A Jar of Bees

Summer school

Published on May 16, 2010 in Uncategorized. 1 Comment

Driving down to F-burg this afternoon. I do not want to goooooo.

That’s not quite true. I’m getting pretty bored. Everyone who keeps saying I’ll have fun at summer school is probably right. I’m rooming with one of my best friends, we’ll be living in an air-conditioned apartment, and I don’t think I’ll hate my classes.

BUT, I might have gone to Europe! I might have gone to Germany, gotten 4 credits of my major out of the way, and well, experienced more Europe. I lived in Wiesbaden, Germany when I was 8 to when I was 12. I want to visit many of the places I don’t remember or didn’t appreciate. And I want to visit the places I didn’t get to visit when I was there (mostly Italy.) But, because only two people signed up for the program, I do not get to go to Europe, and will not unless I get a job that allows me to travel. And without those 4 credits, I’ll have to design an independent study course. Because I need 12 more credits in my German major, and there is only 1 intensive offered per semester. x_x
*sigh* Oh well. Hopefully I can figure out something I’ll like. Something involving WWI, I figure. We have about over 9000 books on the subject here, including some primary sources.

Anyway. I won’t be taking any needlework to summer school. I’m taking Design Principles, which means I’ll have enough art to do. Also, my needlework chest is big and a bitch to transport. According to Ms. Art Major of Chibi Charms infamy, DiBella is an awesome professor. Expect the next few weeks of posts to be about assigned projects. With some Greek/Roman mythology thrown in (taking Classics too.)

Can’t stop rereading Jim Butcher’s Dresden Crack. Need a new series. I think I’ll try Discworld.

Continuation of last year’s projects

Published on May 7, 2010 in Dream log and Needlework. 0 Comments

Ever have a brilliant idea, but then you look at it and realize it will be work, so you just stop?
That never happens to me. Ever. o_e [/extreme sarcasm]
This has been my attitude lately when it comes to drawing and inkscaping. Which is alright. Much easier to concentrate on abandoned needlework projects when starting a new inkscape project seems so annoyingly hard. And there’s no Iron Avatarist this month.

So, I started this several months ago, as an attempt to make something that is not a pillow. If it succeeds, it will look like a 20-sided die, and it will be turned into a keychain.

Gold edges and numbers, purple filling. I downloaded one of those foldable templates and transferred it to cloth, which I will stiffen and fold once the embroidery is done. This has a very high chance of failing horribly. The first time I tried something similar, the cloth collapsed and the glue didn’t hold and it ended up a mess.

It looks a lot better in that picture than it is. *feels ashamed*

But the concept remained intact! I’m using a smaller stitch and a different template. I’d hoped that the satin stitch might help keep the panels straight, but it just wasn’t good material for folding. This time around I’m using even softer cloth, and a more flexible stitch, which seems absolutely counterproductive, but I’ve bought some iron-on backing that might do the job of keeping the fabric stiff. I hope it works out better. If it does those silly geeky folks I tend to hang out with might want one. And once they decry its uselessness, and I lament its cost to manufacture compared to the price they’d want to pay, I will go back to making pillows and framed samplers. If it doesn’t, well, lesson learned, never try anything new! =D

I had a dream last night about the border between life and death. It’s in Corolla, North Carolina. With dragons and pirate skeletons, it’s hard to go wrong.
Every dream I’ve had this week has featured one of my classes from last semester. Library Science is next. Clearly I miss school.

Hallo.

Published on May 6, 2010 in Dream log. 0 Comments

The class is over, but I’m just starting.
Hi!
This blog will be about my various artsy endeavors, especially my needlepoint. I will also talk about my life sometimes. The name “A Jar of Bees” is a mystery, even to me.
Fangen wir an!

The summer begins, and so begin a deluge of projects that I may never complete!
Most of what I make are pillows. I’ve made a gallery of my needlework. It isn’t quite complete, as much of my products are made as gifts, and I did not start photographing them until recently, but it’s a fairly good sample. For the vast majority of my projects I use DMC cotton floss on linen evenweave.

Pictures and descriptions of my more recent endeavors when I find my camera.

That’s all I can say for now! Oh, and for those interested, my dream log has updated.

Reflection

Published on April 27, 2010 in Uncategorized. 0 Comments

This course was practically built for me. I joked with my friend a few years ago that if there was a class about the internet, I would completely own at that course. Of course, when I first said that, I was overestimating my ability to complete a project like a webcomic in a timely fashion. That is something I regret. I wish I’d chosen a text-based project, because I do have a story I’d like to tell, I’m just not the artist I wish I was. I’m very glad my dream blog was appreciated, even if I didn’t write it for this class. I would have cross-posted that as my digital story, but I was slightly worried that I’d go an entire semester with only 1 or 2 blog-worthy dreams. Then I only created a grand total of 4 worthy comics.
I didn’t particularly enjoy the articles at the beginning of the semester, but they were a good introduction to what we were doing with Web 2.0. The technical stuff at the beginning was challenging, but not insurmountable. I’ve been wanting my own website for a while, though, so that could be just me and my eagerness to learn exactly what we were covering. A good part of this course was learning about different websites and tools that exist for creative purposes. The 60 tools for digital storytelling, Picnik, Audacity, Wordle, these are great tools that I didn’t know about. Comicpress, too. And one of the most excellent things was exposure to new blogs and digital stories to read.
Of the class projects, I think my favorites were the Audacity projects and the Jing project. Both of them were surrounded by technical issues (Audacity made my overheating and unhappy computer crash the first time, and the videos from Jing took 24 hours to upload) but the assignments and the projects were good and fun ideas. My least favorite of the projects was the video one, I thought the clips we had to choose from were too limiting. One problem that I noticed, something that got better in the second half of the semester, was the deadline issue. Often enough the assignments wouldn’t get posted or I wouldn’t see them until Wednesday, and the project was due Thursday. But once we started getting into the more difficult stuff, mid-semester, that got much better.
I did mean it when I said this was my favorite course this semester. This was an awesome experience. Thank you for a good time!

This blog post has schizophrenia!

Published on April 13, 2010 in Uncategorized. 1 Comment

I still owe you guys a comic. There’s only one left to complete this 1 dream story. I’ve not been the most productive comic artist, and for this I apologize.

…. HEY LOOK, A DISTRACTION

Last week I drew this for a Giant in the Playground contest.

A Rabbi, a Priest and a Buddhist Monk walk into a bar

The theme this month is “jokes”.

Here’s a Wordle of my dream log!

Also, Im Juli is my new favorite movie, and you should watch it. If you like/don’t mind foreign flicks and/or romantic movies.

Also also, FUCK YOU JIM BUTCHER! STOP CACKLING AT US AND FINISH WRITING GHOST STORY! DON’T WRITE MORE CODEX ALERA, I DON’T CARE, YOU CAN’T JUST LEAVE ME WITH THAT CLIFFHANGER FOR A YEAR! YOU BASTARD!
…. The above might make more sense to you if you read The Dresden Files and have read the most recent book, Changes.
Am I allowed to curse on my blog?

*deep breathes* Ok, next post will be a comic.

Videos that might work.

Published on April 2, 2010 in Uncategorized. 0 Comments

My screencast. It’s wide, so I’m linking it.
Eltville

The video Kayla and I made

Also, some idiots in Oklahoma

And back to my German paper. x_x

Some links

Published on March 23, 2010 in Uncategorized. 1 Comment

Here’s a video from me and Kayla about doing one’s homework.

Remember Merton from last class? Well here’s a tribute to Merton from Ben frickin’ Folds. (I <3 Ben Folds)

And I believe I owe y’all one of these.

Mom, Moonie and the torn ACL

Published on March 17, 2010 in Digital Storytelling. 0 Comments

It’s a little late because I had to recover the files that disappeared when my computer broke on Monday, but here is my mother telling us about when she fell from her horse. You can hear my parrot and my father in the background. My microphone is awful, but my mother’s sound is great.