neonfoxtongue

Hello.

Moxy by Amber Alexander

So here I am blogging. I'm surprised I remember how. Yes it's been way too long; no I don't have any real excuses apart from life, the universe and everything* (or life, work and lack of inspiration to be more specific). Pretty lame, really.  After a bit of soul searching and a good chat with great friend, I think I may have found a way to adapt the raison d'être of this blog in order to revive it. At least I hope so.

More on that later. For now, here's some evidence that the fox is alive and well.  Can't ask for more than that.

red fox by pepperstitches

Fox (wood) by enormouschampion

Crafty Fox - paper by DEAR COLLEEN

* Apologies to Douglas Adams

Waffling

I shared a recipe for waffles with an old friend last week and as it was a recipe I had from my father-in-law, I didn't have the name of the book or author.  I got that information over the weekend though so this evening I sent my friend short note to fill her in.  While typing, it suddenly occurred to me that 'waffle' is the perfect way to describe me these days. And I don't mean that I've got a grid-like look to me or am covered in maple syrup (and let's not give The Leopard any ideas please).  I just feel like I'm waffling on a lot of aspects of my life right now, particularly this blog.

I'm having such a hard time making decisions on pretty much every creative project I've started or have been thinking of for the past several weeks and months.  I'm having difficulty figuring out the focus of this blog, probably because I'm having trouble moving forward on those creative projects.  I even have a fairly long list of Etsy 'favourites' that I've been thinking about buying for ages, but I keep changing my mind about whether I really want/need them or want to give them as gifts.  Imagine - not being able to make decisions about shopping!

It's not that I'm lacking inspiration; it's more that I'm lacking direction.  And probably a bit of confidence.  But they say the first step to improving is to admit you have a problem, so I'm hoping that by acknowledging the waffling, I'll be able to shake it and move forward.  I'm going to set a couple of easy creative goals for the coming week and make them my priority.  Hopefully I'll have something positive to share next week. That way, Tara, who never seems to lack direction or confidence in her cooking, can keep the waffles*.

* NB: This post isn't about the waffle recipe I have, but they sure do look and sound amazing, don't they?

Thankful

(Recycled Grocery Bag Envelopes by Freshly Skweezed)

Those of you not living in the Dominion of Canada probably don't know that I and my fellow Canucks have been celebrating Thanksgiving this weekend.  What can I say, we like to do things early.  And the second Monday of October is usually a great time to enjoy Autumn in all its glory.  Apart from the snow in Winnipeg, of course.

So in honour of this long weekend and historical harvest holiday, I want to acknowledge the things for which I am thankful.

Firstly, my husband, The Leopard, with whom I am building a wonderful and adventurous life.  I love the partnership we have and although I've never really been into sports, I truly believe we are the best team the in world.

Secondly, my parents, whose have always been so supportive of me, and who have taught me the importance of humility, humour and self-reliance.

Next, my extended family and my friends, who are all awesome in their own special ways and who have helped shaped me as a person.

I'm also thankful for my health and I'm determined to take it less for granted than I have been and get back to exercising more regularly.  Finally, I'm thankful to have a job that I find interesting and rewarding, and to have the means to set career, creative and life goals, knowing that with some effort I'll be able to meet them.

That's a lot for which to be thankful. And it feels good to write it all down and share it. Thanks Internets.

hiatus

Um...hi.  So I haven't blogged in a month.  And no, it wasn't on purpose.  It just sort of happened. Life got in the way of documenting it. Sorry about that. I promise to do better in October.  (I can't believe it's already October!)

I do have some crafty project planned in the coming days, so I'll definitely have some subject-matter to blog about.  But for now, here's a pic of one of things that has been keeping me away from blogging:

Meet Cyber - our new adorable monster!  :)

More soon - I promise!

Re-evaluation and Rainbows

Oops - looks like I didn't blog on Monday again.  Yikes.  I don't really have any excuses either, except maybe a fun trip to the CNE and a surprisingly productive trip to Ikea (during "your kid is starting university so buy him stuff" month, no less) to get a desk for the shiny new computer we got last week.  The computer I am now using to write this post!  Yay!  The Leopard and I have been sharing his laptop for over a year now, which has been okay, but it'll be really nice to have one with all my own settings and set-up and I'm pretty sure The Leopard feels the same way.

Thoughts on how I'm going to organize my photos and documents, and on what photo editing program I'm going to use (I'm considering Picnik at the moment, but am open to suggestions) have also led me to re-evaluate what I'm doing with this blog. Specifically, my Creative Goals Monday posts, which I feel have really been stagnating lately.  The fact that I've missed two weeks is pretty telling too.  I think the idea of posting weekly creative goals was originally a good one and it did help me meet my more general goals, but the format is getting to be quite repetitive.  And I figure that if I'm getting bored with writing the posts, the people who are reading posts are probably getting bored too.  The other thing I didn't really like about the 'CG Monday' format is that the completed projects I wrote about in my Monday posts often felt like 'by the way' additions; they didn't get the attention I wanted to give to them. So I've decided to change things up a bit.  I'm going to stop posting about weekly goals, and will instead provide semi-regular updates on how I'm doing in meeting my Creative Goals for 2009.  As you can see, I've got lots of work to do on those!  I'm still going to have weekly creative goals, but I'll mostly keep those to myself or make The Leopard hold me to them (he can be as good at nagging as I can).  I still plan on posting on Mondays as much as possible, but the topics will be varied. I have an idea or two for semi-regular features that I might introduce in the future, but for now I'm happy to keep things more organic and have Friday I'm in Love as the only weekly feature.

So that's the plan for now. I'd love to hear what you, my readers, think about this change and/or about anything you like or dislike about this blog.  Please leave comments below or in any other post. Thanks! :)

I feel like I've been going through a lot of change and experiencing a lot of new beginnings lately.  Sometimes it feels a bit tumultuous, like the crazy storm we had last week.  But even storms can bring good things.  For example:

 

So I'm hopeful that things are going to settle down soon.  I wouldn't even mind if it brought a lot of colour with it.

Friday I'm in Love: Birthday Treasures and Treats

Thanks to everyone who helped me celebrate my birthday on Wednesday with their good wishes via comments, twitter, e-mail and facebook!  I had a really great day, so for this week's Friday I'm in Love feature, I thought I'd share some of the handmade things that contributed to making it extra special.

As I enjoyed a breakfast of crêpes and fresh strawberries courtesy of my father-in-law, The Leopard presented me with this beautiful necklace made by our friend Jasmine Virani.  I'd been eyeing it for a while so I'm very happy to have one of my very own. 

And yes, it's just a beautiful in person!

Later in the day, my Mom brought me a lovely bouquet of flowers from the florist we worked with for our wedding.

Same flowers from our wedding too - just in different colours.

After dinner, we enjoyed the very yummy cupcakes that The Leopard had made.  Martha Stewart's one bowl chocolate cupcakes with caramel buttercream (note: these recipes might vary slightly from the ones The Leopard used).  They were really delicious - not too sweet, very moist...yum!  I can't wait to try more recipes from the book.

Sooooo good!

And last but not least, I bought myself a little birthday treat - a screen printed tea towel from the Sevilla Rock collection by skinny laminx.  I really love Heather's work, especially the Sevilla Rock collection, which is based on ancient cave paintings near Cape Town, South Africa.  I'm seriously considering getting some yardage to recover our kitchen chairs, but I'll have to wait for a few paycheques first.  So for now, I'm just going to enjoy this beauty.  Heather's having a WOO (Window of Opportunity) Sale right now for her lovely tea towels too - shipping (from South Africa!) is only $0.50 until July 6.  Be sure to take advantage if one of her great designs catches your eye!

 

So lovely!

Of course, celebrating my birthday with my family, including my two grandmothers, was the real treat.  I couldn't even remember the last time that happened.  This is definitely one of the benefits of living closer to your home town!

I'm starting my new job next week, but I'm determined to keep up with the blogging.  After four months off, I'm looking forward to working again, but I know I'll have to be more organised with my time, especially with regards to my creative goals and activities.  I think I'm up to the challenge. :)

Hope you have a great weekend and happy 4th to my American readers!  

(Friday Love font is Little Lord Fontleroy by Nick's Fonts)   

Happy Canada Day! (and happy birthday to me!)

(Photo by Ian Muttoo)

When it comes to birthdays, I'm pretty lucky.  Canada Day is a great day to have a birthday.  You'll probably have the day off along with most of your friends and family, there are usually fun happenings (labour disruptions aside), AND you get fireworks! Personally, I really don't think I could have timed my arrival into this world any better, especially since I was born on my exact due date too!

I feel pretty lucky in other ways as well.  Today I'm celebrating my 32 (gulp!) years on this planet with my wonderful husband, who right now is busy making me cupcakes from the gorgeous book I won through seven spoons' recent giveaway, as well as with both my and his family.  Last night, I had a lovely evening sampling great wines with even better friends.  And, to top it all off, yesterday I was offered (and accepted) a really interesting job that I feel will be a step in the right direction of achieving my career goals. I start on Monday.

Truly lucky indeed. 

Happy Canada Day everyone!  :)

Creative Goals Mondays: New Blog Design!

Hello! I feel like a deserve a big gold star for last week's goals because my blog re-design is DONE!  If you're reading this post on a feed, go check out the new look here!  Though it's a pretty simple design, I did learn a few things while doing it.  Like, a handmade paper banner should probably be perfectly rectangular if you want to use a patterned background on the rest of the blog.  Also, I really, really need to take a course on Photoshop.  But I feel that my blog is my own now, which makes me very happy.  I'd love to know what you think, so please leave comments, especially if you think it's loading a bit strangely on your browser (I use Firefox).  A big thanks goes out to The Leopard who helped me with Photoshop, took my pic and made me look pretty, and was super patient with my whiny self when things weren't working the way I wanted them to.  

I've also updated the links, which are now found in the right column, and divided them into two lists. 'These are the blogs I know' has links to the blogs of people I actually know (like, for real) and want to promote because they are good at what they do (whatever it is).  'Craft/DIY/Design Blogs' has links to the many, many blogs I follow regularly, so if you have an inclination towards the handmade or crafty, I suggest to check them out.  I'm also working on a more general list of blogs I like and will post that soon. Finally, I updated my About page a bit and added a dedicated e-mail address for all things neonfoxtongue.

Not only did I complete my blog design last week, which was one of my Creative Goals for 2009, I also worked towards achieving one more of my goals - I took a creative workshop!  My goal is to take some sort of creative course, class or workshop for each season, so this one was for Spring (a bit late, I know, but Summer doesn't officially start until next Sunday, so I'm still good).  I participated in a workshop at Bizzy B Stamp & Scrap Shop on using alcohol inks, which I discovered are way cool for making beautiful backgrounds for cards, ATCs and scrapbooks.  The workshop was fun, informative and the instructor, Daniza, was super generous with supplies for us to play with.  I'd definitely take a class there again. It was great to learn about a new technique and to play around with colour and paper.  I made a bunch of stuff and I'll post pics later this week - I don't want to distract you from my blog design today! :)

This coming week is all about card making.  I have about eight cards to make, what with the swap I'm doing as well as Father's Day.  It's also a busy week in general as I have a job interview (fingers crossed) and a bunch of social stuff going on.  I haven't been this busy in a while, but I'm hoping I'll be all the more productive because of it. (Again, fingers crossed!)

inspiration: creative brain vs. logic brain

I know I already posted today, but I just saw something and had to post about it.  Ez of Creature Comforts has been posting inspiring quotes lately and today's really hit home for me.

  (Direct link here)

I often feel that the logic part of my brain hinders the creative part, pushing me to only make or do things that are "useful".  I'm trying to learn to create for creativity's sake.  I've printed this quote out and will put it on my inpiration board.  Thanks Ez!

Full Disclosure

Some of you are probably getting a sense of déjà vue right about now.  You've got a slightly confused look on your face and are thinking to yourself, 'didn't she already start a craft blog?'   And you're right, I did *start* one.  About a year ago actually.  Oh I had great aspirations.  But, as usual, I got in the way of myself.  More precisely, I got writer's block.  Or maybe it was procrastinator's block.  Or possibly, I just moved to another country and out of my comfort zone, so please let me catch my breath block. 

Yeah - it was probably that.

Funnily enough, during the time that I was neglecting my first crafty blog, I was actually being quite crafty.  Case in point, despite moving from the three bedroom townhouse in Ottawa, Canada that I shared with my now husband (in which I had my very own, very messy crafty den), into a one room flat in London, England (also shared with hubby - aside: how have we not killed each other?), I haven't purchased a greeting card in over a year.  Every card I've given in the last twelve months has been handmade by yours truly.  I will admit to missing a couple of birthdays (sometimes a nice e-mail is just as good!), but if Hallmark made a profit this year, it wasn't because of me.  I also took a couple of concrete steps to expand my creative pursuits and embrace (or at least not fully reject) my artistic side, which I will expand upon in future posts.

And so, I'm giving this another go.  Hubby (aka Beware! The Leopard) has been a very diligent blogger this past year and I'm both proud and envious of his dedication.  I've also become an avid (read: addicted) blog follower (Go, go gadget Google Reader!) in recent months and I've been very inspired by the blogs in the indie craft scene.  There's an incredible amount of talent in that very diverse community and I want to do my part to encourage it and maybe even contribute to it occasionally. 

This time I've planned things a little bit better - at least I hope so. I've re-used a bit of the wording from my the first posts in my original attempt to get myself going.  I'm setting myself a goal of three to four posts a week.  I will aim to keep them fairly short for the most part, with lots of visuals.  I have devised regular features for Mondays and Fridays (more on this soon) and remaining posts will mostly feature things I've made and am not too embarrassed to make public.  Although I'm really a last minute type of gal, I will try to stockpile posts whenever I can, so that when life gets in the way, I won't let down myself - or my avid three readers.

I toyed with the idea of starting over in the new year; making 2009 the year of neonfoxtongue.  But I realised that it would just be another way to procrastinate some more.  So despite the fact that it's mid-December and I have about 20 holiday cards to make, I'm writing now.  Because nothing helps you beat procrastination more than the chance to procrastinate about something else.

Let's do this.