Swirling Goddess Series

November is quickly fading and wet blue flakes of snow are wandering down in the dark. It's our first winter storm of the season and my Muffin and I are cooped up drinking brews and letting our "Classic Fireplace" DVD crackle in the background. (A high quality video production, I assure you.) Despite the wind baying outside, it was a productive day in the studio--the She Portraits are completed! It was energizing to draw this Dryad with her swirling branches, sprouts of lime green and ember orange while the snow accumulates on my windowsill. I am unsure why--but I am drawn to wild red hair! Nine times out of ten I'll paint women with strawberry hair and never really think about it. Is it because it is untamed? Or maybe because it is rare? Or simply because I'm drawn to green and red is it's natural complement and it's merely a technical instinct? Interesting. I had to consciously decide to illustrate the other goddesses with different locks--I didn't want them to read as one subject but create an array of blissful beauties. I think the works as a group make a charming band:

I am relieved to finish them so I can cross the project off the "To Do" list but will miss their beaming faces, glittering surfaces and serene demeanor on my work bench. But not to despair! I recently acquired a box overflowing with splendid seashells and they are calling my name! What to make, what to make? I have them all piled up on a table in my studio. They'll be waiting for me until after I finish all of my end-of-semester-madness. I can't wait!

Anyone else have a project they are itching to work on?

Goddess Portrait: Curve Wave Stream Glide

Once my turkey hangover subsided, I stepped into the studio to continue working on my "She Portrait" series. I was glad to work on this commission today. I'm still feeling a bit "static-y" but as I smoothed out pastel with my fingers, I did my best to enjoy a tall glass of cold water think about flow:

ebb, undulate, Curve, Wave, Stream, glide

Don't worry. You'll get it all done. You always do.

I'm finding a lot of joy in making these works as they are so different from my usual process. Normally, my works are tight and graphic or large scale preplanned projects in either oil or charcoal. These are "everything-but-the-kitchen-sink" sort of pieces: acrylic, oil, marker, pastel, oil pastel, found papers, candy wrappers, gesso and chopped up valentines. Layer on top of layer on top of layer. It's also a treat to make them as it was a rare opportunity--I've never had a client say "just go with it" and mean it! (Often I'll have clients who SAY go with it...but seem tentative or surprised with the result.)

I hope she enjoys living with them as much as I did in making them. I'm off to my work bench--there is much more matte medium in my future. One She Portrait to go!

Wishing You a Joyful Thanksgiving!

I am truly THANKFUL for all of you gorgeous souls

sharing your world and working your

magick through cyberspace!

I am blessed to have found you and honored

by your compassion and kindness.

I hope each of you have a Joyous Thanksgiving

and a Merry New Moon!

*~Much Peace and Many Blissings~*

Sketchbook page by Molly

New Moon: Group Cleansing

I'm kicking off the festivities! As I will be out of town for the new moon, I'm beginning my cleansing a little early. I buzzed around the house tidying up, clearing away clutter, and straightening up the sheets. I have my large incense burner, smudge stick and sea salt ready to roll. I think that for this cleansing it will be important for me not only to purify my home but do some physical and mental house keeping as well.

Since it's crunch time at the end of the semester my To Do list has become at least a mile long with major papers, large scale projects and class planning, so needless to say I've been a little overwhelmed and anxious. I've begun biting my nails again and I know what that means. I feel like when I speak I sound like a cracked-out chipmunk:

ohmygoshi'vegottofinishthisandthisandthis..... WAIT!

My goal for today is to make one master list of everything I need to finish, so I can organize my thoughts and breathe a little easier. Preferably of a large size--I love crossing tasks off of a large scale list with a big red marker. It's like seeing "FIN" at the end of a movie. Delightful. A sweep of the brain! Secondly, today will be spent satisfying my body with vegetables and buckets of water. Maybe I'll drink it out of a champagne glass? Since school and work have managed to dominate my life my diet has suffered. I'm sure there are barn animals out there who have been eating better than me--at least slop has some green in it! And I'm positive my blood now has a "Columbian" count with the incredible amount of coffee I've managed to slug. The temple needs some attention.

I love this time of month--it's a clean slate! So many opportunities occur in creative darkness! I hope everyone is finding joy in their cleansings and holiday preparations. Many blissings and Blessed Be!~*

Photograph by Molly

Sequin Meditation + Wintery Works

I was delighted to see one of my silly wintery works, "Snow Shoe Hares" featured on KaylaCoo's blog! How fun!Thank you! (Be sure to visit her—the work is stunningl!) http://kaylacoo.blogspot.com/2008/11/shopping-list-saturday-sunday_23.html

I sleep better when it snows—for some reason a fresh blanket of snow is like a little baptism. I woke up during the wee hours of the morning for a drink and there was that exquisite lavender glow that happens when clouds murmur close to the city. Perfectly still. The fresh air felt extraordinarily good. Little flakes of snow were wandering down and I admired bright berries clinging to branches frosted with ice. My brain was a flip book all afternoon; I kept getting ideas while riding on the bus and frantically scribbling them down on the back of receipts. So much to do, so little time! The last few days I’ve been flitting around in my studio finishing up odds and ends, completing holiday orders, and making progress on my metal smithing work while I listen to big band records.I love listening to old jazz records. I have such an embarrassingly slight knowledge of the art, but I find the music to be sumptuous and comforting especially as the temperature plummets. The vinyl has a constant hiss and crackle that takes the place of the fireplace I don’t have. Ella is The Queen. My favorite Fitzgerald track of all time is her singing Mack The Knife to a screaming crowd in Berlin and forgetting the words. It is a performer’s worst nightmare, and of course being the remarkable talent she is, she brushes it off-- the skat is perfect. Such grace!

Perhaps I’ll make a Peggy Lee to match?? It was delish dancing to tunes and pushing around purple paint. I had a tacky fever and the only cure was hi-fi trumpets and sequins—and lots of them! I’m not sure whether it is a skill that has been ingrained into my system via endless girl scout craft dates or an obsession I was born with, but there is nothing quite as tactilely satisfying as slathering a surface with adhesive and assaulting it with sequins. Picking out the perfect color and placing them one at a time.

It’s so meditative, like stirring sugar cubes into tea or chipping off cheap nail polish one finger at a time.

What is your meditative minutiae?

"Ella" by Molly. Acrylc, ink & sequins on wood. Available at www.dollmachinegallery.etsy.com

I should get some sort of award

Here's the "smashing" blog post.

I consulted many people before deciding to blog this. Some people said it's very mean, and there are many others who said they completely don't see how it is mean at all.

So I just decided to blog it lor...

The gist of this post is simple: I photoshop other people's photos to make them good-looking.

When I say good-looking I mean obviously good-looking to me lah. In the "conventional beauty" way.

It started off when Andie and I were looking at this blogger chick's blog photos and kept going on about how ugly her make-up is. Then, I challenged Andie to a photoshop showdown to see who can photoshop this fugly chick into a hot chick!

In the end, I spent about half an hour doing it till, in my opinion, she looked perfect!

Then I thought to myself, "Wow! It's so much easier to like her when she looks like that (end product of photoshop)".

So I further thought... How will other people I don't like look like with photoshop?

And therefore I photoshopped more and more pictures till people started telling me it's a waste not to blog about them.

Since most of the "victims" (or maybe they are privileged, coz loads of people wanna pay me to photoshop them) are people I don't like, I decided, for the fairness of this post, I'm gonna throw in also...

- People I do like
- People I am neutral towards.
- Random people I don't know at all.


Sorry if you got chosen... If I never expressed disliking you, it means that you are just randomly picked!

I was planning to do it on myself as well, but you saw that trick before.


Enough of the whining... Photos!

Let's make this more interesting, shall we?


YOU GET TO GUESS WHO THE PEOPLE ARE!!!!!

These photos you see are the photoshopped versions.

To see the originals (and the answers), please HOVER your mouse over the pictures!

Patience... It might take a while to load but it eventually will! Just keep your mouse on the picture!

Yes, she is a real person.



So which is your favourite?

p/s: All the original photos are either easily available online or proudly displayed on their owner's blogs. Credits to them.

Backbends: 3 Experimental Books

This is the story of a Girl and her Bone Folder. *Sigh* My studio has been crawling with renegade smudges of rubber cement and paper scraps. But after much folding and scribbling, I recently finished up a batch of experimental book forms:

"A Good Wife Knows Her Place"

This is a jacob's ladder book composed of 12 small collages on book board. The text comes from a 1955 Good Housekeeping article that draws out a list of rules all "good wives" must follow. The instructions range from "Let him speak first, his topics of discussion are more important." to "Always greet him with a smile to adequately express your desire to please him." I paired the text with vintage imagery of circus performers and contortionists to attempt to explain a frustrating lifestyle of constantly jumping through hoops to please. I enjoy this form because it can be read both forwards and backwards and acts as a toy that actually must be "man handled" in order to read. Acrylic, gesso, found papers, colored pencil & oil pastel.

"12 Sleeps"

This is a petite book--it's pages only slightly larger than a silver dollar. To make this book recorded my dreams for 12 nights, typed them and printed them on opalescent vellum. The box that houses it is collaged with dream interpretation text and coffee filters. I wanted this to be an experiment in sequence, so none of the pages contain any punctuation. This way each dream record bleeds into the next in one continuous sentence reminiscent of the way real dreams progress. The translucency of the pages allow the viewer to see a ghosted image of the next dream. This book can be read in a continuous loop as it doesn't matter where you begin reading the text, you will eventually complete the cycle.

"Dear Johnny

"Dear Johnny" is a maze book that makes commentary on celebrity obsession. The book itself is a grainy recycled card stock that has been generously coated with gesso and vine charcoal. The pages are full of the somewhat disturbing rantings of a crazed fan. In the beginning, the writing is fairly benign and the handwriting is small and reserved: "Dear Johnny, I've seen all your movies." "Dear Johnny, I'm your biggest fan--I'm sure lots of people say that, but I mean it." As the viewer turns the tiny pages the writing becomes more progressively larger, more frantic and manic, "Dear Johnny, I'm bleeding to death in my sleep." "Dear Johnny, we were mean to be, you just don't know it yet." It ends abruptly. The treat however is when the book is unfolded completely, you are greeted with an image of Johnny Depp as Sweeny Todd. :

This one is my personal favorite. :)

Have a Merry Indulgz Xmas and a happy new year!

Advertorial

Update: New stuff at bottom of this post.

Once again it's an Indulgz free dinner! Wooo! This time they invited me over for tasting their spanking new festive Xmas and New Year menu.

So in case you are now kiasu-ly making plans for your holiday celebrations already, maybe you can consider dining at Indulgz!

This time I invited Ming (founder of Nuffnang and also a personal friend of mine) and his girlfriend Estee to have a quiet sort of dinner with Mike and I.

The last few times I went to Indulgz it was more like a rowdy party and kinda stressed me out coordinating everyone's timing and bringing props - so today I'm just relaxed, double-dating and happy!

Mike and I arrived first. It seems to rain everytime we go to Indulgz! That sounds like a mood-dampener but I actually felt extra romantic cozying inside the snug restaurant. :)

Beautifully decorated for Xmas. The people here really don't scrimp on making the ambiance right.

I'm dressed in a high neck, bare-back ruffled navy blue dress!

Very Christmasy right?



Mike in his usual boring clothes. I need to bring him shopping.


Us

Ming and Estee arrives!


I asked Mike to help us girls take the traditional photo at Indulgz' entrance.

Bah. Before I know what was going on, Mike already snatched the camera and proceeded to take a picture in double quick time. He then shoved the cam to me, like "Ok done, let's go back in"!!

The pic is totally fail lor! I told him to take another.

Same fail picture! No warning or 1,2,3 or whatever! I asked him to take another and he was like, "You want me to stand in the rain somemore?!"

He was so grouchy that day! I forgive him though coz I think he just can't wait to start on the food.

Third pic still not great but passable.



Ming and Estee.

Today we got to preview the Xmas and New Year menu!

Xmas ones are available on Xmas eve and day - and each meal comes with a Xmas cocktail. You can pick to come at 5.30pm to 8pm, or 8.30pm to 11pm. $89.90 per set!


The New Year menu is available from 31 Dec 2008 to 1st Jan 2009.

Foooooooooooood!



CLEAR CHICKEN CONSOMME (Xmas)

Ming and Estee were impressed by Indulgz's first dish!

This newly created soup tastes just like how I remember my grandma used to boil hearty soups - except even better.

It is savoury and sweet and when you drink it, you immediately know that someone took a damn long time to boil this such that all the ingredients' favours are fully infused into the soup!

Check out the smoke! I should take home some to drink during a cold night while watching an old movie with Mike. :D

And the best part about these clear soups is that you will never get tired of drinking it!

See?



CREAMY HOMEMADE CRAB BISQUE (Xmas)

Yums! I've already gushed about this before but here we go again!

This soup is thick, seafoody and creamy at the same time. I don't know how they do it!

The crab is painstakingly handpicked from cruel shells and served to us lazy eaters.

Our soups.

Just as we were craving for drinks, our cocktail is served to us.

SPARKLING CHRISTMAS (Xmas of course)

This is included in the Xmas set meal and it's sparkling joy in a glass!

Normally I hate anything alcoholic but Indulgz has mastered the art of making alcohol taste like any other sweet drink - yet it's pretty strong.

This is made of sweet white wine and something else... Some of us guessed plum, some guessed ginger beer, and I think it tastes like apple! It's actually passionfruit.

Maybe you can be a better guesser than all of us.

Cheers!



Ming and Estee said they look ugly in this pic so I chopped off their heads.


After Cocktail fun

Mike and I tied knots with cherry stems while Ming and Estee looked on, laughing.

Ming asked why people bother to do that and I said it's for girls to prove that their tongues are super strong and will do great in blowjobs and kisses.

Honestly though, it's not that hard to tie a knot so I doubt it proves anything! I think the double knot one is probably really hard. Know anyone who can do that?

Soup finished.



Nice pic! I'm thinking of framing it.



Yippee! Free candy cane!



Next we are served more soups:



WHOLESOME CLAM CHOWDER (NY)



Creamy and delicious! Very tasty and chockful of whole baby clams!

Loves! Normally clam chowders are a litle too thick for my liking. I like that Indulgz's is slightly less thick, but still very creamy and tasty.

There's corn, carrot and celery bits in it. Eeww to the celeries. But I didn't taste them at all coz they are all cooked till real soft.

Major Yums:



CREAMY TOMATOP AND SCALLOP SOUP (NY)

Does this make your mouth water or what?!

Indulgz makes this soup from scratch with real tomatoes that are pureed till they are reduced to this state!

The final result is very tasty tomato soup that's more sweet than it is sour - yet very creamy.

It's like tomatos full blast without the sour and raw part of it. :)

Did I neglect to mention that thing in the middle?

That's right, fresh jumbo scallop!

Needless to say how nice and fresh this is.



I do the cutting to prevent fights.



Proof that we loved it.



Time to cleanse our palette!


We had an intermission of...







STRAWBERRY COINTREAU SORBET (Xmas)

I love sorbets! This one is lovingly homemade and tastes like strawberries margarita. Cointreau is used so it's not too strong (but still quite strong as in alcoholic amount, not taste).

It is very refreshing and totally does its job of cleansing your palette for the main courses.

MAINS:




ROASTED PORK LOIN with
HOMEMADE CHRISTMAS STUFFINGS (Xmas)

This is cooked using the most tender cut of loin, and roasted for hours and hours to retain its juices!

Comes with sweet mashed potatoes and festive Xmas stuffings - and not to mention a dash of red wine sauce to go with the pork.

The stuffings are sweet and immediately reminds me of the joy of Xmas!

Made of walnuts, apples, raisins - among other things.

Ming keeps praising this dish and saying how difficult it is to make a meat so dense so juicy and soft.

One mystery though!

HOW DID THE CHEF CUT THE HOLE FOR THE STUFFINGS???????

The loin is in one whole piece and they said "no meat is wasted". We guessed they drilled a hole in the pork but it is not the right method.

Any guesses? Please tell me coz I am dying of curiosity! The chef won't share his secret. :(

BAKED SEABASS w CAVIAR SAUCE (Xmas)

Baby seabass - marinated and grilled. Served with white wine caviar sauce and fine beans. Drenched with a generous amount of almond flakes.

I love this!

The fish is exceedingly fresh and every bite is full of zest as the fish is done just right with really crispy skin!

The flavour is magically brought out with seasonings on the fish (peppery and salty) as well as, interestingly enough, the almonds.

Pork Loin and Seabass gone! I actually finished the fine beans and mashed potatoes after that.

I know. I'm so gluttony!

Grumpy Mike is happier now!

More courses await us....





GRILLED RIBEYE w Mushroom ragout,
Sauteed spinach and red wine sauce (NY)

I thought that Indulgz's beef can never get any better, but they prove me wrong time and again.

Their beef is well-marbled, and kept fresh by promising never to freeze but to chill.

Ribeye is the second most expensive cut of beef following tenderloin, and...

every bite is really like some taste explosion!

It's very juicy and more juices flow out with every chew. *goes soft thinking about it*

And what makes it even more perfect now is the combination of a few of my favourite things: Namely sauteed spinach and creamy mushrooms!

Omg!!

Omg again!

So fucking nice.

I know you are salivating.

But enough gushing about the beef. Next!!

PAN-ROASTED RED SNAPPER
w Carrot Butter Sauce (NY)

Fresh red snapper... Comes with creamy carrot sauce and asparagus.

Bonus: Also comes with 2 deep-fried oysters!

Soft, meaty and just divine on the inside, with a crispy skin on top of it.

The carrot cream sauce is innovative yet well made. The initial taste is cream and the aftertaste is a subtle taste of carrots.

Mike is overjoyed at the sight of this coz Red Snapper is his favourite fish.

We play with the candy canes.

Force-feeding Mike. "EAT THIS!"






Estee thinks of a better thing to do with the candy cane:



Haha! Looks good on you, Ming!

One more dish awaits us! This is the Special for this week. There will be at least one special dish every week to entice your tastebuds. If you would like to find out what is the specials of the week, just give Indulgz a call at 6238 7032.


We got...

CREAMY SEAFOOD and
ANGEL HAIR PASTA

for our special!

Filled with mussels, squid and salmon chunks... Soft angel's hair pasta... Covered in creamy sauce.

Generous portions.

We tuck in!



Check out the piping hot goodness.

I thought I was goddamn full by this point but I still ate it! Coz it's damn nice!

Normally I like my pasta al dente, but since angel's hair is so fine, it can never be semi-cooked like normal pasta can.

Nonetheless, it more than makes up for it because being so fine, the pasta soaks up more sauce than it normally will. It's something different, yet nice for a change!

The pasta is soft but not mushy, and goes great with the cream sauce!

DESSERT TIME!!!!!!!




Can anyone guess that this is?

We guess banana cake, chocolate, and other rubbish (after tasting it mind you) and we were all wrong!

STICKY DATE and WALNUT PUDDING (Xmas)

Interesting isn't it!?

I'm very impressed because usually interesting stuff are not very yummy but this is great!

It is generously sided with Indulgz's homemade caramel sauce. The inside is nutty, sticky, and sweet with an edge to it.

The slightly burnt aftertaste of the caramel also goes really well with the dense cake.

On top of it is something also surprising: SOUR CREAM!

And remarkably enough it goes great with the cake! It's like magic! Just like parma ham goes with melon! Or Mike goes with me! Hahaha

Estee likes it.


Last but not least, we have our Chocolate Mousse!



MILK CHOCOLATE MOUSSE w
White Chocolate Shavings (NY)

Chocolate mousse is relatively common but getting it absolutely right is not easy!

This one is perfect:

It tastes like soft chocolate ice-cream that's extra creamy and melts in your mouth. Love!

Chef Lawrence comes out to greet us!

I told him that this photo is very boring so I told him to give a cuter pose.

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Now he looks like a happy chef!



Happy meal thanks to him!

Wonder if he feels a lot of job satisfaction? Coz we love his food!



Proof.

Please call Indulgz at 62387032 for reservations or email them at reservations@indulgz.com!!

Work in a company and would like to book a venue for corporate functions? Now you can at Indulgz! Check out this flyer for more info:

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Mike and I just did something that makes me snigger in happiness everytime I think about it.

See, we had a pest problem.

Our door, our dear vulnerable wooden door, is attacked by what is called "woodborers".

Everyday an irritating amount of round hard wooden... shavings? pellets? fall out from under the door!

Day after day we keep stepping on these wood bits and after literally a year of procrastination, I decided to call the pest exterminators to come over to see what the hell is the problem with my stupid door.

The people from Ridokill (is this how to spell it?) were really nice and two guys came over wearing lethal-looking masks and looked like they were about to stop all my problems and give the culprits a good spanking at the same time.

The guys felt underneath the door and declared that there are indeed beetles living inside the door, because they could feel the little holes.

Apparently, these bastards eat the wood and multiply... AND GUESS WHAT?

THEY SHIT TRUCKLOADS.

That's right.

Those little wooden pellets that we thought we were stepping on is actually their GODDAMN FECES!

I've been stepping on them and going on my bed and sleeping literally with beetle shit!

CCB!

So anyway, the guys sprayed something that the beetles won't like into the holes.

"M'dm," he declared. "I cannot guarantee that this will kill all the beetles because the holes might be very deep and maybe the spray cannot reach them. But if they go to the area with the spray, they will die."

"Take how long to die?" I asked, imagining a beetle struggling for life futilely on its back and smiling to myself.

"Immediately." My smile widened.

I paid him $120.

Before he left he also assured me that their corpses will remain inside the door and not drop out of it, inconveniencing me. I know, right? How sweet of the beetles to die in a considerate way.

So weeks later...







Still the fuckers are alive and shitting!

I fucking had enough!


One day, Mike took clear duct tape and taped up the bottom portion of the door where their housing entrance is!!!


I imagine this is what will happen to them.

Day 1:

Young beetle:

Ma... I can't get out of the house for a bit for fresh air.



Mom beetle, looks up from eating my door and shitting at the same time:

Good. Come eat some more of this wood.



Young beetle:

Mommmmmmm........ I am sick of eating the same shit everyday! I want to eat something else! And I want to have a life!



Mom beetle:

Om nom nom.

Day 23:

Beetle:

Why is it so smelly?

Day 40:

Beetle:

ARGH! My humongous amount of shit is catching up with me! I am literally suffocating with the shit that's threatening to engulf me! Help! I have no space to manoeuvre! Oh dear what should I do what should I do?

If I don't eat I won't shit anymore but I will die of hunger. If I eat I get more space to move but I also will shit! Arghhhhhhhhhhhh! My life is a meaningless tragedy!

Oh but delicious wood! Om nom nom.

Day 50:

Beetles are dead and squished up in their own shit pellets - which they used to torment me and Mike for a year. It's almost like poetic justice or something.

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New video clips!

XIAXUE'S GUIDE TO LIFE



Bff finals! Check out who wins!



CHICK VS DICK

Who beats who at Twister?
Would you get to see Paul's butt crack? Find out yourself!

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p/s: Ten years ago when I was 14 and Prince William was 16, all I thought of was marrying the cutest prince ever (that was before Harry usurped his position) and becoming a princess. Now, in year 2008, I got to see his penis. It's like... inconceivable. I am this much closer to my dream.

What does this tell us, girls? That's right... Anything is possible.


p/p/s: I demand that I am also shown Jerry Yan's appendage!!!!!

Just joking. I only love Mike and penises frighten me.


p/p/p/s: Don't know if you have seen this, but it's really funny.