Bits and blobs

So, apparently people still read my blog (Yes, I am surprised!) even though I abandoned it for half a year and I got a request to share the five minute sketch I made of the cakes I submitted for the Mother's day themed cake competition.

Um yeah, it isn't much really and it does actually look as if it was sketched in five minutes and I don't even want to talk about the ball of fluff AKA pink flowers, which didn't even turn out pink! I should probably work on my cake drawing skills!

If you've noticed I did tweak the cakes a little here and there, okay tweaked them A LOT!

I redesigned a couple of tiers from 28 (That's the cake with gumpaste flowers and basket weave.), removed on of the pink flower tiers because I was a little too lazy to make another and I redesigned the roundish flower arrangement topper into an elongated arrangement and again it was because I was a little too lazy to make more flowers!

As for 27 (The little stout prize winning cake with piped details) I did toggle with the designs a little, they were all suppose to be done in a very henna inspired way, I left the styrofoams as is, I planned on slicing them in half to make shorter tiers but I don't have a styrofoam cutter and it does get pretty messy and I also changed the overall shape of my cake a little because I wasn't able to get the sizes I needed, bleh.

My sketches aren't ever set in stone and I make changes when ever I can to get things done faster and easier because I am a really, really lazy person!
I always write down the techniques that kind of go together so at just glance I would be able to know what I have to work with and trust me it makes life a lot simpler!

If you saw my little "What-to-bring" list on the to right corner.. Well, I had completely forgotten about the fact that I had to bring my Wilton course certificates till after I loaded the cakes into the car on the morning of the competition!

Yep, so I ran around the house like a headless chicken trying to find the pale yellow file which I kept all my certificates in and.. To this day it remains mysteriously hidden, coordinates unknown.
I don't even know why it was stated that you would have to bring your certificates along when you don't even have to show it to them or anything, well I didn't have to do so at least.
Maybe I've got a special VIP pass typa thing,yippee!

I guess that is about all I can say about the whole sketching/planning affair and I bet you are now very disappointed at the fact that I am actually this extremely lazy and careless person that makes terrible sketches of cakes and that I don't even know why I make sketches when I don't follow half of it!

Yesterday was probably one of the most productive days I have had in awhile!

I actually spring cleaned my cake room and for the record, I haven't done it in a very, very long time! 

Eh, I'm guessing cleaning isn't exactly one of my strongest points.

My mini caking library was dusted, drawers were emptied and scrubbed, a truck load of cutters and plungers were washed and categorized and my tools were placed into my upgraded purple toolbox on wheels! 

Yeah, I stole this off the Wilton website because my camera is dead and I haven't a clue where the charger is.

Speaking of my new Wilton rolling tool caddy, I am frankly quite disappointed because the drawers just slide out if you tilt it to the front and just how am I supposed to travel the world and teach with this thing exactly, there should have been a little clasp to hold the drawers in place but I guess drawers falling out isn't as bad as the clasp of my handheld toolbox breaking and my tools and piping tips being scattered EVERYWHERE.

I guess it works fine otherwise (Yes, it just stores tools like any other tool box around.) and you get to show off what a huge, purple, wheelie toolbox you have!

Back to the topic of spring cleaning, right after I was done I simply just stood back and stared at the more or less squeaky clean room and.. Started yanking all my tools out from my toolbox to recreate some flowers I found in the garden in gumpaste.

Um yeah, the caking room is once again, in a horrendous mess!

Oh and here's a nice short story.

We, as in my brothers, mother goose and her fluffy little gosling decided to go swimming in the sea once the sun was down, there was a really beautiful rainbow that stretched across the lagoon and we were playing a game of swim-tag..
Soon it got really dark and I felt something soft and jelly like brush against the back of my palm and a millisecond later I felt the most excruciating pain ever, imagine someone spilling acid on you then roasting your hand over a bonfire.

Mmyeh, I got stung by a jellyfish last night, huh.

-Karen Cuppy Cake

Happiness is pastel pink

It's been some time. Okay, a lot of time since the last time I've blogged and it makes me wonder why I am typing away on this pretty much abandoned blog that happens to be drowning in a truck load of weird comments.

I guess it is partly because I somehow really need to get stuff out of my head and that I don't enjoy being on Facebook as much anymore because I feel out of place and unwanted, if that is even possible.

So yeah, I guess this is my not so secret hideout that I crawl into whenever I feel small, tiny and out of place and type loads of short drafts out.

And I am also coated in flour and breadcrumbs, but that doesn't really matter.

I also have no idea why I joined another ICCA cake competition when they don't really seem to get me anywhere and this year I have to only use Wilton method techniques, trust me they aren't very impressive but I am pretty glad I decided to give cake decorating a second chance because I don't think I enjoy doing anything more and nothing else seems to delight me as much as when I am working on a cake.

I have decided that I should probably get started on writing a "Malaysian inspired piping/stringwork and flowers in gumpaste" book which I have been procrastinating for a couple of years already.

Oh right, what gave me the jump start was this successful-people-speaking-for-the-middle aged-but-still-unsuccessful seminar at the Mines which I happen to randomly stumble upon going, well it's a pretty long story.

The speaker for the day was some oldish but coolish guy that wrote "Publish your book and grow rich" and he was an amazing speaker, well as compared to this old, well dressed guy that could be Nigel Thornberry's twin brother who spoke about property liens and buying property in the US.

Yeah, so he was such an amazing speaker that he convinced me to actually go ahead with the whole writing and publishing a book idea and I am also going for his three day writing boot camp in June, yippee!

I was also dressed in pink from hair tips to tank top to neon pink skinnies to toenails, with uncombed hair, jingly bangles and dirty flipflops, I stuck out like a sore thorn amongst the sea of grumpy middle aged people dressed in black suits and had perfectly styled hair and shiny shoes, so I guess I had gotten a fair share of glares but there were some really nice people that I discussed book plans with and had no clue what "Sugar artistry" was.

I actually enjoy attending seminars now, huh.

Okay, back to the present. 

I entered two entries in this year's cake competition since I could only use Wilton method techniques and the techniques are extremely simple. No, I am not bragging or anything, they are actually meant for total beginners. Like myself when I was eleven.

 My planning started two weeks before the competition, I basically flipped through my Wilton 1-4 course books to have an overview of the techniques I could use and started sketching.
I gave myself a day to complete it but I ended up finishing in under five minutes and spent the rest of the day reading The mortal instruments.
Which is pretty hilarious since the judges were like "OH MY GOD YOU REALLY SPENT LOADS OF TIME PLANNING AND THINKING HOW TO KNOCK US OVER WITH OVER WILTON-NESS" and I was just dying of laughter inside.

Since I had two entries this year I decided to have a gumpaste technique cake and the other a piped technique cake.

There honestly isn't much to say about the cake itself since it had to be in the Mother's day category and I wasn't allowed to incorporate any other techniques in!

All I did was read and then regurgitate, effortless.

For the base of cake 28 I was much inspired by Ron Ben-Israel, I have always loved him since day 1 and I've always wanted to have a whole tier just filled with flowers!

No matter how simple and un-dusted the flowers are they would still look good if you put loads of them together.

I did two tiers of piped basket weave for this cake because I just thought baskets go really well with floral arrangements, the whole Mother's day theme and.. They are really simple, pretty and they fill up space very well!

This tier is probably everyone's favorite, maybe because it's a little different and everything is white.

Inspiration from my latest Keith Kee bridal couture fashion show popped into my head whilst I was sketching this cake out and I just decided to incorporate a little bit of a lace inspired look to it and I think it turned out very well and it made hideous plunger flowers look extremely detailed and interesting.

And as for the cake topper all I did was bunch all my leftover flowers together and stick it on top.
Now wasn't that easy but I did have a little bit of trouble since it stormed for days with no end in Port Dickson so my gumpaste flowers drooped and I had to redo them twice or so and that wasn't exactly fun.

Moving on to cake 27! (I really should have named them, now they sound like prisoners.)

Holding a piping bag to me is as natural as how you would hold cutlery for example so I completed this in two pretty lazy days, I even had time to dig the world's biggest hole according to Fai, Han and Ean at the beach and go swimming afterwards.

I incorporated little fabric like touches to this cake as well because they added that little feminine touch to the cake and that it tends to cover up any ugly patches you have on your cake really well!

I didn't really change the color scheme here much and left everything in the colors you would find them in your Wilton course books.

Oh right, speaking of colors I fell in love with the copper gel paste from Americolor which I received in a goodie bag from the 2011 cake competiton, I hadn't used it till now and boy, is it beautiful!

Literally all the tiers had a little copper mixed into the fondant covering and the trimmings and borders were light and darker tones of copper.

I had an absolutely wondrous time creating my two entries in my little cake room with the weird music I listen to blaring from my headphones as I kind of did this dancing-singing-air guitar solo-head banging-squeezing icing with a wide grin spread from ear to ear thing throughout the week. I honestly hadn't felt so alive in a while.

As I was scrolling through the pictures that my Mom and the very blur ones that my Dad took I found a picture of Alan and Rosalind commenting on my cake while I was dying of laughter inside. 

Well, apparently a little laughter managed to escape.

I should really work on my poker face.

Anyways, the comments I had gotten on my cakes were mainly compliments such as how the pastel color scheme suited the Mother's day theme very well, how extremely Wilton my entries were as some of the other cakes had bits of other techniques on it and how much they loved the flowers, piping and all that jazz but they did comment on how they didn't really like all that wires on the bottom tier of 28 and that my bead border of 27 should have been finer.

Later that day I was tagged in a picture of my cake and it happened to have a little "Highly commendable" sign next to it and I was distraught!
I thought that either one of my entries would have gotten at least placing this time but I guess I was wrong and the next morning I didn't even feel like going back to the event but I am pretty glad I did because the placings weren't out yet. Silly me, I nearly had a heart attack and I guess all that made me realize what a sore loser I am.

I stumbled upon a picture of Alan Dunn and I during his flower course that was held after the cake competition in 2011 while looking for a file that I may not even have downloaded and um, I seemed to have grown younger looking. What.

There wasn't much going on throughout the day unfortunately, so I managed to walk around a little, read at the Time bookstore and catch up with old WMI (Wilton Method Instructor) buddies, course mates and Nina!
I've probably blogged about her before but oh well, I love her truck loads!
She was one of my favorite people when I was going through my Wilton courses next to all my amazing course mates!

I fondly recall one day when I arrived a little early for class and Nina was sitting behind the register with six naked cupcakes and she called out to me to help her ice them because she said she couldn't and with just a glance I told her the icing was a little too stiff so I added a little bit of water in and we iced them together, happily yakking away.

I was also invited by the owner of Amore E Bake to teach at her place in Seremban so my next project would be planning out my classes and there's also my book!

It seems as though things are finally falling in place, funny how life is this really weird roller coaster ride of ups and downs.

Karen Cuppy Cake is back, baybeh.

Oh yes, and I won first place, gave a speech and didn't cry this time.

Speaking of which.

So, I've just gotten home from my first speech and I feel a massive sense of self satisfaction, my head is pretty much exploding with random thoughts, so many that I can't register most of them so they are pretty much useless, heh.
I had also just realized my supposedly cake decorating blog has morphed into a personal, diary like blog about my whatever is in my head, really.

It pretty much feels like today or to be more accurate, tonight is the start of the new year because I actually feel as though something has "magically" changed in me, that feeling that I had always thought would happen when a new year begins or a birthday passes.

Basically, today I had to give a speech and presentation about my experience in RYLA to my sponsoring Rotary club as a report like thing and I have been dreading it from the moment I was told I had to do it since I had a rather traumatizing experience of speech giving when I was twelve and I had to go on stage and thank people who had help made the the winning possible, just because I had won second place in some teen cake decorating competition with a rather dull "go green" theme.
My entire body was shivering in fright as I was gripping a little too firmly onto a sheet of paper that had a few names and a few sentences of what I wanted to say written on it, I thought my knees were going to give way.  I could barely form words without tripping over them and to make matters worst I was speaking in a shopping mall so there was a huge crowd around me with the camera flashes going off. I ended the "speech" with a tear-streaked face and a "thank you" was forced out through sobs as I walked down the stage and started bawling even more.
I guess you could say that was my first "speech" but I wouldn't exactly consider it one since I didn't exactly speak.  I wanted to be swallowed up by the stage so very badly.

For about two years, public speaking has been one of my biggest fears, ever. And I have been trying oh-so-very-hard to rid of it since I think it's a pretty important life skill to have and I really didn't want to end up being twenty and still not be able to speak to a large audience on stage but I just tend to procrastinate a lot when it comes to things I highly dislike because I am just not a very courageous face-your-biggest-fear type of person.
But that took a drastic change during RYLA.
RYLA stands for "Rotary Youth Leadership Award" but has absolutely nothing to do with awards and please don't ask me why it is there, it's pretty much a youth leadership camp which I happened to be more or less forced or highly persuaded into going to by my Dad since he is a Rotarian and his club had a lack of 17-30 year olds to sponsor so he roped in his -coughcough- daughter and a few of her poor favoritest female humans. Gosh, that came out sounding terrible. Oh well.

Anyways, RYLA was probably one of my biggest highlights of 2012 I think, as it was an overall dull year because of "things", I can't believe I was so reluctant to leave the comforts of my home and wifi for some leadership camp in the middle of Raub, on some Benum Hill that was meant for "youth" 17-30 and on top of that it was probably filled with the need to speak on stage and there was something on the itenary that was called "talent night" which worries me quite a bit but at least they had a total of six meals per day which did surprise me. *Sarcastic smile

Aside from all that meeting rather inspiring people, uber interesting gossip sessions during meal times with the ace gang, visiting an old folks home which happened to be a terrible excuse for a "home" as it wasn't in the slightest bit homely or comfortable,"partaying" till three or four in the morning, impromptu catwalking, inspiring talks and extremely boring ones that quite literally put me to bed, "jungle tracking" more like walking up a muddy dirt road with a slight mist of rain falling to refresh you but surprisingly there were quite a few rather unfit youth that found it challenging and day filled with kayaking, flying foxing and high rope walking.

Yeah, that pretty much describes an amazing four day camp way too briefly, I am too lazy to elaborate anyways but something pretty much changed me during camp and it sparked during one of the first "talk" sessions we had to attend and it was basically about discovering yourself and the leader within you or somewhere along those lines.

We had to take this little test during the session that was run by Leaderonomics and it just defines if you were either an introvert or an extrovert and there were four other categories after that.
I had already known I was an introvert long before camp and what my strengths and weaknesses were so I didn't find the session all too interesting but there was something our speaker said that created that little spark inside of me and it was something around "It doesn't matter if you fell under being an introvert or an extrovert, a good leader has both qualities in them".

So that got me thinking about a "quality" that fell under the extrovert category which I very clearly have yet to level up and obtained, speaking on stage.
Well, since extroverts are more or less known as better speakers and introverts are better listeners, it's kind of true I guess and this coming from an introvert.

Since I was in a leadership camp which emphasizes on leadership skills and personal growth in youth, I decided to set a goal for myself to achieve in four meagre days and it obviously is to overcome my ginormous fear of speaking on stage.

Fast forward a couple of days, talent night was approaching, I was running out of time to fulfill the goal I had set for myself and my team, the Ravens were planning to perform a sketch that night which we all agreed on since you could incorporate singing, dancing and acting into it and I guess the more you incorporate into a performance, the more interesting it gets!

 The basic rather wonky story line with loads of laughs thrown in was about three young siblings, two sisters and a brother. The little brother gets lost one day while wandering into the woods looking for a missing ball and a Pontianak magically appears right in front of him saying that she is hungry and she wants him as her next meal but the little brother asks her to wait as he orders pizza for her since he claims it tastes better than he does but she didn't end up enjoying it so she tied the boy up and started preparing to cook him. Meanwhile the sisters started to realize their brother went missing so they started looking for him and they had found him with a very hungry and angry looking Pontianak.
They ended up calling a Bomoh ahahaha this is hilarious over to help rescue their brother and after loads of fighting the Bomoh had finally figured out the Pontianak's weakness and summoned a "hot guy" and eventually made "peace" with the Pontianak and everyone lived happily ever after.

So, the moral of the story is Pontianaks want to be loved and to live happily ever after too that um, you should probably make peace with people or something like that.

I was the Pontianak character and I probably would have taken up a role that involved very little stage appearance but I had brought my special effects makeup kit along with me since I was supposed to go for Comic Fiesta the day after camp with the beloved Bloohippo but me being a terrible giraffe didn't and it would be easiest to apply Pontianak like makeup on myself and I just decided to well, shoot for the moon or stars or black hole since it was already the day at camp and I had yet to do anything that had put me out of my comfort zone and again, there was that goal.

When it was our turn to perform I started getting really nervous but surprisingly it started to fade away as fast as it came when I stepped on stage and started "acting".
The crowd was really supportive and I actually had fun on stage even though we didn't really stick to the script!

I had gotten over my fears of speaking on stage and at the same time learn to enjoy it, something I had never thought I would achieve and the Ravens bagged the first place!

Back to the present, I had a speech to make and a slideshow of RYLA pictures to present with two other RYLArians that were sponsored.
Dad helped me out with the basic formula of what I needed to say which I was extremely thankful for, Introduction to the topic - What has affected, benefited you and comments - Slide show presentation and speaking a bit more about RYLA. 

And he had also made me feel rather inferior by saying that a fellow Rotarian sent him an email on some "girl" wrote an amazing report about RYLA and asked if I could do better. I may or may not be dead if the girl or the Rotarian that sent the Father the email finds this blog.
The report was meh but I was glad since the Rotarians expected "meh" but I am still pretty upset over the fact that the Father thinks I have such poor report writing skills and is so amazed over the fact that the report has pictures in them. Like whaaat, I am just occasionally too lazy to add pictures to my posts because it uses up my finger strength and also am too lazy to grammar check my blog posts and I also love adding retarded whale grunts in because whales be fabuloso creatures, so I guess you have every reason to think I have poor report writing skills, heh. *Tosses table and walks away in a diva like manner

Very soon boy, a day flies by quick when you are engrossed in an amazing book, I was standing at the podium introducing myself and speaking a little about RYLA which I kind of disappointed myself with since I had to rely on the paper a little too much cause I couldn't remember the facts but as soon as it came to speaking about what had benefited/affected you, the notes were ditched and I had an absolutely thrilling time speaking and controlling the ears of successful, old people, ohoho the power surges through my veins and it feels goood!

It's strange because something I had once feared so much is now something I am in love with, I had gotten so much praise and applaud when I was done.

Rotarians saying it was inspiring and that they couldn't believe I wasn't an experienced public speaker and that was actually someone who had feared the mic and stage before RYLA and they had absolutely no idea that RYLA had "helped" so many youth! And I was also questioned if I was actually an introvert which was pretty hilarious because I am a 100% introvert that occasionally enjoys speaking to people and occasionally becomes a "fun" person because "fun" like "partaying" till three in the morning with RYLArians is something that should not be missed.

RYLA really should be something compulsory to all youth, like a coming of age like thing because, it really is a life changing camp but it also matters how much you want to be there and how much you want to change.

So, now it feels as though I've entered a new chapter of my life opening myself up to new possibilities like acting or MCing since I enjoy both immensely now even though I am not particularly good in either yet but I might be, one day. 

Like I said in the beginning, it's that feeling you always thought would be there when it's a new year or you've passed another birthday, that magical feeling inside of you which makes you this new, fresh person hybrid.

And I might take up dance one of these days as I feel fairly potato-like.

-Karen
And no, I shan't grammar check or add any pictures in this post.

Oh nien, I did.

Okay, I think I should blog since three pretty significant things have happened in just a month and therefore it's a pretty darn good excuse to start blogging again.

First off, I am now hooked on drawing eyes, thanks to the wondrous Bloohippo for that pretty unexpected jump start and it has slowly involved into this face + lace/flower art much inspired by an amazing artist on Deviant Art, Pixie Cold. I may or may not have mentioned her before in one of my previous posts which may still be drifting around in a dark an mysterious abyss called my draft bin so, heh.

I honestly hadn't picked up a pencil to sketch in a while and I am pretty glad I was doodling again since I thought I was never going to draw again because I was so bored with drawing fantasy flowers and I couldn't seem to be able to think of anything else to draw at that time.

One of the reasons why I enjoy this new-ish genre of art (Anything I haven't done is considered new, okay but I have always oggled this particular genre of art from a distance, I am just extremely happy I am able to actually create it since it is so beautiful, well to me it is.) is because I get to draw lace and I love drawing lace cause I am just never able to get stuck, it just keeps flowing and flowing.. And eyes, more like irises, they always seems interesting to draw since you can toggle around with it so much, I guess that's why I don't enjoy drawing realistic whatsits because everything is more or less set in stone. At least that is what it seems from an amateur artist's point of view.

Then again, what I enjoy doodling would most probably evolve through time.

So yeah, I am glad my artsy self is back and kicking! And my Sharpies and color pens wouldn't dry up and die an unreasonable death! Not to forget my sketchbook too.

Oh and I had also "Refound" my only surviving Copic marker in whatsitcalled pink which I bought four years ago during my Manga craze point in my life and it's flierking magical, I can't believe how badly I misused and -Coughcough- mistreated (I thought it was a flesh tone, only afterwards I discovered it was more like diseased skin toned and I just had no idea how to use it, therefore making a mess out of everything and getting very upset.) it before. Now it's probably my most prized art possession next to my silver Sharpie and just in case you are a nice person and you somehow love me, I suggest you get my some Copic markers to express your undying love to me for Christmas.   

Or a kneadable eraser. Just make sure it's German because I am a brainwashed person and all.

Um, in return I'll draw an eye for you or somefink. Mmm yeh.

Okay, next off! -Drumroll-

I have blue-turquoise-purple-pink hair now!

Side note: I like weird yellow shirts, add that to the Christmas list if you please.

I had wanted ombre, wait wait DIP DYE (Hair women nearly killed me for mixing both up but ombre with dip dyeing but ombre sounds so much awesomer to say, bah them French words.) hair for a while now and once again the rebirth of the idea was jump started by the Fabulous BlooHippo, goodness knows what I would do without her. 

I wanted only blue but apparently they only had very little of the blue dye left so I decided to go a little insane and say yes to all the "weird" colors they had in stock, expect green because I don't enjoy mossy hair.

Before arriving at Hair Now Beauty Salon @ Taman Segar, BlooHippo and I actually went shopping at Ikano, The Curve and Ikea (Because the road was too clogged with vehicals to go anywhere else, apparently.), we just ran about those three places for a few hours like people who have never been into a shopping mall and who live in trees, in villages on the outskirts of a third world country. Shopping, like normal "Bestfriends" would on a typical weekend and it was pretty amazing since we hadn't really done it before.. I think, then again I never remember anything. I shall blame it on the fact that we literally live a thousand kilometers away from each other.

And I found a party shop selling special effects stuff that I have been looking for and at half the price of what I found at Sungai Wang once and things are usually cheaper there, what a strange world I live in.

So I officially own a bottle, more like tiny tub but never you mind, of latex and blood capsules! -Awkward penguin jig dance-

S'too bad they sell overpriced Nerds there at like, rm7 so it shan't be in my most-of-favoritest shop list and I am severely disappointed by the fact that Cold Storage doesn't have pink and purple Nerds in stock anymore, I mean.. That was the only reason why I went into that overpriced supermarket in the first place, people.

This is a fairly awkward smile but it would have to do, to much of my disgust.

Anyways, this was after bleaching my hair twice and the bleach smelt AWFUL, it was suffocating and intoxicating like and it was probably the worst part of the whole first-time-dyeing-hair experience, the second place would go to.. (Lucky blondes, not needing to go through this stage in order to have awesome unicorn hair.)

Not being able to move your head, who knew it was so tough.

But I guess the outcome was pretty amazing!

And I am pretty glad I had done a bit of research, found a salon that does weird dyeing through the salon's owner's daughter's blog (Yes, I am fabulous.) and everything ended fabulously, thanks for putting up with 3 hours in a dreary salon with moi, BlooHippo and.. I have officially got my dream hair! -Flips hair and fails-
One to-do striked off the bucket list!

The haul, ohoho.

Yep, its that time of the year again! The day I have been awaiting since the Big Bad Wolf sale ended last year!

Waking up at like, 5am was pretty tough since we slept pretty late the previous night, watching half an episode of Code goose, um Code geese, eh Code Gease and pampering our faces with ill fitting (Who on earth has such a weirdly structured face?!), weirdly scented rm10 for 4 masks from SaSa, which by the way makes no difference in your skin's texture what sort ever and changing our profile pictures into pictures of us posing with random Christmassy stuff (Everyone should have a profile picture with mall Christmas decorations at this time of the year, its the law humans.) we found around some ancient place called Leisure Mall. 

I have failed at this sleeping early thing.

I guess leaving Port Dickson at 6am-ish was worth it since there wasn't a queue to enter the book sale, which I not so fondly recall doing a few years back.

My eyes were literally only a quarter way open and I had to use a lot of strength to keep it that way, it was a painful process but the blinding artificial light and rows of books slowly awoke moi.

The hall was slightly larger than I recall it during the rather lame and disappointing Book Excess sale, my sleepiness made it tough to find my way to the fiction side of the hall.

The moment I reached, I think everything went rather berserk, stuffing almost everything into my box.. Placing it at the book-waiting-before-buying place, forgetting about everything and everyone else and only concentrating on  finding the titles you wanted but as I was on my way to get yet another empty box, I was stopped by a women, with a mic that clearly stated NTV7 in her right hand and a rather tiny Malay man with an over sized camera.

Um, yeah. I got interviewed at like 7am or something. 

I do not recall what questions she asked or what I replied with, but I remember one thing that confused me, do you look at the interviewer or the camera? 

I recall looking at both, I hope I was cut out and not broadcasted on national tv as I would have looked zombie like and speaking gibberish, maybe randomly squealing.  

Overall, the sale was alright this year but I wished they had brought in more titles that were published this year. Sob, I guess I would have to buy them at full price. -Cries in the corner-
And I have already read half of my haul since the internet was cut off for around three days, so I was forced into reading them at top speed instead of savoring them to kind of make myself forget that I am internet deprived, like some sort of temporary drug. What have I done.

I didn't even get to complete my Alex Rider or Vampire Kisses (They didn't even have a single one of those there, tsk tsk.) collection but I guess completing the Hush Hush series makes up for it, it was in hard cover too! Woep!

-Krakenese

-Insert random title here-

Okay, donut dough (I had this strange craving for fried dough and sugar granules this morning, at least it beats the muachee craving I had and which took half a day or so to make a batch of that sticky peanutie goodness, omnoms.) is currently being bashed around in the bread machine and I don't exactly have that urge to "study" in me at the moment therefore, I shall bring myself to blog.

October has been a fairly crazy month as compared to most unproductive months this year doing close to zilch or at least that's what I remember. I still can't believe we've reached the end of it already, seriously hasn't it just began?!

This month I decided I wanted to get the IGCSE/Olevel paper done with because I needed it to enter  an art college Which I have had my eye on for quite some time and I am pretty glad I decided to do so since well, I forgot how much I have missed so called "studying".

Yes, I am actually kinda-ish going to study for OLevels in a year and I honestly haven't actually studied since I started unschooling.
Mmm, yeh. I may have lied to a few not so random people about "Doing school books at home and learning on the internet" but I had the strangest feeling you would have preferred that as an answer as compared to "I do whatever I want to everyday and I spend half of it online".
Tis' indeed funny how I can still read and write, yohoho.

One of my first steps was to head to a tiny shoplot in a rather squishy part of PJ which getting a parking bay was like winning the lotto, called "University bookstore Malaysia" to get hold of a couple of workbooks, it was difficult picking the ones I wanted since there were literally  a few hundred different publishers and I had yet to set the subjects I wanted to take in concrete! I was basically walking about wide eyed in book wonderland!

Anyways, I ended up with three books from "CGP" that fitted the budget and well, the format was just a whole lot more interesting as compared to the random drab one at the other corner.
We even went back for the second time (I have this terrible tendency of completing books rather quickly) round to get some text books and this rather interesting modern history book by Cambridge.

Speaking about history, I have been spending an awful load of time at the "forbidden red spot section" (It's just called that cause you can't bring any of it's loveliness home, no matter how much you beg the librarians. Sob, what a cruel red spotted world this is.) in the library cause the books there are just SO much more interesting, especially the history ones ( ...And the mad science ones, psychology, art, food, ecology, language, geograp- Okay, I need to stop.) since I can now decode most of the WW2 posters and writings on artifacts from Germany and those around it that have German as one of their main languages. I am kinda glad I decided to pick German up as it plays a huge part in my history obsession, tralala.

It's amazing how that entire section is free of any humans beings, especially those loud, pesky people. Heh, I am mean.
So I just get lost in amazing books there and you just seem to forget about everything else, it's just the book(s) and your wondering mind. Mmm.
I honestly had forgotten how much I loved non-fiction.

Anyways, last month I started my blog post with random gibberish German/English sentences which I have no idea why I had even posted and I had gotten a crazy amount of blog views from Deutscheland, I wanted to die. No, really.

Not long after that embarrassing week I found this pretty amazing online community where you can blog anonymously (Or un-anonymously if you want to, but I like being invisible. Worp.) and random kind humans who happen to be fluent in the language you are blogging in would help correct your writing o' rubbishness!
I more or less blog there every odd day now and I am pretty pleased that my writing isn't 80% gibberish anymore. Dear krakens, it has improved not so dramatically!

Here's a fantastic way to "cheat": Type your sentence out in Google and if it is a valid sentence, it should appear on some random German blog or website and if it doesn't, back to the drawing board to re-form that sentence of yours!
Bah, Still can't figure out how to construct long sentences properly yet or understand without subtitles but I can read a whole lot. I do not understand myself, chee.

I've been listening to loads of German/Austrian/Swiss music recently and it appeases me that I understand 90% (And German tv but I understand less of that. Side note: German comedy has absolutely no humor in it and therefore, is very funny.)  of most songs and I actually sniffed over a song I had never thought was any good but it was so beautiful all along, sob. Then again, I probably have an overdose of feels in me so I sniff and sob just over every petty thing.

Anyways, there was a Halloween fashion show at Tropicana City Mall yesterday, it turned out to be pretty darn amazing since the stage "choreography" was freestyle and you had to do this slow creepy walk and randomly stare at people, I think I am fantastic at all that. Oho, the self flattery.

Funny how I used to get the jitterbugs before walking, now I enjoy the attention and camera flashes a whole lot more than I used to!

I didn't exactly enjoy the hair styling part since the stylists were literally going insane! The one on the left was spraying moose on and crimping my hair with well, crimping irons and the other was holding a can of hair spray and started tugging and back combing like crazy! .. I-i-it was quite painful to be honest, both physically and mentally since I was wondering how I was going to get my hair back to its -coughcough- "former glory" with all that crimping and hairspray. Hairspray and backcombing alone is bad enough already, humans!

Side note: I managed to get my hair back to normal after running my fingers through it for about an hour. And no, it was no fun.

Aside from the hair it was an overwhelmingly fun day, going in and out of the toilets and scaring random citizens walking pass but I am hungry so I shall leave you now, and hopefully blog sooner than a month.

So here, have are some pictures I got tagged in:

My ghastly model buddies.

Maleficent/Cruella de vil AKA Me with Jaslyn, my makeup artist for the day.

Since it was "freestyled" I decided to go ahead a give the backdrop a bit of a scratch, s'tu bad there weren't any of me on the runway giving the audience my glare, boo. 

And here's a random "First runway dress" picture, which looks fairly awkward. 

Bear hugs,

-Karen

Just another thursday

You may need to skip the next 6 paragraphs or so as they reek so badly of over Karen randomness/silliness.

Eyeliner and lash glue out of my eyes, check.
Handful of bobby pins and half a ton of hairspray out of my hair, check.

Since my haare is damp and I mag nicht baking my head with a hair dryer, I shall blog (I would probably be asleep till abend tomorrow and that's another reason why I should blog at this ungodly hour. Om.) till it dries, even though my eyes feel heavy from carrying those false eyelashes for most of the day.
Obwohl, it could be because es ist ein uhr einundfunfzig.
Do excuse random Deutsche (Also changed my FB language to Deutsche, it's quite awesome deciphering the words. You may want to try it one day. Actually deciphering isn't needed as I am such a fantastisch human being. Oh gott what I am typing.) moments, it's to prevent me from falling asleep on the laptop.

Okay, let's proceed.

Ugh, Ich hasse mornings wenn I have a "special event" (E.g Kuchen competition schnuff. I highly doubt that German but it's a cute wort and du hast my permission to use it.)  on as I always get this squishy butterfly feeling in my stomach, no matter how many times I tell myself that there is nothing to be anxious about and all those "butterflies" that builds up inside of you prevents you from essen breakfast properly, somehow.

So I basically did one page of German and a spoon of that fruhstuck schnuff, it worked.
Mm. You are probably wondering whats up with all this german schnuff (Hah. That word is fantabulous.), so ich soll clarify I am not exactly going insane aber I just randomly wanted to pick up a nue language und more or less take the Olevel paper for it next jahr.

And you should know that reading (I could read some random e-book about two random sisters after a day.) in German is so veil easier than writing. Oder, trying to understand sie spricht German cause literally all you hear is "djedjaknmnoromadjdfh? uwiermxdffhjhghrgaec." because they speak so blutig schnell. Ack, Meinen kopf.

That was rather random, I think I'll continue in English. Heh.
Side note: Schweinfleisch is a wondrously, barbaric word to say. FLEESSHHH. Lamfleischee, schinnnken, fisssche. Ah, I am hilarious. .. And maybe just a tad hungry. Woooosh. ICH HABE HUNGER, PERSONEN.

I should be banned from blogging when I'm tired as I have a well known tendency to type as though as I have gone insane, somewhat.
Mffp, it 2pm and I've just woken up. Boy, does it feels good to be lazy.

..................

After a somewhat longer than usual drive down to KL, I had finally arrived in Zebra Square and just so you know, its specially catered to events where you more or less book the entire "Square" and there are absolutely no shops or eateries within, only a fashion academy and vast empty spaces.

The moment I set foot in the SCCA fashion academy I was shown my *cough* lovely green and yellow mermaid chiffon dress with beads sewn in everywhere, it basically looked like your typical "Baju kurong".
Then I was led into the "Fitting room" by my designer and around ten other models with theirs to basically try the dresses out to see if it was in need of any last minute altering.

Till the day itself I had no idea it was a competition/graduation and just after six months of fashion designing "School"! Which I may be enrolling in soon since they are offering scholarships for fashion designing, artistic makeup and body painting! ..Hair dressing too but I am not exactly fond of cutting hair, heh.

It was basically a dress designing competition with two categories, traditional and modern "Lady Gaga" kind of dresses which were made from snake skin with a corset back to shiny blue vinyl dress, complete with metal belts and cut-outs!

My dress was obviously from the "traditional" category! Fsstph.
At least my dress was pajama comfy and I had a really smiley, bubbly designer!

 You could say it was rather awkward meeting the "Senior" models, more or less because most of them were a frigin head taller than me and I felt like some sort of a scrawny midget (I am actually a really petite person who got pulled a little lengthwise a bit but the rest are actually "Big boned" and well, are GINORMOUS FEMALES. Seriously, what do those people eat.) that didn't speak Chinese.
Yeah, I guess that could somewhat describe how I was feeling yesterday and maybe I now know how others feel when I tower over them.

Thankfully not long after the meet and greet, I met another human that didn't speak Chinese, had awesome pink ombre hair, was around my age and it was also her first runway.
THANK YOU, VAMPIRE LORDS FOR SAVING MY SOUL.

 Just so you know, yesterday was an INSANELY long day as I probably sat around doing practically nothing for about six or seven hours. Who knew just sitting around was so draining.
I think you get paid to wait, not walk.

Before lunch we taught the choreography and did a little "trial round" on the stage.
I was the last model out and well, being the last one out makes me rather jittery somehow but being in the middle would have made me feel a whole lot more secure. I have a strange brain.

The moment I stepped out felt really good, even though my heart was pounding so much I thought it may have exploded but the music and vibrations were so loud that it dimmed the sound of my heart beating!
Overall it was an alright practice around even though I was a little more than nervous about remembering the choreography!

After a few jillion hours of awkward trying to speak to people (EVERYONE had a iPhone, there were also those with around three phones and two tablets. So, me being someone with a phone that only calls and sends texts- Eh, basically I just wanted the ground to swallow me up whole. Side note: I should have brought around 10 books to read.), came the hair and makeup which well.. Isn't as interesting as it used to be when I first started since it was only your basic smokey eye and hair bun! .. And I happen to dislike hair buns quite a lot as it probably makes me look thirty, or forty.. If I'm extremely "Lucky" on that day.

So with my makeup on and in my dress, I looked like some Malay "Makcik" on her way to a wedding, or something of that sort.

It's either that or a bush, a nice skinny green, shiny bush.

About a decade more of waiting.. Oh yes, extremely glamorous waiting.
At least dinner (FREE REFILL OF SCRUMPTIOUS, CRUNCHY POPPADOMS WHILE STOCKS LAST. Not to mention the beef rendang wasn't all that bad too.)  was provided this time, I forgot to bring my wallet but I managed to rake a few bucks out from random pockets in my bag to get chicken rice for lunch and that's why everyone needs a messy bag, just in case of heart stopping (I thought I was going to starve and die. Sobs. Not to mention the fact that I was running out of water and I couldn't possibly beg a model for lunch, being the shy person I am.) incidents like so!

At least now I VERY well know exactly what to bring to future fashion shows and what to expect!
Learning everything the hard way is amazing. Not. But at least all the information gets drilled very deeply into your skull.
And I should probably learn how to speak Malay and Chinese fluently like a normal Malaysian lass.

Then came the impromptu photo shoot after the makeup artists applied a new coat of nude lipstick, you could say I had quite a bit of fun during the rather short period of twenty minutes doing some wonky couture poses in my baju kurong!
Mmm, photo shoots are rather enjoyable.

Another century of waiting, roughly translated to around three hours.
Oho, the very glamorous life of a model.

Speaking about the glamorous model life, most of everyone around me seem to be chain smokers and have had some plastic done "Somewhere" or are planning to.
When all along I thought models were supposed to be "Healthy people" and I had no idea plastic surgery scene was so big here.

It kind of scares me how if I continue modeling, would I be coaxed into doing so and so in the near future?

Anyways, the three hour wait was torturous, the added false lashes and heavy eye makeup made my eyes want to close even more! To be honest, I had just wanted the day to get over and done with.

Fighting the urge of dozing off was tough, luckily the clock struck nine and we were told to make our way backstage, passing a group of paparazzi snapping photos of the famous guests and designers.

Right after the group of "Orang asli" dancers that were wearing an "I heart PM" and a grass skirt, accompanied with a pair of grass maracas (?), it was finally our turn to walk and my palms were sweaty mess, as I turned around an shared another huge nervous smile with my designer before making my way to the stairs.

The moment I walked out, cameras were flashing like crazy, spotlights were shining and the mist machines were doing what they do best, MISTING.
It all happened relatively quick and not long after we were called out to the stage again, hand in hand with our designers to know the results.

My dress didn't take place sadly.

The ministers were called on stage to present the three winners their humongous fake cheque and a bouquet of pink roses, more smiles and camera flashes.
We slowly made our way back stage, one model and her designer at a time.

I slipped off my dress, put my cozy coral colored skinnies and tank top back on, gave my young designer one last squeeze, a huge grin and a "You did very well and thank you for the dress" (I have no idea how I said that in Malay last night.), with that I was off to have some Hokkien/loh mee supper with the crazy bunch of humans I live with :)

Well, all I can say is Thursday just wasn't just like any other ordinary Thursday.

-Karen

Side note: Pictures when the camera man decides to post them. Meanwhile, just picture the "makcik" thing.

Specks of glitter

Okay, this better not end up as one of my poor abandoned drafts (If it does, I shall cry since there are probably 7 drafts. Or so.) as I have been rather fickle on what to post (Actually it's because I have been doing a once over of my posts before actually posting them and I tend to jot rather.. Weird things about myself down and I just can't bring myself to post it so heh. Just so you know, the previous draft was filled with me making retarded whale noises and rambling on how I enjoy looking at blood and how much I want to prob a cadaver and human brains.) and well, reasons of suches.

What a waste of a tres magnique title as this is such a random post, but at least it's better than the rest.. Or at least I think so.

Here's a random picture of horseshoe crab roe kerabu from yesterday's lunch.

The fact that my blog looks so terribly old fashioned (I wonder if I should keep the "Do you know the cupcake girl?" title as I don't exactly have "feels" for cupcakes anymore.) is indeed saddening, I should probably beautify it in the near future. Just not now cause my fingers feel like whales.

Anyhoos, I have been spending an awful load of time on this wondrous place by the name of DeviantArt or De vain egg tart (One should visit that inspiring place in the near future as it is basically art wonderland filled with drop dead talented people!) and I came across something new, at least to me!
It's basically eye art using bits of anything the artist finds around, puts it together with some makeup and more shiny stuff, most are digitally modified to look AMAZING.

On the side note I have been rather obsessed with ogling artistic makeup, photography stuff (Some really amazing self portraits and editing skills which I would probably never obtain and all of it's awesomeness by a Spanish 16 year old who also happens to be a very successful makeup artist/photographer/model! She is my current role model like human. I sometimes wonder if I would ever reach that amount of awesomeness when I'm 16..) and hot teenage *cough* European *cough* artists. And this is why you shouldn't let your teenage daughter have excess to the internet.

Ah, De vain egg tart (Omnomnom, egg tarts.) is indeed a magical place overflowing with surprises.

My deviant is: krakenese (I have always loved how elegant kraken like creatures look with their tentacles just waving around in the ocean..) so do drop by even though you may probably have seen most of my work that is up!
And the joys of your work getting placed in an album, favorited or commented on simply gets you giddy!

*Triangle ting* BAAIIILLAAAMOOOSS! Let the frikin-dikin rhythm take you over, baaailamooooss! ... You wait little girl, on an empty stage for fate to turn the light oonn. Your life little girl, is an empty page, that men would want to write on.. Tooooo wriiitee oonnn! You are sixteen going on seventeen, baby its time to thiinkk! Better beware be canny and careful, baby you're on the briiinnkkk! Totally un-
Eh, I apologize for the short break, now back to business. (Dear krakens.. What have I been listening to and I believe I have been getting a little too distracted. om.)

I have been pretty much exploring the realms of makeup for the past few months, all along I had thought makeup was just well, the usual eyeliner, blush and lipstick and I had just only discovered how you could express yourself so much through makeup and how interesting it really was.

I guess you could say I have been fluttering around, trying out horror and macabre one day and edgy abstract or special effects or just plain gorgeous and artistic the next!

I decided to try out my first "artsy eye" yesterday and you could say I have mixed feeling about it since I kinda hated the fact that my camera couldn't capture certain micro details (Such as the length of the lashes and specks of gold on it.

Trust me, each little bit plays a bit part since the area you are working with is so small!) cause I don't have the zoom lenses and it just wouldn't focus well in different angles, ugh.
I should probably rummage through the photography section in the library again!
Nevertheless, at least I have a camera to work with!

I was meant to do a Poison Ivy "face" (I love how I can be anyone or anything with makeup, it's somewhat fun creating different faces for yourself.) yesterday as it was requested by a random fabulous human being but my fingers didn't obey my otak-otak brain, I meant brain (I apologize but sometimes all I think about is food, really. And just so you know I am in love with Muar otak-otak, that heavenly substance is well.. Heavenly!) and it decided to do a cross between mardi gras (The beauty and colors of the masks and Venetian clothing! I think I should add "Ballroom dancing in a complete mardi gras costume in this gigantic palace like place that's filled with sparkly chandeliers and a huge banquet table with oodles of food and even complete with a whole roasted pig with an apple in it's mouth." to my bucket list. Even through I would probably trip and fall in the custard pudding while dancing due to clumsiness, meh. Then again, one can dream.) and some form of ancient goddess. 

Bow before me, peasants. *Evil hag cackle*

Another thing! I didn't have any green (Unless you count that disgusting decade old, leaf green eyeshadow from my Grandmother's palette. *Shivers*) pigments so I did a bit of thinking , made my way to the cake studio and pulled out.. My moss and olive green dusting colors!

The colors were very pigmented and creamy and my eyes feel perfectly fine so I believe I have found a substitute for the time being, whoop.
Side note: Red and a tinge of brown gel food coloring makes the best fake blood ever, though the stains last for about five days so I wouldn't recommend you using that stuff on your face.

So, this has been a rather awkward post (I remember being more professional when I was 12, I guess you do not get much wiser as you grow older.) and I doubt you would enjoy it but my stomach screams for food and I must leave, at once.

Hasta la vista humans, and I would probably be back soon. Woop.

-The kraken ma'am.