Tag Archives: artist

So Excited and Happy I’m Crying

Some days are actually good days!

I just logged onto my Zazzle store, expecting nothing to have changed as I haven’t been able to do anything to it in a long time thanks to all of the headaches I’ve been dealing with lately. But, to my surprise, that wasn’t the case. Instead…

I SOLD MY FIRST PHOTOGRAPHY MUG!!!

Now, that may not seem like a huge deal at first. But, I have never sold any of my photography. So that means… I AM NOW A PROFESSIONAL PHOTOGRAPHER!

Not only that, but it was a nature photograph. I AM NOW A PROFESSIONAL NATURE PHOTOGRAPHER!!!!

I have wanted to be able to say I am a professional nature photographer for an extremely long time. My dream, since I was a small child (age 4 or younger), has been to be a National Geographic photographer. When I was about 12 or so, I won second place in an amateur photographer contest held by the San Diego Zoo (not for children, it was open to all ages and all equipment types and was advertised on a clapboard in the middle of the entrance path at the zoo itself) with my single megapixel digital camera with a picture of bison at Yellowstone National Park. This is something I have been working for and dreaming about FOREVER!!!!!!

I am shaking so hard and crying and smiling from ear to ear and I’m so happy I could explode!!!! I literally do not care how symptomatic I am right now and I just want to celebrate and YAY!!!!!!!!!!!!

So what that I only made 84 cents on the sale? It still makes me a professional by the definition as someone “paid to participate in an activity,” so I’m happy!

So what did I sell that has made me so happy? This:

 

It seems very interesting, doesn’t it? I’ve been wishing for so long to be a nature photographer, to make money doing the one thing I’ve loved me entire life, and my first photography sale happens to be a product with that very word on it. I believe synchronicity would be the right word…

Anyway, I just had to tell pretty much everyone 🙂

Chronic Illness “Uniform” Sweatshirts

I was thinking of making some generic chronic illness warrior designs, for those of you without dysautonomia or fibromyalgia. Since it just snowed another foot here (yup, I just more than a foot of snow this weekend), I decided to start out with the standard “official uniform” design on the sweatshirt! I’ve just been doing women’s clothing so far, since most of my readers are women and the majority of chronic illnesses seem to primarily impact women (sadly). Let me know if you there is an interest in male designs though and I’ll get right on it! Here are the basic sweatshirts and hoodie designs I got together you other chronic warriors 🙂

 

 

 

 

I’ve also been growing the art portion of my Zazzle shop significantly: I’ve added throw pillows, coaster, art pieces, postage stamps, and many other items. Please check out my entire shop and let me know what you think!

I’m alive. Really, I am.

Wednesday was insane. Anyone that hasn’t noticed, I live in the Denver area. So, yes, Wednesday there was a blizzard. At my house, I got TWO FEET of snow. Yes, two feet. Yikes! If you don’t know, a blizzard isn’t actually characterized by snowfall (it can snow very little) but by wind and visibility; to be a blizzard wind must be consistently over 35 miles per hour and the visibility must be less than 1/2 a mile (due to blowing snow) for more than 3 hours in a row. This blizzard also came with crazy huge amounts of snowfall. Everything was cancelled, and the airport closed completely for over eight hours. Sadly, instead of just enjoying the snow day, I was stressed about Dan because he was trying to get home from a business trip and it wasn’t going so well (due to the airport being closed). Thankfully, he managed to get home Thursday morning instead of Saturday like many of his coworkers. Here are some photos from Wednesday:

At about 7:30am it didn’t look too bad. You can still see some of the road even (just over the wall there) and we’ve only gotten about 3-4 inches of snow. Visibility kind of stinks, but it’s not awful yet.
The windows on the north side of the house have iced up pretty well though (at about 8am).
I’d say this is about noon. As you can see, it’s snowing quite hard, and we have a LOT of snow now. It’s incredibly blustery, and visibility is terrible (that wall is really close to my house).
Everything is starting to ice up, even south facing windows, and you can see we have even MORE snow now (look at the pickets on the gate between this pic and the last one). There is only about a 3 hour difference between this pic and the last one, maybe.
It’s done snowing, mostly, and there isn’t much of a step down anymore. Normally, you walk out of my sliding glass door and the porch is about two feet below… The snow is currently over the height of the metal frame on the door.
We got a LOT of snow!

I Survived the Blizzard

march18 snowing es signed

Today is 35°F and snowing. The official first day of spring is this Sunday (the 20th). It doesn’t look very springy out.

I like the snow, I really do. However, my depression is not liking it right now. To pick myself up, I’ve been making some springy designs on Zazzle. Hopefully, they can pick you guys up too. (Daffodils are my favorite flower, so the first one is my favorite and I actually made 6 different products with that picture.)

 

Click here to see more designs

Spring is Coming

I Need Feedback on Dysautonomia Zazzle Designs!

I’d like some feedback about my dysautonomia design for Zazzle. I want to make more products, and I’d like to make some more designs. I’d also like to make some for general chronic/rare illnesses and fibro. I’m not super fantastic at designing, but I’d like to get better, so practice is necessary!

Can you tell me what is good about this design, or what may need tweaking? What kind of things do you think I could do to make the other designs I’d like to market? What kinds of colors should I do for general chronic or rare illness awareness designs? What other products should I offer this design, or other designs, on?

My Current Dysautonomia Design & Products

 
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Yoga and Painting = My Saturday

Yesterday, was a lot of fun! Exhausting, but definitely worth it 🙂

First, we did restorative yoga. Over the course of an hour, we only did about 6 positions, holding each one for quite some time. Apparently, it’s supposed to be good for fibromyalgia sufferers because of the use of props and such (according to The Chopra Center). restorative-yogaUnfortunately, my body didn’t seem to like it much. I think it’s because my body hates staying in one position for very long, and that always aggravates my fibro. It was, however, good for my P.O.T.S since it was all done lying down and there was no physical exertion. Well, I was having to spend a lot of physical and mental energy relaxing the muscles that my body refused to relax (new ones would tense up during poses and so it was a constant game of tag around the muscles). It was nice, however, because being on the floor and using all of the props made some positions a lot easier. I just wish my body was okay with holding positions for long periods of time. I’m definitely feeling it today.

Then…

New Venture

Hey everyone! I decided to try to start a Zazzle shop, in the hopes that I’ll be able to actually make some sales with my photography that way! I haven’t finished customizing the storefront, but I did get one item up for sale. Check it out and let me know what you think!

Red Panda Puzzle – Lounging by FindingTheSilverSun
Browse Zazzle for a different jigsaw puzzle

What other kinds of images and products would you like to see? I have a lot of ideas, so what things would you like to see first?

My Mom’s Colorful Creations!

Colorful Creations by G

Mom got her Etsy shop started!

Her jewelry is gorgeous! Out of all the jewelry I have (not counting my wedding ring), the pieces that get the most compliments (by a long shot) are the ones made by my mom. They are very high quality – nothing I have has ever broken. Please check them out!

She has tons more to list, but it takes a while to get things listed on Etsy (so please be patient, we all know how busy life is). She’ll be adding things regularly, so please keep checking back. Help my sister and I spread the word about our mother. We have always thought her jewelry was fantastic, and we’re very excited to share it with the world!!!!

Order soon to guarantee Christmas delivery.

Any feedback on the shop can be left here.

 

Sorry today’s blog post is so late, but I had a busy day! (Lots of photos below!!)

Yesterday (8/19), the corpse flower at the Denver Botanic Gardens (DBG) bloomed! This is a big deal. This is the first bloom this plant has produced, and it is 15 years old. The blooms only last 24-48 hours, and the plants only bloom (on average) every 7-10 years. There are two “corpse flowers” in Sumatra (the only place they can be found), this is the Amorphophallus titanium corpse flower… the other one isn’t related and none are housed at the DBG. Dan got off work a little early (about 4:30) so that we could go see it. We got there, and there was a sign saying the wait would be 4+ hours… yes, HOURS! It’s a flower… so, no thank you? Turned out, it was kind of a good thing we didn’t go. Dan needed to be at work at 6am today, and people that got to DBG at 8pm didn’t get to the flower until 1:30am. That would have sucked.

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Corpse Flower Adventure (Denver Botanic Gardens)

Painting Adventure to Canvas and Cocktails!

Yesterday (Sunday) was really good, despite the cold I think I have. In the morning, one of my best friends and I went to Canvas and Cocktails (one of those places where they lead a group of people through a painting and supply you with all the equipment)… We’ve been once before, and it’s always a load of fun! Plus, wandering around and seeing the other paintings is fun, especially since no one ever has the same one. There is a really hard painting of a feather on display that we’re thinking of attempting when we see it on the calendar.

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