Influential People

This week I read the Time 100 most Influential people and sadly I really didn't know that many of them.  That is just kind of my life though.  It maybe terrible but I'm simple, I can't comprehend or follow all of what is going on in the entire world or daily news.  Unfortunately if it just doesn't interest or directly concern me I find it hard to focus on and pay attention to.  Doesn't mean that I don't think they are important I just didn't know about them.

This rightly got me to thinking about last year and who were the influential people in my life.  I know I won't have a list of 100 I couldn't even think of 100 people who were influential in my entire life.  Let's make it simple and start with just 5.

1. My Niece Hera.  Yes I am starting off with my 6 year old niece because she is intelligent beyond her years and watching that little nugget growing up and learning has impacted my life greatly.  It's made me wonder about that large questions in my upcoming soon to be married life such as, "How will I raise my kids?"  She has also been testing my limits of love and remember the most classic thing my Dad would say to me growing up, "I love you but that doesn't mean I have to like you".

2. Andy. My fiancee.  Well how could he not be such a big influence on me?  We live together and do most all our activities together.  We've been together for over 7 years and now with all the wedding planning we are still learning and growing with each other through this process.  I feel like planning this wedding is going to be similar to how we react and plan for things as a family unit eventually.  He's a trooper in patience and compassion towards my insane and negligent tendencies of things that aren't fun.  He's also pushed me to be a bit more domestic so that our house doesn't resemble my college dorm room.

3. Kilala. That's right I am naming my deceased cat.  In the last of her days she showed me the same unquestionable love that she always did.  She was in pain but even more she was trying to comfort me from feeling bad or sad about her pain.  This little creature had more love in her then most humans that I know.  It was never possible to sit, rest or sleep without her by my side.  She was unquestionably the best cat I've ever had hells best pet and companion ever.  To be chosen and loved by such a creature is an amazing gift.

4. My Dad.  He is a Grumpy old Korean man but a fighter.  He's a survivor of some serious colon cancer and currently battles diabetes and a wonky thyroid gland that has him on all sorts of meds.  He manages to still give me shit about everything with a smile and be as supportive of my upcoming marriage and life choices.  He is an old school in Korean traditional values but isn't embarrassed to tell me how proud he is of where I am in my life.  Through all the hardship in the past few years he has come out a better person and more understanding.  Even in his near 70's he's learning and adapting to the world around him.

5. My Mom. I'm extremely lucky to have two parents both heavily vested into my life.  Some people might think it is a pain but I am thankful.  My mom as always in my life is a wonder woman.  She deals with my Dad's grump daily as well as his whines and new strange dietary requests.  She is also not afraid to continue to be an adventurer and learn new things as well.  She started to happily join this Humana Senoir center and take classes in Card making, Scrapbooking, Zumba, Tai Chi, Square Dancing, among many more things.  On top of all this she is still super mom to me when I am sick or in need of an errand I have no time for myself and The world's Best Grandma to my Niece. 

There are a few other people I can think of that are not related to me but I need to ponder this a little more and make a new post just for them.

Restful Healing

Some people ask me how I can run around and do so many things.  Well it doesn't come without a price.  I get worn down like everyone else and this week has been especially bad.  I've gone and gotten myself sick with something.  I'm slightly hoping it is just the weather at the same time I'm hoping it isn't because I have never been a person held up by allergies. What started out with a little scratchy throat left over from a weekend of bar "talking" exploded into swollen throat, fever, lightheaded and loss of voice by Wednesday morning. No one can do everything all the time. I used this weekend to rest as much as possible.  I missed hanging out with a lot of friends and going to some great events but I needed the rest and kitty love.

Being home all weekend I did get a lot of things accomplished.  We cleaned the house thoroughly, did laundry, cleaned litter boxes.  I finally ironed a bunch of dress shirts, and did adjustments to some clothes I got from the Flea swap weeks ago. I also repaired our grill cover, finished the production sewing project I'd been working on for a client.  I watched a lot of Hulu and Dvd's from the Library.  Hulu Plus on the Xbox 360 is my new favorite thing next to Netflix.  

 Otherwise a reasonably quiet weekend with a lot of couch and bed surfing and oodles of water.

The one Event I managed to Drag my sick butt out to was on Friday,

The Independents Day 2011 Launch Party.  Where I had no idea that Wolf Starr of the SBB would make me get on the stage at Kobo to say anything.  We still are a long ways off but off to a great start hitting this event organization early.  I am once again in charge of the Craft Alley and looking forward to it.  I learned a lot from last year, this year will be much better.

Mark it On your Calenders September 17th, 2011 "THIS IS INDEPENDENTS!"

Wish list

I'm just putting this out there so Andy can find it easily and to show you the kinds of things I'm wishing for my birthday.  I'll break it down into two lists, the plausible and the more wishful thinking list.

Plausible
1. Any bag camera Insert from Photo Jojo
2 .Diana Lens for DSLR camera's from Photo Jojo
3. Street Fighter IV 3DS
4. Le petit Prince T-shirt in a Size Small from Urban outfitters
5. Okamiden DS Game
6. Alexander McQueen : Genius of a Generation Book
7. Knitting Mochi Mochi Book
8. Wide Angel/Macro lens from Photojojo
9. SLR Bokeh Kit
10. A Witch's Tale DS game
11. Compact portable tripod for my DSLR camera
12. Dance Masters for Xbox 360 Kinect
14. Walking foot for my Brother Sewing Machine
15. Gathering foot for my Brother sewing Machine
16. Concealed (invisible) Zipper Foot for my Brother Sewing Machine

Wishful Thinking
1. Fuji Instax Mini Piano Black
2. Brother PE Design Lite Embroidery Software
3.32 row Pleater/smocking machine
4. Sony bloggie Duo
5. Ipad 2
6. New Back Car tires for my Mini  (I ended up having to get them myself)

TiLT

This week I've been a bit under the weather but there have been many good things to keep my spirits up!

 1. My new and first tattoo.  It was a great experience and even better that it was done by a trusted friend.  To read more about it you can go here!

2. Rare Book rooms. The are treasures that most people don't seek out but they should.  Especially if you are interested in the arts or history.  That particular picture I stole from my friend John's Blog post on the State Library of Ohio's Rare Book room.  You can read it here!  The photo is a print from an oversized Edgar Allen Poe book on the poem "The Raven".

3. New sunglasses.  With the warming up of the weather and the sun making daily appearances it was time to get some new oversize shades.  I love how they are very nearly too big for my face.  The bigger the better is what I like in my sunglasses.  It's like I'm channeling my inner Zoe.

4. Finishing up projects.  Nothing feels better then getting some sewing projects done, out of the way and out of the house.  It makes me want to celebrate and imagine my pincushion as party balloons instead of heinous little pricks wanting to snag everything. Not to mention I personally HATE using plastic ball end needles so I'm happy to get those things out of my house as well.  I have had too many incidents with the plastic shattering and me getting stuck with the wrong side of that pin into my fingers or hand.

5. Lastly is making wish lists.  My birthday is only two weeks away so I need to make a wishlist to send to my man.  This is one of my favorite things to do because I can dream and I know that I'll get a few things off of it plus a surprise or two.  He really is good to me and that's another thing that I love.

Nordic Knitting - Book Review

This is another one of my favorite books that I have gotten from Japan.  Another great find on etsy through the seller Pompadour. The cover caught my eye instantly and I knew it would hold oodles of secrets or at the least fun patterns.  It's true these techniques could of all been learned separately or through English language books but I also prefer the clear photos and charts in the Japanese craft books.

To my complete surprise and joy I found that this was marked with not only Japanese text but English as well!  Not the entire book or all the patterns but all of the explanations on the different stitches and forms.

Per usual they had great photos first and then they had several pages of instructions and charts with patterns in the back of the book to correspond with everything you were eye candy staring at before.

I've been working on my own spiral scarf, it is really fun and relaxing more so then knitting anything else lately.  Just watching with each set and the spiral get's longer and longer is very fulfilling. 

My First Tattoo

This weekend I did one of my 30 before 30's it might be the only one that I really accomplished successfully. I got my first tattoo. The mental anxiety leading up to it was more nerve racking them actually getting the tattoo. Days before I had started having different scenario dreams of what the experience would be like and the pain of getting it done.  I'd heard from repeated bee stings to nothing at all. So my dreams ranged from nothing at all to complete excruciating pain.  I knew it wouldn't be the later but that dream still freaked me out a little.  i stayed strong with my resolve for this, thinking it won't be that big so no worries just jump in the deep end like I always do. 

I was getting it done at Fate Tattoo.  My friend Renee (aka Flamestitch) and her husband Jack (or Matt) own it.  Jack is also the man who did my tattoo.  It was a great experience.  Renee knew we would be fast friends with our love of anime/manga and Video games we just never really got a good chance to talk about it.  This was perfect. An hour and half with him someone I completely trusted to do such a meaningful piece on me. 

This is a Photo of the Interior, I would of taken an exterior except that it was pouring rain outside.

 My tattoo is of the classic illustration of the White Rabbit from Alice in Wonderland by John Tenniel.  I knew I wanted the white rabbit since I was in middle school.  The problem was timing.  When I was high school the movie "The Matrix" came out so that sort of ruined the whole white rabbit bit for a while.  Not to mention finding a tattoo artist that I liked well enough and trusted to do such intricate line work. Also whenever I had the money I usually spent it on either shoes or kawaii plushies.  Then when I finally had the maturity and resolve to get this done the new Alice in wonderland movie came out and it was this whole big Alice craze so I didn't want to get it till some of that had died down. 

Personally I feel like the white rabbit is the epitome of my motto "jump into the deep end".  The white rabbit is a thing of curiousness of interest that Alice jumps in the hole after and thank goodness she does for all the grand adventures she gets to witness and have.  I feel like life should be looked at like that.  Go ahead jump do it! If it interests you pursue it if you want to know more the only way you can is to follow it and learn about it.  You won't live from the sidelines but by experiencing it yourself.

This particular illustration of the white rabbit is my favorite and one that I could spend hours gazing at.  It has great lines to it and whimsy.  I feel like the silliness of it overall is a good representation of myself.

First he did a transfer on my arm to check that it was in the right place that I wanted it and that the size what I wanted.  It was a twice as big as I originally intended it but I trust Jack completely.  He's been doing this about 15 years so I know he knows what he is doing.  Also when he explained how with the cross hatching over time it will blend some I completely understood.  My mom will just kill me when she finds out, well to be fair she is going to kill me no matter what kind or size of tattoo I got.

I'd seen documentaries and TV shows on tattoos so I knew what the tools looked like.  The first minute was a little shocking since I was still getting used to the needle but it didn't hurt like those bee stings someone else had told me. It reminded me of maybe a hot knife crossing slowly over the skin, not really painful but not comfortable. Jack put it the best when he said it was like a hot irritation that spreads.  Parts of it actually tickled on me, but then I have a higher threshold for pain then most people.  I was surprised that there was hardly any blood at all also.  For some reason I expected to be dripping some blood out here and there but really there was nothing to talk of.

This was about a quarter way through of the initial outline.

 Here the Full outline is done before he started to work on the cross hatch details and color.

I have to give tattoo artists mad props for being bent over and keeping their own bodies so still and concentrated as they work on these delicate pieces.  I know how tense I get when I am just painting or water coloring something on canvas.  These are people making *cough* lasting impressions on other people.

I love this so much!  I had ideas for some other tattoo's but for now this is enough. I feel like what ever if I ever get another can't just be something cheesy I want it to be just as fabulous and meaningful as this one is.  It will be a very hard one to top.  This was a really good experience and I'm so happy to finally get it done.  It had been a hard a long coming decision especially since I am the kind of person that likes to play chameleon with my clothing, accessories and hair.  This tattoo really signifies me and my true self deep down, curious, adventure driven, and full of whimsy.

TiLT

This week I'm going to flood you with pictures of things I love instead of the usual list of five.  For my list of five I will tell you things that will be happening in my near Future that I am excited about.

1. My first Tattoo.  Saturday is my appointment at 3pm.  We will see what kind of pain I can bear on my wrist and how well I can hide it from my family this Easter Sunday!
2. Making Easter Baskets for my Niece, Nephew and Fiancee (yes he still get's an Easter Basket).  It is one of my favorite things to make all year for my niece and nephew.
3. I'm trading in a cleaning out a lot of old video games, my DSi, & Andy's DS lite for a 3DS!
4. Making a new skirt for myself this weekend with a Yoke waistline.
5. Finalizing the guest list for the wedding.

Enjoy the eye candy