On the night before Botcon...

My vacation officially started this morning! At like...five-fifty this morning, but still. ;3

My sister and I were ecstatic to arrive in sunny San Diego and man is it beautiful. I mean, back home in Houston, you walk outside at your own peril. I mean you could soak your shirt in sweat without doing anything other than walking around the neighborhood.

And here it's so different! It's cool and breezy and the air outside the airport smelled just the slightest bit like salt water. :) It was really cool in every single way possible! And the land! IT MOVES! What is this land undulation that I see before me?! Is the ground broken? Is that why they have so many earthquakes around here? And what are these 'hills' that people keep talking about...

Oh! Oh! Oh! And guess what we just did! Guess! Guess! Guess!

We just got back from watching the Transformers movie (the live action one from 2007) in the hotel rose garden (they have rose gardens! :D And the roses are the size of my face! o.O They're huge!) and five of the Botcon guests were there. Wheeljack and Shockwave's voice actors from Prime, Wally Burr and Jason Jenson from the G1 80's universe, and Glenn Morshower from the live action movies! They were taking pictures with guests before the movie started and it was such a surprise cause I didn't expect to see them there! I asked Sarah if she wanted to take a picture with them, but she was too shy. I wanted to get my picture taken with them though, but I was too nervous to go up and ask. n_n; We both kinda chickened out...

There were some technical problems with the movie, but it turned out to be even more awesome because of it. It started working just fine and people all cheered when Optimus started talking, but then the picture blinked out. :0 We could still hear it though, and my sister told me it almost didn't matter because she knew everything that was going on just from hearing what was going on. ;P I thought it was funny because I was doing the same thing.

Then the picture came back! Yay! Then it immediately disappeared and took the sound with it! Boo!

But then Glenn Morshower got up and said, "I'll just act out the rest for you guys. 'You will land or we will kill you.'"

XD It was great! It was...it was...it was so great I don't even know what it was! XD

The movie itself was awesome too. I know I've seen it a hundred times, but it was so much more fun when all the other people were cheering when their favorite bots appeared on screen, or when they were all reciting the best lines of the movie. Sarah said it was great being surrounded by 'our people'.

I laughed at her and said she was weird. But then I was forced to admit that she had a point, so...go geeky me! And yay for crowds of Transfans! Woohoo! It was fantastic! Let's go again! Let's go again! :D It was better then chocolate!

Well...okay, so it tied with chocolate. n_n;

And tomorrow morning we're going to get to go to the convention itself! YAY! Tomorrow we're going to get more puggle friends and Transformers and autographs and panels! Hooray!!!!

I also think that my lil sis and I may have ridden in an elevator with Steve Blum....but I'll have to get back to you on that. Needless to say, when we realized why the elevator guy may have seemed so familiar, we both freaked out. Made worse by the fact that we're not absolutely sure it even was him in the first place...

Hopefully tomorrow we'll find out! Or at least get the real Starscream's autograph... ;3

It's getting late, so I'll have to put pictures up here a little later. But if you want to get a little taste of Botcon now, you can check out my Twitter feed. I'm so excited about it all that I've been tweeting more today then I have in the past six months....guess I'm not exactly a micro-blogger. n_n;

The Hummingbird Sketch

Day 37 - A sketch I did today. I was putting some photos I got from shutterstock to good use and having some fun with my art pens at the same time. The source photo is down below if you care to compare. Personally I think the bird came out rather well for a freehand try, but the stick?

^-.-^ Mrs. Mittens and I say Blech! to the stick.

.....although I kind of like how you can still see the greens, yellows, and reds I put in there to try and make it not look so flat (I only have the one brown and yellow and it needed something more)....

I've been stocking up on lovely photos from shutterstock when Dad doesn't use up all the downloads on his subscription, looking for ones that I could practice my sketching skills. But most of them, I notice now, require more colors than I have, so maybe I should start thinking about expanding my collection. :)

Of course....that requires money, which is a bit of a problem. I've been looking around for a job, but it's so much more difficult than I had first thought. D<

I have applied for some blogger jobs I found....and I'm so nervous I won't get it! The two I really want stop accepting applications today, so hopefully tomorrow or early next week I'll get a phone call. I want it so bad! If only because I have no idea what else to do if I don't get it.... u.u; I'm trying to save up so my sister and I can go to Botcon this summer and I still need a couple hundred dollars.

So, yeah...I'm crossing my fingers and praying real hard, but right now the only thing to do is wait and see. I have a possible plan B with maybe trying to sell some resin necklaces with little collages or Transformers or Disney things inside....My sis and I are going to hobby lobby today because she wants some fabric to make a Prowl pack for the convention (She wants it to look like she has doorwings. It sounds so cute and nerdy!) so I thought I'd look around to see how much the settings cost. I dunno. Maybe it'll work. Maybe I'll be fortunate enough to find some kind of paycheck before the end of the month....I don't know.

*Sigh* Well. At least my little hummingbird looks decent. I'm rather fond of him. Although I wonder if maybe I didn't over correct with the colors when I was cleaning up the scanned version...oops. n_n;

Which is fill with one happy thing and several sad...

I am a bad author. I'm sorry readers, but at this moment I am. I promised I'd get up the next chapter of my online Transformers story Friday or Saturday but...yeah, didn't happen.

Friday was an interesting day (and not in a good way). Saturday was just busy. And Sunday I was just tired. :(

Sorry.

....sorry sorry....

Sorry  And I should really stop apologizing shouldn't I?

Anyway. My lil sister set up a bake sale this last Saturday. It was just her and her friend running the little table, but they had three different kinds of cookies, two kinds of cupcakes, apple pie wraps, and lemonade. And all of the sweets were homemade. All of them. Even the apple pie filling!

O.O I still can't believe it actually. It all tasted so good!

And she made $41 total! In one day. She's saving up money so we can go to Botcon this summer in San Diego. I'm so amazed and proud that she did all that in one day, but I'm also sad because it means my 12 year old sister is doing better at saving up money than I am.

I just don't know what to do with myself ya know? I mean, I've never thought about life after college. Not in any specifics anyway. It was like graduation was the unreachable dream. Something you keep striving for for years but in the back of your mind you secretly think it'll never actually come to pass.

So life after college is...empty. All the jobs I come across all want things like 'certain type of degree I don't have' or '3-5 years experience in our particular  field' and pretty much a dozen other things that I don't have. So what the heck am I supposed to do? All I want to do is go to Botcon! T.T

Dang. I've made myself sad....sorry. Help? What do writer-wannabees and artists actually do once they're released out into the world? o.O They go mad! That's what they do! Mad and cause trouble and die before they're thirty.

^-.-^ Mrs. Mittens is telling me to stop lolling about in self-pity and go do something useful...

The Long Road Home Excerpt

So this is has to do with my Transformers fanfiction called The Long Road Home. I haven’t updated in forever so this is to let all my readers know that I haven’t fallen off the story or anything and that I have been writing these last three months.

So, if any of you out there are interested in really cool (if I do say so myself) Transformers stories, then feel free to drop by my Fanfiction.net profile. The link is the middle circle at the top left of the page. Just hold your mouse over the circle with the two stars you see up there and click the very center. If you hold your mouse over that it should say something like ‘My Writing’. Hope I sucker some of you in. :) I always enjoy hearing from new readers. <3

The Church Garden

First block in of my church garden painting

Day 31-35 : Yay! With this set of pictures I have finally cleared the month of December in my picture a year quest. To bad it's March....

Anway, I‘m making a couple of paintings for my church for Easter Sunday and yesterday I finally got started. :)

I WON I WON I WON!

Just won 2nd place in an essay contest! THERE ARE NO WORDS FOR MY EXCITEMENTATED-LIKE FEELINGS!

XD - EMOTICONS FAIL TO CAPTURE MY JOY!

YES I AM AWARE I AM SHOUTING, JUST TOO GIDDY TO CARE! x3

For Those That Feel Hopeless....

...For those that feel hopeless...

...

He is so tired. Day by day, hour by hour, the ring grows heavier. She knows each step he takes brings her closer to her deathbed and so she fills his heart with a sorrow so heavy that it now drags him down to the broken ground. His heart aches in his chest from the weight of it and his voice rasps quietly against the shattered white stones as he realizes something.

"I can't do this, Sam."

Across from him, also taking shelter from the Winged Nazgul amid  the white stones, Sam looks up. He knows what Frodo means.

"I know." He tells him, sounding as if he might finally break down and cry. "It's all wrong. By rights we shouldn't even be here."

Only there is no use wishing they were somewhere else now, he realizes, and crying will help even less than wishing.

"But we are." He says in a stronger voice. "It's like in the great stories, Mr. Frodo. The ones that really mattered. Full of darkness and danger, they were. And sometimes you didn't want to know the end. Because how could the end be happy? How could the world go back to the way it was when so much bad had happened?"

Frodo has been wondering the same thing and he hopes that Sam has an answer, because he cannot see the way out anymore. All that remains now is the weight of the ring where she rests, deceptively small, against his chest. He cannot even remember the Shire anymore...

But Sam doesn't know any of this, for which Frodo is glad. Otherwise, he may have stopped speaking right there, with that question hanging between them like an axe.

"But in the end, it's only a passing thing, this shadow." Sam tells him in voice filled with hope. "Even darkness must pass. A new day will come. And when the sun shines it will shine out the clearer. Those were the stories that stayed with you. That meant something, even if you were too small to understand why. But I think, Mr. Frodo, I do understand. I know now. Folk in those stories had lots of chances of turning back, only they didn't. They kept going. Because they were holding on to something."

Frodo's not sure if he believes his friend, but he has to know the answer. He has to hear what they're supposed to be holding onto. He had a feeling he knew what it was before, but now he cannot remember what it is...

It is all he can do to speak and even then his voice is weary and threadbare.

"What are we holding onto, Sam?"

Sam doesn't tell him right away. Instead he leans over and grabs Frodo under his arm and helps pull him back up to his feet. He steadies him when Frodo threatens to fall with the weight of the ring and he does not let go of his shoulder as he answers, blue eyes very bright.

"That there's some good in this world, Mr. Frodo... and it's worth fighting for.”

...

E. Aster Bunnymund's Warren

Day 26 - So the day that was supposed to be the day after Christmas isn't too soon to post something Easter related is it? ;3

As you may or may not have been able to tell from the title, this is the home of one E. Aster Bunnymund. But you probably know him better as the Easter Bunny. :3 He just made his newest debut in Rise of the Guardians, but it turns out that a series of books came out first (I don't know why I'm surprised since pretty much everything is based off of books nowadays. I'm not complaining exactly, just wondering why I'm surprised.)

Christmas Flashback

Day 25 - Okay, so it took me forever to put up this next picture because if I had kept up with a picture a day thing then Day 25 should have been Christmas Day. Only, ya know, I fell a month behind. xP Blah...

Anyway, this is my younger sister and I after she opened up my present to her. Now I am rather pleased with it (because let's face it, it's awesome) but I made her a Jazz scarf.

Jazz scarf!

Not jazz as in music see, but Jazz as in the Autobot Jazz! She and I are both huge TF fans so when I got this idea (about only a week before Christmas I swear) I just had to make it for her. I was originally going to buy her one off of etsy, but like I said it was only about a week before the big day, maybe not even that... o.O

But I found this plain colored cream scarf that was super duper long (a requirement that Sis put out there) and it was really nice and soft (Bonus!) and I sewed on a big blue plain of fabric, then a red ribbon-stripe, and with a white number four on top. It's really cool! And she loved it so much! xD Yay! I think that'll be what I remember most about this Christmas.

Well, that and the power went out. That was fun....

And my Sis lo~oved it. She oh so lo~oved it! Oh yeah she lo~oved it! *Keeps on dancing in seat*

Yay! And now that I have posted my favorite moment from Christmas, I feel emotionally free to move on and post other, not-Christmasy pictures.

Well...maybe not-Christmasy pictures....just saying...

I Want To See It Again!

I am of the firm belief that stories are important to people. They influence the choices we make, how we chose to live as human beings. They can show us a new way to look at the world around us or they can reinforce what we believe already. No matter what form we hear them as -- books, movies, or oral tales told around the Thanksgiving table -- they influence us. They are important.

The most recent story that reminded me of this was a movie I saw the other day with my Dad and my sister. It was Rise of the Guardians, one of the newest Dreamworks films for last year. Now personally, I think Dreamworks have been doing a stellar job, both in their well known animation style and their storytelling, and Rise of the Guardians did not disappoint.



So I felt going into the theater that I would like the movie. I'd been itching to see it since it came out, but the timing was always wrong or no one else was in the mode to see it with me. And really, what's the point of going to a movie if you can't enjoy it with someone else?

Highland Castle

Day 23 - Wow, so I really dropped the ball this time. It's been so long since I posted a photo that I forgot what day I was on and had to look at my blog to get it right. n_n;

Anyway, so Christmas was fantastic, New Year's involved diet root beer (yay! I don't drink full-sugared sodas because I'm a type I diabetic and they're just not worth the amount of carbs) so all in all things have been wonderful these past few weeks. I'm sad Christmas is over though, but I'm so backed up on my Christmas fictions that I think I'll recover once I get 'em all sorted out.

So my brother is amazing! He got me these awesome art pens for Christmas and they. are. Awesome! I mean I love them sooooo much! (Thanks again bro! Thankyouthankyouthankyouthankyou!!!! :D) I just wanted some black pens in different nib sizes. And not only did he get me those, he got me some colored pens too! <3 And I love them!

This makes me feel super bad because I forgot to get him something. o.O I swear I didn't know what to get! He and Dad are ridiculously difficult to shop for. I thought he wanted some new headphones, but then Mom told me that he asked for a headset instead for his computer (and they told me those are expensive...) but then Christmas afternoon when I told him I was sorry because I didn't have anything for him that he did need some new headphones.

^-.-^ "Of course..." thinks I.

Anyway, so I've been playing with my new pens and this is one of my little sketches. I like how it came out (except that tree-monster! I hate that tree-monster! Dx). That bottom stretch of grass with the small rocks is my very favorite. It just looks perfect! :3

So...yeah. My brain has just crashed. I'm going to try and catch up on my photo-a-day quest, and there will probably be a handful more Christmas photos to make up for those days before Christmas that I didn't post. Just to let you know.

Hope you had a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! :)

One Way Over-Saturated Pussy Cat :)

Bonus Picture! :) This is the same photo I put up the other day of Sokka lounging under the tree (really he was hiding from my sister so he wouldn't have to go to bed. Mom swears he's like a two year old. But then I guess that's fair since I think he is actually two now...) But unlike the other day this one is oversaturated and awesome because of it! :P I was fixing up the photo for the other day when I accidentally put the saturation to 100% and I thought it looked cool with all the bright, ridiculous colors. So I kept it. :)

Look! He's got a cupcake! :D

Day 21 - Was going to post this last night, but upload was taking forever. So I put it off til today. I saw this (strange) guy at Hobby Lobby when I was shopping for Christmas gift components and I thought he was...well....

Weird.

So I present you with weird Santa man. Look! He's giving you a cupcake! :D

...no I realize that makes him no less weird....

Now I must go get my Mom's Christmas present. So long folks! :)

Q is for Quiet...but not right now

Day 19 - Another picture of our tree after I played around with it in the photo manipulator program that came on my (new) computer. x3 I rather liked the angle of this shot along with how the ornaments were placed. And then I just messed around with the vigenette (whatever that may be...) to see what it did. I haven't posted a largely light photo before.

Alright, so two things that are bugging me right now:

1.) I was just skimming the episode list on wiki for Young Justice. I was trying not to actually read them because I only just finished the first season (in two days :p) so I'm still rather confused by the five year time skip. And what the heck happened to half the team from the first season?!?!?

So that was why I was 'skimming'. Actually, I was using the find command to look for Aqualad, Artemis, and Wally's names to see how long I would have to wait until I found out what happened to them in the last five years that to us viewers equals about, oh....ten minutes. ^-.-^

And then what do my eyes abruptly, forcibly, just latch on to? That Aqualad is evil?!?!? That Artemis dies?!???? Are you freaking kidding me?!??!?!?! Aghhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!! *continue frustrated scream...*

Ahem...alright, so I may be suffering from sudden cartoon-related frustration. But why is it that writers feel the need to corrupt and kill characters after they went through so much trouble to ensure that we liked them?!

Now to be fair, I can't exactly say I am innocent of causing this frustration. I am almost constantly writing. Or thinking about writing. Or ironing out stories and characters in my head. And I have killed characters before. Not because I hate them, or suddenly find them useless, but because I am trying not to let my innate desire for everything to turn out peachy keen override the inescapable fact that not everything that happens is 'good'. What can I say? I have a problem dealing with the wrongness found in the world.

But still. Writers killing characters they made us love rankles me as a viewer/reader. I don't like it. To be blunt-

It bugs me. }:(

Agh! And then I am faced with the internal dilemma of 'Do I keep watching this show despite knowing that something horrifying is about to happen?' or 'Forget this, I'm going to find something that won't make me feel like all people are heartless monsters'.

....*insert more frustrated grumblings here*

Well, I have no answers (and my very silly Dad and Mom have made me laugh so hard that I think I drooled a little on the blanket...) so moving on to numero 2) I have not been able to write anything substantial ever since I got this new computer, so almost a full week. And I know it doesn't sound that long to you, but a full week without any really focused writing is enough to drive me a little bit loco. So...that may also be feeding into my high annoyance at the whole heros-going-inexplicably-crazy thing. Everything seems ten times more annoying/horrible when I can't write...

......okay, so, I feel a little bit better. Although I think Dad's ability to pull strange and random faux-truths out of thin air regarding Aqualad helped in that regard. That and his truly terrible Woody Woodpecker laugh. I swear it sounded like the Penguin trying to laugh like Woody. And not a Penguin from a well-done Batman movie. I mean Adam West Penguin. It was great. :)

Graduation Day!!!! :D

Day 15 - Graduation Day!!! HOORAY!!!!!!! :D I had no idea I would be this happy to graduate. I mean none. I was so nervous, especially about what comes next, but as soon as we stared filing into the theater it suddenly struck me that this was it. This was the day that most of me thought would never actually get here. You know how you have those goals that you're always actively working towards, but you just work at for so dang long, that you begin to think that you'll never actually make it? It was sort of like that.

People kept asking me what I was planning next and I would just look at them and go, "This was the plan. What do you mean what comes next?" n_n;

Anyway, yay for me! :D And we had a party afterwards with the family. Since it was a winter graduation I was afraid that no one would be able to make it, but in the end we had to ask for more seats at the restaurant. ;p

And I got a new computer!!! :DDDDDDDDD YIPPEEEEEEE!!!!!!

I can't tell you how excited I am about that, I really can't! But it was also so much fun just to sit and talk with all the grandparents and aunts and uncles and cousins I never get to see. :) I really loved that part too. I kinda just want to go back in time and sit there some more and soak up that feeling of love and togetherness. <3

And now I have run out of coherent words. I'm sure more will slap me upside the head later on, but for now....Yay! :)

Mini-Grimmy Ascared! Dx

Day 14 - So this is actually yesterday's post, but my computer crashed on me and I had to get up obscenely earlier, so I didn't reboot it til now. Last night was the eve before Graduation. My graduation to be exact. And yes, this is how I felt. I was terrified.

Of course, now that I've actually graduated (o.O) I'm so excited I don't know what to do with myself, so this picture doesn't fit as well as it did last night. I'll have to post an exciting graduation photo to even it out. n_n

This is Mini-Grimmy, providing me an immense help by hiding under a table that's too small for her and staring in horror at a diploma, a graduation cap, and some textbooks in abject horror...

No, I am not kidding. Graduation to me pretty much equals the thought that the world is ending. It was just one of those things that I've been working towards for so long that a part of me didn't think the day would actually come. And when it did I didn't know what to do. So yeah.

Rose

P.S. - It was great though! I got to wear a pretty dress and walk across stage after hearing my name to get my diploma and my hood. I even graduated Magna Cum Laude! o.O Did not expect that. Although no one else in my family seems surprised....

O Christmas Tree! O Christmas Tree!

Day 10 - At least it should have been day 10. I got behind, as I'm sure those who dropped by these past few (x3 people looked! Yay!) found out. The above picture is something else I did. A Christmas Tree (in case you couldn't tell alreay...) It's sorta of mostly done because I'm using it as an another fanfiction cover, but now that I look at it I think it needs glitter. :) Yep. Definitely needs some glitter on it. I'll have to shiny it up tomorrow. :)

And just a note, I'm so very pleased/proud of you all! My last post had the most hits so far since I started this venture! o.O Cool! And here I was afraid no one would really like my personal work. n_n;

I need three more pictures to be all caught up. I took a few more yesterday and today and then I have a watercolor sketch I want to put it to see how it looks online. So I think I'll get another one or two up tonight, and then I guess the rest tomorrow. Although, tomorrow's going to be kinda busy... :(

Muddling Through Cover - Unfiished

Day 9 - I took some photos today, but I didn't like them. So instead I went and found this. It's an unfinished painting of mine that I'm using as a cover to a fanfiction of mine called Muddling Through. (Found Here if you're interested) I've worked on it some more since I took this photo, but I haven't had a chance to update it yet. The young woman is named Aria and yes, I know she still looks a little off, even though it took me forever just to get her looking this...human... n_n;

She's listening to Judy Garland's version of Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas. Which, incidentally, is the first recorded version of that song ever made. She sang it for her movie Meet Me In Saint Louie. I like it best because the last few lines of the song are different from the version you hear most of the time. It ends:

"Someday soon, we all will be together. If the fates allow. Until then we'll have to muddle through somehow. So have yourself a merry little Christmas now."

Hence the title of my story. :) Anyway, that's my favorite rendition. I like the detail the full size of the photo has so I'm going to post that next to save on room. :)

Merry Preemptive Christmas! :3

Prime's Ice Cream

Even Primes like ice cream. :P

Just an older snapshot I found from when my sister and I took the kreons to dinner. ;) I took quite a few pictures that night and I keep planning to string them together into a strange kind of story, but so far it hasn't happened yet. I still want to do it, so I think it'll get done, with 'eventually' being the imperative word there.

Out of all of the old pictures I found this one just made me the happiest. He looks like he's really about to dive in. And given his kreon size, he probably could....

Good night for real this time.

The (not so little or tin) Solider

Day...5? I think....

Anyway, I went to the park today and painted for awhile. I started working on a painting of this cute little nutcracker ornament I have (not shown above) in my new watercolor sketchbook. He's looking pretty good if I do say so myself. Hopefully I'll either get him finished tomorrow or Friday, depending on when I can get to school. I saw they had these art pens in the bookstore (not just any black ink pens; black ink pens with waterproof Indian ink I believe! :) Yay! So much easier then me using my fancy calligraphy pen and an inkwell!) and I want to try 'em so bad! That and the school got in some nice looking linoleum too. Sweet! x)

I also have to go get my remaining graduation announcements and my cap and gown came in, so I need to get up there anyway. I'm hoping to use the school studio a few more times before I graduate too, since no one's in them anyway and I have to go up a few more days for graduation stuffs, so I might as well take advantage of the free space while I can. :) The studios share a building with professor/academic offices, so the building's already open, and they keep the large studios unlocked, so I don't feel like I'm abusing the system. Very much anyway... n_n;

I kid, I kid. Anyway, thank you for the nine hits yesterday! This may sound somewhat sad, but that was a nice big spike for me and I enjoyed it! I guess the message is clear. The Internet Audience is looking for Christmas pictures now. Guess I'd better look for some more interesting ones. :)

Have a good nights peeps! Lol, I can't believe I just said that. X3