Getting My Art Out There!

I am SO excited!!

So, not only have I been contacted to do more art for someone and their DnD group again, but I have just officially gotten a potential job drawing the chapter headings and possibly the cover art for a children's first chapter book. YUP!

We are at a close family friend's house, celebrating the birth of their new baby girl, and as we are talking I bring up how I finally have Photoshop. So one of the grandmother's there, grabs my attention asking, "You're an artist?" She goes on to explain how she has written a children's first chapter book and needs someone to do the chapter heading art and possibly the cover art for her book. She sent me the story and I've read it and I'm totally working on a bunch of sketches for her right now. It's awesome! I'm really excited to finally be doing something that is actually kinda big and will be out there on shelves in a bookstore! I mean how cool is that?! Deadline is by the beginning of April. I hope she likes what I do. She looked at my art gallery online and there were a few pictures that she really enjoyed, so I'm working off those to make her characters. Yay!

Teaching

So I haven't written in a long time... hehe...

I went home for Christmas. It was stressful and busy and not quite the "vacation time" I was looking for, but it was nice to be back with family and the humidity and familiar places. Not to mention the humidity... my hair was marvelously luscious and thick and my skin cleared up and was smooth...
*sigh*

Upon being back, I cried a little... but it was nice to be back with my Boy in our nice small tiny apartment for 2. It was clean and kinda smelled funny, but it was OUR apartment. I decided it's time to make it more of OUR apartment and rearrange. So I did, and now I feel better and more at ease that there isn't this huge desk in the way of everything. It's much roomier (if that's even possible in these quarters...) for people to come over for Anime nights and whatnot. I like it. :)

I got back into archery at the school and became an "unofficial T.A." for the class. It's kinda fun to hear Redd tell the students, "See this girl here? She's the re-curve master. You need to talk to her if you want to know how to shoot right." For the first few weeks, I had a few groups of girls (2-4 at a time) gather together as I coached them as best I could on how to stand, form, shoot, aim and be good. I'm rather proud at my teaching because compared to last year watching the students when they  first shoot a re-curve bow... they always hit the curtain, the floor, no where NEAR where they wanted to be. Now, within the second round of shooting, they're hitting the paper target. Not bulls-eye, but it's not the curtain or floor... It's fun. I even get to shoot for free. :)

I am also now involved with the school's Japanese Association. It's nice to be able to FINALLY talk to people who know Japanese. No offence to Boy in any way, I just don't want to lose my language. I help out in the beginners class, teaching here and there when they want me to. It's been fun and Boy has been going to classes too which makes me so happy to see. I love it when he speaks to me in Japanese too. It always makes me smile because I know he is actually trying. We posted a bunch of Japanese symbols all over the house for him to read and remember. It's cute.

It's been great teaching. Keeping me busy. I may have to not be too involved once I start classes and possibly get a job, but I enjoy it. That's what it's all about isn't it? Doing what you love? I love to teach my hobbies and things I enjoy doing. :)

Being Pampered

I've been fighting an on-coming cold these past few weeks and it looks like it has overcome me. I'm still trying hard to stay energetic and moving instead of being in the house all day mopey in bed. Disinfecting everything, wearing my little Japanese face masks all around the house (too embarrassed to wear it out...). It hurts when I sneeze and kills my throat every time I cough. I've been trying to take some medicine for it, but I'm scared to take sleepy pills because I have to wake up early in the mornings. :( I hope that maybe tonight or Saturday night I can take some and sleep in.

Through all this, Boy has been helping as much as he can between school work, finals and the stress/drama of the area right now. *rolls eyes about the drama* Anywhoz, I absolutely love it when he pampers me and does things for me knowing that I am sick. I mean who doesn't like to get pampered? Even just his hugs and a kiss on the forehead after I finish a round of sneezes or painful coughing makes me feel better. I guess that's where the whole "kiss it better" came from too. Knowing someone loves you, when they "kiss it better" as a kid, you know is the best medicine ever. I love it when he makes me drink water, knowing that I don't drink enough as I should... All the little things he does letting me know he cares about me and wants me to get better.

Now if it would just warm up again... but I guess now that it is December and it started snowing, that won't happen for a long time. =/ At least I'll be at home soon, where there may be ice and threats of "end of the world" cold, but it definitely won't be anywhere near the negatives.... maybe not even the 20s.... And the wind won't be as crazy piercing as it is here.

Baking

I've been saving this one, debating on if it really does brighten my day to bake and how I should write about this... Needless to say, I really do love to bake. Cookies, bread, even just cooking dinner. I love it. It's become something that is really important for me to do (maybe because I'm a newly-wed and that "house wife mode" is starting to kick in) and something that I have come to enjoy. I've found I love finding recipes to try and making them to see if Boy likes them or not.

In all honesty, before I went to Japan (2010), my cooking and baking skills were at a minimum. (No lie, I totally made the fire alarm go off at college while cooking macaroni and cheese...) It was boxed mixes all the time. Sure! I could cook! Little did I know that I would be going somewhere that did NOT have box mixes and did NOT have convection ovens. Uhm, so I guess you could say Japan taught me how to cook for reals and not just from a Macaroni and Cheese box. When I came home however, I had to re-teach myself again how to cook because of the different measurement systems and other things. But! Through trial and error, I did it!!! Last night, I finally made bread!

And doesn't it look yummy?!!

Ok ok ok, so I did have help. The first time I made this, it was with my friend Joanna who is minoring in culinary arts and wants to open her own bakery... So, she taught me what to do and what not to do and a few tips, because everytime I have ever made bread before, it's never risen, it's burnt, exploded in the oven, it's hard as a rock.... BUT this time I did it myself!!!

I've been on a baking/cooking spree while I've been out here. It started with desserts and sweet stuff, but now I'm learning how to really cook dinner and bake all sorts of things! It sometimes is frustrating, but it's so exciting when things turn out right and delicious! Right now I'm working on some English Muffins. Mmmm. Also, this week I had a whole bushel of apples and so I finally got the courage to use my crockpot for the first time and I made some Applesauce and Applebutter! (Which tastes delicious on the bread...)

(Isn't he cute? *twitter-patted*)

With this whole new baking spree, I decided to start up a new blog and got Joanna in on it too! It's a recipe blog! I know there are a TON of recipe's out there and a MILLION blogs on cooking, but it would be nice to have all my recipes that I'm gathering in one spot. Maybe one day I can make a cookbook! :D That would be exciting to have my very own cookbook. Maybe.

Halloween

It's over, but I love to dress up. I love carving Pumpkins and baking pumpkin goodies. I love the little kids dressing up and all going Trick or Treating. I love watching the traditional movies like, The Nightmare Before Christmas, Corpse Bride, It's the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown and Coraline. It is fun! I don't understand those people who are so against the holiday as to say that it is "evil" and a "dark tradition that has no meaning"...research people... I mean, if you really dumb it down to what it's really become, all you have to do is dress up and go tell your neighbors "Trick or Treat!" and they give you free candy!! And don't forget to hit up the rich neighborhoods where they actually give away the HUGE candy bars and the good treats. :)