Kawaiiland was a blast. This was the first event I was featured as a vendor and it was such a good thing for me to do. My friend Steve hosted the event, and being that he played a large role in booking and planning the event, he got me a spot to be a vendor.

I arrived early to set up my table. I had researched for booth setup photos to get ideas. When the time came, I had no idea how to set my table up, so I kind of winged it. It was a little messy but I had plenty of friends come and help me out.
Pocky was also a sponsor; we were given so many boxes to lay on our table for people to take. It was tough figuring out how to lay them out on my already messy table.

I taped one of my posters to the wall to add more decoration around my table. I also took advantage of the couches around me and laid out more shirts.

There were so many vendors, three great bands/musicians, and so many people attending. I made a few sales and gave out plenty of business cards. I was the most grateful; my friends, employees & boss, and mom came out to support me and I couldn't have been happier. I would say even though it wasn't exactly my kind of crowd, I was happy to have experienced that exposure. I would have never found the guts to play the role of the vendor and I'm proud of me for getting out there.

The past few weeks I've been scrambling to sew and construct as much as possible to be super prepared for Kawaiiland, which finally came around! The event was yesterday, and it was so fun.

I wasn't able to finish everything I wanted to for the event, but whatever was all done was good enough. I was ecstatic to bring what I was done with, which some of them were sold!

Now that the event is over, I feel little to no stress and it makes me feel wonderful that there are no deadlines in the meantime. I can't wait to sit and create things that I feel no pressured to finish asap. Expect a Kawaiiland update tomorrow.

I've been hardcore focusing on putting things together for Kawaiiland. I've been scrambling; one more week until the event!

Aside from clothing and accessories that will be for sale, I wanted to created something extra. My coworker had given me the idea to screen print posters.

Diving into screenprinting, I had to rely on memory from the one class I took, and Youtube. I took a trip to my local Blick and bought screenprinting supplies I didn't have. I don't really have facilities for screenprinting, so I had to make do by turning my basement bathroom into a darkroom.

While the emulsion was drying on my screens, I created my image on acetate.
Following the usual step by step instructions, I managed to successfully burn my images into my screen.

After the screens were all prepared and dried, I started printing. I bought a pack of 50 sheets of speckletone paper from French Paper.
I went crazy printing and printing.

49/50 were printed successfully. I'd say that's good for the first time printing in years. After letting them dry, I painted pink into the cherry blossoms with acrylic paint.

These will be extra goodies available at Kawaiiland. I'm excited to add them to my table! I'm the happiest that I was able to make legit screenprinting work at home with no machinery. It's possible, trust me!

I didn't realize how long it's been since my last post. Life has been a little hectic between full time work and preparing for Kawaiiland. I was able to find some time to sneak in a little project for myself in which I'd like to share.

Back in April I shared these shoes in a wishlist post. I think the design of these YES shoes is fab: the contrast of the two colors and it's just so simple. I wanted to experiment with line work similar to that.

I went shopping the other day (for the first time in MONTHS) and found this oversized pink shirt. I've been into larger shirts lately; baggy shirts makes me feel most comfortable in the summer. Whether I would have decorated it or not, I would have bought this shirt anyway. But as soon as I saw it, I thought of adding the line design to it.

I contemplated if I wanted to use a brush or use the paint straight out of the tube. I ended up using the tube. The lines are a little dense but it doesn't bother me.

I began experimenting with the lines and eventually got a nice flow. I didn't want to take over the entire shirt so I made some areas more spaced out than other spots.

I just kept going until it felt right. I drew some triangles and 'x's like on the shoes.
This will surely fix my craving until I cave and buy these shoes. I'm really liking how it came out, I'm contemplating making more of different color ways, and may even make some for the Kawaiiland event. I'll see how much free time I have!

Happy July!

I've been craving some new things lately.
01. Urbanears Rainforest Headphones - I've had the same earphones for over a year (they've managed to last a while!) but I'm kinda over the earphones. They always fall out of my ears and I want something that won't cause those problems. I hear these are great headphones and I love the color combos.
02. Make Your Mark: Creative Ideas Using Markers, Paint Pens, Bleach Pens & More - Another book I want to add to my growing arts and crafts library.
03. Gorillaz 2-Tone Vinyl Figure - Noodle - I've been trying so hard to find this Noodle figurine. I've been searching for it for a few years and have failed so far. I hafta keep my eye on ebay!
04. Mermaid Perfume Spray - I have the Mermaid shampoo on one of my previous lists, but I'm so interested to try the perfume as well!
05. Sailor Mars Galaxy Edition Tee - My friend Steve designed these Sailor Moon shirts, and I think they're fantastic. Sailor Mars is my favorite if you wanted to know!

And there you go. I want to go on a spending spree.