Hello!

New blog post on my wordpress blog today.
https://denisedoescouture.wordpress.com/

Denise 1 MacBook 0

     *I want to fucking tear you apart*

Remember that game called "Operation"? It was kind of like that. And now I need a new battery. 

The battery was dead before I got to it. I didn't just do that for funsies. 

Hair Stuff Cotton Candy Pink Hair DIY Hair Journey!

My recent hair journey:

Happy! I was rocking black hair for years, went platinum blonde a few times, settled on burgundy for many many years, but it always faded out to quickly. I wasn't happy with the Ion Color Brilliance Brights in Lavender, but because I still have a tube of it I'm going to do a small strip in my hair for fun. I've used Manic Panic Voodoo Blue in the past, a teal blue color, and Manic Panic Rockabilly Blue, a dark blue color, but I was super unhappy with the mess they created in the bathroom every time I'd wash my hair. They both faded super quick. The Manic Panic Cotton Candy Pink is semi-permanent, and it doesn't make a mess and I love the color and I'm keeping it forever! It's supposed to glow in the dark but I can't say I've noticed. 

Also, I found out about these color-depositing shampoos and conditioners, and I will definitely be buying some. It's called Overtone and I want the set! It's available in pastel pink, vibrant pink, and a few other colors. It looks like this:

Drool. I feel pretty 💕🦄

Digital Art Prints

I'm now offering Digital Art Prints in my Etsy shop.  My Digital Art Prints are available for download immediately after purchase. 

All Digital Art Prints are priced at $5

All Digital Art Prints are for personal, non-commercial use.

https://www.etsy.com/listing/270686178/vintage-family-photo-digital-art-print

https://www.etsy.com/listing/270686836/siamese-twins-digital-art-print-download

gofundme.com/denisedoescouture

gofundme.com/denisedoescouture

A little late night browsing. I love vintage occult books.

I'm still here

"So quiet. The hour after dawn is the most private of all. It is a time to be alone and enjoy the silence" - Laurel K. Hamilton - Anita Blake Vampire Hunter Series Book 1 (Which by the way, I think I would have enjoyed if I hadn't listened to it on Audible. The narrator's voice ruined it for me)

Hello all..

Been a busybody lately. 

There was the Holiday season. Family members. A bunch of attempting to act normal, as though anyone would think I wasn't. Just one of those things.

I had a telemarketing job for a few weeks. It wasn't a lot of hours but people really dislike telemarketers so it was very draining dealing with customers all the time. They eventually fired me, and at first I was sad but then I felt free again. I made a new friend, discovered the joy of adult coloring books, and learned that beneath the facade, little old ladies are the absolute meanest people on the face of the planet. To telemarketers at least.

Valentine's Day with my boyfriend was nice. He gave me a multi pack of 16 x 20 inch canvases. Mind you, I have never had the pleasure or luxury of such large canvas. I'm going to paint my first one today. I've been reluctant. As though I am shy of the canvas! I've been looking forward to a day of painting. I just have to go where the pain, or love is, it depends on what's going on in my head and my life, I guess.

My 17 year old Siamese cat, Star, passed away a week or two ago. Actually, it was on Valentine's Day. One day he was happy, frolicking, and then the next he wouldn't eat and couldn't walk. A few days later he was dead. He spent the last night of his life in my room, seemingly happy, aside from the occasional meow of discomfort or pain. He died in the backyard the following afternoon, with my brother by his side. We buried him in the backyard with our old German Shepard. They grew up together. My brother wants me to make a headstone of some sort to mark his half of the grave. Our dog has a tree log that looks like a walking stick with runic script, courtesy of my brother's ex-girlfriend. I haven't been feeling like doing that. I put a pink Valentine's Day teddy bear on the earth above Star. It's the same teddy bear I gave to my dad in Florida, also on Valentine's Day, when he had a cancer cut out of his tongue. I wonder if Luka misses Star. He's a three year old cat, but that doesn't mean he's incapable of picking up on such things. I refuse to believe it. I'm glad that Star is no longer in pain. It was most likely renal failure, btw. The vet offered to perform surgery, which my brother, my mother, my boyfriend and I, couldn't afford even if we pooled all our money together. The vet apparently made it clear he wasn't certain if the surgery would have really done anything anyway. I haven't really told any of my close friends who knew and loved Star that he's dead. They'll figure it out eventually and I don't want to talk about it. But it felt good to get that off my chest just now. I don't know who reads this blog. I assume I probably have one or two people who occasionally pop in. I don't blame them, or you. I'm not the best blogger to follow. I'm inconsistent, I'm not really an informative read, I don't know what the heck I'm doing most of the time, and I have a tendency to be quite vapid and brief for the most part. I have my moments, though.

I've been around doing this and that. I've been renting this room for years now, and it's finally starting to feel like the sacred space I need. Every day it's a little more organized. I finally figured out where to put a piece of furniture to create a more spacious ambience. I moved a lamp from one table to another last night, and just like that, the room looked so much more open. The sad thing is, once my space finally feels like mine, the moment it becomes peaceful and meaningful and sacred to me, I will resent my boyfriend for infringing on my peace, my space, my comfort level. Every day I feel more at ease by the beauty of my surroundings. It's my boudoir. It's my place to just be. It's my GIRL CAVE. Sometimes I stay up all night long because it's the only time I can be alone, enjoy my own company, daydream, relax, and be free. The house is quiet. My brother isn't asking me inane questions. My mom isn't coming home in a bad mood and trying to start a war with me. I know she is hurting because you don't just get over losing your spouse to cancer after being together for fifty years. But he was my dad. I was with him since the day I was born, so I never knew being without him. There wasn't a time in my life before him. There is only after. We're holding up well, though. 

Where was I? My sacred space. I've always had a bedroom, a boudoir where I could just..be myself and have some privacy. I like my boyfriend, don't get me wrong, but he has this gray three drawer tubberware dresser and all the drawers are filled with junk like receipts and God knows what and he insists on putting it like in the middle of the room and it ruins my flow of movement, and I hate looking at it and I just want to sling it over my shoulder and throw it away! He makes me uncomfortable and so does everyone else and it's important for me to have a peaceful little fortress where I can center myself. Who knows what the future holds. I just hope it doesn't end with me attacking him with his tupperware dresser, which is essentially, his junk drawer. Or smashing all the plates that he leaves in the room scattered all over the floor with his dirty socks. I know it sounds cruel but you don't know him, and if he reads this, good, I'm glad. Hang my mirror up please, I've been asking you to do it for like three years now and you know it weighs like a hundred pounds and I can't lift it myself. I love you babe. Please throw the tupperware junk dresser away and hang up my mirror.

Whatever. It's nice to vent sometimes. He'll be calling me any minute now when he goes on his lunch and now I won't be cranky.

Anyway.

My hair is *Daenerys from Game of Thrones* white blonde this morning. I'm going to enjoy it for a bit til I go lavender. My hair has been on quite a journey. I tried my DIY hand at hair. My hair is still in pretty good shape and not falling out, so that's always nice. I came across Manic Panic Cotton Candy Pink Glow in the Dark hair dye while surfing the web. I love love love the color, and the fact that it glows in the dark is pretty cool. I'm going to try it when I get tired of pastel purple. I'll be using Ion Color Brilliance Brights in Lavender, and diluting it with conditioner. Because it is a SUPER thick product, and I used one or two or three boxes when I first tried it, and though I saturated my hair and let it sit for a seriously long time, this happened..

I was not a happy camper. Also, I know it looks purple in the photo, but it was more blue..

So next time, I will be using this spray stuff that I got at Sally's which supposedly makes all of your hair equally porous, and I'm diluting the ion color brilliance dye with conditioner, because though I think blue hair is very pretty, it's not the look I'm going for right now.

It's been such a long time since I updated my blog! Missed this. Let's see. Let me share some photos of some art projects I made (or started making)

Here's a wall hanging I made using a plank of wood about 3/4 of an inch thick, with the quote "You have no power over me" from the Labyrinth. white on black acrylic paint. I need some thin twine or something (haven't figured it out yet) so I can wall mount this. Somewhere close to my door, so everytime I leave the house I can get in that mind frame. The world has no power over me! RIP David Bowie

Here's a failed painting of cupid, which has since been painted over. I did like how his eyes turned out. He looks a little in over his head. I guess it makes sense. I was going to make a Valentine's Day collection for my Etsy store, but my heart wasn't in it so I only made a few items, most of which didn't make it into my shop. Trial and error folks. The passion was there.

There's hope for this one. I just have to find the hope...

This was a bad idea: 

This started off with so much promise. Now I just sit here staring at it, trying to see where things went wrong. That's the thing about painting with acrylics. One false move or brushstroke can really derail something that had so much potential. I still love it and am determined to rectify it. This one's going to rise from the ashes!

After the failure of my first Cupid painting, I painted these Cupid Cherubs, it was a challenge in symmetry to say the least, and I was happy at first with my results, but then I felt like they weren't symmetrical enough. A few false brushstrokes, and here they were. Ruined, in my mind at least. I can't tell you how much time I invested on these little guys. At least three days. Possibly four. Then I started again, from the beginning. Cleaner line work. No bows and arrows. Wings. I'm happy with them now. They still aren't perfectly symmetrical, but nothing in nature is. They'll be in my Etsy shop as soon as I do some product photography. Have I mentioned that product photography is the bane of my existence?

I hadn't drawn or sketched in a while, and I got the urge so I began. I think it will help me a lot with my painting. Here's a few sketches:

I recently downloaded the Picsart App, and I've been having fun with that...

 

Oh! And I got my mold making recipe down to a science, eventually. Look at how flexible this beauty is! I'll share the recipe another time, or, you can always just ask me. Very happy about this:

Okay. That's all the show and tell for now, kids.

So I was on the internet last night researching business stuff. See, since I'm a Sole Proprietor I decided instead of paying for a business license to own a small art company as a Sole Proprietor using a "Fictitious Business Name", I should just use my own name. I couldn't afford to file a DBA form (Doing Business As), and it's unnecessary for me because of the type of business I've begun. Pretty sure there's no business zoning laws stating I can't do arts and crafts in my boudoir to sell online and at art shows (I'm going to start applying to be a vendor for craft fairs, when I'm ready), and I'm pretty sure the only liability I have to worry about is myself. Haha

Expect to see some changes rolling out, starting with my Facebook page: 

https://www.facebook.com/DeniseDoesCouture

Legit!

There are some new items in my Etsy shop, if you want to have a look, have a look:

https://www.etsy.com/shop/DeniseDoesCouture 

<3

Denise G.