Happy New Year!

HI everyone. Thanks for holding on.

This has been a hectic few months, trying to get my affairs with college squared away and such.
Hopefully this will be a productive and mostly happy year for all of us... I sincerely hope, considering the tough stuff all around the country and in the US and in the world that is still continuing into 2013.

I've been thinking about New Years resolutions for the past few weeks. Brainstorming. I feel the key to successful New Years resolutions is to start small, and not to despair if you don't keep to them 100%. Any progress is good progress.
For example, I think one of my 2012 resolutions was to lose weight and get in shape. Well, I've built up some muscle, and lost a few pounds, and used my mother's gym membership a few times when I could get transportation.
Another was to draw more. I haven't necessarily been drawing more, but I made an effort to study art and gather inspirations together. I also learned Sculptris and am on my way to learning zbrush. I did several watercolor paintings, and stored them more neatly than I have in the past. I have also painted several paintings.

Resolutions shouldn't just be one year fads, methinks. They should be lifelong goals.

This year, I think I want to:

• Sell at least one painting
• Lose 5 lbs and keep it off
• Make my crafts look more professional and neat
• Get better at tailoring clothes
• Start a plus sized lolita clothing line (even if the things I make aren't for sale yet)
• Work hard at my schoolwork
• STOP PROCRASTINATING WITH PAPERWORK
• Join a club or organization and make some more friends
• Dress Lolita or Mori Kei more OR build my wardrobes (This is an ongoing goal)
• Make a new petticoat, high waisted skirt, cocktail dress
• Finish my Robe a la Francaise (I need to get pictures of that...)
• Post more pictures to my blog here!
• Make more comics, and perhaps launch a webcomic (I have already been creating more comics)

There are a few more private ones, but those are mainly they. I will add more if I think of more.
I encourage you people out there to start your own lists and post them on the wall. Don't feel disappointed if you don't do them all. It will be ok. Progress is gewwwd.


What is this obsession with losing weight? Well, like I said in the past, I want to fit into my clothes better. I want to be able to buy some cute clothes off the rack. Most of all, I want to be in decent shape. I don't want to be the size 0, like I said previously. I want to be healthy enough to run places and not feel tired all the time. I'm looking into low impact exercises, which are good for obese people. Lately I've had hip pain (exacerbated by working retail this past month...), and I really want that to go away on its own, rather than me going to the doctor about it. I figure it is just because my hip muscles are weak (which happens to a lot of people).

Bah. Since my company laid off all the seasonal workers, I guess I'm going to have more time between now and when I return to school in the spring. Therefore, I'm going to work on these resolutions.
My resolution is to work on these resolutions for at least one week. There we go! That's a good resolution!
But yeah, I'm going to be brainstorming a lot for all of these things.

Also: I'm going to have an Artist's Table at Genericon in March! Runs from March 2-4 I believe. If you read this, you should stop by! That would be fun, wouldn't it?


-MNR

Looking at sales on patterns

Vogue knitting sent me an email stating that they are having sales on their patterns.

Meh. Their stuff is too expensive to buy directly from them. I heartily say check out ebay or amazon for their patterns. Heck, I was SO lucky, I got the Vogue knitting book, normally 38 dollars, for 5 dollars at the thrift store. The thrift store is mecca for off brand mori kei, dolly kei, and lolita accessories and clothes, btw. Though, don't expect much in the way of finding cutesy girly stuff if you're larger than a size L.

I've been into mori kei lately. It is one of those styles that can use a lot of lolita stuff. Mori kei is about looking like you're a forest wanderer, a free spirit. Dolly kei is similar, but its purpose is to make you look as if you came from a european fairy tale. I love both of those styles, but lately I've been making dresses for Lolita. I have one pale blue dress that I am making out of a Mc Calls pattern. Will post pics when I can, am exhausted, just came off of a shift working at Walmart.

Whoooo. This is the book I have. I am getting quite the store of knitting/crocheting/sewing books.


As for tips for accessories to make for any of these styles... I suggest joining ravelry.
The following patterns are from my queue on ravelry.
A pattern that would be great for...

Mori Kei: A Maiden's Glory, http://www.theanticraft.com/archive/beltane06/maidensglory.htm , a circlet made of crocheted flowers and leaves. Very beautiful. I tried to make this before I properly knew about gauge. Didn't go well. Am going to try again though.

Dolly Kei: Two measures of joy, https://www.elann.com/Commerce.Web/Product_freePatternsDetail.aspx?id=118832, A felted purse knit in the round. It has the first couple of notes of Ode to Joy knit and embroidered onto it, so its kinda nerdy, but goes along with the very romantic look of dolly kei.

Lolita: The Grown Up bonnet, http://www.lhoffman.com/grown-up-bonnet, a bonnet knitted on size 5 straight needles. I am in the process of making it but I put it aside so that I can knit christmas gifts.


Anyway, all of these patterns can also be found on Ravelry, if you wanted.

Am going to continue drawing and posting some things up here, when I'm not tired. Farewell for now.


-MNR

First Sculptris sculpt

Scuptris is made by Pixologic, the same people that make Zbrush.
Its basically an easier version of Zbrush.

Its a 3d sculpting program.

Anyway, I made my first sculpt in it! I know there  are areas I can improve upon, but I'd say it looks much like a person!

I make the same nose and lips every time though. Bleh.
This is a screenshot of the program since I don't know how to take a .png of the sculpt.

-MNR

The X Marks shawl

This shawl is great for beginners. It includes all of the major stitches, and works up very fast. It has a bit of lace as well as the warmth of the smaller stitches.

Abbreviations: (US stitches)
Sc = single crochet, hdc = half double crochet, dc = double crochet, trc = treble crochet, dtrc = double treble crochet.

Treble crochet: Wrap yarn around hook twice. Insert hook into stitch, yarn over and pull through loop three times.
Double Treble crochet: Wrap yarn around hook twice. Insert hook into stitch, yarn over and pull through loop four times.

For worsted weight yarn, and an even weave, I would use an I or J hook.

Using a J hook and worsted weight yarn,
Ch 51. (Or some number divisible by 3.)

Rows 1 and 2: sc in each stitch across. 50 stitches.
Rows 3 and 4: Ch2. Hdc in each stitch across.
Rows 5 and 6: Ch 3. Dc in each stitch across.
Row 7: Ch4. Trc in each stitch across.
Row 8: Ch 5. Dtrc in 3rd stitch, skipping the 1st and 2nd stitches. Ch 1. Dtrc in 1st stitch. *Skip two stitches. Dtrc in next stitch. Ch 1,  then go back and dtrc in the first skipped stitch of this repeat.*  Repeat the sequence within the *'s till the end of the row.

Repeat these 8 rows until desired length.

Finishing:
Make a hdc border around the entire shawl.  To evenly distribute the stitches on the sides of the shawl, follow this rule of thumb: every two sc = 1 hdc. One hdc = 1 hdc. One dc = 2 hdc, One trc = 3 hdc, one dtrc = 3 or 4 hdc. Or, use your best judgement.


-MNR

Card Shark Dress

Another design for a lolita dress. Maybe when I have enough money to buy fabric I can make it.

I feel like this dress should involve white ruffled trim on the 3/4 sleeves. The rest of the lace should be eyelet and or cutwork lace.

Triumphant urusla

WIP drawing.... photoshop.

Character from my manga.