1.6.09

Right now I am working on several projects at one time. This is usually how I do things, Im very much a mutli-tasker or scatter brain, however you want to put it. Here is a look into my projects. Woo!

I am watercolor painting several personal stories into comic form. The paper is shaped like a scroll. I really enjoy putting these stories down on paper, its like a visual journal. Sort of the same way this blog is. The scroll on top is about my movie watching problems, the one on bottom is about seeing a bird stuck inside the grocery store.

In a previous post I showed off my gem collection. I bought them to make these intensely sparkly headbands. Im not sure if I like them or not. I think I will give them to my co-workers.

This is a long term project, Ive been carving these earrings for over a year now. I was carving them with a sharp pocket knife Greg gave me last, last Christmas. This Christmas my parents gave me proper wood working tools and I have made alot more progress.

I started making these for the same reason I make everything else. I had a vision of what I wanted but couldn't find or afford it. SO the next best thing is to make it myself. My vision was an earring that was sturdy and wouldn't break if dropped. I wanted it to be delicate and beautiful aesthetically and in workmanship. Most work like this is upwards of $250, and FRAGILE! Here is my take on it.

I cant wait to wear them! But first I need to varnish them, oh and finish carving!

Lastly, I am working on the dress I showed you sketches of. I have all the supplies for the gem rich stripe. I ironed the fabric into the right shape, I will sew it together once all the gems are sewn on. Now is the hard part, deciding on the pattern of the gems. Im not sure what to do yet. I have gems in circles and rounded rectangles. I also bought some shiny black beads to add some diversity.

I hope you liked seeing what Im working on. Its helpful for me to see what Im doing, and to talk about it so I can get my ideas straight.

M.E.T

1.5.10

This dress FINALLY arrived the day before New Years Eve, perfect. Today I planned on recreating the New Years Eve outfit. When I slipped this dress on I was still wearing the thermal leggings that I had slept in. I decided that I preferred this loud outfit of white and black to my previous plan. I chose to wear this teal hoodie with it for several reasons.

1, because its cropped and ends at the waist it continues the optical illusion of making my waist smaller.
2, The outfit need one final pop of loud to complete the overall urban feel.



Hoodie - Gift
Dress - Rosalind Keep Oasis (yea I saw it on Stylebubble)
Leggings - Hellz Bellz Fice
Boots - Ross

Yesterday Greg and I made a really big mistake and put WAY TOO MUCH Garlic into the pasta. Today I my breathe is making myself sick. Gahhh...

M.E.T.

1.4.10

Among my top interests, is food. My personality of being over indulgent and liking to eat might even be a character flaw. A favorite dish of mine is Vietnamese Pho, a beef and noodle soup.

Pho Background
I'm not a Pho expert, and I've decided to not research on the subject, but rather to share my current knowledge and opinion on Pho. Making Pho is a labor intensive endeavor. Its one of those foods where its easier to be constantly making it as opposed to randomly decided to do it. If you got it cooking all the time it works, otherwise get ready for a big grocery list and constant pot checking. This soup is essentially made of beef broth. The broth is created by cooking beef bones for 2days time. Im not sure when the noodles are cooked but before it is served they add raw meat to the soup. While in the soup the meat cooks well enough to eat. Meat varies, you can order meatballs, tripe, flank etc. Usually with an order of Pho you will also receive a plate of sprouts, jalapenos and Thai Basil to add more flavor. Eating Pho is one of the most pleasureful eating experiences for me. It has a meaty taste that I crave in food, but is also light and warm. Pho is not greasy at all so once you have eaten it, its a comfortable warm full.

Pho Logic
To me eating Pho is a process that I prepare for mentally. Before I eat Pho I make a personal commitment to the soup. I dress down, or mentally sacrifice what I'm wearing. Eating Pho can get messy because its a soup with long noodles. I almost always get it all over my front, but that's ok because its part of the process. I also commit to the Pho by making a promise that I will leave nothing behind. The best part of the soup is the actual broth, so once I'm done with the noodles and meat I do the respectable thing and lift my bowl to my mouth and finish off the broth. I cant eat Pho too often because I take it pretty serious but as of lately I cant stop thinking about it.

Thomas, Greg and I had the pleasure of eating, at Pho Green Papaya. Pho Green Papaya is a Vietnamese restaurant in West Valley. Everything about this restaurant receives high marks from me. Its aesthetically interesting from the inside to out. Its staff is courteous but not bother some and most importantly the food is always a pleasure to eat.

http://www.greenpapayautah.com/

Owners are also responsible for this little gift to SLC

http://www.sapabarandgrill.com/

M.E.T

1.3.10

I think my dinner party went well? Here are some photos of what happens when you mix drunk people with your recent craft purchase. Its fun to be the sober witness and see how the evening shifts.

First we played a live version of Bejeweled, hard. Then we sorted and counted each type, the list is on the table still. Nerds. Brooke made the headband Im wearing in the above picture. Dont mix drunks and hot glue guns = blistering burns.

Then Stephanie made a "A Drag Queens Wagon wheel". I cant help it, when you invite Library science majors, registrars, and ocd people over it just happens. At least we chose something aesthetically pleasing. This is my dinner party, sweet success.

P.s. We ate Spinach pesto, Fettuccine, Marinara sauce, garlic bread, salad, chocolate pie, and sponge nutty bar things. Nice.

M.E.T

Photos by Thomas Nelson; 2009, all rights reserved. Please visit his http://www.irvinenelson.comwebsite and http://www.flickr.com/lampwik>flickr stream.

1.2.10

Tonight I am having a dinner for one of my friends who happens to be in town for the holidays. Im going to make a spinach basil pesto pasta. I haven't made it before so I hope it all turns out. Yesterday I spent the whole day relaxing and lounging around. Today I am ready to GOGOGO! I am going to go to the climbing gym. Then to the fabric store and then to buy groceries for tonight, before everyone arrives for dinner I must clean my apartment in a major way. I have to clean it so well that it seems like we dont own birds that poo everywhere. Yay! Projects!

Unfortunately I dont have any photos of my New Year Eve outfit. I will just have to re-create that later.

I have been attracted to dresses in the style of a classy collar shirt dress. I love tight collars that fit strongly on peoples neck. I found a dress like this that was white and had a line of gems down the front. I LOVED IT! I bought it but then realized that it wasn't me at all. I adored the concept but as it was, it didn't fit my personal style. I want a structured collar but I also need a bit of breathing room. I also need a little more flair in the skirt. SO! I am going to create my own.

For my own dress I will have a somewhat low neck and a peter pan collar attached to it. This way I get both the collar and breathing room. Also it prevents me from looking like a grandmas, chico's model or a nurse.

I want the dress to be very form fitting on the waist and hips, but loose enough to walk very comfortably.

Im thinking the stripe of gems should be all black, and the dress itself should be maybe red and white? I want it to be very adult and structured. What do you think?

M.E.T.

12.31.09

Its the last day of the year. Since its sort of a holidayish I didn't have to go to work. Which is good and bad. Good because I need to rest up for staying up all night, but Bad because Im hourly and I dont like missing work. I went to the store earlier today and bought some blank cds for a mix-cd exchange. I also got a window scrapper because Im an idiot and didn't have one already. Im also doing laundry, I hope to get alot of projects done before party time. Here is another Christmas present from Greg. He got me the same Dear Creature shirt I have but in Brown!!! I LOVE IT!!! Fits and feel perfect!

Top - Dear Creatur

Skirt - Nordstrom Rack?

Tights - Hue

Shoes - M.I.A

I work at an Art Center right now, previously I worked in the colletions of a Fine Art Museum. Last night I had a dream that I was like the Collection Manager of some really nice Museum. There were a bunch of private school brats there that I was suppose to teach to be Art Handlers. I was showing them some artwork that we had just received. They were all touching the paintings. One girl was leaning on it and had her heels on the frame, it left a red mark, I checked. I kept yelling "DONT TOUCH THAT!" There was TOO many of them and they were all picking things up and shaking it and STEPPING ON THE UNFRAMED PAINTINGS! I kept grabbing things out of their hands and setting it down. In my mind I was like "I should be wearing glove for this". Finally I yelled in my BIGGEST voice and told them to stop it and I called them all Dumbfucks. I know this is silly but this was a nightmare to me, I couldn't go back to bed after this. It was terrible, Im a geek.

Im also a geek because I like to hang my newest favorite clothes on my bookshelf so I can see it all the time. I called it My Clothes Gallery... yea... Im a nerd....

L-R, Abaete, JCDC, Oasis, Rodarte for Target, Sateen Feather jacket

Last thought. Another reason I dont like staying home from work is because my bird stalks me. She is screaming right now trying to find me. You may not be able to tell but in this picture she's looking at me through the corner of her eye, waiting. Waiting to attack me and cuddle. It makes me nervous, its like having a real stalker. NO WORSE! She can fly!

M.E.T.

12.30.09 MAS

Like I said I got a lot of great gifts for Christmas. Here is one of them, a black sateen jacket with a feather collar. This was given to me by Greg. I LOVE it!!! BUT its quite hard to wear a coat over it. SO I either need another person to help me put on a coat or I take it off and put it in a bag and walk around like a crazy. Yesterday I had to walk to my parents house during a blizzard wearing slippery mary janes and holding this jacket in a bag. Great, thanks guys.

Yep, so here are some photos that show off the collar. I cant help doing all these silly posses when I take photos. Its either all or nothing, and I usually look stupid when Im doing nothing.

M.E.T.

12.30.09

I haven't been taking pictures during the holidays. I did have some pretty awesome outfits but taking photos is always the last thing on my mind during the holidays. I think I may recreate my Christmas Eve outfit, but only to re-scandalous my mom. I wore shorts! She was not pleased with my shorts over tights combo. Oh well, my little sister said I looked hot and thats all that matters. ANYWAYS! Here is an outfit from before Christmas, I was getting in the spirit with this snowflake sweata.


Sweater - Hand-Me-Down
Under shirt - Greg's brothers
Skirt - H&M
Tights - HUE
Shoes - TopShop

M.E.T

12.29.09

Hey,

SO here are some photos of the watercolor I did of Greg's parents. This wasn't the final painting, Greg's dad Paul looks kinda of evil in these photos. Its probably because I haven't done the eyes yet. He is all possessed looking, I fixed it though. In think it turned out pretty good, pretty good MarciMarc!

M.E.T.

12.28.09

Today is my mothers birthday. I believe she is 52 today? Or 51, honestly I cant keep track. I feel like she has been 51ish for a decade. She told me yesterday how old she was turning but I cant remember. Its sort of terrible of me. I remember how old my siblings and close friends are. When people ask me I might say it wrong but I know whats up. The top three categories of thing I received for Christmas was.

1. CLOTHING!!!! OF COURSE!!!! Damn! I'm such a spoiled brat!
2. Chocolate!
3. Tools & knives.

I was very please. You will see the clothing items pop up in my recent posts. I got about 5 boxes or chocolate items. So nice. I like to look at my chocolate and take photos. I will show you my collection soon. I received woodcarving tools, a Dremmel and xacto-knife set (from my cousin). Even at this age my presents still read "From Santa". I still make a Christmas list, and hang it on the fridge.

Here are photos by Thomas Nelson (bff). These were taken the day after Christmas, Danchi came into town and we went to dinner and then to Juniors.

Me and Danchi, getting cuddly.



Danchi and Yoshi, looking dapper.

Photos by Thomas Nelson; 2009, all rights reserved. Please visit his http://www.irvinenelson.com website and http://www.flickr.com/lampwik>flickr stream.

M.E.T.