I keep staring at them. They're so pale and knobby-knuckled.

The rings were really what caught my eye. Without them, my hands look naked and foreign. I find myself fingering the calluses where they were.




I suppose it fits. I'll relearn their ways, see how they have changed--what sort of things they want to do on their own. Maybe they'll be painting a truck into the gypsy wagon I'd like it to be, pounding down tent stakes, or facilitating any number of adventures.

They've been tired...I think they'll be happy to serve just one mistress for a while. I plan to treat them a little better, pampering them with lotion, keeping them out of harm's way.

I made a big breakthrough in my ab routine tonight. I've been working out 4 to 6 times a week  for about 4 and 1/2 weeks now. the program is a combination of strength training, aerobics, and flexibility. I can definitely see the changes in my body. Even though I haven't lost any inches, the muscles underneath are so much more toned that the shape is really getting nice. Plus, if I push in to my actual abdominal muscles, beyond being really hard, I can actually feel ripples and ridges for the first time in my life. It is so cool. (^_^) I am very, very proud of myself for sticking with this. I have not been doing my whole diet and fitness program to-the-letter-perfectly (probably why I still have fat on my belly), but it's still making a difference and I'm really happy about it. I'm also proud of myself for continuing to do it, sometimes badly. It's a big deal for me to allow myself to do a stinky job of things sometimes, but keep going.

spiderling introduced me to a fun game/self help exercise today:

Pretend you have a thousand dollars on the first day, and figure out what you would spend it on. The second day, you have two thousand. Every day you add another thousand dollars and see what happens. It gives me something nice to write about, so my first day I'm sharing with you :)

I'm buying spiderling  a kindle. Because that would make me happy and because she cheered me up so much. So there's $359 down. Which leaves me $641 if my quick head math is correct. Hmm...well, I'd buy Mike and myself dinner at Red Lobster. We'd eat crab until we popped open. Woo ha ha ha! Then we'd get dessert and coffee at Cafe Lola. Let's call all of that about $100. $541 left. I'd buy all the traditional oshiroi and other makeup  for my Tayuu costume. I think I priced that for around $200. With the remaining $341 I'd get my yard immaculately groomed and maybe plant some annuals that would bloom right away. I'd also buy Mike the silicon (silicone?) muffin pan he wants for popovers. Yee Haw!!!

Yay! I finally finished drafting the pattern for my kimono tonight.




While I greatly respect John Marshall, and am grateful for his Make Your Own Japanese Clothes book, he could really simplify the pattern drafting element. If I get the urge someday, I'll make some sort of "appendix" for the book, showing how you can overlap the outlines of several pieces onto one pattern piece. It would have saved me so much time and effort if I'd thought of it sooner. I'd post it on the Immortal Geisha Forums or somewhere else that people who want to sew kimono get together. (BTW, if you want really authentic patterns for Japanese clothes, I would skip the oft-recommended Making Kimono and Japanese Clothes by Jenni Dobson. If I didn't have to pay postage, I would have mailed that one back to Amazon. If you want adapted clothes, I guess it's great.)

To celebrate my finishing this all-important step, I'm going to share a bunch of design sketches that show a little bit of progression from my first Tayuu idea, Leather Butterfly, to my current Jigoku Dayuu.
( Pictures and Notes )

Cheers everyone. Hope you're having a wonderful weekend.

I've been trying to decide what to write about for a week. The quick rundown of significant stuff in my life is this:

1. Con-Nooga lost money for us.
2. We are now brokety broke broke broke.
5. My 32nd birthday is next week.

Suze Ormon had an article in People recently about getting by in hard times like these. The crux of the article seemed to be "Do you really need this item (a new winter coat, in her example), or do you just want it? Cut back to what you really need." Applicable to my life? Hmmm... do I really need my antidepressants (which cost $75 for the generic) or would I rather eat? Tough choice. Oh wait! I couldn't buy my meds if I wanted to! ::::headsmack:::: I opted for food. Thanks Suze! That advice helped a lot! :)

In lighter news, while we were killing ourselves making armor and other things for the convention, I started talking about how scary emus are.** For one thing, they look like freaking dinosaurs. For another, when you come face to face with them, they home straight in on your eyes and their beady orbs say: "Come a little closer, LUNCH." (Trust me, spiderling  and I once visited an ostrich and emu ranch.)

Michael: "How much damage could they do? They don't even have teeth. Just beaks."

Me: "That's why they'd have to disembowel you with their clawed feet...and then shred you into bite size pieces."

Charles: "You've actually thought this over, haven't you?"

Me: "Yes. Yes I have. "
        "And let me tell you, the Emu Apocalypse is far more terrifying than the Zombie Apocalypse could ever be."

This, of course, led me to imaginings of the ZOMBIE Emu Apocalypse. The most terrifying of all!!! Imagine them if you will. Red eyes stare at you in an upside down glare. That weird, baldish head swings, pendulum like, from a long broken gray neck as they lurch forward... FEAR THEM.


**The truth being, of course, that I think emus are pretty neat, just very intense in their scrutiny. >_>




</lj>

As of 2:43 a.m., we just finished our largest Studio Kensai order to date. We made 44 quivers, 52 vambraces (arm guards), and 6 belt adapters. It was quite a push. We took on a third staff member to do it, and we might need even more people in the future. I would like to think it's a very good sign that we're growing in the midst of a recession.

Today I found my absolute favorite choice for what to do with my cremated body. In the hopefully far-flung future, after my organs are donated and my body is ash, I want to be made into pencils.



My previous candidates were: put me in the ground and grow something out of me, or shake me out in nature (maybe into a lovely mountain scene near a stream). They didn't hit the spot like this one though. The thought of people drawing, writing, doing math, or documenting scientific discoveries with me makes me incandescently happy. The thought of being used to scribe graffiti makes me giggle. I have only one request for those using me to decorate a school desk or the wall of a bathroom stall: please do not use me to declare your undying love in the manner of  "Becky + Harold 4ever." If you must, write a love poem. Or better yet: a dirty limerick.


The big wish for my memorial is that people make jokes, find some joy, if they can.

It isn't that I want people to be ecstatic over my death. I want them to be happy I lived. I am.

So, I stumbled onto the free Japanese printable stationery goldmine. I found soooooooooooo many adorable envelopes, letter sets, memo sheets, calendars and more. Take a look at some envelopes to enclose gifts of money for the new year. Killer cute <3

I'm thinkin' "THAAAAT's it! It's really way past time for me to design my own stationery." I'm excellent at designing adorable characters. I even have a few just laying around: Vice and Virtue (tiny devil and angel), Hannah (an adorable little witch who uses a feather duster instead of a broom because she's so small), and her friend Bugs, the fox. They're currently languishing in my sketchbooks and sketchbox.

I have so many ideas for various art projects right now. Arg! My current plan for 2009 is to wake up about 3 hours before the Studio Kensai workday starts so that I can work on my own stuff. (More ideas: Oiran stationery. Kokeshi stationery with my characters.) I know I'll always have more ideas than I have time, but if I don't get to actually draw, design and create, I'm going to explode!

Today was actually a lot less busy than I expected. I did get to cut out an entire cow's worth of Locksley quivers. I didn't spend 6-7 hours working though. Another small success: I can cut out the deep "u" at the top of the quivers with just the cutters now, instead of having to go back in with a knife. That saves a little time.

It looks like it's going to be a working weekend. I'm pretty bummed. Has to be done though. We have deadlines next week.

On the nicer side, after work yesterday, I spent some time brainstorming paint jobs for my Beryl. It was something I haven't had much time to do, a real indulgence. It was nice. I liked it.

I'm revamping my life and decided to revamp my LJ as well. The significant differences will be: more posts, more personal posts, more f-locking, and a few old posts re-added.

If something seems bizarre or out of the blue, check the date. It'll probably be an old post.

Getting in contact with a couple of old friends recently made it clear to me that someone could read my LJ as it is currently and learn nothing about me. I'd stripped too much out of it.

I promised several people I would post pictures of the cute food I've been making so here they are:


 

Kettles of Cosmic Fish: yummy korean brown rice, strips of fried egg, lightly sauteed bell pepper stars and hot dog fish fried with soy sauce.




My simplified version of the kappa lunch I made for Mike.

 

My first onigiri, filled with tuna cooked with ginger, soysauce, and green onion. 

Mike's on his way home from Las Vegas, Nevada driving our new-to-us minivan!!! SWEET! Thanks Mr. and Mrs. Cook.

Well, I'm up a few hours earlier than I thought. I heard a strange noise. When I got up to check, you guessed it, kitten barfing.




Other than that life is good. Business is going well for Studio Kensai. You can see a permanent link to our new webshop to the left. We're now seeing orders start to trickle in on their own, as well as the ones we have to go out and get. One of the biggest compliments we've been given was from a new customer, saying that he thought we'd be "the absolute best." (Wow. I just went to grab a quote from our email and found another inquiry on a commission!) It's nice to see that our utter dedication to quality is paying off. Seriously, if you ask our friends, like Jo and spiderling they'll tell you how completely nuts we are.

We've decided to take weekends off from now on unless we're in crunch time. I woke up yesterday with a sore throat so I played it pretty low-key. I was on the internet all day. In the morning I was just goofing off and looking at bento and bento making supplies (Ichiban Kan is now online btw for cute, $1.50, bento boxes as well as other fun supplies.).

In the afternoon, I started research for my super-special-top-secret-showcase-costume. I'll be entering it in a contest this fall or I'd share all the details with you. As it is, I want it to have it's own debut.  I think I actually spent about 12 hours doing research. D= It paid off though, I finally found some info I've been seeking out for months. When I told spiderling that I was going forward with this design, she said "You realize you're insane, right?" Mike looked at me last night and said "You couldn't have picked anything easy?" I'm so excited! In some ways it will be my costume debut too, as a designer at least. I'll probably put some teaser pics up on the studio_kensai blog as I work.

I'm going back to bed for a bit, but I'll be back to add to this post.

...was a success!

Rewind.



Our cat, Charlie, had to go on antibiotics. He hates medicine on principle with burning, scratching, biting passion. This time around we tried Pill Pockets, squishy cat treats with a hole that you can completely encase a pill in. They worked like a charm! For exactly 4 days. Then he bit one open and wouldn't go near them.

Time for a rousing round of (chant with me now) ARE YOU SMARTER THAN YOUR CAT! Applause, applause, Jeff Foxworthy quips etc. We've often been able to tempt Charlie by crushing up his pill and mixing it with a little canned fish. This time that was still a no go, so here's how things went down this morning:

:::loud singsong voice addressing Charlie's kitty "sister," Meg:::: "Meh-eg, would you like some tuna? I bet you would..."

"No Charlie, not for you." Grab cat, hold away from juicy tuna.

:::sweet voice:::"Would you like some tuna too?"

aaAAnd...SCENE.

Had a lovely lunch at Red Lobster today with Mike, courtesy of spiderling. Afterwards, we went to Mediocre Purchase (Best Buy) and I picked up the first volume of Hell Girl. It is sooooooo up my alley; pretty, melancholy horror with traditional Japanese styling. I love it. Currently the only userpic of mine that I didn't make.

We also had a lovely time at my parents' house watching movies and being treated to dinner. Thanks Mom and Dad :)



Currently working on:

Chainmail
Peony Corset

Happy New Year Everybody!!!

    I've caught the sinus plague. Xp It slowed me down enough to finally post again. It's been a very long time, so I'll put in a cut if this turns into a novel.

    What have I been up to? Jeez, well...making Christmas Presents, for one. They turned out really awesome, actually. I was proud. The main gist of the comments on them was "You made this?" I'll take it as a compliment implying that they look too professional to be homemade. ^_~


    My Dad took a bazillion Xmas pictures, so I might eventually post more. Then you could actually see my adorable nephew's face! He's excellent at taking off hats, so we had to take the picture quickly. For now, I'm pooped.

    Oh yeah, I also made a portrait kokeshi for my mom and a raven scarf for my uncle, and I've started my first leather corset of my own design. You'll likely see the corset on Studio_Kensai in the future.

Signing off.

Look at the sweet StumbleUpon review I got from Rigel-5: "An optimistic, friendly, enthusiastic burst of Stumbles about Asian culture, dolls, and all kinds of fun stuff. Frogwitch is the cure for emo." That's freakin' awesome! I have lots of fun with my StumbleUpon page, and it's nice to see that other people do too.

Now that studio_kensai  has it's own official blog (dah dah dah DAH! Thanks whiteladyeowyn !), I've decided to put back up a few of my old humorous posts and go back to more frequent posting that doesn't have to include creative work (though a lot of it will).


Here are some other things I consider to be "The Cure for Emo"

Webcomics:
Sinfest
Questionable Content
No Pink Ponies
Our Home Planet
Penny and Aggie
Ctrl+Alt+Del   
Aoi House
Ganbare! Shimura-san
Bite Me (a webcomic for the distinguished vampire)
Kawaii Not

Irish Cream in milk or coffee

my new SERGER <3

My butt is being kicked...by a tiny pair of pants.

They are only 14 inches high, but boy do they pack a wallop.



I've spent countless hours pattern drafting, and now tweaking, teensy trousers for an SD13 ball jointed doll. The doll's name is Saint, by the way. The diabolical pants shall remain nameless.

The crux of the dilemma is this: I have made only one previous attempt at pants. They were human-sized, and thus did not have to be as precise, but still, they failed. The current pair cackle evilly because they cannot be beginner pants. They have to keep up with masterwork armor. Voluminous, drawstring pantaloons won't cut it.

So far, I have been able to beat them off with a 2 dollar, used copy of Basic Tailoring (circa 1974 from Time Life), but this may not hold for long as they seem to have plans to muay thai me about the ears and cheekbones...

The pants have nap and lycra on their side. Pray for me, friends.

Today a whole lot of people are getting together to blog about the environment.

It was very easy for me to grow up as an environmentalist. I grew up in the mountains of New Mexico, and I thought they were absolutely beautiful and wholly worth preserving. I chose today's icon because it reminds me of the cottonwoods and aspens of my home state. Only afterwards did I realize that she's a literal treehugger . ^_~

I could blog quite a bit about why we all should take care of the planet, go into the usual reasons cited by people who are trying to convince others that effort is worthwhile, but the truth is this: I do it for the beauty and because I care. I think Nature is inherently a thing of wonder and I feel a personal connection to it. In my mind, the Earth and its people are my extended family, and dysfunctional as it may be, I think it's worth fighting for. Before you think that I'm all starlight and bubbles with my head in some kind of idealistic wonderland, I want to make it clear that I get how effed-up things are. I just think there's a lot more action to be taken, a lot more things to try, before throwing up our hands and giving it all up as a loss. There is a massive space for hope.



I thought the thing I'd like most to give people would be some resources for self-education and action. Here are some of my favorite documentaries, books, websites, and one, wonderful magazine:

The Corporation -- This is probably my all time favorite documentary. It really changed my world view, helped me understand how we got to where we are today, and who holds the power. The research is very solid, and it is well told.

The Ecology of Commerce by Paul Hawken -- I have this one checked out from the library right now. It's very exciting to me because it presents ideas for building a new, sustainable, business model. We want to make Studio Kensai jive with our beliefs right from the start, and this will help us do that.

Kilowatt Ours -- This is a simple, straightforward documentary about where our electricity comes from (especially in the southeast), and how we can take control and switch to green sources. I especially liked it because it talks specifically about the area I live in and shows how truly easy and possible making that change is.

Here is a list of some environmental websites who I have send me action alerts etc.:

http://www.nrdconline.org (Natural Resources Defense Council)

http://www.therainforestsite.com/

http://www.environmentaldefense.org/

http://www.sierraclub.org/

http://www.ucsusa.org/ (Union of Concerned Scientists)

Last but not least--

Ode Magazine -- This is the most hopeful, positive news reporting I have ever read. It always leaves me inspired.

(Please pardon any typos etc. It's late.)

My goodness but this page has lost a lot of weight! I left up any entries that related to my armor, or had something creative of mine to show (even if it's just cute little dollies from an online doll maker). I saved a few entries to my hard drive before deleting them from LJ. I did want to keep a record of a few of life's victories and all the entries I thought were actually funny.