new things...

Okay... first post of the new year.  I know, lame that it has taken me 18 days to get to it, and I know that you all have probably stopped following me because my last post was Nov. 2010... BUT, I am here to tell you that I am back.  Ready to start posting again! I started this year out in Cali, with family, but flew back to Spring Hill on Jan. 2.  I was home for a week, but then headed out to Orlando for a Children's Pastor's Conference.  It was a great time of connecting with children's pastors from around the nation and getting KIDMO into their hands!  The week however wasn't all work... I did get to play some!  I was blessed with being able to go to Walt Disney World TWICE!!  AND FOR FREE!!!  How amazing is that?!  If you know me, then you know how much I love Disney.  I had an annual pass to Disneyland when I lived in Cali, but I had never been to WDW before.  My first time to Epcot, I went alone, but that is ok.  Then on Saturday morning, my cousins picked me up from the hotel and surprised me with a trip to Disney!!!  We went to Epcot, Magic Kingdom and Disney's Hollywood Studios.  It was truly an amazing experience, that I will never forget! Below are a few pictures from my adventure there!  

Now, onto some other news....  

I have been thinking a lot lately about how I haven't done any creative work lately.  I follow another photographer's blog, Kate Noelle (click here to check her blog out).  Anyways, she recently posted about how creativity is a muscle and "If you only use it every once in a while, it won’t consistently produce as effectively. However, if you make a point to exercise your creativity on a consistent basis, your capacity for growth and consistency increases exponentially… and continues to grow as you continue to challenge yourself."

This really got me thinking about the ways in which I am using my creative muscle.  And when I got real honest with myself, I haven't been using it much lately.  As one who considers herself a creative, this is unacceptable!  So, I am starting to change that!  I am starting to take on some new personal projects to not only just develop myself as a photographer, but as a creative in general.  Some things that this will include is: painting (i'm working on a super neat project with this, and as soon as I finish it, I will definitely post pictures!!!), video, motion graphics, and graphic design.  I'm so excited to see what comes up!  I'm constantly looking for inspiration for projects!  If you have any ideas, please feel free to shoot them my way!  

Kate and I don't know each other very well, but her site and her work are an inspiration to me, and even though she doesn't know it, she drives me to be a better photographer!  Thanks Kate!

Another person who is ALWAYS pushing me to be better, and do better is my dear friend Annie Hobbs.  She is an amazing illustrator, and I'm blessed to call her friend (You can check out her stuff here).  I have had the honor and blessing of knowing this woman for 6 years now, we have been through so much together, and there isn't a day that goes by that we don't talk...weather it is by text messaging, email, skype, or the phone, we connect every day.  She is my sounding board, and I am hers.. We are ALWAYS bouncing ideas off of each other, or calling to say "CHECK OUT WHAT I JUST DID!!! What do you think?!?!?!?!"  Even though we have different creative specialties, we are able to help sharpen each other's art.  Sometimes conversations look like: "Hey Stacee, what do you think of this...?"

"Well, I think it looks great, but this color looks kinda off, is there something you could tweak?"

or

"I can't quite put my finger on it, but what if you dd a different brush stroke here.. or there?"

and vice versa of course!  

We may not know each other's 'art lingo' (usually it is more me not knowing illustration lingo..hehe), but we do know the language of friendship... sometimes that looks like criticism, but it is criticism done in love!  Criticism done with the vision of bettering each other's craft.  I will welcome that kind of criticism any day!  

Anyways, I just felt like I needed to start this year of blogs with a couple of 'shout-outs' to a couple of people who are my inspiration.  Thanks Annie for all you have done for me, and will continue to do for me.  I am a better artist, and person because I have the joy of being your friend!  There are sooo many fun and meaningful pictures that I would love to share with you, but for the sake of time I won't put them all up here... I felt like this picture of us really represents us as friends and even as a team...united by the Lord and the gift the Lord has given us... CREATIVITY!  Together Annie, we can do anything we put our minds too!

(we really loosened it, i promise ;)

and since this post already has a Disney theme to it, I thought it was appropriate since she is my Disney buddy as well)