Ravellenics and Pro-Bono

Well, I definitely forgot how to log in to this blog, it's been so long! How terrible.

Relaxing in the summertime, makes me want to get back into the blogging. I know I'm not terribly good at it. If I were my own student, I'd kick my butt for having such a lousy web presence. So, let's remedy this a bit, shall we?

I've been watching the Olympics like crazy, but not on NBC. No cable means no watching it online. To tell you the truth, I am not the biggest fan of their coverage anyway. Last night during the women's synchronized diving, the focus was squarely on Team USA, and while they did very well taking home the silver (yay!), they did not even show the winning team's (China) reaction to winning and hardly mentioned it at all. It was disappointing, especially to the spirit of the games. So, I've been watching a stream from the UK and it's much more awesome.

Speaking of Olympics, Ravelry is holding the "Ravellenic Games" once again and they asked me to create the icon for the games and for the commemorative pin, so I did!

I'm very happy with how it turned out. You can get yourself a pin if you are inclined, and the proceeds go to the Special Olympics, so you should darn well be inclined! Pre-order yours here.

I wanted to take a minute to talk about pro-bono work. I drill it into my students' heads that they should not work for free. If you depend on client work for your livelihood, or at least a part of it, it doesn't do you any favors to create work for free or for an unethically small amount of money. It devalues their work and puts all of us illustrators in a bad spot. That said, I am all for pro-bono work, i.e. work for a good cause, for something you believe in or want to give your time to. For me, doing this for Ravelry is just that. (If you aren't familiar with Ravelry, it's an amazing online community and resource for fiber arts, mainly knitting.) I am a big-time knitter and I love their site; I probably use it at least a few times a week. I love the community, I love the premise, and I love this event that coincide with the Olympics, in which knitters challenge themselves to finishing a project during the games.
 

In 2008, I volunteered to create a badge icon for the first Ravelympics (now called the Ravellenics). It went over very well, and the owners of Ravelry asked if they could turn it into an enamel pin to sell in their shop with proceeds going towards the Special Olympics. I agreed, and it raised a little money for me and a company I love, and a lot of money for a great charity. I volunteered during 2010 and the same thing happened, only better. This time around? There are over 10,000 participants, which just blows my mind. It's awesome!

 Good things come back around to you. Make yourself available to them.

mush brain

This is a conversation that took place tonight:

"Honey, what's that word you said today?"

"You mean 'Fauvism'?"

"Exactly."

I love out of all the hundreds of words he said today, he knew exactly which one I was searching for.

Also, I have mush for brains right now.

Painting by Andre Derain, who did not have mush for brains.

whoah

Where did the TIME GO?

I've been super busy with school, other school, etc. So much work. I can come up for air in about a month. Really looking forward to doing work for me!

Also, I got a banjo. I wanna play it! Come on!

Bleccch

I've been fighting off a really nasty cold for the past week or so. It will not DIE. I'm really grateful that my schedule is the way that it is right now. Monday I was feeling bad, but went to teach anyway and ended up having a great class, but then came home and died. I spent all of Tuesday and Wednesday in bed, venturing only outside once for more cold medicine. (Seriously, I think cold meds are much, MUCH stronger here than they are in the US.) My throat's been so sore that all I can eat is jello and soup, and I've drank so much hot gingery honey water that I slosh a bit when I move. I finally feel half-way human today but still get tired very easily. This morning as I was lecturing I kept thinking how comfortable that padded model stand looked...if only I could lay down on it...

The weather isn't helping much either, all grey and drizzly. Just want to sleep for a whole week. I haven't done anything productive outside of teaching all week and I feel like a lump. I wanted to do this past week's IF but it's already Friday. I'm definitely going to get a jump start on the next one. This week's theme is "dusty" and I think I have a great idea for it. We'll see if I can finish!

Save your wrists

I found this great video via the comic tools blog. I have been working more than usual and the mouse is taking a toll on my hand. I find knitting breaks help, because it's a different sort of repetitive motion, but this video takes you through some great stretches to prevent tendinitis and other repetitive stress injuries to your hands. Good for anyone who sits at a computer, draws all day or knits.

I'm setting a timer for myself to get up and stretch every hour. I had been feeling a lot of pain in my wrist and forearm and these made it feel much better. It stretches muscles I didn't even know I had! :)

Illustration Friday: Resolution

 

Last week's theme was "resolutions," so I wanted to originally illustrate all of my New Year's resolutions that I made last week. And then a perfect storm of work fell into my lap, and there was no time for that. (In fact, I didn't even get this one done in time to put the link up. Yikes!) So, I went with the first one, "Learn to make a killer Beef Bourguignon."

Which I hope to do soon. Because it would be delicious!

I'm playing with very limited color palettes right now. I like this very warm yellow and brown, it seems yummy and cheery, which I like on these dreary days. And it doesn't take very long, which is great for these little exercises, because I want to keep this up!

New Obsession

New Year's was great. We went out to eat with a friend of ours and then went to an unexpected party at another professor's house, which was a nice surprise. This break has been pretty quiet, it's almost over and we haven't really done a whole lot. We had all these grandiose plans to travel to Portland or at least Seattle, but it didn't really happen, which I am okay with. We may go to the mountains one day this week, but if we don't make it, I won't be heartbroken. We are getting a lot of work done, which is definitely a good way to start off the new year.

I've got a new obsession. It started last night, when I got thoroughly sick of the miles of stockinette stitch on my Cloudy Sunday, which I am thinking about ripping out and starting over anyway, so I found some terribly knitted Noro scarves in the closet and rescued the yarn for a better purpose. I think I made them right after I started learning to knit, and so they really weren't done well and weren't worn very much at all. Noro is too damn expensive and gorgeous to have such a fate.

I was looking for ideas and found some examples of beautiful log cabin blankets, so I immediately cast on for a square. And I could not stop knitting it at ALL, not til many episodes of 30 Rock later. (This may not be great for my new-found productivity. Eh, who needs sleep?) It's so addictive. I have 5 skeins of Noro right now and I think I need about 12 more to complete it, but I'm going to buy them just a couple at a time until this is finished. It's going to be gorgeous and so very warm.

Hello, new obsession.