Distracted by Breakfast

I woke up early today with a list of random tasks I wanted to complete. Jarrod was still snug in bed. I should have grabbed a piece of toast & plopped myself into our living room chair with my laptop. Should have. Instead I was distracted by breakfast. This happens quite often on weekend mornings. This particular morning I paged through the new cookbook I had gotten for Christmas, Cook What You Love, by Bob & Melinda Blanchard (my heroes!), and was sucked in by the excerpt about breakfast in bed. I daydreamed of a bringing Jarrod breakfast in bed & him loving it. I forgot during this daydream that my favorite meal is breakfast - not Jarrod's. Maybe I should have made him lunch in bed. Ah well, breakfast is so much more fun to make than cheese sandwiches!

During my daydream I ended up making Orange-Currant Muffins (pg 18); however, I substituted raisins for the currants. We spread homemade apple butter from Leslie on them when they were still warm & enjoyed some fresh fruit on the side. I even pulled out the China to dine from, which offset the Scobby-Doo muffin papers!

Baby Scheunemann's Creativity.

I sporadically listen to podcasts from Accidental Creative. Multiple times Todd Henry, the owner of Accidental Creative, has made comments about his children being a creative inspiration. With my first child on the way I suddenly thought, "I am going to be able to tap into this new creative resource! How very exciting!"

When preparing for the birth of a child a new parent hears millions of suggestions on what to do, when to do it & exactly how to do it. When all of these suggestions are compiled you have yourself a list of rules on how to raise a child. Even with all these well intended suggestions no one can really prepare you for this new person you are about to meet. A new person. Someone with their own personality, their own quirks & most of all their own unhindered creativity. Todd & Ricardo Crespo discussed how "kids just create to create" during a recent interview (AC #138). And that "their lives haven't been filled with rules on how to be creative - they just express themselves." When do you think your child-like creativity was squashed? Or have you been able to hold onto a part of it as you have aged?

I'm excited to see the world through new eyes - eyes that haven't been hindered by creative rules & assumptions. And most of all, I'm excited to be inspired by Baby Scheunemann.

Christmas Postcards.

I'm so excited about our Christmas Postcards this year that I thought I would post them here for everyone to see. Jarrod wrote the poem & picked out the photo from Turkey Run State Park in Indiana. And I designed it. Teamwork by the Scheunemanns. Merry Christmas to all!

Blue Columbine.

I wrapped up this painting this past Saturday. Just in time since it needs to be dry for the buyer to take to Wisconsin for Christmas. The buyer had seen the Purple Columbine painting I did awhile back & requested the same composition only in blue. I feel that this photo doesn't give the inner pedals the attention they deserve. Creating depth while keeping the pedals a soft blue was quite a challenge; however, after applying a couple of pastel blue glazes using a fan brush the pedals came to life! I'm very happy with the final piece.

Suggested Reading.

Tribes - We Need You to Lead Us by Seth Godin
I just finished this book. A new view on the world of marketing. Quite enlightening. I suggest that you check it out. Or you can check out Accidental Creative's podcast with the author, Seth Godin. Enjoy!

Exciting News!

Text message From: Cody Repovsch
The cavalier is over 250 k!!!
2:08 FriNov14

Operation Stimulus 2009

This year Operation Stimulus's organizers have decided to do some promotion before the flyer that usually goes out in December. I was able to create the web banners that are shown above along with some other promotional pieces that are still in the works.

Check It Out.

Designer Tools
www.lulu.com - a self publishing site. I've always wanted to publish my own book & now it is easy using Lulu's services!

www.sxc.hu - stock.xchng - free stock photography. Need I say more?

Music
www.pandora.com - Beth Woods told me about this site awhile back. You type in your favorite artist & then the site plays their music & other artists like them. A good way to find new music.

Money
www.quickenonline.intuit.com - Quicken Online- Mr. Budget Jr. is always looking for ways to stretch our dollar further. This free program helps you set monthly goals by taking your past spending habits into account. It can do a bunch of other neat things too, like make pie charts! Mmmm I like pie.

Last trip to Wisconsin

I traveled up to Wisconsin for the final time without a car seat strapped in my backseat over the weekend of October 24-26. Jarrod & Jessie toured around the state seeing friends, attending their coed baby shower & picking out this year's Christmas tree from my favorite mechanics Christmas Tree Farm. Baby Scheunemann sure seems to be a big deal. I am secretively hoping that he/she will sleep best when going for a ride so I can hang out with him/her more!

Hope to see you all when the baby arrives.
Love, the Corolla

Operator Error?

A couple of weeks back I ordered gobs of photos from snapfish. The excitement I used to feel when I would go pick up my prints up from camera casino returned when the package arrived at my doorstep. I opened the package. Started flipping through over one-hundred prints. As I flipped I got more & more disappointed. The photos were dark. They lacked any sort of contrast. I was confused. I blamed snapfish. There was no way this was operator error.

Well.... it looks like the problem may indeed be operator error. This past weekend we went over to Turkey Run State Park in Indiana &, as always, I took my camera. On the hour ride over to the park I decided to do some investigation. My investigation began by reading about Selecting a Picture Style in my Digital Rebel XTi owners manual. I slowly learned that my camera was set on Faithful.

Faithful
This is for users who prefer to process images with their personal computer. (aka the user never wants to print them)... The image is dull and subdued.

Awesome. I have no idea how long the camera has been set to Faithful, which is a misleading label if you ask me! I'm guessing at least since last December, since those were the oldest photos I had printed. I've now begun switching the picture style setting between Portrait & Landscape accordingly. I will be printing some more photos (maybe not gobs this time!) to see if the problem was indeed operator error.

CrossTraining 08 Brochure

As I have mentioned in the past I am hoping to update the portfolio section of jessiemariestudio.com at some point. Until that point comes, I will be posting current projects here on the blog. Above is the CrossTraining Brochure that I recently completed. Also check out the combined efforts of my graphics with Dave Shepherd's website magic for the conference at http://glw.intervarsity.org/wi/ct08/

A change needed to be made.

Well, with a baby on the way changes need to be made. Number one is the way I was blogging for Jessie Marie Studio. Even though I was learning a lot of html, I figured for ease of posting in a more timely manner I should join blogger.com. So check back often for updates on the Corolla (doing well... just got a wash & wax last weekend), Kyt (guzzing gasoline with the best of them... but quite handy for hauling new baby gifts around), Jarrod (he is currently growing a bead for winter), Jessie (she is currently growing a baby for winter!) & Baby Scheunemann (due to arrive around the 8th of January).

BTW I was currently asked how the Caviler has been. The Caviler is doing well. Over 200,000 odd miles driven. Cody did have a bit of a scare last week after having to get him towed. Cody called us because he thought it was the end of the road for the Caviler & he knew Roy wanted to know the final milage.... but no worries the gas gauge had broke & he had just ran out of gas! So after filling him up at the pump all is well.