Prissy Little Chloe

15 years at the Mic I've been so busy these past few days narrating the two audiobooks of my book series "Prissy Little Chloe". I've loved recording into a mic since I was really little -- except today I'm going to show you the prope r way to self-record any vocals, podcasts or audiobooks. Equipment    For starters, I recommend a USB mic, no more than $100. The best type is a cardiod (heart-shaped input) condenser mic. These are much more sensitive than diaphragm (stage) mics, perfect for home recording -- in a quiet place! That's why treating the room with acoustic foam works great; but a quick and easy DIY hack is to use a blanket over your setup or record in a closet. If you can, record in a room with carpet. A great entry-level mic I highly recommend is the Samson Meteor, which retails for $80. It's a USB mic that's extremely portable, as it has it's own fold-able mic stand and sounds professional. Setup Put your mic up in th...

At least it won't take you 15 years to figure this out these paint hacks!  You don't have to be an art natural to adopt these quick and easy tricks into your next work of art! Whether you've been painting for 15 years or 5 minutes, follow these three steps to make your next piece pop: Step 1 - the outline The most fundamental aspect to giving the painting 99% more structure, by planning it out with light pencil shapes. Many abstract or impressionist art will often skip this step - but it is simply needed for any still-life, landscape or portrait paintings.  It's a little difficult to do this with watercolour paintings without having lead bleed through, in which case I recommend using a blue pencil (which you can find at an arts/crafts store - alternatively, a light blue pencil will do the trick.) With a pencil, sketch (not too dark you can't erase, but not too light you can't see it) the outer lines of the big parts of your subject(s),...

 The "hyperactive mind" as Eckhart Tolle puts it, is a mind like mine - inner conversation that consists of meaningless rapid-fire thoughts. Now how do you slow them down or get rid of them, so you can stay present at attentive to what you're doing? Well first off, you don't want to be completely zoned-in - that's no better than being completely zoned-out (like me most all the time) - because then you won't know what's going on around you. So when a kid fly kicks a soccer ball to your head, you'll know why. You clearly need to balance the two - focused on the task at hand, yet alert enough to slap the soccer ball away over the neighbors fence, so that brat of a kid knows his place. What Eckhart recommends is to calm the mind by "spacing the thoughts". He suggests you divert from your diarrhetic thoughts - and your level of concentration instantly increases, you relax and become apt to communicate with yourself through clearer percep...