As I'm trying to get back into daily postings, I wanted to post some things I've been working on/interested in during the weeks I was absent from the internet.

First of all, have any of you signed up for the new Myspace? I was lucky enough to get an invite from one of my friends. The revamped social networking site is still in beta testing phase, so to be able to sign up you have to have an invite sent to you. (I have four invites left if anyone is interested.)
It's hard to say what the future will bring for the new Myspace. It definitely has gone back to its original roots - a world that mainly focuses on music, photography, film, and art. They have a huge music library, and they make it easy to listen, make playlists, and 'connect' to all things music and the other people. People have been saying that they're waiting for a new social networking site to come along because they're getting tired of Facebook and how much it has changed. Who knows if Myspace will satisfy their needs, only time will tell. But for now, I'm enjoying it, and so are many others.

Finals week was horrible this semester; it was probably a bad idea to sign up for Myspace in the midst of it all, but I needed a nice distraction. Besides, I got all my work done. Isn't that what matters?

The weekend I signed up for it, I was in the middle of this huge final project for my character development class. I was working with a partner, so the pressure not to let her down was overwhelming. We had to pick a story or song from this list our professor gave us. We chose A Boy Named Sue by Shel Silverstein/Johnny Cash. We really revamped the story, and made our own books with all of our work inside. This was the first book I made using this book binding method.

For my Illustrator computer class, we had to create a brochure with four panels. I created images of pretty well known 80's new wave musicians with fun hair, that is.
I focused on Dale Bozzio of Missing Persons, David Bowie, Robert Smith of The Cure, and Cyndi Lauper.

I tend to use only the pen tool for Illustrator projects, but I wanted to try something different. For this project, I mainly used the brush tool to get cool effects for their hair.

I'm kicking myself for not saving these files anywhere else outside my USB flash drive. It seems to be corrupted and it makes me so sad to lose all of my work. If I ever end up fixing the problem, I'll post up my final images instead of photographs of them. Boo.

I've also rediscovered a song that is the ultimate middle school throwback song for me. I was so obsessed with this song by Blindside when it came out.

I have been so into book binding lately, I'm obsessed. I love looking up Youtube tutorials and picking up new methods; I recently came across this book press DIY tutorial that really opened my eyes as to how easy some methods are.

My brother asked me what I wanted for Christmas and I asked him to make me a book press. It's super cheap and easy, and I think was a wonderful gift.

I tested it out and it works fantastic.

I don't have photos of the process, but I will share the video that gave me the idea in the first place.
Enjoy!

Sea Lemon Youtube channel is amazing, I can't stop watching all the videos!

Hope everyone is enjoying their holiday season!
It's been a crazy month! Between finals, the semester ending, the world not ending, holidays, and the stomach virus, I've found it difficult to find time for a blog post. Now that the craziness has subsided, I should be getting back into regular postings.

This year I participated in two secret Santas with two different groups of friends.
The first exchange was with my classmates. The friend I had likes to take actual photos with film, so I bought her two small photo albums from Michaels and painted the print on top with some stencils I made.

I also bought her a pack of gel pens and gave her one of my homemade books for her to draw in.

That day, my secret Santa got me a really nice sketchbook with a magnetized flap.

With my second group of friends, I made a "travel" book for my friend and filled it with photos from a spontaneous trip we took together. I think this is the best book I've made to date and she loved it, so I'm really excited.
I took picture of the 'making of' along the way.

My secret Santa got me delicious food stuff from New Orleans, being that that's where she's from. She's visiting for a little while and participated in our gift exchange.

I can't wait 'till I fully recover from my stomach virus so I can eat that cake and make those French doughnuts!

I've been meaning to post this for a while now. Today as I was ready to start my post, my internet goes out. Of course that would happen. Won't be fixed 'til Sunday. I'm temporarily mooching off a friend's wireless service.

Back in October I saw The Raveonettes at Webster Hall. As always, they put on a great show, and I love them more and more as the days pass.

Here are some shots from the show I took. Didn't take many, and most of these are blurry, but it doesn't bother me one bit. Great show and great memories.

Here's their recent video for Curse The Night. Such an eerie video.

I put together a new playlist on 8tracks that I'm loving. Whenever winter rolls around, I always find myself listening to shoegaze all day e'erday. I gathered my top shoegaze songs.

Gaze 'Til Dawn from marimars on 8tracks Radio.

Sometimes when I listen to my playlist, it plays on shuffle (I don't know if there's an option to fix that), but here's the original order of songs in the playlist:
. Black Tambourine - We Can't Be Friends
. My Bloody Valentine - Soon
. Catherine Wheel - Balloon
. Adorable - Glorious
. Thee Heavenly Music Association - Angelic Disorder
. The Verve - Star Sail
. Swervedriver - You Find It Everywhere
. Slowdive - When The Sun Hits
. Ride - Kaleidoscope
. The Raveonettes - She Owns The Streets
. Young Prisms - I Don't Get Much
. Medicine - Something Goes Wrong
. Pale Saints - Language Of Flowers
. Lilys - The Hermit Crab
. Chapterhouse - Pearl
. Shop Assistants - You Trip Me Up
. Sparklehorse - Piano Fire
. Gliss - Morning Light
. Tamaryn - Love Fade

Enjoy! I surely will, over and over again.

Can't believe how fast Thanksgiving came and gone.

There's so much that I'm thankful for that the list would go on and on and on. I'm not very good at expressing emotions sometimes, especially to my loved ones, but family and friends will always be at the top of my list. Without their encouragement and support, I don't know who and where I'd be right now. And for that, I will always be grateful.

With that being said, I spent the day of Thanksgiving with both family and friends.
I made cinnamon pie, which is a perfect Autumn kind of pie (I posted the delicious recipe HERE around this time last year). The fam can't get enough of it.

The afternoon was strictly family, and the night time brought my friends together. We relaxed at one house, which was a perfect ending to a wonderful day. My friend lent me her Perks Of Being A Wallflower book since I've never read it.

Black Friday brought a friendly dessert gathering at Friendly's. I ate the waffle sundae with all things delicious.

Black Friday also involved some online shopping. Forget cyber Monday, Black Friday had great internet deals. Bought this pair of Jeffrey Campbell sneakers from Solestruck and this sweater from Modcloth.

It's officially time for Christmas planning!

It's crazy how far into the semester we are. Only a few more weeks!
Kind of a scary thought with the end of the world and all coming. Hardy har har.

This assignment was another project that was due during Hurricane Sandy week, but we obviously got an extension. He had a class critique today and I got positive feedback.
We were supposed to make a book cover in Illustrator for a book of our choice. Only rule was that we had to trace the font for the title and author. The placement of the title had to be in the same place too. I chose Carrie by Stephen King - I was lucky to find an old cover to work off of where the title was a larger than his name.

My book cover is all about prom, religious icons, and psychic powers.
(I hope the religious reference doesn't offend anyone.)

This project got me all hyped up on the Carrie remake coming out next year. No one can be better than Sissy Spacek, but I guess we'll see!

I guess you can say I'm never fully satisfied with my end results, for anything. I'm a perfectionist, big time.
When it comes to clothes, I like my end results for a total of five minutes, and I'm ready to move on. I have the tendency to take finished shirts and take them apart to make something else. I can't tell you how many times I've done that since opening my store.
As annoying it is to think about how much time and materials I wasted the first time around, I appreciate how much my closet empties when I do this.
I think it's pretty apparent that I own too much.

I made this shirt a few years ago out of an old shirt my dad had. I made it a tank top with an attached faux button down. I've worn it a few times, but for the most part it was just sitting in my closet.

At some point during Hurricane Sandy week, I realized I had a plain purple t-shirt I bought from Michael's. I pulled out the button down shirt from my closet and took it apart. I worked in the tiger shirt attaching it to the purple shirt. I changed up the sleeves, and added the white collar from the original shirt. It's basically the same shirt but done differently. I like this one so much more.

I can't decide if I want to keep it for myself or put it up in the store.
Decisions, decisions.

I've officially had this blog for one year!
I'm proud of myself for sticking with it, even though there were gaps where I didn't post much. But I'm sure everything goes through stages when starting their blogs. The important thing is that I stuck with it long enough to post about today.

I browsed through some of my early posts to see what my hopes and dreams were, and even though some have changed (life goals), some things have been accomplished.
• My posts have become less frantic and random - sometimes you don't know where you want to take your blog in the beginning and it's important to just let it flow to find your voice and your purpose.
• I'm satisfied with my layout and presentation of my blog, and I think as time goes on it'll shape into everything I've ever dreamed of.
• I worked up the courage to open my own online shop, which definitely was a goal when I started posting here. I've been spending my time more productively and have created items I'm proud of. The store gives me a purpose to create anything I want, and it really feels good.

Anyway, I don't want to keep this post long. I'm just super excited.
Here's a random photo I took about a year ago, around this time. I think the white is appropriate being that there's still snow on the ground from the Nor'easter that hit us a few days ago. Snowed then, snowed now.

Happy Friday!

Remember when I posted about my Crayola Crayon Maker? I've made quite a bunch of crayons so far, I wanted to do something fun with them. I made mini crayon boxes!

I started by browsing around the 'net for templates to get a basic idea of how they're constructed. I measured out my crayons to get the right measurements for the boxes. I created a mock-up as a test, and they fit perfect!

I looked through my recycling bin and grabbed the first recycled box I saw. (Anything thin like cereal boxes are perfect for this.) I measured everything out and cut it.

To fold the box, I prefer poking holes down the lines using a pin.

Fold it up, and then glue the side folds together as well as the bottom folds.

And voila! A cute little crayon box using recycled goods!

I hopped on board the Threadless train and submitted my first design last week! I participated in their Sony Headphones contest, and even though I didn't win, I'm proud of myself for creating something I like and was confident enough to post.

It was a little nerve-wracking to get it finished in time, let alone put it up to be judged. There were quite a number of great designs I was up against, so it was a fair challenge.

I do plan on participating more, and hopefully win one day! That'd be wonderful.
So, there you have it. My first design. The first of many more to come!

I noticed I never posted any 'Sunday Summaries' in October, so here's a post with some photos I took last month. (Of course they're mostly food photos. Whoops.)

01. Tried tofurkey for the first time. I approve!
02. Cotton candy cupcake from Crumbs. Quite a sugary alliteration.
03. Another first - Korean food. My friend ordered some kind of drink that was an awesome neon green.
04. Needed to fix my froyo craving. Red Mango had a red velvet flavor - I couldn't say no!
05. Chicken-parm sandwich with vodka sauce. Delish.
06. My only non-food related photo: the new No Doubt cd!

This song also has been on heavy rotation the past two weeks.

For one of my classes, we were assigned to create an illustration about Dracula or Jekyll and Hyde. I felt I was more familiar with Dracula, but I didn't want to make a typical 'blood-sucking-vampire' sort of picture. I looked for inspiration (I watched Nosferatu The Vampyre [1979]), explored all options, and decided on creating my own Nosferatu.

I had a certain image in my head of where I want to take this. The only rule was to create a black and white image. I worked with pen and ink and cut paper.

I usually work with mixed media; I'm also big on creating layers by cutting out my images and pasting them on cardboard. This project was no different, expect for the whole illustration being in layers. I wanted to create a sort of shadow box.

It was a tedious and painful (literally painful working with an X-acto knife) process. Fun, right?

This project kept me busy during Hurricane Sandy week. That and apocalyptic zombie movies. All so Halloween appropriate.

Happy Halloween!
Unfortunately it doesn't feel so much like Halloween here in New York due to Hurricane Sandy. Haven't spotted any young trick-or-treaters, and have to yet to hear the doorbell ring. This year will surely be a quiet Halloween, but at least there's a general consensus to postpone it. It's better to play it safe for the kids.

My family was truly lucky to have made it through the whole storm without losing power. Also being that my town is in the middle of Long Island, we didn't suffer from any flooding and whatnot. Although, waking up the morning after to watch all news reports and updates of the damage Sandy left behind was heartbreaking. I've never seen New York and New Jersey in this condition, ever. It's going to take quite a while for the Tri-state area to get back on its feet, but I know we can do it. My heart truly goes out to everyone who had suffered from this storm.

That being said, we shouldn't let Sandy suck all the fun out of our Halloween this year.
I put together a fun little playlist of songs to get me through Halloween '12. I hope you enjoy it!

HallowMix from marimars on 8tracks Radio.

- In no specific order -
Be Your Own Pet - The Kelly Affair
Concrete Blonde - Bloodletting [The Vampire Song]
The Dagons - Skinless Jim
Echo & The Bunnymen - The Killing Moon
Echo & The Bunnymen - People Are Strange
Horrorpops - Walk Like A Zombie
Oingo Boingo - Dead Man's Party
Oingo Boingo - Nothing To Fear [But Fear Itself]
The Raveonettes - Attack Of The Ghost Riders
The Rezillos - Flying Saucer Attack
Schoolyard Heroes - Curse Of The Werewolf
Siouxsie & The Banshees - Halloween
The Soft Moon - Tiny Spiders
The Swayback - Vampires In The Mirror
Zombina & The Skeletones - Spring Heeled Jack

90s inspiration post!
A few weeks ago, I reblogged a Bjork photo on Tumblr, and her shirt reminded me a lot like this shirt I've seen Gwen Stefani wear. A white and rainbow stripe shirt.

I loved the way the rainbow strip carries from one sleeve, across the chest to the other sleeve. I loved it so much that I wanted a shirt of my own similar to it.

It occurred to me that I had a plain white long sleeved shirt that was in need of jazzing up, and a long strip of pastel colored stripes that I wasn't opposed to using. So I gathered my materials.

I began by pinning and sewing a strip across the chest. The sleeves were a little tougher to take on being that they have to line up evenly with the strip across the chest. (my the arm stripes didn't align properly, so I plan on redoing it.)
I decided to not add another pastel rainbow strip in the back, but only keep it in the front, as well as circulating around the arms. Personal preference, really.

But I'm a fan of the result, and I hope this inspires you to make your own 90s white and rainbow stripe shirt!
Super easy shmeezy project to take on.

Another book post!

I started this book with the intention of cutting out boxes and coloring them with primaries. I was super inspired by Mondrian art, if that wasn't apparent already. But I played around with my own twist.

I put in seven signatures, with I think 6 pages in each signatures.
Since finishing it, I've given it to a friend who requested to have it when it was all done. She loves them primary colors!

Thrifting is wonderful. The idea of finding something fun, unusual, and vintage - isn't it great? Cheap and awesome, it can't get better than that.

But what if you find the perfect item and the size is way too big? You have three options: (01) leave it, (02) buy it and wear it uncomfortably large (some people can pull that off. I certainly can't), or (03) buy it and resize it. Option three has always been my favorite. There are lots of reasons why this option rocks that I'd like to share.

• I love making something from nothing. You have complete control over everything to make it original and totally yours. Sometimes this power is overwhelming, and there are chances things can go wrong (believe me, it happens). But it's all about trial and error. You start to learn what techniques work and don't work, and it starts to become quite easy.
• You have all options in the world with what you can do. You can add or subtract, mix and match, etc. Plus another benefit of resizing is the fact that you'll most likely be cutting off fabric, so you're bound to have awesome leftover fabric for other exciting projects.
• One of my favorite reasons is that it makes shopping so easy that when you adjust to the idea of sewing up clothes, you tend to stop looking at sizes. How awesome is that? Nothing can stop you from buying what you want.
• Besides all of that, it's a good hobby and time filler. It helps you explore your creative side; you're given the chance to see what you can do with fabric.

This is the story of my life, and I wanted to share new possibilities. I think it's a good challenge to take on for those interested in trying out something new. If you've never challenged yourself this way, maybe it's something for you try sometime.