New Hair + New Goals + New Life

I don't really have any good excuses why I haven't blogged in 4 months. But I have some okay ones. I graduated college. (Go Blue). I started a new job...and getting used to 9-5 solid hours every day is rougher than I thought it would be. I'm in the middle of buying a teeny tiny house to call my own (eep, I know right?). I've also started another blog that has been eating up a good amount of my time -- and is worth taking a look at if you enjoy spinach: SpinachBlog.com. I'm still working on it and trying to give it the look and feel I want it to have before running wild and free with it. But it's coming along. 

I'm also working on starting a magazine with a friend from college. When that gets moving...I'll post more about that. For a while over the summer I was working on a preliminary biz plan with my cousin for possibly opening a resto-bar somewhere downtown. I'm not sure which is trickier...figuring out how to even begin to write up a business plan...or figuring out our menu! We're still trying to figure out both... I've also been scheming a possible patent idea. But you know how those work, top secret. All I can say...is it's related to hair (of course). 

And as you might be able to see, my hair has changed a bit. At the end of May right before I graduated, I got a hair cut...that I very much hated. (I can get into that experience in another post.) It's grown a bit since, but the shape is a little different. Longer layers on the top and less choppy. My hair isn't super straight either in this picture...due to a lazy straightening job + lazy touch up. But anyhow...back to mediocre excuses for why I have abandoned my blog + Latidoe store.

Really, the excuse is that I've been busy with a handful of other projects and have put Latidoe on hold. I've also been feeling a bit discouraged with some of my interests. It hadn't even occurred to me that people are actually still visiting my blog...but then I noticed that page views have really only decreased slightly since I've stopped posting. And I also realized there actually are page views at all. Which made me realize that updating my blog is something I should probably continue...

In some ways, my blog essentializes my life and all my interests. The things that I enjoy doing and the little things that make me happy. And I noticed lately since I've been taking up so many new interests...I've lost touch with old ones. And a part of me isn't as happy as I was. So hopefully when I say I am going to make a conscious effort from now onward to dedicate more time to me-time, blogging, and old-loves (crafting, artwork, writing, natural hair, songwriting...a lot), it will be more than words on a page and I hope I actually will. 

<3

DIY: Painted Canvas Shoes

My little sister and I bought $15 canvas sneakers from Target and spruced them up with the buckets of acrylics we have hiding in the upstairs storage room. I went for gold paint on black and I think they turned out super cute! I decided to be interesting and do each shoe differently.

All you need is paint, brushes, and shoes

To go from this:

To this:

In The Recording Studio

Singing, playing and recording in the studio

The other day I got the chance to use the recording studios at school to record a few of the songs I've written/performed during the course of my songwriting class at UM. It was probably the most fun I've ever had in any class during my four years here. Even though there were zero textbooks, essays, and exams...I learned a lot. I also met a number of awesome people through the course. The recording process went pretty smoothly. My two hour session gave me enough time to record three original tracks -- I still don't have those files. But once I do, I can probably post them to my blog. 

The class is taught by Dick Siegel, a singer-songwriter originally from New Jersey who moved out here to the midwest (like myself). His most popularized single is probably "Angelo's (Eggs Over Easy)" that gets played a lot on 94.7 WCSX, Detroit's classic rock station. 

His music is very much inspired by old American/Old Afro-American folk  and blues. I've never described my music as old American, but it was interesting to learn how the qualities of older music genres still linger in contemporary music today. This class kind of reinforced the idea that culture never dies, it just transforms. Music gets picked up and recycled in innovative ways by newer generations to the point where it's almost unrecognizable. But if you listen closely, you can still hear the past. 

During my recording session, Dick also taught me one other important lesson that I've been thinking about. He asked me where I plan to go next with my music. And I said I don't really plan on going anywhere. That it was a hobby. 

He said that he doesn't have hobbies. He said that to call something a "hobby" is a way of demeaning talent as something unimportant and not worth pursuing. I think he's kind of right. If you've found something you enjoy doing and it's become important enough to give up time out of your day doing other important things, and it's important enough that it keeps you feeling happy and purposeful, then it's important enough to value as something to be taken seriously. The world won't take you seriously unless you do. And if people don't take you seriously, then I guess it's up to you to make them. 

I did not decide in that moment to forget about my studies and move to Hollywood or wherever music artists go and pursue a career in music production. But I did decide to stop seeing my talents as hobbies and to start seeing my talents as equally important and worth pursuing as any other important goal in life. And I also decided that pursuing music does not mean giving up the pursuit of anything else. 

Dick Siegel in the studio