Hanasu Photomanip

I was tired of drawing today, so I did a photomanipulation of my character Hanasu. No Hanasu is not part of any book or project...I just like having someone to draw.



And here's the original photo:

I used the following stock images ( model, pagoda 1, pagoda 2, bird wing).

Hey if anyone wants a photomanipulation of their original character, drop me a comment, they are easy to make and thus cheap like borscht.

I'm a Crunchy Conservative?

Apparently that's the term for a conservative (yes to the bible, no to abortion type) Christian who is also of the environmentally conscious, feed the poor type mentality. I always just thought that meant that I was a fairly logical person...but it's always nice to know that there are others out there. It's hard to be the only logical one around (other than my family of course, who I love)...trying to explain to people that maybe buying apples that were grown next door and not doused in chemicals should be a normal thing. That if we're worried about the mercury content of tuna, perhaps instead of eating less tuna we should stop feeding them mercury?

I don't feel like these things should be revolutionary.

This week I have been reading Heaven, Eco-holic, and I just spent about 2 hours reading in the archives of Geez magazine (their tagline is "holy mischief in an age of fast faith"...that alone was enough to get me reading). I recommend them all. However it's starting to make me a bit twitchy and I think I'll curl up with a Janet Evanovich romance before bedtime.

Friday Five

Okay, I lied in my last post, I didn't write a cover review. Here it is in a nutshell: Auralia's Colors has a very pretty cover, however it is yet another photomanip and frankly? I'm sick of them. When is the last time a Christian Fantasy book got an actual painting for a cover? Anyone? LOTR?

Today, well...I'm mostly better. However my nose and lips are peeling. I hates it.

1)Bottled Lamps by Kiki van Eijk


2)Pillows by Lalitah. The set of pillows tells a sweet story, follow the link for more.


3)Cooking Tips Towels by Simple Memory Art. How many tablespoons are in a cup? Check the towel! I need these...


4)Rolly the Radcore Robot, by Corky...Cuuute!


5)Take-G's Toys...best for last. These are hand carved little robots made out of different kinds of wood. I truly and utterly love them. I can't remember the last time I saw something so cool.

Blog Tour: Auralia's Colors - Day 2

Okay all, I promised you a review of Auralia's Colors (I'm with you Kait, I keep writing coloUrs every time). And a review you will have. However I am completely loopy with a head cold and exhausted from spending the entire day at the pool (in the next town) doing a lifeguarding recert. With a head cold. Very loopy. I did pass, but it was not a strong showing. What I'm trying to say is that I might ramble a bit here, and it might not all make sense...but I'm guessing you've noticed that already.

Basic Overview:
The House of Abascar (think a city sized kingdom), is colourless. The Queen in her pride and need to outshine the other houses, decided that everything of value and beauty must be sacrificed to make the palace more grand and impressive. Every artist must work only on royal things and the beautiful possessions of the House's citizens are all in the royal vault. Unfortunately this isn't enough to make the queen content...and she runs away never to be seen again. The king refuses to admit that she made a mistake and continues to hoard everything of colour or value, waiting for the right moment to unveil the House's riches and make it the envy of all. That moment never comes.

This is the world Auralia is found in.

Auralia is raised outside the walls of the House by criminals and outcasts. She has the talent of finding colour everywhere in the world around her and creating beautiful things with it. She doesn't understand how anyone thinks that they can own colour and control it. Needless to say she shakes things up a little.

What I liked:

-I loved the imagery used throughout the book. It's very poetic and reminds a bit of Patricia Mckillips flowery style, which I love. The style is very fitting for a book about beauty.

-As an artist this book really resonated with me. I've always felt that one of the greatest gifts that God has given humanity is the ability to create beautiful things. Whether it's art or music or quilts...it's just such a gift. In this book, it feels like colour is an image of how God can touch the world through people, and how much we lose by not being open to it, or trying to control it, rule it, and lock it away. I'll check tomorrow and see if that made any sense.

-Without giving away too much I can only say that the ending was crazy. Much more intense than I had anticipated, and it changed the whole tone of the book, in a good way.

So I do heartily recommend it (and I don't just say that about any book people, especially not most Christian novels). It's a good solid read, and very thought provoking. It's not an allegory, but there are a lot of spiritual ideas in it that you find yourself mulling over the next day.

Come back tomorrow for my review of the cover!

Blog Tour: Auralia’s Colors by Jeffrey Overstreet

Ugh, I am sick and braindead. However I did want to quickly plug Auralia's Colors by Jeffrey Overstreet. I love it with an undying love, and can't wait to read the rest of the series. I'll tell you why I love it so much tomorrow, and on Wednesday I'll do a review of the cover design.

For today I'll just tell you that Jeffrey Overstreet is a wonderful author, and that I love reading movie reviews on his blog. Which is here: http://lookingcloser.wordpress.com

Okay, I'll honestly try to do it justice tomorrow (even though I will probably be equally sick and braindead), but in the meantime, check these guys out:


Robert Treskillard
Brandon Barr
Jim Black
Justin Boyer
Grace Bridges
Jackie Castle
Carol Bruce Collett
Valerie Comer
CSFF Blog Tour
D. G. D. Davidson
Chris Deanne
Jeff Draper
April Erwin
Marcus Goodyear
Andrea Graham
Jill Hart
Katie Hart
Timothy Hicks
Heather R. Hunt
Becca Johnson
Jason Joyner
Kait
Karen
Carol Keen
Mike Lynch
Margaret
Rachel Marks
Shannon McNear
Melissa Meeks
Rebecca LuElla Miller
Mirtika or Mir's Here
Pamela Morrisson
Eve Nielsen
John W. Otte
John Ottinger
Deena Peterson
Rachelle
Steve Rice
Cheryl Russel
Ashley Rutherford
Hanna Sandvig
Chawna Schroeder
James Somers
Rachelle Sperling
Donna Swanson
Steve Trower
Speculative Faith
Jason Waguespac
Laura Williams
Timothy Wise

Leaflette it is!

I went ahead and got leaflette.etsy.com. Don't get too excited, there's nothing there yet, I have to finish my current projects first. Speaking of which, here's another banner for the forum I'm working on:



In other news...do I have other news? Not really. I spent the weekend holed up at home with Craig. We've watched almost all of season two of Project Runway. I love that show. Working on art. Oh the sewing machine appears to be fixed (I took it in a couple days ago) but my plushie raccoon isn't living up to my vision. Still learning how to transfer my ideas to a new medium.

Also, I want ice cream. But it is too cold. And I am too poor.

That's all.

Friday Five

1)Hey want some pretty but really expensive baby blocks! Designed by Alexander Girard (1907-1993). Who was apparently famous.



2)Buonanotte Table Lamp. Look, it's a lamp...and a place to put your book that keeps it's place. This would be perfect for me, I'm always cracking my bindings.



3)Abigail A Percy makes very pretty jewelry!



4)Log Boxes from Jayson Home & Garden.



5)Egg Press makes very cute handmade letterpress cards. And DIY stuffie kits :)

yo

So yesterday was a bit rough as I didn't sleep Tuesday night. At all. Partly because I had to wake up at 5 for work which put my brain into a panic. Also Craig is sick and was...breathing really loud. And tossing about. Uck.

So it was a tired day. But I did still manage to work without anyone dying, so that always makes for a good day. Then I went home and tried to nap with sicky Craig. But could not. But I did do my flylady cleaning. And I made Whitewater Granola Bars from the cookbook I got for Christmas. Whitewater, for those of you not in the know, is the local ski hill, and they have some truley amazing food. I mean, I'm too poor to eat there, but judging by my memory and the cook book, just excellent.

Best Granola Bars Ever

And I did Yoga which was great and I slept great. I might actually start doing a bit of Yoga every night as it is supposed to help with sleeping and I can use it lately. My Yoga Dance Fusion class was cancelled so I will be taking Jazz Dance on Mondays instead. Hey, I work out like...8-10 hours a week these days. I should be skinny soon, right?

Today I rediscovered my laundry/freezer/recycling closet. And I do vow to do my recycling once a week so that it doesn't get like that again. It was scary. And very hard to reach the washer. Also hard to open the freezer.

Oh hey, I forgot to post this earlier. I was in a handmade ornament exchange this Christmas and I finally got my last one last week. Here they are all looking pretty on my fridge (I can't bear to put them away yet).

still obsessing

over this etsy thing, so please answer the poll. I'm leaning towards Leaflette, cause it's cute. But would it be annoying to explain out loud that it's not leaflet?

Lime Leaf...well I don't know, it's cute? And yummy in curry?

Re-leaf, well thanks to Karen for getting me all punny. But if I use lots of recycled stuff it would be a really cute name. But magnetic paper dolls aren't recycled.

Yes it's all about a cute name.

Yes I am tired.

Why yes, my house is still clean.

In which Hanna wants to do everything

So, even though the sewing machine has been hating me, I'm still all full of crafty ideas and I want to re-do my etsy shop. As right now it has nothing in it...and I don't want hanasu.etsy.com anymore because really...my ideas aren't terribly asian. I want to do cute folky kids stuff. Such as plushies. And magnetic paper dolls. And little painted jewelery boxes. I know I know, I said I'd focus on my illustration portfolio...and I am, I'm drawing lots (I know it doesn't show...but soon they will all get finished and I'll have proof!) but the ideas...they just don't stop.

And I'm always obsessed with selling things. For some reason. I want to share? But get money? It's a mystery.

Anyway, I've been trying to think of a new name for the shop. I wanted to call it Little Leaf. But littleleaf.etsy.com is already taken...as is little-leaf.etsy.com. Both by people who aren't using them! But I got all hung up on the leaf thing...because then I could make a cute leaf logo...and sew leafs on all the plushies bums...

Very convincing reasons I know.

Anyway, do any of you have a leafy shop name idea for me? Something kinda cute? Please post! Even you lurkers (I know you're there...I can see you lurking about with my psychic powers.)

Probably I shouldn't post after midnight but...what can you do?

friday five

snow snow snow.

That's all it does.

1)cute commercial:


2)Jessica Rose Cashmere has lovely lovely things on her Etsy shop. I want the hand warmers please!



3)This post from Apartment Therapy: Green Home is all about Furoshiki, the art of wrapping just about anything in a square of cloth...very amusing.



4)Emoticon Transforming Stamp from Think Geek...hee hee, you squish it in different ways to get different emoticons.



5)Pretty pretty Butterfly Magnets at Darlybird.

Moving on up in the world

Hello all :)

So I live in a row of five townhouses, and they're all owned by the same person. That person (I have no idea who, they live in Vancouver) has decided to try and sell them all individually. Thus we have two or three people a week wandering through our house. This is mildly annoying and has been going on for a couple months now, with a break over Christmas. Usually we aren't home, but I always feel the need to clean up because...I don't want strangers seeing my dirty house. This makes Craig crazy. He says "who cares what total strangers think of our house?!"

Um, I do?

Anyway this is less annoying now (we've had two viewings this week) because you know what? My house isn't dirty anymore! Huzzah!

So yesterday Real Estate Lady (who I had not met) came through with a prospective buyer while I was home. They were quite nice and we chatted for a little bit. Prospective Buyer Lady commented on the size of my monitor (because Audrey is HUGE) and I mentioned that I need a large monitor(s) because I'm an illustrator/graphic designer and she said that she's looking for a graphic designer to help with a webpage she's working on. :) So I gave her my card and hope to hear from her soon. How's that for lazy networking? I didn't even need to take off my slippers.

Also, we got talking about house cleaning and I told them about flylady and they both wanted the link, very amusing.

In other news, they posted the updated seniority list at work, and guess what? I am no longer at the bottom! There are three whole people with less accumulated hours than me. This is not a huge deal but it does mean that a)The high schoolers can't boss me around anymore (although I had pretty much broken them of that habit) aaaand b) if I work with any of those three people, I get a dollar an hour more, as supervisor.

Also, it just feels good to be #8 of 11 instead of #11 of 11.

Still drawing lots, and working on the forum, I'll have a new illustration done hopefully in a day or two, but in the meantime, here's a sneak peek at the forum:

Tah dah!

New layout! It's kinda girly...in a five year old way. But I like it. I don't know what that says about me. Oh yeah, that I want to make books for five year olds...phew, it's all good then.

Well I had a good weekend. Joel and Jen stopped by for the day yesterday on their way back to the coast to fly away to south america. I had a small issue picking them up from the bus stop. It was so cold that my poor little car (poor little parked out on the street because the parking lot was such a mess car) was not only covered inside and out with ice...but the locks were so cold that I couldn't even get the key all the way in...let alone turn it.

Ah yes, the joys of really warm wet weather suddenly freezing.

Also, because of this, when we later went for a walk it was a bit on the treacherous side...what with the sidewalks being three inches deep in solid ice. Frightening.

Dear Joel and Jen, thanks for forgetting mom's banana chocolate chip muffins here. They are very yummy.

In other news the flylady thing is going very well so far. When people come over...I don't have to clean the house first. Craig is very impressed. Actually he about fainted from shock when I told him that I vacuumed today. I really hate vacuuming. So he does it. When I ask him to. Which is rarely. I won't tell you how rarely because it's really embarrassing.

That's all for today, I hope you all had a lovely weekend as well!

Friday Five

It is absolute and utter crap out there today. It snowed for a couple days and now has been raining for 16 hours. It's all slush. I got the car brutally stuck in a slush bank trying to get into our parking lot (not that I crashed...the slush bank was the road). It took Craig and a couple neighbour guys almost an hour to get it out. I felt really bad. Then we came in and had a bath. And Craig halfway forgave me. Then I just went out to get my purse and there's another car stuck so he went back out to help them.

I may have called the property manager and given him an almost polite piece of my mind because really, this is not cool.

It's still raining.

Friday Five anyone?

Oh oh, Craig just came in, he helped push the car out, then the lady guns it to get her car back on the street, it slips all over the slush and she barely manages to brake it...within a foot of our car. Yikes.

1)Cartolina Cards. These are just beautiful, they mix modern style and colours with traditional and exotic art work. I love em. Also a lovely website.



2)Toasted Notes :)...you know, like Post-it Notes...but shaped like toast. Get it?



3) I love these owlies :) from B.delicious



4) Want a $205 teapot? I know I do (by Ayumi Horie)



5) Geekzilla Notecards by (his name tag says "Hello my name is Geekzilla"). Pretty much adorable.

Friday Five

It is absolute and utter crap out there today. It snowed for a couple days and now has been raining for 16 hours. It's all slush. I got the car brutally stuck in a slush bank trying to get into our parking lot (not that I crashed...the slush bank was the road). It took Craig and a couple neighbour guys almost an hour to get it out. I felt really bad. Then we came in and had a bath. And Craig halfway forgave me. Then I just went out to get my purse and there's another car stuck so he went back out to help them.

I may have called the property manager and given him an almost polite piece of my mind because really, this is not cool.

It's still raining.

Friday Five anyone?

Oh oh, Craig just came in, he helped push the car out, then the lady guns it to get her car back on the street, it slips all over the slush and she barely manages to brake it...within a foot of our car. Yikes.

1)Cartolina Cards. These are just beautiful, they mix modern style and colours with traditional and exotic art work. I love em.

2)

3)

4)

5)

Hedgehog Pincushion

I keep trying to spell it pinchusion. I don't know why.

So this was Barb's Christmas present as she has also taken up sewing this year. I have one too, but hers turned out cuter. He's made with scraps from the quilt I made this summer.

In other news, I'm back at work...goodbye sweet holidays. Craig still has till Monday. He has decided to sit on the exercise ball while gaming to strengthen his core....

More snowshoeing this afternoon, yay!

Happy New Year!

We're taking it easy this New Year's Eve. We've got Civilizations 4 installed on both computers and have been playing together all day. Also I'm working on a raccoon plushie (Mooommy, sewing machine hates me! Again!), and of course some art. Thought I'd be like Kait (we do share a brain after all) and give you a recap of my year.

-The biggest thing of course, is that we moved back to BC in august, Craig is in school and we are much much poorer. But also happier. It hasn't been an easy fall, with car issues and job issues, but we're settling in here.

-I've taken up sewing

-We got a second computer (seriously newsworthy in my world!)

-All my friends got pregnant (I just found out about another one today, it just doesn't end!), and I got baby-envy.

-I started making actual freelance money online (as opposed to only mural and window work the year before).

...otherwise my life has been mostly the same. I spend part of my time at work and the rest drawing and reading. It's a good life.

Looking to next year...well I'm not really much of one for resolutions, but I have a couple goals.

-Get my portfolio to the point where I feel comfortable looking for children's illustration work (I'm happy with the quality, I need more quantity).

-I've decided that I'm ready to get my house in order (I'm not the world's best housekeeper...shocking I know). So I'm taking the plunge and joining Flylady...starting tomorrow. It's an online goup/coaching thing that helps you keep on top of things, cleaning-wise

-And on the fun side, I hope the new art forum I'm co-founding will be a success.

Finally, here's some WIP's...they were started in 2007, but won't be finished till 2008!

Angelness

Just realized I never posted this one up. She's an angel I made into fabric ornaments for the Holiday Ornament Gift Swap. I used ironable interfacing between two pieces of white cotton, then ironable transfers to put the angel on. They turned out pretty well:




So we're home, which is good. It's wonderful to spend lots of time hanging out with family...but there's a lot to be said for sleeping in your own bed.

And here's another sketch I did while away from my computer. She's a character (Matilda Anne Rackham) for an art forum I'm starting up with a friend. Yay for steampunk! (the robot's name is Franklin)


I'd show you Christmas photos, but I left the cord for my camera at my parents :(

Most Merriest of Chrissymasses!

Well, I can finally show off one of my sewing projects. This is Eco-ninja. I made him for my brother to take to South America on his trip. The idea is to take pictures of his adventures. It's a top secret ninja mission.

He's all hand sewn with a flannelette body and a felt face and leaf. His eyes are used buttons.



I got new snowshoes (!) as did Craig, as well as a new hat and shirt and 2 cookbooks and...a feather duster. Oh oh, and my aunt made me the prettiest throw pillows in the world.

I hope all of your Christmases were as good as mine, but I doubt they could be better!

Merry Christmas Eve

Well...it's 11:52...and I wake up at 5...and I haven't packed my clothes...sleeeepy.