Sweet and Edgy

When I got this dress in the mail from Hannah, I fell in love just a little. It's such a pretty color and I love how simple and sweet it is. So I was all, "What's a good excuse to wear this more than once before I give it back?" So here I've styled it sweet and edgy.

For my sweet look, I layered it over a peter pan collar and popped a floral crown on my hat. Plus some knee high socks and little flats!

hat: thrifted

crown: diy

shoes: target + diy

For the edgy outfit I pulled on my best ripped up tights and let my bra show through the dress (oooooh scandelous)! I also wore my awesome new ring from Michelle's etsy store. I love it so much!

hat: forever 21

tights: romwe

shoes: thrifted

Yeah so I might make this a regular feature? If I can learn to photoshop a little better...

Strawberries!

I did something a little different for this week's drawing, on account of not liking any thing I drew.

 And here is the debut of my first hand-printed shirt! This is what I'm going to be doing for my senior thesis, except I'll acutally be making the clothing the prints will go on. I made a DIY on how I did it, so look for that later in the week!

 I've started volunteering at my Dad's work. He manages a Habitat for Humanity store, and I'm going to run the Craigslist account for him! Since I've been using etsy it should be pretty easy to handle, and I get to photograph a bunch of vintage housewares, decor, and cameras, so that's cool.
Plus, exciting news! I got a (paid) internship doing design work at my Mom's company! I'm super excited to be making money, getting real world experience, and having something to keep me busy this summer!

shirt: Target, hand stamped by me (I'll be selling some soon!)

shorts and belt: thrifted

shoes: Converse

socks: Old Navy

necklaces: modcloth + forever 21

Peace out, girl scouts!

P.S. I am posting one of my favorite outfits ever at Flock Together today, check it out!

Also, thanks for those of you who left thoughtful comments on my last post. I always get hella nervous posting my "real opinions" on here, because I don't want to offend anyone. Especially artists I admire. But it's important to have the courage to speak your mind, right?

Art Lately + Copyrights

Turns out it's actually been awhile since I've shown off my (personal) art, so here's my favorite pieces from the last month!

As usual, I'm open for commissions. Check out my etsy to buy your own personalized portrait or blog header, or just email me at ohavalanche@gmail.com, I do tons of stuff!

(At the end of this I've got a nice long rant about copyright infringement, so enjoy!)

I'm probably going to turn this mermaid into a print for sale.

 This is actually from last year! I just never put it online anywhere.

Truth.

 Sassy ladies <3 <3 <3

I've always been into sunflowers!

A couple blog header commissions!

Okay so I did promise myself that the next time I made an art post I would talk about something that bothers me. Copyright infringement. Now I'm not going to pretend to know any complexities about copyright law, but art theft is something that matters a lot to me, as an artist.

There are a lot of forms of art theft that I think a lot of people don't think about. There're more offenses than claiming someone's art as your own. I've come across a lot of my art (and the art of others) on tumblr that someone has copied from one of my posts into their own so that it links back to them. The only thing that accomplishes is taking credit away from the artist, and it's mean.

Another thing I see a lot of is intellectual property theft from major companies. A lot of people, for example on sites like etsy, will draw or make jewelry of characters created by someone else. There's a lot of fandom art out there that you can buy that's not made by the company. Think Harry Potter necklaces, drawings of characters from Adventuretime, or Mario earrings. There's nothing wrong with fanart, but when you put it up for sale, you're making money off of someone else's idea.

I understand that there are grey areas on this subject, like that the artist is putting creative work into their jewelry or interpretation (most of the time. I have seen stuff on etsy where people literally just take a photo from their fave fandom and slap it on a bracelet and sell it). There's also the issue that the money a single crafter will make off of their stuff wouldn't be a drop in the bucket to Cartoon Network or Nintendo. A lot of my beef with it may just be jealousy. I feel like if I drew Homestuck characters and put them up for sale, I'd make a lot more money than just selling my own original content, since Homestucks would be tag searching for merch and it's such a large fandom.

I'm certain that most of the people who sell fan art aren't intentionally being rude. I think it's just something that most people don't consider. I mostly feel like this sort of behavior is cheating the system. If you truly respect the work someone else has done, as an artist, don't use it for your own personal gain, and as a consumer, pay the person who thought of it!

I understand i'ts a hard thing to get around. There's really cool art out there that has copyrighted characters in it, and it's fun to make art of your favorite characters and spread the love around. But it's not always that easy. Just something to think about!

Summertiiiiime

Yeah I wore this cardigan for about an hour out to the post office.

Then BAM

 Summer outfit!

 Yeah it was kindof hot outside, I'm not gonna lie. My room was so hot today, and then my Dad comes in and pushes a switch on my fan that makes it turn the opposite direction and suddenly it's cool?!? I've had it going the wrong way my whole life and that somehow makes a difference!
I've spent a lot of time lately doing too much online shopping (I had to self impose a ban for the next couple of weeks) and watching hulu. I watch so much TV you guys. A lot of people like to go out and do stuff like hang out with friends or go to restaurants, but generally speaking that wears me out!
I've been watching the Office (it's almost over and I'mma cry like a baby), The Mindy Project, New Girl, and Parks and Rec. And Sabrina the Teenage Witch. That show is like comfort food, I watched it all growing up (and collected Archie comics, which is what it's based on, but that's a story for another day). Sabrina rules because it's all bad puns and lousy special effects and teenage fluff. SABRINA + HARVEY 4EVERRRR.

 skirt and top: forever 21

shoes: thrifted

socks: Old Navy

necklace: handmade by me

cardigan: from Target, DIY here

Pretty sure that's a spider web strand attached to that flower.

Dots and Spots

Well Hi!

Today I took pictures in my neighbor's unmowed lawn!

Since I've been back from vacation, I've been taking it easy. Don't judge me, my vacation was the hiking and not sleeping kind, not the relaxing on the beach kind!

I've been watching a lot of Sabrina the Teenage Witch. Love that show.

There are actually lots of polka dots going on in this outfit if you look closely!

This fun skirt belongs to the lovely Ashley of Southern California Belle! See how she wore it here.

skirt: ashley's

dress (worn as top): modcloth stylish surprise

shoes: thrifted

socks: walmart

bracelets: modcloth and thrifted

ring: etsy

Grand Canyon Part 2

 And here's the second half of my trip to the Grand Canyon! We started out our day going back to that stupid meteor crater. It cost us an arm and a leg to get in, and it was pretty unspectacular after seeing the Grand Canyon. It was cool though that a space rock made this giant hole! If you're wondering, we're looking up at a meteor hurtling towards us in that picture!

 To put this into perspective, that little white thing down there is a mine. It is actually deceptively huge, this crater. A six foot tall cut out of an astronaut was down there to show us the size, but you can't even see him in the picture it's that big.

 We drove back to the canyon for a second hike. I was impressed by Trav's ability to sleep anywhere.

 In the desert, everything is flat. It's crazy for this East Coast girl to be able to see everything in every direction! I'm used to being able to pretend that this world is small! 

 So this hike took us into the canyon.

 Here's what it looked like going down...

 And here's what it looked like coming back up! It was like climbing a really really long staircase that was made of dust. We didn't hike too long because we knew going back up would be a bitch and a half.

 Here is me climbing on some rocks.

Our hike took us to Ooh Ahh Point! It was 3 miles, and about an hour down, and 2 or 3 back up. The lookout was really worth it, though!

 It's impossible for a picture (even one not taken by a chick with a point and shoot) to convey the massiveness of the Grand Canyon. My camera really flattened it out. In reality that greyish flat thing int he middle of the picture is covered with trees the size of me!

Since the Grand Canyon is huge on tourism, there were lots of foreigners there. People kept walking by us and we tried guessing what language they were speaking.

This picture makes it look surprisingly not terrifying to be sitting on the edge of the freaking abyss.

 We ended the day at this old watch tower. The inside was covered with Native American art, and it was located near the start of the canyon, where you could see the river!

 It rained on us a couple times!

 For the last day of our trip, we met up with my Dad's highschool friend in Sedona. He was my Dad's best man at his wedding, at they hadn't seen each other for 25 years! Sedona is a tourist trap filled with gift shops and surrounded by these beautiful cliffs! We ate lunch there and then headed back to the hotel

Our flight home was at 7am, and since we had to drive to Phoenix, we had to leave at 3 in the morning! I was exhausted.

I loved the Grand Canyon, and I'm so glad we got to go. But it's always nice to be home after a trip! I'm glad to sleep in my own bed and hug my cat!