new photo blog!

I've been thinking a little about my photo blog lately. I've been wanting to keep an "ordinary" blog instead of a homepage I've made myself, because it would be faster and easier to post, and possibly I'd do it more often (?). But the one I built for myself is perfect - for me. It's just the way I wanted it to look. So I've been a little ambivalent.

Until I managed to manipulate blogspot enough to make it look like I want it to look. :)

So I'm proud to introduce:
http://kristinsfoton.blogspot.com and I hope you'll like it as much as I do!

(The old favorite, song of the day, is back as well. I kept thinking about how much it said about my day. More than the photos, in some cases. So I wanted it back. :))

There will probably be a lot more action there than here, at least until the novelty wears off ... :) So if you are interested in my photos, please check it out!

I don't do resolutions

I don't do resolutions, because if I force it, it won't happen. These little things are just what I want - want I long to do, to make my life better. These are the things I know I need to be happy, and that I haven't paid enough attention to lately. So this is a necessary reminder for me. You can see it larger on flickr (there are little translated notes there too if you're not Swedish and want to know what it says).



I wanted numbers printed in a certain font (Bullpen! I love Bullpen. It's from Larabie Fonts. I love Larabie fonts! I've loved Larabie fonts since ... I don't know, since I first found them and used Deftone Stylus on a homepage back in 2002. Those were the days!), cut out from a certain paper (a map page from one of my vintage atlases. I collect them only to slowly rip them apart and use the papers. I feel a little evil every time I do it).

And I know that one way of doing it is printing the word you want, making a stencil out of it with a paper knife or scissors, placing the stencil on the paper you want to cut out letters from, drawing the outlines of your letters through the stencil, then cutting out your letters.

That sounded like a lot of cutting to me.

So here's what I did (it's very possible that everyone is already doing it this way, or some other MUCH SMARTER way, and I'm going to look real stupid because I only just started doing it this way ... but I'm going to post it anyway).

1. Write whatever you want to write in a new document in Photoshop (I use CS3). Preferably the new document is the size of the paper you are going to use, so you can see right away what size the letters will be. Maybe you don't have to do this if you are smarter than me, but I have to, or else I will mess up and everything will be the wrong size. You'll want to use a nice and bold font or else you will be stuck with your scissors trying to cut them out for ages = boring. Write letters in black, on white. Or have them just outlined if you want to save ink.

2. Image -> Rotate Canvas -> Flip Canvas Horizontal

3. Load your chosen paper in the printer so that it will print on the wrong side.

4. Print.

4. Now you can cut your letters out directly without having to make a stencil first, because you flipped them horizontally, so on your side of the paper they are going to come out right! Yay!

I have a feeling this wasn't very clear ... But ... Well, anyways ... :)


- - -

Here are some happy thoughts:


Have you written down something you love today?

a Friday

I have been taking some seriously good photos lately, and you really should get over to the photo blog to check them out. (And I'd be really happy if you would write something in the guestbook, too. (The guestbook works in English!))

In other news: Weekend, I'm happy, I'm taking up driving lessons (it's been a year since I tried last time) next week and am super scared, I'm looking forward to seven movies at the film festival starting this weekend.

I got my copy of the Portals zine* and my first thought was that I hate the fonts. Ick. They're horrible throughout. My second thought was "my collages are in this, for real?", my third was "but ... the other people in here are real artists, like for real! What were they thinking choosing me? I'm just playing around anyways ... and not very often either!", and when I managed to read through the words I had written about me (the font they chose is, besides ugly, quite unreadable), my fourth thought was "wow ... I sound really young".

And then: I am young.

* Apart from the fonts, it's a lovely and inspiring zine, so if you are into collages or art journaling at all, you should buy it.

en timme till

Just wanted to show you this page I made today about one of my smartest decisions ever. :)

Translation:
"About a week ago I decided to not spend more then fifteen minutes a day in front of the computer on weekdays.

I used to:
+ check my e-mail, flickr, blogs and facebook every five minutes
+ play minesweeper and chain factor
+ click around and follow links I wasn't even interested in

Now I can:
+ read books
+ write letters
+ iron my sheets <3
+ TAKE PHOTOGRAPHS EVERY DAY

And all of this just because I got one more hour - an hour that I didn't even know was there before."

I am so loving this new decision of mine. Suddenly I have huge amounts of time to fill with whatever I like. Letting go of that mindless staring into the screen is quite liberating, I tell you.

- - -

Update: Now this is exactly what I was talking about. (Via Penelope Dullaghan)

I got out

It's becoming more and more obvious to me that it was really close, and that I really saved myself just in time. It's only been a couple of weeks but I am enjoying this calm so very much.

Actually I realised it as I was talking to a friend on last Monday's lindy hop social night. "I can't believe I'm already this tired and busy, the semester has barely started and I thought I was resting the whole Christmas holidays ..." she said and she looked so immensely sad that I had to hug her a little. "Maybe you need to work less", I said. "But how?" she said. "Can't you try to ssk for 80% instead of 100%?" I said. "Imagine what it would feel like to have a whole day to just sit at home and read books that you really want to read".

She looked at me in disbelief at first. And then I saw something changing behind her eyes ... Like a small glimpse of light that grew steadier as I spoke. Like some sort of hope, a way out she hadn't thought of.

And I feel like I really caught the last way out, for myself. It can't be true, of course, I know humans are able to cope with a lot more than what I did. It couldn't have been that bad ... But it was bad enough. And I got out!!! I'm not saying that everyone should do less. Everyone has to decide that for themselves. I suppose some people handle it a lot better than me? Or maybe it was just unlucky circumstances that made things so stressful last year. I can only guess.

These photos are from Friday morning; I arrived at school early (or actually on time - the bus is supposed to arrive twenty minutes before school starts, but very rarely does). I am beginning to love those mornings on the bus, and the short walk between the bus stop and the school.

- - -

P.S. Don't forget to join my inspiring scrap papers swap over at swap-bot.com. It's just too nice to get paper scraps in the mail to pass up :) Last day to sign up is tomorrow!

my hand

Some of you may not have heard what it is I do right now, so I'll just say it again: I'm taking a break from the university (something I hear is rather unusual in other countries (?), but very common in Sweden; I don't think I know of anyone who didn't take a break in their studies to do something else for a while) to go to art school for beginners this spring. I needed to slow down. A lot. And allow myself to feel that I don't have to sing one single note if I don't feel like it.

The commute is quite long (one hour and a half one way) and I end up at a folkhögskola in the middle of nowhere. I guess I'll tire of the commute sooner or later, but right now it is just golden. It gives me so much time to just sit and think and listen to music.

And the course is, well, "calm" is almost an exaggeration. It is less than calm, it is the quietest, slowest course I've ever taken and nothing really happens ... Except I have time to draw. I go there in the morning, draw until lunch, eat lunch, then draw some more, and then I go home in the late afternoon. I guess I'm a pretty slow drawing student, but I don't feel stressed at all.

So, above is something I drew yesterday - my hand. And I feel so proud and pleased with myself. I didn't know I could draw something that would look even remotely like a human hand, but look! There it is. It's a hand. My hand. I have decided that I will feel very proud of my work. I am so tired of artists/ bloggers saying things like "this is just some crappy drawing and I hate it but I'll show it anyway in all its disgustingness". (I'm tired of myself saying similar things, too.) And I am totally not going to do it (anymore).

What's the use, really, in comparing my work to others'? This is my hand! I think it's lovely! And when I see other artists' beautiful work, I don't want to feel "oh ... their drawings are so great, much better than mine, so now I have to hate mine and feel ashamed of myself for even trying". I want to be able to look at other people's work to be inspired, and to learn more, not to compare. I am so trying to get comparison out of my life. OK, I know that with music, that may never happen (even though I would like to). It's just so much more difficult seeing as that is my main focus in life and also where I (plan to) make my living. So I can't promise you about that. But art is something I do just for myself. At least I want it to be. So I'm working on that.

old coat / new coat

Old coat



New coat

Okay, so the difference isn't overwhelming. :) Thing is, I really loved my old coat, but like I said, it was starting to fall apart to the point where not even my Mom could fix the holes (and that is saying something).

I didn't really want to buy a new one though, because - let's face it - most winter coats that I can afford are BORING. As in black. Or possibly dark grey. Or the occasional eye-bleedingly red ... *shudder*. (Please note that I don't mind that red, as you can see on my trousers above, but on winter coats it's just such a cliché.) I was losing faith ... and then I stumbled upon this, at BikBok of all unlikely places! And on sale! And it's warm, too!

So. I have a new coat. That's it. Apart from that I'll have to go naked if I don't find something to wear soon. I'll keep you posted.


Song of the day Soft Cell: Say Hello, Wave Goodbye