Art Dolls

I'm finally putting my art dolls in my Etsy shop! Hurray! If you're interested, you can click this link, and go to my Etsy shop. You can check out the dolls in detail! 

At this point, I'll be posting new things weekly. Ultimately, not a bad goal. Especially since I have so much to do before the Comic Expo as it is. Here's a brief run down of what I'm planning to make over the next four months (for sale on Etsy and at the Calgary Comic and Entertainment Expo).

~ 10 to 20 new hoods (new collections, including Supernatural, and Galaxy)

~ basic gauntlets (faux fur, leather, and Steampunk) and hand pieces (Steampunk and Fantasy)

~ 2 to 3 capelets

~ 2 to 3 cloaks

~ 2 to 3 corsets and/or waist cinchers

~ jewelry (necklace, headpieces)

~ chain mail and scale mail pieces

~ ears (basic cat/wolf ears, fox ears, and "Wolf Shaman" ears)

I'm going to busy! Fortunately, I'm warming up to just saying "I'M MAKING THESE THINGS SO DEAL WITH IT! I'M A NERD AND I'M TIRED OF BEING AN 'ARTISTE'! I JUST WANT TO BE FREE!" It will make me so much happier. Yet, I'm a coward. I can kill dragons and draugrs and monsters in Skyrim, but I can't even man up to do what I want in my real life. Soon. Especially because I have so much to do...

A Day Out

Whenever my husband and I go out and about, this is how I picture us.

But that's because I romanticize everything. I can't help it. The world is much more exciting when you live in it with a sense of wonder and romance. 

Any who. We went to a few places, and did some shopping. My husband needed new jeans, and we wanted to use some gift cards, and I wanted to get some things to update my wardrobe a little bit. 

What a lovely little haul. I didn't even spend that much to get everything. I'm looking forward to putting these things to use!

Everything in a nutshell. Bluenotes: Black "jeggings" (they fit more like pants than leggings. I needed new black pants for work, and just life in general. They're more like skinning dress pants than anything), flowy black top, and soft galaxy infinity scarf. Goodwill: Striped past-the-knee length skirt, two neckties (for the fabric. The pattern in both ties was just too perfect). Forever 21: Nice cozy cardigan, black rose earrings, and two necklaces (one is for a friend of mine). Lush: "Quietly Motivated" liquid eyeliner (it's so pretty and glittery!). HMV: Five Blu-Rays (both my husband and I picked out a few. They were on sale, and we had a gift card). Crossroads Market: Bone china decanter label.

In detail (the neat things).

You'll recognize a few of these titles from my Top Ten Movies of 2013 blog post. The other two are movies that my husband adores (Dredd and Lawless). All of these movies are ones that both of us adore. I'm going to re-watch the life out of The Great Gatsby. It'll probably be one of my go-to background noise movies, like Shutter Island. 

I'm so excited to try out my Lush "Quietly Motivated" eyeliner. It blends out really well, and it's kind of a dark coppery colour. I did a swatch of it on my hand (Lush is so good for letting you try things in store. One of the reasons I buy so much from them), and it's so glittery, and both builds up and blends out really well. Recently my Revlon eyeliner has been horrible to me (not dense or dark enough... Just a grey mess that burns my eyes). Unfortunately, I couldn't get any black eyeliner from Lush, because they're reformulating or something. Hopefully in the New Year! Lush is a little bit more expensive, but it's mostly natural (if it is synthetic,  it comes from ethical sources), and they don't test on animals. Which is good (I used to not care, but recently I have, because so many animals that I like are ones that get tested on). And man. The products they make. I like them. My skin likes them. 

This is my lovely antique store find. We went to Crossroads Market, and stumbled upon an antique store that had all kind of weird things. I jumped on this, because I have a weird thing for old decanter labels. I have one for bourbon or gin... I can't remember. I still need to clean it. I got that one for free. This one was marked as $10, but the woman gave it to me for $7. It's bone china, made in England. I looked up the type and the maker, and found the same one as part of a set of three selling for $95. I got mine for a good price. Regardless, I'm still planning to make it into jewelry. Or just hang it on my inspiration board. It's so bizarrely pretty. Something that looks like it belongs with a tea set, yet instead is used to label a decanter. Fascinating!

So many nice fabrics! Galaxies, silhouettes of Victorian ladies (makes me think of Cinderella), and elephants. Lots of my favourite things. I'm fairly certain that all of the fabrics are synthetic, but whatever the case... Inspiring, and I'm planning to make something clever out of the ties. 

I almost bought these earrings a little while ago, but decided against it. Luckily, they were still there. They're big chunky black roses, with gold-coloured backing. They hang from fish hook style earrings (or whatever they're called...). I want to start wearing more earrings again, and I'm toying with the idea of re-stretching my lobes. We'll see, though. I just miss having big posts in my ears, just as I miss my snakebites. Only difference is that stretching out my lobes again is a bit less noticeable than facial piercings. Also less work. 

The necklaces are simple little pendants with resin and gold-coloured insects. I bought one for myself and one for a friend of mine (as mentioned). She's planning to do a steampunk entomologist character (which I think would be so cool. It's actually inspiring me to think about doing a botanist character), and thought of her when I saw it. I wanted one also (because what's not to love about a necklace with what appears to be a gold queen ant or wasp), so I bought one in mint-green-blue, and one in black. She'll be getting the black one. Forever 21 also has big lockets with beetles on them, but the chains were so chunky. Potential for them, but not today.

So much coziness! I like the sweater that I got. It's a size large, so it's nice and cozy and comfortable and just everything that a sweater ought to be. I'm a fan.

That's all for now kids!

My Top Ten Films of 2013

I decided to review all of the movies that I saw in the past year, and list my favourites. Now, this is limited to movies that I have seen in theaters (because that's a bit easier to figure out). Looking back at it, my husband and I went to a lot of movies this past year. Most of it is because of Scene points, but also, my husband likes movies, and likes going to theaters. If it wasn't for him, I would probably just wait and watch them at home. Now, this list may be incomplete, or a little bit off, depending on whether or not the list I used was complete. It looks fairly spot on, and at very least, and the movies that I definitely loved are on here. 

I'm just going to run through all of the movies that I saw in theater. Star Trek: Into Darkness; World War Z; Man of Steel; Iron Man 3; Dark Skies; Mama; Gangster Squad; The Last Exorcism: Part 2; Oz the Great and Powerful; The ABCs of Death; Evil Dead; The Great Gatsby; The Lone Ranger; The Conjuring; You're Next; The World's End; Insidious: Chapter 2; Prisoners; The Wizard of Oz (3D/Imax 75th Anniversary Release); Carrie; The Hobbit: Desolation of Smaug; American Hustle. 

Now, I will say that of all the movies we saw, there's only a few that I didn't really like, or wasn't crazy about. They're all good, but a few were less than spectacular. Overall, though, I generally enjoyed all of the movies that I saw. And then there were a few that just blew me away, and that I saw at least twice, or wanted to see more than once.

Without further ado.... (as close to the right order as I can get).

10. Iron Man 3

There have been a lot of good superhero movies. Man of Steel was really good, and I liked it, but even if I like a superhero movie, they're generally the same. The characters are fairly one dimensional, and there's not a lot of depth. However, I didn't get that sense with Iron Man 3. I think the difference is the fact that it was written by Shane Black, and he is a brilliant writer. It turned a superhero into a relate-able character; one who is just as messed up as the rest of us. I like Robert Downey Jr. quite a bit, but I think this is the first time in an Iron Man movie where I liked him the way that I do in his other movies.

9. Prisoners

What a terrifying film. I never want to watch it again, but I think that it should receive awards. It was so well done, and beautifully shot. However, it's tragic, dramatic, horrifying, fear-inducing. And it made me come to the conclusion that if I was in the Apocalypse, I would not want to be anywhere near Hugh Jackman's character's house. I recommend it. I just don't necessarily want to watch it again.

8. You're Next

You might notice quite quickly that a lot of movies on this list are horror movies. May as well admit that first, and get it out of the way. My husband and I are horror movie fans, and we saw almost all of the horror movie releases of this year, with the exception of just a few. Because of that... Yes! A lot of the movies on this list are horror. Naturally, though, they had to be good to get on this list. And boy. 2013 was a good year for horror. I chose to put You're Next on here because it completely blew me out of the water. We went for the heck of it, and I dragged my feet to the theater. I was expecting another run of the mill home invasion movie. Not my favourite type of horror. I don't know why I was expecting that. It was directed by the guy who directed the short Q is for Quack in the The ABCs of Death. That is a weird one, and Adam Wingard definitely has a style. Man, that movie was good. I left speechless, and in awe. Kind of like after I watched Cabin in the Woods. When you've seen so many horror movies (both good and bad), everything starts to look like the same movie. It follows a precise formula. So when someone breaks that formula, it's a breath of fresh air. 

7. Oz The Great and Powerful

I'm not fully sure where this movie belongs on this list, because it's impossible to compare to other movies. It was so dazzling, so mesmerizing, and just wonderful. It was almost as good as seeing The Wizard of Oz in Imax 3D. I loved the movie because it incorporated both the universes of The Wizard of Oz book and movie. It stitched them perfectly, and it just made for something so wonderfully whimsical. I'd like to own it in time, and watch it on dreary sad days.

6. Carrie

I was excited. I came. I saw. I loved the movie. It was almost better than the original. Who expected that? Not I. But goodness. I was so pleasantly surprised. Carrie is one of my favourite stories, and one of my favourite books. I've always related to the character of Carrie, and seeing an updated version was great. It also filled a couple of gaps that the original had. Chloe Grace Moretz is an amazing horror actress. I hope that she makes more and more horror films.

5. American Hustle

Great story. Great period piece. Good movie full of horrible people. I liked it. It definitely represented all of the good and the bad that made up the late 1970s. Whoever did the costuming should be applauded. It's difficult to get the 1970s perfect without being cheesy, or poorly choosing which fashions to focus on, but they did it. The movie felt like something lifted from a 1970s magazine, and the movie was well written. I think it's one of my favourite con films that I've seen.

4. Evil Dead

As far as a reboot/sequel/thing, Evil Dead was phenomenal. It was gory, brutal, disgusting, and everything that I could hope for from Evil Dead. It actually made me like the Evil Dead franchise. I enjoyed it, but the new one made me really appreciate it. That sounds odd, and a lot of people might chew my head off for saying that. But at least I do like the movies more now. This remake/reboot is just really, really, good.

3. The Hobbit: Desolation of Smaug

For full details, go to this other post in this blog. I talked about it there.

2. The Conjuring

Best horror movie. Best biopic. Watch it. And scream. I did. Twice.

1. The Great Gatsby

I heard that a lot of people didn't like this movie. But I like Baz Luhrmann. I like dazzling spectacles. I like watching a movie, and feeling mesmerized. I want to live in the parties thrown at Gatsby's. I loved the costumes, the stories, the set, the music. It felt like I saw seeing everything through the eyes of someone in the 1920s who was going to the big city or a rich person's house for the first time. I enjoy spectacles. I enjoy glitter and dancing and shining wealth. I love the 1920s. I could watch this movie over and over again, and continue to love it. Let me bask in its splendor. In other news, I continue to be amazed that Leonardo Di Caprio hasn't won an Oscar. 

That's all folks! I think this list is all that it could be. I continue to be baffled that I saw enough movies in theater to make a list like this. Thank you, husband.