Wednesday, October 28, 2009

What Are Your Most Memorable Dreams?




1. I am surrounded by leaves. Branches and trees do not exist here. I do not know where here is. I pluck one leaf off another as if an apple from an apple tree. Somehow, I peel the leaf open, it's white veins pulsating and forming the word E X H A L E.

2. My mother and I are walking home in the dark, the streets glowing a dull orange from the lamp lights. As we approach the steps to the house, a figure, as black as cat's fur, drags my mother and I on the ground and starts punching us in the face. He kills her first and then he stares at me and says "Remember me..." His words didn't sound like a demand. He sounded like he was pleading with me before I woke up.

3. I am an old man stumbling in the dark, holding an empty glass bottle. My hand, crinkled like paper, reaches forward. My hand clenches air and I stumble to the floor, my hair falling to the floor. I scream "SHERRY! WHERE ARE YOU!" But am I looking for a woman named Sherry? Or an actual bottle of Sherry?


4. Four little girls are standing outside in the snow, all of them wearing hot pink mittens and black coats. They are protesting against an old man who uses lawnmowers. My brother is pissed at the yelling and decides to quiet them with his periwinkle aluminum baseball bat. He runs outside, the thumping of his boots a warning for the girls to run. Unfortunately, one girl slips in the snow. He hovers over her and starts whacking her in the head with his baseball bat. The sound of her skull cracking resonated in my ears for a couple of days.

5. A man with a black boa constrictor tells Santa Claus to commit suicide to save a girl named Mary. Santa complies.

6. My two sisters and I are being chased by a Guerrilla in a marching band suit on the highway.


What dreams are more vivid for you? I can go into super detail with any of these dreams, but that would be too long to type =D. Enjoy the images? In memory of Halloween! =D Hehehe

-Piki

Friday, October 23, 2009

Photoshop Work!!!


Hello! It has been a long while since I posted anything up! I have been pretty busy with school work and work. I also have been dealing with two weeks filled with one crappy situation after another lol. At least that's over and I can enjoy a week of relaxation! =D I wanted to posted some photo shop work that I have. The image above is an older piece that a tweaked a bit in color =). This only has one layer of color. The other pops of warm color you see was the color created underneath the layer once I adjusted the curve settings. ( In each image, I draw by using a digital brush for the clothing, background, and faces while the original photo acts like a base).
This is another one I did of my friend! She was holding a wine glass, but I took it out to make it look like she was holding some type of magical energy =). I went crazy with color on this one! I love making unusual color combinations! This is also one layer of color. The other little balls of pink energy you see floating around was created by subtracting different parts of the blue layer away.

For this work, I REALLY wanted to focus on manipulating the brush and smudge tools. I took put out the background with the stamp tool, then I placed a layer of pink on the image and went crazy with the butterflies =D. I smudged some of the butterflies to create a variety of shapes. I wanted to make the face fall apart into an abundance of butterflies.


This is a more recent portrait image of me I did. A lot more subtle compared to most of the photoshop work I do. This is just one layer and I changed the background with the stamp tool. I like to keep myself open and create a wide range of images. Recently, I have been doing many black and white works. For all of my images, I do NOT use ANY filters. There just silly to use and make the work less exciting to do. I like to draw out textures with color and stamp tools. As you may have noticed, most of the photoshop images I work with are of me lol. It would be nice to do other people, hahaha. =hint hint=

-Piki

Sunday, October 11, 2009

Venturing to the Country Side of New Jersey


Today, I finally got to take a break from Etsy, the shop, facebook, and school to explore the country side of NJ for apple picking! I had never done it before, so why not go explore something new!? =D It was an hour drive, but worth it since the scenery was filled with golden and crimson leaves fluttering to the open grassy pastures =). We went to a farm where they had apple, pumpkin, AND tomato picking. The above photo is an apple tree filled with Red Delicious apples! Yum =)

This is my niece attempting to look cute LOL. She is evil though when she wants to be LOL. We got to have this small wagon to hold the large amount of apples we had picked =)

These are Green Delicious apples. We took some of these too. My family and I got to eat them right off the tree. It was a really nice day out! Blue skies and rainbows!


This is me stealing a cherry tomato from the gate after strolling through the apple fields mwhahaha. Well, they were free >_>...Anyway, we ended up riding the tractor to the pumpkin and cherry tomato fields.


OMG! Those little orange tomatoes were AMAZING. They tasted so damn good. We all hurried over to the tomato fields and started searching for them since they were hidden deep in the vines and greenary. It was like a fun scavanger hunt! My bag was completely filled with them!

We headed to the pumpkin patch afterward and picked out some pumpkins for the kids to paint on later when we went home. We relaxed and enjoyed the view of the rolling hills beyond the farm (Oops, all the pictures of me is with my back turned LOL hahahaha).
Finally, it was time to leave the farm =(. We rode the tractor back to the barn to buy homemade jelly, pumpkin butter, and everything else we picked off the fields. A really awesome trip and relaxing! Now I'm home with a tummy ache from eating too much food from the farm. My relatives are trying to push me to bake an apple pie from scratch lol. Maybe i'll do it on friday once the week is over from classes =).

-Piki

Friday, October 9, 2009

His Yelling Creeps Up My Spine Like Cockroaches


I awaken as the house shifts with the smell of Corona
leaking from my father's mouth
I shiver as his yelling creeps up my spine
like cockroaches prickling my skin
I tiptoe towards the hallway and peer at the door way below

The staircase trembles in panic
His leather boots SLAM on each step
His hand squeezes the banister, choking it
Snot runs from his nose as his tongue
licks the escaping victim back into his mouth

Scurrying away and hiding in my bedroom closet
knitted sweaters on wire hangers
wrap me in the warmth of lifeless arms
and pile on top of me
My ears burn with nervousness

He is in my room


tracing star patterns on blankets with a quivering finger
as he sluggishly pulls it back
to find me missing
Sweaters try to hush my anxiety
but his ears perk at their rustling

I am damp with unease as he throws
the closet door open and stumbles inside
The smell of Corona is a blanket of smoke
invading every part of me
His weight suffocates

-Piki

Sunday, October 4, 2009

And the winner is....

PonderandStitch!!!

Izzy: Hi PonderandStitch! How are you? This is Izzy from the Pikithins Library! Congratulations!!!! You have won the first FREE bracelet raffle giveaway from the Pikithins shop! Piki will be so happy when I tell her! You can browse through her shop and pick out the bracelet design you want as your prize! =D Either leave a convo on Piki's shop or leave an email! Make sure to include your wrist size so Piki can make the bracelet the appropriate size!

Izzy: Thanks everyone for being a Pikithins blog follower and fan! You all have been great supporters to Piki! I have to go now! Honz will be furious if I don't head back to the Library quick! Fro will make a mess of things if i'm not there to supervise! Till the next giveaway, bye and nice meeting you all!!

-Izzy the Librarian soft doll

Saturday, October 3, 2009

30 Followers, 100 Etsy Fans, and Roller Skating


Ahhhhh I reached a 100 Etsy fans! Yummy =D. Thanks for all your support! Let's not forget my blog followers and Facebook fans too, love you all! <3>

Since I have reached 30 followers, I will be doing my first giveaway! What am I giving away you might ask? Well, a FREE bracelet! The winner will be determined in a raffle with only my first 30 blog followers and gets to choose the design of the bracelet from my shop! =D I shall be announcing the winner tomorrow, so good luck to you all! So far Etsy has been an interesting place to be. It might be just having an online shop, but its still a lot of work since you have to worry about products, business cards, packaging, and advertising (and the list goes on lol). Insanity lol. It's been a little slow going so far, which is to be expected the first time around, but I'm glad I'm still doing something on my own while doing something I enjoy =). Everyone has been overall nice in the community and I've met a lot of great crafters. But as in every place, there will always be some aspects of something you participate in your really not going to prance all over in joy. That will be a rant for another day...LOL

Anyway, this week was pretty stressful. I finally finished loading up a massive amount of inventory on my shop and made a WHOLE bunch of new items! If you’re looking for anything for the holidays, check out the shop for great gifts and decorations =). Aside from that, I was also stressed because I don't have a passion for one of the majors I have been studying in school. But I am at a point where I can't really turn back, so I'll keep trudging a long and hope some type of love for it will come back. It isn't likely though...

Aside from that, I went to Dave & Buster’s yesterday =D. It was fun spending all the points on my card that I hadn't used in months lol. I'll also be heading to the roller skating rink later on =). I'll be so good at it that one day I'll be able to dance on skates! Er, yeah...maybe >_> hehe.

In the mean time, I've been reading some interesting material; you should give it a go! Here are some books I enjoyed =D:

Madame Bovary by Gustav Flaubert
Poision Study by Maria V. Synder
Kushiel's Dart (7 books in total a believe, an AMAZING series!) by Jacqueline Carey
The Murder of Roger Ackroyd by Agathe Christie (My FAVORITE murder/mystery author!!)

Well, tata my lovelies. I'll post the winner tomorrow!!

-Piki