Kina's Blog

Yeah, still going

January 25th, 2012

I got myself a Kindle Touch with 3G! I saved up for about half a year for it, putting all of my shop sales towards it. I’m so excited *_* Now.. to save up my money again so I can buy a case, the power adapter, and screen protector.. and oh yeah.. BOOKS. Oh, accessories. Funny how after a protection plan and all the accessories, the actual item itself isn’t even what costs the most! At least there are a lot of free books out there, like from Gutenberg.com. I am still reading other ‘real’ books right now so i’ll have to wait a bit before I download any.

It will totally be worth it though, I travel on the plane so often and I hate having to lug around books that I’m reading. And I love to read more than one at a time, so it gets heavy. Definitely looking forward to getting tons of use out of this thing.

I’m totally still all for real books though, especially for my favourites. I’d like to own books that are classics that I read over and over and who’s artwork I love. Such as the Harry Potter series, I’d love to sit and read them to my kids one day!

And that is all for me for now. *squee*

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New Year’s Resolutions

January 4th, 2012

I was going to make 10 resolutions but I think 5 should be enough. I tend to be a little over ambitious with these things..

1. Exercise once a day, but 3 times a week the exercise should be cardio/workoutish, the other days can be walking or yoga.
2. Return to pre-pregnancy weight by the end of the year by eating better and sticking to resolution #1
3. Finish all owed commissioned works and make more art for me!
4. Get a job by September
5. Gifts for others! I always seem to forget birthdays.. I want to remember them and make things for close friends and family who always seem to spoil me around my birthdays and special days

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Pumpkin Cookies and Black Bean Burgers

January 3rd, 2012

Tasties for Tuesday!

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Monday: Pasta and Garlic Tomato Basil Sauce

January 3rd, 2012

Nom nom nom. A success! I kind of made the sauce from scratch without a recipe. My cousin made this a while ago but mine didn’t really turn out like hers did. Though hers was way better, this one turned out pretty tasty, too.

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A New Year of Lists

January 2nd, 2012

Merry belated Christmas and Happy New Year! I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday and if you’re still on it, enjoy it while it lasts! This year I got tons of fun stuff from my family and some things for myself, too! Brad and I bought an XBox 360 with the Kinect for the house. Sort of a gift to and for each other and for the kids when they learn to use it someday.

I bought this for myself, for my yearly journal writing. I have been keeping a daily journal for the past 8 years or so, and I plan to do so for as long as I can. It’s sort of a tradition that my mom started and that I hope someday my kids will too! This year I got something fancy; a Moleskine soft cover leather diary/journal/planner. It’s perfect for what I need it for. I also got some cardboard mini journals as a supplement if I ever want to write a little more than one page for days where more eventful things occur.

As for gifts from family, I got a wicked Tilley Hat and some Ikea frosted glass canisters for my kitchen which I have been wanting to get for a long time now. I can’t wait until the summer when I can wear my hat to camp! As for the canisters, they are being washed right now and then I will be filling them with tasty things like flour and brown sugar and oats.

Now we’re back home after a fun visit with my family for Christmas and New Year’s. I didn’t accomplish everything I wanted to while we were away (such as finishing up a knitted vest for Mom and finishing the books I was reading (The Essential C.S. Lewis and Wuthering Heights) but holidays are of course for relaxing. Though I do those two things as a way to relax.. but whatever. I didn’t do anything ‘work’ related.

Now that I’m home it’s back to the daily routines of baby care, cooking, cleaning and squeezing the odd craft in here and there.

“Work” List:

1. Finish knitting mom’s vest
2. Website CSS design on commission
3. Crafting a very late Christmas gift for a friend
4. Illustrated commission for a friend
5. Website construction on commission
6. Crochet octopus on commission
7. Crochet critter for a friend’s baby shower
8. Organize my office space
9. Chibi commission for a friend
10. Shoe drawing commission for a friend

In a perfect world, I would be done with all of these by February. Here’s hoping. If I make a good schedule for myself, I may be able to complete it. If not, well.. uh.. yeah. March it is! haha. I don’t think I’ll be able to work on anything personal for a while at least until those commissions are completed. Of course I’d be physically ABLE to do other things, but somehow I can’t really bring myself to work on anything solely for me if there are things to be done for other people first. Especially if money is involved, I feel as if they are waiting on me. Even if they aren’t.

“Personal” List:

1. Finish Books and get a Kindle! Then get MORE books!
2. Knit some striped fingerless gloves for ME!
3. Solidify storyline for Startree story
4. Scrapbook
5. Colouring Book
6. Finish painting dyed bags and wallet
7. Draw draw draw

And now just for fun and to keep in theme with a new year of lists, I will share my meal plan of the week. Maybe writing it in here will make me more likely to follow it closer.

Meal Plan for the week of January 2nd

Monday: Fresh tomato-basil-garlic pasta
Tuesday: Black Bean Burgers
Wednesday: Tacos
Thursday: “Chicken” sandwiches
Friday: Soup & Bread
http://allrecipes.com/recipe/french-bread/detail.aspx
Saturday: Rice & Tilapia
Sunday: Leftovers
Pumpkin Cookies!
http://allrecipes.com/recipe/iced-pumpkin-cookies/detail.aspx

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Babies and Christmas

December 14th, 2011

I thought this was appropriate. I took a picture of our little tree propped up as high as possible away from the baby, and you can still see the lamp intact in this photo. An hour later, Savannah knocks down the lamp in an attempt to grab Christmas ornaments. SIGH. I didn’t think there was a point of decorating this year since we won’t be at home for Christmas, but I gave in! I just love Christmas ;_;<3

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Commissions Are CLOSED

December 10th, 2011

I have decided to no longer take any commissions of any kind, be it custom crochet or clothing, illustration or web design or publishing ever again. Or at least until further notice, but it is a long term notice.

I have been thinking a lot since my new baby has been born. About what I want to do with myself where art is concerned, mostly. I’m re-evaluating my priorities. Life is short, but not THAT short, and now that I am in charge of two new little lives I am increasingly seeing less and less time for my own.

Also, I am no longer in desperate need to scrounge pennies together in order to get by. I’m no rich princess, but our budding little family gets by comfortably without me having to craft things for strangers.

I have come to realize that when I look at my gallery and portfolio, it consists almost entirely of commissioned work, and art that is not of my own conception. My own handiwork, yes, but not of my own initiative and ideas. A lot of the work I am proud of I cannot take full credit for intellectually and it bothers me.

I am also considering the possibility of returning to school. I have never had any proper technical training for anything that I do, be it Photoshop or drawing or painting. I’m completely self taught when it comes to those areas, and I know that a lot of things suffer because of it. I am considering a couple options which include but are not limited to going to school for Animation, Illustration or graphic/web design, teaching or getting a Masters.

Since I have not been making much (or any) art for myself, I also have noticed the urge to do so has disappeared as well as that creative ‘spark’ I had in the first place has dimmed down. I no longer even have any ideas when I finally get to sit myself down and make art for myself. I also found that when I would sit down and have a spare moment to myself, the commissioned work and projects I would have on my plate would take priority and I would set my own desires aside to complete work that I was indebted to others.

You may be thinking that I could just say “no” or once in a while reserve time to do my own thing, but I’m just strange that way. If there is something I have overdue that someone is expecting of me, I HAVE to finish it. It dwells on my mind like a nagging monkey on my back, even if the client commissioning me couldn’t care less when I finish their piece. So don’t feel bad if you’ve commissioned me and think you were causing me some kind of stress by doing so. I’m the one who stresses myself out, not you.

And so I’ve decided that the best thing for me, and my family, will be that I no longer do work for anyone else but myself.

There are however, exceptions:

1. If you currently have already inquired about a project, don’t worry I am still going to do it. If we’re in the middle of a commission of course I will complete it. If you requested something of me at any point and I accepted, I will honour that promise. Even if it takes me a year to get to it, I will for sure finish it. I never leave clients hanging! I only ask that you please do not ask for any follow-up work outside of what we have already agreed upon.

2. Conventions. I will, as always, take illustrated commissions at conventions. They must be completed within the duration of the convention however, and if I do not have the time to complete it at the convention then it will not get completed unless we make arrangements.

3. I will still have items for sale in my shop, they just will not be custom made. I will however possibly take ‘requests’ for items to place in my shop which you may or may not choose to purchase. There are no guarantees though.

Hopefully all of this will leave me with more time to do work for myself, but also to do more art trades and explore different media and projects I’ve been waiting to do for some time. I’ve really wanted to look into the following:

1. Currently writing a story with my husband for a possible novel or comic book
2. Drawing more of my own characters
3. Getting time to do gift art for the artists and characters I admire
4. Exploring new media such as silkscreening, book making, and sewing
5. Making colouring books and other books with my own characters and possibly starting mini series with my own characters
6. Getting back into making and recording music
7. Going back to school for art/illustration or animation
8. Re-discovering video games (I haven’t played or owned a console or game since Zelda: Windwaker, lol.. and video games are gold mines of inspiration and creativity recharge sessions)

Hopefully you can support me in this decision. I hope that I’m not disappointing anyone by doing this, but please know that it is for my own sanity and creativity. I want to be an artist with a creative spirit, not a master of commissioned accuracy, deadlines and commercial work.

Just to let you know though, I still have enough unfinished commissions and projects to last me the next year, so please don’t say “I THOUGHT YOU WEREN’T TAKING COMMISSIONS ANYMORE” when I post something commissioned, because I definitely have at least 10 projects on the go right now that need completing. I will let you know when I am done completely and will commence my ‘artistic self discovery’ :p

Thank you <3

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