Happy 50th birthday, mom!

It’s always hard to figure out what kind of gifts to get your parents since they’re the ones that can usually buy what they need for themselves.  I decided on making something, since my mom says there is always room for art on the wall, and it won’t just be a thing to unwrap (although it kind of is).

I first did a personalized rendition of Tokidoki wine and champagne characters in acrylic, since… well, my mom likes her wine.  And she loves tokidoki.

I texturized the background using an OJ cap as a stamp.

It’s not the greatest painting, but I didn’t have much time to do it and it’s on a pretty large scale so it came out all right for what it was.

I next put together a montage of pictures of my siblings and I with our beloved little maltese puppies.   They are the cutest, nicest dogs ever!   I thought it would be neat to try to figure out 9 different art mediums to use with different interpretations of photos.

pens                                                     pastel

watercolor                                                        pencil

crayon                                                     acrylic

colored pencil                                                     charcoal

The last one was a printout, because I ran out of ideas for art mediums.  I could have tried oil paints, but I haven’t used those before.

It was also rushed, but she says she likes it so that’s all that matters. =)

Rainbow Cupcakes!

A vanilla cupcake.  How boring!

Need a colorful and exciting snack idea?  Check out this recipe for tie-dyed cupcakes!!

Avatar Movie: response

My first response to the trailer:  Oh brother, this is just Hollywood’s new 3D pocahontas.

Sure, if you take the bare skeleton of the plot, it has resemblance to and will remind you of the Disney film multiple times throughout its three hours.  But when people are compelled to say this movie is “amazing,” in this decade it just isn’t about the plot, the storytelling, and the characters anymore.  James Cameron has stretched this science fiction theme with his $300 million budget to its fattest potential, recreating a dream so real that he’s claimed the 3-D viewing technique is actually one that “may trigger memory creation in a way that 2-D viewing doesn’t.” All I know is that having watched re-watched Spiderman after a 2-D AVATAR, I was thoroughly not impressed with pre-2008 graphics anymore.

This gorgeous reality has animation so believable and so well done that both the environment and the people are fully decked out to the finest detail in their distinct African-alien cultural nuances.  No moment is spared beauty and sensual richness; the Na’vi even have their own “linguistically correct” made-up language (which you can learn here!).  With the reality of it all, the most thrilling part of this movie is not in the Hollywood plot line or the pretty resolution–those just come with the production.  But rather, the epitome of this film experience is what earns it its right to the film title over The Last Airbender’s own original name: the thrill of the very real escape made possible by the intensity of every sensual detail.  Experiencing a taste of it is to feel first-hand as if you have infinite freedom.  This is something you get from your sparse daydreams, intense forum roleplaying, or occasionally the exceptional video game.  Watching AVATAR doesn’t make me want to save the forest, it makes me want to become a Na’vi, one of the dreamy beings spared no detail in their form and figure.  Freed from the limits of our ugly bodies and our daily life, the Na’vi embody spiritual perfection expressed through their gorgeous physical form and the graceful lanky movements that flow through them.

How they did it:

Although many I know have called this movie “political,” it is actually one deep-rooted in spirituality.  Not toward any particular religion, but the Na’vi command a faith that runs as deep as blind faith goes, both in their movements (jumping from tree to tree without looking, and even off branches hundreds of feet tall) and in their conscious loyalty to Eywa.  Combined with their humanoid presence which amounts to the aesthetic ideal of our own bodies at 9 feet tall, they are quite something for the audience to admire.  And to desire, as after the movie you may be one of those who find yourself craving more Pandora.  But what I feel the viewer is really chasing after when he/she pays another $13 to see it again is not for Jake Scully, Neytiri, or the ikran.  What you pay is a small fee to escape again into that fleeting heaven of AVATAR: the “I am graceful,” “I am unbound,” and “I am completely free,” capable of running, jumping, falling, and flying to pursue the heights of happiness… heights which we in real life feel 4 feet too short to reach.  From this we should be inspired to pursue a life of such strong faith for ourselves outside of virtual worlds.

eyelash crime poetry

For those of you who know my dolls, Senna and Rye, you may know that they incidentally both arrived with eyelashes awry and detached.

And if you know me very well, you may also know that I at a young age developed trichotillomania, an eyelash-pulling addiction (or for some people, other hairs) related to nail biting.  Yes, it’s very strange to anyone who doesn’t have it, and extremely embarassing to talk about.  But as I’m at the 14-year mark of this habit, it’s about time for me to openly address it and deal with it.  It’s genetic, it’s partly unconscious, and very tough to stop.  The main reasons I want to bring up this issue are to make people aware of it, and to let other people who have it know that it’s not their fault and that they aren’t the only ones!

Making a BJD Sleeping Bag

It’s Christmastime!  What do you know, as soon as finals are over another kind of stress comes around (thank goodness, I passed all my classes with OK grades) and it is a time to be busy busy busy.  Although, I will admit I haven’t been doing all that much since being home because of continuing motivational issues I’ve had all semester.  A small exception to that has been the duty of sending a Christmas card from my dolls to other dolls through a Den of Angels xmas card exchange.

While Rye’s “secret santa” receiver is a tiny Puki who likes Candy, all we know about Senna’s recipient is that he is a DZ Floy SD and his owner likes camping.  Alas, we decided that we should make a sleeping bag for him.

Here pictured are Rye (70 cm, 28″) and Senna (60 cm, 24″) and you can see that 45″ fabric is perfectly suitable for the 60 cm doll along the crosswise grain.  If I were to try to construct Rye his own sleeping bag… ehhh, that would be a very different, and bigger, story.

I first cut a half yard of quilted cotton which ended up being perfectly sized to encase Senna in.

I also cut half yard x 22″ pieces each of the lining and outer fabrics.

I first basted the fabrics to the quilted cotton along the edges, then sewed on those horizontal straight lines you commonly see patterning sleeping bags:

I then sewed the top and bottom edges of the casing, right sides together, and added the little elastic rings to the bottom (that allow you to keep the sleeping bag rolled).

The next and most mentally challenging step was sewing the bottom edge of the sleeping bag:

Finally, the zipper was added and I used a 22″ one, the longest type available at the sewing store.

Woo! Sleeping bag complete =)

We also made a little pillow of fleece to match – nothing complicated.

Double layered padding makes it warm~

Wouldn’t you rather be sleeping comfortably if you were a doll?  Buy one from my store here!  ^___^

rainbow cupcake – robot food

Being that it is 9 months after Valentine’s day, they say many people’s birthdays are around this time of year.  It’s really a bummer to get your birthday bundled together with Christmas, but even worse to get slammed with finals when you wish you could be celebrating.  Anyhow, I just found out that it was my good friend’s birthday yesterday, so I had to put something together quickly which integrates building things with a passion for muffins.

Sewing – hot glue – cardboard – lots of adjustments

Miniscule watch pieces from ebay:

Some of the pieces were too tiny to even fit through the needle!

Due to the tiny, rigid, and very poky nature of the metal parts, I would recommend this to be used as anything BUT a squeezable plush.  Maybe a pin cushion at best?

I know how to make it better next time, and although it took a lengthy 5 hours to assemble I think it’s cute enough to try to sell on etsy. =)