Happy New Year 2010

Here is wishing everyone a happy, healthy, prosperous  2010. My new year started off with a cold/flu so I hope everyone else is feeling better then I am. I really haven't been that sick, but the cough is getting old, and my poor nose has peeled once already so I am more then ready to get over this. Other than getting sick, Chicago and Christmas with my sister and her family was good. We managed, prior to my getting sick, to visit the Field Natural History Museum and see their special exhibit on Diamonds, some very beautiful and inspiring designs in the jewelry section of the exhibit. Though I have to admit some of it was a bit over the top, that is just my personal taste of course, lots of folks seem to think you can't really go over the top with diamonds. The rest of the exhibit was full of information about where diamonds are found, what they are made of, how they are mined, how they are cut and what they are used for. Course for most folks the highlight of the exhibit was the jewelry, esp the huge yellow diamond at the center of the vault. I would recommend the exhibit to anyone who has the chance to see it.

I did start a new Mandala while in Chicago, but put it aside when I really didn't feel well so hopefully I will be able, now that I am home, to get that finished so I can post it here. I am also still working on the November Fast Friday challenge quilt, and now have the December challenge quilt to do also. That one should be fun, a still life using colors found in an advertisement.

By now you are probably wondering about the image I posted at the head of this blog, that is my cover design for my final Graphic Design project. I didn't have time to update the blog before leaving for Chicago so I will post the images for my booklet now even though it is a bit late. Remember my subject for this booklet was Arms Control.

First spread is above.

2nd spread

3rd spread

4th spread

5th/final spread

I sort of cheated with the last image, the Chair memorial is for the Oklahoma City bombing. I would have preferred to have used an image of the Columbine School shooting memorial, but the Columbine memorial while moving and meaningful to those who were there or lost family members or friends, isn't that well known, and isn't obviously a memorial to those lost to violence.  Empty chairs on the other hand are a powerful symbol so I went with that. The title I stole from George Bernard Shaw, he used it to title his play about a soldier who carried chocolates instead of guns to war. Page layout and design work was done using Adobe InDesign software. 

Anyway here it is for your review. Hope to have something a bit more cheerful to post soon. My next term doesn't start until almost the end of January so hopefully between now and then I will manage to get some of my other projects finished and posted. Per usual comments are welcome.

Oh, one last note, I have received my grades for the term, 3 A's and an A-.  I am quite pleased.