Halloween at E3

For this month's East Cup, we had to decorate our lounge for Halloween. I dressed up a bit as the undead, but my camera is out of batteries, which also explains the lack of posts. Luckily, Simon took pictures of the pumpkin I carved. Unfortunately, we didn't win because E4 went all out, so we tied for second place. I ended up stabbing it with forks, knives and scissors, but they're not included in this picture. I also added red paint to its innards for a more grisly effect. I forgot to take off my watch, so it got a bit wet, but it still works.

Vacation

What I'm Listening To: This song suddenly popped into my mind with the thought "I need a vacation". I'm actually alright, I don't really need one that badly, but here's Vacation by Vitamin C anyways.

I realize I haven't updated in quite a while. Yes, I have been rather busy. I'll post more pictures when I have time. I brought this doll with me so that I could take photos of it before I mail it out. I think it's probably one of my favourites. It'll be traveling to my good friend 小吳 (Xiao Wu) in Shanghai.

She's wearing a heart-shaped bikini made from bright blue felt and is adorned with small pink star beads.

It's so dark in my room and it's difficult to take good pictures. My room is right by the door, so it can be noisy when people keep moving in and out of the building. However, the geese and seagulls are by far the worst. My classes start at either 9:30 am or 11:30, so why am I up at 6-something in the morning? I never set an alarm clock because they wake me up by 7 am every morning.

My Neighbour Totoro!

My Neighbour Totoro was the beloved animated film of our childhood.
Who didn't want to get to school on the cat bus? I even had dreams about it.


I started working on Totoro at about 10 am this morning and I've just finished at 9 pm. It wasn't exactly constant work, but pretty close. I listened to the audio book for Lunar Park by Bret Easton Ellis on my laptop while working. I also stopped for some Mika interview videos on Youtube, chatting, browsing, showering, one popcorn break and dinner.

I contemplated about whether or not I should take the time to make arms because I was pretty tired of crocheting by then. My dad thought its tummy was a giant mouth. My parents didn't think it needed arms until I showed them the original and they agreed that it would probably look more complete. I agree. Otherwise, it was kind of like a ball with ears and a tail.

I kind of made it up as I went along. I made a lot of mistakes but I didn't correct them because I figured it was just a prototype and they wouldn't be too visible. Otherwise, I made the other arm, eye, or ear the same way, so it'd be intentional :]


It has little claws, which were very visible in the cartoon. These whiskers are movable, unlike the way I usually sew them onto its face.

It bears a striking resemblance to Catbert.

In fact, the real life totoro is said to be the chinchilla and I wanted one for the longest time.

Red and Black Hat

I crocheted this hat a while ago, but never got around to posting it, partly because I never know what expression I should make. It's a hat that has an interesting design and made from yarn of a slightly bulkier thickness than the variety I use for my amigurumi (crocheted dolls). I crocheted the black band and turned it to connect horizontally around the head, instead of working from the top. Next, I made the red circle at the top and attached it to the black band. The last part was the red stripe at the bottom with a striped bill and finished off with a black border along the entire edge. The brim is soft, so it doesn't stand up like the newsboy hat. Heh, looking back at that post, I used to be so much more concise.

Suki

I made this a while ago, but never had the motivation to set up the background to take photographs, transfer them to my computer to edit, then upload them online. The first one I made was grey and rather silly, but I'll make a post on that another day. I made another one that was very similar to this one, but I promptly sold it for $30 to a friend. I think I probably should have charged more, because this one is actually practical. Someone offered to sell it in her shop on Unionville Main Street, but I didn't like the terms and conditions of the proposed agreement.


Do you remember that hideous iPod case I crocheted one night when I couldn't sleep? I think I put it away somewhere, but I never explained the "trinket for its closure - a silver metal 'M'. Why the 'M'? For Music! For Mania! I don't know. To be honest, it was just what I happened to have on hand, because I had used all the other letters in the word DREAM (you'll see how and why in another post to come)." As you can see, I have rearranged the remaining letters and I had the option of choosing either DARE or READ. Would I really want a bag that was commanding me to READ?


Just now, I had the compulsion to name it Suki. No, not Dare, that would be redundant. It's gender is still to be determined and I suppose that name could be a unisex one, but I can't seem to decide on it. What makes Suki special? You may have noticed that it appears rather flat. That's because it's a cat bag - a hungry one, it is running empty. The silver stars happened to come with the letters and I can't begin to describe how difficult it was to find attractive, suitable buttons. I didn't want cute, plastic pastel daisies.


The buttons fasten quite securely, yet they are relatively easy to open, unlike the other red and black bag I had made first. I think its stripes were wider, maybe doubled. It's quite spacious inside and fairly sturdy, but I wouldn't recommend carrying a brick around, because either the strap would come undone or it will get stretched out of shape.


To illustrate its actual size, I've slung it over my shoulder. I had taken pictures of the grey one, but it just didn't turn out well. I had hung it from somewhere and the strap looked more like a noose, which is why I haven't posted those pictures. I don't like that photo of me either, because it looks like I'm hugging myself in a warped position, but, really, I'm not. It just looks that way because I had to hold the camera. I gave up on using the timer today so that I could take more pictures before dinner and it's much easier. However, the mirror seems to be a bit streaked and speckled, so I'll have to clean it when I have time and I might replace some of these photos later. Taking pictures in my brother's washroom is really much easier because of the way its set up and doesn't include the laundry chute. I've always wondered what it would be like to slide through it, but the laundry room floor is tiled, so I'd crack either the tiles or my skull if I went head first.

Alright, lurkers. If you've made it through to the end of this post, I think it's only fair that you make your vote on my poll, especially since I went through the trouble of making it...

How much should I charge for Suki?
$40 - $50 $50 - $60 $60 - $70 $70 - $80 $80 - $90 $90 - $100 $100+??
	Results

The amounts are in USD and I have to pay for listing fees, etc. Please ask your friends to have a look and cast their vote to help me out. As well, have a look at GourmetAmigrumi's Etsy shop to get a better idea of the price ranges. I consider my designs quite different from hers, so we aren't really direct competitors. Feel free to comment with a more specific amount and whether it should be including shipping and handling or if would be separate. Keep in mind that I have to use the profit to buy more safety eyes, especially cat eyes of different sizes and multi-coloured ones in a variety of styles online.

Please let me know what you think! Thank you!

iPod Nano

I hadn't wanted to fall in with the whole craze, but I've been looking at iPods for a long time now. At first I wanted the best and most expensive, but I realised that I probably wouldn't even have anything to fill 80 GB, nor would I want to convert full movies to watch on it. I don't even take very many pictures either. It'd be strange having the photos to follow of my iPod on my iPod.

I had wanted to get the U2 one, only because it's red and black, but I really don't like U2 or Bono, nor am I willing to pay extra for it just so that a small portion of the proceeds would be directed towards the efforts in Africa. I don't want their signatures all over the back of it either. You should know by now that those are my favourite colours - black first, then red, but they're best when together as a team. I had really been planning on buying the Red iPod Nano online, because it was the same fair price and I'd get the engraving for free .

A few weeks ago, we thought better of it and decided to buy it at a local store, so if I had any problems with it, I could easily go back and take care of it. The problem was it was only available online. Nevertheless, I finally made up my mind and settled for a black one with 8GB at Costco, but was very adamant finding a way to make it red and black. I was going to pay for it myself, but my dad really insisted that he wanted to get it for me under one condition: I had to eat. I was still hoping that I could just buy it myself.

For the time being, I kept it in one of those tiny sealable plastic baggies and put it in a Dyrberg/Kern bag that I had received as a gift to contain the jewelry inside, of course. I was very anxious about getting the slightest scratch on it or damaging it any way. (Note: The red case is the one I ended up buying.)


The next weekend, we went shopping for iPod accessories at Pacific Mall. Oddly enough, almost all of the silicone skins or plastic cases only come in pastel colours. It was frustrated, but we persisted. Just as we were about to give up after approximately four hours of endless searching solely for iPod cases, we found a very nice metal one for $25. I was worried about scratching the screen since the case left it bare, but they were also selling plastic coverings for $5 and they were specifically designed for the iPod Nano. I was thinking that I had those clear adhesive sheets at home for cell phone screens, but couldn't be sure that they would be large enough.


I still keep it in the Dyrberg/Klein pouch, because sometimes I'm able to use the click wheel or lock/unlock the hold without having to pull out of the bag. The "Even brighter colour screen" is indeed strong enough to shine through the mesh and I can see the screen quite clearly.


Another bonus of keeping it in the pouch is not having to remove the actual device from it and directly insert USB connection cable directly when it's facing the right direction. The earbuds' cord also flows nicely through the opening when the strings are drawn. I don't feel safe with it dangling around my neck, putting it in my pocket, or just carrying it in my hand, so I hang it on my wrist by the strings, then twist it around so that it fits securely in the palm of my hand.



There was one night where I couldn't sleep at all. I stayed up the entire night and by 3 or 4 AM I gave up on sleep and decided I had to do something. I couldn't think of anything, so I thought I'd follow the trend of all craftsters and make an iPod cozy. I did it in one night and I happened to have a trinket for its closure - a silver metal 'M'. Why the 'M'? For Music! For Mania! I don't know. To be honest, it was just what I happened to have on hand, because I had used all the other letters in the word DREAM (you'll see how and why in another post to come). I made sure to make a small button hole opening at the bottle so I could plug in the headphone cord.

I hadn't intended on its cover to be in something of a zig-zag or snake-like shape. I wasn't sure if I wanted to make it at all, but decided it was for the best so that it wouldn't slip out. Plus, I just wanted to make use of that 'M'. I might remake the cover, because it doesn't fit quit the orderly stripes on the inside and on the back. As with most manic creations, especially made through or in the middle of the night, I wanted to destroy it as soon as the sun had risen. I'm rather ashamed of it, but it wouldn't be of much use to me to frog it completely, because the yarn would be difficult to use and I might be able to think of a way to improve it or motivate myself to remake the cover. Who knows. For now, I just never use it and prefer to keep it hidden. I hadn't really wanted to even take pictures of it let alone post them online, but I might as well include it as a part of this post.

On a side note, how do you handle the headphone cord? Does anyone have any brilliant ideas on how to keep it neat, organized and in good condition in a convenient fashion other than winding it around the iPod? I really hate having to do that and I really worry that the plug will get stretched or twisted and just give out on me some day. The sound quality is excellent, better than all the other cheap MP3 players I've gotten in the past, especially in comparison to the most recent one I had owned, where it required a lot of twisting of the plug to get it to play music. It was difficult to get it to play in even one side, but both was next to impossible.

Atticus

For my English Independent Study Project, which I believe a lot of people are either finishing up or preparing their presentations around this time of the year, I had wanted to compare The Heart is Deceitful Above All Things with The Child Called 'It' by Dave Pelzer and write an essay on different aspects concerning child abuse. I had it all planned out, I was going to compare the tones in each book as they were written through a child's perspective and contrast the character developments throughout the novels. There were a lot of ideas in my mind and I had almost had it written out...

But my teacher wouldn't let me use those two books. She said the vocabulary and writing styles were too simple.

I ended up having to compare To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee with Snow Falling on Cedars by David Guterson. They had SparkNotes on them, but they weren't entirely helpful. I also figured they had movies, so I could watch them for inspiration. I couldn't get through five minutes of To Kill A Mockingbird. Of course, that's to be expected because I didn't enjoy the book at all and I'd had to read it a million times over, select quotes to support my arguments, pick out specific examples to compare and contrast with the other novel, Snow Falling on Cedars. I had watched that movie many years ago, but opted out this time because it really wasn't worth watching again. I was dying to switch novels, but by then, it was already too late. My essay focused on racial discrimination in both eras and against different races in the US.


My dad gave me these pens, but I'm not sure where or why he had them. It might have been a bonus with the purchase of a bottle of Hennesy XO Cognac, which is what seems to be printed in silver on the inside of the cover. The pens don't even write very well and they're also too big and heavy for my preference.

The problem with the English curriculum throughout high school is the rigid rules on writing a "proper essay." The student must not deviate from the robotic fill-in-the-blanks format and reiterate but paraphrase the thesis at the end of every paragraph. Each paragraph had to have a specific argument and it had to end with a sentence that connected the topic of that paragraph with the thesis and attempt to make it flow into the next. One thesis. Three arguments. Done.


I don't remember what I did with my essay that ended up being something like twenty pages long or so, double-spaced, but I remember my teacher simply wrote "Beautifully written. 40/40." I don't know why the students of the year before mine were making such a big fuss over it, causing fear in the hearts of all the younger students in each year after them. It may have just been the excessive amount of time that we were given to write it.


I can't remember how much, but this essay was worth a lot in the calculation of the final mark for university. There were many simple components to this project in an attempt to allow the student to redeem him/herself, such as the essay outline, which was also worth a fair amount of marks. After the essay was completed, each student was also required to do a presentation, preferably in some creative manner.

I decided to present my project in the form of a court case as Atticus, a lawyer and the father of Scout from To Kill A Mockingbird. I dressed in black suit, put on a Southern accent, slicked and tied my hair back and strode in with a file folder, transparencies with quotes, notes on index cards, notebook, a case of pens, my Emporio Armani watch, and the thin glasses in the photograph above. It was a bit of a reverse order, because I walked in with the glasses and promptly took them off as I began my presentation, because I have 20/20 vision and I could not see clearly through them, whereas they're supposed to be reading glasses. The two cartons of cupcakes I had baked the night before to be distributed as a part of my Southern hospitality were already under the desk. I think I had made something like sixty cupcakes of both "black" (chocolate) and "white/yellow" (lemon) varieties to represent racial harmony. It hadn't gone as well as I had hoped because I was very flustered, nervous, and experiencing a serious case of social anxiety.

To think, the year before I was the alienated Joan d'Arc, pleading for my innocence in a French accent with the occasional French word, while wearing the heavy steel armour my friend had made for her Classics project, aluminum foil thigh and arm pieces, black pants under knee-high black leather boots, standing on a chair, tied to a Roman pillar, and had pieces of fire made from construction paper on little stands around me. I had to get someone else to cue the background music for me from my MP3 player and a pair of speakers because the school didn't have enough CD players to go around. Of course, it was the track I use for almost all my presentations of this nature: "Cleansing" from the Resident Evil soundtrack and, while it contained no lyrics, its score was written by Marilyn Manson. I think that was probably my best presentation throughout high school.

As always, I'm off topic again. The real focus of this post was on the pen that I've been meaning to describe, the one on the black notebook and on my laptop in a previous post. I saw this advertisement in a free magazine that I picked up at a subway station on my early trip back from DECA.



I cut that page out of the magazine and stuck it to the inside of my locker with a magnet for the rest of the year and its corner has gotten a little bit damaged. No fear, for I have made a copy on thick, high quality, glossy photo paper, encased in a page protector. It's sitting on the top of the shelf to the left of my desk.

I believe Julianne Moore also supported this ad campaign for the "Entertainment Industry Foundation and Montblanc to help children develop their most valuable asset: imagination."

I wish I had taken more magazines with me, but I was in a rush to catch the subway and get home as soon as possible. I still have that page from the magazine on the shelf wall of my other desk and I look at the slogan everyday "Time is Precious. Use it Wisely." It doesn't really motivate me to study hard or anything though.

I had a whole bunch of useless "coaster" CDs and I didn't know what to do with them and nobody else seemed to have any brilliant plans either. I came up with a simple one, where I threaded a rope through two discs stacked on top of each other and hung it from the magazine rack on the top of the shelf attached to the desk on my right. It allows for papers and notes to be gently clamped between the two discs without damaging them and they don't fall out too easily either. Johnny Depp has been there since I created the contraption and he is still firmly in place. In short, I'm sitting between two identical pictures of Johnny Depp; although the one on my left is mixed in with a stack of university packages and notifications.

It's a strange feeling to have been staring at the same stack of brochures and pamphlets on being accepted to university and other packages of information for about a full year now, while I am now receiving a new batch in the mail. I'm not sure if I should throw it out just yet, but I will have to eventually, because it really is quite a collection. That first set was the one I was supposed to have made good use of. If you had asked me at the time that I had been receiving those notifications how sure I would be that I would be student of the University of Waterloo in September '06 I would have said 99.9% certain, because nothing is ever absolutely for certain in life. Who would have known that I would be opening those packages at 4AM, lying crippled in bed at Markham-Stouffville Hospital in September, when I should have been sleeping in an apartment-style suite with two or three other girls in Mackenzie King Village in Kitchener-Waterloo?

That 0.1% of uncertainty was what happened to me.

Wings in the Sky with Diamonds

Once upon a time, a girl, who had diamonds on her tooth and wings on her back, went to the supermarket and wondered why people were looking at her funny. She wasn't even carrying her wand, because she knew it would get in the way when she would be picking grapefruits.

One woman struck up the nerve to ask her why she was wearing the wings. She didn't want to tell her that it was a part of her and that she had left her wand at home, so she told her it was just "For fun!" The lady didn't know what else to say and responded with "They're umm...nice" and quickly left to walk away to her car.

As for the jean shorts, she got them at Urban Behaviour, two for $50, but promptly ripped them just after wearing them for the first few times. She was in a rush to catch the bus, slipped on the ice, scraped and bruised the right knee with a few scratches on her hands, but worst of all, she tore the right knee of her new jeans. Those were stretchable jeans in the perfect wash and colour that she had wanted, but Urban Behaviour was starting a new line of clothing, so it was unlikely that she'd be able to find another one of a similar design. Disheartened, she returned home and may or may not have ended up going to school anyways. Probably the latter. However, this is only Part One of the story of these jeans...

Pillmatic

This was how my laptop started its life that was soon to be abused.



I thought I'd make a three dimensional collage of some of things that surround my desk and laptop. The front of my laptop is very scratched up, so I decided to paint wings on them. They couldn't be facing in the same direction, because then it would be upside down when it was either opened or closed. From all the capsules that I get from the vending machines, I use them to hold my medications for me, because they have a transparent half and it's also easier for me to pick out the amount I need. There are some that I don't really take very frequently so I just keep them in their original tubes.

There's my diamond-studded mouse that I keep with it. However, some of its diamonds have fallen out, but I don't have any clear ones, so I had to replace them with blue crystals. It always reminds me of a ladybug. There's a story behind the pen, but I'll discuss that in another post.


These are some other medications that I happen to have on hand, but don't take regularly. I only take the ones on the left as needed and I haven't been taking the ones on the right at all anymore.

The green and white ones are fluoxetine capsules, which are just about internationally recognized under the name Prozac.

In Hong Kong, they use the name Seroxat for what we know as Paxil, which are all just brand names for paroxetine. The pink one is a Paxil/Seroxat 20mg pill. I find the sticky notes that the psychiatrists get to be a little ironic. There is a collection of users who are currently launching a lawsuit against SmithKline Beecham (dba GlaxoSmithKline). While the notepad simply commands the reader to "Be Happy!" like the little person looking at the rainbow in the illustration, these people are obviously very unsatisfied and not happy at all.

Nevertheless, I laugh while I watch the video for the parody of Justin Timberlake's Sexy Back entitled Paxil Back by The Gray Kid. Maybe you'll be able to "Be Happy!" after watching it, too.

Hobbies to Last a Lifetime

I've started making a whole plethora of crafts since I was three years old and I am absolutely serious when I write that. I used to do very simple origami, as well as those stars and geometrical shapes made of paper strips.

I really enjoyed cutting and pasting things at that age and I still do it from time to time, I even used it for a French presentation in Grade 11.


The cut-out is covered by a transparency and there are ribbons on both ends so the folder can be tied to prevent documents from falling out :]

For as far back as I can remember, I've been beading all my life.


I also started working with different kinds of clay and progressed from play dough (purchased and homemade), plasticine, polymer clay and ceramics. When I was fifteen and becoming vegetarian/vegan, I made marzipan creatures and flowers to decorate a cake I had made. I've also been stringing a whole smörgåsbord of different kinds of beads and knotting strings and gimp for friendship bracelets or Chinese knotting.


Around age 7, I started sewing somewhat more seriously. I bought a kit at the book fair in the library and started to learn quilting. I'm really not a very patient person, so they turned out rather ugly and useless. When I was 12, Mr. Sasaki made us sew some kind of Aboriginal design pieces. I don't have a sewing machine, but I've tried many times and I still can't seem get to get my grandmother's sewing machine to work properly. Recently, I've to hand sew almost everything: lace wrist warmers, lace gloves, skirts, hats, a dinosaur hoodie, and a reconstructed halter top and messenger bag. I also embellish my clothes with pieces of felt if I feel that they're too plain and sometimes I make little stuffed animals out of felt to make pins. There was also the duct tape era, where I used a regular sheet of paper and duct tape to make wallets and pencil cases. This lead to crafts from office supplies, which I make when it got really boring (almost all the time) when I was at work.


The paper clips still work, but they've just been transformed into little hearts <3

When the super long and thin straw fad came around, I also made bouquets of roses and jars upon jars of straws. I give them away or use them as bookends, but they're not very effective since they're not heavy enough.



I also made things from regular drinking straws, such as bracelets and animals, as well as my signature shrimp:

These straws were from Starbucks :3

The straws were from Ikea and I wanted to try fork bending. I didn't get a chance to upload how it looks from the front, but that's the basic idea.

Speaking of making things from everyday items, there was a time where I was begging people to eat the Starburst candies I had bought, but they were obligated to give the all wrappers to me in good condition. They had to be of a specific colour, so I could only buy selected flavours. I had a few blue and green ones or some other similar colours from when I hadn't decided what I wanted to make with them - I wanted to make a pheonix.



My dad came home with a weaving loom one day when I was about five, so I worked with that, but didn't like it very much.

To answer Seema's question: All of my dolls are crocheted. I think I started to learn to knit and crochet when I was maybe six years old with my grandmother, who is an expert at it. She was one of those old ladies who would make doilies out of cotton thinner than fingerling yarn. She made a cover for my piano with frills to hang from the top of it. Can you imagine how intricate and how long it must have taken her to make such a large cover of a beautiful design?? When we sold it, we gave it to the new owners, because we wouldn't have any use for it anymore. I hope they put it to good use. She also makes those little coaster-like things to put under flower vases.


At the time, I wasn't really good at either methods, because my attempted projects all had huge holes in it. I had had an on and off relationship with yarn. I took a break and when I came back to it, I insisted on knitting, borrowed and purchased a lot of books, searched up a lot of sites and bought more supplies and equipment than what was necessary. Eventually I moved on to crochet to design and create the dolls, which are known as Amigurumi, that you see on this blog. The most annoying thing about this activity is the way I manage to lose all my crochet hooks or knitting needles rather quickly, especially the most essential ones. *sigh*
I'll probably be alternating between the methods depending on my mood, like everything else I do. :3

My grandmother's eyes are failing her as she is aging, so she has passed down the yarn that she had in her house, just as she did with the Chinese knotting satin strings, and she is going to try her best to bring the rest of her stash from Taiwan. See? My yarn stash keeps growing, but I'm not alone. This happens to the best of us.


Please do not be alarmed. I still have cartons upon cartons of more unorganized of works in progress (works that have been abandoned and will probably be frogged sooner or later), more skeins of all colours, thicknesses, and fibres and qualities. I also plan to make a trip to Wal-Mart on Monday to check out whether they have new colours and varieties of yarn. I have a list of colours that I need to purchase:

• Different shades of orange, other than the neon one around the bottom right corner
  
• I'm in desperate need of more cyan and vibrant yellow
  
• Jumbo sizes of black and white or yellow
• Safety eyes if I can find them
• Whatever else catches my eye ;)
  

The focus of this post revolves around knitting and crochet because that's what I'm mostly working on at the moment. There was a point where I'd make a whole bunch of things out of pipe cleaners, felt, pom poms, glitter and sequins, but that was a long time ago and I don't have any completed pieces to display. Now, I use the felt to decorate the dolls and the pipe cleaners to put inside the arms and legs so that they can hold poses, like The Philosophical Frog. I have to remember to pick up white felt when I'm shopping for yarn, too.

So, how many years have I been knitting? I don't even know. Could you say something like twelve years on and off? I don't know.

I hope you enjoyed this post, because it seriously took me all day to write, maybe seven hours give or take.