must-haves

I am feverishly eager to have a few things in my possession right now.

The first thing, obviously, is Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2.

I'll be purchasing the Bluray to experience all its high-def glory. I am going to watch this movie every day for months, I can feel it. Sure, I'll do house chores or homework while I watch, but it will be constantly playing in the background. No shame.

Second, is Tree of Codes, the newest book by Jonathan Safran Foer.

If you haven't, read all of this guy's books (including his non-fiction work Eating Animals). Do it now. I mean it! He's one of my favorite authors and such an inspiration. All of his books will make you cry, but each one is wonderful. Tree of Codes is a funky thing, comprised entirely from words he found in another book, with an architecture and artistry unlike that of any other novel, and has a big price tag as a result. But come pay day, this beautiful book will be mine.

I'm trying not to spoil myself too much on the book's interior, but here's a tiny peak:

source

Third, tattoos. I've had some crazy tattoos planned for a while now, but I'll save the details on them until after I've gotten them. This should be happening in the next few weeks and I won't lie, I'm kind of really looking forward to people's reactions to my placement choice.

I don't really splurge and buy myself things very often, especially in light of my six month stretch of unemployment which only just recently ended (thank god!), but I'm going to spoil myself with these three things. I've earned it, and it feels good to say so.

halloween recap part two

I think my months-long battle with AT&T is finally over, which means at long last I have unwavering internet access, and I'm stoked to get back into regular blogging. I haven't had this blog very long, but it's already important to me and it's starting to feel like my own little home on the internet.

I have something fun to share with you guys today: Halloween costumes! Hans and I were controversially an roller skating white trash gay couple from the 80s, because that's the sort of travesty that comes about when you wait until last minute to make your costume.








Luigi?




this one is my favorite!

Lamely, we did not get any pictures while we were actually wearing our skates, but you can bet we were rolling around the house like maniacs.

Also, this was the third year in a row I portrayed a man for Halloween. I think next year I'll be a girl. Perhaps even a pretty one.

What were you for Halloween?

halloween recap part one

Hans and I hosted a little get together in celebration of the spookiest day of the year, but I haven't gotten pictures back from my sister yet so I'll have to post on that later.

Though I failed to get any pictures of my own from the party, I did snap some photos of the decorations around my house. I wanted to share them yesterday but AT&T yet again screwed me over and unjustly knocked us offline for four days. So we'll call this my better-late-than-never Halloween post.




bleeding candles




We thought about buying Phoenix a costume, but we knew she would just eat it


Kenya, on the other hand, is in costume year-round







We handed out candy (and pretzels!) together for the first time. I felt old but also awesome. Other than giving candy, our Halloween was less than festive: While I cooked dinner, Hans fixed the pilot light, which had gone out and left us in a very cold house, and then we watched the Misfits seasons 3 premiere (did anyone else watch? Thoughts?) and then some episodes of Planet Earth and just enjoyed each other's company. It was rather calm in contrast to last year's trip to Atlanta's Zombie Apocalypse haunted house, but it was still a great Halloween.

Now I'm off to continue overdosing on candy and to get ready for work. I hope everybody had a fantastic Halloween!

P.S. For more Halloween goodness, check out my guest post over on Mary Rebecca's blog.

watercolored heart

Okay, watercoloredheart was a lame screen name I used when I was like 14, but whatever, I'm reusing it as a blog title because today I want to share some of my watercolory artwork with you guys.

It's probably apparent that my weapon of choice is the ballpoint pen, but sometimes I use ballpoint or india ink pens and watercolor paints.


reminiscent of much of my high school era stuff


I made this Colossus for my friend Ryan ages ago


flower girl in a moleskin


The Joker, for an old coworker

All of these are a two or more years old, whoops! (I listed them oldest to newest, so this is a tiny glimpse at the evolution of my work--fun for me to see!) Check out more of my older art here. Some of my newer watercolors have been featured in Moleskin Monday posts here (this is a very Halloween-inspired moleskin post!) and here.

I have been a busy bee! I started a new full time job and school is trying its best to kick my butt. I'm keeping my head just above the water though, and I'll be back later in the week with some fun Halloween DIYs. I hope everyone is having a great week!

DIY sweater resurrection

When debating what to wear today I picked up a frumpy old sweater and had an idea.



I forgot to take a "before" picture of the sweater because my mind does not yet shout "get your camera!" whenever I wish it would (seriously, I miss so many photographable moments because I haven't trained myself to think of taking pictures yet). So, it DID have sleeves, but I cut them off, making the sweater that once made me feel like a giant blob into a cute short sleeved sweater I could style with layers.


But what to do with those sleeves?


Leg warmers!



I'm all about revamping old clothes, which is kind of a bad thing because I'm a borderline clothes hoarder. But I often reconstruct or restyle something and think so this is why I've been keeping this! That makes it okay to save old clothes, right? If you have some old sweater you don't wear but can't part with, try this easy DIY. People will admire how crafty you are. Actually, they'll probably think you bought it like that, but do it any way!

moleskin monday: a cage to you

I'm actually not particularly fond of this sketch. To be honest, I had nearly forgotten about it. But I decided to feature it today because at some point I must have gotten bored and adorned it with song lyrics, and I happen to love the song. I've actually had it on repeat quite often lately, so it was a fun surprise to flip through my moleskin and find the all but forgotten sketch. It seems this time of year I always have Right Away, Great Captain! playing. So, the sketch and, more importantly, the song.









This was the first Right Away, Great Captain! song I heard and I was hooked immediately. Apparently so hooked I decorated my drawing with its lyrics, high school style.

what does a vegan eat?

I love to cook, and I love to take pictures of what I cook. I've got a lot of these food pictures lying around so I thought I'd share a bunch of them! I personally LOVE food porn and I could stare at glorious food pictures all day. My pictures may be less than glorious, but they can help me answer a question I get asked all the time because I'm vegan, which is what do you eat?! Well, here's a little taste of the things I eat!























I don't know if this is exactly representative of my diet, because while we only have a few staples around here, I hardly photograph things I make all the time--that's not exciting! I try to make sure I make nutritious, healthy(-ish) meals and I try new dishes all the time. I'll be happy to provide recipes if anyone is interested!