Author: Naomi Valdivia

Naomi Valdivia is an artist originally from the South Bay area of Los Angeles County, California. Growing up in a large house that was constantly under construction by her grandfather, using mismatched and often found materials heavily influenced her creative mind. There were always nooks and spaces to hide in and create different worlds from her imagination. Because there was no standard in her environment that looked normal, out of the box thinking was the baseline for her developing brain. Her younger education consisted of strict, evangelical Christian schools until she was dropped into Hollywood for high school at the Fairfax Visual Arts Magnet on Melrose Avenue. This was a culture shock that opened up a whole new world to her creatively, and it was then that she decided to continue her art education with a Bachelors of Fine Arts at Otis College of Art and Design in Los Angeles. Meeting her husband in college, graduating, then having 3 kids while maintaining a career in graphic design and illustration, she has been quite busy with very little time to create as much personal art as she had originally planned. She has held positions in various areas in the field, including scientific, biomedical, patent illustration, label and package printing, and publishing. This career has spanned almost 20 years. She now resides in the Greater Phoenix area of Arizona, and is excited to work with Aurtistic Zine, as she has only recently discovered that she is on the spectrum. It took all of the time at home during the first year of the Covid-19 pandemic, away from an office and people that she would constantly mask in front of, for her to be able to research and finally accept the fact that she is Autistic. At first, it was scary, but quickly became freeing. Her mission now is to help educate more people about what Autism actually means and includes; as it is such a broad spectrum, and no two Autistic minds are alike. To be able to combine her identity as an artist and an Autistic person, a truly Aurtistic individual, is extremely meaningful.

[reorganized] How I Organized My Refrigerator

This is really helpful! My fridge is just awful and since we do so much cooking, I really need to reorganize it. Thought I’d reblog for anybody else who could use some advice!

Redesigned By M's avatarRedesigned By M

How I Organized My Refrigerator | Redesigned By M

I finally got around to checking off a task that had been on my To-Do list for ages: ORGANIZE REFRIGERATOR!

For some reason, when we moved in, the shelves in the fridge were staggered, so it was nearly impossible to store any party platters in it. Leftovers got lost in the back of the shelves, therefore creating unwanted science projects. I wanted to rearrange things so that the refrigerator worked to accommodate our lifestyle better. So enough chatting! I think pictures will tell the story best.

How I Organized My Refrigerator | Redesigned By M

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How I Organized My Refrigerator | Redesigned By M

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How I Organized My Refrigerator | Redesigned By M

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How I Organized My Refrigerator | Redesigned By M

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How I Organized My Refrigerator | Redesigned By M

Smaller bins are placed inside the crisper drawers to hold smaller produce that can get easily tossed around and lost in a large drawer.

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How I Organized My Refrigerator | Redesigned By M

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How I Organized My Refrigerator | Redesigned By M

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How I Organized My Refrigerator | Redesigned By M

This is the freezer shot. I have a bottom-mount freezer drawer. In the AFTER photo, I put a tall freezer bin on the left side where we…

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Not Enough Hours in the Day

Today I woke up in a great mood, ready to get crackin on everything on my to do list. I even started by washing the dishes. Because there were enough for 3 dishwashers full, I only got through one batch (and we DON’T have a dishwasher, unless you count me). The baby was extremely clingy today and wanted to do nothing but nurse. But I persisted and got some work done. Then I looked at the clock. Way more time passed than I realized and I had to go turn in overdue library books, pay the overdue water bill, take a trunkful of old stuff to the thrift store and boost morale in the house because the kids just looked sad with cabin fever today. So i figured I’d take them to lunch, since that was overdue, too. So we got everything ready and the kids got into the car while I tried to pay the water bill online. No go. My old computer’s Internet stopped working and I had the acct number and pin saved on that one. My main working computer needed the information I had saved on the other one and I don’t have that written down anywhere. So I say forget it. I’ll deal with it when I get back. Meet the kids at the car and turn the key. My car battery is dead! Still feeling optimistic, I say, let’s walk to get something to eat and go to the store (we were completely out of toilet paper, trash bags, kitty litter and cat food). Not even halfway there, one of the kids (won’t say which one, in case that kid reads this blog one day) has an episode that lasts the whole lunch, store visit and into coming home. Surprise! It’s already late! And I got only a fraction done of what I wanted. I didn’t cook dinner. I had to spend money to get food tonight. Not fast food though, but really good and healthy Lebanese food from our neighborhood market. Spent about the same as I would have at a fast food place. Still had to catch up on work and it’s now nearly midnight and I’m nursing a toddler who falls asleep with teeth clenched (you know where) and still thinking about that unpaid water bill. Guess I’ll have to call the bill in in the morning. Oh yeah, and thank goodness for triple A. I’ll need to call them in the morning, too. Hopefully at some point I can get some work and cleaning in. I will definitely have to delegate tomorrow. Sorry kiddos!

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Menu for the Week

To keep our eating habits on track, I find creating this restaurant style chalkboard menu makes it fun (and a little bit fancy) for everyone. The kids love it and the whole family even gets to have some input on whether they like what’s on the menu for that week or if they have better suggestions. I’ve been using sidewalk chalk which is kind of hard to write with. I’ll be investing in some normal sized chalk soon!

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Weekly Photo Challenge: Re-“fresh”-ingly Life

What a refreshing post! We all need a palette cleanser once in a while and what a beautiful one it is!!

BuDom's avatarBudom Live True

When I think of something refreshing water and breezes always come to mind. I love the way water can cool you inside and out. The way the soft breezes can caress your skin causing it to tingle and come alive. I enjoyed the times I spent in these waters. I hope that there will be another moment in my lifetime when I will again enjoy their refreshing beauty. For a closer look just click on the photo and experience fresh.

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Sweet & Tangy Blueberry Jam

I originally meant to reblog this in its entirety. Here you go! Let me know if any of you try this out, too. Sounds delectably easy for a Saturday morning before the farmer’s market!

cicizhou's avatarKITCHEN CICI

If you’ve been buying store-bought jam, you’ve been missing out. 

Real blueberry jam is so ridiculously easy, you could make it every morning to go with your bagel, and then every afternoon to go with your PB&J. 

Seriously. Stop buying the jar stuff. It’s filled with weird ingredients, preservatives, and heaping amounts of sugar. 

Don’t you wish you had control over your life? Well now, you can at least have control over your jam.

With that, you’ll soon have control over your bagels. Then your PB&J. Then your breakfast and lunch and dinner. 

And then your life.

Your transformation begins with jam. This jam. 

Sweet & Tangy Blueberry Jam

Notes: You can substitute any berry in place of blueberries. Get creative! 1 cup of blueberries reduces to 1/4 cup of jam, so I suggest using 50 gallons of blueberries for maximum jam enjoyment.

Taste & Texture: I considered adding lemon…

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My Little Garden Sanctuary

Took a little break from the computer to go check on my plants. Came back refreshed! It’s amazing what growing things can do for you when you show them some love! Image

Habaneros

 

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Red peppers

 

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Mint is taking over! I need to move this. But it is keeping the field mice away!

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This is a hutch off an old desk. It’s my next garden project. Maybe I’ll put the mint in here. Put some wheels on it?

 

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Avocadoes

 

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Spearmint

 

ImageThe butterflies love our aloe!

ImageTomatoes!

 

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More tomatoes!

 

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And Sandy our guard squirrel!

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