i'm here!

it seems i've been neglecting my little blog here.

finals and then a quick trip to new york occupied much of my time. i am happy to say i had a fun time in new york, got to see a bit of brooklyn and even walked across the brooklyn bridge! (it's a different experience compared to walking to golden gate bridge over here in the bay area). AND i passed a pass/fail class, received one A- and two A's! yay! still waiting on one more class. hopefully an A too.

i started the first day of summer school yesterday and will be starting my internship in two weeks' time. so busy busy busy. however will i find the time to make things for my shop?

finals finals finals

need i say more?

two ten page papers due friday. it's almost midnight on wednesday. have not started much, if at all.

yikes!

what's my problem with school?

sometimes i wonder if i should have gone to an art school. but quite frankly, i wouldn't have known what to major in. fine art? graphic art? digital media? craft?

ugh.

luckily, i have my trip to nyc to look forward to. i just need to get these darn papers out of the way and hope that i get A's for all my classes (which i think may be achievable this semester... yay!).

i'll be back with more art. reading all these blogs, blog-surfing as i call it, has been such an inspiration. i can't take it all in at once. there is so much i want to do and try, but so little time. if only i could be paid to just make stuff all the time. for myself. for my own pleasure. man, that would be a fine day in the usa! :)

Presenting the lovely Lissie Doll and many cool pictures!

As promised, here is the onslaught of photographs of my latest projects from the past month.

But first, let me introduce my new Lissie doll! Isn't she just the sweetest? And her hair might become a trend I say. After all my final exams and papers and projects are completed and after I'm back from a weeklong trip to NYC (so, probably late late May-early June), I'll have a few of these dolls in my shop. (This image was taken at night so it does not do her justice. I'll take better pictures later.)

And this is Lissie's friend Olive, who will make an appearance in the shop too! A one-off though (because, don't tell her, but she was just a practice doll... shh! Olive will be jealous that Lissie is the one I want to replicate). :)

And now... lots and lots of pretty visuals!

I helped a housemate make this gnarly camera case for her friend Beth. It's a picture of her dressed as a man on one side. I will never ever attempt this again! haha.

And more stationery! I really love these colors and I love this simple floral design. They're sort of meant to be pussy willows. What'dya think? Should I attempt to make a few of these for the shop?

a lamp made of lotta jansdotter fabric. love the colors. and really needed to update my lamp from the cheapo mesh it came in.

look! i can do other things too! sorry about the horrible pictures. i can't decide if i want to keep this (when it's finished) or sell it.... hmm... the perennial problem of the artist and his/her artwork... to keep or to sell...

i tried my hand at making a shirt/vest with no patterns. i modeled it after another sleeveless shirt i had but found i needed to add some thick side panels because i grossly underestimated the differences between the stretchy material of the original and the non-stretchy-ness of this material. oops! but it looks nice on me and the darts are form fitting. :)

yee! look at the pleats!

i didn't make this but i had to share a great find. this is a barney's bag that only cost me $12 with some broken handles. i took it to a shoe repair shop and they fixed it right up for $18. not bad for a $400 type bag. :)

anyone who has lived with me for the past two years knows that i'm a bargain hunter and huge fan of designer clothes. and where i live we have this great store called jeremy's department store. it's kind of like a Ross Dress For Less or a Marshall's or a TJ Maxx for designer clothes. They're mainly store returns, things with holes or a missing piece or out of season overstock. I love being able to find things that once retailed for anywhere from $100-$700 but I only paid anywhere from $1 to $50. i generally avoid spending more than $50 for any item and wait for the price to be marked down. but it's tricky because it good be snatched up by someone else the next day. i once got a pair of Sonia Rykiel shoes for $11 when her shoes are $700 and upwards. they're the best shoes ever and all they were missing were some adornments on the toes. it left an icky leather patch of glue behind but i just took a pair of thread rippers (sorry, the correct term left my mind) and took the leather patch off and they're almost as great as new. i'll have pictures of said lovely shoes next week. i could start a separate blog with just the findings and results of my shopping sprees. i really ought to call them my 'spending sprees'. :) :) :)

and who knows? maybe i will start a blog just on my shopping adventures. like the aqua silk halter top by emilio pucci that i got for $1, or the silk blend brown tank top from barneys for the same price.

oh.. if only i were slightly rich....