I've been working on a few draft posts that aren't ready just yet. One is about vegan art supplies. Currently I'm homeschooling my son, he's in year 8 now. Doesn't time fly! I'm also studying doing Creative Arts, Design and CAD (architecture) and Research Project where my question relates to a vegan, ethical, eco, sustainable and organic bed and breakfast with self sufficient food garden and animal sanctuary. So I'm super busy and not much time for blogging.
Update 3 Jan 2021
I looked at this a few weeks ago and realized I hadn't posted anything about actually finishing my Creative Arts and Research Project subjects which I completed at the end of 2019.
I won't be re enrolling in Design and CAD at all as the major focus is on home schooling my son who is doing year 11 subjects since 2020.
My phone is broken so my Instagram is on hiatus for a while.
You can find me over on my Twitter which I access on my laptop @priscillacita.
I think there's some typos below which I intend to fix up but can't remember where they are and need to reread again at some point.
Update 20 Aug 2019: This blog post was from the 4th of July 2018.
Design and CAD
I am no longer doing Design and CAD and didn't finish the subject. I got stuck on my client, aka my mum, after I did all my materials research, we were thinking of building with hemp or hempcrete but I had spent a lot of time researching straw and saving a lot of pics for my design brief. Or she liked thatched roofs but we both liked terracotta and slate but eep the budget. Nothing was actually decided on. My sketches were too ambitious aka could take too long to create in revit or go over the budget. I had no idea what the budget was or how to calculate costs to see if it met the budget. I had too many ideas and sketches and couldn't figure out a floor plan I liked, to have basically a house for myself, my son and my mum and then somewhere else for the guests, an activity/event/workshop/class room/space, a kitchen that could be private for us but still be able to open up for hosting cooking classes and allow guests to mingle and be situated close or next to the activity room, a private lounge for us and a communal lounge for the guests, two formal dining rooms, one for us and one for guests or open up wall/door between them for bigger guest dining, a breakfast table private and separate from the kitchen for us but can be utilized for extra space for cooking classes.
I hate open plan kitchens. I grew up in an 80's home with open plan and I never liked it. I hate sitting at the dining table to eat a meal and there's just mess everywhere, dirty dishes, cooking pots etc. I really like the 60's style kitchens on vintage TV shows such as, I Dream of Jeannie and Bewitched but with maybe some kind of wall or door/s that could slide/fold or swing open or out of the way to open it up for cooking classes. I also like the widows that can open/close to a breakfast/cocktail bar with stools. When I was 11 years old my mum used to volunteer at and take me along to a Transcendental Meditation centre which was in a big old French Mansion. I loved that place. It had a kitchen window that could be slid closed. We'd have mint tea. That sparked my joy for enclosed kitchens, the antithesis to our house at the time. It also had window shutters out the front.
Anyway my design brief was getting a bit indecisive and I decided to withdraw from the subject as I realized I wasn't going to get that assignment and the next one done in time on top of my other two subjects and I'm happy to spend more time researching and brainstorming, doing more sketches, collecting more ideas and allowing time for things to settle in my mind of more precise details and overall vision as this is something I want to do in real life.
I did learn how to use the revit CAD programme and create renderings which the assignment was to create it in revit so I can still do that whether I re enrol to finish the subject or not. I would finish all the assignments before re enrolling so I don't run out of time again.
Creative Arts and Research Project
I didn't actually finish Creative Arts or Research Project either. I 96% finished Research Project but right at the end safari wasn't loading and google drive was doing crazy things to my documents and my iphone wouldn't upload photos of my organic gardening and bee hotel etc to the laptop so I didn't quite make it.
With Creative Arts I ran out of time to finish my 2 products and product folio. I spent too much time researching and waiting on return phone calls about whether certain art supplies were vegan or not and my teacher just said I wouldn't finish so the rest of the weeks I relaxed and just did more research for my sketches for my painting so I could re enrol and finish this year.
So this year right now I am working on finishing my Research Project subject and Creative Arts.
It was all going fine but I've run into some hiccups, the course time lines don't really allow for go at your own pace so I can home school my son, have a couple weeks off to get ready for my house inspections or even to spend much time doing housework in general or cooking as much as I used to like I did in 2017 where I would cook things that would take hours and lots of steps. Or even time for exercise and relaxing. I'm on the verge of I could finish these two subjects versus I have a house inspection and another homeschool review to prepare for. If I literally take time off doing homework to do those two other things or it takes me a bit longer to do those things there wont be enough time left in the year to finish my products and folio and I wont finish the subject again. My art teacher warned me she doesn't know how many times we're allowed to enrol in the same subject so if I don't finish this year I may not finish ever. Otherwise I was going to drop out over a month ago, finish all my work and then re enrol when everything is finished. I just thought at the start of this year I'm already dropping Design and CAD, I've already nearly finished the practical skills folio, I've already nearly finished the art movement investigation/enquiry, it's just the 2 products and folio it felt doable. Now I'm stressed out feeling like I'm going to run out of time again. I haven't even touched Research Subject at all this year. I've been attending lessons but only doing art homework. Yikes.
This is why there hasn't been a blog post since July last year. But I started a humongous draft blog about zero waste it could turn into a book over Christmas time. Then school started again.
If I don't finish this year, I am not re enrolling next year. I would finish everything and maybe enroll 2021 and just hand it up submit all my work and no classes. If I actually manage to finish this year would be a miracle and next year just home school my son and get back into my blog and set up my site and online shop.
Future second blog
Regardless we will be starting another blog different to this one as well as not instead of. It will be about vegan, eco, ethical, organic home schooling. He will be in year 10 next year and he is autistic, adhd and sleep disorder so our experience and content might be a bit different to other homeschool blogs. He will also be practicing some year 11 subjects and content to prepare for the year after. He's already doing year 10 level Japanese and Computer Technologies even though he's enrolled as a year 9. He's in a year 9/10 Japanese distance education online class. So he's quite advanced. It will be an exciting adventure so I'll share on here so anyone who is interested can follow the other blog as well. His big challenges we will focus on are time management, motivation, appropriate social behaviour/communication skills, positivity, self love/appreciation/self esteem and compassion/caring for others/kindness/sensitivity/gentleness. We're going to have an excursion to a local animal sanctuary so I'm looking forward to that.
Where you can find me online and what kind of content I do
I'm on Twitter but just using @priscillacita at the moment and Instagram @rag_doll_magazine I do a quick retweet here and there just to keep things going and post randomly once a month or once a week depending on what content I have to post.
You can also see our adopted rescue cats, Queen Latifah and Jemimah on there as well as vegan palm oil free food I make or buy (would love to create my own recipe book), eco nature travel photography by moi (which I'd love to turn into a calendar or coffee table book or artwork, sometimes I sketch from my photos artwork for fashion embroideries etc). Plus random niche purchases I've made such as vegan ethical footwear, vegan charcoal tooth powder, eco toothbrushes and books about reducing waste, green energy, eco architecture.
Update: I've just created a new Instagram account @vegan_art_community for vegan artists to share our work and support each other and our supporters. I've only put one post of my own to get things started. So I'll need to be able to share other vegan artists' work on there.
If you're a vegan artist (vegan art, using vegan art supplies only, living the vegan lifestyle) and would like to be featured please tag me on the art you'd like featured or use #veganartcommunity, or comment here.
If you're not a vegan artist please feel welcome to follow, like and become a supporter.
Update 20 Aug 2019: I'm now mainly on instagram and I have a new art account specifically for a fictional vegan cafe @officialelysiamfanclub
This is the account I go on everyday since I'm finding it a bit challenging gaining new followers. I have posted some of the artwork on my main account @rag_doll_magazine but only one or two people from there have followed. I think I might create a post with text in the pic to see if that helps.
I'd love if you're interested to please follow @officialelysiamfanclub on instagram, like my posts, comment and show your support there.
In Design and CAD I'm working on natural vegan materials and designing a bed and breakfast. Something I'd like to do for real one day but total lack of funds right now.
For Creative Arts I'm just continuing what I was working on prior to enrolling. I've been working on a fictional rag doll world and characters based on my vegan, ethical, eco, sustainable, organic niche. Two of my latest characters are maid cafe owners. Their vegan cafe/bakery/patisserie is a mix of Japanese, French and Thai. I've been working on a 12 page folio for it which will later become a colouring book. Right now I'm doing a 20 page folio and 2 products. They're either going to be a vegan cloth doll of one of my rag doll characters, a vegan canvas painting based on the maid cafe owners attending a sweet dessert candyland carnivale which reflects how life is, sweet on the surface and animal products and by products and exploitation which isn't always transparent for us to see. The other product is vegan embroidery patches which I am going to do regardless if it doesn't get done for the course. It's been great being busy and working on content and potential products and not just scheduling to pinterest or research but getting some actual work going/progress/done.
What happened to my website and future goals for another site
My site, ragdollmagazine.com is down. Think I didn't update my paypal details but I'm not worried or I was fine to let it lapse because I still have my blogger blog and I want a better site that I hope to work on next year with a stand alone shop not hosted by squarespace etc as in I'd like to look at a vegan webhosting provider or hire a vegan web designer or someone who can code a stand alone site (Please get in touch if you are a vegan web designer/coder who has the skills to help set up my bigger vision. Although I don't have any funds for that right now but I'd at least like to know so I can keep someone in mind when I'm ready or we could partner up and create a team if you're interested in sharing the vision and helping making things happen while being able to help others on their journey and passionate about helping animals, the planet and people.) so I can have an online shop where I would be able to put that money back into the costs of paying for hosting or setting up a stand alone online shop and possibly being able to reduce the item price or use that amount I can set aside for fund raising for other projects/purchasing supplies etc or donating to other worthy causes if I don't have to hand a percentage stall fee over to someone else. I'd also like to have an online magazine, not just a blog by itself. Way down the track I'd love to start a niche market place and online community (I'd definitely need someone with the skills to help me with those).
Creative Arts Colouring Book
Here's a sneak peak at the colouring book progress, somethings finished, others unfinished or need to fix up.
Update 20 Aug 2019: I've gone through my whole blog post and edited it to create some headings and bold and italic text as well as larger bold text.
There's a lot going on in this post and I wanted to give it some more structure and the bold to hopefully stand out and grab attention to the key keywords.
I hoped this might help if too much text feels overwhelming or time consuming. Plus for those who would rather just scan the post it would make it much easier and quicker as some of us have busy lives and haven't the time to really read as much.
I really needed to do some updates and felt like it needed to be in this blog post, not a new blog post since this one is the most recent post and out of date. I wanted to just pop in and edit the post heading but realized there's no point trying to make it go viral if the content is so outdated so it turned into more work and time than I was expecting. Now back to my homework and housework and maybe see you @officialelysiamfanclub on instagram ;)
Also I seem to be having trouble replying to comments so I'll have to reply within the post for now.
Thank you so much for the kind, flattering and encouraging comment! A much needed boost as I tend to doubt my abilities and have high expectations/standards. I'd love to be a professional writer. Good to know people are interested in what I am creating and hope that it is helpful as I'd like this to be an educational blog to help others on their journey :D
Design and CAD
I am no longer doing Design and CAD and didn't finish the subject. I got stuck on my client, aka my mum, after I did all my materials research, we were thinking of building with hemp or hempcrete but I had spent a lot of time researching straw and saving a lot of pics for my design brief. Or she liked thatched roofs but we both liked terracotta and slate but eep the budget. Nothing was actually decided on. My sketches were too ambitious aka could take too long to create in revit or go over the budget. I had no idea what the budget was or how to calculate costs to see if it met the budget. I had too many ideas and sketches and couldn't figure out a floor plan I liked, to have basically a house for myself, my son and my mum and then somewhere else for the guests, an activity/event/workshop/class room/space, a kitchen that could be private for us but still be able to open up for hosting cooking classes and allow guests to mingle and be situated close or next to the activity room, a private lounge for us and a communal lounge for the guests, two formal dining rooms, one for us and one for guests or open up wall/door between them for bigger guest dining, a breakfast table private and separate from the kitchen for us but can be utilized for extra space for cooking classes.
I hate open plan kitchens. I grew up in an 80's home with open plan and I never liked it. I hate sitting at the dining table to eat a meal and there's just mess everywhere, dirty dishes, cooking pots etc. I really like the 60's style kitchens on vintage TV shows such as, I Dream of Jeannie and Bewitched but with maybe some kind of wall or door/s that could slide/fold or swing open or out of the way to open it up for cooking classes. I also like the widows that can open/close to a breakfast/cocktail bar with stools. When I was 11 years old my mum used to volunteer at and take me along to a Transcendental Meditation centre which was in a big old French Mansion. I loved that place. It had a kitchen window that could be slid closed. We'd have mint tea. That sparked my joy for enclosed kitchens, the antithesis to our house at the time. It also had window shutters out the front.
Anyway my design brief was getting a bit indecisive and I decided to withdraw from the subject as I realized I wasn't going to get that assignment and the next one done in time on top of my other two subjects and I'm happy to spend more time researching and brainstorming, doing more sketches, collecting more ideas and allowing time for things to settle in my mind of more precise details and overall vision as this is something I want to do in real life.
I did learn how to use the revit CAD programme and create renderings which the assignment was to create it in revit so I can still do that whether I re enrol to finish the subject or not. I would finish all the assignments before re enrolling so I don't run out of time again.
Creative Arts and Research Project
I didn't actually finish Creative Arts or Research Project either. I 96% finished Research Project but right at the end safari wasn't loading and google drive was doing crazy things to my documents and my iphone wouldn't upload photos of my organic gardening and bee hotel etc to the laptop so I didn't quite make it.
With Creative Arts I ran out of time to finish my 2 products and product folio. I spent too much time researching and waiting on return phone calls about whether certain art supplies were vegan or not and my teacher just said I wouldn't finish so the rest of the weeks I relaxed and just did more research for my sketches for my painting so I could re enrol and finish this year.
So this year right now I am working on finishing my Research Project subject and Creative Arts.
It was all going fine but I've run into some hiccups, the course time lines don't really allow for go at your own pace so I can home school my son, have a couple weeks off to get ready for my house inspections or even to spend much time doing housework in general or cooking as much as I used to like I did in 2017 where I would cook things that would take hours and lots of steps. Or even time for exercise and relaxing. I'm on the verge of I could finish these two subjects versus I have a house inspection and another homeschool review to prepare for. If I literally take time off doing homework to do those two other things or it takes me a bit longer to do those things there wont be enough time left in the year to finish my products and folio and I wont finish the subject again. My art teacher warned me she doesn't know how many times we're allowed to enrol in the same subject so if I don't finish this year I may not finish ever. Otherwise I was going to drop out over a month ago, finish all my work and then re enrol when everything is finished. I just thought at the start of this year I'm already dropping Design and CAD, I've already nearly finished the practical skills folio, I've already nearly finished the art movement investigation/enquiry, it's just the 2 products and folio it felt doable. Now I'm stressed out feeling like I'm going to run out of time again. I haven't even touched Research Subject at all this year. I've been attending lessons but only doing art homework. Yikes.
This is why there hasn't been a blog post since July last year. But I started a humongous draft blog about zero waste it could turn into a book over Christmas time. Then school started again.
If I don't finish this year, I am not re enrolling next year. I would finish everything and maybe enroll 2021 and just hand it up submit all my work and no classes. If I actually manage to finish this year would be a miracle and next year just home school my son and get back into my blog and set up my site and online shop.
Future second blog
Regardless we will be starting another blog different to this one as well as not instead of. It will be about vegan, eco, ethical, organic home schooling. He will be in year 10 next year and he is autistic, adhd and sleep disorder so our experience and content might be a bit different to other homeschool blogs. He will also be practicing some year 11 subjects and content to prepare for the year after. He's already doing year 10 level Japanese and Computer Technologies even though he's enrolled as a year 9. He's in a year 9/10 Japanese distance education online class. So he's quite advanced. It will be an exciting adventure so I'll share on here so anyone who is interested can follow the other blog as well. His big challenges we will focus on are time management, motivation, appropriate social behaviour/communication skills, positivity, self love/appreciation/self esteem and compassion/caring for others/kindness/sensitivity/gentleness. We're going to have an excursion to a local animal sanctuary so I'm looking forward to that.
Where you can find me online and what kind of content I do
I'm on Twitter but just using @priscillacita at the moment and Instagram @rag_doll_magazine I do a quick retweet here and there just to keep things going and post randomly once a month or once a week depending on what content I have to post.
You can also see our adopted rescue cats, Queen Latifah and Jemimah on there as well as vegan palm oil free food I make or buy (would love to create my own recipe book), eco nature travel photography by moi (which I'd love to turn into a calendar or coffee table book or artwork, sometimes I sketch from my photos artwork for fashion embroideries etc). Plus random niche purchases I've made such as vegan ethical footwear, vegan charcoal tooth powder, eco toothbrushes and books about reducing waste, green energy, eco architecture.
Update: I've just created a new Instagram account @vegan_art_community for vegan artists to share our work and support each other and our supporters. I've only put one post of my own to get things started. So I'll need to be able to share other vegan artists' work on there.
If you're a vegan artist (vegan art, using vegan art supplies only, living the vegan lifestyle) and would like to be featured please tag me on the art you'd like featured or use #veganartcommunity, or comment here.
If you're not a vegan artist please feel welcome to follow, like and become a supporter.
Update 20 Aug 2019: I'm now mainly on instagram and I have a new art account specifically for a fictional vegan cafe @officialelysiamfanclub
This is the account I go on everyday since I'm finding it a bit challenging gaining new followers. I have posted some of the artwork on my main account @rag_doll_magazine but only one or two people from there have followed. I think I might create a post with text in the pic to see if that helps.
I'd love if you're interested to please follow @officialelysiamfanclub on instagram, like my posts, comment and show your support there.
In Design and CAD I'm working on natural vegan materials and designing a bed and breakfast. Something I'd like to do for real one day but total lack of funds right now.
For Creative Arts I'm just continuing what I was working on prior to enrolling. I've been working on a fictional rag doll world and characters based on my vegan, ethical, eco, sustainable, organic niche. Two of my latest characters are maid cafe owners. Their vegan cafe/bakery/patisserie is a mix of Japanese, French and Thai. I've been working on a 12 page folio for it which will later become a colouring book. Right now I'm doing a 20 page folio and 2 products. They're either going to be a vegan cloth doll of one of my rag doll characters, a vegan canvas painting based on the maid cafe owners attending a sweet dessert candyland carnivale which reflects how life is, sweet on the surface and animal products and by products and exploitation which isn't always transparent for us to see. The other product is vegan embroidery patches which I am going to do regardless if it doesn't get done for the course. It's been great being busy and working on content and potential products and not just scheduling to pinterest or research but getting some actual work going/progress/done.
What happened to my website and future goals for another site
My site, ragdollmagazine.com is down. Think I didn't update my paypal details but I'm not worried or I was fine to let it lapse because I still have my blogger blog and I want a better site that I hope to work on next year with a stand alone shop not hosted by squarespace etc as in I'd like to look at a vegan webhosting provider or hire a vegan web designer or someone who can code a stand alone site (Please get in touch if you are a vegan web designer/coder who has the skills to help set up my bigger vision. Although I don't have any funds for that right now but I'd at least like to know so I can keep someone in mind when I'm ready or we could partner up and create a team if you're interested in sharing the vision and helping making things happen while being able to help others on their journey and passionate about helping animals, the planet and people.) so I can have an online shop where I would be able to put that money back into the costs of paying for hosting or setting up a stand alone online shop and possibly being able to reduce the item price or use that amount I can set aside for fund raising for other projects/purchasing supplies etc or donating to other worthy causes if I don't have to hand a percentage stall fee over to someone else. I'd also like to have an online magazine, not just a blog by itself. Way down the track I'd love to start a niche market place and online community (I'd definitely need someone with the skills to help me with those).
Creative Arts Colouring Book
Here's a sneak peak at the colouring book progress, somethings finished, others unfinished or need to fix up.
Lolita pastel goth maids, Ely(se) and Sia, posing out the front of the vegan cafe, Elysiam
Also featuring pastel goth decorated sugar cookie on a pretty heart shaped tray and a manekineko split tail yokai lucky cat teapot. She's standing on her foot so I need to fix that. That accidentally happened when I was tracing an earlier sketch and I wanted to make them more joined at the hip though they are not conjoined twins like the famous Siamese twins I wanted to express their close sister like bond. Although it did help inspire the spelling of Elysiam instead of Elysium and in turn their character names and where the Thai theme for the cafe was sparked. This page is unfinished so I'll fix it up and finish later.
Sweet treats for the Elysiam Cafe window display
Dragon Fruit Cake
(inspired by a pineapple cake I saw on pinterest a few years ago)
Japanese edible blooming flower tea raindrop cake
Edible flowers include Jasmine, rose buds, and peony with tea leaves.
Muffin
This muffin features decorative piped icing, cream frosting, Thai inspired carved fruit but with the Japanese sakura blossom flower shape and Thai dessert, khao mao tod.
Cupcake
Featuring French macaroon with dripping style icing, Japanese manekineko lucky cat with katakana characters/text which translates to Elysiam. This cupcake also features a Thai dessert, khanom buang with added frosting and sprinkles on top.
I would love to finish my 12 page colouring book and set up a kickstarter or crowdfunding type thing where I could sell it to possibly help raise funds for a vegan bed and breakfast and animal sanctuary.
These are the kind of pics I post on @officialelysiamfanclub on instagram as well as behind the scenes sketches and inspiration pics, other Elysiam rag doll characters including doll versions of our adopted rescue cats, Jemimah and Queen Latifah which you can swipe across to see photos of them as the inspiration.
I love cake designing and recipe creating so these artworks I'd love to turn into a recipe book. Plus I've started working on a menu for the cafe and future recipe book too. I'm more of a savoury cook at home though. I usually just buy vegan cake when we go out. I've never decorated cakes and cookies and done fancy piping before so that would be a fun experiment. My dream oven would be a pretty pink or turquoise vintage style and large enough to cater for bed and breakfast guests or host cooking classes at the bnb.
There's a lot going on in this post and I wanted to give it some more structure and the bold to hopefully stand out and grab attention to the key keywords.
I hoped this might help if too much text feels overwhelming or time consuming. Plus for those who would rather just scan the post it would make it much easier and quicker as some of us have busy lives and haven't the time to really read as much.
I really needed to do some updates and felt like it needed to be in this blog post, not a new blog post since this one is the most recent post and out of date. I wanted to just pop in and edit the post heading but realized there's no point trying to make it go viral if the content is so outdated so it turned into more work and time than I was expecting. Now back to my homework and housework and maybe see you @officialelysiamfanclub on instagram ;)
Also I seem to be having trouble replying to comments so I'll have to reply within the post for now.
Thank you so much for the kind, flattering and encouraging comment! A much needed boost as I tend to doubt my abilities and have high expectations/standards. I'd love to be a professional writer. Good to know people are interested in what I am creating and hope that it is helpful as I'd like this to be an educational blog to help others on their journey :D
