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.

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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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