Oooh, Facebook Friend/Day 2 of 30

I highly recommend checking out this post about the artwork of Kirsten Hassenfeld. This sculpture pictured is made out of paper. Amazing.

Last night I posted a status on my Facebook, asking for friends' permission to use their photos for drawing practice. 30 "likes" by the time I got home! I did five drawings last night, which I'll start posting this evening. Hopefully I don't offend anyone with their illustrated likenesses (or lack thereof). A couple I'm really happy with, but the rest I'm still iffy on. But anyway, they're just for practice and to keep me in the habit of creating.

After culling a bunch of people I never talk to anymore from my friend's list, I'm left with exactly 300. I think if I could get everyone's permission to use their image, 300 "quick" (I spent a max of half an hour on each drawing last night) illustrations would make a pretty cool exhibition. My biggest problem is still that I can't resist posting my new work online as I create it!

I'm still working on Kathryn's watercolour, though with my thumb injury I'm doing a little bit at a time; since it's a custom piece from a photograph I can't go making mistakes!

The second prompt in the 30 Days of Me challenge is the meaning behind my blog name. 'Niceties' has been my social networking username since the Bebo days; it's short, usually available for new site profiles and, by definition, sweet. Google defines it as: "A small detail that is nice or polite to have but isn't necessary." I remember my Mum said it when I was a kid, and I looked it up in the dictionary. No idea why it stuck with me, really. Obviously (especially on Twitter) it is often mistakenly read as "Nice Ties".

I chose to get a ".co.nz" domain name primarily because "niceties.com" is already taken; secondly because of my workplace; and thirdly because I feel that New Zealanders see ".co.nz"s as more trustworthy than ".com"s (probably not the case for my overseas visitors).

Sooo looking forward to the weekend. I'm planning to do lots of sleeping, lots of artwork, and if all goes to plan something very exciting (and secret, for now) on Sunday.

By the way, the first part of this blog post title is a reference from a British show The Inbetweeners. Definitely check it out if you can! There's two (quite short) seasons out so far, and a third out next month. I am so excited for September; so many new seasons and movie releases! Most exciting of course being season five of Dexter and the movie adaption of Australian writer John Marsden's book Tomorrow When the War Began.