Thursday, April 28, 2011

April Update

Hello everyone! Hope you had a good April! Mine was less productive than I would have liked, which is why very few of my projects have been posted... but more on that later! The weather here has been dreadful, which means that all the things I have to do outside have been put on hold. It better get nice soon...

My trip photos have kind of taken over the blog! XD I hope you are enjoying them, and living vicariously through my pictures. If not, I apologize, as there are still lots more to come! I'm trying to cut down on the number of pictures per post, but I find it extremely hard to be that selective! As is, I've gone through more than 2500 pictures already, and as you can see not all of them have been posted! I'm hoping to finish those posts by the end of May/early June.

In other news: I was excepted to my first choice school! :D Ryerson's Theatre: Performance Production Program! Now I get to study on how to make a career out of making costumes! Awesome!!! My interview was on the 5th, and it went quite well! One of my interviewers actually went to my high school, what a coincidence! XD Anyway, thanks for all your support people! I shall be declining my acceptances to other universities and colleges, so I wish the people who get my spots all the best!

As for my 2 projects promised/hinted at in my March update: 1 is finished, but I need to do a photoshoot, the other is at about 65% completion. Those will hopefully come soon. Especially since I am wearing the second one to Anime North this year. I need to buy more feathers... sigh. So expensive... I'm also re-vamping my Viral costume to enter in the Masquerade this year with my sister and her boyfriend. Lots to do!

In other, other news (speaking of expensive!): I'm going to London this June! Long story short: I found out my airmiles weren't going to amount to a free flight to anywhere I want after this summer--meaning that they still would get a free flight, but the amount required to fly to certain international locations was going up. So I had to spend them! XD My original intention for these points was to fly to Japan next summer, but in light of recent disasters, those plans were crushed indefinitely. I'm staying with family in London, which should be fun! And I'm planning on taking a jaunt up to Edinburgh in Scotland while I'm there, but I'm having trouble finding a decent place to stay... :/ We'll see.

My friend and I did not get a table at Anime North this year. We got waitlisted, but I don't have high hopes of a last minute acceptance. I plan, however, to sell some of my hair accessories, bags and aprons on ETSY this summer. (Probably July-August) More on that in later months.

I think that's it for now!

Monday, April 25, 2011

Photos: Innsbruck, Austria (Day 2)

Mum had this crazy idea to get up extraordinarily early, skip breakfast and tour the city before the bus left.  Nearly missed the bus, but we got to see the river and that cool bridge in daytime. These pictures were all taken when I was half-asleep and feeling ill. Thanks for putting up with my complaining mum, I'm secretly glad we did this.

And I'll have you know, that many teachers throughout grade-school tried to fix my British spelling of 'Mum', but it never stuck. Because that's what I call her. That and "Mummy". I very rarely say 'Mom'. XD Btw: Today is her birthday! Mum if you are reading this, Happy Birthday!

I like the facade on this building. 

It had a different pattern in the morning.


7 o'clock is TOO EARLY.

I have something against making
mannequins look like they're going to
 break out of the store and murder you.




The sun is just hitting the tops of the buildings.


What I thought was really amazing was
 how clean the streets were! If we had
 pedestrian streets like this in Toronto they
 would be covered in trash.


We probably should have turned around at this point, and gone back, but the bridge was in sight! So close, but so far away! So what did we do? We booted it to the bridge of course!
This was the bridge we went to see the previous night, that
 very few of my pictures actually turned out of. They look like
 sewing needles.


Okay, I said "booted it" but that would imply we stopped for nothing. We still managed to take quite a few photos on the fly.








Duck tracks!!!






We ran back to the bus with no time to spare! (Except to stop at a bakery and buy tasty bread. Because I can always make time for bocchen.)

Next: Neuschwanstein Castle!   BACK TO PHOTOESCAPES
I love german signs. XD

Sunday, April 24, 2011

Photos: Innsbruck, Austria (Night Shots)

We arrived back at the hotel as the sun was setting. We could see the beautiful sky through the buildings.


The background almost looks painted.

I really liked our room at this hotel.




We went out to explore the surrounding area at night, which was right on the pedestrian streets we had explored earlier that day.




Try saying that 10 times fast.


We waited for Ms. Caprara to sort out her room issues--being stuck in a smoking room is not fun!--and then went on a lovely stroll around the neighbourhood.

We walked all the way down to the river, and then down to the neat bridge Mum had wanted to see, along with the little train station. (More of a public transportation train, used to get people from the city centre, up to the outskirts of town further up the mountain)







This was apparently designed to look like a dolphin or something.


We stopped at the Sacher Torte restaurant, that flies in the original Sacher Torte chocolate cake from Vienna. It was quite good.

More delicious strudel


Up next: Innsbruck, Day 2.

BACK TO PHOTOESCAPES

Photos: Swarovski Crystal World

Here are my pictures from Swarovski's Crystal World! I was a little disappointed because I thought we would get to see how they made the crystals, but instead it was a series of crystal-themed art installations where we were free to take pictures.







I want to apologize in advance for any potential blurriness and graininess in these pictures, it was quite dark in the museum...





Melting clock...? If you thought Salvador Dali, you guessed right!




This room was designed to have many different
 mechanical moving installations, but it wasn't really
 working very well...







Remind you of Tron anyone?












And you always have to exit through the gift shop...

Awww... They're so EXPENSIVE!!!




Next: Innsbruck at Night!