Life Updates

February 25, 2022February 25, 2022 mizarwenLeave a comment

Hello, lovelies!

It is still February. Spring is coming our way. What’s the weather in your country like right now? Here, in Switzerland, it is getting warmer and warmer. It is still chilly early in the morning though. I still have to wear my sweater inside when I accompanied my daughter to wait for her school van to pick her up from and when she returned from school. I noticed the day was warmer only around noon. That’s when I saw many people sitting on the bench or standing under the sun.

OMAD

I actually can’t wait for Ramadhan to come. It is the holy month of fasting for all Muslim. It’s almost a week I have done my One Meal a Day fasting where you fast 23 hours to lose weight. The reason is to lose weight to lower my health issue and it was my main objective at the beginning. However, as soon as I realized that Ramadhan month will be in April I just remember that I have to pay for my fasting days from last year. So during the duration of me performing this fasting (OMAD) I can also consider this as a practice before I do the official fasting. In a way, it is good. I can still drink water to dehydrate and drink only black coffee during the fasting (OMAD) so it is still doable. Aside from a growling stomach, I complain more when my hands and feet tend to get cold even the day is warm. That is the only thing that sucks.

Sticker Making

Sticker sample breakfast made by dorriejstudio — One of the *sample of my future sticke*r.

I am a self-taught artist. Drawing is my passion. I’m focusing now on designing as many stickers as I can so that I can sell them online, whether they are physical stickers or digital downloads. So far I’ve done 2 different sheets of stickers with the same theme ‘breakfast’ and it is right now still in the process of printing by the printing company I chose back in my homeland, Brunei. I have not been able to purchase a cutting machine yet, but yes, that’s my wish list once I have the budget from the sales. I guess, the cheap cutting machine is okay for starters. I’m aiming for the Silhouette cutting machine to make the die-cut and kiss cut for my future stickers. I’ve read many good reviews. If there’s any of you readers possessed a Silhouette cutting machine, please give me some comments about this machine. I really appreciate your advice or tips.

Revamping Instagram

dorriejstudio Instagram mizarwen — Please visit my Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/dorriejstudio/)

I followed and subscribed to a lot of artists lately who owned online shop that sells stickers, prints, and other products. They also had given many tips on how to promote your product via Instagram. My second goal is to revamp my Instagram: the highlights, color palette display, and of course, adding more of my finished product to the platform. It is still in the process and thought in the past it is easily done, but actually there are a few other things that I need to do besides just uploading them on Instagram. And it is not easy as 1,2,3. Haha! I don’t know how the Instagram algorithm works, but if you do know that, please share. So yeah, please do follow and like them here.

February Holiday Trips & Train Ride

February 20, 2022February 20, 2022 mizarwen2 Comments

School holiday nearly came to an end, I had to admit I’m also nervous that tomorrow my daughter has to go to school again – meaning that again, I will hear the not-so-little-anymore whines and cries of how she doesn’t like to wake up early in the morning and go to school.

*Why so hard you look at the camera, my dear?*

I felt sorry many times she has to go through this. In her case (she’s Autistic and express her emotion with songs) I don’t know what things play in her head every time she set her feet in the school van leaving me and my husband off to school, but I pray so hard that she could brace herself to face many challenges in school just like every other special kid in her class.

*An orange box that checks your pass before getting on the train.*

It’s good that there’s a holiday. She can get a break from her anxiety. And I’m grateful for this week the holiday as well spent. We went two times on train rides – it was the first time the three of us go on a trip by train further than Versoix. I love to see how my daughter enjoyed the time so much. At least she could forget her worries, although for a short while. It’s nice to see her smile during the trip to Zurich and Bern.

Zurich Trip

We went to Zurich on Tuesday. The journey took about 2hrs and a half by train. It was our first experience going on the trip using a train. It’s a one-day pass that costs CHF49 per person. The weather forecast said that it’s going to be raining the entire week. So thankful that day Zurich was sunny. Oh, how I regret wearing my winter jacket🙄

We were planning to go to the Toy Museum first. I don’t know why, but when we got there the place wasn’t there as my husband saw on the internet. So our first itinerary didn’t go as planned so we had to think about what to do next. We did purchase a one-day pass which costs CHF8.80 per person (depends on the zone). My daughter is free because she has an annual student public transport pass which can be used the whole place in Switzerland.

So the next itinerary was to let her enjoy the ride on the bus. I don’t know what is so fascinating about it, but she likes sitting a long time in it, near the window, gazing outside, and only sometimes her stimming catches the attention of the people. So we let her while I observed the surroundings. The bus designs, of course, are different than in Geneva. I can say more open with so many big glass windows while in Geneva it is more covered. Although I went to Zurich a couple of times, I had never been on the bus longer than that day. For the sake of our daughter, we went farther and changed many different buses and trams for the sake of her. The amount of love we give to her how I wish she knows that *sigh*

Anyway, back to the trip, after pulling and dragging my daughter who refused to get off of the bus, we had to carry her out of the transportation and had a quick lunch. I had to change her diapers twice. She is still in potty training, but during the trips, it’s exceptional. After that, we went to the Old Town.

The place is worth visiting. It reminds me of the maze of Venice. They still utilized the old building for shops which drove more people to that place. So much different than in Brunei. They go only to work or dealing just for important matters like banks, insurance agencies, and government administrations. If there’s no event, people won’t likely visit the city, even though Bandar Seri Begawan is the capital. So seeing how different it was, I was amazed by that.

I could feel the weather was getting colder when it was already late afternoon, but that didn’t kill her excitement. What got her all excited?

It was also the first time I witnessed this. It took me a while to realize the cause of it – they were just fighting for the bread crumbs. They can be hangry too; not just human. Lol.

We departed from Zurich around 5pm-ish. I realized during the journey she covered her ears when we passed the tunnel and tried to pop her ears by pressing them with her both hands when we left the tunnel. Hubby said it was because of the pressure. She seemed to hate it and the only thing I did to ease her discomfort was to ask her to drink something just like we always do when we travel in an airplane. I didn’t know if that helps, though.

The next trip story will be on the next blog and I’ll update you guys when the vlog is uploaded. Happy Sunday guys.

Goals and Art

February 12, 2022February 13, 2022 mizarwenLeave a comment

I want to pat myself on the back for coming up with so many sketches these few days. This had made the pages of my sketchbook only a few left empty.

2022 I want to reopen my Etsy shop where I can sell some of my illustrations that will be made into the digital planner stickers and print.

Before this, I sold colouring pages black and white digitally. However, that didn’t grab much attention than my Fiverr gig, which at that time the sales went far well. It was a simple gig; I gave services to draw kids colouring pages for certain prices. The prices were damn cheap. I attracted several buyers, but there’s this one regular buyer who bought my gig so many times that put some orders before I could even begin his current order. I got too overwhelmed and spent hours and hours completing the gig and that led me to put my Fiverr gig on hiatus.

illustrated blog by mizarwen dorriejstudio about goals and art post

Back in that day, I didn’t know how to limit the orders – I didn’t even know the setting existed. Lol. But that’s okay, I guess. Since I know how it works now I’ll begin again, but not this sooner. I’m focusing more on creating digital products for my Etsy shop.

Dorriej patreon setup icon tier illustration art — *Illustrations for future Patreon icon tier (still in the pl*an)

Currently, I’ve been busy creating the ‘breakfast‘ and ‘Daisy‘ themes. However, it’s still a long way to go. It’s one of my goals for this year. Have I told you I also want to publish my romance & comedy comic on Webtoon? That too has been keeping me busy. I don’t know when I able to complete it, but for sure the mission is to publish the first 3 episodes on the platform. If that attracts many readers or even nice the Webtoon editor’s attention, that’ll put a smile on many faces; my parents, my in-laws, my husband, and myself once again.

If they hire me, at least I could help my husband to pay my daughter’s therapy bill and help buy any necessities for the household. But yeah, I’ll let you guys know when it gets published.

Do follow my Instagram for my work and give them some love. Merci beaucoup!

Changes Are Good

February 2, 2022February 2, 2022 mizarwenLeave a comment

Bonjour my lovelies!

How are you guys doing? Good? It’s already February and winter is still here. So many things have changed. But I feel not ready for next season yet. Is it just me or do you guys feel the same as well?

Lately, I have felt super pumped. I set my mind that from this day I have to do workouts or walk no matter what and will see the progress after 6 months. A new year resolution? Probably. But this time it’s different. I want to change something so that I feel good about myself.

What has changed?

I do…
☆ 20 crunches (2 reps) a day
☆ 4 mins of workouts. I managed to do 2 reps so far. I follow the video from this YT channel. It looks easy and simple, but it isn’t. Or do 6000 steps on my walking pad.

☆ Eating healthy. I’m trying to do a balanced diet, which I have done in the past and I wanted to do it again because I feel full and had eaten less junk food.

☆ 2MAD. So OMAD is a little drastic – not that I have never done that; I feel 2MAD just fits me. I usually eat one hard-boiled egg and coffee around 9am and have my lunch around 1pm.

☆ 2 liters a day. This is my goal. So far I manage to drink 1.5 liters of water. By always drinking this I am less craving for sodas and yes, my skin feels less dehydrated.

☆ Collagen and Omega. Recently I have taken these two supplements. Just yesterday I added D3 and garlic supplements. Each of these has many benefits for my skin, blood pressure, heart, guts, and bone. I have noticed my hair kind of thicken a bit and my skin was not dry.

☆ Productive. I try to do as many sketches a day in my sketchbook. It’s a waste if I purchased the book, but did not use it. Usually, I only do sketches and illustrations digitally. I missed the feeling of pride and self-accomplishment for completing my drawings in one single book if you know what I meant. Therefore, I need to change this.

Self-accomplishment for completing sketches on the sketchbook. — *The illustration was done by Mizarwen*

☆ Reading. I didn’t reach my reading goal last year. So this year I try to make a habit of reading one chapter per day. If I commit this every day I can finish 4 or 5 books in no time within a year *finger crossed*

☆ One at a time. Many things always crowded my mind, so I wanted to try this method of thinking to see if this doesn’t stress me out – instead of trying to do sketches, editing vlogs, illustrations and try to come up with good content within a week, I focus on one task per week. Say if this week I do all sketches, next week I only focus on editing my backlog videos. Talking about videos, I’ve uploaded new vlogs. Check it out ♡