Saturday, November 26, 2011

Hallowfriggenween

There, this beast is done. I told you it was gonna be huge, and look - so it is. By the way, I helped with the decorating this year. Those gold stars were my contribution. One of my favorite parts of Halloween is the mini pumkins. No the green and orange one there; the really really tiny ones.

We use them for everything.

They even smell nice, like cinnamon and cider and caramel and all sorts of holiday delicious things. *inhale* Mmm, mini pumpkins.

Cutting out those stars took about a million years, but it was worth it cuz we're recycling them to go with the Christmas decorations.

I love that bottle with the weird pickled vegetables in it. When I have my own house, I will have an entire Halloween cabinet full of nothing but bottles and jars full of nasty pickled things. And also finger bones and suchlike.

The bigger stars were even harder to cut than the little ones, but I think they look nice in the sunlight.

As my mom pointed out, that particular display looks more like Christmas than Halloween. Whatever, they're multipurpose.

My fingers looked like this after cutting them. Gold glitter paint everywhere.

When we decorate for Halloween, I get all the cheesy stuff for my room. No one else wants a bright orange owl that lights up when you plug it in.

I love this guy. He's so squishy.

My attempt at all-natural decor.

Funniest thing: my dog is terrified of this stuffed owl puppet. He thinks it's going to kill him any minute. He keeps staring at it, motionless, for several minutes at a time, followed by a deafening storm of barking and flailing, followed by a desperate last-ditch attempt to yank it down off the bench in an effort to kill it before it kills him. I threw it at him the other day, and he hightailed it out of my room like the devil was after him. I couldn't feel bad because I was busy laughing so hard.

I don't remember why we had roses, but when they started dying, I hung them upside down to dry. They turned out very nice; held their shape perfectly.





LEAVES! I love them so.

Specially when they change color, you know.

Yay!

*buries face in*


There are such striking sunsets in the fall and winter. Love. Kay, now costumes. This was the Monday before Halloween.

I am quite clearly a gypsy. I think this year's gypsy costume is way better than the one I wore last year. Those jingly things around my waist are literally the best thing ever. The vest, I borrowed from my mother. I don't like it on her, but I like it on me. Maybe because I wear it with light blouses, and she wears it with turtlenecks. Maybe I just hate turtlenecks. That must be it.







By the way, I took all these pictures myself. Yay timer!

Tuesday I was a post-apocalyptic scavenger. This one still needs work, I think. Actually, what it mostly needed was lots of dirt scrubbed all over everything, and some burnt edges, and a large weapon of some sort. But I only had so much to work with, and I had to follow the school dress code, so no.

You can't really see it in any of the pictures, but I made a string of random bits of metal to hang from my belt. It was partly to dress up the costume and partly me trying out a concept I'd thought of for a story (which almost worked; gotta experiment with it more. I'll explain all that later.)

Found those ski goggles in the closet. They make everything more better.

Wednesday I was going to wear my Andra costume again, but it was a little chilly outside, so that's why I have on the long-sleeve shirt under the tunic. And look, there's my new dagger!


Shiny, right? I didn't wear it to school, obviously, but I did wear the sheath.

And I wore my ears, because I figured dressing up as a generic elf character might fly better with the people at school, none of whom know who Andra is (and I didn't feel like explaining twenty billion times throughout the day.) So I got asked a lot if I was supposed to be Link. And I was like, "No. Not even Sexy Jutsu Link, because I'm clearly not wearing a hat. Duh." Although the colors are almost exactly the same as Link, now that I look at it. Oh well.

I actually did braid my hair this time, though! I think I've finally struck upon a method of pulling the front of it away from my face like Andra does without using insane amounts of hair spray. Not that you can tell any of that from this picture, but whatever.

Thursday I was a vampire hunter. I wanted some leather armor to go over it, but had none on hand and no time to make/acquire any, so no.

Nor did I have a proper stake or any other kind of awesome weapon, because they don't allow weapons at school. I ran into this problem with nearly every one of my costumes. Snarl.

In that pouch on my back are several whole cloves of garlic. I have two little bags of powdered silver hanging from my belt, as well as a high-powered flashlight and night vision goggles, visible in the first photo. Not visible anywhere, because they're in my pockets, are my vials of holy water. Just hand me a massive crossbow and I'm set.

That's all the crosses I own. Too bad; I wanted about sixty more, to hang randomly on my person.

Then I wore a Halloween Fairy costume on Friday, but we went straight to a piano lesson and I had to change so there's no pictures! I am quite sad. It was a freaking awesome costume. There were striped stockings involved. Anyway, on Halloween proper we went trick-or-treating with Brenticus and his sibs, and for that I was a steampunk pirate.

It was basically the same costume I wore at the OYAN workshop, but I picked up this precious hat at the costume store to go with it, and also a sword. Because I can't ever go in there without buying a weapon of some sort.



Said beasty sword. It has a little bit of a Prince of Persia vibe, but we're ignoring that right now.

I've had these gloves for ages, and they finally got too small, so I just chopped the ends off the fingers and made hobogloves. Problem solved.

Oh, and these were sitting there, so I took pics. There was a tutorial on A Fanciful Twist detailing the creating of these brilliant fabric bangles. The author said they were addictive, and she was right. You can't just make one.

There's a Halloween one I did. (And my Allomantic vials/holy water in the background there.)

This one I made for my mom.



But yeah, trick-or-treating was a blast, even though I felt really bad taking people's candy, being an adult and all that, but Brenticus reasoned that I probably wouldn't ever get the chance to do it again after this year, so why turn down free candy? Good point. He dressed up as Mat
from the Wheel of Time series, the first book of which I'm reading right now, and all evening we were tripping repeatedly over his gigantic spear. His brother was an Alloy of Law Allomancer, complete with mistcoat and very fetching hat (can't wait to get ahold of that book, Sanderson yaay), and his sister was a stylish ninja. My bro and his cohort were both League of Legends characters. Where's the fun in that, I ask you? Nobody had any idea who they were supposed to be. Halfway through the night, my bro switched to Ringwraith because that's what everyone said he looked like, so after a while he just went with it.


*drops down dead* Now I gotta study for my massive frightening Spanish final. It's gonna be bad. I am legitimately terrified.


Commander Kip

"Do something with your other hand. Touch your partner. Touch yourself - wait -"

Normal is overrated!





Wednesday, November 23, 2011

stuff that needs addressing



I have a whole pile of posts I'd like to do, and I'm writing 'em down so I don't forget any. The list goes thusly:


(1. Ravioli fail - this would probably end up on the Epic Fail blog.


(2. Halloween! AT LONG LAST, yeesh.


(3. Andra's new and shiny leg brace.


(4. Hyperbole and a Half.


(5. Our plan to save the WORLD.


(6. My mother's M16 skills.


(7. Books - I wish I had time to read them.


(8. The vamp team.


(9. Erimon Hill revisions - vaguely related to the aforementioned leg brace.


(10. Self-image!


(11. Modern Warfare 3, and my gamer-rage experiences at school.


(12. Maybe some artwork even. I still do that art thing on occassion, you know.


Unfortunately, I have these college apps all due on December first, and I'll be scrambling to get those in on time, so I dunno how much of that list is gonna be dealt with anytime in the near future. I'll try - no promises - to do at least one of those over break, probably the Halloween one, but it'll depend on my abiliy to write essays quickly. Snort. Yeah, anyway.


Boring post is boring. Sorry, y'all.


Commander Kip

Warning: Will Betray Family for Turkish Delight.

Normal is overrated!




Saturday, November 19, 2011

oh mah gawd

Best part of Breaking Dawn: the Hunger Games trailer!


FREAKING OUT ZOMG YOU HAVE NO IDEA. And I like that they didn't make Katniss too pretty. Good for them. Oh, what about Breaking Dawn, you say? Eh, whatever. HUNGER GAMES!! Now I feel like I gotta read all the books again. SO GOOOOOOOD...

Real post coming soon... maybe? For now - back to college apps. *facedesk*

Commander Kip
"Hey! I'M TALKIN' ATCHYOU!"
Normal is overrated!

Tuesday, November 1, 2011

late and remiss

Sorry I died for the last part of October. College stuff jumped out and smacked me in the face, and I had to deal with it or get buried. I'm still hideously buried, by the way, so don't expect to see much of me for a while. Except maybe the tip of my nose poking out of a huge stack of application papers or something, I dunno. I am seriously stressing, guys. I don't think I've stressed this bad since the AP History test last year. Gah. I don't handle stress well. I'm gonna make myself sick or something.

Happy late Halloween and things. Here, have some silly. You're welcome. I took pics of almost all my costumes this year - oh, the cleverness etc. - but I have no idea when I'll get around to posting them. We'll see. You might still be seeing Halloween posts until like mid-December this year. Be ye warnéd and all that. Yeah, I learned the accent marks, finally. Thank you AP Español 6.

Some newsy bits and bobs: I decided, very very last minute, to do the Young Artist piano competition this year, just for kicks and perhaps cash, eheheh, something. And as it turned out, I ended up winning the blasted thing. Along with like SEVEN FREAKING HUNDRED DOLLARS WUT. So that was cool. Now I haz spending money for my firstest year of college, yay, and so on.

Also, very important, I watched Ghostbusters with my dad the other night, and it was freaking hilarious. The CGI, oh, I must have cracked a rib with my hysterical laughter. SO funny. Quite possibly the worst low-budget CGI effects I have ever seen. SO FUNNY.

Off to do productive crap now. Later, peeps.

Commander Kip
"So, Macbeth witches: you don't mess with those chicks. They will mess you UP."
Normal is overrated!

Tuesday, October 18, 2011

I wanna scare myself

I watch this movie with my brother every year, mostly for the sole purpose of hearing this song.



It's a tradition at our house. We watch Pooh movies for every holiday. It doesn't seem like that holiday until we do.

And I also need to get the bro to watch Labyrinth with me, even though he'll hate most of it, just so I can show him David Bowie and his criminally tight pants. It's frightening, I tell you.

For those of you who celebrate Halloween, what do you guys do to get in the mood? Got any interesting/creepy/downright odd traditions you'd like to share? Please, indulge me.

Gonna go make some pumkin bread naow.

Commander Kip
"Are you wearing... suspenders?"
Normal is overrated!

Monday, October 17, 2011

still obsessin'

over Titan A.E., obviously enough. I love that clip of Cale with the welding goggles; it's literally the most adorable thing ever. Too bad the stupid clip's only like five seconds long. Also, still lovin' this right here:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_BcI8BHIcpU&feature=autoplay&list=PLDE7B1377D2E92344&lf=plpp&playnext=1

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GcCmtifO0U4&feature=BFa&list=PLDE7B1377D2E92344&lf=plpp

Hm, I guess they're kinda similar. Whatever, I love this stuff.

I have some pics on my camera I wanted to show you, but haven't had the time to retrieve them as of yet. *gusty sigh* In other news, we picked up copies of Frankenstein in English class today! Guess who's excited?

My goodness, you guys, I love Halloween so very much. Which is partially why I'm really enjoying A Fanciful Twist right now. So much pretty. I basically spent my three-day weekend reading the archives of this thing. SO. PRETTY.

Also, I'm in a little bit of agony right now, because we were at Barnes & Noble on Thursday, and I had Daughter of Smoke and Bone in my actual hands, but my mom wouldn't buy it for me yet because her educator discount didn't start until the weekend. Oh, the agony. I think my soul died a little. Anyway, I'm hounding her to go back and get it now. Like, right now.

I watched Jane Eyre with my mommy this weekend, by the way. It was the 1996 version, I believe, the one with William Hurt in it. I thought it was alright. But short. Two hours. They had to leave out a bunch of stuff. *sad* My god, that first kiss though... I melt just thinking about it. Gah.

So there's your obligatory explosion of Kippy love. Have a nice day.

Oh, and also, I changed my blog header. Isn't it nearly legible and everything?

Commander Kip
"Why have we never had this problem before?" "Well, because - yes, we have."
Normal is overrated!

Sunday, October 9, 2011

gypsy awesomeness

Gaaah, this is so pretteh!

http://afancifultwist.typepad.com/a_fanciful_twist/2011/09/gypsy-life-gypsy-dreams.html

Go look at it! Go! Go!

Everything on that blog is so so pretteh. *sigh*

Commander Kip
"I happen to be humanity's last great hope." "I weep for the species."
Normal is overrated!

Saturday, October 8, 2011

doodle trade

I drew this Rennaisance chick for a gal in English class. In exchange, she drew me a chick in a fluffy skirt. Now everybody's happy.

Just finished watching the last hour of Titan A.E. after seeing the first half hour like a month ago. Whatevz. I do enjoy me some major animated scifi cheeze. It was delicious. Swishy spaceships and explosions make my day. Also, almost everybody in that movie gets shot at LEAST once. There's even blood sometimes. *happyplace* And guess what I discovered? Joss Whedon was one of the screenwriters. WUT. No wonder it was awesome - roughly the same cheeze factor as Buffy, except with awkwardly drawn cartoon people, predictable quips, and terrible rock music. In space. I LOVED IT SO MUCH. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xcnF1ioaBr4&feature=related I badly wanna go write a cheesy space novel now. Keepin' the dream alive!

Hmm. Rereading that paragraph, I notice that I have a thing for awful cheesy movies.

Um, yay.

Sorry, everybody, I had a tough week homework-wise, plus first choir concert of the year and last-minute piano performance, and my brain is still in a bazillion pieces from all those crapses. It needs another defrag, methinks. Phaw. At least some of that stuff is off my plate now. Fun to see Arin and Pippin at the piano recital! *tackleglomp*

I think I have some other doodles from school I still haven't scanned, but I'm not sure when I'll get around to it. Eventually, I guess. Maybe.

Whoops, there I go, drooling on the keyboard again. I should probably go get some sleep or something.

Commander Kip
An intelligent guard. Wasn't expecting that.
Normal is overrated!

Sunday, October 2, 2011

Der Vater

Hier ist Robin, der Vater von Kip.
Now I would like to add a couple of pictures.
Here goes.
Here is alcante

Here is an eight note.


Tuesday, September 27, 2011

blue hair

I drew this in class the other day, and then today I looked at the calendar and went "ZOMG SQUEE, Laini Taylor's new book came out today!" I therefore felt that the blue-hair thing was appropriate. That is a very messy contour self-portrait, by the way. Why is it that every time I draw a self-portrait, it comes out looking like a mug shot? Eh, whatever. And as for why my hair is in pigtails, I'm exercising the right to remain silent on that one.

Now I must sally forth and procure a copy of the long-awaited Daughter of
Smoke and Bone
, because I've been reading all of Ms. Taylor's delicious blog posts about it and getting all drooly and excited. It's been far too long since I had something truly delicious to read. We're doing Jane Eyre in school, but that's mostly long stretches of "life-is-so-friggen-unfair" with only fleeting moments of deliciousness.

Oh, I did get to watch Dead Poets' Society with my parents the other night while I was busily skipping Homecoming. I think we all cried. I know I did, especially at the end. With the CHAIRS already! Gah. And the other thing I've been watching with my parents is a current (gawrsp) tv show called Castle, which is about a murder mystery novel writer who just happens to be played by the incorrigible Nathan Fillian. Oh, how I love that man. And I love the Firefly references in the show, subtle and un-subtle both. We've decided the writers must all be Browncoats. Or maybe just Whedon fans. In one episode there were extremely un-subtle references from both Firefly and Buffy, and we lol'd pretty hard. Anyway.

Commander Kip
"What are you supposed to be?" "Space cowboy." "Okay, A, there are no cows in space, and B... didn't you wear that like five years ago?" "Yeah, so?" "Don't you think you should move on?" "But I like it!"
Normal is overrated!

Saturday, September 17, 2011

I bought a dagger

at the costume store. This costume store is in the exact same building as the Borders I've been going to with my family ever since I can remember, but the Borders is gone now, and there's a costume store there instead.

I'm not sure what to make of that. Anyway, yeah, that's it.

But I do love my new dagger.

Commander Kip
"Serenity's east of us. Nestled in the..." *facial contortions, mumbling* "... hang a left."
Normal is overrated!

Sunday, September 11, 2011

can haz BODICE

Yesss, we finally got one for uss, the lovely, the preciousssss... and it is lovely, innit? Purchased this piece of brilliance at the Rennaisance festival today. Because, darn it, I've thought about buying one like every year, and just now worked up the guts to just spend the money and get one. You know you're supposed to ignore my heinous sunburn, right? And my messy crappy dressing-room area? Right? Good.It's a pale beige color with these really light roses and vines and black grommets and laces. It's reversible, and the other side is a rose design in silky black and charcoal. Gaah, swoon. So lovely. Here's the back of it. Lacing's coming a little loose - oh well. Also, I need a better dagger.




This was the first year I've ever been to the Ren without my parents (no, I did not drive myself.) It was kinda weird, because I just went where I wanted and bought what I wanted, and sometimes I hung out with the li'l bro, and sometimes I didn't, and it felt weird. Weird but good.
And on a completely unrelated note, do you guys remember Erazmus? The messed-up bird at Lady Arin's house? Yeah, well, one day this summer, we had one of those too. He spent an entire day on that windowsill, and when a cardinal tried to take his spot, the little bugger went all vicious ninja on him and chased him off. So I named him Ezio. No, I've never played Assassin's Creed; it just fit, is all.Speaking of Lady Arin, here are her knees. And my knees, and Ereka's knees. With faces drawn on them in ballpoint pen. Guess whose are whose. Clearly, we stayed up a little too late at Lady Arin's that time. And my skin looks gray. Wow.


Let's have some art now. The li'l bro just turned thirteen, and I got him the first volume of the official Firefly Companion Guide for his birthday. Hence, more Firefly obsessage. "Yes, that's a word. Now." (Direct quote from Joss Whedon, who is so incredibly bawsome.) This is Simon Tam, drawn without reference of course, in the margins of a vocab list for English. It happened because the word "jargon" was on there, which made me think of that quote *points* - that one, down there - from Objects in Space. I love this guy. You have no idea.
And here's Simon's sister, River Tam, who I've drawn before, but I think this one's better. She would make the ultimate Mistborn. Or Jedi. I can't decide which. It's crooked here, but I promise I drew it straight up and down. Blasted scanner. By the way, Summer Glau is a friggen beast - she did all her own fight scenes in Serenity, and they were all insanely difficult.




This is what I was doing when I should have been working on my summer homework. It's the back cover of my summer reading journal, and it fell off in early July, I think. so I drawed people's heads all over it. I think Andros is in there somewhere; the rest of these peeps are completely random spewage from my poor overworked brain.


These last few sketches are the ones I wanted to show you but couldn't, because they were pinned to the corkboards in my room and I was too lazy to unpin them and scan them. Sometime this summer, I discovered that Avan Jogia would play a lovely Kartik.


I also discovered that Thomas Derringer is way too pretty for his own good. Or anyone else's either. 'Specially poor Russel and the other dudes in their squad. I cannot stop drawing Thomas, you guys. He's so prettyyyyyy.


And last but perhaps best, I give you Sazed the Terrisman Keeper, who has a very perplexing name. None of us can figure out how to pronounce it.


Kay. There.




I confess, I totally confiscated the bro's birthday present and read it before I gave it to him. It was totally fascinating. It had the complete scripts for the first, like, five episodes, plus all kinds of cool costume and prop design things and interviews and profiles on each character. Want Volume II now, pleasethanks.




Commander Kip


"Remember what I said about you barging into my shuttle?" "You said it was manly and impulsive." "Yes, and I specifically used the word, 'don't'."


Normal is overrated!