Teddy's South Korean Adventures

 

So for Christmas last year I went to South Korea to visit my sister and I brought my Teddy along my constant companion for the majority of my life. Here are some of the highlights of our trip. We were only there for a week but we got to see three cities; Seoul, Gangneung, and Dae Jeon.

Chang Gyeong Chung Palace (in Seoul)

Gangneung (Pine City)

Ojukheon (in Gangneung)

He's a small bear so he likes to climb trees to get a better view of things. 

 

Then it started snowing and being a typical Southern Californian bear, he immediately ran out to play and take advantage of a photo op. He should have packed his scarf and hat like I told him too.

Recesky Twin Lens Reflex Camera.

I loved using my film camera 10 years ago, until the day the shutter broke and I was given a shiny new digital camera months later as a  replacement. Even though I like digital and wouldn't go back to film as a main camera I still miss replacing 35 mm film, waiting a week before I get to see how my pictures turned out, followed by surprise and disappointment over the number of blurry photos I had taken. So yes, nostalgia was a big draw for me when I bought this kit.

Another draw was that it is a kit. I'm an engineer and because of the way I'm built I've always loved making stuff and seeing the insides of things. So I took a chance and bought this kit even after reading some reviews about the difficulty of building the kit and its spotty record of actually taking decent pictures. But at least I'll be able to see how a camera works and if I'm really motivated I'm sure I can find ways to finagle it into taking better pictures.

I'm going have to agree with the previous reviews the camera was a pain to assemble and the instructions were often unclear. My biggest problems were getting the shutter to function and having to constantly loosen screws when putting the body together. The screws also seemed to need more effort to screw in than I'm used to. Anyway it took me about 2-3 hours to assemble and I still had fun.

I'll post again after I've taken some shots with it and had the film developed. I don't promise anything great mainly because I'm not a good photographer but let's just blame the film I'll be using. I've found some unused canisters at the back of my desk; they're probably 10 years old by now.

Apologies and Goals

So I started this blog as something to keep me busy while unemployed and looking for work as a recent college graduate. Then lo and behold I got a job about a month after starting this blog. My original goal was to update 2-3 times a month on whatever caught my fancy but as you can see that hasn't happened. My current goal is update whenever I finish a project be it sewing, drawing, knitting, or whatever else I might be interested in. Now that I have settled in somewhat in my new job I hope that I can devote some more time to this blog because I don't want this site to turn into one of those ghost town blogs I keep running across and wish that the author would write new posts. Anyway onto some business.

Since this will be my first blog post of the year I might as well start with some goals.

1. Write more often.
2. Improve my drawing and other art hobbies. (and hopefully post some of the results)
3. Keep on learning. 

So far I am on track with my second and third resolution. I have signed up for some local art classes and things seem to be going well. I can already see improvement in my drawing. Three has been fairly easy because I have been taking classes at Coursera and Duolingo. Coursera is a site that offers a number of college courses, while Duolingo is a language learning site; both of which are free. I haven't been using either of them for very long but my experiences with both have been overwhelmingly positive.

I'll try to keep this up and maybe in time I'll fall into a nice pattern when I'm updating 2-3 times a month like I planned.

Wish me luck and I know it's almost three weeks late but I wish for everyone to have a happy new year.

Four-Paneled Dice Bag

I made this bag for my brother and his growing collection of dice. As always, this project took longer to finish than I had thought it would take but I still think it came out pretty cool, but maybe a little too big and bias tape is still the bane of my existence. Next time I make a bag like this I would decrease the size of the panels and change my placement of the grommets to the top of the points or just increase the number of grommets I used.

Materials:

• Four 4.5"x12" panels of main material (I used two different colors of suede)
• 4 grommets
• Four 4.5"x12" panels of lining material (I used cotton)
• Bias tape
• Leather lacing
• I also wanted to get a giant bead to act as a stopper for the bag opening but I got lazy and didn't feel like going out to buy one or make one with the clay I have lying around the house.

Directions:
In hindsight, I should have taken pictures as I was sewing but I got too caught up in the sewing, so you'll have to deal with my diagrams made in paint. 

Dice Bag diagram

1. Once you have sewn your four pieces of fabric as shown above you then sew the sides together.
2. Make two of these, one with the outer material and one with the lining material. 

Finishing:

1. Sew lining and outer face together, I put the wrong sides together and sewed it completely shut.
2. Clean up edges with bias tape. (As usual, this part took the longest time. Bias tape is becoming the bane of my sewing existence).
3. Insert grommets
4. Thread lacing, knot ends (or use large beads) and enjoy bag

Color Me Mine

My friend and I have started meeting every Tuesday just to talk and catch each other up on our lives. This time, however, we planned to to to Color Me Mine (my first time) just to do something creative but it ended up being a celebration for me because the day before I had been offered a job. So I splurged and made a mask to go with my collection on my wall. I was originally going to make  a tea cup and coaster (or something else useful) but they didn't have any teacups and I didn't really like any of the cups and mugs they did have. Although, I almost made one of those teapot and cup for one. The only problem was I just wanted a plain one that I could customize; the only one they had already had a design.

I think it came out alright, not great but not disappointing either. I tried to give him an aged look but I don't think it worked out as well as I would have liked. Anyway, I look forward to going to Color Me Mine again sometime.

Yosemite Adventures

Here's a little comic I made about some happenings on my most recent trip to Yosemite National Park. It's a very crude comic that I made very quickly for my sister and I got lazy towards the end. I was planning to redo it in colored pencils to make it neater and cleaner but again laziness took over. I might redo it in the future to clean up the boxes, calligraphy and improve the drawing but that might not be for awhile.

Transformers' Soundwave Costume

Soundwave

I made this a couple of years ago but I felt like sharing it, especially since I haven't published a post in a while. I made this with my sister and my older brother for his friend's birthday party. It is made completely out of cardboard. Most of my work was done mostly from the waist down, along with a good portion of the helmet. I also made the Decepticon emblem on the chest. The body and arms were done by my sister and most the painting was done by our brother. We made this in 24 hours from 6pm-6pm and probably only slept 3-4 hours that night. If I had more time, I would have liked to give the costume some knees and do a better paint job but the party started at 3 or 4 so I did what I could. I apologize for the bad photograph but he was late and it was late so there wasn't a lot of light or time to work with.

I hope you enjoy.