Lady Leslie Crystal & The Lust Cathexis

                                                          Monday, March 5th of 2012

Dearest Lovelies,

I’ve had an exciting last few weeks and it has carried through to everything I do in a very positive way.  I’ve just been happy and eager to get started with my day— much like how it feels with refreshing new changes.  This time around, it is because I’ve switched my place of work; the new location of which feeds me inspiration and happiness, meets my Holland Codes (RIASEC) perfectly, and allows me to surround myself with dolls and pink while I do what I need to do. 

You see, I am an ASE (Artistic-Social-Enterprising) individual in RIASEC terms.  Like many creatives, I have a day job.  In fact, for the last eight years, I have been a legal secretary and paralegal at the same firm.  And even though it’s the same job that bought me financial independence and put me through my undergrad (two things I am infinitely grateful for), working in an environment with very little creative independence and very few social outlets proved to be draining.  In short, I was missing the AS of my ASE.  Up until this move.

I am now working at the Courthouse Professional Building of the Orange County Superior Court, which is a fast-paced/heavily populated area and environment (Hello, social fulfillment!).  But more importantly, I am now able to decorate my workspace and desk for the first time (!!!!).  It seems like such a small, little change, but I wasn’t able to before and it has made me feel so much happier to be able to extend my personality to my working area.

Of course, I got myself a calendar with Robert Best’s Barbie illustrations (he’s my all-time favorite artist/designer); got tons of pink, ivory, and gold office supplies; and purchased nearly every ivory organization item from the Martha Stewart Office collection.  Better yet, I scored my four favorite Hallmark Barbie ornaments to decorate with (I can’t wait till they ship!).  I’ll have to take pictures once my area as fabulous and ridiculous as I am.

My most prized office decoration is the “Preferably Pink” Barbie Hallmark Ornament, based on Robert Best’s illustration and doll.  I suppose she’s my favorite because she looks like a pink-dressed secretary, has my same beauty mark, and reminds me of me.

It’s like a little reminder to be myself in every environment. I love it.

Here’s to new beginnings! (And to fabulous legal secretaries, dolls, and pink!)

          Very truly yours,

                                                           Sunday, February 19th of 2012

Dearest You,

“I hope I will be able to confide everything to you, as I have never been able to confide in anyone, and I hope you will be a great source of comfort and support.” -Anne Frank

Lately I have been thinking about my love and obsession with diaries.  My obsession with keeping a diary dates as far back as I can remember.  The earliest diary I recall was one I made at about age 3 or 4.  That first diary was a collection of poorly-cut fourths of lined paper which I had stolen from my sister’s kindergarten set and bound together with three staples and blue electric tape.  With my limited spelling ability, I filled each page of that first diary with a secret— beginning with wanting to know “what I feel [sic] like in that [baby] picture becos [sic] today I feel good and alive.”  I have kept written ledgers of my life, thoughts, and ideas ever since.

In so many ways, I find it important to write.  I think it is imperative to record your own history.  I think it is necessary to unapologetically to tell your own story.  I think it is wise to refute what could later be miswritten about you.  I think it’s important to let out everything you may be afraid to say out loud.  Most of all, I think it’s vital to leave an imprint, however big or small, of what your mind came to terms with on a particular moment.

Today I am working a few projects. I have high hopes and expectations for this week.  I am as scared about the future and I am excited to experience it. Today I feel good and so alive.

          Very truly yours,

                                                           Tuesday, January the 31stof 2012

Dearest Darling You,

Leslie Crystal Day (my birthday, of course) has come and gone this year! And despite the fact that tacking on another year to my age is not fun in theory, I have to say that this has been my favorite birthday so far.

Tiaras, Sparkly Wands, Delicious Cake and Legos= ohhh yeah. And inb4 ‘pix or didn’t happen’:

I am so thankful for the wonderful people that surround my life—So, so thankful. I looooove you all.

          Very truly yours,

                                                           Tuesday, January the 3rd of 2012

Dearest Darling You,

Happy, Happy New Year! Belated, anyway.  I am so excited for 2012, so I figured I should post an entry.

This past Christmas, I got myself an adorable, white iPhone 4. With the release of the iPhone 4s, it was mega affordable and I was anxious to upgrade (because I was totally rockin’ a first gen). 

Since getting it, I haven’t been able to stop discovering apps and personalizing my interface to the best of my ridiculous ultra-leslie-crystal capacity.  I am very impressed with so many apps and games I wasn’t able to get on the iPhone 1, which I now am obsessing over.

This is my current iPhone UI:

I absolutely -love- the apps I have gotten thus far. (And, yes, all those apps actually do have pink icons.) In particular, I am obsessed with all of the apps on my main screen (first picture).  As you can tell from this blog, I spend all day taking photos of my life and having fun with all of the vintage filters and vignetting effects. Also, I spend countless spare moments doodling away on SketchBook.

I’ll have to write a follow up post at some point for each of my favorite apps and their function very, very soon.

Until then, lovelovelove to you!

          Very truly yours,

                                                           Wednesday, November the 16th of 2011

Dearest Loveloveloves,

Why hello there, Lovelies.  It’s November! November has been so enjoyable now that I don’t have an overwhelming amount of events and projects lingering over my head.  I haven’t written a diary post in a while, have I?

BlizzCon was fantastic. In fact, this was my favorite BlizzCon ever.  I had the pleasure of being a part of the G4 photo shoot and video for the Aspects of Awesome Burlesque Group, and was in G4’s the Girls of BlizzCon video. I am still compiling pictures from all over, although I admit I haven’t been diligent with it.

The best part of BlizzCon was that I met and got to know so many wonderful, creative, and fun people that I instantly hearted and want to keep in my life.  At some point I’ll post more pictures but, in the meantime, enjoy Mike Morhaime :)

And then, the very following week I participated at GNC’s National Physique Comittee’s event in San Diego! I’ll post more pictures of this too, once I have the time and energy :)

With all that out of the way, it’s time for me to relax and party!

           Very truly yours,

                                                                   Tuesday, October the 18th of 2011

Dearest Lovelies,

My sister’s wedding has come and gone! I can’t believe the wedding was on the first of the month, and this month is almost gone.

                                 First thing is first: My sister made such a beautiful bride.

In whole, the event was beautiful. And, I have pictures to share from the wedding! Because a picture is worth a thousand words, words shall be few and far between in this post.

So here’s to love, laughter, and happily ever after.

           Very truly yours,

                                                           Sunday, September the 25th of 2011

Dearest Lovelies,

This week marks the beginning of a seven-week stretch of having zero days off per week while I get ready for:

1. Sister’s Wedding in Ojai, CA
2. BlizzCon 2011 in Anaheim, CA
3. GNC’s NPC Border States Classic XXXIII Bikini/Fitness Competition in San Diego, CA and
4. DesignerCon in Pasadena, CA

Sprinkle in there [a trillion] work projects and commissions, two photo shoots, eight hours of required training workouts per week, and then school+school work (thank goodness for online classes) and somehow time disappears. Yay…

All things considered, I am SO excited.  There are just six days left until my sister’s wedding!

The wedding will be in Ojai, California and will pretty much be a weekend event for my family and I, who will all be arriving on Friday morning for final preparations, the rehearsal, and the rehearsal dinner.  The actual wedding ceremony and reception will be on Saturday, outdoors.  We are in such luck that the forecast predicts it to be slightly overcast that day, with a high of 88°F.

So far, there are still a few pending wedding issues to get to before the big day— among them doing a final trial-run of my sister’s wedding make-up, mastering how to show a slide-show at the venue, and packing (which is perhaps the most nerve-wrecking and stressful).

I’ve been getting up super early because I am all happy and giddy for it.  I can’t wait!

           Very truly yours,

                                                           Friday, September the 16th of 2011

Dearest You,

I am headed to Las Vegas in a a few minutes for my sister’s Bachelorette extravaganza! But before my little trip, I wanted to update my general/personal blog post diary with the cutesy stuff I am almost done with.

P A P E R   D O L L S

It has been way too long since I updated the paper doll section with my illustrated paper dolls (and I think only one doll is left on this blog).  This is something I have been meaning to change as soon as possible in order to have cute, little printable content. 

Considering that I am a huge doll aficionado and that I have played paper dolls since I was kid, these printable paper dolls have always been such a fun project for me. Also, I love it when I get pictures of people who made greeting cards with them and of little girls playing with them! Ah, so fulfilling; Now, I just need to keep track of it better!  Since I am not on a deadline for these, I have to admit that I have just let it slide (Tsk, Leslie).

At the moment, I have three paper dolls that I am pretty much done with.  Here is a sneak peak of one of them. I’ll start posting them regularly soon.

Also, this big surge in wanting to get things done comes from one of my biggest (but oh-so-super-fun) time-drains finally being done: The cameo sculpt and production of my signature cameo in the Leslie Crystal Luxe line.

T H E   S I G N A T U R E   C A M E O

To both my fortune and my misfortune, I am a perfectionist and a control freak.  I could swear that these have gone through one-trillion sculpts, re-sculpts, and revisions which I was just not ‘perfectly’ happy with at the end— until I finally scrapped everything and did my own one-trillion sculpts, re-sculpts, and revisions to get my final product:

I am so happy to be done (with this part of it at least)! It was really holding up a lot of other things for me.  Did I mention that this is all just for one friggin’ component piece of only one-to-two necklace designs? I’m thankful I picked only four distinct, LE necklace designs to start with. I need to invest in chill-pills.

Anyway, the piece was also finally sent it in for production and I’ve been inspecting the pieces— yes, one by one— to make sure I have enough perfect pieces for the limited run.  I’ve also been testing the dura-protection varnishings to see which one has a look a like. In the second picture, the cameo-locket pictured is not an actual necklace from the line, but I made it just to test out the overall look of the cameo with a semi-glossy varnish— However, the rose (which is made out of porcelain) is :-D.

And since my posts are always too long (sorry!), off I go. VEGAS!

           Very truly yours,

                                                           Monday, September the 5th of 2011

Dearest Lovelies,

I’ve been a little overworked and stressed out the last few days with so many deadlines coming up, but who I am kidding? I rather like having eighteen hour days (and no social life ;D). Plus, complaining isn’t pretty.

Today I had the good fortune of surrounding myself with friends at home and being silly all day. In other words: doing nothing! Word.

At the moment I am stressing out about going to Court tomorrow to pay my first traffic citation. Agh! I got the citation a few weeks ago for allegedly going over 65 on the 101 freeway [cue the excessive eye-rolling].

In any case, this is one of those experiences that reminds me that I am an adult and that I need to take these situations and handle them like an adult… so I asked my daddy and my brother to accompany to Court tomorrow. Hahaha. Not so much, but I did spend hours on the phone getting briefed as to what to expect, the availability of community service, and the benefits of owning up and just paying for the damn thing. All I can say is: Thank god for my brother.

My wallet is already crying.

           Very truly yours,

                                                           Saturday, August the 6th of 2011

Dearest Lovelies,

Twenty years ago today, the world wide web opened to the public. As someone who has been a full-fledged world wide web afficionado since childhood (and a blogger since livejournal in junior high), today is a very significant day for me. And naturally, today is a day for internet-based launches.

Later today, this personal blog will go live as www.thelustcathexis.com— acquiring it’s own domain and allowing me to use my longest-living domain (www.lesliecrystal.com) as my main site. This re-organization finally allows me to properly build a link wheel and use www.lesliecrystalluxe.com for my clothing/accessories line (its intended purpose).

On this topic, I was recently asked about the lack of reblogs and general tumblr activities on The Lust Cathexis and I realized I don’t have a link to my regular tumblr anywhere. So here it is: http://thehouseofluxe.tumblr.com/. Alright, now that that’s settle, on we go.

Small changes, but good changes. And there is so much to come. I promise.

           Very truly yours,

                                                           Thursday, July the 28th of 2011

Dearest Lovelies,

I’m back from Comic Con! And guess what? I totally survived (and had a fantastic time). There is too much to mention in a play-by-play, so the following shall suffice:

1. El Campeon is the best Mexican Food Place ever. / 2. Awesome drives are had with awesome people. / 3. The Black Canary. / 4. Kenny has the best Hobbit costume ever. / 5. Too much fun at KOTG Podcast BBQ. / 6. JEWS! / 7. Dude, where’s my phone? / 8. Blood Elf. / 9. Surveys at Rock Jocks Party. / 10. Holy shit this is insane.

Not satisfied? Well, I didn’t bring a camera, so here is a collection of photos I found on facebook:

Also, I was featured on IGN and considered THE favorite of Squirrels of Doom.

Sunday (the final day of the Con) was a down day for me… and then I rocked Disneyland on Monday. Just to welcome myself back home.

                 (Oh, did you really think I wouldn’t have something PINK at Disneyland?)

I am SO glad to be back home.

          Very truly yours,

                                                           Monday, June the 27th of 2011

Dearest World,

The thing I love best about old photographs is the impression they leave me with.  With every old photo I come across, I tend to force fabricated memories into my mind of events that transpired years before I even existed.  I’ve always been so consumed with imagination.  In time, I even end up finding these constructed memories indistinguishable from my own true recollection— at least with any discernible amount of certainty.

My mother and father met when they were fifteen and sixteen years old, respectively.  Each as different as the other— she, a cautious woman strict in her convictions and he, a musician of bohemian tendency— they still fit the formula dictating who falls in love.  

Growing up I always wondered what they could possibly share in ideology and conversation.  Together, they were the most balanced and perfect pair of parents a girl could ever have.  But apart, they were an endless sense of contradictions.  In time I came to realize that their blind polarities were always the stone which triggered the strike that lit my inquisition.  They made me into an unrestricted reservoir of thoughts, dreams, and ideas.

I am always told I am the spitting image of my father; Lean and angular. Artistic, rugged, and distinctly Slav.  But I see both of them in me.  I stole my father’s unyielding creativity and crippling introversion.  From my mother, I took the ardor and the fearlessness and the blatant opposition to heedless acquiescence.  They are both so pronounced in me.

And then, on days like today, I just feel so overwhelmingly blessed and satisfied with life precisely because they made me who I am.  There isn’t enough love in the world to express how much I love them. I owe them so much.

          Very truly yours,

                                                           Tuesday, April the 26th of 2011

Dearest Darlings,

It has been forever and a day since I have done a diary post… Or really, just about two weeks. In any case, I have a million things going on in my head.

Lately all I seem to want to do is plan, prepare, and sketch for my little jewelry collection.  Since last night, I have been religiously scrolling through old photographs of starlets in order to start putting together the inspiration boards for the photo set on another piece of jewelry (the one that was inspired by my sister). In few words, my sister is a very classy, animal-loving, Los Angeles city girl. The piece itself is my take on a very straight-laced, bow-tie look— but with a cameo, of course. (See Below) I ended up titling it the ‘Heart of Lace’. 

I’m not really sure how I want to have the lookbook photos shot, but I know that I really want some old Hollywood infusion and a tall, buxom brunette wearing the piece.  Also, some sort of running, leaping pup (because it wouldn’t be reminiscent of my sister without one).

Back at the sketch board, I started brainstorming for potential outfit looks that fit the look and feel. Right now, I am leaning towards plugging one of my corset designs… just because I can :-D.  Except, of course, it makes me feel like a huge ego-maniac.  I think I may start hitting up thrift-stores to see what I can scope out there.

On a different note, Blizzcon tickets are going on sale next month and I already have a cosplay planned for it. Actually, my friend Jen and I have corresponding characters we’d like to cosplay together. I am very, very excited for it although my planned character is not really that recognizable.  There is always a  little bit of fear that comes with that, but also a whole lot of relief to have essentially no one else to get compared to.  Hopefully, at least.

With my sister’s wedding happening the very weekend before Blizzcon, however, I am also really afraid of how little time I will have to get this all together. It’s making me all sorts of stressed and crazy already. But I will do everything in my power to make sure everything goes as best as possible.

I really can’t wait till I post the cosplay updates on this new Blizzcon costume.  It’s always something I look forward to.

And now this post is wayyyy too long, so off I go!

          Very truly yours,