5/23/2008

WIP Weekend!

So for anyone who doesn't know, I kind of have a thing for guys in scarves. Seriously though, even if a man isn't that attractive to me, I'll deffinately give him another look if he happens to be wearing a scarf. Rrrowl... Anywho. *Ahem* Also, for those of you who don't know, I've got a new beau named Dennis and he's a real sweetie. But, he said the only way I could get him to wear a scarf is if it has manly skulls on it. And so, I present the manly skull scarf:
I think that's plenty manly enough, yes? It's only half done right now, I still have to do the skull on the other end. It's made from Caron Simply Soft in black and white, but I think a girl's version would be great with a hot pink skull. I got the rough shape from the skull potholders in Stitch N' Bitch the Happy Hooker, but since they were in single crochet I had to change them a lot since the scarf is half double crochet and it would have turned out huge if I had just used their pattern. I was going to post the pattern/diagram on here but my bosses at ArtFibers are interested in using my pattern for a kit, so keep on the look out for it in the future!

5/07/2008

Confidence Building Exercises


So, a few months ago I started doing the 365 Self Portrait challenge on Flickr. One self portrait a day for an entire year. And I'm doing much better than I thought I would be; I haven't quit yet and it's somewhere around day 50. I started doing it mostly to boost my confidence, which had been lacking lately. I've always been confident about my inner beauty, but faith in my outer beauty comes and goes with the way I feel. I never thought I was photogenic before, but since I've been taking some rather nice pictures of myself and putting them out there for all the world to see, getting compliments on them, etc, it makes me feel better and more comfortable with the whole thing. See my set on flickr here.

About a week into this 365 thing I was contacted by a woman who needed plus size models for a fashion show at the California College of Arts. She's the first to be doing a plus size fashion show as her final project in the shcool's 200-year history. Sad, no? But what makes it sadder is that the school is willing to pay models who volunteer their time, but only if they're size 8 or under. That just makes me sick. So I said to hell with The Man and went to the tryouts. Kind of strange, walking across a room with 50 people staring at me, doing it in flats then heels, trying to look like I knew what I was doing, lol. But I made the cut and now I've got a fitting coming up. Holy crap I'm going to be a runway model! Lol, just for fun, and another confidence booster!

So on Monday I did something I never thought I'd have the confidence to do: I set up my little camera and recorded myself singing and playing on the guitar a little song I wrote. *Ghasp* I abhor being videotaped, but I did it anyhow. And you know, the song sounds so awesome! It's simple, catchy, and I sang and played it perfectly the first take. There's just one problem: I look like such a huge dork! I mean, there's a point at which being dorky is cute, but I think I cross the line a bit in this video. I've decided this video will never be seen by anyone, let alone posted on YouTube, lol. I may someday try again and be less dorky. I'm going to put some stills up on my Flickr so you can see what I mean. Heh, I just noticed that all the stills I took are of me playing E. The song only uses a few chords so I'd guess it to be a 50/50 chance, but E must be less dorky than, say A# lol. Anywho, I've been trying to figure out how to isolate the audio using the crappy free video editing software I'm using but it's not going well, I'll keep you posted. All and all this experience only gets 1/2 a point on the confidence building scale!

5/05/2008

Photography Class!

I'm taking a beginning digital photography class this quarter and having a lot of fun with it. The class is really basic though, so I don't feel like I'm learning a whole lot, but it's nice to have a teacher who makes me take pictures I never would have thought to take. Our most recent projects were really fun for me, I got them done in one day, listening to my new Basia Bulat CD which I highly recommend. The first one was trying to capture and depict the two facets we see in our personalities. This is the one I've decided to turn in:
I was going for a good/evil or beautiful/ugly vibe, something I'm sure everyone can easily relate to.

The other project was awesome: we had to make ourselves into the patron saint of something. I decided to be the patron saint of unreciprocated love. No real reason, honestly. Granted I've been shot down in the past, who hasn't? But I chose it because I got the visual idea the second our teacher gave us the assignment. I wanted to do a sad one of a woman holding an unwanted heart that was leaking tears. So, I didn't have a heart lying around the house so I used a little ball of red boucle' yarn and soaked it in water. I kept it in a bowl just out of frame. Gets the idea across I guess. Here's the one I'm most likely going to turn in:
I think this would be fun to revisit, maybe with someone else to help me, and a real heart... Eew, maybe not. lol. You can check out all the good ones that didn't quite make the cut over at my personal non-crafty flickr. Feedback would be much appreciated as this is a learning experience!