An actual project: Tea

Hurrah for the tea set! 

So- I bought most of the stuff for this project back in November/December.

I finished it- eventually. :)
Now all I have to remember is to take it in to work and find it a new home.

The defeat of the cork board- or at least really close

This- Thing. has. been. such. a. pain.

I started this ... probably three years ago.

It was originally only the four squares of corkboard

(thank you Staples).

However, apparently cork board and the removable sticky squares for hanging posters do not play well together- so it kept diving off the wall. Usually in the middle of the night.

Last year, I bought the poster board and stuck the corkboard to that, and then stuck the whole thing to the wall.

Once again, the whole thing fell off the wall at THREE AM and scared me half to death.

So- now there are rivets, and ductape around the edges. and more tape down the middle. and ribbon tying it to the shelf, so that it can't fall off the wall.

Muahahaha!

I will win.

Gingerbread Village... Wow, I hadn't made these in years.

     So, today my boss and I made "Gingerbread houses" for the library raffle. I got to her house about 10:30, and we proceeded to decorate for about five hours, with a short break for lunch. There was so much candy.

The first house- I had far too much fun with the roof
and cheerfully overdid the red and green

Also, I added a lean to to the house and "made" a tree...

The house of Gumdrops and Good'n'Plenty- With accompanying dog
(though the younger patrons have informed me that it's a mouse...)

Build #3- Piroulines, Necco, Smarties and S'more Candy corn with KitKats and Andie's Mints.
 Definitely the on I'd most enjoy eating.
There's a marshmallow snow fort in there too, though it's hard to see.

The last house I did. My theme was chocolate and licorice.
That's one of my Boss' creations in the background.

These totally count as art projects, right? ;)

Cupcakes with Cows

So, mum's church is hosting a fundraiser. As per usual, she was recruited. Therefore, about two hours worth of work resulted in this: 

Cute, aren't they?

Now we have a small herd, all packaged and ready to be- well, sold and devoured. 

Still not quite sure how I ended up being involved, but- all I had to do was "color" inside the lines.

Jayela Darkwalker- Neverwinter

March Progress Report V

     So, Anime Boston 2014: Magic&Mischief is over. It was totally awesome, my costume held up pretty well, and I am sorry to see it go. First order of business was to catch up on sleep.
    That accomplished, I now need to catch up in WriYe, make enough money to pay off the credit card bills, finish putting the ConCave together and organize it, do some job searching... and basically get back to normal life. Oh, and post pictures, game, and read.


Writing:

• 437 words into Drakaeo
• 3936 new words between KS, Drakaeo and Never Surrender (Dan AU)
• 1-2 hours Editing

Crafts/hobbies: 

• TERA Rising: 4 hours

 Other: 

• WriYe 1st Quarter Verification almost ready to send in
• Finally watched Disney's Frozen

AnimeBoston '14- Rise of the ConCave

     So yes, we went, we saw, we cosplayed- and did fairly well, if I do say so myself. I think it ended up costing us about $250 per person, plus whatever was spent at the vendors. Which isn't bad, as it included what we paid for hotels and meals.
     And the cosplays were all completed on time!
     Pictures, as promised:

Kirita, Kleina and Asuno (our cosplays)

Kirito, Klein, and Asuna from Sword Art Online Anime

   
    We were also the only ones who gender swapped those characters, even though there were more than 30 Kirito cosplays, several Kleins and at least 20 Asunas. Most of whom had bought costumes, or at least the swords.
     Hurrah for original ideas!

March Progress Report IV

Greetings from AB '14!


Writing:

• NO words into King's Shadow- Go work on the cosplay.
• 510 new words between KS and Never Surrender (Dan AU)
• Editing- NONE- Seriously. Work on the Cosplay.

Crafts/hobbies: 

• TERA Rising: NO hours, Finish your cosplay and get to Boston!  
• Klein cross-play costume completed! 

 Other: 

• Read an entire trilogy- yeah, this was instead of writing....

March Progress Report II

And yet another busy week! I hope we finally have all the materials for this cosplay stuff. (Two weeks until Anime Boston! We're cutting it close!) But oh how my writing is suffering...

Writing:

• Managed another 3k this week, still about 3k behind my goal. I was doing great until ...Friday?
• Got another several pages of editing done
• Updated word count spreadsheet

Crafts/hobbies:

• Started playing TERA Rising again, logged about 15 hours
• Katana shaped out of foam, added hilt and enameled
• Plate armor and katana sheath cast out of plaster
• ConCave craft area reorganized and mostly cleaned up

Other:

• Moved uncle's boxes and furniture from basement to storage
• Dismantled office desk and moved from balcony to basement
• Signed up for Camp Nano in April
• Ran Tech Sunday morning

March Progress Report I

Writing:

• Another scene of King's Shadow
• Plotting for the next 'arc' of the story- filled out, created more characters
• Over 10k in Dan's story during the month of February- all after the 14th.

Crafts/hobbies:

• Found a home for ALL of the scrapbook- stuff
• Bought the rest of the materials for Kleina costume

Other:

• Cleared out the Island of Misfit Toys/Moria (In common tongue, the un-insulated room above the garage- did I mention that is was cold this week?) for several hours during the week and pretty much all of Saturday 
• Played in the Elder Scrolls Online BETA (So much fun, even if I am a flailing newbie whose sister set up non-archer characters. Archer= only MMORPG character I have logged more than two hours on. I was trying to play a mage.)
  The mudcrabs though- I remember those from Morrowind- those should just DIE. (Kill on Sight) 

February Progress Report III

Note: So, yeah, I published this on time... no, no I did not.


Writing:

• Several scenes of King's Shadow; the story is finally coming at a decent pace.
• Plotting for the next 'arc' of the story
• Nearly 5k in Dan's story

Crafts/hobbies:

• Worked on Klein costume- not quite completed, maybe another week
• Ordered wig- and received wig. It's- short and Really Red xD
• Cut fabric for huntress overdress

February Progress Report II

Oh, that's right- I need to post this on Sundays. I have the feeling that this is going to be a recurring theme, forgetting the progress report...

    Writing:

• Started scene two in "The King's Shadow"
• First read-through for editing R'anna's In the Wake of Ambition (first 150 pages)
• Continued working on Novel Bibles
• Added another scene in Dan
• Began editing Dan

    Crafty things:

• Completed Quilt
• Organized Scrapbooking Supplies

Completed: Psychedelic Quilt of Doom

Yes, I do actually call it that.

     This is a project of mine from roughly 2008, which I shelved during college. I have worked on it on and off over the years, and this year decided to make the final charge to finish it.
     January 8th, I dragged the top of this twin-sized quilt out of it's dark corner and commenced work- ironing, pinning, hand sewing and machine sewing.
     As of today, the Quilt is finished.

Psychedelic Quilt of Doom

     May I have a nap now?

February Progress Report I

    In an effort to keep the forward momentum going, an update on this week's progress! (I'll be posting these on Sundays, hopefully.)

    Writing:

• Finally finished the first scene of "The King's Shadow"
• Printed out what I have written for the other four stories I'm currently working on, so that I can re-read them and start writing again.
• Mid-creation of novel bibles for all five works in progress.

    Crafty things:

• Hand sewed center eight blocks of Quilt (January). Need to set up a sewing machine to do edge word and bind.
• Started sorting "scraps" for SMASHbook (Just My Cup of Tea) and two scrapbooks (ConCave and an unnamed personal one). It looks like a craft store blew up.

    Other:

• My Taxes (definitely deserves a mention)
• Read two books
• Researched for a professional portfolio (at least 2-3 hours)

Organization- or Lack Thereof: A List of Projects in Progress

     Now, having pretty much taken January off from writing in favor of hand stitching a quilt (six years in the making), it is time for me to get my writing in order and ready myself for the insanity that is authorship.
     I have signed up for Write Year 2014 in an attempt to motivate myself to get some writing accomplished. I have some hope of keeping up with their blogging circle. (Anything is better than not blogging at all, right?)
    So now my task is to rediscover all those projects I had lost in the maelstrom of college and graduate school.

    Thus far, I have uncovered:

• a scrapbook
• a SMASHbook
• the Psychedelic Quilt of Doom
• several counted cross stitches
• a huntress costume
• a SAO Klein cross-play (no, this is not cross dressing!)
• a barely- begun knitted shawl
• a pair of finger-less gloves (knitting)
• a pillow sham (also knitting)

    And now for the writing projects:

To Write:

• The King's Shadow- medieval fantasy world, originally started in 2009. MC- Aiden Trevallyn.
• Drakaeo- feudal high fantasy; Dragons (nobility), Elves (servant/rebels), Humans (peasant class), originally begun in 2011. MC- Drakaeo Llywellyn
• Caelmare- clan-ish elemental mage culture; Begun 2012. MCs Saeki Kuroni and Tsora (who may or may nothave a last name)
• Seeking the Dawn- medieval border war with random magical elements? Originally begun in 2012. MCs Djari and Sirael.
• Chimera- military/mob dystopian madness? Begun early 2013. MCs Tobias (hawk) and Leon (viper).
• Trevin- Medieval desert culture. Tried in 2008, scrapped. Re-start?

To Edit:

• Dan&Ian- ever-growing universe. Something similar to an rp with startling resemblance to a novel. They're basically hit men...
• Sarius- a friend's story I'm beta reading/editing.

    So, first things first- I suppose I need to print it all out and see where the heck I am, in order to determine where I might be going. Should be.... Interesting? 

    Beware impending avalanches of paper!

Just My- Piece of Cake?

So, my parents 25th wedding anniversary is coming up later this month, but they're going to be away weekend of. Therefore we had the party last Sunday.

As I am as yet still looking for a full time job, funds were rather tight. Thus, my sister and I decided to MAKE the cake for the party.

Ten hours of baking (me) and six and a half hours of decorating (both my sister and I) later:

WE HAD A FINISHED PRODUCT!! 

Many thanks to my aunt for lending us her kitchen- mum was totally floored.

Sweet success (literally)!!

And then they had the audacity to EAT IT! But It shall be remembered in photographs.

Amusing to note- this is the fourth cake I've baked in my life, and my sister and my first stab at decorating/frosting on our own. My father now believes that there is hope for me, domestically. :P

IT IS DONE!

Ahh, sweet success!

As you all know, Christmas is right around the corner. This is a shot of the last item on my "to complete for Christmas List"- a bracelet for my grandmother.
I am so proud of this thing!
I made the chain myself out of jump rings (little silver hoops, for the non-jewelry making crowd) using a chain-mailing technique known as Byzantine/Bird Cage. I made four same length pieces, connected them with the red gem spacers, and added a clasp. About 4 or 5 hours of work, all told. Though it actually took me rather longer, since my hands kept cramping up on the pliers... The things I do for family ;)

I really did enjoy doing it. I'll most likely be doing similar things in the future. Just what I needed- one more crafting hobby to buy supplies for. xD