Ah, Hello 2013: Ribbons and Wrappings

Year changes always throw me off, but luckily I’ve been trying to write 2013 on everything for the last couple years, so this new year shouldn’t be as difficult to adapt to.

Hopefully you all had an excellent Christmas and New Years (have all of you given up on your resolutions already (like me, whoops) or are you still truckin?)

My resolution was to stop eating things I was allergic to (hi, all you delicious dairy products) and try have healthier food habits in general. Also, I just ate ice cream for dinner.

Failed resolution aside I am REALLY excited for this year, lots of fun new things are on the way!

One thing I always do to herald in the new year is……buy a bunch or ribbon.

All of that lovely Holiday ribbon that cost an arm and a leg is now probably under a dollar a roll, so I always stock up!

There is nothing better than wrapping gifts and tying it up with a big sparkly ribbon! 

I like to match my wrappings to the person I’m giving the gift to. Like stamping little vampires on plain paper and wrapping with a black bow for a friend who loves Gothic  things, Dracula especially, but also admires simplicity!

Do any of you have any wrapping tips or tales? Post them here! I’d love to hear from you ❤

Punkin Carvin.

Just so you know, there is NO where you can buy pumpkins on Halloween.

And I am a horrible procrastinator…I actually did not decorate til this morning. I used random things I found in my house/attic because I hadn’t time to go to the store but, I think it turned out pretty good!

 

How’d I do? 😀

I also procrastinating on buying my carving pumpkin so by the time I got to the stores this evening all of the pumpkin bins were very, very empty. But, no matter, I just bought a squash instead! (I was detirmined to carve a Jack-o-Lantern this year D<)

and I carved it into a Jack-o-Lantern Kitty! (Which is pretty silly, really XD)

 

Yaaay!

Now, with the addition of my squash-kitty-lantern my house is super spooky~! (little kids are afraid to come up the walk, no joke ahah. )

 

I hope everyone has a safe and happy All Hallows Eve!! (and eats lots of caaaaandy)

Spooky Fairy Tales, Anyone? Also, Cats Cats Caaats

Hi Ya’ll! I thought I would take a moment to share my most recent, finished piece of work with everyone!

This piece is watercolor and ink on cold press paper and is based off of one of my favorite Japanese fairy tales, The Boy Who Drew Cats.

For those of you who have never heard of this fairy tale, you can read a pretty good translation here, if you can’t guess…it is a story about a boy who only ever draws cats. Cats. Cats. Cats.

I also like Wikipedia’s synopsis, and the addition of all the cats having bloody mouths, creeeeppy.

Anyways, I really wanted to bring out some of the spookier elements of the story (I’ve always felt that the Japanese have a wonderful grasp on horror). This was an assignment for school and I was limited to black, white and grey, which lent itself fairly well to this scene of the story, where our cat loving little protagonist has fallen asleep in the temple after drawing,……catscatscats. I have also been working hard to create a sense of space in my paintings (usually they are terribly flat). I think I was successful in here!

I really would like to paint some more creepy fairy tale scenes! Do you have any suggestions? What do you think of The Boy Who Drew Cats and my adaptation of it?

Halloweeen Is Coming!

It’s October! The spookies month of the year…culminating in my favorite holiday, All Hallows Eve!

I did a silly/sweet Vampire shoot with Xzone9 last week and his assistant Odrina got me all dressed up in an outfit that reminded me a bit of Claudia, from Interview with a Vampire, if only because it was a cute vintage-ish spin on vampires (I really just CAN’T be conventionally scary, sorry ahha)

Now I know most of us are damn tired of Vampires by now (I am atleast) but, if you have not either read Interview with the Vampire By Anne Rice or viewed the film, you should certainly put that on your Halloween To-do list! Anne Rice is a superb author whose writing is dark, rich and alluring.

Speaking of spooky books and films, do ya’ll have any favorites? I’d love for you to share!

Also, in my shoot I wore a creepy cute crucifix, hand made by my lovely friend Michelle. She sells her pieces on Etsy and they would be perfect for Halloween, so click the pic and check her out n_n

Now I am off to decorate my lawn with spooky fun things!

I’d love to hear about how you all celebrate my favorite holiday!