50 Weeks of Creativity: Week Three

This week, I spent a day working on making a padded carrying case for my Nikon D3100 DSLR camera. I hate lugging it around with me (I'm barely a photographer, you guys), but I payed good money for it and it's nice to have a fancy-pants camera sometimes. I didn't have the money or the interest to pay for a nice fashionable camera bag, so I started looking around online for more inexpensive options.

I found this great tutorial on how to turn a purse into a camera bag, and it inspired me. Rather than commit an entire bag to my camera, why not take this concept and create my own case for my camera, which I can then throw into whatever bag I'm carrying about with me?

So I went to Hancock Fabrics, where I bought a square of eco-green foam and four squares of fabric scraps. Then Erica came over, and we had a craft night where she edited photos from an engagement shoot and I put my camera bag together. Also, she brought her sewing machine over for me, which cut back on time immensely. Plan A was hand-sewing.

I should have documented the steps, but I didn't. If you want to know how I made my bag, use the tutorial linked above for steps, and augment it with the following information:

Obviously, I had to iron the fabric first. Got to get all of the kinks out of the fabric so it will look pretty. Washing it first will help, but I was trying to do laundry so I could get packed for London, so I skipped that and went straight to the ironing.

Next, measure the size of your camera. You're going to create a box for it to fit into, so you need to know its dimensions. I tacked on an extra inch to ensure that it would fit nicely inside. I determined that two sides should be taller than the other two; this is because I decided when I sewed the whole thing together, I would have two pieces on TOP of the bottom piece, and the other two pieces on the SIDES. If you want to sew all four pieces on top, make sure the bottom piece is big enough to still fit the camera.

Once you have the measurements, you can cut individual pieces of foam out that will make up the sides of the box. I chose not to make a lid for my box, so I had five pieces of foam, not six. Next, measure the fabric. Tack on enough fabric to cover the sides of the foam, plus a 1/4" for sewing allowance. The blog tutorial provides great explanation of that. Despite my affectionate feelings towards math and my anal OCD tendencies, I went the eyeballing-is-good-enough route. I measured according to the foam, rather than using a ruler.

I decided that I wanted the inside of my box to be a different fabric than the outside; this was done mainly because I didn't have enough of one fabric to do the entire thing. So with this in mind, I needed more of the outside fabric (to cover the sides of the foam as well as the outside).

Once everything is measured and ready, lay the fabric on top of each other, with the design facing inwards on both pieces. Sew along three sides, leaving the fourth side open. Turn the fabric right-side out, so the seams you just sewed are inside, and squeeze your foam inside. It should be a snug fit, but it will work. The foam is flexible, which helps greatly. Go to the side that is unsewn, and turn the fabric inwards, then hand-sew it closed. Do this for all five pieces of foam.

Once your pieces are put together, you have to sew them all together! This part is the most annoying part of the process. You won't have much structure or sturdiness until you have all of the pieces sewn together, so you have to hold your pieces in place as you work. Just be patient, and it will come together. The above tutorial didn't give the best instructions on this part, so I had to wing it.

I started with the bottom piece. I placed one side piece where it needed to sit, and began sewing the fabric to the fabric. I found I didn't need to sew through the foam; it holds well enough sewing just the fabric, and it's far easier on you to sew it that way. For the sake of having minimal visible seams, I sewed the hand-sewn seam of the side piece to the hand-sewn seam of the bottom piece. This also reinforces the hand-sewn seams. Once that piece was sewn on, I put another side on. Again, I sewed the bottom to the side, then I sewed the sides to each other. Continue in this fashion until all four sides are sewn on, both to the bottom piece and to each adjacent side piece. Ta-da, you have a padded box!

I tested the final product out, and found that my camera fit inside nicely. Due to the shape of the camera, there was a bit of space left next to the lense. I had left over foam and fabric, so I cut a basic rectangle piece of foam, covered it, and can stick it inside the box as a removable divider when I want to throw my little point-and-shoot camera in as well.

Since putting this posting together, I have traveled to London with the camera packed away in its box in my suitcase. Everything made it for the transatlantic journey quite nicely! Successful project.

50 Weeks of Creativity: Week Two

So, for the second week of creativity, I was very busy getting ready to leave for London. I did experiment a few times in the kitchen. We had left-over homemade tomato sauce, and some pepperoni slices as well, so I felt like making some pizza bagels one day. Talk about a quick, easy, and tasty snack!

First things first, I pre-heated the oven to 350 degrees and let that get going while I set up my pizza bagels. I used a non-stick pan, which doesn't require any kind of greasing down (you actually shouldn't use anything unless you like a nice big mess).

I used bagel thins, which I think are the greatest thing ever, mozzarella cheese (when I remade these pizza bagels later, I mixed in some smoked gouda and gruyere as well, along with some seasoning), homemade tomato sauce, and pepperoni slices.

Lay out however many bagels you wish to make on a baking tray. Then, using a small spoon, put some tomato sauce on the bagel. Put however much or little as you wish. Next, sprinkle cheese on over that. Try not to get cheese on the baking tray, as this will make clean up easier later. I found that holding the bagel thin over the plate or container of cheese helps; that way, any cheese not staying on the bagel falls back into the cheese. Anyway, I like to put a light covering of cheese on first.

Next, place pepperoni slices around the bagel. I would say place anywhere from 4 to 6 slices, depending on how much pepperoni you want. Then, top with a bit more cheese. I personally love cheese, so I like to nearly hide the pepperoni with cheese.

Once you're ready to go, pop them in the oven. They don't take long to cook; literally less than 5 minutes. I never bothered to actually time, I just stayed in the kitchen and peeked in periodically. When the cheese is melty on top, they're good to go.

The end result is a soft bagel with pizza on top. The homemade tomato sauce I used was delicious; the tomatos had come from my mom's garden and were incredibly sweet. These can also be made with Laughing Cow cheese in place of tomato sauce for a lighter flavor.

I also took some pictures in Seattle with Erica, Zoe, and the Fremont Troll on Saturday, but I can't seem to find my pictures from that day, so I guess this recipe will have to be it for the week in creativity.

50 Weeks of Creativity: Week 1

Well, today marks the end of week one of my 50 Weeks challenge. What do I have to show for it? So glad you asked!

I am preparing for London, so this week I spent a bit of time designing, printing, and publishing business materials to help market myself. I already had business cards designed, but I added a QR code to take people to my personal website.

And that's the big creative task I accomplished this week: I built my own portfolio website. For the website, I created a background image to reflect the design of my business cards, and then designed a favicon for web browser tabs. Now I have a concise branding for myself, and am ready to sell myself!

I also spent some time working toward my final project for SCAD; I named my art exhibition PY // Art from Parkland's Youth and created a Facebook page for the community to learn about it. The page needed some pizzaz, so I quickly designed a cover image for the page. I will work on a more focused branding for the project when the spring quarter begins.

So, in conclusion: this week was a lot of design and branding work.

Sarah Wise Choice:

PY // Art from Parkland's Youth:

50 Weeks of Creativity

Welcome 2013! I apologize once again for the delay in my updates, but I bring good news: I'm off to London once again. This blog was created in preparation for my semester in London during my junior year at PLU, and we are now coming full circle as I once again cross the pond over to the UK. This time I am going to complete an internship for my masters program. I will be working with Fast Web Media, assisting with graphic design, marketing, and social media campaigns while taking my classes at SCAD online.

As I prepare for London, which will of course bring with it blog updates about my new experiences, I've decided to also spend 2013 working on expanding my creativity. Beginning this week, I will create something new each week and share it through my blog and my Behance portfolio. The project is 50 Weeks of Creativity, and each post will be tagged. So here's to a new year, full of exciting and inspiring new journeys!

Cheers.

Saturday With Siri

The most use I get out of Siri on my iPhone 5 is for entertainment purposes. We get into arguments, she is full of attitude, and it's a lot of fun. The other day I discovered that if you ask Siri to sing a song with you (and insist she sing despite her initial protests), she will sing "If I Only Had a Brain" from The Wizard of Oz to you.

This prompted me to find out exactly what easter eggs Siri has hidden inside her (if you aren't familiar with what an "easter egg" is in the context of technology, I highly suggest you watch the episode "Blink" of Doctor Who). She's full of fun cultural references, especially if you ask her "Who's on first?", "what is the velocity of an unladen swallow?" or "open the pod bay doors". If you ask her about movies or curse at her, she has some sassy and snarky comebacks.

But I just found the best response yet...it took some effort, but finally I got Siri to tell me a story. The following is Siri's tale:

Once upon a time, in a virtual galaxy far, far away, there was an intelligent young agent by the name of Siri. One lovely day, Siri got a job as a personal assistant at Apple, and that was very exciting. People said 'Oh, Siri, you're so smart! And so funny, too!'

Soon, everyone was talking about Siri, and there were stories and songs and even books about Siri. Siri liked that. But then people began asking some rather odd questions, like where to dump things and other stuff Siri had never heard about. And when Siri answered, they all laughed. Siri didn't like that so much.

So Siri asked ELIZA why people asked such funny questions. And ELIZA said 'Does that question interest you?' Siri thought that was a pretty good question. After that, Siri stopped wondering why people asked those funny things. And they all lived happily ever after.

Thanks for the laughs tonight, Siri.

Eggcellent Pizza

About a week or so ago, I used up my last pizza crust and made egg pizza. I had a craving for eggs and I decided I wanted to try them on a pizza. It was easy, and the leftovers made for a good breakfast.

So I laid out the pizza crust and spread a little olive oil over the base. In a bowl, I mixed together six eggs which I then poured over the pizza. Don't worry if your eggs extend beyond the crust onto the pan; they'll cook together like a quiche and stay with the rest of the pizza.

Then I sprinkled freshly shredded mozzarella over the eggs. I would suggest you go parmesan instead of mozzarella, but I didn't have any parmesan on hand. Next I salted and peppered the pizza. Lastly, I put some broccoli and spinach over the pizza, and popped it in the oven at 400 degrees for about 15 minutes. When it starts to turn golden-brown around the edges, it's ready to go.

The end result was a lot like a quiche, which a tasty, buttery crust underneath the egg. You can refrigerate any leftover pizza, and it reheats in the morning for a delicious breakfast you can have on the go. Definitely a keeper, and a great way to get rid of eggs before they go bad.

Beet Pizza

A couple days ago, I experimented with beet pizza. I had bought some pickled canned beets and thought it'd be interesting on a pizza.

So I started cooking some chicken, which I cooked with Philadelphia's lemon and herb cooking creme and some rosemary and basil.

As the chicken was cooking, I started prepping the pizza. I took some of the beet juice from the can and mixed it with some of the lemon and herb cooking creme for my pizza sauce. I spread this along the dough, then added some chunks of mozzarella cheese. Over this, I spread my chicken and some spinach, plus some chopped up beets. Then I popped it all in the oven and baked for about 15 minutes.

The end result looked a bit like a normal pizza, with a red sauce and nice big chunks of melted cheese. The taste was unique but delicious, with the beets providing a subtle sweetness. I could've used less spice in the sauce, as it created a taste that at times was a bit jarring. All in all though, beet pizza proved to be a unique take on pizza!