Friday, July 22, 2011

Art Time with a Non-Artist (Me)

There's something you should know about me; I'm not much of an artist. The closest I've ever been to feeling like an artist were the multiple times that I was asked if I painted the Van Gogh posters hanging on my dorm wall. Another fact about me: I don't even have much art knowledge. When I was choosing those posters for my wall, I browsed through the "most popular" category and picked the prettiest ones. But despite these two Julie factoids, I'm going to share something kind of arty with you today.

I came across this post http://www.lilmagoolie.com/2010/04/01/get-spotty/ and was greatly intrigued by the idea of eraser artwork. It's pretty much what it sounds like. You dip a pencil eraser on an ink pad and use it make artwork out of the resulting dots (I also used a sharpie to aid in my artwork).  So, one night when I couldn't go to sleep, I decided to give it a shot.  It sounded easy, and I had everything that it required on hand. Well, kind of. I didn't have a working inkpad, but I had an old watercolor set, probably from when one of my siblings or I was in elementary school. But you know what? It actually worked pretty well, and when I inevitably spilled some the paint on my counter, it washed right out. 

Now, I know my resulting artwork is far from great. The ideas are unoriginal and simplistic, and the actual artwork could be easily replicated by a child. That really wasn't the point of this for me. I just wanted to flex my creativity muscles a bit and have some fun. I feel like both of these objectives were achieved, so I'm satisfied. Plus, my artwork may not be great, but I actually kind of like it. Maybe that's just my aforementioned lack of art knowledge talking.


So, if you're bored and are looking for a fun way to show some creativity, I'd definitely recommend trying some eraser artwork. It's definitely gets a stamp of approval from me.

Tuesday, July 12, 2011

I'm So Buzzed That I Make Bees Look Bad: Crystal Light Energy

 Okay y'all, I have three problems. I'm going to work towards rectifying the first one right now. The second may never be fixed. The third could easily be fixed, but I refuse to do so.

I'll start with the first problem. I have realized that I've gotten incredibly lazy with this blog. Most of the first page is filled with youtube videos and a "check this out" type of comment. Now, the truth is that I think youtube videos definitely have their place on this blog. However, they should be mixed in with posts that require a little more work. So, I'm going to try to write more of these posts that include, well, actual writing by me. This problem is going to be worked on today because I'm about to write, *gasp,* a post that does not include a youtube video. 

This probably should have been my first post because the Wild Strawberry flavor of Crystal Light Energy is probably among my top-used products and may, in fact, be the product that I use the most. I drink it pretty much every day, and lately I've been drinking it twice a day. This is my second problem. I drink too much Crystal Light Energy. Each packet contains 120 milligrams of caffeine, and the recommended amount per day is under 300 milligrams. So if we pretend that I have no other caffeine, then I'm doing okay on that front. The problem is that I'm reliant upon it. If I don't drink it every day, not only do I feel sluggish, but also I get a terrible headache. That's probably not good, right? But it tastes really good and perks me right up in the morning. Plus, it's super easy to "make" because all I have to do is mix it into a water bottle. I could probably just drink coffee for my caffeine fix, but Crystal Light Energy is super enjoyable. So despite it's addictive quality, I definitely give it a "Cool" stamp of approval. Maybe I'll give it up one day, but who knows?

Oh yeah. If you've stuck with me this long, you're probably wondering about my third problem. My third problem is that the title of this post is so incredibly cheesy. However, you're just going to have to deal with it because I like it.

Has anyone else tried Crystal Light Energy? What did you think about it? Or do you drink something else for a pick me up? Share your thoughts in the comments.