May
7th

I was browsing through Etsy and came across a bunch of shops that I had to link.

The Toki Cafe. Since I was professing my undying love for dim sum in my last entry, check out Toki Cafe’s adorable little dim sum creations; I want one just so I can be reminded of Shui-Mai wherever I go. They also have sushi and 1-UP (OMGZBBQZ!!!). I loveee the 1-UP mushrooms. Check out their blog for latest project updates.

Candypop Creations. Just because I love everything to do with food.

Bella’s Gallery. I love her art; it’s very dark, gothic, moody and very mysterious in general. I needed paintings to hang around my room and I think I’m going to order some of hers to add to my already dark and gloomy room. You can see more of her art at bellas-playground.com.

Erinzam’s Shop. She has a billion awesome projects, especially some really cool bookmaking and binding projects. Definitely check this out if you are a designer! You can visit her blog at Spin Designs Inc. I’m so in love with the silhouettes embedded into their jewelry and mobile designs.

Mar
4th

Inspired from one of my previous posts. Here is a collection of beautiful homes in the Garden District of New Orleans that I want to own some day…

This is the famous Greek Revival townhouse which was also the setting of Anne Rice’s The Witching Hour!! I actually never knew this house really existed until a couple months ago and omigosh, you wouldn’t be able to imagine my excitement. Of course, she owns this place as well. When I go to New Orleans, that will be one of the first places that I drag Boyfriend to. Too bad I won’t see Deirdre Mayfair sitting on the front porch and Stella wouldn’t be having one of her parties, but it will still be fascinating. Ooh, and it’s said that if there is a black limo parked outside, that means Anne-is-in-tha-house!

This is a French Second Empire-style mansion. I would love to live in a mansion surrounded by a vast lawn dotted with huge trees because there is some kind of mystique to it. Okay, maybe a moderate sized lawn unless I’m super rich and have a couple gardeners. Don’t expect me go outside and do any landscaping because bugs freak me out.

Can you say BEAUTIFUL!!? I’ve always wanted to live in a house with gigantic white columns like this Greek Revival townhouse. If you ever want to look “rich,” just build a couple of these columns around your house… well you’d probably have to have some wealth just to get these made.

This is Claiborne Cottage, also owned by Anne Rice. So cute don’t you think? I want a house with a nice, big porch as well to sit, read and people watch. Black iron fences always remind me of my grandparents’ house in Saskatchewan and they always add a little touch of class. My houses in Sims 2 always have black iron fences. Harhar.

Another beautiful house and guess what? Peyton Manning grew up here! This can be our second stop in New Orleans just for Boyfriend (but he probably won’t care much about the house anyway).

If you haven’t noticed, I want everything. I could go on and on but this will do for now.

Mar
3rd

Wow today was probably the most exciting thing that’s ever happened to me. Having ANNE RICE comment on my blog is like having Justin Timberlake comment on some teenybopper’s blog. I’ll try my best not to but I’ll probably be blogging about this for days. Can you imagine if an author you totally admire and look up to takes their time to comment on something that you did? That feeling is so amazing and especially if you love love LOVE books like I do. My heart seriously skipped a beat when I read it and I just stared into my monitor for like 10 minutes not believing it. And not to mention that I was totally distracted from work for the rest of the day!

And no, I don’t think an “imposter” would be capable of writing like that unless it was just someone whose really determined to crush my hopes! If so, I would still like to think otherwise, thank you very much.

I feel like a… teenybopper in a… ummm… Backstreet Boys concert.

But thank YOU, Anne, for making my day.

But anyway, now I have no clue on what to blog about anymore. If Anne ever stumbles back here again, my words are soo unworthy for her eyes to read.

Feb
11th

Caution: Rich, brilliant & intriguing.
www.99rooms.com

Oct
18th

Today at work we had a 2-hour presentation and demo by the wonderfully talented and inspiring concept artist, Andrew Jones. He talked about his life, how he became an artist, what he did, his inspiration, his philosophy and it was super interesting and awe-inspiring with a hint of humor. Then he showed us his demos and tips in Corel Painter. The whole experience was beyond awesome.

He started out as a concept artist for a video game company, then him and his buddies started conceptart.org as a joint portfolio to increase traffic and it exploded into a web phenomom, turning into a major web community. Later on, they started a company called, Massive Black which does concept art, 3D-modeling, animation and a ton of other things for their clients and of course, it became a huge success as well. They also started doing artist workshops because they wanted to travel around Europe but didn’t want to pay for it! It’s funny how something so insignificant like that can blow up to something as big as it is today. Later on, he decided he wanted to do something new and different with his creativity so he started do live paintings for concerts and raves. All I can say is… WOW. I’m high on inspiration. I wish I had ambition like his then I could let my creativity go crazy. Unfortunately, I don’t… yet.

Anyway, their next workshop is in Seattle next year but it’s the same weekend we are going to Big White! I’m not a concept artist nor even an artist, but this is good inspiration and that’s all that matters.

Andrew Jones. Andrew Jones. ANDREW JONES. Don’t forget that name!

Anyway, when I was telling the Boyfriend today, he was like “OOOOH ANDREW JONES!” And I was like “oh, the baseball player?” (trying to sound like a smartass). Little does he know, I googled Andrew Jones earlier and saw him pop up in the results too. HAHA.

If you could travel through time, what era would you visit and why?

Ooh, I would totally travel back to the New Kingdom of Ancient Egypt when Nefertiti lived or to Cleopatra’s Ptolemaic dynasty. Or I would go back to England in the 17th Century. Hmm. That’s hard. :S