8/28/14

Reinvention


After a couple of days of feeling extremely uninspired when it comes it making art and not even barely touching my sketch book, I finally got some ideas back in my head and some pencil on my paper. 


My new bedroom is very big, so it functions perfectly as both a bedroom and a studio. One side of it is all windows, another a tapestry from Urban Outfitters, so it has a really nice studio atmosphere for how I want it. 


So I guess now I'll start to put up more photos of my art. Since I sort of felt like I just started drawing again even though I barely took a break, I felt like I should start doing some new things too. I shifted gears in my artwork a bit-instead of what I used to do, which was like spiritual doodles (Hamsas, Buddhas, third eye type stuff, etc.) all in pencil. Now, I'm working on more illustration-type pieces. I'd never really done much with watercolors but since I started I can't stop! 



This is one of my first ones that I finished recently. 

8/21/14

Board of Moods (diy # 1)

Today, I had most of the day to myself to work on whatever I wanted for the first time in forever! I choses to work on my room a little bit more, since I haven't even had my own room in a month. Since all of the unpacking and most of the organizing was done, I started a new project, which was working on my mood board, which has been completely blank since we moved, and decided to take pictures along the way and make a little step-by-step here, on my blog.

So, of course, the first step to making an inspiration/mood board thing, is to get inspiration. Pinterest is the best thing for that. These three pictures were my favorite that I found, and I used them for ideas when making my own:



I like the cluttered, messy but still kinda organized look, so that's what I went for, except mine had no theme.

Step two would be gathering your supplies. 


You need some kind of surface, a cork board is what I have. (It's painted white since the brown clashes with everything I own) Even though mine is hanging above my bed, I really like how they look above desks and working spaces too. 


 Next, you need something to put on it. This part has absolutely no limits. You can put anything from photos from magazines to old menus and recipes to things that aren't even paper, such as hanging necklaces (that's what mine used to be for).

I took some of my favorite magazines-Nylon and Teen Vogue-and cut out every picture I liked or inspired me.


I cut out pictures of people I idolize or really like, (sky ferreira, vanessa hudgens, sinead O'connor, regina spektor, elle fanning, liam james etc.) I had a pile of photos of Grimes too, but I found those later on. 


Next I went scavenging for some memorabilia type stuff, like baby pictures, photos from shoots with my mom, old concert tickets, a menu from a cool restaurant, etc.


Then I found just some random stuff I was inspired by or liked a lot, such as the cello picture since I play cello, or the picture of Suzy Bishop since Moonrise Kingdom is my favorite movie ever. You can print things out from online too, I printed out the picture of Suzy. That makes it even more unlimited,


If you are anything like me and you save lots of random things like I do, this is a really fun project. These are just random things I've accumulated when I buy other things from brands that send sticker and cool tags along with whatever I bought, and some tags I got from a cool artist. 


And these I found inside of the cases of two of my favorite vinyls, Grimes and Violent Femmes. 



Don't forget thumbtacks!


So, finally, the supplies are all gathered, and you can start. 


 For me, it was easier to start from the center and work my way out. There's no right or wrong, so it's just whatever you want it to be like, and you can change in anytime.

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Ta Da! 



It took me a couple of hours, since I worked slowly and kept on rearranging all of the pictures, but here is the final product (for now). I still haven't completely finished, but I wanted to leave room for new things I collect and acquire. 



I love this photo if me laying against the board once it was finished. I had to beg my little brother to take some pictures for me and this was the only one not blurry! 

8/20/14

A New Dawn, A New Day, A New Life For Me-and I'm feeling good.


In my first post, I mentioned how I didn't exactly know how I felt about moving from Virginia to Pittsburgh, since it had started out badly and had been hard on my family, but by now my perspective has changed a bit. I had expected it all to feel unfamiliar and scary, and living in a suburb never seemed like something that my family would ever do, and still be happy.

On the very first day, literally right after we got the keys to our new house-which is nothing like any house we've ever lived in, and way smaller too-we brought in some of our stuff, and all felt uncertain about everything. There were some tears, and probably some feelings of regret, and definitely some worry on my part. I worried that we wouldn't find anything we liked, we wouldn't fit in at all, we wouldn't even like our house, but luckily that quickly changed. That same first day, we got all of our paints to paint the house, and found that we lived close to  a Fresh Market grocery store, and I had never been in one before, so that was very exciting. (For those who don't know, Fresh Market is a lot like Whole Foods, but with a high wall filled with granolas and dried fruit and all those foods I love.) We also live close to a Trader Joes, and a Market District Giant Eagle, which is the best thing ever too. Anyway. We did that, ate dinner (just some snacks from the store) around the counter, and went to bed. 

The next day was much more exciting. Well, not the first half exactly, but the second. In the second half, we went to the best restaurant ever, which would be the Loving Hut. It's an all vegan like Asian style restaurant, and on Saturdays, which is when we went, is an all-you-can-eat vegan buffet. Although don't be intimidated by the word vegan, since there were many people there who looked like they probably could also be spotted in a burger joint too. 



(This is from the outside of Loving Hut.)

So, another plus to living where I do is being 25 minutes from this place. 
After we filled our stomachs with the amazing food from the Loving Hut, we drove to see what is known as the countries best night time city view. (that is where the top picture is from.) It was especially cool too, since we go to big cities every once in a while, but being twenty minutes from a view like the one we saw, is awesome. 


By now, it has been about five days since we entered this new little adventure, and it isn't really as bad as I thought it would be, and we are even starting to like our house! 

8/13/14

Eliminating the Mysteriousness




Well, it is Tuesday night and I am still in State College PA, which I am actually soo tired of now, and it is the perfect time to write a blogpost. I figured since I don't have very many pictures right now and I've barely started this blog, it might be a god idea to do one of those cheesy all-about-me posts that sort of gets rid of any enigmatic vibes I may give off (if any at all) but maybe it won't. Ok here we go, this is my 20 facts.

  • 1. I am finallllly a teenager, and I have been since July 7, 2014. 
  • 2. I love to cook and bake yummy vegan food and I have almost been vegan for half of a year. 
  • 3. Thrift shopping is one of my favorite things to do ever, and I practically never leave a thrift store empty-handed. 
  • 4. Grimes is my current favorite singer, I also love Alt-j and flume and Chet Faker, although my music taste changes day to day. 
  • 5. Cats, goats, and foxes are my favorite animals, although I'm a huge animal person so I love them all. 
  • 6. I have wanted to be a fashion designer for a very long time, and I can sew and partially design patterns too, although now there are other things I would like to be as well. 
  • 7. Drawing and writing are also things I love to do, and jobs where I got to do them would be perfect for me-especially if they involved fashion. 
  • 8. I play the cello, and would love to play cello professionally if my other plans didn't work out. 
  • 9. I started running again recently, and I also do yoga, play soccer and am learning hula hoop tricks too! 
  • 10. My style can change all the time, sometimes I like to dress really 90's-ish and grungy, sometimes bohemian and coachella-ish, and sometimes vintage and rockabily-ish. 
  • 11. If I could go anywhere I would probably go to the Farm Sanctuary in New York, Australia, Japan or somewhere cool in California. 
  • 12. My favorite show ever is My So-Called Life even, though it is older than I am, and I still have a couple more episodes to watch! It is also where I get a lot of fashion inspiration from. 
  • 13. I love anything that has to do with the Chakras, and my Grandma just knit me this awesome chakra wall hanging that I am so excited to put up when I move into my new house. 
  • 14. One of my current obsessions is Bento Boxes. The ones that have little cats or pandas are my favorite, they are so cute! 
  • 15. If I had to pick a college to go to right now, I'd pick RISD. 
  • 16. In less than a month I am starting eighth grade at a brand new school, and I have no idea what to expect! 
  • 17. My favorite song ever is Jessica by Major Lazer feat. Ezra Koenig, who I am in love with. 
  • 18. One thing I am not good at and am not interested in: fitting in. I like to rebel and be different. 
  • 19. When I am doing fashion illustrations, mens military style is my inspiration right now, and I love collars.
  • 20. Two years ago (I think) I tried to start a blog, but then I wasn't ready or mature enough for that commitment, and I am now.
wow that took me forever. If I am doing nothing, or am somewhere where I don't have a laptop or pen and paper with me, I seem to be flooded with great ideas and thoughts, but when there is a blank page waiting to be filled in front of me, my brain feels sort of empty. That was what this list was kind of like, but once I get started it comes a lot easier. 

8/12/14

Blisters and Bowls

August 11, 2014
Right now, it is 9:35 p.m. and I am sitting in a hotel bed, worn out from a long day of ambling along the streets of State College PA. This is the last week of living at my grandparents house until my family will move into our new house finally. My dad had a course to take at Penn State for his new job, so it was a great chance for my mom, brother and I to get to go somewhere new and explore for a few days. So today, day one out of two and a half in the small town outside of Penn State, our first stop was a cute coffee shop called Saint's Cafe.


We hung out there for a little bit, I had some tea and a vegan ginger cookie, which was very good. In my opinion, definitely better vibes than Starbucks.



Above: At Saint's, with my tea and new thrift-store denim vest. 



Next stop, we walked about a thousand blocks to get to this cafe for a little snack/breakfast at a place called Aardvark Kafe. It's an original pizza place with a whole separate vegan menu that features things from shakes to tofu to falafel. I sat right on the first stool on the left and split a tofu sandwich with my mom. 


This was the tofu BBQ sandwich-it was very good, even if it doesn't look that appealing. 


The atmosphere at Aardvark was...interesting. There was random vintage stuff everywhere! Every table had cards or chess sets or other antique game. The picture above is the main seating area. 


There was a few mirrors sitting on the ground, so heres the bottom half of my outfit today. (and these sandals are where the blisters come in.) 


After Aardvark, we walked around for a while, stopped in a bookstore, searched for bubble tea (which we did not find), went to Urban Outfitters, a few other stores, and the above art store called Uncle Eli's. I got a new pen/marker sketchbook and eraser-both I am very excited about!


Quirkier side of Uncle Eli's.


After shopping at the art store, we did much more walking, which I acquired more blisters from, and also got hungry again. We stopped in a restaurant a friend had recommended to us called the Green Bowl (this is where the bowl part comes in) For lunch, it was really cool! So first, there is a whole buffet full of raw vegetables and tofu and noodles and sauces, which you load onto a bowl, then give to a guy who stir-fry's it on a big stove-thing right in front of you, then voila-you have a bowl full of yummy stir fried foods! It was so quick and good, the only thing is that even though it is all you can eat, it is still a rip-off for dinner since the price rises from 9 dollars (lunch) to around 14 for dinner.


(my bowl) 


Plus, the walls in the Green Bowl's bathroom were bright purple!

The next half of the day was less exciting, but we did walk about a hundred more blocks down to a Goodwill, and the walk was definitely worth it, since the Goodwill was full of great stuff! I got a pair of jeans, a notebook, an American Eagle skirt, and a  Free People jacket. The only bad part was after we left the thrift store, when we got lost in a neighborhood we'd never been in before, far from our hotel. Luckily my dad, after driving around for a bit, found us and took us back. So that is the end of day one!


8/6/14

An Introduction

This is the last picture of me as a 12 year old, when I was still living in Virginia.


August 6, 2014.


Today, much like many of the past days this summer, was productive and busy, while at the same time, calm. So far the summer in which I officially entered the teen years, (which would be this summer) has been the strangest, and probably most difficult one yet. As if becoming a teenager-which comes with sudden bursts of moodiness, angst, short lasting obsessions with certain things and many other feelings and situations-wasn't enough, my dad's job moved and he had to get a new job in Pennsylvania, seven hours from where I lived and two from where I was born. He moved up there in May to work, while my mom, brother and I stayed back in Virginia and finished the school year. We lived like that throughout June and half of July, my dad driving down on the weekends, but that ended when we rented our perfect house out to a family that needed to move in by July 15. That was the very day that we packed up most of our belongings, put our lives on hold, and drove to my moms parents house to temporarily live, which is where I am writing from. To be exact, I'm sitting against the wall on the carpet, next to my cat Jazzy, and across from my grandma who is knitting. Although she really isn't one of those grandmas, who sits around knitting or baking cookies all day. In fact, she's very opposite. She makes kombucha and does yoga and things like that. Anyway, enough about my grandma.

Initially, I sort of wanted to move. I was living in a very, very conservative and preppy area, where no one wore doc martins or was vegan, and was ready to escape. I never felt like I fit in, even with my friends, so naturally when I realized I never would fit in with them, I started trying to rebel even more. I dressed in lots of black, became vegan, listened to music my school-mates had never heard of until I was done listening to it, and whatever they did,
tried to do the opposite. The whole time I was also trying to figure myself and my style out. And now, after experimenting with many different things, such as music, clothing, food, and hobbies, I've realized that I can't settle on one thing, since it changes day to day. 

For a few weeks, I really didn't want to move, since my mom was very unhappy because of it and that made me unhappy too, and I just wanted my life and family put back together. They were definetly some of the worst weeks ever for me, and of course my birthday (July seventh) fell right in the middle of them. 

By now, I'm mixed on moving. I love new people and new experiences, but I have realized things that I miss about where I used to live. Luckily, living at my grandparents has proven to be very good for me. I've been able to sort out my feelings and work on many of my projects and not be overwhelmed by things to do, since I never have anything I have to do, just what I want to do, such as finally starting up my blog, which is serving more as a public diary for me, where I can unleash my messy thoughts, art, and emotions, post my outfits and experiences, and list some vegan recipes and other projects that I make.