So, up until about a year and a half ago, most of my wardrobe consisted of my five-year-older cousin's hand-me-downs. Her style at my age and mine didn't really match, but there were inevitably a few cute pieces.

I was getting ready to Goodwill (officially a verb!) some of that said hand-me-down wardrobe, when I came across an old tank top I liked but had found a little plain. I left it aside until, months later, I came across this shirt on the handy dandy World Wide Web.

http://www.pcrdist.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Product_Code=SHIRT-TOTORO&Category_Code=japanese-t-shirts

Bingo! I drooled for a while 'cause I love My Neighbour Totoro (even if I fell asleep all three times I watched it  ) and decided I wanted my own. There is a stencil on the page, but I didn't use it and made my own version instead.

Recognize this face?


The top:


Closeup of the pocket with my Ghibli Museum pin:


The classic obligatory actionless action shot!


The shirt was a marvelous hit over at school. About ten people recognized Totoro (YES! Miyazaki WILL reign over all the earth), NO ONE realized it was hand-painted, and two people requested their own! It was about a five-hour job total so I'm not sure if I really want to repeat the process, but I'm pleased with all the positive feedback all the same.

Thanks for sludging through all that text and imagery!

UPDAAAAAAAATE!

You can't handle the heat that is... even more Totoro!


Oh my gee the superkawaiiness!


And here an extremely unnecessary shot of me having spilled icky paint water on the top, setting it aside, and realizing cheshire-Totoro had the funniest. expression. evar. It also kind of lets you see what the top looks like as a whole now. And yes, that's a copy of 'How to Be a Pokemon Master' off to the side. I haven't read it in two years back in my brother's and my four-year-long Pokemon game phase, but I love it anyway.


Moral: don't paint on your carpet when you have your own millipede-infested art studio in the basement. (Agh... millipedes... fetal position...)

UPDATE AGAIN!

Clearly I don't know when to stop. I decided the back looked very lonely, so...




Nine's a symbolic number in my life at the moment, and is also the number of photos in this post. Does this mean something?

God: *shifty eyes*

The title says it all.  Done in October/November for school, for the Royal Legion poster contest. Mine didn't make it past the in-school round, but it got an A and I'm happy.

The poster:


Close-up:


Closer close-up:


The message is meant to be that the shadow of war is hope, as shown by the dove. The red on the sides signifies the Canadian flag.

The lovechild of a popsicle stick and four toothpicks 
Held together by Elmer's Glue and a whole lotta tiny-sized love.







And for size reference:

For my stepdad's birthday I added quotes to photos from a family trip to Toronto Botanical Gardens (<3), which are meant to be framed in the house with our billions of other family photos. Featured in the photos are my stepdad, mom, brother and myself. These were taken over a year ago.

'Reach the Shore'

'Help your brother's boat across and your own will reach the shore. - Hindu proverb'

'Exploration'

'We shall not cease from exploration
And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where started
And know the place for the first time. - T. S. Eliot'

'Crooked Path'

'Love straightens the crooked path. - Maya Angelou'

'One Journey'

'There are many paths... but only one journey. - Naomi Judd'

'Hands and Feet'

'Brothers and sisters... are as close as hands and feet. - Vietnamese proverb'

These are rough drafts from screenshots, which explains the pesky Microsoft Word grammar-check underlining and pixelly fonts.

My leetle cousins were begging to have some to take home 

Morning Rose, pantsless  , modelling her pajama top hand-sewn from clearance-bin fabric bought just for this purpose.

Oh em gee working buttons!


Note the little heart pocket  :


I made her shorts to go with it, which fell apart instantly  .

Morning Rose herself was a handmade gift from my nanny in third grade. You can see the stuffing spilling from her left wrist.

I'm having an affair with willow charcoal. These are my first two projects - and my third and fourth time - using it. The first is from December, the second was finished in February. For the second, I first painted the paper with acrylics.





Enjoy!

Many months ago, back when it was still hot enough for scientists to claim the existence of 'global warming' (a.k.a. September), our neighbours had this lying on their curb, where they usually have the trash out*. It's in working condition but the speedometer is broken. I assume it was up for grabs and so hauled it into the basement, where I can be found in times of frustration, pedalling away.



Anyway, while the bike is plenty sexy as it is, I want to give it a little class and charm. Any ideas?

* Yes, I admit to occasionally pilfering from my neighbours' bins on trash collection day, and not always logically. I once took home a broken chair that I figured could be reconned as a stool, until I realized that part was broken, too, and the neighbours had possibly spotted an adolescent girl carrying a schoolbag rooting through their garbage at 8 AM... for absolutely nothing. Dangit.

My mother made me throw the bottles out  but I kept all the pretty metal caps. I love the fortunes on the inside! But what to do, what to do?

It's actually been ripped in half, so I have a top portion and a bottom portion, which I can't seal back together in any way.