San Smith

A mini Seaside, FL photo post

Hello from Seaside, Florida! I'm currently on a mini trip visiting my family and celebrating my upcoming birthday... I'll be home pretty soon and back to regular posting, but until then I wanted to share a few photos: 

My "birthday cake", which was a huge slice of strawberry cake from Modica Market. It was seriously the best piece of cake I've ever had in my life! I had to have Chris help me finish it because it was so rich. I'm guessing it was made in store because it was super fresh and amazing.

Enjoying the cake from our gorgeous view... wow! Can you imagine living here?! We can even see the ocean from our little place - it is kinda like a little fort in the sky. I'll share photos when we get back! The little can I'm holding is Sofia wine - one of my favorites which comes in mini soda-like cans with bendy straws. Kinda goofy but I thought it would be fun to pair with my celebratory cake.

Chris built a pyramid at the beach, and then I made a mini sphinx to hang out with it... It was still there this morning when we went out there! I was surprised. I had never really made anything in the sand as an adult, and it turned out to be very relaxing and zen-like. I might try it again before we leave.

So far my only touristy purchase (other than food and drinks) has been a Futurama blind box at Sundog Books... and I got BENDER! He is my favorite character! I was ridiculously excited in the store when I opened it. He even has a mini storage compartment and props. Too awesome! This is me geeking out over this before we even left the store. Hahaha...

Close up of the mini bending bot. <3 Unfortunately I didn't get many photos with my family at the beginning of the trip - we were so busy enjoying each other's company it slipped our minds. I guess we will have to do it on our next visit! It was so nice to see my grandmother - she is 82 this year and I don't know how many more opportunities I will get to visit with her over the next few years. So I'm very grateful to be out here! 

Anyhow - I'll have more photos and maybe a video when we get back. Also, the bicycle post should be coming Wednesday evening if there is enough time! Hope you all are doing well!

Things I love Thursday - on Friday!

Things I love Thursday, but on Friday! Wait, what?! ;) So I had this typed up and ready to post yesterday evening, but things were so busy I wasn't able to make time for it. I'm still super busy, matter of fact I'm typing this from the road at the moment...but I really wanted to share my "Things I Love" list, so it'll have to do on Friday!

Rainbow butterfly wedding cake topper - I found this when I was searching for fake butterflies to make hair clips with... and it's pretty amazing. The butterflies are translucent and look practically real! I kinda want to get it to take it apart to make something else with. 

Badger sleep balm - I picked this up on a whim hoping it would help out when I was having sleep issues, and it has turned out to be a great little product. The scent is soothing and really does help me relax to fall asleep. It is a little hippie-ish, but sometimes I like stuff like that ;D

Katy Perry's blue hair - yes it's probably not real. But! It looks pretty darn cute in the promo picture. I like it when celebrities experiment with fun hair colors... That and the single for the photo is pretty fun! It is such a summertime sort of song.

Robo.to - So pointless but a lot of fun. It is a service that lets you record mini blips of video and upload it to the internet to share... I think it could be really cool if you have a phone that records video and you could share the mini videos on twitter or something. Here is my favorite one I've made so far:

A list to find all the Scott Pilgrim locations in Toronto. If I ever go to Toronto, I kinda want to print this out and find some of these places! I love nerdy stuff like this.

The Marlo Show - I don't even know what to say - I stumbled on this accidentally the other night... its artist Marlo Meekin's youtube show, and it is RIDICULOUS. Half awesome, half WTFFFFF. I love the opening.

Hope Larson's comic poll results - I actually contributed some answers for this, and it was really interesting to read the results. The poll focuses on data about women and their comic reading histories - how they started reading, what they read, where they purchased their comics, how old they are, etc. And a little San fact: some of the first comics I read came from the grocery store...it was stuff like Betty & Veronica and Cheryl Blossom. It is so crazy how much my interests have changed since then!

Watching Gokinjo Monogatari - I hadn't watched this series in a long long time... and really I had only seen a few episodes. I don't know what made me think to look for it the other day, but I found a website that has all the episodes (as far as I can tell) for you to watch online! I'm so excited!! I've made it to episode 7 so far - if you liked Paradise Kiss or any of Ai Yazawa's work, then I recommend you check this series out. It is a little more light hearted than more of her recent stuff, but still a lot of fun.

Lovelorn lipstick by MAC - I bought this a few years ago and used to wear it a lot, but for some reason stopped and forgot about it. I started wearing it again this past week and it is way cuter than I remembered! (I always thought it was a little too bright when I had my natural black hair - I think it works better with the pink...) It is a very soft baby pink with blue tones.

Taking photos of my friends Abby and Laura for an upcoming post on women's cycling! I'm so excited about this upcoming post - so much that I uploaded some sneak peaks. (Below is one from the video footage I took!) Abby and Laura gave me a lot of info on their cycling habits and tips they have learned to make riding more enjoyable, and I'll be contributing my own as well. Look for that next week!

Hope you guys have had a good week so far! <3

Art update: Miwako and Where is Gali?

Wow guys - thank you so much for all the responses to my Monday post's poll. It's been really helpful so far! If you haven't already voted on what your favorite posts are - I'd really appreciate it if you could take a second to fill out the poll. And to give back to you guys for taking the time, I'm going to be having a giveaway soon! It'll be for prints, some mini flower hair clips I have left over from my crafting, and more!

Above are some sketches I did over lunch today... the one that is more detailed is Miwako from Paradise Kiss (as is the digital doodle) and the girl with the heart hands is just something I was thinking about. I'm hoping to finish them maybe on Friday - cause Thursday is going to be super busy with freelance! Speaking of freelance, here is a peak at a fun doodle I was commissioned to do for http://www.where-is-gali.net:

She told me she wanted something similar to this illustration... So, these are the sketches I sent her to begin with based on what we talked about and her photos, and this is what we ended up with:

I had a lot of fun working on it! You should go check out Gali's blog - she shares photos from her travels and talks about where she's at and what she is up to... its really interesting! I'm quite envious of her trips :)

If you like this and would like to commission me to draw one for you, send me an email! At the end of next week I'll be listing more information about commissions for those who are interested.

Anyhow - I better run to bed and get a good night's rest! I have a lot of work due tomorrow and more to share!

Long outfit post + poll questions!

Dress 1 (sold out)  |  Dress 2  |  Dress 3
Flower sandals  |  Teal Adidas Sambas

I really would love some of the stuff drawn above! I've got like spring shopping fever or something...But instead shopping I've been focusing on trying to figure out creative ways to revive my wardrobe. I've been cutting apart dresses and re-assembling them into styles I like more, making hair and clothing flower clips, building necklaces, repainting shoes... I'm really enjoying the thrifty creativity! It has become sort of a game to figure out how to make fun things to wear with spending little or no money. I've also been taking outfit photos for my flickr to keep myself inspired, here is one from the other day:

Cardigan - Forever 21
Dress - Target
Shoes - Cydwoq
Sunflower clip - made it myself
Sneaky Doglette - my Pika <3

I've been so proud of all the flower clips I made for myself last week! They were a lot of fun and I have a bunch left over, so I'm thinking about decorating my bicycle basket with them. You can see a few more I made below in my closet... The pink lily and white orchid I bought, and the blue flower was a gift from Sparkly Sushi! If you want some hair flowers, you should check out her flickr and send her an email to see if she is selling any ;) The pink strips pinned to the wall are pieces of felt to help store the clips. Easy and cheap solution and it helps prevent them from getting bent!

Anyhow - enough about outfits. Sorry the posts have been few and in between last week. I had a good bit of computer issues at the beginning of the week and we had to reload my operating system and a ton of drivers. (Its all fixed now though. Whew!) On top of that, I was having a hard time last week emotionally due to it being the anniversary of my father's death... its not something I really like to acknowledge because I find celebrating life much more important and rewarding... But regardless I think it was on my mind subconsciously and got me down. I'm feeling much better now and back to being my happy self again, so no worries! Plus, there were happy things that occurred in my family this weekend - my cousin Lauren was proposed to by her girlfriend Olaava on Saturday! I've been friends with Olaava for a few years now, so its really exciting to know she is now going to be part of my family. We celebrated on Sunday with a big brunch at their house, and later I went to visit the house they just bought and are remodeling. Lots of exciting things going on in their life right now!

On a different note, I've been thinking of new things I want to try with my blog - but my boyfriend suggested I ask you guys what your favorite types of posts are! I'd love if you could fill out this form and let me know... I really enjoy blogging for myself but want to make sure its enjoyable for others to read as well ;) And if you have any ideas for posts you'd like me to write about, let me know by leaving a comment!

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Hope you guys are having a great Monday so far!

Photo update

Its a bit rainy and dark today... trying to get motivated to finish up some work and I thought I'd take a a fun break to share photos! The above is Chris and I on Mother's day... Unfortunately I only have photos of us - the ones of my mother and I are on her camera! We took my mother out for lunch that day, and then later on in the evening met up with Chris's family to celebrate his mother. It was nice to visit with each others families this weekend in-between all the other events we had going on...

A week or two ago Chris's parents gave us a frame they weren't using that had a metal butterfly attached to it... so I had Chris remove the butterfly with metal cutting pliers and turned it into a necklace! The chain is an antiqued gold-looking metal and the dangling part at the bottom is a glass bead shaped like a heart! I really like it! I've been making a lot of fun weird things lately - I wish I had duplicates of the stuff I was using so I could put some on etsy... but so far I've only been using items that were going to be thrown away or recycling old things I don't wear anymore.

This is my friend Abby and I with some weiiiird animal statue at the liquor store during our monthly bicycle bar ride. I think it is supposed to be a werewolf??  Ehhh - haha I don't know really. I decided to wear the crown I made while I rode my bike around town, it proved to be pretty fun ;) I don't really enjoy drinking that much anymore, but I still like the social goofy aspect of our bicycle bar rides! It is a good excuse to visit with your friends while riding bikes. 

I have a few more photos and videos I took Saturday night, but my computer keeps acting buggy so I can't get to them at the moment. Here is one last photo I had stashed on my desktop though! It's Chris and I in San Francisco at the Japanese Tea Garden (taken by my friend Seth). That bridge was super fun to climb up because it had an intense arch! I kinda want one in my backyard with a little moat or something. Heheh...

Chris raced his track bicycle this weekend at the Velodrome too, but I don't have any photos of that :( Someone else got a really great photo though - you should check it out! Zoooom! I went and watched him race for a bit and it was pretty exciting.

Hope you are all doing well! Everyone has been leaving really sweet comments lately - its been fun to read them :)