FrankenPolishing exirience - Part 2

It is about time to revel the secret of the kitty nails. In fact the base color for kitty manicure is my first official franken polish.
So after spending hours and hors trying to create somehting at least close to nice, and number of fails, i came up with the better idea. if you cant do soemthing ,see how others do it and do the same. I was admiring this color for a long time, since i seen it on Dr.Frankenpolish Blong , so decided just follow instructions given where. Except i used my own polishes, which are close in color to whose that she used, and i did not add any clear polsih, because i want it to be opaque.
May be one day i ll be able to make somehting myself, but so far, at least it worked, even that the idea is not mine. Thank you Dr. Frankenpolish - to be my guide on frankening.

One bottle used and 3 to go, stay tuned for more Franken Polishing experience

Independent Nails

I'm sure there was probably a quicker way to achieve this look...but doing these late last night, I took the long way, naturally. Still, I think they turned out pretty well, especially considering the number of broken short nails I have at the moment (don't know what's going on there!). They're actually much more glittery than the photos show...I just ran out of time trying to photograph them.

I started with Avon base coat, then two coats of China Glaze "Ruby Pumps". I used a Stripe Rite nail striper to divide each nail diagonally, then added the white stripes to one side of each nail (botched some of the lines by the cuticle, but it doesn't really stand out unless you're looking at a close-up photo...). I decided to do that first, so that the blue would cover any mistakes I made by going "too far" over the center line - which turned out to be a good idea.

Then I used Zoya's "Kotori" for the blue side, with the white dividing line as a guide. Two coats made for a nice opaque sparkly blue. Then I retraced the white dividing line again to cover any mistakes.

I applied a coat of Avon top coat to stick the plastic stars into, then another thick coat of the same to seal everything up. And voila, sparkly flag nails for Independence Day.

Have a safe and happy holiday, everyone!

Shoot Yourself With Dustin Dollin

There have been multiple sightings of our favorite pile, Dustin Dollin, on the streets on West Coast and the East Coast. He's been all over LA and was spotted on the boardwalk in Venice Beach, on Melrose down the block from Brooklyn Projects, and around the corner from Hollywood High. Up north, Dustin was spotted by the Berkeley Park, down the block from Huf, and, not suprisingly, in the Mission. Then we started getting calls from New York, where Dustin was seen laid out up the block from Supreme, lounging by the TF, and barely able to crawl into The Fish. We just got a call from Amy at KC/DC that Dustin's passed out by the train station in Williamsburg. We're really psyched to have Dustin in the US, but we need some evidence that he was here this summer! If you're game, track down Dustin, shoot a photo of you and Dustin and send it into shootyourselfwithdustin@gmail.com and save your full name as the file name of your photo. Each Monday in July the photo's will go into the Shoot Yourself...with Dollin Gallery. At the end of the month, the most hilarious photo will win a year supply of Dustin's new shoe, the No Skool Tre, a digital camera, and Dustin's I-Pod. The 2nd Runner Up will win 2 pairs of the No Skool Tre, a disposable camera, and a walkman. The 3rd runner up will win a pair of the No Skool Tre, a sketchbook, and some airplane headphones.
Good Luck and get snappin'!

Richard Kline Questions Larry Dallas's Success

Larry Dallas certainly got a lot of chicks. Or did he?
When I was talking to Richard Kline at the 2009 Motor City Comic Con, a fan asked him who got more chicks, Larry or Jack. This was a reference to the 70's tv show Three's Company.
Kline flashed a bit of a wry smile and asked the fan if he really thought Larry got any women. The fans didn't seem to get the joke and repeated his question. Kline simplified his answer a bit and stated that he really didn't think Larry got many women.
It was especially interesting to heard Kline's answer and wording. Usually, such questions would get (joking) macho answers. Kline chose a different route, which was even funnier. I also noted that he said 'women' instead of 'chicks'. It is all subtle stuff, but I think it shows Kline is a quick and funny guy who is respectful.
I really enjoyed my chat with Kline. I came away with a little new-found appreciation for the veteran actor-comic.

Richard Kline and me in Novi, MI-May 2009.

It is all about Hello Kitty

This is just one of whose manicures that no meter what, i just can not wait any longer to share it with you. I will revel some details about polishes i used here tomorrow. The only disappointment is that "giant stamping Kitty" fits only on 2 of my nails, i try really hard to do the same design on all the nails, but i gave up after many times, it just too big :)

Dr. Youn Presents Botox of the Armpits for Excessive Sweating with Prancer of VH1

Here is a video of a recent television segment I did exhibiting Botox injections to the armpits to relieve excessive sweating. My patient is VH1 reality star Prancer, who has been seen on Flavor of Love 3 and I Love Money 2. I have only seen bits and pieces of the latter show, but she's the absolute nicest person in real life. Check out her myspace page at http://www.myspace.com/prancersworld.

FrankenPolishing Expirience - Part1

This is going to be a series of post about my experience with frankening polishes.
I was always inspired by people making their own polishes, especially i admire work of Frankepolish blog, and want to thank her for useful tips.
So i always wanted to try it - because it look like really fun to do, colors can be wonderful, and does not look to hard to make. (he-he)
Since i am not sure how it all going to turn in, i decided start to do it with the supplies i have, without ordering additional stuff. ( partially the hole decision to franken is based on the economical situation in my valet)
In this part i will provide you with some tips how to clean old bottles from polish, so you can use it for frankening,m instead of order empty bottles. It is not really hard task but require some pation :) Another good reason to start with old bottles, is because you can use smaller size bottles which will require less supply waste.
I started with picking some smaller size all polishes, and when added acetone to it. Actually to simplify this task i made a cone out of old coke can, just cut it with scissors.

i let the the polish melt for about 20 minutes and then located it upside down to let ti float from the bottle. You ll need to repeat it several times,letting it melt for 10-20 minutes each time acetone is added. I was afraid to drain this stuff in the sink or toilet ( glittery toilet is not my big dream lol ), so i used another coke can. it is also very cool that you can leave the bottle upside down, like this

After all those precedures you ll end up with clean enouth bottles that can be used for frankening and expressing your creativity

However i realized that i totally suck in mixing polishes.. i spent like 4 hours playing arround with samples,and i didn't like a thing... really, this is not as easy as it may look. So stay tunes for Part2 , to see if i can make anything to put in my clean bottles.

CHIMA'S A FRICKIN WINNER

They're aint nothing sloppy about the way Chima Ferguson goes about business, that's for sheezy. The 20-year-old dusted over 30 of his talented mates to win the first ever Billabong City Squared captured by Handycam in Sydney.



Sony and Billabong teamed up to build a sweaty looking stair set with a kink rail, bang in the middle of World Square, inner city Sydney. The invites were dished out to the best of the best and they all showed, throwing down some massive hammers for the 5000 or so humans that passed through the packed shopping precinct.


The final was 20-minutes of goodness starting with an effortlessly nailed varial heel delivered by eventual winner Mr. Ferguson. It only got better from there with Shane Azar putting his hand up with a gap to reverse nose grind, Blake Harris holding his own with a gap to frontside feeble followed by a gap to backside over crooks and Sam Giles weighing in with a kickflip frontside 5-0.


Only problem was, Chima was just warming the wheels with his first trick and cemented his rep as one of the most talented street skaters in Oz by rolling out a monster backside 3 down the set, a nollie 3 shouvit and wrapping a tasty frontside big spin boardslide on the kinked rail to finish up. The win was his, no doubt about it.


When the young Blake Harris tweaked his ankle mid way through the final it was kinda down to Giles to put the challenge to Chima and that he did, stomping the trick of the contest on his last run. After trying it four times straight, the kid from the Gong nailed a giant kickflip front lip and just about bought the square down, people were throwing cans off the roof they were so hyped.

I'm live!

I am live on About.com! Yippee! I got the confirmation email on Friday while I was at the Elizabethtown farmers market that my site has gone live. Wow! Now all I have to do is keep it going. Not hard, right? If you are interested in receiving it, just go to the About.Com Beadwork site and enter your email address. The newsletter will be sent automatically every Monday. That's all you have to do!

I know it's not even nine a.m. right now, but I've already edited and sent out my first newsletter for About.com, logged in to the forums and made a few posts, paid the phone bill, ordered my supplies and materials for kits for the Syracuse Gem & Mineral Show, ordered a few pendants from Beadin' Path for the Soft Flex Flex Your Creativity contest, ordered new light bulbs for my photo lights, and managed to stitch a few beads on my piece for Scarlett Lanson's Use the Muse II contest. So now I've got to pack up Colden and head up to Plattsburgh to do some grocery shopping (we are in dire need of dried cranberries and Cheerios!) before I settle down to do some more serious work this afternoon.

As July 11 draws closer, I am getting more and more nervous about the Syracuse Show. I'm so excited to be teaching there, and I think it's going to be a great time, but I am also worried about my sales. I seem to have lost my sales mojo at my farmers markets this year, although I'm hearing that from everyone at the markets. I'm hoping that I do well in sales at the Syracuse Show, not just because I need to pay the bills, but also because I still see sales as confirmation that my work is good. There's this little part of my brain that says, "If it won't sell, then it must be junk." Even though I know that that is not true. It always feels like personal rejection when I have low sales. It's like the customer isn't just rejecting my work, they're rejecting ME. At least I'm not the only one to feel like that - I've read alot on the Beading Daily Forums about other bead artists who feel the same way!

BUT, on a more positive note, even though we are coming up on the Fourth of July weekend, I have a new project to post on my blog, with a tutorial! (As soon as I figure out how to post a document on the blog, LOL!) It is for my necklace called "Lucia", and it was created entirely with beads that were supplied to me courtesy of Auntie's Beads.

I'm pretty happy with the way it came out, considering that I had absolutely no idea what I was doing when I started it!



So, stay tuned for the directions as a downloadable file.

Oh, my. I think Colden just dumped an entire can of breadcrumbs into Moose's water dish. So I think I had best be signing off for now!

Friendly Encounters

This is another in a series of meetings of my friends and celebs.

I have been a customer of Sarah's Pastries and Candies in Chicago (IL) for several years. The funny thing is, I am not even a big fan of chocolate or sweets in general.
I originally stumbled into the Oak Street store in search of a fountain Coke. I didn't get the Coke, but I picked up an incredibly tasty slice of bread (pumpkin, I think).
When I started doing reviews for Global Traveler magazine, I had to include Sarah's. Of course, in the review (archived on 3/25), I gave it 5 stars out of 5 stars (only because GT wouldn't let me give it 6 stars).
Sarah Levy opened her first store in 2005. Levy has met some celebrities over the years. I asked Levy to share one experience on Johngy's Beat.
In 2007, Martha Stewart was in Chicago to light the holiday tree at Macy's. It was the same day that Sarah's store inside of Macy's opened. Stewart and her associates enjoyed breakfast at Sarah's Oak Street store the following day.
After the review, someone asked me for my favorite cake from Sarah's. I immediately said the pumpkin creme brulee. Then I changed it to the lemon curd...then to the pistachio creme brulee...then to passion fruit. Finally, I just said all of them! Seriously, you can't go wrong at Sarah's.
I appreciate Sarah's willingness to share her story here. I appreciate her baked goods even more though!

Martha Stewart and Sarah Levy in Sarah's Pastries in Chicago, IL-November 2007.

New Sketch

Trying to keep this thing current... Even if it means just droppin sketches :). Anyways, heres a sketch I just did... Waiting on some emails so I can get back to client work.



annnnddd, I'm gonna keep leaving music links to whatever I mostly listened to while I worked... Mostly because it surely influences how fast I paint/subject matter(for the most part).

WOLF! Love this band! Theyre everything I love about metal... This album is the newer one, their older stuff is awesome as well(if you like this stuff).

Last Dream in the Morning

This manicure reminds me of something light and fragile, that will just fly away from you forever if you ll try to catch it.
The base color is Essie "Carousel Coral" - amazing color, that i love so much, but cant use often, since it goes with nothing from my cloths or accessories, and not in my color type pallet. But i still just love it, and enjoy it on my nails from time time

From my archives

Tonight's Sketch

Worked this up little under an hour tonight. I'm not happy that I can't finish it... but I'm in the middle of packing and working for me move. Hopefully soon I can work longer on these!



Painted to this :

Salvatore Bando, My Paisano

When I was growing up, the Oakland A's ruled the baseball world (until free agency destroyed the team). On a team filled with superstars and super characters, third baseman Sal Bando was the Captain and my favorite.
Bando was a 4 time All-Star during his 16 year career. He hit .254 with 242 home runs, 1039 RBI's and 982 runs scored. Those are pretty good numbers, especially for that era. Bando finished his playing career with the Milwaukee Brewers, where he also served several years as GM.
I met Bando at Waukesha Sports, where he was appearing with Ted Simmons, another of my childhood favorites. There are very few times I would drive 60 miles to meet a ball player, but I could not pass this combo.
Bando was extremely friendly. Much like I felt about Tony Esposito when I met him, I felt that Bando was like an Italian father. He was respectful and commanded respect by his mere presence, but he was also nice and talkative. He spoke fondly of the old A's. He seemed genuinely touched at the things people said while greeting him. It was a great experience meeting Bando.

Sal Bando and me in Waukesha, WI-Summer 2007.

Katie Price Has Large Breast Implants

Katie Price, otherwise known as Jordan, is a British actress / model who's known for her large breasts. As you can see in this photo from Cityrag she has some pretty big implants. According to Wikipedia, her breasts went from a B to an F but recently had them reduced back to a C. Although she hasn't become a big name here in the States, in the U.K. her net worth as a celebrity couple with her ex-husband was second only to Victoria and David Beckham (over $60 million!)

Thanks for reading.
Michigan-based Plastic Surgeon
Anthony Youn, M.D.:

Soooo Close

Continuing to pack boxes today and finish up what work I had left... Going to be officially moving on the 30th! It'll be great to move into the bigger space, its a 3 bedroom townhouse condo and I'm gonna treat the living room like a studio haha. Which means theres gonna be a fireplace :D! Living right at the start of the kancamangus highway in New Hampshire. Only a few towns away but just not being stuck in a 1 bedroom apartment working all day sounds awesome.

I've been getting some really great job offers lately and I'm finally starting to really enjoy putting in the hours for freelance. Not that I didnt before, but when you get work for subject matter you truly love then everything is way easier! Been doing this for 2 years or so now and moved twice across the country in that time. Time to just stop moving around so much so I can hopefully save some money hahaha.

Anyways, I'll try and do something before the 30th to post. Hopefully I can get something out but if not I'll be back on the 2nd or so :).

Btw - Go be somebody D:



don't 9-5 your fingers to the bone :)

In Memory of Michael Jackson

This is so so super sad. End of ERA.
But his music is forever in out hearts....
So this is my way of expressing my sadness, please no comments on this post.

Art in my studio

I thought you might like a glimpse into my studio. I have stuff everywhere! It makes me happy and I feel inspired when I work in my studio.

My art friend Delorse made this little sketch of my mug with paint brushes in it when she came to visit. She is a fabulous sketcher and really captures the essence of what she draws.

Seasons in the Sun

Connie Leander was Chris (Leander) Connole's younger sister. Much like Chris, Connie was a very good player. Connie usually batted 2nd and played 3rd base and she did both well.
Connie never worked for Lerner Newspapers. Therefore I have no work stories about her. I can tell you that having the Leander sisters comprising half of our infield certainly solidified our defense. When the Leander sisters brought their friend Cindy (aka Ninja Cindy), we had our best female portion of the lineup.

Connie Leander at Laramie Park in Skokie, IL-mid-1990's.

Summer Nails!

DON'T FORGET TO CLICK ON THE OLDER POSTS LINK AT THE BOTTOM OF THIS PAGE TO VIEW SEVERAL PAGES OF MY NAIL ART*********
This is aqua blue acrylic with white & silver mylar stars. I finished with a gel top coat. Now you're extra famous Ally!

Fourth of July rebel! This is a fun spin on fourth of July nails. The blue tiger stripes were painted on with polish.

These are little pink mylar flowers added into the acrylic. If you're a regular reader of my blog I'm sure you're not surprised that I added pink dots!

This is a fun design I did with mylar dots. I put a thin layer of acrylic on and then added the dots on top while it was still a little wet. Then I added clear acrylic on top of that. I finished with a gel topcoat for extra shine!

This is pink and white acrylic with little painted white dots as an accent. I did the ring fingers with an opposite color scheme of the other nails.

Go Skateboarding Day 2009 Recap Vans Skateparks

It was here and slipped away from us so fast. Good thing we can all hop on our boards any day of the year & celebrate our own Go Skateboarding Day when we want. Both skateparks in Orange, CA and Orlando, FL threw down on Go Skateboarding Day June 21st. With free skating, product tosses all day, a $200 Vans gift card High Ollie contest, and even a Van Doren BBQ at The Block...everyone had a great day. Winner's of the high ollie contest were Josh Knight in Orlando with a 30 inch ollie, and Dominique Sanders at The Block with a 33 inch ollie. Check the pictures.

CCS Grand Opening In Santa Monica, CA

Join AVE and Rowley tomorrow on 3rd street in Santa Monica for the CCS Grand Opening. We'll be bbq'n and givin away tons of free stuff so make it out if ya can!

World of Warcraft commission

Just finished this WoW commission for a player's character... Did two versions, one for me and one for the client. The other version has a day setting that wasn't in my original thumb, but a request. It didn't work as well so I didn't wanna put out a piece I wasn't exactly satisfied with... Its in the style of my previous WoW pieces.

Sunny Days in Midlothian with Tammy Sytch

As reported here earlier, Tammy 'Sunny' Sytch has had an interesting career. Sytch has been involved in wrestling since 1993, reaching her peak in 1996, as AOL's most downloaded female. She has overcome problems and tragedies during her career.
In recent years, Sytch has made a bit of a comeback. Appearances with the WWE (especially recently at WrestleMania 25) and other indy groups have put Sytch back on the wrestling scene. Sytch has also gained new fans from her appearances at various celebrity conventions.
When I met Sytch at a PCW event last year, she was in a great mood. She goofed around a bit as she posed and signed photos and generally left everyone more than satisfied.
PCW is a great place to meet wrestlers because they get some big names and they always do things the right way. The wrestling stars, like Ric Flair, Christian and Sytch, always seem happy to be there.

Tammy Sytch and me in Midlothian, IL-January 2008.

Silver Fantasy

This si another gradient that i made using zoya Kotori. It come up not that visible on the pictures, but in fact the gradient from dark dark blue to the lighter shade and glitter is in fact very noticeable, and even my friend asked me how i made this effect. The darker base is Zoya indigo, and then i put the layer of Zoya kotori starting from about 1/2 of the nail. Again, the koni on the top, helps to smooth the gradient.
More manicures are coming up this weekend, so stay tuned, for the review of the Zoya french manicure :)

Artist you should know about...

Meet Marcio Diaz. I met him at the Edmonds art festival this weekend. He paints circles,,,,,, and circles,,,,,, and circles..... I was captivated by the color and the intensity of the motion of the circles. So mesmerizing, so spiritual, so unique. I a have a special affinity to circles, so Marcio's work spoke to me. He was delightful and had a translator there so I could ask him questions.

The photos don't do his work justice. Look at all those beautiful circles!