I haven’t posted up anything for a while, so I thought I’d share my current vexel I’m working on. Click ‘em

Original:

Vexel:

If you haven’t notice, this is Natalie Portman. She is one of my favorite actresses. She’s so beautiful and talented. She kind of reminds me of Keira Knightley in this photo, though. Another favorite actress of mine.
I’ve been really trying to work on shadows…adding more definition. I’m pretty happy with how this one is turning out so far. It’s not perfect, but that’s how I like to do it. I want it to look like a vexel, not like a photograph. Or else, why do it? Maybe to see how good ya can get. Besides, I’m too lazy and impatient to do that many layers in one vexel. I takes me a VERY long time to do one. Took me like four hours to do the lips alone! I started the whole thing over four times. Pretty sad how long I take. I can’t just do a vexel in one sitting. Not yet at least.
I have to be in the right mood, right time, right place to do anything with graphics.

I’m listening to Lily Allen a lot more now. I really like her music, vocals, and attitude. I love British accents too. =P Compared to other pop music, I feel like she puts more meaning into her songs. A bit of humor too.
Want to share her song: “The Fear”
Funny and sad truth

_Lyrics

^_^

Ahhhh.
Sleep.
I just love to sleep.
Yes, oh yes.
Gimmewhatilike.

Unfortunately, I have a job where I have to be at by 9:30am (I feel really bad for people who need to wake up like 5am for work). I love sleep so much that it effects me and my job. Yeah, it’s pretty pathetic; I’m late to work pretty much everyday. I’ve been like this all my life. I never finished high school because I skipped school to sleep. I don’t do it on purpose. I do care about my job. I just have a serious problem with waking up in the morning/ at a certain time.

I hate mornings.
I hate alarm clocks.
I have three alarms: two, where I have to get halfway up to turn off and one, within my phone. I just turn them off, and go right back to sleep. This morning, I even had my friend call me to wake me up. I just looked at the i.d and pressed “end”, then texted her “I’m awake!” Riiiight. Awake my ass. I just went back to sleep.

Every time I  turn off an alarm or hang up the phone, I go right back to sleep telling myself, “Five more minutes!” Well, five minutes turn into ten minutes. Ten minutes turn into thirty. Next thing I know, I wake up three hours later!

I am very blessed to have a boss right now that’s being patient and has a little hope in me that I can straighten myself out. She yells at me from time to time. I say sorry. Then, I let it happen all over again. I don’t want to keep doing this. I’ve tried a lot of things. From getting multiple alarms, having a very loud alarm, giving myself a goal time, telling myself over and over why I must wake up at a certain time, writing a note on a post-it that’s placed on my alarm, placing my alarm far from the bed so I have to walk to turn it off, etc. Once in a blue moon, I wake up on time. But few days later, I go right back.

I must break this habit.

So…I decided to turn to Google. I swear, I love Google. You can use that thing for anything. For example, searching “How to wake up on time.”

*So sad, so sad.

Though, I found that “googling” it was a good idea. I found a few and funny great ideas to help me with my on-going issue.WikiHow: Wake Up On Time

Tips…

If all else fails, just put your alarm clock away from your bed, and extra loud. You wont be able to sleep, if you don’t get up.

Try placing peppermints, Tic-Tacs, gum, or any kind of food on top of your alarm. When the alarm goes off, pop some into your mouth before turning it off. No matter how sleepy you are, you can’t fall asleep with something in your mouth. Additionally, mint flavor can increase your alertness.

Try putting a slice of lemon next to your alarm, when you shut off your alarm, lick or suck on the lemon. That’ll wake you up for sure!

Try drinking something before you go to sleep, such as a bottle of water. By the time your alarm goes off, you will probably have to use the bathroom and won’t be able to go back to sleep comfortably.

I really do want to better myself. =)

Amazing artist. Check her out.

art work: a u d r e y * k a w a s a k i

and

journal: okonomide.

My client came in the other day with her 7 year old son. While I was doing her nails, I had my MacBook set on the desk next to me. He stood there staring at it. His momma knew he wanted to play with it, but told him to get his laptop, which was a Dell. He grabbed his laptop out of his backpack, then set up at another desk.
I’m thinking he just wanted to play kid games or paint. Nope, he opened up Microsoft Word and started typing away. When he typed, he didn’t look for the buttons on the keys and press one at a time. He had the keyboard-typing-form; it was so cute seeing his little hands move smoothly over the keys. Then he amazed me when he opened up the font window to give his letter a little more jazz.
His mom would tell me that he would email his grandparents all the time, telling them how his day went. He likes to make PowerPoint presentations; He made one about his thoughts on technology.
He also enjoys making and fixing things. Momma said he fixed an old radio down in the basement. Got it to work…AM/FM.
Seven years old. Blows me away.
Teachers think he needs to get into special ed (program for kids who have trouble learning) or take medication because he doesn’t like doing the work/ doesn’t do the work in class. He’s tells his mom that the assignments are boring…too easy. That would offend me if I had a genius kid where the teachers suggests that he needs special ed, or medication. Pssh.
He took a break from his Dell and sat at the desk where my Mac was. His mom asked if he wanted a piece of candy. He totally ignored her and continued staring at my shiny white Mac. I could tell it was torture for him.
I found that I could trust the little guy, so I told his mom he could use it. She gave him a choice: you could have a piece of candy or use my laptop.
He ran around the desk and sat in front of it, staring some more.
I realized I had somewhat of a provocative wallpaper (a watercolor-painted woman about to take her shirt off) and quickly changed my desktop. Haha. =P
I knew he liked to type so I opened up TextEdit.
Told him to type me up a letter and showed him the “Save” shortcut. (hold Command + S).
Here’s the letter in exact form:

Kyle Mishanec

School

I am in 2nd grade. I go to Commerce Elementry school in walled lake. My teacher’s name is called : Mrs. Thomas. I like her as my teacher! She is really nice. My name is kyle mishanec and this note was made on : February 18, 2009 and the time is : 7: 40 PM. Was made Jasmen Nail Salon. Note By : Kyle Mishanec. Made on a Mac Book ( My favorite computer).

THE END!!! From : Kyle Mishanec To:

He didn’t know my name. I swear, the little boy just melted my heart. If I was made out of money, I would buy him his first MacBook. Though, I would have him write me an essay to deserve it. =P

So cute.

My boyfriend introduced me to a handy site a while back:

Stripe Generator. Yeah, it’s a easy background to make, but sometimes it can be a pain in the ass for such a simple background. Every pixel counts. Thing I like about this site is that I can choose the width of the stripes, the direction of the stripes, and the angle. And once I choose what I want it, I click download and save the image. Then I update the colors more on Photoshop. The color picker on the site is a little off to me. This site has saved me some time. =) I pretty much saved a couple styles so I can just edit it in Photoshop.

Thanks, B. =)