This afternoon I went to see my cousin’s new baby together with Mom and my Aunt. She a very cute baby and so far, as I understand from the new parents, a very easy baby. Let’s hope for them she stays that way.
I managed to finish the hanger yesterday, right on time 🙂 I’d been working on it over the last few nights while watching Mutant X and Andromeda. I forgot how bad Mutant X is, and how good Andromeda is.
Kim got me this gorgeous colouring book for my birthday. It’s called Animorphia by Kerby Rosanes and has a lot of animal and nature things with tiny doodles in and around it. I’ve started colouring in it this week.
Nice, and relaxing. Felt tips going smoothly over the paper. Spotify on in the background, or maybe some TV that doesn’t require undivided attention. Tea at hand. Even some baklava one of those evenings. Perfect moments like that.
I’ve started with the interior cover pages. The right page is now done, the left one is in progress.
Earlier this week my cousin’s baby was born. Mom and I have making a fun little gift basket for the baby and the parents. As part of that, I’m making a hanger thing. But since I’m incorporating her name on the hanger thing I couldn’t start actually making it until after she was born and we knew what that name was going to be.
I have thin MDF shaped like birds, butterflies and hearts. I’m covering those in patterned felt. The front side gets a letter of the baby’s name and some embellishment. A bead, a charm something like that. Then I’m attaching them together so it can be hung.
At first I was going to go with a horizontal hanger, but after I had the first two shapes attached I realised they were too heavy. It wouldn’t stay without tipping over. So I will be removing the bits I need to re-use, and start anew.
The first cake for my birthday party tomorrow is in the oven. As good a time as any to put up a new blog post 🙂
Yesterday I went to the Oosterpoort for my birthday present to myself. I saw, well, listened really, to the Sinfonia Rotterdam and the Laurens Cantorij performing the Requiem of Fauré.
I’ve heard the Requiem performed before by a local amateur choir and I really liked it then. However, that time the accoustics weren’t great, and the musical accompaniment was a solo piano. When I saw this performance on the list with a full symphonic orchestra and a professional choir, I knew I wanted to go.
Before the show I attended the introduction. There, the choir conductor told us about some key pieces of the Requiem. He had brought along a part of the choir. They performed small sections, a few lines at most, to show what the conductor meant when he discussed the pieces.
When the actual concert began, they started with the Ouverture from Cosi fan tutte by Mozart. This was followed by the Suite from Midsummernightsdream by Mendelssohn. After the break it was the Requiem’s turn.
As I had hoped, it was spectacularly beautiful. The accoustics in the Oosterpoort are very well suited to classical music.
Earlier this week, I also bought myself another early birthday present. I’d been thrift store shopping a few weeks ago and spotted there a spinning wheel. I looked at it, but decided to leave it. I was tempted, especially considering I want to do more traditional crafting, and more re-enactment. But it wasn’t priced and that usually means expensive and I just wasn’t sure.
T
hen Elfia happened. There, watching Margreet work her spinning wheel, I realised I really did want it. So Wednesday I went back to the thrift store and got lucky, it was still there. I got one of the sales associates to price it. She barely knew what it was, had to ask me if it was complete.
I don’t know much about spinning wheels either, but as far as I could tell, it was complete. I said so, and she priced it at € 12,50. I immediately agreed, cause that was a steal. The wood is in great condition, and once I figure out how all the loose bits attach, I’m sure it will be a working machine.
I’ve been packing to go to Elfia next weekend together with Eva, the whole family, Mellien and Bas. We’re spending the weekend doing a general fantasy-style medieval re-enactment there. We leave for Arcen on Friday and come back on Monday.
In between packing bags, I hit the crafting table on Tuesday. I made a quick-and-dirty apron from this large piece of old leather I have. It’s just meant as an extra accessory during the weekend so it didn’t have to be perfect. Plus, I want to keep most of the leather in one piece for when I figure out what I really want to make out of it. Maybe a belt. A belt would be useful.
I straightened out the sides and edges so the piece flowed better. Then I used some of the cut bits to make a neck strap. I then braided rough thin rope to make two bits of thicker rope. That thicker rope I ran through two existing holes on the sides to create the closure. Quick, and easy.
While working on it, Milo was quite interested in the leather. He kept sniffing it and wanted to sit on it 🙂
Yesterday, I went to a Mazerunner marathon with Kim. The second film was pretty good. It followed the movie close enough. It missed some of the nuance between Thomas and Theresa but that is to be expected of a movie versus a book. I’m excited for part three next year.
And speaking of cats, to save me from a separate post just for this, here’s a ridiculously cute Monkey a few days ago.
After Christmas dinner it was time for prezzies. First we exchanged gifts with my parents, and after they left, Nienke and I continued the unwrapping party with our gifts for each other.
We’d already given each other one of the prezzies the day before, but now it was time for the rest. We usually set a budget, and always go over, but I think we never went quite as far over as we did this year 😀
Mom and Dad gave me the CD with the soundtrack of Guardians of the Galaxy. A definite hit as the songs keep getting stuck in my head 🙂 I got Mom a bath set with lotion and fluffy things, and for Dad dried meat sausages, he always likes a good sausage.
Nienke gave me awesome things! Starfleet Academy and Medical Academy buttons, a necklace of the Elven brooch given to the Hobbits, a colouring book and a cute story book, a letter E, and the best thing ever: a USS Voyager model kit. I’ll have to order paint first, but I can’t wait to build it.
I got Nienke a Comic Con Exclusive Buffy Pop Vinyl, the eleventh Doctor’s sonic screwdriver, a 1:64 model of the Impala from Supernatural along with a replica of Dean’s necklace that Sammy gave him, blue fuzzy gloves, a guitar stand and the unicorn plush from Despicable Me. The cats each got a toy, as well.
Then tonight Kim came by to watch the Olivier B. Bommel movie Als je begrijpt wat ik bedoel and then we saw Flushed Away before also exchanging gifts.
I’d gotten both Nienke and Kim a chocolate bar, and gave Kim a set of mugs with owls on it, as well as a bracelet with a Mockingjay pin. I’d also gotten some toys and candies for her cats. She got me chocolate, fudge and a Pop Vinyl of Invisible Bilbo!
Guardians of the Galaxy soundtrack, true to its name
Starfleet Academy departmental buttons, Starfleet Medical Academy button and a Star Trek general button
Fantastic Lord of the Rings Elven brooch necklace
A cute little book about Undead Pets
Very pretty Feel Good colouring book
Best gift ever 😀 USS Voyager model kit!
Invisible Bilbo!
Chocolate hippos! And fudge *swoon*
Quiet start of the free Friday. Kim came by later in the morning for tea and book talk/borrowing. In the afternoon it was time for singing class. I’ve been growing frustrated with singing the last few months since I’m on T. I definitely notice vocal changes and it messes with my ability to sing in that I can’t reach what I could before and in the lows it doesn’t do what I want it to do yet.
I finally expressed (some) of this during class. We decided to focus more on excercises and easy stuff to ease the frustration and such. We’ll see how this goes.
Even so, I’m not sure I want to continue with this beyond this year. I like singing very much, and I learn a lot, but I’m just not that invested and I notice I’m loosing my desire to sing. I don’t sing as much freely anymore, and when I do work on stuff for class, I’m so focused on matching the timing and such rather than being in the song. I’ve always liked either singing along with the artist, or doing it by myself without music best anyway. I’m in it for the lyrics mainly 🙂
Saturday morning Mom and I went to Uithuizen for groceries and some other errands. Bought some decorative stuff at the Action and various tasty things. Then we went to the florist to get a piece for my aunt and uncle’s fiftieth anniversary. We’d been invited to the celebratory dinner that evening. I also bought a beautiful fake floral arrangement. Big blue vase with various forms of greenery in the top and some twigs.
At the end of the afternoon, the Parents came back to the house to pick me up and we drove to Assen to eat at Yankee Doodle. It was a very fun evening. I hadn’t seen most of my cousins in quite a few years, so it was really nice catching up with them and trying to figure out which kid went with which cousin since they were wee ones (or not even born) when I last saw them. The youngest of the kids nicely had everyone dancing to her tune as most everyone ended up being face painted. Don’t I make a pretty tiger?
Today I slept in and finished the little explosion book I’ve been making of Tessa. I wanted a photo book of her for myself too, ever since I made Mom and Dad the giant ass one I gave them for St. Christmas. But instead of doing another print on demand thing, I decided to make one and settled on the format of an explosion book. This is made from three squares of paper and ends up being this cleverly folded thing. There’s an excellent tutorial in my pinterest pins somewhere. Ah, here. Watched The Little Mermaid and The Emperor’s New Groove while working on it. The Emperor’s New Groove was funnier than I was expecting, good movie.
I’ve been doing Postcrossing for about a year or so now, and I love sending cards all over the world and receiving cards from all over, too. But what I don’t like is that you don’t really build any connections with people. I send a card to Person A, and get one back from Person B. This made me send less cards than I used to, because I got worn out with it. But then I read the (then) most recent blogpost on the Postcrossing website and they were talking about the League of Extraordinary Penpals. It intrigued me, and I took a look at the website, and I signed up immediately, and was given access to the Facebook group almost directly as well.
That was about three weeks ago. In those three weeks I’ve sent out about fifteen or so postcards and six letters; realised there’s way more muscles in my hand than I thought before; and received a letter and about five postcards. I’m enjoying myself immensely writing messages and letters, finding pretty papers, decorating the stationery and envelopes and waiting at the mailbox for mail. I was already way into getting craft materials, and this only made it worse. I’ve bought many stickers, lots of washi tape (which I basically just discovered, it is awesome), stationery, pretty paper and so on, and so on. I’m currently contemplating whether to be lazy and just buy an envelope mold to make my own envelopes, or make one from cardboard…
Here’s the batch of letters and cards that I sent out yesterday, I can’t wait until they reach the folks they’re going to.
Earlier this month one of my friends on Facebook posted a photo of some very cute crafts she had received from someone. They were sent to her as part of a Craft it Forward Project. Craft it Forward is based on the idea of Pay it Forward: you make something for other people, and they then make something for other people, who then make something for other people and so on.
I immediately took to the idea. It combines some of the things I like best: getting mail, sending mail, making stuff, and giving people things. So, I signed up at Signe’s post and last week I received my package.
Signe is immensely creative and talented and I love what she made. From left to right there’s a tag with the letter R on it, an empty envelop to put things in (with a beautiful sticker on the back to close it with), a flag of (I think) washi tape, a magnet with Signe’s horse on it, some clay beads to decorate (or keep as is, I think for now I prefer them like this) and a drawing/colouring page.
I’m always especially enamoured with Signe’s drawing skills so I think I’ll have to find me a pretty frame to put it in.
After receiving this, it is now my turn to make something for other people. I already have some ideas of what I want to make. A general shape or outline, but the nuance will depend on who signs up for this. I maintain the sign up at my Facebook because that’s where I have more people, plus the ease of tagging them. And besides, it’s not as if more than a handful of people actually ever comments here.
Once the people are known, and the packages sent I will post photos of what I made and my process.
June 2nd was my Dad’s birthday, he turned 68. The party was fun, a good time was had by all 🙂
Two days later I went for a walk at Lauwersoog with Eva, Nienke, Tessa (my dog) and Gregorius (Eva’s dog). It was a beautiful day, the sun was shining, there was a gentle breeze, we enjoyed ourselves, the dogs had fun. Then it got even better when Nienke tossed Gregorius’ fetching toy into a very, very tall tree… Eva and I watched her toss sticks at it for a while trying to get it to fall down. Eventually I joined in the throwing of sticks which led to success a couple minutes later when I hit the branch the toy was stuck on and it came down.
The day after that, I went to Verhildersum with Mom to go check out the Fabric Day. We saw awesome crafts, there was this huuuuge quilt in different purple fabrics, and a guy who makes little tin statuettes of people in historical dress. There was also a lot of felt work, both in felting things (making objects while one is felting the wool), as well as making things from felt fabric.
June 15 I went out for dinner at Pappa Joe’s with Eva, Nienke, Ingrid & Mellien. It was tasty, and nice to hang out with the full group. We crossed the street for awesome ice cream afterwards.
I joined Archive of Our Own, a fan fiction archive. So far I find it a more pleasurable interface compared to fanfiction.net, where I used to post. That has been a number of years though, and in the years between I’ve not spent a lot of time either reading or writing fan fiction. I’m slowly getting back into it. I reposted some of the works I wrote years ago of which I still think they’re good on A3O. The rest needs a rewrite. I’ll keep the originals up on ff.net, that way I’ll have a history and can later compare between versions and responses.
And in minor things, I rearranged my living room, baby-sat the dog for a day while the parents were off on the yearly Sibling Day (where mom and her siblings, plus partners, go out for a day) and we had an awesome! thunderstorm.
When I got my iPhone last October, my old phone became my Mom’s new phone. However, I think I’ve dropped it a little too much over the two years I had it, since over the last week the screen started shorting out. Mom figured this would be a nice time to get a new phone, so when I suggested we head to the phone shop together, she wanted to go the next day 😀
So, Saturday The Mom and I took the car to the transferium and from there the citybus to the centre. After a stroll across the market, I wanted to see if Jansen&Jansen had any new fun stuff, which they had. Before I’d left, Nienke asked me to see about finding her a new pair of slippers. I didn’t find any pretty ones at the market, but found awesome ones at Jansen&Jansen 😀 Fuzzy clog-shaped slippers, pink with red hearts on them 😀
Of course I had to bring these for Nienke. I also bought myself (and her) a duck for our collection. After this we headed for the T-Mobile shop to pick out a new phone for Mom. After discussing it with the sales guy, we decided on another Nokia, since she’s used to that in terms of control and looks.
Then we hit the main shopping street, bought some clothes (shirt, t-shirt, hat), shoes, had lunch at Hema and then made our way back up towards the market.
Some more looking around there was followed by a last stop at the craft store to get latex (to make a vampire forehead), some music-themed charms and a paper maché leaf for Florian the Flower Faerie to sit on. By then we were getting a bit tired so we decided to grab the next bus back to the Transferium and head home.
I hung around at the parents for the rest of the afternoon. When I got back home, Nienke was much pleased with her slippers 😀
After some hanging about and watching another episode of Stargate Atlantis, I decided to finally start sorting through my clothes, which I’d been wanting to do for a while now. Nienke took her laptop and accompanied me while I tried on everything to see what still fit, what I still liked and so on. Much fun was had, especially with all the typical female clothes (women tunics, dresses, female tops and so on). It felt like another step in my gender process from gender neutral towards masculine, as wearing these clothes made me feel like a drag queen. (It did give me an awesome idea for a dress-up though: dress up as a drag queen while wearing my binder, so sort of being a woman being a man being a woman again.)
After sorting, it was too late to fold everything, so I stuffed it all back in the closet just so my bed would be free and I could sleep. Nienke had sorted through her clothes a few weeks ago, but not yet put her stuff back either, so Sunday evening, after procrastinating all day we decided to fire up Skype, and both go about folding and putting our clothes back. It was much fun, although the whole process took hours. Photo was about mid-sorting I think.
Monday I had a day off. I messed around in the house, did dishes and such. Made a cake, made a painting and painted the paper maché leaf I bought on Saturday.