Thing-a-day.com

The last four days of the month went to hell in a hand basket as far as TAD went, when I learned on Tuesday evening that our campus would be the site of a presidential campaign rally. Since I’m our campus pr/media relations person (and a one-person office at that), things started getting zooey on Wednesday and then became exponentially more so on Thursday and Friday.

From a pr perspective, it was really, really cool to watch how this whole thing came together with very short lead time, and even more cool to be able to help — working with the campaign advance staff, the Secret Service agents, etc. When someone says to me, “This is the end result we need to achieve. Can I just hand this over to you?” I am really good at (and really enjoy) the kind of problem solving and creativity that sometimes needs to be employed.

At the end of the evening, the handful of us campus staff folks who had busted our butts to handle all the logistical issues particular to our site were whisked backstage for a meet/greet/photo op. That was very cool, too.

But the price I paid for all that coolness was zippo production for TAD.

TAD has been a great adventure. It was good to push myself. I became rather obsessive about checking TAD to see everyone’s stuff. There are some folks whose work I’ve really enjoyed that I need to go back and comment on. Thanks, twicks, for getting Dopers on board!

I guess I could reword and repost it here, but why don’t you just head over to my own blog and read my little re-cap and requiem for Thing-a-Day 2008. And you can find out what the hell this thing is:

Thanks for a great month, everyone!

Folks liked this last graph, so I updated it with the latest stats:

Farewell until next year — this was a blast!

I bought a little over half a pound of scallops ($8.10) at market today. eat them while they’re fresh, she told me. they’d just been removed from their shells last night, a lovely image to accompany my purchase. I went on to pretend at buying an obscenely expensive bike and discovered at brooklyn natural that I’m not the only one who can’t identify parsley from cilantro (they look quite different it turns out). at home I lazed about on the couch watching a guilty pleasure movie on tv, until I realized unhappily that my treasures were sitting on my desk, their freshness escaping with every passing moment. later, removing them from the refrigerator, I dropped the bag on the ground. maybe they’ll be more tender now, I thought hopefully. eating them felt like an experiment. were they overcooked, undercooked, just right? I couldn’t tell. I do know they were fun to make and were pleasing to the eye if a bit confusing to the palate.

some eggplant I made on wed when my phone (for taking pictures) was “broken”:

This is really bad, but I could not resist. Plus it satisfies my ego of doing 29 things in Feb. Even if I lose by not doing one on Thursday.

My final Thing is a celebration of completing Thing-a-Day:

Hooray! What a fun, inspiring and altogether awesome experience. I cannot wait to do this again!

From the makers of 26 things, a day in the life project for 29 February. What a neat coincidence. The aim:

do something you’ve never done before and/or always wanted to do - and photograph it! One photo an hour for as long as you’re awake during this leap day

I’m on vacation in Chicago, and I stayed at home. I documented it all in the full flickr set. Summary:

• 0800 - woke up to snow
• 0900 - conference call with work
• 1000 - mmm tea and Tim Tams
• 1100 - Joxer at the window
• 1200 - pasta lunch
• 1300 - snow shoveling, before
• 1400 - snow shoveling, after
• 1500 - relax with a good book
• 1600 - beautiful scenery
• 1700 - preparing dinner
• 1800 - pasta dinner
• 1900 - should I have some strawberries or not
• 2000 - Joxer and the pot
• 2100 - calling mm
• 2200 - work on the set

Just to prove that I have not been completely slacking on Thing-a-Day, here is what I’ve got so far of the baby blanket that started here. More than 60 percent completed! (It’ll be 7 x 7 squares.) Of course, there’s that small matter of the blue square that needs to be ripped and reknit in the correct blue, and then there’s the hours and hours of seaming, but I have to finish all this soon, because the wretched beastie is due sometime in March.

Anyway, I have not been idle. I’ve also been toiling at another public domain clip-art set, which I haven’t yet posted on Flickr.

And on 2/28 I made another pretty good dinner for my mom, a combination of these two recipes—Pork Chops with Mustard Sauce and Pork Chops with Mustard-Cornichon Sauce—but with the addition of mushrooms, and with capers in place of cornichons and white wine in place of chicken stock. Spinach salad and rice on the side.

I also made a couple of decent illustrations for work: on 2/12, I made a sort of homebrew tritone; on 2/18, I tried out a new technique for turning a flat shot into something that looks more lively; and on 2/28 I made the collage that appears on this page, which wasn’t that much Photoshop work in the end, but which did require a surprising amount of image research.

Was this flimsy output what I wanted to achieve during Thing-a-Day 2008? No, but I did make a few things that I would not otherwise have made, and I did discover several other people whose work I really liked, thefabricator and Jason Das, in particular.

It’s been fun. I’ll see you next year.

Ok, I missed the 28th, fair and square. I lucked in a ticket to see the Magnetic Fields, and how could I pass that up? But it meant there was no time for doing between the concert and work. However, it did spark what I did today - well I will explain it later in an edit. I did it partway at work today, and partway waiting for buses for tonight’s Mountain Goats concert.

Edit: at The Magnetic Fields on Thursday Stephin Merritt bantered about Lefty Lucy being a William S. Burroughs character. Well this inspired me to draw her, and her brother, Righty Tighty (yeah it doesn’t work as well). So, here they are:

Lefty Lucy - “I am loose and limber”.

Lefty Lucy is loose and limber. This uses this, as well as her massive left hand to her advantage while stealing from suburban homes. She can slide down chimneys, between doors and jams, or simply smash the door down. If Lefty Lucy is afer your goods, give up - you’re done for!

‘

Righty Tighty - ‘I am rigid. I am Tight!’

Always on time, Righty Tighty is always the first to help a little old lady cross the street. But, do not get on his bad side. Righty Tighty has no place for rule breakers. If he and his sister ever meet again, there will be hell to pay!

I really enjoyed Thing-A-Day. It kept me from realizing it was cold and wintery outside and got me rolling creatively once again after feeling a little burnt out the past couple of seasons. Thing-A-Day reminded me to do something little everyday for myself, even if it doesn’t seem that important.
Although I didn’t post it, yesterday I continued knitting my never-ending scarf and also thought about some long term goals. I plan to keep creatively posting on my own blog here. Although probably every two or three days as I feel posting everyday would lead to repetitive content as I work on my lengthier projects. I guess we’ll see how it goes. I still plan to do something everyday especially when spring kicks in here and my energy levels come back up. (Sometimes I’m convinced I photosynthesize at least some of my energy. Winter has been dragging here thus I’ve been dragging too these past couple of weeks.)

I want to thank everyone for sharing their creativity with me! This has been really inspirational and fun 29 days! I hope to see everyone again next year! Peace out!

Here is my nephew sliding into March. Enjoy.

Ok, this is a little backwards, but I realize that I really oughta nail down what the main character looks like in the comic I’m working on. I already plan in doing some re-drawing, so now’s as good of time as ever, right?

Last thing-a-day… thanks y’all!!

Posts from me will continue on the Germart site and Flickr.

Dear Blog,
Today was a pretty good day.

I made these earrings by cutting up a cd, putting it in the microwave for a few seconds, then baking the crackly bits in the oven for a few minutes.  Drilled holes when they cooled down.

Also, my brother and I made a subversive gingerbread house for Cale’s birthday:
<– Happy house eats happy gingerbread man. Has third eye.
<–Ben was in charge of the candy kill side.
<– My side may be a little more traditional…
<– Yep.

Also, the amaryllis is getting huge!

AND I made my first sale on etsy today! Huzzah!

AND I started an alternate blog, to keep going with this thing-a-day stuff. I suspect it’ll be like a cross between thing-a-day and a photo journal. Whatever form it takes, it’ll be: colorful, illustrated, full of flash photography and a little bit tacky.
If you liked what I did this month, come check it out

http://molliefabric.wordpress.com

I’ve had a great time “getting to know you” through your crafts, you guys, and I do hope to keep in touch with some of you, and keep up with the wonderful things you are making!
Such an amazing body of work here, really.

Cheers to all, see you next year!

… and I’ve decided to take a daily picture this month! They’ll be posted at my Flickr-page.

I have really enjoyed Thing-a-day and will definitely be back next year. The challenge of doing something each day, even when uninspired, sick or exhausted and posting both the good and the crappy stuff was very interesting. I found the time limit to be strangely liberating, because it limited my need for perfectionism.

Making stuff when hurried or in unexpected places (gluing scraps of envelopes together in a roadside restaurant, for example) means that creativity can be anywhere, anyplace, anytime. Plus, writing something in English everyday was nice. I’ve even learned new words, such as curb!

Looking at all the other things was inspiring. I don’t know anything about knitting, crochet, origami and the like, and seeing the possibilities was fascinating… I think there may be a set of fridge magnets in my near future!

Stumbled upon this lovely sight while on a “Shadows & Reflections” hunt today. Such fun!

Thank you TAD for a month of inspiration, support, and commitment. I appreciate all of the time that went into setting this up, and I look forward to another great February next year! You all have made a great impact on my view of myself as an artist and on my productivity, and I am grateful. I’ve been grieving for a week that March was imminent, but I guess this is goodbye for now. (Any chance this could be for more than a month? It’s such a great practice.) Cheers, Kim

Trying my hand at photography…the first one looks solid, but it’s actually a liquid!  Which one?

The only thing I had time to do on Wednesday… A copy of part of a postcard from Tierra del Fuego!

Just foolin’ around with my students…but it was the only art I created on Monday…

And again it was the only thing I was able to do - art related - on Tuesday…

Phew!