Spring Break!

Oh thank goodness for spring break. I've really been needing this. Dad's new apartment is looking pretty awesome, and I'm finally able to sleep in with no fear of missing class. Yes, I've been procrastinating on the school work that's due when I get back, but seriously. It's break time.

Dad and I made brownies night before last, so we've been cutting into it pretty much every meal. Brownies for breakfast with mangos and cereal and coffee, brownies for lunch, brownies for dinner with chicken pot pie! Om nom nom nom nom. We sat last night for a couple hours just listening to Miles Davis' Sketches of Spain. What an awesome piece!  I love break.

New News!

So this last couple weeks have been just a little bit crazy; I drove a couple hours away every weekend to help my dad move into his new apartment, and tried to study for midterms. Luckily, my art teacher realized that the due date for our project was right smack in the middle of everyone's tests, so she postponed the deadline til after spring break. NICE.

It's a dye class, and we've been doing different shibori techniques since the beginning of the semester. The theme she gave us was resistance. These are a couple of my samples. Most of them start out as traditional pole wrapped shibori, but a few of them have folds or stitching. All of them are rainbow dyed with acid dye. I love how clear things are in the acid dye!

I'm a multicultural kid; my mom is a Filipina who went to a Catholic all girls school in the Philippines until college, and my dad is a mixed white American. There are things many things that I learned that agree with both cultures, but what happens when they disagree? I've been having to pick and chose what I want to take with me, and lately that's been getting harder. Dating protocols are very different from my mom's world and my dad's world, the role parents play in your adult life is another difference.

BeadsofLight13

Hello everyone! I'm still in the middle of a very hectic family/school time, but I just had to share with you a lovely new store on Etsy!

Chelsea's shop, BeadsofLight13 has some really pretty beaded works. Swarovski beads, lampwork beads, pearls, stones, glass, you name it. (No surprise she'd love to see Venice because of the glass! Great reason to go, by the way. They have neat little glass blowing studios tucked away at the tops of shops.)

This is a picture of a gorgeous bracelet I traded for! Did I mention how accommodating she is? 

Look at the wonderful glass bits in there! They're so pretty with the pearls. I can't resist shiny! I have no clue how she finds time to do all these beautiful pieces with the number of pets vying for her attention. Chelsea's got a german shepherd and three cats! One of whom is preggers too. I can hardly get stuff done with the amount of effort it takes to keep just ONE cat out of my room! She must be a secret animal whisperer. That's the only explanation!

But with all those pets, she's a girl after my own heart; she likes birds! I've been considering getting one, but it really has to wait until after I graduate and we get a place big enough to keep the bird away from the dog. Or else there'll just be a dog. It would be so cute if Chelsea got a parrot though! It would probably learn all her favorite country songs!

But really. Check out her shop! Because the more people look, the more she can experiment with learning some techniques she's been craving to play with. Like casting rings and doing sculptural pieces! Don't you want to see those?

^_^

Mellow...

School started on Friday, but tomorrow is the real start of my crazy semester! Bring it! >_< Sort of. I'm so mellow today. I guess that's what listening to Sigur Ros does to a person! I'm absolutely in love with "Kafari." It reminds me of the little water drops that fall in puddles after it stops raining; arhythmic, light, and almost nostalgic.

I finished making a really fun commission! This girl wanted me to do the TRON identity discs as earrings. At first, it was hard getting the shape of them right, but with a little help from a Chick-fil-A straw, they turned out awesome.

I also got to do a lot of research on types of findings, and it turns out there's a difference between gold-filled and gold plated. Filled has 50-100% more gold than plated does, so it's got a long, hypoallergenic life, but the cost is significantly less than pure gold studs. Handy info!

Spice!

No sugar, just spice! I love the colors of sunset, so I was playing around with my skinner blends and made a rich yellow/red/purple sunset sheet. But when I made it into Infinity Twists, poof. My gorgeous sunset was now some kind of ornamental pepper! I think it turned out pretty neat anyway.

The funny thing is, I can't eat anything even remotely spicy. Something about pepper, cayenne, or anything else spicy makes my tongue swell up, among other really unpleasant things with my gums. No idea why either! It makes me really wary of Mexican restaurants. I can't avoid them though! There's a place within walking distance of my school and all the other costumers love it. So, whenever we have a costume shop lunch or dinner, it's Chico's. Delicious, but dangerous.

Finally, an update!

Hi again everyone!
Now that I have my life back, (it's funny how one show can consume your entire life and leave you with nothing but a musical on repeat in your head...) I can go back to blogging!

Etsy's been doing great this holiday season; the stats on sales and views are fantastic! 2 million + items sold! I've done a few custom orders in the past couple months, and it's been so fun. The people have been great to work with, and it's so nice how they took the time to post feedback and even convo me to tell me they liked the piece!

Also, the biggest news EVER! My parents bought me a Nikon CoolPix P100 as an early Christmas gift! It has a gorgeous 26x zoom that I drool over constantly, and wow. My pictures are getting to be pretty neat. I love Christmas!

Check these out:

^_^

Dragon*con and Costumes!

Dragon*Con was a BLAST! Last time I went was back in 2007, and BOY has it grown since then. Instead of the three host hotels, there are now 5. We went to some wonderful panels, including one about the physics of the Whedonverse (including Firefly!) and an interview with the Tams. (Two of the actors from Firefly) Also, we went to a stage combat panel and a costume contest panel for The Wheel of Time, and I went to a polymer clay panel. TONS of good information!

I didn't get a lot of my own pictures since my camera decided that it would be more fun to watch me squirm because I can't get a shot of that really awesome costume that just walked by. But here are a few! My boyfriend's camera worked like a dream.

At one of the panels, we ran into some more Firefly cosplayers! And they had everyone (Pre Persophone Pickups...yay alliteration!) except Mal and Inara. (Wash was at another panel and joined in after this) So Elliot and I filled in the gaps!

I made my entire costume, and Elliot's jacket, although that's pretty hidden.

I found Severus Snape in a coffee shop! He even had the scowl down pat. That's Elliot in the background as Captain Hammer. We made his shirt and my groupie t-shirt.

Penny found us! She was so pretty!

That's all for now! ^_^