More Fabric Flower Accessories

Been busy with the glue gun and sewing needle lately. These two projects unfortunately aren't actually finished...I'm still deciding what kind of accessory I want to make with each of them. The first one here is my favorite so far and I've been wondering how to make these fluffy looking flowers for a while! I finally found someone who was kind enough to post a video on her way of making these, you can find that video right here if you're interested.

Anyway, I'm thinking of making the lacey flower into a headband using the ribbon in the picture. Perhaps use a plain white or beige headband, wrap the heck out of it with the ribbon, and then attach the flower on the side? I'm thinking that would be cute! :3

The second one here isn't my favorite, (it's just not me) but I gotta do something with it. The feathers aren't actually attached yet, I was just fiddling around with feathers, ribbon, and other scraps, trying to decide how I want to finish this one. I'm thinking just a hair clip, and maybe I'll attach a safety pin as well, that way I could use it for my hair, or I could put it on a purse or piece of clothing. Maybe I'll give it away when I'm done with it. ;)

In case anyone is curious how this one was made, I don't know of any existing youtube tutorial out there (though I'm sure you could find one if you searched hard enough) for it, but all I did was take a long piece of ribbon and do a running stitch down one side of it, gathering it as I went. I made sure to secure the end first so I didn't lose the thread! Then I tied off the other end when it was as big/long as I wanted and used fabric glue to hold it together. It took a bit of coaxing to get it to curl up just right, but it wasn't too difficult.

Gettin' Crafty

It's about time I got some pictures up here. This is what I've been up to recently. They're in order of first made to last made. The first one is my very first attempt. A little shabby, because I didn't burn the edges of the ribbon so you can see a bit of unraveling going on there. Plus, I didn't sew the clip part on, I just hot glued it so after a few uses that broke. xD From now on I'll be sewing everything together, and the glue will be extra hold.

This next one was pretty simple to make, but it took me a while simply because this fabric is a pain to get it to do what you want. Anyway, this one is sewn onto a plain old bobby pin, which actually works out really well. Bobby pins are my new best friend, and I wish I had learned how to use them sooner. (Yes, that's right, I never really knew how to properly utilize a bobby pin.)

Thanks to my sister for letting me borrow her sewing machine! I just made a simple drawstring bag. I need some practice before I move on to something I'd actually be upset about if I messed it up. I'll probably be using this to put my shoes in when I have to pack my suitcase for whatever reason. (Like my week long vacation in December!!!)

Workplace Antics

Ever need something silly to do at work? Just put this 10 hour looped video of the Narwhals song on someones computer. Sure to get a few good laughs, even if it's only you laughing. ;) We did this at work last night. Had this silly video playing all night in the training room on the big screen TV! It was great - I was singing this in my head all night and got a few good laughs from it, especially on break. Makes the day pass by better, especially a Friday before a long weekend.

Anyway, I'm off to visit my parents today, and yes, I'm taking my camera with me for it's first adventure! I can't wait!!!

Sewing skills anyone?

Oooooh my goodness! I love love love the new UI/layout for blogger! Much simpler, and everything is easily viewable! Thank you!!!

On another note, my Canon Rebel is now "out for delivery"! I'm excited to get it finally, but I'm kinda bummed because I'm way too tired and sore to go out and really get it a good first use.

Also, I have a sewing machine now (sort of, really I'm just "borrowing") and I want to use it!!! I'm going to make a few bags purses to start out, hem a couple pairs of pants, (who am I kidding? I have to hem them all!) and I also want to make this dress:

Super cute & easy dress to make, plus it's easy to dress up or dress down. <3 I need more casual dresses.

(Stay tuned for more updates! New DSLR camera = more pictures & videos!)

Hell to the yes! I want this...and I'm getting this. Simple as that. It's the Canon Rebel EOS T3i, and it is amazing! I could have gone for a slightly less awesome, but much cheaper camera, BUT where's the fun in that? Besides, I LOVE the fact that the screen on this one pops out and swivels. Like it, love it, gotta have it!

And here's the swively goodness:

Current Gaming:

So, I've been playing a lot of League of Legends recently, so I figured I'd post something about how cool it is. xD Anyway, it's pretty much the best free-to-play game out there, and there's no broken items and such you can buy with real money to give you an unfair advantage over non-paying players. I love this, as that is not always the case with free games. The only thing you HAVE to buy with real money is skins for the characters, but obviously it's only for aesthetics and doesn't really matter as far as gameplay goes.

Sooooooo, if anyone wants to try it out, CLICK HERE (my referral link, lol) and sign up! Once you do, add me as a friend, k? My username is "Shalua". If you have any questions you can just leave me a comment here. Actually, I'd love it if you'd leave me a comment. ;)

Since I like posting videos, here's a tournament video. Those crazy people who actually play seriously for tons of cash. Crazy.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cwYtUp7WNZo

Creative Outlets...

So, incase anyone was wondering what I've been up to recently... I've been doing more sims related stuff. Except this time, I'm dabbling in the Create a World tool for TS3. I've used it before, but I've been aching to get back into the creating & building aspects of the game. It's just a lot of fun! Anyway, in order to not wear myself out with it, I'm just working on it a bit at a time every day. More than an hour is just too long! I have other things I need to do! Hahaha!

Anyway, I'm done sculpting the general shape of my world, and I'm working on terrain painting and placing some trees in my areas that won't be needing any lots. Here's some eye-candy for you folks that are interested. It's just a couple screenshots of mountain/hilly areas that define the  edges of the world. These sections aren't necessarily complete yet, they're just the more done-looking sections so far. I do have something else somewhat "done", but I'm hiding it until later. :)

Incase you were wondering about the color difference, the first screenshot is without the "fog" effect and the second is with it. So the second is a bit less saturated looking.

Sims Picture Post

Well, by popular demand, (meaning my sister asked me to 3 times) I will be posting some pictures from my sims game. This particular save has an 8 person household that I've been playing, and it's pretty tiring to keep up with all of them. lol! Unfortunately, it's been over a week since I've played this save, so I'm not sure which sim is which... There are a lot of boys, okay? Plus I messed up and the screenies are all out of order, so keep in mind it isn't chronological. Just random snapshots from the game, cropped and re-sized in photoshop for your viewing pleasure. ;)

Birthday party for the twins:

Giving the romantic interest flowers:

Pillow fighting with her imaginary friend:

Took a toddler for a stroll, then to ride the silly springy thingys:

Peek-a-boo!

Her imaginary friend/doll grows up with her:

Playing make believe:

The newborn with her doll:

A good friend visiting, (yay preggers!):

Takin' a stroll:

Writing thank-yous for...I don't remember. They didn't have a wedding party:

Preggers! And...mac n cheese

Proposal:

Pillow fight ensues:

And that's all for today. After all that, I think I might just go to sleep. I'm so exhausted from work and I actually don't think I have the energy to play any video games even. I just need to lie down and let my sore muscles recuperate. Maybe some candles, music, and a good book? Oh yes, and mini chocolate eclairs! <3

Pissed!

Sooooooooo pissed! I downloaded the Create a World (CAW) editor for the sims 3 and the ONE thing that keeps me from using it is the fact that it doesn't all fit on my screen! WHAT...the FUCK? My resolution is as big as I can make it! So, the sculpting and terrain painting tools I can use, but I can't change the falloff setting which is crucial to terrain painting. *eye roll* Whatever. A lot of people on the forums are saying they can't save any world files since the latest patch anyway.

I downloaded a few other worlds, and I'll at least do some lot building. Which takes me a while cause I like to furnish, and completely design the ins and outs of houses, PLUS I want to re-make my self sim and make them sim gods (learn every useful skill in the game basically and make them immortal) so that way I can spruce up the house even more. For example make the sinks/toilets unbreakable or self-cleaning, make a perfect garden, add collectibles, and/or paintings, and upgrade any other items on the lot I can. Makes it that much better for the downloader.

Giveaway!

So, there's this awesome artist (who I commissioned on gaia online a little while back) and she's having a giveaway of TWO pieces of jewelry. Now, I would encourage you to go check it out, but I want them, so please don't! Haha, jk. Anyway, Miri/Erin's jewelry is sooooooo amazing, and I already have two necklaces she made and I love them! ^^

Anywho, here's the link to the giveaway: http://www.cherishedbliss.com/2011/05/little-bird-feature-and-giveaway.html

The Sims 3 Generations

So...been playing the sims, and doing minimal other things. I like everything they've added to the game with this expansion pack, but this is really something that could have and should have been implemented in the game from the start! But no, why would they do that? This way they make more money! ...I'm sure there are people that have simply given up on supporting the sims series because of EA being retarded about it in so many ways, but I don't think it's really making that much of an impact or they might have actually released a WORKING GAME. I mean really. Five hours after the release, tons of people still couldn't play, because they work "working on the problem" meaning, they're trying to make a patch real quick so we can at least start the game up. (hell, we couldn't even INSTALL without this patch) Later, they'll come out with another patch to fix bugs in the expansion pack, and fix what this pack inevitable will mess up from the other packs.

So there's the end of my little rant. Don't get me wrong, I love the game and I enjoy it a lot. I just think it's in their best interest to work on some basic concepts, like releasing working products and maybe also when they make a new game (like sims 4) they start off with some aspects that they expanded upon in the last version of the game instead of rehashing old expansions. LIKE PETS. I want pets, dammit!

DeviantArt

I'm actually using my DA account! WOW! Uploaded some photos, so go check them out! Please? Haha! Anyway, hope you enjoy them. Those negatives were a couple years old, and they were for a school assignment, but I'm still quite proud of them. I spent a ton of time with that film camera, a bunch of silverware, and a very bright lamp, hunched over the sink  taking pictures for well over an hour. Needless to say I was a bit tense and my shoulders hurt by the time I was done. The ones I uploaded are the better (in my opinion) of all the photos I took.

Didn't make gyoza this weekend. It's actually been a lot busier than I thought, and dinner has been taken care of every day so far. I guess it'll just have to wait until next week. :(

So, good news, got my new printer and set it up yesterday! It's amaaaaaazing, and I'm in the process of scanning all my photo negatives and will upload some of them to my deviantart account which I will be linking to later. That way my giant blog following can see all my pretty pictures. (haha, ya right...)

Also got Corel Painter 12 yesterday, hooray! Going to fiddle around with that today, and see how well my tablet works with it. (probably wonderfully) Can't wait to experiment with it!

More news: I'm actually considering getting The Sims 3 Generations expansion. I probably won't get it right when it's released, but after a while I might purchase it. I just don't like skipping expansions, even if there's stuff in the expansion that I don't like. I can usually ignore some aspects quite well. What I'm really waiting for is the Pets expansion. I will NOT be happy until I have that game. While waiting for it though, I might start a "legacy" game, although, I won't be blogging about it in the sense that I tried to last time. It was so much fun doing the story like style, but I just don't have the time. I'll just be posting progress every now and then I think, and talking about my family and silly things that happened in the game.

And here's the trailer for the Pets expansion:

Kitchen adventures, plus some art!

I think instead of going out to eat Saturday, I might try this. I was going to try it out today, but seeing as the kitchen is a mess I know by the time I get done cleaning all the pots and pans I won't want to do anything more than eat a sandwich. All I have to say for the gyoza is, if it's even close to the tastiness of the gyoza I get at a restaurant near here, it will be amazing. Hopefully I will like this even more though, so I'll never have to go out for gyoza again! Hahaha!

I was thinking about having my boyfriend take a video of it while I try this out for the first time. That could be fun, or it might take me twice as long, because I know he's going to be a pain and be silly about it. *rolls eyes* But then again, it might make it that much more fun to watch, right? As if watching me fail in the kitchen isn't already fun enough!



If you're like me, and you love awesome jewelry, illustrations, and other art-related things, check out this blog: La Bella Ironia. I always find something helpful or just plain amazing when I go there, so do take a minute to poke around. If you really love polymer clay jewelry, just head straight over to Erin's Etsy shop! I've bought two of her necklaces already and I LOVE them! She takes commissions too, and she's really sweet, so don't be afraid to send her an email. ^^

Blog Beginnings

Okay, I have to leave for work in about 10 minutes so this will be short.

First, I'd like to say, if you love Gaia Online as much as I do, and you haven't yet discovered BetterGaia do so now. You won't regret it!

I really want to fast forward about 9-10 hours and skip the whole being at work thing, but I'm pretty sure I haven't acquired that ability just yet. I'm workin' on it though... I don't really have a concrete reason for starting this blog...I guess it's really just for me to put whatever I'm feeling, hoping, wishing, dreaming, and ranting about somewhere. I suppose there will be some hopes and dreams (and rants...lots of those) posted tomorrow.

Much love,
Shal ♥