Things I Like Thursday

To start off things I don’t like: Accidently deleting two posts from existence by forgetting to check how recent my database backup was when upgrading my database.

—-real post begins here—-
My new blog theme thanks Sam of Rooster Tails for the cool graphics. I’m probably not done yet… I’ll still be doing a few tweaks here and there. Also there are a few bits of content that I really need to add to the pages…

Web comics… I mean they are comics and I read them on the internet… for free!!

My top 5 are(in no particular order):

PVP Player vs. Player is as very nerdy comic mostly aimed at gamers.
XKCD how do you explain this comic to those who don’t know about it… All I can say is when me and my husband talk about it we never seem to get the letter right we have called it XFCE XKFC and XKFD among many other things….
Rooster Tails an awesome New Zealand trans/queer comic written by a talented trans comic artist
The Knit Princess really funny knitting comic, probably only funny to knitters and maybe those close to knitters.
Oglaf NSFW enchanted sperm, naughty stories, and irreverent humour
and as a bonus Khaos Komix more Trans/Queer comics, this one tells several stories from lots of viewpoints, not so much funny like Rooster Tails, and more heartbreaking in bits.

Audible.com how I love thee… I love to read I read probably about 20 hours a week maybe more, which has always meant that my reading competes with my other hobbies(which I seem to have a lot of) meaning that I can either read or knit, read or embroider, read or cook dinner(okay not so much a hobby). You get the picture… About a two and a half years ago, after hearing on every single one of Brenda Dayne‘s podcasts about audible, I decided to give it a go and get a free audio book… Well I never had an audio device it worked with so I cancelled it. Fast Forward 6 months I got an android phone , and guess what it had an audible app which meant I could download the books directly to my phone. Now I use audible constantly… I still read actual books but my reading time has increased massively cause I can read and do other things like knitting and cooking.

Related: The Septimus Heap books… I’m halfway through book 5 and I absolutely love this series… They are like Harry Potter but yet not at all like Harry Potter. They are well written engaging and amazing to read.

Honourable Mentions:

Getting a postcard from Jenni… I love mail that’s not bills.

Larping (of course)

The Guild (they are back yay!!!)

Jun 30

Things I Like Thursday

Okay I really meant to post in this blog before now… but anyway here we are a week later.

Things I like:

Slut Walk: The march was awesome, getting up and speaking in front of such a large amount of amazing people was terrifying but worth it. Seeing everyone cry as I read my speech was heart breaking, and heart warming all at once. I feel bad that I had to leave so soon afterward. It’s also great to hear that so many people appreciated my speech… ( I have since this posted my speech up here)

The Reason I had to hop off so soon after slut walk was so I could get ready for the Midea High School Prom LARP being held by The VUW Roleplaying and Games Club which was a blast! I completed all of my character goals and got into my secret society! YUS!!!!!!! It was a lot of fun. and I got to wear one of my Victorian gowns! (it was a Victorian masquerade themed prom).

And THEN the next day I had my Dragonlance table top game! so a very VERY geeky weekend.

This week has from then been filled with Game of Thrones, I’m almost done… I rather like Cersei, but also rather adore Daenerys…

While watching GoT I have been busily sketching costume ideas for my Teonn character… which is useful, I love designing for medievalesque fantasy, you can pick and choose the best from everything really… I love a lot of what Cersei wears, and this am drawing a lot of inspiration from her.

Knitting wise I’m working on the Dino Hat for a friend of mine!

Dec 28

Hair today LONG tomorrow

I have been growing my hair out for the last three years, mostly because my hair had always been short. The longest it had been was chin length, and I was over it. To be fair it was always my own fault that is was so short. I would constantly get bored and then chop it all off. So when I moved to New Zealand I decided that I was going to grow it out and thus I have.

Now this hasn’t been with out it’s own road bumps.

-July 2008 I cut my nearly shoulder length hair into an asymmetrical bob, just above ears on the left side and chin level on the other.

- December 2008 I randomly decided that my left side needed a shaved undercut strip.

- March 2009 I decided that what would be really cool would be to completely shave the left side of my head like that singer Cassie did later. I maintained this hairstyle until June of that year. The right side of my hair was now past my shoulders.

After that I decided enough is enough, and started growing my hair out. Unfortunately the past year my hair hasn’t gained all that much length because of having to have it cut several times to even out the whole look.

It’s taken a lot of work, an extreme amount of patience that I may have stolen from some one, but it’s well on its way to being long and lovely. It’s currently between flip length and bra strap length, and I’m very happy with it. I think as of now I’m aiming for classic length which is to the place where you butt meets your legs.

Here’s hoping that it all goes well.

Mar 31

WOOT! Finished Object and more

Sheesh it’s been a while. I keep trying to post but have been having a hard time actually getting around to it…. What have I been up to? Rather a lot actually! I have been taking a bunch of business classes and thus trying to grow my business sense, and my business. I’ve been playing with dyeing embroidery threads and silks some more, and in general having fun!

As for actual crafts well I finished my sample socks which really need a new name :-)

I started to work on a small quilt. I’m fairly new to quilting in fact this is my first machine pieced quilt and first appliqué project. The quilt is only 27inches square and is a project for the local hospital. It’s a mothers day gift for a mother who baby was either stillborn or died shortly after birth. I’ve really enjoyed making it. The appliqué was good practice.

I plan on doing some more embroidery along this project but so far I’m happy!

I felt I needed more practice doing some appliqué and I loved that pansy sooo very much that I started a little needle book… I’m really happy with how this is turning out!

Now what’s all this appliqué practice for? You’ll just have to wait and see!!

Feb 23

UFO-a-go-go part 1

as I laid out all my WIP/UFO’s that I’m actively wanting to work on a get done soon(some have time limits some just have been on the go for too long) I realized I have a lot of them that I’m currently working on thus why it feels like I’m going nowhere slowly. So in interest in not making and epic post of doomy-doom-DOOM I have split it into two posts. today will be about my needlework(I have more than what is seen here on the go these are just what I’m working on finishing!!

I have the skirt which I haven’t take pictures of cause it’s still just endless stem stitch at this point… but it’s going along fine and will hopefully be finished soon so I can proceed onto other parts of the skirt… It’s hard for me to work on this for too long because it’s such a big project all in white on black which also means I can only do it before 7pm when the lighting gets wonky. I can do maybe an hour before my fingers twitch for something lighter and colourful, although i can say this thank goodness for seat frames.

This is probably the project I want to work on the most cause it’s so much fun and beautiful. I really need to make myself a light box so I can trace designs a bit easier I also need a water soluble pen the pencil isn’t really precise as I would like. I’m loving the colours that I used for this so bright a vibrant, I believe the Victorians would approve. I originally thought this would be the pocket it’s self I think I might be more prone to turning it into a patch to sew onto the pocket. I still haven’t decided what I’m going to do about the border part of me is really unsure about doing it all in grey satin stitch, and might have to add blue whipped stitch over it or maybe some green vines with French knot buds, like I did on the stem portion.

This is a tatted necklace that I’m working on as you can see I’ve gotten ever so far… I think I was rather let down when I had to redo 12 hours of work thanks to a stupid mistake that I did very early on! Well I’ve put this on my bedside so hopefully I will be able to get to it a bit everynight!

This project is multi purpose, as I have gotten more into embroidery I have collected lots of needles and need to know what is what, and thus I need a needle book. I’ve also been really interested in quilting lately and started(and put somewhere I cannot find) a English Paper Piecing quilt, in a grandmother’s garden pattern. I figure since I’m hand stitching all the pieces I might as well hand quilt it all too. Finally my fabulous new Aunt I inherited through my marriage gave me some excellent 6inch squares of Aussie fabrics, not really enough for me to do too much with, but enough for a few small projects. This is the back of my needle book which is going to be hand quilted using some of my favorite fabrics from the stash(who knows what else I will do with them :-p ) (p.s. it’s not biased i just too the picture crooked and in a hurry cause a naughty bunny was trying to eat the frame which is loaned to me)

This is a project I started eons ago; before Ryan proposed I got started on a wedding sampler, NOT as a hint, but because I knew we were getting married(we both did) I just knew how long it takes me to finish things. well that was August 2 years ago and we have been married 4.5 months and this is where the wedding sampler looks today… very far from being done…. yes I know! Well I plan on fixing that I hope to finish this this year! one of the nice things about not finishing it till after my wedding is that I can add a band that has the Celtic knotwork that is on our wedding bands.