Rolling with the Rennies..

So, the last day of the local renn faire was today, while they didn't want me taking pictures of it, and I respected their wishes, it seems they had some...excitement today. If you qualify excitement as one of the large kitchens burning down. An impressive display of raw elemental power, a grease fire sent the kitchen up in a large fire ball.(Does anybody else feel like humming the James Bond theme song?) Thankfully the fire was kept to only the kitchen and the business' to either side were saved and able to open for business. So while I do not have pictures of burned down charcoaled buildings, I do have something better! Dancing girls!!
Dancing Girls and Pretty women!
The dancing and indoor pictures are of my lovely dancing mentor, friend and all around most awesome person, Sam Riggs and her beautiful daughter Josi. The other lovely lady is my good friend Monica. The gentleman in the hat and red scarf is her husband Paul, and finally Tristan on the mandolin. These are the raw unedited photos shot on my Alpha a100 no flash. I am pleased as peach they way these came out. I will post more as I edit the ones that need it.

Hoist ye, the plague flag high.

I love my family, and their family and all the extended wonderfulness that makes them who they are. The wedding was beautiful, I have a much longer story to write about it, but not yet. I am fairly certain I am hallucinating and while entertaining, I am unsure of the factual integrity of the story. It is because I love my family I find myself, and the hubbins down with the plague. A quite impressive display of the Ick, has not been displayed in my immune system for some years. If the plotted course of said Ick, continues it could quite possibly head into Ye Olde Pneumonia territory. We are hoping to avoid that, but at the same time prevent me from the heinous side effects of anti-biotics. Or as my body likes to call them "Yak inducing, yeast feeders." Never fear though our intrepid heroine is finding the time to work on her Project of the Month. I am eagerly anticipating what it will actually be as I am not quite sure myself. Nyquil induced amnesia can lead to some fascinating conversations. It is good that I don't allow myself internet access when on the heavy meds.

Radio Silence

Ok, as today was a day of celebrating every thing that makes one Irish, or Irish for the day(Red hair, green eyes, pasty white skin Irish from a long line), there may be a bit of radio silence on the creative blog. I will attempt to update when I can, most likely with pictures if time allows. I will be a maid of the Bride (she actually does have a katana, so I think I am just there for distraction or to be a meat shield) in the pretty red dress I posted not to long ago. Let me paint a picture for you. The Bride is an Amazon (no really 5'10 in stocking feet) and she is wearing heels that will put her at a little over 6 feet. Her soon to be hubby, the brother of my hubby are both hobbits. I mean this in the most loving way possible, but the soon to be hubby is 5'6ish. And my hubby picks his IM names and such from the famous Bull Roarer in Tolkien, the tallest of the hobbits (look up the name you fool of Took). The other maid of The Bride is 5'8 or 9 ish. She is possibly wearing heels. Finally the Male of Honor (yes he is a dude, and yes he is standing with the bride, we are progressive in this blog) is also on the tallest side. I am 5'2, in my heels I may reach 5'5 if I am lucky. The Groom will have the cast of Princess Bride. I promise pictures forth coming, but, seriously, an Italian man, a swordsman, a giant, and an exceptionally dashing pirate. So with all of this maiding to The Bride, actually doing stuff other than primping is going to be difficult. But I promise to have primping pictures to offer up, and things that sparkle as I have no desire to spark Glitter Rage to any of my readers. Sparkles will be sacrificed for you.

Habeas Hiatus

So I write this today, after several days of my body purging in new and creative ways. Meaning I have fallen dreadfully behind on all my projects. This is unacceptable and means I need to catch up. I also have a wedding I am supposed go to this week, well not just ANY wedding, I mean it is the wedding of two of my favorite people in the entire world and I get to be there with some of the coolest people ever. And I get to wear a dead sexy dress, that for once the hubby noticed and said "I am so glad you get to keep this dress because I plan to take you out and show you off in it." Ahhh squishys!

Enough mushy stuff. I have a project to come up with. The bride to be has purchased off the shelf bright sparkly hair pins, they are very nice and very tasteful. I will admit right now, when given the choice of more sparkles or tasteful, sparkles will always win in the end. So I have decided to make my own hair sparkly bits out of swarski crystals and what ever bits and bobs I can find, maybe ribbons, who knows. Tomorrow I will be taking a trip to one of the great crafting meccas
(Micheals for the unwashed heathens) as they have all kinds of crystals for not to expensive. I may just do chop sticks, or even head bands, I dunno yet. The muses are always waiting for me there (I think they work in shifts) so something will come to mind. As soon as puchases are made pictures will be uploaded.
For now just picture the beautiful sparkle of crystal.... sigh. I may even make earings and necklace to match depending on my mood.

Sink the Pink

So here it is, the new project this week. I love Vintage patterns and this one happens to be one of my favorites. There is something about the pinafore apron that screams home made apple pie, freshly ironed shirts and lunches in brown paper bags. None of these aprons have any real practical purpose other than to display the homemaking prowess of the the woman wearing it. I seriously doubt any that were originally made from this pattern saw so much as a dusting of flour. Beyond that though, the sheer impracticality and Americana of the apron are the very reasons why I love it so much. It is not reality, but the perceived ideal of reality. I am making the apron out of the fabric to the right. Although I have never been a fan of pink, the person this is being made for is made of pink. She is a joyous and loving person and pink suits her. You can see the fabric also has wonderful daises all over it, that even more so suits her personality. Simple but beautiful and sweet. I am happy to make this for her as a late birthday gift and more so to make it for her because she happens to love vintage aprons. As you can see by the picture on the left, I am detailing the edges of the frills in an Iron Cross stitch. No the stitch is not vintage but it adds a fun touch and a bit of her punk rock side to the overly girlie apron.

Project of the Week, Vs the Cats.

I have cats (far be it for me to say I own then), I really should know better. After writing an upbeat post on the nearly finished project and gathering the materials for my next, I got to sleep much earlier than anticipated and had left my knitting on the side table of the sofa. Only one of our cats is attracted to string, and he will watch enraptured as I knit, completely focused on the gently waving yarn. And he will mostly stay this way, a few feet away, huge green eyes unmoving. Unless a stray yarn end should brush against his fur, or wander out of my normal reaching range. He will then pounce (with all the grace of Maxwell Smart on a bad day, a lion on the Serengeti he is not) and attempt to eat the offending bit of string like material. This is rare, and if I am not paying attention to an art project the cats don't bother either. This all changed last night, sometime during the night, one or the both of them decided to lay waste to all my hard work. I found the desecrated and slobbery ruin this morning. It is only a half a days work gone, but it is still a half a days work gone. i would have ranted and yelled and made pointless threats I would never follow through on, but like magic, both of the cats had found some place better to be when i found the project. So a finished picture will come a bit later, after I make myself some new slippers.

Apron AGo-Go

So I am just about finished with my project from last week. A particular knitted had of truly heinous colors, for a particularly beloved friend. Having had to frog back the damn thing 7 times has not helped my speed, but it is now a matter of just finishing it properly. And time to announce and move onto my next project of the week. Another certain beloved friend recently celebrated her birthday. This friend is rather fond of aprons, dunno why as she is not a baker, but she loves classic aprons, and drooled over one I had made and given to another friend at Xmas. Though not the best of pictures, it does give you an idea of the fabulous nature of these aprons. The particular fabric this one is made out of has Skull and Cross bones, in black and white with silver paint splashes.

So my next project will be a tad bit similar. Instead of the RAWK awesome fabric though, I will be using using pink. Yes, PINK. I love my friend and so can forgive her, her favorite color. I just have to remind myself that I do love her.

Pictures of completed project and pictures of the next project in process.

F#@%ing Profanity.

Admission time. I swear like a sailor. A habit made worse by the extremely creative nature of my significant others cursing. In professional settings I maintain dignity and keep from offending any ones delicate sensitivities, or teaching my 4 year old niece new words to future embarrass her parents with. That said, I hold strong to the idea that there is a time and a place for cursing. The satisfaction of questioning the paternity of the jerk who just cut you off. Or when attempting to put together Ikea furniture. Profanity is a way of venting steam, with out damaging people or property. That said, with only a few exceptions, I have noticed that genre books, even romance novels, swinging back towards the way of the innuendo. I read copious amounts of urban fantasy, romantic fantasy, Sci Fi, pretty much if it is in the genre section of the bookstore, I am scoping it out. Most of these stories feature strong female protagonists, Demon slaying, lycanthrope, vampire hunting, tough chicks who mow down their enemies with no mercy. It pumps the estrogen and slakes a somewhat bloodthirsty nature. Then this strong woman, this girlie version of the terminator(with better taste in shoes of course), will open her mouth to tell off the next big nasty. Instead of the guttural sound of a perfectly wonderful profane word, what do we get? "Stay back you big meany!"
I bring this up because in the very same book where our heroine is not allowed to give a F-U to bad guys, the writer will chose to use graphic words during romantic or sex scenes. What makes it OK to write every throbbing, writhing, pulsing, sticky detail using harsher and dirtier words, but not allow the character herself to use them? Is it and old fashioned ideal that a lady does not cuss? Or perhaps that a swearing leading lady would be less the righteous destroyer of evil? Or is it the fear that the reader will be offended with the language?

Bringing the Analog back to the Digital.

I have somewhere in the neighborhood of 50 or 60 rolls of black and white film. Most were taken for school project and some just because. What I don't have is access to a dark room.
I love my digital camera, and hopefully will be updating it soon. That said there is a deep visceral joy in processing your own film, and making your own prints. It takes the technical and puts the art back into it. From the choice of which filters to use, what exposure, what paper stock, cropping or not. Every print even if you follow the exact same steps each time will be unique, no one will ever be exactly the same. When I did have access during photography classes, I would tuck my mp3 player someplace where the digital display would not cause accidental exposure, and simply let myself over to the whim of the chemicals. Most of the prints I made however, I let the person whose picture it was have them. So a number of my favorite shots are stuck in a small 35 mm square, tucked safely in their protective sleeves. I lamented the loss of he ability to tinker with development. That is until we purchased a scanner that has the ability to scan photo negatives. Scanning these negatives give me a digital backup of irreplaceable film(film is highly flammable and susceptible to environmental factors) it gives me the chance to play, if only in a digital way. As soon as my beloved lap top is either laid to her well deserved rest and I get a replacement, or she is fixed and risen from the ashes of her mostly dead status, This project will commence. I have no idea on the time frame it will take me to get them scanned, but start looking for them by the end of the month (fingers crossed!). For those that modeled for me for those pictures, let me know if you want copies of any of the pictures and I will send you the large format super uber file that you can blow up to poster size. Most likely I will retake several of the classes, not for credit, but just to have dark room privileges.

Monthly Challenge: Episode 1

As I stated previously, my challenge this month is to learn to crochet. I have been led to believe that using a single hook, while consumes more yarn is much easier and less time consuming. I call shenanigans. No matter the difficulty of the knitting you are doing (I love lace work because I am masochistic that way) knitting is based off of two stitches. That is IT. TWO if you can learn to knit and purl you can do anything. Every complex looking random stitch, yarn overs, and any other impossible to understand term is all based on those two very simple little stitches.
I have been lied to.

As you can see on the picture to the right, I have learned only the first two of MANY different stitch types. I am going to learn this art, simply to prove I can, but this single hook being easy nonsense is going to stop.

The holding of the hook and yarn takes quite a bit to get used too. The project just kinda flops off the end of the hook unlike knitting where it is gently guided and held by the needles. Each stitch in knitting is clearly defined on the needles, no hooking the wrong stitch because you can't tell one from another. My goal is to have one finished crocheted project that uses at least several of the stitches I am learning.

I hear the deities of crafting laughing already.

Edit: You will also notice that the yarn I am using is primarily acrylic, with only 5% cashmere, contrary to what it may say on the front. Learning new knitting or crocheting techniques are the rare times I will use acrylic yarn. I completely fess up to my yarn snobbery.

In the Edge no one can hear you scream...

Well a few people can, but not the sort you would want hanging around if you feel the need to belt one out. On the EdgeIlona Andrews first in The Edge series, takes a well worn and almost over concept and makes it shiny and new. Most any one who has read Science Fiction or Fantasy is familiar with the idea of alternate realities, ones that touch ours, but are just a half a second away. Andrews takes this idea and expands on it. The world as we know it is there, but laid over top or next to, or what ever metaphor floats your boat, are the countries of the Weird. The Weird is the mystical magical place of flying ponies and cotton candy grass. Well not really but it is the place of magic. Our world, our reality is considered The Broken, we have no magic and are mostly immune to any influence. I just consider this the spectacular ability for humanity to plug its ears and go "lalalalalala". Between these two places lay a land that is a little of both and a whole lot of its own place. The Edge. The Edge is a sort of Wild West, they deal with their own and don't take no outsiders word on the Only the people of the edge can safely cross the borders between the Broken and the Weird, as they are of both worlds.
The plot of the book revolves around Rose, an outcast amongst the outcasts. In and attempt to show up the bullies who have plagued her, she proves herself to be a strong magic user and a possible bastard child of the Weird. What ensues is really a preamble for the book, but leaves fascinating consequences. Rose is hounded to breed for her magic ability, with the loss of her family she is stuck taking care of her two younger brothers, both of whom have issues of their own. An unlikely romance sprouts between an Earl of the Weird and Rose when he comes to track down the big nasty antagonist. All of that aside, this really is a story of trust, of learning to trust and knowing when strength is needed and when to allow another to hold your back. The story kept me engaged, the romance did not over power the plot, the peripheral details of the world didn't make me want to keep a concordance of terms. For an Urban Fantasy it is very well done and extremely enjoyable to read. Just look past the less than stellar cover art.

Sunday, in the afternoon.

So yes this a day late, and for that I am sorry, but my lovely little lap top died today. I am wearing my widow's weeds and using the spare one to write this on. And as today is the first of the month.. wait.. second.. I also have my "Something New for this Month" (tm). First my weekly activity is knitting, and as I have knit many of them on these same needles it feels like coming back to an old friend. Yes another Jayne Hat will be birthed from my hands. There is a very special and beloved friend who asked for one and will be getting one. I have no pictures to offer at this moment, but no fear pictures will be forth coming. And for those who think that, knitting something so familiar is cheating, Fie I say unto you! Fie! The hat is on the needles and the perfect yarn is soft in my hands. It is comforting to know the rhythms of the clicking needles and sliding yarn.
But what of your monthly project you may ask, and thank you for doing so. I have decided to learn to crochet. Yes, yes I hear the masses asking me how I don't know how to already, when it is SOOOO much easier than knitting. I refuse to rise to your bait and will simply tell you that my two needles are far deadlier than your single hook and I am always aware of the martial abilities of my craft utensils before use. Ask me one day and I will show you my scissors of DOOM! For now progress reports on my foray into the vast depths of crochet world to come, as well as future writings.