Something really wanted to escape the confines of my fabric today:



More to come on a day I'm not up at the crack of dawn for work, or visiting with family... >:D

A certain someone's birthday is coming up soon, and what with family on the verge of invading home for the next few days, I felt bad I wouldn't have time to make what she had wanted. So, I go to bed last night intent on getting a good night's sleep before a day of cleaning before work, but noooooo!

Instead, I have the realization that I just might be able to pull off a certain cute something, so instead of sleeping last night, I lay in bed until about 3 a.m. figuring out how to sew all of it. And, after major bathroom cleaning session and breakfast, I drafted a pattern and tested it out...and I'm almost angry at myself at how well it turned out!

I still have work to do on it, but for now all of the sewing stuff has been packed away. Not sure if I'll be able to finish it while family is here, but I really want to. It continues to amaze and frustrate me that I can never figure out how to make things for myself, but when it comes to other people, creative inspiration comes so readily.

(And should all go well, I figure I'll post up the pattern and tutorial should others dare attempt it.)

Time to run off to work for the evening! o_O

Ha ha, and no, secondlina, I'm not telling you what it is! If I get it done any time soon, I will post up a picture since I don't know when I'll be able to mail it off anyway. Teasers of cruelty!

I'd have to guess that any child of the 80s grew up watching the Back to the Future trilogy, and I was no exception. It's actually been forever since I watched them (seeing as the 80s were...over two decades ago!), but that'll soon have to be remedied thanks to how I spent my past week.

Since getting an iPad 2 (refurbished), I've searched through the offered games to see if there was anything I really wanted to play. I'm a cheapskate when it comes to App games, since most are, excuse my opinion here, lame. Not to mention short and repetitive. (Angry Birds, argh!) But, a few years back I played through Telltale Games' Tales of Monkey Island point-and-click adventure games on the Wii, and they reawakened my want to play such games. Telltale Games had released a few since, but I hadn't yet had them available to me via the Wii...and at the time I was unaware they were available for my Apple computers.

Long story short, recently I typed in a random search in the Apple App Store on my iMac for Monkey Island, just to see what came up, and I was shocked and overjoyed to see that the first two games in the series were available to purchase and play! ...and then I also found them available for my iPad, so I got them that-a-way, for more portable play. After playing through those two games (and lamenting the next two are not as yet available), I saw that Tales of Monkey Island had its first chapter free for the iPad, so I downloaded it for kicks...then enjoyed myself so much I ended up purchasing the rest of the chapters. o_O

(I'm a gamer possessed!)

I enjoyed playing Tales of Monkey Island on my iPad so much, I wanted to play more Telltale Games..games, so then I saw that the first chapter for Back to the Future the Game was also free. ...I think you can tell where this is going...

Aside from nostalgia factor seeing a souped up time-traveling DeLorean, Christopher Lloyd did reprise his role for Doc, and while Michael J. Fox didn't reprise his role for Marty McFly, the actor they did get did a great job sounding like him. Check it out:



Heck, last night I finally encountered Michael J. Fox's cameo within the game, which was pretty great. Interesting hearing a Canadian actor trying to have an American Southern accent, but it was still pretty great. I really enjoyed the game more than I expected, so soon I think I'll have to rewatch the movies.

(And for now I'll lurk and wait to see if Telltale Games runs a deal on their Jurassic Park point-and-click adventure game series as well. I'm so glad someone is trying to revitalize that game genre!)

Well, the past couple of weeks have been interesting. Right off the bat I decided that I was going to remake all of my stock critters for my Etsy shop so I could get nicer pictures taken out in the natural light, and I also had some new fleece colors to experiment with, so I started with the gryphons. I got as far as cutting them out and getting each part of the plushes constructed...but then that ground to a halt when someone contacted me via Etsy asking if I would make them a Loftwing plush.

Color me shocked and confuzzled, since I had no postings on Etsy about my Loftwing plush (or pattern), aside from a link on my bio to my DeviantART page. I wasn't sure how to take the query, so I took it seriously and gave them a price, to which they eagerly wanted me to make a listing, so I did. Long story short, I made a Crimson Loftwing, sent it off, then when I thought I'd be getting back to regular sewing, they were so taken with the Crimson Loftwing, they wanted Zelda's blue Loftwing as well! As it happened, I had the perfect shade of blue, so within a week I made two Loftwing plushes.

And then, once that was over with, the weather was too nice to stay indoors! Also, recently a friend invited me and my boyfriend man on his annual Canada camping trip (in July), so everything fell by the wayside as I got extremely excited. Lets just say that I love camping, and leave it at that. :D

REI is having a great sale starting this weekend, so I was plotting all sorts of things I might need, but then my dad found two tents he had purchased from a storage unit sale, so we took advantage of the nice weather to set them up to make sure they'd be okay. I'm still amused that the tent I'll be using is mustard yellow, as mustard is my favorite condiment. The other tent just so happens to have red highlights, red being boyfriend man's favorite color. It's just working out too well!

So, aside from sudden Loftwing orders, working a lot of mid-shifts at work, and soaking up enough sun to turn red while setting up tents, sewing has taken a back seat. Sigh. But! Slowly but surely I've worked on the gryphon trio, and as of last night, they're done! ...so of course the weather has turned back to rain, so they'll not be having a proper photo shoot any time soon. Enjoy iPhone photo:



Nothing is new about the "normal" colored gryphon. For the black gryphon, I came across a remnant of "pewter" colored fleece, so I tested it out to see how it would look with black, since the other dark grey fleece is really stretchy and makes the black gryphon look FAT. (And it's bothered me.) The white gryphon was also a test, since I also came upon a remnant of cream fleece, so even if it's nigh impossible to tell in the picture, the white gryphon's back end is cream colored. It ought to be easier to see once I get some nicer pictures.

Goodness, I ought to keep going and cut out fabric for another batch of Owlbears, but I feel like being lazy today. I'll blame the rain....and the fact that I found a ton of point-and-click adventure games for my iPad. (The fact I have work in a couple of hours doesn't help, either!) o_O;;

This was shared on Facebook the other day, but I haven't seen it show up anywhere else as of yet, so I'm going to do my part and share it as well. This was a Calart student's project, and a very well done one at that. I love how powerful traditional animation is, especially when there is no spoken dialogue to rely on.

Warning: You may want a tissue!

Back in 2008, I got to participate in the Walt Disney College Program, an excellent program that takes college/university kids and gives them the opportunity to work at Disneyland or Walt Disney World, in the hopes that they can gain an internship afterward. Unfortunately, the economy took a major dip near the end of 2008, causing Disney to drastically cut back on internships, so I didn't get to further my career chances in Florida.



But, I still had a ton of fun...



Made new friends...



And got to work in what is now my favorite Florida park. (Disney's Hollywood Studios!)

Most all of the friends I made down in Florida were from the East Coast (if not the Eastern half of the U.S.), so once the program was over, I wasn't sure if I'd ever see any of them again. I still chat with a few via Facebook every now and again. I was doing the same last night, when I saw that one of my friends is...coming to Seattle! Shock! Jubilation! Potential chaos?

Plans are still rough for now, but I'm hoping that I get a chance to see her while she's working up here in the Pacific Northwest. I've really missed the people I met down in Florida, it'll be great seeing one again. (And one of these days, I'll return to Florida to visit a friend/Disney classmate who has gained long-term employment in the parks!)

Apologies in advance if this place becomes flooded with Disney nostalgia again. ^_-

I was closing the other night, when I walked past the small animal habitats and noticed someone had decorated the guinea pig habitat for us:



For what it's worth, I pointed it out to the coworker who had been working that part of the store, and she had never noticed. She then told our closing manager, who also works over there, and she got a laugh out of it. We left it as it was for the night, but they were gone the next day. Some little girl will be so heartbroken! ^_-

I've tried really hard to avoid a lot of "apps" released to Apple's various handheld devices, especially after falling into the sinkhole of silly games on my iPod Touch. (I hate games that require you to spend real money to get anything good. Awful!) After I got my iPhone, it opened up some more apps to me, but I still resisted the games...until Draw Something.

Draw Something is essentially Pictionary, a game that requires you to draw something and get someone else to guess what you are drawing. Pictionary is great fun. Drawing is fun. Drawing back and forth with friends and even strangers is...fun! I'll blame seeing a friend and then literally the next day seeing a manager playing Draw Something, as I finally broke down and downloaded the free version. Keep in mind that I started playing on my iPod Touch and iPhone, the touch screen is only about 3 inches tall...( It's a lot like fingerpainting, since you only have your finger to draw with )