Playing Dressup

"eLouai" is probably my most favorite waste of time on the web.

eLouai.com is the invention of Louai Munajim, a freelance artist from Montreal. While the site itself definitely lacks design (and in my opinon a user-friendly interface), it makes up for it in that the dollmaker programs are very diverse in their components. I'm always impressed when I go through the hundreds (literally, almost thousands) of options I'm given to dress and surround my avatar, making her unique from head to toe.

There is a strong Korean-Anime influence in Louai's digiart and there are lots of "kawaii" elements; expressive and exhaggerated eyes, pastel, soft lines, girly, fun, and cute. Also, the combination of dreamlike and realistic pieces make it possible to create a fairy princess on Madison Avenue, as well as put a schoolgirl underwater.

eLouai.com has several dollmaker programs, as well as "room makers" where you can create doll houses and "puzzle makers" which are jumbled pieces of art that you put back together like a jigsaw. I'm not so impressed with room maker because of its limitations as far as design and keeping realistic size aspect ratios.

The true highlight IMHO is the Candybar Dollmaker, which allows you to create a doll and corresponding environment that are about the size of a candybar. I play with this ALL the time, and I like to save my creations or e-mail them to friends. Candybar Dollmaker has such a following that a Candybar's Next Top Model simulation community has emerged, begging the question "Who will blossom?... Into Candybar's Next Top Model!". This "competition" has made some users create YouTube videos depicting CNTM "footage".

It's been fun sharing eLouai, but now I just want to go play it! Check out my latest:

Love from cold, wintry Ohio!

Birthday Shirt

Yesterday (formerly known as Today) I received a nice little soft package with a note:

"Happy Birthday Alyx! I love you more than this T-shirt*, lol. Love, Rodney"

Delight!

The shirt is called "Follow It" and it's distributed by Threadless. I love this t-shirt site! They're an interactive design-to-screen-print company. Users submit designs, vote on favorites, even provide Threadless with the catalogue pictures of the consumer wearing the product! It's pretty genius I think. I've joined the site, but no real activity to speak of. I'm waiting until a novel idea hits me so I can try my hand at designing my own tee for submission.

I e-mailed Rodney this tee a few days ago, thinking it was an extremely clever and (for me) romantic design. I like following "IT" (when "it" is my heart, not a scary Stephen King invention...*shiver*). Rodney is my boyfriend and bestfriend and he lives in Manhattan while I wither away in Ohio, so the subway reference is double cute.

Aww... ain't he special? :)

*"I love you more than..." has been an ongoing inside joke between Rodney & I to see who can zanily out do the other in the love department. It all started when I StumbledUpon! a site called I Love You More Than (Blank) which is the brainchild of Paperwhite Studio who "wants to depart from the cliche Valentines sentiment and found out the real things we use as a measuring stick for love." Some of the entries are hilarious, others insightful and a little sad at times. Really cool, totally worth checking out and even adding to. (I did, can you find it?)