Hubpage update and plans

What's up pixies?

I just spent my afternoon updating my Hubpage because I don't have anything else to do today. Updating it took a lot of time compared to writing just a simple post here in my blog. To write something in hubpage is quite an effort because it's not your ordinary blog. It's a place where a lot of information can be found. There are a LOT of good writers in hubpage and I do read some posts that interests me a lot. I started posting articles there since 2012, had a long hiatus and came back to posting again last year. Since then, I tried to make it a habit to post at least one article per month.

What did I post there today? Well lately I've been searching the internet about anything about grammar. My curious mind just started looking for common grammar mistakes because I don't know... I just feel like I need to have a self-refresher study about the usages of words so I won't look stupid whenever I write or say something in English. It really helps that I get to do this self-study thing at my own pace and whatever time I want since I have the occasional mood swing of jumping to one task to another.

Anyway, since I've been searching these stuffs, I decided why not make an article about these information I gathered and share it. It can help... I guess students who might be doing homework about grammar or something similar to it. I don't know, I'm just trying to be practical and spend time wisely by doing two things at the same time: learning and sharing.

So if your curious mind wanted to know what I'm talking about here is the link to the most recent article I made about common grammar mistakes. You can also find my hubpage link and other links directing to my tumblr, etsy store and deviantart account in the sidebar.

Good that? (haha this expression is from the Maze Runner series, obviously someone's been reading the series obsessively).

Let's shift to my plans shall we?

One of my friends (Shey) suggested that I apply on this home-based work she's been working at wherein you have to teach English to Japanese students. Honestly, it's actually one of the reasons why I've been researching about grammar so that in case I passed the application process and scored a position as online tutor, I won't look dumb in front of my student. Plus I've been doing this grammar research thing way before I decided to apply so it benefits me as well (improves my writing on hubpage and in blogging).

This past few days I've been doing some self-reflection. Part of it was questioning myself if I should try applying for this job or look for another one. I've got lots of concerns because first, I don't have a good spot at home where I can do this tutoring because the neighborhood is so noisy. Second, I want to just either draw and crochet all day, everyday.  However, one day I just woke up and decided I should try. I WILL TRY. Nothing to lose and so I SHALL do it.  I guess I'm being such a worry wart, making excuses which are not really a problem. I can work upstairs and I can still crochet and draw while having a job. It's actually the reason why I started to work at home - because it is cool. Work won't totally take over your life. You can still do whatever you want to do at your own pace.

Having said that, my first plan is to apply for this job. Hopefully I can pass the overall procedure in applying (including the test, interview, training and etc). Shey told me it's easy to do that but still I'm a bit nervous because it's been more than 4 years since I last got interviewed for a job (not counting chat interview). This one is skype interview so I'm pretty nervous about it. I'll just continuously chant "nerves is good."

Second plan, I'll be joining my friend Nanz on MM's (Manika Manila) tiangge event on August and we'll be joining forces once again to sell doll-related items. So my May, June and July will be full of crochet work to make BJD (ball jointed doll) items. Of course if ever I pass the job I'm applying for I'll be budgeting my time wisely. I'm still going to squeeze some time drawing and attend sketch events so my social life won't shutdown.

Alrighty then, this post is too long already. Sorry no pictures to share on this post today. But I'll do an art dump post soon so that I can at least share my drawings and crochet works to you pixies out there!

Swish and flick! (my new outro word since I'm a fairy/pixie)

Books and the Dystopian world

I love reading books. I recalled that during my grade school days, whenever my mom picks me up from school, we usually went straight to National Book Store (NBS) Harrison Plaza branch (that's because that's the nearest mall from where we live) if we need to buy some school supplies for projects or homework. My mom will ask me what I want and I said I want the latest book on the Unicorn Club series (Sweet Valley). She'll buy me the latest one and so my book collecting hobby started since then.

As the years goes by, my taste in what kind of genre I read had changed. I used to be love books about young love. However when I started college I became choosy when it comes to buying books. I find myself buying for classical books and then fantasy and adventures. Those books still have some "love" involved but it's not entirely about romance.

Speaking of adventure, I noticed that I became obsessed with books about dystopian world. One of the series I've read is the Hunger Games. This I think is the first book that will first come to mind if you thought about dystopian world. It has and is still being made into a film which has been a worldwide success. I guess after reading this series, my love for dystopian future books heightened even more. I've never liked reading science-fiction books but because of this I'm slowly accepting that genre into my books to read list.

Now I had started reading the Maze Runner series which is also made into a movie starring one of my current favorite actor Dylan O'Brien (Teen Wolf). Thanks to my friend Nanz, I discovered the brilliant acting skills of this guy. He's really good and I think he'll go places.

Anyway, I'm done reading the prequel book of the Maze Runner series as well as the first book, Maze Runner. I only have three words to say about these books. I love it. So if you love Hunger Games, I think you'll love this one too.

I haven't read the Divergent books yet but that will be the next on my list after I finished the current series I'm reading. Expect to have more posts about books here in my blog. I might include some book and movie reviews on my future posts just to give you pixies ideas what my little brain is currently reading.

Amigurumi keychain and Going 30's

Hello pixies,

My post title speaks about what I'm about to share to you in my blog entry today. I'll be writing about my new amigurumi creations and a post birthday celebration I attended last Monday.

Let me start with the amigurumi keychain first. Amigurumi is one of the things that I enjoyed doing. I'm an "all about arts and crafts" type of person and it's no surprise if I often post about these stuffs in my blog. My latest adventure with crocheting was making stuff toys with the help of some crochet yarn and my basic knowledge with crocheting. I've had posted several samples of my works in my past blog entries but none of them were keychain.

Lately, I came up with the idea of making a key chain or bag charm for my aunt and grandma who lives in Canada. I used the bunny pattern I bought a while back and inserted a chain and circular hook so it can be used as a key, wallet or bag accessory.

I also plan to sell this kind of keychain soon in my etsy shop. However, I have also added another keychain item on The Winking Fairy store and this is an Adventure Time amigurumi keychain. The character I did was Jake. I'm going to make a Finn keychain too but I need to find the right pattern for this first.

Adventure Time with Finn and Jake is one of my favorite shows and that's the main reason why I decided to create this keychain.

If you're interested in purchasing this item, you can check out the item here.

Also, last Monday, I met up with my college friends (our group name was and is still called "Angels") what a unique name right? Haha

Recently,one of our friend turned 30 years old. Since we didn't get the chance to celebrate her going on 30 on her actual birthday, she set up a lunch date last Monday. Only 3 of us (not including her) were available on the date she set but we still pushed through with the plan.

It was such a great day to reminisce about our college days especially the days we had our practicum at a local radio company where we learned a lot of things while having fun.

That's it for now. Hope you have a great day/night ahead! May the odds be ever in your favor! :)

Life and Art

I would say that it's been quite difficult for me to express what I'm feeling right now especially during the past few weeks. I don't want to be negative so I tried to brush off things that are bothering me especially when I'm around people (that includes families and close friends). However even though I ignore these "negative things" it's like they manage to find ways to enter my mind. Yes, I laugh and smile and joke around people but deep inside, I'm not that happy person at all. I also feel that I am becoming moody almost all the time. It's like having to persona in one body. I assure you though that I'm not crazy. Yet.

Right now, life has been difficult. I admit that. Here I am facing the laptop thinking why am I even blogging about this? Maybe because I needed to talk to someone who won't judge me. Don't get me wrong though, I've got friends I can talk to but honestly sometimes I feel better when I write down my thoughts and  not to literally talk about it. If you're my friend who's reading this, please don't call me up or text me and say "hey I read your post, wanna talk about it?" Nope, I don't need that. Give me some time to collect my thoughts and you will know when I'm ready to talk about it. OK?


You know why I love my best friend? Because when I talk about something about my family's situation, she won't give me advice. She will just listen. That's what I like about her. We don't see each other often but whenever we talk, I don't have to explain anything to her. Last month, when I saw her, I told her something about a very private moment I had with my family. I didn't tell this to anyone but her... she listened and just said few words which is better than having someone giving you a lot of advice but in the first place not knowing exactly what you're dealing with. This is the time that I realize that I can't give comforting words to someone I know but not being able to know exactly the struggles they are experiencing. It's really hard to explain. To make it simple, you have to experience the situation first before being able to give advice.

Words of encouragement are okay... but giving too much of it makes it more difficult. Maybe I'm being moody again but that's how I feel.

Anyway, this post is getting too long and too dramatic already. I guess it's time for me to blog about the things I've been doing (yes I'm not all wallow and rants). I still have some activities in my life that gives me joy even though for a short time. I gotta still embrace some positive energies in my life right? :)

Okay so, every summer vacation, my niece stays with us in Manila for at least 2 months. Since I'm the one who works at home (which is not really happening at the moment), I get to spend more time with her. I'm like her personal maid (as she describes it herself) because I take care of her. I make sure that she takes a bath, eat her food, and give her things that will keep her busy (she gets easily bored). So our routine is to watch movies in my laptop, read fan fictions, and draw.

Since I have the time to do all those stuffs, I was able to start drawing again. My hand is no longer used to holding a pencil due to lack of practice so my drawings and sketches now are not good compared to my other artworks. Hopefully I can regain back my artistic skills. Below are some of the drawings I made just few days ago:

 

My favorite though is the Loki fan art I made.

I also joined a sketch event with some of my friends midweek of March. It was a wonderful experience even though the weather's so hot. But the weather didn't dampen our spirits as we all enjoyed the activities.

There are still other events that took place during the days I wasn't able to blog but I decided to make separate post about it so it won't be overshadowed by the negative things I said earlier. Don't mind me, that's just me being all sentimental and moody.

Okay then, see you on my next post!

Inspired by what I watch

Hello pixies!

I've been updating my Etsy store since last week as I got some new stuff up for sale. All of them are for ball-jointed dolls.

 

Anyway, two out of three of these ear flap hats I made were inspired by some characters most of you probably saw on film. If you know Despicable Me, then you know what is a minion.

So I saw this free crochet pattern online and I made some adjustments so that I can convert it to a doll-size hat. The original pattern is intended for human-sized.

Most of the patterns I actually have are fit for either adults or babies that's why whenever I download it, I need to put little or big adjustments depending on what size I'm making it for.

Another bjd hat I made is inspired by one of Marvel's popular heroes, Captain America. This is actually my own pattern. I based my design on the hero's color and his famous shield.

Voila!

I love how it turned out as it's my first time creating an ear flap hat based on my own idea and imagination. I visualized it first then applied it by using my previous knowledge with making bjd aviator-style caps.

And oh.... do you love my model? He's my first boy ball-jointed doll.
He's handsome right? My friend Mari did his face-up.





I also made another sock monkey hat based on the color requested by one of the buyers in my etsy shop. It is a light blue-white and navy blue combination.

Aside from these items I put up, I also made an ear flap hat for one of my girl dolls. I decided not to sell this item because it's something that I just tried for the first time.

I got the inspiration from Frozen's Elsa. I chose a turquoise for the actual hat color and light yellow for the lining. I searched for some snowflakes pattern and added it as an additional touch.

I gotta admit, finding a snowflakes pattern is hard, not because I can't find anything - I find lots of it, but are way too big for the hat. Luckily though, after hours of searching I find 2 patterns that looks right.

For those who have ball-jointed dolls, would you buy this Elsa-inspired hat if I'm to sell it?





So I guess that's it for now, I'm currently searching for other possible patterns I can use so i can improve my etsy store's list of items.

Have a good day!

Quick Hi! and some tiny bits of update

Hi! I've been far away from blogging this past weeks and I have an excuse. I've been busy with some work (which is something that I'm thankful for) because aside from $$$, it diverts my attention to boredom.

I and my college peers were supposed to having a fun trip at the Ocean park last Saturday however we need to cancel it the last minute to give way for our friend Tin's upcoming resignation to her the current company she's working with (this is basically for turning over stuffs to those who are still with the company or something like that). Sooo, my supposed to be busy weekend became less busy and I would say that it's a perfect timing that we cancelled it because I got work to do.

Now, I'm not even sure why I'm saying this. Haha. So... this morning I woke up at 6am just to watch the Oscar's Red carpet till the actual award ceremony (that's how obsessed I am with Award shows in Hollywood). I only manage to sleep 1 hour but I need to keep my eyes open so as not to miss out on anything. The show ended at around 1pm here. Time difference sometimes sucks but that's life.

Ellen did an amazing job hosting. My favorite part was the "selfie" scene and the "pizza" scene.  To see some of the best  moments of 86th Academy awards including those mentioned scenes you can check it out here.

You can watch her opening monologue here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xmc_8u15egs

Unplanned Trips and More Crocheting

Hello pixies! (From now on I'll be calling strangers/bloghoppers pixies) =D

Hope everything's well with you, whoever you are and wherever you may be. I've got lots of things to talk about, with some pictures to make my blog entry look like it's not text-heavy.

So a week ago, last Saturday to be exact, I met up with my college friends. Last time we saw each other was days before the end of 2013. During that time, we made plans to see each other as often as possible this year. That means a meet-up once a month or once every two months.

Last month, I sent them individual messages confirming their "availability" dates. We came up with a February meetup which is supposed to be an art session. This art session is sort of a way for us to hone our artistic skills. So we decided the place and time.

But, during the actual meetup day, one of us came up with the idea to check out the National Museum. Guess what? We immediately agreed because it will be fun to go on a field trip with no reason at all. We're not doing it for a project but for fun and it will be a bonding experience for all of us. 

We checked if the museum is open on Saturdays and we were in luck, it was! So we hailed a cab and we were off to our destination.

There were lots of things to see and it will take a LOT of time if I'm to explain it one by one. In place of explanations, I'm sharing to you some of the pictures I took during the National Museum trip:

The Philippine eagle is half my size!

 

Our main goal when we went there is to look at the original Spoliarium painting made by Juan Luna. Luckily we have found it.

My friends and I also can't resist posing for some pics.It's actually permitted as long as we don't touch any of the stuffs on display.

After a long afternoon of roaming around inside the museum, we decide to have dinner. Our original plan is to drop by Manila Zoo but we only have an hour before its closing time. So we went straight to Harbor Square instead (near Manila Bay and CCP) and from there we had our dinner and dessert.

It was a fun night. These girls are like my sisters and I'm so happy to have spent a fun afternoon and evening with them. Our next meet will be on the first day next month. It will be our post-Valentine's meet.

Now, there are also other stuffs that I recently made. One of them is, surprise, surprise, and amigurumi. This time I got inspired by Hayao Miyazaki's famous created character Totoro. The one in the picutre below is already in the hands of my 9-year old niece but I am also selling another one on my etsy store.

The price is a bit higher because I find that in amigurumi, the smaller the size is, the harder to make it. Hopefully someone who's obsessed with Totoro will find and decide to buy it.

Aside from this Totoro amigurumi,another thing that kept me occupied was  a commissioned work by my friend Nanz to make a Despicable Me Minion inspired hat for her MSD size ball-jointed doll. It turned out good and I'm glad she liked it. I still have it with me so I'll give it to her on our next dinner meet which is before the month ends.

I'm also posting here a sock monkey hat for SD size BJD which is for sale on my shop.

The doll modeling the hat here is my very own BJD Fritz. His face-up was done by my friend Mari. Check her instagram account if you want to commission her for BJD face-ups - @kyophile

I guess that's all I have to say for now. It's time for me to catch up with some series and check some emails.
Have a good day and may the odds be ever in your favor!