Waiting For October

Doodle

2012-01-22T19:46:00.002-05:00

I need to get an actual photo of me with brunette hair (finally long again) but this will do for now.

Monster plush

2011-12-23T22:45:00.003-05:00

I've been promising my pal LE a monster plushie for a while now, and I really like how this little guy turned out. He's not very Christmasy though, so here's him and a bunch of other gifts all wrapped up (I love coordinating wrapping paper in interesting color schemes).

Alice print skirt

2011-09-28T17:17:00.004-04:00

Finally finished my alice print skirt. With the help of my pal La I cleaned up the design and got the fabric printed in time for AWA. Sadly the material's a little too thick (way too thick for a dress), so I just made a simple skirt and practiced stitching and pleating and I'll probably get the fabric reprinted -maybe with the deign larger and in another color scheme. In the meantime it goes very well with my new blouse:

Frilly blouse

2011-09-23T10:49:00.002-04:00

Oh man, I finally made a real blouse this week. It took about 8 hours including drafting, and I really love how it turned out. The tailoring is immaculate and it's made out of a nice stretch poplin so it's pretty comfy. This will go well with lolita skirts or my professional/church wardrobe, so I love it for that as well :D

It's not actually see through though, and is actually a nice antique white.

Retro skirt

2011-09-15T10:50:00.002-04:00

So this started as a polka dot lolita skirt but once I decided to add the ric rac it turned into a 50's housewife number, but I love it anyway. I'll try and get some real photos of it (or me in it) at some point, especially because it has an adorable matching hairbow.

And a quick shot of the sewing process because I love all the little details (especially the pockets)

Courier

2011-08-20T18:18:00.001-04:00

So my pal Suzi has an awesome webcomic that she just started up - and when I say webcomic, it's more like a fully-fleshed graphic novel that just happens to be updating online. She's already created a whole new world and mapped out all these incredible political intrigues for her characters, but I don't want to give anything away so I'll use her description:

"Alice, our young heroine, has been entrusted with a mysterious envelope. At a loss as to whom she should deliver it and fiercely determined not to open it, she has decided to return it to the sender, with the help of her brother and a young soldier she meets along the way."

Anyway you should absolutely go check out it out and bookmark it (and definitely check out the 'world' tab), and vote for it at Top Webcomics.

Casper

2011-06-30T17:05:00.003-04:00

Casper is a very dashing cat, and a wonderful dancer. Also I may need to get out of my house more.

Nerd post

2011-06-20T12:54:00.003-04:00

Currently going on a documentary kick. If you're also a fan or even if you normally fall asleep during them, here are some of the ones I've really enjoyed.

This is the one and only time I've ever cared that a movie was in 3D. Normal 3D is whatever because quite frankly, the world is in 3D and it's not exactly a novel experience. But unless you are an astronaut your only experiences with the stars are essentially in two dimensions, and it's quite incredible to view a spacewalk as the astronauts themselves would. Voices by Leonard DiCaprio and filled with beautiful Hubble images, definitely worth seeing on the big screen if you're lucky enough.

For anyone who loves Pixar, Disney, or animation in general it's really incredible to see all that went into making this company a seemingly overnight success. You will find yourself completely enamored with John Lasseter who has all the childlike imagination of Walt Disney himself without all the gross racism. Also he wear adorable shirts 24/7. Currently streaming on netflix.

I love documentaries that show you things you wouldn't normally have the chance to, and this documentary has all manner of unusual under water creatures - some more familiar that others but all of them interesting. Johnny Depp and Kate Winslet narrate, but more importantly Danny Elfman does the score. Most of the music is his Serenada Schizophrana (composed for his showing at Carnegie Hall), which lends a surreal air to the whole thing, as well as some other very fitting songs mixed in. Surprisingly humorous for an aquatic documentary.

Another world you don't get a chance to view much, but this time simply because we are too big to see it all. This one is much slower than the rest and doesn't really have any dialogue, but the visuals are stunning. If you're not freaked out by bugs, it's sort of incredible to be able to see the pollen on a bumblebee or watch flowers suddenly bloom. Also some snails make out in slow motion :P Currently streaming on netflix.

Honorable mentions
Mystery of the Nile: Action-packed and actually a little scary at times because the team traveling the Nile (I believe the first to traverse the whole length) encounter dangerous waters, malaria, people shooting at them, etc.

Ultimate Wave: You will come out of this probably wanting to learn how to surf or hula, but definitely wanting to visit Tahiti. It's also interesting to know what all factors shape the waves, I did not know how much of it was due to the sun.

Disney's Oceans and Planet Earth series: How have you not already seen these?

New apartment

2011-05-27T17:57:00.003-04:00

So I recently moved in a 500 square foot studio apartment, which is roughly the size of a nice hotel room. But that amount of space ended up being perfect for me because I'm very good at making the most of my space.

The first thing I did when I moved in was my friend Meredith and I painted the whole place Light French Grey (more or less a muted blue) and installed curtains because I hate blinds.

The painting above the couch are from Kei Acedera who does some concept work for Disney and who I've posted about before, and I'm waiting for a painting by Brittany Lee, another Disney animator whose work I cannot even express how amazing it is! Go check them both out. My new cat Casper managed to make an appearance (he was following me the whole time I took photos).

One of the biggest reasons I got this place was all the huge windows, and the balcony where I can see the city, and the fact that it has an obvious bedroom alcove. I thought about partitioning it off to feel even more like it's own room, but I like how open the whole place feels. I couldn't get a good photo of it, but there's more space in the bedroom and the walls are filled with family photos. There's also a photo of Jeff Goldblum by my closet.

I actually have a pretty sizable closet, my dresses and nightgowns are on a separate rack on the right. And Casper is investigating his reflection.

The person who owned this place when I viewed it put a whole bunch of stuff on these walls and in the entryway, making the place look really small. I just put a small endtable and my record player over here.

I got a new shower curtain and matching towels for the surprisingly large bathroom.

And my kitchen, which is all kinds of huge and fabulous.

Speaking of fabulous, here's a photo of Casper who managed to sit still for more than 3 seconds for once.

And finally, a dorky rendering of my apartment layout:

Alice print

2011-05-03T16:53:00.002-04:00

So I've decided to make my own lolita fabric print using John Tenniel's Alice in Wonderland illustrations, vintage graphics, and a Lewis Carroll handwriting (all public domain/free use in case I care to sell it). Here's a very, very rough draft of how it's looking so far, I'm torn on which color scheme I prefer though. Maybe I'll just do both.

Paper sculpture

2011-04-26T09:25:00.007-04:00

Some people have an amazing talent for taking the thing most artists take for granted, paper, and turning it into a three dimensional artwork within itself.

Megan Brain just blows my mind with the amount of detail she can achieve with her cutouts, and the textures she can create just with paper. http://meganbrain.com/

And my friend Shelly showed me some examples of quilling, which turns curled strips of paper into something so amazing. http://iron-maiden-art.deviantart.com/

Even just using plain paper people have created incredible castles. Credit to Wataru Itou 1, and Ginger Li who took the photo but never named the original artist 2.

Peter Callesen can do castles as well, but what has really impressed me about his work was that he usually incorporates the process of making the cutout into the artwork itself. Often the base of his sculpture is the sheet of paper the cutouts were made from. There's an interesting mix of 2D and 3D. It was nearly impossible to choose just one. http://www.petercallesen.com/

And speaking of intriguing bases, Su Blackwell makes the most incredible paper sculptures that come to life out of old books. And though this may seem a sacrilege to other bibliophiles like myself, look at what she did with an old copy of Alice In Wonderland! Also this image pops up a lot on tumbler, so please don't forget to source it: http://www.sublackwell.co.uk/

As far as cutout detail goes though you'd be hard pressed to top Tahiti Pearson. The intricacy in his work is mind-boggling. http://tahitipehrson.com/

Lolita halter top

2011-04-25T20:26:00.003-04:00

A quick 50s inspired top to go with some of my skirts, in preparation for the hotter weather. The pintucks and lace are actually way more perfect than they appear in other shots, because the top is very fitted and doesn't lay flat on a table. It's one flaw is it's a little shorter than I realized.

For full top...

Inner Life of a Cell

2011-04-11T09:27:00.004-04:00

For those like 3 readers who are interested in my science posts here's an incredible animation from Harvard that touches on some of the major processes going on within your cells all the time, only at hundreds of times the speed shown here (far too fast for us to even fathom).

For those of you who know a little bit about biochemistry you'll recognize a lot of what's going on in this (love the dynein/kinesin walking movement) , and for anyone who would benefit from the addition of narration you can find it here. A small part of what I do involves the adhesion you see between leukocytes and other surfaces involving selectins and the cell signaling involving extracellular proteins.

Tote bag

2011-03-31T22:30:00.003-04:00

So my old tote bag is currently full of holes and sort of covered in Chinese food, so I made a new one. And this one has pockets! One that fits my sketchbook (or any book) perfectly, and another for pens.

Lolita cameo - concept art

2011-03-31T12:46:00.003-04:00

So I've been setting up a store on etsy (hence making a new banner for this blog at the same time), and there's nothing there yet but I have plans to make some little lolita cameo charm necklaces (I have plans for mostly casual but a few special fancy ones). This was just a mockup for placement though, the actual cameos will be more in my usual, lineworked style and I plan to make on for OTT, sweet/classic, gothic, and pirate/ steampunk. I'll post the artwork for that when I finish it, and then the necklaces once they're made.

Aid for Japan

2011-03-14T09:42:00.003-04:00

Japan requests limited foreign aid as of March 13.

A list of established charities that are providing relief for Japan along with tips for donating. Of my regular charities Doctors with Borders is currently over in Japan providing medical assistance, and the American Red Cross is providing shelter and medical aid on our own west coast and financial aid to support Japan's efforts. The list is on Charity Navigator so you can do some research before you donate and see which organizations are reputable and where efforts are actually directed.

(Links via shincaru, meant to post this earlier but Japan only just asked for aid)

Blue dress

2011-03-13T14:31:00.002-04:00

I found this amazing, super-soft fabric at Intown Quilters down the street and made my new favorite dress. It's super-comfy and fits perfectly, and I actually took the time to do little box pleats so I could make full use of the stripes. I've never done box pleats before but they came out pretty well for me eyeballing them and never measuring anything. It sits very nicely and doesn't get me weird looks on Marta. Also a close-up shot of the fabric and the top of the dress:

Kolaches

2011-03-13T14:17:00.003-04:00

Since my labmate wanted me to post more recipes, I'm going to post a photo of the cookies I made and a link to the recipe I used here. I would add though that you can pretty much stick anything in them you want, including premade jelly (I've had success with raspberry and currant), sweetened cream cheese, etc. And I use a pizza cutter to cut out the squares, it makes it super easy.

Herringbone dress

2011-03-06T12:36:00.000-05:00

Just a quick shot of my new dress. I'm mostly going to use what I learned making this dress to make something better in the next couple of days.

Tron lolita

2011-03-04T17:46:00.003-05:00

Click for bigger.

Inspired by Suzi's love of all things Tron.

Set phasers to love me!

2011-02-24T20:00:00.003-05:00

Click for bigger

And if you want to color one of your very own:

Aside

2011-02-24T15:57:00.001-05:00

New doodle to mess around with shading.

Watercolor practice

2011-02-21T19:25:00.002-05:00

Yume Ninja from http://ninjasovereign.com/ who is always awesome. I haven't painted in...years but I'm trying to relearn how.

What I do

2011-02-21T10:51:00.004-05:00

So some of my friends are less curious about my actual research and more curious about what I do on a day to day basis in lab. Here is my lab bench, devoid of dramatic lighting and shiny high-tech equipment and lasers, don't let tv fool you :P

Actually I lied there's totally dramatic light and UV hoods and toxic chemical and lasers (more on that in a bit).

Yes things are literally labeled with skull and crossbones still

However, most of last week was spend working in a freezing cold microtome (notice where it says -20 Celsius, imagine your arms stuck in there for 4 hours straight with nothing but latex gloves). This machine basically works like a really cold meat slicer, with a very sharp blade that has caused every single lab injury I've ever seen, all resulting in ER visits.

Making 1 cell thick sections of immunized mouse spleens.

There are literally 400 sections from one spleen all numbered and neatly lined up and stored at -80. I have probably about a thousand sections lined up currently.

What do I do with these sections? Basically this:

If you're interested on how I do this:

A lot of what I do is called immunohistochemistry or immunofluorescence, which is just big words for adding glowy things to what I want to look at on tissues via antibodies (those things that are made to fight foreign invaders in your body). These are not photos of my own but they'll help explain things. Basically I stain my sections with various colored antibodies labeling different things I'm interested in, and look at them under a fluorescence microscope:

Each compound I use to label has a certain 'excitation' wavelength - the color of laser I use to hit it - and 'emission' spectra - the color it actually looks when viewing it.

We have 7 lasers on our microscope, using them pretty much looks like this (it's a bad idea to stare at the real thing):

You take a picture at each wavelength you're interested in (corresponding to one marker you want to look at) and then compile all the images together.

Voila!

Keeze

2011-01-19T11:08:00.001-05:00

My bud Keeze and her sweet Great Gatsby tattoo.

Also finally fixed up my DA account for any interested in faster art updates :P

Better self portrait

2011-01-16T23:06:00.001-05:00

Messing around with the shading style I used on my last drawing, I like this a lot better.

Labyrinth lolita

2011-01-15T18:26:00.001-05:00

Still snowed in today so I ended up redoing Sarah's ballgown from Labyrinth lolita style :D

Bellydance girl for Shelly

2011-01-15T18:22:00.003-05:00

A belated Christmas present for my best bud, alternately colored for fun (her's is in greens, pinks, and purples). It's very rough and sketchy but I like how it turned out a lot.

Christmas trees

2010-12-23T20:14:00.004-05:00

No photo can capture just how big this tree is - my dad can barely move it. We had to buy bigger ornaments so it wouldn't look crazy.

Our nutcracker collection has outgrown the stairs and taken over the house.

Suzi's and my tree at our apartment.

Gift bags are for quitters :P

Self-portrait

2010-12-19T16:27:00.002-05:00

I'll get back to Christmas stuff shortly, I just needed to draw an ID picture for stuff and actually had some spare time to doodle this morning. It's not too bad at all for drawing with a trackpad :D

Crafting and decaorative inspiration

2010-12-15T10:18:00.002-05:00

Still going through Universal Studios photos, but for now I wanted to move some old livejournal posts here since I have new readers who hopefully share my love of all things Christmas :D

And again these are dedicated to Meesh who loves crazy pink and white Christmas decorations.

With pale green

And some hot pink

Wizarding World of Harry Potter

2010-12-13T15:17:00.003-05:00

For the record, I'm not even that into Harry Potter, but this place ruled. We'll start with a few shots of Hogsmead (if I get the names wrong I apologize) and the shops:

Honeydukes

Zonko's which had a 'Puking Pastilles' in the front which moved and was impossible to photograph

Gladrags, which you couldn't go into but the stuff in the windows moved around (including a tape measure cat)

So much detail even went into the gift shops:

The town at night was even more magical:

We spent a while just looking into shop (real and fake) windows and watching things move and work.

And we watched a little performance by characters from the other schools.

And finally the ride itself. Even waiting in line is pretty awesome because you're basically going through the school :D

The portraits move and talk :D

It's impossible to really capture the inside well because there's so much going on...

I couldn't get anything good of Dumbledore in his office giving a speech, but here is the 'Defense Against the Dark Arts' classroom, where Harry, Ron, and Hermione show up to tell you what's going on...

And make it snow!

The fat lady who we got stuck by a little too long, but still the line was moving

The sorting hat

As you get on the ride you're in a hall of mirrors with dozens of candles suspended over your head, which I could not adequately capture.

Basically it was all completely awesome

Universal Studios adventure teaser

2010-11-23T15:22:00.002-05:00

Jealous?

Bee purse

2010-10-17T14:22:00.002-04:00

I forgot to post this earlier - it was a quick bag I made for my labmate's daughter, who apparently loves bees. I only remembered to get some quick photos right before I gave it to her so they mostly came out blurry.

County Fair

2010-10-02T17:17:00.002-04:00

Shelly and I ran out to the Gwinnett County Fair the Saturday before it closed.

We got there right before sunset and jumped on the ferris wheel so we hopped on to watch the show.

You can't skip the Gravitron :P

The carousel is always faster than I remember...

We actually rode the swings first thing but I stopped by to grab a photo on the way out because it looks cooler at night :P

Mandarin top and obi belt

2010-09-21T14:19:00.002-04:00

I found this really cute asian print at the quilting store and made it into a belt as well as a dress I'm currently converting into a top for more daily use.

Imaginism studios

2010-09-06T14:53:00.004-04:00

So at Dragon*con my favorite part is the pop artists booths. This year two of the concept artists from Disney's new Alice were there, and I ended up buying tons of their prints which is something I never do. If you love Alice/fairytales/concept art Kei Acedera is incredible, and all the other artists at http://www.imaginismstudios.com/ are equally fantastic.

Lolita styles v. 2.0

2010-09-02T20:40:00.001-04:00

Click for huge version

It's more pistachio really

2010-08-25T10:59:00.003-04:00

I actually finished this a while ago (it only took a total of about 6 hours to do everything), it just took me forever to get the pictures. More detailed shots are under the cut.

Hand-beaded chain:

The cardigan is from Modcloth and the necklace is from Target.

This was on sale at UO. Obviously the bow is made from extra fabric :P

I have dark polka dot tights and mary janes with little bows to go with it, and an assortment of jewelry that I'm still deciding between.

Candies + tutorial

2010-08-24T00:34:00.005-04:00

So instead of finally taking pictures of my skirt (which is totally finished), I decided to make some little lolita candy accessories. Not quite sure what I want to do with them yet, maybe make a necklace or a bracelet or hairclips? I'll figure it out. Anyway, they're pretty easy to figure out, but just in case I added a tutorial under the cut. Overall they took me about an hour and a half, including time to do test runs, mess up, and sing along to bad techno with my roommate.

Materials:

1. Cut 3.5"x3.5" inch squares. (Polka dot or stripe fabric work really well)

2. Hem 2 opposing sides.

3. Add lace or trim.

4. Right sides facing, stitch non-lacey sides together.

5. Turn right side out. Loosely hand-stich around the wrapper ~1.5" away from the edge.

6. Pull thread to gather, tie off ends.

7. Add puffball and repeat on the other side, cinching both ends tightly.

8. Add bows or rhinestones/pearls and use with any accessory.

Yume

2010-08-21T22:58:00.003-04:00

Yume Ninja of http://ninjasovereign.com/. She has absolutely fabulous style and her blog will make your life seem so much more dull :P More messing around with some art programs under the cut.

P.S. Just putting the last touches on my mint outfit, pictures coming soon!

Mint polka dots

2010-08-12T15:22:00.004-04:00

Tentative plans for my next lolita project. The elephant dress is put on hold due to time/money constraints, but I kind of like this better anyway.

And I spent a couple minutes this morning messing around on polyvore to get a better idea what was out there accessory-wise (I already have the cardigan and plan to make the skirt/bows this weekend).

Concert weekend

2010-08-03T19:40:00.006-04:00

So Debby and I went to see She&Him and then Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeroes on back to back nights, which was so awesome and exhausting that I didn't even upload these until now - 3 weeks later. We could actually take photos of She&Him (who played at the Botanical Gardens and really adorable), I decided to just doodle the cute outfit Zooey was wearing. Edward Sharpe, however, was at the Variety Playhouse where the only thing in the way of taking photos of the show is other people all doing the same thing :P

Their backdrop was all Wizard of Oz :D

Alexander~!

Jade was constantly in motion and hard to get a photo of.

Especially when they kept dancing during "Home"

The biggest tambourine in the world!

In the end Alexander came down into the audience and we all sat and sang "Brother". I ended up with a lot of broken glass embedded in my shins but it was cute anyway.

P.S. She&Him totally sang the Beach Boys' "Wouldn't It Be Nice" :D :D :D

Berlin part 6

2010-07-14T14:04:00.002-04:00

Final Berlin post on the East Side Gallery - about a mile of wall still standing covered in murals on the eastern side. Probably the most famous is the "Brothers Kiss" but some of the others are also fairly well recognized.

God bless America :D

Berlin part 5

2010-07-12T14:50:00.003-04:00

This is just going to be a Museum Island post. Several of Berlin's largest museums are all located on this little "island" surrounded by canals. The Berlin Cathedral greets you as you cross the bridge, where I witnessed a gorgeous wedding the first time I went over. But I had to rush over to the Pergamon because I only had 4 hours until it closed (and you need all of that time). But I did grab a few shots of some of the street performers, my favorite being this kid with his accordion.

The Pergamon is so named after the Greek temple which they've more or less rebuilt within the museum (I know you're jealous, Kaitlyn :P). It's got an incredible amount of Greek, Babylonian and Islamic art and is probably one of my favorite museums ever and certainly the best religious art gallery I've ever seen. I didn't actually get a photo of the Pergamon itself because it was too massive, so here are some detail shots and portions of other temples that could actually fit into my camera frame.

The gates of Ishtar, part of their Turkish art exhibit acquired through questionable means...

But the best part, hands down, was the Islamic art gallery. It was truly spectacular and I ran through it a second time before the museum closed.

The New Museum also contained a number of Greek and Medieval artifacts, but more importantly Egyptian ones (Kristian and Nicole this time you get to be jealous :P). This includes the very famous, and very off-limits to photographing, bust of Queen Nefrititi. I'm still trying to recover some of my photographs from this day due to some stupidity on my part, but here are some busts and hieroglyphs in the meantime.

Next post will be our last day there, including the Berlin Wall and then I can finally post about Debby and I's double-hitter concert weekend :D

Berlin part 4

2010-07-11T19:27:00.003-04:00

I have literally over a thousand photos of Berlin museums, so I'm just going to post the best photos from the Museum of Natural History and the Berlin Zoo today. Next I'll get to the Pergamon and New Museum, and eventually to the East Side Gallery (Berlin wall). None of these photos is in any way educational so don't worry about that :P

Suzi was looking forward to this place the most, because they have hundreds of taxidermy specimens of exotic and extinct animals. This wall was to illustrate biodiversity with a hundred different species.

They even have a dodo bird!

And a cool bird skeleton, and a weird display case of skulls (from the exhibit on human evolution).

But my favorite was this last little guy. Apparently all the taxidermist had was the skin and some sketches of a leopard and this is what he came up with...

This museum also featured an astronomy exhibit, where we saw recovered meteors and watched a movie about the Big Bang (in german) on the ceiling.

The zoo is so big eventually you're just like "you know what? I don't even like kangaroos let's go". It has *everything* including an incredible nocturnal animals exhibit, several aviaries with the birds just flying free, an aquarium, and a reptile room in addition to all the usual suspects.

Also Suzi got attacked by goats :D

Berlin part 3

2010-07-01T12:56:00.003-04:00

We super slept in so we decided to hold off on the Natural History museum and just went down to hang out in Friedreichstrassen.

There's a surprising amount of vegetarian food offered here, but more importantly a whole lot of goth shops. Suzi got a million things but the stuff I wanted only had large sizes left (apparently, unlike America, Berlin goths are quite tiny). We also went to an antique store that was mostly piles of old furniture and junk, but there were a couple neat things.

I ended up buying records instead. Benny Goodman, Louis Armstrong, The Smiths, and Star Trek :D Suzi went even crazier but managed to talk the prices down.

At this one Rockabilly shop we found a flyer for a New Wave/Indie Rock club going on Wednesday night at the Bang Bang Club so we decided to check it out. (+ a fire juggler we saw along the way there)

It was actually pretty cool and we met a bunch of backpackers from all over Europe, but apparently *extended hours* for train service didn't actually extend anywhere so we had to wait a couple hours for the trains to start back up. We just chill out at this all night bar with cool seat/swings and drank fruit juice for a bit.

Train service started back at 4 am (when the sun came up D:) so we didn't have long to wait. The cool thing about the trains here is that all the cars are connected, so you can see straight down and watch the train curve around the bends.

Apparently we were not the only ones waiting for dawn.

It was a very long night but we had lots of fun anyway.

Berlin part 2

2010-06-30T14:55:00.004-04:00

So 1st day we took a nap in our very lovely hotel and then did a bit of exploring. Most importantly we found like a million places to eat within walking distance, including several bakeries and sweets stores where we bought the best candies ever (and the like one jar of peanut butter they had) :D I've decided I'm basically going to spend the last of my euros getting candy to share before I leave. The marshmallow candies look just like a lolita print.

There was also a sweet park with giant slides and a zipline!

Dinner at the Italian place in our hotel (I took this after it closed).

We did some more stuff but my battery was dead and Suzi was taking photos of cars for Max. So Tuesday we got a new charger for my camera and did some shopping in Friedrichstrasse. We got a 7 day pass for the U ban but apparently it just works on some kind of honor system? Either way the trains come every like 5 minutes it's fantastic :D

Also there was actually a guy playing the accordion rather beautifully in the underground, so we gave him a couple euros.

We got tomato mozzarella sandwiches from the bakery, I have somehow yet to get sick of this :D

So apparently everyone our age in Berlin dresses like they live in Little 5 Points. Either H&M or ripped up punk/hippie/hipster stuff. Though it made sense when we went to the super fancy shopping district we discovered H&M was all we could afford, so we got some dresses (all the girls wear dresses and skirts here) ^_^;;

Then we ran home to get dressed for 'Carmen'. Suzi's wearing one of her new dresses (I'll probably wear mine to the museum). The opera was wonderful. Carmen has really adorable red pumps and all the adults turned into giggling teenagers when she and the soldier were making out.

It takes forever to get dark here and the streets near our hotel are really safe (everyone who knows where Atlanta is is surprised we live there because it's much scarier in comparison), so we went out for a late dinner searching for a Thai place. I got curry but I only took photos of the giant avocado in the sushi.

An example of Berlin's graffiti.

Berlin part 1

2010-06-28T14:06:00.005-04:00

Despite some delays we've finally made it to Berlin. Our hotel is gorgeous and we have a great view (all those windows are balconies and we have a corner room) but apparently I brought the wrong battery charger so I'm gonna go to the electronics store tomorrow. So basically all these photos were taken within like the first 30 minutes of arriving :P

P.S. Our hotel also has a spa, an Italian restaurant, and some gardens out back.

This is all for today we're going to do a lot more exploring and hopefully I'll have more battery tomorrow (maybe). Also we have more than enough planned and everyone else has terrible suggestions so feel free to share experiences but we've gotta do our own thing.

Pin cushions

2010-06-25T22:43:00.003-04:00

Lolita meetup today, we made some really cute strawberry pincushions and I decided to improvise an eggplant one since the wonderful miscy had some purple corduroy. The colors look less ridiculous in reality :P

Potential new project

2010-06-07T13:49:00.003-04:00

I know I have a million different plans all the time but I think if I buy the fabric this will actually get made. I really want to use this print (each elephant is about an inch wide) to make an ETC style dress. The dress I'm sure of, but is the fabric too busy? I'm looking for something dark blue and cute/nontraditional/kind of retro if you guys have any other fabric suggestions.

The dress itself will have a white bib and the tie around the waist made in the same fabric as the rest of the dress.

Georgia Aquarium

2010-06-02T22:46:00.001-04:00

Finally posting the photos from Eliza and my trip to the aquarium. I had been before (she hadn't) but now I have a sweet new camera so click any photo for larger.

Me in front of a whale shark :D

This guy is just jammin'.

Lion fish

These guys would not slow down for pictures (same problem with the puffins).

A number of tanks have unique viewing areas from all sorts of angles.

Pacific sea nettle

Moon jellies :D

Clown fish are safe within the sea anemone tentacles

Weedy sea dragons. My dad and I love the leafy ones most.

Pet seahorses will actually curl around your fingers with their tails.

Microscopic world

2010-05-30T20:54:00.001-04:00

Just to note again sorry to all the lolitas who added me with no interest in my nerdy life but I'm working on moving over from LJ and wanted to take these posts with me.

Looking at life through a microscope was one of the reasons I got into my field. This will focus half on biology and half on the technology but I'm guessing y'all are just looking at the pictures mostly :P We'll begin with one of my new favorite images of lobster eggs which look like those goldfish from Fantastia.

As a warning most of these things are falsey colored - usually through the use of a polarizing filter (which filters light coming in at an angle to reduce glare, increase color and contrast). Phase shift of differential interference contrast are used to either amplify small shifts of light phase or shearing the beam of light, respectively, to enhance contrast in objects. This is for light microscopy only, we'll talk about electron microscopy after a few more light microscope images. Most of these are from Scientific American or Nikon's Small World.

In keeping with the theme of baby animals we can't usually see, a baby squid embryo and salmon embryos.

Insect larvae are beyond scary when you blow them up like this. But here's a Trichoptera (moth-like insect) larva.

Some animals are plenty big enough to see, but to really see the details we need a 20x lens. Such as the little legs on a Brazilian fire worm.

Or the scales on a butterflies wings.

Some plants and animals are never really visible to the naked eye. Such a this tiny jellyfish.

Diatoms were tiny aquatic algae with glass (silica) skeletons who have been leaving their bones behind as far back the Jurassic period. You see them usually in toothpaste and reflective road lines.

The shape of diatomic skeletons is so fascinating scientists can't resist making nerdy microscopic artwork. Some of these also incorporate butterfly scales and possibly other small scale materials. This first is all diatoms and it's obvious why I love it.

>

A scanning electron microscope (SEM) is one which uses electron beams (as opposed to light beams which have less resolution) bouncing off gold coated objects to image really, really tiny objects. Or the details on much larger objects such as insects. You can't use electron microscope to view living tissue, these are all fixed specimens. Here we see the antennae of a wasp and the hairs on a mosquito.

Or you can step back and see the whole monster:

Arrow worm

Moth

Some images from the science photo library. SEM images are only in black and white so all of these have had color added later to create distinctions between subjects and the background. We'll start with a photo of some mites.

(Someone's about to get owned)

Again some butterfly scales

And it's proboscis.

Our pal the fireworm. Oddly enough they live in the sea.

A nematode worm that secretes digestive enzymes from a pouch behind it's rather frightening mouth.

Salmonella can survive weeks outside the body. This is actually a transmission electron microscopy image, which is similar to an SEM in that it uses electron beams but instead of scanning the surface of an object the beam passes through thin sections of a specimen.

Water bears has to be the cutest name for a slightly less cute species but they can SURVIVE IN SPACE. Basically they can handle almost any temperature and any environment, including a vacuum. You have to admire their tenacity.

Space, the final frontier

2010-05-30T20:49:00.001-04:00

So hopefully this won't be too science heavy but I just wanted to share some of my favorite things about astronomy and the universe. Some may be familiar, some not, but it's all awesome. Also astronomers are the best at naming things ever.

We'll start with the Butterfly Nebula (I know, right?). This can happen to a star at the end of it's life when it's shedding gaseous layers into lobes as it contracts. (Hubble images)

Some more images of nebulae including the eagle, the horsehead, one more butterfly, and the rotten egg.

The coldest natural phenomenon is the Boomerang Nebula which is about 1 degree kelvin. The coldest place in the universe is actually on earth (a rhodium bar in Helsinki's Low Temperature Lab) and it's at a fraction of a degree Kelvin. This is of course barring intelligent life on other planets getting something even colder. (Hubble images)

The universe itself is about 2-3 degrees Kelvin. This is called the cosmic background radiation and it's uneven temperature patches contribution to the big bang theory's formation of stars, planets, etc. (False color because we can't see microwaves with our eyes)

The most luminous things in the universe are gamma ray bursts. It's a short burst (on the order of a couple seconds) of gamma and x-rays that would pretty much wipe out all life in a galaxy. They occur about every several hundred million years but might have been more frequent in the past. Some theorize that it wiped out the dinosaurs by destroying the ozone (allowing in harmful radiation). (Artist's rendition of how much this would kill all of us)

In case you remember the term pulsar but not what it is, it's a rotating neutron star that jets out radiation from either end so if we catch it at the right angle it pretty much looks like a lighthouse. (Artistic renditions obviously)

You know all those sci-fi movies where a planet has two suns and you're like 'how would that even work?'? Well as it turns out they think it's pretty common. They've actually found evidence of planets orbiting two stars. (Hint: this image is not real :P)

I don't know if when they originally teach you about the milky way they tell you about the supermassive black hole at the center. That probably would have freaked me out when I was younger, but my class and others have actually looked at it and it's pretty much just chilling there not eating any stars or anything. The way they discovered it was through X-ray images of the center of the galaxy and they noticed the path of the innermost stars indicated a source of high gravity that was not visible. They named it Sagittarius A* (SRG A*). (Chandra X-ray images, again false color)

We can see also at what angle we fall in the milky way galaxy from our own backyards (yes, even when you live in the city). Obviously you aren't going to see anything like these next images without a long-exposure camera and composite photography skills, but with a telescope you can count the number of stars in the patch of sky you observe, and compare it to other spots. When you find more stars along one area you're looking straight through the milky way. If you get outside all the light pollution you can actually just see with your eyes where the stars are the densest. (Real images, various sources)

[Edit] Danae was asking about how long an exposure you would need to get images like this and it's apparently about 20 seconds. Someone took 20 second exposures every 10 seconds and you can watch the Milky Way rise over Texas. Do it now. [/edit]

(Yes this is my desktop background :D)

[Edit 2]Almost forgot about star trails. Same discussion with Danae - you'll need a really dark location and like a 12 hours exposure. This is a composite photo but it's not like photoshopped all to hell. This is what stars do. Google "star trails" for more pictures.

[/edit]

Supernova are actually detected at first by a burst of neutrinos that precede the visible evidence of the phenomenon. We are bombarded by trillions of neutrinos each second (apparently 50 trillion according to wikipedia ^_^;;;), but they are so small and carry no charge so we don't even notice them. But on occasion they'll hit a particle and form a electron or muon. There are huge tanks of liquid underground where they can detect these changes and predict supernovae. Here are some images of the Sudbury neutrino observatory (SNO) followed by a classic supernova.

Occasionally galaxies interact and sometimes crash into one another or eat each other (called cannibal galaxies). (Hubble images)

Sometimes galaxies are weird all on their own. Like Centaurus A and the Sombrero galaxy. (Hubble images)

I just had to add this image of the Small Magellanic Cloud. It's a small galaxy and one of our nearest neighbors. Plus it looks like God from Futurama. (Infrared image)

Biology is awesome

2010-05-30T20:46:00.001-04:00

Moving these science posts here so I can slowly move away from LJ. Sorry to all the people on my LJ flist, but I hope all the lolitas who added me don't mind a few nerdy posts :P

To begin with some bioluminescent animals - my mom didn't believe this guy was real but it's called a barreleye or spookfish. Its head is see through and lights up.

We've also got glowing firefly squids and shrimp.

If you haven't seen a comb jellyfish up close get yourself to an aquarium because they're awesome. Basically they've just got rainbow bioluminescence streaking down their bodies.

I also just found out about bioluminescent bays. Holy crap.

Heading above ground apparently glow worms stick to the top of caves and hang like Christmas decorations :D

What about all those sweet glowing plants? We've got them too.

And if you're looking for something a little closer to home get deep enough in the woods in the summer and you'll find yourself a firefly grove (Joe and I found one just down the railroad tracks).

Another little (non-glowing) buddy I've encountered is the humming bee.

I'm not sure I'd ever want to encounter the spiny flower mantis but he's my favorite bug and I'm sorry for always posting about him :P

Speaking of flowers, how about the corpse flowers named for their smell but looking as though they are going to kill you (especially Audrey down there)?

And my favorite flower, which isn't so much weird as gorgeous, is the bleeding heart flower.

One of my favorite birds because it has the most hilarious mating dance, I believe it's just called the superb bird of paradise. (Thanks Planet Earth for showing me this)

Back underwater some non-glowy but still cool animals we've got the leafy sea dragon...

And axolotls which look like they're having the most fun ever.

The dumbo octopus :P

Another little guy I just found out about was the glass frog. Which brings us back to our first see through guy.

I could go all into weird mammals maybe some other time but I'm hoping there's something here that's new to people.

Dr. Sketchy's

2010-04-25T10:40:00.001-04:00

My friend Ana Aesthetic was modeling at Dr. Sketchy's so I decided to get back into the practice of drawing people (it's been a few months). Definitely need to work on sketching faster, click for bigger.

P.S. Thanks to my parents for my new camera that took these pictures as I have no scanner.

Lookingglass Alice

2010-04-10T11:33:00.000-04:00

New skirt for Lookingglass Alice with La. Pictures of me actually wearing it are on daily lolita. I also made a coordinating Alice necklace with a Tenniel illustration cameo I found on etsy.

Parfait skirt

2010-03-21T23:37:00.000-04:00

Sorry for the really crummy photos, my camera was dying x_x But here's a quick skirt I whipped up with this really sweet parfait pattern. I swear I'll post something besides lolita stuff at some point x_x

White cutsew

2010-03-12T16:19:00.001-05:00

A special thanks to Shelly for helping me out with this guy :D

New clothes

2010-03-02T00:27:00.000-05:00

Full coordinate (sans bow and jewelry) for the Alice premier. I finally caved and bought some Bodyline accessories (shoes, socks, purse), but everything else is handmade.

Close up of the white rabbit, he's so soft!

While picking up a zipper for my circus skirt (print from a previous post), I grabbed yet more fabric. I went with a stitched on bow theme for both (jacked from Emily Temple Cute). These and the bunny skirt were all three made within a day :D

My roommate Suzi was equally excited about my new creations and is already borrowing them for tomorrow :P

Blue cutsew

2010-02-21T20:39:00.000-05:00

Another bibbed top, this time in color! I wanted to make something simple and bit Alice inspired (colorwise at least, the skirt will be more so) for the Alice premier/lolita meetup coming up.

It only looks wide because it's short enough to fit over my higher skirts, and the sleeves are perfectly even I just can't take photos :P

Lemon cheesecake with raspberry topping

2010-02-18T00:12:00.001-05:00

I made this up as I went along so here's what I think I did corrected for my overcooking this :P

Lemon Cheesecake with Raspberry Topping
Crust:
3 cups crushed graham crackers
1/2 cup melted butter
3 tbsp sugar

Filling:
2 packages softened cream cheese (8 oz each)
1 cup sugar
~mix these first~
1 egg
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup lemon juice
~you can substitute for instant lemon pudding and 1 cup milk)~
1 tbsp flour

Topping:
20-30 raspberries (I just took twelve from the package and used the rest)
1/2 cup sugar/powdered sugar mix

Press crust mixture into pan (springform or pie) and heat at 350 for 8-10 minutes before adding filling. Bake for 45-55 minutes or until just a little bit of the inside in the center wobbles. Blend raspberries and sugar and pour over top, add whole raspberries, etc. Refrigerate.

Snow!

2010-02-12T20:26:00.001-05:00

It's no snowpocalypse, but it is pretty. I wandered out in my pink doughnut pjs to take these :P

I miss Christmas already...

Calico plushie

2010-02-09T10:28:00.000-05:00

Our new calico, Vera, and a plush one for Suzi's birthday since Vera sleeps in my bed.

Also some sweet new fabric I found at Hobby Lobby with Shelly. I didn't realize until Mere mentioned it that it's like Viv's from vivcore :P

Owl plush

2010-01-17T16:52:00.000-05:00

Kind of wonky but Zach made me promise him an owl plushie. More importantly at the fabric store there was this adorable dad buying yards of sequined fabric to make mermaid tails for his little girls to play dress up :D

Sketches

2010-01-12T17:24:00.001-05:00

So I've never really just drawn people sitting around me, but while bored in this ethics seminar I ended up sketching some of my classmates. A lot of people I didn't ask so I'm not going to post the pictures, but a couple of my friends were sitting right next to me and didn't mind my drawing them in profile. My favorite was of Debby (who looks oddly white).

Here's Jennifer who was always just on the verge of falling asleep. I drew her like three times because she liked being drawn the most.

And there's a dozen more I didn't ink or scan but here's another doodle I tried to do without a reference so it kind of ended up looking like my sister. Funny how our creative minds work.

Bird necklace

2010-01-01T23:32:00.001-05:00

I've never made jewelry before but I made this for my friend Debby for Christmas and I really like how it turned out.

The hardest part was hand threading the beads but they came out mostly even :D

New Year

2009-12-31T21:31:00.000-05:00

Last photo of 2009 (I think) - really just an excuse to show off the necklace Shelly bought me :P

♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

Old resolutions

~~Take a trip somewhere~~ I'm not counting family vacations.

Take more pictures Getting there.

Listen to new bands Debby and I went to a ton of shows this year and I found a lot of new stuff I love.

Stretch more It's not regular or anything but at least I haven't been needing to see the doctor about my back so I count that as a win.

~~Study more~~ Is it possible to study less than none? Yes it is.

Learn to cook something besides macaroni and cheese I actually learned how to cook a lot this year. Now I cook all the time :D

*Eat* something besides macaroni and cheese I can't help myself.

Make a craft blog :D

♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

New resolutions

Health I know I'll never get back to running a few miles each week but I need to keep walking when I can. And stretching, definitely lots of stretching. And stop eating so much junk and more vegetables.

Academics My qualifying exams are coming up and they're scary as hell so maybe I'll actually study this year. I think the whole class is studying together so this may motivate me. Read more scientific papers and actually present at journal club (or at least read the paper so I can contribute more). Also maybe use some of your travel grant and actually go to a seminar somewhere.

Work life Be more proactive. Also use aforementioned grant money even if you have no idea why someone gave it to you.

Social/family life Don't lose touch with people just because I see them less. Work harder to spend time with the people I love, especially my family. Also take more pictures of it all.

Artistic goals Get better at papercrafts. Sew more everyday clothes. Sew more extraordinary day clothes. Start blogging more than you use this stupid thing.

Our christmas tree

2009-12-24T10:47:00.001-05:00

Christmas ornaments

2009-12-08T21:20:00.001-05:00

Only 4 bats are left hanging from our ceiling so I wanted something neat to replace them. In part inspired by Deer Winter I looked into paper ornaments and found this awesomeness. So I ran out to target for some holiday cardstock to make my own. My hand hurt from exacto-ing out all the strips of paper. But I love how they came out.

Some of these are for you guys :P

Sleep masks

2009-11-22T19:36:00.001-05:00

Some individual shots and close-ups.

Super comfy :D

Black cutsew

2009-11-11T18:00:00.001-05:00

I really just wanted a black blouse to go with my lolita skirts and so Shelly and I had a craft day (she knitted and crocheted and you can check her stuff out on my links down the page). I like the details the best :D

Another close up shot of the front panel. The pintucks are a little messy because I gave up on actually measuring them. Once it's on all the imperfections are smoothed out. It also has little poofy half sleeves.

Halloween

2009-11-07T13:07:00.002-05:00

So I made Suzi and I space girl costumes for halloween this year out of material that can only be described as softer tin foil. Everything else we found in little five :P

There's more pictures of Suzi and I on facebook and LJ but for here I wanted to put some shots of the actual costume since I actually managed to make two of these in a day with no pattern and I'm quite proud

Craft night

2009-10-19T21:04:00.000-04:00

A bunch of girls from immunology came over to make kanzashi. I love having craft days with Debby & co. Here are some kanzashi Debbers and I made - her's is the red and mine the lavender.

The last night at the fair

2009-09-30T20:24:00.001-04:00

Suzi and I at the county fair. We actually started on the ferris wheel and ended with the swings but I don't have any good photos of the ferris wheel :P

Another one of just Suzi on the carousel. It went surprisingly fast x_x

Us on the bumper cars (we also rode this twice)

The gravitron looks like a spaceship. There's even a red and goldshirt :D

The bobsled/rock and roll thing made poor Suzi a bit dizzy :P

We finished off the evening with apple cinnamon funnel cake and cotton candy :D

Bat and cat

2009-09-20T19:21:00.001-04:00

Bat skirt turned out pretty cute and Meredith made a coordinating cat one :D

Us in front of this gold elevator thing:

Us getting ready:

My awesome hair (bat wings by Joe):

Bats and buttons

2009-09-12T16:24:00.000-04:00

New plans for AWA.

In the morning of the magician

2009-08-27T10:32:00.000-04:00

So we found out the Flaming Lips were in town like...the night before the show and Debby still managed to get us really awesome seats. Basically the best concert ever - we're talking giant balloons/confetti all the time/weird people dressed as giant animals dancing all over the stage/etc. :D

Debby and I before the show for some reason not wearing matching clothes (though today we're wearing our matching concert shirts to work).

Afterwards they played "What a Wonderful World" as we were leaving and gave us free posters :D

Presents

2009-08-13T20:49:00.000-04:00

Wondering how see-through wrapping paper works? Fantastically~! The ribbon looks a bit crazy because we didn't want to curl it before Debby had to pack it in her bag to take to the wedding.

Wrapping paper

2009-07-05T18:45:00.000-04:00

Debby wanted to make some wrapping paper with wax paper and pressed flowers. It actually came out real well considering we were just sort of making it up as we went along.

More...
The making of...

Yeah I collected the flowers in a latex glove box while going between labs. Here are some of my favorites:

Newsprint

2009-06-01T13:51:00.000-04:00

Cut up an old creative loafing and messed around. I think we're going to hang them behind the couch for now. They may eventually move to my room. Now for some terrible close up photos :P

Crab battle!

Found this ad in said creative loafing. No idea what it was for but I love it :D

Old painting + silly photos

2009-05-12T10:42:00.000-04:00

Found an old (terrible photo) of this painting I did for my grandparents. I'll need to bring a better camera up there next time I visit so I can get a better picture, because I swear it looks nicer than this.

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The ROFL-Cooper!

The sign on the gate at work.

1920s lolita

2009-04-10T21:10:00.000-04:00

A lolita design inspired by the 1920s and Miss Lorelei Lee of the book "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes".

Cactus pals

2009-03-23T21:39:00.000-04:00

My new pals Pete, Peanut, and June. They are quite prickly.

An unexpected color combo

2009-03-11T00:14:00.000-04:00

Joe and I made these while watching Transylvania 6-5000 as part of my embarrassingly long Jeff Goldblum movie fest.

Daylight savings time

2009-03-08T23:05:00.000-04:00

I'm not even sure what's going on anymore, I feel like I'm stuck in time.

Let's see if this worked

2009-02-01T23:51:00.000-05:00

Some new kanzashi that go with the banner :P

A portrait

2009-01-22T17:19:00.000-05:00

Inked in Virology class :D

Current favorite image

2009-01-21T11:58:00.000-05:00

http://boygirlparty.com/

New and improved

2009-01-11T21:06:00.000-05:00

Made with Meesh's style in mind. Joe helped me make them tonight, I think our duo is getting progressively better at this.

Everything will be ok

2009-01-08T21:05:00.000-05:00

Some little collages I made, one for our apartment and one for Keeze since it came up in a conversation about wanting this written all our over respective homes.

Masha D'Yans

2009-01-05T21:01:00.000-05:00

So pretty much if you've ever been in an Urban Outfitters you've seen her stuff, but I still am in love with it all and want to start doing water colors again because of her work: http://masha.com/

Something new

2009-01-04T21:00:00.000-05:00

So Joe and I watched some super melancholy movies and made a bunch of little kanzashi hairpins. I make Joe help me because I'm afraid of hot glue guns and far too lazy to use rice glue like you're supposed to. They're nothing fancy (though now I wish I had added some little green leaves, maybe later), but I wanted some plain ones I could wear with everyday clothes. Not sure how much I'll use the pink or black ones, if I don't I'll just give them away.

Old plushies

2009-01-03T20:56:00.001-05:00

Old sewing projects

2009-01-03T20:36:00.001-05:00

Old sketches

2009-01-03T20:22:00.000-05:00

More...