Dollie Loves

Hello pixies,

It's almost the end of August and I realized I haven't blogged in a while. Since I just finished updating my Hubpage account, why not include blogging as well? I've been busy, yes that's a cliche but seriously I am. I've been sleeping late (like 4am-5am late) because I feel more awake and energized doing crochet works in the wee hours of morning. By the way, there's a reason why I'm crocheting a lot during the past days, weeks...

I and my friend Nanz attended a doll event last Saturday. This event is sort-of a gathering for doll owners to mingle but the main focus was to buy stuffs for dolls. Nanz and I had a booth, (well it's her booth since she paid for it haha - you're probably reading this Nanz!) and we sell doll clothes and hats. Since I'm not good with sewing, Nanz handled the clothing items while I do the crocheting part. It's really hard to explain our arrangement but we're partners in crime here LOL.

Okay, these lovely ladies are our dolls. The one on your left is Cece who belongs to Nanz and the one on the right with the red headband is Stardust, my first child haha. These girls accompanied us trying to charm buyers (I think they scared them away... kidding!) Do you like their head accessories? I made those! Haha!

Our booth! Yay! It took as 1 hour and some sweat to set this up. We didn't put any effort with the display because we just don't have time and we have been busy with the products we're selling. However, we're glad to be part of this event. :)

Besties Cece and Stardust just love to be in front of a camera. I'm glad they didn't fall off because that will be a disaster! They behaved well and gave us a break so we can just focus on selling.

Our day ended with a high note because Nanz won a wig for her other doll Simone! She finally won in a raffle haha! We both have no luck with contests or raffles and this one broke the record! Kudos!

Alrighty before I end my post for today, I want to share two of my recent BJD earflap hat creation inspired by Doctor Who and Adventure Time! (Note: Don't ask me anything about Doctor Who because I haven't seen the show yet , except for the fist episode of the first season). I was commissioned to do this and this was my interpretation:

 and Jake-inspired from Adventure Time:

Love it or hate it?

Thanks for reading my post and I hope I didn't bore you at all. I even included some pictures to add visuals :) LOL

Swish and flick!

Angels and Demons

Hello pixies!

Weather is getting much better here, thank God. However according to the news I've heard earlier, there is another storm forming somewhere near the country so this means no "happy" times yet. Well, I actually have a crochet project to do but I need to condition my mind and mood first before I do that, otherwise I'll keep on untangling the wrong parts which will be a complete waste of time. So since I haven't blog in awhile, this is the perfect time for me to do so.

You might be wondering why my title sounds familiar. Yes it's a title of a book which was made into a movie. But... it's not about that. It's actually about the Mortal Instruments. You see, I just finished reading the 6 books few days ago and I love it. I guess for someone who loves the fantasy genre with a mix of supernatural elements, these books are pretty good. Mortal Instruments for those who haven't read the book nor have seen the movie is all about angels, half-angels, demons, or what they called in the book "downworlders" composed of werewolves, vampires, fairies and warlocks. What attracted me most into reading this is because it involves a battle between angels and demons. It's your typical good vs.evil themed story but with a lot of twists.

I wouldn't compare it to other books like LOTR or Harry Potter or Hunger Games because each of them have their own unique plot which is very different from each other. I wouldn't go far to say that Mortal Instruments is my favorite book because it's not. What I'm saying is it's a very good book and I would read it again.

By the way, this is actually not a book review for those 6 books. I just want to share my overall thoughts on this series. I love how the author Cassandra Clare  injected some humor into the story. I'm now currently reading Clockwork Angel which is the first book out of three of the prequel for The Mortal Instruments. I also found out that she will also release a sequel so that's another thing to look forward to.

Alright then, time for me to get back to business.

Swish and flick!

Reading City of Bones

Hey there pixies!

It's currently 1:51 am here and I'm still wide awake. I made myself a cup of coffee an hour ago because I was craving for caffeine and now I can feel the effect. Usually, I drink coffee to make myself sleepy. Yep, it has that effect on me. Am I weird or does anybody know someone who has the same thing going on with them when they drink coffee?

Why am I talking about coffee anyway? That's not the point of my blog today. What I want to talk about is the book City of Bones. As some who might have read my previous blogs, I mentioned that I've been reading books with dystopian themes like the popular Hunger Games series. I just finished reading the Maze Runner trilogy (I love it but the last book is not on the same level as the first two books in my opinion). I felt there's something missing with the last book Death Cure but anyway, I'm not gonna dwell on that subject. I'll save that for a later post.

Anyway, City of Bones is not about dystopian theme, it's a fantasy book with an urban setting. It is the first book out of six in The Mortal Instruments series. I've seen the film before I started reading this one (I'm not yet done reading it) and so far the film changed and erased a lot of things from the book. Still, even though the film didn't follow a lot of things from the book I will still watch the second film (if ever they continue making it) not because I'm a fan of Lily Collins - the girl who portrayed Clary, the heroine of the series but because I still love the concept/idea of the story.

Anyway, I think I might need to read the book again once I'm done as there are parts that I wasn't able to digest well. So if you are interested with urban-fantasy story, this book is for you.

Sorry for this quick post. I'm supposed to make an "Art Dump" post as I've got lots of drawings I want to show you but I'm using my brother's desktop. I'll upload my artworks for the past weeks here when I'm using Yuffie (my laptop) alrighty?

Swish and flick!

Creating Art Dump

Hello Pixies,

It's been a long, long, long time since I posted something here. I've been doing a lot of "child-sitting" and 90% of my attention is focused on my niece. I love it when she's here although I need to watch out what I do (like watching GoT which is not the kind of show that children should watch).

This post by the way is just a quick one as I'm writing an article on a notebook (yes, I still use notebook even though there's a thing called notepad in the computer). This article by the way will be up on my hubpage account maybe tomorrow or on Saturday depending on my mood and the rotational brownout going on here.

My main reason why I updated today is to tell you that I'll be doing "Art Dump" post where I blog about the artworks I did for the past weeks or month that I didn't get the chance to post yet. So the title for those blog post will be called "Art Dump 1 or Art Dump 0.1 or something like that. I can't still decide what title should I use but for now I think I'll stick with that.

Alright then gotta go back to more serious task. (Ain't my job, I just love to share my thoughts on hubpage *wink*)

Swish and flick!

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! :)