I'm moving!

lyndashoup.com

I've enjoyed this blog so much. It has brought me much happiness and I've made great friends. This blog has taken me far and could continue to do so. Somehow it seemed time for me to commit to my own website. And so I have. I hope you will join me there. My posts have been migrated to the new site, so you won't have to go far to find any post you may have enjoyed. 

I'll be posting to the blog and creating new things. I will have some exciting news in the weeks to come. 

Font Choice in a Digital World

This is a repost from my neglected library blog Stacked in Our Favor edited slightly for this readership.

A member of a writing group I was in got me thinking about typeface and professional behavior. For a long time New Times Roman has been a default of style and professionalism. It is the default typeface in most word processing programs. It is the font considered to be the professional choice to use when submitting work that matters.

I have to question whether this is really in our best interests in a digital world. 

Years ago a favorite professor of mine stated that she would appreciate it if work submitted to her digitally used a non-serifed font. Her choice was Verdana. The reason? The non-serif font is easier to read from a computer screen. For someone who does a great deal of work reading online submissions, this is a critical issue. From that moment forward, I have used a non-serif font on my digital submissions when I deemed it appropriate. Over the years, I have found that it does, indeed, make a difference to me. That is why I have chosen to use Verdana as the typeface on my blogs. 

I also wonder about how the default affects children who are growing up online. Adults who are not aware, default to a serifed font. This is not as easy a transition as one might think for the emerging reader.  The letter “a” in particular, causes children distress. 

After thinking about these things I have changed my way of selecting font:

1.    For my own digital creations, I use a non-serifed font. You will find this on my blogs, in my course materials, and in many of the more personal submissions I make.

2.    For formal submissions, I follow the guidelines. If there are no guidelines, I usually submit in Times New Roman as that is considered the standard professional font.

3.    For elementary school students, I use a non-serifed simple font giving particular attention to the lower case “a”. This is for any computer generated materials including the materials children may be accessing digitally as well as the materials which I produce digitally to print and hand out.

4.    Love letters, I write by hand.

I’d love to hear what people have to say about font choice in a digital context. Have you thought about it? How do different fonts make you feel? Do you always go with the default or are you a font manipulator? Do you think that the default font will change as we are increasingly a digital society?

Changing Blog Title

Art journal page prompted by Rae Missigman's #artmarks30daychallenge

While I haven't been posting to my blog in a while, I have been fairly active on Instagram. Even before the last post, I made I started considering where this blog was going and some changes I hoped to make. Changes I hoped would make this blog more interactive. 

Art journal page prompted by Rae Missigman's #artmarks30daychallenge

It's not unusual for me to overthink things, to dream up new ideas and leave half of them behind as I forge forward with a creative idea. Each week I thought I would make the decision. I would move forward in a new direction. I did some research. I did some brainstorming. I spent time sketching in the park. 

Finally, today, I made a decision. It wasn't any of the options that had been under consideration.

Finally, I decided to just be me. And so it is. No agenda. Just me. Making art. Sharing joy and art. That is all. So from now on, you can find me by my name. 

A collection of mood books I made from magazines I decided had to go after a spring cleaning purge.  

As stated previously, these hands have not been idle while my mind was working overtime. 

1. Chipping away at The Artist's Way, albeit slowly.

2. Making a Facebook page with artist-friend, Cindi Huss, to keep us accountable to each other. You can check out our page at 

3. Completed Rae Missigman's 

#artmarks30daychallenge part 1 and part 2 

4. Did a studio purge as the spring cleaning bug hit me. I needed room to move about. These beautiful magazines needed to go, so I made them into mood books. That way I could try out binding them with the Coptic stitch. This was something that would have been on my bucket list if I had one. The bindings aren't perfect, but they mark progress. 

The mood books stacked to show bindings. Each book is themed by color. 

Thanks for coming by. I'm excited about providing some new content for you. Let me know if there is something you would like to see. 

Have Journal Will Travel

It seems that the majority of my arting has been done on the go. While I continue to try to get my art desk under control, I haven't spent much time at it. So I'm getting pretty good at creating wherever I am and in mini-bursts. More often than not, time at my art desk is focused on preparing materials to be made on the go.

Last pocketbook buying trip was focused on getting a bag that could not hold the kitchen sink. Naturally, it has become apparent that if it can be stuffed to overflowing it will be. There is space for a sandwich sized zip-lock bag with two mini books and a handful of gel pens. The mini-books have already had a layer of collage or paint and now it is time for embellishment.

Another bag is stuffed with a host of materials for collage, a variety of art pens and water soluble crayons. This bag is taken when there is any suspicion that the day will have down moments or even a visit to a tea or coffee establishment. 

You may have noticed that I have a favorite tea shop to work in. Kung fu Tea in Providence, Rhode Island is my new favorite journaling spot. I go there whenever I have a chance (which isn't nearly often enough.) I love the environment and Oolong Milk Tea is nothing short of ambrosial. 

I still love journaling in Starbucks. I'm plenty happy pasting layers and adding pen in the car. 

Lately I have found that our nearby hospital has a lovely waiting room where I spent some time  while waiting for a family member's tests. Pages were completed there. Callous you say? Art journal pages are a great way to process the feelings you are having whether they are fear, joy or confusion. Art journaling eased my worry and helped me to be more present for others. I'd say that is a win all around. 

I've also discovered over the past few months that I have gravitated to posting on instagram. It suits the out and about nature of my days. Actually it was through instagram that I was inspired to get serious about making art on the go. Jogatheringwild regularly creates art in her car before work. This inspired me to really get started. Check her out. 

What are your favorite tools for art on the go? How do you manage fitting art making into your routine? 

Blogging for Connection

From time to time most bloggers ask themselves the question. 

"What question?" you ask.

That question. 

Why do we blog? 

If you are asking this question, pull up a seat and have a cold glass of peach infused ice tea. 

"Why this tea in particular?"you may well ask. "Why not plain? Why not coffee? "

Because this tea is the answer to your question. I hear your confusion. 
"Get to the point already, will you?" you say with a slight irritation in your voice. 

I will oblige you. 

I have never in the whole of my life had peach infused ice tea. Never given it a backwards glance. When the recipe was shared by Ricki Jill of Art@Home on her post for this year's Mad Tea Party I was intrigued. I had to try it. If you ask around, and I beg you don't, you may even learn that I became a bit obsessed with giving it a try. 

The ingredients I bought at a local farm. South Carolinan peaches were chosen over the white ones. Locally grown mint was procured. 


As we sat and sipped and proclaimed over the tea I mused upon the ties that bind us as bloggers. The richness of experience we are granted for the inspiration and kindness from each other, persons unknown to each other in our local, everyday lives. The tea was, and remains, delicious. Ricki was astute in mentioning that the recipe can last a while, but won't because it will be finished long before it's expiration date. For the record, I drank more than one glass. 















Blogging, instagram, and a variety of other ways of connecting are a blessing to those of those who stick with it, who engage and who share. It requires a certain level of engagement, however, and that connection does not come without effort. We blog to see and be seen, to inspire and be inspired, to express and find expressions that help us understand our own experience. We blog to send beauty into the world and to fill our lives with that beauty. 

These are all things I am thinking as I muse over the beauty of the connection we gain from blogging. There is so much more. I need not be complete in this post. 

Dear reader, thank you for being part of this blogging experience. Ricki Jill, thank you so much for this recipe. So delicious! 

Why do you blog? Why do you read blogs? What do you get out of the experience?

Mad Tea Party 2015 Invitation

It's that time of year again!

I look forward to it each year. 

The Mad Tea Party

hosted by Vanessa of A Fanciful Twist

I have been plotting for some time what kind of tea party I would throw this year. So many directions I could go, but I decided to go with a new skill set. Step out of my own box. I hope you will like it. 

The Mad Tea Party is tons of fun. Want to join? Head over to Vanessa's blog and sign yourself up. There's still time. 

Present to Myself

I've been absent from blogging this past month. First there was illness and then the hectic pace at the end of the school year. Truth be told, this led to the need for a massive clean up action before I could get to my desk. Oooops! 

School's out and I have given myself a wonderful present. Tomorrow I am heading east to take not just one, but two, classes from Kelly Kilmer! I will be learning more about mixed media and journaling. This is like a dream come true! 

I've packed up my bag of materials and I'm ready to spend a day learning, growing and flinging paint! Can't wait to post the results. 

Wearing Joy - Seeing Joy - Feeling Joy

There's been a lapse in my regular posting schedule over the past two weeks. 

Once I got back in the swing of blogging and making the rounds of blogs I wanted to get involved in everything. Some of that is good. Some of that is too much. So I'm reevaluating what I should be involved with. 

Not only that, but the Wear Your Joy course with Kelly Rae Roberts has inspired me in so many ways that I realize that I may want to change how I post. I'll be doing a whole lot of thinking in the weeks ahead. 

Meanwhile, I'm going through my closet and letting go of items that no longer serve me. You can see what is left in the photo above, though it is double exposed with a nature picture. The filter used is Sparkle Mama, which I thought was appropriate. 

I am filling my days wearing joy, seeing joy and feeling joy. This is the kind of thing I want to share with you. 

100th Post Party

This is the 100th post on Reclaiming my Boho Mojo. It seemed like  a landmark worth commemorating, but how to mark the event? 

Looking back on the reasons for reviving this blog, several reasons stood out: 

- to connect with others
- to create community

Posting more often has become more routine. Connecting with others and creating community are things I need to expand. 

So to celebrate this 100th post, I plan to visit 100 blogs or websites and leave comments. Hopefully this will help cement the habit of responding to the inspiration I find in the work of others instead of thinking I'll come back to it when I have more time. 

Recycling - Stamping and Printing Sunday

Pinterest is such a wonderful tool for learning new techniques. Using the styrofoam packing from the grocery store to create stamps is just one of the brilliant ideas that can be found through Pinterest. Fortunately or unfortunately, the grocery store I usually frequent doesn't use that kind of packaging much. So I only get to try this method out when I'm shopping off the beaten path. This week held just such an opportunity! The above photo shows the stamps I made. 

Stamping on top of gelli prints.

I'm in love with this one!

 This stamp makes me think of washi tape. The gears are already turning as I think of new ways to use it. 

The original cherry blossom prints were a little disappointing. Adding this new stamp ramped it up for me. 

Instead of rolling the paint on with a brayer I tried using a brush to add the paint and then using the brayer to roll over it to get a better pull. As you can see in the print above there are dangers in this method. As the brayer hit the surface it slid, creating a blob. I developed the habit of laying the foam down, gently adding pressure with my thumb and rolling across one section at a time. There are still mistakes, but fewer of them. 

 This one is particularly striking to me as the original paper had left me cold. I start to see possibilities in it. 

How to do you handle a piece that didn't come out as planned? Do you move on or do you fiddle with it? Hope you have some happy surprises today. 

Sand instead of Stamping and Printing this Sunday

Sundays is the day I've been posting my stamping and printing lately. Today I threw it all over and went to the beach. I certainly left my mark there, however. 

We made flower and sea drift mandalas on the beach. Inspired by photos I've seen of the mandalas others have made, I decided to give it a go. The process unfolded naturally, the tiny cherry blossoms were laying on the sidewalk just begging to be included. Each layer was lovely to behold, but more items beaconed. The final row of shells seemed just right.

It's funny how the creative process is like a road that leads itself. If only I could step out of my own way more often.

This week my creative focus has been on photography. It's natural to happen while taking a class. I'll leave you with one more double exposure from the beach. 

Self Care Saturday

I started this blog as a venue for my happiness. That includes family, art, travel, poetry, creativity, nature and intention. Life, however, interceded testing my resolve. In the scheme of things Life won quite a few of the skirmishes, but I did not give up. One thing I have heard over and over is that caretakers need to find time for self-care. That is so hard to do.

This piece has taken many days to emerge. One day the background and another was a first attempt of creating stamps from grocery store packaging. Each day I am taking a moment to add to the journal page. It gives me a few minutes of delight. This morning it seemed perfect for the theme of self care. In the photo, the glitter paint obscures the pattern of the print, but I like it so it remains.

In addition to finishing up this spread, I indulged in a leisurely cup of Harney's and Sons tea. I love their teas and order them online. This morning's cuppa was bliss.

I hope this will be a regular post here. Join me and link your Self Care Saturday post in the comments if you like. If there is interest I will create an InLinkz group. 

Blog Header

I've been wanting a blog header that reflects my message for a long time. Don't think I haven't played around at making one. Each one has been a disappointment…until tonight. I love my new blog header and hope you do too. 

If you have created a blog header or a banner for your internet platforms, how did you go about it? How many tries did it take you until you felt satisfied? Are you still playing? I'd love to know your thoughts.