||_____ Les Amis _____||

The last two/three days I crocheted like crazy, in hope to complete these as gifts before I pack for my trip to Missouri this coming Thursday. So far I'm pretty much done, save for one more, but that one will not be given until 2, 3 months later so I'm not so worried yet ^^.
I'm so glad that the more I crochet, the better I am at it, and now I understood which side I should use as the outside and what should be the inside. I thought they were all the same, but they obviously weren't, hehe. One thing I don't really like about this is that it is just sooo time-consuming, lol. One project could take up the 4, 5 hours or more depending on the difficulty level. Or perhaps I'm just slow, hihi.

A few pictures to showcase what I had done so far ^^:

This is a picture to show all the parts of this Woofie before I assembled them. Hopefully you can read that it says -My crochet- *winks*.

A complete family with Woofie as the Dad, Moi as the Mom, and their veggie kids Ai and Pe-ar.

So this is the black version of the Monokuro Boo white piggie I crocheted before. They usually come as a pair, but I was just too busy and lazy to make them all at once.

... and Woofie, oh how I love him, he's chooo kawaii
"Woof woof!!!"

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A blessing arrived...

I crocheted another coffee cup again. This time it's for a certain kid, lol :P. It reminded me of this morning when I waited for my mom at the airport, I drank quite a lot of coffee since I had to stay up late last night helping her pack some last items and dyed her hair and beautify her, hehe...


Below is a random poster I made... I even had a little of the story written but got lazy a little after that so I quitted. Writing fanfiction is not an easy task, plus I'm just not that into writing. Designing/drawing is fun enough for me ^^v.

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_ in the zone _

Series: Dad's garden (but really, more like practice shots)
Date: July 8th, 2009

I'm currently very fascinated with the quality of bokeh in a photo. The current lens I use mostly for photography is a Canon EF-S 18-55mm 1:3.5-5.6 that came together with my purchase of the Canon Digital Rebel XTi, and it does not produce that great quality blurred background even when I up the aperture value and get in close to the subject.
These photos were taken with a zoom lens I bought on a whim the year (last year!?) I started digital photography, Canon EF 75-3oomm 1:4-5.6. Now, I sorta regret that I did not review the lens more thoroughly. This lens takes the photographs alright, coming from me as an amateur still; though I dislike how the view is very narrow (which is approriate of a zoom lens) and this lens does not have Image Stability, so often time my photos came out blurry due to the fact that I don't have a decent tripod to use just yet -___-; It's also very difficult to focus. And to think that I bought this lens for almost $300 back then T^T... What was I thinking?!! Obviously, I was just a rookie, jumping into digital photography right away without reading on the basics or practicing a lot. But I learned my lesson :), so it's all good. I'm thinking of selling this zoom lens since it does not do me a lot of good, and macro photography is not something I'm very fond of either.

Speaking of lens, at the moment I'm eyeing this prime lens Canon EF 50mm f1.4 that is still in the $400 price range on Amazon 0.o; Expensive, isn't it? But I tried out the lens last time I was out shooting with a friend, and the results were great! Since I'm starting to get more serious in photography now, I knew that I just have to purchase some good lens to use in the long run. I figure a good expensive lens is better than 3 or 4 average or bad lens at cheaper price. They add up just the same, and the quality will be significantly different. If only I had the money, hahah... now that is a different matter entirely, where the hell will I get the money, lol. At the moment, I'll just have to make do with my regular lens, it does its job and when it's all too bad, I still have my Photoshop and Lightroom programs to back it up, lol. Time to save and save... no more fun in a while then XD.

Photography aside, I did a little Monokuro Boo amigurumi piggie back in June as a gift for a friend's birthday and forgot to post it up :). I'm working on the black one at the moment too hehe ^^. Cute, isn't she? And yea, I know her snout is crooked, I'm still quite bad with sewing (._.)...

That's it, folks. I hope you have fun this weekend!!

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So... school is out -___-; what's next?

This is gonna be just a short post...
Remember the woodcut I showed you a picture of earlier? That woodcut took me forever to complete (stabbed my fingers a few times, old story, hehe), and the final result can be viewed below. It didn't turn out like how I expected of it much, though it was tolerable enough for me to turn it in for the final grade. I did well, the prof. liked it, some people in my class liked it, we had the shortest final critique I'd ever been to: around 20 mins to go over everyone's piece; and guess what, the rest of the time (yea, the remaining one hour and a half) was spent very wisely on... cleaning up, fun stuff ;D. What made me happy was that two of my pieces were collected to go into the permanent collection of the Printmaking Dept. and I was able to sell some prints during the print sale even though it wasn't a lot of money. You know, it has been so long since I last did anything worth mentioning, seriously. I fell so out of touch with art for the last two and a half years in school that I really did not know why I was still hanging on... Probably because I was too afraid to go a different route. I pushed off Printmaking time and time again, only too discover that I really like it. However, I'm not regretting anything, because if I was to take Printmaking earlier, I knew that I still wouldn't have liked it all that much, taking into consideration my attitude about art years ago. The heart does make everything different. I put a lot more heart into these woodcuts and prints than I ever did for any other classes... and it paid off... somewhat. More importantly, printmaking class inspired me to pursue art more seriously. If only (I hate that phrase a lot, but once in a while, I have to use it) I could change my attitude about graphic design... Note to self and goal of this summer: spend every freakin' day designing and doing graphics, even when my stupid brain refuses to cooperate (which it does quite often now whenever I want to design T^T), I HAVE to make myself motivated -______-;; I know I don't have any graphic works posted up... but seriously I didn't make any good ones to show at all. But that will change, or rather, I WILL make it change *furious foams*...

Title: Disturbed

Last but not least, I just wanted to say HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY to all the Mothers in the world!!! And especially to my very dear lovely mother, I LOVE YOU LOTS AND LOTS <3333 (I know she won't be reading this, but I really just wanted to say that :D). Got something special special for her too, heheh :D... I hope you all have a good mother's day with your moms. Treasure your mothers, for you're extremely lucky to still have her by your side until this day. I thank the Lord everyday for my mom and family and friends. To still have someone to care for and say I love you is one of the greatest blessings ever. Have a wonderful day!!!!!!

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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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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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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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