My First Blog Award!

Long time no post... Did everyone have a nice, relaxing holiday? I hope so! :)

Anyhoo, I recently got a nice little comment on the lightbox post from Aki at Minted Strawberry.

Whoa. Liebster Award. From Aki at Minted Strawberry. What's that? Thus, I did some internet-ing, and found this out:

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1. It's an award to give to bloggers with less than 200 followers.
2. Each person must post 11 random facts about themselves
3. Answer the 11 questions left by the tagger
4. And leave 11 questions for the (up to) 11 blogs you tag.
5. Link those blogs in your post, then go tell them at their blogs- with a link back to you.
6. If they/you choose to accept, they/you are to make a post similar to this one here.

Anyhoo, here are 11 random facts about me:

1. I have tried to keep a journal many, MANY times in the past. It has resulted in a lot of wasted notebooks with like 30 of the pages written in.
2. For the reason above, as well as some others, I will never have a moleskine.
3. Crocheting is something I can't do, but I wish I could, so that I could spend my days making these.
4. My iPod case is a baby piggie with a crown and a diaper. I love it. I thas saved the life of my iPod at least 50 times
5. My screensaver is the rainbow bubbles. I love it when they bump into each other. It's hard to explain.
6. Tumblr... MADE A TUMBLR! (Tanks to Rachel -.-) http://theelainecow.tumblr.com/ (it's going to ruin my life)
7. American Eagle, Fossil, J. Crew, Anthropologie, Restoration Hardware, ACE Hardware, Costco, and Froyo World are the best places ever to spend your money. Not that I have any. I've never actually bought any from J. Crew or Restoration Hardware. I just like to go look at the stuff.
8. Button downs. Oh yes. Love 'em. Combat boots, too.
9. Instagram addict. (I am)
10. I'm wearing Christmas pants! Even though it's after Christmas. xD
11. I'm in MathCounts, and it's awesome. Mathletes have the most fun.

Here are Aki's questions, which I shall now answer...

1. What is your favorite activity during your down-time? 

Blogging, drawing, making things... stuffs like that. Also stalking people.
2. What keeps you inspired to blog?

How About Orange! It was the blog that got me into the blogosphere in the first place. Jessica Jones is amazing!
3. What is something you can't sleep without? (A ritual, object, something)

Uhm... a shower?
4. What accomplishment are you most proud of?

I'm currently in 8th grade, and taking an AP Chinese prep course. I plan to take the exam this year. I think a common misconception is that anyone Asian is automatically a master of Chinese... not true.

5. What is your favorite color?

Why.. must you ask this?!?! (Well, right now I'm leaning in favor of a nice pale, icy blue)
6. Where do you get your blog entry ideas?

Well... pretty much anywhere and everywhere.
7. What is something you can't live without?
Oh, the norm: food, water, shelter, clothing, the internet, paper, blankets, etc.
8. What is your wish for the upcoming year?
To craft more and be happy :)
9. What is your favorite food?
Uhh... I eat so much food, it's hard to choose. I'll pick 3: first, the drunken noodle from a local Thai restaurant. Delish, and not actually containing any alcohol. Two would be rice pudding. And finally, the AMAZING green beans my mom makes. Green beans? I know, strange. If you haven't had them, you just don't understand... (Most people don't "understand")
10. What is your most favorite time of the year?
Early to mid fall. It's gorgeous here in New England, and the temperature is perfect. Besides that, Christmastime. Christmas is such a happy time!
11. What do you usually do on your birthdays?
Not much, really... I just chill a little more than usual.

Here are my nominations:

• Weird Amiga
• Anto, from Stardust Soul
• A Splendid Assemblage
• Jody, from The Hobby Room Diaries

And here are my questions!

1. What is the worst purchase you have ever made?
2. What do your favorite shoes look like?
3. What is your favorite type of exotic fruit? (Exotic is open for interpretation)
4. Do you have a favorite TV show? What is it?
5. What kind of camera do you use?
6. When was the last time you went on vacation... how was it? :)
7. What are your favorite animals?
8. If you could be anyone for a day, who would you be?
9. Do you like eggs?
10. Who was the last person you called?
11. Do you collect anything? And if so, what?

Last Minute Christmas Goodies!

I'm a procrastinator.

Kay then. This year, however, I compiled so many cute treats to make for Christmas that I actually managed to whip up something cute for my friends.

Now, there's no time left for me to photograph, edit, and write posts for these, but I've compiled a nice list of them for you guys :)

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These little candy cane hearts look super cute wrapped up in a cellophane bag and tied with a scrap of fabric. (I ripped strips of an old blue ballpoint pen colored plaidish flannel shirt, then tied little bows to close the bags- cute!) A nice Christmas sprinkles assortment can be found at Target for $5. ;)

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Here's what my teacher gifts look like this year! Hot chocolate in a cone. In my variation, I added a candy cane stirrer to the cone, and used regular mini marshmallows. For my algebra teacher, I wrote a little equation to go along with it:

[Mr. Name] had 1 oz of hot chocolate mix, 0.5 oz of mini marshmallows, and a candy cane that weighed 0.5 oz, given to him by his favorite-est student ever (Elaine). To make the hot chocolate, [Mr. Name] needs to add hot milk. Write an equation in slope-intercept form where y equals the total weight, in ounces, of [Mr. Name]'s hot chocolate. (Excluding weight of mug)

Ans: y=x+2 :D

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And here is my favorite one! It's a teeny brown bag with a glitter clothespin, as seen on my Instagram. Below I'll post the ideas I used that kind of melded into this!

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Well, I think you all know how to make these already. (If you're lazy like me, you pretty much just use a glue stick). This image is attractive (Hence I used it).  :)

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Adorable, right? I followed this tutorial to make my cute little bags... GAH I LOVE THEM SO MUCH I DUN WANNA GIVE THEM AWAY!!! (sorry)

Oh! And last but not least, tags! This was my favorite tag set found on the internet this year is from The Sweetest Occasion:

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Here are some others that I liked, from various places around the web:

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Have you seen these cuties from Craft and Creativity? They remind me of IKEA!

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So tiny. So simple. Not that useful for me at the time... BUT SO TINY!!!

I'll leave it at that! Enjoy your holiday season, and check out some of these great last minute sweeties for under the (tiny) tree! (Because they would probably look awkward and get stepped on under a full sized one.)

A Homemade Lightbox

Warning! This will be a long post! Scroll to the end to see photos of the results.

I recently decided that it would be time to invest in a lightbox- It would be great for my craft/miscellaneous photography.

Now, when I made this decision, I had no idea that a good (or even not so much) lightbox was going to cost me anywhere from $30 to $170 dollars! Now, $170 dollars is insanity. I wouldn't even pay the $30.

Then I thought, how hard could it be? A lightbox is both conceptually and technically simple to make... or so I thought.

And for the first time ever, I was right! (about something being really easy to make, I mean. I think I've been right about other things before...)

TA-DA! My lightbox!

Les Arbres (a comic in French)

No posts lately, huh?

Well, that's because I've been hard at work drawing (on Paint Tool SAI) a comic strip project for French class...

And here 'tis:

Les Arbres by Elaine Cao

MAGIC. (Except the colors got kind of messed up. I think if you click the link and view it in Scribd, it gets better.

So here's the story (skip if you can read French):

Mara-tree: Hello!
Maurice-tree: Hello! My name is Maurice-tree! I'm going to the market for bottled water.
Mara-tree: My name is Mara-tree. My favorite type of bottled water is Dasani. I'm going to the little-market to buy some.
Maurice-tree: I love Fiji water. It's at the market.
*trees bid each other farewell*

(now Maurice-tree is at the market)
Maurice-tree: Hello, Matthew-tree. Some Fiji water, please! (they are a close-knit community)
Matthew-tree: Yes, good! (he likes doing business with Maurice-tree)

(Back outside)
Mara-tree: I have Dasani water.
Maurice-tree: I have Fiji Water.
Mia-tree (name not mentioned): I'm going to the post office to buy some eggs!
*trees stand in awkward silence*

I cannot tell you how difficult it was for Richard to grasp the concept that my characters were to be trees in pots on wheels. ("lolwut why trees?")

Fonts used: Little Snorlax, free for commercial use, and Elaine Hand, made using My Script Font, which is a really cool (and free!) site for turning your handwriting (as ugly as it may be, like mine) into a font. It actually made my handwriting look not that bad. Maybe it was because it's more consistent when typed. (the trees' speech bubbles were handwritten by me, not typed with the (new!) Elaine Hand font).

Tufted Titmouse Printable

I've been fiddling with my new Bamboo tablet recently, and made this drawing of a cute little wintertime tufted titmouse for you to print out! It is in the 4X6 ratio. I suppose you could also use it as a desktop wallpaper for a little laptop, since the resolution is slightly low for a full size computer...

Enjoy! xx

Sketchy iPhone/iPod Wallpapers

I don't really care what they say, the minute December starts, it's wintertime. And wintertime constitutes a need for a change in phone wallpapers.

And so, I have made some. They are rather sketchy and imperfect (on purpose!) and apply a theme of white, gold glitter, and this adorable robin's egg blue type color that I'm absolutely obsessed with at the moment.

If I had to choose, I think I'd go with the chevron (duh) and the dots :)

These are compatible with iPod Touch and iPhone 4/4S and below. They will most likely not work with the 5s, as they are a lot longer... (boo.)

Orange Mini Roundup

It's not apparent at first, but orange is my favorite non-neutral color. The fact that I like neutral colors at all all isn't too apparent either. Anyhoo, enjoy this little compilation of orange crafts, ideas, decor, and products! (The orange things are in no apparent order.)

Orla Kiely Cross Hatch Stem Minilite Umbrella
We're kicking off the orange roundup with a this cute umbrella featuring a rustic looking orange pattern! Kind of remins me of an asterix.

Made by Humans Staple Free Stapler

Do your part for the environment with this nifty "stapler" that actually stitches papers together.

Squish Orange Beans?

This is literally the strangest way to waste your time... ever. Turn your volume on, and you can hear them scream.

Cookie Perfection

Definitely on my too do list. These are (almost) too pretty to eat!