Tutorial On Making Your Favorite Band/Artist T-Shirts into a Tank Crop Top!

I have a ton of old t shirts that I’m just too attached to give away, so this is just one of my favorite ways I like to cut my shirts!

Steps 1- 4 with extra pictures!

Step 1: Fold your shirt in half

Step 2: Cut the sleeves off to your preferences, I personally like to stay close to the seam and then bring it further down, so I can show my tattoos on my ribs

Step 3: Cut off the collar.  You can follow the seam line, or take a bit lower

Step 4: Cut from the bottom up on the crease where the shirt has been folded. Be carefu how far you go up! It’s all the difference between a crop top that hits where most of this stye fit or a belly shirt. Do you preference, but you can always bring it shorter but you can’t add length!

 

Step 5-6 with extra pictures!

Step 5: Keep the shirt folder, and figure out where you made the cut up to in the shirt and from the opposite side cut diagonally down the the shirts bottom corner.

Step 6: Unfold your shirt and then turn the shirt around, and fold the back portion of the cut shirt up to the top of the cut!

Steps 7-9 with extra pictures!

Step 7: Cut off the back portion of the shirt along the fold you made in step 6 as straight as you can

Step 8: Turn the t-shirt back around and puling the the two sides apart and then tie them in the front!

Step 9: FINAL STEP! Stretch the shirt by puling at the sleeves, collar, and back of the shirt. This will help make your shirt seem a little more tidy :]

 

 

Enjoy and let me know what you all think!

Good Days

There are my good days. I have days where I wake up from good dreams. I have days when I look in the mirror and realize that I’m smiling. I was once told that the corners of my mouth curve in such a way that even if I wanted to have a serious look I would still be slightly smiling. It’s a physical aspect of my face, not something I can force, and I have days when I’m thankful for it. On days like that I know that whatever bad days you brought me were worth the good days I have by myself.  Oh my love, it turns out that I have feelings that I can’t control. On good days it’s my bliss knowing that I’m better off, and I don’t need anyone to tell me when enough is enough.

-Pearl

Xibalba

Tonight I felt it again. The overwhelming sense of oneness with this world, and all the others beyond it. I sat and let it flow over me. I can still feel it overtaking every part of my body and mind. I feel it on my fingertips and entering my lungs with each breath I take. I feel the essence of the presence that lives within everything and everyone, not just of this world but to the stars and beyond. It’s all one. I don’t speak of religion, or the ways that man has sought to control the rest of the world, for that does not exist and changes with each generation. What I speak of is the real spirit. The free and never changing soul that is beyond the word “lives” for it has no beginning nor end. I felt it because I let myself, I let it in, and it gave me peace. For there is so much more than what the masses who inhabit this Earth choose to see and feel. They separate themselves from nature, although we belong to it, not the other way around. Some venture in to wilderness and marvel at its beauty, yet they do not give themselves over the vibrancy that surrounds those places. You simply cannot marvel, you can’t just see, you must feel every single spirit and sense that nature has for you. The warmth in me is from my simple ability to feel, and what I would give, to have all the world experience what I once called a curse. Maybe then they would understand that no one is ever alone.

-Pearl

Heavy

I’m sorry. I’m sorry I can’t be the solution to your problems. I cannot carry the extra weight. I am just a person and making me out to be your salvation is just as bad as damning me as your downfall. Both of those things are entirely in your power, thinking otherwise is a lack of faith in yourself. Pick yourself up baby, because I’m done with all the heavy love.

-Pearl

His Ocean

Dear god I miss the ocean.  You know that feeling of expecting the water to be cold, and bracing yourself right before you get in? Well I always braced myself before I got in, tightening up all the muscles in my body and breathing just a little heavier. Yet every single time the water was warm, and it shocked my body into this incredible feeling of surprised relaxation.  The water wanted me to be there, even though its vast appearance suggested otherwise.  It seemed as if it never ended and there was too much to try and understand. The ocean was complex and more than I could ever hope to comprehend. Yet we connected. I felt the strength and sadness in each wave. As if it were pushing itself on me, yearning to be held, but retreating into itself as fast as it came. But I felt everything it ever wanted to say, but couldn’t. The ocean didn’t need to tell me about its loss, or how it hurt so may people unintentionally, or how much it craved to learn and discover although it was already wise, or how it wanted me as much as I wanted it. I just knew everything and yet so little about this full yet lonely thing. Each time I submerged myself I gained little tiny pieces, clues to it’s allure and spirit. I left my ocean while on the verge of allowing myself to give back what it had given me. I left knowing that it might not be the same whenever I would get the chance to see it again. I think about my ocean everyday, and how amazing it is that ocean is the only word to describe that boy’s soul. I miss him, and his ocean.

-Pearl

I’ve been way more into doing things in my sketchbook recently than on canvas. I’ll roll with it for a while.

Oz The Great and Powerful. A lot of spark, but No Magic.

So along with making my own films, it is a little hobby of mine to review films from time to time. I grew up with movies. Not in the typical Disney way most kids do, but the classics. Some of my earliest memories are from watching movies like The Bells of Saint Mary, Gone With The Wind, and the On The Waterfront. My first memory EVER however is from The Wizard of Oz. That is the first film, I can remember and remains to do this day, my favorite of all time. The Wizard of Oz, was a cinematic masterpiece visually for it’s time, and today is able to capture the minds of all those who view it. I remember being a little girl, and literally feeling magic, not from the magical land of Oz , but true and utter emotion of being brought into this world, while still in mine. To this day I sometimes still get that feeling of “magic” when I watch other films, and it reminds me why I love cinema so much, both on a production level but also as a viewer. That magic for me started with and remains with The Wizard of Oz.

Getting back to the review, after explaining a little of my childhood, you must know how excited I was to see Oz The Great and Powerful. Yes, I skeptical about it being a Disney movie, but I was very excited to see such talent like James Franco, Mila Kunis, Michelle Williams, and Rachel Weisz attached to it! Getting to the theater I felt a little kid again, and very anxiously awaited the room to go black.

The movie started out really great I felt, the black and white was perfect, and a great homage to the first film, and once the transition of black and white to color was done I was very content with the editing process and seamless style. However once in color, I was a little overwhelmed. The digital world was to be honest a little much. Nothing can replace the real thing. Although the original Oz was full of painted backgrounds, the main sets were all built by hand, something that was not used nearly in this newer movie. Anytime there was an overwhelming digital green screen shot, like the forest full of huge flowers, or the bubble scene, I wasn’t drawn into the world, but the opposite, I felt removed, and reminded that I was watching a movie. On built sets however I was able to get glimpses of what Oz in this newer film was really like, and was able to get sparks of that good ol’ magic feeling.

The acting was great, with a particular nod to the wicked witches, but again nothing that truly moved me. Honestly I feel like the best performance in the entire film was Zach Braff’s ANIMATED flying monkey Finley. Finley brought real humor, delight, and magic into this movie, although it was an animated creature. In fact I almost teared up a little at the end when Oz finally gives Finley his friendship, and the adorable yet emotional look he gives back to Oz as he lifts the over sized top hat from his face. It’s always really amazing what can be achieved digitally these days in cinema, but I think it should be done sparingly and not overwhelmingly. Case and point Finely the Flying Monkey: perfect,  The green screen land of Oz: too much.

So I don’t like movie reviews that are too long, so my closing remarks are that although Oz the Great and Powerful attempts to revive a childhood for many, it has its moments, but this is an entertainment movie, not one attempting to bring back any magic.

A little disappointed,

-Pearl