LIFE UPDATE...oh, and maybe a monster or two

Well, I've been up in Northern California for about a month and half now, and grad school is going pretty well. I'm at the California College of the Arts in the writing program, and it really is amazing. I've made a cool group of friends, the campus itself is really neat, and I've been going out and exploring Oakland and San Francisco as much as I can manage. I've gotten to do some pretty damn cool things as well. So far the most brag-worthy were being in a Zoe Boekbinder music video, getting to be a volunteer for a Mythbusters experiment, sitting in the front row of a Daniel Handler (a.k.a. Lemony Snicket) reading, and meeting Tim Schafer (creator of such games as Psychonauts and Brutal Legend) at APE. THE BAY AREA IS REALLY COOL, YOU GUYS.

 

My room! Or, most of it, at least.

No big deal, just the Mythbusters and I...

I'm also really excited about Joshua coming to visit next weekend. That whole Kentucky thing really didn't work out, so he's back in Wisconsin, working and hoping to be in his own apartment by next month. It's been five months since we last saw each other, which is driving me (and him) completely nuts, so I'm so happy I finally get to see him. Not ever going this long without being around him again...ugh. I'll be spending my winter break with him, too, which I'm really looking forward to (you know, except for that whole freezing-in-the-snow part...haha).

I've been trying to get some sewing done while settling in as well, and there are a couple of new things in the shop, including a monster hood and what I hope is the first in a series of "art school" monsters. In addition to my writing classes, I'm taking a textiles class called Franken Fabrics. Basically we're using unconventional methods to manipulate fabrics in interesting ways, and it's completely awesome. The first thing we learned was how to rust dye fabric, and I decided to make a monster out of some of what I had from that...

I think these were my first pieces, and they are definitely what I used to make the guy below

Rust-dyed monster!

Our first project was to make a tissue box cover...haha. He just wanted to prove that some of the weird stuff he was teaching us could have practical/commercial applications as well, so I used some rusted fabric and image transfer techniques to make this:

I'll try to get a better picture, but you get the idea

So yeah! That's a little bit of a glimpse into what's been going on with me...Hopefully I'll be updating again soon with some new monsters =)

Change sucks, patch-covered blazers are cool

So, after more than a year of living together and continuing to enjoy each other's company excessively, Joshua left today to stay in Kentucky for a while with our friend, Steven. Steven is in the process of getting out of the army and Joshua is more or less going to keep him company and help him stay sane until they can both make their way back to California. Could be anywhere from a few months to a year or so before they're officially back, and even though I plan to go visit in December, I'm definitely having a less than great day.

In any case, before Steven came for his two-week visit here, I finished up the patches I was making for Joshua and got them all hand sewn onto his blazer. I thought I'd post a couple action shots and close-ups of how it turned out for you all:


  
Hanging out downtown...


Look at how mature I am!

  
Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Man Man, Ween, Modest Mouse, Queens of the Stone Age, Atmosphere // The Features, Nine Inch Nails, The Pixies
  
Gogol Bordello, The Clash, buttons // The Unicorns, Tilly and the Wall, Spoon, Dead Kennedys, Grandaddy
  
Madness and Specials armbands // Leonard Cohen back patch

  
Arcade Fire, Okkervil River


I'm pretty proud of having pushed myself further than I've gone before in terms of making patches (thanks for not being easy on me, jerkface). With a somewhat replenished fabric marker supply, I should be starting on more soon - I already have another ten commissioned by another friend.
As upsetting as it is to not have Joshua here anymore (I really don't think it has sunk in yet...ugh), I've definitely got a lot to keep me distracted this summer. I want to make a whole bunch of new things and I've got to get rid of a bunch of stuff to get ready for moving to San Francisco for grad school, plus I have at least three concerts and Comic-Con to look forward to. Even still, I'm pretty sure I've never looked forward to December so much...

Patches, patches, and more patches...

Lately all I feel like I've been doing is stenciling and sewing up patches. I've made them before for sure, but this whole bout of creativity started with an urge to channel all of my Portal 2 love into something. I started with a turret and an outline of Chell for myself, but my friends took an interest in them and I ended up making more:

Turret, two versions of Wheatley, two Companion Cubes, Chell, and GlaD0S!

After that, I figured it only made sense to try to get some patches into my shop, and what better way than by sketching up some monsters and stenciling them?

Currently available =)

But as great as keeping things simple and black and white is, there would have to be some color, too...

Yay, bright colors!

After that, some friends started making some special requests since they liked my Portal patches so much:

Pokemon badges, a Pokeball, and the Assassin's Creed symbol

And ALL THAT left me with a big pile of patches and designs on my desk...so I decided to make a listing in my shop for anyone who liked the things I had already made and wanted one, or who had their own idea in mind and wanted a custom patch. Now you can click here to check that out =)

So many patches...

 Oh, but even that wasn't the end...because then Joshua asked me if I would help make his dream of a patched up blazer come true. Needless to say, I obliged, and I am now little more than a band-logo-patch-making machine:

Not even all of them...

Please don't let my fabric markers run dry too soon.

<3

Giveaway #1: Results

Thanks to everyone who participated in my first giveaway! Without any further ado, the winner as chosen by Random.org is:

Danica of The Nerdy Penguin!

I'll be getting in touch with her so that she can pick out $15 worth of excitement from my shop =)

Don't worry, I'll be plotting another one of these sometime soon...

Giveaway #1!

Alright, I'm excited to be running my very first giveaway! I've been saying for a while on my Facebook fanpage that when I got to 100 fans/"likes", I would run a contest, and seeing as I'm at 101 now, it's definitely time =) It took me some time to figure out what I wanted to do, but I finally settled on giving the winner $15 worth of credit in my shop to spend on whatever they want!

Since this is my first time running something like this, I'm going to do things pretty similarly to how I've seen others do it... To enter, all you have to do is leave a comment here about your favorite item in the shop. Pretty easy, right? You can also get in some extra entries by doing any of the following and leaving another comment for each thing that you do:

1. Mention this giveaway on Twitter and link me to your tweet (+1 entry)
2. Blog about this giveaway and/or my shop (+2 entries)
3. Make any purchase from the shop (+5 entries)
4. Post about this giveaway on Facebook, Tumblr, your bathroom wall...basically anywhere you go to spread information as long as you can link me to it or provide a picture =) (+1 entry, maybe more if you're creative)
5. Tell me I'm pretty ;n; (hahaha, just kidding)

You have from today, Tuesday, January 18 until Sunday, January 23 to enter. On Monday, I'll be posting the randomly selected winner (using Random.org), so get going and good luck!