illustration friday: flawed

i'll take him

illustration friday: climbing

they climbed their summer vacation away

when i was colouring this illustration, i hopped over to COLOURlovers for inspiration. there are so many delicious colour palettes over there and some of the colour combinations just make me smile. it's funny though, how the title of the palette affects the way i see the colours and my illustration if i were to use it. i was looking for something with both warm and cool tones and creepy gnomes looked just lovely. but the title and the comment had me imagine how the tiny rabbits would whip out their knives and demand the boy hand his onigiri over.


a picture speaks a thousand words, but a title does have the power to suggest what thousand words it speaks.

手作り日記

1. my attempt at a tiny happy shoulder bag. all i need is the perfect button, and リラックマ seems to think that miffy's button would look just right on my bag.


2. my attempt at a variation of the 失敗なしハンバーグ. i've tried this recipe before and really liked it because it tasted great and i didn't have to worry about under cooking or burning the meat patty. the original recipe suggests cooking the meat by simmering it in red wine and then adding ketchup and worcester sauce (i used 中濃ソース and it was alright) to make the sauce. but i thought wine is kinda expensive so i decided to use pepsi instead (don't laugh, i tried boiling chicken in coke and then added the same ketchup and 中濃ソース to the mix and it was reaallly good). but! i had to forget the milk and so i replaced the milk and breadcrumb mixture with what i had in the fridge - tofu. so here is my accidental 豆腐ハンバーグ:

it was actually quite good. yum.

peach-coloured crayon

i get distracted easily. how easily? think dory. i started to see it as a problem when i realised i couldn't read beyond of few paragraphs (mmm, sentences?) of a book before putting it down and doing something random that popped up in my mind (ooh shiny!). i often find myself getting back to my dishes at least 5 times and would still not have finished washing them. and it occurred to me that this lack of concentration was probably my main weakness when i sat for my jlpt paper in 2007. while the rest of the paper wasn't so difficult for me, the first long passage in the reading section was a complete train wreck. my heart was palpatating and i was desperately wanting to control-tab.

that's why concentration appeared on my resolution list. and i'm glad to say my kitchen sink has never been emptier. not any shiner though, just emptier. i've also been making myself read for a longer period of time. say a few pages at a time. heh.

i borrowed chihiro iwasaki's ももいろのクレヨン from the library a couple of days ago and since it was a simple illustrated book, i could go through it pretty fast. chihiro iwasaki is a well-loved children's book illustrator and her water colours are soft, wistful and amazingly beautiful. i've always been very drawn to her works, but then again, with most popular artists, most people are. but reading the book - a compilation of her sketches, extracts from her diary and the letters she wrote - and a biography of her life in a magazine that i borrowed at the same time, gave me a little insight into her life. and now, her illustrations are more than just beautiful pictures to me. her words struck a chord with me and i now understand why the characters she drew often had the distant look on their faces.


i especially loved the illustration of a little black cat in the book and knew i couldn't imitate it even if i tried. so i photocopied and pasted it into my journal. it also reminded me of the photograph i wish i took few days ago - of a black cat on a street covered with freshly fallen snow.

the librarian told me there is a chihiro art musuem in tokyo. i suppose i will be making my way back to tokyo again. when spring comes.

i heart bokeh, or what whatever you may call it

despite all the haphazard taping, my slightly out of shaped handmade lens hood works like a dream! i got the idea from photojojo and if you want to try making it, be sure to check this out first. it might save you some tape and brain cells.

it started with some Words

we all know what happens to new year's resolutions, but still, i wanted something to guide me. so in place of specific resolutions, i came up with... resolutiony words:
balance in life
concentration
気楽に

i was also reminded by my principal in his opening speech on the first day of school:
to always be thankful.

these signposts that i'm putting up in my mind as reminders are working beautifully, so beautifully that i've been making bento lunches for the past 3 days. perhaps, someone sneaked into my apartment and sprinkled fairy dust on me the night i turned 30 (gasp! there i said it). that might explain the sudden zeal in making bentos.

i've never really been that afraid of turning 30, though i will admit that dating H made me mind it just a wee bit (blast his smooth skin!). in fact, i've always told my friends that i quite looked forward it. i had a feeling that things would fall into place in my 30s and the elusive peace that i've been desperately looking for won't be elusive anymore. maybe just coy.

now that i'm almost 2 weeks into this brand new phase of my life in a brand new year, i actually still feeling optimistic. and that, for me, is something.

birthday celebration part 2

the get together on my birthday was more of a last minute thing, but it truly is one of my more memorable birthdays, all thanks to the 2 crazy peeps i hung out with. first stop, we (well, mostly they. i was busy snapping away) made snowmen in front of the house of a friend who was away on vacation. the crazy american made those naughty ones.


then we went to a cafe for wine and cake, and then to an izakaya for more alcohol (the super nice owner treated us to a nice little bottle of champagne) and food, and then to a karaoke for some more booze and music. yes they are wacky but it's a bonus that they photograph well :p

and since they are so damn photogenic, i'm dedicating the whole post to glorious pictures of them.







look at this girl! i totally have eyelash envy!



and he, i have to admit, is one handsome camel.





thanks guys for coming out. it was great fun.

birthday celebration part 1

i'm never really one to hold birthday parties, but since it was a rather significant number i was crossing over to, i got my closest girlfriends from work to celebrate it with me the night before.



and look who came out to play!

she wasn't even thinking about resolutions

i have been meaning to design myself a new blog for the longest time but truth be told, i do not have the slightest idea how my blog should look like and well, css and i, we are just not meant to be. what i do know is that i love things simple. so, no more steaming hot buns and diagonal green stripey stripes, just plain ol' vanilla rebekah (with lots of yummy toppings).

i guess, sometimes we just need a little change for the sake of change.

it's the new year and well, everything seems pretty usual to me. but i did start on a new project that i didn't actually plan on doing. on new year's day, i was reading the photojojo 2009 photo resolutions newsletter and was quite inspired by what the good people there suggested. then, i started link surfing and stumbled upon an article that brought me to this fun software. i played around with it and it felt really close to what i've been experimenting with lately. so, one thing led to another and i started putting together a project 365.

these are some of the pictures i played around with polodriod. we were on our way to snowboard on the second day of the new year. and because i had to post one picture, i ended up taking (and deleting) many. and i'm actually having problems choosing which one to put up. so that's where this blog comes in. :b

i'm not sure how the project will turn out, but it will definitely be pretty cool if i can see it to the end. it's going to be a good year. i can feel it.