Dried Paint

He has sunset eyes and always drives with the windows down.

He doesn’t take no for an answer but he doesn’t ask for much. He flexes his toes when he plays video games, rocks back and forth and tenses every time he strikes. He laughs short; a little bubble of humor, but it is a beautiful sound ringing in my ears long after he’s gone. He is quiet but when he speaks his words are thoughtful, thoughtless, and his bass buzzes in my chest: thump thump thump. He touches the deepest part of my soul, barely reaching, he knows me inside and out and he says that he loves me.

He has sunset eyes and always drives with the windows down.

Merry Christmas, Darling

Hey!

I just wanted to drop by and say that I hope you're having a very merry Christmas wherever you are. I know that this time of year can be stressful with all the different things we have to do and prepare for but I've been feeling overwhelmingly thankful for everything in my life. Like, even though sometimes it sucks and nothing seems to be going right... I have food to eat and clothes to wear and a roof over my head, a warm (or cool when it's 80 degrees outside like it is right now) place to sleep at night. I have people who care about me, even one or two that love me, and two doggies that make me laugh on a daily basis. They're little things that we take for granted.

Remember that you're blessed this Christmas and remind someone you love that you're thinking about them today.

And if you can't be with someone you love, if they're far away or you're out of touch, say a little prayer for them and that should be enough. <3

xx Anna

Bling Bling Nose Ring

Some of you may have noticed that earlier this year in September I got my nose pierced. I had been considering the piercing for quite some time, going back and forth between whether or not it would look good on me (and whether or not it would get me kicked out of my parents' house). Ultimately I decided that I didn't care and that since I wanted it, I was going to get it. It was spur of the moment decision to finally get it done so I hopped in my car 30 minutes before I was set to leave for North Carolina for the 5 Seconds of Summer concert and got it pierced all by myself.



PICKING A PIERCER - The first thing you're going to want to do when you decide you want any kind of piercing is find a place to get it pierced. Most tattoo parlors employ piercers so that's where I started looking. You will want to do plenty of research on the parlors in your area and find one that has good health ratings, keeps things sanitary, etc. I found that reading reviews was the number one easiest way to decide whether the parlor was the one for me. I decided to go to The Bellrose Tattoo in Daphne, AL. I was not necessarily anxious about getting my nose pierced but I will say that if I had been, the staff and the piercer himself would have put me at ease immediately. They were all very chill, friendly, and the prices were fair.

JEWELRY - I decided to get a mid size stud with a white crystal in it. Pretty basic but that's what I thought would be the easiest to deal with as a first piercing. I believe I was pierced with an 18g needle but I wear mostly 20g now which is smaller. I just prefer it that way. I read online that it is easier to get pierced with a stud at first and then transition to a hoop later on if that's what you want. A hoop will move more and therefore irritate the piercing, putting you at higher risk to develop infections and keloids.

PAIN - Now I had watched tons of videos on piercings and tattoos before firmly deciding that I would be ok with the pain. It was like a hard pinch, definitely unpleasant, and it hurt. But it only hurt for about half of a second before it felt like nothing. It was sore the next day but only when it was being cleaned and messed with.

AFTER CARE - I was instructed to use Dial soap on the end of q-tip to clean the piercing twice a day. However, after watching many different videos online and looking at some forums I decided that I'd rather use sterile saline solution. I had no problems doing this. Be careful not to over clean the area because that can cause keloids! Once in the morning and once in the evening should be enough. Around 2 months after my appointment, I developed a slight infection. Nothing too scary, just some tenderness around the piercing area and a little bit of discharge. I used Tea Tree oil once a day to fix this and it worked really well. The infection went away after a couple of days.

FINAL THOUGHTS - All in all, I'm so glad I got my piercing. I think it's fun and it's what I wanted and that's all that matters. Sure, you will find plenty of people who disapprove of body jewelry (but are totally ok with earrings?) and will have plenty of negative things to say about it. The pain is very little and the after care is simple. If you hate the way it looks on you, you can always take the piercing out!

EVERYONE IS A WINNER.

xx Anna

Lineart | Art Round Up #2

Hey! Long time, no see! Here are a couple of artworks I've made since my last art round up. Most of these were made for my attempt at Inktober, a social media based drawing challenge that encourages you to make one ink drawing a day in order to hone your inking skills. While I failed spectacularly at completing Inktober, a couple of drawings that I'm really fond of came out of my "valiant" efforts to succeed.

Featured above are all original character designs. I didn't use a reference for anything so you'll have to excuse some of the awkward body proportions and nonsensical weaponry. I am particularly fond of the sassy #15 guy up there. I drew it while I was annoyed and I was able to convey that pretty well in his expression. That's what's so cool about art. :)

Which one is your favorite?

xx Anna

Happy Halloween

A casual Harley Quinn, the perfect costume if you're looking for something simple and comfortable to wear in place of a full red+black body suit. I didn't actually have to buy any clothes for this look, just the wig for about $20 from Party City, which made me one happy Harley fan. You can do this yourself by mixing and matching any red and black clothes you own. You can also find a blog post on how to create this Harley Quinn inspired makeup right here. (please ignore the terrible state of my mirror)

My personal favorite of the three costumes I came up with, a femme Kaneki Ken a la Tokyo Ghoul. But you could probably get away with just doing the face paint and calling yourself a skeleton if your friends and fam get confused when you say that you're "Kaneki". I used super basic, super cheap cream face paints from Party City that cost about $3 which were convenient but did require some finagling to get right. I also used eyeshadows to set the paint and a liquid lipstick for red bits since the red cream paint ended up looking awful. The wig was also about $20 from Party City. I used reference pictures of Kaneki to paint the mask onto my face. Just be patient and take your time. :)

Lastly is the typical, last minute go to for ladies and lads everywhere... a black cat. This is the world's easiest "costume" to put together in all of history. You wear black clothes, any black clothes you feel like, and slap on a cat ear headband (mine cost about $4). I initially went for a black cat princess type thing in the first picture but ended up more comfortable in shorts and a sweater. Makeup-wise, I opted for an exaggerated cat eyeliner and a dusty rose lipstick. Easy peasy. (My brother's friendly viking costume is also available at Party City, if you're interested in that)


I hope you enjoyed these three fairly simple costumes. If you have any questions, feel free to drop me a comment. Have a happy and safe Halloween!

xx Anna

"I'm the strongest man alive!"

Rokka no Yuusha (or Rokka: Braves of the Six Flowers) was an anime that was recommended to me by a friend who knows me well enough to know what I like in an anime and that's characters, characters, characters.

When the Majin awakes from the depths of darkness, the deity of fate selects six heroes and bequeaths them with the power to save the world. Adlet, a boy who proclaims himself the strongest man in the world, has been selected among "The Heroes of the Six Flowers". However, as the heroes gather, they soon begin to suspect that someone amongst them is an imposter. (source)

Early on in the series, I was unsure as to what the actual genre of the anime was going to be. I couldn't tell if it was an adventure series, a shounen, etc. Surprisingly, it began to lean toward being a fantasy based mystery series which made the entire week I spent binge watching it an utter joy. I love shows that make you think alongside the characters, trying to figure out the solution to a problem or figuring out 'whodunnit' (it's why I liked Danganronpa so much). While the entire season was primarily focused on, "Who is the seventh, and therefore fake, brave?" and not at all on the ultimate problem of the Demon God, the intrigue of the mystery and the wonderfully diverse cast of characters  made that unimportant.

The characters in this show are the best part of this show. It's fairly difficult to ensure characters in a fantasy anime don't fall into the same overused tropes but Rokka no Yuusha manages to create interesting and colorful characters that keep you invested in the story. Not to mention the designs of these characters (pictured above) are the best I've seen in quite some time. They're just nice to look at.  They each have they're own individual powers and specialties as well which made them even more complex. Nachetania's ability in particular was something I always looked forward to seeing since her ability to use and direct blades was pretty cool looking.

There were a couple of times toward the beginning where I noticed animation errors but nothing too crazy and the CGI was a little jarring in comparison the the rest of the animation. For me, the art itself was visually pleasing enough (and the story interesting enough) to compensate for such little things.

All in all, it's been a long while since I've watched an anime that had me as hyped as Death Parade back in January and while this particular anime doesn't quite live up to the masterpiece that is Death Parade, it is certainly high on my list and I recommend that you give it a watch if you're ever looking for something enjoyable.

xx Anna

Rock Out With Your Socks Out | 5 Seconds of Summer

On September 9th 2015, a friend and I embarked on a spontaneous 11 hour journey to Raleigh, North Carolina in order to see one of our favorite bands play in their first ever headline tour. 5 Seconds of Summer played their aptly named 'Rock Out With Your Socks Out' show with the kind of energy and talent that you wouldn't necessarily expect from a band so young and made the entire travel ordeal worth every second.

Arriving at the Walnut Creek Amphitheater around 2pm, VIP lanyards in tow, the sun high in the sky beating down on us like it was trying to make a point that it was the bigger man, we stood in line for 2 more hours before being led like sheep into the venue. A stroke of good luck landed us sat directly center in front of the stage extension in the second row so when the boys trotted out for the Q&A session, it was intimate enough to feel like sitting with friends at dinner.

Questions were asked and they questions were (mostly) answered and they played Jet Black Heart and She's Kinda Hot for us. They looked understandably exhausted, this being the 63rd show of their first tour and having just had a regrettable hotel stalking experience the previous night in Charlotte, but still managed to make jokes and appear grateful for fan support. Ashton told us an amazing story about Michael dipping his balls in Ash's ice bucket after the Charlotte show, during which Michael turned a bright red and attempted to hide his face in his hands while yelling, "I CAN'T BELIEVE YOU TOLD THEM THIS STORY. I WAS IN A VULNERABLE STATE". Luke was barefoot, bare-armed, and sipping what looked like tea, casually kicking his feet to and fro against the stage. Calum remained mostly quiet but still egregiously friendly despite the obnoxious 14 year old girls screaming at him about the hole in his pants.

The show itself was such a banger. The energy was high, the lights were bright, the music was loud and rocking. 5 Seconds of Summer delivered a show that was everything I expected it to be and the talent exemplified was of musicians far beyond their individual years (Ashton Irwin, in particular, is one of the most talented drummers I've ever seen perform live). The show had enough personality to fill the entire venue and then some despite the 30-40 minute delay halfway through for the bad weather ("I wanna say thanks to the weather for being an asshole. So fuck you, sky." - Michael Clifford).

All in all, I'm really glad we decided to drop everything and splurge a little to see this show. It was worth the money spent 100 percent and if you're a fan of 5 Seconds of Summer I highly suggest you invest in going to see a show sometime in your life. They're genuinely cool guys and are supremely talented.