Book sale coming soon!

Fund-raising is getting off to a slow start, but we are working hard. One of the first events we are planing is a basic book sale. We are going to run and advertise it like a yard sale, but only have books, all for a flat price. We are currently in the process of collecting books so if you have any you are looking to get rid of, we would gladly take them off your hands! Just let Simon, Jessie, or I know, and we can gladly pick them up, or you can drop them off at our place. The support would be greatly appreciated! We will probably be having the sale in late march, but we will keep you updated with any exact dates.

In other news, we are going to TRY to get the etsy.com site up by March 1st. That leaves us only a couple of days, so we might have to push it back a week, but I'm trying! The site will have a few card types in different categories, and will have a couple sets where every card is different. They will be sold in sets of 5 for $8 a set + shipping. We are wanting to send out some free samples of our first cards to friends and family, so let me know if you want to be on the list by shooting me an email with your address. I will be able to send a couple of our cards to each of you! After the site is up and running, we hope to be able to update with new merchandise every two weeks or so. I will include all updates on the blog as well!

The only other news I have has to do with school. A lot of you already know this, but Jessie officially got accepted to St. Andrews university starting for the Fall 2011 semester! St Andrews is the oldest university in Scotland ( almost 600 years old!), and is the place where Prince William and his fiancee, Catherine went to school and met! We are both hoping she can score some royalty as well! haha. She has applied to 4 other schools and is waiting to hear back from them. The University of Edinburgh has asked for her transcripts which is a good sign. Since she is going to be going to Scotland a whole year before Simon and I, she is trying to fund-raise a lot quicker. That is one of the reasons we are trying to get all these ideas off of the ground! Well, as always, thanks for stopping by. Thats all the updates I have for now, but things are happening quickly, so check back!

There's always time for second chances

There is always time for a second chance. Simon and I had spent the majority of last year planning for a three-month trip to Europe. It would have been amazing, but like on so many other occasions, life got in the way. The real turning point came when I started reading a financial guidance book by Susie Ormon. I know, that sounds really silly, but the whole book had some great advice for young people just starting out. I wanted to get out my trusty to do list and get started right away on revamping our finances. Then I noticed we were missing a key element. In order to be happy, you should enjoy the way you make money. To do that, you have to find a career that you love. Not an odd job that pays minimum wage, but a career. To do that, you probably have to have a degree. That's when I realized that this trip of ours was going to have to wait. I wanted to be able to focus on school. I knew that I would never feel like my life had actually gotten started until I had a degree under my belt and I could look for a real job. I also knew I didn't want to be stuck in petco my entire life. Even another year probably would have killed me. With that realization, Simon and I changed paths, and started to look toward a new future full of books and homework.

We are now in 2011 and I am still in school with only 1 more semester before I get an associates degree. That is not my end though. Simon and I both want to get masters degrees, and have been talking a lot about where we would like to finish our schooling. We came up with the idea that our love of travel and our need for school could be combined. Therefore, we are going to apply to a couple schools in the united states, a couple in Ireland, and 5 schools in the United Kingdom. The tuition is less then going to an out of state school in the US, and it is way less then an art school. Another plus, the university of Edinburgh in Scotland has one of the best printmaking schools in the world, the medium I want to major in. We are both very happy about this decision, and with the help of saving, grants, and loans, it is a lot less out of reach then our previous trip.

The reason I mentioned a second chance is because we are going to start up fund-raising again. Because my sister is also planing on going to school in the UK, I decided to work on raising money with her. We will be using this blog for updates, as well as open an etsy.com shop for goods. We will be focusing on making greeting cards for the most part, but there will be the odd craft and art piece as well. We are even thinking of getting some vintage clothes on there. I am excited to get this started since there will be a lot more of a focus. Soon we will be up and running again, and we will be able to keep in touch like we used to. Thank you all for continuing to read. --Nikki

Some New Prints

Art at a Theme Park

Well I am here in Orlando, already on my last night. i have been here since the eighth and have done a lot. One of our big trips was to Universal Studios Island of Adventure. This was for fun, but I thought I would bring the camera just in case. I was surprised that there were some fun shots. Here are the first ones I have finished. I will try to keep updating my facebook and store quickly as well. :)

Some new Art

I have been thinking of ways to get ready for school, and a big one is getting a good portfolio ready. When I was reading online, I noticed that a common thing that all the art schools are looking for is a display that shows the basics. They want to see how well you draw, paint, etc, rather then your imagination. So, to help supplement my own portfolio I have started a new series. It is basically going to be graphite portraits of people, but in an unconventional way, so I don't get bored with it. I have two done already and I plan to do about 5-7. That doesn't mean I will use all of them. I will probably ask you guys, as well as some teachers, what ones best display my ability. I have noticed that art in graphite is hard to photograph too, so bare with my bad photography for now. I hope to have all of them done in about a couple months. Thanks for checking in. --Nikki

Welcome!

Hello to all! My name is Nicole ( I've always been called Nikki ) and I have a lot going on in my life at the moment! I am currently in school at my community college, looking into moving, saving for art school, and manage two web sites and two blogs. This one is included. This blog is specifically linked to my Help Shop website. That website was originally being used to raise money for a trip to Europe with my Husband, but half way though this year, we decided to go back to school. We changed our blog, our web site, and our futures with this huge decision. Now we are hurrying to get our community college our of the way as well as get ready for the biggest move of our lives so far. In the mean time, we are working with our strengths to raise what money we can. That is where the Help Shop comes in.

help shop gallery is a list of one/few of a kind products that are hand made by Simon or myself. I also have a fine art gallery that has a lot of the art I do at school or on my own, but this is more of a craft site. It is the things that I do for fun that i wouldn't present in a portfolio. Everything i sell on it I will put in a separate bank account that I will not touch until I move. i also have a donations button on here that will have the same stipulations. We want and need this to work as a saving tool, so we are going to be strict. 

I also have another blog, but this one is more of an outlet for our life. We use this to jot down thoughts, ideas, and even show you how to do crafts. I like to have that separate so this one stays "clean". This blog is only used to update everyone on the on-goings of the website, its merch, and our progress to our goal. If you would like to follow my husband or I a little closer, take a look at the other blog! :)

Thank you to all who have followed me from my other blog, and to all of those new to my site. I hope I can entertain and inform all of you to your hearts content. :) See you tomorrow. 

--Nikki

Links:

helpshopgallery.com

nicoleyvonneart.com

welchgab.blogspot.com