Randomly, From the Internet

A few of the amazing, cute, and puzzling things I discovered while I was away:

Steepster
It's social media. About tea.

For those too lazy to click the link, you can "Write a tea journal, see what others are drinking and get recommendations from people you trust."

I may or may not be toying with the idea of signing up.

The most adorable pirate kitten ever
I love color-pointed cats. Doubly so when they are kittens. And this poor little guy just as too much character to resist. And the fact that his name is "Sir Stuffington?" Yeah, I'm just gonna go turn into a little puddle of goo over here.

Faking Sanity
It's a used bookshop. And a yarn store. And a cafe. And quite possibly the holy grail, but I'm reserving judgement since I haven't actually been there.

Yet.

Sleepy Hollow
This is my new favorite show. Period. If you want to know why, here is a post I put up on Tumblr just after the 2nd episode:

How often do we get a female lead that is a minority, who is completely badass without being completely masculinized as well?  Abby is strong, smart, and practical. She’s pretty but clearly her appearance plays second fiddle to her work. She’s willing to entertain the idea of the supernatural, but is still actively looking for ways to debunk it.

And on top of that, we’ve got a fantastic male character that while he is capable to kicking butt, his first reaction is always to outsmart the bad guy using as little brute force/direct contact as possible.

For the time being, they each have their own love interests (we’ll see how long that lasts, since this is Hollywood we’re talking about), but there is still a good tension/chemistry between them, even if they are completely platonic (for the moment).

I've also decided that I'm going to review each episode as it airs (because I totally need MORE things to do with my time, right?). The first one is here. Episode two should be up shortly.

And on Friday, you'll get to see a few of the things I've been working on.

Less than Motivated, and a Detour.

While things hat Chez KnotMagick are slowly returning to normal, I'm still not feeling myself. I've not been very motivated to do anything, but I've still be getting a lot done--lots of cleaning (but still not all of it or even "enough"; I've kind of gone into clean freak mode where every little bit of mess drives me nuts but I can only find the energy to deal with about half of it), and a fair bit of writing. I've been working on an outline for the last two weeks. I'm trying to outline an entire storyline (which will probably encompass 2 books) before I start work on the book itself. I've been handwriting the initial draft while I'm at work with all of my notes and other information, and then coming home to type it up on the Sterling.

I love using the typewriter for outlines, almost as much as I hate using Microsoft word for the same. I particularly hate the 2010 starter version that came on my laptop. It has all of these autoformating options that I can't turn off, and they're usually wrong for whatever I'm working on. The typewriter does exactly what I want, every time.

The outline itself is beginning to look like a novel. I'm only about halfway through and it's already seven pages long (I write pretty detailed outlines).

I did not work on the Steampunk typewriter yesterday the way I had planned to. Hopefully I'll get to it some time this week. Instead, I was working on a quickie knitting project for the house (more on that another day) and marathoning Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood on Netflix.

It appears that going to see Pacific Rim last week triggered something in my brain. Half of the movie is your typical American action flick, but it's mixed with spot-on mecha anime.

If you haven't been here all that long, then you might not have seen my obsessive anime "phase." I started really getting into anime and manga (Japanese animation and comics) in middle and high school. I loved (and still love) just about everything about it: the art, the storytelling style, the music, and the cultural influences. Yeah, I was one of the girls who ran around in cat ears and dropped random Japanese words into conversations with fellow geeks, but it was a lot more than that for me. I studied the culture and history of Japan and the way it affected the art style and storytelling mode to the point that when I wrote a paper on it in college, my teacher accused me of plagarism until I dumped a stack of research, an award winning paper (okay, it was a 4-H award, but still. I was in high school) and a list of character references in her inbox.

She very quickly changed my "F" to an "A" with five extra credit points.

When I started art school, I wanted to be a comic book artist. That eventually got derailed, and then I forced myself to back away from anime completely because I couldn't afford it anymore and I didn't have a powerful enough computer or internet connection for streaming/downloading.

This was about eight years ago. I do still love anime, but I'm so far out of the loop that I'm not even on the map anymore.

Watching Pacific Rim brought all of that back. I started thinking about Gundam Wing and Neon Genesis Evangelion, both of which bear a strong resemblance to Pacific Rim. Then I started thinking about other anime, and my journey down that candy-colored rabbit hole started again. I've been watching it. I've been reading it. I even started sketching a little, and let me tell you what a huge deal that is--I've had so much anxiety regarding my art since art school that I've basically only sketched knitwear designs since then. I'm not doing anything great or intricate or even anything that should ever see the light of day, but it's reminding me a little of why I was so interested in art in the first place. I'm keeping it to myself for the time being. Maybe I'll come out on the other side and just be happy for the break from my every day. Or maybe this rabbit hole is actually a tunnel to Tokyo and it'll spark a renewed passion--It's already giving me way too many ideas. I don't know. But it's a bright spot for me and I'm going to enjoy it. It's been far too long.

The Box, Part I

Have you ever seen those shows on PBS, or sometimes TLC or DIY or somesuch, where people research random old stuff they'd found? Glass bottles in the attic that belonged to a doctor who once owned the house, or a civil war rifle that belonged to a distant relative?

I love those shows. And I kind of feel like I'm in one.

A while back, we got a box from my uncle up in Canada, my mom's brother. I'd only seen this box once before, but as soon as the packaging came off, I knew what it was.

This old wooden box was found among my grandmother's things after she died. It's full of old black and white photos of people who died long before I was born, and in most cases, before my mom was born. At any rate, we only know who a handful of the people in the pictures are. They range from the funny:

to the sweet:

to the slightly creepy:

and hit everywhere in between.

This guy shows up quite a lot. Doesn't he look like he's about to whip out a Tommy gun and go looking for Capone? We don't know who he is, but I suspect his pictures are some of the oldest in the collection.

This is one of the few people we could put a name to: Ettiene Cabinaugh. I don't know much about him other than he was in the RAAF in WWI, and was shot down over France. We have a certificate and a letter from the RAAF commemorating his death, and a letter from one of his fellow soldiers that reads like a short eulogy, talking about his personality and the fact that his sister and mother would send him bottles of wine by baking it into loaves of bread. After his death, a ring was found in his possessions, intended as an engagement ring for his girlfriend. It was passed on to an aunt and eventually to my mom. It appears to be cut glass, but it's still pretty.

My mom and I are going through family records, trying to piece together who is who and when some of  the photos were taken. From the dates, we know that they range between 1937, mostly up through the early 60's, with a few from the 70's and 80's.

This one is familiar. I think I've seen this park before. At a guess, I would say that it is somewhere in Montreal, I think off of St. Catherine, but I couldn't say for certain. Mom also thinks it is familiar, but thinks it might be in Windsor. Anyone else want to hazard a guess?

 

Fly By

1. Grandma is much better, and might be able to go home in time for Mother's Day. She does, however, have permanent damage to her kidneys and we will be watching her closely in the coming weeks.

2. In better news, it is official: I am now a professional knitwear designer. And I get paid and everything! My very first pattern was accepted this afternoon, and I am very, very excited.

3. Now if I could just hear back from Tor (with an affirmative) everything would be just dandy.

Hint

I've had dreams about typewriters two nights in a row now. I think the universe is trying to tell me something, I just don't know what it is.

But I'm probably using the wrong medium.

I have my to-do list for the week

More random from the internet. But when I read this list, I laughed so hard I cried. I must do everything on it now:

Pretty Stuff

Remember this?

Well, it's finished now.




In the comments for my last post, Bill M. asked what the difference between embroidery and needlepoint is. Embroidery uses a variety of stitches to create a single motif to embellish a piece of fabric. Needlepoint uses a single stitch type to create an image on a canvas, covering the entire material (which is usually much heavier than the fabrics one would hand embroider on). This is an example of what needlepoint looks like, and in some of these macro shots you can see a few of the stitch types I used to embellish the fabric Missouri provided.



Think of it this way: Embroidery is like pinstripes and decals on a typewriter, while needlepoint is more like going for full on silver surferdom (is that a word?).
















Another thing I finished this morning:



Mario Manicure! Because I am just that much of a geek. And no, I did not do the above needlepoint myself, but since I know someone will be wondering, I just had to use it since it was the first image that popped up when I Googled "needlepoint" for an example.

Loose Ends

1. It's official: I will be attending the Steampunk Symposium in Cincinnati next month. Costumes are mandatory, and I suspect that a typewriter and possibly my spinning wheel will be tagging along.

2. I have become addicted to a Canadian series called The Murdoch Mysteries. As far as I know, it doesn't air here in the states, so I've been watching it on Netflix, but only season 1 is available on streaming. I might just break down and buy the boxed sets, though I was rather unhappy to discover that even though 6 seasons have aired, only 3 have been released on DVD and season 4, for some reason, is only being released as a region 2 DVD set. Frustrating.

3. I finished Missouri's embroidery project last night, but have not been home during daylight hours, so I haven't gotten a good picture of it yet. Maybe this weekend.

4. I really enjoyed doing that series on writing. As you might have noticed, it made it easier to for me to focus my thoughts. So if there's something else you want to hear about, let me know.

A Moment of Zen

....Okay, I can continue now.