The end of a year

Every year, I like to write myself a little memo of the year that went - what I accomplished, experienced, and gained. What I lost, regretted and never wanted to do again.
This year has been joyful, but very difficult.
This has been the year where I got into three amazing fandoms; Homestuck; Doctor Who; BBC Sherlock. This is the year I cried for the end of Harry Potter; got into Pottermore; got sorted into Hufflepuff. And this is the year where I learned that I can tell people my honest opinion; when I feel stepped upon; when I don't agree.
I started this year, just waiting for something to happen, not knowing what to do to myself. Then I started school and my lust for art and learning techniques spread like a wildfire; all day, every day, I was thinking about what to do next; what I should improve; how I could solve different problematics.
I was on a roll, I'd never felt better.
Then the unthinkable happened, and I got an inflammation in my right hand.
I've done everything I can; kept it calm; had it in a cast; went to x-ray; got a blockage. But nothing has helped so far - and it's been 5 months.
My life came to a half. From the last 5 moths, I haven't got a lot of memory, only frustration and anger. I don't know what to do with my life now, all my future plans were canceled and I can't answer my own questions. I can only wait, and hope it won't be long.
It saddens me, that I'll go into the new year with this, not knowing where my life will go, and at what speed.
But everything will be sorted out eventually, and I will be able to gain what I have lost.

I have promised myself something, that I will look forward to, when the inflammation has gone. And I can't wait, it'll be another chapter in my life!

I wish all of you a great new year, with dreams coming true ♥

Christmas Eve

Christmas was a blast!
I enjoyed myself and the great company - and not to forget the food.

..and the presents ♥
My sisters gave me the most amazing lamp ever - in the shape of a 1:1 scale white rabbit!

Merry 12th Perigee's Eve

Sascha helped me take these photos, for a contest over at AniManga.dk. Decided on the 3rd image (you had to have their name in it)!
For those of you wondering, I'm dressed as Aradia Megido from Homestuck.

♥ ♥ ♥ Happy Holidays ♥ ♥ ♥

22nd

This month I've gotten to wear lolita a lot!
Here's the outfit I wore Saturday, for Mousys birthday party, and the Kita Christmas Lunch; 

At the Christmas Lunch I found the almond in the ris a la mande, which I never do, and I won two tickets for Arrietty :')

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Also, here's a better picture of my outfit from J-popcon, taken by Martin Nielsen;

merry christmas

Updating has become a rarity for me now, haha.

Two weekends ago I went to a meet up in Aarhus! It was a good day, and nice to wear lolita again - it's been a while!

We went to AROS, where they had an exhibition with Olafur Eliasson - which resulted in a lot of cool photos by Sascha!



And I took this of rainbowception; a rainbow outside of the rainbow panorama;


Last weekend I went to some Christmas-"cozy" with my loli-circle!


Tomorrow, I'm going to wear loli again, it's great!

horn tutorial v.0.2

V.0.2 of the ram horns for my Aradia Megido cosplay!
(I forgot to put this up yesterday, I'm sorry)

These horns are easier to make than the previous ones, and weights nothing at all - this means, that I was able to just stick them through my wig, and hold them together with a ribbon! They don't give you a headache, and are easy to deal with.

Let's get started!

For these horns, you'll be using:
Wire mesh
Wire
Paint tape (optional)
Papier-mache
Wood glue (for indoors)
Ribbon (anything will do)
Acrylic paint (color of your own choice)

1. This is the wire mesh I used - I cut it out in pieces, and put them together with wire. You can see the finished form on the right in the picture - it took a while to get the shape right, so be prepared for trial and error!

2. This is basically the forms I used for a single horn - notice that I have cut a lot into every piece, to make it able to shape as I wanted it to.

3. Wrap it up in paint tape - NOTE, this is optional!

4. Cover them in papier-mache, and do the textures with papier-mache too.

5. For this, I cut a small hole on both sides of each horn, and put a ribbon through - like this, I could hang them up, so it was easier to even out the glue!
I gave them three layers of glue - you have to wait for each layer to dry, before applying the next one.
This makes the horns hard to bend out of shape, but they're still soft to the touch!

NOTE, remember to fit them for your head, and adjust the shape often!

6. Paint them in the desired colors! I still need to paint these properly and give them a layer of shine.

DONE! I didn't get a picture of how I put them in the wig, but basically, I cut a hole where I wanted them to be, and stuck them through - the ribbon hold them together, so they don't fall out of the wig or fall out of place!

Don't hesitate to questions!

J-popcon '11

I had a blast at this years J-popcon!
For the first time in a long, long time, I didn't sleep with Liv - I had decided to do something so drastic, as to stay at a hotel with 14 other people! We were divided in 2 rooms, and the people were from our Homestuck group. It was fun, and I wouldn't mind doing it again! And the view, man, from the 9th floor, you can see the whole city..

Friday I was dressed as Matryoshkastuck!Aradia, but I'm not completely satisfied with my hoodie, it was very last-minute, and I couldn't do much with my hand - so I will re-do it someday.
But it was fun, and I'm surprised a lot of people could recognize me :'D

I meant to wear it Saturday too, but as the rest of the Homestuck group were backstage, getting ready to do to opening act for the cosplay show, as the majority of my friends were too, I didn't wear it. But I had fun! I didn't really see that much of the con, mainly sitting around and talking.
The show was amazing! I'm really surprised at the level Danish cosplayers have come to, it's all so innovative and inspiring.

Sunday was the J-fashion.dk fashion show, and I wore this;

I didn't expect a lot of people to show up, as it was quite early, in con-perspective, but a big amount of people did show up!

I got a ride to Silkeborg with Emma, where I stayed the night at Kristines place - I was so lucky to catch the con-flu, haha!

I had a wonderful con ♥
(I'm not very good at writing this kind of stuff, hahahaha)

The horn tutorial will be up on Sunday!

update

Good afternoon, everyone!

First of all, I want to thank all of my readers; you've gotten so many, and all the comments you leave me warms me up in this cold time ♥ I appreciate all of you, and the time you spend reading my blog!

In the coming days I will be posting a new horn tutorial, and about my trip to J-popcon.
I hope you'll look forward to it!

But more importantly I'll give you a little update on the inflammation;
After I got the cast off I couldn't feel any bettering, so today I had an appointment with my orthopedic. This inflammation is so frustrating, and he doesn't get why it's not gone yet - so he decided to give me a 'blockage', a fluid I got in my tendon. This should hopefully help within the next two weeks! This has also made my arm completely numb, haha. Except when I bend the hand backwards, that feels like someone is ripping the tendon out my arm..

I'm hoping for the best! And I'm sorry for these boring blogs I make at the moment :(

the cast

As mentioned, I called the orthopedic yesterday. I'm getting really frustrated with this, as it has been four damn months already, and the pain has just gotten worse - so when they told me I could get an appointment the 14th of November, I felt like crying.
But the secretary I talked to told me she would ask the doctor what I should do, and then I could call her back.
They came to the conclusion that I could come in right away, and I could get a cast on!

I will have to wear it for 10 days only, and then the inflammation should be gone, hopefully.

Only thing about this is, that it goes all the way out to my fingertips, haha. It makes me so handicapped; I can't button my shirts; can't tie my shoelaces; can't put my hair in a ponytail; can't open jars; etc.. but I'll manage!
Tonight I didn't sleep too much, because I woke up and suddenly felt claustrophobic and panicked. I was convinced my fingers would fall off, and I imagined my hands filled with stinging red blisters.
Well, I have to get used to this for sure!

self portrait

Last week we [in school] were assigned to draw a self portrait, while looking in a mirror.
This too is done all with my left hand - the inflammation is getting worse lately, and I will call the orthopedic tomorrow..

This is the half finished, and finished drawing,

I've never tried this kind of self portrait, but I will be doing it a lot more; it's fun and a good exercise.

left handed art dump

I've had a few complaints that I don't update my blog that often anymore - so here you have a small update!
First of all, the inflammation isn't gone yet, and it's been three months. Hopefully, it'll be fully functioning again in 2 months time or so.
This is also the reason I don't update that much, I'm frankly not able to do much, haha... It's getting frustrating and I've lost the patience, but this is how it is.

BUT, I'm getting better and better at drawing with my left hand!
Here's some of the drawings I've made,

(look at those fucked up eyes, staring into your soul) 

I've also tried to experiment a bit,

And I made a "re-design" of the book cover for Stephen Kings "CELL" (PULS is the Danish title), with a ballpoint-pen and a marker,

Last, but not least, we've made dreamboards in school, but I might have taken too much artistic liberty with it, instead of just plastering it with stereotypic "dreams",

My teacher didn't think I took the project seriously and asked "if my future would have a big black background?", so I had to re-do some things.
I didn't want to ruin it completely, though, especially when there was a meaning behind the background. Well, I'll be able to defend my ideas and thought Thursday!
This is the ruined version,

DIY: dying clothes

These days I spend too much time watching TV shows - but in between I get a little creative. Well, the most creative I can be right now!

The past few days I've had a little project going, and some of you might find it useful.

Do you ever feel like you have nothing to wear, and you clothes just seem dull?

Fear not!

You can dye your clothes, and it will feel like new!

I, myself, had a pair of blue jeans, a baby pink top, a blue dress and a washed black t-shirt.
On a daily basis I wear a lot of black and I haven't really got many bright colors in my wardrobe; so the top and the dress have just been lying around for ages, not being used - on the contrary, I've used the t-shirt so much that the color had faded quite a lot.

For the dying I used Admiral - a danish fabric color brand, that can be used in the washing machine, which is the easies way to dye clothes.

This is how it looked before and after,

NOTE: when dying clothes, you have to make sure how much it weights, as a higher weight gives a lighter color!
NOTE 2: when dying jeans it's best to use the jeans-color for the best result; but as I didn't want the blue jeans to be completely black, I went for the basic color.
NOTE 3: The fabric-color usually can't dye the thread used for sewing - this can be seen on my dress, which still has a slightly visible blue thread.

As you can see in the image, the top and the dress has gotten a washed-black color, due to the weight from the jeans.
This was easy to solve, as I had another pair of jeans - an old pair that have been used so much that they have haded to a bluish-black - that I needed to dye too.
For these, I used the jeans-color, and put the top and the dress in the washer together with the jeans, so now they are completely black too.

This is a really cheap (Admiral cost 59Dkkr) way to renew your wardrobe, and make the washed-out clothes seem new again!

inspire me VI

Do you remember The Cat With Hands?
As some of you might know, I'm a sucker for this kind of thing - I just can't get enough.
Here's a few of my favorites! And if you know of some good ones, please tell me about them ♥

Hufflepuff

Did I mention that I got into Pottermore?

And I got sorted into Hufflepuff ♥

Also, I upgraded my DSi to the 3DS last week! I love it, it's a dream - and the color is super cool, "cosmo black".

Though, I can't use it for much playing right now, as it requires a right hand, haha.

i'm pathetic

It's always in a situation like this, when your tools have been taken away from you, that you have the biggest need for them.
For the past 1½ month I've had tenosynovitis - which means I haven't been able to draw, craft or anything that requires the use of my right hand.
It's frustrating, and some days I feel so angry I could just scream.
But nothing is so bad it is not good for something,
I've learned to write nicely with my left hand, and I'm starting to get the grasp of using it to draw too.

So now that I can't do much, I spend a lot of time with jigsaws, games and TV series!
The past week have been dedicated to these lovely games,

Yume Nikki and the fangame .flow
I love them. What more can I say. Inspiration-bomb, right there, haha!

And lastly, I jumped in the trap and got myself a tumblr..
ApfelAstrid@tumblr ♥
I post drawings, pictures, and reblog a little!