Pages 11 and 12 from my 002. Ursa Major Space Station art journal.
The right page is one of my favorites from this journal. It was one of those happy accidents. Planned on drawing and coloring it in differently, and came upon this which I really liked. I love those happy accidents.

Here's my song of the day.
I have a confession. I never liked the Smiths, but I always liked their songs. You would probably say I like the Smiths in that case, but I didn't want to like them. Then I came up with the conclusion that I just don't like Morrissey himself. Why let one person ruin it for me?

I've been on a big two-toned-everything kick.
I posted a vertical two-toned shirt DIY, but here are two horizontal two-toned shirts I made. Maybe sometime soon I'll post up a DIY for the horizontal.

The first top I originally created as a black and white crop top. I'm not big into crop tops and after sewing it up, I never wore it. So I added a gray strip at the bottom. Now I wear it quite often.
The second shirt was a crop top my mother wore in the 90s. I still don't like them crop tops, so I added a navy blue strip at the bottom with a little flare.

Here's another patchy shirt. I liked the color combinations, so I arranged them and sewed them on. The shirt was large, so I took it in, made smaller sleeves, and turned it into a v-neck.

And here's my song of the moment by Catherine Wheel. A great song to end the day.

The nineties was full of awful trends, but also filled with trends that were underrated and perfect. Some should be reborn, and many shouldn't.

The past few fashion seasons, quite a number of trends from the nineties were revisited with a modern twist. Clothes, accessories, and even hair!
I know for me, I needed to do something different to my hair, something I've never done before, as it started growing and getting boring. I remembered a trend from the nineties that I wanted to try out.

I've done two tone before, but never like this - blonde chunks in the front and the rest remaining brown. I thought this would be easy to maintain as I left my natural brown to grow in with the need to just touch up the front.
It's such a nineties thing, but it seemed to be a very short lived trend.

A few musicians I know that have followed this were Jill Cunniff from Luscious Jackson, Anna Waronker from That Dog, Ginger Spice (red instead of brown, it still counts!), and Gwen Stefani. Enough evidence right there to prove that it actually existed!

Of course, after putting on layers and layers of dark colors, it's hard to get the results you want the first time bleaching. You are bound to get that orange tinted blonde. The second time around, about four weeks later, I got the results I wanted plus some nice damage. Oh well.

(oh, photo booth pictures are fun.)

I planned on keeping this up for a long time, as I did love it. I had fun enjoying the best of both worlds. I was always fond of two toned hair, but there are times where you feel the need to take it easy and visit the world of solid colored hair.
I dyed it black just the other day. We'll see how long that lasts before I get the craving for something fun once again.

Here's a simple DIY for creating your own two toned t-shirt, vertical style!
(I actually got the two toned idea from the Michael's website during Halloween season, which explains the colors I chose, just sayin'.)

Start off by choosing two shirts. I bought my shirts from Michael's craft store. When choosing your shirts, make sure they're similar in every way possible - length, neck line, etc.
If you're up for a challenge, you can use two different styled shirts and style them any way you'd like for your finished product. The possibilities are endless!

Fold the shirts in half, as evenly as possible, and just cut down the middle.
If you want to get a perfect cut - after folding the shirts in half, pin it together closer towards the fold. It'll help make it more secure.

After cutting, take one side from shirt one, and take the opposite side from shirt two. Pin together the front side, and then the back side. If you're not sure if you chose the right parts from each shirt, look at the neck line. They should match up.

When everything is perfectly pinned together, sew it up! I personally prefer sewing by hand - I love the full control. But if that's not your thing, go ahead and use that sewing machine.

Two extra steps I took to change up the shirt:
• I created a v-neck (looks kinda like a low-u-neck though) which is super easy. Before sewing the front of the shirt, pin the top by the neck line to the sides and then sew it up to create more of a v-neck.
• I took off both sleeves and swapped them. The green side has black sleeves, and the black side now has green sleeves.
These are both optional of course!

When it's finished, wear it proud!
I funked up my shirt with my well-matched neon green sunglasses pin.
Perfecto.

I spent large chunk of my day watching Blondie documentaries on Youtube. Then I figured it's probably time to get off of Youtube and write up my blog post.

01. In the beginning of the week, I made a batch of chocolate chip cookies. It's been a while since I've baked any kind of sweet goodness, and although I used a pre-mixed package of dough, they still came out great. I'm all for baking from scratch, but sometimes it's nice to be lazy. The day after, there wasn't a single cookie left. My house is apparently full of vultures.
02. I spent my days watching Kids In The Hall and sewing up some shirts, which I'm almost done with. Can't wait to post about them.
03. Friday night, my friend and I spent a relaxing time at Witches Brew, this hip cafe in Hempstead, Long Island. It's been a while since we were last there, and apparently they're expanding their menu; they now serve food! Something to remember for next time.
04. I stuck to my usual Witches Brew order: a slice of red velvet cake and a cup of frozen cocoa with cinnamon syrup. Delicious as always.

Here's the sad portion of my post.
My father, being a typical Greek man, loves his meat. That and being cheap resulted in him raising his own poultry. He started raising quails and partridges. Later on added chickens and doves (no eating; they're just there for show).
Anyway, there are no more quails, which leaves the partridges left as food. They lay eggs here and there, and sometimes he decides to gather some. He invested in an incubator, where many partridges have successfully hatched and grown.
The last batch of eggs were not as successful. Out of a batch of 10+, only one hatched. The poor thing was definitely lonely. My dad keeps the newborns in a large box with bedding, water, food, and a heat lamp on top. We all kept an eye on the newborn partridge, but no one really kept an eye on the temperature in the box.
It was sometime in the middle of the week it reached an highly absurd temperature, and the poor thing got overheated. My brother came up to me with the baby in his hands, and it did not look like it would make it. I held it keeping it company in its last hour; I didn't want it dying in a box all alone.
The hour passed, and the bird gone. My brother and I buried it in our backyard.
It's so sad to see the newborns die a few days after just hatching. Even though there was nothing we could do, the only thing we could do was to hold it and let it feel loved.

Just a collection of photos I took during the semester waiting on the train station platform.
Even though I have so many shoes, these are the ones I wear mainly in the city.
I own so many shoes that kill the back of my feet; I used to get cuts and blisters daily from most of my shoes that I wore, but I learned to wear select pairs when I travel into the city, and these are my favorites. I'm telling you, there is something in the streets there that do so much damage!

So, I am currently in the middle of watching all of The Kids In The Hall and I am really super duper obsessed with the theme song. Such a cool instrumental.

Pages 09 and 10 from my 002. Ursa Major Space Station art journal.
I just finished coloring it up right before posting. Just consists of random sketches, for personal and school projects.

I discovered a new band recently that I can't get enough of. Keep Shelly In Athens - they're a band from Greece, go figure. Being 100% Greek, it's exciting to hear something from there that peaks my interest. I'm not a big fan of traditional Greek music, or their pop songs. Just not my thing. But Keep Shelly In Athens is great and right up my alley. Give them a listen. They're wonderful.

It all started when I was doing some harmless Google-ing this morning and I came across this photo of Tina Weymouth from Talking Heads - I wanted to cry.

(source.)

I instantly fell in love with her bass. I HAD to figure out what it was. After painful Google-ing, I discovered it was a Carlo Robelli Beatle Surf Green Bass. I needed to know more. There are no photos of it in Google, no website selling one - pretty much no traces of it anywhere. Only few message boards spoke of it saying it was a "cheap brand", which, I admit, sorta turned me off.
I decided to type in "surf green bass" into Google to see other options, and I entered a magical world.

I started playing guitar when I was 12. It was around the time my older brother started playing, and I wanted to join him for jam sessions. My first purchase was a crappy burgundy Yamaha bass that I bought for cheap - you have to start cheap in the beginning. I borrowed my brother's guitar up until the point where I finally invested in my own. I bought the most beautiful Schecter Diamond Series S-1 Elite Black Cherry Guitar, which I will always cherish.

While browsing some more, I came across guitars that caught my attention - not that I would ever replace my Schecter, but they're pretty to look at.

(Charvel Surfcaster C8657 + Chandler Guitar)

Then I came across this beauty. I want to cry even more looking at this one. It's perfect.
It's a G&L ASAT Semi-Hollow Belair Green bass, and I want it now. I wish.

(source.)

All this talk of guitars and basses is making me miss playing music, not that I was any good. But it's all about practicing. I just wish I had the time. Sigh.
I guess I could make it a goal to start playing more, which will make a new bass worth it. When that happens, I'll make sure to make the best investment of my life.

I really didn't have that much of an active week. The highlight of my week took place on Monday when I attended Silversun Pickups live on Letterman.

My friend had two tickets to the taping, and I reminded him plenty of times throughout the night how thankful I was that he asked me to go with him.
I took an early train into the city so I can get a good spot on line. He met me there about an hour later. When he arrived, he went to get our tickets. After a few minutes of confusion, we transferred to the VIP line since his name was on the list. He has a friend that works at CBS studio, so we were given semi-special treatment!
We were finally let into the venue, and we really didn't get a bad spot. It was a small venue and had limited amount of seats, so no matter where you sat, it'd feel like a VIP kind of show.

I've never attended any kind of late night talk show. So that night I learned that I surely wasn't attending the taping of the Letterman show. It was only a 45-minute set of the band which was taped to stream on the CBS website. No bit of that live performance was even shown on the Letterman show. I had no idea what to expect, and even though I wasn't there for any bit of the taping of the talk show, it surely didn't bother me. I love Silversun Pickups, and that's who I wanted to see.

I went home with my cool Letterman ticket and a Silversun Pickups poster they passed around outside the venue.

Besides that, this week was full of arts and crafts, friends, and birthdays. It surely was a pleasant week.

Here's the video of Silversun Pickups' performance on David Letterman. The cool thing was that I made it home just in time that night to catch their performance on tv. Good timing.

Here's a fun little DIY-like tutorial I decided to share on how to make galaxy shoes. I borrowed the idea from a friend, and wanted to try it myself.

These are the supplies I used: a sponge brush, masking tape, clean palette, & fabric paint. I use Tulip brand fabric paint.

Find a pair of shoes you'd like to paint. I used these white sneakers I bought for cheap at a thrift store.
Take the laces out and tape up the sections you don't want to paint.

Set up a neat workspace - lay out newspapers! Feel free to watch a movie at the same too!
Squeeze out a bit of each color onto the palette, and start painting.
I find that the fabric paint works well without the need of a base coat. I started by dabbing the sponge into the black, brushing a section of the shoe, dabbing the sponge into another color, and brushing off the part I started painting black. That way you get a nice blend of the colors.

Follow through with that method throughout the whole shoe. When you paint all that you want to paint, go over some colored spots with more paint to make it brighter. If you find you have extra paint in your palette, paint your laces!
When you're finished, let it dry.
For the stars, I found that using a toothpick worked best. Paint tiny dots throughout. Remember to create some clusters of dots and keep other dots more spread out. It makes it look more galaxy-like. Paint some bigger dots and some crosshairs for stars.

After it's all dried up, put the shoelaces on and show 'em off!

Try it out and have fun!

Happy Sunday!
Crazy how fast this week passed.

01. Since we've been getting our bathrooms redone, I've been setting myself up each day with something different to work on. The beginning of the week I finished up these shorts that I made. This was my first handmade pair and it was quite difficult to make it work. I don't use patterns; I tend to use items of clothing where I want to imitate the fit. Being that I estimate everything, certain parts fit awkwardly, so I spent the day trying to make it work. I finally got it to fit right. I definitely want to try and make a few more pairs after this trial and error process.
02. I haven't given myself a manicure in months, so I found some free time to do so. I plan on trying to keep up with my nails this summer.
03. Sometime last year I bought a paper making kit and only had time for one attempt to make some paper. Months and months later, I found some time to give it a second go using some new techniques. They may have came out better than my first back, but they honestly are still a little crappy. Hopefully next time I give it a go, it'll come out much better. I need to practice, practice, practice.
04. Met up with some friends yesterday. We had such a great evening. Got some frozen yogurt and drove to the beach to walk the boardwalk. The first beach we attempted to visit was closed. But we kept traveling south and came across another boardwalk. We walked and talked, and were out until the sun started to rise. It was a long night, but honestly was one of the best nights I've had in a while.

Spent today relaxing and taking it easy after the long weekend I had. Tomorrow night's plans will probably be just as awesome, as I will be seeing Silversun Pickups on the David Letterman show. I've never attended a late night talk show, so I'm quite excited. Can't wait!

Summer's here! The season for ice cream and other cool and refreshing sweets.
I admit, I have a sweet tooth, and although I told myself to start eating healthy, I can't help but sneak some sweet goodness into my meals.

I recently discovered how amazing ice cream tastes with oat clusters. So. Good.
One morning, I couldn't satisfy my sweets craving until I ate some ice cream. So to make it seem more of a breakfast dish, I added some cereal oat clusters and my guilt vanished. Life was all good.

Treat yourself to some ice cream goodness for breakfast. You deserve it.

I've been cooped up at home this week on account of getting our bathrooms redone. Although I'm a bit of a homebody, I like having the option to stay home if I feel like it, not because I have to. I've been home supervising the workers, and even though I've planted myself in front of the television everyday this week, I've been trying to keep myself busy sewing, painting, etc. I can't complain, but I can't wait till this bathroom nightmare is over.

Being inside all day, I don't even know how the weather has been outside. I know last week was not so pleasant due to rain and thunderstorms, but so far all I can see is sun this week and that's great.
Last week was filled with rain, but it didn't stop my friend and I from hanging out.

We took a drive to a town not too far from mine, we walked around this wonderful pond, and took a stroll through the town itself.
My town is is in the center of Long Island, so we don't get to see water like this everyday. Although lucky for us, the island is not too small, so traveling to the north shore or south shore isn't that much of a hike. This particular day, we traveled south. The forecast said rain, but it didn't happen. We spent the afternoon enjoying the good weather.

I can't wait till the bathroom makeovers are done so I can go on another afternoon trip like this.

In the meantime, have you seen Silversun Pickups' new video? It's pretty wonderful.