What I've been doing (some pictures)

I've now tried kumihimo. Wow, it's easy. I started with the yarn from the kit (which was in Japanese, by the way). I couldn't read the kit instructions so I did what any 21^st century computer savvy person would do: I turned to YouTube. I quickly found some instructions. Here's my 1^st kumihimo braid. Something I learned, get something to hold the loose ends or they will tangle. 

Once that was done, I pulled out some ribbon yarn from an unsuccessful project and wound 4 lengths on spool winders. I put about 2-2.5 yards on each one and tied a knot to make a loose loop for later. Here's some shots of the braiding in progress, both front and back.

And here's a comparison of the two braids.

I finished that Saturday and pulled out some red and black embroidery floss. I have started a spiral pattern braid.

I have decided to enter this bracelet for my tatting entry at the State Fair.

Last week's Doctor Who (Night Terrors) was just creepy. A friend has an adopted child and he found it touching. Eventually. Anything with creepy toys is creepy.

Yes, I know what the anniversary is. I'm very quiet person and I usually grieve in private. I haven't been able to watch any of the memorial services, hurt too much. Yes, crying gives me a headache.

I've been involved in an interesting Fate (gaming) discussion on Google+. It has revolved around the Fate system and how it relates, or doesn't, to Old School Renaissance Gaming. One point in the discussion was that OSR is not a hard and fast point, it's a scale. For some points on the scale, Fate system is an excellent fit, with the exception of the high risk of character death. It relies more on player experience and input, unlike some of the more modern versions of DandD. In 1^st edition DandD, the player would have to say, “I'm climbing up to look behind the statue” instead of 3^rd edition's “I roll my search skill.”

It was not a good week at work. I spent most of the week frazzled and out of sorts. It was a short week but felt longer than usual.

I took a really long weekend, because we had a convention to go to. Friday through Tuesday, including travel days. This was a special gaming convention, in celebration of a friend's birthday. We finally got to meet his fiance. She's a really good cook and we decided that we like her. We ate some really good food; the China Bistro still has really great dumplings. They had a new one; pork and pumpkin. It was so nommy. We ate at Minerva's, an Indian restaurant. They play Indian music videos and movies (MTV, I think), which adds some entertainment. There was also the Shiny Diner; which I wish they'd open around here. They buy local foods and have jukeboxes at every table, with volume controls. The only 'drawback' is that everyone hears your selection, and vice versa.

Our home campaign of DandD 3.5e Forgotten Realms was Sunday, too. We ended early, because we made it out of one zone unexpectedly. Our GM didn't know if we would go attack something else or just leave. GM wanted to time to prep the next section. It was a trifle anticlimactic as we bribed our way out instead of killing everywhere we went. It was probably effective at hiding our trail, though.

After playing, we spent time discussing Dr. Who. Yes, we're geeks.

I re-read some of JD Robb's In Death stories. I've been wanting to re-read Memory in Death for awhile. Let's see, what else have I been reading. I finally read Changes by Jim Butcher. Now I want to read Ghost Story and the last story in Side Jobs. I need to finish The Meaning of Everything.

I went to the bookstore on Friday, cause my mood was so bad that I really needed the pickmeup. I bought a few books, although the one I was looking for wasn't there. I read Must Love Lycans, by Michele Bardsley this weekend, one of the books I picked up. I left the others in my car, so I would get something else done rather than just read all weekend.

Next weekend, I go visit my mom and the weekend after that is Palmetto's Tat Days. Then I have two more weekends and the State Fair begins. One weekend will be Historic Oakview Park event and the the other has the home Forgotten Realms game. I will not have a free weekend until the one before Halloween.

I got a recipe from a women's magazine the last time I was at Mom's. It's for no-machine ice cream. Here it is. I'd recommend 1.5 tsp of vanilla and definitely put it in the freezer, but it's delicious. I used splenda and lactose-free milk and it worked fine.

no machine homemade ice cream:

1 c whole milk

1 tsp vanilla

2 tbs sugar

quart-size zip top plastic bag & seal

kosher salt

gallon-size plastic ziploc bag

ice

Put 1^st 3 ingredients in quart-size bag.

Combine 4 cups ice & ¼ cup Kosher salt in gallon-size plastic zip-top plastic bag

Place smaller bag inside big bag & seal big bag

Shake large bag vigorously for 6-8 minutes, do not squeeze bag

When smaller bag is plump & willowy, ice cream is ready

Remove smaller bag, wipe off salt & ice

Serve immediately as soft serve or freeze for 20 minutes for hard ice cream

Frustration

I messed the bind off of my sock. The thread for my bookmark either breaks or I mess up the pattern; I'm adapting an old edging from single motifs to a line of split ring motifs.

I have some great books to read (The Meaning of Everything, Changes & Thou Uncommon, Thou Improper Noun) but just can't sit down and read them. I have a lovely coloring book (Fat Ladies in Spaaaaace) but only .3 mm markers, because I can't find any of my other markers, colored pencils or crayons.

Plus someone told me something this weekend that really upset me. I mean, upset me enough that I don't trust talking about it on the internet. I can't talk about it to anyone. I scribbled down how I felt, hoping it would help. It hasn't. Not really. Only time will heal.

Surprise! 2 posts in 1 week

Shocking, isn't it? I'm finding politics to be particularly distressing right now. But it's spring, flowers are blooming (too bad that includes the Bradford pear trees), the sun is shining warmly, and the days are longer.

I mailed my postcard today (the one that I mentioned yesterday). It's not a crafty one that I made myself, or one showing local sites or sights, but still it's a postcard. Maybe I'll send a second one that is local or crafty. If you have some postcards, just sitting around, gathering dust, try making a little notebook/journal out of them. I've made some of these and they are so cute. Here's two from postcards that I got in Williamsburg, Va. The first one uses a ribbon to tie the pages into place. The 2nd one is stapled.

I think I have a certain nerd's (or maybe his wife's) birthday present. I think she find this book helpful; based on the blog post.
Here's a couple crafty links
This one is for simple fabric flowers, add to shirts or make pins
Fold towels to make pockets (like at fancy hotels)

And this is just neat, English spoken in different accents

Gaming: I think that I'd like to read through this; it's a simple, cliche driven game system called RISUS
I love these dice bags

Apparently I failed my Perception roll
(it's a gaming joke) As I watching the news this morning, to catch the weather, I heard about a couple local housefires. There was one, a big one, not too far from where Chris works. The other one really surprised me; it's on my street. I was quite puzzled, because the fire took place yesterday afternoon and I saw no sign of it when I came home. How tired was I yesterday?

Turns out, to see the places (2 townhouses) that burned I had to take a half-dozen steps past my door. They are down the hill and around a curve. One place is so badly burned that it's been condemned. The other is not as bad, more scorched.

I'm going to send a note to the ones in the badly burned place. After all, I know their address. I'll see if there is anything I can do for them.

I'm still coughing but not as badly and most of them aren't as deep. I still do not have any energy, though. I'm going to have to call my mom and cancel my visit.

I worked on my project last night. Too bad I sewed the layers in the wrong order. I had to take it apart again. I got some done tonight. I'll finish it tomorrow and add the (tatted) olive branch & wreath.

After stressing about it for a little for over a week, I finally found a V-Day present for Chris. We don't do the stereotypical cards & flowers (although Chris did buy me a personalized 1# chocolate bar once). We try to find something that the other really, really wants. I found copy of Jim Butcher's Princep's Fury.

Gaming: We're worried about Diana. She never came to gaming last night & she didn't call or email. That is very unlike her. She didn't answer her cell or her home phone (okay, sometimes she doesn't do that, but still). Hopefully she'll be at the game this afternoon and we'll find out that she's okay.

The game (4e D&D) itself went pretty well last night, but that penultimate fight got kind of rough. Half the group was bloodied by the time it was over and everyone had used their encounter healing. We even took a long rest before dealing with the final encounter. My cleric is 2nd level now and I plan to play her again today.

I'm off to see my friend, Mitra. She's in town this weekend and I'm looking forward to seeing her. We're meeting at the bookstore nearby.

Crafts: I've made another cotton potholder. I need to make another one & I'll be done, for now. It's also blue & white. I suppose I should take a picture..but how interesting is a potholder after all?

Unusual, old style, doll
This is one of three or four that I have that were made at the Harmony Hall Heritage Day
This one is a square of muslin, with the edges cut and tattered. Then tie a knot in the center of the square and reverse the fabric of the knot, concealing it inside. Take a scrap of other fabric and tie under the knot; that forms the head. The rest of the square forms the dress. If desired, tie a knot in two of the ragged strips, to form ~hands.

Chris's birthday: I did not have his present ready. He wants a padded bag to hold & protect his D&D 4e books. I was about to sew up the sides when I realized that it's too wide. I will be working on it some tonight but he's leaving for Wicked Harvest (gaming convention that's all Witch Hunter) so he won't get it until he gets back.

State Fair: looks like it's going to be cold & rainy so I'll pull out my Colonial era outfit. I think that I will take my new bodice & an appropriate blouse in case I need a change of clothes (Anitra & Steve usually do laundry Sat night after we get back & the clothes are ready the next day).

Work: Yesterday was interesting. When I came back from lunch I learned that the power was. The power went out in the restaurant that I was in, but since it's a 10-minute walk I didn't think that my building would be out, too. There wasn't much that I could do except hang around and wait for the power to come back.

Today was Employee Appreciation. There's free food, and this year's selection was much better. Since I volunteered, I got a different lunch though. I also hit the sale at the store and went through the information fair; lots of drawings and free pens.

Before things got started

and while things were in full swing. Yes, that's the line for lunch. The lunch tables are just out of sight on the right.

And this is where I worked during my volunteer shift. We were visited by a number of 'striped damsels', mostly honeybees but with the occasional yellowjacket for variety.

Craft: I finished the rag 'rug' that I was working on. It's from a craft that I saw while on vacation. Originally, they would use a wagon wheel; since I didn't need anything that big, I used an embroidery hoop. You tie & weave strips of fabric to make the rug, or in this case trivet type. I tied the ends too tightly though & it cupped, as you can see. The first picture is how it looks from 'the top' & in the 2nd picture you can see where I tucked in the ends.

Sorry for the lack of post yesterday, I was still tired & I had a lot of work to catch up.

Gaming: Chris's game Monday night. We found the cabbage thieves. And judging by their reaction to our inquiries: they've already used it to poison their weapons. It's a bar brawl, with dire wolves (okay, singular dire wolf; that would be my Druid, Kelis).

I sent the notes from the Witch Hunter game, that she ran, to Paige. She replied that they were pretty funny. I tried to write them more from Solange-Marie's point of view, rather than just generic notes.

tatting: I screwed up that snowflake. Luckily it was only the last point, really. I had to cut it off & start again. End result: a less than attractive snowflake, in my opinion anyway. I'll know more once I finish it.

Other crafts: I used that metal frame from Harrisville to make a couple potholders. I bought the frame & starting loops from Spin Blessing. They were great. They shipped quickly & without any problems. I think that I'll give them to my neighbors, along with my mini-calzone recipe.

I made it to the craft store last night. I spent too much time & a little too much money (yeah, I know, you're shocked). At least, I spent most of it on either 'need it to finish my entry' or stuff that was on sale or only $1. I was too tired to cook & didn't have enough time for a restaurant (& wasn't really in the mood either, not even take out), so I stopped by the grocery store & bought a frozen dinner. They were on sale so I bought 3 of them & I'm having one for lunch today; using my new lunch bag I got from the charity fair on Monday (kick off of the SECC campaign).

It's a fairly big deal; the State government decided a few years ago to consolidate the charity giving of its employees & to reduce/stop solicitations at work. So employees can make payroll deduction contributions to any of about 550 charities. Anybody can contribute, but only state employees can do payroll deduction. The charities range from local, city-based to international, from children, to disabled, to seniors, to health-based, to environmental & everything in-between. About 86 cents of every dollar goes to the charities, with no further overhead. The charities have to guarantee that no more than 25% of their income goes to overhead. If they go over that, after being approved, they go on probation for a year. If they continue, they go off the approved list. Since the money is payroll deducted, the state collects the money in interest-bearing accounts and distributes it on a quarterly basis. The interest also goes to the charities, based on % of the money sent (so if 10% of contributions go to the United Way, then 10% of the interest does, too). Since the money is guaranteed, per quarter, the charities can budget based on that income.

site of the day: find out about the eco-labels on your food, how accurate & truthful are they? Is that milk really organic?

Morning Commute Soundtrack: The Cry of the Wild Goose, Walk Away, Hazy Shade of Winter (Bangles), Losing Grip, In the Jailhouse Now (Gene Autry), Where Do We Go From Here, Rest in Peace, You're A Star, Vacation, & finally, I heard most of Bat Out of Hell before I got into my office.

While the washing machine & dryer did their work, I watched Bones, Cold Case, & Reaper and worked on a mini-memory book and my necklace. I did about 3 pages of the memory book & really hated the 3rd page that I did. So I stopped. I turned to my tatting.

tatting: I found some large beads that might do as the center of the bauble as well as a bag of glass globs & small marbles. The bag included some small black marbles which what I decided to use ($1 for bag versus $2 & $4 for the large bead packages, *sigh*). I loaded the thread with copper & black seed beads (1 copper, 4 black & 3 copper) and did the 1st ring for the bauble. And it's too small. The size 12 perle is quite a bit smaller than the Olympic that I used before. So I started loading the thread again (using my brand new big eye beading needle - boy is it easy to use), without taking the old one apart. I'll wait to do that until I'm completely done.

For my second try, I'm using 2 copper, 5 black & 4 copper beads and 10 ds instead of 6. We'll see if that works. I started loading the beads this morning but I had to get ready for work & did not finish.

letter: I've finished writing to my Mom's sisters now. I've started Aunt Lillian's letter but have not finished it yet. I'm going to try to mail my aunts' letters today. I still have Aunt Evelyn's, my niece's & my namesake's letters to write. I want to have them all done before I leave town.

books: I'm still reading Witch Hunter and I've sent them some errata. I haven't bothered with the typo's or anywhere in which the intent is obvious. I've only included things like the example contradicts the rule or the rule needs some expansion. In one case, I sent in a question that specifically relates to the shared world campaign, Dark Providence. I've also dipped into 1633 though and I brought a Nora Roberts anthology to work with me.

clothes: Since I'll be packing tonight, I'm keeping all my jeans for the trip. I've set out the slacks to wear to work. Today though, I'm wearing a dress. It's the blue one (like I have more than one) with the cream flowers that I wear under the navy, batiste kimono blouse. I rather think that the navy loafers detract but 'oh well.' I was going to wear my 'new' (mom gave them to me, they belonged to her but she never wears them) navy enameled earrings but they just didn't suit. Instead, it's the textured navy metal with the textured, brass cut-out over it earrings, flower fairy pendant, lapis lazuli flower ring, flower band, hematite band & my hair up in a ponytail/bun held by 2 cream curvy hairsticks. No clip watch today, I don't have anything to clip it to.