Rozi The Space Hero

This is so cool... ok, was just checking out the links of where people come from, I like to check out the ones that came from a search engine just to find out what word got googled that lead them to my blog. While on one of the track back at the end of the list was this link. And I just had to click on it and it took me to a blog entry. I love the fact that the hero got the same name and she's an art student! Apart from the alien spaceship how coincidental is that! Hehehe.

I do know that on the world wide web there are other Rozis who are also artists, checked them out before, quite a variety of styles, I have yet to come across a Rozi who is a sculpture though, most likely there is one somewhere out there... Oh, I also found a model with the same name. Her body is so fine, imagine looking like that, I'd probably walk around in a bikini, hahahah!

This Is For You Sai

Was on msn with an old friend, Sai, who lives in Australia and she's feeling pissed (angry-as-hell mode, not the drunk-like-sh*t mode) lately with good reasons. So to put a smile on her face told her to have a look at the work in progress of 'Fat Fairy'. There's a theme running here whenever I start to illustrate funny things... fat cats, fat pigs, purple flying elephant who's also fat...

Here are the first two initial ideas that I have... notice the teeny tiny butterfly wings on the one on the right? Cute!

Here are the other two preliminary ideas that I had, I wanted FF to be a happy joyful soul...

And this is just me wondering what colours to use... I like how her torso is all boobs and skirt. But no wings, darn it.

So FF is still a work in progress, more sketches until I get a composition that I like. And when I start painting, I'd have to be listening to stand up comedies to infuse happiness into it. It's more fun to paint that way.

Books At Yoga

Talk about a hot and sweaty day, really humid and stifling. We were running around doing errands and to his parents place to pick up books I made that I gave to him and his sister so I could display them as well because I wanted to add variety to the books that I currently have... I'm only down to stab bound and long stitch, stopped production due to preparing for the wedding, will start up again soon.

I always like sharing table with Elaine, something about having crystals surrounding the books... I loved the stripy table cloth, forgot to ask Jac where she got it from.

You could see the yogis and yoginis in a middle of a movement in the background.

Settling themselves into a warrior pose...

I packed a sketch book and a pen and it has been a while when I actually did any figure drawings, so while they were doing all their poses I was trying to capture the various poses they were in. Unfortunately, my hand wasn't moving fast enough, but it was good practice. Showed it to Jac, she loved them, gave me an idea for something I could make for her...

If Jac is planning more of these kind of things, I must come up with yoga themed stuff, nicely tied in with the event. Yes, must do that... So many ideas, must find the time to execute.

Here's a link from Nick who was the photographer for the day. Check them out!

Studio: Stage One

This is how the studio is currently looking, still trying to figure out how to better arrange the stuff and what should go where. Let's go on a quickie tour shall we...

From the door looking left you see...

First rack holds all my art books, the pile at the top are my origami books and the black bag on the floor contains the custom orders that I must get around to doing.

The second rack the top two shelves are my sketch books and boxes from past to present. And the bottom two shelves are junk that I have to thin out again after the rest of the house is settled.

The basket and the two boxes on it, more junk to sort through that I haven't had time to think about what to do with them.

Thought of maybe this will be one of my work surfaces, but at the moment I can't remember what junk I piled on top there, on the shelves is a stack of handmade paper from Thailand and on the bottom in the coloured baskets contain old jeans and materials to repurpose. Box next to that contained small pieces of hardboards which I go through if I'm making small books and at the far end is one of my babies, my handy dandy guillotine! You know, the one that can chop up two inch stack of paper. Only limit is the size. But then I'm not making that huge a book am I. That's the neighbour's house, I can see into their kitchen.

The middle of the room, I don't know whether to keep or remove that table, that's my handmade lamp which works out to about 5USD to make and put together, it was a challenge that I did a while back. I plan on putting a kitchen island from my inlaws here because I like the height since I work standing up anyway, and being a kitchen island it got extra storage! It's currently in the living room until I can get people to help me move it upstairs. Behind the table is a mess on the floor because I'm trying to seaperate the content of my toolboxes into my art and craft toolbox and my hardware-handyperson-stuff toolbox. For some reason I have four sets of screwdrivers and missing my hammer. Bench on the right are the recycled papers to use for gluing and such.

Tall building across the road got my corner shop and various others.

My painting corner! This is by far my favourite spot. I can't wait to start painting here. Greeneries all around me! I wonder if I could put up a birdhouse or feeder somewhere, that would be nice to see them flying around. Next to the easle stores all the mounted canvas that I apparently have. Guess I won't need to get more for a while...

Right next to all the canvases I decided to be the rolled up paper spot. I didn't realise that I happen to have a lot of decorative paper. Rolled up in tubes, in baskets, in poster boxes. All paper! And hemming it all in is my fisherman's basket, which contains more material remnants with the intention to be used for sewing purposes when I get around to getting a machine.

Then the other two racks holds boxes and jars of equipments and stocks. Like the tiered green baskets on the top there, those are filled with asorted colours of paper flowers. Not to mention I have them in other boxes too. Fortunately most of the boxes are labled so it's easier to look for stuff, have to get around to checking out the rest of the boxes.

This is how it looks like from the door looking right. Oh look, my yellow dutch shoes, in my size too.

Well, at least everything is off the floor, more or less. Could be better. Trying to figure out how. But it can wait, at least I know where stuff are so I can get on with work as soon as we move in.

The plan is to make curtains for the racks so they look a lot more tidier when I have classes in here. I also need to reorganize to make space for when I get my sewing machine. And there must be a better way to store the decorative paper without looking like a mess.

The great part about the studio, I only need to turn on the lights when the sun sets. I get to work in natural daylight!

Happy :-D

Yoga Arts Event

Picture borrowed from Jac's Seraphina Yoga blog

This coming sunday, the 9th August between 4 to 6pm, I am invited to show and sell some of the books that I currently have, at the Tai Chi Hall at the Heng Thai Building by the Kiulap roundabout for a Yoga Arts Event for a mini yoga bazaar. Elaine will be there with her crystals, Nadia will be there with her baby cakes, Cindy with her cute cupcakes creation and several others. So, if you want to have a closer look at my books, or got some personal orders you want to talk about and discuss, or information on book classes, or you just want to pick up my contact info do come and I'll be happy to help.

I'm not sure what to expect being there but I'm happy to join in the atmosphere and observe and plan for what I can produce for the next event, Jac said something about wanting this to become a monthly thing. I hope to get inspired while I'm there, and I must remember to pack a sketch book and practice my live drawing of people, I'm so out of practice. I got a whole hall of them so I get to sketch away when I don't have to attend to people... well, that is the intention...

I'm really looking forward to this :-D

Progress!!

I finally finished sorting out my new studio. And I don't think I'm able to do classes this month like I thought I would, because we hadn't moved in yet. Waiting for curtains. Also we haven't found the right dining table either. And I'm looking around for the right work table that I can fold up so we could use it for classes in the studio! I also have to make curtains to cover up the shelves so it'll look all neat and tidy.

Prior to the wedding I thought we would have plenty of time to sort out the house, but post wedding realistically we only have the sundays to do it. The rest of the days in the week was moving like nomads between staying at my parents and his parents place. Then there were some weekends where he had to go down to the other end of the country for work as they had just set up a new branch over there leaving me by myself. It took lots of sundays just to sort out my studio alone. So far the rooms we were able to cover are my studio, his studio, the kitchen and the bedroom.

I have said the house we're moving into was older than me, and it still have all it's original built in wardrobe. When I took out the built in drawers, it apparently was hording what looked like three decades worth of dust. And the drawers were the old school kind, where the runners were made out of wood, none of those fancy plastic rollers that they glide on. I thank the fandangled vacuum cleaner we got to remove most of the dust and I still had to wipe every surface down with a damp cloth to pick up the rest, and the stick of candle that I have in my toolbox and the knowledge that I read from somewhere when dealing with drawers that stick is to rub the candle all over the runners. I now have smooth gliding drawers!!

Post wedding I've been getting lots of orders. But, there was no way I could take them because they were too short notice and I don't really have access to my studio on a regular basis. I've been so tired and drained as you can see I haven't posted anything up on the blog for a while, let alone make books and customs.

I also have a new addiction, I'm probably late in discovering this but thanks to having to wait for an hour for the DH one day when picking him up from work, I discovered sudoku. I've been working at it ever since. While at my late uncle's wake, one of his brother found late uncle's sudoku book and we both poured over it solving a puzzle. It was that bad... I walk around with a sudoku book in my bag, because you never know when all of the sudden you have to wait. Something meditative about trying to figure out where all the numbers are suppose to go, I literally zone out. My DH learnt how to solve the puzzles too now, we take turns filling in the book.

Passing In The Family

Two deaths happened in the family recently. One of my aunt, who had been suffering from diabetes and both kidneys failed for a number of years already and was swiftly taken when she developed complications with her lungs. I remembered her well when the time I came over and my uncle was showing me how he would change the drainage bag that was attached to her abdomen to remove the used fluids to put in a new one and my aunt telling me that she can only have one mug of water to drink per day and nothing more. I didn't get a chance to see her one final time before she was covered up for burial, it took the whole of the morning to prepare her body before was finally taken to the cemetary for burial.

A week later, one of my uncle passed away, the cancer finally caught up to him. Went to his house for the wake, and started tearing up as I was saying goodbye to him when I looked in the casket. Every Eid he would come over to the house, never misses a year, always looked forward to his arrival. My DH and I went to the funeral mass and the church was packed, I cried when the service started and again when we were the last to view his body and hugged my aunt and cousins for their loss. We stayed until the casket was loaded up surrounded by all the wreaths that was given to head to the cemetary.

Both days of the funeral, it was clear and bright with blue skies.

The last I saw the both of them, during my wedding. That was the last that majority of us saw the both of them, alive and smiling, surrounded by family. My late aunt who was wheelchair bound for a number of years came for every single function for the wedding when before she would decline. My late uncle who was suppose to have flown off overseas for his treatment the morning of our wedding and changed his flight just so he could attend and be with family. They both probably knew their time was ending and made the effort to come. I appreciated that they did. It saddens me to think but at least they are both at peace, no more suffering from the physical pains of their bodies. I pray that they are in god's good grace, and I shall miss them as they were kind and good people.