Thursday, February 25, 2010

Creepy Cute Swap

I am currently taking part in the "Creepy Cute Swap" on Craftster - this swap is totally down my ally. Creepy is my favourite sort of cute. My partner, loves cat's so I really wanted to include cats in the swap package. She also told me that she would like some more softies for her collection. So I decided to make a collection of softie kitties based on my favourite horror movie monsters.

I based my kitties on the pattern for kitties in Aranzi Aronzo's "The Cute Book".

Here's some photo's of the kitties I made - starting off with Drac-Kitty.

Drac-Kitty was a young kitten, living in the hills of his Eastern European homeland. One day, whilst out exploring the woods, Drac-Kitty came across a dark and mysterious cave and he decided to explore inside. He heard the flap of a bat wing and next thing he knew he awoke in a luxurious castle, with a new owner and a desire for blood.....

Next is "Bat Kitty" (he's my favourite).

Bat Kitty was born from an unholy union between a cat and a bat. To overcome his tragic origins, he decided to help people by flying around and giving out free hugs.

My next creepy cute kitty is "Graveyard Kitty"!

Graveyard Kitty was walking along the road one day when she was hit by a car and instantly killed. But her body landed in a strange burial ground. The next time Graveyard Kitty awoke she had an unnatural desire for BRAAAAINS...
My final creation was "Franken-Kitty"!

Franken-Kitty doesn't know her origins, she just awoke on day in a strange laboratory in the hills of Germany. All Franken-Kitty wants is a friend - will you be her friend?

Tuesday, February 23, 2010

A day for visiting parks

I have been a little frustrated with the Korean winter lately (thankfully it's drawing to an end and spring is on it's way) as it's so hard to feel inspired to go outside and take a walk as it's just SO DARN COLD! But last week we really needed to get out and about so we had some vegan lunch at Loving Hutt and then headed over to Seoul Children's Park. It was freezing cold and a bit sad looking, but it was good to be outside and I am sure it will be so beautiful when the trees start to bloom. Plus we got to take photo's of lots of cute cartoon characters - I even got my photo taken with a guy with poo on his head?



After Seoul Children's Park we decided to visit Olympic Park as we had read that it was an amazing sculpture park - this is true - but it was SERIOUSLY cold by this stage. I really want to head back again in the spring to appreciate the sculptures a little bit more and the park in general.



In Olympic Park is a very cool art gallery called "Soma" and they had the most incredible exhibition on featuring Robot's - it was called "I, Robot" there was some truly amazing work there including work by Nam June Paik. It's so strange a few weeks ago I didn't even know who Nam June Paik was and now I see his art everywhere which is fantastic as I really love his work.

Leeum Samsung Art Gallery

Recently Rich and I joined the Seoul Meet Up art group and the great thing about joining this group is that we have met a lot of really great people who are more than happy to travelling around Seoul's art galleries with us.

Over the Lunar New Years Holiday we were introduced to the Leeum Samsung Art Gallery by some meet up group friends and it's an amazing place, the only problem is that we arrived a little late and didn't get to see the whole gallery. But I really want to go back soon and spend some more time there, so many amazing works by both Korean and western artists.



Japan - the last day!

So good things take time and I am finally getting around to telling you all what we did on our final day in Japan (actually there was one more day after this but all we did was get on the subway and then the airport and then fly home).

First of all, we heard that Sunday was the best day to check out Harujuku in all it's craziness - so that's what we did. So many people, so many crazy clothes and so many tourists!





Next it was time to visit the Imperial Garden's to escape some of the craziness of Tokyo.



We finished off the day by visiting a huge Ferris Wheel and quite possibly the strangest mall in the world, or at least in Japan!


Thursday, February 18, 2010

Film 12 & 13 - The Knowing & The Road

I watched these two movies in one day, no prizes for guessing which one I preferred! If you haven't worked it out yet the answer is of course "The Road". I've also read the novel, which is pretty amazing. In some ways it felt like the movie was just an adaption of the novel rather than being a stand alone movie, but the acting and the atmosphere was pretty incredible. It's not a happy movie but it is a damn good one and you should watch it!

In regard to "Knowing" it's watchable but it won't be in my top ten movies of the year or anything like that, mostly because I find Nicolas Cage a little annoying.

Tuesday, February 16, 2010

Snow in the park near our apartment on Lunar New Year!










Valentines Day

This year Valentine's Day also fell on Lunar New Year Weekend in Korea which meant a lot of businesses were closed and everything was generally pretty quiet - in fact it's as quiet as it's ever been.

For Valentine's Day this year I made Rich a piece of "art" of sorts - the words are both literal and figurative! I have no sense of direction at all and I would have been lost numerous times without his help and navigational skills.
Rich decorated a photo frame for me for a Valentine's Day present (it's our tradition to give only handmade presents).
We decided to make pancakes for valentines day but we really had limited resources to do this as in Korea it's hard to find things like baking powder and also there was no maple syrup for our pancakes! But they turned out OK with Strawberry yogurt and jam for topping. Finally we finished up the day with dinner at "2nd Place" a restaurant near our house which is really good - although the restaurant reminds me a little of a drug den in a Jackie Chan movie. Last of all we headed over to Amusing World, which is a big arcade/entertainment type place where we spend the rest of the night playing pin pong, singing norebang and playing arcade games.

Monday, February 15, 2010

Film 13 - Army of Darkness

Film number 13 in my 110 movies in 2010 challenge is a classic - "Army of Darkness". What can I really say about this film apart from it's awesome - such a crazy concept with so many cheesy one liners. You have to love it!