My crochet Totoro is finally finished (/^o^)/~

~~ Tada!!! ~~

This crochet Totoro is one that I intended to make for my sister's unborn child. Hope the baby will continue to grow in good health and happiness. The last time my sister went for a check-up, the doctor told her that the baby has got a tiny beating heart, how miraculous!!! I'm so happy for her!!!

Anyways, more images of this little Totoro will come when I'm not so tired as of tonight. I had final and work earlier and when I was done with them I went straight home to finish up this guy. To add more to the pile, the road condition was quite bad today, and it's just gonna get WORSE. There will be rain earlier the next morning, the temperature will drop significantly... and boy will it get... icy and slippery. Expected temperatures are gonna be in the negatives Fahrenheit, yup, not Celsius mind you (the lowest can get to around -5F, argh T^T). Well... I sincerely hope everything shall be alright. At least, we Nebraskans still have it better than NewYorkers.

I'm in the middle of watching the anime Toradora! right now, so hehe... getting quite lazy to make this post more interesting. But, but more will come later because I think I won't be going out much tomorrow given the bad weather and road conditions, so perhaps I will write more, lol. Have a good night, everyone! May God be with you :).

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Saturday inspired.

Image copyrighted of Kidchan @ DeviantArt

Did I ever tell you guys how much I adore sketchy and loose illustrations with vibrant and atmospheric palette? I have my set of favorite artists, most of them children's illustrators and freelance artists having some sort of anime/manga influence in their works. Also, I'm a very very frequent lurker over at DeviantArt, the most popular art community in the US and dare I say, around the world... because anyways, art and its appeal are universal just like music. It was at DA that I discovered some of the most amazing unknown artists!! Kidchan is one of them. I simply adore her style, her wonderful touch with colors. The colors basically have the capability to drown you in blissful art heaven and take you to enchanted shores. Her works took my breath away (both literally and metaphorically). And by chancing on her art journal, she also appeared to be a very humble artist, which just helped to increase my respect for her to another level.

Below are two of my most favorite pages from one of her comics... no words spoken, all visuals but they all speak more than a thousand words. So true...

Read the rest of the comic on her journal here!

Also, I finally subscribed to Hi-Fructose magazine!!! The next volume will be out the first week of January 2009 :D. I definitely can't wait to get my hands on the next issue, my nose could almost smell the fresh scent of new pages, and the many gorgeous artworks and interesting interviews to come XD. And 2009, I can't wait to make you the best year yet ^^v.

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I did it!!

Ahh, I'm so tired. The last few days were torturous as I had to sit around doing... essays >__<, I'm no good at writing *sighs*. It always takes me days just to write a few pages, sometimes I can sit for 4 hours straight without having anything written at all (that is with my notes ready and everything). And it doesn't help that I get distracted very easily. While I was working on my Art History final essay, I remember I doodled more than I wrote, lol XD, as you can see below... and I can't believe I took pictures of them also. It seems like my artistic side got the better of me most of the time.

(click for bigger view)

This week is dead week but for us art students we get things done and finished this week instead of final week. I took home some completed ceramic projects, including sculptures of a Haniwa couple I did for the historical topic. They are now reside nicely on my bookcase *shhh*... and yes, I'm very well aware that these are traditionally funerary objects that get to be buried with the deads. Heh.. it's alright for me :D.

And... I'm so happy to introduce to you guys my very first amigurumi!!!! I haven't named him yet, but he's also now part of my Kiki family, and Ilove him very much even though I made a lot of mistakes making him. Sister, I hope you can see this, and your Totoro is coming up next :), so please keep coming back for it ok?

(click for bigger view)

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Papercrafting... and randomness :D

Did anyone have a happy Thanksgiving? Got any good stuff on black Friday? I had a lot of fun, too bad I didn't find anything interesting enough to buy on Friday; i still did have some joyful time shopping with my friends nonetheless. It's the heart that counts I think *winks* :D.

(click for bigger view)

So that was what kept me busy... and frustrated these last couple days (T_T;)o... I had this assignment for my Art History class in which we could choose from a list of topics and I happened to like tackling difficult thing so I chose the topic that had me assembling a paper medieval castle and doing a research on it. The completion of this castle took about... I'd say, approximately 15 hrs+ (even with the help of be' mam and be' mi't, thank you sooo much guys *hugs*), I just don't even want to remember how much it took me to put all the parts together, now... that was a nightmare >_<. Assembling all the little parts like the towers, the walls, the kitchen, queen's and king's gates was not all that complicated until I reached the part when I had to put them all together. I almost broke my brother's helping arm out of frustration. But then, I'm pretty pleased with the end result even though there are so many parts that could be improved upon, but nah, I'll just let it slide for now considering that it was my very first paper sculpture at such a grand scale. For the bottom part I just used blue wrapping paper, wrinkled it and glued it to a black foam board to imitate the water. I also took some grass in my yard to sprinkle them onto the surface of the foam board that I had already spreaded a little bit of rubber cement to ensure that they would stick. The rest was just the work of pastels. I was in such a big hurry so the pictures I took were not as how I'd have liked, but it's okay. Once I get my castle back I will take some better shots later. Speaking of papercraft, even though it can be frustrated sometimes but doing papercraft can also be so... addicting. I saw this model of the Howl's Moving Castle over at PaperKraft blog and couldn't help but stared.. and then stared some more. I got the PDF file (thanks to paperkraft also) and shall try my hand on it soon. It's gonna be so much fun :D. Here's an image of how the model looks like completed. I can't wait to get started, the problem now is to get the files printed -_-; man, it just has to happen when my printer died:

And just a little ranting... what the heck is with the hype of Twilight?!! I mean, the book was bad for me personally, but it still had some merits, but to create such a sensation, I cannot understand. My friends and I went to see the movie last Friday and the whole theatre was packed. The funniest moment to me was when Edward literally sparkled in the sun, hahaha... speaking of total cheesiness, but hehe, it was like watching a corny comedy, no substance but fun nonetheless.

While searching the Internet, I came across these very kawaii products called emotibuds but I'm not so sure about their usefulness, oh well, at least they are cute and affordable, hehe:

Just a little something, strange that I don't feel like talking a lot today even though I have a lot on my mind. Well, I hope you all have a good day, and God bless!

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Feeling artistic...

I feel so artistic and crafty lately. Seriously, I can't comprehend what is going on within me... The more time I spend doing art, the more I feel inspired and motivated to do more. It's so true when you think that it's most difficult getting start, but once you get into the motion, it gets easier. Last Sunday, Chi, Hue and I spent the afternoon in Pioneer Park taking pictures. I was a little disappointed the weather wasn't as nice as I'd have wanted it to be, and the beautiful colors of fall had somewhat diminished, still, it was such a joyful occasion. We had a ton of fun :D, and the pictures came out nicely. There's still a lot I have to learn about the right exposure, composition, but for now, I'm begining to love photography a little bit more. At least, I feel much more freedom doing this than what I had done for my Intermediate Photography class last Spring. Anyways, here come the pictures!!! Click to view bigger versions :).

That's it for this post, and before I go, I hope your day shall be a bright and beautiful one :), so I send you: Kiki the smiley, my creation of many moons ago!! See you later ^^v.

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Autumn shower and serenity....

I love November: the vibrant colors of changing leaves, the crispy fragrant smell of damping grass lingering in the air after a fresh autumn shower, the exuberant joy of Thanksgiving together with the sweet serenity of it all... A day ago, we Lincolnites experienced such solemn weather as it rained from morning until night time. Such weather excited me surprisingly... I love rainy days, and I love Autumn, so it's no surprise I felt utter bliss when an autumn shower came along. Inspiration blossomed... and minutes later I found myself with a camera, pointing it vigorously outside into my little yard and yapping pictures after pictures. The result can be view above...

My life has been pretty peaceful recently. I seldom go out, enjoy spending time alone reading, daydreaming, and studying. It has been so long since I last do any of this... My ex told me I needed to get out more, to associate and mingle with people. Of course, I know that's true... but no doubt I still want solitude time... the feeling of me working on things that I enjoy: drawing, reading, designing, etc. is a total satisfaction. For a long time I always felt like I am different, or more like an outsider in this very fast moving world. I dreaded phone calls and conversation without a certain purpose. Small talks scare me... All these feelings made me feel as if I was abnormal, unfitted and that alone devastated me. For a while, I tried to be like my best friend, Huong, who is a total extrovert. But of course, I could never be like her... and after some pretty horrible changes, I realized I am just myself, an individual who is absolutely normal in my own state. Bit by bit I came to appreciate the person that I really am. It's amazing how a simple thought could make one's life happier. I no longer seek to be that someone else... I understand my strengths and weaknesses and am trying to balance things out in my life.

A book I'm in the middle of reading which I think is quite helpful for an introvert like myself: The Introvert Advantage: How to thrive in an Extrovert World by Marti Olsen Laney.

... that and Harry Potter book 7: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. I'm nearing the end now and it's getting quite... violent :).

That's all for today. I have a lot to do tomorrow so I better get to bed early :). Ja ne!

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The wind in my hair....

Lately, I haven't been doing much artworks, but I'm beginning to sketch more now. PopArt has gotten to me a lot. Anyways, I did some character designs in Photoshop a while back and came up with these two robots. They are supposedly to be based on my ex-bf and me, I called the girl version Cookie (my nickname) and the boy Windie (a play on word of my ex's name). They took me forever to finish as I did everything from scratch, and not to say I'm pretty much REALLY bad when it comes to shading or knowing my light sources, so don't be surprised to see the weird shadings -___-, I gotta learn more about it.

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Food, PopArt, Tokyobay, yeah, I'm rambling....

A first entry always is difficult for me to compose as I am not very good at introduction. I'm pretty excited to tell what I've been up to lately through pictures so screw the pretentious introductory standard-ness many blog writers feel so obligate to begin their blogs with, I'll just go on with the meaty details now. However, my writing is getting so bad (as in horrible grammar, poor vocabularies, awkward sentences, etc.) as of late that I believe it is time for me to practice writing more. It used to be much easier for me to express myself, my emotions through writing, but now, I don't think I can say that anymore >__<; However, all this self-criticism is not important now, because this blog entry is not gonna be about how I'm gonna improve my writing skill, or how I should treat myself, blah blah... well, undoubtedly those issues will come up one way or another in the future, but as of now, they are not welcomed. So, let's start with... bento!! Bento is a Japanese term for what normally is known as packed lunchbox. Lately, bento packing has become tremendously popular in the US. I've always been very interested in bento ever since I saw beautiful beautiful pictures of well arranged foods by the Japanese, organized and packed so delicately in tiny bento boxes. But I didn't persue the subject more until I came across a livejournal community called bentolunch and that was when my interest had transformed into something more. I wanted to do bento, to get into the art of food-arranging, and to eat healthier. Since a bento box is tiny, it forces me to eat less, and to practice portion control. Below is the image of my third bento lunch, I was pretty proud of myself even though the face I was trying hard to make didn't really look like a face, but whatever, I had a lot of fun making it and that's all that matters. And I'm proud to present Kiki the clumsy and overly curious kitty you see roaming over the food below (^__<;)a

I have some more bento pics to post up later in other entries. Too bad I haven't been making much art with bento lately because I'm currently on a very strict diet, one that I signed up with SparkPeople.com (to ensure that I will keep at it and won't give up half way again, there's plenty of motivation there at that website which is just what I need to keep up with my goal of losing 16 pounds before Christmas) that generally my packed bentos just look very unappealing because my food choices are limited to mostly just Cheerios cereal for breakfast, some lean meat and rice or bread together with some fruits and veggies for lunch and dinner that I don't even feel bothered to capture them. But hey, once I lose 10 lbs, I will reward myself by packing a beautiful bento lunch again, you can count on that, well, only if I make it, lol. Inability to follow-through has always been one of my biggest weaknesses, so I make it a goal to reward myself whenever I make some positive progress. Beside packing lunch, I offer myself an ownership of a TokyoBay watch as a Christmas gift if I could ever make it to the wanted weight, which watch I don't know yet... but I'm leaning more toward the ones that are on sale, lol. Yea, I'm broke as a bum. My three favorite watches from Tokyobay are below. I'm really interested in Candy, but boy, it IS expensive for a poor college student like myself.

Lately, I'm really into PopArt and designer toys. When I was in Barns&Noble last week, I was very lucky to get a hold of Hi-Fructose magazine volume 9, an art magazine that talks about under the counter culture. I was so excited to see the magazine covering artists I'm really interested in like Audrey Kawasaki, Kukula, Amy Sol, Brian Despain, etc... and it also talks about many many other artists whose works are just simply AMAZING!! I'm such a weaker when it comes to beautiful artworks. Once December comes I'm a definite subscriber to this magazine. Why not now you might ask, well, simply because if I subscribe now I might get another volume 9 which I don't need a duplicate of and there is no option on their main website to let me select which volume I want to get start with. It's all okay... Hi-Fructose made me addicted to the point that I have been bringing the magazine to work just to be able to read and scan through the images when I'm on break.

By the way, since we're on the issue of magazine, I'm also very interested in Giant Robot magazine, it uhm, talks about Asian Pop Culture and Beyond, sounds very appealing to me since I'm Asian myself. Any comments on this magazine? It's a bit cheaper than Hi-Fructose, 6 issues per year as compared to 4 issues of Hi-Fructose per year. But since I have not seen or touched Giant Robot, I'm a bit hesitant. Well, I figure I'll keep a look out for this for a while.

Well, I have more to talk about but this blog entry is getting long and I'm getting very sleepy. It does not help that I have to wake up early tomorrow for my ceramic class (throwing anyone? I suck at that, it frustrates me to no end T___T, I guess ceramic is just not for me, period.) Next entry I'm gonna talk more about designer toys, my venture into the world of PopArt, probably some old designs I created and clothes, lol. Have a good day, everyone!

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