Wednesday, May 23, 2012

Time For A Change.

I was staring at that great big blue pencil on my blog banner the other day and suddenly decided...It's time for a change!  I was feeling in a mostly black and white mood that day and so, voila!  I snapped my fingers and lo and behold, I found myself looking at my new banner and background.  As you might already know, I'm the sort of person who gets lost in details.

Details... I just had a flashback ! I remember my Dad asked me to paint him a sign for a garage sale one day when I was a teenager.  His words to me were 'Daughter dear, could you paint me a sign for our garage sale....oh...and please...just plain writing this time....don't EMBELLISH IT!!!'.  Well, yes I did make that sign, and I tried my very best to make it plain so that it was easy to read from a passing car.  However, my Dad made that fatal mistake of leaving me alone too long with a paintbrush in my hand after the words 'garage sale this Saturday' were carefully and neatly painted.  I mean, a few curls and swirls here and there couldn't possibly hurt anyone, could they?  Doesn't everyone like a bit of decoration in their life?  Surely those big lovely bold letters were meant to be embellished?  When my Dad came back to check my handiwork he laughed, rolled his eyes and shook his head. 'You just couldn't help yourself, could you!' he sighed.  'It's OK Dad, you can still read the words on it....just...hehe' I answered sheepishly. 

It was the same in classes at high school.  I would often hand my notebook into the teacher and get the same written comments when my book was returned:  'A beautifully decorated notebook...it must have taken you hours to do this.  But where's your homework??'  It was the same with assignments.  And exam papers.

The other day I made a chicken and vegetable pie with homemade pastry.  It was delicious...I wish I had've taken a photo of it to show you.  I was going to actually, but by the time I had turned around to get the camera it had been sliced into pieces and served onto everyone's plate.  Anyway I think the main reason I go to the trouble of making a pie with homemade pastry is so that I can doodle on it.  This one looked great.  It had hearts, flowers, swirls, dots....the lot! All sculpted in pastry and coated with a layer of beaten egg to make it go extra crunchy on top.  I think I spent more time decorating the top of it than it took me to make the actual pie.  It was so much fun though.  Edible doodles...now there's a thought!  Maybe I should get into cake decorating or something, I could really go overboard with my embellishment addiction with that hobby.

Oops!  That was a long flashback.  Get to the point, I hear you shout.  Ok well, the blog's new look.  I spent some time thinking about making it sleek, stylish, and shiny-looking, sort of minimalist and nice and simple.  A place to rest your eyes, a vacation from the craziness that is the internet.  I really did try.  But it just wasn't me at all.  Who am I trying to kid? So instead, I went in totally the opposite direction and crammed as many doodles in as I possibly could.  Aaaaaaaaaaaaaah!  That's better!  Glad I got that all out of my system.

Let me know what you think about the new look, in the poll to the left (if it is still there by the time you read this article).  Or better still write a comment below.  I would love to know what you think :)

Regards,









29 comments:

  1. Well my vote went on groovy....but I'd still like the ice-cream lol. As far as I'm concerned the more I can see of your doodles the better lol. I'm a big fan of paisley...spent a lot of my childhood doodling paisleys lol. Enjoyed reading your post. Hugs lin

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    1. Thanks, Linda! I'm a bit of a paisley person too hehe. They really are fun to draw. I should do some more videos of paisleys they seem to be very popular. Glad you are enjoying the blog :)
      Regards,
      MM

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  2. Love it! I like coming to your site to "rest" my eyes on your intricate doodles...I find it to be a mini vacation from the realities of life!

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    1. haha! Yes, you're right...Who needs expensive holidays, when we can doodle our own destination!

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  3. WOW !!! So very visually interesting. Good idea you had :)

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  4. life without embellishments is just plane boring! love your art~~~~

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    1. My sentiments exactly, Melody! Glad you are enjoying my doodlings.

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  5. I love the banner and I love the background. Your artwork is so fabulous. I found myself wanting to move the text out of the way so I could see the art underneath. :-) Well done as usual.

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  6. Love the new look! My favourite part is the garage sale sign story, that's priceless!

    Now, who said something about ice cream???

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    1. Glad you enjoyed the story, Genevieve. Ahh yes, ice cream...I feel like one now, even though it's freezing cold here!

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  7. I don't blame you a bit for wanting to be surrounded by all of your wonderful doodles! I like it!

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  8. I was thrilled to find you on the net. Your doodles are amazing. I too have this need to doodle things up. It gives me such pleasure. I like the new blog look. It is a bit overwhelming as now I see so many more things I haven't seen yet. Yay! some more videos to watch. Love it.

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    1. I'm glad you found my blog too, Virginia :) Thanks for the lovely comment!

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  9. You are such an awesome artist! I love the new look! I also wanted to tell you that your videos are so inspiring. I have watched them all and can't get enough of your artwork. I never thought I could draw until I saw your videos and learned some zentangle techniques. I may not be very good at drawing, but it makes me feel good. Thanks!!

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    1. I'm so glad you are enjoying the blog and videos, Carol. Yes, I agree, drawing is so relaxing, no matter what your skill level is...and doodling is a great way to get into it if you are just starting out. All the best with your drawing adventures :)

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  10. I just found your blog... so I never saw it the old way.. but my vote is also groovy... so very inspiring..this summer while my children are off of school we are going to work on our embellishments to keep from watching tv and video games all summer.. thank you for all of your fantastic ideas!!

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    1. Glad you found the blog and glad you are enjoying it, Jackie! Thanks for your vote, too. Great idea to get the kids drawing instead of TV...anything is better than being glued to the box :D

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  11. Hiii,

    LOVE LOVE LOVE it !!! Absolutely fab design :)
    But i have a small concern (nothing major)
    1. As soon as i voted, i got this link, Do you want to change your vote and below that there were some text in grey which is the same color as the background doodle. So it makes it difficult to read.
    2. Similarly, the links under Recent posts, Archives are in light blue color and not in Bold letters. This also is a little difficult to read.
    You might want to change those colors or make it as Bold letters.

    I hope you take my comments in the right sense. I am a huge fan of your blog and hence i feel its equally important for me as much as it is for you. Hence took the liberty to comment :)

    Thanks,
    Nithya

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    1. Hi Nithya, thanks for your comment :) I don't mind at all, constructive criticism helps me improve my blog and my artwork, I really appreciate it :). Yes, you are right, there is a bit of a problem with the text being difficult to read in different areas because it blends with the background. I spent ages the other day trying to fix it in the blogger dashboard but it drove me crazy and I gave up...maybe someone out there has some advice to help me?
      By the way glad you are enjoying the blog, Nithya!

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  12. i love your new look! it's wonderful! and your blog header compliments it perfectly :)

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    1. Thanks for taking the time to comment, Alice :) Glad you like it!

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  13. This is my first time visiting, so hadn't seen the old banner.... but I do LOVE this one!

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  14. Very cool stuff! What video equipment and software do you use for your videos?

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  15. I love your background full of doodles - anybody can be minimalist (read: boring), but this? This has panache!!! Love it!

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