it right there.  That's why I make art.  I'm so grateful for that. 

Look for "Songbird" somewhere in Daphne's room on March 19.  I would love to hear from you if you see it! 

And thanks for being here so that I can tell you about it!  I'm also grateful for you!

<3 Lori

sNOw Days

So....we had TWO snow days this week.  Where I live, most of the time, snow days are not really for snow. They are for ice.  The highway department around here doesn't have a lot of fancy equipment for the roads because we don't get bad weather often enough. Besides, it's a good excuse to stay home and eat too many carbs and drink too much hot chocolate.

I was just observing on Monday about how I couldn't find a way to get inspired unless I'm at work where I can't do art.  It's so weird. So here I was with three free days (including today) and I have done almost NO art.  I don't get it!! 

I did work in my planner a little bit. I need to do a blog post about it. It's so fun!   I'll show you tomorrow (which will force me to do a little more art in order to have more to show you).

I cleaned my house and put on my new bedding. (I'm not done with the room yet.  I know I need more color and more decor.  I'm doing some art.....as soon as I get inspired.)  We've been in this house for seven years.  It's usually about this time that we decide to move. I figured buying new bedding and rearranging the furniture is cheaper than moving.

I spent a lot of time on Pinterest trying to get inspired by looking at other people's art.
 

While I was messing around on Pinterest, I fell in love with French Bulldogs. Oh my goodness! I want one!

Image found on Pinterest, Tumblr, Instagram..basically all over the internet

And I spent some time shopping at JetPens and Ikea and got this cool stuff:

Hmmm...I guess I was more productive than I thought. :)

Maybe my mojo will be back tomorrow in time for at least a little art making before I have to go back to work on Monday.  What do you do when you creativity takes a hike?  I need some help.

<3 Lori

Full Circle

Some time in the Spring of 2011, I was sitting on the porch on a warm sunny morning looking at a magazine I'd borrowed from my mom.  I'd never heard of it, but it only took a few minutes to fall in love with it.  It was called Somerset Studio. Since then, I've become very familiar with not only Somerset Studio but also all the other magazines that Stampington publishes (and there are a number of them).  In fact, I may have a little bit of a problem.

It was in that Somerset Studio that I first learned about Kelly Rae Roberts.  After reading the article about her life and her art, I went to her website and learned that her Flying Lessons class was about to begin.  Registration for that class was my first step toward starting LeissnerArt.

I received an envelope in the mail yesterday with this label.  I dug it out of the trash because I realized I needed to save it.

This was the letter inside.

GreenCraft is a Stampington magazine which highlights the virtues of reducing, reusing and recycling.  If you want to know how to use soda pop tops to make jewelry, this is your source.  If you want to know how to make cuff bracelets from Styrofoam hamburger packaging, you can find that here, too.

And, this month, you can also learn how to convert cigar boxes into Blessing Boxes!

Being published in a Stampington magazine has been a goal of mine since the beginning. I guess this is what they call "full circle".  Thanks for being here to share it with me. 

May the good Lord bless you with some dreams come true, too.

<3 Lori

Organized!

Organize is not my word of the year, but I always like to start the year off a little less chaotically than I end it. Lucky for me, my life is often such a mess, it's not too hard to improve a lot.

Here's a big truth nugget:  I lovelovelove when people like the stuff I make enough to buy it. It makes my heart soar.  I sing and dance and am happyhappyhappy...for about five minutes. Then I realize I'm going to have to mail it to them.  In a box.  Using tape and bubble wrap and more tape (which I can never ever ever ever find no matter how many fancy dispensers or how many economy sized rolls I buy) and it needs to look cute and there needs to be a thank you note and I have to remember an invoice and I have to go the post office where I have to wait in line behind the woman who apparently has 876577 grandchildren who all live in remote villages on other continents. ::vigorouslybangsheadondesk::

I have been doing shipping in the most disorganized way possible, I'm sure, because I'm an over-achiever like that.  I basically dumped every possible shipping item into a brown paper bag (at least it had a handle) and dragged it all back and forth to work with me.  At about 4:45 each day I would finally remember there was something I was supposed to do, at which point I would tap the side of my head with my forefinger and think, "Hmmmm, what was that?"  My brain would eventually screech, "MAIL!!!!!!". I would jump out of my chair, grab my paper sack and furiously commence creating a nightmarish mess of tape, paper bits, torn cardboard, crumpled tissue paper, twine and who knows what all else might have ended up in those packages...except sweat. There was probably a lot of sweat. Sorry about that.

I decided to do something about it because, honestly, I can't afford any more brain cells.

I shopped around my own house for the sweet fake wall made of old screen doors (which my handy man brought upstairs for me and cut to fit), the record stand I got at a yard sale for $1, and some bins and baskets; got a couple things at Walmart and an official shipping scale from Sam's.

 Behold my new shipping station upstairs! (Do you hear the angels singing?)

I'm all set now.  I'm going to be a wrapping fool.  Y'all go order something.

<3 Lori

The Winner!

The winner of the Limb Chop giveaway is Sofia Dabalsa! Thanks so much to everyone who shared your words with me.  Wishing you all a blessed and happy New Year!