ReginaCon2011

Once upon a time, a young girl read several good books of fairytales in the real world. She loved these stories so much that, on one fateful day, she joined a group of other "princes and princesses in disguise." There, she made many friends and became practiced in the arts of glomping, throwing glitterwaterballoons, and fighting off the dragons of the real world.

As the years passed by, the young girl found many friends through this group. She spent hours (perhaps too many), writing tales with these fellow crazy people. Deep discussions were always within reach, and cheerful goofiness was always nearby. Her new friends became good friends as time went on.

Some of the amazing girls at the ReginaCon

With their support, she started many new projects. She embarked on exciting journeys as an artist.

"Elena" and I-- Elena administrates the forum, started I&F, and is a simply amazing girl.

Her friends were with her as she became proficient in several crafts, and were always there with new suggestions and plenty of insanity.

...not to mention evil plots!

However, the girl was sad, for in all this time, she had never once met one of these amazing people. She knew them only through the magic of her handheld enchanted mirror...

...but that was all to change.

My first airplane ride

One muggy summer day, she stepped onto a magic carpet with her mother and was flown to a land far, far away. There, a great festival was taking place. Called ReginaCon (and otherwise known as the Fairytale Novel Fan Festival), it was a gathering of many of her friends. She got to meet them in real life, although it felt more like a fairytale than anything!

Fairytale Fans-- all dressed up for the Murder Mystery

Of course, the girl brought all of her books with her, and had the creator of the stories write her name in them.

Author Regina Doman and I.

In addition to meeting her wonderful friends and listening to several thrilling speeches by the storyteller, the girl had the opportunity to attend the premiering of the story upon a magical screen the size of a giant.

Excitedly entering the theatre

The feeling of being inside of a fairytale was even more potent then, for she came face-to-face with the characters she loved... or at least, the magicians who brought the characters to life.

On the "red carpet"-- Elena and the actresses who played Rose and Blanche Brier

The girl enjoyed herself very much and thanked her Lord for the gift of these friends.

Trivia before the talent show.

On the very last day in the magical land, she danced the night away...

At the swing dance-- photo credit to Q

She was very sad to leave.

The Mall of America

Yet despite the bittersweetness of the farewells, the girl knew that she would always remember these friends.

The car ride to the airport

To this day, and forevermore, she smiles at the memories.

(This long tale chronicles the story of where I was during my online absence! 

Below is a slideshow put together by Therese-- none of the photos in the video are mine, since I was unable to download my pictures when the computer was broken. Forum peeps, I have my own pictures uploaded now, just email me and I'll send the link.)

Hats!

I made these a loooong time ago... as in over a year or two ago. :) I just realized I'd never shared them on the blog!

They are all crocheted by me. I grabbed my lil sis Adelynn to help as a model. Enjoy!

This one is my favorite-- I wear it all the time!

Zita the Cutest Little Hero

The above picture is a quickie sketch from my sketchbook, featuring the characters from Zita the Spacegirl.

I normally don't do book reviews and the like on this blog... but Zita was the first graphic novel/comic book I've ever read, and I think it deserves special attention! :)

(I know, I know. I'm 16 and just now reading my first graphic novel?! Blame it on being a bookworm in a very bookwormish family-- and having no idea where comic books are in the library.)

We get many Catholic publications, and Ben Hatke's art kept popping up. Then I disovered that he illustrated a book for his neighbor-- who just so happens to be one of my all-time favorite authors, Regina Doman. I really liked his cheerful style, so I Googled him and for the past year have been following his blog.

Oh yeah, when I heard that he is a fellow unicyclist... there was no way I was not following his blog. (He also does other crazy things like fire-breathing and juggling, which I totally need to learn).



On his blog, Mr. Hatke called this picture "Stargazing." Funny side note: I cracked up laughing because at our Taekwando classes, Stargazing is what you get to do if your team wins a game (like Form races). The winners get to lay and "look at the stars" while the losers have to do push up and all sorts of other creative tortures.



Back to Zita...

It's a sweet little story, if slightly cliche in a lovable sense of the word (yes, Zita gets sucked into a portal and is stuck on a planet that is about to be hit by an asteroid, and all the while she is on a mission to save her friend from aliens). However, the characters are very memorable. Aside from spunky Zita, my favorite character has got to be Mouse.

He "talks" by shooting little peices of paper out of a small device around his neck.

Side note: Zita is based off of Mr. Hatke's little girl. Isn't that sweet?

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Ben Hatke's work has always been inspirational for me. I love it when we get new books or publications (like "Once Upon a Time Saints" or "Gilbert Magazine"), and I recognize his art! He's got a great style. I'm going off on a tangent now, but I really, really want to know his secret to drawing such a specific style, so that I can automatically reconize something as his art.

I can never seem to get a specific style. :P I'm like a chameleon artist.

Latest page from my sketchbook, lots of random sketches in pen

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Well, that's all for now, peeps! Thanks for being patient while our computer is non-functioning. Art, jewelry, crafts, tutorials, and photography will be coming... someday soon. :)

Storage Tip-- Tackle Boxes

Until the computer (and my files) are working, I'm going to share some shorter posts (with unedited pictures and everything). No tutorials or good photography yet... just some of my most recent tips, tricks, and little projects!

 

Beads.

 

They are so hard to store! The little things never want to be sorted or organized (or even get found when dropped on the floor). I buy beads in small amounts, and it is difficult to find containers to keep these little beads marching in order.

 

Craft stores have plastic containers with dividers, which are great for organizing beads and other little odds and ends. But $10+ for a plastic box? I don't think so.

 

My mom used to do some cross stitching, and she had two old plastic boxes that she kept embroidery thread in. I put the thread into a Ziplock baggie and put those boxes to good work. However, the "cubbies" were deep enough and the dividers far enough apart that the box was only good for the beads and jewelry findings that I had alot of. Sets of 100 little beads still had no storage, and there were no options for other sizes or types. Even so... I filled up the two boxes and needed more.

 

But I was not spending $20 on a little plastic thing.

 

 

Later that week, Dad stopped by the fishing aisle during a Walmart shopping trip.  That is when I saw them.

 

Tackle boxes.

 

Glorious little boxes, of all sizes. Big cubbies, little cubbies, super tiny tiny deviders. Huge boxes, miniscule boxes... Wonderfully sturdy plastic boxes. And all were HALF the price of the containers in the craft stores. (Half price, or sometimes even less).

These tackle boxes are great for many other things, too! Here's some ideas:

• tackle (obviously)
• sewing notions
• random craft knicknacks (come on, we all have a bunch!)
• jewelry (one of my friends uses these to organize her rather extensive collection of jewelry)
• small office supplies (think cap erasers, pencil lead, paper clips...)
• ...and basically any collection of small items!

 

The picture above shows one of the re-purposed embroidery thread boxes (bottom), and a tackle box (on top).

 

I love the little tackle box. It opens on both top and bottom (double sided) and has small, shallow (and adjustable) cubbies-- perfect for organizing my ever-growing collection of small sets of Czech glass beads. It is much, much sturdier than the "craft organizing box"-- and it was THREE BUCKS. Three bucks!

 

I also saw this:

 

$35 for a big giant tackle box, that includes about 8 little plastic cubby-boxes and even more compartments throughout it. If only I could justify spending $35! It really was very tempting, but I have a craft room with plenty of space to store supplies. This box would be perfect for someone who needs to maximize space.

 

So maybe when I go off to college...?

The Case of the Exploding Computer

The title might be a wee bit misleading. Our computer didn't explode.

(I know, you're thinking, "Oh, maaaaan!")

But for all that you've seen of me here on the blog... it might has well have gone up in a giant ball of fire and smoke!



No explosions occured, but we have had some major problems with the computer. Read: my software.

I use Dad's hard-core, 64-bit, two-moniter monster of a computer. He used to work from home and design car parts on it. However, once we installed Adobe Creative Suite (CS5-- the most amazing programs ever), things started to go downhill. You'd swear the software was the evil twin of my teenage brothers: it has a huge appetite. Space kept disapearing and the computer started to slow down considerably. We cleaned out the Recycle/Trash (renamed Azkaban by yours truly). I moved all of my files onto a plug-in storage harddrive. We deleted the large amount of TMP files hidden under App Data. We did everything we could think of...

All to no avail. The long story made short is that Dad and I did everything we could to clean up the computer, and Dad has come to the conclusion that we need to replace our harddrive. That might be a bit of an expensive and time-consuming ordeal, and unfortunately Dad does not have the time at the moment. His new job is very demanding this month.

Well, the computer's slow, but can't you still use it? Nope! At first, things were just slow, but then software starting crashing halfways through saving files, and various other problems. During our attempts at computer CPR, we accidently messed up some of the Adobe files, and now none of those programs will even open. Dad uninstalled many other programs, including Norton.

No photo editing... no graphics... and no using the Internet. I can still go online on our laptop (you didn't think I was typing all of this on the iPod, did you?), but I can't access any of my software or files, and can't edit new photos on this computer.

Blog posts will continue to be few and spread apart (as they have been for the past two or three months that the computer has been acting up). Our family has been very busy lately, and Dad simply hasn't had the time to replace the harddrive. I don't know when I'll be able to get back to doing all of my online work (and I've been planning new graphics for the Blog and Shoppe and for Ink and Fairydust, in addition to wanting to learn to build cool websites).

Until then... you will have to be content with some measley little posts. :) I haven't been lazy, though-- once everything is back to working condition, I will have new jewelry to upload to the Shoppe, about 10 projects to write tutorials for, tons of artwork to share, some updated graphics...