Paper Roses

I was given a corkboard/whiteboard recently, and I've been collecting things I like best to put on it. I love roses [yeah I think I might've mentioned it once or twice ... or many times] and I found this little tutorial to make a pretty paper rose. I wonder if I should make them out of the shimmery paper I got from KikkiK ... hmmm ...

Edit @ 10pm: Finished with the inspiration board! I wasn't planning on it, but it has turned out quite pink! I shall upload a photo tomorrow! Now for a movie!

Trailer!

Doesn't it look absolutely amazing!? I think I saw everything there, except for the Lovegoods. Did you catch 'em?

Ahhh, so can't wait for the release! HP! ❤

Oooh, a friend and I are going to watch Eclipse day after tomorrow! I'm not a fan of Twilight, and this is the first time I'll be watching a Twilight movie in a movie theatre. Think I'll be mobbed by pre-teens screaming for Edward?!

Caramelized Ontario Apple Bowls

If any of you are eager to become a Canadian, then i recommend you start from here. A few days ago, my mum for the very first time, found the courage to experiment with her cooking and prepared what she called "Apple Pies that don't need to be baked" and I found them absolutely delicious while i also found it absolutely impossible for my mom to stand there and tell me that she had conceived this recipe all by herself, solely because of the fact that, I knew she had been sneaking away and watching the food channel (How do i know this? Because she didn't let me watch my favorite show *Spongebob Squarepants*, which was on TV at the same time as her favorite cooking show)

So, me all distraught and wound up managed to stumble upon the much sought recipe for "Caramelized Ontario Apple Bowls" which was hastily stuffed away on top of the refrigerator by my mum. *Evil grin and pat on back for self* (So, it certainly wasn't called, "Apple Pies that don't need to be baked"...trust my mum to Indianize everything)

The recipe was in a calender she had received from "Foodland Ontario"... For you Kiwis, its the Canadian version of "Foodtown".  This dish is amazingly tasty and surprisingly super easy to prepare, I hope you all like it as much as i did.

You can find the cooking instructions here.

p.s. (This is for all you folks,who care to read the "p.s.'s" in letters and emails...Sometimes they really are hilarious afterthoughts by the writer and this remains the case here too)
So, Gandhali is really going to bake me after i disclose a little snippet from our last conversation on her blog.
Gandhali: Omg! Rash! I dream't about you...
Me: *Wow* really?? awww...*blush* What was I doing in your dream?
Gandhali: Oh..It's weird...coz i asked you for something.
Me: Oh! *thinking this could be a hint as to what she wanted for her birthday* and What was that?
Gandhali: Organic Toilet Paper.
Me: *or maybe not* oh...i see. *............*

So, if any of you cool bees are wanting some flash azz toilet paper, check this out.

Room things

Um. Like. I totally want to make these!! I found the tutorial here. I do have some pink crepe paper [from the time I bought it to make these, but never made 'em because I didn't get any floral tape or wire ... my bad], but I want to use it to make the pom-poms that I always rave about. Pom-pom link here. Ooooo crepe paper pom-poms!

I also made some pom-poms for my room. They're red, and I'm going to make some gold ones too [I'm waiting for a friend, she wants to do them with me]. Yes, yes, Gryffindor. :P

Also. Today, my mum bought for me, the most loveliest of body mists ... Moroccan Rose from The Body Shop. Rose is one of my most favourite smells [along with lemon ...], and I am totally in love with my new mist. It reminds me of the Tea Rose, a perfume my mum used to wear when I was much younger ... I actually spent so long in the store, debating over whether I should get the Moroccan Rose body butter [but I found it too oily for my liking], the Cherry Blossom mist [too ice-creamy, my mum said ... I agree], or the Sweet Lemon body butter [good smell, but again, oily] ... I guess I was just being a typical indecisive Libra!

Oh yea, that photo is from a series of photos that I took while making my Apple and Rose Ice-Cream. And guess what, I totally forgot that I'd taken the pictures till I had to upload some assignment pictures from my camera today.

{Oooo, my first post on Rashmi's blog! Not including the introduction, of course!}

The New Bee!

Hello Bee Readers,

I cannot emphasize any more over fact that it feels absolutely amazing to be able to write on my best friend's blog without having to hack it!!! Haha!! Me and Gandhali have been best friends,(although I'd rather call her my sister) for around 5-6 years now and our friendship's still going strong!

So, to give you a quick introduction about myself... My name's Rashmi and i live in Toronto, Canada. I'm an engineering student at the University of Toronto and used to live in Auckland,NZ before i moved to here in 2009. I have been a regular reader of "The Graphic Bee" for a long time and was totally ecstatic at the oppurtunity to be a contributor!


Thank you so much Gandhali.

And i hope you find my posts to be at least 50% as entertaining and beautifully creative as Gandhali's are.


Keep Buzzing Folks,


Rashmi 

p.s. You can check out my blog "The Happy Ordeal" ,where Gandhali is a contributor!!!

New Author!

Yay, I am so pleased to announce a brand new author for The Graphic Bee!!

*drumroll please*

Rashmi!

Rashmi and I have been besties for a long time now, and I'm sure she'll be an awesome post-er! She'll be writing an intro soon! :)

Welcome Rash!

Geninne's Art Blog and Rashmi

Geninne's Art Blog. Is. Super. Amazing. She's soo talented! Definitely my favourite new artist/blog.

I can't help but stare at her beautiful artwork for hours! She hasn't been tutored on how to paint. She just ... paints! She says that this has helped develop her own unique, independent style. I believe that, too. For example, if I were to design a brochure, I try not to look at what other people have designed already, because that would stunt my creativity, and I'd just try to design something that lots of other people have done. Yep, just my two cents for today!

Geninne also inspired me to paint some today ... :) Also, watch her paint.

Edit: Can you guys find a Follow button on Geninne's blog? I do so want to follow her, but I can't find the button!!

Aaaaaaand introducing ...

Rashmi's new blog! I'm contributing! We don't have anything up yet, but we will, very very soon! It's a different type of a blog than the Graphic Bee, for sure!

Gimme some Lembas!

Lord of the Rings. I've seen the movies far too many times, and I've read the books far too little. I found a good tutorial here on how to make Lembas, the magical elven-bread [and also how to make the Mallorn leaf around it]. Also, if you're interested, there's a link if you want to learn the Quenya language in my links panel.

When I was doing my diploma, I used to take this for lunch sometimes and my other LotR fan friend and I called it Lembas. Fun times ... but did you know that the Lembas that they used in the movie was shortbread?!

p.s.: Oooh, tomorrow, I'll be posting about my favourite new artist/blog! You've got to be here!

p.p.s.: And, I'm also writing up a tutorial for my corsage bracelet {it's turned out quite well}! 

Drop-in

Heyo! This is just a tiny drop-in, I'm afraid ... I'm off to do bigger things ... {like make a corsage bracelet! Tutorial? Yes?}

Seed Bombs!

Whoa.

Postcarden!

Pillows

I really need the alarm clock pillow. I sleep like a log. :P And how cool would it be if I had those rock pillows to fall into, after a long day?! Check out more pillows at the link below.

via 15 Coolest Pillows

p.s.: Thanks, Gwen, for following me! :D

Color Me Katie

Color Me Katie. A blog I've been hiding from everyone! :P But seriously, I love it! Katie Sokoler is so creative, and is such an inspiration to me!

Also, check out Improv Everywhere, a "New York based group that causes scenes of chaos and joy in public places". This is their YouTube channel, and this is their website. Oh, and Katie takes photos for them which she sometimes posts on her blog.

On a side note. I wish I was in Florida right now. I'm following the Wizarding World of Harry Potter videos and links on Mugglenet, and they all seem so ah-mazing! I think I need to plan a holiday to Florida with a friend. Hopefully after our degrees are finished [she's doing Commerce]. Btw, thanks for putting up with my Harry Potteryness here. I'm obsessed! :)

Just a random rant, but ...

Everything is a competition, isn't it? For example, there was this competition where you were supposed to send in your entry to win a great prize. And, if you didn't win, no matter, you were still in the competition to win another great prize, if only you voted for the best entry in the original competition! I mean, that's just great, isn't it?!

It kind of relates to what I read on Wiki about a year ago, on Generation Y [my generation!]:

The Millennials are sometimes called the "Trophy Generation", or "Trophy Kids," a term that reflects the trend in competitive sports, as well as many other aspects of life, where "no one loses" and everyone gets a "Thanks for Participating" trophy and symbolizing a perceived sense of entitlement. It has been reported that this is an issue in corporate environments. Some employers are concerned that Millennials have too great expectations from the workplace and desire to shape their jobs to fit their lives rather than adapt their lives to the workplace.

Don't get me wrong, though, I love my competitions, and I love how if you win, you get that much of an industry exposure; and, of course, it looks good on your CV!

Some photos ...

... that I've been meaning to put up here for a long time now ... but just hadn't uploaded from my camera!

First up, a sneak peek of my assignment. Here's part of my assignment on the messy bed. Let's play I Spy. Can you find the pom-pom that I made out of the remaining pages from my other assignment? I find it kind of funny that the rolled-up notes [which are kept rolled together by bits of velcro, painstakingly stuck on each and every one!] resemble the roses on the bedsheet. Hmmm.

I'm quite happy how the notes turned out just as I'd imagined. They open up to reveal about 100-200 words that are my thoughts. This was my inspiration, remember?

And, quite late, but a photo of my just-brushed-with-egg-white-and-sugar rose petals. [Isn't the colour stunning?!]:

Recipe for Apple and Rose Ice Cream and Crystallised Rose Petals here.

Currently listening to The Call from Prince Caspian. Love that song! I always listen to it while doing assignments. It calms me down. Here's the youtube:

I know, I know, it has quite a lot of talking at the beginning, but it's the only version that I could find with the actual footage in it. And the other half of the song is in the credits, which they haven't included. Ah well. :)

Pom Poms

I need to stop making these, and get on with my theory journal. :O

Half-bliss ...

... because I have half-completed my assignments. Two handed in, two to go next week, and I shall be a free bird ... at least for a little while. 

What's on my mind?

- DesignMom's "A Few Things" posts. They're awesome, they're filled with eye-candy, they arrive fresh every Friday, and there's heaps of them. Yep, DesignMom was the first Design blog I looked at, and yes, it inspired me to start one of my own!

- Swooping a prize over at The Bright Side Project. Their condition was that the swoop email had to be sent at 9am-12noon their time [4am-7am ours], and coincidentally I was pulling an all-nighter completing my assignment. I sent the email, completed my assignment, and won the swoop. Here is what I won. Yippee!

- These bottles, and the lovely lovely pieces of curled-up, folded paper inside them. It inspired me for my assignment, where I am creating a bust made out of clay, which is hollow inside. Inside this I will put ideas and theories that I have thought of during the semester, write them on a piece of paper not much different to the one in that other post. This is my theory journal. Oh, I am also threading the ideas together with some yarn. Argh I totally want them bottles!

- Speaking of cute bottles, I got a little glass jar at the local thrift store, with a stopper lid and all. I use it to store some of my ribbons. I want to find more such jars, and sort my ribbons by colour, and put them in those cute jars. And speaking of my ribbons, the collection keeps on increasing by the day. :D

- Sitting on my bed, with the electric blanket on, drinking a can of Coke with the complimentary straw that came with it. Mmmm. I like.

- Dozing off on the bus, as a result of an all-nighter. Not nice at all, especially when the bus jerks suddenly to a stop. Most embarrassing.

- Did I tell you that I used to work at McDonalds? Hmmm.

- This! I am obsessed with making paper flowers! Ach! And it's a really good tutorial, too. I think she might've been inspired by this, by Martha. I actually printed a whole bunch of paper yesterday for an assignment that is now a waste, pretty much, because it came out all wrong. I want to see if I can re-use it and make that into a paper flower like the one in the tutorial! Paper flower with text all over it, yummy! :P

- Just Something I Made. My favourite new blog! Yep, I found it through the Bright Side Project.

Possibly the most funniest joke I have ever heard

And possibly my longest blog post title to date ... Anyway, here's the joke:

An English lady, while visiting Switzerland, was looking for a room for a more extended stay, and she asked the schoolmaster if he could recommend any to her. He took her to see several rooms, and when everything was settled, the lady returned to her home to make the final preparations to move.

When she arrived home, the thought suddenly occurred to her that she had not seen a "W.C." around the place. So she immediately wrote a note to the schoolmaster asking him if there were a "W.C." near the room.

The schoolmaster was a very poor student of English, so he asked the parish priest if he could help in the matter. Together they tried to discover the meaning of the letters "W.C.," and the only solution they could come up with for the letters was for a Wayside Chapel. The schoolmaster then wrote the following note to the English lady:

Dear Madam: 

I take great pleasure in informing you that the W.C. is situated nine miles from the room that you will occupy, in the center of a beautiful grove of pine trees surrounded by lovely grounds. It is capable of holding about 229 people and it is only open on Sunday and Thursday.

As there are a great number of people who are expected during the summer months, I would suggest that you come early; although, as a rule, there is plenty of standing room. You will no doubt be glad to hear that a good number of people bring their lunch and make a day of it. While others who can afford to go by car arrive just in time.

I would especially recommend that your ladyship go on Thursday when there is a musical accompaniment. It may interest you to know that my daughter was married in the W.C. and it was there that she met her husband.

I can remember the rush there was for seats. There were ten people to a seat ordinarily occupied by one. It was wonderful to see the expression on their faces. The newest attraction is a bell donated by a wealthy resident of the district. It rings every time a person enters.

A bazaar is to be held to provide plush seats for all the people, since they feel it is a long felt need. My wife is rather delicate, so she can't attend regularly. I shall be delighted to reserve the best seat for you, if you wish, where you will be seen by everyone.

For the children, there is a special time and place so they will not disturb the elders.

Hoping to have been of service to you, I remain,

Sincerely,

The Schoolmaster.

----

I had first read it in a newspaper, when I was about 12. I've tried to find this copy for so long! And then it struck me - it'll be on the Internet! D'oh! And here it was! And for those who didn't get it, the W.C. that the English lady was asking about, stands for Water Closet, or in Indian lingo, a Western Commode.

Flowers

I love flowers. Who doesn't? This week in particular, I was reminded of the silly antics my friends and I used to perform with flowers (when we were really little), as I typed up about 20 pages from a botany book on ... you guessed it, flowers, for an assignment.

First up is the crazy beautiful Gulmohar flower. It grows in India, and I haven't yet seen one Gulmohar tree in New Zealand. Four of its fan-shaped petals are bright red, and one of them pale yellow, spotted and specked with red. How purdy is that?! It has five [no more, no less] calyxes {ooh, trying to sound flashier by using botanical terms ;) }, as seen in the picture:

Now, the trick is to remove the calyxes, peel the red bit off them - it comes off quite easy - so that the green shows through, and stick them on your fingernails. Voila, you're the Onida devil:

Alternatively, you could also pull the anthers off the flower, and use each one as a sword to pull off your opponent's spore-thingy on their anther. Yes, silly, I know. I guess I didn't realise back then that flowers were meant to be looked at, not picked at. Oh well ...

Second was the Conch flower [I just found out it was called that!]. We halved the outer conch, but didn't separate it from the flower. And it made the flower look like a bird (with the two halves its wings). 

Oh yeah, I also remember getting some water, some clear shampoo, and mixing it with random petals. Then I let my "flowery shampoo" stand for about a week. Then I realised that I had to throw it away. It just wasn't working. :P

That's a teensy bit of my childhood right there. Do you remember any of the silly things you did as a child, with flowers? Do share! :)

Edit: Have you used the Flowers application on Orisinal? I did. One day last year, I just sent a bunch of flowers to a bunch of lovely friends. I also downloaded some tracks from Orisinal, they're just so so lovely to hear! Let me know if you want me to post the link to where I got them from!

The Paper Bee

Check out this crazy amazing bee made out of paper.

Then check out this totally uncomfortable bed design.

via Geekologie. They have more cool stuff, so have a peek if you like.

:O

I had another post lined up for today, but ... this has just been the highlight of my day (so far), and I couldn't not post it!

It looks amazing, from what I've seen, I already love their dialogue delivery, the acting just seems way better [look at the Ron and Harry fight!], and it's going to be a brilliant movie ... What do you think?

Ahhh, November, you're too far away!

p.s.: A hundred tweakings after, I finally got the video to fit! Woo!

Edit: Thanks so much, Pooja, Pillows and Tears, and Sarah for following me! I literally jump with joy when I get new followers!! Because it must mean that I'm doing something right, and that there's someone who wants to read it! Yay! :D

Edit 2: I've now put up the HD one! Such a difference!

PETA

Hi peoples ... I was just watching the PETA campaign videos [links at the end of the post] ... they are so cruel, and so disturbing.  It shouldn't be this way ... harmless, innocent animals are killed without a reason ... don't they get a chance to live? Ok, granted there are people in the world who need/like eating meat. Shouldn't these animals then be killed the fastest way possible, and painlessly? It sure isn't happening at McDonalds, or KFC ... just check out the videos.

I have never before been so interested in animal rights, well, because never before have I seen the cruelty that is inflicted upon so many innocent lives ... and to see them chirping, panting, trying to get away, and knowing that they're going to die ... well, it affected me greatly. My friend Rashmi has her own new blog, and has mentioned on it that she is turning vegetarian. I am happy for her, because I know that she loves [used to love!?] chicken, and this has been a big decision for her.

I hope these videos will make you just as conscious of the horrifying underbelly of the meat producing department of our favourite fast food restaurants as it did me ...

McCruelty

Kentucky Fried Cruelty

Plus, if you go on to the PETA website, they have more links and videos. Check out their campaigns, too. 

The Big Red Button

Have YOU pressed the Big Red Button? I first found it through Bebo, a social networking site (for kids).

Warning: Please, only click over if you have oodles of time to spend, and not much to do, because the Big Red Button is addictive :P

Happy Birthday Kunal!

Whoa, officially an adult now, eh Kunal?

Vintage frame from The Graphics Fairy.

kikki.K.

Lovely, delicious, shimmery new paper from kikki.K. Mine now. ^.^

Hey

Hey ... haven't posted in a couple of days ... something unfortunate happened the other day, and I am not sure if I want to talk about it on the blog ... so I haven't been in the mood to post. But I've been looking at stuff, and hopefully I'll start posting soon ... later in the day today, or maybe tomorrow.

Bye, and keep safe! :)

Panic

Hiya ... just a little stressed out about my assessments [two of them are due next week, and one the week after, and there's two more little assessments alongside] ...

This I found calming:

If you're from Auckland, you can get these blossoming tea flowers at Tea Culture. Here's the direct link to the flower page.

ps: sorry guys, YouTube and Blogger won't let me make the size of the video smaller ... but if you right click it, there's an option that takes you to the YouTube site [click "watch on YouTube"].

Edit: Another calming video that I like [The Humming Chorus, from Madame Butterfly]