Skill Share {CC 4/23}

As part of this week's Creative Collective challenge, I enrolled in a Skillshare class. Skillshare offers online classes for anyone who wants to learn or develop a skill or hobby that interests them. They offer a large scope of classes like design, fashion, business, calligraphy, HTML, film, illustration, and much more. Classes are taught by an expert in the field and classes range in workload and difficulty. 

I don't have a ton of extra time to focus on learning a new skill, so I wanted to take a class that would keep me interested and also complement something I'm already doing. Photography fit the bill! I love photography and I also love the art of editing. I'm a firm believer that the key to good photography is good editing. 95% of my photography is done with an iPhone, but that doesn't stop me from taking the time to edit and make my pictures pop! Hopefully one day I'll own a DSLR camera and use Adobe photoshop, but for now I'm happy with the phone. 

I chose to take Photo Editing: Make good images great without expensive software.  This class is relevant to me and I'm certain it will teach me a thing or two. Here are a few video lessons that I'm anxious to go further in depth:

I have no idea what a histogram is and how it applies to photography.

I'm a little familiar with using tools on photos, but I would love to have clear definitions in my head about what certain tools do and when to use them.

This post will probably require a follow-up to see how I did with this class, but I'm happy to introduce it to you! One tip I would recommend if you want to try Skillshare is to become a member instead of buying an individual class. Especially if you just want to get your feet wet with online learning. This class costs $19, but it was free with a $10 monthly membership. The $10 membership allows you to enroll in many classes for FREE, and classes that still have a fee are automatically 20% off with membership. You can cancel a membership at any time, so say I didn't love the course after a month, I could cancel my membership.

Have you tried Skillshare before? Are you interested in trying it? 

Anything Goes Art {CC 3/23}

At first I didn't think I would be able to do this post because I had City Year all day. I didn't get home 'til 9:15 pm! This week New York public schools have off, but we still have to put in hours with City year.  Instead of the usual service, we are doing mid-year summit which consists of professional development, workshops and sessions to better our service in the classroom. Today, one of our sessions was focused on self-care. Our service is stressful and sometimes we just need to do something for us. In other words, we had the opportunity to relax. Some of the options were meditation, yoga, "chat and chew," painting, basketball, and other random ones. 

I joined the water-painting crew and enjoyed an hour of just playing with watercolor and paper. I wouldn't consider what I made art, but it definitely gave me the chance to let out a little creativity in a stress-free and relaxing environment. 

What self-care looked like for me:

Find out more about my City Year Experience:
A Day in the Life
What Fires You Up?

How do you self-care? Do you enjoy water color?

Music {CC 2/23}

Challenge 2 of the Creative Collective: Create a playlist of new music. 

I'm not much of a music person. I like listening to tunes in the background, but I'm not the type of girl who needs to walk around with headphones in all the time. I appreciate good music and I enjoy going to a concert every now and then, but I don't need to listen to music every hour, or even every day for that matter.

These are my current go-to albums:

My favorite songs from these albums: Poison and Wine / Civil Wars // Anchor / Hillsong // White Teeth Teens / Lorde // Hopeless Wanderer ‎ / Mumford & Sons

In order to put together a new playlist of music, I contacted my bestie from high school who loves all things music. She recommended some artists to me, and I'm excited to give these albums a listen. 

Songs to try:  The mother we share / Chvrches // The wire / Haim // All I want / Kodaline 

// Unbelievers / Vampire Weekend

Thanks Auryanna!

Do you like mixing up your playlist? Where do you go to find new music?

WORD {CC 1/23}

Doing a year of service is exhausting and it sucks a lot of energy out of me. Lately, blogging has been a great release for whatever creative juices I have left in me. Blogging is fun and there ain't nothing hard about sitting in front of a computer screen.*

I'm going to follow along with the Creative Collective by Nectar Collective for creative prompts throughout this year. Some of them look super fun! If the topic looks interesting to you, feel free to click the link at the bottom to see what other people created too! This week's prompt:

January 15 // Think of a word that you want to focus on in 2014.

Fresh. I want to look at the world with a fresh perspective. I want everyday to truly feel like a new day! I want to make changes in my life this year, and maintaining a fresh perspective will help me change for the better. I still feel "fresh" when it comes to grown-up life. 2014 will be the first full year of independence. I want to continue to make good and wise life choices. I don't want to be bogged down by past mistakes, but I want to make sure to look ahead with confidence. 

Here's to Staying  Fresh!

"Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect." Romans 12:2

*I spend too much time with middle schoolers.