It's been awhile since I've done a "Creative in the Kitchen" episode, so here's one for all you foodies out there.
Peanut butter and jelly is a childhood comfort food, here in the US. Now that I'm a mama and am chronically ill, I've been eating it a lot. It's quick, it's tasty and it's good fuel. But plain peanut butter and grape jelly can get a little boring, so why not mix it up a bit?
BEHOLD!
On wheat bread, the order goes as follows - for jelly L-R - strawberry, apricot and currant. For the peanut butter side - T-B - peanut butter, hazelnut butter and almond butter.
You can go and eat the whole thing and let the flavors play. But, for me, I like them cut apart into separate little flavor explosions, as you can see an "exploded" version on the bottom of the plate. Serve that up with a tall glass of milk? A foodie twist on a childhood basic.
And, in case you wanted to know, my favorite flavor combo was the currant jelly with hazelnut butter. But, then, I'm spoiled 'cause my mom-in-law makes the currant jelly and it is amazing!
Let me know what flavor combos you've tried and let me know which one is your favorite.
And, as always, please remember that we are all visionaries. We just have to figure out where we excel.
Today, I (Visionary Bri) want to tell you about this abso-freaking-lutely awesome company, Diva Dreads.
Are you interested in dread falls? I am. I love the look of dreads, but I also love the feeling of running a brush through my hair and massaging my scalp, so I'm just not ready for the dread commitment.
I found those videos on YouTube. You know the ones. "Make your own yarn dreadfalls!" Well, I bought two things of yarn and got to work. For a week, I dilligently made my dread falls, excited that I'd soon have an awesome hair piece to rock.
But I was sorely disappointed. I'm sure that if you're trying to make
them for fun colors, they're okay. But the final product looks less than
stellar.
"But I wanted 'em to be beautiful. . . "
After doing some research, I came across a wonderful company out of
California called Diva Dreads. Looking at their site, I sent them an
inquiry email immediately. I think that this has been one of the
absolute best hair decisions I've ever made. Diva Dreads far surpassed
my expectations, as a company.
All their dreads are hand-made by a
mother and her two daughters. Send them a picture of your hair and they
custom blend colors to match and compliment your real hair. And how
lucky am I? Diva Dreads sent Visionary Bri my very own custom dread falls to
review.
Now I'm one stylin' chicka and I want to wear my new dreadfalls
everywhere!
This is the picture I sent for color matching.
Now, here's a picture of the dread falls Diva Dreads made for me. Notice all the different tones and colors that make these dread falls just *pop*!
See those pretty orange flowers? Those were included!
Somehow, I expected the dreads to be stiff, but these aren't. They feel and move just like my natural hair. Do you see the beads that Diva Dreads put on? Those are handmade limited run beads and all the beads that Diva Dreads uses are. They look like aged brass and they're just so neat! The ends of the dreads taper off like natural hair and look astounding both up close and far away.
I'm a big fan of using faux hair in fashion and I own several pieces. All the top bellydancers in the US are using Diva Dreads for their falls and they're the hands-down best hair accessories I've ever worn.
Another cool thing? When your purchase your own dread falls from Diva Dreads, they're guaranteed for life! If you wear them to a festival, dance with them in or go to Burning Man and they get dirty or become loose? Just send them to Diva Dreads and for $10, they'll clean them, tighten them and send 'em back to you! I have never heard of another company that does this and it's really great to know that Diva Dreads is serious about and helpful with maintaining the beauty and quality of their products.
I can not rave enough about this company. So stop on by their site and get yourself a brand new beauty product that you'll love and will last you for the rest of your life. Heck, get 5 or 6 in different colors (they come in the whole rainbow) and tell 'em that Visionary Bri sent you! I know that I'm going to be getting some brown ones with purple in them, in the future.
Now, for the absolute best part. Go and "like" Diva Dreads on Facebook. Send 'em a message saying where you saw this review. Order from their site and tell 'em Visionary Bri sent you, or even just email them and tell them how awesome they are. Diva Dreads has agreed that, if we get enough of a buzz going, they'll do a giveaway and one lucky reader will a set of CUSTOM dread falls for their very-own-self!
That's right, loves. Now, get out there and spread this post. Put it on Reddit. Tweet it. G+ it. Share it on Facebook. Put it in an appropriate linky. Let's get the buzz of this Visionary Friend going! I really would love to run this giveaway, so get to sharing, my lovelies.
And don't forget that we're all Visionaries. We just have to figure out where we excel!
I'm not sure why mandalas and line work have been coming out so much in my art, as of late. Still, I know enough to go with what I'm being "drawn" to create. My visual work is becoming more about enlightenment, earth connection, and the divine feminine with a tribal feel. I love where my visual art is taking me.
Also, since some of my readers have expressed interest in owning some of my visual art, I'll be including PayPal buttons where you can order a framed print of whatever piece you like, to have and be your very own. All prints will be $15 plus a little bit for shipping. All prints are framed when they're send to you!
I also added a "buy a print" button to Medicine Mask Reversal. I hope you enjoy, my lovelies!
No matter how silly it may seem later, as little children, sometimes we see things out in the world that we want. And, sometimes, the things that our little child hearts desire are a little strange. We've all had this experience, I'm sure.
When a friend of mine was little, she wanted a calculator and she wanted to work at a grocery store. In her child-mind, she wanted to press the buttons on the cash register. She just thought it was the coolest thing and she wanted a calculator so she could add things up. Luckily, my friend had an understanding mother who got her a calculator and my friend spent hours with it, adding up the numbers in the phone book. She was tickled to death to be adding up those numbers.
In my childhood, I asked my parents for something I'd seen on television. I wanted a Ronco Food Dehydrator. Oh, how I wanted that thing! I watched the infomercials (still a hobby of mine) and pined away for the ability to make my own fruit roll-ups or turkey jerky. My little heart wanted this so badly!
Me at 7 years old with our dog, Sasha,
wanting to make turkey jerky
To this day, I'm not sure why my little heart wanted that food dehydrator, but my parents (confused as they often were by my antics) probably wrote it off as "another one of those weird things Bri's into, now." This has happened more than once over my lifetime, so far.
Years passed and I never got my food dehydrator.
This past Christmas of 2013, my friend, my father and I were talking about dreams. It's a favorite topic of mine. We were talking about holidays and years past and the topic of the "one present I never got, but really wanted" came up. Of course, I mentioned the food dehydrator and my father said, "You still wanted one after all these years?" You betcha. I sure did! My father asked me, "Why?" and my answer was the same. "To make turkey jerky and fruit roll-ups!"
After all these 20-some-odd years, all the locales, all the achievements and all my adventures, the little girl in me still cried out for this thing. The little one in me still wanted the self-sufficiency and fun and healthy snacks that this device offered me.
The days of counting toward the holidays passed and I forgot all about the conversation with my father.
Christmas morning came and a large, slightly heavy box was placed in my lap. And what do you think was in that box?
You're right. It was my very own food dehydrator! Sitting next to me, hubby gave me a look of confusion as I threw my head back and laughed. My father had heard me and responded. I gave my father a huge hug and we laughed some more.
My lovelies, if you don't make your dreams known, then there is no way that the people who love you can help you make them a reality! If you don't tell your friends and family, look for a mentor, or hire a life coach to help you (I'm still working on setting that aspect of this business up). it's going to be a lot harder to get what you want. Asking is always good. The worst they can say is "no."
And, the best thing that can happen is that someone will be in exactly the right place at the perfect time to help you. Then, you get to your dreams / goals / wishes that much faster! Ask, my dears. Always ask. Let the world conspire to give you everything you want. Believe that it can happen. Or you can muster your own fortitude, guts and resources and get yourself your own damned food dehydrator! *wink*
Tonight, I started and finished my very first tray of beef jerky. Isn't it beautiful? Next batch is turkey jerky!
My very first batch of beef jerky in the dehydrator
My happy face, makeup-free today, after the jerky-fying had begun
So, my gorgeous dears, what is it that you want? What does your heart sing for? What did you never get as a child that you still want, to this day? It's not too late to get it or achieve that dream. Leave a comment or email me at brifloorwilson(at)gmail(dot)com and let me know what your inner kiddo still wants, no matter how "silly" it sounds. I'd love to hear from you.
Until next time, please remember that we are all visionaries. We just have to figure out where we excel.
Otherwise known as yelling, "HEY! I'M DOING SOMETHING OVER HERE! LOOKIE LOOKIE! PAY ATTENTION!!!"
Living an independent, creative and free life requires a fair bit of what I call "hustle," which is known in the actual and real business world as "marketing." Now that may sound like a daunting concept to you, but think of it this way. Unless you know me, personally, my marketing has reached you. You've found me and you're reading this. Take a look at all the countries that people live in who read my blog. Impressive, isn't it? All of these readers, including you my dear friend, can be attributed to my hustle regarding this blog.
*insert self-congratulatory pat on the back here*
The word "marketing" is one of those big, scary, business words that intimidate the sometimes shy, creative temperaments of artists like me. It's an intimidating word like "deficit," "revenue," "optimized," and "consultation clarity meeting." It's one of those words that, honestly, makes people like me run for the hills. "Ah! Scary professional thing! Don't understand! Too intimidating! Let the suit-wearing people deal with those words and just let me play with art and create nifty stuff!"
And that's fine, if you feel like that, when I use official-sounding business words. I used to feel exactly the same way. But I quickly learned that, right now, I can't afford a P.R. person or a savvy personal assistant or any other suit-type person to take care of the "fitting crazy little me into the actual, real world" duties. I'd either have to learn how to do them, myself, or be like Henry Darger who's impressive body of work was not discovered until after his death. In short, if you don't share your work with the world, honey, it's gonna take a long time for the world to recognize that you're doing anything, at all.
One of Henry Darger's paintings
Personally, I'd like to be alive to hear when someone either likes or hates my creative projects, so that left me no choice but to tackle the big, bad, normally-reserved-for-people-in-ties jobs, myself.
Let me explain to you some concepts and what I mean.
Basically, no one knows that this little corner of the internet called "Visionary Bri" exists unless I go out and tell people that it's here. Every time I make a blog post, I visit a few key sites that I've found and post the link there so people can come and look around.
As I go about my daily life, I have stickers with my blog address on them that I won in a contest from PrintRunner and I hand out the stickers. My website is also on my business cards which I hand out, as well. If you don't know me and I happen to come across you, chances are good that either one of both of these things will be given to you.
Once you know 1) who you're trying to market to and 2) what would be the optimal venue for your advertising, marketing is pretty easy. It doesn't have to be a huge multi-million dollar campaign, but it certainly can be, if you have the money to throw at it (which I currently don't). Think Super Bowl commercials. So much money spent on one commercial and who in The United States can forget the donkey that wanted to be a Budweiser Clydesdale?
Once you understand the concepts, marketing is easy!
To start out, scope out the 'hood like a thief in the night. Start out right where you are, either at your computer or your home town. Start off with friends. If people know who you are, first, the chances of them being interested in what you're doing is higher. Do you know any local merchants who might let you put your business card or a flyer up in their store? Ask them about it. Always ask. The worst that they can say is "no."
You can search the internet to find communities of like-minded people and I'm always in favor of this because I can do it late at night without having to get out of bed!
Now, I am lucky enough to live in a town where there's a university and it's pretty sizable. People overlook universities, but they offer a substantial population of all kinds of people who would be interested in what you're doing. Plus, there's a new crop of them coming in every August, so take advantage of that if you can.
One of my marketing schemes that I came up with (and you can feel free to steal if you like) was my little marbled boxes. First, I cut the bottom off of a graham cracker box so that I had the bottom plus about 1 inch going up the sides. Then, I took some computer paper, took out my marbling kit and marbled some paper.
I then glued the marbled paper to the boxes with some plain white glue and affixed a little sign.
See the pretty marbled paper?
"Please Take One" finished Marbled Box with stickers
So, I made 2 of these little boxes. I put them in my purse and I hit the streets of my town. My first stop was my local university. I had to park The Visionary Van and walk for a bit, but it was okay. I used to attend this university back when I was younger, but it took some doing for me to find the "free for all" bulletin boards where you can post anything you want. Eventually, I did find one, though. I took two thumb tacks and stuck the box to the bulletin board at about eye level. Now, the little box sits there, waiting for people to find it.
Did people look at me funny, walking around a campus looking a bit confused on a Sunday. Yes and no, but I did spy some college boys checking me out, so I don't think my presence was entirely unwanted there. ;-)
I also took a box and put it in the local "when I was in school here, I spent more money here than I did on tuition" coffee shop. It's got a different name, now, and is under new ownership. But there was still a place for local people to put business cards and the like.
Marketing isn't all that hard, once you break it down. I encourage to come up with your own ideas to get your work out there in the public eye or steal mine. Maybe you won't be able to make a living off your creative work, yet, but it's better to give people an opportunity to be interested in you so that you can work on making a living at it.
Keep creating, my dears. Don't shy back from telling the world what you're up to and don't wait 'til it's "perfect." Get out there and show 'em what you're made of!
And please remember that we are all visionaries. We just have to figure out where we excel!
In my last blog post, Line Play, Zendoodle and Baby Steps, I talked about work with lines as well as discussing a form called Zentangle or Zendoodle. (Find a How-To on Zendoodle, here.) As you play with this concept in your sketchbook this week, I thought I would show you what I've been up to.
First, I thought I'd show you just a basic black line play that I did. I used my Zebra Emulsion EX pen in black that I have recently gotten as a free sample. I was just mucking about with this piece and it took me somewhere between 2 and 3 hours to do.
It's not much, but it's fun to do. You can see that I experimented with straight lines, curved lines, line thickness, line length and brevity and even "line" as negative space. Once you get started, it's really addicting.
Next, there is this one. This one is a line play like the last, but I used a blue Bic Mark-It Permanent Markers Ultra Fine Point. It bleeds a little, but I like Mark-Its and Sharpies for their vivid, vibrant colors. Once I know how a marker is going to bleed, I can work around it.
In this last drawing, I play with line and multiple colors. This is a doodle I've made since high school and it shows up in a lot of my pieces. In this piece, I used Sharpie Ultra Fine Point Permanent Markers, which I just love. I've left the insides of the shapes blank so you can see how just simple doodles with color can make interesting visual components.
Maybe later, I'll go back and add detail inside the doodles. But, even if I don't, I love how this doodle looks every single time I do it. There's no set pattern and each piece always unfolds second by second and I never know what the whole piece will look like until it's done. I like the spontaneity of the process, the surprise of the effect and the way I can make colors play off of each other. This is a doodle that I will probably draw for the rest of my life. Call it my signature piece.
What do you doodle? Was there something that you always drew on the back of your notebooks in school? Is there something you doodle in the margins while you're on the phone at work? If so, don't dismiss these little gems as "just a doodle." "Just a doodle" can turn into something pretty cool, if you just work with it a bit. Never ignore what you go back to, time and again. That means there is something worth exploring there. It means that there's something there that your mind and hand find interesting. And, if your mind finds it interesting, other people will too.
Keep on creating, my lovelies. Keep on art-ing.
And please remember that we are all visionaries. We just have to figure out where we excel.
Follow me on Twitter and Facebook. I look forward to hearing from you!
It's nice to see you back, again, lovely peoples. For the upcoming weekend, Visionary Bri will be going dormant. This weekend, we're celebrating the first birthday of my one and only baby. This first year of being a mama has flown by so fast!
For her party, we're going with a Winnie the Pooh theme. Being a creative individual, I'm doing most of the stuff for the party, myself. I even made a special onesie for her, keeping with the theme. I cut the 1 out of yellow felt and hand embroidered around it and around the wrists.
Other ideas for her party, I found on Pinterest, specifically the cupcakes from this site, decor inspiration from this one and a cookie recipe all my own.
So, in order to focus on the party and all the things that need to be done for it, this blog will go dormant over the weekend. But, don't worry because I'll be back on Tuesday with your regularly scheduled blog post including more photos of all the things I made.
Until then, keep creating and remember that we're all visionaries. We just need to figure out where we excel!
Awhile ago, I made a deal with myself. I wasn't getting as much creative work actually done as I would've liked. I had this drive, this desire to put my creative work out there in the world, but I couldn't put it out in the world if I didn't create it, right? I know. It seems obvious. I was full of dreams and lacking in drive partially due to my heath and partially due to fear (which I will address in an upcoming post).
So, I made a deal with myself. Every day, I would do 1 thing towards the goal of living a more creative life. I decided that this contract with myself should be something I could keep, so I allowed many things to count as activities in keeping with the contract. Researching how to do a new art technique would count. Playing in my Sketch Book would count. Looking at the work of other artists to get inspired would count.
One of my hobbies is entering Giveaways. 2 weeks ago, I won 250 custom stickers from PrintRunner. I decided to get them printed to help promote this blog.
Aren't they pretty?
PrintRunner did an awesome job. They let me okay proofs and told me possible issues with my original design. If you've got any sort of print job you need done, I'd highly recommend them. So, I've got 250 of these. I've been passing them out as I go about my life, here, in Indiana. If you live elsewhere and would like me to send you some stickers, I'd be glad to. Just drop me an email at brifloorwilson@gmail.com.
When you get them, feel free to drop them off at coffeehouses, book stores, colleges or just pass them out as you go about your life. Please, be respectful and don't stick them on . . . oh, I don't know . . . public or private property (unless it's you've got permission to). Just don't vandalize with them, k?
Back when I was in college, someone wrapped a sticker around the hood ornament of my car that said, "Do not insert in mouth or anus." Funny as it was, it was also a bit annoying.
Like I said, just drop me an email with your info and I'll get you some stickers in the mail, direct from me to you!
Thanks for helping me spread the love and creative encouragement.
Remember, my beautiful souls, that we are all visionaries. We just have to figure out where we excel!
