Friendsgiving

SHARP TOOTH!

Yesterday was my first ever Friendsgiving. I've heard of people doing this before but had never been to one myself so this year I asked my friends if they'd want to try it. Everyone was down with it so we all agreed to bring a Thanksgiving-esque dish to the party. My actual Thanksgiving was pretty sucky (majorly sucky) since I had to work that day (and was completely by myself I might add) so it was nice to get a do-over yesterday with my girlfriends.

For my contribution to the potluck I got a Trader Joe's turkey-less roast and it was surprisingly a big hit! Their mock-turkey roast is ONE BILLION times better than Tofurkey's roast and I look forward to it every year now. I wish they carried it year around because it's oh-so-good and super easy to prepare. It's also, quite a bit bigger than Tofurkey's as well. One roast was enough for 4 or 5 of us compared to the Tofurkey which barely feeds 3 (if that). Sorry to rip on Tofurkey so much but TJ's version is far superior. In addition to the roast I also made homemade cranberry sauce. Once you try homemade cranberry sauce you can never go back to the canned stuff and it's SUPER EASY to make. All I used was one 12 ounce bag of cranberries, 2/3 cup of sugar, 1/2 cup of orange juice, 1/2 cup of water and a pinch of cinnamon and salt. Easy peasey.




Maddie, Jenika, me, Jackie, Heather, and Michelle

I wish I'd taken a picture of the whole spread but we also had a candied yam casserole, a green bean casserole, Pennsylvania Dutch corn, mashed potatoes, biscuits, chocolate pie and apple cider. It was quite the feast! I hadn't eaten so many delicious things all at once in ages! It took me a while but I managed to clean my plate. Sharleen arrived a little late but in time for pie and my favorite party game, Cards Against humanity. It was great to see her and hear her super cute laugh again since she moved to California to go to grad school. This time we decided to throw a random card into each round and it was so funny when the random card would win. I think I'll play with a rando thrown in from now on. :)

Another cool thing that happened this week was when me and Michelle visited the Desert Museum in Tucson, AZ. I had never really been to Tucson before even though I've lived in Arizona most of my life so it was fun to go on a little excursion. If you do happen to find yourself there, I'd highly recommend the Desert Museum. We had so much fun there and it was a beautiful day. We saw a mountain lion, bobcat, fox, river otter, javelina, coati, porcupine, beaver, mule deer, big horn sheep, and countless birds. It was funny when we went in the aviary I knew more about the birds they had than the people who worked there. My dad and I are massive birdwatchers so my bird knowledge is pretty vast to say the least. I don't really have any friends who share my passion for birding but I can say that we birders are an eccentric bunch. I've never met another bird watcher who wasn't quirky ;)

After the museum we went back into town for lunch. We went to a vegan restaurant that I've heard many of my vegan friends rave about called the Lovin' Spoonful. I was pretty impressed by all of the options they had on their menu but the item I chose was a bit of a dud. So that was a bit of a bummer. Next we thought we'd walk around downtown and do some shopping, however, once we'd parked the car we found out that there really isn't any shopping (or anything) to do in Tucson. We kind of walked around in a circle until we found a place that had ice cream called The Hub. The ice cream was reallllly good (I got salted caramel) and for whatever reason all of the boys who worked there were super cute. What the heck?

Other than that I've been SO BUSY with orders this month! It's been my busiest month ever so I'm totally stoked about that. Hopefully, December will follow suit because Mama needs to save money for my upcoming vacation! ^_______^

 

 

Livin' the Craft Life

Puppycat "Flawless" (SOLD)

Today has been one of those rare days where everything seems right with the world. I've gotten so much love for my artwork today and it's put me in a lovely mood. Since I was in a really lazy mood for the majority of October (not to mention being sick for a week and then going on vacation) I decided that November was going to be a super productive month for me and so far it has been. I've been working on new pieces day and night and am really pleased with my most recent work. As an artist, nothing makes us happier than knowing our hard work is appreciated so to everyone who has supported my business or simply said something nice about my art THANK YOU SO MUCH! It means the WORLD to me! I can be a bit insecure about my art and how it's received so when I go through dry spells it really wears down on me (yes, artists need constant validation). But this month has been awesome! I've gotten loads of new fans on Instagram and Tumblr and have had two people ask me if they can feature my work on their blogs! YAY!



Totoro "Brush Your Teeth" Hoop (SOLD)

I think another thing that is adding to the lift in my spirits lately is that I have some neat things to look forward to. First being my upcoming Thailand trip (it's only 2 1/2 months away now), then there's Friendsgiving coming up on the 29th (my friends and I are celebrating Thanksgiving together) and finally my trip to London next October to visit Melissa. As a person who suffers from melancholy, I've noticed that it helps me to get through difficult periods or times of sadness when I have some things to look forward to. I try not to live in the future (or the past) too much but it does give those bad days a boost when you're able to daydream about good times to come. I'm really excited about 2015 and think it's going to be a great year for me. If I'm lucky, maybe it'll be the year that someone special will enter my life (not going to hold my breath, though, haha!)



Jake Ice Cream Hoop

Oh, another thing that made me smile today was my internet friend, Jenny, including a pic of me in her Selfie Project 2014. Jenny is a doll (inside and out) and one of my favorite bloggers. She put a post out on Instagram asking people to send a selfie and a short caption saying something that they love about themselves. If you'd like to see mine and the other lovely ladies who participated in this project, please visit Jenny's website at:

www.shelovesdresses.com

It's just so nice to see so many gorgeous girls loving themselves. I'm all about self-love and positivity these days and encourage everyone to be kind and nurturing to themselves.

Okies, well, I'm going to get back to work but here's a few more of the hoops I've made lately. If you'd like a custom embroidery for yourself or a loved one this holiday season, please contact me on Etsy! www.iggystarpup.com



Stitch "Ohana"
 



Everything's Coming Up Milhouse!


 



 

One Night in Bangkok

Today I went to the doctor to get some vaccinations for Thailand. I got a tetanus booster and a hepatitis A and B shot. Oh, man! My arms are SO sore! I thought they'd at least spread them out across a couple appointments but they were down to do them all today. Surprisingly, the tetanus wasn't nearly as bad at the hepatitis. Those two really took the wind out of my sails. Besides having two practically dead arms I feel really yucky and tired. Bleah! I guess it beats getting super sick on my trip, though. Luckily, I did my research on what shots I would need because I need two round of hep B and you need a month in between shots. Once I get my final shot next month I'll be able to just concentrate on planning the trip itself.

One positive thing about today's doctor visit was that it didn't cost me one red cent. Thanks to our president, my immunizations were 100% covered by my insurance. I didn't have health insurance for the past 6 years so I am so grateful to finally be covered again. Being a starving artist is already stressful enough without having to worry what the heck you're going to do if you get sick. If I hadn't had health insurance my visit today would have cost me about $400 which I really couldn't afford. So say what you will about Barack Obama but I'm think he did a great thing by helping all of us without health benefits. I'm hoping that this country will someday go one step further and mandate universal healthcare to all its citizens. But, hey, I'm a dreamer!

Anywho, I leave for Bangkok on February 1st and will return on February 9th. The journey there is going to be INTENSE to say the least. We leave at 7:15am and won't arrive until 11:15pm THE NEXT DAY! I think it's 26 hours total. We'll have a layover in LA for an hour then another in Tokyo for an hour and a half. This time I used my noggin' and got us both aisle seats the whole way. I learned my lesson when I was trapped next to a sleeping 80  year old Russian lady for 13 hours back in April. NEVER AGAIN. NEVER EVER AGAIN. If the journey there doesn't kill us, I think we're in for a really amazing adventure. Bangkok looks like such an amazing city and Thailand is a beautiful country.

I haven't had too much time to plan out an itinerary yet but the things I know I'd like to do are:

*meet my friend Shong (who I've been online pals with since 2007)
*spend a day at the beach (it'll be summertime there)
*go on a river tour
*visit lots of Buddhist temples
*ride bikes to the markets at night
*rent a scooter
*visit some art galleries
*go dancing
*and eat lots of yummy things

I'm SO EXCITED! OHMYGOSH! And it's sooooo soon too! Only 86 days to go! ACK! It's amazing that a year ago I'd never been out of the USA and now I'm about to scratch another continent off my list.

Halloween

Sadly, another Halloween has come and gone. At least I was able to squeeze in three costumes this year. Last weekend I went to my friend's daughter's party as a skeleton. I'd been planning on being a skeleton for quite sometime and was going to make my costume myself when I realized that oops! I already had everything I needed in my wardrobe. Beneath my breast beats the heart of a goth girl, I guess. However, one thing I didn't plan out too well was my makeup. I had bought some zombie makeup last year (when I was entertaining the idea of going to the zombie walk) and just assumed it would come with some white makeup that I could use this year. About 30 minutes before I'm supposed to leave for the party I get it out and there is NO WHITE MAKEUP. UGH! So I rush over to the drugstore and pick some up but when I put it on it A.) is too sheer and B.) is melting the moment I put it on. It was such a disaster! I had to go to plan B at this point and just used my winter foundation (for my pale vanilla-strawberry skin), black lipstick, eyeliner and dark gray eye shadow. I  guess it turned out alright but it wasn't how I'd wanted it to look so I was a little disappointed. The children thought I looked "too scary" so I suppose my costume was a success. My friend's toddler thought I looked so scary that she ran away from me the whole night :(

My next costume on the other hand came out ABSOLUTELY perfect! About two weeks ago I was making a Puppycat embroidery hoop when I thought, ya know, I'd be perfect as Bee AND I already have a yellow sweater in my closet. All I needed were some pink shorts and then the rest I could make myself. I found the perfect pair at Forever21 (and on sale) then I handmade the bee patch and a peter pan collar. Then I just tied some pink ribbon onto my boots and I was all set. All I needed now was somewhere to go. None of my friends were having a party (no adult parties) and for a long time no one really seemed that jazzed to go out. I had wanted to go dancing and last year I went to Crescent Ballroom so I thought I'd just go there again. A few days before I found some people who wanted to go out--thank the gods. However, when Halloween finally came it was still SUPER hot. I didn't wear my Bee costume to work because I knew no one would know who I was and I definitely wasn't going to be a skeleton since I work at a retirement home and a skeleton would just be too much of a reminder of everyone's mortality. So I opted to wear my new Slytherin tee (it has a detachable cape) and go as Pansy Parkinson. All night at work I debated between which costume I would wear out but wound up sticking with Pansy since I figured it would be hot as heck once I was dancing inside (it was).

Last year we'd gotten to CB around 9:30pm and had no problem getting in so I had planned on arriving again early. Anyone who knows me irl knows that I'm punctual to a fault and being late causes me to go into a bit of a panic so I wanted to get there early rather than risk not getting in at all. However, my friends don't share my planner type personality. By 8:45pm I was ready to roll. My friends had said they'd be ready by 9pm but 9pm quickly came and went. Then 9:15, 9:30 and so on. Long story short, we didn't wind up getting there until nearly 10:30pm. I was one unhappy pappy. On our drive there our friends who were meeting us there texted us saying security was about to cut off the line. Merlin's Pants! When we pulled up Jackie let us out so we could give Maddie her ID and luckily by then they'd made it to the front of the line. The folks who worked there said as soon as people trickled out that they'd let more people in. I was pretty bummed but we only had to wait about 10 minutes before we got in. Classic case of me getting worked up over nothing :/

I was shocked how popular this Costume Ball had gotten compared to last year. It was completely nutzo. There had to have been 500 people there. I had fun dancing minus not knowing any of the songs they played. I don't really know what the dj was thinking by playing music that no one except him had heard of. I enjoy dancing so much more to music I can sing along to. It was fun dancing with my wand, though. I had forgotten to leave it in the car and it kept falling out of my purse so I figured I'd just go with it. People seemed to enjoy it too; I got lots of thumbs up from my fellow Halloweeners. There was this trio dressed as characters from Lord of the Rings who kind of followed me around for  most of the night. Especially Bilbo. Bilbo kept smiling at me and dancing as close to me as possible. I wanted to tell him that witches don't dance with Shire folk, haha. Anywho, we stayed until a little after 1:30am when I abruptly ran out of steam. I went from dancing my face off to ready to be back in my bed in a few seconds.

I was off the next day from work so I took myself on a date to see "Horns". IT WAS SO GOOD! I LOVE LOVE LOVED IT! I personally think it was Daniel Radcliffe's best performance to date. I know it was a horror film but it was more funny than scary. I liked the silliness of the movie. I hope it'll be spreading to more theatres in Phoenix soon so more people will go see it. Today or tomorrow I'm finally going to get to see "Gone Girl" since I finished the book yesterday. I think I'll like it. I was really excited to see "Before I Go to Sleep" since the book was so good but the movie got really crummy reviews so I might just wait to see it on dvd.

Anyway, almost forgot about my BIG NEWS! This February I'm going to THAILAND! I'm sooooo excited! I'm going with my friend Michelle to Bangkok and we're going to stay with her mom who is teaching English there. Last week we bought our plane tickets. The flight will be hell but it'll be great once we get there. I'll tell you more about it when I have more details :)

National Lampoon's Disneyland Vacation

Just hook it to my veins!

This past week I went on holiday to Disneyland and California Adventure and had a fantastic time. I've been going to Disneyland nearly every year (sometimes twice a year) since I was 5 months old but this might be my best trip ever. I went with my friends Heather, Jackie and Maddie and we met up with their friend Krista who works at the park.

Jackie had made a Disney playlist for the trip so on the car ride over we had a 6 hour Disney sing-along (which had every track from the Lion King in like, 5 different versions, haha). The first night I went to Downtown Disney while everyone else was off doing their thing and did some perusing. Krista got a 40% off employee discount so I wanted to get an idea of what I wanted to buy later.



Giant Mickey-o-lantern

We got to the park Monday morning at 8am (my half-birthday btw) and would end up staying all the way til close at 11pm. 15 HOURS OF DISNEY. It was a LONG day but a really good one, blessed even. The lines were super short all day and we didn't have to wait more than 20 minutes on any ride; most rides we only had to wait like, 5 minutes. I had heard about days like this from other people but had never experienced one myself. I think the reason why the park wasn't so crowded was due to the fact that it was "closing" at 6pm for Mickey's Halloween Party which ran from 6-11pm (Krista had gotten us tickets to that too). We went on all the rollercoasters at least 3 times each and pretty much got to do everything we wanted to do. We even had time to catch a few shows, parades, and the fireworks as well. One of the major highlights of the day, though, was I saw my very first DISNEYLAND CAT! I had heard about the feral cats that lived at the park about 5 years ago and in all the years I've been going to Disneyland, we'd never seen one. That morning I had been telling Heather about them and said that anyone who spotted one got 1 million points. About an hour later we were over by Big Thunder Ranch Barbeque when I see this massive black and white tomcat!! I whipped out my camera just in time to snap a pic of him looking right at me before he scurried away. It was totally unreal!

Big Thunder Railroad has been my favorite ride for a long time and I was so thrilled to get to ride it for the first time since its reopen. I loved the new explosion part near the end but was glad that they didn't change anything else. Being a Taurus, change isn't really my thing. My least favorite ride of the day, sadly, was Splash Mountain. I volunteered to sit in the front since no one else wanted to and I got more soaked than I've ever been. I think they raised the water levels on the ride when they renovated it because in 24 years of sitting in the front of the ride I've never gotten so drenched. It was like I'd had a bucket (a large bucket) of water dumped over me. It took the rest of the day for my to dry off. It was pretty miserable and I think that'll be the end of my days of sitting in the front on Splash Mountain.

The next morning we went to California Adventure, which I had never been to. It was perfect for a second day park but if I'm only there for one day, I'm going to choose the Magic Kingdom. They didn't open til 10am so we got to sleep in a little. Krista was totally on top of scheduling and getting fast passes. I was really impressed! We made sure we got our fast passes to the Cars ride since it's new and really popular then we walked over to the ferris wheel. This ferris wheel was cool because it has swinging carts; I'd never heard of swinging carts and it was really neat! Next was "California Screamin" which was their big rollercoaster. It was pretty intense and made me think of "The Demon" in Copenhagen.

One category that CA beats the Magic Kingdom in is FOOD. We ate SO well there. I had this delicious pesto 5-cheese ravioli with pine nuts for lunch, a frozen lemonade for my snack and a mandarin orange tofu rice bowl for dinner. Yum yum yum! Some kiddy rides that I enjoyed were the Toy Story Midway Mania, Ariel's Undersea Adventure, Silly Symphony Swings, and Monster's Inc. At dusk we went to see "Aladdin: A Musical Spectacular". Usually I don't go to any shows or watch any parades when I visit a theme park but I'm glad that Krista talked us into it because I think everyone really enjoyed them (plus it was nice to sit and relax for a while). The boy who played Aladdin was cute as heck too so that might have been the reason I enjoyed the show so much ;) I also liked Tower of Terror a lot. I'd been on it at Disney World but this one was better. Oh, and I forgot to talk about "Cars", which was awesome. The outside part of the ride where you race was designed I think to look like Zion National Park and it was just GORGEOUS!

My FAVORITE thing at California Adventure, however, was the World of Color. I hadn't heard anything about it so I didn't know what to expect but it was one of the most beautiful shows I've ever seen. It was a water and light show on Paradise Pier and they projected images from lots of Disney films onto the water. It was so lovely that I got a little emotional (I think all of us did). It just made me think of my childhood and how these films were such a huge part of my life ever since I was 5 years old. The Little Mermaid was the first Disney movie that I became absolutely OBSESSED with and it was also the same film that taught me how to sing. Next time any of you visit this park you MUST see this show! I demand it!

The last day of the trip we went to Newport Beach. I usually go to Huntington Beach when I go to California with my dad so I'd never been to this beach before but it was really nice. For it being October, the water wasn't really cold at all and I had so much fun playing in the sea. I just felt so happy and free. It was so wonderful. After the beach we met up with our friend Sharleen who's going to CalArts for graduate school. We hadn't seen her since August so it was so nice to see her face. I miss her a lot :(

I'd been a bit stressed about this trip since I'd never traveled with such a large group before but I'm happy to say that everything turned out great and I had a fabulous vacation. Now I'm super stoked about my next trip coming up in February. It hasn't been finalized yet so I'll tell you all about it once I have my plane ticket. Stay tuned!

Time Capsule 2014

Me in 2k14

So it's already been a whole year since the last time I did a Time Capsule post. This year feels like it went by faster than any other year, well, ever. Maybe because so many good things happened in 2014. Of course this year has had it's low points (that's part of the whole human experience) but as a whole it's been a fantastic year.

Now let's get into what Ms. Doom was into in the year 2014!

My Life in 2014:
Favorite Films I saw in the theatre: What If, The Grand Budapest Hotel, Pride, The Wind Rises
 What I was listening to: Phoenix, Taylor Swift, Vampire Weekend, Florence + the Machine, the Frozen soundtrack
What I was reading: A Song of Ice and Fire (books 3-5), Harry Potter 1-7, Before I Go to Sleep, Gone Girl, Pride and Prejudice, All Men are Jerks (until proven otherwise)
Shows I was watching: Game of Thrones, The X-files, Orange is the New Black, Adventure Time, Parade's End, Girls, The Big Bang Theory
Trends I was into: peter pan collars, rompers, wing eyeliner, high waisted shorts, jellies
Trends I hated: acid wash denim, pointy finger nails, 90s grunge fashion
What I was driving: Buick Regal
Who I was crushing on: Benedict Cumberbatch, Tom Hiddleston, Kit Harington, Daniel Radcliffe, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau
Games I was playing: Animal Crossing: New Leaf, Hyrule Warriors, Ocarina of Time, Professor Layton and the Miracle Mask
Best Friends: Melissa, Rosalynn, Michelle , Ashley, Heather
Favorite Restaurant: Tea Lite Noodle Café
What I was looking forward to: My Disneyland trip and my trip to Thailand!
What I was most proud of: travelling all over Europe with my bff, being featured on the 100 Creatives List in the New Times, drawing again, and selling lots of art!
Dream Pets: tea cup piggy
Favorite color(s): mustard yellow, hot pink, turquoise, moss green
Most Used Words: omg!, bb, wowzers, bananas, so cute!
Favorite Food: Veggie Eggrolls on rice noodles with veggies and Hoisen sauce (yum!)
Pet Peeve: misogyny
People I admired: Melissa Winning, Chelsea Bloxsom, Kelly Anne-Boylan, ALB, Lauren Crow

September Wrap Up

(Doesn't have a title yet)
Pastel and paper
2014

Things have been a little bananas the past few weeks. I got the flu for the first time in a long time and have been a gigantic baby about it. I've been pretty healthy for the past year and a half so I was disappointed in my immune system for succumbing to illness. I called in sick to work on Wednesday (my first call-in since I started working there) and probably should've called out yesterday and the day before but since I'm only part time I don't get any sick days so I'd have to use up my vacation time which I'm not willing to do. That vacation time is MINE. And I already know what I want to do with it...(insert pause for dramatic effect)

My very dear friend Michelle has invited me to come along with her to Thailand this winter while she visits her mother. I am beyond excited about this! It doesn't even feel real. I've only had my passport for less than a year and I'm already going to knock another continent off my list! The flight will be hella long (24 hours) but it'll be worth it. I've always wanted to visit Bangkok; it's incredibly beautiful and from what I've read, there's lots and lots of things to do. Michelle's mother has an apartment there so we'll have a place to stay and a very good friend of mine, Shong, lives there and is going to show us around a bit. I'm SO looking forward to finally meeting him in real life. Shong was the very first fan of my comic strip "Marksville" and we've been internet friends for nearly 8 years. I've been wanting to meet him for so long and can't believe it's finally going to happen! Right now we're just waiting for Michelle's vacation time to get approved and then I'm going to talk to my boss about it. I should have more than enough PTO hours by that time (we plan on going the first week of February) so hopefully he won't have a problem with me requesting a week off.

Wedding Heirloom Embroidery (a gift)

Another exciting thing that's happened recently is my darling friend, Stacee, got married on Saturday and I was in her bridal party. It was my first time being a bridesmaid and I felt so honored that she asked me to be a part of her special day. The day of the wedding, though, we had a huge storm and it rained so hard I could barely drive. Michelle came along as my date and I thought I knew where I was going but as usual I had no clue and got us SO LOST! I realized things had gone awry when there were cows right outside the window. I had no memory of the venue being out in farm country when I'd gone there for the rehearsal. Michelle GPSed where we were and I had gone like 20 miles in the WRONG DIRECTION. Aiya! Luckily, we got there safe and sound (we saw so many wrecks and cars that had driven right off the road) but I felt pretty crummy being so late. But Stacee looked so BEAUTIFUL--OHMYGOODNESS! She looked like a princess. I wish I had pictures to post but I only took Instax photos. I'm usually the one taking 10 billion photos and get so busy with that that I don't really experience the moment as much as I should and I didn't want that to happen this time; I wanted to look at everything and remember everything with my own eyes instead of through a lens. So I'll just have to wait until Stacee's photos are on Facebook then snitch some. It was so nice being right there during the ceremony and getting to hear all of the vows and see all of the emotions and everything. I'd never been so close at a wedding before and you miss a lot of that stuff when you're sitting 20 feet away. It was so hard not to cry through the whole thing. I was so touched too when they brought me a vegetarian meal made just for me. Stacee is pure ANGEL!

In other news, I've been taking a bit of a break from my embroidery work the past 2 months and have been focusing on my illustration work. So far I've completed two full color pastel drawings in a series of kitten portraits (as seen above). I'm nearly done with the third and will be starting a fourth soon. I've been wanting to get more comfortable working in color so this has been a great opportunity for me to practice. So far I'm very happy with the progress I've made and feel like I'm learning more with each drawing. Once I have some decent photos of the rest of the drawings I'd like to start selling them as prints in my Etsy shop (www.iggystarpup.com) and then get them framed so I can perhaps show them around Phoenix. As much as I enjoy embroidery it's been a nice change to draw again. I love going to the art supply store to pick up new pastel colors. Soon I'm going to have every shade of Nu Pastel they have! After I'm finished with my kitten series I'd like to draw some other animals as well; right now I'm thinking a pug, bunny, and a deer. I could draw animals in pretty dresses forever to be honest.

I said in my last post that I was going to post some new hoops, so here's my newest pieces (they're all Adventure Time hoops). BUMPS!

Homies Help Homies
SOLD

Marceline the Vampire Queen
$33.00



Princess Bonnibel Bubblegum
$33.00

Earl of Lemongrab
$40.00

LSP "Every Party Is My Party"
SOLD