I took advantage of this time being home for the holidays to condense and get rid of clothing and knick knacks. I own way too much stuff which is why it was so hard to move out. I didn't know what to bring and was too attached to everything I own. Moving away from home taught me to be minimal and clutter-free and I now feel comfortable getting rid of long time belongings.

If you told me to get rid of this bag a few months ago, I would have said hell no!

This bag was the first bag, and if I recall correctly, the first item I owned that I altered. When I was young, I mostly made clothes for my Barbies and Babysitters Club dolls. Never have I felt encouraged to alter my clothes. Took me some time after puberty to start my rebellion phase and customize my own things.

In seventh grade, I no longer wore this rose shirt and thought it would look cool combined with this stripe fabric. Instead of making something for myself, I felt bored with my school bag and decorated it with this shirt and stripes.

I used this bag every single day for I think two years which would explain the worn in look, and white fabric that is no longer white. It was my favorite bag.

I apparently didn't get any sort of satisfaction of doodling on my school papers that I colored in so much of my bag as you can see. It was made of denim material so I colored in strips of the woven material.

Deep down, it makes me sad to be getting rid of things that are so dear to me, but it's also a huge relief. As long as I documented it, I'm totally fine with throwing this bag into the donation bin. It's so worn in that I doubt anyone will want it. Maybe there's another girl out there who's entering her rebellion phase looking for a cool, worn-in bag to sport to school.
But hey, it's out of my hands now. Out of sight, out of mind!

Months back, I took a sewing job for a client.
I was asked to take a white t-shirt and replace the sleeves with black velvet as well as sewing half a logo with the same black velvet. I knew it'd be a challenge but I wanted to give it a try.

He sent me a file, in which I printed true to size (I was running out of ink as you can see), and cut the outside and letters on the inside with an X-acto knife. Pinned it to the fabric and cut out the fabric the same way.
Took a while to figure out the exact placement being that this piece had to stay off center. Eventually felt confident and pinned it down.

Sewing it down was tough because velvet frays. I can't tell you how messy my work area was. It was real bad.
I found a stitch that worked with what I needed to cover up the edges, but unfortunately the fabric kinda shifted a bit, so it isn't as perfect as I hoped it'd be.

I sewed the sleeves on as well, and took the shirt to work to print the rest of the logo in vinyl, as it would have been real rough to sew the thin pieces out of velvet.
As rough as it was to sew the velvet on, the end result looks cool. Velvet is awesome.

Browsing through my computer, I found files to a contest I participated in back in February. My family friend passed this contest along to me for the annual Crab, Seafood, & Wine festival in Astoria, OR. The contest called for a new 'logo' to print on posters, shirts, etc.

I came up with two designs on Illustrator. I made it somewhat typical with the wine glass in the center with a ribbon. But around that time was when I started experimenting with patterns, and so I made the background a repeat of shrimp, clams, and a crab that stands out.

I wanted to scrap the first one, but kept it since we were allowed to submit more than one design. I created a second mocking a poster. I repeated the same pattern in the background, but took out the crab and replaced it with a glass of wine.

My preference was the second of course, but unfortunately I didn't win the contest. I don't recall seeing them post the winning design, so I don't know what happened with that contest.
It was still good for me to participate in something like that. I need to do more contests. These days, that seems to be the only way to get me to illustrate something. BRB, need to go find some contests.

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.

We really didn't have much of a summer it feels like. Here in NY, between the high humidity and temperatures, summers can be brutal. Compared to past summers, this one has been super mild. Instead of shorts I've been wearing pants everyday. That says something for sure. Global warming.

Two summers ago I experimented with making shorts. I'm gonna be honest, when it comes to sewing, I just wing it. I never do anything technically correct. I'm pretty much completely self taught and nothing scares me because I love to experiment. So yea, that's my back story.

I just traced shorts that fit me well and completely winged it with this woven leaf fabric.
If I recall correctly I didn't get it right the first time around. So I tried it again. I added a side zipper for a perfect fit and back pockets too as shown in the photos. I love athletic shorts and loose fit shorts, so I think I was successful with making just what I wanted. They're totally silly and I would really consider making more shorts like these.

I just wish it was hot enough for me to wear these this summer.

I think I've shown my love for bookbinding enough so far, right? Being a self taught binder, I gave in and took a book binding class my last semester of college. It was the best decision I've made in a while.
I learned quite a number of different binding methods and the right way of binding. My self taught binding was a little rough and I fudged things to make them things work, in which they did some of the time. But those fudged ways can only get me so far.

We were taught Japanese stab bindings.

Plus paperback sort of bindings. I love the envelope one.

And hardcovers as well. These are a bit more tricky but I LOVE the end results. The middle one is my favorite.

For our final project we had to create a book (obviously) and fill it with content that is personal to us. I had taken a book illustration class the same year; my friend and I wrote the story together and I created the illustrations for the main project. I decided to carry that into book binding and take my drawings and turn the book into a coloring book.
I had brought my drawings into Photoshop to trace over and thicken up the lines, and then figured out how to print the pages. Was a little tough to get that part down, but I eventually figured out how to print them.
Yea it may be a little unconventional to make a hardcover coloring book, but I think it's fun.

I have a few projects in mind in which I will be using this newly learned knowledge of book binding. I really can't wait to get them rolling!

I was browsing through my computer and found these old photos, so I felt it was appropriate to share this in an FBF post.
I jazzed up this Psych hoodie for myself years ago, but rarely wore it. So I took photos intended for Etsy back in the day.

I don't recall ever actually posting it in my old store. I dug up the hoodie about a year ago and was going to take better pictures for my store but my friend showed interest, so I gave it to her.

Being a huge Psych fan, I made this obviously to showcase that. With fabric paint, I wrote a quote from the show that I thought summed up the series pretty well, and wrote 'Psych' on the back. I liked the black and white theme so I made my own zebra pattern by cutting out white fabric and sewed them on the pockets.

I'd like to think that I've gotten much better at customizing my clothes since then. But I always love coming across clothing and whatnot that I customized from back in my middle school/high school days. This was a nice trip down memory lane.

My semester/college life is officially done. As happy as I am to finally move on, it saddens me to think about what are now memories and how my life will change. It's crazy how fast you become an adult! I figured to put myself in a happy place right now, I'll post about my Portland trip, finally!

A group of my friends wanted to go away for our last spring break ever. I've spoken so much of Portland that they decided they wanted to not take the typical Cancun vacation. We purchased our flight and found a wonderful spot to stay via Airbnb.

We explored the city - downtown, so many shops (especially vintage), so many parks, so many delicious restaurants and food carts, and so much more.

I can't even tell you how much walking and hiking was a part of this trip. Every day we went on hikes. I love that there are so many fantastic parks within the city, it makes New York seem like a concrete wasteland.
We also got really lucky with the weather. The pacific northwest is known for being just a wee bit rainy. The eight days we were there it must have only rained twice. That really allowed these hikes to happen!

(Gotta throw out credit to my friend Katherine for this photo.)

Towards the end of the trip, we rented a car to explore some areas outside the city. We took a trip near Mt. Hood, discovered a trail with so many waterfalls, and visited a sea lion cave in Florence. The Oregon coast is amazing.
Every day outdid the day before; our trip just got better and better. Our last day we received the best life lessons from a man named Mo on Hawthorne, a perfect way to end our trip.

I mentioned in a previous post about my film camera troubles, I went and bought so many disposable cameras. I really love the idea of capturing images the old school way through film and printed photos - the anticipation to see the end result after getting them printed. I ended up not taking many photos on my phone.
My plan is to get the rest of my photos developed and make more little photo albums/scrapbooks which I plan on doing real soon! I'll post about that when the time comes!

This project started last semester when my professor told us that we needed to put together a physical portfolio. Knowing me and my cheap crafty ways, I started planning on how I could possible construct it.

I had the whole semester to plan it as it was due the second to last week of classes.
From the self taught knowledge of bookbinding, I gathered my usual materials consisting of cardboard, fabric, glue, thread and needle, yarn, and a few other fun things here and there.

I first went shopping for clear portfolio pages in which I measured my cardboard covers according to that. I glued fabric around it, put together the spine. After that I glued down pieces of fabric to cover the insides, as well as adding pockets for business-y things. I also thought a fun touch was adding a snap to have the portfolio close nicely.
I honestly had difficulty figuring out how to add the pages, but figured out a way that would work to keep the option open to add or subtract pages.

The end result was successful as I found a way to make it all work.
When Christmas rolled around, my mom wanted me to put together a photo album for my grandma. I thought it'd be a nice gift to put one together for her and fill it with photos. Of course, first we went shopping for photo album pages so we can judge how big to make it.

I found some scrap cardboard, which I had used for a backing of one of my illustration projects back in first semester. That project was garbage so I had no problem taking it apart. I took the cardboard off and peeled whatever green construction paper I could get off. I glued fabric around it and found an old binder that I took apart to use the rings.

After everything was glued and dried, I made little flap for a snap (rhymes!). I then used fabric to cover up the inside to make it look clean. I followed some same methods as the portfolio, and tried different methods to modify what didn't work. Overall, this came out good! A little flimsy because of the cardboard used. But all good!

My last semester ever I finally got around to taking a bookbinding class. I love what I'm learning and I can't wait to make things on more of a professional level now that I'm learning the proper methods with proper tools!

Is it bad that it doesn't even phase me that it's Valentine's Day? I'm neither for nor against it. It's just another day for me that will be treated as a normal day. And so therefore I will do a Flashback Friday post!

Over the summer, I became interested in two toned t-shirts. Or multi toned in this case? I love solid colored shirts with the front consisting of a multi colored pattern. I played around with the idea when I found these Hawaiian like shorts in a drawer of mine. I took it apart and matched it with this dragon shirt I used to wear all the time in middle school. (I'm secretly obsessed with dragons and tribal art. And now it's not a secret anymore.)

When I took the shorts apart, I realized that there wasn't a big enough piece to make up the front of the shirt. So I kind of pieced together strips of the fabric until it made up the front of the shirt. I've never treated fabric like a puzzle before, but that action opened a new world for me where literally no piece of fabric will ever be wasted. (After this shirt, I made a few more using the 'puzzle' method to piece together fabric. I'll save those for another post. )

I sewed the constructed floral patter to the solid green backing and sleeves, and sewed a collar to cover the hemming. It was actually super easy to make after sewing up the patterned pieces.
And yes, I did keep a dragon graphic for the back of the shirt.

Years and years ago I went through a hardcore decoupage phase. When I bought my first bottle of Mod Podge, I wanted to decoupage EVERYTHING. My headboard was one victim.

I ripped up newspapers (my parents had thrown out Greek newspapers, in which I took out of the recycling bin and used; the majority of that newspaper is on my headboard mixed in with other newspaper scraps. It took a while to cover the whole surface but it eventually got done.

It felt empty with just the newspaper, so I searched through lyrics of my favorite bands I was listening to a lot at that time and tried to find a lyric relating to dreaming/sleeping. I settled on a quote from The Birthday Massacre's song The Dream.

'Her fabulous invention, what strange imagination shown. Her glorious intentions, a sea of doubt beneath her own. It said "you're not the first to dream this, little girl. You know it's never happened once in this world. It never crossed my mind that one so young could hope to find a power greater than my own".
She never did what they told her to and they'll never see her dream come true.'

Being one of my favorite songs from them, I felt it was appropriate and just worked out perfect.
I cut out a bunch of letters from magazines and decoupaged them on. For finishing touches, I added some patterned scraps around the corners and other spots here and there.

Find some Mod Podge, or any type of glue, collect magazine scraps, and go decoupage something! Believe me, it's lots of fun and addicting. My friends can attest to that!

I'm a little disappointed with myself for not posting more this month. I've been working two jobs this summer, so all free time has been eaten away. With the little time I have for myself, I haven't been able to finish projects. And with no finished projects, I don't have much to blog about. I've been making good progress though, don't worry.

I've been wanting to post this flashback post for a while now but never got around to it.
Last summer we did some touch up painting around the house. One area we focused on was the staircase. We painted it a light tan, and my mom wanted a cherry blossom design going down the stairs. She was inspired by this cabinet of mine I painted.
I drew out the "pattern" and painted it with black wall paint.

I cut out some stencils for birds. All black paint carried all the way down stairs. For finishing touches I used gold paint to add some extra funkiness to the blossoms, branches, and birds.

At the bottom of the stairs, my dad built this shoe shelf years ago. I was told to paint the door as well with all cherry blossoms and birds. So once again, I continued to free hand the branches and cherry blossoms while using the stencil for the birds.

To this day, we haven't gotten around to it yet, but we plan on framing this print and hanging it up on the wall. We bought this print from our visit to Portland last summer. I loved it, wanted it, bought it, and plan on framing and hanging it.

Hopefully we'll get around to hanging up that print soon! #Goal

This is Orbert. He induces fear in those who litter.

Fall semester introduced a new class into our curriculum: a storyboarding class. Being that it was a new class, it was kind of a mess; the professors were trying to figure out how to come about teaching the class.

This first project was a fun one. We had to create a character out of a random shape. Then develop it further: different views, its movement, and backstory.

Orbert is a cotton candy colored plump little grumpy mcgrumpster who gets easily pissed off, and when he's pissed off, he eats you. He doesn't tolerate littering; he's always on trash patrol. He's got arms made for picking up said trash.

I wanted to take it one step further and create a somewhat 3D version of him. I turned him into a plush doll. Made him out of an old tshirt (the color almost matched my sketches of him), beads for the eyes, shoelaces for the angry brows, and embroidered nose and mouth. In rush to get things done, I even took him on the train with me to sew.

At the end of the semester, my professor gathered some of the 3D characters and put them in the display case in the Illustration wing. I felt special.

He sits at my desk and watches me work everyday. Creeper.

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.