when boredom strikes.

Sometimes you just need a little inspiration to get you moving, right? Look at me, for instance. I’m a 2011 college graduate that’s put in over 200 applications to full and part time job openings and I’m still unemployed. I moved back to my college town. I’m beginning the process of researching grad school programs from scratch and I’m struggling to figure out who I am and what defines me now, because I’ve changed a lot since May. On top of all that, I’m still applying regularly to jobs. It’s upsetting to hear some of my friends tell me that I’m not trying hard enough. I’ve thought long and hard about what I could possibly be doing wrong… I’m not sure what more I can do. I hit the lowest of all lows last week and I was in desperate need of some inspiration. I’m a very visual person and I love any excuse to be artsy fartsy, so I decided to write my favorite quotes (and boy are there a lot of them) on drawing paper and stick them to the wall above my couch. This is the “quote project” I’ve been referring to… Anyway. I’ve drawn out about 60 quotes so far, which might sound like a lot, but it’s nowhere near enough. I want to fill the entire wall with MOTIVATION! Check out the progress I’ve made so far (the lighting is a little off in some of the pics… I live underground. Bear with me!):

The beginning...

Those are just a few. Thoughts? Feel free to share  your favorite quotes! Like I said, I want to cover the entire wall, so I need as many as I can get

I am so all over the place, friends. Even more so than usual. Maybe it’s because all I’ve ingested today has been an iced grande soy latte from Starbucks. I dunno. Last night I had one of those horrible all-my-teeth-are-falling-out-one-at-a-time-in-public-places dreams. Okay, nightmares. Seriously, those are the worst! Don’t they mean “change is ahead” or some other bull crap like that? Whateverrr. I have a lot on my mind.

I think I’m finally settling into my apartment. I’m done with all the random traveling, for a while at least. Now it’s time to buckle down and continue applying for jobs that won’t consider me and more importantly, time to start figuring out my situation for this time next year. Grad school for Student Affairs has always been “the plan” but sometimes I’m not sure if even that’s what I want to do anymore. I’ve spent the last three years so involved at Miami University, dedicating ever fiber of my being to building stronger student organizations and developing  relationships and friendships with people. Now that it’s all over and I’ve been out for four months, I have no idea who I am anymore. My identity as a leader, a friend, a confidant, a student, a mentee and a mentor. Everything about who I was had been shaped by my experiences within different communities while at Miami. I don’t have any of those ties anymore, and even though you’d think I’d still have the same drive and motivation now as I did then, I don’t. I’m tired of getting my hopes up and I’m tired of going through the motions. THIS ISN’T ME. Where the frup did I go?! Ugh.

Three things have been lifting me up, lately. When I moved back to Oxford, I imagined that seeing my friends would help me get over my frustrations. It’s helped to an extent, but it’s hard for me to relate to many of them anymore. I’m thankful for the handful of people that talk to me on a regular basis. People that make me laugh. Friends that I didn’t get a chance to talk to much last year because I was “too busy” but are the kind of people that can pick up exactly where we left off like it was yesterday. In that sense, I’m so glad that I have this year to make up for lost time. A second chance. That’s the first thing. The second thing is my random Grooveshark playlists. Brandon Heath. The Civil Wars. Adele. Switchfoot. Chris Tomlin. Sanctus Real. Hillsong United. Coldplay. And of course Lil Wayne, Jay Z and Kanye for when I want to pretend to be cool. The third thing is all the support I’ve received from complete strangers. Maybe you’re one of them? I have heard from so many friends and acquaintances that they’ve seen or heard from a friend of a friend something about my blog. Namely, the Tale of the Three Brothers chapter that I painted on a wall. One of my favorite Miami mentors (Wo-Jo!) sent me a message the other night about my posts being pinned on Pinterest, a virtual pinboard of sorts that allows people to share and “pin” hundreds of thousands of things that inspire them. I’m not really involved with the site at all, but I discovered this page yesterday and was able to see SO MANY comments from people about my HP wall. I was shocked. I’m still shocked. And oh so happy that I talked my mom into letting me do that, because there’s no telling how many people have been inspired to do something like it on their own. I’ve also gotten a few messages from people who’ve purchased something from my Etsy shop. Each notification I get literally leaves me beaming. I want to find a way to do this for the rest of my life… even if that means living in a shed with my traveling band of kitteh cats and living off the land (by that I mean resorting back to my vegan diet and grazing like cattle). But anyway.

I’ve been collecting quotes for the longest time. I’ve got journals filled with little pick-me-ups that I’ve gathered up because they’ve inspired me or made me laugh. I’m starting a new project (yes, on top of all the other projects I’ve got going on, I told you I’m all over the place!). I have a general idea of what I want to do with all of them, but I don’t really know what it looks like yet. Check back in a few weeks and I’m sure I’ll have something.

Damn, that was a long one. Like I said, I’ve got a lot on my mind. Even if no one reads this, jotting all this down has helped me to clear my mind a little. Yeah.

Thanks for reading (if you got this far), and happy craftinggg

Howdy, folks! I just listed three new scarves at my Etsy shop. Supaaa excited! Two-ish weeks ago, I submitted this post to craftgawker and got some great feedback about my most recent scarf obsession. Check that out if you haven’t read it yet – it explains how I got started. Yup.

Now… meet the newest members of the stenciled family!

Current favorite is definitely Mr. Smarty Pants aka Einstein. COMMENT BELOW with any ideas you have for new stencils / what you think would look cool on a scarf. Next up I’mma try some Bible verses – hit up a different audience and make one for my aunt! Speaking of my aunt, I’ll be posting pics of what I painted on her walls earlier this week soooooon. Like, tomorrow. Probably. Also. If you know what song I’m referencing in the title of this post, you get a gold star. Figuratively. Unless you live near me… if that’s the case I’ll actually give you one. Better yet! If you really want your gold star, order a scarf on etsy and tell me to include it! Haaa – now I’m being selfish.

Thanks for looking and as always, HAPPY CRAFTING!

So it’s been a few days. Friday I drove up to Michigan to spend the weekend with Miami friends. I laughed so hard my lungs hurt. The drive back down was epic. I drove two of my friends back to Columbus and around Toledo we became so distracted by our conversation that we didn’t realize we missed our exit for 30-some miles. The detour was lovely, as was the stop at the HuMan Buffet. I proved my cat whispering skills when I met my friend Nathan’s farm kittehs. 7 weeks old, adorable, and in love with me. Babayyy kittehs are the best.

My sister started college today. She’s apparently having a much easier time than I ever did, which I guess is a good thing. I’m home alone. Bored out of my mind and feeling a little lonely after this weekend. I wish I could say that I’ve had luck finding a job, but I haven’t… yet. I need to buckle down and get to work on this substitute teacher thing. Maybe I’ll have luck with that. At this point, I think I’m going to start spending more time on preparing grad school applications than anything else.

On a happier note, I got a new book in the mail today! I AM SO EXCITED. It’s called Tree of Codes by Jonathan Safran Foer. Kinda my favorite author. He also wrote Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, Everything is Illuminated, and Eating Animals. This book is *extra* special though, because he used manuscripts of another book, The Street of Crocodiles by Bruno Schulz, and carved away words to create a new story. Just look: Tree of Codes by Jonathan Safran Foer. SO COOL, right? I started reading it and it’s incredible. I’m a collector of quotes of all sorts, and I literally want to bookmark every single page.

Y’ello, folks! I’m back with a new craftastic project that’s resulted in a lack of feeling in my right pointer finger! Woo hoo! Initially, my idea was to write or paint excerpts from books on scarves; an adaptation of my Harry Potter wall. That didn’t work out exactly as planned, so I decided to give stencils a shot. I found an image online and made it black and white, not grayscale. I’m sure there’s some fancy word for this, but I’m no photoshop guru. Hopefully you catch my drift. From there, I spent many an hour with a cutting board, razor, and an ancient box of overhead projector transparency sheets I played “school” with when I was nine. Knew there was a reason I saved those – ha.

I’m usually on a craft kick for a few weeks before I find something new to obsess over. I think this one might be here to stay, though. Unfortunately, the act of cutting the stencils (especially the more detailed quote stencils) KILLS YOUR FINGERTIPS. Each one can take anywhere between ten minutes to a few hours to cut. It’s been at least five days since I cut my last stencil and my fingertip is still numb. Whatever. I’m willing to sacrifice for perfection. After the stencils are cut, all that’s left to do is cut the fabric and add the paint. Scroll down for picturesss.

These are not screenprinted so they’re not perfect, but that’s what I love about them. I’m always looking for suggestions, so comment below if you have any ideas for people/images/quotes/etc that would look cool on a scarf.

A handful of [lucky] friends will be receiving one of these in the mail (you know who you are), but if you’re interested in one for yourself or for someone else, check out my Etsy shop. I don’t think I’ll have any luck with that at all, but you never know until you try, right?

The striped scarves are also handpainted. I used diluted fabric paint to keep them soft and lightweight instead of stiff – sorta had a tie dye effect. I got better as I went along, especially with the font stencils. I think it’s obvious, but maybe you won’t. Kurt Vonnegut is my favorite so far. Next up I really want to use a few Jonathan Safran Foer quotes, and my sister is begging for some Slaughterhouse Five and Thoreau… ps. Kurt’s signature was THE BIGGEST pain in the rear.

Kurt Vonnegut

Jackie Kennedy

Kahlil Gibran (this ones yours, Jen!)

Julie Andrews

Audrey Hepburn

Lucille Ball

Thanks for looking and happy crafting! – Liz

So. Over the July 4th weekend I decided to embark on a new craft-like project. I’d always thought it would be cool to paint a chapter of a book on a wall, but never actually followed through with the vision. Untillllll I decided to ask my mom if she trusted me enough to paint the wall in the stairwell leading to the basement and she said YES. I started drawing lines on July 4th and two weeks later, I had successfully painted the entire chapter of The Tale of the Three Brothers from Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows on the wall, word for word. I completely guessed as to whether or not it would all fit, and miraculously it fit perfectly, all 20-something pages. I completely ruined my paintbrush, in the end, but I’d say it was worth it! I submitted this to craftgawker, my favorite website everrrr. You should totes check it out. If you wanna “favorite” my post go here. I’d love you forever, because nothing makes me happier than knowing that hundreds of complete strangers appreciate my work