Believe me, I am still alive. Also, I won things!

I've been away from Blogger so long that I typed "blooger.com" into the address bar to get here. That's depressing. There are many reasons why I haven't been updating lately, and I'd write all about them... except they all boil down to one single solitary thing: I am a very busy lady!

And I have some news! First off, I'll just briefly mention that, back in September, I was featured on the Team Fortress 2 blog after I made a cake based off of one of their in-game health packs in celebration of their 15th birthday. Being a huge Valve fan, I blushed many a flattered blush at the mention. I'm very happy that they liked it!

But here's where it gets even better: I made an animated video for USA.gov's Help Answer The Public's Questions Competition, where contestants had to create a 60 to 90 second short to help answer people's questions about different U.S. government benefits and services. Having valiantly accepted the challenge, I donned my magical animation hat and whipped up an informational video about tax returns. Not only was I included in the five winning entries, but I also got a thousand dollars out of the deal. Not too bad, huh?

You wish to see this video of mine, you say? Well, I've embedded it here for your viewing pleasure! Hopefully you'll be entertained, and maybe learn a thing or two while viewing it.


How To Check The Status of Your Tax Refund: An Animated Guide from Maz Zolp on Vimeo.


Otherwise, like I said, I've been whirling around in a tornado of busyness. I'm currently working on a bunch of top secret amazing projects, and when I'm able to, I'll tell you all about it here! In the meantime, I'll try to post up some more artwork and fun, super cool stuff. As always, stay tuned!

A delightful update post!

Sorry for the lack of posts here lately (again)! I've been doing a lot of stuff lately. One of the things I've been working on is beautifying my website. If you haven't been there lately, click here and take a look for yourself. I just hope that, in the end, the team of digital internet construction workers that I've hired to help build my website follow my detailed instructions to the letter:

Until next time!

My first animated short!

Well, here it finally is, in all of it's glory, on the internet: my first short. The Great Tea Party Robbery. 2011. Sound. Color. Old ladies killing helpless creatures. Helpless creatures retaliating against old ladies. The works. Hope you all enjoy it!

And now for an extra awesome announcement...

It's kind of a short announcement, but it's very exciting nevertheless!

I'm pleased to announce that my animated short, The Great Tea Party Robbery, will be showing at the Gene Siskel Film Center in Chicago this Wednesday night at 6:30 PM. If you can't make it, don't sweat it: I'll be posting my pride and joy Thursday Friday night here through Vimeo.

I have been incredibly busy...

...as you can probably tell from my disappearance. But I am alive. I am well. And I will have some wonderful, magical things to post soon. Until then, stay awesome everyone!

Vat eez theez... "blog" you speak of?

Oh my goodness, a blog! A blog that is mine! I almost forgot! I am sorry, little one! I will never abandon you again!

Well, what to post? What shall I share with all of you? Um. Oh! Here's a lil' something. Before my watercolor class ended this winter, I got a chance to go behind the scenes at the Field Museum and watercolor a few hummingbird specimens. They were incredibly ancient but magnificently intact: the oldest of the two was from the late 1800s (okay, I may have been exaggerating with the whole ancient business, but hey, that's still pretty darn old!).

While I was there I also witnessed the ornithologists' huge, disgustingly pungent crates of flesh-eating bugs that clean their specimens' skeletons and browse through a seemingly never-ending hallway filled with drawers upon drawers of dead preserved birds from all around the world. It was, as you can probably imagine, super awesome.

Other than that, I've been doing a lot of varied things lately. I revamped my website (it is temporarily stark and hipster chic, since I'm still working on some layouts in DreamWeaver to make it look ultra moderne and fancy schmansy) and am working on some watercolors to put on Etsy one of these days. I'm also working on some more animations (speaking of animations, here is my latest reel of morality) and a web comic series... and lots more! So, as always, I shall depart and go back to creating pretty things and guzzling down coffee and never ever ever abandoning my wonderful adorable squishy blog ever again.