Afternoon Abbey's

Took the afternoon off to spend time with the ladies.

Weekend Projects

I spotted this kitten during one of the weddings we covered last Thursday. Nothing too special about how it looked. I instantly remembered how I find cat eyes very fierce that it would so much like to take a picture of them directly staring at me. This little one was hiding under a seat at Gabby's Bistro. I quickly aimed my camera at it and mimicked a cat sound and said "meeew!" Right then, it looked up and I got more or less a pair of cat eyes staring back at me.

It's amazing how graceful cats move. And they always look feminine, the way they tilt their heads, the way they stare back at you, the way they move their bodies and position them while resting. I've never really been fond of cats as pets but they are quite interesting to observe.

From that wedding we were covering that day, the bride's shoes were quite nice. I like the glittery studs and the sheer material. It has red soles, made popular by every pair of Louboutins.

I've also been coming up with more ideas to upcycle materials lying around the house, mostly paper supplies, cardboards, empty tape rolls, kraft boards and similar stuff.

Pinterest has been really helpful with ideas and this was the last one I did, a DIY scrapbook made with ribbed cardboard and ten sheets of ivory cardstock as pages.

And a spare notepad with an ugly cover, gave it a little makeover. I think I like this camera series.

Thanks for looking! Wishing you a happy weekend!

V Cards

I did a few more painting experiments this week, this time thinking about the upcoming holiday in mind. I have never been particularly fond of Valentine's Day. But I now have a reason to look forward to it ever since I came up with ideas of what I can make and paint for the occasion.

I made some nine to ten greeting cards, whipped up simple phrases and painted them with matching illustrations and whatnots. I'm trying to keep them as simple as possible because I like having a lot of white space in my designs.

I chose light and casual messages that you could also say in person but would "sound" so much better when drawn on a card, with illustrations and/or colors.

What I love about watercolor is how unpredictable it is, in a good way. Sometimes when I'm painting something and see that it looks horrible but it actually does look better when dry. And sometimes, I feel that it's the perfect media for beginners because you don't need to have hardcore drawing skills to paint something in watercolor and actually recognize what it is when it's done.

By the way, I like to paint feathers. They allow me to be flexible with colors and design. They can look weird and colored in neon and it would still look acceptable.

Cupcakes, though, are a bit of a challenge but I'm slowly coming around to making the icing look convincing. I do like how I can do any topping in any color I want and it would still end up looking like a cupcake, even if it looks like a badly-baked one.

And, part of the joy of painting is photographing my artworks afterwards. I like coming up of ways to present them in a photo. I've always been a fan of white and clean workspaces, but of course, a cluttered one can also make a wonderful picture.

It's important to take photos of my paintings because I almost always handpaint everything. If they are given away or get sold out, I won't have a copy of them anymore. It can also be useful just in case anyone wants an exact artwork I did in the past.

I'm putting these up for sale (still haven't decided where). I'm also a bit shy to market my stuff because of what people might say.