it’s really sad that it takes something traumatic, like death, to make us realize how precious and short life is. although there are so many bad things in life, i really don’t want to leave it, i hope there is an afterlife. it’s hard to imagine, this not being it. this post isn’t meant to be a downer, but lately i have been thinking about death, but not in a morbid way, just it’s all around us and i feel like we ignore it as if it can’t happen to any of us, just me typing this makes me uneasy, but i have to ask myself, why? death, it’s apart of life. it is exactly what reminds us that we need to live in the moment and not get ourselves hung up over things that REALLY don’t matter. i love life, and i am happy i appreciate it. i will from this point on, make the most out of my time in this world.
semi-slacker
i’ve only been slacking on art because i found a book, The Help and i can’t put it down. this week i will work on drawing, drawing drawing, and maybe some painting. I went to an art party, and it made me feel good about my work, people were awing over just the under drawing, and my technique. i guess i needed that boost of confidence. thank you art party attenders!
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painting…
yes, i said it, painting, i have been procrastinating really bad lately. everyone has been asking me if i have been painting, and being as honest as i am all i can embarrassingly say is “no, i’ve been procrastinating.” yesterday, while procrastinating, i was sitting online i googled dutch painters and came across a painting that someone did using a technique called grisaille which is a technique like underpainting that you can use when glazing. I have been wanting to try it before, and i decided i should take a stab at it. so if all goes as planned i will be working on this technique today.
here is my w.i.p (work in progess) never show or like people to see my process, because first of all i hate it when people tell me what they think i should do to it, which is usually what i plan or totally off of what i plan to do. second i don’t like people trying to judge the parts of the process that are not, how should i say this, pretty. I hate working in front of people but i will, if i have to, for example, when i did caricatures, a very nerve wrecking job, but it paid for my car in college. My friend had an art party at her house, sort of a house warming and we all created her stuff for the apartment, it sucks when people try to compare their work to mine, yes i’m good at it, but damn, stop focusing on mine then maybe you can do something nice too. and that is all i have to say on the subject of drawing in front of others and showing off my progress. because this is experimenting for me, something i’m new too, i don’t mind sharing. so after that whole rant finally i will post the progress.
- sketched using orange col-erase pencil
- under paint using watered down burnt umber colored acrylic paint
- this layer is the complete under painting with shadows and details
Filed under creation
crocheted rasta hats…update!
these are the other 4 rasta hats i finished just in time for the jamaican shindig!
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Rasta Hat!
HAPPY INDEPENDENCE DAY, AMERICA!!!!!
This is the first of the 5 rasta hats I am crocheting this week. You can find this pattern here: rasta hat crochet pattern.
I really don’t like the bright yellow, and red, but someone else will.
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Creation Station!
alrighty, i finally i decided to scan some doodles….and post some pics of other creations.
Doodlin’
did i ever tell you i really enjoy drawing food!
Summer babes!
Hookin’ (crocheting)
this is a halter top i crocheted recently, i got the pattern from Afya Ibomu’s Get Your Crochet On!, Fly Tops and Funky Flavas.
i am currently working on crocheting 5 rasta hats for 5 d.j.’s for my homie’s jamiacan themed birthday bash on thursday…i am hoping to get pics of the d.j.’s rocking the hats…stay tuned…
Sewin’
and the last thing to post today, a skirt i just finished today…made out of old jeans with a whole in the crotch! don’t you just love recycling?
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still here…
i’m still here been a little lazy lately, i have a few drawings…doodles to post soon, as soon as i get my house in order and put everything in order, like getting the scanner in the same room as the computer.
a customer at my coffee shop told me that my braids were a piece of art. wow! i never thought of it that way. true it is my creation and not everyone can do it, or would do it. i usually don’t feel comfortable wearing weave especially this far down my back, but i needed a change and i wanted to do something good for my hair this summer. i will definitely miss these braids when i take them down, after july 17th…i have been really good not to mess with these, it’s so unlike me to keep a style longer than a week, even braids. but i am very proud of these braids, and the fact that i did it because i wanted, not because it is a trend. believe me, black women look at me like i’m half crazy for wearing these “patra-like braids, in 2011″. i wanted them bigger but my hair is thin and bigger braids would probably cause breakage. ok, enough about my hair, i need people to talk to about my hair and my discoveries about my hair i end up going on a tangent about my hair all the time, i lurk the curltalk site but no one ever responds to me, i guess it’s an elite group so i will refrain from talking.
Anyhoo, doodle posts coming soon…..possibly later today!
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smile!
i woke up this morning to a phone call from my younger sister.
Ari: “are you sitting down?, because you need to be sitting down for this.”
Me: “well, i’m laying down, what is it?”
Ari: “i’m having twins!”
Yaaaaaay! i will be the auntie of twins. what a thing to wake up to.
So i was thinking of something to do last night, so i googled homemade journals, and found a cool tutorial that had all the tools that i already have in my house. I found this video tutorial, from Photojojo and made my own little journal this morning. fun! fun!
on another note i took pics of my little protege, the big brother off the twins i just found out about, he wanted to paint like “ca-ca” ( he calls me ca-ca!, cuh-cuh!)
- green paint
- handmade journal, i used index cards to practice making a journal.
- opened journal
- another angle
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still learning…
the topic of yesterday with my homies was, i suck at b.s.ing, i mean i can’t tell a believable small lie to save my life. but i can b.s. this computer stuff. somehow i’ve gotten by acting like i am web and computer savvy, but to tell the truth, as i always do, i have no idea what i am doing, i am just clicking buttons because they look right. which reminds me of playing the mortal combat arcade game with an old friend, he was a gamer nerd and i had no idea what i was doing but i would always kick his butt, just by pressing buttons and wiggling the joystick a little, gawd! he hated that…and gawd, i kinda miss those days. ok! back to the subject, i have been getting into reading tutorials lately so i can no longer b.s. my way thru the web and so i can help my other friends who are almost as web illiterate as i am. today i added some feeds to my site, still not exactly sure how they work but i think i have them set up enough so that y’all will know when i update this site, if you care to check back.
when i get off this computer i will go work on a painting i started a few months ago. and i will start work on a promised portrait to some friends.
btw, i stumbled upon, haha! literally i was sitting on stumbleupon and found this site that has helped me set up a plan of action to get some work done. this dude Austin Kleon‘s site is very inspiring, check him out!
Filed under creation, inspiration, rants
Domestic Dame
when i started wearing my hair ‘au naturale’ the majority of the time, i decided to pay attention to what was actually in my hair products and i started reading product labels. i switched to buying mostly, all natural products, except for a few staples. i even started attempting to make my own hair products using left over products i don’t plan to buy anymore. i woke up this morning and went straight into the kitchen…no, not to cook breakfast, but to concoct my new products. i have never used a body scrub but decided to make my own because my “exfoliating” body wash was not doing the trick.
i read few recipes and decided to create my own:
erocka’s homemade body scrub:
1/3 cup sugar
1/3 cup brown sugar
1/3 cup oatmeal (optional *read below)
3 tbs. grapeseed oil
3 tbs. coconut oil
i mixed all this together and stored in a washed out container from another product. i looks so tasty, but i wouldn’t eat it, it’s kind of oily. i used a little on my arms and hands and washed it off, it left my hands soft and moisturized. next time i will leave the oatmeal out of it because it makes the scrub flaky and it doesn’t stay on the skin like the sugars do, it just kind of falls off causing a little mess.
UPDATE: after showering and using this scrub, i have come up with how to best use it. first of all LEAVE OUT the oatmeal, in the shower it looked like i was bathing in breakfast, and the oatmeal gets stuck in places you don’t want oatmeal. so i would do half sugar/ half brown sugar. i would definitely use this in the shower after washing with soap, it leaves skin very soft and mositurized, and i feel soooo clean, i didn’t even have to put on any lotions or oil after getting out the shower, my mom always told me to add oils onto my skin before drying off so it would seal in the moisture, with this you just wash the scrub off and go. i used it on my face too, my nose is usually a little rough on the tip from small bumps that appear, after scrubbing they are gone and my whole face is smooth.
my daily hair mist i have been using a for a few months, i made another batch this morning.
erocka’s homemade conditioning hair mist:
1 part (favorite conditioner, mine’s Aussie Moist)
1 part water
1 part aloe vera juice (optional)
2 vitamin E capsules
1 tsp. honey
about a tbs. coconut oil
about a tbs. castor oil (optional)
5- 10 drops essential oil (i used grapefruit)
these measurements are all guesstimations, depending on how much i wanna make, i make enough for one to two 12 oz. spray bottles. i put all the ingredients in a small pot on the stove and heat it, this mixes everything pretty well when i heat it, except for the essential oil, which you will see seperate once you put it in a spray bottle, you will have to shake it with each use. then i pour it into the bottle(s) and let it chill in the fridge. and use daily. it smells like a pina colada, because the Aussie Moist smells like coconut, and the grapefruit essential oil i chose smells great with it.
then i made some homemade deodorant, i know sounds weird right?
i got this recipe off Amy Karol’s Angry Chicken blog.
homemade deordorant:
3 tbs. shea butter
3 tbs. baking soda
2 tbs. corn starch
2 tbs. cocoa butter
2 vitamin E oil gel capsules
essential oil (i used orange)
“I melted all the ingredients (except the oils) and gave it a good stir. This only took about 30 seconds in the microwave.
Then added the oils, stirred again, and poured it in a jar, then placed it in the fridge to set. This recipe filled the jar
in my hand, which is a 1/4 pint.”
i will modify if i need to later, i just want to see how this works compared to my store bought deodorant.
Filed under creation, hair, inspiration






































