dana, moe, and friends

Granny Stitch Headband

2011-03-06T14:00:00.002-05:00

This is a cute blue and grey headband I made to keep my locs out of my face this summer. I plan on making lots of these because I don't like the way ponytails look with my locs being this short right now.

Here is the link to the PDF version of the pattern. Please let me know if I made any mistakes or if you have any questions. Happy Hooking :)

Granny Stitch Headband Pattern

An artist to-morrow and an artist yesterday - but never and artist to-day

2011-02-05T18:45:00.004-05:00

When I introduce myself, I say I am a teacher. I list painting and drawing as a hobby. But I never tell people I am an artist. Quite the contrary, I will deny any title that labels as me as such. But why? After all when I was in High School I toyed with the idea of being a painter by night and a teacher by day. I did go to art school, I spent a month painting in Paris, I have a studio in my apartment. So why do I furiously deny anyone who dare say I am an artist? I think being an artists is like being in love, either you are or you are not. It is a state of being. I don't "feel" like an artist, and I have not achieved anything as an artist...yet... Instead, I feel like a talented, creative, individual, on the cusp of what could be a great teaching career. Maybe tomorrow I might feel differently, maybe tomorrow I will be an artist. But certainly not today....

Braids

2011-01-18T01:56:00.003-05:00

This is a sketch that is part of a series of drawings I have been mulling over secretly in the dead of night in a sketchbook I keep beneath my pillow. I don't know if it will ever come to fruition, or if this means I am slowly moving out of my current state of art alienation. I have not produced any of my own work in over a year for a lot of complicated reasons which I am still dealing with. But I wanted to share my drawing, maybe as a way for me to show that somewhere in side of me there is an artist biding her time...

Fog

2011-01-15T17:29:00.001-05:00

And the sound of the rain
Against my windowpane
Is slowly, is slowly drivin' me insane, boy.
- Mary J. Blige, I'm Going Down

Crisp

2011-01-09T15:02:00.003-05:00

There is nothing...

2010-10-25T22:58:00.002-04:00

...quite like falling in love in Brooklyn...

Nooo!!!

2010-10-24T12:48:00.001-04:00

Fall

2010-10-19T22:30:00.001-04:00

Shot with my Hipstamatic for iPhone
Lens: John S
Flash: Off
Film: Kodot Verichrome

Good Morning

2010-10-17T12:56:00.005-04:00

Childhood Relic

2010-10-16T16:17:00.004-04:00

The Legitimacy of Painting

2010-07-11T13:00:00.003-04:00

She said children love to paint because it brings legitimacy to their work. Painting connects them to that long artistic tradition with the likes of Picasso, van Gogh and Matisse. Is that why I have such a hard time letting go of oils as a medium? I was after all taught that great artists paint in oils. You cannot call yourself a painter if you do not paint in oils. Even the artists I most admire, call themselves illustrators, not artists or painters. Is it because they feel the same way? That because they use watercolor or ball point pen that they are not worthy of the term artist? And why do I continue to struggle with oils, knowing I could much better results in the other mediums I have learned and love?

It is always possible to start over...

2010-05-09T15:24:00.002-04:00

The best thing about life is that it is always possible to start over. It may not always be a fresh page, but it is a new start none the less. This is my new start, and it's a start that is built on top of my mistakes. But learning from your mistakes creates a strong foundation to grow on. And so it begins...

Ok. I lied.

2009-02-06T00:09:00.011-05:00

I am a bad blogger. Fine. I'm sure your bad at some stuff too. But Hey!!! Look!!!! I come with hair updates!!!!

I am about 3 weeks into my locing progress, and I have some nice (albeit dirty) new growth.

root shot, 2/4

I've already washed and twisted my hair once, and I will do so again this weekend after my ski trip. I'm hoping the chlorinated water from the indoor pool will promote spontaneous locing and I will have beautiful long locs by the time I get back *le sigh*. So here is some visual goodness:

This is the last set of TST I will ever put in, Jan 17, 2009

Root Shot:

First Washing, 1/26

root shot:

Big decisions for '09: Locs

2009-01-17T16:52:00.004-05:00

After experiencing some serious loc envy of my dad, girls on the train, and Lauryn Hill, after toying with the idea for a few months, I have decided to loc my hair. Last night I put in my last set of two strand twists. As much as I love my twist-outs i cant take the combing and re-twisting any more. And i have seen people who got their locs into BEAUTIFUL spiral curls, so I'm not giving up much.

While researching locs, I learned that I am a product junky. Right now I have 2 different bottles of shampoo both half filled, and 3 bottles of conditioner, and several different types of twist gels. I decided that I am gona give up as many products as I can in favor of all natural and or homemade products. My first test:
A Honey Olive Oil twist gel.
2 tbsp Aloe Vera gel
1 tbsp of Olive Oil
1 tsp of honey.
1 vitamin E capsule
next time add: a few drops of maybe lavender EO
Pros: Holds like white on rice.
Cons: I don't like the smell, but a little bit of essential oil should fix that next time. It also got sticky after a while and I had to keep a wet towel handy to wipe my hands on so I didn't gunk up my hair.
Verdict: I will keep using it, it held really well and my hair feels really nice.

I will keep you guys posted on how things are going, and as soon as I get back home form Ganny's house, I will upload some pics.

Lifesavers...

2008-12-07T01:10:00.002-05:00

don't actually save lives. In fact, the increase your risk of death by dentist by 56% per package eaten. Gummie Bears on the other hand are quite handy in tight situations.

the big red balloon

2008-12-01T21:21:00.004-05:00

Moe just came back from the circus, and look what he's brought back!!!

Best Friends by Dana Allexis Miller is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.

Going back the way you came to find out when and where you lost your way

2008-11-19T20:38:00.004-05:00

I was looking back through my old sketch books trying to find out when and where art stopped being fun, when painting became a painful chore instead of the joy of expression. I know it happen somewhere during sophomore year, and I am determined to go back to where I was freshman year and pick up there. I'm tired of catering to the needs and tastes of my fellow classmates to live up to some kind of imaginary and arbitrary artistic standard. This idea of going back to painting they way I used to, without trying to give it some kind of meaning or purpose in the art world, fills me with a sense of excitement I've missed over the last two years.

Because pigs CAN fly in my opinion...

2008-11-15T17:07:00.001-05:00

Pigs fly in my world, but they are bad fliers and always wind up getting stuck on spits and half naked natives build fires underneath them and roast them and share the porky goodness with the world...

Illustration Friday: Pretend

2008-11-15T15:29:00.005-05:00

Playing pretend makes friendships stronger. Little Moe and Teddy will be best friends forever!!!

Best Friends by Dana Allexis Miller is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.

I can't draw. Honestly, I can't...

2008-11-08T13:29:00.003-05:00

I really should draw more, but every time I pick up a moleskine and a pen, I get scared. I used to draw all the time, but now I'm lucky if I can scratch out doodle. Even my etsy shop is suffering from my inability to draw. Its like 3.5 years of at school has rendered me incapable of making art. Ironic aint it?

"I wish I could have told you..."

2008-11-08T00:34:00.002-05:00

....that I didn't like the way you said it. It was mean, even if you where joking. Or maybe I am just too sensitive. But I still think it was mean, and you shouldn't say such things. It hurts peoples felings. Maybe I'm too considerate, or maybe your not considerate enough. Maybe it would have been different if you would have said it in a funny voice, or with a stupid look on your face. Then maybe my feelings wouldn't hurt, and I wouldn't be writing this...

No One Belongs Here More Then You

2008-10-22T02:03:00.002-04:00

This is what I'm reading right now, and it is a set of pleasantly awkward and eclectic stories dealing with peoples perceptions of experience. People find themselves mostly ordinary situations, but the way are described makes them seem anything but ordinary. The book made me feel as if I were trying to read in another language,one where I understood all the words but had to reconsider each word in the context of the story to translate the message. I highly recommend it to anybody who wants someting different.

Cats In Sweaters

2008-10-11T14:48:00.002-04:00

I like to torture my cat with handmade crochet sweaters. This is the first one, and I think he likes it. I have to make another one though, the arm holes are a little snug, and its a little on the short side, making him look fat. My next project? A kittie beanie to keep his head warm...

Meet Waffles!!!

2008-09-13T14:03:00.002-04:00

waffles
Originally uploaded by danamiller428

Say hello to the newest member of my family: Waffles. Waffles is a 6month old kitten I adopted on Tuesday. We are having a great time together, although I'm sure its going to get stressful in the next few days, because he needs to be vaccinated, microchiped, neutered, and have soft-paws nail covers applied to save my furniture. I will keep you posted with pics and stories as things progress.

What am I thinking about?

2008-08-22T18:53:00.003-04:00

A list of things I want to make:

A bento wrap.

The Small Object's sandwich wrap (top) and how to translate that into a insulated furoshiki (bottom) for my bento box. A furoshiki is a cloth or napkin that a bento box and chopsticks are bundled up in and is spread under the box like a miniature picnic cloth. I have an insulated lunch bag that I got for $4 at Target, but its rather ugly, so I think this would be a great way to keep my food cold while using a tradintional bento accessory.

The super sexy high waisted skirt

I LOVE the way this skirt looks, you see it all over Burdastyle now-a-days, and I think that this skirt will look amazing on my new figure, I've made a mini version of this skirt so I've got the technique down, and I've been thinking about using meansware prints, with subtle pinstripes and texture, but I also love the lacy, flirty look of the skirt on the left, so I can tell that there is going to me an army of these skirts coming out of my sewing machine...

The proverbial tree in the forest

2008-07-27T17:40:00.005-04:00

In 1984 O'Brien tells Winston that before man there was nothing and after man, if he could come to an end, there will still be nothing. So according to O'Brien, if there is no man in the forest, there is no tree. But what if a woman was in the forest? Or a child?

I'm not being mean. I'm being honest.

2008-07-26T12:05:00.004-04:00

Your genericness holds no bounds.

Only in a city this large.

2008-07-09T17:58:00.003-04:00

You would think that NY being so big the chances of running into your ex boyfriends would be small but alas this not true. You can't even turn a corner without running dead smack into the stalker or the guy who wore you underwear....

Canal Street Panhandling

2008-07-06T02:15:00.003-04:00

While sitting on three brand new cans of Home Depot paint on Canal and Broadway, I became aware of a man sitting a few feet from me. He was setting up his electric guitar, muttering and humming to himself. He sat down on a old milk crate, looked around and began to play. When anyone showed any sign of paying attention to him, he would stop playing and say "Hey help me out with a dollar or two." If they declined, he would yell obscenities at them. Whether the passerby said "Eff you" or "Sorry man, I got nothing" the guitar player would insult them and and I kept thinking, he is never gonna make any money that way.

Surfing in the dead of night.

2008-06-27T11:27:00.002-04:00

Last night I went surfing on a surfboard that was made of of paper covered in contact paper supported by a wooden dowel. It was about as tall as I am and about 3 or 4 inches wide. There was also a shark in the water (which was in my sister's bedroom and from the side looked like a day bed and from the front looked like and ocean) who was very nice, and invited me to eat smores on the beach, it was quite wonderful actually.

You Never Get It Quite Right

2008-06-21T02:56:00.001-04:00

If a scene is memorable, you never remember it right. It's a film lovers
paradox

Rescue Mission: Broken Parrot.

2008-06-13T16:45:00.005-04:00

I was walking to school and i found this poor broken baby parrot:

I decided to rescue him. First I gave him a new hook:

Then I crocheted up a chord, add a pony bead and viola! instant retro parrot necklace :D

I didn't want to fix the crack or spruce up the paint, I think he is charming as is :D

Moe's first few days of summer.

2008-06-01T13:21:00.004-04:00

disappointment

2008-05-30T12:05:00.000-04:00

tastes like dirty nickels.

Some good advice by Kurt Vonnegut

2008-05-23T21:44:00.002-04:00

"I urge you to please notice when you are happy, and exclaim or murmur or think at some point, 'If this isn't nice, I don't know what is.'"

"That is my principal objection to life, I think: It's too easy, when alive, to make perfectly horrible mistakes."

"Literature should not disappear up its own asshole, so to speak."

"All persons, living and dead, are purely coincidental."

"We must be careful about what we pretend to be."

Old Boyfriend #2

2008-05-11T17:02:00.002-04:00

(They just keep falling out the wood work)

I remeber nothing but sweetness, you representing to me the peferct, tender, wild abondon of adolencent foreplay. And even though I always suspected you of cheating, there is no bitterness, because in my mind, anything that went wrong with us was more of a result of my childhood insecurites then anything you ever did.

Quote of the day

2008-05-11T16:25:00.004-04:00

"Offensive is frequently but a synonym for unusual."
Lolita
Vladimir Nabokov

My Original And Easy Idea To End World Hunger

2008-05-10T01:49:00.002-04:00

Once upon a time, when I was sitting in Union Square Park, watching the old men play chess and eating cherries, it occured to me that if the events that took place in Cloudy With A Chance of Meat Balls happend all over the world, no one would ever starve, and I doupt nature would put any artificial perservatives in her world famous spaghetti...

I was wondering...

2008-05-08T16:29:00.001-04:00

Why is it easier to write in Starbucks then it is to write at home?

Love

2008-05-04T12:56:00.000-04:00

Love is like chocolate, great in moderation, but too much can lead to
cavities and tummy aches.

The meaning of life is?

2008-04-27T22:46:00.003-04:00

In about a hour and 21 minutes, I will be 21. I want to share with you, the things I've learned during my 2 decades on earth. (disclaimer: side effects may include: unexpected results, upset stomach, increase in sexual desire, and further disillusionment. Please read at your own risk.)

1. Its naive to think you can change a person, and usually a waste of time to wait for someone else to change.

2. 95% of what the government says is a lie. The other 5% is pure fantasy.

3. You are never to young to start wearing deodorant.

4. Breakfast can be eaten at any time of day.

5. Karma is real, and working overtime.

6. Sharing is caring and STD's last a life time.

7. Your only (insert age here) once. Live it up.

8. Chocolate once a day keeps the doctor away.

9. Read!

10. You always have more to learn.

And finally, love (and chocolate) is the key to everything.

Hungry?

2008-04-20T13:03:00.005-04:00

Sweet, sweet, handmade, home cooked decadence. Your sexy mailman can deliver any of these smooooooldering deserts to your front door directly from one of the fabulous Etsy bakers. Artist I should say. Cause baking like this is an art. An art of seduction.

I SHALL STRIKE YOU DOWN WITH MY THUNDER!!!

2008-04-12T13:00:00.003-04:00

I am afraid of lighting and thunder. Yes I know it is irrational for a person my age to still be afraid of lightning and thunder, I don't need to hear it from you. Humph. Any ways, last night in NY there was a thunder storm and I was awake for most of it despite the fact that it had to be well after 1am, and I kept thinking that the sky would open up and a giant hand would come down and WHAM! Smash all of NY into a apple cinnamon pancake.

Self portrait thursday!!!

2008-04-11T00:48:00.004-04:00

This week:

and last weeks:

Ode to Spilled Cheerios

2008-04-09T00:43:00.005-04:00

Little honey coated circles, languishing on my kitchen floor.

Way better then Superman, or even Batman...

2008-04-06T17:03:00.007-04:00

Its Super Moe!!! Ready to save the art of Letter Writing. Get this note card here, and write a cool saying like:

"Let me save your day, and buy you a drink."
"See your not the only dork in a cape"
"A hero for my hero!"

a fairy fairy tale

2008-04-05T01:54:00.005-04:00

Once upon a time, long, long ago, far far away, in New York city, there was a man. A very ugly man. A man that was sooo ugly, mirrors shattered, babies screamed, and women fainted at the sight of him. But inside, he was beautiful, he had beautiful thoughts of peace and love, and lovely pink and healthy organs, and clean bright white bones. Now this ugly man had to go around with a bag over his head, because of all the hubbub he caused in public. He was out on a beautiful summer day, paroosing his local farmers market. He looking at some rather beautiful organic peaches, when he looked up suddenly, into the eyes of another paper bag. Now this bag was attached to the body of a woman. The ugly man stared and stared and stammered, and the other paper bag just smiled. She reached up and took the bag of his face, and then took the one of hers. And OH! Low and behold they where beautiful, both of them, and the ugly man realized that it wasn't he who was ugly, it was the world around him, projecting their ugliness on him. And he and the girl lived happily ever after.

Self portrait thursday

2008-03-27T12:25:00.003-04:00

She is such a dreamer...

who is that in that bunny costume?

2008-03-26T20:24:00.003-04:00

10 calorie sugar free jello

2008-03-22T21:10:00.003-04:00

How I love you and your jiggly jello ways!!! Let me count the ways:
1 spoonful
2 spoonfuls
3 spoonfuls
4 spoonfuls
5 spoonfuls
6 spoonfuls
7 spoonfuls
8 spoonfuls
9 spoonfuls
10 spoonfuls

Defibrillating the letter.

2008-03-20T01:56:00.012-04:00

Here is one of my new note cards: great for all of your spring messages. Like:

"I'm sorry to rain on your parade, but I totaled the new car. Sorry."

"April showers bring May flowers, and spring babies!"

"Happy spring. This was the sweetest religiously neutral card I could find, because it is important to stay P.C."

It is what it is.

2008-03-19T21:41:00.004-04:00

it is what it is

A) A phrase that seems to simply state the obvious but actually implies helplessness.

You hear this a lot nowadays, about gas prices, and your mother-in-laws behavior. But this sense of helplessness goes deeper. The people of my generation tend to have their questions of why answered with words like because, or thats the way it is, or I don't know. Questions about poverty, about differences, about race and sex, are all simply dismissed as an unchangeable truth. Many young people remain complacent and without the drive to strive for a change. And those who do believe, are often told its a waste of time, people wont change, change is not possible. But with out hope, can we as Americans have a future? We cannot simply continue to exist in this state of accepted racism, appalling poverty rates, and inadequate education because we as a country will never get anywhere, or achieve the things we can achieve as a collective whole. Change is possible, but only as a whole, not as a individuals.

The letter is dying.

2008-03-16T23:13:00.006-04:00

While going through the remnants of a not so long ago childhood, I happened upon a box of letters, you know, the hand-written kind. Love notes from my first boyfriend, long epithets from my best friend, containing her laments of being a post-pubescent teenager in an arts high school. But no one writes letters anymore, just emails and text messages. And while the invention of the email has been a godsend to people like me with appalling handwriting (Gabriel Garcia Marques talks about this in Living to tell the Tale) I still miss the hand written note. Text messages are often short and hurried, and emails often feel so impersonal. So I've decided to come up with more note cards for my etsy shop. And who knows, maybe I will single handily bring the handwritten letter back.

Why?

2008-03-16T00:53:00.002-04:00

Today on my way home I saw what looked to be a windshield wide flat screen t.v. playing rap videos out of the back windshield, where no one could possible be watching, except the people out side.

Solidarity on the subway.

2008-03-13T02:00:00.003-04:00

The other day on the subway, a man was either very high or very tired and he was sitting alone on one of the two peoson seats on the number 4 train to Brooklyn, nodding off, his head dangling between his knees. I kept think he is gonna fall out ofhis chair any second, and sure enough the train stopped short and he fell out of the chair rolled over, sat up, and ran off the train, stumbled and fell face first on the platform, and the subway doors closed. I look at the person sitting across from me, and the entire car starts laughing. It was a moment of solidarity as we all laughed at something that really wasn't and shouldn't be funny.

What are we fighting for?

2008-03-09T01:55:00.007-05:00

New drawing. Check it out!!!

oppressed watermelons.

2008-03-08T22:15:00.005-05:00

I was in the grocery store with my grandma and we see watermelon quarters on sale and I go to get one, and she says no its not the season for them, they won't be sweet. I say that probably it wasn't even grown here, it was probably grown in some Central or Southern American 3rd world country, where its always watermelon season. She says then why are they on sale? It would cost a fortune to import them. I say cause its easier to oppress third world countries. You can pay them 2¢ to grow watermelons, you can't so that to some farmer in Florida. So we keep walking down the fruit isle and I say, you don't want them? and she says no, I don't want watermelons from some oppressed country, they probably wont taste good. I'll wait till summer. And I say they will probably still not be American Watermelons. What makes you think your watermelon will be less oppressed in July?

Big Mother-flippin Plans

2008-02-29T23:34:00.006-05:00

I started my etsy store, I got the wallets and the earrings going, I got my silkscreens turned into ACEO's and I'm working on some more greeting cards. But its not enough, I need more. I got some ipod cozies in the works, and some shrink art jewelry. In one years time, I wanna be a house hold etsy name. I want a sale a day. And dammit, I'm gonna do it.

My dirty blogging secrets

2008-02-24T14:17:00.016-05:00

Welcome to my dirty blogging secrets. Here is were I will divulge all of my dirty, filthy, vulgar, and just plain nasty secrets to pimping out your Blogger Blog.

1) Blogger Backgrounds and templates.
I get all of my Blogger backgrounds and templates from Pyzam . They have nice stuff and it is easy to manipulate the html. Before you start monkeying around in you blog, use the backup/restore feature in the edit html section of you layout and download the html for you blog as it is now. Then every time you make a change, preview it, if you like it, save your html and move on to the next change. If you make a mistake, click clear edits, which will bring you back to your last save. If you ruin you blog out of total recognition, upload your downloaded html and thank sunny Jesus you backed up you blog like I told you too...

Small Tweaking
So, you got you brand spanking new background, but you don't like the thickness of the borders, or one of the colors or the double boarder or the all caps. What can you do? Oh the horror!!!! Calm down. All you have to do is tweak the html codes. We will start simple. The first thing you need to know is the basic html structure.

Look at your html code for your blog, located in the layout tab under edit html (its a good idea to back up/ restore you html code). You will see different headings, the first one being Variables.

This is basically a list of constants. It states the general overall look of the blog, what the color scheme, and what fonts are used.

Next heading is Header. This defines what the header will look at. If you wanna change your header, this is where you look.

Next heading is the Outer-wrapper. This defines the size of your blog page (outer-wrapper), the size of your main middle blog entry column (main-wrapper), and the size of your right column (side bar wrapper) (I will show you how to add a 3rd column later), as well as the spacing and the borders.

Next is Headings (not to be confused with header), which formats the "titles" of your sidebar sections, and the dates of you posts. (getting me so far?)

Then there is Posts (formats how your posts will look) Comments, Sidebar Content (formats whats actually inside the sidebar), Profile (changes the formating of your pic), Footer (changes the box at the bottom of you blog), and then something that says "Page structure tweaks for layout editor wireframe" wich is the part of the code that talks to bloggers Page elements, and Fonts and Colors feature.

Now that thats all over, times for changes...

a) Changing from all caps.
Pyzam templats have an all caps features that you may not like. To change it in the header, scroll to the Header heading, (first one after variables) and scroll down four groupings of code till you see this:

You can delete (or add if you want uppercase and don't have any) that piece of code. To change the uppercase feature in any other part of your blog, scroll to that heading and either add or subtract that piece of code.

b)Changing the double border
to get rid of that pesky double border, got back to the Header heading, and look for this 3 groups down:

Change that number to 0. If you want the outer boarder to be thicker, go to the first grouping (header-wrapper) and change the border to 2px instead of 1px. Speaking of boarders...

b)Formating borders
To change the width of you borders, you will have to go to each section and every time it says "border: 1px solid $border color;", change the number (0 will yield no border). In the places where it says "border-bottom:1px dotted $bordercolor;" , this is the dotted line borders between the posts and the between the sections on you side columns.

To change the Color of your borders: you should be able to do this under fonts and color, but if you cant, pic the color you want and copy down the 6 figure "hex number" (that group of gibberish to the right of the "more colors box") of the color you wanna change it to. The go to the variables section of your html, and look for :

change the hex number thats in there to the hex number you want, and dont forget the #!!!. since we are in the variable section...

c) Changing what you can't change in fonts and color
If you want to change the color of something, and it won't work in blogger layout, got to the variables section of you html code. If you read the variables section carefully, you will see words like "Text Color" and "Blog Title Color". Look for the quotes that contain what you wanna change, and then follow the line till you see the place where you can enter you hex code. If what you want to change is not in the variables section, (most of the background color options are not in the variable section) Go to the heading of the section you want to change and change it there. How you say? Well I will tell you. For example, I wanna change the background color of my main middle blog section. I scroll down to the Outer-Wrapper heading, look for main-wrapper, and I see it says " background-color:#ffffff;" I change that ffffff to what ever hex code I have for the color I want.

About fonts. If you wanna change your blogs font to something other than what blogger offers, it can lead to problems. You can only use web-safe fonts on your blog. Whats a web-safe font? Its a font thats guaranteed to be present on all or most computer systems, therefor display nicely on webpages. If you use a font thats not typically installed will cause reversion to some system default font, or in some cases meaningless gibberish will be displayed. With that said, lets say I wanna change my main blog body text to Comic Sans, a very popular font not offered by blogger. I would go to the variables section, and look for the "text font" variable:

I would change Georgia, Serif to Comic Sans MS (you must use the full name of the font) in each place I see Georgia. For sections like the "side bar title font" that have multiple fonts listed, change each font to the one you wanna use. (All blog fonts are change in the variables section)

Changing you background image:
Say you gone and made all these changes and your blog is perfect except you hate that naked dog background, and you don't wanna start from scratch, what do you do? Change the background. Inbetween the Variables section and the header section, there is this mini section:

Here you can see what my background image url. If you wanna change your background image to another pyzam one WITH OUT changing you entire blog, copy the html in to MS Word or Word pad and pick out the image url and change it. If you want a personal image as a background picture, upload it to Photobuket or some other image hosting website to get a url for the picture. To use a found image from like Google or some where, "right click" on the image and select copy link location (for mac users, sorry pc users) and paste into html code. You can change the position by changing where is says bottom-left to bottom-right, top-left, or top-right. To stop tiling, change repeat to no-repeat.
To get rid of the background image all together and just use a solid color, delete the entire line:
"background-image: url(http://stuff.pyzam.com/layouts/img/c/o/ahcoloredbubbles.jpg);"

and change hex code to appropriate color.

BIG Tweaking
Here it is, what we have all been waiting for, the infamous 3 column blog. I got the info from here, and I present it too u in an easier to read format.

Step 1
Go to the Outer-Wrapper section of you template.
Find this bit of code:

Copy this entire section, and paste it directly below
Step 2
Change what you just pasted from "#sidebar-wrapper" to "#left-sidebar-wrapper"

Step 3
Now the tricky part, in the Page structure tweaks for layout editor wireframe" section of you template (located at the bottom, after the footer section), find this bit of code:

right BEFORE this bit you code you want to add :

Step 4
Almost done. Now you have to format the spacing and size of your columns.
Go back to the Outer-Wrapper section of you template. on this bit of code, add whats is in red:

If you preview your template, you will notice that the right sidebar will be beneath the main section. This is because overall size of your blog is only wide enough to accomodate one sidebar. We now how 2 side bars that are 220 pixes wide. How ever, contrary to what that other site says, Bloggers Layout Page element thingy cannot accommodate an overall blog size of 880 px (if you can live with it looking odd, then go ahead and make it 880). With that said, I have enclosed my measurements. You will have to fiddle around with your blog. Just keep in mind that the Outer-Wrapper ( The overall size of you blog) = Your 2 blog columns (sidebar-wrapper and left-sidebar-wrapper) + Your middle blog column (main-wrapper ) + Space inbetween the columns.

Click the photo to enlarge.

One more thing, to change the distance between the right and middle coulms, increase the over all blog size (outer-wrapper)

I hope this has been a helpful bit of info, please feel free to leave suggestions and such.

You're all moldy anyway.

2008-02-23T14:57:00.003-05:00

Old boyfriends are like old bread and both are bad for you. They leave you with a bad taste in your mouth, a bad tummy ache, and all sorts of sordid memories of the girl you used to be and the sandwich you never finished cause the bread is moldy. Don't eat old bread or old boyfriends. You have been warned....

moooooo!!!

2008-02-22T15:23:00.004-05:00

I got my Moo mini cards today!!! Look:

The box they came in is actually a nice sturdy plastic one. The cards are also thick and sturdy, and the colors are nice. I got 10 pics, 4 of my wallets, 3 of my earrings, and 3 of my art. I really like them. The back is kinda plain, but I can doodle on them on my own. They give you th option of color on the back, but I wanted to make sure they are easy to read. The back has my website, etsy site, blog, and email on the back.

Remember Paris?

2008-02-21T23:16:00.005-05:00

I spent this past summer in Paris, painting and drawings and sight seeing and drinking wine and it was soooo great there. I feel home sick for Paris right now, New York and the stress of school is starting to get to me.

Everybodies Doing it.

2008-02-18T22:14:00.002-05:00

Doing what? It. Everyone everywhere has done it or will do it. Your neighbors do it. You parents do it. You do it. Everybody does it. Yup even that guy. He does it twice a day, sometimes three times a day. While wearing socks. My grandma even still does it. I know somebody who does it all day long....

newbie love.

2008-02-17T02:05:00.002-05:00

My new favorite thing on Etsy:. katie by nightwigglers.

You could have been the one. If you didnt suck so much.

2008-02-17T00:38:00.002-05:00

I got that phone call. You know the one. The one where your childhood love (a relationship that lasted almost indefinitely from 13-18years old) calls you and says he is back in town. You experience the nausea as you remember the last fight, the first fight and every fight. blowout, squabble, and showdown in between. You remember that you still love him, despite the fact that he was and still is no good for you cause-your-too-smart-and-too-pretty-for-that-narrow-behind
-fool-anyway. Besides, you never can stop loving that first love. Nooo sir. You spend the rest of your natural life simultaneously trying to live up to, past, overcome, forget, remember, immortalize, and degrade that first love. Hows that for a mind-fuck-paradoxical-neurosis

BISCUITS!!!!!

2008-02-11T22:09:00.002-05:00

I woke up from a 3 hour nap absolutely craving biscuits. So I went out into 19 degree weather for milk an baking powder, then came online and found this recipe (that I halved to make 5 biscuits cause its just little ole me in the house):

1 c. all-purpose flour
2 tsp. baking powder
pinch of salt
2 1/2 tbsp. butter (at room temperature)
3/4 c. milk

Drop by a spoon on to a greased cookie sheet and bake till golden brown in a 450 degree oven.

I cut the butter up really tiny so it would melt in the oven. I made four huge biscuits, and while waiting for them to cook, I thought about stuff. Nothing important, just stuff. Alright fine, I'll tell you. I've been thinking about damn I forgot those biscuits smell awfully good. I love biscuits and their buttery goodness when they are all large and lumpy instead of prefect round cookie cutter biscuits. I also love those cheddar cheese biscuits the Red Lobster makes and oooooo I think they are done! No false alarm. Boo. So yea other good comfort food: Baked macaroni and cheese, I make it by melting can milk and cheddar and a stick of butter together and pouring it over cooked macaroni. Then I add an egg and some pepper and some more cheddar cheese and bake it till its nice and golden and oh my god I think I have an eating disorder: comfortfoodcravstopia. Its serious dudes. I need help. Some one call some one. I'm serious. Wait I think they might be done!!! Nope not yet... Lets see, what else is good...Ummm OOOOO easy strawberry pound cake. Take a hand full of strawberries and cut them up, sprinkle on a little sugar and put on a slice of pound cake. Add a little cool whip or even fresh whip cream and E.N.J.O.Y. One more time... Yay!!! They are done!!! sorry no pic camera died of early onset cardiac problems due to over use.....

Good Ole St. Nick, I mean St. Valentine

2008-02-10T17:26:00.002-05:00

Can you smell it? The smell of loOOove wafting through the air? Can you? CAN YOU? Thats right kiddies, its almost Valentines Day. Don't get me wrong, I love love. My shop is called w/luv!!! so I obviously have no problem with love (although you will not find to0 many hearts in my shop, well maybe you will, but they are cool unemotional manly hearts). Valentines day has never been the it holiday for me though. I'm more of a Christmas or Halloween kinda girl. Yes I wanted to strangle all the popular kids who got tons of candy grams in JHS and HS and I never got any even though I knew I was an artist and therefore way to cool to be considered popular cause popularity dosen't matter when your a budding artistic genius. But I digress. Now that I am older (and in a relationship) I look froward to a quite night with my bf, nothing fancy, just dinner and sex. Cause thats what valentines day means right? Dinner, and sex. Right? No? O.k. Valentines day means love. And dinner. And sex.

REALLY. BAD. ART. PERIOD.

2008-02-09T17:42:00.000-05:00

Or how would you like:
WORST. SHOW. EVER.
I went to the New Museum, I had to go. I didn't want to, my Art History grade dependent on it. So I went. And I dragged Andre (pseudo hubby aka bf of 10 months) along with me. I thought it would be educational. NOT!!! He was so disappointed he wanted my money back for me. I had seriously delusional and unrealistically high expectations for their show Unmonumental. (I know. I know. I was setting my self up from the start. Fine. Sue me then.) The reviews for the show where mixed, everyone at Cooper said it was terrible, but most of them are weird and I almost never agree with them anyway. Besides anything that can be likened to Whole Foods destroying the soul of the Bowery has to be cool right? No. NOT AT ALL. Unmonumental is supposed to re-contextualize the idea of the "museum" and the objects you place in it. The show is supposed be in 3 parts, each part being added to form a sort of collage of craptacular art (for an unbiased description, click here). It was a bad show period. It was so bad I cant even go into details because I barely remember any of it except the horrible taste it left in my mouth. Blah.

memories.

2008-02-09T14:39:00.000-05:00

First of all, I wanna say sorry for being so neglectful, I had to get myself in the groove of being back in school. Let me see, ahhh yess, memory. I'm taking a "Issues in Contemporary Lit" class in school, and the two books we have talked about so far were autobiographies that were centered around being a writer and how you remember things a child vs how you remember them as an adult. Since I fancy my self as a writer, I would like to talk about this.
My earliest memory is a pair of shoes. My first grown up pair of navy blue leather flats. They were grown up to me because they where not those thick, rubber soled, paten leather Mary-Janes every mother forces on her little girl because they are ooooo soooooo cute. Blah. I wanted simple, sophisticated shoes. Well these shoes where to big for me to wear yet, I don't know where they came from or anything, but I do remember that this was during the time that I lived with my daddy and my step mom over the weekend, before I took up permanent weekend residency at my grand mama's cause step mama didn't want me in her house. Boo. Anyways the shoes. They didn't fit. But I liked to wear them around the house, and Daddy would play Cinderella with me. I don't remember any details, just that it was Cinderella, I was a princess, and some how this was all tied up with snow and it being 60 degrees the day after it snowed. All other memories I have before I started school are brief ecstasies of firemen poles in pre-school and the initial shock of my surprise party. I remember nothing about the party, just the first initial scream of SURPRISE!!! that nearly killed me (you cant spring that on a four yer old and expect them not to be scarred for life), and being upset afterwards that I didn't get any coconut cake. All of my other memories before the kindergarten are false memories, that is, I can only remember the story some one told me, or describe a picture I have of the memory, I don't actually remember the actual event (even though I pretend to).
Scientist belive that active memory starts with the acquisition of language. How ever if you've ever listened to small child tell you something they "remember" its like speaking to idiot. Children lack the adequate sense of time and sequence to successfully tell any kind of story comprehensible to a normal human (even though their insistent babbling is mildly entertaining). The memories of a small child are often mixed up jumbles of nonsense with the occasional unicorn and fire breathing rat (unless you talking to some kind of "child genius" in which case their babel is comprehensible, but still nonsense). Memory begins to strengthen once children reach school age, because they are able to participate in the collective memory of a class room. A group of 20 little babbling idiots should be able to tell you what they did in school yesterday in a way that can be understood. Strength in numbers right? The routine of school helps train the mind to think more logicaly and sequentially. There is also the long drawn out process of having kids draw pictures of things they did, or think they did, to help strecnghthen visual memory, and a chance for an evil spinster or bitter wife of a teacher to inform some poor helpless child artist and prodigy thet there are in fact no such thing as fire breathing rats. Boo.

New etsy seller!!!!!

2008-02-05T00:50:00.001-05:00

This week, I'm in an abstract mood, so i picked these two pieces from the new etsy seller, mhartt. I'm really in to his use of line and form, and the tree is AMAZING!!!

love, hate, us, and moe

2008-02-02T15:22:00.000-05:00

Newbie Etsy Seller: Mokokokat!!!

2008-01-30T02:00:00.001-05:00

Robot Love!!!

These two cuties come from a new etsy seller, Mokokokat. Her robots are super cute and she also has some fortune cookie key chains at well!!!

Features

2008-01-30T01:53:00.000-05:00

I've had the very good fortune of being featured in two blogs in my short less then a month etsy existence. my blog is pretty new, but I think I will return the favor, by featuring a newbie once a week (I hope).

my newest feature:
http://cagedbirdsingsstudio.blogspot.com/

and my other one:
http://katalatabata.blogspot.com/

From Basquiat, the movie

2008-01-28T02:09:00.001-05:00

Do you consider yourself a painter or a black painter?"

Oh, no I use a lot of colors not just black.

Karma

2008-01-25T19:30:00.000-05:00

I've been thinking lately, about karma. Yes karma. I believe that life is just like school. If you go every day and learn all of the lessons life has to teach you, then you move on to the next step. But if you slack off, then you won’t pass the class. Every short cut you take affects you negatively until eventually, you get left back and you have to take the class over again. Karma is the head teacher of the school. Karma decides who gets moved up and who gets to stay behind.

Karma isn’t punishment, it simply balances out what you learned, and what you will earn as a reward of lessons learned. The down side is just because you do good, doesn’t mean you’ll always get good things back. Humans have free will and as a consequence, shit happens. It’s an immutable truth in life. It’s what you do with that shit that matters. If some one cuts you off, you don’t shoot them. And you don’t refrain from shooting them because your afraid someone will shoot you, you refrain because you know its wrong.

HEY!!!

2008-01-25T17:15:00.000-05:00

This is my first entry of my new blog where I will talk about art, crafts, New York, and moe, my imaginary cartoon character that exists in my real life world.