Art!

Hi everybody...
I realize that I haven't posted in FOREVER, but I have been quite busy with school and whatnot.  However, I'll be out of school after this week, so I'll try to do more posting over the summer.

Anyway, I took a year of art class this past school year, and I think I might have made some pretty cool stuff.  So, here are some photos of various projects I think I did a decent job on.  There are a few projects I left out of this post, which I might post later.  Also, please forgive the poor picture quality-- I had a tricky time getting the angle right on some of them.

1. This is a random collage I made with a guest teacher one day.  I've always had a thing for making these completely ridiculous and random collages... and this one is no exception.

2.  My art class also did linoleum block printmaking, and I think that mine turned out pretty well, though I kind of went insane trying to carve out all of those tiny spirals.  (By the way, I had to make the print based off the art of a specific country that I picked out of a hat... mine is Greece.)

3.  This is a scratchboard drawing I did for a Day of the Dead art show.  I actually think the frame turned out better than the actually piece on this one, but I still had fun making it.

4. This an abstract line drawing that turned out to be not so abstract because I decided to put a duck in it.  From a distance, I think it looks pretty neat, just don't look at it too closely.

  5.  This is a project where I had to cut shapes out of a piece of black paper and then flip and transfer them to the opposite side of the paper.  I did Batman, obviously.

6.  In between projects, I had some free time, so I made this random steampunky sketch thing, which I think ended up looking pretty cool.

7.  Finally, I did a project where I took a square and transferred  it over and over again until it covered the entire canvas.  Most of my class did flowers and stuff like that, but, ya know... chickens.

These are just the best ones I think I did, but you could feel differently.  Leave a comment and tell me what you think!  If I get a lot of positive feedback, I might post some more art from this year.

 Band update:  I'm still looking for one.  Anyone need a mandolinist or violinist?  I've been thinking about trying the guitar lately, too but if there are any bassists, drummers, singers, guitarists, or keyboards out there, or if you have a preexisting band I could join, please leave me a comment or email me at thetoothpickchick@gmail.com.  Thanks, ya'll!

Holidays and Whatnot

Hello everyone; I know it has been quite some time since I last posted, but I have been fairly busy studying for finals, taking finals, and doing Christmas-related activities.  I had a great holiday and I hope all of my lovely readers of this blog have too.  I'm very excited to say that I finally got a new mandolin for Christmas, because my old one was a fifteen-dollar thrift store item and sounded terrible, with awful tone and a buzz on every note.  However, I now have a very nice Kentucky A-style mandolin which sounds amazing, and I have been playing it almost non-stop since Christmas.

Here's a picture of my new mandolin:

 I am also pleased to announce that I now have my own laptop as well, which I was able to buy with my Christmas  money.  It's a very sleek Dell Inspiron 14z ultrabook, which I am going to blog on from now on.

This is what it looks like:

  Looking back, I see that I went through a stretch where I posted a lot of Minecraft pictures that I'm sure nobody really cared about, and I'd like to apologize for that now, and I'll endeavor not to make posts of that kind in the future.
 Anyhow, I hope you all had a very nice Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, or Monkey
Day, and that today you're having a happy new year.

Cool NPC Creations

In Minecraft, you occasionally encounter some really neat NPC (or non-player character) buildings, which are built by the villagers.  I've found NPC villages (the most common), temples, and one time, a house in the middle of the ocean.  Here are some screenshots.

These are all a sandstone temple in the middle of the desert.  I have found two of these so far.

There are also temples in the jungle, which are very cool because they have redstone tripwires and chests in them, and are very high-tech.

 Finally, I have some shots of this nifty little hut in the sea that I discovered in one of my worlds a while ago.  (In the background of a couple of the pictures, you can see my replica of a modern mansion in Florida.  It will have its own post in the next couple of days.)

House in the Sky

Today is day three of my Minecraft Week, and today I have a few photos of my house in the sky (in my random exploring world.)  Here are some shots of it from various angles.

                                         The first picture is just what it looks like on the inside.

From the air, you can see inside through the glass roof.  This also gives a sense of how high up it is.   (In the bottom left, you can also see the top of my giant Enderman from yesterday.)

                                    This is what you can see from the ground looking up.

Out the window, the view is very impressive, and here's what the sunset looks like from up there.

My Giant Enderman

Hello,
Going along with the Minecraft theme from yesterday, here are some shots of the huge Enderman I built in one of my worlds.  I think that Endermen, despite being monsters, are incredibly cute, and in fact, I am currently working on making a stuffed, fleece Enderman (I'll post photos when I'm done.)  Anyway, so I have this random exploring world that I basically just use for experimenting (in this world I have the Airborne House-On-a-Stick, Giant Enderman, and a huge target I use for archery practice, and there are also some cool NPC structures, like a neat temple I found.  More on those later.)

So here are a few screenshots of my Giant Enderman (and in the background you can see some of the other structures I was talking about above.

Minecraft Creations

     Now, I know I haven't posted in quite a while, but lately I've been playing a lot of Minecraft, and I've made some pretty awesome creations. Each day for the next two weeks or so, I will post screenshots of my latest world, or something neat I made. I will try my best to post daily, but i have a lot of schoolwork and other things to do, so I apologize in advance if I'm not able to post every day. I also understand that not everyone is crazy about Minecraft, but, as I said, my posts will be Minecraft-related for the next couple weeks. If you're not interested, just ignore all posts with the label "Minecraft".
     So, today I have some photos of what I consider to be my crowning Minecraft achievement-- Grace Manor. It's basically this very big, fancy mansion I built for myself. It was completed a few weeks ago, and it took about a week to build. It's my favorite thing I've built so far, so I hope everyone else likes it too.

 
This first shot is just the outside of the manor from the air (yes, it's in creative mode. I'm awful at survival.) You can see the huge cave it was built over, which is filled with torches to avoid becoming monster-infested. At the top, there are two big, flaming lapis lazuli fountain pillar things that I thought looked pretty cool.

The next two photos are of the courtyard just inside the walls you can see from the last photo. There are two birch trees and some fire pits on either side. Above the door, you can see the crest of Grace Manor, twin golden swords.

 Inside the entrance hall, I tried to make it with a balcony overlooking the entrance with a flight of stairs on either side, one of my favorite architectural styles.  On the bottom, you can see the row of doors to the guest bedrooms, and the entire entrance hall has a glass roof.  To the right you can see the flight of stairs leading to the lounge in the South wing.

The South wing has a lounge on the bottom floor and my bedroom on the top floor.  This is the lounge.  There is a hot tub in the corner, a table and chairs, and the ladder up to my bedroom.

 Here's my bedroom.  The carpet is my favorite color, alien green, a nice contrast to the red downstairs.

 Each guest bedroom has a different carpet pattern and they are all connected from the inside. Basically, all of the guest bedrooms look like this one, except the carpet is different colors.  The bottom one has a lava window, which is a nice source of light in addition to looking very cool.

 This is the observatory/sunroom (it's on the balcony over the entrance hall.)   You can see my adorable cat here, which also explains why I am always holding a fish in many of the screenshots.

And that's it! Remember, check back in later, because I'm posting a new creation every day!

Grace's Complete Absolute Favorite Books, Finally

Hello,
I know I haven't posted in a while, but I have finally compiled my list of my absolute favorite books of all time.  They're in no particular order, since I love them all.  Each title and author has a link for more information, so I would suggest clicking on them and reading the premise to see if it sounds good to you.

1. The Spell Book of Listen Taylor- Jaclyn Moriarty
2. Feeling Sorry for Celia- Jaclyn Moriarty
3. The Year of Secret Assignments- Jaclyn Moriarty
4. The Murder of Bindy MacKenzie- Jaclyn Moriarty
5. The Ghosts of Ashbury High- Jaclyn Moriarty
6. And, when A Corner of White comes out, I'm sure it will be on here too. (also by Jaclyn Moriarty.)
7. Dash & Lily's Book of Dares- Rachel Cohn and David Leviathan
8. The Westing Game- Ellen Raskin
9. The Perks of Being a Wallflower- Stephen Chobsky
10. Alex and the Ironic Gentleman- Adrienne Kress
11.The Catcher in the Rye- J.D. Salinger
12. Nine Stories- J.D. Salinger
13. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy- Douglas Adams
14. Paper Towns- John Green
15. An Abundance of Katherines- John Green
16. Looking for Alaska- John Green
17. Will Grayson, Will Grayson- John Green and David Leviathan
18. The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie- Alan Bradley
19. The Discworld books- Terry Pratchett
20. The Astonishing Adventures of Fanboy and Gothgirl- Barry Lyga