Feels Good

That hit by Tony! Toni! Tone! croons through my head as I post this image because it just feels so damn good to be working on my film again. (Last quarter was a whirlwind.) My deadline remains May 28th. It's non-negotiable, and there's no friggin' time to waste. I'm on it.

I'm currently working on building the zoo set. I posted photos of the work-in-progress gate a while back. See HERE. And as of tonight, I've got the sign that goes above it! See photo above.

Also being worked on is the enclosure for the vegetarian lion :)

Hurricane of Fabulousness

Our engagement shoot photos are in. See them on Max Wanger's blog HERE. A "hurricane of fabulousness"! Realizing that the two of us were uncomfortable in front of the camera, Max had us stand at certain marks and would then "disappear." Le cub and I would hear Max or Margaux instructing us to kiss from some spot that we couldn't see, and then the magic would happen. There wasn't a single moment when Max counted down and asked us to smile. This probably explains why all the photos are so candid and voyeuristic. Max was our lil' stalker. Somewhere in our deck of 75 processed photos (we haven't seen them all yet) will be 5 shots for my parents. Shots of us smiling and looking straight into the camera. But le cub and I love the shots taken through the strange crevices that Max found. We also love that all the kissing shots mask my cub's blinking eyes and my flat face. And boy, does Beans look handsome! Those shots were taken right outside our apartment in Burbank :) You'd never guess. Max is just brilliant like that.

Music to My Ears

My friend, Isaac, is a member of indie-rock band, The Lincoln Bedroom. They are frickin' awesome. Isaac is frickin' awesome (he's their guitarist). Info about The Lincoln Bedroom and their most recent release, Broken Record is available HERE. Better yet, relive what I lived on Saturday. (Le cub and I went to see Isaac and the band perform at Molly Malone's.) Click HERE to listen to their live performance.

Though Isaac isn't usually heard on mic (he's not the lead singer), stalker-me found THIS on YouTube. I have such talented friends.

Gaga for Gaga

My better-half (not le cub) in the animation program is an equally (actually more-so) feelingless chica named Alexis Block. Stalk her HERE. Together we are throwing a Lady Gaga-themed party come end-March. Pants optional! Gaga would have it no other way. The Evite lil' Miss Block created for our event is UBER-dope. To quote "The September Issue" critics, it is "a hurricane of fabulousness." Click HERE to see what I'm talking about.

Even the menu is Gaga-inspired!

Appetizers
Alejandro Dip
Little Monsters in a Blanket
The Fame Salad
Poker Face Pizzas

Entrees
Let's Make a Sandwich Station
Monster Stuffed Turkey
Bad Romance Lasagna Rolls
Money Honey Veggie Dish

Dessert
So Happy I Could Die Cupcakes
Gaga Cookies

Beverages
Diet Coke
Star Struck Shirley Temple
Dance in the Dark Cocktail

Yes, this party is going to be epic.

Which Gaga should I be?!? (I kinda' love Bubbles Gaga - photo above.)

LOVE

reform furniture. check out their inventory here. so beautiful. so expensive. *sniffle*

rebecca taylor. i love everything you design and wore both a dress and cardigan by you at my engagement shoot. i wish you were my friend.

forage in silverlake. your p belly (p for pork) sandwiches are amazeballs. they make my tummy smile.

sugar paper. le cub and i had save-the-date letterpress cards made, and drumroll, please, they've arrived. curry envelopes. yummeh.

walt disney imagineering. resumes for summer internships due this friday. i haven't wanted anything this bad since le cub. *teehee*

Ice-Cream For One

At the Rose Bowl, le cub and I scored what was labeled as an "Ice-Cream Set" consisting of a table and two chairs for $80. We were so psyched about our adorable "new" (vintage) outdoor seating (what you see is our little patio aka Bean's other crib), so you can only imagine the pain we felt when le cub accidentally dropped a chair, and *gasp* a leg broke off! BOO! Whatever. I plan to super glue the broken leg back on (but will certainly label that chair with a "Please Don't Sit on Me" sign). Until then, the crippled piece of furniture is chill-laxing (chilling out and relaxing) in our garage. Ice-cream for one?

Score

The Pasadena Rose Bowl Flea Market, oh how I love you. Get a load of le cub's vintage mid-century modern desk made of teak! It's handsome, no? A real score for $200. And there's more! (Finds from the flea market, that is, to share.) More photos to come...

Sharks with Frickin' Laserbeams

The Nintendo Wii should totally come up with a game involving the punching of sharks with frickin' laserbeams...

Mouse House

These past two weeks have been such a whirlwind. Enrolled in way too manyourses this quarter and found myself drowning. Luckily, I've got incredible classmates and friends who never stopped championing my projects and pointed me towards the light at the end of the tunnel. Alas, I'm finally out! Kinda, sorta. I've still got a final to take and two projects to turn in, but *whew*, the biggie (my Walt Disney Imagineering project) is over and done with. Here's a recap of all that unfolded last week:

Assigned to a group composed of ten strangers hailing from different disciplines, I, along with my group members, were given the task of pitching an experience design project to actual executives at Walt Disney Imagineering. Our group did not get along at all *oy vey* and yes, tears were shed (not mine). Final presentations took place last Thursday at the WDI office in Glendale. Our group pitched a superhero training facility themed gym that promised to take the work out of workout. There were 6 teams in the running, and get this... WE WON! Completely unexpected, and utterly fantastic. One of the happiest days I've experienced in a long time.

See some of the concept sketches used in our Flash presentation to the executives above. Before and After!

I Will Survive

SO much to share. No time to share it. I'll be back blogging next week :)

Turn That Frown Upside Down

i've been really crabby lately. group work has really been getting to me, and i swear i must've cursed at least half of my 9 group members already with "may the fleas of a thousand camels invade your armpits! and may your arms be too short to scratch." wishing death upon people is too mean. but wishing "itchiness" is okay. i think...

anyhow, just thought i'd share yet another video. this one makes me smile. le cub and i LOVE this song. and every time i hear it, i recall the moments in which he blurts the song out - while driving, while trying to wake me up from a nap... :) you know, i think i'm going to have to put my bridesmaids to use on the big day. these go-go moves are wedding must-haves.

Old Spice

I've been known to use le cub's stick of Old Spice deodorant (often enough that he eventually gave me my own stick). I love the smell, and it goes well with my Silver Mountain Creed (the base of my secret formula). Anyhow, some of my friends know this, and one of them found THIS amazeballs video on YouTube to share with me. WAHAHAHAHA... Your man can smell like this!

Brighter Days

Have been on the hunt for a lamp to accompany the reading chair in our master bedroom, and I've finally found "the one". His name is "Enzo," and he hails from Anthropologie.

Have also been trying to figure out what to do with our guest bedroom. Well, 5-7 days from now, our minimalist IKEA guest bed is going to find itself slathered in delectable cotton jersey. (I've been told shipping takes 5-7 days.) Good-bye, sad white sheet, hello, heathered-gray goodness! I think I'm going to have to sleep in the guest bedroom when the new bedding arrives...

Emily Post Would be Proud

i'm all about snail-mail. made a petite thank-you (full of thumb-print art) for me and le cub's wedding photog, max. i'm sending it out on monday. i hope he likes it!

oh boy!

if i had a son, i'd get him this balloon-powered boat. but i don't have an ankle biter. i have a dog.

really cute crap HERE.

GUS

Meet Gus. He's an overworked electrical engineer with a muffin-top. He hasn't been to the gym since college, and the only thing thinning these days is his hair. I designed him for my group's presentation of "BAMM!" a superhero training-facility-themed gym being pitched to Walt Disney Imagineering...

Smarty-Pants

Thank you, Max. I now learn something new every single day! Click HERE.

I'm Too Sexy For My Shirt...

Le cub and I were photographed by the talented Max Wanger on Monday. We decided to have our engagement photos taken at Travel Town in Griffith Park. Le cub and cougar had no idea what we were going, but we did enjoy pretending we were supermodels while hanging off of ginormous choo-choos. After finishing up at Griffith Park, Max shot Beans. Oh, that didn't come out right. Let's try that again. Max took photos of us with Beans. Yup-yup... our first family portrait.

Pictured: MW's work. That's not me. Nor is that le cub. Just in case you were wondering...

Save Me.

Apologies for being missing-in-action as of late. I've been completely swamped with school projects, and have been barely holding afloat. *gasp* Working on a Flash presentation for WDI (Walt Disney Imagineering). Our group is pitching a superhero training facility themed gym. Don't ask. The incorporation of ten people's ideas without having any sort of hierarchy within the group has been impossible, and quite frankly, if looks could kill, I think more than half of my group members would've already been murdered by me. Above is a still from our splash page. Thoughts?

Happy Feet

A gawwwrgeous, vintage, reupholstered footstool in Kelly Wearstler's Bengal Bazaar. Don't you love the shades of grey and ivory? Beans does. He better. For this footstool, in all its cabriolet brass-leggged glory, will soon be arriving at Casa le cougar and cub. No longer available at Etsy because its ours!

Bad Romance

More Valentine's Day card ideas.

Porcupine (let's name him Bert): I love you!
Balloon: What is love? Baby don't hurt me... Don't hurt me... No more...

This is a bad romance.

Eye Love You

For anyone who is still in the market for a Valentine, you can be mine - or Kevin Harman's (my classmate). During class, we came up with a bunch of ideas for Valentine's Day cards, and lo and behold... that geniuses that we are, produced this one. More to come if I find the time to post.

(Sorry for the blurry iPhone image. I painted this for le cub's parents, but framed it before I had a chance to scan it.)

My Funny Valentine

Le cub and I have a tradition of dining at La Paella here in Los Angeles for Valentine's Day. We always order the same thing - the Arròs Négre (cuttlefish, calamari, baby shrimp and mussels cooked with rice and squid’s ink) - and crack up at the sight of the other's teeth. The ink dyes them black!

But this year, we're breaking our lil' tradition because the first day of the Chinese New Year happens to land on the same day! I'm headed for Minnesota in a few hours. While I look forward to meeting up with le cub's family (we've yet to all get-together since our engagement), I'm so NOT looking forward to the cold... BRRRRRRR!

In case I don't get the chance to post from Minnesota, Happy Valentine's Day, cub. See you soon...

Mad Men

And women.

Old people can be way cute. Watch THIS.

Manly cupcakes HERE.

Amazing designs by a Seoul-based Mass Studies HERE.

Pictured: Ann Demeulemeester shop in Seoul. Designed by Mass Studies.

I'll Be Missing You

Alexander McQueen.

So sad.

There's an Elephant in the Room

For the zoo.

Dog Gone It

Because Ethel's dog ultimately gets struck by lightning, I did not want to make him out of clay. I bought faux fur, "craft fur" thinking I could get a Fantastic Mr. Fox effect for the dog character, but no... the scale of the craft fur was too large. That said, I decided to stylize the dog. Why not have him be a mop top mutt (a Hungarian Komondor)?! Taking inspiration from the photo to the left, I began crafting Ethel's canine companion - whom we'll tentatively refer to as "Noodle". I built an armature (skeleton) out of wire, floral tape and foam (the usual line-up) and then covered the body with thin strands of yarn. Noodle's head isn't on yet - I need to form one out of clay. Don't be scared.

Neat-o

Found an old wooden crate (that used to store oranges!) while thrifting in Burbank. Now everything has its own place. Ahh... feels good.

Things Don't Always Need to Make Sense

Isoiso gabagaba maware!
I don't know what it all means, but I don't care.

Knock-Knock

Improvements to the gate. You likee? Beans likee. Those are his stinky feet.

I'm Too Sexy For My Shirt

"Too sexy for my shirt... So sexy it hurts!"

Le cub and I are taking our engagement photos two weeks from now with the talented Max Wanger (how lucky are we?!?) and needless to say, we need to look FIERCE. With the help of a pair of John Varvatos jeans and ooh, some Dolce as well as some Gabbana (ooh, how I love to name drop), le cub is going to look dashing. And lil' ol' moi? I'll be the one sprinkled in teeny tiny flowers, courtesy of Rebecca Taylor. The above-photo is not of what I will be wearing (too leggy), but it's awfully close :) Excited...

Mr. Roboto

My totally rad flash drive, Mr. Roboto. With love, from my cousin, Jen!

Highlights

My brow-less vegetarian lion gets highlights. (His mane is made of foam!)

Come and Knock On My Door

Trying to construct a gate for my zoo scene. Opted to forgo wired gates (in order to avoid wire-cutting-related injuries). Instead, I've gone for painted cardboard. It took forever to carve out the gate! Still a work-in-progress... Next up, the "ZOO" sign and brick columns...

Beans' Dream

... is my nightmare.

Because I love him so much, this toy, loaded with 16 LOUD squeakers was purchased earlier today. Needless to say, Beans is now a very happy dog.

High Brow Art

Is not for me.
I can't wait to hang this up now that I own a drill.

Eskimo Kiss

Haven't been sleeping due to school projects... unable to fall asleep tonight.

Posting a photo of another piece I found at a thrift shop a while back. It's some sort of gocco or wood-block print of an Inuit dude (le cub!) returning home from a hunt to his Inuit wife (le cougar!). And ooh, is that a dog (Beans!) hangin' back in the igloo?!

Bit random of a purchase? I think not. Back in college, I took an anthropology course, and the text book we used featured a photo of an inuit that strongly resembled ME. I love me some Inuits.

Say It Ain't Sew

Prior to working on my second-year film, I didn't even own a sewing kit. Look at me now. I'm cross-stitching :) Kinda. Sorta.

Mmm... Doughnut

Stan's Doughnuts in Westwood makes me happy. This is their Simpson's doughnut. It made my tummy smile.

I Die

A piece of me dies for every second that Ethel and the gang are brought to life. Just thought I'd let you know.

Yes. I am feeling sorry for myself today.
Just one of 'em days.
Tomorrow will be better...

Maybe.

Flashing is Fun II

My flash midterm project, titled "Buffet", can be viewed HERE. I fully intend to fix the audio over this weekend. I was working with a single sound effect (golf swing)... Looking forward to editing in some good slicing, meowing and munching clips. Some Hall and Oates would be lovely too.

Film is Not Dead

At the request of my mother, and for the viewing pleasure of all friends and family in Taiwan who won't be making our wedding, le cub and I have hired a videographer. The amazing Joel "Dreamy" Serrato will be documenting the whole shebang. He shoots on Super 8 film with vintage cameras! Take a look at his work HERE. Yum. And his blog? HERE.

Pictured: Neat-o photo by photographer Joshua Scott

I Shoot Things For a Living

Animation for "Til Death Do Us Part" has officially begun. I'm so tired. I die.