The Creative Process

(a.k.a., a post with a lot of pictures in it.)

Back in May, Justin and I went with our friend Dave to Free Comic Book Day at one of our local comic book stores.  Gabe Dunston, a friend of Dave's as well as an illustrator, drew a commission for us.  He drew Justin and me as Zelda and Link.  It took him about two hours to do.  He is 100% color blind, and has to ask which color is which while drawing/coloring his art.  So while the guys walked around and actually got free comics, I hung out with Gabe and helped him pick out colors.  It was fascinating to me to watch him work, since I can't draw to save my life.  Here is his creative process.

I still can't believe it started from just a blank sheet of paper.

It now sits in our living room, next to our computer table.  We love that Zelda has brown hair and Link has a red beard, like the two of us.  I'd never had a commission done before at a convention-type thing, and didn't even know they existed, but I'm excited to have another done in the future!

I made a bow!

I actually made the bow quite some time ago...

The pictures seen here are dated April 25 of this year, so I'm sorry I'm so late getting them up on the blog!  Other than the little pillow I (very quickly) made, this was the first thing I used my sewing machine to make.

I thought it came out really cute, but the tutorial I used (from Pinterest, of course) makes a very small bow because it's a baby bow tutorial!  It also calls for lace, but I didn't use any.  Still cute, though! :)  I just attached the new little bow to an old headband I had on hand by hand-sewing it on there.

I took these right after I cut my hair the previous weekend.  Don't you just love short hair with headbands?  I know, I have a problem.  Sue me. ;)

Why this job is better.

Several months ago, I wrote this post regarding working for one of my former jobs and how I knew it was time to quit.  In that post, I realized the job chart at work, which was posted in many places, didn't have my name on it after I had worked there nearly 6 months, but had the name of a person who had only worked there two days.  This upset me and was the final straw in a long-running debate with myself over whether or not to quit that particular job.

This morning, I got into work and sat down at my desk.  I opened my right side drawer for the white-out roller to fix my time sheet and found this:

Another organization chart of the company.  I immediately picked it up and searched it for my name.  And guess what?

It was there!  Don't worry about the spelling of my name; when Adrian first hired me, he could have sworn my name was Cathy, so he's called me that ever since.  Trust me when I tell you, he means Caty.

This made me very happy.  I feel accepted here, and the proof is on the sheet (as they say in the Color Catcher commercials).  Not only that, but this chart calls me the Assistant Marketing Manager!  That's pretty cool.  It's kind of like an inner-company promotion.  Maybe I'll change it on Facebook.

It's things like this that make me realize how right I was to quit the other job and take this one.  Things fell into place here for a reason, and I was meant to work here.  Some days, I think the exact opposite.  I just feel like up and quitting.  But not today.  I'm taking this as a sign to work here.  After this exact same thing influenced my decision to leave one job, it can now influence me to stay at another one.

Hooray :)

My Third Handmade Gift Exchange!

As of yesterday, I have officially completed my third Handmade Gift Exchange from Craftaholics Anonymous!  This year, things went a little differently.  In the past, Linda appointed two people to each other.  This made a direct connection between two people, almost like partners.  Those two people emailed back and forth until they each sent their respective gifts to the other.  This year, we used Elfster to turn the exchange into more of a Secret Santa feel.  You make a gift for someone, and the person you made the gift for also makes a gift for someone else.  There is no direct connection this time; I have no idea who made my gift or where it's coming from.  I haven't decided which version of the exchange I like better yet, but I'm sure Linda is grateful for the decline in work (as in, pairing people up!) this time around.

And now, onto my gift!

The girl I drew, Jennifer, is obsessed with owls and is a self-proclaimed fabric hoarder.  I think I combined her two loves rather well with this adorable tile.  And then I personalized it with her and her husband's names.

The actual crafting portion wasn't hard at all.  I just drew and owl shape and a wing shape on paper, cut it out, used it as a pattern for the material, and Mod Podged it onto the tile.  After the glue dried, I wrote on the tile with a Sharpie marker.

I loved it, but I ran into a small problem.

Since I decoupaged the owls first and then wrote on the tile with Sharpie, I baked the tile to make the marker permanent, which resulted in the dry glue on my tile turning yellow!

You can't tell much in the above photo, but it was yellow!!

You can see here, the ugly yellow lines and how the girl owl was also yellowed.  It was awful, I almost cried. 

Don't worry, though, the story has a happy ending!

I thought perhaps I could leave it out in the sun to naturally bleach.  And thankfully, this hunch was correct! And so, all hope was restored in the kingdom and the two little love owls lived happily ever after. :)

Just mailed it yesterday (I had planned to mail it Thursday, the same day as the baking incident), so I hope she likes it!

Linky Party!

Two Weeks Left

...of being 25!

I was skipping through the Internet this morning and through a series of events landed on the Boy Meets World IMDb page.  As usual with these things, I just had to scroll through the Trivia (it's my favorite part).

As I was browsing all the neat tidbits, I saw this small button on the left side.

Buy it at Amazon? I thought.  Impossible!

You see, Boy Meets World was my favorite TV show as a kid, and for most of my adult life I've been trying to buy it on DVD.  But all I ever found was random seasons (like in Walmart), or "complete series" that seemed sketchy (like on eBay).

So, to see the option of purchasing it was unbelievable at best to me.  But I clicked the button, and then saw this...

O...M...G...

I could not believe it.

Not only was the entire series available, but it was for a damn good price, too!  My heart soared, and I was SO happy!

I immediately put the link up on Facebook, and Justin has already called Dibs on it for my birthday! :)

Which, speaking of my birthday, is in two weeks!

As in, two weeks from today!  How crazy is that?

Although, it actually seems like a long time ago that I wrote about my last birthday.  Usually, things that happened a while back seem like they happened just last week to me, but my 25th birthday seems like it has a lot of distance between it and this coming one.

It's just absurd to me that I'm going to be 26 in two weeks.  As you grow older, it doesn't really occur to you that one day you will be 26.  Literally my whole life, I wanted to be 13.  I'm not sure why, I guess it was the appeal to me at the time of being a teenager.  I turned 13, and then I wanted to be 16.  Not even for the chance to drive a car, just to be 16.  I think either 16 or 18 was certainly my finest year to date.  I loved everything about those two years, and I had a lot of fun growing up during them.

Then of course, being in college and whatnot, 21 was the age to be.  I turned 21, and didn't drink much.  I still don't drink much.  But after 21, there's not an "exciting" age left.  There is no hype associated with being 25 or 27 or 30 or 32 or any other age.  21 is where that all seems to stop.

Therefore, I don't think it really occurs to people that there is something after 21.  That is the goal after all, isn't it?  To reach 21?  Then after that, what?  You're an adult?  That's boring.

And now I'm turning a boring 26.  If my future self could have told me when I was 16 where I would be 10 years later, I don't know what I would have thought.  I'm actually an adult.  I'm past the first quarter of my life.  It's just so weird to me.

I don't mind the part about getting older, though.  Getting older doesn't scare me.  In fact, at this age, I'm quite excited for it to happen.  I'm in the middle bracket now, you see.  I've officially made it to the next age group on drop-down menus.  I'm not early 20s, and I'm not 30s yet, either.  I'm in that bracket where no one really takes me seriously but they should.  I know what I know, and I know how to do what I do.  I'm on the verge of having children, but don't have them yet like so many of my mid-20s counterparts.  I'm experienced in my field, but not enough to get a decent job in it.  I'm just in the middle.

I'm anxious to get past this stage of my life and into the more serious one, but not so much so that I'm not going to enjoy it.  I love my life, and the people in it.  Especially the ones that've been around for 25 years!  Everything in my life is good, and I hope God will give me a chance to enjoy it for another birthday.

But you know what?  I'm accomplished!  I'm past getting my license, going to college, being able to drink, and being able to rent a car.  I've done all that.  So, that's something not everyone gets to brag about.  Go, me!  Here's to 26!

So, I've Been Holding Out

For a little over a month, I've had a new job.

It all started on Friday, April 6.  Justin had gone to play Magic at Sci-Fi, and at the end of the night, two girls from a job recruitment place were asking if anyone was interested in working as a video game tester in the area.  When Justin realized the girls worked for a job recruitment facility, he asked them about me.  He talked me up (probably a lot more than he should have), and asked if there was anything they could set up for me.  Tara, one of the girls, gave Justin her card and told him to have me email her and we would go from there.

Justin was so excited, and just about shoved the card in my face when he got home, begging me to email Tara.  I did the next morning, the 7th.  I heard back from Tara the next day, the 8th.  She told me she had just recently been hired by APC (the job recruitment company) and was looking to start full-time there, but was currently wrapped up with an HVAC company in Raleigh as their Marketing Specialist.  She said that given my resume, it looked like I would be a good candidate for her replacement.

The next day, Monday, was dead as far as communication.  Then, I got a call from Tara that night asking if Tuesday would be okay for an interview.  Totally freaked out and unprepared, I said no.  We finally rearranged the interview to Thursday, the 12th.  Tara and Adrian, the owner of Comfort Services Heating & Air, met me at a Starbucks near the Comfort Services office.

We proceeded to talk things over concerning my job responsibilities and what I wanted from the job and what Adrian needed from me.  It also came out that finding Tara's replacement had turned into an almost-three-month-long search.  Tara said that nobody seemed qualified enough for the position and that at one point, they had even turned the position into an internship to gain more interest and hopefully fill it quicker, but to no avail.  It just seemed like everything was falling perfectly into place.  The interview went well and everyone seemed to leave happy.

The weekend went by and I heard nothing.

Then, on Monday, the 16th, Tara called while we were watching America's Got Talent.  She said that Adrian was willing to offer me a place in the company and keep within my requested salary ($13.5/hr).  And so, standing in my living room, I accepted the offer and was officially employed.  My biggest prior concern had been taxes, as my other job doesn't tax me and it scares the hell out of me to file at 1099.  But Adrian was totally fine taxing me, which thrilled my soul.

Tara noted that Adrian didn't want me to start until May 8, so that gave me almost 3 weeks to chill, which was nice.  I drove to Raleigh on Tuesday, the 8th, and have been coming back ever since.

So far, the job has been easy-peasy, and that's what scares me.  I don't feel like I'm so qualified that the job seems easy.  I feel like I'm not doing something right, or not doing enough.  I feel bad that Adrian's paying me, and all I'm doing in playing on Facebook (not my page, the company's page, but still).  I took the liberty this morning to contact Tara, who by the way is still a consultant for CSI, and ask her if there was something I was missing, something I need to be doing but am not doing.  I'm hoping she'll answer soon (her history of answering emails quickly is short indeed).

What I'm most proud of thus far is getting to work without using a GPS.  Work is exactly 40 minutes from my apartment, and getting through Raleigh seemed a daunting task at first.  But now I can do it with ease. :)

I'll keep this ol' blog updated about the job.  Sometimes I just consider quitting altogether.  I'm already part-time, working between 13 and 18 hours a week.  There are those who don't understand why I would quit a job that basically pays me good money for not a lot of work, but I just feel so guilty.  Adrian is a good man who just wants the best for his company.  Once I have a better understanding of what I'm supposed to be doing, exactly, I'll feel better.  And I'll feel more entitled to work here.

Til then, Blogger!

Book Review: Shell Game

Kingdom Keepers: Shell Game, by Ridley Pearson

Shell Game is the fifth book in the Kingdom Keepers series.  This is the first book in the series to feature the Keepers in a location other than the Walt Disney World parks in Florida.  This time, the Keepers are aboard a Disney cruise ship, the Dream.  After the OTs try attacking the Base in the parks, they manage to sneak on board the ship and proceed to terrorize the Keepers in a number of ways.  New villains are introduced this time, as the Keepers deal with growing up and facing new challenges among themselves like love interests and ranks among the group.

Warning: Spoilers follow here.

In keeping with my tradition of not exposing the ending to a KK book, I have come up with a list of questions I have that I feel were either not addressed whatsoever in the book, or weren't addressed enough.  However, some of these contain spoilers, so don't read them if you haven't read the book.

1. Who is the OTK with the red tips in her hair, and why does her hair stop Philby from leaving the stateroom when the other holograms attack him?
2. How did Amanda and Jess cross over?
3. Who was the friend Amanda and Jess were emailing in the beginning of the book, and what did the friend do after escaping?
4. What did Maleficent mean by, "the truth about Wayne?"
5. Where did Dillard come from?
6. Is Storey really Mulan?
7. What's up with Wayne, and why is he acting so weird (as in, how he acted with the train and the fox at the beginning)?
8. How did Finn get so much strength at the end?
9. Do the title and Killers quote in the book indicate that one of the good guys is actually turning bad, and are playing a game of some kind with the Keepers?
10. What's up with Finn's factory/ship déjà vu?
11. Why was there a double Mickey sighting?
12. Why did Wanda want Amanda and Jess on-call?
13. Where is Wayne, and why isn't he communicating with Finn directly?
14. Why did Wayne keep leading Finn to danger in the beginning?
15. What was Tia Dalma's role?
16. What's in the journal?
17. Why is Stravinsky important to the journal or Chernabog?
18. What'll they use the "broom ooze" from the beginning for?
19. Where is Maleficent on the ship?
20. Why are the OTs attacking the ship, and trying to get to California?

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I give the book a 4/5.  There was so much in this book, and there is so much still to be answered.  Sometimes, while reading the book, I got the same feeling one gets when watching a movie series that is directed by the same person up until a certain point, where one can then tell the same person didn't direct the most recent movie.  At points, I felt like the book was written by someone else; it read differently, and I don't doubt that it was supposed to, as the Keepers are getting older and this idea of becoming more mature is peppered throughout the story.  The cliff hanger ending is going to kill me until the next book comes out.  I liked that all the former stories ended nicely with a bow on top, and Shell Game really tripped me up.  I can't wait to see where the story goes, and I really hope that all my questions are answered in KK6.  I have faith in you, Ridley! :)

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And yes, I did read halfway into The Postcard Killers and then stopped to read KK5.  And I'm about to do it again, because this week I'm diving into Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter.  Justin jumped the gun on that one, and read the book last summer and loved it.  So now I'm going to read it before we see the movie next weekend.

For Next Time

Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, by Seth Grahame-Smith

"When Abraham Lincoln was nine years old, his mother died from an ailment called the "milk sickness." Only later did he learn that his mother's deadly affliction was actually the work of a local vampire, seeking to collect on Abe's father's unfortunate debts.

When the truth became known to the young Abraham Lincoln, he wrote in his journal: henceforth my life shall be one of rigorous study and devotion. I shall become learned in all things—a master of mind and body. And this mastery shall have but one purpose."

While Abraham Lincoln is widely lauded for reuniting the North with the South and abolishing slavery from our country, no one has ever understood his valiant fight for what it really was. That is, until Seth Grahame-Smith stumbled upon The Journal of Abraham Lincoln, and became the first living person to lay eyes on it in more than 140 years."

-Barnesandnoble.com

Indy Week-End

The Independent Weekly released their annual Best of the Triangle last week.

In case you are not familiar with BTT, it is a compilation of the best everything in the Triangle, as voted by readers.  Generally, BTT is greatly anticipated every year.

After we found out BTT was out, Justin and I decided to make this past weekend a try-new-things affair, as well as enjoying some current favorites of Durham.

For lunch on Saturday, we ate at Only Burger.  I'm sad to tell you that I didn't take one picture of our food or the restaurant.  But rest assured, it was good!  They are a little pricey for my taste, but if you want a super-good quality burger, this is certainly the place for it.  I will say, also, that I prefer them over Five Guys.

After lunch, I talked Justin into a Loco Pop, and we even picked up a Pup Pop for Bonnie!

We hung out at home the rest of the afternoon, while I read KK5 and Justin played either Rift or Diablo on the computer.

After looking through the Indy Weekly for another idea, we saw that Lilly's Pizza was opening their Durham location last week!  And so, that was dinner for us.

We ordered the Super Duper pizza and split it.  It was basically another variation of a Meat Lover's Pizza, but all the meats were so good, especially the sausage!  The prices weren't too high, either, considering the competition like Randy's.  But, as a word of caution, go for dinner or lunch at off-peak times.  It took almost an hour for us to get our pizza.  Don't get me wrong, it was a Saturday night during the maiden voyage in Durham.  I understand them getting the kinks out, but just make sure to keep that in mind if you decide to go when it's busy.



The Super Duper at Lilly's Pizza

The Durham branch of Lilly's is right next to Morgan Imports, which is one of my favorite stores in Durham that I never have money to shop in.

 

They make pointy-toed rain boots now.  Huh.

This is the bike I'm going to buy in the near future.  I've wanted it for SO long, and only $100?  Heck yeah!

Right across the street from Morgan Imports in Brightleaf Square, which is quaint and awesome, so we took a quick stroll through there.

The sun began to set on the way back to the car, and it made for a lovely picture.

We saw this bumper sticker in Offbeat Music, and love it because we totally agree with it!

But after all the fun was had at Brightleaf, we got our Loco Pop on one more time.  But since the afternoon, the A/C had died and it was over 80 degrees inside!  At least the ice cream didn't melt.

So, that was our short new-Durham-stuff weekend.  But we own the copy of Indy Weekly with the BTT 2012 in it, and now it's online, so we will definitely be checking out new stuff again soon!

In the meantime, I leave you with this video of my sweet Bonnie eating her Pup Pop.  It's adorable.

By the Pricking of My Thumbs...

...something wicked this way comes.

Today, on the morning after Ray Bradbury's death, I appreciate wickedness.

Wickedness is inevitable.  It will always exist.

But so will good.

They must both exist, constantly, forever, for there to be harmony.

Wickedness exists so that we can appreciate goodness.

Halloween, a subject of some of Bradbury's writings, also reminds me of this conclusion every year.

Thank you, Ray, for the amazing contribution you made on society.

You will be missed.  Godspeed.