Night Owls!

Whew! What a crazy couple of weeks! And I know that I am certainly not the only one on campus who thinks so. So, in solidarity of my fellow sleep-deprived Anderson students, I made several plates of night owl cupcakes. The pattern was adapted from the delightful book "Hello, Cupcake" (check it out on Amazon.com-it has so many fun ideas!) My version was simplified to save time (I don't have a whole lot extra of that :D ) and I ended up using generic cookies instead of Oreos, which as it turned out was not the best idea. But it all worked out in the end despite skimpy icing and crumbly cookies! After decorating them, I delivered them in the evening to the library hallway, BOD and the hallway outside Mocha Joe's. I hope that the treats were able to late nighters a boost of energy:DLet me know what you think! I love to hear your comments, ideas, and thoughts. Email me at lifeinfullcolour@yahoo.com or just leave me a message here (you don't have to have an account to comment!)

Ole!

Wow-what a crazy couple of weeks! I don't know about all of you, but my life has suddenly gotten pretty busy. Last week I threw together a batch of cookies for the wonderful ladies of Cafe Ole. So many of my days have been made richer and better by their smiles, kind service, and cheerful laughter. It always amazes me how they remember my name considering they serve hundreds of people every day. Sooo, it was something small, but just something to let them know they are loved, appreciated, and out of this world!
Halloween is coming up! What are you going to dress up as? I would love to hear from you! Email me at lifeinfullcolour@yahoo.com or just leave a comment right here (you don't have to have an account to comment!) Have an amazing week!

Everyone Needs a Little Silverstein

What better to add a touch of whimsy to school hallways than pieces by Shel Silverstein? I thoroughly enjoy Silverstein's fanciful poetry and wanted to share the fun. Also inspired by the old Burma Shave Billboards (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burma-Shave :D ), I decided to break the poems up and put them in sequential order down halls. (Hence why you may see a Silverstein poem backwards if you are going in the opposite direction I hung them. It's still good that way-I promise!)Silverstein's poetry is one of those things I sometimes need at the end of a hectic day. Hope it at least tickled your senses. I would love to hear from you! Leave a comment here (you don't need an account to comment!) or send me an email at lifeinfullcolour@yahoo.com. :D Hope you're having a wonderful week!

All Around the Town

This week I ended up heading into town with plans to sit in the park and blow bubbles. I thought it might be fun to do something small in the community. As it turns out, 50 cent bubbles from Dollar General don't blow very well. After about five minutes I was sitting in a pile of sticky solution and had probably blown three bubbles. Ah, the best laid plans:D But the afternoon was certainly not a waste. I found some fun things in town. I just this semester found out about the Anderson Center for the Arts, so I headed down there to check out the Charles Schulz exhibit. I also discovered a hidden pumpkin patch behind some trees! And my favorite part of downtown-the dancing fountain in the town square. What are some corners of Anderson that make you happy?

Say It with Cupcakes!

Hi friends! This week I pulled out the muffin pan and the rolling pin to create a multilingual approach to inspirational cupcake art. I used sugar cookies to make letters that spelled "LOVE" in all the languages taught at the university (French, German, Spanish, and English), and after frosting and sprinkling them, I affixed them on top of chocolate cupcakes (a secret family recipe nonetheless :D !) This morning I carted them up to the Foreign Language/English lobby in Decker. There were a few minor mishaps-let's just say the 'M' in amour sustained some lost appendages-but that's what makes life interesting! A little improv fixing and BAM! it was almost as good as new! I hope the year is going well for everyone. Please drop me a note to let me know how things are going and what areas of your life could use a little colour. You can leave a comment here (you don't need an account to comment!) or just email me at lifeinfullcolour@yahoo.com. Have a splendid weekend!

Sidewalk Art!

Here is my lonely balloon collage at 5am on Friday morning. Fortunately lots of you exercised your artistic talent and so I found something much happier on Saturday morning (much later than 5am :D ) when I returned to take pictures! I found beautiful flowers, a thought provoking question, names, best friend proclamations, a friendly dinosaur, colourful peace signs, another balloon, cute thunderbolts, and a whole lot more! (To see a larger version of the picture, just click on it!) Thanks for being a part of making Anderson a little more magical!

Sidewalk Chalk!

"Nobody can be uncheered with a balloon!" -A.A. Milne
Several weeks ago I was in a small Indiana town with a few friends when on the sidewalk we noticed all kinds of small pictures, words, and initials drawn in brightly coloured sidewalk chalk. Beside the pictures was a bucket of chalk, providing an invitation to add to the fun! On a bench near the pictures sat an older man. We thought how fun it would be if that man was the one to put the chalk there, and now he was just sitting and watching, his eyes twinkling behind dark sunglasses.
Inspired both by this and the natural bent of AU students toward sidewalk chalk art:D I decided to create a mural in the Decker breezeway. Of course I left some chalk there, so that everyone can add their own beautiful touches! Later, I'll post some pictures featuring your art. So get out there and get drawing!
As always, I would love to hear your ideas or just a friendly "hi!" You can leave a comment here (you don't have to have an account to comment!) or email me at lifeinfullcolour@yahoo.com. Cheers!

Back to School Faces!

Welcome (or welcome back!) to AU and the start of another year! I feel excited and scared and joyful and apprehensive and impatient about classes starting and the school year really kicking off. I'm sure that everyone has a billion different emotions and attitudes about Uni this year and what a better way to recognize that than with marshmallows?? For pre-classes I painted faces on marshmallows (with food colouring, not paint!),

packaged them,

and delivered them to all the lovely girls in Morrison Hall as a way to welcome the freshmen and get everyone off to a little bit sweeter start :D As always I welcome your comments, ideas and input either right here (you don't need an account to comment!) or at lifeinfullcolour@yahoo.com. What kinds of things can you do to make Anderson a little more colourful, loving, and magical?
NOTE: The marshmallow faces were taken from the wonderful artist Katie Sokoler. For more pictures of her work, and a little something to brighten your day, visit her blog at ColorMeKatie.blogspot.com.

that's all for this year!

Hope you all have wonderful summers. I would love to hear about any exciting summer plans:D
If you have any ideas for next year, please email me at lifeinfullcolour@yahoo.com or just leave a comment here. Cheers!

Starry Starry Night Has Never Looked So Delicious!

As a tribute to dear Vincent-only the best artist ever-I reproduced one of his most famous works of art on . . . CUPCAKES! I know, right? What could be better than chocolate cupcakes, ridiculous amounts of frosting, and a magnificent piece of art all in one package! And it was fun to make:D
Here's more or less my semi-blank canvas (although I forgot to take a picture right at the beginning-oops!) After over an hour of wrestling with paste food colouring and spooning sticky frosting into ziplocks, I had my palette . . .
Add a few more hours of piping frosting, a copious amount of plastic cups and frosting containers, and some inspiration (not to mention directions!) from an adorable little cookbook (Hello Cupcake! check it out-www.amazon.com/Hello-Cupcake-Irresistibly-Playful-Creations/dp/0618829253/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1271043037&sr=8-1 ) . . .
And a masterpiece emerges!

(Well, a pretty yummy forgery at least.)

The art department is definitely one of the best places on campus and artists are pretty much awesome, so I am glad I had the opportunity to add to the magic that gets created there every day by the talented students and staff:D Leave me a comment (you don't have to have an account) or send me an email at lifeinfullcolour@yahoo.com to let me know what you think, how you're doing, or any ideas you have to bring some beauty to the campus. Happy Monday all!

A Letter a Day. . .

Happy Easter a bit late (that's not the only thing that's late. . .) My creativity has pretty much been in a ditch lately, although that's not excuse for not doing something to make my world a better place. Sooo, this week I went small again, to hopefully get myself geared up for the end of the semester! For the four days of classes we've had, I made a card for someone (that was recommended to me-let me know if you have any friends who might appreciate some encouragement:D) to hopefully give their week a boost. Graduation is coming up and that is ridiculously daunting. The "real world" *shudder*. C, I hope you enjoyed the cards!
Tuesday . . .. . . Wednesday. . .

. . . Thursday . . .

. . . Friday!

Thanks to everyone for the lovely comments and emails:) I love to hear from all of you. Please feel free to leave a comment (you don't have to have an account) or email me at lifeinfullcolour@yahoo.com. Also, it's been fun to look at some of your blogs. Email me the link to your blog and I would love to check it out! Happy week after Easter!

St. Patrick's Day Comes to the Thespians!

Ta da! AT LAST I am getting a few pictures up from my St. Patrick's Day project. . . I've been pretty busy with school stuff this last week. Which is no excuse, true. And I totally failed at doing ANYTHYING last week. But, I'm hoping to pick up the slack this week with Easter coming up. Is everyone else's semester getting pretty crazy right now? What are some ways you give yourselves "a breath of fresh air?" Well, hopefully I'll Easter some of you very soon:D
(Original post)

Pictures to come (I am currently in the middle of Spring Break and have no idea where my camera is!)

Sure it's a bit early, but I wanted to leave a St. Patrick's Day surprise in Byrum for the theatre students. (More to come. . .)

"Everything You Can Imagine Is Real"

This week, feeling a bit overwhelmed by everything going on, I went with something a bit less involved, but hopefully magic-worthy nonetheless. (After all, what could be more magical than contemplating the fanciful wisdom of Vincent Van Gogh or Pablo Picasso on the toilet?) Artists see the world in such a wonderful and unique way, and I wanted to share some of what I've learned from them around Decker. (With the girls anyway. I opted to stay away from the urinals this time around :)!) What are some quotes or people that inspire you?

I wanted to say thank you for all the lovely comments and emails. It's been great to hear from people and to know what some of you are doing to make your corner of Anderson a more hopeful place. Please, if you have any comments, ideas, questions, thoughts, dreams, or terrible knock knock jokes, I would love to hear them. Either leave a comment right here (you don't have to have an account to comment) or send an email to lifeinfullcolour@yahoo.com. Have a wonderful weekend and enjoy the beautiul sunshine!

[Insert Lame Monkey Pun]

Happy Thursday! For this week I again decided to make cupcakes (honestly, cupcakes are kind of the most wonderful thing in the world!), but this time they were. . .monkeys!

I'm sure the amazing ladies who clean the lobby in my dorm think I'm crazy-most people don't make cupcakes at five a.m.-but there's something nice about being up before everyone else. And surprises are the most wonderful thing since cupcakes! I sent a bunch to health services as well as counseling services/campus ministries as a way to say thanks for all they do for us. Decorating the cupcakes was way fun. I went a little bananas

(ha ha-no? okay.) trying to squeeze the frosting dots for pupils and noses out of a ziplock bag, and some of the faces got a little crazy:) Then I carefully arranged them in foil pans and paper plates and sent them off through campus mail!

I would love to hear from everyone. Leave a comment to let me know what you think, share any ideas you have, or just to say hi (you don't have to have an account to comment). For a way you can get involved, check out the last entry!

p.s. How do monkeys get down the stairs?

They slide down the banana-ster!

Get Involved!

For an upcoming project, I need help from all of you! If you would like to receive something special from Make Anderson Magical OR if you have a friend, or two, or ten, in need of some encouragement, send me an email in the next couple of weeks with your name and/or the name of your friends. You can email me at lifeinfullcolour@yahoo.com. Or, you could just comment on this post with the names. Thanks for your help and I hope you are having a spectacular weekend!