About a year ago, I lost my favorite flip flops for awhile and when I finally found it again, I was extremely happy. Today I found another lost item of mine and this feeling is like 100x better!! Exactly 63 days ago, on August 30th, I lost my ipod. All I knew that happened that day was that I came home from work, noticed my ipod needed charging so I brought it in the house in the pocket of my sweater. Within an hour, I realized I hadn’t charged it yet so I checked my sweater pocket only to find it gone! I knew I took my sweater off for awhile so my only explanation is that it had fallen out somewhere in the house. So I checked everywhere! When I couldn’t find it, I frantically checked my house again. And again. And again. Nothing. Everyday I checked, nothing. Normally I wouldn’t feel as empty when losing an item, but it’s different when it was a special gift I said I wouldn’t lose :[ Weeks passed and I slowly lost hope. Months passed and I was hanging by a thread believing it was somewhere in my house, which is kind of hard to believe when I spent months looking for it and nothing showed up. When I got back from church today, I did my routine apathetic searching and expecting nothing to show up. BUT THIS TIME I FOUND IT!!!! My eyeballs were literally ginormous and my mouth gaping and my heart and I were jumping up and down!!!! It was on the overhead part of my desk in between a few stuff next to my cross!! I certainly don't remember leaving it there and I know for sure my family wouldn't do anything like that to cause me so much pain. It was a miracle! THANK YOU GOD :D wowzers, I'm so frickin happy :DDDD I know some people will say that there is a logical explanation for this happening but I like to believe that it was a miracle :]

So my friend San is in a marketing class and has to do some businessy thing with her group and asked me to create a logo for their marketing firm called “the polished consultants”. These are what I made.

I heard this song on the radio a few days ago and I was trying to figure out who sang it. Turns out it was Miley Cyrus haha. Hey, there’s nothing wrong with listening to Miley Cyrus…

After watching the Where The Wild Things Are trailer, I was so hyped up about this song! The band is really awesome too! If you get the chance, you should also listen to this other cool song by them called Rebellion (Lies). But yeah, anyway, I made a cover of their song called “Wake Up” which is featured in Where the Wild Things Are. Not only is it just a guitar cover, I trained myself to do the percussion part at the same time too! This is my first recorded cover ever since I discovered there’s a web cam built in my dad’s laptop haha. I hope I continue to make more covers of various other songs I like! :D

I didn’t know what I was getting into when I signed up for 6 classes this semester… At first it was ok so I thought to myself, oh this is alright, but then the work load started to pile up. I am so screwed :[ Flash takes up my time, painting takes up my time, my other digital art class takes up my time, and most of all, worst of all, my ad campaign class takes up a chunk of my time and my teacher seems to hate my group. I’ve always been stressfree when it came to school because I thought it was so easy since I usually just take 4-5 classes. But not this semester. I hate school.

To make things more stressful, today I got a frickin parking ticket!! WTF!! So what happened was I parked outside of the 10th street garage on the streets where the houses are. One side said you need the Horace Mann permit, and on the other side of the street, it did not have that sign, so I parked there. Then when I got out of class, I found a $60 ticket lying on my window saying I needed the Horace Mann permit to park there… the sign was only posted on the other side!!! If they’re gonna give me a ticket, there should be the same sign saying you need the Horace Mann where I was parking! I am going to contest this shit… I hate school… my mind is so jumbled right now.

One-speed road bikes, aka how I call them, skinny bikes, are so awesome! When I save up enough money (I heard the good ones are like $500-700 -_-), I’m gonna buy one! I love to shop at Urban Outfitters and they happen to sell them for $399 and let you customize them so I made some and it was so much fun (pretending it was mine)!! Here are a few that I’ve customized.  I’d also add in a little basket in the front or back too hehe. Here’s the link to customize your own skinny bike at Urban Outfitters http://bikes.urbanoutfitters.com/

At the beginning of my flash class I took this semester, I could barely understand what the heck was going on with coding. A few weeks later look at what I can do! http://dma.sjsu.edu/~art101b/n_van/ex02.html I wonder what I’ll be able to do at the end of the school year :]

My friend San is taking a business class and her group needed a logo for their client’s business so she asked me to help out. Their client is a company that makes nutritious foods and stuff like that so they came up with the name “The Healthy Life”. After making a few designs, I found out that they might drop that client and get a new one but they’re not sure what to do yet  -_- Oh well, if they decide to choose a new client, I’ll just make a new set of logos. Anyway, whether they keep them or not, here are how the logos look like.

Whoooo! My online portfolio is up and running! Come check it outttt!! I’ll be updating it from time to time as I create new things. I’d also like to thank Jeff who bought the domain name for me on my birthday and takes care of my technical difficulties :]

namphuongvan.com

I’ve made a few things before like hemp bracelets, beanies, sunflower picture frames, and nifty things like those but I think my recent project I just finished is the best one yet! It’s a cork board/whiteboard/hanger thingerbobber! I had an idea to mix in the cork board and whiteboard because Jeff wanted a cork board for some time now for his room, and then he also wanted a whiteboard for his locker, so I was like why don’t I combine them into halfsies! BUT THEN, when I went to places like Target and Michael’s to buy materials to make it, I saw what I was potentially making already made!! -_- ugghhhh. But anyway, when I was buying an open back frame to make it, another idea sparked! I should add in pegs at the bottom to hang things from! This is where it becomes unique hehe. So yeah, this is how it turned out. HAPPY BIRTHDAY JEFF :]

Materials used to create:

- 16 x 20 wooden frame
- 1 1/2 cork tiles
- 12 x 16 magnetic whiteboard
- 4 wooden pegs
- cardboard

Accessories:

- push pins
- magnetic metal mesh tray
- magnetic dry board eraser
- magnets
- whiteboard markers