This is a reminder that this blog has changed addresses. Please head on over to www.dumoski.com if you want all the fresh content. So far this year you’ve missed:

-new photos, including cute puppies and wallpaper downloads
-creative journaling pages
-writing advice about character descriptions
-favorite books

And I’m just getting started! So head on over and subscribe.

Happy New Year, friends! Here’s wishing you all happiness and success in the months to come.

This will be the final post on this blog. Don’t panic, I am not giving up blogging! I have just decided to switch addresses a little, to the main page of www.dumoski.com. I’ve also decided to start over with a clean slate while I make the move. I won’t be deleting the content here, but it won’t be updated, and it won’t be automatically included in the new blog set up, either.

This won’t make any difference to you if read this through LiveJournal–posts will continue to be fed automatically to my account there.

However, if you have bookmarked this site or subscribe to it via an RSS feed reader, you will need to take a quick trip to the link below and click the appropriate buttons to resubscribe or re-bookmark, as needed.

www.dumoski.com: hope to see you there!

I loved this recent post by Wil Wheaton, encouraging people to Get Excited and Make Things. I’m all for creativity, of course, and heartily believe that people who are making things are happy people.

The post inspired me to do something I’d been thinking about for a while, which was to create something marketable from the various swirly doodles that I enjoy, uh, doodling from time to time. Because I know my own limitations when it comes to actual handcrafted items (I lack patience and consistency) I decided to take the CafePress route, which as a print-on-demand service is the easiest way for small-time merchants like myself to get their designs and artwork on products to sell to the world at large. For my first design, I chose the tree pictured at left, which I designed last Christmas for a handcarved stamp — I only used the stamp on a small handful of cards, but I really like the image and I hope other people will too.

I’ve offered it on a variety of mugs, magnets, buttons and, yes, greeting cards, all very simple in their layout. I think I like the mug best: it would make a great small gift for someone, filled with candies and topped with a bright bow. The magnets or buttons would make great office co-worker gifts or party favors. There’s even a few fun items, like a teddy bear and a baby’s bib, which a few of you might find use for.

This isn’t a plea to my friends and readers to go out and buy my stuff. I am just offering this up here because I like this design, and I thought you might too.

Here’s my shop address: http://www.cafepress.com/dumoski

It’s a little messy in there right now, because I’m still getting the hang of how the backend of Cafe Press works, and I thought it was more important to get the products in there then worry about the shop itself (so backwards, I know). Depending on how things go, I might add some new designs soon (there’s a bird that I’m running hot and cold on right now). I’d love to hear what you think…it’s always a little intimidating when you put yourself out there like this. But if you don’t try, you’ll never know, right?

An important note: the Creative Journaling workshop mentioned in the previous post has been rescheduled for December 14th! All the other information remains the same:

DATE: Monday, December 14th
TIME: 7:00 to 8:30 p.m.
LOCATION: It’s A Grind Coffeehouse, 24801 Alicia Pkwy, Laguna Hills CA

Hope to see you there!

I’ve been negligent in getting photos up from last Monday’s Creative Journaling workshop in Laguna Hills.

Here you can see all our supplies, ready to go:

And some of the journal pages, by Jill and Melodye respectively:

A few more shots of people working:

There are a few more shots over at Flickr, if you care to see them!

I want to thank Tom for letting us meet at It’s A Grind, and everyone who came and participated. I had a great time, and can’t wait to do it again. I hope some more of you will join us too:

Join me for an evening of exploration, creativity and fun as we use pictures, symbols and design to express our thoughts and dreams. Combine images and words to create a visual map to your own inner landscape, and find new tricks to invigorate your journal writing. No experience required!

November’s theme is Gratitude. It’s been a rough year for a lot of us. Come remember all that you have to be grateful for.

Bring Your Own Journal, Sketchbook, Notebook or other Blank Book
Some supplies will be provided, but feel free to bring your own. Recommended: colored pencils, markers, pens, rubber stamps, stickers, decorative paper, glue, scissors, pictures, magazines, watercolors, paintbrushes, hole punches, etc.

Creative Journaling is about the process of art, not the product. I’ll share techniques that will help you bring your inner visions to the page, but the most important thing we’ll be learning is how to shut down your inner critic so that you can “see” yourself think, and understand that it doesn’t matter what anyone else thinks. No one is going to tell you what to do, or tell you that you’re doing it wrong. YOUR WAY is the only RIGHT way.

Most Tuesdays, I meet with a couple of writer friends for lunch; sometimes we actually write, but mostly we talk
about writing–the craft or the psychosis that goes with it–as we sip coffee (or tea in my case) and try to avoid buying pumpkin whoopie pies.

Usually, I take Santiago Canyon home. It’s the closes we get to “countryside” here in Orange County, and I like the freedom of the winding through the hill country, wishing I could live in one of the ranch properties that line the road. There are a quarto of sorrel horses that I’d really like to get to know.

Today, the sky was a perfect shade of blue, like it was poured right out of the “sky blue” bottle. Clumps of white clouds floated overhead, and their shadows crawled like spiders across the sere brown hills. Okay, I’m probably trying too hard…

…but at least I’m trying.

I was only a few months old when the Eagle landed on the moon, so I don’t remember it. I do remember growing up immersed in the space program, because of my grandfather. As an engineer, he worked on guidance and/or communication systems (I can’t remember which…) for all the different space missions, up until the day he died. We’ve got lots of great swag from those days (we used to bring it regularly to school, for show and tell), but this is one of my favorites. On the back of the medal it reads:

This Medallion contains metal from spacecrafts Columbia and Eagle, that took Astronauts Armstrong, Aldrin and Collins on their historic Apollo 11 mission that resulted in the first landing of man on the moon.

It was an amazing accomplishment, and I’m proud to have this small connection to it. I hope, someday, another group of people with the same vision and drive as my grandfather and his colleagues will come together, and take us even further.

(Still here!)