Obsessed With Pens

Hi there! So I got this really cool idea for a series of blog posts that I'll talk about at the end of this post. I'm trying to make this blog a little more focused on arts and crafts. I'm really excited about it!

If you've known me for a while you probably know me as a pretty artsy person. I doodle a lot and I have an entire wall of art in my room. There are 16 pieces of art on that wall and only 3 of them were not made by me. I haven't added to that wall in a while, but I do have quite the stash of canvases at the moment, so I hope to work with those soon...
Anyway, I've always loved pens and markers and anything that I can use to make more art. Recently this love has kind of escalated into an obsession after getting a small pack of Copic markers for my birthday. I thought I would take this post to show off my collection of pens and markers (but mostly pens). If you're a fellow lover of pens, you might like this post a lot!

Crappy picture quality, oops, but this is my pen station. The drawers on the left contain pens and the bin on the right has my markers. 

Starting with the pen drawer. These are all of my fineliners. I've had the Faber Castell pack (left) for a while. Most art pens are labeled with numbers for sizes, but Faber Castells are labelled S, M, F, B, and so on. Plus they have those nice little examples on the front of the pack. Even the smallest size isn't super tiny, so if you like having bolder lines in your drawings, Faber Castells will probably work great. 

The pens in the middle are the most recently acquired pens I have. Every time I went to Michael's I would look at these Staedtler fineliners and wonder if I should get them or not. Last time I was there I finally gave in. It was worth it. I like them a lot because they're my favorite size (0.3) and they're smooth and colorful. It took me a couple weeks to figure out how to close the case. I actually went to my friend Katie's house and her stepmom just happened to have a pack sitting out and she showed me how to close it. So thank you, Mrs. Cheryl! 

The Copic fineliners are on the left. I REALLY love these. As you can see, they don't all look the same and there's one sitting out of the case. Funny story. If you like to doodle on your skin at all, DO NOT USE COPIC PENS ON YOUR SKIN!!! It will completely destroy the pen and make it unusable. So far I believe my Faber Castells have been fine on skin, but these Copics are NOT made for that at all. I tested it out with two pens and they both crapped out on me. Sadly, they were my favorite sizes, 0.1 and 0.3. So I asked for replacements for my birthday. I won't go into all of the details, but it took a couple tries to get the right sizes and I still don't have a 0.3 Copic pen. I'll have to pick one up next time I go to Michael's. So those four silver Copic pens are a brush pen that they accidentally sent us, two 0.1 pens, and an extra 0.03. Oops. Anyway, I really do love these pens because the smallest sizes are super tiny and they're great for detail work. They're my favorite out of these three packs because of the variety of sizes and the quality of the pens. Just don't use them on your skin...

Gelly Rolls! I found out about these pens by watching Baylee Jae videos on YouTube. We have three packs of these that Tessa and I share because she bought one of the packs. We both like them a lot. I think they're great for doodling, but they all have different looks.

Metallics (Top Left): I haven't used these very much because it's the pack that Tessa bought and I'm not a huge fan of metallic things. They show up really nicely on dark and colored papers. For some reason there are two yellows in our pack, and I'm not sure what color we're missing, but I don't think it's too big of a deal. If you like shiny, you'll like metallic Gelly Rolls.

Souffle (Top Right): These were the Gelly Rolls I was really excited about getting when I saw them. They were the most expensive pack at Michael's, but they were advertised to show up on dark surfaces with a matte look to them. I LOVE anything matte, so I got them. My first test with these was really disappointing at first, because they didn't show up! They were completely invisible! It was like I'd taken a white crayon to a white piece of paper. BUT! A few minutes later I looked over at that page and there was the bright color! If you decide to get Souffle Gelly Rolls, their color won't show up on a dark surface until they dry. And don't draw over lines you've already made with these pens because it will completely mess them up even if they've already dried. Despite that, I love these pens now that I know how they work. I love drawing something in a black pen or marker and adding details over the black with these Souffles. The colors are lovely and matte and great for doodling.

Moonlight (Bottom Left): This was the first pack of Gelly Rolls that I got. They are super bright, practically neon colors that almost look like they're glowing. I don't have much to say about them, but I do like them. Again, great for doodling, as most Gelly Rolls are.

Glitter (Bottom Right): Tessa bought these pens separately from the packs because who doesn't love glitter? I like using these to add sparkly touches to my drawings. Usually a few dots is enough to add a nice amount of sparkle. 

Opaque White: More Gelly Rolls! I had been searching for some opaque white pens for another project I was working on and every one I tried just wasn't cutting it for me. They were either too sheer or just plain bad quality. I got these for my birthday and they are PERFECT! These work as well on dark surfaces as a Sharpie works on anything. They show up fantastically. If you're in need of an opaque white pen, these Gelly Rolls are probably your best option. 

The three white pens were my other opaque white attempts. The one on the left is a brand called "Recollections," and it required going over the lines a couple times to be opaque. Even then it wasn't good enough for me. The two in the middle are "Ranger" pens. I don't remember why I did't like them exactly, but they're kind of like regular gel pens. The two pens on the right are the remaining Faber Castells from my first pack. I mostly use them for outlining on paintings. 

I love American Crafts Chalk Markers! I got my first pack of them when I was first introduced to hand lettering. The four pens on the right are the oldest (I used up a couple from that pack) and the 5 on the left were birthday presents. I'm not sure where the white one in the very middle came from. I haven't gotten a chance to use those birthday presents yet but I did test them out when I got them and the metallic colors are really nice. The white chalk markers really look like chalk on dark paper and they stand out nicely.

These are Koi Coloring Brush Pens. I don't use them much anymore but they were basically my replacements for Copics when I wanted Copics but didn't want to buy them and didn't have a birthday or Christmas coming up. I do like them because there's such a wide variety of colors in this one pack and I don't recall them being overly expensive. The one thing I don't like is that they're brush pens. And they're those really loose brush pens. I don't know how else to put it. You don't get a lot of control over brush pens like this, but they're nice for coloring because the colors are bright and smooth. And there are so many colors! 

I'm finishing this long, rambly post about pens and markers with my lovely Copic Markers! I was very happy to get these for my birthday this year. Every artist knows that Copic markers are the best markers out there. There are hundreds of colors and different types and if you mix a black copic marker and a yellow copic marker on paper, the yellow one doesn't get gross! And you can blend colors all you want without messing up the tips. And the colors are so bright and they have wonderful quality. I feel like I don't have to explain them too much because they're so popular. Plus this post has been long enough.

So there's my extensive collection of pens! 

Now here's my next blog series project! Everyone who uses Pinterest knows this feeling. Most of us have boards filled with hundreds of DIY projects that we'd like to do someday. Unfortunately, "someday" gets put off over and over again while more and more projects pile up in that DIY board. I'm on a mission to complete the projects I've pinned and document how they turn out on this blog. I have 602 pins in my DIY board, so I highly doubt I'll do them all, but the ones I do manage to complete will be shared here. I plan to make at least one project every month. Once I finish a project, I'll move it from my DIY Board into the new Pinterest Projects (Completed DIY's) board. There's nothing there yet, but there will be soon! Follow one or both of those boards to keep up with my progress in this endeavor. 

Graduation!

I'm really happy that I got to go to James' high school graduation! I was so scared that morning that I wouldn't feel well enough to go, but I was feeling better by then and got to watch James and a long list of other friends graduate. It was exciting to see so many people I know walk across the stage. I'm so proud of them all!

I was surprised how small this group was compared to mine last year. This was the first class of students that didn't have the option to go to the new school or stay here, so that definitely shrunk the size of the group. Last year and years before the seating went much farther back. I was happy that we got close seats so I could see people and make faces at James whenever he looked up at his family and me. Mostly huge smiles because I was extremely excited. 

My mom was watching the live stream of the graduation at home and got this picture of James getting his diploma from the principal. Yay James! 

I was taking a video when the caps were supposed to be thrown but NO ONE THREW THEIR CAPS!!! What the heck guys, I was waiting for it! How did that not happen? I saw one, ONE, hat go flying super high into the air. You all have four years to practice getting that right for the next one. Or two if you're joining me at Calhoun. It's okay, that's plenty of time. 

Look how cute! After graduation and picture taking, we all went to some restaurant that I didn't know existed and got a huge order of chicken wings to share. 

It was lots of fun and I'm really glad I got to be there to see my boyfriend and so many of my friends from drama, tech, art class, etc. graduate from high school. I hope you all have a wonderful summer before starting your next chapter in life! I hope whatever path you choose to take after high school leads you towards success and happiness and wonderful new adventures. 

Tessa's 13th Dance Recital

I was going to use this post to talk about all the events of this weekend, but I have so much to say about both events that it would just be better to separate them.
Friday and Saturday were long, exhausting, but exciting days. Friday was dance rehearsal, which always goes on forever, and Saturday was the recital. I didn't HAVE to go to the rehearsal, but I always go to help with the costumes and pictures and reminding Mom when Tessa's dance is up next so she can get the camcorder out. Also I like being able to see the dances twice. We didn't get home from rehearsal until 1:00 in the morning and our dancer had to be at the VBC at 9:00!
Despite the lack of sleep and such, Tessa did a wonderful job all day. She was in the opening number for the first time!

I don't have pictures from all of her dances because I just stole these from some other dance moms on facebook. Pictures never turn out well for us so we just left the camera at home this year and relied on other people. Tessa danced a total of 12 times on Saturday, 3 of which were opening number and 2 were her competition dance. She had 3 dances in the Matinee, and the one that wasn't a repeated dance was "World War Z." 

Yep, zombie Tessa. If you haven't heard the title before, the dance was based off of the zombie movie "World War Z" and used the theme music. This was her lyrical dance.

The other 6 dances were in the Evening show. I believe the only dances I couldn't find pictures of were her Ballet, Jazz, and her Tap dances (which is really disappointing because the Tap dance was excellent).

I loved her hip hop dance. I only found one picture from it:

She had two contemporary dances. The pictures from "Homeward Bound" aren't centered on her because the mom was focusing on her daughter and Tessa just happened to be behind her most of the time. But it's something! 

That dance was really super pretty. I found a LOT of pictures from her other contemporary dance. I was so excited for this one because it's to "Run To You" by Pentatonix which is such a beautiful song. Tessa kept a special part of this dance a secret from us.

She did solo turns!!!! Quite a few people in the house cheered for her (especially me). When mom and I saw it at rehearsal we were so surprised and excited. 

I just think this one is gorgeous. I don't know if this was post-solo turn or just another part of the dance but I love how graceful she looks.

This was her ending pose. So pretty. I'm really glad these dance moms got such great pictures of her, especially that one of her mid-spin. 

Like I said, I don't have any pictures of her tap dance, but it deserves a spot in this post.

When I danced, I was the tapper. I didn't enjoy anything but tap. I tested out ballet and jazz a couple times but they were too slow and quiet for me. Last year Tessa's tap dance was super cute, and this year it was absolutely fantastic. At rehearsal, I watched the whole thing with my hands covering my mouth which was wide open in amazement. It was so fast and upbeat and Tessa kept up with the speed with no problem. When the dance was over, I looked over at Mom and just as she shut off the camcorder she started crying. We were so so so impressed and blown away by Tessa's tap dancing. It didn't even occur to me until Mom mentioned that she was with "The Best," meaning the dance class was composed of a group of some of the company's best dancers. I had never even moved my eyes from Tessa. I'm so excited that she's decided to specialize in tap. Us tall people have difficulties getting up off the floor quickly, and I've never seen a tap dance that involves rolling around on the floor. Plus, you know, she's freaking awesome at tap. 

Between the Matinee and Evening show on recital day, we went outside and took some nice family pictures:

And some exhausted family pictures:

I got to see Claire dance too! My lil sister from another mister:

She did a fabulous job as well!

I managed to convince James to make an appearance at the Evening show. I think he liked it. He said he'd come back for the next one so that's a good sign!

Pardon my goofy face. I thought he was making a goofy face too but he tricked me and decided to be cute instead. 

So there you go! 13 recitals down, 1 more to go. Okay, I shouldn't have said that, now I'm trying not to cry. I'm so proud of Tessa and it makes me happy that she's so dedicated to dance. Every year she gets even better and even though I don't get to see her very often because of dance classes, seeing how much her hard work is paying off at recital makes that okay. It's not like I never see her, she did teach me how to ride a bike in April, but sometimes I see her so little that it feels like she's the one off at college! Anyway, the dance recital was wonderful and I can't wait to watch the DVD and watch some of the dances over and over again. 

Freshman Year Complete!

A week ago today I finished my first year of college! Yaaaaayyyyy!!! I meant to post something about it that day or the next, but the rest of that week was pretty busy. I'll talk about that in my next blog post.
Anyway, I can't believe how fast it went by. It got pretty slow near the end because I had to wait a week after I was done with the rest of my classes to take my history final. But now that's all out of the way! I'm officially completely done with history classes, basic English classes, and math classes! I never even had to take a math final! If you don't follow me on facebook, instagram, or twitter, you probably don't know that, yes, I did indeed ace out of my Pre-Calculus final. I ended the class with a 90.2 after my last chapter test. I ended English probably with an A or a high B. I ended astronomy with a C just because I don't care for sciences. And I don't know what my grade was in history at any point in time. Could be an A. Could be a D. Could be a B. I'm completely clueless because my teacher was 70 years old and didn't know how to work a computer.
Overall I had a pretty great semester. I had my math and English teachers for both semesters, so it'll be really weird to not see them every day anymore. I gave them both little flowers and I wrote my math teacher a nice thank-you note.
I checked Blackboard this morning and found my summer American Literature class is already up there. I looked at the syllabus and I'm super excited! I'll be missing a week for Tessa's dance competition but a week is really only two days of class, so that's no huge deal. We're even going to have an Edgar Allan Poe section which makes me even more excited because Poe is my fave. I'll also be taking a physical science class online which hopefully I'll be able to complete early. I don't have any information on that class yet but something should be posted soon. I'm being sneaky with my science classes and taking them all online so I don't have to actually spend an extra hour on campus for labs. Once I'm done with physical science, I'll have all my science credits!
I'm really glad that I decided to go to a community college and get my basic classes out of the way. It just makes me even more excited to transfer to UAH and start taking all the classes I'm interested in. And I'm only 3 semesters away! Wow. It's going really fast and I just hope these next 3 semesters are fast as well. I can't wait to go to a school where I actually have friends and where I'll actually learn things that apply to my major and minor. It feels like I'm just in college limbo and waiting until I can get to the good stuff, but it'll probably be worth the wait.
So yep! That's where I am school-wise. I'll make another post tomorrow or the next day about this awesome/long/exhausting/great weekend I just had.

March Crafts

I haven't made too many crafts lately, but I have made a couple things that I like a lot that I thought I'd share today. I'll post links to the tutorials/inspiration for these projects along the way.

I am not a seamstress. My sister got the sewing gene. She's made a lot of t-shirt quilts, and when I found a shirt that I got in New Orleans 4 or 5 years ago that doesn't fit anymore, I asked her if she would make a pillow out of it. She's pretty busy with dance and school, so I just put it in her sewing room for her to get to whenever she felt like it. A couple weeks later I happened upon this "10-Minute No-Sew T-Shirt Tote Bag" tutorial on Pinterest. I immediately thought of my New Orleans shirt and went to get it from the sewing room. Usually when I'm on Pinterest I'll pin something that I want to do and say "Maybe I'll do that some day" or just keep the idea in the back of my mind. This time, however, I did it right after I read the tutorial! I was so excited! The tutorial is really clear and the bags are really cute. They're great beach bags or craft bags. I currently have my crochet project stored in one of them. It's the perfect size for my skeins of yarn.

 

I actually messed up on this one. If you read the tutorial, you'll see the part that says to draw a line to cut your fringe (which you use to tie the bottom of the bag together) up to. I ended up CUTTING ACROSS THE LINE and being forced to make my fringe shorter and the "New Orleans" part of the shirt pretty much unreadable. But I don't care all that much because at least I still have the shirt and it's great for holding all the other T-shirts that I plan on turning into bags! 

The "Duck! Cover! and Remain Calm" shirt is from the first competition play that I was a part of. It's always been a little bit too small because it was long-sleeved and I should have ordered a large instead of a medium just so the sleeves would be long enough (tall people problems). I hadn't worn it for a really long time and I was extremely hesitant to cut it up because I love my show shirts a lot, but it's now my favorite of all 4 of my T-shirt bags because it's made of the strongest material and has the most sentimental value. This is the one I have my crochet project in.
"I'm a ninja... You can't see me" wasn't too small, but I hadn't worn it in a long time. The last time I wore it was some time in my senior year of high school and I was self-conscious all day because I felt like I was dressed like a middle schooler. I think it's much cuter as a bag.
Both of these bags have bows tied to the handles. I don't think she does that in the tutorial, but I thought it was a cute touch. The pieces I used for the bows were cut out of the collars of the shirts.

My last T-shirt bag was a little more of an art project. My mom gave me a white T-shirt that Tessa was getting rid of and I ended up making it look super fancy.

The first picture is the design for the bag drawn on a canvas. I put the canvas under the shirt and traced what I could see clearly (I had to improvise a couple times) with a fabric marker. Then I colored it all in over the course of a few days (because it was kind of tedious). After it was all colored in, I cut the fringe and tied the bottom of the bag together. I might try to find some black ribbon to tie onto the handles. 

So that's a fun thing to try if you have some T-shirts sitting around that you don't want to give away. I wouldn't put any heavy books or electronics in them unless the material is really thick and sturdy, but, like I said, they're great for yarn projects or for carrying a change of clothes or other light things. 

This next project was just something I picked up at Walmart for $4. I got one of those wooden plaques and a wooden "L" to paint for my bedroom door. If you already have some acrylic paint and mod podge/ hot glue at home, it won't cost much to make. I hand-painted mine, but for those that don't have a steady hand or don't like painting, this tutorial might inspire you to try it out with some scrapbook paper. I was going to make mine that way, but I enjoy painting and wanted to attempt the whole "using cardboard triangles to paint a chevron pattern" thing. That tutorial did help me decide on my colors though. I loved the black and white background with the black on the edges, so I ended up doing this: 

I should have done more planning to avoid wasting all of the paint that I did, but it turned out nicely! I did not screw my letter onto the plaque like she does in the tutorial. I thought "Hey, I have all this mod podge, maybe that'll work," and it did! The ribbon is stuck on with a few staples and duct tape. The flower was a last-minute addition because my bedspread is blue and green (which is why I painted the letter blue) and I just happened to find it in a basket of hair accessories that I was giving to my sister. I ripped it off of the hair clip and just duct taped it onto the plaque because I didn't want to wait for any more glue to dry. I used this tutorial mostly as inspiration for the bow on the top. I just wanted something to cover the nail.

Close-up and far-away views of the plaque

I think that's all I've been up to lately in the world of crafting. Maybe I'll get some more projects finished or started in April (my birthday month yaaayyy!). I hope this post has inspired some of you to start a couple projects of your own!

Spring Break 2015 Adventures

It's been way too long since I've made a blog post. Over a month. Goodness Lydia, get it together! Let's get right to the point of this post so I don't dwell on what a horrible blogger I am.
SPRING BREAK! Today is my last day of Spring Break, sadly, but I had a really great week! It started on Friday with seeing two plays at Bob Jones which were, of course, fantastic. To those who didn't hear me say it already, Advanced Drama put on the BEST performance of "Lies About High School 2" that I've ever seen. I guess 3rd time's the charm! While I was seeing the plays, my aunt and her dog Cassie arrived at our house.
On Monday, we went to Chuck-E-Cheese for a little while. I literally played 30-40 games of skee ball. I used all of my tokens on skee ball. There were no other games I wanted to play. Once I ran out of tokens, I cashed in all of my tickets at the little ticket cruncher thing. I ended up with about 160 tickets. When I went up to the prize counter I realized that I was completely uninterested in any of the prizes so I gave Tessa my ticket receipt to add to her tickets. I thought "I guess I'm officially too old for this stuff."
When we got home Tessa and I changed into more summery clothes because it was really nice and warm outside. Tessa just learned how to ride a bike the other day, so I walked around the neighborhood with her while she rode her new bike. Then James came over and we hung out at the park and then watched a few episodes of Parks and Recreation. Irony.
Tuesday was probably my favorite day of the whole week. That was the day we went on our big adventure to Nashville and the Gaylord Opryland Hotel, Opry Mills Mall, and the Grand Ole Opry House!

First we had lunch at the Aquarium restaurant in the mall! I was so excited to go there because I have a strange love for fish and aquariums and sting rays and the ocean. It makes me really excited. So of course I have plenty of pictures and videos.

I literally took all the pictures that day in Snapchat so that's why there's a text bar in some of them. Tessa has never been a fan of aquariums and she especially hates sting rays, so she wasn't very happy when she'd look towards the tank and see a sting ray face against the glass.

The restaurant looked really cool and had a great atmosphere. As for the food, I wasn't very impressed with how they cooked their shrimp. If you know me, you know that I usually LOVE shrimp. Whenever I go to a new restaurant and don't know what to order, my go-to is shrimp. So, of course, being at this new restaurant, I ordered shrimp. But it was weird. I wasn't crazy about it. But I was still very happy to be there because of the sting rays and the other cool fish and the eel and the weird-looking Shovelnose Guitarfish (they look like a mixture between a sting ray and a shark).

After we ate, we did a little bit of shopping and then went to the Dave and Buster's arcade. I was kind of worried that I wouldn't enjoy it because of how little I enjoyed Chuck-E-Cheese the day before, but it was the coolest arcade ever. My favorite part was the GIANT MARIO KART!!! You literally sit in a chair and put your foot on the pedal and steer the wheel and it feels like you're actually driving a cart! The pedal was kind of strange at first because my driving instincts were telling me not to press it down all the way, but that's how you get your cart to go full-speed. I didn't take many pictures in the arcade because I was just having too much fun, but I got a couple:

I took a ton of 10-second videos that I compiled into a YouTube video if you're interested in seeing the rest of that adventure. Anyway, I ended up just getting a couple of things of candy from the prize room, but I really didn't care because it was more about the games than the prizes. 

After the arcade and some more shopping, we spent a little bit of time around the Grand Ole Opry House.

Tessa was getting some dance energy out of her system. She usually doesn't cooperate for my selfies but the one we took outside of the Grand Ole Opry House is probably one of my favorites. I got a guitar pick and a little harmonica from the gift shop.

Then we moved on to the hotel. I absolutely LOVE the Gaylord Opryland Hotel. So, of course, I took tons of pictures and videos (which are compiled here).

I was really excited that we got to go on the boat ride. It was very relaxing to me and our tour guide was a cute old lady with a calming voice which you'll hear if you watch the video. The selfie with the water fountain was taken on the boat. Again, there are more videos than pictures. Blue hydrangeas are my favorite flowers, so I took pictures of every blue hydrangea plant I found. Those are my two favorites. I'm so in love with these flowers that I literally gasped when I saw them. The goldfish pond was just really cute.

After we spent our time in the hotel, we went back to the mall and got dinner in the food court. Then we did even MORE shopping! We found a Disney Store where I got a beautiful Belle mug (because I'm obsessed with mugs and Beauty and the Beast is my fave). Then we went to the Vera Bradley store where they were having a 50% off sale! I got a wallet and a matching phone case as early birthday presents. 

So that's basically the extent of that adventure! The next day was pretty chill. At some point in the week my aunt took Tessa and I to the mall. We went to Belk and got scarves like we always do when my aunt visits, then we went to Icing where Tessa got some nail polish and such. After we shopped we went to Maggie Moos and had ice cream. 

Yesterday we went to Chili's for dinner. I had never been there and I felt kind of lost when I saw that they didn't have shrimp. I ended up ordering chicken enchilada soup and it was delicious. I love almost anything with cheese and it turned out to be a super cheesy soup. I'm definitely a fan of Chili's now. 

Tessa played a couple games on the little touchscreen thing. Also, that's one of my new scarves. Ignore the old lady in the background. 

There you go! That's basically my spring break in a nutshell. The Nashville adventure was honestly the most important part and it would have been cool if we could have stayed at the hotel for a night or something, but it was an awesome day anyway. I hope you all enjoy the videos. I felt like this post just wouldn't be complete without them. 

My next post will be about my most recent creative endeavors, including T-shirt bags and a painted wooden plaque that I made for my bedroom door.