My brother’s Christmas wish list was was short– a shirt with the phrase “One does not simply rock into Mordor”.  Being a fan of both rock and Mordor, I wanted to make a design with genuine elements of each.  I whipped something up in Photoshop loosely modeled on a vintage ACDC shirt and was so amused by it that when it came time to print the designs, I made a few extra.  Happily, my brother likes it and even told me that some friends and classmates said they want one too– but entry into the Mordor rock club can’t just be bought!!

There were many failures along the way to creating an actual shirt.  Trial and error taught me these things about printing for an iron-on:

- There are iron-on sheets specifically for dark shirts- using the ones for light shirts will barely show up on a dark shirt.

- The instruction manual for the iron-on sheets suggest not having detailed edges to make cutting out the design easier, but pshh, that’s the kind of rule I don’t follow.  To add a margin of error for cutting though, I added a thick black outline to the design.

- Designs show up better on solid grey than heather grey.  I used American Apparel’s Asphalt color.

black jacket: thrift store in shinjuku
denim skirt: thrift store in shinjuku
tights: jcrew
ring: vivienne westwood

No I most certainly do not own Gimli and Eowyn action figures why do you ask?

under the sea
in an octopus’ garden with you.

adobe illustrator, wacom graphire tablet

I think this is one of the most pleasant songs ever. When I hear this song, I think of having tea with an octopus.  I imagine he’d be such a thoughtful host, pouring tea for some guests while passing out petit fours to others, all while telling stories and gesticulating animatedly, and that was my inspiration for this drawing.  (You can click it to view the full-size)

I love this muppet rendition of Octopus Garden, too.

My family asked me if I’d set up my camera to take a picture of all of us together- something we haven’t done in years.  I was too happy to oblige.  Can you see the family resemblance?

My family is always having to put up with my weird whims.  You know I love you guys xoxo

My parents spent today in New Orleans and came back with a king cake!  They visited the famous Haydel’s bakery and had to choose from a huge variety of flavors- and finally settled on a german chocolate one with chocolate, nuts, and coconut.  It was very tasty!  Though I’ll admit that plain old king cake is probably my favorite.  In whatever flavor, it’s a bready sort of cake, topped with cream cheese icing and grainy sugars of yellow, purple, and green.

Normally king cakes are eaten during Mardi Gras (but New Orleans is somewhat perpetually in a state of Mardi Gras) and come with a plastic baby (Jesus) to hide.  But the ones from Haydel come with a little porcelain figure that changes every year.  This year’s is a little court jester– past ones have included a jazz musician, FEMA trailer (honor Katrina rescuers), and king.  We didn’t risk hiding it in the cake– can you imagine chomping down accidentally on a piece of porcelain?

I wished that I could have gone with them– I’ve been eager to visit New Orleans again– so my parents promised us a family weekend trip at the beginning of next month!

My mom, brother, and I took a trip to Jackson to shop, eat, and watch the Princess and the Frog.  (Incidentally, the little girl who voices the main character as a child is from Jackson!  Her 5th grade class took a field trip to watch the movie last month, aww!)  We shared a bag of buttery popcorn, and laughed hysterically through the whole movie.

When I was younger, I thought of one day making my own CG version of the Frog Prince, as Disney hadn’t touched that fairy tale yet.  Oh, but they beat me too it anyway.  They’ve added their own twists to it of course, and as soon as I heard the entire premise, I thought it very clever– by setting it in the Louisiana bayou, they made the frog part seem natural (frogs are a plentiful down here) and opened up a world of possibilities for evil magic via voodoo.

And by setting it in Louisiana, the story could draw from the personality of the whole region.  I love New Orleans.  It took me many visits and marching through it in a marching band for Mardi Gras to conclude this but now I do.  It’s strange.  It’s old.  It’s spicy.  This movie captured the personality of the city really well and featured everything I love about it: Gumbo, Tabasco, crawfish, beignets (if I can call myself a Southerner, it is 99% in terms of the food), jazz, and old architecture.  Visually it was gorgeous.  Storywise, it was charming.

The reason I’ve always been drawn to the Frog Prince is that I like the fairy tales about ugly things.  You know, there are so many fairy tales about beautiful princesses & princes.  *Yawn*  So naturally, my favorite Disney fairy tale story as a child was Beauty and the Beast.  Disney princes usually have no personality.  The Beast was (and is) my favorite prince by far (arrogant and bitter is still a personality!  Plus, he had that library with shelves that went all the way to the ceiling!)  Well, sadly that wasn’t the case with this Disney prince– you’d think that he’d have to be amazing inside to make up for his warts and slime, but his personality was so blah.  I sort of wished that this Disney princess who was unusually hardworking, practical, intelligent, and ambitious could’ve found someone to be her equal instead of someone who was merely a prince.

I won’t be overly critical though, I still thought it was a great movie that could stand next to the old Disney cartoon classics, and would recommend it!

minnie mouse ears
anna sui dress (when I tried on the dress in a thrift store, I found a tiny fake flower in the pocket, which sealed the deal– well besides that it was 1/10 of its original price and the perfect size)

My mom is back from Texas and tells us she spent every day eating delicious BBQ.