• Friday: Received my promise ring. <3 Happiness! I got the call while I was at work so Justin and I went to the jewelry store to pick it up when I was done. It’s so beautiful! It’s a white gold band, simple and pretty. It was surprisingly difficult to find something without any detailing on it.
• Saturday: I went to Casinorama with Justin and Dave where I watched everyone else play and didn’t risk anything myself, haha. Watched Justin rake in a $1020 jackpot on the slots. :O Stayed overnight with the winnings!
• Sunday: Went to Toronto with Justin for an impromtu outing. I bought myself a fancy but tiny little keyboard so my keyboard and mouse can finally both live and fit together on the pull-out shelf in perfect harmony. Getting used to only have one CTRL key on the right is a challenge! I didn’t realize how much I used that key until I started using the computer beyond basic internet-applications. </geeky-talk >

I made an appointment with a bra fitting place downtown and bought some great pieces with my vacation pay. Poor Justin had to sit and wait for two hours while I tried on lots of stuff to get the right fit. (My body is really weird to fit.) I was so happy that I was fit with Freya bras. I absolutely love that brand and at the last place, the girl was certain that their styles wouldn’t fit me. We tried on a few sizes at that original boutique and she told me they wouldn’t work. At this boutique, the girl was very patient and found the correct size for me. Typical appointments are 45 minutes but she spent two hours with me. I bought Freya Pollyanna and Freya Estelle. It’s a little more expensive than buying from the online shops, but the personal attention to fit makes it worth it!

We ended the day by going out for dinner to a Korean restaurant and it was so delicious! I got chicken bibim bop which was great but huge! I had to take most of it home with me, hehe. It was the perfect end of the day.

<3

You know, this lovely lady:

The fabric adaptation is super cute, with Rosie toting a rotary cutter in her emblematic fist. Instead of “We Can Do It!”, it’s “We Can Quilt It!” The fabric I bought was an all over pattern with small circular “Keep on Quilting” motifs. I was aimlessly surfing fabric stores online for general pink fabrics to match. My original plan was to simply fussy cut the Rosies and make nine patches out of coordinating prints. But, I stumbled across Rosie panels that I didn’t even know existed!

I ended up buying a bit more than I was originally going to, but I figured if I was going to pay the shipping charge, I might as well get my flat rate’s worth.  I bought a bunch of pink fabrics plus two different Rosie panels. I also have a black and white quilt that I’ve been dreaming of for a while that I bought some things for.  I hope eQuilter is fast, because I’m pumped to start cutting!

P.S: I quit my part time job and started full time at the day care. Less stress, more money, and more time to sew! Hooray!

Right now I’m waiting for Justin to come home from work so he can take me to the doctor’s.  Hooray!

Last Tuesday I stayed home and quilted, and this is what I got done:  (I haven’t had a chance to update, except on my flickr, haha)

The final image shows my second photoshop design for the quilt.   I like to do a quick mock up either on paper or photoshop.  I deviated from the original photoshop quilt layout a bit. The structure is the same, but I decided against the small brick appliques for now, and got rid of the satin-stitch linear embellishments.  I bought the backing fabric the other day after work, and yikes: of course, I had to pick the most expensive fabric from the quilt as the backing, yargh!  Luckily it was 50% off!

I don’t have an iron while I’m sewing at my boyfriend’s place, so excuse the wrinkles! I’m too addicted to quilting right now to not sew because of that reason, so I just have to deal with it for now.

I ordered four green fabrics, plus a random pink one. I was paying $10 for shipping regardless, so I figured that I might as well get something else too! Fat Quarter Shop’s cuts were perfect. I wish I had ordered more! My first time online fabric shopping was a success! Only two of the four green fabrics actually match the quilt, but I will use the other two in other projects. I’ve already cut out all the rectangles from the fabric and I want to sew-sew-sew!

The kitties love that I have fabric everywhere.

In other news, I’ve been playing World of Warcraft a lot lately. I’ve finally gotten to Dalaran so I have been doing the daily cooking quests! I’m a little addicted to the professions in the game…

Since I haven’t blogged in half a year, I’m not really sure what to say. I’ve finally got a new job at a daycare which I start next week. I’m looking forward to it, but I’m going to be keeping both jobs for at least a while. I’m going to be starting at 9am in the morning until early afternoon, then travel by bus to my other job and work until 9pm. It’s probably going to be a little insane, but I like to keep busy, and I really want to save lots of money right now. More and more expenses just keep adding up.

On a brighter note, here is a quilt that I finished on December 24th. It was a Christmas present for my boyfriend’s mom, and I was a big stressful mess nearing the end of it. I was really worried I wouldn’t get it done in time!

Her living room is painted burgundy with tan couches and floral accents, so I tried to pick colours that would work in the room to use as a TV cuddling blanket. I machine stitched the binding because I was running short on time, but I actually like the look of it a lot and will probably machine stitch rather than hand stitch my binding from this point forward. Hooray!

I’ve been on the hunt for a new job that could somehow be said to be related to my degree, but nothing has happened yet. I’ve had three interviews, two of which I was accepted, but I turned them down because they were no better than what I actually have right now. I work in a retail fabric store, but I actually love it a lot. When I started applying to other retail stores out of desperation, I wasn’t getting many hours. Things have picked up at work and I’m picking up a decent 30 hours a week. For now, this will be okay.

I’m living with my parents for now, and after being with many different roommates for the past four years, it seems strange to be home. Mostly, I find it weird that my living style has changed so much from my parents that I get annoyed with the state of the kitchen – if they were strangers, I’d call them bad roommates about the dishes. (Oops.) I have to get over it through – I’m living rent free for now.

So basically, at the moment I’m just working and saving money. My little tax-free savings account is growing month-by-month (I deposit a fake monthly rent payment in there as if I were paying real rent), my VISA card is entirely paid off, and I’m going to start making payments on my massive student loan soon. I’m studying for my G1 test, because yes, I’m 22 years of age and I still don’t have my driving learner’s permit. I’m done school so it’s time for that obligatory growing up period.

I really want to move into a little apartment (perhaps with my boyfriend, hehe) once I can afford to, but for now, saving is important, and I’m glad my parents are letting me live rent-free so to help me save faster.

Web-wise, I’m working on a new project! It’s the biggest PHP-based project I’ve worked on; it’s much larger than Magitek Designs, which is completely database-driven. I’ve been plugging away at it for about a month and a half now, and I’m aiming to launch August 1st 2009. The basic functionality of the website is complete, but there are many features that I want to code up for it before there are live users on the site. It’s my first time coding a membership system! I’ve had a lot of fun working on it and debugging everything has taught me so much more about PHP. There’s still a hefty to-do list, but I think it can be realistically completed in fifteen days.

Things I’m Working On:

• Sushi-Print Dress: it’s ridiculous. Yup! It’s a classic lolita silhouette made out a silly quilting cotton. It has black bias ruffles along the bottom. The skirt is quite full and will be gathered onto the bodice. I need to make a new facing for the bodice because my interfacing made it way too thick – I think it will be fine without. I will post pictures when it’s done!
• Polka Dot Dress: I bought polka dot material on clearance last year, and I’m finally getting around to making it. This year, I found some white and blue polka dot organza that I’m going to having sticking out the bottom as trim. So cute!
• Scrapbooking University: I’m about 3/4 of the way done scrapbooking my university life. I’ve finished years one through three, but there’s a lot to be done for year four. My scrapbook was getting too thick so I separated it into two albums.
• Scrapbooking The Afterlife?!: Now that I’m out of university, I don’t even know what to call the rest of my scrapbooks. There’s no school-related units of time anymore. But, I’ve started a few pages from this summer already, mostly because there are cute pictures of my boyfriend and me so I couldn’t help myself.

I want to be there to hold my mom’s hand.

I talked to my mom about coming too. The day they’re going is on one of the days where I don’t have an exam, so I looked at the bus schedules and worked out a potential plan. I knew I didn’t have enough money though, because it’s a $125 round trip, and I would still have to pay another $15 or so to get from Yorkdale to Oshawa. (I can’t remember how much that bus costs.)

My mom didn’t like the idea because of the cost and said that she would think about it. I was a little shocked because yes, it’s a little expensive, but it would allow me to visit Nanny and be home for Easter, two important occasions. This would be the first year I didn’t celebrate Easter without my family either, just because of the way my exam schedule fell.

I talked to my dad next and reiterated my idea, and he instantly said yes. He definitely took less persuasion! In fact, he told me not to bother about both buses because he would come to pick me up.

I’m so happy that I’m going to be going home! I feel silly because I barely felt homesick the last few years, but all I’ve been thinking for the past few months is that I want to go home. I want to be done school. I want to get a job doing something potentially more than minimum wage, but if not, that’s okay too. (I must sound like a broken record with my blog posts, but this is what I’m feeling, so I can’t help but say it again.)

There are twenty days until I move home, two essays to complete, and three exams to write. As long as I pass everything (which I’m not really worried about), all my requirements should be filled. Huzzah!

My final class today reminds me of being in highschool. All my other classes are still serious sessions even on the last day, but my professor for Scandalous Life is bringing in Dangerous Liaisons (1988), and we are just going to have a casual lecture on the difference between Les Liaisons Dangereuses and Dangerous Liaisons. Sounds fun to me! I may pack a small bag of popcorn. That will be a nice casual way to finish the year.

Anyway, long story short. My friend Jessie, who is also an avid packratter, was telling me about the awesome new features of PackRat and I should check it out. I logged into PackRat for the first time in weeks. I was surprised to see that they have a new menu bar functionality. I thought, oh, this is a nice new streamlined look. The top bar said something about there being new features that I needed to upgrade to. Since I’d been gone for so long, this seemed plausible. It’s also similar to how Wordpress makes you upgrade your database tables with each update. I went for it…

and got this message:

I was absolutely shocked! I could believe the message though, because my boyfriend also has a PackRat account (which he signed up on of his own accord) and I use his pack to store things. He will also buy me things with his credits on it. I knew it would look bad if they were truly analysing my data for the change over.

I was on MSN with Jessie and our conversation was something like this:

Me: *copy and paste of the message above* OMG O_O I’ve been banned!
Jessie: oh no! contact them
Me: Woe is me, how could this happen, etc.
Jessie: (who obviously already knows it’s a fools joke) Click on the contact button!

And then, of course, I do, and I discover it’s all a trick. I’m an April Fool. They got me!

After he picked me up from school yesterday, we went home and watched Fight Club. I absolutely love this movie and we’ve both seen it before. We actually fell asleep in each other’s arms watching it and it was an extremely refreshing nap! We woke up about seven PM and he had to start his four hour drive him.

I miss him already but I’m nearing the home stretch now. It’s March 31st now, and there are 22 days until I’m done school. My list of things to do is very small now:

• Censorship Essay
• Canadian Literature Creative Writing Assignment
• Exams x 3

I feel good about it! I only have my censorship paper due this week, so I’m spending every spare moment until Friday working on it. I’m writing an essay about Facebook’s censorship practices and the paranoia that comes with it. If anyone who stumbled across this entry happens to have any stories about being suspended or banned from Facebook, or had any of their content removed, I’d love to hear from you in the comments!

I currently have five and a half pages written out of eight.  It’s not even that long of a paper and I surely have enough to write about to fill the space.  I’m just stubborn I guess!  I have seven hours to finish it so I have plenty of time still.  Workworkwork.

I’m really excited for tomorrow!  My boyfriend is coming to visit me!  I’ve really been missing him a lot since it’s been over a month since I’ve last seen him.  He’s bringing his Super Nintendo so we’re going to relive the past.   Hopefully I can practice my Super Mario World skills.  I’m a bit better at the SMW controls than the Super Mario Brothers 1 controls!  When I was last at his place we played SMB1 and I was embarrassingly bad.  I always fell into pits, or lava, or was killed by the easy goombas of all things.

Knowing that he is coming gives me something to work towards!  I’ll finish my work today so that I can have a nice weekend.  ♥

No picture evidence because I’m lazy right now.   I’m reading Clara Callan by Richard B. Wright.  I absolutely love it so far.  It’s the story of two sisters, an elder one who lives in a small village in Canada as a school teacher and a younger one who lives in New York USA working in the exciting radio business.  It’s set in the 1930s and the novel is written in a series of letters and diary entries.   Saying much more would spoil it.  I’m only 100 pages in so far (it’s about 400 pages), but it’s really interesting.

I wish I had started reading it earlier.  I actually wasn’t even planning to read it.  It’s for one of my courses and there’s a small 1% quiz on it, but other than that, there’s no exam or essay on it.  Considering the work that I have to do on other things worth 25% or more, I was going to skip it.  I started reading it last night as I was trying to sleep and could not put it down until it was about 1am and I knew I’d have to sleep, hehe.  Whoops.

Unfortunately the quiz is today and there’s no way I can finish the book by 2pm.  But I’m planning to read as far as I can and see what happens at the quiz.

Randomly:  I think it’s interesting to see how people go about creating their designs, so I decided to show my process for designing the graphics Frozen Flower’s layout.  I actually meant to post this a while ago, but it never saw the light of day:

I had a lot of fun with this design because most of the work actually happened before I got to the computer stages. I hand drew this layout over a short period of days, working on it in the short 10 minute gaps waiting for classes to start or the coffee breaks in the middle of three hour lectures.  For the flowers, I used my own photography as a guide while drawing them.

I want to start using my own drawings and photography for design rather than using anime or video game pictures.  As much as I love those topics, it’s hard, because really, it’s somewhat illegal (though many claim “fair use” and a lot of these companies see it as free publicity).  Though the design and coding is mine, the graphic base belongs to the companies and artists that make those images.  I want the code, the design, the everything to be created by me.  But, my main site Magitek Designs relies on those subjects, so I’m somewhat conflicted.  I think if I didn’t make anime or video game layouts anymore ever, I would lose visitors, maybe.  I’m not sure!  Unless any companies complain about my use of their images, I’m probably okay.  I think about these things a lot even though I’ve been concentrating on school more than working on my sites.

I’ve been itching to make Wordpress templates!  And I’ve also been itching to put together this new PHP idea for the Series section of Magitek Designs.  I’m looking forward to summer to be able to work on these projects!

29 days until home.  ^_^

I was shocked.  A few days ago I wore my spring coat and ballet flats, but yesterday it started to snow again.  This morning when I went to school to work on a group project it was -8°C out. Brr.  So much for the first day of spring!

I feel confident about the group presentation.  But – the reading quiz on Monday?  Haven’t started reading the book yet.  The quiz is worth a measly 1% and even when I’ve studied, I still only manage to get around 5 to 7 out of 10 right.  I’m contemplating just reading the first few chapters and the last few chapters and seeing what happens.  I just don’t have time for it when it’s worthy basically nothing.

I loved Les Liaisons Dangereuses by Choderlos de Laclos!  I finished reading it last night.  Part IV of the novel was a real page-turner.  Cruel Intentions, the 1999 movie, is a modern version of Liaisons so I really want to see it.  We’re watching a part of the 18th-century-style movie on Thursday in class which I’m looking forward to.  (Whoohoo, period costumes!  I love historical romance films!)

I’m feeling anxious about this week but also not so bad about the work load.  Once I get an outline for my essay I’ll be in better shape.

I stalked the cat today with my boyfriend’s camera (we traded temporarily).  I hope maybe on the weekend I’ll have time toupload the photos. Izzy is such a cute kitty.

Blog Stuff: Kim has a blog again!  Welcome back!  And Angela gave into the magic that is Wordpress!

Class Period:

• March 24th: Canadian Literature Quiz
• March 25th: Censorship and Fiction Presentation
• March 26th: Scandalous Life Term Paper
• April 3rd: Censorship and Fiction Term Paper

Exam Period:

• April 6th: Canadian History Exam
• April 14th: Restoration and 18th Century Literature Exam
• April 14th: Canadian Literature Term Paper Due
• April 22nd: Scandalous ife Exam

Yes, Scandalous Life is actually a legitimate course at my university, hehe.  Between Scandalous Life and Censorship and Fiction, I’ve read more shocking novels than I ever thought I would!  Now when people scan over my bookshelves, they’ll look kind of shocked that books like Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure are there.

This one situation was actually kind of hilarious.   The other day in Canadian Literature, I had one of my novels from Censorship on the table because I was planning to go to the library after class to work on my presentation. The book I’m studying is Dirty Weekend.   Apparently, this is a cultural term that refers to a weekend getaway that a couple (most likely adulterous couple) take for the pure intention of convenient sex.  I had no idea until I was researching.  The novel isn’t about this at all – it’s actually more of a feminist text about a woman who has always been manipulated by men.  She ends up revolting against her passive role and murdering any man who tries to manipulate her.

So I have a book with this title on my desk, and the cover looks very much like a horror / action flick movie, with a woman holding up a gun with expressive eyes.    The professor came by to talk to my group in seminar, and I saw her eyes glance at the cover of the novel and judge me, haha.

Really, I think some of these professors are too concerned with what is “literature” and what isn’t.  While I was disgusted with a lot of the content within Dirty Weekend and it isn’t something that I would choose to read on my own, there is a lot of interesting discourse in the book.  It’s really interesting in relation to the topic of censorship, and discussing what is culturally acceptable and what isn’t.  If you limit yourself to the Literature section of the bookstore, you could be missing out on some great texts which can expand your perspective .  That section is so arbitrary anyway.

I went to the library today and worked on the presentation with my partner.  Today is going to be focused on finishing Les Liaisons Dangereuses for my Scandalous Life term paper.  Yay for being somewhat scholarly.

I’m still struggling with figuring out a Wordpress image uploader issue. I have two wordpress blogs, but version 2.7.1, but only this one won’t allow me to use the flash image uploader without forwarding me to the Wordpress login screen. Both blogs are hosted on the same server, just different domains. I actually deleted the admin panel of this installation, downloaded the admin panel of the one that’s working and uploaded it in its place, and it’s still not working. It makes no sense!

But, the weird thing is, the uploader in this installation will work on Internet Explorer. I have no idea what is causing one installation to be comptable with Opera, my default browser, and not the other. My brain! It hurts! So I guess whenever I want to include images in my posts, I’ll have to suffer with Internet Explorer. (*shudder*)

I installed a Windows Vista widget to assist in counting down the days to the last day of school. 36 days and counting! By the end of April, I have to have everything out of the apartment. My dad came up to visit me today for a few hours. Last night I packed up all my belongings that were in the storage closet plus all of my craft supplies (scrapbooking, sewing, painting and drawing supplies: everything). I really like to be creative to unwind, so until May, the only creative things I can do will be web design or maybe some drawing on computer printout paper. And cooking!

My dad came to take the first load of stuff back to my home town, which is about four and a half hours away. We don’t really have much time to get everything home but this was a good start. The hardest part was moving this deep freezer. My roommates and I bought it together a few years ago, dividing the costs, and since then they have all moved out. So, I’m the person who gets to keep it. It will be very useful when I get my own place (one day). It was kind of hilarious trying to get it into my dad’s car; although it’s not really that large or heavy, it’s big and awkward and I’m somewhat useless when it comes to lifting things. After coming up with many failed plans, we eventually got it into the back of the truck without breaking it.

We definitely could have fit more items into the truck but my dad’s not big on tetrising. I am an arrangement queen like my mom, squishing everything compactly into tight spaces and utilizing the space to my best ability. My dad likes to get things done quickly but not necessarily the most efficiently. I still had many packed boxes that we could have fit, but he wanted to get moving so we just left them for now.

My room is an absolute disaster right now from packing last night! My room is also a lot sadder looking. What I miss the most are my plastic bins which I was doubling as a bedside table. I found a cardboard box which I’m using now for my lamp and alarm clock. (Yay, university living!)

I’m excited to be going back home. Although I like my school, this city is much smaller and less diverse than my home town. Plus, my boyfriend is there – being apart is really lonely. That, compounded with the fact that nearly all my friends are in teacher’s college this year and left school to do placements around the province, makes the days feel long and sad sometimes. I do have a roommate who I’m living with, and while we get along, we’re not the closest of friends and it’s sometimes awkward.

What I will definitely miss is my own little apartment! My apartment for the last two years has been in what is called the student ghetto. They’re the cheapest units around town, but the landlords have been really great about improving the area. (We just got a new bathroom vanity a few months ago, and last year, they put in brand new kitchen cupboards on all the units.)

The main living area looks very much like a student’s apartment, but I had a lot of fun making my bedroom feel like home. I had painted my walls green and blue, painted a dresser black, and used black shelves and black bedding to contrast with the bright colours of the walls. I actually feel like this room is more “me” than my bedroom in my parents’ house. Here are some pictures, though normally my room isn’t this tidy (clearly staged photos, hehe):

But overall, I just want to come home! 6 novels and 5 assignments until freedom. 36 days!

These photographs are really random. I’m working on a project for Magitek Designs and these images are a part of it. I’m making a separate blog on MD that’s going to be used as a Theme Preview Blog because I’m hoping to provide some Wordpress template downloads. I’ve wanted to do it forever but I’ve been kind of web lazy. These images are part of the dummy content on that blog to show how the theme could look.

Above, you can see a light bulb, my roommate’s beautiful kitty Mickey who I cat-sat over the summer, an apple, my curtains, and some random stuff from my neighbour’s backyards (in the summer, they probably seriously wonder what I’m doing behind their fences with my digital SLR).

I must seem so flighty. Frozen Flower was a blog for years, then I turned it into a creative collective combined with a blog, then just a portal to my serial works (comics and serial photography), and finally, it’s back to having a blog attached. The front page is remaining a static portal, but the blog is running here in the background.

I haven’t worked with Wordpress in a while – I last updated this blog almost a year ago! There are probably a lot of kinks to work out still, but I’ll take care of them as I come across them.

I recently joined Twitter. I’m completely addicted already! I’ve been able to reconnect with some old friends who I’ve missed to death. (*hearts*) I’ve been tweeting with Munin who is definitely the inspiration for converting this site back into a blog much sooner than anticipated! Yay Munin!

I’ve really wanted a place to vent and being blogless has been difficult. Tonight is just a whee-I’m-back post, but I’ll post for real soon. :O Hopefully I can get back into the swing of things like the old days. (The old days of, what, 2003? Haha!)

I’ve been working on a new web project that combines several things that I love.  I’ve started something akin to a photo log, but combining prose, verse, and photography into one visual medium.  I’ve called it Transfiguration.  Originally when I started making the site I had called the prototype site “Photoverse”, and built it on a Wordpress backbone.  But then I wanted to create a layout which would use PHP to generate a different background colour for each image, so I decided to create my own system.  I’m really pleased with the results!

I’ve been enjoying my time off from school, hanging out with my boyfriend, my friends, and my family, while working on web projects on the side. Next week I have to get my wisdom teeth pulled out (fun), so I’ll be out of commission for a while with chipmunk cheeks. The week after that, I’ll be starting up with my part time job again, which I’m looking forward to. I miss working!

Happy Christmas Eve everyone!  It’s after midnight, so I’m allowed to say that already.

I’ve been working really hard the past few days.  I was able to get rehired where I worked in the summer for Christmas help.  After Christmas, I’ll be working inventory shifts rather than being a sales associate, helping to count every item in the store.  I’m looking forward to it!  My feet are tired from standing in high heels, but the money is worth it.  I have Christmas Eve, Christmas, and Boxing Day off, so I feel like I still have a vacation.

I’m dating Mark officially now~!  I feel ultra-happy-happy.  I was starting to feel really discouraged, but things are really turning around. ^_^