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bag time~!

Classical @ 06:40 pm CST

AAAH AMAZING. -GLEAM-

i have FINALLY finished my bag, outside of a few alterations i may make in the future. i'm thinking about sewing buttons on to close the flap, though i know i won't really use them ever, and i'm waiting on a buckle to make the strap an adjustable one.
BUT IT'S DONE ENOUGH.

this one's dedicated to my coldplay-loving friends. ;D
while a-working on a design, i kept listening to "yellow." when i went to the craft store, i found the excellent star-patterned cloth for the lining and was totally inspired to do a starry theme.

THUS, my baby.
this is my first ever--first bag, first messenger-styled bag, first use of pleated pockets, first use of buttonhole closures, EVERYTHING. and everything was sewn by hand--no machine used. because my mother said hers wouldn't work for it (and then halfway through, she said it would DX).

a lot of help was gained from this tutorial for the basic assembly, but a lot of it i made up on my own as i went along, namely the pockets. lots of mistakes were made and lots of cloth was wasted... but that's all apart of the learning experience, i guess?

my baby!

personalized pockets for those things i like to keep really handy--my wallet, my ipod, writing utensils, and my cell phone.

detail of the pockets--i love buttons. ^^

look at how much shit it holds, man!

wheeee~
i am oh-so proud of myself for actually finishing this. i got into such a rut with this thing last week that i thought i would never pick it up again... but considering that i've been up nearly all night and had run out of things to do because of that, i was bored as hell.

so i guess i'll have something new to drag to school with me tomorrow! :D

one sexy pose with my bag--in action!

-frolics- <3
now let's just see how long it stays together!

heart~!

Classical @ 05:34 pm CST

more amazing!
i am working away at my bag and i feell ike bragging about it. i haven't gotten too much done, but what i have done is all a first for me. so it's brag-worthy.

i finished the basic flap for the bag and i'm gonna run back to the craft store for (hopefully) the last time and get some buttons and a bit of felt. i figured out what i'm going to do with the design on the front of it, but that's a secret until it's finished. ;D
and now i'm working on the pockets on the outside of the bag. i made one to fit my wallet, ipod and cell phone which will all have buton-up flaps to keep them snug 'n' safe. plus i made a thinner one to keep a couple of pencils handy at all times.
they're pleated pockets, and if i get them done correctly (which they look like they will come out just great), they'll be my first ones everrrrr.

then i'll get to work on the actual bag itself. i'm thinking about putting in a divider across the middle, but that all depends on how much fabric i have left.

then the strap, embellish, and done. :D

i still have to figure out what i'm going to do about the belted straps i want to do. i think it might be easier to just buy a cheapass belt at target or something and cut it up, then get buckles to fit it. or something. rather than trying to buy two.
i suppose it all depends on the price of the belt and how many i can get. -shrug-

OH WELLS.
i think this may total up to be about a $40 project in the end, though. >___o but it's alllll worth it.

-frolics back to work-

i rule.

Classical @ 08:09 pm CST

i...am AMAZING.

math has actually saved my sewing project. it's crazy.

so i went to the craft store today to pick up the fabric and other things i would need to make my bag (totalling up to a hefty $30, twenty of which was just the fabric D:) and i've already fucked things up somehow twice. ^^
the first thing is that i put the duck cloth (kinda like canvas) into the wash, because it's always a good idea to do so. it unraveled at the sides, even on the gentlest setting on my washer. baaaaad.
but it's still useable, so i will just have to hope i have enough still. i had to hang dry it after that or it would just get chewed apart in the washer, and it's still wet at the moment. >_>

the second thing i tried to do was cut the lining (i found this really pretty cream-colored star print calico). i had gotten only what i thought i really needed--a yard--so that didn't really allow for any mistakes.
so i made one. i cut a piece a bit too small--11x15 inches instead of 12x15.

this wouldn't have hurt anything if it didn't have to cut a long 5x38 inch strip for the middle part of the bag. i was left with this l-shaped piece of cloth and each side of the remaining length was too short by a couple of inches each way.
so it was like...fuck. i thought i would have to now go all the way back to the store (it's a good twenty- or thirty-minute drive away and uses a lot of gas) and get another yard-and-a-half of really expensive cloth.

but then i thought... "wait, isn't the hypotenuse of a right triangle longer than either of the other sides?" and it is!

with a couple of trigimetric calculations, i had managed to cut a 5x40 piece diagonally and i was all set. ^^


thus...
I AM AMAZING. :D

it wouldn't have worked if the pattern on the cloth was like, striped or something. but this is a pattern with randomly-placed stars, so it WORKED!
math is umm, cool?

mistakes may happen...

Classical @ 03:52 pm CST

...but exactly how am i supposed to be feeling right now?

i am...just...so sick.
i don't think i've been this sick in a while. i've had a fever all day, aches all around, coughing a bit, my nose is impossibly stuffy and my throat dry. even my ears are starting to hurt now, like an earache that i used to get when i was a kid. i'm just surprised i haven't vomited yet.

but, y'know what? i went to school. for just one reason.
at the end of the day, i would have had the chance to meet with the MCAD representative and get my portfolio looked at before i actually start submitting stuff to the school. that's like an almost-once-in-a-lifetime chance, i shit you not.

so the end of the day comes and guess what?
she doesn't fucking show up.

she's up north, in duluth. she had us scheduled for next week.

okay, well, thanks lady. i've probably infected half of the student body with whatever the hell i have and i'm probably going to be sick through the weekend because of your lack of planning coordination. it may have been my desicion to come to school today even though i was half-dying, but who gives up the chance to get a professional review from the college that is number one on their list? no one.

i'll probably still be sick come tomorrow, but either way, i'm staying home. today was the day i was really supposed to be at home, but whatever. fuck it.

alexa, if you're reading this, get me physics homeworks from tomorrow and i give you cookies. or something like that.

yawn~

Classical @ 10:23 pm CST

my legs hurt. SO BAD.
it's not even funny.

i've been sitting on my bedroom floor since five-thirty tonight, painting little pieces of cardboard and assembling them into this lopsided version of frank lloyd wright's fallingwater. and since i've been sitting crosslegged the whole freaking time, my knees are locked and stiff and HURT.
plus my floor is COVERED with little scraps of cardboard, paper, and flakes of this foam stuff i'm using for a hillside.

damn you, ms. bovard. i fucking hate your class and i really don't like you.

this model is going to turn out like complete crap, anyway. but that's what you get for less than a week of working on it and having to write an essay on it, as well.

D:

the only thing keeping me going through tomorrow, which will be hell work-wise, is the fact that MCAD's visit is on thursday. -grabbyhands- so freaking excited. even if my portfolio isn't really done yet and i don't know how things are going to turn out...
at most, i may have ten pieces. yeah, just ten to show off my life's work. D:
but it's better than nothing, i suppose.

but i did pick up my new portfolio ($7 for a nice, hard-covered one... though not leather and doesn't zip like SOME people's -coughalexacough-, but whatever!) and it's just the right size for most things. and my mother will be nice to me tomorrow and fetch me a couple pieces of black tagboard while i'm at school so i can back my comic pages, since they won't fit in the binder.

so...yeah! whoo~

now to shower and then sleeeeeeep. i'm so freaking tired.

sicky germs!

Classical @ 06:15 pm CST

aaah~!
it's about time i got a sore throat, though... normally, by this time in the winter, i've already had two or three.

oh well. it gave me some time to work on projects, study for my last geography exam tomorrow, and pull things together for a portfolio to show to the MCAD representative on thursday. i think i need to try to finish some more pieces, though. i have about seven completed ones and three on the way. if i can get the rest finished by then, then life would be spiffy.
that also means finishing that self-portrait at school in two days. i could maybe get three if i bring my digital camera on thursday, photograph it, and then print it at school. it's all in black and white, so the stupid greyscale printers have nothing on me there! <3

i also need to get a smaller portfolio by then. the one i have was fitted for my comic pages, but every time i put in my little 9x12 pieces of bristol, it just dwarfs them. x_o
i think what i'll do is get a smaller portfolio and then back the comic pages i want to show (i think there's gonna be three in the end because i'm working on one right now) on some nice black tagboard and stick them in the back. otherwise, it just looks really silly.

of course, in that time, i have to bust my ass and try to get this damned humanities project finished. i missed out on work time today at school and i haven't really picked it up today yet, so...yeah.
but i have to study for my exam tomorrow first, so i may just spend all night tomorrow working on the thing instead.

blah.
it all seems accomplishable, though, as long as i don't procrastinate (like normal). and after wednesday night, i'm pretty much free to work on a thing for humanities and my geography presentation until next week (thank GOD that was extended).


so i guess i'd best be off and get to work on something~

mmm, falafels. <3~

Classical @ 09:15 pm CST

so i played katamari damacy for the first time ever last night at alexa's house.
i am in LOVE with it. it's like me made into a game: i roll. 8D

but now i really really want a ps2, sigh. i've wanted one for a while, but now i really want one, if you get want i mean here.
-paws- i need monies. i wish i could keep up a job with school and art right now, but that's just not possible for me.

anyway.
it was also much fun staying up at alexa's house almost all night last night, eating falafels at midnight and drawing into the wee hours of the morning.
i died at about 4:30 and collapsed on her couch for sleep, but i'm still running~ i can normally live off of five or more hours of sleep on any given day and still function normally.

hopefully i'll stay up long enough tonight to finish an exchange picture for someone that's due tomorrow...and maybe work a little on my humanities project. this model is going to be way harder than i thought. damn you, frank lloyd wright and your fallingwater. D:

though, if i can pull this off, my model will kick much ass and will put all these slacker children in my class to shame. wuh-chaaaa~!


so. i'm thinking about two things right now.
the first is i'm thinking about making my own bag. the one i have right now is nearly perfect, but it's becoming increasingly apparent that i need to get a bigger one with actual pockets. i'm sick of fishing for my pencils and stuff in the bottom of my bag.

so i gotta find a pattern on-line here, but i haven't had any luck so far. there's this site called craftster.org that looks really good and i've gotten a few search hits to topics about messenger bags, but the site's not working completely right now. ;n; siiiigh.


so that's that.
but i've also been thinking about other art-related stuff. on friday, i was told that a represenative from MCAD is coming to the high school and since it's probably going to be a very small meeting with me, emily, alexa, and maybe a couple of other people, i'll be able to get some spiffy feedback from the rep. which is pretty damn awesome, because not only is this school first on my list, but i also want some real professional feedback on my stuff. it's been a while and apparently it might end up being a nice pat for my ego, because alexa recieved such fabulous remarks on portfolio day from MCAD.

but that got me thinking... i'll be doing this all professionally someday, so where do i start?
naturally, the internet has pointed me back to the pits of hell that i've gone and surpassed: deviantART.

i'm currently balancing my feelings on this website and perhaps--PERHAPS--considering becoming active on that site again. y'know, like uploading my work and commenting and stuff.
i need something like deviantART, and i just haven't found anything else out there. it's been a year since i left and i've spent that time lurking occasionally and watching the change on the site. what i used to have against deviantART has kinda cleared up, kinda hasn't...but then again, i'm really no longer in the community that was verbally shat upon by admins to the point where i left last time.
with seasons comes change, and both of us--the site and myself--have changed. maybe for the better.

but, of course, coming back to deviantART for any reason, good or bad, would make me a hypocrite. so i just don't know right now.


and that's what's on my mind right now, so...yeah.
i'm off to draw~

WHOO.

Classical @ 07:16 pm CST

YAY~
i have delicious tea, my transparencies for my project, a couple of new art supplies, and a WORKING ipod!
-does happy dance-

i am in such a FANTASTIC mood. i mean, today started off incredibly crappy.
first and foremost, i had to get up for school today. which always sucks. then i managed to leave my hairbrush at home and my iced tea in the car... and my driveway was SO SLIPPERY today. i slipped twice. the first time i fell on my knees and got my pants terribly dirty. the next time i had myself halfway in the car and was using my remaining leg to push myself in and nearly slipped... almost had a nasty groin pull on my hands, there. x_o

and i was still feeding off of the annoyance from the ipod thing last night and knowing that i had to spend time going to the distant mall to get it looked at. in fact, that itself wasn't any fun: they were VERY behind. i had signed up at the genius bar for a four o'clock appointment... got up at five.

but as soon as i realized that the guy who was helping me was going to just completely replace the ipod, my mood skyrocketed. :D
i left with a replaced ipod and a nice happy feeling in my tum. not even really crappy traffic on the way home spoiled that!

i also picked up a canvas and a couple of new brushes, plus a charcoal pencil set. i want to do more things in charcoal, but i have a problem with the sticks. >_> so i'm going to try the pencils and hopefully that'll work a lot better for me.

i wanna thank the guy who helped me at the apple store for being patient with my lack of informational knowledge and the fact that my registration wouldn't show up on the database for the longest time, and then thanks to the nice old man at kinko's who helped me with my copies. <3

-wiggledances off to homeworkland-
homework's not too bad tonight, either. i haven't started on my posters for my project yet, of course, but i'll be set to do them tomorrow, hopefully. all i have to do is a chapter of reading for geography and maybe start on physics homework.
whee~ <33

grrr.

Classical @ 05:48 pm CST

grrrr, i say! -kicks ipod around-
so i got this thing for christmas and it hasn't worked for me yet. i mean, i haven't been able to listen to music on it because it's being stupid. i've been browing the 'net, posting in help forums, and reading enough faqs to make your eyes bleed, but i haven't found a solution to my apparently unique problem.

so, i dunno what to do with it.
i think i'll have to take it into one of those genius bars and see if they can do something with it... but even then, the problems may not show up. i've been able to turn it on just fine sometimes to put new music onto it, but if i play music, it doesn't work.
now it's acting nonresponsive to everything and the screen is impossibly light... i can't see a thing with it anymore, no matter how high the contrast. it's ridiculous.

i'm just hoping i can get the sunovabitch simply replaced. i've tried everything, my father (worshipper of all mac products) has been working at it for hours now, and nothing has happened. i'm just hoping it's a problem that i can have a completely free replacement like kimm got. but, even then, i don't know if they have minis lying around anymore for replacements. even if i got it replaced, it might have to send in for it. which would take weeks upon weeks to get and then they would probably make me pay shipping.

GAHHH.
this is not worth it at all. i just want a freaking mp3 player that WORKS.
and i don't even know when i can go in to get it looked at. it's looking like next weekend right now and that's a long time...

-fume-

SIGH.
sigh, i say.

at least i've gotten some homework done. i just need to finish my reading for geography and then perhaps poke around the 'net a bit for some reference for my humanities project that we haven't technically started yet. but even if i could get a little bit ahead right now, that would be good.
i don't really have to worry about my presentation for geography class until the weekend, which is good. he's having us turn in the visual crap on friday, but we're not starting presentations until monday. b:

i just need to find some time to do the posterboards. it requires me staying after school to use a projector and tracing an overhead...ed map onto some paper. and i gotta get the overheads for that.

maybe i'll go out tomorrow. i wouldn't be able to use the overhead thing after school tomorrow anyway, because i have string ensemble... if i'm not swamped with stuff to do come tomorrow, i'll go out and get my ipod looked at while picking up my overheads at kinko's... and maybe popping by dick blick to oogle at art supplies. :D

[/babble] i guess this is what i do when i get really frustrated. "diarrhea of the mouth," as that one health teacher last year would put it, haha.
but. yeah.

...
-wanders back to homework land-