( snapshots )

[x] 088. visit Europe

011/101 completed

and I don't really know what else to say anymore.

Post-its come in 3-inch squares. Except the yellow ones, which are apparently 1/8 of an inch shorter. The hardest part was finding both that were the same size. When I did find 3-inch yellow post-its, it was a part of a pack of 5 (at the smallest). Now I have hot pink and purple post-its I'm never going to use. And a whole bunch in colors that I do like, but it'll take years to use them up.

It was also harder than I thought it would be to line each one up next to each other. I started redoing a large section because I wanted it perfect, but I'm not *that* OCD and ended up just leaving it.

trying to figure out pen pressure on the tablet, and optimal brush settings in photoshop. definitely different than drawing with a pencil on paper.

The idea was to make a smaller bouquet than the last one (note the star-shaped pineapple; the flower cookie cutter was too large), but there still ended up being a lot of fruit in it. I had green grapes this time, and honeydew instead of cantaloupe. The color combination didn't work as well, but it tasted better. I also used rice instead of lettuce as the base in this (because I forgot to pick up lettuce). It worked really well packed tight, and also served as a weight to keep the container from falling over. The hardest part was still slicing cutting through the skin of the pineapple.

I think my first arrangement was better, but I still paused traffic while walking with it. Drivers slowed to look as they passed by. More importantly, my mother liked it.

I got my Modbook back 2 weeks ago, and have been loving it every moment since. I like writing out my journal entries; this takes care of that just as well as on paper. Better even, since it's automatically converted into typed text. I just wished Inkwell had better handwriting recognition. My handwriting is really clear, but it still manages to futz it up. I don't know why it doesn't just start by asking you to write out the alphabet and just matching based on that.

It's soooo much easier for drawing though! With a regular tablet, I still think of the pen as a mouse. An easier to maneuver mouse, but still a mouse. Drawing directly onto my screen makes the pen feel like a pen. Here is the panel I did for EPUC this morning (the sentence: ): ( behind cut )

Anyway, point is, I love being able to write and draw right onto my screen. And I have found a new home for my old tablet. dawna's daughter is seriously .

I need a new layout. Even after making it collapsible, the fixed sidebar sometimes bothers me. I worked on a new illustration for it last weekend, but I don't know if I still like it. Maybe it needs to be less sad. Or more sketched/uncolored. Parts of it still need touching up, but I really like the way the hair came out.



I brought home my work tablet for the weekend, to um, practice. It's been a few years, but I got drawn back into iSketch (Pictionary), and I joined Eat Poop U Cat (2.o version of The Sentence Game, both of which are a cross between Telephone and Pictionary). It's quite addictive, and I've already earned kudos! My

blue screen of Death is hell

strip was well received, and everyone is really friendly.

We were looking at Edible Arrangements the other day, which led to my brilliant idea of making my own fruit bouquet as my Christmas contribution (since I didn't have any presents). It looked easy enough; I could de-construct how it was done from looking at the catalog pictures. I also have experience with floral arrangements, and I'm naturally creative – so how hard can it be? My first one will come out awesome.

( gather supplies ) ( cut to shape ) ( assemble onto skewers ) ( insert into 'vase', and... )


Start to finish was about 3 hours, and most of that was the cantaloupe. I am quite happy with the results. ( and so was everyone else :D ) Another merry Christmas this year.

( The Originals )
( The Photoshops )
( The Photoshopped )
( The 7 Things )
( The People )
( Some Trivia )
( And a Poll )

Ok, v-gifting time. Thanks for playing! :)

Let's play a game.

(click to enlarge)

There are 7 things here that are different from the original photo. Correctly identify at least 4 and I'll send you a v-gift. The border decorations do not count (that means the lights, tree, text, and pants scrap in Frank's mouth).

Bonus points for getting names correct. Here is a numbered version for referencing.

3 months of paid time to the first person to get all 7.

Answers will be revealed in a new post tomorrow, and comments will be unscreened then.

(v-gifts will be sent out when I get home tonight, or tomorrow.)

We've been here for 8 months, but haven't finished moving in yet, and haven't really decorated much. We have lots of frames, and we have photos and photo paper to print even more photos on, and we have my drawings. But we haven't framed any of it - our walls and shelf-tops are still bare.

I wanted to give him something that he would be proud to display. Every present I've given him before had been handmade (by me), and this time wasn't any different, just more meaningful/metaphorical. And what more metaphorical than balloons? Relationships are fragile like balloons; they can pop and burst, and they can deflate until there's nothing left. Or they can grow and go higher and higher, and hey, our song is Such Great Heights.

So this is what I ended up with:



While putting this together, I realized that we have lots of photos of us together in 2003 (when we first got together), and 2005 (when I got my new camera), but not that many from the other years. Lots of photos, yes, just not too many of us together.

I originally designed it for 8x10, but the largest frame I had here was 5x7 (the rest of them are still under my bed at my mom's). It didn't resize proportionally; I had to move things around a little, but it's basically the same. I wanted the balloons to get bigger with each year, but perspectively, it should have been the other way around. So I just left them all the same size. I also wanted them to have the shine and shadows for weight and volume, but that didn't work out either so they're just outlined. I couldn't fuss with it too much more, because I wanted to get it to him on time.

I handed it to him when I got home on Wednesday. I don't think he was expecting anything, but he loves it, and has been showing it off to everybody since :D

Yes, I hate Valentine's Day, but only the commercialized version of it. I like the Valentine's Day that's still meaningful, that's thoughtful gifts and a nice dinner together. I hope yours was the latter.

My "treats" for those of you who participated in my LJ Trick or Trick. Sorry it took so long, a lot has been going on. And it'll take longer still for the bonus treats.. I will get to those too though!

take my heart; it's so warm, i'll melt.

I forgot how fun this is, I forgot the concept even existed. Childhood feels like such a long time ago now, a lot longer than it should feel for someone whose largest slice in the lifetime pie chart is still childhood (when measured in years/total years lived).

I used to cut so many of these and tape them up, because where I live(d), there was no chance of seeing real snowflakes out my window. Maybe I'll cut some real ones later, but for now, here's the digital one I made, thanks to Popular Front: SnowDays.

They're increasing the amount they're donating to the Salvation Army based on the number of snowflakes created, so go make one or a few. It's for a good cause, and it's fun! The site is awesome too. You can "catch" the falling ones with your mouse and see what other people have created, and leave replies to their messages.

I'm going to make more tonight, delicate and pretty cut-out snowflakes. But for now, I have work I need to get back to and finish.

First one I did, with the drawing tip. It's sloppy because I couldn't get my hand to stop shaking. ( photo behind cut )

I used a different tip for the second one, and when I got to the O, I remembered what ribboning (or whatever the real term is) was. It worked nicely for the lettering (except for the whole falling-over part of the V), but not so much for the curvy shape. (The spot with the missing frosting is not my fault. It got dropped or bumped against something before I even got to it.) ( photo behind cut )

close-up of detail:


veroz did the icing on the blue cake: ( photo behind cut )

And yes, winniewong, we remembered the TM.

This is an overused stock photo, but I redecorated it.
Because *you* are the best gift ever.



We're leaving for Reno, and I'll experience snow for the first time! Back on Thursday.