inkscapades

Hiya guys! It's meeeeeeeeee

I told you I'd tell you more about inkstuff so here I am :)

I went to a workshop on October 10, a calligraphy class. I decided to go because I wanted to exert myself more artistically - I've sort of been on this personal quest to re-ignite my passion for stuff I like to do and stuff.

The workshop was held by inkscribbler (refer to the links on the folder!) and it was very nice, relaxed, and inspiring. There were other creative women in the room and I think it paid off just to be in the same space as these women. Changed my energy for sure, for the next weeks after.

thanks inkscribbler!!

After the class I bought some additional nibs pictured below, and then I went to National Bookstore and got a brushpen just because I thought I wouldn't find them locally and even told one of my workshopmates about that fact, then I suddenly found brush pens at the bookstore!!! (I think I even saw her there but I wasn't sure, her back was turned and she was walking away and you know how socially awkward I am)

the middle one is the free one  ; i bought the other two :)

I found another bottle of ink that's been in our house for a long time from when my older brothers did calligraphy in high school. It's nice because one of the nibs needs a thicker consistency, and the old one has gone a bit thick. I also mixed up some water and poster paint to have a red "ink"

And I also made this bluish green one which I've transferred somewhere else since.

My brother has since passed the nib and holder they used in highschool to me:

I've been doodling and practicing and it feels great and relaxing and rewarding and nice.

see the tiny paper? look down!

I've also been trying to write longer stuff, I know it might wear my nibs out but I like the practice.

I wrote this one while watching Kiki's Delivery Service. It's funny cos it's kind of how I feel about calligraphy. It's that thing I'm doing to ease my mind and to feel good and creative. I feel in my zone lately, so at least for me, this truly is good therapy.

Adventure Time and Other Cute Room Things tour

Just wanted to do a quick photopostin of the cute things I have in my room and my mini adventure time collection!

Remember my little friend? He reminds me of Steven Universe sometimes cos his LED light looks like a crystal gem and because when I use this dragon flashdisk on his hand he looks like Steven from the kitten hands episode!! My brother loves that show.

I've been collecting silica packets from snackstuff because I read somewhere that they might be good to keep in one's camera bag, but because camera bag is in the laundry/had been dusty, they've just been propped on my camera pillow until I got the idea of keeping them in this really cute translucent pouch I never had a real use for. I love that it's completely breathable and perfect for the purpose. I also cut the corners of the packets to round them up - they kept poking me and snagging! wasn't nice. I can't really speak for the benefits of this tip yet, but better safe than smoggy.

I just finished a mega-cleaning of my desk! Rearranged so much stuff, I've got so many cups and jars and boxes and stuff, and it looks like a mess but I usually know where to get anything and where everything goes, much more now that I've arranged them to be more effective. Still looks messy though! But I love it.

I bought the gemlike magnets I always see at Sleepcare! Gourdo's has been on sale all month and they had them in the Alabang branch half off. I'm hoping I can go back this weekend cos turns out, I want more haha. 

They came with this metal panel that I stuck to my desk "wall" with thumb tacks so it can be a magnet board! NEAT! I've been meaning to frame this picture of Emmy in colonial Philippines garb but this works just as well - that cardboard frame thing came with the copy when it was given to us . 

That postcardy thingy is part of a series - on the same trip where I got the magnets, I also bought some kiddie coloring pens, the really cheap ones and I drew a whole lot with them and made postcards inspired by the stuff I saw in bookstores when we were out

These are the ones I made for my best friends. The leftmost one was clearly the first haha.

This postcard/ art bug kind of got inspired in part by the calligraphy class I took last October 10. I'll be writing more about my ink adventures on the next post! Meanwhile this is my improved set-up for my inks and nibs:

I keep my nibs in the panda's head and my inks in this newly-freed container which used to contain very random odds and ends. I put those things where they belong and now this is free for my calligraphy ink supplies. I also keep some watered-down paint in it to use with my nibs :D

And noooow, my Adventure Time thingies

Emmy let me take all the available ones because he is the best boyfriend

My BMO and Ice King notebooks - my favorites from the first and second collections of the Moo promo :D

And I didn't stop there! I even saved the milk boxes, cut em, cleaned them, and now they're cute additions to my white house minicabinet :) Functional too, you can keep hairpins in them or something.

This one's not part of the collection obviously, although it looks like it could be an Ooo tree. It's the paperclip fountain I made - a nice way to allow myself to choose what color of paperclip I want and getting it easier instead of having to shake the bottle for the right color to come out! This inspired me to do a video on it, but it kinda seems too easy to warrant its own video? But I can probably use the practice, so I'll look into it!

Anyway that's today's mini room tour, I might make more of these because they are fun and I like my room a lot! *carful bea ur inner hikikomori is showing*

SEEYA LATER DUDES!

quick nail art tip

Last night i felt like fiddling with my nails.. (do any of you ever get that ~itch~ to do your nails? no? am i being weird?) only problem was i already love my current nail color..  In any case, i figured out a way to get a nail art fix without removing my current polish.

The pictures aren't very good as they were taken pre-cleanup and look messy (tip: taking a shower after polish had dried cleans it right off) but I think you get the idea. I took these photos in a rush because it was an impulse kind of thing!

 If you like this look anyway, feel free to follow through these simple step by step instructions!

Note: I already had nail polish on, so put and dry your bottom colors on if you haven't already, before the stripping part. I only did my ring nail (and my thumb on impulse) and it was already in a different color (black with blue glitter) beforehand.

Tape Pattern Nail Art

1. As with anything, the first step is to gather what you need.

Scissors and Tape

 I use some regular scissors and this blue tape I got years ago; you can use any regular scotch tape that doesn't stick too much and leave residue. this one peels clean off, i like it! the color is like paint tape but it's more like thin plastic.

And your preferred nail polish, of course :)

Here we have my favorite Super Nova from Bobbie, and the lilac polish I got a while ago from Caronia, a nice bright blue from Face Shop, and a colorless top coat, from Caronia again.

Try to pick very liquid polish formulas! No thick or gummy formulas because it will be a mess when you peel the tape off.

*tip: for glitter x regular patterns, it's better to use the glitter polish as the bottom color as this leaves no risk for glitter pieces being caught by the tape and messing up the lines.


2. You will need to prepare the tape strips ahead because it can be annoying to fiddle with scissors with wet nails. You have to get the scissorwork out of the way.

Cut the tape into thin strips

It will depend on the pattern you like, but it's generally a good idea to cut even widths. In my case, i found it a bit hard (Brooklyn Nine Nine was very distracting) so I cut much more than I needed and paired off equal ones to make a varying pattern. try to cut them as parallel as you can.

3. Apply tape strips in desired pattern !!!

Apply the strips, leaving space for the top polish.

Remember that the spaces you will tape over will be the spaces in your bottom polish that will show up. So in the case of glitter polish, you can maybe pick areas with the best looking glitter and move your pattern around to show it ^w^

The pattern I wanted was a V pattern, so I paired off even strips and applied them one by one, center first, making sure that the angles are perpendicular and aligned so that the two strips look like one V. Push down up to the edges of your nails. The tape needs to be laid flat all across your nail for it to work like a stencil. Otherwise, polish would seep under. Try to also apply the strips as parallel as possible. Unless, of course, you don't want a parallel design. (Who knows! Could work.)

4. Apply your top color onto the spaces between the lines

Try to apply it smoothly, unlike the sleepy sloppy genius that I was last night.

5. Peel off the strips to reveal pattern!

Before the polish dries, peel off the strips. 

This needs to happen before it dries, because you don't want the liquid particles to form an emotional bond with each other and try to stick together when you peel their friends off with the tape. It will make your nails really messy and it will be very sad to watch them be pulled apart.

You can opt to now apply top coat - it will make the edges smoother and in the case of glitter polish, it will enhance the sparkles!

There you go ~ I hope you give this a try. There are many different patterns you can do and you can use more than one color. Make sure to link me to the pictures if you do!

Jarring

 (I almost called this post The Conjarring but I decided that banking on current events does not look good on me.)

Remember the jar I bought at the start of the year to put strips of paper in that recount good things that happens during the year? I abandoned it while Beardy was here, because somehow it's hard to stop to take a moment to write about good things happening while they are happening a lot. 

So I typed all the good stuff I remembered happening as of late and from Beardy's vacation in the summer. On one whole sheet of paper. Using my favorite colors of course.

I couldn't remember when stuff happened, so I gave up on the part where I put the date in the strips. I figured they werent that important, so long as I remember that the stuff happened. (although it would be nice to know but meh) and that I should let go a little bit. I'm trying to do this thing where I don't micromanage every single little thing. I'm going to focus instead on macromanaging ... and normalmanaging. I JUST WANT TO BE A NORMAL PERSON STOP IT BRAIN

There's a couple of cute things in the jar that I like, the heart-shaped candle on a stick from my free birthday sundae from Ryuma, the candlestick from Beardy's free apple pie on his going away/birthday dinner, and the blue spade toothpick (fave color and fave card suit!) from when I met my friends and Pia made us try her aunt's bread pudding. Fitting souveneirs from nice days spent with loved ones! There's also an origami rose I made around my birthday, I wrote about my birthday in it. Then I stuck it into the lid. Fits perfectly and looks really pretty. 

In other life news, I've just finished my first week of training! Doing well so far, and my co-trainees are pretty awesome! They're super funny and we all get along well. I really hope I get this job! I adjusted to the 10pm shift pretty quickly and well, (not to mention they pay more for nights) the workplace is super near and I don't need to be smoked bea-cued by pollution, and it's just a good first job I think. I think after graduating is the best time to work for a BPO. It will give me time to think of what I really wanna do and it won't be wasted time because I'll be interacting with people every day and I'll get to start saving money! Which is the best part for me, I won't lie.

merriment

this month has been good to me

(you know, if you ignore how ball-sticky hot it is every day)

i was so happy about getting my final grade that i didn't feel the need to have a birthday party.

DVD stickers and covers i made for the copies i gave for the library etc :3 i scanned the watercolor images i painted when i conceptualised the sets :3

this was how i celebrated my birthday-eve :) with a boy drink and a girl drink (i guess you could say it symbolizes my wholeness as a person or whatnot but really i just wanted to try these new tanduay ice's) and the cutest christmas tree bottle opener! i love how it goes with my thesis theme haha

i did a lot of catching up with my favorite shows after finishing my requirements. it's been good :) insanely hot, but good.

my "problems" arent over, i still need to know what to do with my life, but at least i'm more in the same stage as most of my friends.. it's one thing to feel lost, it's another to feel deliberately LATE.. if you see what i mean.

i feel like this year will be a great one for me. even though the rest of the world seems to be going crazy (really sad stuff in the USA and Iran and NoKor craziness)... I'm really looking forward to finding out what I'll be doing next.. Even though I'm really anxious too! SOMEONE HIRE ME haha

anyway yeah :) tomorrow i think i'm going somewhere with a nice water thingy (is it a pond?) to celebrate both my birthday and my cousin's move to Saudi. so yeah. the fun continues.

a victorious day

guess what happened!!

clue:

don't say anything about the discarded dress ITS REALLY HOT OKAY

and then i

\

!!!

What, I stayed up all night on FACEBOOK and then printed some random stuff the next day? nonononono i finished my THESIS and printed it this morning!

and then i went to school to submit it for binding!

they planted a bunch of sunflowers at the main road in uni.. i've only been hearing about it on facebook, never really noticed them when i went there.. they said it's for the april graduation ceremonies.. so sunflowers had been a graduation-related meme online. there was an image that went around, a background of just sunflowerheads and in the middle was written:

 tapusin mo na ang thesis mo.

("finish your thesis already.")

at the time i was trying my best to push myself to do just that, so I actually downloaded that image on my phone and used it as a wallpaper. it did help remind me everyday.

and now fast forward to this afternoon.. i was in the jeep entering the uni grounds, and for the first time i made it a point to look for the flowers.. i noticed the hedges.. and sure enough, i saw a first couple of little sunflower heads. greeting me, like hi i know you finished your thesis, good job we'll all see you soon.

it was a feeling that was really thrilling and i felt so excited and i felt feelings i didn't think i could feel anymore.

i remember feeling thankful about my thesis being about children. thinking about the things that make children different from adults really put things into perspective. i find it easier to be happy/pleased when i tap into my child self. i don't call it inner child anymore. i just realised it's still who i am. 

i passed my copies, returned my adviser's book, and i passed by a little sunflowerhead on the way out of my college. i snapped a picture of it with my phone, and replaced the one with the thesis reminder. now it's time to remind myself that the hardest part is over, and that the sunflowers are waiting :)

in other news, i made earrings today!

I've always wanted these and now I have them and it's a lot cooler cos I MAAADE THEM OKAY! there were four pendants in the little baggie so i made two pairs. one for me, one for mama!

also i bought some blue feather earrings that i altered (i used the same chain):

ta-daaaaa, muuch bettor.

all i used was this thingy which i think is used for surgery or whatever who cares it's cool

I almost gave up on finding the perfect chain, because i had something specific in mind.. luckily this really long one came close enough, and still looked cool:

 and i'm going to make other funky pendants for that blue chain i found. it's so cool-looking. i'm thinking i'll screw some loops on some tiny plastic animal/insect/dinosaur toys...

i bought lotsa nice cheap stuff today.. take a look at these AA batteries:

all of those for only 88 PESOSWHAAAT

also, i found this in mama's room and she's reading something else so she's letton me barrow it:

yey to fey

SO YEAH i'm excited and i'm drinking a beer. it's super exciting cos now that it's over i can just look forward to the summer. what's happening in the summer? guess.

clue:

The scrapbook!

These are the hi def pictures of the scrapbook Emmy and I created before he left the Philippines :)

He brought the actual thing to France and showed his family.

Hopefully, our plans will push through and I'll get to bring one home about my stay in France.

If I remember correctly, you should be able to read everything by clicking them to zoom :) In any case, I'm willing to clear up anything :)

Enjoy! <3 

This is an extra page that's fully Emmy's, he loved seeing the very strange and different vehicles in the Philippines. I loved hearing random trivia from him, made me see my surroundings (particularly Philippine traffic) in a different light :3