Pages from My Diary

I am not a published or self-published author; but I am well aware of the hassles associated with creating a good book cover. I opened my account on Wattpad around 4 years ago, but started uploading stories this year. I had no idea that I was supposed to upload a cover to go with my story. At first, I did not want to go through all the trouble, but then soon I realized that creating a good book cover can actually gain you some readers. I started looking for free photos on the web for my first short story, and found one on a website. I did the same with the second cover as well. The process was definitely not easy. I had to look up for hours and had to determine whether the photos I had found would actually be consistent with the theme of my story. Then checking license and rights and the likes would take another hour or so. I could actually write a whole short story in that time.

I am not sure if any such challenge exists. I guess I just made it up. Hey all, sorry for not updating my blog for such a long time. Well, I have been busy doing nothing. You know how I am! So, the other day I thought of pushing myself to see if I can reach a certain word-count limit. My writing has been the epitome of sloth in the past few weeks, and I could barely squeeze out more than 2,000 words per day (that too, if I sat in front of the computer for at least about 7-8 hours at a stretch). I have also been meaning to write a short story lately because I had kind of started to miss writing the words 'The End'. Writing a #shortstory . Target: 10k words. Deadline, TONIGHT. 12:27PM here. I will live-tweet progress. This should be fun. #amwriting — Mehnaz Tabassum (@mztabassum) July 20, 2015

I was supposed to do this a long time ago, but got held. So, without further excuses, let me present to you my next creation: an elephant. Those of you who have been reading this blog know that I did not have much clay to begin with, and so I had to go for blue for the elephant. I did not even have black or white for the eyes (well, I have the white. But wouldn't it look creepy without a black iris?) Here is a shot of my finished elephant:

Hello all! This is a very special post, because it happens to relate to my first ever commercial shoot. Before you start guessing things, just let me tell you something real quick: I am not a model and this was not an actual TVC. We created it for our Marketing (Advertising and Promotion) course. Take a look at this video and read along :)

Finally the sixth day came! I hadn't expected it to be so late, but I kinda got tangled into the mess of finals and term paper work, hence the delay. This time, my target was to create some berries or a white cat. But since the pizza, my white clay has never been the same before. There are splotches of green and red mixed with the stick and I am afraid that I might not be able to use it for something that does not allow red and green shades to be in it. I also found out that I had used a dirty hand to create the pizza dough, because the white clay had tinges of grayish/brownish residue mixed all over which I identified as dirt. Anyway, so this time I decided to do bear, which, I am mortified to announce, did not come out as I had expected. Seems like my sculpting days full of success are wonders are over! Okay, so here are the steps that I followed for making the bear. I was so submerged into the process that I forgot to take snapshot for every detail I put on the head. But ...

Finally the pizza! The pizza! Unfortunately the pizza did not come along as I had expected. I had only white clay, not the brownish one like a baked pizza. Here are the photos:

Today it was turn for some strawberries. Here are the steps recollected in the form of photos: First, I took the entire stick of clay and divided it into four portions. I kneaded them and created four balls.

Actually, my plan was to make some strawberries today. But I ended up with three pumpkins. Let's drop the preamble and jump into the details. I picked the mildest orange and green blocks from my tub of horrifyingly vibrant clay, which looked something like this before I had peeled the plastic wrapper off:

I wanted the 'second day' of this challenge to take place much later because I have some work pending and a few quizzes that need my attention, but it happened today anyway. I was having fun moments with my brother: I saw him struggling with the shape a head of a yellow duck, and I absentmindedly picked up the red block. A few moments later I was making petals for a flower. I added them all found this: Then I added a few leaves to the flower and the final product looked like this: Sorry about the center. I figured that I had never looked at a rose properly to learn what the center of a rose looks like. I still believe that i should do a frog next. :D Click here to see the complete album on my Facebook!

To be honest, I never believed I would ever find some modelling clay here in Bangladesh. But I did! Although this was some Chinese clay with no label, I really couldn't decide on buying some lest they should turn faulty and unworthy of sculpting. But then I seriously thought of giving it a try and bought this rather colorful looking set of clay. This set has almost every color (two shades of the same color which was absolutely unnecessary) except for black! I was so upset because a lot of things needed black in them. So I let out a deep sigh and said goodbye to my dream of making a penguin! I wanted to try something as simple as a candy or a caterpillar of one color. But when I looked at the white clay, I decided that I would go for Hello Kitty first! Using playdough to create stuff does not really need any specific directions. All you have to do is use your imagination and fingers, and you will end up with a nicely sculpted clay model. So I am just going to post...

I bought another tube of henna last month, but didn't have enough time to apply it. I decided to give it a try a couple of days ago. The tube said 'Almas Henna Paste', I had already used one like this one once before and was pretty hopeful that it would give me the same bright maroon color that I had gotten the last time. But after I started applying I figured out that it was not quite the kind of henna paste that I always use. The thing was black, and left a trail of dark magenta (yes, magenta!) when wiped from the skin. Plus it smelled like pure chemical. I was sure this was some mixture of strong chemical and color to keep your palm decorated for a short period, nothing else! I got very upset. I guess I shouldn't have added the last bit on my wrist, right? Anyway. Apart from the smell, the henna seemed promising. It started to dry after a few minutes, and by the looks of it I thought it might be black henna (I don't have any experience with black hen...

I've always been interested in painting. Though the painting lessons we used to take at school seemed nothing less than a torture to me. I could never put shades or pick the right color. I even failed in one of my tests because of my poor coloring knowledge. But I occasionally give it a try. The only problem with me is that I can't imagine stuff and draw them. I need something to copy from. If I'm given what I'm supposed to draw, I can imitate it, even the colors. They are never perfect though, but they are never totally wasted either. Here's a card (I've given the photos of all the three pages of it) that I made for one of my friend's birthday. Unfortunately it wasn't as beautiful as it would have been if I'd bought a card. But my friend was actually happy to receive it. Oh ya, I used paper glitters as well. All the photos had been downloaded from the internet and I copied from them. The photo of the cake has some problems in it. Af...

These are the photos of my first nail-art. I know they suck, because I don't have all those shiny 'nail-art kit'. I was just sitting bored without anything to do so I thought of giving it a try-that's it. I used a french manicure kit, black nail polish and a needle (yes, a needle) to do this. Thought I should share it here :) Here are the photos: White Flower Black Flower I've been asked this a couple of times-will I continue doing this? Well, actually, no. this was just a try. I'm no good at all these stuff. But if I have the patience and new idea (and the proper tools of course) I might try this once again.

I have been interested in henna and designs since I was very little...although I couldn't make designs at that time, now I can at least manage to decorate my hands with some very inept designs... Here are the photos of a couple of them...I'll share more of them in future :) September 2011