5 posts tagged “art”
I'm staying at the house for a few days because Shawn said he'd be busy working on some projects for work over the weekend. I thought it might be nice to spend some time with Mom. Whenever I wake up in the morning, there's this awesome nostalgic feeling of summer. It brings back good memories and makes everything seem simple and happy.
Even when I'm at my apartment, alone during the day, I've been experiencing sudden bursts of happiness. It's so weird! I've been trying to limit my time on the computer and watching TV, because I really want to start doing something more for myself lately. I've been feeling the need to enhance everything that I love doing, meaning that I'm focusing more on painting, photography, and spending time with my furries (kitties + hammy). Doing so has led me to some relaxing, more peaceful, days. I'm not really feeling that stress of needing to find work, which is such a relief now. I figured that I need to work on getting in the right mindset before I jump into the next phase of my life; after all, for the past 20+ years I've been in school working hard. It's time to let loose.
In photography aspects, I've been trying to work more on getting to know my camera better. I found that, after a while, I fell into such a routine with my camera that I didn't really explore all of the fun settings. I think my little experimentations have led to better, clearer photos, like the one above. (Yays!)
Also, on the photography home front, I've been trying to expand my photo subjects. I fell into a rut with that when I only took photos of Plum and a few other toys/dolls. I'm trying to appreciate everything else that I'm surrounded by, including other Blythes (like Utopia and Nami above!) and other little finds that I've been taking in.
This Alice necklace is one of my favorite recent finds to photograph. ^__^ Last weekend, I went on a little trip to Chicago with Shawn, Jeremy, and Kathleen. We went to one of my favorite urban toy stores, Rotofugi, and I picked up a lot of cute vinyls and a special art book signed by a favorite artist of mine. Then the three of us met up with another favorite artist of mine, Jeremiah Ketner, after Rotofugi-- we visited his studio (where I saw all of the amazing pieces he's currently working on) and went out to lunch with him.
Afterwards, Jeremiah suggested a bunch of cute stores that he knew I'd love to explore. In one of the little boutiques, I discovered the Alice pendant. I'm obsessed with everything and anything Alice in Wonderland, so I snatched it up. Later on, I went across the street where I had a chain made and fitted for me. I think the heart clasp (bottom right picture) is one of my favorite parts. Putting the necklace together was so much fun!
On an earlier trip to Chicago (April 10th), I was able to attend my very first Blythe meet. After six or so years of collecting them, I thought it was about time that I finally met more people who share the same hobby. ^^
We met up at a cute sushi bar (with really good fruit smoothies) and talked about Blythes the whole time. Because of other plans Shawn and I had in Chicago that day, I was only able to bring Plum (bottom row, fourth from the left). She was able to meet another Kozy Blythe, finally! Overall, the turnout was great and I was even able to meet Gina Garan, a very well known Blythe collector. In fact, it's because of Gina that Blythes exist today! It was such an honor to talk about Blythes, and tons of other stuff, with her.
So really, my "work" right now consists of working on myself and my life. I'm expanding every type of personal horizon possible, including my physical self. ^___^ I've been working hard at exercising daily so that I stay in shape. I'm feeling fit in every aspect possible!
After I wrap up this post, I'll continue to sit back in my parents' kitchen where the back door leading to the deck is open. The summer breeze is blowing in while I sip on my cinnamon white chocolate latte. Life is good.
On September 4th, Dunny Series 5 was released to the world. Only a few select vendors were able to release the new series on the night of the 3rd, and I was lucky enough to finally get a chance to go to an official event. ^__^
I had found out about the new series only a few days beforehand, but I was already itching to get my hands on some of the blind boxes (boxes whose contents are unknown). I've been a fan of Junko Mizuno's art for some time now, but I've been able to get any of her toys. (Ugh, something always comes up...) When looking at the future vinyls, I fell instantly in love with her sweet creation. Of course, I had to pick the one that there was only a small chance of getting-- one in fifty. (-__-) I've never had any luck opening blind boxes so I figured that I'd have to snatch one up off of eBay for way too much money. That's what I usually end up doing anyway.
The only store that I had a chance of catching a party at was Moda3, which is only about ten minutes away from my apartment. (Score!) I checked out their site, and sure enough, a release party was going to be held that Wednesday night. I made it my mission to somehow get there.
After talking with Mikaela Wednesday morning, we made plans for her to pick me up from my night class and then head right over to Moda3. We were going to be showing up an hour later than the party started, because of my class, but it didn't really matter at that point. When I talked with her on the phone earlier, I could tell that she was as jittery as me. We both had our hearts set on getting certain Dunnys. *___* The anticipation was actually starting to make my hands shake!
Finally, around 7 o'clock, we arrived at Moda3. There was a reasonable amount of people there, and plenty of them were still tearing into their boxes of Dunnys. Two guys had two huge trays of small packages, and a few others had handfuls of them. We headed straight over to the table where the current box was holding the Dunnys and we each grabbed three boxes.
After paying for ours, we decided to slowly open up the packages to savor the moment. It was hard for me to talk at the time because I was so excited, but I watched Mikaela unwrap her first one with a pretty good amount of patience. Haha. She opened the silver wrapping, looked up at me, and said, "Honey..." with a happy look that I will never forget.
She got a Junko in her very first blind box!
I started freaking out. She immediately handed me the Dunny and said it was all mine. Even though I could believe how generous she was (she's always a sweetheart), I was still in shock. There, at my very first party, I got the Dunny I actually wished for. It seemed pretty unbelievable.
Right away, I snatched up my first box and opened it. Freaking out, yet again, I realized that I had also opened up a Junko for my first Dunny. O__O We both started jumping up and down, and the guy behind the registered snatched a photo of the two of us with our babies. <3 After that, I was totally set for the night. I didn't really care what else I got, but I did want to try to get one of the Dunnys Mikaela wanted. (I gave her back the original Junko she gave me so we could each have a special prize, tee hee. I was till incredibly grateful to her though.)
In total, I opened around seven boxes that night, and I walked away with a bunch of fun Dunny event stuff. I wish I could have gotten the hundreds of boxes that the other people seemed to buy without thinking twice, but just seven alone cost me about $40. Boo. Mikaela never got the one she really wanted, but I gave her one that I opened that I knew she liked. I wanted to make her night as special as mine was turning out.
The really cool thing about Mikaela is how much in common we have. We're both very much into the urban art toy scene, and I'm also getting her started on Blythes and Pullips. (Mwa haha.) A lot of weird coincidences happened that night that made it all seem really surreal and special. For instance, Mikaela showed up in her car wearing a pink milk shirt, which is something that I'm obsessed with. At the same time, I had been wearing a shirt with a huge panda bear on it, which is something that she's obsessed with. (She said we should totally switch shirts. I still want hers.) We both opened the same Dunnys as our first blind boxes, and as it turns out, our very last two Dunnys were also the same. Everything with Mikaela seems so "meant to be." I love having friends like her. My time with her is like one awesomely positive fortune cookie.
I have to say-- that release party experience couldn't have been better. The only thing I regret is how funny looking I look in the photo that Moda3 posted of me on all their web pages, haha. *sheepish grin* I think it's more funny than anything else-- I look like a little kid opening birthday presents!
My Junko Dunny was complimented with one of my presents from Shawn for our upcoming anniversary this week. It's the 8" Qee that I've been begging for in the past few months. I really love how she and my Dunny have the same facial expression and features. I'm in toy heaven right now. ^_______^
Vox has done it again, and it's pretty awesome this time around. Vox is currently helping to host the HP Themes Contest, an event that's being shared between some of the biggest (and best, in my opinion!) blogging sites around: TypePad, Vox and LiveJournal.
I got pretty psyched when I heard about this event because it reminded me of past contests Vox has hosted. Back in late 2006, we hosted our first banner contest, and the winners of the contest got the chance to host their winning banners on Vox so other bloggers could use the designs on their own blogs. I wasn't yet a part of the Vox team then so I was legible to win-- and I did! Two of my banners were chosen ("Beads Love" and "Bubblegum Skies" as seen below) to be used by other people, and I have to say: knowing that other people appreciated what I had to offer, both artistically and bloggingly (tee hee), made me feel pretty awesome. In fact, Team Vox back then liked so many of the banners so much that the team extended the winning number! That just shows how many talented people we have here at Vox. And now that the site is even bigger than before, I think we can expect even more spiffy entries. ^___^
Like I mentioned above, the HP Themes Contest at Vox is a little different. Not only will the winner get his banner chosen to be used on TypePad, Vox and Livejournal, but cash prizes are going to be given out to the three favorite banner winners-- $1800 worth! *dances* If this event would have happened back in 2006, I think I would have been antsy with anticipation to see how my banner was doing with the votes, haha.
Here's a confession. One of my favorite things about blogging at Vox is visiting the Design page. Even though I often host my own banners for my own blog, it's fun to see where Vox likes to go with the designs it hosts. Plus, I get pretty inspired by other peoples' banners, which sparks a lot of creativity with my own designs. Some things that I'd really like to see pop up on the Design page someday are:
- More banners containing photography (we have so many talented photographers here)
- More banners made with homemade art, like drawings and paintings
I guess what I'm really looking forward to seeing is the raw art that people can come up with. I like knowing that something digital like a blog banner can be made using tools that are both modern and traditional. I think a lot of people might immediately jump to banner ideas with fun ideas involving work done in Photoshop and Illustrator, which are great programs to use for something like this contest. Something that we don't see very often though are the talents found outside of the computer world, like using stencils or paintbrushes. As long as you have a scanner and a simple image/art editing program then, you can crop the images down to the right size.
I think what matters most is the inspiration that comes out of whatever a person enjoys doing. For instance, I'm fascinated with color-- how colors work together, how lack of color exists, the brightness or dullness of colors, etc. Being able to experiment with with my hobbies for a contest like the one going on for HP Themes is not just fun to do, but it's an opportunity for me to play with new ideas. I've used my photograph, my love of kawaii and even my favorite hamster ever, to create pretty banners. Some of my favorite hobbies have produce really wonderful results:
Of course, anyone who wants to enter will probably want to read the rules before entering a banner. I'm not sure if any of these would work because of the credit (kawaii.vox.com) I put on each of them. ^o^ The ones above are in my private little Kawaii at Vox database, but I'd still love to create a new banner (even though I can't win since I'm a Six Apart employee...) just to show how much I love the contest idea.
If anyone who reads this post submits a banner to the contest, please, please, please let me know. I'm anxious to see what my friends are coming up with. Also, if anyone needs help with any design ideas, I'd be happy to throw some ideas out there or give my personal feedback. And if anyone has questions about the HP Themes Contest, definitely submit some feedback by contacting the Vox team.
I guess the thing I really wanted to say about the contest is that winning something like this really is possible. Whenever I see a contest, I get pretty overwhelmed with the possibility of not winning but knowing that I've won something like this in the past, and seeing a lot of my friends win at the same time, makes me realize how possible winning this contest really is. If anything, have fun when you submit a banner entry. I can't wait to see what everyone makes!
This will be a short entry. I wanted to give a little update, because I don't know how often I'll be able to write in my Vox within the next few weeks. Work has been going really well so far. Everyone at Six Apart is amazingly friendly (I was never worried about that!), and the team I work with is especially helpful. They've been so wonderful with making sure to keep me on track at a pace that I can keep up with. I keep thinking about the next few months and what will hopefully happen: I'll be able to take in all the information, and before I know it, all the routines will become secondhand to me. I'm excited for the day I will feel comfortable with everything I'm learning now. The first few days of any job are a bit overwhelming, but because I actually love what I'm doing now, I'm extra particular in making sure everything I do is just right.
I just wanted to let you know that everything is going well with me. I work five days a week, and because I focus my eyes so intently on the computer screen, I feel overly tired after I finish working. (I'm hoping that the tired feeling is temporary. I tend to get stressed over little things when I start a new job. After the first week or so, I usually feel at home and more comfortable.) That's why I haven't been on Vox a lot lately. I'm hoping to fall into a good routine where my eyes aren't so strained. I like working towards a good balance of work and fun. ^__^ It gives me something to look forward to.
What magazines do you subscribe to, and why?
I don't have any subscriptions at the moment since I can honestly say that I can't stand most magazines. They're filled with too many ads and too much junk for my mind to consume. >__< I have, however, found three magazines that I would die for because even the ads interest me. I plan on putting the first two on my Christmas list this year so I don't have to search for them all over the state. Bookstores get very few copies of each and not every bookstore has them in stock to begin with. Treasure hunt!
- Juxtapoz
- Giant Robot
- Bookmarks
I prefer the first two the most. Juxtapoz and Giant Robot are art and culture magazines designed and written for those who love art, vinyl toys, dollies, etc. I think they were secretly made for my pleasure, haha. Bookmarks is a magazine for fans of literature, which I am. I read up on new books coming out as well as classic books that people have loved for years.
