I think I made it clear how much I love Spoonflower. This website has given me such freedom to do what I want and I love it. Last semester I started playing around with a design that I decided to get printed, in which I cut and sewed into a fun t-shirt.

I recycle a lot, especially clothes I have in my closet. "Upcycling" is what they call it, and I do it all the time. I went through my closet and grabbed navy t-shirts I don't wear anymore. I had an idea of what I wanted my shirt to look like, so I went with it - graphic fabric in the front and navy back and sleeves is how I imagined it.

I grabbed a t-shirt from my closet that I found fits me well. I traced the fabric to imitate the fit. That's how I roll.
I also found that I didn't have a big enough piece of navy to fit the entire backing. Lately I've been all about not wasting scrap, so I cut and fit pieces together like a puzzle and sewed it nice and secure. That's how I handled the backing of the shirt.

Digging through my fabric scraps, I found a collar piece that I sewed on as well as the sleeves.

I sewed up the hems and sewed the insides to prevent fraying. For years and years I've been sewing everything by hand. For Christmas I got a sewing machine, and these days I find it annoying to hand sew. I find my progression fascinating and how I no longer have much patience to hand sew. Technology really does help save time and I just wanted to share my relief that things can be much easier if you sometimes give into technology. I've been so anti sewing machine for the longest time.
Anyway, this shirt was sewn on my machine. I'm happy that I have my machine because it really makes starting and finishing projects an actual thing. I'm happy to be finishing projects.

I'm considering making these for my store. I just have to figure things out first. Should be fun to do. I love the design

Gonna take a break from the packing and relocating part of my life right now and talk about other things.

01. I'm excited it's finally autumn. I love sweatah weathah. I felt I started the season off right with candy corn.
02. I took a trip to Lowes and picked up a few paint chips to send over to my landlord. She's going to give my room a fresh coat of paint before I move in. Since I had an option in what color I wanted, I chose a color similar to what my room is now. When I first painted my room, I wanted a raspberry and super light gray. I got the raspberry color I wanted but I went with an 'oops paint' gray which was a super light blue gray. I didn't really like it at first but it grew on me and now I want to carry it onto my new room.
03. I got around to giving myself a manicure and I was so excited to use the OPI My Dogsled Is A Hybrid that I posted about a few days ago. I love it.
04. I ran a few errands the other day with a friend. She really wanted macarons, so we made a stop somewhere in East Village. I tried their red velvet, earl grey, and lemon basil. The lemon basil was DELISH. I also noticed I accidentally chose macarons that were the same colors as my magnets I made back in April. Can't seem to escape those colors it seems.

I managed to do a quick sneaker run yesterday. I realized that I try so hard to not buy shoes that look like other shoes I own. It gives me reason why I should or shouldn't buy something. That's my shopping logic. But actually thinking about all the shoes I own, I don't own a single black pair of sneakers that I can wear all the time. I almost talked myself into buy the red version of these, but I decided on the black and I do not regret that decision at all. And they're super comfy. I love VANS. And these socks are great. I just had to.

I also noticed that it's been a few weeks since I've done a Sunday summary. I wanted to share this sooner but never got around to it. I'm lucky to be working in the David Letterman building because cool things do happen every so often. Knowing that my days are coming to end at my job, I wanted to take advantage of one especially cool thing. I saw Interpol was playing the Letterman show, so I asked the head of security if I could sit in during their set. Instead he let me into their rehearsal. I have to say, it was a cool experience. I love the band, but it was just a rehearsal; they played the same song over and over. Not exactly the most spectacular thing.
I wasn't there for the actual taping, but I'll share it.

With about two weeks more before my official move, I figured now is an appropriate time to temporarily close my shops even though I don't want to. Everything is pretty much all packed and ready to be moved.
I took the step to temporarily put 'vacation mode' on both my Etsy and Storenvy.

I feel a little uncomfortable closing them indefinitely being that I don't know how long it'll take for me to settle in.
I also am so eager to put new items up. I've been working on so much the past few months but had barely found time to edit my product photos and post them up. This move will let me start fresh, and I plan on posting plenty when I settle. This will be a chance for me to retake photos and just freshen things up. And I'm excited to do so.
In the meantime though, 'vacation mode' will be up. I will surely post an update when things open up and new products will be posted along with a small revamp of sorts.

While I've been packing, I've noticed that I've been packing a lot of books. It's been hard trying to decide what to take and what not to bring with me. I have plans on buying a bookcase from IKEA, and a goal of mine is to grow a cool art and music library/collection.

01. Worn Journal - I was sad to read that Worn is releasing their final issue. This magazine is amazing and it's sad to see it shut down during its peak point.
02. Not That Kind Of Girl by Lena Dunham - As much as there are certain things about Lena Dunham that annoy me, she's still an awesome key figure for girls to look up to. I'm excited to read into her memoir.
03. Chris Stein's Photobook - I love Blondie and I love Debbie Harry, and I always get exited to come across photo books with everything Debbie related. Especially photos coming straight from Chris Stein himself.
04. Sub Pop USA - The 90s is my favorite decade for music. And Sub Pop played such an important role in the grunge scene. The book hasn't been released yet but it's on my list of books to buy.
05. Gimme Indie Rock - Another music book - topics that I enjoy. And it was just released, so it's a nice new fresh book with up to date content.
06. Isa Does It: Vegan Recipe Book - I barely cook. Moving far from home, I'm going to have to take that up. Although I'm not a vegan, I enjoy vegan recipes and I thought this was a good way to start experimenting with cooking.

So much to buy! I can't wait to explore all the local shops (book stores and thrift shops) and build my library more!

It hasn't been successful so far, if I can be honest. I didn't realize how much of a procrastinator I was. Well, maybe it's not so much procrastination as it is weird, mixed feelings making me not want to pack. But I've been told that this is normal: having mixed feelings before making a big move.

I've also come across this article from the New York Times about Portland being a city for the young to retire, aka a slacker city as they make it sounds like. I find it funny that this article came out three weeks before my moving date. And I love how everyone I know is bringing it to my attention. And so therefore I'm bringing it to your attention.

To continue my jumbled thoughts and blabber, I was listening to the radio the other day and the Rolling Stones came on. Now, I like my classic rock, but I'm not entirely a big Stones person. I just take them as they come. I don't seek them out. But they were on the radio and the lyrics "You can't always get what you want, but if you try sometime, you just might find you get what you need" really hit me. I had a connection.

I searched high and low for an apartment but couldn't find a single soul to respond. I also had a neighborhood in mind that I was really shooting for, but nothing was working my way. I then decided to think about the standards I had set, and when I broadened my search I found a place that fell into my lap. What originally turned me off was the fact that it was a basement bedroom. I was told to run away from basement bedrooms. The neighborhood is also a little north than I would have liked, but it's got major transportation stops down the block, so that was all that mattered to me. Falling into this situation was perfect because my landlord is amazing and the neighbors are great. It's a nice community, and for me coming from the other side of the country not knowing anyone out there, it's a perfect place for me to adjust being surrounded by a good batch of people. Thinking like the Stones, I can't always exactly get what I want, but when I widened my search, I found what I needed: a nice community with people that will be there for me. It feels like a little bit of a stretch, but I still had that connection with the song.

It's been a tough thing deciding what to take and what to leave behind. I'm nervous that my family is going to swarm in and box my room up after I leave. My brother has already been planning what to do to my room. I just picture vultures in this scenario. Just all around paranoia. That must be a normal feeling too.
This is all really a crazy roller coaster ride.
I'm done blabbering now.

Lately I've had a lot on my mind such as packing of course. There was so much I wanted to get done before the packing officially went into effect, but it turns out things didn't work my way so well. I've been working too much. So the next month or two maybe a little bit of a ghost town until I get comfortable in my new environment. I have to say though, I have quite a list of projects I can't wait to start and post about!

In the meantime, I've been all about color blocks lately. And I have been all about sea foam green.
The past year I found that I developed this infatuation with the ocean and sea life. I'm not a big beach person, and sometimes sea creatures freak me out, but theres something about sea life and metaphors of everything sea related that really connects with me. The vintage deep sea diver, vintage bathing suits, the colors of the sea including coral and the creatures - it's all just so fascinating. I love music that also resonates sea things. I find that Interpol and Gorillaz do such a great job at grabbing my attention with their sea metaphors and dark beachy sounds, as well as The Raveonettes with their cool shoegaze surf rock-ness.

With that being said, I was excited to put together this seafoam color block post, gathering a nice mix of fashion, music, and literature.
It started when I found these seafoam green shirts at work. For a while I questioned what to do with the shirts, and then inspiration hit me.

I found this water photo on Tumblr (Note: this photo isn't mine, I just have no idea who to credit!). It kinda sparked something in me, in which I browsed through my fabric scraps and pulled out a bunch of greenish colors. I arranged them to create a cool ombre effect.

The seafoam crave continued after I bought this Mermaid book and found an OPI nail polish matches my book exactly (OPI My Dogsled Is A Hybrid). These two aren't exactly of the seafoam green nature, but the colors are sorta close and it fit this sea theme very well.

Aside from those, the new Raveonettes limited edition vinyl is super cool. I posted about it once before here.
About these shirts though, I plan on doing more like this with different colors too. Its a simple gradient shirt that looks real cool.

I was randomly browsing through my computer recently. Every so often I like to sweep and delete files not needed anymore, which sadly I filter through school files most even though I feel like that's a no no. I do delete a lot of projects, but truth is what am I supposed to do with old school files?
I came across this project I remember well. I don't plan on deleting this one. It cracks me up too much.

I took this comic book class my first semester as an illustration major. Gah, I was so bad at this class. I was so fresh into illustration and super rusty at drawing, this class was such a struggle. This project was towards the end of the semester so I got the hang of things. We had to make our own cereal box and concept.
I was going through a big Gorillaz phase around that time and was so into Jamie Hewlett's artwork. It inspired me to do a rock star piece. I was also going through a weird Adam Ant phase; I based this character after Adam and Gary Glitter.

I drew it, scanned it into my computer and the rest was done digitally. A LOT of Photoshopping. I'm shocked I was able to get away with all this photoshop work that was not my original work.

I had fun putting together the front. I saved a cereal box to paste the printout onto. The back was a little tough from what I remember. Mostly figuring out what to do. I did my research and browsed other cereal boxes. I liked the maze idea and just had fun with obstacles rock stars deal with. After coming up with the concept, it was an easy flow to construct it.

I've had this cereal box sitting around for four years; there's a few water stains on it. This project is completely useless to me now, but something to definitely look back on and laugh at.
I think it's safe to say I probably won't be bringing this to Portland with me.

A few posts ago I mentioned some things are brewing for me; big changes are coming. It'd say it's official where I can share it now.
Next month I'll be moving to Portland! New York to Portland. Hella change. But I'm ready for that change. It's been a plan of mine for 3+ years but I've been waiting for school to finish before I made it happen. I graduated in May and after that it was just a waiting game for the perfect time.
I feel like the perfect time finally came around. I went through the apartment search, felt hopeless, and then stumbled upon something great. After that it was just a domino effect of good things coming my way.

I took a trip out on Thursday to stop by and visit my landlord and the nice little community she lives in. The bedroom is super spacious. Much better than my bedroom now. It's strange looking at an empty room with no idea what step to take first. Its been a long time since I've had something of this extreme happen. I don't even know where to start.

I took a couple of pictures of the area. The left is part of the kitchen and the right is the food cart my landlord runs. It's a Tex-Mex food cart.
Anywho, it's official. I have just one more month in New York. It's exciting but terrifying. But I have to say that it's becoming easier for me to accept it because of some great opportunities that will be coming. I've come across a great community in a cul de sac; already became friendly with the neighbors who are looking forward to have a new neighbor to hang out with. I feel so welcomed. Aside from that I may have some freelance jobs waiting for me. I'm still searching for the full time job but I'm not too worried.

Aside from the life changing stuff, I've continued the black hair life and tried a new color from Age Beautiful - 3B Darkest Blue. The blue tint kind of fades out fast, but I still love my black hair. I'm surprised with myself how consistent my hair has been the past few years. Yea I still crave fun colors and I do throw in bleach and accent colors every so often but I've been consistent with the black. (I'm also apparently super messy when I dye my hair where I end up dyeing my arms instead.)
I've also been playing around with some more shirts. Now that I have a deadline, my goal is to finish up as many projects as I can before moving.

This has been a very blabber-y post. I'm just feeling all the feelings. Mostly excitement but still a large touch of scared.
This has been my week.