In Theory // Memphis: The City of Rock 'n' Soul

My last post was August 2013. A lot has happened since then but the most significant thing was my two months I spent experiencing Memphis, TN!!

I went with a coworker and we were peak season support for a sister company there during the months of November and December. Our sister company prints for several large internet companies that sell holiday cards and envelopes, save the dates for weddings, gift tags, labels and anything else you can imagine someone might think they need for Christmas gifts or announcements. The months of November and December are insanely busy for this printing company because everyone orders everything at one time. So Blake (my coworker) and I managed one of the workflows during the day, 12 hours a day with no weekends. It was difficult but a great career experience and we both learned so much.

But we didn’t only work! We got out and experienced as much of the atmosphere of Memphis as possible. For instance, I didn’t know this but Memphis has an NBA team: the Memphis Grizzlies. We got to go to three of their games. We saw the Celtics, the Spurs, and the Jazz play the Grizzlies.

Blake and I cheering on the Grizzlies!

Chris Humphries!

I also heard some awesome live jazz music and some street opera. The night of the music was an art walk I went to, similar to First Friday here in Raleigh where the art galleries are open for visitors and there is lots of live music and food. One art gallery owner had this huge beautiful dog I took pictures with. 

I finished knitting this blue scarf while I was there... :)

I ate way too much food for sure. I am now officially addicted to barbecue, where before I was just very passionate about it. My all-time favorite place I ate there was this tiny little place called the Germantown Commissary. Best. Barbecue. Ever. I brought back 13 containers of their barbecue sauce because you can’t get it here.

We were very responsible while we were there but we did get out and have a few nights with fun drinks at cool places. The very last night I went out with two of the friends I made there. We went to a place called Paula’s. They play 80s and 90s music, have fog machines, and every kind of neon light you can imagine. I had a great last night.

Pretty Margarita!

"The Bucket"

Paula's Dance Club

All in all, I had a great time in Memphis. It’s such a rich city with a lot of history and deep loves. It is also starting to grow and come back alive with young people so that’s exciting. I miss the friends I made there but now it’s their turn to come visit me in Raleigh!

Six Reasons Why I Journal

Why do I journal? 

1. I like the feeling of pen hitting paper--that's why it needs to be a good pen and great paper.           (Notice the emphasis on paper...)

2. I like the idea of emptying myself. Once the issue is described and out in the open (relatively) on the pages of my journal, it is no longer taking over my thoughts. There is a sense in which when it's on the paper, it won't be forgotten. My anxiety over an issue or an idea usually revolves around me worried that it won't get dealt with because I'll get distracted and forget about it.

3. Life starts to make a little more sense when I am able to organize the chaos in my mind by writing it out. Sometimes it's poorly formed, but that's okay.

4. There's no judgment. I can write embarrassing things or just pathetic thoughts and not feel judged. The pages just accept the words that come as if they were supposed to be there all along. This inspires honesty and only helps me get to know myself. There's nothing worse than trying to live a lie to myself.

5. I love the rambling and the rabbit trails that naturally occur when my mind is going a million miles an hour. The seed of dreams and great ideas lie in the illogical, not in the carefully conceived. A journal captures those seeds to be realized then and there... or discovered by a later read.

6. A person with as many emotions as I have needs a place to vent safely without hurting anyone. i hate to take things out on people. Hurtful words are remembered much longer than encouraging ones.


I know that most lists people make have a more round number of items on it, like 5 or 10, but that's all I got. So enjoy! I hope at least one or two things resonates with you.

Brain Dump

After a month of working long hours and some traveling, I'm back to normal life and excited to start blogging regularly and developing Kiss Kreativ with new energy. I was in Texas last week at a conference for work. When I came home I was stressed and anxious about time being wasted and not getting done what my creativity has been aching for.

·That is learning, creating, writing, readying, networking, etc·

To get some initial relief from the building pressure, I did an exercise called a "Brain Dump". The purpose was to list out every idea on my mind so my brain could relax without worrying that I would forget something important. Below is my Brain Dump:

From this list I'm going to choose 5-6 things to work on in the next 90 days. Then I will list smaller tasks to get done per item in the next three months to accomplish what I want. I highly recommend this exercise when you have so many ideas and have no clue where to start or what to do first.

A Word Study [Curious]

cu·ri·ous  (ˈkyo͝orēəs)

adj.

1. Eager to learn more: curious investigators; a trapdoor that made me curious.

2. Unduly inquisitive; prying.

3. Arousing interest because of novelty or strangeness: a curious fact.

Society has labeled curiosity as a dangerous characteristic. All these phrases like ‘curiosity killed the cat’ and movies where the main plot is a good guy who gets ‘curious’ and finds out too much about the bad guy so they try to kill him. That’s not real life people. Of course, meddling around in someone else’s business is much different than the kind of curiosity that I’m encouraging.

Flowers my Wonderful Husband Gave Me

I’m going to step on my soap box for just a few words on one of the problems people have in this generation of technology and the American dream. Now, not everyone is like this, but there are enough to be dangerous and I believe it is one of the reasons that more and more people are looking to antidepressants to lift their spirits. People aren’t curious enough anymore. We’re just not as interested in learning about other people, cultures, countries, traditions, rarities. Somehow we are content enough to stay in our own little bubble and focus on ourselves and the problems we have. Not that problems don’t need attention, but there are so many issues that get exaggerated in importance and if we just didn’t focus on ourselves so much to begin with, they probably wouldn’t even exist.

I’m going to step down now but this is what I want Kiss Kreativ to help address: inspiring curiosity… Provide an outlet for people to learn and ask the right questions. Now how I’m going to do that is another issue.

What does that look like? For me, these are the things I am practicing doing now:

1. Read a lot
2. As I’m reading, if I don’t know what something is, look it up—the internet is a great resource for curiosity (it just shouldn’t stop there)
3. Look to have conversations with people around me and not talk about yourself
4. Draw
5. Write—the more I write, the more I realize how much I don’t know

I have never regretted going out of my comfort zone to challenge my curiosity—not one time. Do it and write about it. That’s what I want to encourage. This blog is absolutely pulling me out of my comfort zone and I am enjoying every minute of it.

A Word Study [Creative]

»cre·a·tive  (krēātiv)

adj.

1. Having the ability or power to create: Human beings are creative animals.

2. Productive; creating.

3. Characterized by originality and expressiveness; imaginative: creative writing.

n.

One who displays productive originality: the creatives in the advertising department.

Peacock Feathers I Use to Decorate With

»As weird as I am always afraid that I am (did that make sense??), I have found that I am happiest when I am creating something. Whether it is through music, or drawing, or writing, or just giving a hug. If I am inspiring some feeling of productivity or goodness in either myself or another person I feel very full.

»We are designed in the image of the Creator of the Universe—don’t you think at least some of that creativity has rubbed off on us? Clearly not at a God-like level (we can’t make something out of nothing), but God loved designing and creating and I strongly feel that we don’t encourage our own urges enough.

»We get paralyzed by what other people might think of what we come up with, whether they will like it enough, and so we don’t do anything. How can that be right? I have had plenty of the same thoughts myself and am still working to overcome this fear of man that everyone in the world struggles with at some level.

»All I know is I want to leave something behind that shows some semblance of truly appreciating the beauty of this world and having contributed something to it myself. As small or insignificant as it might realistically be in the grand scheme of the universe, I still want to contribute. We can get so distracted by things that don’t really matter very much and miss opportunities to enjoy beauty and participate in it.

This is an exciting journey on which I hope everyone who reads this will want to join me.

Journal Entry: To Organize Passion

» Last year when I was working in my production rotation at Theo Davis—the printing company I work for—I was learning how to operate our press and we were printing an art book for NC State University. I was reading through it as the press sheets were coming through the press and found a quote that I identify with more than any other.

“Every day I discover more and more beautiful things. It’s enough to drive one mad. I have such a desire to do everything, my head is bursting with it.” –Claude Monet

Lily~ One of My Favorite Flowers

» I have written so many journal entries about how I want to do so many things and never seem to have the time or don’t know how to start.
 
That’s one of the reasons Kiss Kreativ happened, because I just wanted an outlet for my love for paper and design and sharing those things with people. 

» I keep a lot of journals where I talk about the random ideas I have and my frustration with not having time to do them. Here is a page spread from my journal that I did last year, that actually inspired the title of this blog:
 

Journal Entry · November 30th, 2012

» One of the things I wrote in this ‘entry’ is “Am I crazy? Sometimes I feel like it. Why can’t I just dream about “normal” things?” But then you have to ask, what is normal? The next part of my entry here is “I am this way for a reason. It is time for me to figure out why. I’m only 22—I don’t want to waste it.”

Right??

Simply for their Charm

My new favorite place is the Reader’s Corner off Hillsborough Street in Raleigh. It is a small used bookstore with 10 and 25-cent books outside and a treasure trove inside. It is there that I discovered my love for old books. The below illustration holds a few of the characteristics I love about old books and why they should be enjoyed by everyone of all ages, simply for their charm and strength of character. 

Funny Old Lady with a Bow in her Hair Drawing

I recently bought an old American Literature book and created an art journal out of it to give to my dad for Father’s Day. He is also an artist—a very good one—and we share a love of the unusual together. Pictures of this project will go up one day on this blog.