Monday, December 9, 2013

Little update: fox brooch and other tidbits

(wrote this last week, so the talk about time refers to then)

What have I been up to art and craft-wise?

Drawing collars that I want to try and make. I also made a new pattern for the second collar style on this page. 

The carpet cleaners were coming in to everyone's apartments to do a professional cleaning so we had to get everything off the ground. Bad time to tidy up cos it feels like everything stressful is happening all at the same time. Assignment, job applications, living situations, course ending and uh .. urges to be creative. I did discover that I have a shit load of fabric I need to use, tons of snap fasteners, zips, waist elastic and the whole shebang. I need to use it up sometime ;;


Started to journal again. It kinda makes me feel more serene writing down all the mumbo jumbo in my head. Helps to organise thoughts, and to understand me vs the world a little more. And uh, remember what things I need to buy cos I'm hella forgetful.


Made a fox brooch! It's the pattern from the Mollie Makes magazine.


And I also made some envelopes out of old magazines while taking a break from the computer. They're great for storing handmade patterns in.



And I just realised something, craft makes me feel more cheerful in general.

I'm also looking forward to Christmas. This jolly season! 

As I already stated in my twitter:

"When young, Christmas is such a magical time ~ the movies, the music, the food, the atmosphere =u= Oh, I love Christmas"

Wednesday, December 4, 2013

Detachable Collar Tutorial

So, I couldn't wait to do some crafts.

I thought I deserved it because I stayed at campus till late~ haha.

I'm really starting to like the girly style with incorporations of peter pan collars, bows, high waist skirts, and frills for that doll like look. I guess in the mainstream, its the super down-toned version of lolita fashion. It's good to wear for everyday clothes.

When I saw the detachable collar in fashion magazines, I fell in love! They add a little extra to a regular casual outfit, and they are quite easy to make too.

I just wanted to make the basic one for practise tonight. But now I have a better idea of how it works, so next time I shall make the detachable peter pan collar. With dun dun dun, LACE!? Ooh, I can't wait!


I also took some bad quality photos of my process, so I thought I would do a little tutorial.

If you would like to see it, please read under the cut!

Warning: Picture heavy

Tuesday, December 3, 2013

Oh, I never blog

.. but I should do it more often.

It's a nice relief when I've written down thoughts or something about my day. I'm sure my future self will appreciate it even though my present self is constantly putting it off.

It's like when I thought it was a great idea to cut up photos for school projects and friendship books when I was young. Now I am horrified and wish that I had kept my scissors away to preserve those memories! Well, it was a different time back then. You didn't have a photo that last forever in digital form. You had the physical copy and if you were lucky enough to have the film too, then bravo. I think ours got thrown away ;;

I suppose in that situation, it was switched around ;;

Sometimes its nice just walking around the city, soaking in the atmosphere and enjoying my own company. Well, I did that in the weekend before I headed into the campus building to continue working on my assignment.

On my tiny adventure through the Auckland CBD, I stumbled across a quaint magazine at Whitcoulls that I had never seen before. It's called Mollie Makes.


Looks like fun. It covers topics about crafting with different materials, people in the craft business, thrifting and all sorts of handmade goodness!

If this was Asia, I would not be so surprised to see something like this. Many magazines for the sewing genre, but sadly I cannot read them. I do sometimes buy them because they have lots of pretty pictures, and in hope that one day I'll be able to understand them too.

Usually I see craft magazines that are aimed towards people in their middle ages so this is refreshing. This one seems to be aimed towards people in their 20s and 30s. It's great! And it includes a free project to make fox brooches >3< This is motivation!

What does the fox say!?

Sorry I couldn't resist, haha.
If you happen to be confused right now, please watch this video.




I would like to get back into crafts after I complete my course.

There's also the Auckland Christmas Cosplay Picnic on the 14th December. I am hoping to dress up as Christmas!Rin from Vocaloid since I have a random Rin wig lying around. We will see if I can conjure that piece of handiwork in that small amount of time ;; It's the character on the far left. Otherwise I'll go lolita.


This design also looks quite nice. Hm, decisions!

[ Credit to Tiaravandijk from Deviantart ]

If you are also interested in attending, feel free to see more information on the event page! My friend Rinelle and a few others have been working very hard to organise this ^^ [ Click here for more details ]

Oh man, I'm thinking too much about the things that I want to do AFTER the work is done. And its getting too exciting. WORK FIRST! WORK FIRST! ASSIGNMENT => GOOD! CRAFT => BAD! (Right now, anyway...)

AND, HAPPY DECEMBER! <3

Sunday, September 15, 2013

Alternative Uses for Mundane Objects

Just a little creative tinkering with the brain to see what I can come up with.
I remember that this was one of the questions we were asked at the interview for my degree haha.

Note: A few of these suggestions may be a bit morbid. Just beware if you're quite sensitive.

It was a suggested creative challenge from this site:
http://99u.com/articles/7160/test-your-creativity-5-classic-creative-challenges

Saturday, September 14, 2013

Super Cute Fonts

Because I always forget what that are when I need them hehe.

mini-wakuwaku

Japanese font that also supports English characters.

Leckerli One

From Google Web Fonts. 

Chiahuahua

Japanese font. Not for commercial purposes.

Honey

Japanese font. Not for commercial purposes.

KF Himaji

Japanese font. Not for commercial purposes.

Hoon Find Life

Korean font.

Other Good Resources
http://ddeokbokkey.tumblr.com/ (beware of autoplay music)
http://sparkleapple.blogspot.co.nz/search/label/Fonts
http://kpop-fonts.tumblr.com/

I'm glad I went on this cute font hunt.
Now I'm never going to be at loss when I need a cute font muahaha

I hope someone else will find this useful as well ^-^


Sunday, May 26, 2013

Work, Study, OVERLOAD

Hello blog, it has been a while hasn't it?

So, I just dug myself into a deeper hole two weeks ago when I signed up for another year of Overload amongst all this PHP. Hahaha. This just means I got to be more organised!

Overload is an art event held at the ASB Stadium on 28th September 2013. It's an event where many artists (mainly of the anime/manga style) showcase and sell their artwork to the public. And this year, I'm going with my Amei-oneechan ohoho <3 Plus Range Murata is going to be a special guest, whoaaaaaa.

I feel there are many things to organise before this event, with only four months to go. If you're interested in a series and wanna request fanart, go ahead and I will think about it. I am not very sure what is popular at the moment since I haven't been catching up, so I might just go with what I like ... ie. cute japanese fashion or bunnies *shotshot*. Or go with Lunatarius' suggestions on the matter.

Lately, I haven't been up to too much. It's mostly just working, attending class, and studying. Rinse and repeat. It's great to hang out with friends once in a while to chill though ^^

*cough* I did end up wasting time one evening catching up with Once Upon a Time though. I think my feelings get out of hand when watching the series, as I involve myself too much in the story. Well, according to a friend of mine =.=. At one point, I had a raging anger towards Regina. Maybe cos she's like a symbol for the barrier that is so hard to break, no matter how much you try. Or a symbol that sometimes no matter what you do, you can't succeed. I'm totally against this matter... cos even if you can't get to the ultimate goal in a swift action, you can always get a step closer.

I totally ship Snow White and Prince Charming though. They struggle so much to fight for their love~ *cheesy* It's quite interesting how the different characters develop in accordance from their Storybrooke self vs their Fairytale self. Yes, yes spoiler free ^-^

Tonight I plan to get a stronger grasp of the combination of PHP and MySQL before class tomorrow *dies* It's quite exciting at the same time of it being intense and difficult. Having the ability to make own web systems uwahh, its magical. Thanks Codeacademy, Net Tuts and Team Treehouse for existing at this day and age =u=)/

Tuesday, April 9, 2013

Creative Exercise: Circles in my Room

Got this book out of the library called "Caffeine for the Creative Mind: 250 Exercises to wake up your Brain" by Stefan Mumaw and Wendy Lee Oldfield. Quite a few cool ideas to get the creative brain going. Good for designers and artists out there! Especially when one needs a cure for a creative rut.

Exercise
Take photos of all the circular things you can find in your vicinity, and try to frame each item in the same scope for each photo.


Click "Read more" see the rest of them ^^

Sunday, March 10, 2013

Back to School

It's been about a month since I started my Web Dev course! I really enjoy adding these skills to my repertoire of knowledge. I may not be very smart, but when I get really interested in a topic I almost get obsessed with it and find it difficult to talk about anything else. I guess that is just one of those things I gotta work on.

We just started the HTML and CSS lessons this week. The most interesting things we learned about were forms and the grid system. I kinda got a headstart on the super basics before the course, using Codeacademy (which is a great site for learning code, btw!) and from previous website building attempts as a young teen. A little bit of history here~ I made my first website when I was 14 and it consisted of fail pixel art and neopets user lookup layouts ^p^ The whole notion of being able to put a mark on the web was a very curious endeavour at that time. I also participated in the TVNZ Web Challenges when I was in Year 9 and 10. Now as a 20 something, I'm back to doing web again. It took long enough to discover what I really wanted to do. Try explaining this career prospect to older adults though haha. The world wide web is really starting to take over!

I feel like I am adept at understanding the bare basics of the coding (at the moment anyway!), but there is much improvement needed to be done in improving the design aesthetics and usability. I aim to enable the user to have the most pleasant website viewing experience possible. Hopefully, I will match up to the pros one day~

The things I want to make a habit of is to:
> Keep up to date with the design trends
> Follow good web twitters and blogs
> Keep a visual diary of ideas that come my way
> Keep following tutorials to learn new techniques
> Keep coding until I get the desired (or decent) result
> Make dummy websites to get more fluent!
> Read books!

I feel like such a nerd right now, but sometimes I feel like I have to be if I want to have a high level of competence! Maybe I have just learned a lot about priorities since the last time I studied, as well as the experience of job seeking.

----------

On another note, since its not too hectic just yet ... I want to do a "Create something" challenge. To do something creative everyday whether if its a drawing, poetry, type, design, craft, etc. Anything to do with creating from scratch. Something simple. At the end of the week, I shall document these creations! Okay, hope this goes well >u<)b

Monday, February 4, 2013

Clothes: 040213

When I went back to the family home in the weekend, I forgot to bring any non-work clothes so I was pretty much stuck with super frilly ones that I only wear occasionally these days. I forgot how much fun it is to dress in lolita-inspired attire since I started to dress more conservatively. I feel like a child again~ haha. Apparently the 2nd of February was Twin Tail Day in Japan so I decided to celebrate a day late.

Headband: $3.50 from Japan store
Blouse: $15 from Paper Bag Princess
Skirt: $10 from Trademe (IT WAS A STEAL!)

And today, I decided to keep going with the girly co-ordinates. I don't think the low twin tail hairstyle is too bad either. Might use it more often ^-^ Oh youth~! uhoo.

Sailor Jacket: Aliexpress
Frilly Shorts: Wholesale-dress.net
Blouse: Kmart
Bow: Japan store

I drew pictures today. I wanna get faster~
Drawing is more fun now that the pressure is off! I knew it was more a hobby thing for me. Sometimes I wish I has realised this sooner xD Of course I still enjoy it, but if I had to do it all the time for both work purpose and hobby purpose I would probably tire of it. Whereas more logical stuff like web design seems to drive me more in terms of productivity.

Yeah, I did the Graphic Design degree. But after some thought, I am truly more of a left brain thinker as opposed to the right brain thinker a designer is assumed to be. I like being creative and designing stuff, but I also like rules and I like knowing exactly how things are supposed to work. 

If only it was so easy with other things that I struggle with... the rule thing anyways;; Some aspects of life don't have a very defined set of rules to follow, because its too complicated and varied. Well, ganbarimasu! Will keep trying ^-^

Also read Death Note again, and damn I can't get over how evil Light becomes as series progresses. SO EVIL! It's interesting to read from a villain's standpoint though haha. I think that was what drew me to the series the first time I read it. There was no other story like it before~



If you like my artwork, check out my art blog too over here!

Friday, February 1, 2013

Black Rock Shooter Nendoroid

After two years of sitting perfectly inside packaging (this seems to be a trend..), Black Rock Shooter Miku is finally free from the plastic!!

The Front 

 
...And the back

Japanese packages are so nice! They seem too good to throw away~ 
Even the food ones sometimes...with their endearing characters and all.


 Contents of the box. It consists of a DVD Movie and Nendoroid with different facial expressions, leg, arms, model stands and her weapons! (Bazooka and sword)

Close-up of all the different parts. This is the first time I ever owned a full size nendoroid, so I didn't realise how flexible they were with poses and facial expressions! It's pretty cool how all the parts are interchangable~ And if you had other nendoroids, you could also mix and match the outfits and hairstyles too, and go nuts with it hahaha.

Black Rock Shooter Miku Nendoroid in all her glory. So adorable! 
This is the default pose of how it is packaged in the box.

 I decided I would have her with the "girl with attitude" face on my shelf though ^u^
"Come at me, bro!"

It's really fun filling up my shelf with cute things >u<
The next one will probably be my tiny Inazuma Eleven figurines uhooo~!

And random thing I saw yesterday...
 Someone left a whole pizza outside McDonalds, and all the pigeons were scrambling around it for a giant feast. Oh man xD It can be fun watching birds sometimes ...
 

Thursday, January 31, 2013

Clothes

It is fun dressing up for work. It reminds me of the days of school uniform, except that I get to choose my very own. I've taken inspiration from the Japanese girls school uniform and prep school style (eg. Gossip Girl)



Pink blouse (Kmart for $12)
Gray sweatervest (from Lunatarius lol)
Black high waisted skirt (Kmart for $20)
Bowtie ($3 Japan store in Manukau for $3.50)

I haven't been shopping a lot lately, but I guess I have plenty clothes already~ One does not really need to wear a whole new outfit every day, really. Though, I'm not even one for too much variety. When I start liking a new item I bought, I wear it ALL THE TIME. Like my sailor jacket <3

Bought online for only $15US >u<
*loves cool bargains*

I feel like sometimes I tend to buy things just because they are really cheap and decent and not because I really really like them. There's that rare moment when an item is both amazing and a bargain at the same time. But its very rare, and would mostly occur in Dreamland cos people need to make profit .. or wholesale websites where you don't know what the item is really going to be like until it hits your doorstep haha. I'd go into the store, and think "ahhh looks so cute!" .. then look at the price tag and *slowly walk away*. I'm a bit of an internet splurger though despite the small risks on the quality >o< Action is required to fine-tune my formula of buy clothing, indeed...

Otherwise maybe I should stop being lazy, and feeling poop about sewing skills to sew and make my own clothes! Yup, actually I might just do that after I retrieve fabric from the family home next weekend haha. There's that gingham lolita skirt I have been meaning to make for a while now ;;

Tuesday, January 29, 2013

Cute Go Launcher Ex Android Themes

A collection of cute Go Launcher Ex themes for your Android smartphone!
It's nice to be able to collect all these themes in one place for future reference, since the quality free themes are quite hard to find through the massloads of .. less-than-satisfactory ones.

All images are from the Google Play store and do not belong to me. To be able to use these themes, you will have to install "Go Launcher Ex" first.

Minimal





Character











And last, but not least .. all the Peperico Penguin themes~


   

     

     


If you are feeling creative, you can even create your own Go Launcher Ex theme with the Theme Factory that is available online! I have yet to try this feature, but I'm keen to do it sometime. Click here to check the website out~