Painting, prepping, processing

PAINTING

Hi friends! I’m getting closer to the Creative Canvas Festival and I’m still making new art to show. Here’s a few more things I’ve painted!

This is a 5 x 7” painting. I love those little Lucky Cats (I have 3 figurines in my office, a lucky cat tattooed on me and I’ve draw many versions of them before) and this one combines the colors I’m vibing with and the 3 eyed characters I like to draw.

I also like drawing hexagons and bees. The colors are very strawberry lemonade. It confuses my brain a little, because it makes me think of honey too.

Another magnet! A purple moon.

Another landscape. I changed up the colors.

This is also a magnet! It’s a 3 x 3 wrapped canvas. I love sunflowers. :) Perhaps inspired a bit by Van Gogh’s.

PREPPING

I’m taking some stickers with me. Some new, some old.

I originally did this painting in March of last year. I was thinking of this being with an overflowing cup. The vines were meant to represent growth. At the time I painted it, I really felt like I was seeing things differently, including what my heart wants.

I decided to change her up a little. I got rid of the green, added a HEART in her heart space, and added more twinkling stars and sparkles.

Processing

One thing I’ve really leaned into this year is prioritizing alone time and space for myself. Each day I get up, do 10 minutes of meditation and 10 - 25 minutes of yoga. I usually take care of some of the daily chores then spend another 10 -30 minutes writing. I started writing a little bit last year after reading about “morning pages” in The Artists Way by Julia Cameron. One of my FB friends posted about how intention and writing transformed her life and how she was putting something together to help others experience that too. I joined the Write It Real Experiment in November of last year and it kicked off on January 1st. Check out more information about W.I.R.E. here. I’ll probably make a whole new blog post dedicated to how that’s been going for me and how powerful that’s been for me. I definitely needed to process some thing through writing and art. I had this canvas I had no idea where it was going. I started to write on it in ball point pen whatever was on my mind. Some of it good, some of it bad. I just wanted to out of my head and onto the canvas.

Gonna be vulnerable here. This is a very raw photo of me. I was not feeling my best and I cried as I wrote words on this canvas.

I wrote, rotated the canvas and wrote more. I wrote on top of words. It doesn’t matter, I just needed to get it out.

After I wrote and cried and wrote a little more, I drew on top of the words then started to paint. The words still bleed through and I guess that’s okay. I have an image in my head of what I want to put here. This is all I have so far. The thing about art is that it’s a process and sometimes it’s really ugly. But the making of it is therapeutic and that’s really what I wanted to accomplish here. I honestly don’t care that this piece looks like a mess and I don’t even know if I’ll finish this version of it. I might just paint over it again and write more words on it. Because this piece isn’t meant to be beautiful or perfectly depict an image. It’s a process piece that I’m using to help me heal and release some shit. It doesn’t feel great or wonderful but a part of me knows that THIS is the kind of art that NEEDS to be made, and won’t be the kind of art you see being pushed by any social media algorithm.

So yeah, that’s what I wanted to share right now. Thanks for reading.

Painting small gives me big feels

Hi friends! I’m currently prepping for this event next weekend! I’m excited to get my art out into the community and connect with other people.

I haven’t actually painted on canvas in quite some time. I have canvases I’ve prepped and are waiting patiently for me to play with them, but I have been feeling too intimidated to start. I went to the store to pick up some paint and saw these small canvas magnets. They had different shapes and I thought they were cute and that it would be a fun way to get back into painting.

I wanted to do a northern lights scene here but didn’t have the colors I wanted, so this is what came out instead.

I loved how the blue mountain turned out, so I did another one. I wanted to do fun pops of color.

I wanted to do another fun scene with punchy colors.

Someone suggested a tropical scene, so I gave that a go here.

The day after I painted the first 4, I wanted to do another set. These are a work in progress…Or maybe they’re going to get painted over completely. The peach one on the right is okay, but the colors aren’t vibing with me as much..So I tried to play with purples. Again, they didn’t flow as much as the first set did.

So I decided to paint some disco balls instead!

I’ve painted some bigger disco balls on wood panels and love them so much! So I thought mini versions would be cute!

Doing these mini paintings helped me feel comfortable with painting again. Because they’re small, I couldn’t put in too much detail, which is a good thing that helped pull me out of this painting block. It’s also really satisfying to me that I have 6 new paintings done. I love how they turned out! Which one is your favorite? :)

I’m going to keep on painting. I have more of those little magnets in different shapes, but those larger canvases are warming up to me again. I have another week before the show and I just want to create my heart out until then. I’ll let ya’ll know how it goes. <3

New Logo reveal and ramblings

Hello! Happy New Year! Yes, I realize it’s already February but I feel like I just woke up from a fat nap and am wondering what year it is.

I have been wanting to making a shift in my content for it to feel more authentic and more me. I didn’t know what that meant for a while, or what that looked like and basically I spent most of my time trying to craft this image and create content I thought other people would expect from me. And wow, does it get exhausting tying to do things that I think I should do instead of listening to my heart.

I remember when I was in art school, I was getting close to graduating and we had to design a logo and a business card. This was my first logo, and I chose to do something that represented me as the person I was. I remember the criticism I got from my peers and professors and someone I thought was a friend. The underlying tone I got from them all was that it was too much of me and that wasn’t something other people wanted to see. That was over 12 years ago and I still think about it to this day.

I started Ali Cali Designs in 2016 and there were moments when I created art just for me because I thought it was neat. There were times I drew things and shared them on IG because I thought it was what other people wanted to see and sometimes I was right and a certain piece of art for more likes than my usual ones. Then I’d keep trying to chase that. Then I’d stop posting completely and pull myself off posting and using social media until I think I’ve grown past it, but then start posting again and post things just because I liked them and thought it was neat and…Well, it’s just a cycle that I’ve been repeating for literally years now!

So I’m going to give this another go. Haha! Okay but this time, I am being INTENTIONAL and I’m trying to be as authentic as possible. I’m a freaking human, I make typos and say dumb shit sometimes. I’m a creative and I have lots of ideas. I know some of them are great! But a lot of them are not! And that’s okay, and guess what, I just want to share those things with others in some way. I just need to express things. That’s really who I’ve been for a long time. I used to have a Xanga. I Tumblred my way through college. I really wrote my heart and soul out on the internet for strangers to see. But now, I actually have a lot of friends and people who really believe in me and have been rooting for me since even BEFORE those days.

So, like i said, I’m giving it another go. I’ve got this new logo which I just think it cute and I feel like it’s my vibe right now. I am ready to put my work out to the world again, and this time, I’m posting what feels good to me and what I want to see. I fully believe that if I stay true to myself, I will attract others who also stay true to themselves. That sounds awesome to me. :)

Roller derby doodles 🛼

It's no secret that I love roller skating. I love the vibes, I love how it feels, I love how it makes me feel.

But I've really been thinking about my roller derby days. I skated for about 10 years and took on as many positions as I could and learned so much from the experience. It's been on my mind more lately (let's be real, it's on my mind a lot on the regular). I know the season is starting back up for some leagues, and I'm looking forward to watching a game soon. I really miss the energy.

Here are some doodles I've done recently.

Roller skater lacing up. I found a reference on instagram. It was a cute little snapshot of a very normal part of roller derby practice.

Looking around on pinterest for reference. Most images under the roller derby tag are these really nice, posed or perfectly captured shots. I like the messiness of these doodles.

Top left corner was of a skater buckling their helmet. The big drawing is a photo floating around on pinterest of a former teammate of mine.

A photographer I follow on IG posted some pictures from a recent tournament. I was really just trying to play with loose doodles. There were a ton of great action shots. I really appreciate those derby photographers!

Prioritizing Fun and health! November Recap

It’s December already! Woah. I have to say November was a busy month for me. I usually go through my phone to see what pictures I took to remind me of what happened this month. I didn’t have too many, but I have been journaling and writing things down more lately, which has been a great outlet for me to get stuff out of my head.

I’m making a conscious effort to have more FUN on the reg in my life.

My honey took me out to play pool one night! We haven’t really gone out on a “date” like this in a while, and I had fun! I won the first game, then the second because he scratched. Then he won the next few. My hubby is one of those guys that’s kinda naturally good at everything (when it comes to games like this and sports). I still had a good time. :)

We went to this arcade place for my neice’s birthday. There was mini axe throwing, along with games, lazer tag (which my husband made 1st place and I made dead last haha), bumper cars and all sorts of other things.

PRIORITIZING MY HEALTH

In September, I started to take my health more seriously by incorporating some healthy habits into my routine, including working out and movement. Some things came easier than others but I am SO glad I committed to regular workouts. At first I was doing bodyweight and cardio, which was a struggle for me because in the past been guilty of going TOO hard when working out and hurting myself by lifting too heavy too fast. I just kept telling myself that each workout was getting me closer to picking up weights again, injury free. I also want to mention I have been doing 10 minutes of yoga every morning when I wake up and that has made a huge difference in my mood and my mobility. Now I am able to workout with weights and kettlebells again! I feel strong again. In a way I haven’t felt since I was playing derby in El Paso.

I was stoked after completing this workout this day because I was able to use a barbell and did not injure myself! Hooray!

Part of working out regularly has my body craving better foods. So properly fueling my body to help fuel me to get through workouts and recover has been important. Look how pretty this salad was!

Look at this cute moth that landed on my Beatles lamp.

Art

This was not my most creative month, as far as making things. I did a lot more inner work and planning, which I think is also very necessary…But I allowed myself to make ugly art. When I say “ugly art”, I mean, art that I have no intention of sharing or selling, which has no purpose and I feel like I threw things together. Which sometimes ends up kinda cool!

I created these pieces with clay a while ago, and didn’t know what to do with them. I was planning to make them into jewelry I think but that didn’t work out so I hot glued them to this board.

I painted over the pieces and this is how it turned out. I just really like the textures. It’s funky.

Speaking of textures, I had an old canvas that I glued scrap pieces of paper to. Some were balled up and crinkled, others were flat. Then I threw paint in it.

Better angle to see the textures.

I took some paint pens I had a doodled some flowers. That was interesting, because it wasn’t a flat surface, it forced me to draw things in a really sketchy way. Kinda neat!

I made a little planter from clay. When I went to take a picture of it today, I dropped it and broke it’s ear. Oops. :)

I actually have a lot of things planned for next year. I’m trying my best to juggle working and life, as well as making my own art a bigger priority and having that be my full time work. I have been really wishy washy about selling my own art in the past. I have some deep rooted beliefs about worth and value and money that have not served me and I need to let go of.

I found a course lead by a Facebook friend with an amazing story and who has achieved so much abundance in her life, it's so inspiring, I just wanted to know more about how she did it. It's a year long commitment and I've already had unexpected money flow back to me since I've made the investment. Which tells me the universe had got my back. Ahhh. Not sure if that makes sense but…I just have a great feeling 2024 is gonna be life-changing.

Stick around and I’ll share more of that with you! :) That’s all for now.

Jake, other animals, friends, and art! September + October Recap

Howdy Folx! It has been a busy last couple months for me. Has it been that way for ya’ll too? I’ve been taking a much needed break from social media too so let me catch you up!

Let’s start with a very unplanned, but exciting addition to our family. Meet Jake!

At the beginning of September, we noticed something kept taking our turtle’s food. I noticed a partial muddy print on the patio and we couldn’t really tell if it was a racoon or something else. One day I happened to see this dog sleeping between our house in the neighbors, in the shade to keep cool. I tried to approach him but he would always run away. It took a few days, but I won him over with some food.

This was the first time I was able to pet him, after seeing him wandering around our neighborhood for over a week.

Look at this sweet face! He is not a small dog, (over 75 lbs) but has such gentle eyes. After searching local animal groups on FB to see if someone was missing him with no luck, we took him to the vet to see if he had a chip. He didn’t have one. And he seemed really happy with us so, the rest is history.

That’s a happy pup!

So most of September I feel was a blur, with most of my energy going to figuring out the right ways to care for this guy. He’s up to date on his shots and I’m so glad he found us. He truly helped me become more active and I started working out again because he’s so strong and I want to be able to safely take him places, though sometimes he does just PULLS me where he wants. We’re working on that.

Jake is my first dog as an adult. :)

He looks like he’s smiling!

We’re still trying to figure out how to keep him and the cats happy. So far, Loki seems not to mind him, but Ghost hates him (to be fair, Ghost seems to hate everything though haha). So now for some pictures of kitties!

Chilling with Loki.

Ghost’s favorite spot to sleep is in one of my drawers so my clothes. I’m always covered in cat hair.

Kitty at work!

I also started working again. I’m making beautiful pens for a small e-commerce business. I really like it, my co-workers are cool and I’m learning so much about manufacturing and seeing a different side of owning a small business I haven’t seen before. My commute is actually one of my favorite parts of the day because this Texas hill country is so beautiful. There’s a sculpture garden right next to our warehouse too, so I go out and take a walk there on my lunch breaks every day I work. Sometimes I’ll see this little friendly kitty.

Can you believe I saw this on my way to work? A FREAKING KANGAROO! In Central Texas.

That’s a scorpion I found on my back patio. I scooped it up moved it into a wooded area away from our home.

I don’t take as many pictures with my honey as I would like, but this was one during the kiddo’s soccer practice. I love the sunsets out here. Hehe.

I just love how the light beams through the clouds. Seriously, I spend a lot of time admiring the sky out here.

For my birthday, my hubby surprised me by taking me to get Filipino food from Sarah’s Kitchen. I actually CRIED multiple times because the food was SO GOOD and comforting to me.

Halo halo.

Crispy pata

I made a trip to Houston for a friend’s engagement / going away party. I haven’t been the most social person since like 2020, but I think that’s what happened to a lot of us. It was so good to be able to hang out in a neat place like this with so many wonderful people.

My Bestie!! We’ve known each other since high school and anytime we meet up, we pick up right where we left off.

A mini roller derby reunion!

Halloween! I pulled out this cute dress I haven’t worn in YEARS! I also played a little with some makeup, which I don’t do as often these days. It was fun by my skin did not agree lol.

This is our first Halloween together where we actually got to go do things and trick to treat! My hubby was a zombie and G was X-Lord from Fortnite. He got quite a few compliments, tbh it’s a pretty cool costume.

I created a Coloring Zine called Spooky Szn. I’m actually really proud I made that come together and learned a lot in the process. I tried my best to do things in a more traditional way by making my own copies and stapling and folding each page myself.

So I am really into Zines right now. I actually want to make a Qveen Herby FanZine. I have been OBSESSED with her music and there is no doubt most of my Spotify top songs this year will be from her. I have some other designs drawn out but here are the ones I have completed! These were so fun. I love her style.

You can buy these designs on different products over on my Redbubble store

You can buy these designs on different products over on my Redbubble store

And that’s all for now! Thanks for reading. :)

My first Zine: Self-Care

I've been having a bit of an art block. When that happens I try to pivot and find other ways to create. I've had the itch to create more comics. I wanted to tell stories I'm some way. While browsing YouTube one day, I saw a video about how to make Zines. I am familiar with zines and have acquired a few over the years but I never considered making one.

The great thing about this is I already had all my supplies, I just needed an idea. In September I made a conscious effort to take better care of myself and even made a list with goals on a dry erase board so that I could mark off as I met the goal for the day.

So that's what I wanted to put into a zine!

I drew these super quickly and colored them in a little messy because I was more focused on getting the idea across than making it perfect. That's part of the charm of zines, I think. Haha please excuse my badly chipped nail polish and fingers that partially pink from my hair dye. It's very punk though, right and fits the vibe of this zine haha.

This is a mini zine. It's made in a regular piece of printer paper. I folded it and cut a slit in the middle so that it can be folded a little booklet. :)

Have you read a Zine before? Have you made one yourself? I highly recommend you try of you haven't. You can make them on any topic. I could even be a list of things you like. You don't even have to draw it, you could create a collage or just write in it. There's so many ways to do it and none of them are wrong.

Here's what I'm working on now. It's just a draft so far but I hope to have this ready in the next week. More details coming soon!

Thanks for reading ❤️

August Recap

Another month of this year has gone by! It has still been very hot here in Central Texas, with it being triple digits most days.

Sometimes I venture out into public. There’s a little water park out here and I went with the boys. I doodled in my sketchbook and did go down a few slides.

Qveen Herby has been on repeat for me.

Poscas.

I drew this on a day that I was feeling very drained.

I finished a mural in my kid’s bathroom this month. Check out this blog post for more pictures.

I like to go on walks in the morning while it’s not super hot. Right now they’re still building homes in the neighborhood, so I’m trying to enjoy how quiet and empty it is out here before it becomes full.

A yummy Korean Bento I had for lunch one day.

There’s a cute little place by where I live. I worked a little on my art and got a Strawberry Matcha Bubble tea.

There’s a place I like to go hiking. I go a couple times a month, but I’m looking forward to cooler weather so I can go out there more. One morning, I ran into an armadillo!! I couldn’t believe it. I just stood still as it walked by. It even started digging close to me, looking for food I think. On another day I went hiking, I saw a possum (didn’t get a pic) and 3 turtles.

Look how close it got! :’)

This was the biggest turtle. I tried to get my hand close to help give a size reference but I’m not sure it’s helpful lol.

The smallest one.

The medium turtle.

On a Friday, I went to Killen Creator’s Open Studio and doodled this.

I joined Killeen Creators for part of a community art initiative and we painted a mural on the side of a building. This was really a wonderful experience and I am looking forward to doing more things with these folks.

Look at these people helping make this city a little brighter! :)

Photo by Chris W (@CWD21 on Instagram)

Photo by Chris W (@CWD21 on Instagram)

Armadillo drawing I did while it rained (I was inspired by the one I saw on my hike! I couldn’t stop thinking of it lol). It didn’t rain much but I enjoyed how much it cooled down and I do enjoy the smell too. The smell of rain in the desert is different than in places where it’s more green.

We had TWO full moons in August. August 30th was a blue moon and earlier that day I had some pent up energy and I just kept feeling the urge to paint. I keep making excuses as to why I shouldn’t paint, the main one being I don’t really have a dedicated space. But I’m an artist and when the feeling strikes, I can’t help but get it out. I pulled out an old canvas (wish I had taken a picture of it) and painted over it. All I knew was that I wanted to paint the moon. I put on some earbuds and went for it. I just added a few stokes here and there. I really enjoyed getting lost in the clouds and the stars. This painting is available in my shop.

I put some things up on my walls in the area I create. It makes me happy to look at these <3

My brother-in-law and niece came to visit us…And they decided to work on MATH for fun… Haha. My hubby is really good with numbers.

My Siren Sister, Muhammad Holly! We played for the same team in Houston, many moons ago. I’m so glad I got to meet up with her for lunch and we stopped by Medusa Skate shop in Austin.

And that’s it for August. I’m excited for September. It’s already off to a great start and I can’t wait to share more with ya’ll! :)

I painted my first mural

We moved into our house last month and are still in the process of making it our own. We’ve put up a bunch of pictures and art which helps it feel more like a home. This is my stepson’s bathroom and green is his favorite color so I knew I had to add some greenery in here to make it more interesting. All I knew is that I wanted to draw some leaves and plants, which are things that make their way into my art pretty regularly.

Here’s a before picture.

Not terribly exiting, right? I had to stand in the tub to get this picture but you get the idea.

So I have painted walls a single color with a roller before. And I have painted many times on canvas and paper. Is that enough knowledge to pull off a mural? Well, I had no idea but I was excited to try out something new and just went for it. I really was just winging it and learned a lot during the process.

The first thing I did was pull out a paint marker and I started drawing on the walls. Honestly this was so much fun and I felt I was healing my inner child during this process.

I’m drawing out where I want these leaves to go. At this point I just wanted to add a variety of shapes to keep it interesting.

Here’s a video of how the sketches on the wall look.

Me for scale.

I went to Lowe’s and got some paint samples. I ended up choosing 5 different types of greens and then got to work. I KNOW I have rollers and larger brushes somewhere in some box in my garage and I refused to buy another set of those, so I just worked with what I had…Regular old paintbrushes.

my 9 year old helped out too! It really makes me happy that he can look at this wall and know that he helped make it happen.

I took way more videos than pictures. I started doing that because I was going to do a series of updates on Instagram and then realized how NOT FUN that made this project. Haha, but I think I will compile all those into a longer form video.

Another progress shot.

here’s the after.

This is the best angle to be able to see the entire mural.

That’s all folks. :) This was such a fun mural, and I’m glad glad I started on a small space. I would love to figure out how to do more detailed pieces or even on a larger scale. I’ll definitely have to use bigger brushes and rollers next time too, haha. Thanks for reading!

I published a my own roller derby coloring book (and you could too!)

In February of 2020, I Released a coloring book.

I published my own coloring book and made a childhood dream come true. It’s probably one of the things I’ve put out into the world that I’m so proud of it, because I did not think it would be possible for a small artist like myself. Honestly, I didn’t really know what all was involved in publishing a book of any kind. I thought I had to work with a company and would have to invest a bunch of money, figure out where to keep inventory, figure out how to ship etc. And perhaps that’s the way some people still do it, but then I found out that I didn’t need a publisher and I didn’t even have to pay anything upfront to make it happen.

You can get a copy of my coloring book here https://amzn.to/448jBSP

Please note that this is an affiliate link. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

Here’s a picture of my Goddaughter coloring her copy of the book. She’s become quite the artist and I’ve really loved seeing her creativity blossom.

I’m sure it’s not a surprise to hear me say that as a creative person, I LOVED coloring books as a kid! Sometimes I would be so obsessed with looking at the art that I wouldn’t color certain pages because I didn’t want to "mess up the art”. BTW, if you’re one of those people, I want to encourage you to COLOR IN. MESS IT UP. Don’t worry about it being perfect. :) Have fun with it. I find the actual process of coloring is quite therapeutic. Don’t overthink it, just go for it!

There are quite a few drawings in this book that are based on skaters I’ve had the chance to share the track with.

This is a page I colored using markers, prisma color pencils and a white gel pen.

One day a video popped up Youtube about publishing coloring book. I thought, oh, that would be really cool if I could do this…I kept watching and then I realized, wait, I CAN do this. Don’t overthink it, just go for it! I’ve had quite a few roller derby drawings I’ve made over the years, so why not compile them into a book?

OKAY, we got it, so spill the beans!! How did you publish this thing??

I did it through Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing (Amazon KDP). I had my artwork ready, then I laid it all out into a book format, then uploaded it and published it all through Amazon KDP. You can set how much you want your book to cost (this allows you to adjust how much profit you’d like to make per book sold) . Once the book is published, all you have to do it send the link to someone and they can order a copy and it gets sent right to their door or mailbox. The books get printed as they are ordered and you don’t have to keep inventory or pay anything up front. Once you meet the payment threshold, you’ll get a check from Amazon for the royalties.

As of the day I am writing this, I have sold 386 copies of this book (mostly in the US but also Canada, the UK, Germany, and Australia!) and it still makes me really happy to know that people have some of my art in their homes.

Here’s an old screenshot I found! :) I love seeing how other people colored in the skaters to fit their own team colors.

I adore this version! So fun. Thanks Pslay <3

If you want to know more about this coloring book, I made a Youtube video about it in 2020. https://youtu.be/HhMLz_JRKGQ

Let me know if you have a copy of this book! Or are you someone who’s thought about publishing your own book? Do you want to know more about Amazon KDP? Leave a comment :D

Thanks for reading!

July Recap

While we were waiting on our house to be finished, we stayed with my parents in Magnolia, Tx. I’m going to be honest, I was really struggling during this move. Walks in nature definitely help me clear my mind. There’s a lake in their neighborhood that is just lovely and I really enjoy walking by it.

Trampoline park! My husband and 9 year old are up there. :)

I doodled a little bit while they climbed and bounced around.

Ya’ll, this summer has been BRUTAL in Texas. I mean, I grew up in Houston so I am “used” to humidity and heat, but I remember it being triple digits in August, not the end of May. Now we’re in Killeen and it is also very humid and hot here 🥵. So we’ve been finding ways to stay cool because it’s been close to or over 100 a majority of this summer.

Bubble Tea has been summer staple for me. This place also has yummy food!

This is from another place I got Bubble tea from, I love the drawings they’ve posted on the walls. Hehe! Someone else has been watching Demon Slayer.

So we were originally scheduled to close on this house at the end of June, and that did not happen. This just made things a little more complicated (we had furniture to be delivered, we had a storage unit we now had to pay an extra month on, we were told we would close on the 11th, then it got pushed back a few more days, and our hotel was booked so we had to find another hotel 30 minutes away T____T; I was stressing, so were our kitties and turtles who were with us ), and it ended up costing us like 2K to close instead of getting money back etc. Haha, I am on the other side of this now but it’s hard not to get worked up again just thinking about it!

Walkthrough time.

Hey from my [soon to be] bathroom!

While trying my best to be flexible with these changes, I thought I’d explore the area. I noticed some really awesome murals and even found a sweet little trail on the college campus that was open. Art and nature were the things that kept me grounded through this whole thing and I’m super grateful for that.

Check out this mural by JPerezartwork! I found him on Instagram, he’s a cool dude. He’s done a few murals around Killeen and has work all around central Texas. PS I just watched the Swordsmith Village Arc of Demon Slayer last month… SO GOOD.

So dope!

I loooooove this one. I believe it’s by Mike Johnston Artist out of Austin.

Sorry I couldn’t figure out the artist behind this one.

A Filipino food store! This made me so happy!

The artists behind Lace and Found did these fun murals!

Halfway through the month and we FINALLY CLOSED ON THE HOUSE! I cannot tell you how stressful it was to be technically homeless for ~6 weeks, but we could finally breath a sigh of relief. It’s ours.

We splurged on a new couch (btw our old couches got messed up during the move because the trailer went out on the Uhaul and whipped a bunch of stuff inside the truck around. After the tire got fixed, a few minutes later we found out the trailer was reported stolen and police had to come… I’m not joking, this whole move has been a JOURNEY lol) and it’s THE BEST.

Morning hike

Nature nurtures my body and soul.

I 💚 this prickly pear

We’ve moved in, emptied out the storage unit, unpacked like 70% of the boxes and that’s where we are today. I still have most of my art supplies in boxes and I don’t have a desk to setup my computer, but I’m making it work. I feel like that’s just how I operate most of the time anyway. I am slowly getting back into working out, roller skating and making as much art as I can.

I’ve seen so many of these sunflowers growing around where I live. I’m glad I got to see so many of them. They’ll be gone soon… Many of these lots of lands are going to be cleared to build new homes.

These things really grow in a tiny amount of soil.

Ducks at Marble Falls Lake.

Marble Falls Lake

FryMail! Got this from a Manifriendo (we’re part of a Streetlight Manifesto group in FB)

Post roller derby practice with Rocking City Roller Derby. I was DEAD to the world the rest of the day after this lol

That’s all I have for now. Thank you for taking the time to read my little blog and take a peek into my life. :) Take care!

This sh*t is bananas

Howdy folx! I’m starting a blog. I have actually attempted a few blogs before in the past and here I go again! I really want to be able to create a catalog of information that’s easy for me (and eventually, many of you!) find in a nice format.

I may use this as a space to share updates on my life in a longer, more thought out format. I’ll be honest, I find sharing life details on IG or FB isn’t my favorite and I get overwhelmed with updating it on the reg. ^_^; I just typed out that emote, because I haven’t figured out how to add emojis yet. Haha, but that’s what life looks like when you’re trying to promote yourself or your art or products. Anyways, it’s my blog so I’m gonna do what I want! Here’s a silly picture I took today (amazing jumpsuit from mixedbynasrin.com! Not sponsored, I just love it so much). That’s gonna be the vibe of this blog I think. :) Thanks for being here!