Saintly St. Ana

It's so weird how time seems to speed up and slow down whenever it wants. I'm still in shock over the fact that 2015 is coming to an end. Where did that year go? What did I do all year long? Aye, that's a question for another time... The whole year seemed to fly by, but these past few weeks have especially seemed to slip away from me. I think that's kind of how it happens every year. The "holidays" are always rather overwhelming for me. Prepping for family time and trying to make Christmas lists definitely stresses me out. That combined with the fact that the sun sets 30 MINUTES AFTER I GET OFF WORK makes time seem irrelevant. So here I am, end of November, still trying to think of the perfect gift to get each person I love. It's obviously pretty unrealistic but I like to think that one year it might happen... I don't have the time (okay, maybe I do) or money (definitely don't have the money) to get everyone sentimental and personal gifts...

October is over people. OVER. It's really true that time seems to go by faster as we get older. Haaaaalp, make it stop! Now it's November and there's Christmas decorations in Dillard's (I saw it with my own eyes) and I'm kind of freaking out.  The one good thing about October being over is that Halloween happened! I really love the fact that this holiday is just based on having fun. Getting to dress up, stuff your face with candy, and kind of just be dumb for a day is pretty cool. I've been wanting to do a couple's costume for a while now because I think they're super fun and cute, but also they require a fair amount of planning. Planning isn't my thing. The couple's costume thing didn't happen this year but I think my boyfriend and I pulled together some pretty awesome costumes anyway! My boyfriend was Sam from Moonrise Kingdom (perfect, right?!) and I was the one and only Frida Kahlo! Frida is definitely an inspiratio...

So I got a new book and I think it's awesome so I'm gonna share it! As I've mentioned probably a million times before, staying motivated is kind of a challenge these days so I was intrigued when I stumbled upon Adam J. Kurtz' book 1 Page at a Time . I initially found Adam's work on Instagram (of course) probably through some dumb hashtag. I'm dedicated to dumb hashtags. Anyway, I instantly fell in love with his sense of humor and illustrations. I pretty much admire anyone that can draw because it's hard and I think it's 10x harder to actually develop your own style. He does both of those things while making awesome products like balloons, pins, books- you name it! Clearly, I was obsessed. At first this book seemed kind of cheesy but then I realized that it's a-okay to be cheesy. I contemplated buying it online for a while but I haaaaate ordering things online and waiting. If I can get the same thing in a store and have it in my hands in ...

I tried to make the title cute so this post wouldn't be a total bummer... Did it work? Before I get started I posted the video that inspired this post below. I happened to stumble upon it after watching several of her makeup tutorials (my youtube guilty pleasure). It's nice when these things end up finding you. I was able to relate to a lot of her thoughts on "deleting the bad" and trying to explain anxiety to others. Even if you don't want to watch this specific video, or don't want to read the rest of this blog post, her makeup tutorials are fun and cute and cool!  Okay, let's get into it: A couple of months ago I decided to switch antidepressants for a couple of reasons. Firstly, I felt them interfering with my libido. Like seriously, what a bummer. I was finally feeling okay-ish about life again, but I felt like my relationship with my significant other was different and not in a good way. It took me a while to figure out why I was feel...

If you've read my last couple of posts you know that I've been busy putting together a zine for the ABQ Zine Fest which was just this past weekend!  The final product along side our custom pins! We ended up pulling together a pretty good variety of work to put into the zine. Early on we decided to keep it purely visual and use as little text as possible. I thought it was a pretty interesting approach considering that most zines I'd seen either had a combination of both text and visuals or just text. I'm not sure if that idea just wasn't as appealing as I thought it would be or if it wasn't the right audience, but we didn't end up selling that many. Initially I was disappointed with the lack of sales, but  it wasn't because I was expecting to make a ton of money.  I was mostly disappointed because it didn't seem to grab people's attention like I thought. I guess some people are just into certain things and you can't really control the w...

One of the craziest things about depression is that it can sneak up on you out of no where.  Last week I was writing a post (obviously unfinished) about how I felt like my mental health was finally on an upswing, but in the blink of an eye I felt like all my progress and confidence were lost. Over the weekend I entered a deep depression and it felt worse than any of my lows in recent memory. It was triggered by a rather insignificant event and instead of being able to pull myself up and out of a negative thought process, I was sucked in to a dark place that lasted over a day. It was probably one of the longest and emotionally draining days I'd had in a while. Luckily, I woke up on Monday morning feeling mostly back to my normal self.  I was alone for most of Sunday which was really, really hard. It's hard to come out of something like that when you're physically and/or emotionally alone. In order to keep myself going that day I looked up some ways to help deal with...

We're making a zine! And by "we" I mean my friend, Anne, and I.  There's an annual zine fest in Albuquerque and this year we're going to collaborate and attend! Anne went last year with her own zine and had an awesome time. When I realized that the event was coming up again, it seemed like a good idea to finally attend since I had been meaning to for a while. I was interested in collaborating because I wasn't sure if I could come up with enough content to fill a zine (and keep it engaging) by myself. It's also fun to collaborate in general. I think Anne and I have similar aesthetic interests so it works out well. We're also having other friends contribute so it's going to have lots of different styles and perspectives in it. I'm so excited to be working with friends again. It's something I definitely miss about school. It's easier to get inspired when you have other people's feedback and are able to bounce ideas off each oth...

This is essentially two Weekend Adventures in one because, well, life happens. Last weekend (Labor day weekend) I went to a Purity Ring concert and it was amazing! Definitely exceeded my expectations. They had awesome, over the top lighting that tied the whole experience together. They talk about their show being an experience in  this  interview, plus they play a few songs live and they sound amazing! People love lights, by the way. I really love going to live shows, but I always forget that at larger shows there will always be larger crowds. Seems obvious but for some reason it always takes me by surprise. I always get overwhelmed in those situations but this show was definitely worth enduring it all. Inspired by Purity Ring I also got to go to a very special birthday party last weekend. My friend Beverly came into town and celebrated her daughter's first birthday while they were here! How cuuuuuuuute, right?! Beverly is the first person I've known IRL to ha...

I had one of those weekends where you're too busy doing all the things. I spent a majority of the weekend crashing with one of my oldest friends. Her (new-ish!) fiancé went out of town so she decided to have a girls' weekend at her place. We made cocktails, ate junk food, watched Netflix, slept on an inflatable mattress, and last but not least, listened to a lot of Selena. Like for real, we love Selena. These are things we've been doing since we were in elementary school (minus the cocktails and Netflix for obvious reasons) and it was fun to get to 'relive' those old memories!  Anything for Selenas An old friend of mine happened to be visiting this weekend so I also got to spend some time with him. He moved to Albuquerque for college and is now running for city council there! He's one of the most dedicated and driven people I know. I guess you kinda have to be if you're running for public office in your early twenties!  Salsa Fest was also this ...

Art is never finished, only abandoned. —Leonard0 da Vinci Yeah yeah Leo, I get it. I remember a professor quoted this to me once and I like barfed in my mouth. Who quotes Leonardo da Vinci in an intro level art class? Like who are you??? Well now I'm quoting it at you. It's probably one of the cheesiest things I've ever heard related to creativity (there's a lot of that ish out there), but now I know it's sooooooo true! I feel like every one has looked back at a piece of work and thought to themselves 'I wish I would have done that differently' or at least wondered what else it could have turned out like. Hindsight is always 20/20, isn't it? I was always under the impression that those tendencies were those of a perfectionist. But I don't think I am a perfectionist, at least when it comes to most things. I stumbled upon this post that led me to the conclusion that, "m aybe creativity is the  act of embracing perennially unfinished ...

I've been going through such a slow and unproductive time creatively. Honestly, most days after I get home from my 8-5 I'd rather just watch mind-numbing television than try and throw myself into a creative frenzy. That probably makes me sound lazy but at least I can be honest with myself about it now. I often used to push myself way too hard because I was afraid of being labeled as lazy when, in actuality, I just needed rest. Anyway, those days are over and I'm down to indulge in some trashy reality television shows whenever my brain just needs a break. Today wasn't one of those days though. I found myself thinking about some collages I made a while ago and I remembered how I had planned to expand on those digitally. I really love working with collages, but it's always nice to give your X-Acto blade a break and be able to Command+Z some ish when you need to. I found a few images that emphasized texture and manipulated them using shape and color. I've ...

Happy last weekend before school starts, guys! Even though I'm not in school any more, it's hard to avoid those back-to-school vibes when you're living in a small college town. The dynamic of our town definitely changes when school starts back up again. The campus traffic is definitely worth avoiding in the mornings, coffee shops are packed again, weeknight events are hard to come by, and bars are kind of the worst. I don't really go to bars that much anyway, but there's a notable (and miserable) difference.  Anyway, here's a couple of (horrible iPhone) photos from this weekend: The Pioneers of Prime Time TV opening for Courtney Marie Andrews at Art Obscura last night! If you ever have a chance to see The Pioneers of Prime Time TV perform, you have to see them. The two man group is absolutely enchanting and the violinist has the voice of an angel. They don't have their newer stuff up on their Soundcloud, but rest assured that it's also...

We are living in a material world and I am a material girl. Madonna knows what I'm talking about. I don't really consider myself materialistic. I like to think that I value real interactions with people and life experiences more than I do objects. But at the same time I'm pretty sentimental and that makes it easy to attach emotions to objects, therefore making it harder to get rid of them. I believe this started early in my life so I'm gonna tell a little story. If you don't wanna stick around for story time feel free to skip ahead! I was always the kind of kid that tried to keep everything. My poor mom had to sneak into my closet when I wasn't around and try and throw out little bits of junk at a time so I wouldn't notice. Like literally junk. I used to collect the cardboard centers of toilet paper and paper towel rolls (I have no idea why). I also had several pencil boxes full of pens and pencils I thought were cool, but were usually broken. There wa...

Another one of my friends has moved away. Cue F.R.I.E.N.D.S. theme song. I'm not trying to be dramatic but sometimes I feel like everyone around me is moving forward with their lives and I'm stuck in the same place. I couldn't be happier for my gal pal- she's moving to Boulder, CO (!) with her gal pal and they're gonna have a blast being Colorado gals. She's going back to school in an awesome city and I know she's going to do awesome things. Having another friend move away obviously bums me out, but it also reminds me that I'm not moving forward as fast as they are or even as quickly as I had planned. My friend Annabelle and I at her going away party. #dirtymirror Lately I've found myself being more anti-social and in turn having a hard time making new friends/meeting new people. I've also been dealing with an increased level of social anxiety, so that always helps. Not that I'm unhappy with my circle of friends at the moment, b...

A.k.a. The story of my life I've done this thing, ever since I was in elementary school, where I never show up on time. And I mean NEVER . Anyone who knows me personally is probably like no shit. My boyfriend did this thing for a while where he would tell me an event started 15-20 minutes earlier than it actually was scheduled just so I would show up kind of on time. I'm late for work, late for meals, late for dates (sorry, boo!), late for movies, late to parties, I go to sleep late, and of course I always, always, always wake up late. Me and my Ma at my 1st birthday party. We probably showed up late. I think this all started back in elementary school. I lived out of district so my mom had to drive me there every morning. When I say we lived out of district, I mean we lived practically on the other side of town. We were late to school every damn day. The lady in the office would ask me why I was late so she could write me a tardy slip. Most of time I made things up,...

Forgive me, Internet, for I have sinned... Okay. Confession time. My first two blog posts were made at work. I KNOW. Who am I!? I'm really not a terrible employee. I get all my work done on time and it's done correctly. It's just that sometimes there's not a lot of work to be done. So lately instead of mindlessly browsing the internet I'm trying to be a little more productive in my time spent online. Hence the start of this blog! (Disclaimer: I realize the risk of putting this information online, but I've made the commitment to be completely honest on here. While I do sometimes feel guilty for using my work time to do non-work related things, I'm not really provided with a lot of opportunities to move up or fill my time otherwise. So here we are.) Over the weekend I started reading Sophia Amoruso's #GIRLBOSS and let me tell you, I'm only 50 pages in and I'm already really fucking motivated. She definitely tells it how it is- no sugar coatin...