Wish I could save her in some sort of time machine.

She was born to be a writer. At thirteen, she felt the power; at fifteen, she was in command of it.

I was so excited to find a book of Anne Frank's other writings. Yes! More was salvaged than just her famous diary to Kitty! The very first page had the most excellent quote and it enraged me.
She makes me feel humble and unworthy.



List (In Z formation):

1. The House on Mango Street
2. The Roald Dahl Omnibus - short stories for adults
3. Tales from the Secret Annex - A collection of her short stories, fables, and lesser known writings.
4. A Conneticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court
5. The Rape of NanKing (renewed)
   

(I got A Conneticut Yankee In King Arthur's Court because it's on a list of banned books and I like to imagine lazily floating away on a raft and faking my own suicide.)

Edit: I can't recommend the Anne Frank book any harder. Damn it's good. Funny, warm, normal, yet totally unique. I was sitting here in the library reading it, and it was the type of story where you stop reading and feel disoriented. I got up to go to the bathroom and my surroundings and the people in them did not seem real. Really hard to describe, I felt like my head was floating a foot above my body (ok maybe that was because I was sitting in the same position for too long?!). Her words and thoughts created a place in me that was so much better.




Blazer: walmart? Target? Dress: Salvation Army Pin: The New Museum


This is a fitting picture to end on because ironically, her words makes me think the same question. Good job editor!

Pretend you're happy when you're blue

I didn't fully explain in my last post why I wanted to make envelopes so I'll explain now. I had a couple unfinished paintings/drawings and didn't want them going to waste.

Since I moved three times in high school, me and my closest friends in California would always write letters to each other even though there was email and Myspace. Writing and receiving letters was just more fun. It was even funner if the envelope was decorated or personalized in some way. I don't write letters anymore, but making these was a nice reminder of that time.

Green - recycled. Made out of aged construction paper. I used a whole sheet and not a single part of it was wasted. The snippets I cut off were glued back on the flap to make a closing device so it doesn't need tape or glue to be sealed. Just slip the tab into the bottom and voila, it is closed. Self sufficient and reusable, just as how our environment should be.



The shape is supposed to resemble an abstract flower growing in the ground.


Back:


Front:
An unfinished drawing of a scruffy boy with no arms. The words on the front and back are from a Haruki Murakami novel.
"Pretend you're happy when you're blue, it isn't very hard to do."





We all need that one person who can see right through the pretension and who we want to see through the pretension.

Do you see a difference? do ya do ya do ya?

hello m'dears,
I have drastically changed. It was time. It's not that I don't care about Victorian style fonts or hand drawn leaf faces, but something was a brewin' in me. The winds of minimalism and haiku would inevitably sweep through this vast emptiness known as my head.

I've been busy.
I photographed some items for Etsy. Made envelopes. Engaged in Deep Thought.


this was a reject photo. As retarded as it sounds, I didn't use it because I don't like how my stomach sticks out like a weird little puddle bump. Especially not when it's in the center of the picture. For Pete's sake it looks like I'm hiding a potato in there!


retook photos for the red scallop. I see a boca!

I also had a leetle too much fun with a ripped doily. Hehe. Creativity hasn't been coming my way too often these days so when it does, I revel and roll in it!!!


This is one of the envelopes I made out of a 'mess up' painting of a little black house. I liked the scribbly unfinished look. The words were written when I was angry at certain unfair things my parents said. Behind the mass of black computer scribbles was a ugly boring painting of some colonial English house (I was at the sorry excuse for a library). It was ruining my vibe so I had to destroy it.




Let me know what you think of my new blog design/envelope if you are even thinking anything about it. I'm a shameless opinion whore.

Oh so, it's scheduled and planned that myself and Linda will be seeing the apartment May 30th. Only a week away! Let's hope it works out and we get this one. It seems like an awesome deal. Linda said if it were in Manhattan, we'd be getting a tiny one bedroom for the same price, and this one has 3! Bedrooms! But as John Steinbeck says, the best laid plans of mice and women...I don't know what the rest of it's supposed to be. Whatevs.

You know what I always loved best in Scooby Doo cartoons and other mystery shows? The bookshelf that was actually a secret doorway to a hidden passage, taking you into a secret room. You'd accidentally bump into some innocent object like a lamp, or a knob, and the whole wall would flip open. I also love authors who hide references in seemingly normal words/phrases. *ahem*LemonySnicket*ahem*

Why am I mentioning this? Oh I don't know maybe cuz it's late (10:50) and I enjoy typing and seeing words appear on the pretty white screen. Intoxicating. I'm going to bed now, but not before I tweet this!


That's right, eat it. It's got lots of fiber to promote a healthy digestive system.

Do we Cheat'em, and how!

Now now, no need to tell me I'm not and that I'm actually very smart. It's true.
Dull as dishwater.
I drew this about a year ago, after reading a book on the adoption of Chinese babies (usually girls) by Americans. A passage in it piqued my imagination:

"...an old Chinese story describing how lovers are predestined to meet, an invisible red thread leads from one person to another, no matter how far apart the two may be. Over the years, this idea has been taken up by the Chinese-American adoption community to include parents and children who are destined to be together."

so, I drew this.

Quite romantic. Quite. Then, I saw this on a really cool person's blog:

(please click on the photo to see the detail shots of her accordion book)

WHY DIDN'T I THINK OF THIS?!
Now I have my heart set on making my own little book with a similar theme.
Ana gave me a blog award that I am passing on to Katie. I found her blog through Etsy and love her creativity.

Thank you Ana and thank you Katie!

Patricia Field

I got a new job! It starts July 6th. I need to find an apartment in the city (Queens) where I will be rooming with a friend from Kindergarten whom I haven't seen or talked to in 10 years! This should be interesting. My first full time job and first apartment.

What if the apartment thing doesn't work out? Most 2 bedrooms that are not scams are around 1,350. I'll be making 15,000 a year. So say a little less than half of that is 500-600 a month. *whimpers in consternation* I am scared. Commuting from LI is impossible. Well technically not impossible, but if I do, I'll be a zombie and probably let my preschool charge fall down a flight of stairs without realizing it. (If you are reading this, nice person who hired me, rest assured that that would never happen.)

When life gets crazy, drown all future unknowns in an amazing house of a dress. I could live in it, it's that huge. There's so much fabric it encases my legs like a solid mass of cupcake.

Rainbow scratchy cloud, cotton candy, marshmallow puffball holy hell (oxymoron) I love you, be mine, I will wear you as my future wedding dress. (Don't know why I even attempted punctuation in that sentence.)

If I had you I would hang you from the ceiling above my bed and every morning I'd wake up and see you and smile. 84 dollars. Heyyyy Patty, can I call ya Patty? Please do your buddy ol' pal a favor and keep on making these till the day I can afford it? RRRUFFLESRUFFLESRUFFLESSS

(sorry for the repetitive pictures but I just can't get enough of this.)

This is technically supposed to be worn *under* another dress, hence its name of 'petticoat' but ummm I would not hide its luscious colors under anything thankyouverymuch.

Reminds me of the scene in Little Nemo (1989) where Nemo and the princess are wrapped in colorful furballs and floating/bouncing around. Annnd I can't find a clip or picture of it online. sad. How is that possible. I am an internet search failure. Must try again! Ah, here it is
3:56 and 4:38. Anyone remember this movie?

My mom said something of sage wisdom today. She was telling my sister and I about a guy at the post office in his 30s who blew his entire paycheck on video games and how he still lives at home with mummy and daddy and how he has no girlfriend, and in her Chinese accent she said, "Even I know, 'No money, no honey'". WOW. ( And jay in kay you were wondering, a Chinese accent goes something like this : MAH-ney, HAH-ney. ) And speaking of Asians, Belle posted this on twitter...



I love the dress, not the shoes. Becuz while those shoes are impractical for everyday life, the dress would fit right in and only invade the personal space of everyone within 3ft; little birds would come and make a home in it, and little children would try to lick it thinking it some new kind of strawberry frosting.

More fun in the dressing room...

The words on the jumper say 'Duty Free' and I think the feathery blue apparatus is supposed to be a sexy bedroom thing but that is a giant fail because it's too long and all the feathers will eventually be plucked from me constantly tripping/falling over it.

Puffy tutu petticoats are just so Whimsical [spring breeze and birdsong commences].

*Everything I'm wearing is from the store at 302 Bowery, NYC.

I didn't want to go for a theme. It just happened. Yarbles.

So, foist, this morning I had a lovely cup of tea. It's amazing how much better tea tastes if you add a bit of honey, lemon juice, and stick that wedge of lemon to the edge of your cup. Ah, nothing beats that! It's like aromatherapy and taste-a-therapy combined! As usual, I watched the chickens pace around their coop while I sipped. I also had salad. Filled me up for half the day!



I'm not trying to be on a diet or anything (never!!!). There was just nothing better to eat in the fridge. Okay, this is supposed to be a fashion blog (HA) so on to the clothes!



I am so bad at taking full body pictures. I don't know what it is, but every time I try it's crap. I think my room's just too small (and messy). Then I don't know what to do with my body, my face, and usually the lighting is either too dark or too blue/white. So it's just my upper again! That's okay, I prefer the details anyway, and I put more thought into what goes on above the waist. Usually I just have on a pair of jeans. Nothing too exciting down there.

This is a shirt I ordered a while back from one of my favorite Etsy sellers : Cubist Literature



He said it was inspired by a surrealist adaptation of Alice in Wonderland. Check out his blog post for more details ... (the pic below will link to it)



I know he looks better in the shirt. Maybe I should've gotten a smaller size. Eh! Lately I've been into slightly baggy shirts. =)

Quick side note, I've been having a lot more fun on twitter lately talking to other bloggers. Come Join Me. =P
Goodnight.

A Clockwork Orange

I read a new book very skorry last evening. It all happened because a phrase popped into my rassoodock when I looked at this little clock. Clockwork Orange. That sounds so familiar, I pondered in my gulliver. I knew it was some famous veshch. I googled it and lo and behold got a dystopian novella. Quite starry; copyrighted in 1962 by a veck named Anthony Burgess. Never heard of this malchik. You can bet I had a pleased smeck on my litso when I discovered this! Well, in no time flat, the book was in my rooker. It's got weird slovos, but I like it. Real horrorshow style. Different, you might say.



A story told from the point of view of a bored gangster/hardcore wigga (suburban NY talk for white nigger). I add the word hardcore because in real life, most of these wiggas (yes I feel retarted using this word so much) are only fronting and do no more harm than act like immature imbeciles. The narrator of this story and his droogs do much worse.

Anyway, enough of copying Nadsat. Now I speak normal. My parents bought the clock back from China, but it was broken. So I decided to take it apart, remove the ugly picture inside and replace it eventually with maybe a painting. The roof is also removable but taking that off makes it look quite bald, so no.

Oh really funny aside, in the book von or vonny means to smell, or smelly. My boyfriend's nickname for me (Yvonne) is Vonney! Hahahaha!

A human being (orang is Malaysian for 'man' or woman) should not be like clockwork, acting as (s)he is programmed. We should have the freedom to choose our own actions; choosing between what is right or wrong for each of us. It shouldn't be predetermined by God or the government.


Unrelated, except in color, carrot sticks!



makes a nice ...



half of a orange vaudevillian mustache.

Moths vs. Flutterbies

:cardigan-beacon's closet: :scarf-some random thrift store:
:pin-flea market in soho: :tshirt-mandees:

That is a moth pin, not a butterfly!!! Very important distinction.
A moth is typically thought of as a plain, humdrum insect. A pest even. But if you look closely, their wing designs are just as intricate.

I do like butterflies though. Seriously, you're not human if you don't like butterflies. They are awe-some and I wouldn't mind owning a butterfly mask (Nudge nudge K). I guess my main point is not to put down butterflies, but to 'put up' a often overlooked creature. I liked the symbolism of moths so much I made them part of a painting.





The things hanging from her hair are stone-eggs. She is dropping (black) sperm onto the ground. Is the color significant? There are some broken stone eggs by her feet. Did she drop them accidentally or break them on purpose? The sperm that have already been dropped swam towards the eggs only to find that they are broken and can't be fertilized. Don't ask me what it all means because I don't know.



This took me 6 months. I have to let certain paintings sit for weeks and weeks, then suddenly one day I'll work on it for like 3 hours straight. This one took especially long becuz,

1) I am not used to drawing naked people so that was hard.
2) I am not used to painting pubic hair so that was harder and
3) this is a big sheet of brown paper!!! Almost as tall as I am.
Oh, and also cuz I am a detail oriented perfectionist.

The sign was added to try and show that even though our main goal in life is to grow, ironically, new things can't grow since the eggs are broken. Maybe the eggs symbolize choices that she doesn't want, and by killing them, she can move on and grow in other ways.



So about those books I got ... I returned the one about Beatrix because it was boring. Too flowery and ... Victorian. The other one was good. I want to tell you more about it, especially the amazing author.

I have no patience for flowery, idealistic stories when I think of the very real tragedies that have occurred and are still happening in the world. I get exasperated by art/writing that tries to create a innocent bubble world. Yet, I like twee music. Contradictory much?