Theme Thursday: #26 12.17.09

Theme Thursday is back. In the hectic week of holiday stress, relax with creative play. A new photography craze is to take a picture of a person while holding up a photo of a different person on currency. Sound confusing? Take a look at the Intense Zone for banknotes/ people and it will become obvious. And funny!

Creative Play fun dust left over from Theme Thursday. Or maybe it's Palo Verde pollen.

Ready for some eye candy? Check out Notebook Stories’ blog on Lynda Barry’s 2008 book, What It Is.  You’ll want to run out and buy it. My favorite sentence, “Can we remember something we can’t imagine?”

There is an association for journal writers. Of course there is. If you are interested in a community of journalers, prompts, journaling software, information and activity, the International Association of Journal Writers is your group. It costs $49 a year to join.

Bomomo let’s you doodle on your computer screen. I’m sure there is an explanation for how to do something specific, but I was having too much fun clicking choices and seeing what happens. It’s a great, colorful stress reducer. Prefer a little more direction? Have fun with Mr. Picassohead–choose hair, eyebrows, face shape,colors and more in a face you assemble. You can erase a step if it doesn’t match your mood.

Enjoy your creative play!

Five Most Recent  Theme Thursdays:  * * *   Creative Play 11.19.09 * * * Creative Play 11.5.09 * * * Creative Play 10.29.09 * * * Creative Play 10.22.09 * * *  Creative Play 10.15.09 * * *

—Quinn McDonald is a life- and certified creativity coach. She teaches people how to write and give presentations. She also wonders what you would like to say that you didn’t?

Theme Thursday #22: 10.22.09

For 22 weeks, Thursdays have been creative play date. Today is no exception. The winter holidays are coming up, and it might be time for you to consider gifts for others. Maybe you need to drop a few hints to others about what you want.

Botanica 2 bag from Greenward

If you are going green for the holidays, take a look at Greenward’s shop. The brick-and-mortar store is in Cambridge, but the website is at the other end of that link.  There are felt wine racks, and well-designed kitchen tools in fresh colors, water bottles, even soaps.  I’m in love with their stationery. Customer service by owner Scott Walker is top notch, and shipping is prompt–I just placed my first order and was amazed at the personal level of service.

Quirkology is now on YouTube with their mix of fun science. The :59-second personality test is clever. The other videos are short, engaging and you’ll learn something useful. Use it as a break from shopping.

If you love your cat enough to want to provide a handmade piece of artwork that is both cat bed and scratching surface, check out Love that Cat. The cat furniture is more reasonably priced. Winter is coming, and if you don’t provide a bed for your cats, they will soon be sucking up your warmth. Here is a custom-designed catwalk that doesn’t involve models, but did require a home remodeling.

I’m a fan of the Duluth Trading Company. It sells impossible-to-wear-out clothing for men who ride in trucks, and the women who thump them on the head if they call them “little lady.” If you love hiking, working, or playing outdoors, check out their gear, like this vest. (Warning: if you are a girly girl, this isn’t your ideal site.)  They also stock clever items at reasonable prices. I’m a fan of the map case (for those of us who carry big loose sheets of raw-art journaling paper) and the LugBuddy, a simply device that straps baggage together. I use it to keep an overnight bag attached to the sissy bar of my motorcycle, or to hold together the equipment when I’m dragging in books and training materials on a hand truck.

You can join in on Theme Thursday: post three links to sites you love or blogs you follow. You can do it on your site or in comments here.

Five Most Recent  Theme Thursdays: * * *  Creative Play 10.15.09 * * * Creative Play 10.8.09 * * * Creative Play 10.1.09* * *  Creative Play 9.24.09 * * * Creative Play 9.17.09* * * Creative Play 9.10.09 * * *  Creative Play 9.3.09 * * *

Theme Thursday # 20: 10.8.09

The theme for today is relaxing, making life fun again.

We’ll start with a way to refresh your spirit. There’s how-to article from Good-Life Zen that includes recovering from spiritual overload. There’s a lesson on three-breath meditation, too.

Dog, relaxing on photography.learnhub.com

One way to relax is to cut your chore-time down. Here’s a video clip on how to fold a T-shirt in two seconds. It took me about 30 minutes to get it, but it does work. Your results may vary.And watching the video takes about 30 seconds.

Mental Floss is a magazine for knowledge junkies–interesting stories that will take your mind of your problems effectively. In this issue, there are five quick stories about people who wrote a message, put it in a bottle and threw it in the water. It’s a good read.

Sometimes relaxing means knowing that you aren’t alone. From the people who brought you the LOLCat and LOLrus, Icanhascheezburger, comes Emails from crazy people.

You can join in on Theme Thursday: post three links to sites you love or blogs you follow. You can do it on your site or in comments here.

Five Most Recent  Theme Thursdays: * * * Creative Play 10.1.09* * *  Creative Play 9.24.09 * * * Creative Play 9.17.09* * * Creative Play 9.10.09 * * *  Creative Play 9.3.09 * * * Creative Play 8.27.09 * * *

—Quinn McDonald is a life- and certified creativity coach. She teaches people how to write and give presentations. She also teaches people who can’t draw how to keep an art journal.

Theme Thursday #19: 10.01.09

In the past 18 weeks, Theme Thursday has covered writing and journals, maps and pens, papers and books. It’s time for a totally silly break. This week: fun time wasters.

Make yourself a virtual kaleidoscope. No peeking through a tube, and lots of fun to change the visuals.

Zefrank also has an old-fashioned puzzle game that’s fun to play–move the rocket through the gears.

Want to sound profound? An entire site of useful things to say–in Latin.

Interesting illustrations: enjoy them, or test your own illustration skill.

What’s your favorite time waster? Post a link.

You can join in on Theme Thursday: post three links to sites you love or blogs you follow. You can do it on your site or in comments here.

Five Most Recent  Theme Thursdays: * * *  Creative Play 9.24.09 * * * Creative Play 9.17.09* * * Creative Play 9.10.09 * * *  Creative Play 9.3.09 * * * Creative Play 8.27.09 * * * Creative Play 8/20/09 * * *  Creative Play 8/15/09 * * *   Creative Play 8/6/09 * * * Creative Play 7/30/09 ***

—Quinn McDonald is a life- and certified creativity coach. She teaches people how to write and give presentations. She also teaches people who can’t draw how to keep an art journal.

Theme Thursday #14: 8.27.09

It’s Theme Thursday, and this time the Theme is Illumination–growth through inspiration.

Illuminated manuscript from bornemania.com

Illuminated Mind is a thoughtful blog that’s well-written, and longer than most. Rare to find both to today’s culture of microblogging. Jonathan is an iconoclast, but his blog on the commitment needed to start our own revolution is a good read.

There is something about infrared photography that is compelling and other-worldly. You can see a collection of 50 infrared photos here.

Polyvore is a site that lets you make an instant collage or a visual dream board. While at first blush, it looks like it’s all about clothing, start with the background and words and you’ll discover you can create quite a statement that’s not about fashion. If you are a fashionista, you will also have fun.

If you’d rather make your own vision board with photographs and alter them, you can find free photos and textures at Image*After.

The moon has a powerful call to us. It was the original timekeeper, and it still sets our tides. If you want to check on the phase of the moon, or put the information on your website or blog, you can do so at Moon-Phases Calendars.

You can join in on Theme Thursday: post three links to sites you love or blogs you follow. You can do it on your site or in comments here.

Five Most Recent  Theme Thursdays:   * * * Creative Play 8/20/09 * * *  Creative Play 8/15/09 * * *   Creative Play 8/6/09 * * * Creative Play 7/30/09 ***Creative Play 7/23/09 * * *

—Quinn McDonald is a life- and certified creativity coach. She teaches people how to write and give presentations. She also  manages four journals that travel the world.

Theme Thursday #13: 8.20.09

Time to surf so you don’t have to! This Thursday’s theme is creative humanity–what we can do to live authentic, creative lives every day. These websites help:

Morse-code of cups (c) Quinn McDonald (c) 2009

Ken Robert is Mildly Creative. I’ve mentioned him before, now I’m checking in all the time. He’s calm and thinks things through. Here’s his post about Seven Things He’s Deleting From His Life. You might want to lighten your load, too. I love his ink drawings on the site, too. They go with the tone and voice.

I’m a big believer in micro-work. Very different from micro-managing. Micro-work is doing the smallest possible step toward creative work. The tiny steps brings us closer to doing creative work and allows us to approach the work without the negative self-talk getting so loud we give up. Here are two steps to micro-creative work.

The Art of Dramatic Living is a blog that has their Theme Thursday on Friday. Her blog is far more intellectual and thoughtful than mine, and you will find a whole community of authentically-striving artists there. Well worth visiting every Friday.

If you like taking notes and want to keep your loose-leaf notes in a journal, check out Ple Designs’ leather pouch for loose-leaf journals. Or, simply put your journal in the pouch with a pencil or pen. Check out their sales page as well.

And just for fun, here is a link to creating anagrams of your name. It’s not one of those quizzes that makes you give up friends’ names. It’s just a link that’s fun. You don’t even have to use your own name. I have it set to John Smith.

Shameless self-promotion: I’ll be teaching secret codes and private language journaling at Changing Hands in Tempe on Saturday, 8/22. Details: http://tinyurl.com/dmqexz

You can join in on Theme Thursday: post three links to sites you love or blogs you follow. You can do it on your site or in comments here.

Five Most Recent  Theme Thursdays:  * * *  Creative Play 8/15/09 * * *   Creative Play 8/6/09 * * * Creative Play 7/30/09 ***Creative Play 7/23/09 * * *Creative Play 7/16/09 * * *

—Quinn McDonald is a life- and certified creativity coach. She teaches people how to write and give presentations. She also  manages four journals that travel the world.

Theme Thursday #11: 8.6.09

This is a more philosophical Theme Thursday. Marley the Heathen had an existential shake-up and is exploring religions. She grew up in a non-religious home, and despite a great job as a 60-MINUTES producer, she was filled with doubt. Is there a God? Does it matter? She is exploring the seven major religions and looking for meaning in life.

Elizabeth Perry at Woolgathering thinks by drawing. The page layout is fascinating and the smallest items (ice coffee) can enliven a page.

Lisa Pressman did an article on Kristy Hall. The quote by Hall on Pressman’s page is provocative and demanding. “Capturing the traces left behind by events and finding ways to embody memory within objects are central concerns in my art. My work involves the accretion of large numbers of small objects – pins in fabric, knots in string or hundreds of envelopes – to make sculptures or performances that deal with fragility, decay, loss, repetition, obsession and time.”

You can join in on Theme Thursday: post three links to sites you love or blogs you follow. You can do it on your site or in comments here.

Five Most Recent  Theme Thursdays: Creative Play 7/30/09 ***Creative Play 7/23/09 * * *Creative Play 7/16/09 * * * Creative Play 7/2/09 * * *  Creative Play 6/25/09

—Quinn McDonald is a life- and certified creativity coach. She teaches people how to write and give presentations. She also  manages four journals that travel the world.

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Theme Thursday #10: 7/30/09

If you love paper arts, you have to see the crisp, clean collage of Helen Musselwhite. The interview in Creative Review is not only interesting, there is a brief how-to and some breath-taking photos of Musselwhite’s detailed work.

Every artist who has ever had to write a bio has wished for something easier–spinning straw into gold, for example. Copylicious, who blogs on writing, gives you an easy way to write an interesting, engaging bio. I used it to create the bio for my keynote for Art Unraveled, and it sounds natural and more like me than any other one I’ve written. It can easily be adapted for your artist statement, too.

Rainstorm by: sicc.sk.ca

Music can be more than melody or notes, it can recreate sounds you are familiar with. In this clip, an Eastern-European A capella group imitates the sound of an African rainstorm, from small drops to thundering downpour. It’s followed by a rendition of Toto’s Africa, a song from the 70s. The song is well rendered, but the first 1:40 is a great rainstorm to listen to.

Anna Hawthorne has a book-arts site. It’s a lovely place to spend poking around and exploring. She’s making a zine, and gives some instructions.

I just ordered some stationery from Perideau Designs. Custom made, came in four days. If you like sleek, simple designs, take a peek at Perideau.

You can join in on Theme Thursday: post three links to sites you love or blogs you follow. You can do it on your site or in comments here.

Previous Theme Thursdays:

Creative Play 7/23/09 * * *Creative Play 7/16/09 * * * Creative Play 7/2/09 * * *  Creative Play 6/25/09 * * *    Creative Play 6/18/09 ***   Creative Play 6/11/09 ***   Creative Play 6/4/09 *** CreativePlay 5/21/09 ***   Creative Play 5/14/09, ***     Creative Play 5/7/09

—Quinn McDonald is a life- and certified creativity coach. She teaches people how to write and give presentations. She also  manages four journals that travel the world.

Theme Thursday #9: 7.23.09

Theme Thursday!  I’m still in love with pens, journals and yes, inks, so we’ve got more sites that reivew, try out and find new writing tools, and some places to take classes.

First, shameless self-promotion. I’m teaching this Saturday–July 25, 2009–at Changing Hands Bookstore in Tempe. The store is on the Northwest corner of  McClintock and Guadalupe, in the Trader Joe’s shopping center.

PetroglyphHands Bookstore in Tempe. We are going to try out some experiments with raw art journalings. The subject is petroglyphs--patterns that come with meaning and are easy to draw and make your own. Information on the class and how to register is here.

We’ll be working on using petroglyphs–stone-carved symbols, in raw-art journaling. Class is from 10 to noon, costs $20, and you can register by calling (480) 730-0205.

Image: public-domain.zorger.com

InkyJournal reviews inks, particularly inks that work with certain journals. Hard to resist. . .for me. While the right-hand column sports the tooth-grinding mistake of adding an apostrophe for plurals, it does have good information. Interesting recent review is a penclip for Moleskine journals–which includes the shortcomings.

Notebookco is an Australian site that sells Moleskines. It’s a lovely site, but that’s not enough to be included in Theme Thursday. They carry the hard-to-find Japanese accordion-fold Moleskine as well as the Storyboard notebook. Scroll down on the page to find them side by side.

If you are looking for something to write in that journal, try this index of phrases, sayings, and idioms. You can discover the nautical origin of “cut and run” and “broad in the beam,” plus take clever quizzes about word and phrase origins. A word-lovers site worth bookmarking.

If you love book arts, and live on the West Coast,  look at all the classes taught at San Diego Book Arts. Lovely and reasonable–a good combination!

If you live in Arizona, don’t miss the Sedona Art Center for classes–the website needs some poking around to find it all, but it’s worth the effort.

You can join in on Theme Thursday: post three links to sites you love or blogs you follow. You can do it on your site or in comments here.

Previous Theme Thursdays:

Creative Play 7.16.09 * * * Creative Play 7/2/09 * * *  Creative Play 6/25/09 * * *    Creative Play 6/18/09 ***   Creative Play 6/11/09 ***   Creative Play 6/4/09 *** CreativePlay 5/21/09 ***   Creative Play 5/14/09, ***     Creative Play 5/7/09

—Quinn McDonald is a life- and certified creativity coach. She teaches people how to write and give presentations. She also  manages four journals that travel the world.

Theme Thursday: 7/16/09

Here’s how it works: you pick a topic you know something about and share three links on your blog about that topic. Or you can leave a comment with a good link.

My theme is creative play. You’ll find links to prior Theme Thursdays at the bottom of this post.

If you love typefaces and the subtleties of serifs and sans-serifs, visit the periodic table of typefaces. Nicely designed, too.

Some wonderful, imaginative and different calligraphy on Calligraphia, an Australian site. Look through the site for your own discoveries.

Ready to try something new? Watch this fast-paced, but well-organized video on gelatin print-making and you’ll be running out to buy gelatin and make your own prints.

Less really is more. Here’s why paring down is better than bulking up.

Don’t miss BlueRoofDesigns great article on stick painting with Andie Thrams. “The longer the stick, the grander the gesture.”

Enjoy!

Prior Theme Thursdays:

Creative Play 7/2/09 * * *  Creative Play 6/25/09 * * *    Creative Play 6/18/09 ***   Creative Play 6/11/09 ***   Creative Play 6/4/09 *** CreativePlay 5/21/09 ***   Creative Play 5/14/09, ***     Creative Play 5/7/09

—Quinn McDonald is a life- and certified creativity coach. She teaches people how to write and give presentations. She also  manages four journals that travel the world.