Tuber Tuesday: It's Chill, Nugget

The one where I talk about Twitter, the Meekakitty music video shoot, and the cutest kitten I've ever seen! With this video I asked some questions in the video description.  I'll ask them here as well since I don't really know much about my readers here.  Answer some in the comments below or on the video comments on YouTube! Are you on Twitter? (I am!) Do you love it or hate it? What do you usually post to Twitter?  Have you ever been an extra before?  Are you a fan or animals? Do you have pets or are you allergic?

The video I was an extra is in has finally been released.  You can watch that here.
 

DIY: Save-away Jars

I love having a visual gimmick to help me remember to do something, in this case it's saving money. Recently I made two "piggy banks" out of former boysenberry jam jars and they are now living in my apartment helping me save-away my spare cash.  What I did first was cleaned out the empty jars and ran them through the dishwasher.  Then I cut a slot in the lid with a box cutter.  I made my own lables out of printer paper, cardstock, markers, and puffy paint.  Then I glued them onto the outside of the jars.  I glued the lid shut on the first jar only.  That jar, the one on the left, I designed to look like the  Japanese flag and periodically Jim and I toss in a few spare bucks.  We want to visit my sister who is working in Japan this year for 14 months.  The jar is mostly a reminder to save up for that possible trip. (What we'll end up saving in the jar won't be our entire trip fee, obviously.) The second jar on the right is for any spare quarters we have laying around.  The laundry system at our apartment takes quarters only but there is no change machine in the laundry room.  So you really need to constantly save up your quarters.

 Making these save-away jars was super easy.  Just be careful when cutting the slot in the lid, the cut metal is very sharp.  I made sure to bend in inwards so there were no sharp edges exposed.

What would you use your save-away jar for if you made one?

J.

Free Ad Swap via PassionFruit!

Be sure you have my ad on your blog or email me if you have a similar system and I need to do the same via Passionfruit.  MagicCatJenny[at]blogspot[dot]com

Thanks for sponsoring!
J.

Tuber Tuesday: Pink Toliet Paper

Wow am I energetic in this video! I made this on March 7th, 2012.  It starts off with memories from my Europe trip in 2011.  (Perhaps I'll post pictures from that trip sometime in the future...) I also talk about some other YouTubey things but mostly you should watch this video to absorb some of my energy.  I know I could use it right now. Hey past Jenny, you caffeinated or what?



Thanks for watching!
J.

Rouge (X-Men Evolution) - Anime Expo 2003

 

This costume was worn to my first convention ever. It was Anime Expo in 2003 and I was 17. I went with my friends who were way more into anime than I was at the time so I dressed as a cartoon character I actually liked. I know X-Men Evolution is in no way anime but I did not really care at the time. Most people thought I was dressed as a J-Pop star or something anyways. I put it together from things I already owned and bought some cheep spray on white hair spray. Overall the con was pretty fun considering we only went one day. My favorite part was definitely seeing everyone in costumes. This costume is now retired since it was not really a costume so much as a last minute thrown together idea.

 
 

Click the photos to see them larger and to comment on their Flickr page!

Thanks for reading!

J.

Cats 2000

It started after I saw the video production of Cats in 1998 on PBS. I fell in love and wanted to put on my own show. All throughout 7th grade I kept it in my head. I made a group of great friends who were all Sailor Moon fans (I was as well, that's why we got along so well at first.) I showed them Cats and they fell in love. That started our fandom. I told them my idea in about 8th grade and they were into it. We started a cast list, asking our friends who they wanted to be and such. Once the first rehearsal came around we realized more than half the people who signed up were not serous or would not be able to make it. We narrowed our cast down to the essentials (or what we at the time thought were). We wound up with 14 girls. We learned the dances (or what we could manage...none of us being 'great' dancers) by watching the video in a mirror and copying. After months of rehearsals in my garage, and cutting lots of songs from the second act, we were ready. All costumes, set, stage, props, etc. were made a week before our single performance. Our 'set' (build out of PVC pipes and fabric) was too large to fit on stage so we were on the floor and our audience was on the stage. It was a lot for a group of 14-year-olds (and under) to pull off...so we were quite proud. In regards to if I will ever put the video online...(that only caught half the stage...) well...I'm just not sure if it will ever get there...but who knows...

Cast

Missy as Munkustrap, Mandie as Grizabella, Leigh as Bombalurina, April as Etcetera, Michelle as Jellylorum, Taylor as Old Deuteronomy/Bustopher Jones, Caitlin W. as Rumpelteazer, Marie as Mungojerry, Amy (my little sister) as Demeter, myself as Mistoffelees/Jemima, Julie as Alonzo, Rachel as Rum Tum Tugger, Caitlin M. as Victoria, and MOEKitty as Jennyanydots

Click the photos below to be taken to the full set!

Tuber Tuesday: JelliclesVlog

There is a trend on YouTube called, collab channels.  They are channels that a certain number of people share together. Each has a day that they post and sometimes themes and challenges are done.  I was part of a collab channel like that a few years ago, JelliclesVlog.  I was Monday and we did it for 13 total months.  I had a blast! After the channel was done I put together a video with clips from all of my JV videos. The result was amazing to see, an entire year of my life in Monday videos.  I hope you enjoy it even half as much as me!



Thanks for watching!
J.

Mr. Mistoffelees (Cats) - Performance

 

Here is the Mr. Mistoffelees costume I made for my 2000 production of Cats. He's made out of a velvet unitard and fake fur, the warmers are big tube socks and fabric markers, and the wig is an altered 'Rubies Cat Hood'. This was the first Cats costume I've ever made, although I helped out with all the other costumes in our fan production.

Grizabella and Misto before the show!

Huh? Camera? Where?

Click the photos to see them larger and to comment on their Flickr page!

Thanks for reading!

J.

Photo an hour >> January 21st

A few of my favorite blogs do a 'photo an hour' project where one day of each month they take a photo every hour.  It's one of my 2013 Goals to try this out.  So here is my first installation from this past Monday. It was a holiday so I had no work, also I should mention that my cousin, Kavita, has been staying with me for the past week.  She is from Sweden and is going to be in California for the next 6 months!

9am >> Breakfast time, cereal and cartoons.

 

 

10am >> Ready for a day of adventure!

11am >> Santa Monica Beach.  It was so sunny, hard not to go to the beach!

12pm >> Still at the beach. Kavita's future roomie, Angelica, joined us.

1pm >> Visiting the future apartment of Kavita, Angelica, and Anna. (all Swedish!)

 

2pm >>  Urth Caffe. A favorite stop of mine for coffee and lunch in Santa Monica.

3pm >> Just leaving the caffe. The girls were talking about apartment plans.

4pm >> A quick stop at the mall to use some coupons.  New pants!

5pm >> Food shopping! Trader Joe's is the best.

6pm >> Getting ready to shoot a video together.

7pm >>Tortellini, salad, and a glass of wine for dinner.

8pm >> Chocolate ice cream and strawberry mochi for desert. Yup!

9pm >> Painting nails and watching Scott Pilgrim.

After we finished the movie we got ready for bed.  Kavita had a nice set up on my living room couch and I stayed up a bit reading The Hobbit in my room.  I think this project is going to be great, I can't wait to pick a day next month!

J.

Tuber Tuesday: Flipbook Jemima

I was going to post yesterday but my cousin is in town from Sweden so we had an adventure which I'll talk more about on Thursday. It's been a while since I did a Tuber Tuesday so here you go! It's been almost a year since I made the following video.  It characterizes most of the videos on my channel: a big mash of things that make me me.  I start off with a CATS makeup stop motion ...thing  and end talking about my 25 Book Challenge from last year.  (A challenge I'm revisiting this year!)

Last Four Nails

I'm not going to pretend I have perfect nails. In fact, that's why I paint them. They're awful. I bite them and I pick at the cuticles. It's bad. However, if I paint my nails and wear rings I tend to do those self destructive things less. Nail polish tastes bad and playing with my rings keeps my fingers from picking.  I'm learning to paint them better as well, but I am still quite the nail polish novice. I'm trying to take a photo each time I re-paint them and post it to Instagram, which I'd like to do once a week.  That won't always happen, so instead of a weekly nail or a monthly four, I'm going to share with you my last four nail designs.

 

 

 

Thanks for reading!

J.

DIY: Present Wrapping

Here's a fun DIY idea for wrapping a small present.  Make your own box! It was my boyfriend's younger sister's birthday in December and I got her some nerdy earrings.  I wanted to give them to her in a small jewelery box but I did not have any on hand, so I decided to make my own.

I cut out two corners of a beer case. (Other things you can do with random cardboard found around the house including beer cases!)
Then I glued wrapping paper to both corners.
I wrapped the earrings inside of some tissue paper and placed them inside the two halves.
Then I taped the halves together and tied a bow around it.

It's not a perfect square but I like the quirky DIY feel the imperfections have on the present.

Here's the earrings that were inside!  They are Mocking Jay's from The Hunger Games.  I bought them from AmberlilyWands

Thanks for reading!
J.

Raye Hino (Sailor Moon) – Halloween 2000

 Raye Hino, aka Sailor Mars, was probably my first ever cosplay. (unless you count dressing up a Sailor Moon in the 6th grade in a costume my mom made me from a pattern…) I dressed as her for Halloween in 2000 (my first year of High School).  The only thing that I made rather than found was the collar.  That I made using a revised pattern from that old Sailor Moon costume actually.  I also sewed the buttons on the shirt.  I used temporary black tinted hair spray to complete the look. Clearly, this was before I discovered the wonder of a good wig.

I think I'm going to start posting about my past cosplay/costumes here.  I am transitioning from having a costume website and a blog to just this blog.  There will soon be a costume page with links to posts about each costume.

Thanks for reading! 
J.