Into the Abyss

Published August 29, 2012 by kurolace

Here’s a picture I made while playing around in my trial version of corel painter…. I tried to base it off a dream I had, but didn’t do so well…. Anyways, it was fun to play with though 🙂 …. I wish I could afford corel painter, I’ll be sad when my trial expires. Its a lot easier for me to use my tablet with than photoshop for some reason, and I find the brush tools to make more sense in corel.

As for the dream…. I’m prone to some really detailed and strange dreams. Not to mention the waking terrors that I suffer on a regular basis (I’m narcoleptic, btw…. and “waking terrors” or hypnagogia hallucinations / OBE / Sleep paralysis type sh*t is daily/nightly occurrence)…. This was a full on dream (not a hypnagogia one), but extremely detailed and stuck with me for a long time. In it, I guess I was on something similar to the astral plane…. except that I was locating “the origin of my soul”. Mine just happened to be out in the middle of the ocean, where all of the world’s energy was being sucked back down into the earth to be recycled (just like the tectonic plates, I guess). I had to stand facing the submersion zone, and watch all of the energy rushing past me and down into a black depth. In addition to the horrible pitch black, I was struck by a terrible silence.

The drawing is definitely off because its more of a birds-eye-view, as I couldn’t seem to draw it from the perspective I had in my dream, I suppose that’s because I wasn’t really “standing” (even though I just said I was), but more like just “being” in a particular location. I was aware of what was both in front of me, as well as what was behind me.

 

If a person were in this picture, they’d be a tiny speck 🙂

Found and Want: Amazing Romantic Victorian-ish Liz Claiborne Shoes

Published July 17, 2012 by kurolace

I’ve been browsing ebay tonight, and I came across these amazing shoes:

I don’t know if these are really called “Cinderella” or not, or if the embellishments were added… all I know is, I wish I could wear them!

Sadly, they are a size 5.  And I wear a size 8-9. Ugh!

I suppose that perhaps if I were really clever, I could figure out how to make some shoes similar to them…. but I don’t know if I am that clever (or could find the piece for it).

One thing I love is the heel… I can’t do really high heels, so whenever I see something like this with a lower (and substantial) heel, I feel like I’ve struck gold – except of course when they’re the wrong size.

Needless to say, if you know where to find a larger size of these… let me know! Lol…

Attack of the Kittens!

Published July 11, 2012 by kurolace

Lately, my time has been consumed by two things: figuring out my embroidery machine…. and taking care of four foster kittens. We’ve had them for 2 weeks – actually today they went for a weigh-in at the humane society’s foster center. The way it works is, we take care of them until they weigh enough to be spay/neutered, and then they’ll be put up for adoption.

Lemme tell you… kittens are hard to photograph. They only stay still while eating and sleeping… lol. They sleep downstairs in our spare bathroom, so I don’t really have the chance to photograph them in there (as soon as you open the door to the bathroom, they are ready to get out!). It might be hard to tell in the photos, but these kitties are small enough to pick up one-handed. 🙂

One of the kittens, Brook, playing on my bed.

Brenna on the loveseat. She’s the most independent and adventurous one. She never wants to go back into the “Kitten Room” (our downstairs bathroom).

Apparently, back when my parents moved into this house, the downstairs bathroom was carpeted (WTF?), so the door has a gap under it…. which kittens can fit through. Thus, we use a piece of cardboard to help close the gap (only effective when the door is closed, of course).

Our adult cat, Zsa Zsa, is none too pleased with the kittens being here. So we have to try to keep them separate. A few days ago Zsa Zsa got really sick… she’s had a fever and wasn’t eating. My parents took her to the vet and he gave her a shot of antibiotics and a vit D shot (“to peak her appetite)… but it wasn’t until today she started eating again. We don’t think it was the kittens that made her sick …. since they haven’t really been in contact…. actually my mom says she thinks maybe Zsa Zsa ate a roach or something like that.

I’ve been thinking I should collect some videos… and then make a little collage…  We’ll see if I get round to it!

New Embroidery Machine

Published June 28, 2012 by kurolace

This cat arrived packed perfectly – complete with Styrofoam bumpers. 😛

Hello 🙂 …

I’m afraid I’ve been absent for a while, haven’t I? Worry not, sweetlings, I still exist! Its just that the summer heat has hit in full here… and I am busy wilting most of the day 😛

Its been a bit over a week since my 25th birthday… which was back on the 15th. I feel so old saying that… What ever happened to 20? or 17 for that matter? …. Well, besides thinking depressing thoughts about how my life isn’t nearly what I hoped it would be by 25… I did have a nice day. We didn’t make much of a big deal out of it. My mom baked a delicious pineapple-upside-down cake, and we went out to a Japanese restaurant for sushi. Seeing as I don’t really have many friends here in my hometown, I didn’t do anything besides hang out with my family.  This year I completely failed to think of gifts that people could give me, so I ended up with all monetary gifts, which was just fine by me. After a lot of consideration, I finally decided to buy an embroidery machine.

Actually its a sewing-embroidery combo machine. The Brother SE-400. It only can do small (4x4in) embroidery, but that’s fine. The larger machines are significantly more expensive (like $2,000 plus), so I figured I’d start small and see if I even like machine embroidery enough to someday invest in a larger machine. So far I haven’t had much luck with using the machine… I am completely new to machine embroidery, so I’ve run into my fair share of newbie-errors. Also, accumulating all the necessary accessories has taken some time and an additional few hundred (the machine was $300).

I’ve already indulged in buying some cool goth-y embroidery patterns … so once I finally successfully complete one, I’ll post a few pics!

I’ve also been working on some sewing projects lately, including a tiered skirt and a flannel children’s blanket (shaped like a flower). I went on a bit of a fabric buying splurge and now my room is stuffed with bags of supplies again XD … If only I could have a little studio or craft room!

“Foolish Human, this is MY sewing project”

 

Other exciting news: I’ve finally decided to open an Etsy store! It will have the same name as my blog…. and I ordered some business cards yesterday! 🙂 In the next few days I need to get my act together and photograph some of my items.

 

This morning, in the garden…

Published May 28, 2012 by kurolace

….I met an old friend:

Ever since I was a child, my mother has had these growing in her garden. I always loved the way they look from the side – like some creature with a snout.

… dreamed of eating cherries, just barely out of reach:

(some more pictures from this morning are bellow 😛 )

 

Solar Eclipse Video & Pics

Published May 21, 2012 by kurolace

As you probably know… today there was a annular solar eclipse visible in the western part of the USA… I happen to live right along the line of visibility 🙂 So my family took some time to watch it happen. We are lucky enough to own an Orion telescope and a solar filter, so we were using that to get a “close up” experience. My family didn’t believe me when I said I was going to take pictures – I guess they thought it wasn’t possible to get a good focus through the camera + telescope…. its true that I didn’t have perfectly crisp pics, but there were a few that turned out fairly decent. You can even see a sunspot or two (very blurry  – even at max zoom/focus). Take a look…

I also took a video of the eclipse as the moon “exits” the sun…