happies 'round the web

I decided to take a break today from articles around the web and found some lovely happies to bring a little cheer to your Friday. Enjoy! 

envelopes :: I'm already married, but these wedding envelopes with the fantastic insiders are gorgeous. I'm pretty sure that I could find other ways to make this happen.

 greeting card :: Genevieve Santos is easily one of my most favorite artists ever. I'm about to fill my house with her work.

journal :: I love all of em-dash's journals. This is so happy. I would be so inspired every time I opened it up!

stationery :: I'm not entirely sure if it's possible to go wrong buying anything from the Rifle Paper Company.

books I want to read

I would like to take this opportunity to admit that I'm a book worm. If I could live in the creases of a novel, I would. I've long been an advocate of building apartments on top of a Barnes & Noble or Half-Price. I would live there - in a heartbeat.

My goal this year was to read 36 books. I'm rather behind on that goal. Life happens. I'm currently 5 books behind, but perhaps I'll be able to squeeze in these books below this year. A majority of them have to do with art, creativity, ideas, and productivity. But I am venturing out with a little fiction in there too!

Do you have any recommendations of what I should add to my reading list??

art is work.

Have you ever felt frustrated?

I mean like seriously frustrated?

Like you could throw your computer out the window or rip apart leather with your bare hands or smash something against the wall? (I promise I'm not a violent person...)

Maybe a fantastic project isn't working out or your great idea might not be all that great anymore. Maybe you've encountered problems that seem insurmountable or even dangerous.

I found myself there just yesterday. I hope that I'm not the only one who has sat on their couch crying their eyes out because their friend from high school's Instagram feed is a whole lot prettier and more creative than yours. (Can I get an amen? I'm just going to pretend that all of you reading this are nodding your head in agreement.)

But, here's truth: Art is work. Keep going. 

Ask any "creative" and they've been there too. Anyone trying to do anything of value encounters this. Art is messy and art is slow.

I was reading "Imagine" by Jonah Lehrer and this statement from one of the artists he interviewed hit me hard: 

"There is no such thing as creative types....Art is work."

I think that I always believed that art was magical. That if I just was in the right place at the right time, it would hit me. My great idea, my genius invention would just come. That I had to do no work, no thinking, no planning.

Wrong.

Art is work. There is planning and failing and frustration and loss and successes and experimenting.

Art and work are tied so closely together that ignoring the connection would be ridiculous. 

Right now, I'm working on this 6 month experiment and staring at strings and leather and yarn and wondering what the heck I'm doing. Last night, I even broke down for the 18th billion time about what I'm doing with my life and how I even fit in as a creative living in the suburbs.

But, over and over again, I tell myself (and my husband sweetly reminds me): I'm working. I'm working on art, dang it. And it's not pretty and it's not fast and it's not always magical. But, it's worth it. It's worth the sweat, the extra trips to the craft store, the late nights. It's worth it.

I truly want to change the world. I truly want to help eliminate poverty through creativity. The only way that I can do that is to get to work.

Do you ever feel this way? Do you agree or disagree that art is work?

some happies 'round the web

It's been a crazy week, but still productive.  I'm closing it off with a bang this Friday with a nice 2 mile jog/walk and paying quarterly sales tax (yay.) How are you ending your week?

Here are a few highlights from the Internet from this past week. Enjoy!

A little female empowerment... (I haven't looked at the rest of this site, so I don't necessarily endorse the site, just the article! :) )

Do small things..and be okay with it.

This learning by giving class recommended by my friend Ginger sounds amazing. Even though the deadline is past, maybe I can hit it up if they have another one?

Have a happy weekend! Mine will consist of pulling weeds and finally finishing decorating our entry way. Are you doing anything fun?

i wrote a book! {and other news}

After a year of writing, editing and a healthy dose of blood, sweat, and tears, I finally released a girl's devotional book for the teenagers in our youth group.

This November will mark my four year anniversary with our youth group and in this time, I've found that a lot of these girls want to know how to love God and to love other people well. So, I divided the book into two parts to talk about those two things. It's a 30 day devotional, so you can walk through it in a month. (And no, that is not my ear or braid on the front cover!)

My wee little book truly only scratches the surface, but it's a start. Even though I wrote it with teenage girls in mind, I think it could be helpful for all of us. It is based on the Bible after all. ;)

Click on the link below or right click to download it.

Download it here 

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In other news, I've been slightly absent from the blog because of several things. Mainly, I got a horrible bacterial infection (a cold gone bad) and youth camp for a whole week. We had a great time, but I'm ready to get back into a routine!

So, I'll be back with more blog posts soon!! Hope you all are doing wonderfully. :)