The New Year

Hi all~

Happy Chinese New Year!



This was a little something bluestraggler and I collab'ed on. It's actually missing her half, lol. So uh, I'll upload the final one later on. It somehow wasn't very hard to talk me into drawing Hetalia. Taiwan's just so cute. :x I also surprised myself with the dynamic posing and I actually really like it for once and minus a few proportional errors.

I had dinner with the family on New Year's Eve. My sister's boyfriend brought some delicious mini brownies. *___*

On the day of, I went to the Huntington Library with Ben. It wasn't as awesome as I thought it'd be – I think I went there as a kid, but obviously don't remember anything from the trip. Or maybe I'm a bit spoiled from the Arboretum. But then again, all these garden places look the same. There are only so many plants. The magnolias were REALLY pretty though. :O Anyway, have some pics that I was too lazy to edit. :x

( Plants. Woo. )

Today, random_karen and I went on an adventure to Chinatown for their Chinese New Year festival. We braved the subways of Los Angeles to Union Station cuz I didn't want to deal with parking and well, it wasn't that bad, haha. The last time I rode them was about 8 or 9 years ago, so I wasn't sure what to expect.

We met up with super_no_1, itsuka and derishnol near that somewhat gaudy dragon entrance on Broadway and Cesar Chavez and just walked around. There were many cutesy, artsy booths. I bought a necklace and a "Keep Calm and Carry On" pin (where did that even originate from?). I had wanted to try the grilled cheese truck, but couldn't find it! So I resorted to the Munchie Machine(?) where I had a veggetini sandwich which was pretty good but needed more CHEESE. Then, of course, we find that there were more food trucks around the bend, including the one I had wanted to try all along. Cry. ;( Ah well.

After wandering a bit more, we stopped to watch part of the parade. It was somewhat lackluster and almost kinda sad because it seemed that most people didn't know who any of the people in the parade were. Like, who's the cast of Paper Son? But I can now say I saw Carl Bell in person! :D Haha.

We walked by some ping pong tables near the art galleries there. SO MUCH ACTION GOING ON. Then we found an empty lot with a bunch more booths of the less creative type. Pechanga was there, lol. As well as the FBI and Navy, uhhh. The funnel cake booth teased me. We thought it to be too crowded and decided to be lazy and ride the Gold Line a whopping two stops to Little Tokyo, haha. There we had yummy Yogurtland and then, Jennifer and Noel left. :C Then rest of us had sang out hearts out at Max Karaoke. :Db

( Dragons and such. )

Yup. All in all. A fun day. :]