All Good Things…

…come to an end.

That bit above is the most succinct way I can express what I’m about to say. As many of you (if you’re still around!) know, I made quite a big move earlier this year. I decided to uproot myself & move across the country to pursue my dream of making it as a Costume Designer. When I came to LA, I had NO IDEA how much of my life would change…especially in such a short time. I had planned to come out here & keep up with my creative endeavors…Unfortunately, that didn’t turn out to be the case. I quickly had to learn that I had to prioritize my creative outlets…and as I’m sure you’re aware, Sparkleshock unfortunately became the one that was low on the list.

When I started blogging, I was a recent college graduate who’d moved back home & had nothing but time on her hands. When I got my job at Target, I became a recent college graduate that worked at a job where she made it so that she had time on her hands (ha!). I’m sure I mentioned to you all that I blogged from my desk at work. It became no secret to my cubicle mate that I always had tons of windows open for a reason…& that reason was so that I could blog. In all honesty, I’m not cut out for the cubicle world of corporate America, so I needed something to get me through the monotony of my day…and my blog helped me to do that.

Things are different now, though. I don’t have the time to make time like I used to. Last year, I didn’t have much going on professionally or personally, so SparkleShock was a way to make me feel useful to the creative world. Now, (literally since Jan 1, 2011), my life has been taken over by job hunting, decorating, getting acclimated to LA, working, networking, freelancing…all while finally taking steps to open my own business of designed goods.

The truth is, I don’t have time to blog anymore.

I never understood what people meant when they would tell me that “blogging is a lot of work”. At the time, it wasn’t for me because I was doing it when I was essentially using someone else’s time. Now, the only time I have is my own, and I hate to admit that I have to use my time for other endeavors right now. 90% of the content for The ‘Shock was fueled by my web-surfing. Now, I simply cannot devote 2-4 hours a day editing & sifting though the plethora of sites in which I draw my inspirations. Those 2-4 hours don’t include the time it takes to create the posts (of which, as you may remember, were 3-4 a day). I haven’t checked up on my google reader in months & I have no idea what some of my favorite bloggers are up to…

I’ve written about SparkleShock’s birth…so I suppose it’s only fitting that I write about its passing.

As corny as it sounds, it truly does sadden me to let you guys know that it’s going to be quiet around here for a while. Maybe indefinitely. Even as I write this, I’m not 100% sure what will happen, but I do know that I will only be posting when I absolutely feel the pull to. Churning out over 20 posts a week was exhausting & in all honesty, around Dec/Jan, I was kinda burned out with both of my blogs. It proved to be very time consuming…and my blog was never supposed to be one that became a source of stress for me. I not a blogger that started this blog to fund my livelihood. I started it solely as an outlet, so since it’s become a point of stress, I think it’s best that I stop for the time being.

Now, if you’ve been a follower of my blog, then you know I’m an artist…and the mind of an artist is always in flux. So I wouldn’t tell you to stop coming to Sparkleshock…I don’t think I could ever stop this sort of online visual journal indefinitely…but I do know that it will not be as it was. I will not be posting daily. I may not even be posting weekly. I guess what I’m trying to say is please don’t hold The Shock to any expectations anymore. Until I figure out a way to incorporate more time for SparkleShock in my life, it will be very sporadic around here. I do have plans to rework both Sparkleshock (& Jade Pheenix) because I do like blogging, but I cannot let you know when (or if) that will be. This the best I can offer you for now.

I want to thank all my subscribers & anyone that did/does read my blog on a regular basis. You guys really made me feel special. I mean that. On a personal note, I’m one of those people that struggles at times with feelings of being insignificant. Somehow, though, if I found myself in a moment of feeling down on myself, I would always seem to come across a comment, FB wall post, or tweet that said something good about my blog & my taste in art/design/fashion. It was an instant morale booster & I’m very grateful for those kind words from both strangers & friends.

In the lull that’s coming, I would like to invite you to check out/follow my tumblr. I post there very regularly & it has quickly become the easiest (& quickest!) way for me to somewhat purge myself of creative clutter. It’s quite similar to The Shock, but with less verbiage & more imagery. It’s also a bit more personal as I blog random thoughts and whatnot. And as always, you can always find my randomness & adventures over on Twitter.

SO! Let’s end this on a high note, shall we? Here’s something…for old time’s sake 🙂

I dig these drawings by Louise Despont…

I love how these have an otherworldly quality to them…almost metaphysical. In fact, they actually sort of remind me of the art direction used in the Predator films. A lot of the design in the ships for the aliens kinda had motifs that remind me of Despont’s work. Awesome!

…P.S. This is a long shot, but I hope someone reading this thought about THIS when you read the title of this posting. It was my *geeky* inspiration 🙂

[Inspiration of the Day]…Tron (+ A Mini Update!)

Hey everybody! I’m now writing to you not from my work cubicle (as I have been for the past year), but from my new place & space in Los Angeles, CA. My move went relatively smoothly and I’m slowly getting used to driving everywhere, seeing mountains, and having to pay 5 extra cents for a bottle of soda, haha!

I hope your new year has started off well! Mine is starting off quite productively and while last week’s post were all scheduled, I’m now back to writing “live” ones like before. I’m still working out a routine here where I allow time for blogging, so things may be a bit sporadic for a spell. It’s a bit different having time all to myself to spend “doing me” rather than “working for the man”!

Anyway, I’m going to try and bring back my “Inspiration of the Day” feature that I had way back when I started Sparkleshock. Basically I just posted about the ideas, art, colors, seasons, etc that have help my mindspace as of late. I really enjoyed doing those posts and since I’m surrounded by creative energy here in LA, I’d like to get back to them. Today’s feature is all about Tron. I realize I’m sort of late in seeing the film, but with things so hectic, I hadn’t gotten a chance to see the movie until now. In short, it was

AMAZING.

The costumes were breathtaking. Michael Wilkinson designed them and they are STUNNING. This is the same guy who did the costumes for Watchmen (of which I also loved), so I expected nothing short of great. I loved the entire feel of the film. The color use was spectacular. How they decided to use warm colors for the antagonists (CLU & his henchman) was quite clever. Cool colors were used for the protagonists which was also neat because anytime they were on the screen, a sense of calm cut the tension that the action scenes created.

After seeing this film, I think I want to be something Tron like for Halloween this year. I’d only have to figure out how to get the light up elements…

The soundtrack was also amazing. Daft Punk KILLED it (as they always do)….but they were the PERFECT choice to score this film because they’re so otherwordly themselves…

My favorite tracks off the OST are Solar Sailer & End of Line…

Seriously, this soundtrack has been on repeat all weekend.

Here’s some more Tron or Tron inspired stuff that has got me in a designgasm…

[Via]

[Via]

[Via]

[Via]

LOVE. LOVE. LOVE. I heard Daft Punk held a rave on set one night because shooting couldn’t occur…I would have LOVED to costume this!!

Hiatus Terminated.

The trip out West was a success! I found a place to live and I’m getting super stoked about the beginning of my “new life”. As scary as things are, I’m super excited about my move…so excited in fact that I was all abuzz with creative energy, so I decided to give SparkleShock a little makeover. It’s the same layout, but isn’t as busy. I really liked how simple I made the layout for my other blog (Jade Pheenix), so I wanted to sort of keep that idea going with the new layout & header for SparkleShock. It still has some “crazy” elements, but is a bit more subdued as to not be a color/pattern overload. Tell me what you guys think…I hope you like!

I’ll be back to some regular posts tomorrow (well somewhat regular…things are still crazy), but until then, check out these vintage travel posters that I found…

The posters above were designed by David Klein back in the 50’s for then popular airline TWA. I LOVE the colors and I love how each one depicts the destination in such an interesting way. He now does ads for Orbitz, so you may recognize some of his illustration. Be sure to check out Klein’s site for more of his awesome travel art.

Oh! And just a friendly reminder you can…

…Follow the randomness of my mind over at Twitter.

…Follow the creative randomness of my mind at my Tumblr

…Delve into my lifestyle blog (and see some of my work!) at Jade Pheenix

…email me (to chat, suggest post ideas , or just to say hi!) at ksmason1@hotmail.com

…and friend me on the “Facespace” (what my mom calls Facebook, haha)

Hope to see you guys in one of those places…I want to meet all my fellow readers!!

A Moment of Your Time, Please :)…

Before we get started on today’s Friday Flash, I wanted to just take a moment to reflect on the past year of sharing all the things that spark my interest here on Sparkleshock. I missed commemorating my 1 year blogoversary (which was sometime around Sept 17th) and I had planned on doing some big celebration blog post, but it just didn’t end up that way due to many reasons (other projects, time, life in general). When I first started this blog, it was over at Blogspot. In fact I think I actually started that one earlier in 2009, but I never really had much drive in posting on it since it I figured nobody was reading it anyway. That was mistake #1 I made when beginning to blog – worrying about readership. After awhile, that blog (which was actually called Complex Supernova and had a grand total of 4 posts) was completely neglected due to my over inflated blogging ego and I decided to just give up on blogging in general.

Towards Fall of 2009, I was back living at home after freshly graduating from college and I was bored out of my mind when the idea about blogging popped back into my head. At this particular time, I had A LOT (too much in fact) of free time, so I spent a lot of time surfing the net which led to me having far too many bookmarks and inspiration folders. Granted, I’d always been a web surfer, but at this particular time, all the cool things I wanted to share was starting to pile up considerably. So it was during that time that I decided to give blogging another chance. I moved over to WordPress (cause it tracked stats – the blogging ego was still sort of in effect) and after going through several names (Sheree Sparkle, ShereeFashion, Wonder World, Hype Planet – ew!) SparkleShock was born. I knew this blog would be different the moment I thought of the name. It just had so much pizaazz and combined two of my favorite words. On top of that, I started to care less about readership and began to have way too much fun posting about a neat artist I found or a funky piece of jewelry I was digging. It became fun to find things and write my views about them.

The funny part about all this is that the moment I decided to stop focusing on blog view stats and just post because I just wanted to share cool things, that was the moment that my readership began to grow steadily and confidently. Today, I truly feel like my blog is an accurate extension of how I view the world and what makes me happy. I think it’s an awesome balance of personality while still not being entirely “all about me” (that’s what Jade Pheenix is for of course! 😉 I’ve also discovered TONS of other amazing blogs and I’ve even interacted with some pretty cool people, some of whom I consider “blogging friends”.

My hope for Sparkleshock is that I continue to have just as much fun and excitement in posting as I do now – even a year after blogging. If you know me personally, then you know that I’m quite artistically scatterbrained – it’s very hard for me to only have one or two projects going on at any given time. Knowing that makes me proud of myself for sticking with this blog as long as I have. As of right now, I have no plans of ending my blog and even though I go through periods of  “blogger PMS”, I know that it’s temporary and the desire to spread awesome art, culture, and design to others will be back in due time. That being said though, I’m always thinking about change, so I do have some ideas in mind that I hope to get started in the next coming months…so please do, stay tuned!

I think the best way to end this is to say THANK YOU to all the people that visit Sparkleshock on a regular basis and THANK YOU to the people that may only visit it occasionally. THANK YOU to the subscribers. THANK YOU for leaving comments and THANK YOU for sharing things with me that you’re digging as well. As long as there’s awesome creativity to share, then SparkleShock will be the one-stop destination for it 🙂

[All artwork via Shan Jiang]

Just a Teeny Reminder….

I have another blog – Jade Pheenix

I also have a Tumblr – Sparkle Pheenix

I am on Twitter – @MissPheenix

I just opened a Flickr account (where I plan on housing my photography escapades)

I just wanted to remind you guys where you can find me because I do want to work on connecting with my readers, so please feel free to visit the various Lands of the Pheenix 🙂

Bienvenido a Miami…

…Which is the greeting that is sure to meet me once I touch down in beautiful South Florida on Friday. And since I’ll be enjoying my Labor Day vacation, I won’t really be around any computers…in fact, Arion (my MacBook) isn’t even coming along with me so in my absence, I wanted to leave you guys with some gorgeous photos of Miami architecture…

I’ll be back next week though and I’ll have tons of photos of art, scenery, and such here while I’ll have some more personal photos and adventure photos over at Jade Pheenix. Of course, I will mostly be posting a few random images and thoughts on my tumblr and on twitter while I’m gone so you are certainly welcome to stop by there and say hi 🙂

Have a Great & Safe Labor Day!!!

The Life of Miss Sheree (8.2.10)

Morning! Can you believe it’s already August?? Oh my stars, does time fly by. I cannot believe that there’s only 4 months left of the year! I hope your last bit of July was a good one…mine was quite nice. I didn’t do much, but I did get a chance to check out a comedy show at The House of Comedy at the Mall of America (about which there will be a recap over at Jade Pheenix later today.) Besides that I didn’t do much but clean, sew a bit, and work at the fabric store. I did get a surprise in finding out that my sister and mom (of whom have been in Florida for the past month) will be coming back home this week…that had totally slipped my mind…and I got used to having the house all to myself, haha. Last night was True Blood Night of course, and let me tell you…they certainly upped the ante on the gore! There were vampires exploding every which way…which is a really bloody mess, haha. The show is getting a bit better, but it’s not as good as it seemed to be last season. Sookie is still dense, Tara is still “the angry Black woman”, and Alcide (a new character that’s a warewolf) is still hot.

Oh! I don’t think I ever mentioned the white water rafting adventures I went on two weeks ago with my co-workers. Now, if you know me, you know I don’t really do the people at work like that…due to my true feelings about my job and the atmosphere, I kind of keep to myself. But, I had to go on this day trip because it was a required “team bonding experience”…and you know what? I actually had a lot of fun. My past mindset about work is that it was an experience in which I allowed myself to sort of clam up because I didn’t like the circumstances – but being around my team outside our office building really gave me a chance to see how they really are…and I realized that they aren’t so bad after all. That being said though, I still have no plans on telling them my business (if you’ve never worked in a corporate environment, believe me, “watercooler talk” is so real…) but I will make much more of an effort to be more “around” instead of holing up in my cube for most of the day.

Well, the rest of my week seems to be pretty uneventful…I will probably finish a top I was working on this past weekend. I hopefully will make it to the movies to see Inception (mostly because I need to see what all the fuss is about). Besides that, who knows! 🙂

Have a great week, all…let’s make the beginning of August great, yes!?

“You have to take risks. We will only understand the miracle of life fully when we allow the unexpected to happen.” -Paulo Coelho

Jade Pheenix…

…Is my new blog!!

For awhile now, I’ve had tons of personal things that I’ve wanted to share (projects, photos, random life happenings), so I thought it’d be a good idea to sort of start to separate them from Sparkleshock. So the new home for things that are a bit more personal is now over at Jade Pheenix. Don’t worry, you can still look to Sparkleshock for all things fashion, art, and design related…and of course, you’ll probably still see random babblings from my crazy mind, but please do check out Jade Pheenix for more in-depth posts about my design adventures (or misadventures in some cases, haha!) and my journey called life. It’s still a baby blog though, so there are only like 2 posts..but be patient! More will definitely come 🙂

In fact…you remember the photoshoot I’ve been mentioning?…some of the pictures from segment 1 of the shoot are up…so check ’em out!

The Life of Ms. Sheree (7.26.10)

Konnichiwa! I hope today finds you all in good health and good spirits. It’s another Monday, so some of you are probably heading back to work…and then there are some of you who get to sleep in or head to the beach or head to the mall or head to some really nice vacation destination. Unfortunately for me, none of those latter situations apply (bummer!) so of course I’ve got the Monday blues since I’m at work. I do wish my weekends would never end…it’s so nice having time to do things that you want to do…

Anyway, how was your weekend? Fabulous I hope. Mine was pretty chill. After all the running around I did last weekend for the photoshoot, it was nice to spend this weekend just relaxing and catching up on some projects and housework. I didn’t really do anything crazy fun, but I did go shopping on Friday afternoon after work. Since I’ve now decided to move in December, I now have exactly 12 paychecks until moving time, so I decided to take Friday’s payday and completely SPEND it. I have been diligently saving since last October, so I figured that I have a good amount saved now, plus I’ll have a good amount saved by December, so why not take this entire check and spend it on myself? Let me tell you, it was so nice…obviously I’m not making Oprah-money, but let me tell you, it was such a nice taste to take what I do make and go into a store and know that I can buy whatever I wanted. And I totally did! Like I barely even looked at price tags – mind you I was going to stores like Urban Outfitters and H&M – but still, I saw what I wanted, and I bought it. And I still have a great deal of my paycheck left! It’s really weird, but even after buying what I wanted, I was pretty much satisfied – and still had leftover funds so I’m probably going to save that portion anyway – so it was a double win, haha 🙂

Anyhoo…after my Friday “shopping spree”, I spent the rest of the weekend doing the usual – working at the fabric store, doing a bit of sewing, and doing a lot of cleaning. I cleaned and organized my closet and armour and after doing that, I’ve decided that I really shouldn’t buy or make anymore clothes…of course that’s like saying I probably shouldn’t breathe, but I’m literally running out of room! People have always told me that I have too many clothes, but I’ve never agreed until this weekend…

I didn’t get a chance to watch True Blood last night since I was at a friend’s house getting the photos from the Legacy shows. It was all good though because it was nice to hang out and I also found out that I’m wanted for another photoshoot in September. It seems like  a lot of acquaintances are trying to update their photography portfolio’s and since I design clothes…and am apparently photogenic (his words not mine, lol) I guess I’m going to start planning for another shoot. Luckily it’s a few months away, so that gives me more time to come up with some new pieces and concepts.

*Sidenote – I know I always say that I’m going to post photos of things I’ve been up to…and I honestly have every intention of doing that, but I’m such a perfectionist when it comes to displaying my work that it takes awhile for me to organize the photos from my various projects – so please continue to stay tuned (I appreciate your patience!) because I will have pictures and a new bit of news hopefully sometime this week.

Well, I think I’m going to go get some breakfast…I actually have a lot of work to do today so I should get to it 🙂 Have a great week!

“The only person you are destined to become is the person you decide to be.” -Ralph Waldo Emerson

The Life of Ms. Sheree (7.19.10)

Goooood Morning! How was your weekend? Fantastic I hope…It’s another Monday morning and although I really don’t want to be at work (like that’s anything new :)), I’m in pretty good spirits.

I had a fabulous weekend…one that is the epitome of what I’d like most of my weekends to be – one filled with creativity and hustle & bustle. I mentioned I was to begin my photoshoot on Friday afternoon – and it was AMAZING! It was really fun and honestly, it was a bit of an ego trip since I was the one doing the modeling. Back in middle/high school, I was on this modeling tip (when I wanted my folks to uproot and move to LA so that I could be on the Disney Channel), but a lot of my photos came out really awkward…I think the fact that I was going through some serious confidence issues at the time was reflected in that, so I gave that up and haven’t really given modeling another thought. Fast forward about 7 years and I now find myself back in front of the lens. For awhile, I was looking for photographers because I did want some new “professional” photos of myself, but I wasn’t sure what kind I wanted…then the idea came to be that I did need some photos of some of my favorite pieces (that I’ve designed/sewn) so I decided to combine the two and plan a photoshoot of some updated photos of myself and of the clothes I make. Long story short, I collaborated with a good friend of mine, and together we came up with some great stuff that’s edgy, sexy, natural, and all me at the same time. I think what I enjoyed the most about the whole thing was that we just vibed really well creatively. I like to think as a creative partner as a sort of lover. As with any relationship, things just wont work well if you don’t connect – and being a designer there have been many instances where I haven’t connected well creatively with others. But this time, it was just…magic! We found some great locations and I think that plus the awesome pieces I designed just made me really comfortable and natural in front of the camera. On top of that, Drew (photographer) was able to ask a good friend of his if she could do my make up…so I had a make up artist as well. Make up and hair is NOT one of my strong points…I mean, I style my own very well, but I tend to get lost when it comes to designing the right looks for shows and shoots. She came up with some great ideas that really fit the looks well…and I LOVED the make-up for my 3 look. All in all, the whole thing was a great experience and while I don’t plan on pursuing modeling serious in any capacity, it’s nice to know that maybe I don’t take such bad pictures after all 🙂 We pick up the photos today (they were film, not digital) so I’m a bit anxious…everyone will see them before me…and I always get really shy when I see photos or video footage of myself…I hate watching it, haha. But, I am still really excited to see how they came out…the entire shoot felt right, so hopefully they end up looking right.

The shoot basically consumed my entire weekend. I felt bad because my Pops was home for the weekend and I didn’t get to spend any time with him. I did get to catch up on True Blood, so that was nice…although I’m not too impressed with this season just yet…and I’m pretty sick of them making Tara so damn helpless, but I digress…

I made a final decision about my move to California. And after much thought (and tears of frustration…) I decided that I will be moving in December instead of at the end of next month. There are many reasons why this was the best thing for me to do, but it was a struggle for me to decide because the idea of spending 4 more months in MN and at this job really dampens my spirits. Plus, it was a pride issue because I had already told basically everyone I was leaving (including you guys!), so to say, “nope, I’m leaving later”, just sounds so “unsure”. I realize I don’t have to explain myself to anyone, but what I do want to express is that I have every intention of following my goals out to wherever they may take me…and I know in my heart that Los Angeles is one of those places. I’ve always been the type to do exactly what I say I’m going to do…both good things and not so good things, but this time is the 1st time, I think, where I’m really thinking things out and making the best decision instead of blindly doing whatever feels right. I don’t know…maybe that’s a part of ‘growing up’, but I just don’t want to get into the rut of always following logic…sometimes the best situations come out of following your heart and disregarding everything outside of it…I guess I just need to figure those times out.

Anyways, I should get on with the day and the rest of my posts. The rest of my week looks pretty chill. I think I’ll finish some pants my mom wanted me to make her like 3 months ago. Besides that…its wherever the wind takes me! Enjoy your day! PS. I will have photos from the shoot (along with other recent projects and some NEWS!) sometime this week…stay tuned!

Never stand begging for that which you have the power to earn. -Miguel de Cervantes