One day late with this summary post.
It's been a pretty slow two weeks. Finishing up packing. Still working on selling my furniture. Taking advantage of my last week, going out and about, and relaxing.

01. Since I've sent out 80% of my stuff, I haven't had much to do besides browse the interweb. I remembered I had bought a Tibetan coloring book a while back, and I haven't sent out my colored pencils. So I had some coloring fun!
02. The other day I went out and about with neighbors and came across this cool shop with a terrarium bar. How cool is that? A whole drawer unit with drawers full of materials to make your own terrarium. Moss, sand, rocks, etc. If I wasn't moving, I totally would have gone to town. I plan on making one when I get back to New York. Gonna go on a search for terrarium bars in New York.
03. The same day, I bought a souvenir! A ring made of real gold and turquoise. I love it.
04. I have store credit at a local consignment shop, so I decided to take a look around to see if there was anything small to buy. Came across small crafty items to add to my crafty collection. Small clothespins, a pack of beads, a pack of buttons, and a package of sewing thread.

It seems a little surreal to me how I'll be moving back home permanently. I've been coming across a lot of articles lately about how 2015 is the year a lot of people are saying goodbye to New York because the cost of living is just ridonk. Examples: 01 + 02 + 03.

I just find it funny that I've been wanting to leave for the longest time, and now that I'm heading back home, I'm finding all these articles about how people are throwing in the towel and are leaving the city. Life is funny like that.
Anyway, the countdown is on. One week till I hop on that plane!

The past two weeks have been slow, but filled with job interviews, freelance jobs, crafty days.
I've also been here for over a month now, and a month from now I'll be flying home for the holidays. I have to say I'm definitely excited for that.

01. Two weeks ago I went to go see Slowdive on their reunion tour. I've listened to them since high school never thinking I'd see them as an active band and it was so amazing that I was able to see them. This is definitely a good time to be around; so many classic bands are reforming and I love being able to see these revivals.
02. What was supposed to be a resume drop-off for a job opening turned into a freelance gig to make a new logo for a local shop. I'm past the sketch/approval stage and am excited to take on this assignment, especially since I really support local.
03. What I find wild is that in the same week, I got offered another freelance job to do an invitation card. Not really sure if I'm able to talk about it too much currently, but I feel so many doors opening that I can't help but share little sneak peaks.
04. I haven't had too much spare time the past two weeks but during downtime I've been making paper mache canvases, and these are a little different from how I usually do. I've been all about palmistry art lately and thought it'd be fun to make some canvas hands art. It's a work in progress for sure.

I've also been trying to get into more somewhat upbeat music. I found this gem on Pandora. Asteroids Galaxy Tour is the band.

This week has been an exploration continued week. My neighbors have been taking me out and about. Explored good food, cool crafty places, late night trips to bars, etc.

01. This move has me wanting to work on minimizing. I no longer like my wardrobe and my shoes. I took out all my shoes I brought with me and made a pile of shoes I could live without. I took them to a local thrift shop and exchanged for other things.
02. So with that exchanging, I hit the jackpot with new old thread at that same shop! I'm so psyched about finding so much goodness. I needed more thread and so there you go.
03. I spent my Halloween at home with the company of my housemate and neighbors. It was the perfect evening with people I like spending time with along with the perfect amount of food, sweets, and alcohol.
04. Later that night I took a break from the courtyard hangout and went to a house party with my neighbor. It was Star Wars VS Star Trek themed and we took a fun Polaroid at the party. I didn't dress up but I put on devil horns just to add something to make it seem like I thought about Halloween.

I also took a selfie, which I never ever do, to celebrate the fact that I went food shopping.

As I said, I took quite a number of trips to crafty stores, so I really plan on getting my craft on this week while job searching. I've slacked ever since I got here and need to get some motivation back. I guess I may have passed the honeymoon phase? I've adjusted though. I've accepted the fact that I'm here and I have to be productive. So I'm trying to gain back my mojo.
I'm getting there.

Just got through my second week living in Portland. And I realized I haven't done a summary in a month.

01. Still familiarizing myself with the neighborhoods. Found some cool places around with with Mexican folk art. There will also be a parade like thing on Dia De Los Muertos that I totally plan on going to. I'm actually getting excited for Halloween (although I don't have a costume idea yet).
02. I've tackled all the boxes. Opened up every single one. 95% of my stuff are put away. I figured I'm at the point where I can start decorating.
03. Received my first welcome postcard from a family friend of mine! It was the sweetest thing ever to read.
04. Went out and about with the neighbors yesterday. Discovered SCRAP, the most amazing store - it's a crafters paradise. Walked away with paint, binder clips, thumb tacks, fake flowers, fabric, and thread for less than $4. Seriously, it was a win.

I came across a new iPhone app that I decided to give a try called Faded. It's free, the effects are great, and it's super easy to use. I edited my morning view to test it out and I love it. The photos come out amazing. I recommend it!

I've also been getting psyched to see Slowdive in two weeks, so I've been familiarizing myself with their opening band Low. So relaxing.

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.

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.

Can't believe how fast this week went.

01. Went to the movies with my brother this week. One of the movie theaters near me just got completely revamped. They took out normal seats and replaced them with recliners. Most comfortable theater I've ever been in.
02. Been working on some shirts with this fabric I got printed.
03. Will be making some more shirts with this other fabric I got printed. Been having fun with my Spoonflower fabrics.
04. Just the other day, I also signed up for Pippit, the iPhone app. It seems that it's still in its early stages as an app, but it seems like it could become real cool. If you have the app, you can find me as marsenroute.

Song of the moment is by Young Galaxies. This has been my go to song for a while. And the video is just as fun.

Lately I've been managing my spare time pretty well in which I've been working on my own personal things. The past two weeks I've started a lot of projects I've been meaning to get on. It's exciting to finally find some time.

01. For the first time in weeks, I finally found a free moment to give myself a manicure. I've discovered a color I love by OPI named Cajun Shrimp. It's my new favorite nail polish color.
02. I've been playing with some decoupage prints. Still in the early stage. It's been a while since I've sat down and completely winged a project which is still in the experimentation phase. These days I usually let things stew until I have a chance to do it. And it usually works out well. I've been spoiled like that, so I kind of feel good having a project not work out as planned right away. It sounds weird when I try to explain it.
03. My spaceman design will soon be available on shirts! I got around to printing some shirts which look really cool. I can't wait to post the final products.
04. Yes, those decoupage prints and this Twin Peaks linocut are related. I'm working on making some fun dancing man linocuts, but as I shared, it's still being worked on. There were some execution flaws from some art supplies used that changed how I would like to print them. I'm hoping to make it work soon.

There are a bunch of other projects that are in progress currently. I'm hoping to get a nice flow of posts about them as I finish them one by one. I'm anxious to share them.

My song of the moment which I really have been playing non stop this week is Interpol's new song. So good.

This week was a bit of a busy one outside of my home. All I really did was just work a lot and see friends. I'm not one to be out and about on a work night, but I made some exceptions. Needless to say, I was burnt out by the end of the week.

My arts and craft moments ended up happening more towards the weekend.
01. I'm continuing with this book idea - made another illustration and sent it to get printed. This relates to my Blue Velvet drawings if you've seen them in previous posts.
02. I took a trip to Joannes to buy some fabric for some tote bags I want to make.
03. I cleaned up some leather scraps and cut them out for this tote bag idea. Don't know how successful they'll be, but it never hurts to try it out and see.
04. I was asked to make another tank top by my coworker, so I started measuring and cutting. It is currently in the works.

This week I saw a lot of my friend Diana. The other night, we chilled at her house and watched Portlandia. I cuddled big time with her pitbull Jessie. She's precious.

My current band of the moment: Gorillaz. Shocker! Just all kinds of fantastic, I really can't stop listening to them. I've fallen deep for Damon.

This week went by real quick. Sorta got a little sick. I'm blaming it on the weather change. I took it easy this week working on crafty projects.

01. I've been working on this shirt in which I used my printed fabric. I wanted to make this a test shirt to see how the fabric washes and I figured before creating future clothing with printed fabric, I want to see how it works out.
02. At work the other day, my coworker brought in a baby kitten to give to my other coworker. She was precious and I couldn't stop petting her. About her claws though, oh boy were they sharp and painful.
03. After finishing up this shirt I plan on playing around with a few magnet designs. I'm working on a Gwen Stefani one which I'm excited about.
04. I've taken a little wristband making break, but there are a few ideas I have that I plan on creating in between breaks.
I really tend to overdo it with projects on top of projects, don't I. Hmmm.

Aside from the constant Blur listenings, this Radiohead has been making it's way into my playlist every so often. It's currently my favorite Radiohead song.

Happy June!
I've officially completed my first week as a full time worker. Unfortunately I'll be balancing two jobs making me a seven-day worker. ~It's a hard knock life~

01. Working seven days a week won't stop me from being productive and doing what I like to do in my spare time. I've been working on this idea sewing yellow bits into the sleeves of blue shirts. It's this homage I've been working on that I'll be sharing in a future post!
02. For the same project, I created a pattern-y image that I plan on printing onto those shirts. I'm making a bigger embroidery hoop screen to screen print.
03. Aside from that project, I've been working on creating a bunch of illustrations for this other project. I showed a little sneak peak in the last SS post with my Blue Velvet image. They're connected; this is a continuation.
04. In between projects I've been working on for myself, I've been balancing sewing jobs for work. I had to turn two jerseys into crop tops. I've been on a roll with them sewing jobs.

The past two weeks I've been on a crazy Damon Albarn kick. Here's Blur song that I've been listening to non-stop.

So, I have officially graduated. I was lucky to have this week off before I start working full time next week. These days off I tried to balance projects for myself between sewing jobs for others and hanging out with friends who will be leaving to go back home now that we're done with school.

01. Early this week, I made plans to get tattoos with friends. I made this a graduation present to myself. The day didn't go too much as planned as I was the only one to get inked from my group of friends. It was a fun day regardless.
02. Worked on a custom wristband order as well which was exciting. I love when people give me reasons to be crafty.
03. I took on another project for myself which I've been thinking about for a long time. I decided this is a great time for me to get it started, and this Blue Velvet illustration is where it started. I can't wait to get far into the project to talk about it!
04. Wrapped up the week with a trip to Coney Island with friends. I'm not a big roller coaster fan, but I went ahead and risked my life to ride on that wooden Cyclone with the gang. Really was a terrifying experience. We also got to visit the aquarium and watch the sea lion show, eat some Nathan's and ice cream, and walk the boardwalk.

Aside from that, I've really been enjoying Damon Albarn's new album. I've had it on repeat. I love, love, LOVE it.

I have exciting plans tomorrow, and I've been preparing for my trip this whole week. I'll be on en route to Portland tomorrow for the week and I can't be more excited!

01. My midterm project for my bookbinding class is to make a book filled with content. So I found this trip to be the perfect opportunity to take photos and print them for my midterm book. I have it all set up waiting to go!
02. In between time packing and doing last minute homework assignments, I played around with a screen printing project that I will be posting about at a future date!
03. I'm so excited to be using my Lomo film cameras; I went and bought film for it a few days ago. I bought quite a number of rolls for this trip.
04. During some last minute shopping, I bought this new bag and wallet today at Target. I really wanted a new bag to use for my trip especially, and I can't be more excited to have them!

I've been doing such a bad job at packing. It's always the part I dread most.
But I'm really excited to visit the city again so soon. I'll be traveling with a few friends while staying at an Airbnb space. We looked up the weather and see it'll be raining most of the trip, but we won't let that get us down. We have fun stuff planned. I really can't wait!

Another busy week has gone and passed. Pretty eventful if I may say so.

01. I have a project I'm currently working on involving graphics and patterns for apparel use. For this project I've been bouncing around themes and ideas and went down my usual pop culture reference route. This specific sketch is based after Rock Lobster by B-52s.
02. For that same project I started constructing a blue shirt to print that graphic on. I have a bunch of ideas and things I want to play around with and it makes me super excited.
03. I ended the week with hanging out with some friends at a penthouse in Manhattan. It was crazy to find myself in that kind of environment with models and millionaires, but you gotta take what you can get sometimes, and if it involves models and millionaires in a penthouse, so be it! That was an interesting way to lead into my birthday yesterday.
04. In which here are a little batch of things I had received for my birthday. I first treated myself to the Ex Hex vinyl e.p., the Psych season 7 dvd and cat eye glasses necklace that my family gave me, and pepper spray my brother had gotten for me. A strange batch of gifts, but I couldn't be happier with how my day went.

If you watch USA or know of the show Psych, I'm sure you've heard about the show being officially done. The series finished up with an 8th season and it makes me so sad to see it over. But over the past 8 years, I've been wonderfully entertained and couldn't love a show more than Psych. I hope that we haven't seen the last of the characters, but I guess time will only tell!

The past two weeks have been a bit on the hectic side, scrambling to get projects done. I can finally sit down and actually write a post.

01. I've been working on this one mini handmade canvas that I plan adding to my Storenvy shop. Features a quote from a Runaways song with a badass chick, hah!
02. One project I scrambled finishing this week was this wallpaper pattern piece. Inspired from mid-century modern era and diners. I made a funny burger pattern (my friends think it's very Jetsons-like)! I'll post about at a future date.
03. Currently working on an animal piece for this other assignment. It's my take on the Space Race!
04. I found some time to sit and relax last night. And so therefore, I watched a movie and made pom-poms for a future garland project!

So many projects are in progress, I wish I had some finished ones to post about!

My video of the moment is by Ex Hex, Mary Timony's new band. I almost saw them on Friday, but my friend forgot her ID and the bouncer was a jerk about it. So we walked around the downtown NYC, got ice cream, and ate our feelings.

This week has been quite a busy one. Busy, but fun. With a touch of stressful... I think it's safe to say that I experienced all of the feelings this week.

01. The beginning of the week I decided to make my own business cards (which I plan on discussing in a future post). Had all supplies ready to go, so I went forth and created a small batch while watching the new American Horror Story.

02. My friend, whom I haven't seen in ages, asked me and a few of my classmates to participate in this fundraiser she was a part of. Artworks Foundation put together a live art event to raise money for sick children and young adults. Aside from the artists creating art during the event, there was music, caricatures, a photo booth, cupcakes, and an open bar. It was a fun night and I'm glad to have been a part of it.

03. I took a shot of my friend drawing a couple at her caricature station. I was supposed to be one of the caricature artists but being that they only needed two caricature artists, I gave up my spot for my friend to take part of the event. I assisted a bit at the photo booth station for the night.

04. This entire weekend I dedicated to two projects. This is one.

05. This is the other. Both projects are due this week coming, right before Thanksgiving, hence being the stressful part of my week. I'm on a roll and have accomplished a lot this weekend. But I'm just ready for a break. I'll be able to breathe when these projects are done and over with.
Thanksgiving is around the corner and I'm very much looking forward to enjoying the holiday with my family and relaxing a bit!
I'm just happy this week is done, even though more stress is to come. Bring it on, I say.

It's been over a year since I did a proper 'SS' post, but it's never too late to get back on track!
Here are some highlights from my week.

01. I found some spare time to experiment with new fun crafts. I plan on making collar necklaces for my shop. This is the second one I'm currently in the middle of, and they're actually coming out kinda cool! I'm excited to make a bunch more. Accessories are fun to make, for sure.

02. My friends and I took a lunch trip down to the Trailer Park Lounge in Chelsea. It's so damn kitschy; for the longest time I avoided it because there's a toilet in the front of the restaurant! But my friends wanted to go, so I gave it a chance. The burgers were SO. GOOD.

03. My professor surprised us with a field trip on Thursday. We visited the Society Of Illustrators. Every so often, we'll go on a field trip there for whichever gallery showing is relevant to what we're up to in our classes. The show they currently have features original artwork for children's books. Some illustrations are absolutely amazing. This floor is my favorite; it is SO red, and features artwork from Paul Pope, a comic book artist.

04. With the semester slowly coming to an end, I've been knees deep into final projects. I've been trying to work every chance I get, and here's one project I've just started this week. I'm building a miniature set of a room, which I'll post about when it's all finished. I'm really excited to finish this up, mostly because I just want to be done with it. But it is a fun and different project I got myself mixed up in. It's nice to have variety every so often.

05. To end the week, I attended a roller derby game with friends, the last of the season. I'm happy I was finally able to attend a game before this season ended. I didn't realize this was the last game, so I got lucky! Our home team won, woo!

To end the post, here's a Warpaint video. I'm addicted.

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 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.

Had a very colorful and crafty week.

01. Took crafting to a whole new level when I brought a shirt to sew while commuting. I've never knitted while on a train, but I can imagine it being easier to handle than sewing. Whatever, I got things done!
02. Splurged this week and bought five macarons. FIVE. I don't recommend eating five in one shot, especially in hot weather.
03. Played around with some leather. Never made leather cuffs like this before. Fun to switch things up a bit. I have SO much leather, why not put it to good use? Serina and I made these leather cuffs for her Etsy shop she just opened up. I really recommend you check it out! EclecticNeverland.
04. I've been a roll with binding books that I started and never binded. Put the signatures together. Hopefully tomorrow I can bind them. Goal!

Currently listening to Dreaming by Blondie. Forgot how amazing this song is.