Wednesday, April 5, 2017

Blessed Are the Curious

Some strange things have happened to me lately.

I'm a curious person by nature. If I do have a spirit animal, I'm going to go ahead and guess that it's a cat, because my curious nature has most definitely shaped my life.

I come from a puzzle-loving family. My dad is a mathematician and cryptographer, and so we always had puzzle books. Crossword puzzles, logic puzzles (my favorite) and tons of science books, books about animals and birds. My early love of detective work led me to a lifetime relationship with Nancy Drew and Agatha Christie. As an adult, I still love mysteries and puzzles. I'm a subscriber to Mystery Experiences - and I get a mystery every month in the mail - they are fantastic. I'm a puzzle addict too - and I dearly miss Games Magazine. If anyone knows anyone that used to work there - tell them I'll help start it back up.

In the book department though, I now love real-life mysteries. I love non-fiction, and books about nature and behavior and forensics and disease - I'm a die hard Richard Preston fan - I miss him.

But the last two books I've read have had strange real-life parallels. I told you about Pets on the Couch - that fascinating book about pet behaviors, causes and treatments. Well right when I finished that, darn it if I didn't have two friends with pets who experienced things in the book - things I'd never heard of before I read it.

Then, I started reading Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver. Disclaimer - she sounds a little sanctimonious in parts - but it's a really, really good book about the food supply in the US, which you know is a topic of mine. Well right before I started reading this, I discovered much to my chagrin, that I have become lactose-intolerant. Then, just yesterday, I get to the section of the book about this exact thing - and learned a ton! Really fascinating. It does make sense that you normally wouldn't need the lactase enzyme after you were weaned, right? So as you get older, you become less tolerant of it, which makes perfect sense. Of course some people tolerate it all their lives, but that's uncommon. But people have a bond with cow's milk, and so that's why you see so many people who are lactose intolerant - my sister, who always hated milk will be feeling pretty smug about all the times she yelled that she WASN'T A BABY COW at my parents.

Anyway - there's a law that covers this phenomenon where when you hear something for the first time, you INSTANTLY hear about it again in short order, and how it's just a coincidence, but it doesn't feel like one. It's called the Baader-Meinhof phenomenon. That's fun to say, right? As a person who excels at pattern recognition (which is why I always wanted to be a detective), I was thrilled to find this explanation in this article:

"The reason for this is our brains’ prejudice towards patterns. Our brains are fantastic pattern recognition engines, a characteristic which is highly useful for learning, but it does cause the brain to lend excessive importance to unremarkable events. Considering how many words, names, and ideas a person is exposed to in any given day, it is unsurprising that we sometimes encounter the same information again within a short time. When that occasional intersection occurs, the brain promotes the information because the two instances make up the beginnings of a sequence. What we fail to notice is the hundreds or thousands of pieces of information which aren’t repeated, because they do not conform to an interesting pattern. This tendency to ignore the “uninteresting” data is an example of selective attention."

It's like our brain is giving us sponsored posts.  OMG what if our brains turn into Facebook feeds - and the most recent posts are no longer at the top and it's full of sponsored posts?? Scary. :) Sorry if you're crying right now.

Anyway, all that brings me to the sweet stamps I used today from Joy Clair. I'm hopping with them today, and I LOVED this so much. I wanted to take this little image and build an adventure around it with watercolor. So I did. This sentiment will be in my faves for a long time.
Blessed are the curious by Understand Blue




SO cute - little guy off on his adventure!

I watercolored him with my Daniel Smith watercolors and then painted a scene around him. Speaking of Daniel Smith - I accidentally started a pretty large watercolor split group after splitting some paints with my friend Lori. Now we have dozens of people splitting tubes of watercolor to get these paints economically. I'm enjoying it. If you want more information, you can request to join the group here.

Now I'm part of a hop again today - I'm hopping as a guest of the MISTI design team all April, so there are some fun things coming up! Today we are hopping with the sweet ladies from Joy Clair - another set of new friends I made at CHA.



Of course there are prizes to be had, since it's a hop, so be sure and stop by everyone's blog and leave a comment for a chance to win your choice of an original or mini MISTI, and (2) $25 gift certificates from Joy Clair. For the MISTI giveaway, winners will be announced here.

So check out the rest of today's projects! First up, my sweet friend Ilina!


Good luck! :)

Loveyameanitbye.

74 comments:

  1. I love this so much!!! Gorgeous card! Fabulous sentiment!!!

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  2. I so love your card and love the sentiment too. Fortunately for me, I am one of the curious, I always want more information and to see more and try and do more.

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  3. This sentiment is PERFECT for me!!! And I cannot thank you enough for introducing Mystery Experiences to me!!! LOVING IT!!! We could have been the dynamic duo of investigators--it is my passion!
    I wish I had become an analyst for the CIA--how fun would that be?? :)

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  4. Thanks for the heads up on Mystery Experiences it looks like so much fun.

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  5. VERY INTERESTING, LYDIA!!! Not that long ago, our son graduated from college with a BA in Mathematics & a Physics minor. (AND a Masters in Business.) So, I GET IT about the playing of games & puzzles! He is our game player! LOL This card is SO CUTE! You've done a FABULOUS JOB on this! I look forward to seeing what else you do over at My Sweet Petunia this month! ;)

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  6. I love that saying too. It would be a favorite of mine as well.

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  7. WOW.. This is fabulous! LOVE the scene and your watercoloring is stunning!

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  8. In my 50 year old copy of Webster's College Edition Dictionay, 4th definition of Curious:arousing attention or interest;strange;unusual;unusual; odd. My Great Grand Children are going to think me very odd when they look at mini-album I made of their father as a child. Today, I punched whole where his ear is on a photo. Thank goodness he grew up to be very smart and successful and all his brains did not run out. After looking at his album, I feel very old. Love your art and sense of humor. Thanks.

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  9. Love your card, you colored the canoe beautifully and I just love that little critter!

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  10. So very interesting to see the quote you posted. Patterns are fascinating to me and if you were ever to visit my first grade classroom, my students would tell you how much I love that our brains love to think and see in patterns. Everything to me presents a pattern...or a quest to create one from nothing...

    As for your gorgeous card...Love the adventure you created with that little fella. I can just hear him singing some fun (and pattern-like) chant while floating down those calm waters. :)

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  11. Love the scene you created, the sentiment, and your beautiful watercoloring! Delightful card!

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  12. Oh my goodness Lydia, this is WAY too CUTE!

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  13. This is so cute! Love that sentiment. So fun.

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  14. Great card and the sentiment is perfect. It looks like a painting.

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  15. Very cute, great background too.

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  16. I love your lead in to this post, and the Baader-Meinhof thing is fascinating! Great card!

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  17. I enjoy mysteries, too. Loved your explanation of Baader-Mienhof. Also, really cute card.

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  18. This card is so cute and I love that sentiment.

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  19. Great use of this set, it's turned out so cute! One of these days we shall meet, being we live so close to each other.....

    Chris B
    http://thecardphilelady.blogspot.com

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  20. What a great card - and you sold me on this set, Lydia!

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  21. There is so much I absolutely love about your card! It's perfect!

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  22. What a fun card. Lovely coloring.

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  23. Beautiful card and loved reading the inspiration behind it! Thanks so much for sharing!

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  24. Very cute card. Thanks for sharing and participating in this blog hop.

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  25. Very cute stamp and sentiment! Love the way you used them on your very cute card.

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  26. I love getting new project and supply ideas! Thanks!

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  27. What an adorable card!!!! too cute!!! i love puzzles and am playing Breath of the wild new game for the nintendo switch...talk about intriging puzzles!!!

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  28. Love your card. Thanks for the reminder to be curious & adventurous!

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  29. I am loving all the stamp sets I am seeing used today. They are awesome. I love your card.

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  30. I apparently *am* a baby cow, cause I drink milk all day and night. :-( Your card is adorable though!!! And I'm glad there is a name for the Baader-Meinhof thing cause that happens to me a lot! I sometimes think I'm going crazy or will end up predicting my own death or something. LOL!

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  31. Wow! Very nice background watercolor. The images are adorable and the entire card is too cute! Thanks for sharing.

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  32. Such a cute card. Thanks for sharing it with us.

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  33. This card is adorable. The fox in the stamp set is great, too.

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  34. What a lovely card! I love adventures.

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  35. The scene is great.
    Love all of the elements of
    the outdoors.
    the little Indian bear is
    precious.
    thanks for sharing.

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  36. What a fun and great card design with the little guy in the canoe. Fantastic sentiment too.

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  37. That explains why I can read upside down and backwards, oh wait, that's from almost 30 years delivering mail, ha! I love your stories, and your card is adorable.

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  38. I love this post! I have to tell my sister she is not crazy. People are not spying on her like she thought because certain things were coming up in conversations. It has a name! Thank you. (We're not sure she isn't crazy, but this will help explain a lot.) The card is beautiful. I had not heard of this company before and am already excited because I see that they have a flying pig.

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  39. I love your card and the sentiment is great.

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  40. That sentiment is wonderful. Love the scene you created

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  41. Your card is so sweet! Love it for so many reasons. I don't think you could have made it any better. It is perfect!
    XO April

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  42. I would love to have a misty. Cute card

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  43. Super cute card, love your little scene.

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  44. These stamps are,so cute! Love learning about new companies

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  45. Love the adorable scene and what a great sentiment.

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  46. I absolutely love your sweet bear scene!

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  47. Awesome sentiment and perfect image to go with it.
    Thank you for the chance to win.
    Hugs,
    Maria Rodriguez.

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  48. Adorable card and stunning sentiment!!!

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  49. Also miss Games magazine! I will have to check out some of your books.

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  50. Loved reading your post, Lydia. And your card and sentiment are perfect. You did an amazing job!
    I, too, grew up reading Nancy Drew and love challenging puzzles. The WSJ has a challenging puzzle on line every a Saturday.....sometimes takes me all weekend! My mom and kids love crosswords. I love puzzles that challenge my brain🤔

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  51. Love the scene and coloring!

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  52. This stamp set is so fun! It's perfect with your watercolored background!

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  53. Cute card and I also love that sentiment you used. Thanks for sharing!

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  54. Nice card, love the bright colors. Thanks for joining Joy Clair in this months blog hop.

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  55. What a great job! The effort you put into this card shows 10-fold!
    Blessings,
    Melitta

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  56. Sweet card! The Little guy in the canoe made me laugh!

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  57. Oh just look at that darling little injun bear off to fun adventures in his canoe!

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  58. Very cute love all the watercoloring.

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  59. It looks so easy when you watercolor! Me... not so much. |-[

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  60. cute card! Love reading your blog posts! Always entertaining and I learn
    something new!

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  61. Cute card! Love reading your blog posts! Always entertaining and I learn something new!

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  62. I love the colors! Adorable card.

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