I've created a new blog like I mentioned earlier

Click here to read it!

I won't be writing in this journal anymore, but I will be using it to keep track of you guys and commenting and such :)

I'm also closing down my etsy store and have opened up a new one. There's nothing in the new store yet but if you read my blog I'll update you on when I do list new items :D

So finally I got around to upping my photos! But I don't really have time to sit down and write a lengthy post detailing what I did so hopefully you'll get an idea by viewing my photos on my flickr http://www.flickr.com/photos/7124925@N02/ I've also got some pics from Hong Kong, not many though and mostly just from Disneyland. I only had one full day and an evening in HK so my friend and I just hit Disneyland and then shopped til we dropped (quite literally, our feet were so sore by the end of the day we could hardly walk back to the hotel!).

A shoutout to Jamie: HAPPY BELATED BIRTHDAY!!! I was so ready to congratulate you for the day but then it went by and I realised I had forgotten D:

So what am I doing?
- Uni work to my ears. As most of you know (I think) it's my last semester of uni so I'm working extra hard to create really great pieces to put into my portfolio. I'm so proud I actually do homework every single day, before it used to be maybe a couple of days a week quickly finishing something in one day! So it would yield some pretty terrible work...but now I'm producing stuff I'm actually proud of and hopefully will land me a job at the end of the semester! I'll post my stuff soon, I'm thinking of moving my journal to blogspot so it looks a little more professional and only have illustration related stuff there. So I may still post here or I might not, but I will let you know what happens :)

- Researching about setting up a business! I applied for a business number today yay :D It's hard trying to get my head around all the technical things, I feel so stupid sometimes not understanding. I'll be applying to do a craft market in November so I must get moving and start sewing up some cushions. I also plan to do some screen printed cards, must order the screen printer stuff soon! And there's another market I'm thinking about applying for in December so I will be busy for the rest of the year. Hopefully I'll make enough money so I can get myself an awesome printer to do art prints :D I've mentioned before that I made stuff for an anime convention, I was thinking of doing it again but I've finally decided not to do it. I'm not really interested in anime anymore and it just would be a waste of my time to make fan related stuff rather than focusing on my own business with original goods.

- Met up with fellow etsy people in Perth on Saturday! See photos in Amanda's blog http://blogs.oddsocks.net/ahunt/2008/08/24/etsy-wa-meetup/
We went to see Liza's work at the exhibition called Art in Bloom at the art gallery. All the pieces incorporated flowers (real or created), they were quite interesting to look at. It was really great chatting to a bunch of like minded people :) I'll be seeing the girls again Wednesday night for an opening of a new store selling things like blank matroishkas (sp?), Qee dolls and they also provide printing onto fabric services!!!! I'm quite excited about that and will enquire if they would do large lengths of fabric :D

Sweater: vintage 80's
Shirt: Cotton On
Necklace/Watch: from Finland
Shorts: Dotti
Leggings: Sportsgirl
Socks: Myer
Boots: K-Kenka

Details

My wrist watch broke down a couple months ago so I've been using this, it's actually my mom's but she doesn't like it (was a present from her family). The jumper is actually my mom's too lol it even has a matching long skirt! The skirt is really nice but it's a bit tight on me at the moment :P Maybe one day I'll be skinny enough to wear it again!


I looooooooove these boots. I got them when I went to Finland it was love at first sight *swoons*. Seriously you can't buy boots like this here in Perth.

Shirt: Cotton On
Scarf: H&M
Skirt: some random cheap store
Leggings: Sportsgirl
Boots: Born
Bag: from China

Hehe haven't done one these for a while :P

RE previous post: thanks for the comments and advice, I found creative suite on ebay for cheap so hopefully I can buy that fingers crossed!

Well I'm back from China and I have tons of photos to show but one problem...my computer died just before I left and I have a new one now but I can't get any of my software to work on it cos I need serial numbers. I tried finding cracks/keygens but they don't work, instead filling my poor new computer with trojans and viruses I am such a stupid stupid girl. I've done it before and never had problems but this time nothing will work so I don't have any photoshop etc!

If anyone can help me out and get me serial numbers for photoshop, indesign, illustrator CS2 I would be eternally grateful. I don't have the money to buy the real thing and I really need these programs (especially photoshop) to do my stuff at uni. Whoever can help me I'll do/make something for you in exchange!!! If I don't get these programs I'll have to stay at uni after hours all the time which would suck big time because I live over an hour away from uni D:

I just got back from seeing the doctor and I can go to China!!! So I'll be leaving at 1am Thursday (geez so early) and will be back Tuesday 22nd July at 11:50pm :)

Now to get all my things together and figure out what to take with me D:

Some little paintings I'm doing to eventually put up into the shop :D I found these coasters at the art shop which are very fun to paint on, I was initially looking for little canvases but I couldn't find what I exactly wanted (plus they were more expensive :P).

I haven't posted anything I've done for uni, so now that the semester is over (thank god!) Here are the good ones :P I did lots of other stuff which is either a)irrelevant or b)horrible



I had to create a double page spread illustration from a children's book. I chose "Amy at the Bakery", one of my favourite books as a child. In this scene they are all running down the street, took me ages trying to get the running right as well as the placement of Amy and the pram :P
Medium - ink
Now that I look at it more, parts of it is wonky and needs fixing :P



This one I had to create an illustration to accompany a poem about circus elephants - how they 'hold hands' by holding each other's tails.
The colours ended up darker than I wanted but since I had to do this in a day (I had so many assignments that this one ended up being shunted to the side too much!) I couldn't be bothered to fix it, I would have run out of time otherwise :P
Mediums - acrylics, colour pencil
I quite like this one :D unfortunately I only got 80% D: it's always my lack of research and development that let me down. Must try to do more of it next semester!!



This is for an ad for a fabric softener. The clouds are meant to be a metaphor for how soft it makes fabrics.
Man, this baby came out so darn cute :DDDD I just want to pinch it's cheeks XD

Ok so I'm real late on my reporting on Eurovision 2008. I taped the final and I only got around to watching it today since my mom wanted to watch it too and she's always busy. I was so annoyed that Russia won!!! They weren't horrible but they weren't all that good either D: And a lot of other crap came higher than not so crap ones....

So I made my own ranking for Eurovision 2008 :D (I've finished most of my assignments so I have free time haha)

The number in brackets is the actual ranking

1.(9) Israel - omg loved it so beautiful *3*
2.(7) Turkey - the way he sang reminded me a bit of L'arc en ciel
3.(17) Albania - really liked the way she sang
4.(8) Azerbaijan - I called this one the Gay Angel, he was so awesome I'd totally marry him
5.(14) Iceland - anyone else think this sounds like a Gay Anthem?
6.(15) Denmark - such a happy sounding song, also liked his suspenders :D
7.(10) Bosnia and Herzegovina - weird performance awesome song
8.(11) Georgia - I liked how they ripped her clothes off
9.(2) Ukraine - I have had this song stuck in my head for the past few days. Also the blonde dancer was SUPER short
10.(4) Armenia - QUELE QUELE!!!
11.(22) Finland - seriously not being biased cos it's one of my home countries, but they weren't that bad!
12.(25) UK - also weren't that bad, I think Europe just hates Britain
13.(16) Spain - lol funny song
14.(1) Russia - it was ok but definitely not number one
15.(19) France - another weird song but interesting
16.(5) Norway - I thought this was pretty average, nothing special
17.(6) Serbia - meh
18.(20) Romania - if that woman wasn't singing in the song, it would be so much better
19.(18) Sweden - the woman who sang this has had waaaaay too much plastic surgey she looks horrible!!!
20.(24) Poland - meh
21.(13) Portugal - didn't like her singing, not a very interesting song
22.(12) Latvia - wtf singing about pirates?? I have friends who I bet would like this but I'm just going to say BAD TASTE
23.(3) Greece - why the hell do people like this song??? Not very original and bland
24.(21) Croatia - stupid old men
25.(23) Germany - uninteresting song and they couldn't sing very well either :P

I bet no one cares about my opinion cos I don't think many people on my friends list even watch Eurovision! But oh well, it's here for my reference :D But I know you watched it Katie! Gimme your version if you can be bothered XD

This is what love should be like :)

I made this for someone's house warming...which I didn't end up going to! I can't drive and I didn't have anyone to get a lift from so I wasn't able to get there :P Oh well maybe one day she'll get the drawing DX

Illustration Friday "Seed"

I've seen this meme a few times and thought to do it....except I haven't really changed since I was a teen! I'm so boring I never went through phases of goth or punk or slut etc. At the start of highschool I had no style and it took me a while to learn (my highschool had no uniform so I had to learn quick!). I remember no one wore kids clothes, they wore more 'grown up' stuff and looked trendy...and there I was in my farmer girl shirt lol I wasn't even one of those arty students who wore cool outfits! I just wore jeans and a tshirt in my later years. Although now that I think about it I went through a phase of doing crazy hairstyles every day when I was about 14 I think. But that's about as different as I got :P I bet you once I'm 33 I'll STILL look the same :D

A couple weeks back I got a new kitten! Since my previous cat died last year it's been lonely without a cat around. Sure we have another cat Ruskea, but he's not very affectionate and is always outside somewhere or if he is inside he is in my dad's teaching room (it's horrible, ever since me and my mom went to Finland, Ruskea has become my dad's cat DX). And we figured Ruskea might need some kitty company so we got a kitten from the cat haven! She was initially named "Poopsie" can you believe it...she's not even the colour of poop so why would they call her that?? She had diarrhea a day after she came ;_; so we took her back and they gave her more worming and we are feeding her low residue food and some antibiotics and now she is making awesome pitch black ginormous poos :DDD She only poos about once a day or every second day lol.

Nöpö is one crazy kitty though...since I don't remember having my cat as a kitten (I was only 6 at the time) I don't really have a good idea of what to expect from kittens. Well I can tell you that they are MENTAL! They get into everything and climb everything. Nöpö has taken to running at the door and then climbing the fly screen. Also wedging herself between the sliding glass door and the fly screen. I have so many scratches from her leaping at me and hanging onto my skin with her claws. But despite her being really annoying, she is very cute especially when she is asleep lol. She's a real lap kitty and is always touchy feely. She likes to kneed you like dough, I have a polar bear stuffed toy from Finland and she loves to kneed it, I think cos the bear is really soft.

Oh and another annoying thing, she is obsessed with food. She will tip over the rubbish bin (we will have to get one of those heavy ones with a lid!) and climb onto the dining table and try to eat your food. I hope she'll grow out of this...







Sorry I have been so postless lately DX My scanner has been acting up and won't work on my computer, only on the other one and I can't be stuffed to use the other computer it is so damn slow! But I haven't done anything interesting art-wise and nothing craft-wise D: I have a week off from uni so maybe I'll get something done during that time...I have lots of uni work to do as well so we will see :D

Right I've uploaded a bunch of pictures on Flickr and now I can start to tell you about my trip to Finland with my mom :D

( It all started on the 19th of December 2007.... )

I'm back! I came back on Friday in the wee hours of the morning. Finland was wonderful I really want to go back there! I'll have a proper post about my trip soon, I need to resize photos and have a long chunk of time to just sit at my comp and type it all out :D

I hope everyone's Christmas and New Year was fun! I've looked at some people's LJ's but haven't moved onto non-LJ blogs yet...I have a lot of catching up to do. I've seen a few people review the past year and have some new years resolutions so I'll do the same :)

2007:
The Good Things
- I got to go to Finland my birth country for the first time and meet my family
- I got a Dean's Commendation from uni about my excellent marks in Semester 2
- Wai-Con was a huge success and helped me to pay all my debts
- I made a wonderful new friend Elizna <3

The Bad Things
- Being diagnosed with Crohn's and having a real hard time trying to get it under control...it was under control but then it started to come back at the end of December DX It's making me feel so shitty and ugly (I have a massive puffy face and can't fit into most of my clothes ;_;).
- Not being able to socialise much because of illness. I was too scared to go out in case there wasn't a toilet near by or I was in too much pain.
- Getting myself into huge debt
- My baby, my cat died while I was in Finland. I never got to say a proper goodbye, I really thought she would be ok until I got back. It's like a lost a best friend.

Well that's all I can remember :P It's been mostly a crappy year and I hope it won't continue too much into this year. The year has started well with being in Finland but now my stupid stomach is acting up again, hopefully it will be ok by the time I go back to Uni at the end of Feb.

2008 Resolutions:
- Try to get Crohn's under control through diet. So try not to eat junk food, eat healthy!
- Get more regular exercise if illness permits. I need to lose about 5 kilos.
- Draw more! I say this every year, but this year I really need to take my illustrating seriously so that my exhibition at the end of the year for uni looks fabulous and hopefully someone will give me a job!
- Try to learn Finnish and get my Finnish citizenship back. A lady in Finland told us about being able to have dual citizenship now!!! It's a bit costly but if I get it, it means I can easily go study or work there any time I want :DDDDD

I think that's it :)