I’m so ridiculously proud of this photo. Even though it doesn’t necessary look that impressive, I look at it and I smile. Why?

Because it’s the first time I mastered a low-light photo. It’s the first time I managed to stand perfectly still with a wide open aperture and a really slow shutter, and get my shot. It’s one of the first times where I had an idea and managed to execute it just the way I imagined it, versus being pleasantly surprised with happy accidents.

It feels pretty damn good, let me tell you.

And that got me thinking about recognizing other small achievements. Ladies and gents, I think we’ve got a theme for the next Color Palette Blog Walk!

Remember those? It’s been a while, I know, so if you’re new here or have forgotten, a Color Palette Blog Walk is a blog hop where every participant takes a photo based around a theme, then creates a color palette (or several) from it. You in?

Here’s the details for Round 4:

• The date: Wednesday, June 6th, 2012. Every participant will post together on the same day, and we’ll all hop around to see each other’s palettes!
• The theme: Achievements. This can be anything that you’re super proud of – a new technique learned, a recent weight loss, an acceptance letter, a new recipe conquered – whatever achievement, big or small, that makes you smile.
• The photo(s) you use should be taken by you.
• You can have as many color palettes as you want, but please put them all in one post.
• It’s up to you how your color palette looks as far as number of colors or swatch shapes – get creative and make it your own!
• Need to learn how to make a palette? Click over to this Tip Share, or grab a freebie palette.
• If you don’t have Photoshop/Photoshop Elements, but would like to participate, go ahead and sign up. I can help make your palette for you.
• Buttons are at the bottom, so scroll past the sign up form to grab one.
• To sign up, fill out the form below. This is only so I can keep track of all of the participants, and email everyone the full list for our reveal posts. Your info is safe with me – I really hate spam myself. And if you’re viewing this in a feed reader and can’t see the form, click on over to the post.
• You’ve got until Monday, May 28th, to sign up.

Sign up right here:

Grab a button:

Right-click and Save As to download one.

200px x 100px

200px x 100px

Got a question? Let me know. If not, hope to see you sign up! Tell your color-loving friends, too!

If you’re a paper lover, there’s new blog called Fresh Rag you should check out. Have you heard of it?

Fresh Rag is the brainchild of my art buddy Dave Conrey. If the name sounds familiar, he stopped by for an interview here last year, then again earlier this year to share his thoughts on when to hire a graphic designer.

By day, Dave works in the print media industry. Being so involved with art direction and magazines, he’s noticed how digital media is slowly overwhelming print. But the love for printed material and paper goods is still strong, both for consumers and artists, so Dave started Fresh Rag as a way to highlight the awesome things people make and do with paper.

What I love best about Fresh Rag is what the About page says – it is not your momma’s paper blog. This is a blog meant to be a little gritty, and I love that. I love seeing a guy’s perspective on art, especially since there is a ton of gorgeous blogs and websites out there run by us ladies. How about you?

To read more, hop on over to FreshRag.com and subscribe to the RSS feed (which is good idea since Dave publishes new content a few times a day). You can also find Fresh Rag on Twitter, Facebook, and Pinterest, too.

I completely underestimated how difficult it is to take sharp, in-focus photos from a moving car until I tried it.

Even when the driver obliges by slowing down to around 20 mph, I’ve discovered it’s still not easy. Which is humbling when you think you may finally, after 2 years, be getting the hang of manual photography, and then something comes along to show you there’s always more to learn.

I’ve got a lot going on this week, so I’m keeping today’s post short. Current projects include an update to my An Artist’s Guide to Pricing ebook, setting up round 4 of the Color Palette Blog Walk, a couple graphic projects for client friends, and a brand new project that I hope to launch in a few weeks, which was inspired by my most recent D.C. trip. Despite the spinning brain, it feels great to be busy! Know what I mean?

P.S. Can you spot the random garden gnome in a photo above? I think it’s an adorable surprise.

P.P.S. These photos were taken on a trip to a few Virginia wineries. Virginia has somewhere around a hundred wineries, which I found not only impressive, but delightful. No real photos of said wineries other than small, growing vines in fields because I had other things on mind. You understand.

One of my new favorite shops is Yellow Heart Art, run by the super adorable Leonora, and I had to share it today.

Leonora’s a graphic designer based in New York, and what I love about her shop is that it’s just plain fun. Her prints are quirky, delightful, and never fail to bring a smile to my face. I’ve got her My Hair Isn’t Messy, It’s Just Erupting With Awesome print and it makes me giggle (because it’s true – my hair is quite awesome right now). Sometimes, it’s great to see designs with a little bit of whimsy.

To see more, or to connect with Lenore, you can stop by her shop, visit her blog, or follow her on Twitter.

Photo Sources:

• SHHH, not while I’m crafting print
• I make pretty things all day print
• Today I will do awesome amazing things print
• You’re my most favorite piece of art print

You know that niggling feeling that you forgot to do something, but can’t remember exactly what that something is? Yeah, that was me this morning when I forgot to publish this post.

In my head, since I had made the color palettes yesterday, I thought I was done. Because, usually, as soon as the palettes are made, they go into a post… to avoid forgetting that I had already done them. And yesterday, I was off my game. Distractions abounded and lack of focus kept snapping at my heels, and I got halfway through making these two palettes before I realized I had already done a palette that was saved and ready to go. I liked these better and so I scrapped the first one – problem solved!

But then I was trying to watch two baseball games, three basketball games, and plan a family vacation while shooting off emails and doing research for my next project, and the posting part slipped my mind. Oops! Multitasking is a total myth over here.

I can’t remember what I was going to say about these that I didn’t say yesterday, so I’ll simply wish you a Happy Mother’s Day! Have a great weekend!

If you ever get a chance to go to the Library of Congress, go.

Seriously, the ceiling alone is worth an in-person look. The architecture, the sculptures, the murals, and a recreation of Thomas Jefferson’s library are lovely bonuses. Every place you look there’s something gorgeous to see.

It reminds me a little of Grand Central Terminal, in that from the outside, it’s lots of gray, then when you walk inside, pow! Color. But it’s even more intense, because there’s just more to see everywhere you look. Quotes all along the walls, tucked in between murals of the seasons. Mosaics on the lower level’s ceiling of authors. Grand staircases, and marble all over the place. And the round reading room? Incredible!

No photos of the inner library, because it’s not allowed. In fact, the only way to view it is to walk through a balcony covered with plexiglass, which gave me a ‘close, but not close enough’ feeling. I was so tempted to chance a photo, except the tour guides/docents were trying to rush us through for a VIP tour, so they were not in the mood (and I didn’t want to get thrown out). I did hear, however, that Ph.D. students have to reserve study space a year in advance; it would totally be worth it, though, to visit.

What about you? Ever been to the Library of Congress?

Confession: I spent an embarrassing amount of time editing these photos yesterday, mostly because I couldn’t decide what kind of look I wanted. Maybe a little faded, maybe a little pink, maybe a little bright, maybe a little blurry. Forty-seven rounds later, I called it ‘good enough,’ but had to throw in a mental ‘for now’ so that my perfectionist side would be appeased enough to let me continue on my day. So, if it looks as if it’s all a little bit of everything, you’re right.

Because I’m Indecision Girl!

But anyways.

I love walking around D.C. I love the architecture and the history most; we just don’t make buildings quite like this anymore. And we definitely don’t have much in the way of this style of architecture in North Texas, so it’s a novelty to me.

These photos show a walk that started at the National Archives, wound around and across the mall, then down to the Jefferson Memorial, and halfway back up. Insert groan here, and here’s why: the exact distance from the Archives to the Jefferson Memorial, in case you aren’t sure, is far, which, if you’re wildly out of shape like me, turns the distance from far to excruciating-and-ohmigod-I-can’t-really-breathe-let’s-stop-and-yeah-I-know-we-just-took-a-break-humor-me-here. It’s scientifically proven.

Clearly, I’m super fun to take a walking tour with. What makes it all hilarious was that I was the one who pretty much came up with said walking tour itinerary. So ridiculous, I know.

But one thing the taxi drivers in D.C. might keep in mind – some people who trek out to the Jefferson Memorial might be desperate enough to pay for a ride back to the nearest Metro station. I would have pretty much paid anything for a ride back, let me tell you. Food for thought, D.C. taxi drivers, think it over.

Remember my 12 Days of Digital Freebies I did last Christmas? Remember this social media icon set I made?

It’s been a popular download, which awesome, but I got a request for a social media set that included Pinterest and Instagram. Apparently is harder to find than you would expect, given the popularity of both sites. To which I said, you got it.

I’ve updated the original set with icons for Instagram, Artfire, and Etsy. All of the sites now represented are: Artfire, Etsy, Facebook, Flickr, Google+, Instagram, LinkedIn, Email, Pinterest, RSS, StumbleUpon, Tumblr, Twitter, Vimeo, and YouTube.

I stuck to the individual logo colors for this set, though I’ve been thinking about whipping up other social media icons. If I do, is there a particular shape (like a square or rectangle) or size you prefer? Do you like the original logo colors, or would you prefer customized colors? Is there a site you love to use that I didn’t include? I’d love to hear your thoughts, if you get a chance.

To download the updated set, click here. Enjoy!

If you’re not familiar with artBLISS, it’s a weekend of jewelry and mixed media workshops that Cindy and Jeanette put on twice a year. A smaller workshop is held in May (next weekend, actually), and the big workshop weekend is in the fall.

Both Cindy and Jeanette wanted a fresh look that closer matched their vision of what artBLISS is; after several rounds, we ended up choosing a vintage Americana color palette/theme; since artBLISS is held in the Washington D.C. area, it totally made sense. Cindy and Jeanette also wanted a theme that was flexible, since they’d like to include other types of classes in the future, in addition to jewelry classes.

With that in mind, I worked up a layered banner with textured elements. I wanted it to feel vintage, rustic, and worn, but not heavy or dark. Knowing that general art classes might be offered in the future, I used a lot of paper elements and artistic splashes of paint rather than jewelry supplies and beads. Teresa McFayden had created the lovely star doodles, so I worked those into the banner and logo, then added red stripes to bring a little Americana into it without being overwhelmingly patriotic or kitschy. We kept the background simple and light, and a few custom buttons later, we were done.

Then, after weeks of brainstorming and tweaking and decisions, the website went live! Even though I completely missed Cindy’s announcement since I was out of town, it’s awesome to see the website in full – live and working and with content on it. I’m really proud of my part in putting everything together, and I think it looks fantastic.

What do you think? Anyone planning on going to artBLISS this year?

This trip to D.C., we made it a point of heading up to King Street in Old Town Alexandria, which was awesome and packed full of small boutique shops and restaurants and art galleries. It was definitely picturesque, and I carried my camera (and big, heavy camera bag – groan) around everywhere we went, but I don’t have too many photos to show for it – I guess was having so much fun to take it out much.

If you ever make it to Old Town Alexandria, here are a couple notable stops: Olio – a olive oil tasting room (loved!!), the Bilbo Baggins – a pub with an awesome name (I kept expecting round hobbit doors, but they sadly didn’t have any), and the Torpedo Factory Art Center – which is an old torpedo factory that’s been converted to artists’ galleries/studios/shops and an art school/learning center.

I miss the Torpedo Factory the most, because I’m jealous there’s nothing quite like that near me. I am glad I caught a glimpse of this old-timey candy shop, though, and I had to share it with you today. More photos coming as I can get them edited.

Got any plans for the weekend?

P.S. Just a heads up – if you’re looking to take my Editing with Elements class, the price goes up on Sunday. I’d love to have you!