The third design in my current CafePress series was surprisingly quick and easy to finish. Here she is:



I haven't made a shop for her yet, though. I might do that later today. I'm also thinking about combining Em's design with Jade's design to make a group design, but I'm not sure if their sizes and proportions will match up enough for that. If it comes out all right, I might also make a combination of Hikari and Rose and maybe even a group design featuring all four of the girls.

I'm getting really excited about finishing this project. The only girl I have left to draw is Rose. :3 I'm planning on putting her in a yellow babydoll dress with a blue trim that will hopefully help connect her to Hikari's design. I might put off making Em's shop until after I draw Rose, depending on what I feel like doing today.

I'm starting to get anxious about VCU again. It's making me restless, and I think that restlessness is turning into frustration about other unrelated things, and somehow I think it's turned into frustration and depression about shoes again. However, I've made a list of things I need to do in preparation for my orientation, and I've planned out some other activities for me to do this week that will hopefully keep me busy.

On another short note, my gradual sunless tanner is already starting to work! :3 I'm not sure how I'm going to like the final results, but I might ask my mom what she thinks when I see her.

Labels: art, cafepress, characters, orientation, self tanner, vcu

I hate having irregularly shaped feet. I always find the cutest shoes online at really good prices, and my problem is always either that they don't have my size, or they have my size but I'm not sure if the shoes will turn out to be too long or too narrow due to size variations, and I can't buy them because the site doesn't allow returns on clearance-priced merchandise. Even if the shoes are only $7-10 plus shipping, I still can't justify that kind of waste of money if they don't fit. ;(

I guess it's better to spend a little more money on a shoe that I know I will be satisfied with or get my money back, but I'm still sad that I can't take advantage of some of the insanely cheap prices I've seen out there. I might try my luck sometime anyway, if I find a pair of shoes cute enough to be worth the risk. At least I could try buying them a half-size larger to make sure the shoes won't be too narrow and then get some insoles if they turn out too long.

I succeeded in finding some good lip products today. I bought a plain lip balm, a colored lip balm, two lip glosses, and a Maybelline lip plumper. I've tried the plain lip balm and one of the lip glosses, and I'm so happy with both of them that I'm thinking about throwing out my old tube of Chapstick, but I'll probably just put it away in a drawer until I run out of the new lip balm. I think I might try the lip plumper a little later tonight or tomorrow, and I hope it works and looks good on me.

I also bought some gradual self-tanning moisturizer for my pale legs. I'm hoping that it'll make them look less flabby because I've heard that tan skin doesn't show cellulite as much as pale skin. I don't want to use it on the rest of my body though, and I don't know if it'll look weird when my legs start to be a little darker than the rest of me. I guess if it looks too bad I can just stop using it because I definitely don't plan on tanning my torso, arms, or face. :\

I hope that by the end of the summer my long-term makeover will be complete. I've been trying to make a lot of little changes with myself in preparation for my new life at VCU, and I think that I'm nearing the final stages of my transformation. All I have left to do is to finish clearing up my skin and getting back into shape. :3

My orientation confirmation arrived in the mail today, finally~ I think I'm going to go start reading the handbook that came with it after I check my email and see how my dad's doing.

Labels: appearance, cosmetics, feet, lips, makeover, money, orientation, problems, self tanner, shoes, vcu

For the past few days my life has been fairly uneventful, for the most part. Tuesday I finished a drawing of Jade, as part of my new CafePress series:



I still haven't put her on my website or made an actual CafePress shop for her design yet, but I will probably start on those things later today. Now that I think of it, I forgot to add my signature, but I guess that's okay. The high resolution image is only going on the actual CafePress designs anyway, and in order for people to steal that they'd have to actually buy my merchandise. X3 I might go ahead and add a signature for the sake of putting her on my website, though.

Yesterday I drove my boyfriend to the optometrist because we thought that he would have to have his eyes dilated and need me to drive him home, but that didn't happen. However, my trip there wasn't completely pointless. I was able to help him pick out some attractive frames for his new glasses prescription. The optometrist is also conveniently located inside Wal-mart, so I was able to lurk around the beauty and cosmetics aisles while he was getting his eyes checked. I found a set of five colorful headbands and a hand-held bathroom mirror for only about $7 altogether.

I was also very tempted to buy some new lip gloss or lipstick at Wal-mart because I wanted to try something new after not being happy with most of the lip products I have at home. I really want to try a plumping lipstick or gloss because my lips are so small and shapeless and undefined, and since I'm clumsy and not good at applying makeup in general, I really don't want to try a liner. However, in the end I decided not to buy any of the cosmetics I looked at because a few of them looked like they had already been opened and used, and I didn't want to risk buying one of those. :\

To be honest, I'm still not sure what lip colors look best on me because I'm fairly pale and a lot of colors either wash me out or make me look old. I'm going to have to look into that later, but I think what I need is a subtle rose color, nothing too bright or too dark, but at the same time nothing too light, either.

After we finished at Wal-mart, I visited some of my former coworkers at Belk because my mom needed me to drop off her Belk card payment, and then we picked up some lunch at a local cafe. :3 I was a little disappointed that the cafe didn't have the mango smoothie I had the last time we went there, but the passion fruit smoothie I ordered instead was almost just as good. The food was pretty good, too.

As of today I still haven't received my orientation packet from VCU, but I finished reading my handbook for accepted students last night. Most of it was information I already knew, but I did find out a few new tidbits of information. I also looked at their art foundation website last night and looked over their course information to get an idea of what I will be doing in my classes in the fall, and to be honest I'm really hoping that I didn't transfer out of their drawing studio course because I want to do more drawing. Other than that, I'm just hoping that my general education requirement classes will transfer because I don't want to have to take more math and science classes. :\

And man, I hope the good apartments aren't all taken by the time I can visit them.

Labels: art, cafepress, characters, cosmetics, vcu, wal-mart

My mom's taking me shopping this evening and I'm going to finally get to try on those hot pink skinny jeans that have been haunting me~ X3 I just hope they look good on me, though.

In other news, I did finally manage to find something to do on Saturday. Her name is Hikari, and she's one of my latest CafePress designs:



Click here to check out her CafePress shop!

I think this will mark the beginning of a new series of CafePress designs. Normally I would start with Rose, but since Hikari's design from my first series was the worst one of the bunch, I wanted to make up for that by making a prettier design of her. Hikari is supposed to be the "pretty" character, so it isn't acceptable for her to be the least attractive design.

I think Jade might be the next character in the series. I've been meaning to draw her in a lingerie-inspired angelic costume for a while now. Of course, Em would naturally be Jade's demonic counterpart. :3

I'm kind of worried about being able to keep the series cohesive, though. I'm planning on giving them all similar backgrounds, but sometimes I have trouble drawing things at the same size or keeping my style similar enough from drawing to drawing. I guess I will have to try to keep the same brush and canvas sizes and keep my proportions consistent to the other characters.

Labels: art, cafepress, characters, hikari, shopping

I wasn't able to register for Monday's orientation after all. Friday morning I woke up early to call about the apartments and start making the appointments to look at them on Tuesday, but I first went to VCU's website to see if my response had been processed yet. It had been, but unfortunately the only orientation date left to me was the July 7th orientation. At least I didn't have to go through the trouble of making the appointments in the first place and then having to cancel on them, but I hope that there will still be a decent selection of apartments for me to choose from by the time I get up there.

I also still haven't received my information packet yet. To say the least, I'm not surprised, but I'm very disappointed that my prediction, which was not meant to be a serious one, that my information packet wouldn't arrive before Monday came true.

To be honest though, I'm a little relieved that I wasn't able to go to Monday's orientation because this way I will have a little more time to mentally prepare myself to deal with everything. I will also have a little more time to actually receive and read my information packet and also an orientation packet, which is supposed to include all of the details about my orientation. I'm still feeling anxious about everything though, and I'm getting worried that I won't feel better until after I actually start my classes.

In other news, I've been kind of bored today, since there isn't really anything left that I can do about my orientation right now. There are a lot of other things that I could and probably should be doing, but I just don't feel like it. I don't want to be bored, but I just don't know what I really want to do right now, and it's really bothering me. I think that it might have to do with my anxiety, but I don't know how to get rid of it.

I know it's terrible, but I really want to go shopping again, and I don't know if I can wait for my mom to get home on Monday or Tuesday, but I don't want to go by myself or with my boyfriend because either way I won't get the opinions I want on the things that I want to look at, and now that I'm unemployed, I really can't afford the extra gas, either.

Labels: anxiety, boredom, orientation, shopping, vcu

Well, I got my VCU ID number, but unfortunately it didn't do me any good because I can't reserve a spot in an orientation session until after they've received my response form. So my mom took my response form to the post office, and VCU should receive it tomorrow by noon. Hopefully I'll still be able to register for the orientation session on the 23rd by the time they get it. I hope it doesn't take too long for them to process my response.

I'm still anxious about getting my information packet, too. It still hasn't arrived yet, but I've already printed copies of my immunization certificate and final transcript request form online in case it doesn't arrive in time to get things done. I went ahead and got the shots I needed today because I was missing about five of them, but I need to try to go to my gynecologist's office tomorrow so they can verify my Gardasil vaccine dates and sign the form for me.

At least I have Silent Hill Origins to occupy my time and help with my anxiety. I bought it at Walmart yesterday, and so far I haven't gotten very far into it because I haven't played a Silent Hill game in so long and I've kind of become a chicken for it. I really love it already, though.

Even though I've heard that Konami didn't actually make Origins themselves, I'm very impressed that they've brought back the original characters and a lot of very familiar places and situations, and the creepy atmosphere I've loved about the previous games hasn't suffered at all. As always, Akira Yamaoka's music and sounds are top notch as well.

The only thing I haven't liked about Origins so far is that almost all of the melee weapons break eventually, which doesn't really make sense to me because it isn't easy to break a hammer, and even if you do break the heavy part off of it, you still have a large wooden handle that wouldn't deal as much damage as the entire hammer would, but it would still probably make a half-decent weapon. However, I do like the grappling feature, which has helped me out quite a bit in the game so far, and I also like the idea of being able to fight without weapons, even though I haven't tried doing that yet. There also seems to be a wider variety of items that can be used as melee weapons this time around, which is fun. I really like the scalpel at the moment, but I'm really curious about how the IV drip stand that I picked up yesterday will work, especially since the scalpel probably won't last much longer.

Labels: immunization, orientation, silent hill, vcu

Sorry for the lack of updates; I've been working on my website almost nonstop for the past several days, and when I haven't been working on my website I've been working on the apartment hunt.

I'm currently uploading my website, and after I'm done with that, it's all a matter of testing it to make sure everything works okay, changing the links from my old website, and adding a few extra things (like a 404 error page--I've always wanted to make my own).

The apartment hunt has gone pretty well so far; I browsed VCU's off-campus housing website and found at least fifteen listings right off. I printed them all out and sorted through them, and I easily narrowed the group to my top six listings based on what I need in an apartment. I also called VCU's off-campus student services today because I wasn't sure if the apartments were in good neighborhoods, but the man I talked to said that they were all safe places. All that's left with that is to figure out which one is right for me and.

To be honest though, things are starting to pile up on me again. I haven't received my information packet yet, and I need it in order to do anything else because it contains my VCU ID number. I have to submit my response form to tell them that I do plan to attend VCU, I have to request my final transcripts, I have to take a math placement test (even though I already took Calculus >>), I have to get immunization records, and I have to register for orientation next week, and in order to do any of those things I need either my ID number or that information packet.

To add to the stress, the only orientation dates that are offered to students in the School of the Arts are June 23 and July 7, and I really want to do the June 23 orientation because it's better for my mom's schedule and because I want to look at apartments the next day. A few of my listings state that their apartments go very quickly, and I don't want to be stuck picking through the leftovers after all of the good apartments are taken.

I'm planning to call VCU tomorrow to see if they can give me my VCU ID number over the phone so that I can register for orientation and start calling the apartment owners to see if I can make an appointment to look at their apartments next Tuesday. Hopefully everything will go well. If not, I might be stuck ruining my mom's next big weekend trip. :\

Labels: apartments, vcu, website

Today I finally got my acceptance letter from VCU, so I will be entering their art foundation program in the fall. :3

That's all I really wanted to say.

Labels: vcu

Well, I just got off the phone with VCU, and apparently I'll receive my response by the end of this week. The lady I talked to said that it was sent out on either Friday or Monday and she told me to call back if I don't receive it by the end of this week. I also confirmed the address they sent it to out of paranoia, and it was the correct address.

Hopefully tomorrow...

Labels: vcu

I have one big problem today. Well, aside from the fact that my response from VCU still hasn't arrived yet, I have one big problem today.

The big problem?

Yesterday I drew a self portrait that I had originally planned to use in my website's new design, but when I finished it I decided I didn't want to paste my face onto the main page of my website after all. It seems that after that original idea failed, I've reached a creativity block.

I'm not sure what I want to put on the main page of my website now. I don't have the patience to do another realistic drawing for it, but I don't know if I want to draw another anime girl or something like that. Even if it would be more fun for me and it would better represent what I like in art, I don't want people to take me or my art as "juvenile." On the other hand, I don't know if I even care because it'll just be on the ".com" page of the website and nowhere else, and if I give somebody a link to the "professional" part of my website, it would be their own fault for leaving that section and finding my less serious art. But that doesn't help me decide on what I want to draw; it just justifies my desire to make "stupid art," as Inka Essenhigh might have put it.

I really wanted to draw something original for my website to keep it recent, but I think at this point I might just give up and salvage one of my older drawings for it if I can't think of anything else soon. At least I've justified wanting to draw whatever I want to draw for it through talking to my boyfriend and writing about it.

I'm also not sure what I should use as my domain name for my website. I've noticed that a lot of artists just use their real name, but I really wouldn't want to do that. I'm barely willing to put my real name on my website at all, but I'm still not sure what to use as my domain name. I want something cute and simple that I won't get sick of later, but I can't think of anything yet. Meggi.com would have been perfect, but it's already taken and apparently on auction at like $5,700 or something like that. Oh well, I'll probably come up with something eventually. :\

By the way, here's a preview of the self portrait I finished yesterday. I'm pretty proud of it, even though it's not going to make it to my website design.

Self Portrait by ~sailor-meggi on deviantART

Labels: art, creativity block, design, domain name, website, website design

It looks like Blogger has updated their interface a bit since I last posted. :O

Yesterday I went on a shopping trip with my mom and my aunt Andrea to Greensboro, which is a city about an hour away that has better shopping options than our dinky little town. Unfortunately, what was supposed to be my shopping trip kind of turned into their shopping trip, and I didn't get to look at a lot of the things that I wanted to. I guess some of the important things were covered, but there was a lot more that I wanted to do that I wasn't able to do.

I really missed the shopping trips that my mom and I had when I was younger; she would always help me pick things out and tell me when a color or style didn't look good on me. I never really appreciated that help when I was younger, but I haven't really had that kind of a shopping trip with my mom since I started working a few years ago, and I really missed the input and company I had when I used to go shopping with her. This trip didn't really cut it as well as I'd have liked it to because for the most part I was looking on my own or waiting for them to finish helping each other pick out clothing for themselves so that I could get my mom's opinion on some of the things that I wanted to look at in the other stores. She said that she'd take me shopping again though because I didn't get to look at everything that I wanted to.

It was a fun day considering the circumstances, though. I did actually find a pair of cute brown shoes, which is very difficult because I'm picky about shoes and I have a hard time finding any shoes that are both small and wide enough for my feet. I also bought a cute pink The Sak clutch that was originally priced at $69 for less than $25 at Marshalls. It looks like this. I also got some new clothes, mostly for when I (hopefully) go to VCU in the fall.

I'm probably set for school clothing, but I still want at least one of the fancier party tops or dresses from one of the junior stores in the mall because someday, at least once in my life, I want to go out dancing, and I want to have something cute to wear for that. I don't want something so sexy that my boobs will pop out of it, but I'm interested in the brightly colored flowing tops that have shoulder cutouts and other interesting details. I feel more comfortable in tops that have a more modest neckline, but I wouldn't really mind a low-cut top if it either has a built-in bra or isn't too low for me to wear a bra under it. Maybe those are the kinds of things I will look at the next time I go shopping. I also still want to try to find a few more pairs of shoes if I can.

I'm going to work some more on my Gaia profile now, so I'll write more later. :3

Labels: clothing, shoes, shopping

Still no response to my application to VCU. I'm starting to get frustrated about it. I might call them on Tuesday or Wednesday if I still haven't gotten it by then, in case it got lost in the mail or something.

Today (or technically it was yesterday, Saturday, June 7th) my brother graduated from high school. It was boring and we ended up sitting in front of some loud people who were practically shouting right in our ears to talk to each other. Additionally, the whole audience was disrespectful and didn't stay quiet the whole time even though the principal specifically said not to yell and cheer until everyone's name had been called. I hate having to be around huge amounts of people like that.

After the graduation, we went to lunch at a new restaurant in town and since there wasn't much on the menu that I was interested in ordering, I ordered a soft shell crab sandwich. I'd never eaten one before and I didn't realize that they were going to serve me the whole crab. It was weird, and I was afraid to eat it at first because it resembled a live crab except for the fact that it was fried and breaded. I didn't want to send it back or make a scene in the restaurant though, and luckily there weren't a lot of people there to see me being uncomfortable about eating the thing. I did end up eating it all, and it wasn't bad, though it was very salty and I wish the sauce had balanced it out a bit. It was an interesting experience for me.

After a nap, I continued to work on my new Gaia profile, which, by the way, is looking really great so far. It's almost finished now, except I need to pick out some songs to put on it and move it from my alternate account to my main. It'll probably all be finished and up by Monday.

Anyway, I just wanted to update a bit before bed. I'll try to write more tomorrow. Goodnight!

Labels: gaia, weird food

I still haven't received my response from VCU yet. Hopefully I'll get it tomorrow. At least I know I'll hear from them this week.

Today I had planned to play my latest interest in the world of free MMORPGs: Holic Online, but when I was finally ready to play it, I didn't feel like it anymore.

Instead, I started working on a drawing that will eventually become the main layout image of my new Gaia Online profile. I say "eventually" because it basically takes me forever to finish making Gaia profiles, especially when I don't even know what I plan to do with them. Unfortunately I wasn't thinking about the composition of the profile itself when I started the drawing, so I'm going to end up having to work around it when I actually get around to making the profile. I have a few ideas of what I want to do, though. I'm planning to start on it tomorrow.

I've also been reading the Death Note manga lately, and I'm currently on chapter 31. So far, it's almost exactly like the anime. It almost makes me want to just watch the anime again, instead of reading it. I do like looking at the art of the manga, though.

Labels: death note, gaia, holic

Well, it took me long enough, but I finally finished making my blog to my liking. It's been several years since I've used Blogger's coding, so it took me a little while to re-learn old things and pick up on a few new things.

I really shouldn't have made a new blog. I can never keep up with them, and I already have built-in journals on some of the community sites that I visit frequently. But I love things that I can customize, and I like being able to show off my amateur and probably poor web designing skills. I also wanted to have something creative to do with the bit of free time I'm going to have this summer.

As for introductions, I'm pretty lousy at writing them. In fact, I'm pretty lousy at writing in general. That's another reason I wanted to make a new blog; I need some writing practice. It'll probably be more apparent later on.

I'm an art student hoping to transfer to a university in the fall. I'm actually still awaiting a response from my chosen school, but according to their admissions office I should hear from them this week. I hope that I will be accepted because this is the one place I've wanted to attend since my junior year of high school. My grade-point average is flawless and I have been told that my portfolio is very competitive, but I'm still anxious to receive a response to my application.

Unfortunately, I'm also an anime fan, and I'm currently facing the dilemma of either giving up my passion for drawing anime-styled characters or risking my quality and credibility as a serious artist. I'm at least cutting back on the anime, but at the same time I've found that I've gotten out of the habit of drawing anything at all. I'm planning to work on my art now that I have time, though.

Some other things worthy of mention are the fact that I recently graduated from my hometown's community college with an associate's degree, and up until last Saturday I worked as a sales associate in a department store. I quit my job so that I could take a break before I have to start getting ready to transfer in the fall.

Well, I can't think of anything else I should add for now. I guess I'll write tomorrow, and hopefully I'll get my response from VCU, my chosen university. :3

Labels: introduction, personal

Another test, to see how entries format on the same page.

Just checking to see if this works.

all content and graphics copyright © 2008 Meg Couch. all rights reserved.