Just a Little about Me .....

My Shop ~ Simply Hue Designs, My Blog ~ Simply Hue, Flickr

If you're anything like me, you have a curiosity about people....especially other artists. You want to know more about them personally, about their art, their background, and their daily lives. In two weeks our topic will be "Overcoming Obstacles" and I'll share more intimately about my personal challenges and struggles. But today I want to tell you about myself as an artist, photographer, and blogger.

I've loved art since I was old enough to scribble with crayon on the walls (and I did) and some of my fondest memories are of making cardboard homes for my Barbies, Liddle Kiddle dolls, and trolls. We didn't have much money growing up and moved every couple of years, so drawing and painting were my main sources of entertainment and recreation. I was an energetic (bordering hyper) little girl overflowing with enthusiam and a love for life! In Junior High my enthusiasm often resulted in reprimands from teachers and .... gulp... trips to the principle's office. As a general rule of thumb, they didn't appreciate students running on lunch tables, singing loudly out the schoolbus windows, and instigating water fights in the halls.


In highschool and college I enrolled in just about every art and recreation course available. I loved planning events and decorating for them. Utilizing my art and recreation background, I was able to teach children's art classes, direct a Summer daycamp, and lead activities for seniors.

I was married when I was 21 years old and in the next 5 years had three children (whew!). I was a stay-at-home Mom for several years and too often put my creativity on the back burner. After my children were all in school, I took various jobs to supplement our income. When my youngest was 10, I began having some troubling neurological symptoms.  After visiting specialist after specialist with very few answers, I was finally diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis and later on, a very painful condition called Trigeminal Neuralgia.  My daily symptoms including overwhelming fatigue, made it extremely challenging for me to hold a 9-5 job.   And finally, in 2007, I decided to try to find something I could do part-time from home. I've always loved interior design and came up with the idea to start my own color consulting business. It took off fairly quickly and provided some extra spending money.  It was so much fun going into people's homes and helping them choose a color scheme that fit their personality and interests!


In 2009 I started my blog, Simply Hue, as a place to post colorful home photos and to gain new clients for my business. Soon blogging became much more than just a platform for me.  It became a healing avenue to occupy my time and thoughts on the difficult days, I began making friends from all over the world after a featuring artists, designers, and photographers in my Artist Spotlight series, and I even discovered some buried creative talents. I found such reward and fulfillment in blogging that I eventually lost interest in color consulting (the artist in me loses interest in things a little too quickly), and after a few months of blogging and posting beautiful images, I decided to pick up a camera myself to see what I could do. Well, to make a long story short, photography fast became my passion and a form of therapy for me on days when I didn't feel well and now nothing nurtures my soul more than a country drive with my camera as my constant companion.

Shortly afer becoming interested in photography I learned about Flickr where both amateur and professional photographers, artists, and designers post their work. I began posting a photo here and there and was so surprised when my photography actually began receiving positive attention from other photographers. And, after a few months I started receiving requests from other bloggers, online magazines, and even a few print publications who wanted to feature my images.

My life has taken on beautiful and new meaning through blogging, through photography, and through choosing to live my life creativily. I look forward to sharing more with you in week three. :)

* If you click on THIS LINK, you can learn more about how I edit my photos. :) And, just a little update, I was finally able to purchase a Canon DSLR camera and the newest version of Photoshop. Woo hoo! I'm still floundering along learning how to use both, but hope to take a few new photos and post them on Simply Hue soon.