http://Qiu-Ling.deviantart.com/journal/28496210/ http://Qiu-Ling.deviantart.com/journal/28496210/ Sat, 21 Nov 2009 20:04:34 PST
For now though, I wanted to direct your attention to the following photos:



This is a little girl I met up with in Angola. She had a massive facial tumor most likely caused by cancer. Dr. Foster originally planned to take a sample of it and send it back to Canada with us for diagnosis. When he got inside though, he found it connected by only a single tendril. So the tumor was removed, and we hoped it wouldn't return. Unfortunately, I found out from Dr. Foster today that this little girl ended up having very molignant and particularly aggressive cancer. She passed away in May 2009 - two months after I met her. She had been sick for only five months before the cancer claimed her life. She was only 9 years old. Please keep her in your hearts and prayers.

________________________________________ _

KIMONO-LOVERS CONTEST WINNERS:

FIRST PLACE:
Submitted by ShoShanaShira


Title: Hanami: Cherry Blossom Beauty

SECOND PLACE:
Submitted by The-Darkwolf



THIRD PLACE:
Submitted by Akai-Tenshi


________________________________________ _

MY ETSY SHOP

CHRISTMAS CARDS:


POSTCARDS:
http://Qiu-Ling.deviantart.com/journal/28341107/ Fri, 13 Nov 2009 20:14:31 PST
FIRST PLACE:
Submitted by ShoShanaShira


Title: Hanami: Cherry Blossom Beauty
Congratulations, you have been awarded 30 points in our ranking system. You've earned yourself another kimono! It's an Uncrested Tsukesage. This icon will now appear next to your name in the members list: You're winning deviation will also become the club's new featured deviation until the end of our next contest. Your image will be featured in Qiu-Ling's and Kurokami-Kanzashi's journal until January 2010. And you will recieve 5 pieces of kimono fabric for craft work.

SECOND PLACE:
Submitted by The-Darkwolf


Congratulations, you have been awarded 20 points in our ranking system. You've earned yourself another kimono! It's a Large Patterned Komon. This icon will now appear next to your name in the members list: Your image will be featured in Qiu-Ling's and Kurokami-Kanzashi's journal until January 2010. And you will recieve 2 pieces of kimono fabric for craft work.

THIRD PLACE:
Submitted by Akai-Tenshi


Congratulations, you have been awarded 10 points in our ranking system. You've earned yourself another kimono! It's a Large Patterned Komon. This icon will now appear next to your name in the members list: Your image will be featured in Qiu-Ling's and Kurokami-Kanzashi's journal until January 2010.

Let's have a round of applause for the winners!

________________________________________ _

MY ETSY SHOP

CHRISTMAS CARDS:


POSTCARDS:
http://Qiu-Ling.deviantart.com/journal/25275875/ Fri, 12 Jun 2009 15:25:12 PDT __________________________________________

KIMONO-LOVERS CONTEST VOTING!!!

Well everyone, I'm hosting the contest voting for the KIMONO-LOVERS club here. You're welcome to take a look at the entries and cast your vote for the winner!

If you are a club member, be sure to leave a comment under the poll so you can be awarded points. You don't have to state who you voted for, simply that you did in fact vote.


The KIMONO-LOVERS' "Hanami" contest:

For this contest, entrants were asked to create a kimono design or kimono related art work based on the them of Hanami: Cherry Blossom Viewing. Both traditional and non-traditional kimono designs were accepted.

CONTEST ENTRIES
In the order that entries were recieved.


Submitted by shadowgeisha


Title: Hanami


Submitted by Alexandra-chan


Title: Hanami Contest Entry


Submitted by The-Darkwolf

:
Title: Bushi Hanami


Submitted by ShoShanaShira


Title: Hanami: Cherry Blossom Beauty


Submitted by Akai-Tenshi


Title: Hanami


You can vote for the winner here: [link]

Voting will go on until June 18th, 2009.
____________________... ]]> *Qiu-Ling

http://Qiu-Ling.deviantart.com/journal/24968289/ http://Qiu-Ling.deviantart.com/journal/24968289/ Tue, 26 May 2009 19:30:14 PDT
Other than that, I've spent the last week working like a dog to get ready for Anime North 2009. This year, not only was I staffing in the Comic Market, I was also selling in the Crafter's Corner and curating the Kimono Display in the Art Room. The Kimono Display went smoothly eventhough we were missing one of the kimono... The komon was forgotten at home.

Anyways, for those of you who couldn't attend Anime North, or missed out on the Kimono Display - you can take the virtual tour:

http://Qiu-Ling.deviantart.com/journal/24585178/ Mon, 04 May 2009 14:24:58 PDT
Anyways, I thought I'd leave you all with a detailed telling of Royana's story (it's a long one!):

Royana's Story:
First, I'd like to introduce you to this adorable 2 and a half year old girl. Her name is Royana and she lives in Angola.

October 2007:
My mother and I were invited to travel to Africa with Dr. Michael Bentley-Taylor. You see, in a pervious trip he'd examined a 7 year olf boy named Jose who turned out to have a heart condition. After returning to Canada, he'd pitched Jose's case to Sick Children's Hospital and the Herbie Foundation in the hopes that Jose could come to Canada and recieve life saving surgery. Unfortunately, an ultrasound with moving pictures, rather than just still images was required to allow Jose to come to Canada. And so, Dr. Bentley-Taylor shelled out for a $60,000 portable ultrasound machine and invited my mother (a cardiac-ultrasound technician) to get the images required. I tagged along.

In Angola, we examined Jose - whose condition had severely worsened - along with a number of other individuals. Among these individuals we found 8 year old Edgar and 6 month old Royana. Both of these children were perfect candidates for Sick Children's Hospital and the Herbie Foundation. Royana had a congenital defect known as a Tetralogy of Fallot along with an overriding aorta.

November 2007:
Jose and Edgar's cases were presented to Sick Children's Hospital and they were approved to come to Canada for surgery. Royana's case was also presented, but she was not accepted immediately.

Spring 2008:
Jose came to Canada and his surgery was a success. Edgar, however, was not so lucky. At only 8 years old, he passed away while waiting for the Angolan government to issue him a travel visa to Canada.

Tuesday, March 10th, 2009
Dr. Bentley-Taylor was preparing for another trip to Angola, along with my mother and myself. He recieved news that Royana had been accepted for surgery at Sick Children's Hospital at the beginning of April. Time was short, but work began to bring her to Canada.

Thursday, March 12th, 2009
Our team left for Angola once more with high hopes for Royana who was not 2 and a half years old.

Sunday, March 15th, 2009
We arrived in Angola.

Monday, March 16th, 2009
We began work at the CEML hospital in Lubango. Royana and her mother have traveled down from Luanda to see us. We examined Royana and found that her condition had worsened. Though she looked and behaved like a healthy two year old, she was becoming cyanotic (having difficulty absorbing oxygen). Her fingernails and palms were turning which from lack of oxygen and she began to cough when she became too active.

Dr. Bentley-Taylor assigns Adam (a young man who'd been working with Drs. Foster and Collins in Angola for the passed 3 months) to head up Royana's case and begin the process of getting her a travel visa to Canada. He had an advantage over the rest of the team since he'd managed to learn Portugese during his 3 month stay in Angola (Portugese being the national language). Dr. Collins was doubtfull that we would success since it's a rare case to get a visa inside of 3 months in Angola, and we would have to do it in 2 weeks. Still, Adam set right to work.

Wednesday, March 18th, 2009
Adam had filed the neccessary paperwork for Royana's visa, and decided to appeal to the Canadian Consulate in Angola to help expedite the process. He wrote a letter detailed Jose's successful surgery and the sad story of Edgar who died before recieving his visa. He implored them not to let Royana suffer the same fate.

Unfortunately, we discovered that the consulate in Angola is only honourary and therefore of no help in getting Royana's visa. Instead, we had to contact the Canadian Consulate in South Africa. Why would the South African government care about helping an Angolan child? Who knows, but we'd have to try. So Adam got to work calling and emailing them only to recieve no response.

Thursday, March 19th, 2009
Our team flew out to the village of Kalukembe to provide medical assistance there.

That evening, Adam recieved a call from the Canadian Consulate in South Africa. They had agreed to expedite the process in issuing Royana's visa. The following week was an example of Adam's persistence and determination, along with the Canadian Consulate's political procrastination and beaurocracy.

Friday, March 20th, 2009
Still in Kalukembe, our team meets a 9 year old girl named Ruth. She has the same condition as Royana, though not as severe. Still, she will... ]]> *Qiu-Ling

http://Qiu-Ling.deviantart.com/journal/24101368/ http://Qiu-Ling.deviantart.com/journal/24101368/ Mon, 06 Apr 2009 19:51:51 PDT
Well, I thought I'd let everyone know that I've gotten a table in the Crafter's Corner at Anime North. So I WILL be there to sell kanzashi!

On another note, I will also be running the Kimono Display in the Art Room at the convention. I have big plans for that display - that is I would like to have one kimono of every formality level as well as a few special pieces. The majority of the show will consist of pieces from my personal collection, but there will be a few pieces from others as well.

So, it's here that I'd like to ask for some help. Most of my kimono are rather formal, so if anyone who will be attending the convention would like to lend me a kimono or two for the show it would be helpfull.

The formality levels I need are: Tsukesage, Iromuji and Irotomesode.

So if you have a Tsukesage, Iromuji or Irotomesode you'd like to contribute let me know!

Otherwise, I need some help deciding which of my pieces to put in the show. So I've created some poles for you to voice your opinions.

Which of my Houmongi would you like to see?

[link]

Which of my Furisode would you like to see?

[link]

Which of my Karinui would you like to see?

[link]

_________________________________________

CONVENTION AND TRAVEL SCHEDULE

May 4th - 17th
SPAIN - Sant Iago di Compostella pilgrimage

May 22nd - 24th
ANIME NORTH

June 29th - September 6th
KILLARNEY PROVINCIAL PARK
_________________________________________

MY ETSY SHOP

POSTCARDS
*Qiu-Ling

http://Qiu-Ling.deviantart.com/journal/23619601/ Mon, 09 Mar 2009 23:55:23 PDT
As I was setting up my table on the first day I had a rather fortuante meeting. An older Japanese man who had been setting up a booth for a kimono seller came to look at the things I was setting out.

All of a sudden he exclaimed, "Oh! You do tsumami kanzashi too!"

He went on to tell me that it was an art he used to practice as well. Unfortunately, due to arthritic hands he's been forced to stop. He still had much of his equipment though. He asked me if I've used habutai silk (which I have) and then offered to let me have the remaining silk fabric he has - it's pre-cut and dyed as well. He was even about to offer me all his left over hair pins and bira-bira when a woman he was working with reminded him that she wanted them.

The next bit of fun came as I started to put on my Chaya-Tsuji Furisode for the day.

http://Qiu-Ling.deviantart.com/journal/23137384/ http://Qiu-Ling.deviantart.com/journal/23137384/ Wed, 11 Feb 2009 11:37:41 PST
Wouldn't you know it, we made it up there for the warmest days of winter! Lucky us! XD

We arrived at the time of year for Ottawa/Gatineau's annual winter festival: Winterlude. Unfortunately we didn't get to participate in it at all being busy with the convention. Still, here's the ice sculpture at the front of the hotel where we stayed.



The convention was very small compared to others I've attended. Then again I'm accustomed to Anime North which is one of the larger conventions in North America. There were only about ten artists participating in the artists alley, and we shared the same room as the dealers.

At first I was nervous about attending such a small convention, since I wasn't sure if I would be able to break even in terms of sales and expenses. Thankfully I was able to come home in the black with a bit of a profit.

I sold a good deal of the kanzashi I brought with me, which means I will have to make more for Anime North in May.

We had a lot of fun this weekend, and one of my friends who lives in Gatineau even visited with us for a while.

I've actually volunteered to head up the kimono display at Anime North in May, and G-anime gave me the chance to talk to a few more fairly local people willing to lend kimono and give a helping hand with the display. I just hope, we can find some decent equipment to hang all the kimono. I plan to make the display very interesting and informative.

was actually one of the ladies who volunteered to help out. Here's a shot of her, in her lovely geiko coplay:



On Saturday, I wore my Mizuhiki hikizuri with my cream karabana obi. Unfortunately I forgot to pack my susoyoke, but luckily I had some reddish coloured pants to wear under the kimono, so it didn't look bad without the skirt. Besides, I was sitting behind my table most of the time.



Sunday's outfit consisted of my Tsuruhiki hikizuri with my new phoenix themed fukuro obi.



Originally I had brought these two kimono with plans to layer them, but with carrying things back and forth, and setting up and taking down, I found it was just too difficult to wear them layered. Also, when travelling to conventions I usually end up dressing in my kimono right there in the artists alley just because of the fact that we always have a lot of things to carry and I don't want to damage my kimono.

On another note, a few new items arrived from Japan while I was in Gatineau. I purchased a beautiful, elegant tsujigahana bolt on ebay a while back and it came in the mail. It's just gorgeous! And it will make a perfectly lovely kimono.

Otherwise, I also recieved a very beautiful golden sensu, a yellow hanhaba obi and the remnants of a purple taisho irotomesode, which I plan to use to add a hiyoku to my Kikuaya kimono when I repair it.



And to finish off, I just wanted to show all of you this AWESOME cosplay:


_______________________________________________

M... ]]> *Qiu-Ling

http://Qiu-Ling.deviantart.com/journal/23011439/ http://Qiu-Ling.deviantart.com/journal/23011439/ Wed, 04 Feb 2009 21:11:59 PST

MATTED PRINTS



PRINTS
http://Qiu-Ling.deviantart.com/journal/22715928/ Wed, 21 Jan 2009 15:06:29 PST [link]

You can see my kimono and kanzashi creations in my other gallery:

I'm likely going to post information on work in progress, making kimono and kanzashi, collecting kimono, kitsuke and art shows, conventions and festivals where I will be selling my work. Some of it is information that I will be posting in my other gallery, but I'm hoping to be able to go into more detail about things over there.

I hope you'll all find my blog informative and enjoyable!
_________________________________________

CONVENTION AND TRAVEL SCHEDULE:

February 7th and 8th, 2009
G-Anime in Ottawa (Gatineau), Canada
CONFIRMED

March, 2009
I will be returning to Angola, Africa for a week. I'll be working there at the hospital in Lubango again.

May 5th, 2009
I'll be going to Spain for a pilgrimage. I'll be hiking about 200km from Leones to Santiago di Compostello.

May 22nd - 24th, 2009
Anime North in Toronto, Canada
NOT CONFIRMED

Of course, I'm also hoping to spend another summer in Killarney after that, but that may not be possible this year.
_________________________________________

ITEMS IN MY ETSY SHOP:

POSTCARDS:
http://Qiu-Ling.deviantart.com/journal/22715266/ Wed, 21 Jan 2009 14:35:04 PST
First I will be attending G-Anime in Ottawa (Gatineau) on February 7 and 8.

Then in March I will be returning to Angola, Africa for a week. I'll be working there at the hospital in Lubango again.

At the beginning of May I'll be going to Spain for a pilgrimage. I'll be hiking about 200km from Leones to Santiago di Compostello.

And afterwards I'm hoping to attend Anime North as well on May 22nd - 24th. That has not yet been confirmed though.

Of course, I'm also hoping to spend another summer in Killarney after that, but that may not be possible this year.
_________________________________________

ITEMS IN MY ETSY SHOP:

POSTCARDS:


PRINTS:
http://Qiu-Ling.deviantart.com/journal/22378312/ Sat, 03 Jan 2009 16:53:24 PST
I'd like to thank everyone for the suggestions they gave in my "Tsumami Christmas" journal. There are a number of ideas I really would have liked to carry out, but that just didn't seem to be in the cards for me this year. Hopefully I'll get to try some out for next Christmas.
_________________________________________

ETSY UPDATES:

POSTCARDS:


PRINTS:
*Qiu-Ling http://Qiu-Ling.deviantart.com/journal/21365823/ http://Qiu-Ling.deviantart.com/journal/21365823/ Mon, 15 Dec 2008 13:17:59 PST [link]

These are the things I've got up for sale there now.

CHRISTMAS CARDS:


POSTCARDS:


PRINTS:
http://Qiu-Ling.deviantart.com/journal/21114313/ Wed, 22 Oct 2008 17:07:20 PDT
Unfortunately this means that some of the pieces in my gallery are up for retirement! Basically these are pieces that are now over five years old. So take a few minutes to say goodbye to these babies because they will be removed from my gallery at the end of the month. Then they can rest happily and peacefully in their retirement.

Up for retirement on January 1st:


Up for retirement on February 1st:


I do sell prints of some of these pieces (though not through DA), if you are interested in purchasing a print drop me a note.
_______________________________________________

Pictures from Summer and Fall in Killarney 2008:
[link]
_______________________________________________

Recent work for Mashkinonje Provincial Park:
http://Qiu-Ling.deviantart.com/journal/21006848/ Wed, 15 Oct 2008 18:58:01 PDT
And it was an awesome summer too! We did three search and rescues during August. Two of which ended well, while the other unfortunately didn't. The unbelieveable amounts of rainfall we had that month also meant that the beaver dams in the proulx marsh broke. Basically the entire Cranberry Bog drained, destroying a section of road, raising water levels in George lake a whole foot, and turning Chickanishing creek into a rushing river complete with rapids. I also managed to get up to Silver Peak for the first time in the four years that I've worked in Killarney. There were bears, deer, foxes, loons and moose... We even chased a bull moose at one point... We did plenty of canoeing and hiking, and a whole lot of bush whacking!

I've got tons of pictures to show you all. I've uploaded many of them to my flickr account, but there are lots more to come! Please, go take a look and read the stories that go with them!

Killarney Provincial Park 2008: [link]

Last month I also got a new kitty! He's only a few weeks old and he's having a great time bothing my older cat and dog. XD

Eventhough I'm home, my work for the Ontario Parks is actually continuing still. I'm doing some illustrations for Mashkinonje provincial park, and those will probably take me into next month. I'll also be going back to working at the ROM for a while soon.

On a sad note, though. My great uncle passed away this morning, so I'll be going to the States this weekend for his funeral. He was diagnosed with lung cancer just this July. I'm going to miss him a lot.

Thank you to everyone who favourited, and watched me while I've been gone. I appreciate it! It may take some time but I'll respond to note and questions again now that I'm home.

]]> *Qiu-Ling http://Qiu-Ling.deviantart.com/journal/20586147/ http://Qiu-Ling.deviantart.com/journal/20586147/ Sat, 20 Sep 2008 13:49:36 PDT
See you all when I get back!

---------------CONTEST WINNERS----------------


These are the winners for the True North Club's Spring Contest:

FIRST PLACE:
Submitted by Voyageur

:thumb87778137:
Title: Touch

SECOND PLACE:
Submitted by Portage Lackey

:thumb87778474:
Title: My Mom 2

THIRD PLACE:
Submitted by Salmon Skin Wearer

:thumb87777735:
Title: Trillium Triad




These are the winners of the Kimono-Lovers' geimyo contest

FIRST PLACE:
Submitted by Onagiri

:thumb87851028:
Title: Asagiri - Morning Mist

SECOND PLACE:
Submitted by see-through-silence

:thumb87860008:
Title: Kimono Cake

THIRD PLACE:
Submitted by myloko

:thumb87859189:
Title: Matsukaze's Dance

Lets hear a round of applause for the winners!

]]> *Qiu-Ling http://Qiu-Ling.deviantart.com/journal/18922032/ http://Qiu-Ling.deviantart.com/journal/18922032/ Fri, 20 Jun 2008 00:29:34 PDT
See you all when I get back!

---------------CONTEST WINNERS----------------


These are the winners for the True North Club's Spring Contest:

FIRST PLACE:
Submitted by Voyageur


Title: Touch

SECOND PLACE:
Submitted by Portage Lackey


Title: My Mom 2

THIRD PLACE:
Submitted by Salmon Skin Wearer


Title: Trillium Triad




These are the winners of the Kimono-Lovers' geimyo contest

FIRST PLACE:
Submitted by Onagiri


Title: Asagiri - Morning Mist

SECOND PLACE:
Submitted by see-through-silence


Title: Kimono Cake

THIRD PLACE:
Submitted by myloko


Title: Matsukaze's Dance

Lets hear a round of applause for the winners!

]]> *Qiu-Ling http://Qiu-Ling.deviantart.com/journal/18781039/ http://Qiu-Ling.deviantart.com/journal/18781039/ Wed, 11 Jun 2008 09:26:28 PDT
My photo "Twilight Phantoms" just got published in Mountain Life Magazine! This is the first time I've ever had one of my photos printed in an official publication.

The magazine is printed quarterly and discusses various hiking trails, camping and outdoor activities. There are two versions of the publication - one which focuses on the British Columbia Rockies and on which focuses on the Georgian Bay Region. Anyways, the Georgian Bay publication ran a story about hiking the 80km La Cloche Silhouette trail in Killarney and I was invited to contribute my photo for the article. I can't wait to get my printed copy of the magazine!

Anyways, this is the photo that was printed:


And here's a link to the online version of the article entitled "Good Near-Death Memories" Soloing Killarney's La Cloche Silhouette Trail:
[link]

I find it a bit ironic, that the photo I contributed was not even taken on the La Cloche trail, it was taken on Granite Ridge. Anyways, if you'd like to see more photos of the La Cloche trail here are a few:


I'm hoping I can try the whole trail myself this year. Maybe in August or September. So far I've only gone various distances on either end. If I can't do the whole trail I'd at least like to get to Little Superior Lake and Silver Peak.

_________________________________________________

UP FOR SALE IN MY ETSY SHOP:

KANZASHI:
[link] [link]
[link] [link]
[link]

PRINTS:
[link] http://Qiu-Ling.deviantart.com/journal/18546713/ Wed, 28 May 2008 16:09:14 PDT
On another note, I'm now closed for commissions until September. If you've already commissioned me and I have yet to finish your piece, I will continue working on it. However, I will not be taking any new commissions because I'll be heading up north again in a few weeks.

Otherwise, here are the things I've got listed on Etsy right now!

KANZASHI:
[link] [link]
[link] [link]
[link] [link]

PRINTS:
[link] [link]
[link] [link]
[link] [link]

There are also a couple of older prints which I no longer have online:
Autumn Fairy: [link]
Forgotten Angel: [link]

]]> *Qiu-Ling http://Qiu-Ling.deviantart.com/journal/18423030/ http://Qiu-Ling.deviantart.com/journal/18423030/ Tue, 20 May 2008 21:20:27 PDT
For anyone who may be attending and is interested, here are the things I'll be selling in the Artists Alley:

KANZASHI


As well as a few other things I don't have pictures of at the moment

PRINTS
http://Qiu-Ling.deviantart.com/journal/18423017/ Tue, 20 May 2008 21:19:16 PDT
Anyways, just thought I'd do a little con report for all of you!

First off ACEN was a bit of a bust in terms of sales for me, but still a whole lot of fun nonetheless. There was a massive registration fiasco on the first day. People were standing in line to register for as much as 12 hours! It was all because the computer registration system crashed and they didn't have a back up plan. So, when the Artist Alley closed for the evening on Friday a good deal of the convention attendees were still in line waiting to get in! There was also a mix up with our seating request. 4y4m3, neomonki and I were all supposed to be sitting together as a group, but 4y4m3 asked for a power hookup and neomonki didn't, not knowing it would mess up our plans. So unfortunately neomonki got seated across the isle and around the corner from me and 4y4m3. A good deal of our communication ended up being us screaming to get the other's attention and then sending a runner between the tables. XD

Here's a photo of the table that 4y4m3 and I shared.


And some pics of the kanzashi I brought with me to sell. Unfortunately I brought a lot of them home with me afterwards too...


On Friday I decided to wear my Africa Yukata out for the first time. Unfortunately it was a little on the chilly side for yukata this weekend.


As seems to be the tradition at conventions for us, we ate very little that day and were extremely famished by the time the Alley closed. So we decided to order some Chinese food. Now, I'm sure there are some good Chinese restaurants somewhere in the States, but I've yet to find one. The food we got was overcooked and bland, but we were so hungry we gobbled it up anyways. There was a bit left over so we put it in the bag on the floor intending to leave it outside for trash in the morning. Unfortunately we forgot to do that and the food stayed in the bag on the floor all of Saturday.

On Saturday 4y4m3 and I dressed up in furisode. She wore the sakura furisode I'd made for her last year and I wore my taisho furisode. Here's a photo of me, 4y4m3 and neomonki.


This was a weekend of firsts in terms of the kimono I wore. I like to wear all of my kimono out of the house at least once, so all the pieces I brought with me made their debut in public this weekend.

I also got to meet up with a few members from the Immortal Geisha forums this week and I chatted with a very pretty maiko who came to my table. She made her wisteria kanzashi herself and it's absolutely beautiful! She said she made it using plain old white glue! Anyways, eventhough I got a couple of photos of her - and with her - I'm sort of kicking myself now that I forgot to ask her name.


Anyways, after the Alley closed, 4y4m3 ran off to check out a Suikoden cosplay photo shoot. Neomonki and I however did something really stupid... Starving yet again, we went back at the Chinese food that had been out all day. Big mistake... and my stomache let me know it. I'm just happy I didn't end up with horrible food poisoning, only something that some tea fixed right up.

Sunday w... ]]> *Qiu-Ling http://Qiu-Ling.deviantart.com/journal/18323984/ http://Qiu-Ling.deviantart.com/journal/18323984/ Wed, 14 May 2008 16:34:16 PDT
For anyone who may be attending and is interested, here are the things I'll be selling in the Artists Alley:

KANZASHI


As well as a few other things I don't have pictures of at the moment

PRINTS
*Qiu-Ling http://Qiu-Ling.deviantart.com/journal/17500302/ http://Qiu-Ling.deviantart.com/journal/17500302/ Mon, 24 Mar 2008 20:52:36 PDT

For the moment I've only listed a few items, because I haven't really tried the site out yet. Please feel free to check out my shop: [link]

These are the items I have posted so far:

"Little Nanohana" 3 hair pins available [link]


"Nanohana Kanzashi Set" 1 set available [link]


"Pink and Willow" 1 hair pin available [link]


"Red Riding Hood Pair" - SOLD [link]


"Strawberry Shortcake" - SOLD [link]


"Fuji Musume" 2 prints available [link]


"Mokuren" 2 prints available [link]


"Spirit Wolf" 3 prints available [link]


"Soft is the Song 5 prints available [link]


Some of 's Suikoden Doujins are on ebay as well:

"Sonata" 12 copies available [link]


_________________________________________________________

My kanzashi / kimono gallery:
http://Qiu-Ling.deviantart.com/journal/16819890/ Thu, 13 Mar 2008 21:25:23 PDT [link]

So far there are only a couple of things up there:

"Fuji Musume" 2 prints available [link]


"Little Nanohana" 3 hair pins available
[link]


"Nanohana Kanzashi Set 1 set available [link]


I will eventually be adding all of the following as well:

"Mokuren" 2 prints available


"With One Look" 3 prints available


"Kisetsu and the Four Seasons Robe" 3 prints available


"Phoenix Dragon" 3 prints available


"Butterfly Maiden" 3 prints available


"Knot Fairy" 2 prints available


"Qi-Ling" 9 prints available


"Midnight Hunt" 3 prints available


"Swan Maiden" 5 prints available


"The Lady of Lindisfael" 3 prints available


"August" 2 prints available
<... ]]> *Qiu-Ling http://Qiu-Ling.deviantart.com/journal/15849398/ http://Qiu-Ling.deviantart.com/journal/15849398/ Sat, 08 Dec 2007 13:57:58 PST
If anyone's interested I've got my photos from Angola posted on flickr: [link]
(yahoo forced me to get a flickr account, so I figured I'd better put it to good use)

Anyways, I have a few more stories to tell you all. Most of these ones have to do with loss and how the human spirit can either be resiliant in the face of it, or can completely succumb to it.

Before I get into the stories though, I'd like to attract your attention to this photo by Dr. Bently Taylor:

I'd like you all to meet Edgar. He was one of the little children we met in Angola. Originally, our cardiology team was going to Africa specifically to examine a little boy who we were trying to get to have heart surgery at Sick Children's Hospital here in Canada. While we were there, we found three more children who could use surgery. There were two little girls and Edgar here. Well, after returning from Angola, we pitched the cases of all four children to Sick Children's Hospital. To our great joy, last month we discovered that they were all accepted and that perparations were underway to bring them all to Canada. I felt so happy to know that Edgar would get the treatment he needed. Then, last week, we got an e-mail from Angola. Edgar had passed away before even getting the chance to come for treatment. I hope you'll all keep him in your hearts and prayers. He was such a little sweetheart; given to smiles and laughter. He was only 8 years old.


For the first story, I'd like to direct your attention to another photo. [link]

Pastor Eduardo
There's a man lying on the operating table in that photo. He's the pastor of one of the local churches in Lubango. A number of years ago he was unfortunate enough to tread on a landmine. As a result his right leg is prosthetic from the knee down. As if that weren't enough, he suffered multiple bouts of malaria and was eventually blinded by the physicians who were supposed to be helping him. He was given a drug called quinine. It's something your body doesn't get rid of - it just accumulates with each dose. The doctors who were treating him, knew full well that he'd been given this drug multiple times, but they continued to administer it to him until finally the accumulated dose caused his blindness. And now, here he was at the CEML hospital, in need of a pacemaker - and the pacemaker didn't want to catch. The amazing thing about this man, it that throughout all his suffering and personal loss, he has not lost his faith - and in fact retains it all the more devotedly. He may be blind with one leg and a bad heart, but he has hope and happiness - something I've noticed that a good deal of his fellow Angolans share, regardless of their day to day struggles.


Head Nurse Antonio; the man who walked 7000 miles
Let me tell you a little bit about the hospital in Kalukembe. Some time ago, it had doctors which were permanently on staff, but over the years doctors have become more and more scarce in that region. Now they have none. The hospital is run entirely by nurses. And organizing it all is a man named Antonio. He worked at the hospital in Kalukembe even before the civil war began. When the war broke out and the rebels took over the hospital, Antonio took his family and fled the town. The walked for months through barren, landmine ridden terrain towards the Republic of Congo. Their hope was to claim refugee status in Congo and wait out the war, at the boarder however, they were turned away. And so, Antonio and his family (not knowing what else to do) began walking back - this time heading for one of Angola's larger cities. By the end of it, they'd walked some 7000 miles and survived many hardships. Now, they'd hoped to find safety among the missionaries in the city. There Antonio continued his work as a nurse, but one day he recieved some terrible news. His wife and daughter had both been killed. They'd been riding in the back of a Red Cross van. As the van drove down the road passed some soldiers, the soldiers simply raised their guns and opened fire on it. Injured, the driver crashed the van. Antonio's wife and daughter were killed instantly. Witnesses at the scene say that the poor driver - his legs crushed - tried to crawl his way out of the wreckage and to safety. Seeing this a soldier walked up to him.

The driver cried, "Why did you do this!? Can't you see we're from the Red Cross!? we're here to help people! What harm... ]]> *Qiu-Ling http://Qiu-Ling.deviantart.com/journal/15837123/ http://Qiu-Ling.deviantart.com/journal/15837123/ Fri, 07 Dec 2007 16:18:55 PST ________________________________________


The True North Club: Maple Leaf Contest

First Place
Submitted by: Aimelle


Camouflage

Second Place
Submitted by: Wimchomble


Red Maple Leaves

Third Place
Submitted by: hugznstuff


A Touch of Frost
________________________________________


The KIMONO-LOVERS club: African Kimono Contest

First Place
Submitted by: Qiu-Ling


Mukubal Kimono

Second Place
Submitted by: Tenshi-blues


African Kimono

Third Place
Submitted by: apple-pai


African Kimono
________________________________________


The Spartan-II-Project: Off to Africa Contest

First Place
Submitted by: HylianAlchemist13


Road Trip to Africa *Qiu-Ling http://Qiu-Ling.deviantart.com/journal/15697595/ http://Qiu-Ling.deviantart.com/journal/15697595/ Tue, 27 Nov 2007 17:51:12 PST
Dr. Collins' Angel
Dr. Steve Collins has been working as a doctor in various poor countries for many years. Now, Dr. Collins was never one who believed in angels taking physical form, but this was one event that made him wonder a little.

Years ago, he found himself in a place where there was a good deal of hostility between Muslims and Christians. One evening as he worked in the operating room of a mission hosplital, riots broke out in the city. As he worked, a group of Muslim rioters came to the gate of the hospital. Dr. Collins looked up to see all the nurses running through the hallways. He went outside to see what was happening. He found the nurses armed with mops and whatever they could find, defending the hospital gate. Suddenly a man stepped forward from behind Dr. Collins. He was dressed in white Muslim garb. No one knew where he'd come from or who he was, but without fear he walked up to the hospital gate. There he told the nurses to open the gate. Reluctantly they agreed. This man stood before the mob, raised his hand and said simply, "Go home." At his words, the mob dispersed and left the hospital alone. Dr. Collins and the nurses turned to thank this man only to find that he'd disappeared. Again, no one knew where he'd gone, but the doctors and nurses were all left with a deep sense that something had intervened on their behalf and saved them from the rioting crowd.

"It's not the sight that's important. It's the Light"
Dr. Collins specializes in Opthemology. He quite regularly performs cataract surgery that returns the gift of sight to people who have be blind for many years - in some cases since birth. Once he found himself having a string of incredible successes. So, as he performed the surgery on one elderly woman he was entirely convinced that his success would continue. After the surgery he told the nurses which medications to administer and allowed his patient to recouperate. A couple of days later he went in to check on the elderly lady's progress. He removed the bandages and asked her what she could see.

"Doctor, I can't see anything" was her response.

Dr. Collins waved his hands in front of her face, shone his little light into her eyes and asked again what she could see.

Again she answered, "Doctor, I can't see anything."

At this Dr. Collins was quite exasperated. Her surgery was routine - it should have been successful. He began to berate the nurses for not giving her proper post op care and decided to return again in a couple of days.

When Dr. Collins returned again, he took off her bandages and asked again, "What can you see?"

Once more, her response was, "Doctor, I can't see anything."

Dr. Collins began to get flustered yet again.

Suddenly, this woman asked him, "Doctor, what are you so upset about?"

He answered, "You should be able to see! I should have restored your sight with this operation."

Then the elderly woman replied, "Doctor, I've been blind for 10 years. The fact that I'm still blind makes no difference to me. Besides, I have a light that has held my hand and guided me every step of the way. His name is Jesus. Doctor, do you know Him?"

At that Dr. Collins was immediately humbled by this woman. She had taught him that indeed "It's not the sight that's important. It's the Light."

The Tilley Hat
“I’ve had two Tilley Hats in my life and both of them were stolen! Once I even came across this guy way out in a rural town wearing a Tilley hat. So I asked him where he got it. He said he got it at the market. I asked him if I could see it and sure enough when I looked inside my initials were written on the brim! Anyways, I knew this man - and that he was honest, so I didn’t say anything, because he probably paid a good deal for it if someone sold it to him at the market.”

]]> *Qiu-Ling http://Qiu-Ling.deviantart.com/journal/15378855/ http://Qiu-Ling.deviantart.com/journal/15378855/ Mon, 05 Nov 2007 15:19:12 PST
Anyways, it was definitely quite the experience. We saw a lot of interesting people and places. We worked hard and hopefully we helped a lot of sick people in the process.

Angola is a very different place from Canada. It's one of the poorest nations in Africa and there's a good deal of corruption there. Clean water and good food is a luxury to many people there. Yet, despite all their difficulties, the people are remarkably hopeful, happy and spiritually rich.

I wanted to tell you all some of the anecdotes I heard in Africa - the people I met there were just so incredible! But they ended up being quite long, so maybe I'll space them out over a little while.

Anyways, I guess I'll let you know a little about Kalukembe today. I spent most of my time in Lubango, but for a couple of days we took a bush plane out to the village of Kalukembe. There we spent some time working at the town hospital. We took the bush plane because Dr. Bently Taylor (the man who'd organized this trip) had been involved in a fundraiser that would pay for doctors to be flown out to various remote locations. In the passed, they'd driven to Kalukembe, but the roads were littered with truck sized pothols caused by wartime landmines - Angola's civil war had only just ended about 5 years earlier. This meant that voyage usually took more than 10 hours by road. Driving on the road in Angola is like off roading in North America. Anyways, here are a couple of stories about the history of Kalukembe and the doctors who accompanied us to work there.

Dr. Stephen Foster
”Dance”
Just a few years ago, Angola was embroiled in civil war. Dr. Stephen Foster was living and working in Angola during the war. In Kalukembe there had been a hospital with nurses quarters near by. At that time it was quite common for rebels to come by in trucks and simply take the male nurses from the hospital and force them into the war.

Now, this was something that Dr. Foster never mentioned, but some years later his wife found out that he’d often stood in the path of the rebels, defending the hospital nurses which could have been forcibly taken. On one occasion he’d even had to “dance” for the rebels as they shot at his feet.

Dr. Steve Collins
A Place for Healing
Dr. Collins also worked in Angola during the civil war. He too was in Kalukembe - and was in fact working when fighting broke out in the town. He remembers being in the hospital when all of a sudden gunfire began to ring through the air. A group of soldiers had opened fire on the hospital. He couldn’t believe it but as most of the staff scrambled for cover one patient ran out into the crossfire yelling, “Don’t shoot! Don’t shoot! This is a hospital!”

Despite the fact that it was a place built for healing and humanitarian aid. The hospital in Kalukembe was not spared from the war. In fact it was bombed and nothing remains of the old hospital but ruins. In the years since the war another hospital has been built in Kalukembe and my group went to work there on this trip. Don’t expect a state of the art facility, though. It is very much a third world hospital. I also photographed the ruins of the old hospital and I'll be sure to post those here for you.

]]> *Qiu-Ling http://Qiu-Ling.deviantart.com/journal/15075515/ http://Qiu-Ling.deviantart.com/journal/15075515/ Mon, 15 Oct 2007 15:33:19 PDT
]]> *Qiu-Ling http://Qiu-Ling.deviantart.com/journal/14761863/ http://Qiu-Ling.deviantart.com/journal/14761863/ Sun, 23 Sep 2007 17:25:32 PDT
And guess what! Heh heh... Turns out I'm going to Africa next month! This kind of came up a few of weeks ago while I was still in Killarney. I'll be going there through a combination of World Vision and Doctors Without Boarders. Basically I'm going to spend three weeks working as a pre-med student at a hospital in Angola. And if I've got enough money left after the Africa trip, I'm hoping to organize a trip to India through the sisters at my church. They run an orphanage there and have expressed an interest in getting me to work with them - so we'll see. If I can't manage an India trip this year, I'll find a way to go next year! XD

Anyways, that aside... I'm home for a month! So this means the watch list is reactivated and I've got lots of stuff to upload. I've taken literally hundreds of pictures since I left in June, but I'm probably not going to spam all your accounts with them. I'll likely upload my absolute favourites here and post the rest on flickr. I'll eventually post a link to them for any of you that might like to see them.

Besides photos I've done quite a bit of artwork too. I did a new painting for the La Cloche art show. Unfortunately the show was a bit of a bust for me. I was able to make back my entry fee by selling postcards, but apparently all the big spenders didn't come until Sunday evening - at which point I'd already packed up all my stuff because I needed a ride back to the park for work. However, one of the paintings from my "Soft is the Song" series is now on consignment at the Friends of Killarney gift shop. So maybe I'll get a nice surprise this fall. I'll probably end up posting a copy of that one here, seeing as I may never see the original again.

Speaking of "Soft is the Song" - that reminds me I've got to talk to some publishers about my book of Canadian folk songs. I had the prototype book on display with me at the art show and I had about 20 people ask me if they could buy the book on the spot - so I think I'd better get it published. XD

Because of an accident in the park over the summer I ended up doing some "isolation" work. Basically I was temporarily replacing someone who worked at one of our more remote access points. This means that I had lots and lots of time to finish some nice mixed media pieces - I've got a new St. Michael for you! I figured the old one I've had on my main page for the passed few years is showing its age.

My long awaited kimono making tutorial is also well under way. I've finished roughs for most of the drawings. They’ll be traced and refined in illustrator for the final tutorial, but before that, I’ve bought a lovely karinui furisode and a cute komon bolt on which I can test out the tutorial and work out any kinks. Photos of the sewing process will also be taken and used alongside the drawings. I’ll likely start that sewing project soon. The tutorial will feature instructions on making a fully lined authentic Japanese kimono.

]]> *Qiu-Ling http://Qiu-Ling.deviantart.com/journal/13233253/ http://Qiu-Ling.deviantart.com/journal/13233253/ Tue, 05 Jun 2007 20:50:43 PDT
So this means that my watchlist will be deactivated until I get back. ANY COMMENTS OR NOTES SENT TO ME WILL NOT BE ANSWERED UNTIL I RETURN IN SEPTEMBER!

It's going to be a busy summer! I'll spending a couple of weeks in Greece and Turkey first. As soon as I get back I'm motoring it up to Killarney for work. I'll be down in Cleveland for a wedding in July. Then back up to Killarney. And then maybe a roadtrip down to Nebraska in September. And finally home again! WEE!

I'll also be exhibiting and selling original work and prints in the La Cloche Art Show in Killarney. That would be in July. The original pieces from my "Soft is the Song" book that I'm hoping to publish will be for sale. That includes this loon painting: [link] There will also be prints of "O'er Quartzite Cliffs" [link] and postcards featuring a number of my photos.

Oh, and just cause I think it's funny...
headed up to Killarney to start his contract the other day. And here I find out from the Weather Network that there's been snow up near that latitude.
That's right, snow - in June. XD

----------------KIMONO-LOVERS first contest winners!------------------
Hey everyone, I'm featuring the top three placers in my kimono club's first contest here!

CONTEST PREMISE:
In honour of the wonderful season of spring, entrants were asked to design some spring kimono. Now, seasonal motifs are very important on kimono, so a list of spring motifs were provided. Designs could be either traditional or non-traditional but MUST include at least one of the listed spring motifs.

Designs could be in any format desired by the entrants.

SPRING MOTIF LIST:
Ayame - Irises
Botan - Peonies
Chou - Butterflies
Fuji - Wysteria
Kujaku - Peacock
Mokuren - Magnolia
Momohana - Peach Blossoms
Nonoahana - Rape Blossoms
Ran - Orchids
Takenoko - New bamboo shoots (not usual bamboo leaves those are for winter)
Sakura - Cherry Blossom, Falling sakura petals
Suisen - Daffodils

CONTEST WINNERS!:

First Place:
"kimono spring"
By:
[link]
- You will be awarded 30 points
- Your design will be featured in Qiu-Ling, and Kurokami-Kanzashi's journals from the date that voting closes until September.
- Your design will become the club's featured deviation until the end of our next contest
- You will recieve a 1 month paid subscription to DA
- You will recieve a free Haru Bookmark courtesy of Qiu-Ling. Please send the club a note with your mailing address to claim this prize.

Second Place:
"botan no kujaku"
By
[link]
- You will be awarded 20 points
- Your design will be featured in Qiu-Ling, and Kurokami-Kanzashi's journals from the date that voting closes until September.
- You will recieve a 1 month paid subscription to DA
- You will recieve a free Haru Bookmark courtesy of Qiu-Ling. Please send the club a note with your mailing address to claim this prize.

Third Place:
Fuji Musume
By *Qiu-Ling http://Qiu-Ling.deviantart.com/journal/13219768/ http://Qiu-Ling.deviantart.com/journal/13219768/ Mon, 04 Jun 2007 19:17:06 PDT
CONTEST PREMISE:
In honour of the wonderful season of spring, entrants were asked to design some spring kimono. Now, seasonal motifs are very important on kimono, so a list of spring motifs were provided. Designs could be either traditional or non-traditional but MUST include at least one of the listed spring motifs.

Designs could be in any format desired by the entrants.

SPRING MOTIF LIST:
Ayame - Irises
Botan - Peonies
Chou - Butterflies
Fuji - Wysteria
Kujaku - Peacock
Mokuren - Magnolia
Momohana - Peach Blossoms
Nonoahana - Rape Blossoms
Ran - Orchids
Takenoko - New bamboo shoots (not usual bamboo leaves those are for winter)
Sakura - Cherry Blossom, Falling sakura petals
Suisen - Daffodils

CONTEST WINNERS!:

First Place:
"kimono spring"
By:
[link]
- You will be awarded 30 points
- Your design will be featured in Qiu-Ling, and Kurokami-Kanzashi's journals from the date that voting closes until September.
- Your design will become the club's featured deviation until the end of our next contest
- You will recieve a 1 month paid subscription to DA
- You will recieve a free Haru Bookmark courtesy of Qiu-Ling. Please send the club a note with your mailing address to claim this prize.

Second Place:
"botan no kujaku"
By
[link]
- You will be awarded 20 points
- Your design will be featured in Qiu-Ling, and Kurokami-Kanzashi's journals from the date that voting closes until September.
- You will recieve a 1 month paid subscription to DA
- You will recieve a free Haru Bookmark courtesy of Qiu-Ling. Please send the club a note with your mailing address to claim this prize.

Third Place:
Fuji Musume
By
[link]
- I was awarded 10 points

]]> *Qiu-Ling http://Qiu-Ling.deviantart.com/journal/12250813/ http://Qiu-Ling.deviantart.com/journal/12250813/ Mon, 19 Mar 2007 20:07:49 PDT would end...

My choir; The Sacred Music Society is officially dissolved. We've been barely scraping by for about a year. It's hard to be a not-for-profit organization without a strong donor base. We tried to overhaul our spending, fund raising, management etc. and it wasn't enough. We've run out of money.

I can't believe this is happening...

It's been a long time since I've been so upset that I feel physically sick. I can't possibly tell you how much this choir meant to me. And it's not a matter of just finding another place to sing. Another choir just wouldn't be the same. I don't know how to explain to you why that is the case - but it is. The idea of not having this inspiration, of not having those incredible people in my life is just horrible!

I remember when we first began to face the end of the choir - it wasn't too long ago. We were getting together to sing Mozart's Coronation Mass. The thought that I would no longer be a part of that music - that glorious music, with those wonderful people filled me with such sorrow. We performed the mass - we performed it gorgeously! And at the end a fellow chorister came up to me and said, "This could be the last time..."

And it was.

We had rehearsed shortly before that mass. We sang a few of the opening chords of the "Gloria" and suddenly the choir director waved us to stop. He looked at us with such conviction and told us that no matter what happens, we should put our faith in God because "Beauty like this will never die." And though it will never die, it hurts so much not to be a part of it anymore.

I can still remember the very first time I performed with this choir. It was 500 voices strong, Canada's largest choir. We had a full orchestra supporting us, four soloists and an audience of 2,000 people. We were performing Handel's Messiah. We finished the programme with the famous Hallelujah chorus. As soon as the piece began the entire audience rose to its feet. All 500 of us sang out at the top of our lungs, and I could see the majority of the audience singing along with us. There was even someone energetically conducting from about the 20th row. I have never heard such a sound as that in my life! The air vibrated, was just electric with it.

And I remember World Youth Day. Both the trials and the good times. The CD from our gala concert is still my favourite. I remember braving freezing rain and wind strong enough the bring down the massive lighting fixtures, with only 2 hours of sleep on a gymnasium floor and without so much as a jacket. I remember the sight of a crowd of 80,000 people - and I remember singing for them. I remember waiting for the weather to clear for the Pope's helicoptre to land all the while the choir chanting, "We will stay! We will stay!" and singing Haydn's "The Heaven's are Telling the Glory of God." And we sang the Hallelujah chorus just as the Pope John Paul's helcoptre landed. As soon as he started mass, there was a great gust of wind and the storm pushed off. It was so beautiful that day.

And there are so many more memories! And I've learned so much! And I thank God for every moment I had with them!

Well, I guess I'd like to ask all of you for a prayer. I know a lot of you probably don't believe the same things I do, and maybe don't even see the purpose of such a choir, but please say a prayer for us. All we ever wanted was to give glory to The Divine and to bring the people in our audience a little closer to heaven - even if only for a moment. Even now, there is still hope, but I admit; it would take something just shy of a miracle.

So I'll finish with our choir's motto, "Soli Deo Gloria!"

]]> *Qiu-Ling http://Qiu-Ling.deviantart.com/journal/12020970/ http://Qiu-Ling.deviantart.com/journal/12020970/ Fri, 02 Mar 2007 00:10:41 PST
Around noon, I was sitting on the kitchen floor pining some fabric for a kimono I'm making. Suddenly I heard a loud rumble. At first I didn't think it was thunder given the season. Then, however, I heard my dog running down the stairs for comfort and cover. At that point I knew it was thunder. As my dog burried her head under my arm, I looked out the kitchen window and to my surprise saw nothing but whiteness. It was snowing heavily.

I worked on the kimono for hours and through all that time it did nothing but snow heavily. I snapped some photos throughout the day: [link] The first one was taken at about 4 pm. Here the snow was already calming down a bit. In terms of visibility, notice the lack of appartment buildings on the horizon. You can see them clearly in the second photo. By evening we had more than a foot of snow and around 11 it all switched to freezing rain. The second photo shows how shiny the snow covered street was after a nice coating of ice. I wonder if I'll wake up to find the car has slid down the street? It's done it before... more than once. Anyways, the last two photos show the thick layer of ice on the tree in front of my house. It's all reflecting in the light of a street lamp. Unfortunately night photography combined with high winds makes for some blurry photos. Right now the wind is really whipping up something fierce, I hope our little peach tree doesn't break under the ice and wind. For the last couple of hours, the sky's been flickering with strong lightning and the power's been flickering as well. It better hold till the freezing rain ends.

With the amount of ice out there, I hope my parents stay home from work. It looks dangerous out there. My brother's already decided he's staying home.

Looks like central Ontario is in for some heavy snowfall tonight. I'll have to talk to my friend in Ottawa tomorrow to see how things look. I'll bet Killarney's burried in snow right now too LOL! I wonder if you can still see the mountains?

-------------------Clubs I belong to---------------------


----------------------Clubs I run-------------------------


--------------------My other Gallery---------------------
*Qiu-Ling http://Qiu-Ling.deviantart.com/journal/11497520/ http://Qiu-Ling.deviantart.com/journal/11497520/ Fri, 19 Jan 2007 18:36:37 PST
]]> *Qiu-Ling http://Qiu-Ling.deviantart.com/journal/11380682/ http://Qiu-Ling.deviantart.com/journal/11380682/ Tue, 09 Jan 2007 21:30:22 PST
I had lots of fun despite the fact that the leafs lost - but then again, what else is new? They played pretty badly for a good chunck of the game, but they did do a really good job of killing a couple of penalties where they were out-numbered 3 to 5.

So yeah, first time seeing a pro game live and I'd deffinitely go again - I just wish they'd win next time.

Highlights of the evening:

When ceasar came to dinner...

When my brother came back to his seat carrying 2 beers and a box of french fries. He asked me to hold the fries while he sat down and after forgetting to grab some napkins from the condements counter proceeds to spill a big glob of ketchup on me. LOL! A kind gentleman in the row infront of us saved the day by passing me a tissue.

"Come'n guys, let's play some Huh-kaaaaay!"
Imagine it being said in a thick Newfoundland accent.

After the game when we were leaving, my dad came running along after me and my brother, "WAIT! WAIT! I can't get my arm into my sleeve!"
So I went to help him out and as he was struggling only to find his sleeve valcroed to his hood. No wonder he was having problems.

The human traffic jam in Union station after the game. Heh heh, time to put my awesome powers of crowd navigation into practice!

SNOW FLURRIES! What the!? What's this slight dusting of white stuff on the ground? NO WAY! I haven't seen that since November!
Yeah the weather's been really strange around here. Can you believe that there were days last week where I could go outside without a jacket? We're supposed to be in the thick of winter here, right now!

Recalling the time my dad accidentally locked himself IN the car. LOL!

Yeah, it was a good evening.

AND ANOTHER THING!
My Halo club is holding its voting session for the winners of our Christmas/winter/New Years/holiday contest and I desperately need some tie breaker votes (I can't afford to buy that many prizes). So please go over there and vote for the winner. You can see all the entries on the journal on our main page and there's a link to the voting poll at the bottom of the journal entry. Please go vote!



----------------------MY FRIENDS---------------------------
http://Qiu-Ling.deviantart.com/journal/11210983/ Wed, 27 Dec 2006 12:04:15 PST
Anyways, I managed to finish an entire kimono from begining to end in my first week: [link]

Somewhere near the beginning of the break I also promised to plug his web-comic. So yeah, it's good - go check it out!
Here's the webpage: [link]

also came to hang out with me for a couple of days. We had sushi, a sleep over and she let me dress her up in a couple of my kimono. I got some cute pictures with her camera too!

Christmas Eve was great. We watched an old home movie of our Christmas celebrations. It was fun to see my uncle and cousin with hair and my dad with a mustache. I also played Halo free 4 all with the cousins and discovered that I still own the title of reigning champion among them - despite the fact that I haven't played in ages. Jess, my cousin has adopted your tactic of dropping all her grenades when she knows she's about to die. After free for all I joined the poker game that was going on upstairs. I lost all my money to one of my uncles after a few good rounds of Chicago. Then we opened presents and after the presents we were treated to a bit of a show. Suffice it to say; alcohol makes philosophers of many of my relatives. LOL!

Christmas day we went to pick up my Grandma brought her home for a couple of days. We had a nice dinner at my Aunt's on Christmas day and I got myself somewhat re-acquainted with the piano. I haven't played the piano in ages.

So yeah, I finished all my Christmas art yesterday and I can't wait for more celebrations on New Years. That said, I'm still dreading the return to school in January. At least it looks like I'll have a day off next semester *knocks on wood* My schedule still might change.

Oh! One more thing:
My Halo club is holding a Christmas contest. The entries will be up for voting on January 1st, so feel free to wander over and have a look:


----------------------MY FRIENDS---------------------------
http://Qiu-Ling.deviantart.com/journal/10824097/ Thu, 23 Nov 2006 14:16:51 PST [link]

_______________MY FRIENDS____________________

http://Qiu-Ling.deviantart.com/journal/10455412/ Fri, 20 Oct 2006 12:11:07 PDT

**************************************************************************

My Halo club, is holding voting for its first contest! Feel free to drop by and check out the entries. Go ahead and vote for the one you like best!

**************************************************************************
My other gallery:


My Friends:
*Qiu-Ling http://Qiu-Ling.deviantart.com/journal/10323046/ http://Qiu-Ling.deviantart.com/journal/10323046/ Sun, 08 Oct 2006 08:51:07 PDT
My Halo club, is holding voting for its first contest! Feel free to drop by and check out the entries. Go ahead and vote for the one you like best!

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My other gallery:


My Friends:
http://Qiu-Ling.deviantart.com/journal/10176548/ Sun, 24 Sep 2006 20:15:04 PDT 's LJ. It's fun.

Choose twelve of your original characters in any particular order. (NO PEEKING AT THE QUESTIONS AT THIS STAGE!) Then, answer the questions that follow and don’t forget to tag a couple of people when you’re finished.

1.Akiron - A young knight
2.Arcturus - A wild man who lives in a cave
3.Katryn - A sorceress who weilds a battle axe that no other living being can lift
4.Niriel - A woodland fairy lady
5.Naraku - A geisha turned warrior after the murder of her lover
6.Etheria - A whiney little good witch
7.Reishi - A samurai
8.Kuroi Ryuu - The storm spirit and crazy evil dragon
9.Akarui - The sky spirit and Kuroi Ryuu's wife
10.Glissendel - A woodland fairy gaurdian
11.Kuriyami - A lost soul that is neither male or female and takes on many different forms
12.Kousetsu - The snow spirit. A vengeful courtesan

Questions: [link]

AND NOW TO TAG!


...
And whoever else wants to do this.

**********************************************************************************My other gallery:


My Friends:
*Qiu-Ling http://Qiu-Ling.deviantart.com/journal/9998914/ http://Qiu-Ling.deviantart.com/journal/9998914/ Thu, 07 Sep 2006 13:36:25 PDT
"And so things have come full circle
What once began has ended
And what once ended has begun again."

Well, I'm a city girl once more. I've been back home for the past few days, but unpacking has gotten the best of me. It was a truly great summer. So much has happened I couldn't possibly write it all down here. We spent a number of days without power and water due to some massive storms. I along with three others canoed 22km and portaged 5km in about 48 hours. Much of it was done in the dark too. There were spontaneous waterfights inside the house. We had 80's night too. We pulled pranks on the junoir rangers. And that's only the tip of the iceburg. It was all so much fun and there were so many awesome people.

School starts on Monday and I don't want to go back. Its my last year too.

Thank you to everyone who commented, faved and watched me in the past 2.5 months. I likely won't be able to respond to each of you as is my usual fashion.

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My other gallery:


My Friends:
http://Qiu-Ling.deviantart.com/journal/9081494/ Thu, 15 Jun 2006 21:11:31 PDT
Anyways, au-revoir!

And just for fun, I thought I'd do this thingy:

If I were a month, I would be: January
If I were a day of the week, I would be: Sunday
If I were a time of day, I would be: First Light
If I were a sea animal, I would be: Star fish
If I were a direction, I would be: East
If I were a sin, I would be: gluttony
If I were a historical figure I would be:
If I were a planet, I would be: Neptune
If I were a liquid, I would be: Water
If I were a stone, I would be: Obsidian
If I were a tree, I would be: A Douglas Fir
If I were a bird, I would be: A Loon
If I were a flower/plant, I would be: A Lilac
If I were a kind of weather, I would be: Something seasonal
If I were a mythical creature, I would be: A Dragon
If I were a musical instrument, I would be: A Piano
If I were an animal, I would be: A Wolf or a Bear
If I were a colour, I would be: Sky Blue
If I were an emotion, I would be: Sorrow
If I were a vegetable, I would be: An Onion
If I were a fruit, I would be: A Strawberry
If I were a sound, I would be: A rumble of thunder, or a bird's song.
If I were an element, I would be: Earth
If I were a song, I would be: "The Last Rose of Summer"
If I were a movie, I would be: "To End All Wars"
If I were a book, I would be written by: Myself
If I were a food, I would be: Chirashi
If I were a place, I would be: A forest
If I were a taste, I would be: Cheescake
If I were a scent, I would be: Campfire Smoke
If I were a religion, I would be: Christianity
If I were a word, I would be: "Undefineable"
If I were a body part, I would be: A hand
If I were a facial expression, I would be: A Smile
If I were a subject in school, I would be: Art - what else?
If I were a cartoon character, I would be: hm... dunno...
If I were a shape, I would be: A Circle
If I were a number, I would be: 16 or 36
If I were a piece of jewellery, I would be: My Silver Cross
If I were a piece of furniture, I would be: A Wardrobe
If I were a car, I would be: A Hybrid
If I were an item of clothing, I would be: A Kimono (hikizuri to be exact)

See you all in a few months!

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My other gallery:


My Friends:
http://Qiu-Ling.deviantart.com/journal/8699848/ Sun, 07 May 2006 11:15:20 PDT
WORK
School finished a while ago. I've now got only one year left and I'm officially a graduate. For now its been off to co-op. I'm back at my palaeontology job at UTM and I'm enjoying it imensely. My first day back was spent cleaning the skull of a 1.5 million year old baboon. He is to be the subject of some drawings - I named him George. Basically, he was dug up in South Africa in the 1930's. Unfortunately, at that time the preparation for fossils was not at its best - so George was almost entirely covered in a thick layer of glue. It took about 12 hours to clean him up. Over the next couple of days I did the vector outlines I'll use for the finished drawings (I'm starting the finished ones on Monday). After George I got to work on a female baboon skull of the same age. I've named her Matilda. She's adorable - well as adorable as a skull can be lol! Anyways, the professor I work for told me that these drawings will be in high demand. Apparently there's lots of research on these baboons but almost no drawings - so everyone's gonna want to be using them. He also told me that if I feel I've contributed through the research by doing these drawings, they're going to name me as one of the researchers when these drawings are published along with a paper by one of his students. Woo hoo!

Anyways, I've got to give the people at French River Provincial Park a call this week. As part of my co-op I'm doing illustrations for their new visitor's centre. It's gonna be fun!

Also, come mid-June, I'm going back up north to Killarney to work for the summer. So its gonna be the same drill as last year with me disabling my watch list. My supervisor also called this week and told me they're giving me a massive raise to come back and work for them. Well, its a massive raise from last year - but still, its definitely a student's sallary. I'm just happy that I might actually be able to pay ALL my tution for the coming school year on my own.

CONVENTIONS
Well, I'm only attending Anime North this year. I'm gonna have lots of stuff for sale there, though. Mostly it will be prints, but I'm also going to have some Halo buttons (and possibly gift packs of my Halo for the Holidays cards), there will be origami kimono bookmarks made from some STUNNING Japanese papers and almost all of the kanzashi in my other gallery will be for sale there as well.

I look forward to meeting some new faces there - maybe even some of you!

PERFORMING ARTS
Rehearsals are in full swing for my dance troupe's latest performance. Its coming up in June and we'll be performing parts of Coppellia and Ramonda. Next week is our photoshoot for the performance program. My teacher was nice enough to allow me get photos taken in a ballet costume I made myself. So I'm bringing it along.

Its seems I've finally managed to make the break into the role of soloist in my choir. Last month we went to Ottawa where I sang the soprano solo in the Kyrie of Haydn's "Mass in the Time of War." The performance went so well, we reprised it in Toronto and had a CD recorded live. I'm waiting very impatiently to get my hands on a copy of it. lol! Well, this all led to something else. My choir director came up to me about 2 weeks ago and asked me if I felt like going to Ottawa for a day. Next thing I knew I was practicing with the chamber choir (the elite of our choir) and being told I was to do another solo. So yeah, I'm going to Ottawa next week where I'll be singing the soprano solo in the Kyrie from Mozart's "Coronation Mass." Should be fun - the performance I mean. Otherwise, Ottawa and back in one day - that's like 10 hours on the road - possibly in a school bus - and my legs don't fit in school bus chairs - I'm too tall for them - I think I'm gonna be pretty sore by the time I get back home...

And I think that's about everything.

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My other gallery:


My Friends:
*Qiu-Ling http://Qiu-Ling.deviantart.com/journal/8525300/ http://Qiu-Ling.deviantart.com/journal/8525300/ Wed, 19 Apr 2006 20:24:14 PDT
Here's a link to the entries:


The premise of the contest was to create a new cover for the book "Memoirs of a Geisha" by Arthur Golden.

I entered this image in the contest:


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My other gallery:


My Friends:
http://Qiu-Ling.deviantart.com/journal/8514637/ Tue, 18 Apr 2006 19:40:57 PDT

Rules: The 1st player of this "game" starts with the topic "6 weird habits/things about yourself" and people who get tagged need to write a journal about their 6 weird habits/things as well as state this rule clearly. In the end, you need to choose the next 6 people to be tagged and list their names. Don't forget to leave a comment that says "you are tagged" in their devpage comments and tell them to read yours....

Well, here goes...

1. I talk to myself too much...
2. I'm willing to dress in strange clothes and walk around in public (It helps if I have a friend with me - but, they don't have to be dressed in strange clothes, though).
3. When I was 10, my mother told me I should have been born Japanese.
4. I enjoy going to church.
5. I once attended 3 months worth of ballet rehearsals - dancing on pointe - with my big toe-nail litterally being held on by a piece of tape. (Very painful... and very ew...)
6. I frequent 2 sushi resaurants so often that the chefs give me something free every time I go.

I hope I didn't gross anyone out too much... Now, who to tag? Most of the people I'd like to tag have already BEEN tagged.

I think I'll go with -

I'm sorry if any of you are annoyed at being tagged, but its not that bad to do this!

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Okay, so I've got a whole lot of prints right now that I want to get rid off. Basically I want to make room in my convention portfolio for some newer art. So, I'm gonna offer these prints to you all at a reduced price. The prints are all good quality. They're on 8.5 X 11, thick, glossy paper. Normally, I sell them for $10 Canadian each. I'm offering them to you for $5 Canadian. That's less than you'd pay for a piece from the DA print shop. Here's a list of the prints I want to liquidate (please browse through them and see if there's anything you'd like):

Battle for the Orb of the Dead - [link]
The Blessed Kiss of Winter - [link]
The Endless Storm - [link]
Fairy Queen - [link]
Forgotten Angel - [link]
The Funeral - [link]
Golden Waters - [link]
Hatsumomo - [link]
Jewelled Wyvern - [link]
La Luna - [link]
The Lorynth Gryphon - [link]
Saint Michael: Prince of Angels - [link]
Sayuri-san - [link]
Sengen-sama - [link]
Senseless - [link]
The Sky and the Storm - [link]
Solar Dragon - [link]
Sun Spirit - http://Qiu-Ling.deviantart.com/journal/8403224/ Fri, 07 Apr 2006 23:00:03 PDT My Second DA Home...

Due to some business oppourtunities that have presented themselves in the past few days, I've decided to open a separate gallery here on DA for the hair ornaments I will be making and selling in the near future. In case any of you are interested, this second gallery can be found here:

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Okay, so I've got a whole lot of prints right now that I want to get rid off. Basically I want to make room in my convention portfolio for some newer art. So, I'm gonna offer these prints to you all at a reduced price. The prints are all good quality. They're on 8.5 X 11, thick, glossy paper. Normally, I sell them for $10 Canadian each. I'm offering them to you for $5 Canadian. That's less than you'd pay for a piece from the DA print shop. Here's a list of the prints I want to liquidate (please browse through them and see if there's anything you'd like):

Battle for the Orb of the Dead - [link]
The Blessed Kiss of Winter - [link]
The Endless Storm - [link]
Fairy Queen - [link]
Forgotten Angel - [link]
The Funeral - [link]
Golden Waters - [link]
Hatsumomo - [link]
Jewelled Wyvern - [link]
La Luna - [link]
The Lorynth Gryphon - [link]
Saint Michael: Prince of Angels - [link]
Sayuri-san - [link]
Sengen-sama - [link]
Senseless - [link]
The Sky and the Storm - [link]
Solar Dragon - [link]
Sun Spirit - [link]
Swan Maiden - [link]
Qi-Ling - [link]
Zodiac: Arcturus (January) - [link]
Zodiac: Etheria (February) - [link]
Zodiac: Naraku (March) - [link]
Zodiac: Kuroi Ryuu (April) - [link]
Zodiac: Akarui (May) - [link]
Zodiac: Akiron (June) - [link]
Zodiac: Tika and Shinwa Kiri (August) - [link]
Zodiac: Junshin (December) - [link]

If you are interested in getting any of the prints, please send me a note. If there are any other pieces in my gallery that you would like a print of, let me know. I'll get prints made of almost anything in my gallery. Those ones, however, would be $10 Canadian instead of $5.

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My Friends:
http://Qiu-Ling.deviantart.com/journal/8240751/ Wed, 22 Mar 2006 20:14:20 PST Mood: Sleepy
Listening to: Something from Coppelia

Yeah, well today was interesting to say the least.

On the way into work my bus hit something (as in ran over), I have no idea what it was, but it sounded big enough to be a bicycle. Whatever it was flew up and hit the bottom of the bus knocking all the dust up off the floor and causing the bus to grind to a screeching halt and after that it wouldn't start up again. Thankfully, whatever it hit wasn't alive. The bus' drive shaft likely fell off seeing these buses are kinda old. Well, then the next bus didn't come for another half hour. Suffice it to say, I was a good 20 minutes late for work. TECHNOLOGY: 1

When I got to work, the told me to print out good copies of all my drawings that I'd done so far. I started the print job knowing it would take a long time because the file size was huge, the computer/printer are about 7 years old and there was a network to deal with. I waited an hour and a half and the first file didn't even start printing (the info was definitely being sent and the printer was definitely receiving it but nothing was printing). So, I cancelled the print job and reduced the file size. I tried printing again only to realise that for reasons unknown my computer was no longer able to communicate with the printer. We spent the rest of the morning restarting, and re-installing - generally trouble shooting and nothing worked. If the computer was a PC, I'd probably have it figured out, but because it's a MAC I had no idea what to do with it. TECHNOLOGY: 2

Finally, my co-workers got tired of me asking them what to do with myself, so I learned to use something called a Camera Lucida. People used to laugh at me for drawing things while looking through a magnifying glass, well, today I learned how to draw while looking through a microscope. The camera lucida is basically a microscope suped up with a mirror and extra lense so that it can reflect your drawing and show it super-imposed over top of the specimen being magnified. So, I spent a couple of hours drawing this really cool looking lower jaw piece from a teeny-tiny little carnevoire. The whole jaw piece is only about 150mm X 50mm and its got six teeth in it. I used the camera lucida to blow it up on paper to about 5 inches by 2 inches. And I got to spend that time making friends with Porky the turtle. He was wandering around outside his tank and decided to start sunning himself under the heat lamp that was next to me. lol! ME: 1

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IN OTHER NEWS...

I know most of you probably don't give a crap about my rinky-dinky halo fanart club, but since I have a few new watchers now I'll say this anyways... IF YOU LIKE MAKING HALO ART - please check out my club and hopefully join! The premise of the club is that each member is actually part of a military operation. I recently introduced a points system that will allow everyone to earn ranks and corresponding medals - which should make things at least a little fun.

For example:
I'm currently at the rank of Private and my medal is a pair of dancing shorts

Also, we will be starting to hold contests once we have a total of 15 members.

So, yeah, check out the club

*******************************************************************

Okay, so I've got a whole lot of prints right now that I want to get rid off. Basically I want to make room in my convention portfolio for some newer art. So, I'm gonna offer these prints to you all at a reduced price. The prints are all good quality. They're on 8.5 X 11, thick, glossy paper. Normally, I sell them for $10 Canadian each. I'm offering them to you for $5 Canadian. That's less than you'd pay for a piece from the DA print shop. Here's a list of the prints I want to liquidate (please browse through them and see if there's anything you'd like):

Battle for the Orb of the Dead - [link]
The Blessed Kiss of Winter - [link]
The Endless Storm - [link]
Fairy Queen - http://Qiu-Ling.deviantart.com/journal/8153343/ Mon, 13 Mar 2006 19:51:39 PST
But I did start my job doing fossil drawings for the University of Toronto Paleontology department. You see, right now we're having a teacher's strike. Its been going on for a week and there's no end in sight. So UofT - which was going to hire me as a co-op student during the summer - called me up and said, "Listen, if you're not doing anything during the strike you can come work for us and get some of your co-op hours completed." So I said sure and today I started working there!

Today I began my training. Basically I was given three bones (a scapula, a sacral vertebrea, and a tibia) from a prehistoric reptile called Varanopse. I was told to start with the scapula and move on to the other bones later. So today, they showed me how to use their fancy-shmancy digital camera (which I want for my own now) to shoot various views of the bones. I would later use the pictures as reference for my drawings. I spent most of the day doing the outlines for three views of the scapula in illustrator. I had to make sure to include the proper suchers and a couple major fractures in the bone (it had previously been shattered and was glued together from dozens of pieces). There were also a couple of ribs fused to it. Altogether making things very interesting. Anyways, tomorrow I actually have to render the bones and get feedback on my attempt. After I finish that I'll start the process over with the vertebrea, and later with the tibia.

Today was such an interesting day. They introduced me to Fishy: their pet suckerfish that made my giant one look like a pip-squeek. I don't know what they named the big painted turtle yet. They also showed me the skull of a rattle snake complete with fangs - and I got to see where exactly the venom is injected from. Then they showed me the skull of a fox because I recognized it as something I once found at the park near my house. Finally they showed me the skull of a baby bear with a filly articulated lower jaw. Poor little bear must have been hit by a car or something. ;_;

Anyways, back to work tomorrow. If I'm allowed to I'll post my drawings of the varanopse scapula when they're finished.
___

IN OTHER NEWS...

I know most of you probably don't give a crap about my rinky-dinky halo fanart club, but since I have a few new watchers now I'll say this anyways... IF YOU LIKE MAKING HALO ART - please check out my club and hopefully join! The premise of the club is that each member is actually part of a military operation. I recently introduced a points system that will allow everyone to earn ranks and corresponding medals - which should make things at least a little fun.

For example:
I'm currently at the rank of Private and my medal is a pair of dancing shorts

Also, we will be starting to hold contests once we have a total of 15 members.

So, yeah, check out the club

*******************************************************************

Okay, so I've got a whole lot of prints right now that I want to get rid off. Basically I want to make room in my convention portfolio for some newer art. So, I'm gonna offer these prints to you all at a reduced price. The prints are all good quality. They're on 8.5 X 11, thick, glossy paper. Normally, I sell them for $10 Canadian each. I'm offering them to you for $5 Canadian. That's less than you'd pay for a piece from the DA print shop. Here's a list of the prints I want to liquidate (please browse through them and see if there's anything you'd like):

Battle for the Orb of the Dead - [link]
The Blessed Kiss of Winter - [link]
The Endless Storm - [link]
Fairy Queen - [link]
Forgotten Angel - [link]
The Funeral - [link]
Golden Waters - [link]
Hatsumomo - [link]
Jewelled Wyvern - [link]
La Luna - http://Qiu-Ling.deviantart.com/journal/8134662/ Sat, 11 Mar 2006 21:12:11 PST
[link]

Its been 3 years and 7 month to the day since I joined up here and the pageview counter finally hit the big ol' 10K. I think this is a momentous occassion... THANK YOU EVERYONE!!! *tears up - runs away*

*******************************************************************

Okay, so I've got a whole lot of prints right now that I want to get rid off. Basically I want to make room in my convention portfolio for some newer art. So, I'm gonna offer these prints to you all at a reduced price. The prints are all good quality. They're on 8.5 X 11, thick, glossy paper. Normally, I sell them for $10 Canadian each. I'm offering them to you for $5 Canadian. That's less than you'd pay for a piece from the DA print shop. Here's a list of the prints I want to liquidate (please browse through them and see if there's anything you'd like):

Battle for the Orb of the Dead - [link]
The Blessed Kiss of Winter - [link]
The Endless Storm - [link]
Fairy Queen - [link]
Forgotten Angel - [link]
The Funeral - [link]
Golden Waters - [link]
Hatsumomo - [link]
Jewelled Wyvern - [link]
La Luna - [link]
The Lorynth Gryphon - [link]
Saint Michael: Prince of Angels - [link]
Sayuri-san - [link]
Sengen-sama - [link]
Senseless - [link]
The Sky and the Storm - [link]
Solar Dragon - [link]
Sun Spirit - [link]
Swan Maiden - [link]
Qi-Ling - [link]
Zodiac: Arcturus (January) - [link]
Zodiac: Etheria (February) - [link]
Zodiac: Naraku (March) - [link]
Zodiac: Kuroi Ryuu (April) - [link]
Zodiac: Akarui (May) - [link]
Zodiac: Akiron (June) - [link]
Zodiac: Tika and Shinwa Kiri (August) - [link]
Zodiac: Junshin (December) - [link]

If you are interested in getting any of the prints, please send me a note. If there are any other pieces in my gallery that you would like a print of, let me know. I'll get prints made of almost anything in my gallery. Those ones, however, would be $10 Canadian instead of $5.

*******************************************************************

My Friends:
http://Qiu-Ling.deviantart.com/journal/8076196/ Sun, 05 Mar 2006 16:15:15 PST
My choir had a couple of performances in Ottawa this weekend, so we went up on Friday afternoon. Our hotel ended up being very nice. Unfortunately we didn't get to make full use of their facilities - the whirlpool and sauna were closed for renovation.

Anyways, I sang the soprano solo in the Kyrie of Haydn's "Mass in the Time of War" and amazingly I didn't bomb! Woo hoo! I'm gonna try and get a recording of the performance off of someone who was video taping. lol

On Saturday morning the choir sang at a special mass at Our Lady of Fatima church. Afterwards, the rest of the choir went on a tour of the parliament buildings, but I'd done that before, so I went with my parents to the Museum of Nature and took a walk on the Rideau Canal. Yes, a walk, not a skate. We didn't bring our ice skates because we'd heard reports back in January that the canal was closed to skating due to unseasonably warm weather. Something interesting happened at the museum but first I must explain about my co-op placement this summer. First off, I got one - two actually. *takes a deep breath* I'm going to be working with the Paleontology department of the University of Toronoto from April to June, meanwhile I'll be working for Ontario Parks at that time as well, and then in June I'm going back up north till September... Well, anyways, I ended up talking with some of the staff at the Museum of Nature and happened to mention that I would be doing this job at UofT. Suddenly the guy looks at me and asks, "You're not working for professor Reize are you?" I told him I am, and he went on to explain that he's going to be doing getting his PHD with professor Reize in September. Small world, huh?

I had a few intersting experiences in Ottawa too. I got to try oysters for the first time - they're okay, nothing to write home about in my opinion... MUSSLES ARE BETTER! mmmmmmm... muscles...
Aside from that I also got to try gator! Yes, I'm aware that I was in Ottawa in the middle of winter and tasting Alligator. It don't think it really tastes like chicken, I thought it tasted more like meat balls. It was good stuff!

Yeah, so if you're ever in Ottawa, go to Big Daddy's Oyster and Crab Shack. Its good food - Its cajun - And they serve gator.

*******************************************************************

Okay, so I've got a whole lot of prints right now that I want to get rid off. Basically I want to make room in my convention portfolio for some newer art. So, I'm gonna offer these prints to you all at a reduced price. The prints are all good quality. They're on 8.5 X 11, thick, glossy paper. Normally, I sell them for $10 Canadian each. I'm offering them to you for $5 Canadian. That's less than you'd pay for a piece from the DA print shop. Here's a list of the prints I want to liquidate (please browse through them and see if there's anything you'd like):

Battle for the Orb of the Dead - [link]
The Blessed Kiss of Winter - [link]
The Endless Storm - [link]
Fairy Queen - [link]
Forgotten Angel - [link]
The Funeral - [link]
Golden Waters - [link]
Hatsumomo - [link]
Jewelled Wyvern - [link]
La Luna - [link]
The Lorynth Gryphon - [link]
Saint Michael: Prince of Angels - [link]
Sayuri-san - [link]
Sengen-sama - [link]
Senseless - [link]
The Sky and the Storm - [link]
Solar Dragon - [link]
Sun Spirit - [link]
Swan Maiden - [link]
Qi-Ling - http://Qiu-Ling.deviantart.com/journal/8022456/ Mon, 27 Feb 2006 20:41:24 PST
I finally managed to get up off my but and clear out all the messages in my inbox. Anyways, this means I will finally start uploading some new art! YAY!

*******************************************************************

Okay, so I've got a whole lot of prints right now that I want to get rid off. Basically I want to make room in my convention portfolio for some newer art. So, I'm gonna offer these prints to you all at a reduced price. The prints are all good quality. They're on 8.5 X 11, thick, glossy paper. Normally, I sell them for $10 Canadian each. I'm offering them to you for $5 Canadian. That's less than you'd pay for a piece from the DA print shop. Here's a list of the prints I want to liquidate (please browse through them and see if there's anything you'd like):

Battle for the Orb of the Dead - [link]
The Blessed Kiss of Winter - [link]
The Endless Storm - [link]
Fairy Queen - [link]
Forgotten Angel - [link]
The Funeral - [link]
Golden Waters - [link]
Hatsumomo - [link]
Jewelled Wyvern - [link]
La Luna - [link]
The Lorynth Gryphon - [link]
Saint Michael: Prince of Angels - [link]
Sayuri-san - [link]
Sengen-sama - [link]
Senseless - [link]
The Sky and the Storm - [link]
Solar Dragon - [link]
Sun Spirit - [link]
Swan Maiden - [link]
Qi-Ling - [link]
Zodiac: Arcturus (January) - [link]
Zodiac: Etheria (February) - [link]
Zodiac: Naraku (March) - [link]
Zodiac: Kuroi Ryuu (April) - [link]
Zodiac: Akarui (May) - [link]
Zodiac: Akiron (June) - [link]
Zodiac: Tika and Shinwa Kiri (August) - [link]
Zodiac: Junshin (December) - [link]

If you are interested in getting any of the prints, please send me a note. If there are any other pieces in my gallery that you would like a print of, let me know. I'll get prints made of almost anything in my gallery. Those ones, however, would be $10 Canadian instead of $5.

*******************************************************************

My Friends:
http://Qiu-Ling.deviantart.com/journal/7812712/ Thu, 09 Feb 2006 20:32:22 PST
I know I haven't been responding to comments/favs and looking at deviations recently - but that's all because I've been sick for the past 3 weeks and preparing for co-op placements during the summer. It seems like I'm FINALLY starting to get better from this horrible cold. So hopefully, I'll be up to digging through my inbox (full of 100+ messages, comments, journals, deviations...) in the next few days.

<>
Make that 200+ messages and stuff. Oh, I'm gonna have fun this week. lol

*sniffles - goes back to bed*

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Okay, so I've got a whole lot of prints right now that I want to get rid off. Basically I want to make room in my convention portfolio for some newer art. So, I'm gonna offer these prints to you all at a reduced price. The prints are all good quality. They're on 8.5 X 11, thick, glossy paper. Normally, I sell them for $10 Canadian each. I'm offering them to you for $5 Canadian. That's less than you'd pay for a piece from the DA print shop. Here's a list of the prints I want to liquidate (please browse through them and see if there's anything you'd like):

Battle for the Orb of the Dead - [link]
The Blessed Kiss of Winter - [link]
The Endless Storm - [link]
Fairy Queen - [link]
Forgotten Angel - [link]
The Funeral - [link]
Golden Waters - [link]
Hatsumomo - [link]
Jewelled Wyvern - [link]
La Luna - [link]
The Lorynth Gryphon - [link]
Saint Michael: Prince of Angels - [link]
Sayuri-san - [link]
Sengen-sama - [link]
Senseless - [link]
The Sky and the Storm - [link]
Solar Dragon - [link]
Sun Spirit - [link]
Swan Maiden - [link]
Qi-Ling - [link]
Zodiac: Arcturus (January) - [link]
Zodiac: Etheria (February) - [link]
Zodiac: Naraku (March) - [link]
Zodiac: Kuroi Ryuu (April) - [link]
Zodiac: Akarui (May) - [link]
Zodiac: Akiron (June) - [link]
Zodiac: Tika and Shinwa Kiri (August) - [link]
Zodiac: Junshin (December) - [link]

If you are interested in getting any of the prints, please send me a note. If there are any other pieces in my gallery that you would like a print of, let me know. I'll get prints made of almost anything in my gallery. Those ones, however, would be $10 Canadian instead of $5.

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My Friends:
http://Qiu-Ling.deviantart.com/journal/7459556/ Fri, 30 Dec 2005 18:34:46 PST
Seems like my 9000th page view went by while I was sleeping over at a friend's house. Just 1000 more pageviews and I'll hit the big 10K. I can't believe it. Thanks so much everyone for all your support!

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Okay, so I've got a whole lot of prints right now that I want to get rid off. Basically I want to make room in my convention portfolio for some newer art. So, I'm gonna offer these prints to you all at a reduced price. The prints are all good quality. They're on 8.5 X 11, thick, glossy paper. Normally, I sell them for $10 Canadian each. I'm offering them to you for $5 Canadian. That's less than you'd pay for a piece from the DA print shop. Here's a list of the prints I want to liquidate (please browse through them and see if there's anything you'd like):

Battle for the Orb of the Dead - [link]
The Blessed Kiss of Winter - [link]
The Endless Storm - [link]
Fairy Queen - [link]
Forgotten Angel - [link]
The Funeral - [link]
Golden Waters - [link]
Hatsumomo - [link]
Jewelled Wyvern - [link]
La Luna - [link]
The Lorynth Gryphon - [link]
Saint Michael: Prince of Angels - [link]
Sayuri-san - [link]
Sengen-sama - [link]
Senseless - [link]
The Sky and the Storm - [link]
Solar Dragon - [link]
Sun Spirit - [link]
Swan Maiden - [link]
Qi-Ling - [link]
Zodiac: Arcturus (January) - [link]
Zodiac: Etheria (February) - [link]
Zodiac: Naraku (March) - [link]
Zodiac: Kuroi Ryuu (April) - [link]
Zodiac: Akarui (May) - [link]
Zodiac: Akiron (June) - [link]
Zodiac: Tika and Shinwa Kiri (August) - [link]
Zodiac: Junshin (December) - [link]

If you are interested in getting any of the prints, please send me a note. If there are any other pieces in my gallery that you would like a print of, let me know. I'll get prints made of almost anything in my gallery. Those ones, however, would be $10 Canadian instead of $5.

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My Friends:
http://Qiu-Ling.deviantart.com/journal/6955122/ Fri, 04 Nov 2005 15:53:08 PST
Battle for the Orb of the Dead - [link]
The Blessed Kiss of Winter - [link]
The Endless Storm - [link]
Fairy Queen - [link]
Forgotten Angel - [link]
The Funeral - [link]
Golden Waters - [link]
Hatsumomo - [link]
Jewelled Wyvern - [link]
La Luna - [link]
The Lorynth Gryphon - [link]
Saint Michael: Prince of Angels - [link]
Sayuri-san - [link]
Sengen-sama - [link]
Senseless - [link]
The Sky and the Storm - [link]
Solar Dragon - [link]
Sun Spirit - [link]
Swan Maiden - [link]
Qi-Ling - [link]
Zodiac: Arcturus (January) - [link]
Zodiac: Etheria (February) - [link]
Zodiac: Naraku (March) - [link]
Zodiac: Kuroi Ryuu (April) - [link]
Zodiac: Akarui (May) - [link]
Zodiac: Akiron (June) - [link]
Zodiac: Tika and Shinwa Kiri (August) - [link]
Zodiac: Junshin (December) - [link]

If you are interested in getting any of the prints, please send me a note. If there are any other pieces in my gallery that you would like a print of, let me know. I'll get prints made of almost anything in my gallery. Those ones, however, would be $10 Canadian instead of $5. ]]> *Qiu-Ling http://Qiu-Ling.deviantart.com/journal/6868626/ http://Qiu-Ling.deviantart.com/journal/6868626/ Tue, 25 Oct 2005 21:27:01 PDT
It is just so wonderful. Its incredibly written and the music is beautiful too. The man who played Valjean did a great job. He has an awesome voice. There were times when I could have mistaken him for Colm Wilkinson, but he'd continue singing and prove that he was also his own person. I like the fact that he still had his own stage presence. Then there was Javert. I love Javert. He has to be my favourite character in the play (I just love a well written antagonist). The man who played him did a pretty good job too. My all time favourite Javert, though, is Phillip Quast. If you ask me, a well written villain played by a great actor equals an element for a great work (fiction, movie, play... etc.)

I did have a bit of a problem with the woman who played Cosette. There were a couple of times she was supposed to hit a high B and both times she couldn't make it. She kept going flat. Other than that, she did well enough.

In other news...

I finally got the stuff I ordered from Japan. My obi arrived in time for Halloween and it looks awesome! I also got some new fabric for yet another kimono. I think I might just end up turning kimono making into a buisness... ]]> *Qiu-Ling http://Qiu-Ling.deviantart.com/journal/6773843/ http://Qiu-Ling.deviantart.com/journal/6773843/ Sat, 15 Oct 2005 10:18:35 PDT
Anyways, not much has been happening around here accept for school. I've begun buying a whole lot of things from Japan. I've bought a couple of kimono fabric bolts and made a kimono out of one of them in about 15 hours. I'll be getting pictures of it taken soon. Unfortunately the obi I bought to go with it won't arrive here in time for the photo-shoot. I've also been looking into buying an antique Japanese wig on ebay. Though I've found one going for a good price it seems that Canadian cutsoms has been a pain in the butt about those wigs coming to Canada. Apparently some of the sellers previous Canadian customers ended up getting charged $1000 in customs fees! I know the wigs are expensive but even with taxes and everything I don't see why it would be so much! So, I don't know if I should go ahead and bid and take my chances on those fees.

Yeah so, I've got some new art that I can hopefully submit soon - provided school doesn't become too much of a pain, but I have a feeling it will this week.
-_-;;;
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My friends:
*Qiu-Ling http://Qiu-Ling.deviantart.com/journal/6515725/ http://Qiu-Ling.deviantart.com/journal/6515725/ Thu, 15 Sep 2005 20:50:29 PDT
*looks at avatar* Uhm... yeah... That won't be the club avatar for long. Its here only untill I make a better one.
Well, I can't wait to see some of the HALO related art that people will submit!
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My Friends:
*Qiu-Ling http://Qiu-Ling.deviantart.com/journal/6434240/ http://Qiu-Ling.deviantart.com/journal/6434240/ Tue, 06 Sep 2005 17:01:07 PDT
Well, I've actually been home for a few days now, I'm just finally getting settled in again.

I had an absolutely awesome time this summer. I got paid beans but I had soooooooo much fun. I saw a whole lot of animals, met a whole lot of interesting people, watched a bunch of them get drunk, caught up on a lot of the movies I hadn't seen, went canoing, camping, hiking and just generally had a great time.

I tell you, there's nothing quite like waking up to someone yelling, "THERE'S A RACCOON IN THE COMMON ROOM!"

Yeah, our house was beseiged by wild animals...

List of animals that got into the staff house:
-Mice... but they were there before us, so they don't really count.
-Chippy the chipmunk
-A raccoon
-And a bear... yes, a bear.

The red squirrel gets points for making an attempt, but it never actually got inside.

Aaaaaaanyways, I might end up with a job doing art next year with the parks. They want me to do some interpretive trail signs for them. I sounds such a fun job! I hope I get it!

Well, for now my watch list is still disabled because I'm lazt and I want to clean out my message box before I start getting new stuff. Then I will start watching everyone again, posting art and making a HALO club! ]]> *Qiu-Ling