tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-47819953662667508342024-03-05T07:22:17.271+11:00I'm A TableApartmentCathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05074382933557558949noreply@blogger.comBlogger794125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4781995366266750834.post-6638446392205669352023-07-08T14:27:00.002+10:002023-07-08T14:27:59.585+10:00Procrastinatory Art Journalling<p> </p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">Am I procrastinating?</span></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKqZBq8VdZ3z-cSX123ehShJJVcHkA0AXCmvyXkBLyaYzs3YCOfY-kAqvqIwLX6jmR_UEdXAJzVe2vur92_4c_73M35VtTPeSMs_iK5tPW-jBzSWUSXo1sQvEkbSXICNxghors_z0zcG5FP3kcBshd80gRAmmtwHBEkqSTz_93UhJqyyfi6YvjNYSmYpSP/s3024/Photo%208-7-2023,%2012%2020%2023%20pm.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="3024" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKqZBq8VdZ3z-cSX123ehShJJVcHkA0AXCmvyXkBLyaYzs3YCOfY-kAqvqIwLX6jmR_UEdXAJzVe2vur92_4c_73M35VtTPeSMs_iK5tPW-jBzSWUSXo1sQvEkbSXICNxghors_z0zcG5FP3kcBshd80gRAmmtwHBEkqSTz_93UhJqyyfi6YvjNYSmYpSP/w640-h640/Photo%208-7-2023,%2012%2020%2023%20pm.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><p><br /></p>Or am I just being too hard on myself? Is there actually something in there, in the depths of my brain, percolating away? I kind of hope it's the latter, though I know I shouldn't rely on it too much, if I want to produce art consistently. <p></p><p>The following photos are unedited and unsorted, dumped into the post in the order that Blogspot deemed best, but I'm not sorry and not really that concerned. Blogspot has made it so hard to blog in the last few years, that whenever I have the urge, I just want to run with it, in the most uncomplex, unresistant way I can. </p><p>(Oh, and I had to use a different brand of browser to the one I normally prefer, because all of the little buttons started appearing as error messages, but that's just one of the vagaries of internet life.)</p><p><br /></p><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_d4sTmZRiduGm8wz-HCdJSO9AaxnsPkmmZRIoN3KA7Z0-9Rl2jwgJSzfWDYAwqV3vx2GyA1bKHUVgCB7SyJoycXtcKs_2IaCNA8U1Sw0aJdibQtP1Ib6TJoir0oIxwqooQJSz_PaHvLn-g18URYfJOKUzoqi6LURlTIMioIrOOdFkH9wVrv47IsCPaQiZ/s3024/Photo%208-7-2023,%2012%2022%2043%20pm.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="3024" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_d4sTmZRiduGm8wz-HCdJSO9AaxnsPkmmZRIoN3KA7Z0-9Rl2jwgJSzfWDYAwqV3vx2GyA1bKHUVgCB7SyJoycXtcKs_2IaCNA8U1Sw0aJdibQtP1Ib6TJoir0oIxwqooQJSz_PaHvLn-g18URYfJOKUzoqi6LURlTIMioIrOOdFkH9wVrv47IsCPaQiZ/w640-h640/Photo%208-7-2023,%2012%2022%2043%20pm.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrmsXa0xvPfIk1RgamuCEtAXCxBkZ5sDvExpZowAI42DItquYl1MrTXCAK2Me2zZb2Px_SYXbqeDaj70yqfjAfaiPe3u2dwvfARMrozp-_xBXOLHcEU868YjFurF3hso3bXPy5uAbQNOdLTZqG9l30TcCfkAVHBiGQjPwQXpqvxlBBqRZUMQiIOkwYVhDQ/s3024/Photo%208-7-2023,%2012%2030%2017%20pm.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="3024" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrmsXa0xvPfIk1RgamuCEtAXCxBkZ5sDvExpZowAI42DItquYl1MrTXCAK2Me2zZb2Px_SYXbqeDaj70yqfjAfaiPe3u2dwvfARMrozp-_xBXOLHcEU868YjFurF3hso3bXPy5uAbQNOdLTZqG9l30TcCfkAVHBiGQjPwQXpqvxlBBqRZUMQiIOkwYVhDQ/w640-h640/Photo%208-7-2023,%2012%2030%2017%20pm.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div>I haven't made any new Art (with a capital A) since the start of this year. I tend to go through rollercoaster-like phases of having ideas and feverishly trying to bring them into being, then long periods of self-doubt, never finishing anything and retreating into my 'comfort art'. </div><div><br /></div><div>Which, for me, is art journalling. About a year ago, I discovered a technique invented by <a href="https://journalworkshops.ning.com/" target="_blank">Jennibellie</a>. It's not an art technique, but one to choose <i>what </i>and<i> how </i>to art. I've always loved playing with randomising all sorts of things, so this was right up my alley. Being me, of course I expanded on the technique, adding more technique cards of my own, plus two dice to decide the colour and shape. There's no need to decide anything. It's quite freeing.</div><div><br /></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0tvkIjgohikkpPcG5DwUHPMa9ZTARGcB7AouV-Kwt3AChhbg3LFBO-ETbW6fHSD8O0nys40KLZ1ywuJOd-ylVBqK0p8KUHaOwy3Hj4Zt7p0nzV7qXj1MC91J2H_MXteQUyZvqp5E0sYewCPA-zEpEfwsJiTNTnLB3Bx4FuVxdWNkwitM5_nMk3xyqB8UX/s3024/Photo%208-7-2023,%2012%2037%2018%20pm.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="3024" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0tvkIjgohikkpPcG5DwUHPMa9ZTARGcB7AouV-Kwt3AChhbg3LFBO-ETbW6fHSD8O0nys40KLZ1ywuJOd-ylVBqK0p8KUHaOwy3Hj4Zt7p0nzV7qXj1MC91J2H_MXteQUyZvqp5E0sYewCPA-zEpEfwsJiTNTnLB3Bx4FuVxdWNkwitM5_nMk3xyqB8UX/w400-h400/Photo%208-7-2023,%2012%2037%2018%20pm.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEguLSZp_XMRh-WKLhZc3c7Bgpo_OeCsLYpsNHvjzMDe5nUo3LrSDVj_OKV-TpQ2fif0iRYdr5zktIztDzMpfzmDsgF28GLYLdzZwgIYlJCAaTn5h_MMoLIi5Jnah1S2SkaSpoO79WhE1N4oEksMJA6_qIf8q8_aYw0NVUeGSr97vmaTTqo2_QhHg0M5sxEl/s3024/Photo%208-7-2023,%2012%2037%2024%20pm.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="3024" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEguLSZp_XMRh-WKLhZc3c7Bgpo_OeCsLYpsNHvjzMDe5nUo3LrSDVj_OKV-TpQ2fif0iRYdr5zktIztDzMpfzmDsgF28GLYLdzZwgIYlJCAaTn5h_MMoLIi5Jnah1S2SkaSpoO79WhE1N4oEksMJA6_qIf8q8_aYw0NVUeGSr97vmaTTqo2_QhHg0M5sxEl/w400-h400/Photo%208-7-2023,%2012%2037%2024%20pm.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">I tend to work on multiple journals at a time, plus a few loose junk journal pages. I'm so impatient about waiting for wet layers to dry, I figure if I work on more than one page at a time, I get more arting time for each round of waiting-to-dry time. I usually choose either 7 or 9 pages to work on, as I just like those numbers. Some of the pages are newly started ones, others have layers 5 or 10 years old already on them. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">I shuffle the cards, choose 6, or 7, or all 12, and then work through a round. When I get to the end, it always seems that it was too short, and I can't wait to shuffle them and start over again. And yes, I often ending up putting layers over layers that I wouldn't have thought of myself ... and sometimes probably shouldn't have. Ink tends to re-wet and bleed when something wet is added on top!</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh99n9S5BPUQ52myTg34eOYa9NEJNjNkGsZPZTTmToMdATZuobcHxOaw_XGXW7yW-0h75uhZduv17826r6Ukct0ruNZi3s7kKcyUz1nSbOec4tWqDs0b71ZgelqlIjaZIRIFe9icYf-PI_rN9iak3N0ZL1cze_1Z9TdCMDDR8l0kVGsrEHvfya054awI7KN/s3024/Photo%208-7-2023,%2012%2041%2014%20pm.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="3024" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh99n9S5BPUQ52myTg34eOYa9NEJNjNkGsZPZTTmToMdATZuobcHxOaw_XGXW7yW-0h75uhZduv17826r6Ukct0ruNZi3s7kKcyUz1nSbOec4tWqDs0b71ZgelqlIjaZIRIFe9icYf-PI_rN9iak3N0ZL1cze_1Z9TdCMDDR8l0kVGsrEHvfya054awI7KN/w640-h640/Photo%208-7-2023,%2012%2041%2014%20pm.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">The results, though, are richer and have more depth than anything I've made before. It excites me to see the ink splatters and pencil alternating with paint and little collaged bits that contain memories. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">None of the pages in this post are finished, and yes, some are more successful than others (however you might want to measure 'success'). Most likely, none of them will ever be seen outside the confines of this blog or my instagram, and I'm still trying to convince myself that even so, it's still actually worth it. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Weirdly, I've been getting an urge to draw on them -- actual <i>draw</i>ings! That's the one thing I've always baulked at, and the main reason why so many of the old pages remain unfinished. Or perhaps a wash of pastel yellow paint IS the finished page, not just the background. That's the beauty of an art journal: it's <i>my </i>art journal, I can do what I want!</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFzBjGz1PR77tHmurKHR93eNkvtgcp_EWX_zrBkQ02pQ_fzddtdPbMc57-ElA6j5oOSRwjhQdTbM0sQt_KvmqCq4tCDD6u7SmfJBBZuZ3MTuVTxjXe--iIdmG9yX5dR65B_CpGEdTcPv6lNQq89sdJWeSSISdESRTQoiDafPrVHmegiyPtsc6b2PqWbPA0/s3024/Photo%208-7-2023,%2012%2058%2059%20pm.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="3024" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFzBjGz1PR77tHmurKHR93eNkvtgcp_EWX_zrBkQ02pQ_fzddtdPbMc57-ElA6j5oOSRwjhQdTbM0sQt_KvmqCq4tCDD6u7SmfJBBZuZ3MTuVTxjXe--iIdmG9yX5dR65B_CpGEdTcPv6lNQq89sdJWeSSISdESRTQoiDafPrVHmegiyPtsc6b2PqWbPA0/w640-h640/Photo%208-7-2023,%2012%2058%2059%20pm.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br /><p><br /></p>ApartmentCathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05074382933557558949noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4781995366266750834.post-62017455094672534802023-01-17T14:53:00.002+11:002023-01-17T14:53:23.049+11:002022 and start of 2023 Update<p>Hello! I know it's been a while, but don't worry, I never intended to abandon this blog. It's just that, well, life got in the way for a while. So if you'll indulge me, I'll do a little update on the arts, crafts, garden, hobbies, and all the other random stuff that this blog covers. Then hopefully I'll do some expanded posts on a few different topics soon. </p><p>2022 was a bit of a topsy-turvy year for me. "Strange" is the word I've heard most when people were describing their year, and I'd have to agree. </p><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: #45818e;"><b><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: courier;">Me</span></span></b></span> <br /></div><p style="text-align: left;">I was diagnosed with several 'new' chronic illnesses. I was already pretty sure I had most of them for a while, so there weren't any big surprises, but it was nice to have the diagnosis confirmed. I was then able to start sorting out the best treatments, etc. This kept me busy with appointments, new doctors, new medications, etc. </p><p style="text-align: left;"> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNyC6SIdbLbRn4bLGdHBiWfKWBYGf1J9Pb4U1R5xilLae0H95tHt76a1DqEv6wWaTfEazXA2m4qXKYH8MV5QVuhL4ZzmHh5aYdawqEJtUKHLyosXhOrvI0emODF4NFm4mPDHrPDWPrFH49s29SvbDg-tFdS7wl33N_u156LnNWVewJnQDYN0c7f59ZBg/s628/NYres2.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="493" data-original-width="628" height="157" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNyC6SIdbLbRn4bLGdHBiWfKWBYGf1J9Pb4U1R5xilLae0H95tHt76a1DqEv6wWaTfEazXA2m4qXKYH8MV5QVuhL4ZzmHh5aYdawqEJtUKHLyosXhOrvI0emODF4NFm4mPDHrPDWPrFH49s29SvbDg-tFdS7wl33N_u156LnNWVewJnQDYN0c7f59ZBg/w200-h157/NYres2.png" width="200" /></a></div><br /><p></p><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: #45818e;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">Videos</span></b> </span></span><br /></div><p style="text-align: left;">My style and sewing <a href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCw7ywttb59ibyntwEo3rMQQ" target="_blank">Youtube channel</a> has been continuing. In the beginning I was hoping to make a video once a fortnight, but in 2022 it ended up being once a month, on average. I'm still very happy with that, because along the way I've learned many new video-making skills, and it's been a lot of fun. My <a href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCw7ywttb59ibyntwEo3rMQQ" target="_blank">channel is here</a> if you haven't heard about it yet and you're interested. </p><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZ3XLsOcZ1KwYKaKOcrjc8aWTs7fSTiLM5oKXWjHsVe6Ql8ywBbBxfTzaa_1ccWiM9CmQSCJofpMvm-ENH-CisdBHKyQY1IZa2M9arE6JLh1vAFprGFc6bCzOtpU8FWcriY7_iSqvMMOCevNkghSjd4ytIMNuXwKYu6As-g9hPg1ELYuYlMbcALdm7og/s1102/channel2023.GIF"><img border="0" data-original-height="858" data-original-width="1102" height="314" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZ3XLsOcZ1KwYKaKOcrjc8aWTs7fSTiLM5oKXWjHsVe6Ql8ywBbBxfTzaa_1ccWiM9CmQSCJofpMvm-ENH-CisdBHKyQY1IZa2M9arE6JLh1vAFprGFc6bCzOtpU8FWcriY7_iSqvMMOCevNkghSjd4ytIMNuXwKYu6As-g9hPg1ELYuYlMbcALdm7og/w403-h314/channel2023.GIF" width="403" /></a></div><br /> <div style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: #45818e;"><b><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: courier;">Arts</span></span></b></span><br /></div><p style="text-align: left;">2022 was a topsy-turvy year with art, too. In the first half of the year, my Collective and I staged 3 exhibitions. (That's a lot!) Then we took a long break. I didn't do any art for a long time -- I guess I was burnt out. Around July I slowly started doing some art journalling and started a junk journal. I wanted to ease back into things by doing something very low-key and low-energy friendly. In December and early January we had 2 exhibitions scheduled, so towards the end of the year I started to ramp things up a bit and make sure I did everything I wanted to for those. Plus, I made <a href="https://katietheodorus.carrd.co/" target="_blank">a real-proper website</a> for my real-proper artist stuff. It lists all my past/current/upcoming exhibitions, projects I'm working on, etc. It's not quite finished yet, but if you'd like to see it, <a href="https://katietheodorus.carrd.co/" target="_blank">here it is</a>.<br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGtd3qHIjjbrxMsVU-MYzfELA8EeR9iZwX6-mWAw7LLyBlSm4obPeodb1hYH0ITPXStcW0d4PCVd7xjotKtX2nzWMerqFLLHzbO3Qg2G80ATBpc9BdYDAJO0nw4MrYdViEzCahLni4bO4pCcXDp5zPZgcMAFia3JmTdm1kfnHNShCnSYGVZSoeUlXv1Q/s3024/IMG_9547.JPG" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0px; text-align: center;"><img alt="" border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="3024" height="404" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGtd3qHIjjbrxMsVU-MYzfELA8EeR9iZwX6-mWAw7LLyBlSm4obPeodb1hYH0ITPXStcW0d4PCVd7xjotKtX2nzWMerqFLLHzbO3Qg2G80ATBpc9BdYDAJO0nw4MrYdViEzCahLni4bO4pCcXDp5zPZgcMAFia3JmTdm1kfnHNShCnSYGVZSoeUlXv1Q/w404-h404/IMG_9547.JPG" width="404" /></a></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: #45818e;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">Crafts</span></b> </span></span><br /></div><p style="text-align: left;">Arguably, a lot of my real-proper art has some definite crafty elements to it, as you can see above. Unfortunately though, I didn't do much crafting just for myself in 2022. I did start a new tablet weaving, but the tension was wonky and it was a bit of a mess. Husband promised that he would make some improvements to the weaving loom he made last year. After some delays, that was done last week and I started a new weaving. (Yay!) It's going to be a bracelet, but I'll probably end up with 2 or 3 as the base threads have to be at least as long as the loom, so I may as well make as many bracelets as will fit on.
</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjW5SYk9bDe8plAHFce-1thIYWO92msyy7XE_PCu7HvsS6hkaTzOKceUDnL6kAK0XRKUCBSZ0BMS2BnFLUdItrgGacolC8ysQKisdghCJYHFDp7V22DhVlvBonlAmwrTj6NtvGB8nWWQrT42Bx8kuLLuZuzK_BUjzUCdy5Wve666jD73HkZdBCrctofgg/s4032/IMG_9556.JPG" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0px; text-align: center;"><img alt="" border="0" data-original-height="4032" data-original-width="3024" height="441" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjW5SYk9bDe8plAHFce-1thIYWO92msyy7XE_PCu7HvsS6hkaTzOKceUDnL6kAK0XRKUCBSZ0BMS2BnFLUdItrgGacolC8ysQKisdghCJYHFDp7V22DhVlvBonlAmwrTj6NtvGB8nWWQrT42Bx8kuLLuZuzK_BUjzUCdy5Wve666jD73HkZdBCrctofgg/w331-h441/IMG_9556.JPG" width="331" /></a></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: #45818e;"><b><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: courier;">Garden</span></span></b></span></div><p style="text-align: left;">The Spring/Summer of 2022 here in Australia has been such a strange one. It rained a <i><b>looooot </b></i>more than normal in Spring, and some days were cold enough to still be Winter! Many of my plants were confused and didn't know whether to grow or not, so things got off to a slow start. I did buy quite a lot of new plants, but I'll introduce them in a separate post.
</p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjM9hTGmwmAhkSoCUlV87wbGthmmy_cmYEkIlS1SkMWcTNGTqzxMmX3oziut4QwA8t0WHjFxSg9EugDevs0BzeOMl8Dh4nldRMejGCPSHABPaUWBXmXaufomVAafPWUQQubZ27y4a70SZxvPkIm6BIzwPPHx9wCi0aCmTJHuFdOzbt3EnLuaPjULxWnWw/s4032/IMG_9524.JPG" style="display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; padding: 1em 0px; text-align: center;"><img alt="" border="0" data-original-height="4032" data-original-width="3024" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjM9hTGmwmAhkSoCUlV87wbGthmmy_cmYEkIlS1SkMWcTNGTqzxMmX3oziut4QwA8t0WHjFxSg9EugDevs0BzeOMl8Dh4nldRMejGCPSHABPaUWBXmXaufomVAafPWUQQubZ27y4a70SZxvPkIm6BIzwPPHx9wCi0aCmTJHuFdOzbt3EnLuaPjULxWnWw/s320/IMG_9524.JPG" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>Note: this isn't at my house but a spot nearby.</i></span><br /></td></tr></tbody></table>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNYRHT6phbeE8U07m5-e7Y4kwQLA9mB1u_8AOwABvPE6Lzau5HSByz9hoz0aeV-dwqon33wblgat48SUJzSGqqvn_juvo9bfs0avvcNKp926awInQlpgLLTQqnUcYb-ojwRZTeuo1DZWW4DEexysxo6nG7ZIFZoB3haNndV3cE9AnM3TBZiKUIQsfN4g/s3024/IMG_9482.JPG" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0px; text-align: center;"><img alt="" border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="3024" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNYRHT6phbeE8U07m5-e7Y4kwQLA9mB1u_8AOwABvPE6Lzau5HSByz9hoz0aeV-dwqon33wblgat48SUJzSGqqvn_juvo9bfs0avvcNKp926awInQlpgLLTQqnUcYb-ojwRZTeuo1DZWW4DEexysxo6nG7ZIFZoB3haNndV3cE9AnM3TBZiKUIQsfN4g/s320/IMG_9482.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><p style="text-align: left;"> </p><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: #45818e;"><b><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: courier;">Home </span></span></b></span><br /></div><p>I did a huge project in June to tidy up my Hobby Room / Studio. It was for a studio tidying challenge online ... and I won the challenge! I put it mainly down to stubborn persistence, and remembering to take 'before' and 'after' photos. Perhaps the 'after' photos don't look that much different, but to me it's a huge change. I was never a minimalist ... I think I'm firmly in the pro-Cluttercore camp. :)<br /></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgr6NGcjLPOLo-DszOVJMJ7M0x2KDqCua8Bg0RTXmcuPXjihJnV7tck5QA98S3zbgPjQMVuxvIjqWVv1LRauMCOfywYHrlDobr5RpIWPvwcYJunFFzSVxmQ7NpuhysPHfAwqWHJUoEx1ZYLlImblHafSCSstX7VlIdGG_hThm55zkxOHG4Grs5jgslzcQ/s6424/Front%20-%20after.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2976" data-original-width="6424" height="268" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgr6NGcjLPOLo-DszOVJMJ7M0x2KDqCua8Bg0RTXmcuPXjihJnV7tck5QA98S3zbgPjQMVuxvIjqWVv1LRauMCOfywYHrlDobr5RpIWPvwcYJunFFzSVxmQ7NpuhysPHfAwqWHJUoEx1ZYLlImblHafSCSstX7VlIdGG_hThm55zkxOHG4Grs5jgslzcQ/w580-h268/Front%20-%20after.png" width="580" /></a></div><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6oA0uc-ySUIMU9DBDdefsn8E4g8wOlRHf7Nh5XzJdbD_ik9J6HnJhgbZ8et0ySr9ngOMNzbkehnDetCX7cSpPDWhr3y1Os8ywKG66jHa-D2zSJtGWgGBiIp39p50o7Jo9uo48ASRLvJ_9dgzw59GawSXjGBMD7w_WiO5JZc_c32Fd6SZbn7XjT20Ehw/s972/Right%20-%20after.png" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0px; text-align: center;"><img alt="" border="0" data-original-height="603" data-original-width="972" height="347" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6oA0uc-ySUIMU9DBDdefsn8E4g8wOlRHf7Nh5XzJdbD_ik9J6HnJhgbZ8et0ySr9ngOMNzbkehnDetCX7cSpPDWhr3y1Os8ywKG66jHa-D2zSJtGWgGBiIp39p50o7Jo9uo48ASRLvJ_9dgzw59GawSXjGBMD7w_WiO5JZc_c32Fd6SZbn7XjT20Ehw/w558-h347/Right%20-%20after.png" width="558" /> </a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6oA0uc-ySUIMU9DBDdefsn8E4g8wOlRHf7Nh5XzJdbD_ik9J6HnJhgbZ8et0ySr9ngOMNzbkehnDetCX7cSpPDWhr3y1Os8ywKG66jHa-D2zSJtGWgGBiIp39p50o7Jo9uo48ASRLvJ_9dgzw59GawSXjGBMD7w_WiO5JZc_c32Fd6SZbn7XjT20Ehw/s972/Right%20-%20after.png" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0px; text-align: center;"> </a>Thanks for reading, happy 2023, and look forward to more posts soon! (Soon-ish?) :)<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6oA0uc-ySUIMU9DBDdefsn8E4g8wOlRHf7Nh5XzJdbD_ik9J6HnJhgbZ8et0ySr9ngOMNzbkehnDetCX7cSpPDWhr3y1Os8ywKG66jHa-D2zSJtGWgGBiIp39p50o7Jo9uo48ASRLvJ_9dgzw59GawSXjGBMD7w_WiO5JZc_c32Fd6SZbn7XjT20Ehw/s972/Right%20-%20after.png" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0px; text-align: center;"> <br /></a></div>ApartmentCathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05074382933557558949noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4781995366266750834.post-89480355288003106322022-04-11T14:09:00.006+10:002022-04-11T14:09:47.369+10:00Tablet Weaving Update and Loom MusingsI finished another tablet weaving band! Here it is:<BR><BR>
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I took a break about halfway in, and it ended up sitting half finished for about 6 months. I guess I'm not motivated to weave in the warmer months? But as Autumn arrived (here in the Southern Hemisphere), my motivation returned, and I picked it up again. I even went to the trouble of finishing off the ends straight away. This one is long enough that I can use it as a belt. (I will model it another time. To be honest, I'm not sure I have any clothes of the style it would go with, and might not end up using it as a belt anyway.)<BR><BR>
I was so excited that I started another band straight away, an even longer one this time. I wanted to try a different pattern, but unfortunately I had forgotten which pattern I used for the previous one, it being so long ago, and I ended up choosing the same one from my notebook! Even the colours are the same. (I've found that spare pages in my Hobonichi diary are great for recording patterns that I find online: the grid lines are perfect for tablet weaving patterns!)<BR><BR>
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I had written "Oseberg Weave" next to it, but not the source. Also, I think there was actually more than one kind of tablet-woven band found in the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oseberg_Ship" target="_blank">Oseberg burial</a>. I should be more comprehensive with my notes in the future!<BR><BR>
When I googled it, I remembered that I had sourced the pattern from <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xM_PwRQSfvo" target="_blank">this video</a> on the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC_b5UVh3SRlb-utV7iIqw1Q" target="_blank">Elewys of Finchingefeld Youtube channel</a>. I highly recommend this channel! Not only is Elewys an expert weaver and excellent explainer, but I love her friendly and down-to-earth attitude. I hope to do more weaves from her channel in the future. <BR><BR>
If you'd like to see some of my previous <STRIKE>janky</STRIKE> tablet weaving efforts, <a href="https://katiestable.blogspot.com/2021/05/finished-crafts-may-2021.html" target="_blank">check out this blog post</a>!<BR><BR>
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After only having done 2-and-three-quarters pieces on my 'new' loom, I'm already starting to see its limitations. (I say 'new', but I've had it for a year -- Husband helped me to make it as a sort-of birthday present, and my birthday is coming up again!) The loom is incredibly simple: it's just made up of a board (actually a shelf) with a drawer handle at each end. In theory, this isn't even the simplest set-up that's required. But it's also certainly not the most complicated, either. I very much like the idea of this kind of loom. It's only a few of the details that are off. <BR>
(Note: in the photo below, I have taken off the bobbins at the far end because I was getting towards the end of the weave. Normally the yet-to-be-used threads are wound on to them and they hang off the back end.) <BR><BR>
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Firstly, the tablets should ideally hang off the threads, not touch the base. There isn't enough of a gap between the drawer handles and the base. The big box hardware store I went to had a large range of handles, but these were the most 'gappy' ones I could find. I hoped they would be okay ... and they are ... But the tablet set I have is made of cardboard, and having them hit the base all the time is eventually going to damage them. I can always get some wooden or plastic ones later on down the track. Or buy some smaller ones, once my lil clumsy fingers are more used to weaving (they'd have to be pretty small to clear the base, though!). As you can see in the picture below, they don't tend to sit upright, but veer off to the side, leaving the weaving sort of half-twisted. It's still perfectly possible to weave that way, but not ideal. I also have a feeling that it mucks with the tension, but more on that later. The biggest issue, though, is that it's going to make more complicated patterns, well, even more complicated. In a lot of patterns you have to separate the tablets and turn some forwards and some backwards on every turn. Having them sitting all hinky is going to make that very difficult. So that's the first problem I'd like to solve.<BR><BR>
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Secondly, I sometimes have trouble with the tension. I've tried a few different things to attach the work in progress to the handles at each end, and landed on bag clips as the easiest solution. (They are absolutely not historically accurate, I know, but dang they're convenient!) The clip at the front end works fine; the only problem is that it leaves an impression in the finished piece (which you can see in the second photo from the top in this post, on the right hand side). It's a minor inconvenience that you can only see close up. The clip at the far end though, I've had some problems with. At first I tried using weights to give the band tension (a common historical solution) but found them cumbersome and annoying. I tried winding the threads around a piece of dowel -- in pictures I've seen it locks them in place -- but it didn't work for me. (The technique is shown in <a href="https://joyofweaving.com/articles/tablet-weaving-loom/" target="_blank">this blog post</a>; photos near the bottom.) The bag clip worked better than these solutions, but it doesn't grip the threads evenly, and they tend to lose their grippiness over time. (I've ruined two clips already!) I really want to find a solution that reliably locks the threads in place and gives them a taut tension, while still being quick and easy to release for when I get to the top and need to move the finished weaving down and off the loom.<BR><BR>
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Thirdly (don't worry, this is the last one!), my back gets really sore when using the loom. I certainly can't have it sitting on a table horizontally, as my arms won't even reach the far end, and there's no point in having a long loom if you can't reach the far end! I tried using it at a shallowish angle (with the far end resting on a cardboard box) while sitting at my desk, but even then my back gets really sore from reaching forwards. Lately I have tried leaning it almost vertically on the edge of my desk, with the front edge resting on my lap, and that works a lot better back-wise, but dang: those sharp shelf corners really dig into my thighs! (Excuse my messy hobby room and non-period-accurate outfit, it was just a quick selfie to demonstrate!) <BR><BR>
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Okay, one more <I>tiny</I> thing -- I'd like a way to keep the finished part of the weaving neatly out of the way and clean. <BR><BR>
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Okay, that's all I want! I don't want to ditch my loom completely, because I'm proud that I made it myself -- and the finishing on the surface of the shelf looks cool. I would rather try and modify it to solve these problems. I have been doing some research. More on that soon!
ApartmentCathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05074382933557558949noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4781995366266750834.post-18522488587514474262022-01-03T13:25:00.001+11:002022-01-03T13:32:39.963+11:00My Resolutions and Goals for 2022!First of all, happy holidays and happy new year!<BR>
It's the time of year for making resolutions again, and despite everything that's happened in the last few years, I'm in the mood for it.<P><P>
I made a more fun video about some of my resolutions/goals/intentions/whatever you prefer to call them, but I wanted to write about some that I didn't mention in the video, and elaborate on some that I did. (I'll mark those ones with a "V" so you know what's what.)
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In the last few years, I've been in the habit of dividing my goals into 7 categories on the model of a rainbow, so you'll get a chance to see that in this post, too. I've been experimenting for quite a long time now with different ways of presenting my goals to make them seem more fun and the boring ones less boring. I've seen others divide the areas of their lives into 3, 6 or even 9 areas. I settled on 7, myself. And then I had to colour-code them in rainbow colours, because, well, that's the kind of person I am. The categories are pretty self-explanatory, so I'll just dive straight in.
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<B><FONT COLOR="crimson">1. ART & CRAFT</FONT></B><BR>
❖ sew an outfit (V) - I'd like to learn/re-learn how to make the basic garments: top, pants, skirt.<BR>
❖ try altering clothes using different ideas and techniques.<BR>
❖ complete 1 painting a month (at least!).<BR>
❖ either learn to draw, or get over it!<BR>
❖ learn to write my Constructed Script off by heart.<P>
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<B><FONT COLOR="darkorange">2. READING & WRITING & VIDEOS</FONT></B><BR>
<I>(I added 'videos' new this year as I now have a YouTube channel, and it seemed to fit well in this category.)</I><BR>
❖ read 1 book a month (V) - possibly the <I>Game of Thrones</I> series as I saw the TV show last year.<BR>
❖ re-read a classic/favourite book.<BR>
❖ write 1 blog post a month (at least!).<BR>
❖ make 1 video a month (at least!).<BR>
❖ re-do the intro and outro for my Yearlong Style Experiment video series.<BR>
❖ buy a GoPro (V) - or similar camera for making my videos more fancy.<BR>
❖ either write, or get over it!<P>
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<B><FONT COLOR="gold">3. FASHION & STYLE</FONT></B><BR>
❖ wear what I want (V) - maybe try to consciously create an outfit in a certain style (Mori, Cottagecore, Pastel Academia, etc.)<BR>
❖ learn modelling & selfie photography techniques - then I could document the above point with more confidence!<BR>
❖ wear novelty ears in public (V) - as I explained in the video, this comes from a satirical 5-year-plan style list that I created for myself several years ago. This is the only point from that list I've yet to achieve!<BR>
❖ create a Ghostbusters costume for Halloween/Springoween (V) - a pretty big project, but one that I think I would learn a lot from, and would make an interesting video, I hope!<P>
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<B><FONT COLOR="forestgreen">4. HOME & GARDEN</FONT></B><BR>
❖ do 3 things to reduce waste.<BR>
❖ do a Christmas in July and document it on my blog (and video too?).<BR>
❖ "complete" my house and garden (V) - this was pretty vague, but I did list a few concrete things in the video, two of which I've listed below:<BR>
❖ set up the shed (V) - install more shelving and organise everything to create an efficient storage space.<BR>
❖ hang all the paintings/pictures I have (V) - they're in a box taking up space in the hobby room at the moment, so it would clear out that space as well.
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<B><FONT COLOR="mediumblue">5. THE WORLD</FONT></B><BR>
❖ stay in contact with my family and friends more regularly.<BR>
❖ get a job or make some kind of income. Or maybe volunteer?<BR>
❖ show my art more on social media, both finished and in progress (V) - I'm learning how to make Instagram Reels so I can do that.<BR>
❖ seek out more opportunities to share my art in person (V) - e.g. try to go in two exhibitions (I already have one lined up!); make my art/craft available to buy.<P><P>
<B><FONT COLOR="blueviolet">6. ME</FONT></B><BR>
❖ consistent selfcare and skincare (V) - taking my tablets every day, drinking Yerba Mate every day, excercising regularly, and doing my stretching exercises for my arthritis consistently.<BR>
❖ drink water! (V)<BR>
❖ go for a "walk" (V) - not just an everyday walk, but a forest walk somewhere lovely. In the past I've set yearly walking distance goals, but my athritis is very unpredictable, so I'm hesitant to do that right now.<BR>
❖ get my ears pierced again and get another tattoo (V) - something I've been meaning to do for a while, but hopefully I'll be able to this year. <P><P>
<B><FONT COLOR="indigo">7. SPIRITUAL</FONT></B><BR>
❖ meditate daily - perhaps not daily, but at least have a regular practice.<BR>
❖ practice divination regularly<BR>
❖ continue my studies<BR>
❖do more magic!<P>
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<B><FONT COLOR="saddlebrown">BONUS: DOESN'T REALLY FIT ANYWHERE</FONT></B><BR>
❖ learn the Rubik's cube (V) - I can solve it using a cheatsheet, but I'd like to memorise it so I can impress people by solving it spontaneously (haha!).<P> ApartmentCathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05074382933557558949noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4781995366266750834.post-1565121788562743772021-12-11T14:13:00.000+11:002021-12-11T14:13:41.247+11:00I have a Youtube Channel! How times change!I've come an incredibly long way since starting this blog back in 2004. I've gone from being too shy to show my face on the internet, to having a <a href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCw7ywttb59ibyntwEo3rMQQ" target="_blank">Youtube channel</a>! My channel is about a yearlong style experiment that I started earlier this year. It already has several videos up for your consideration, on the subjects of style, fashion and sewing. Here's <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kZhlPMj8oG4" target="_blank">my first video</a> in which I talk about why I started my channel (though I also wrote a little about that below):
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I do hope you enjoy my videos and maybe consider subscribing if you like that sort of thing. The most recent is my first one I made with proper video editing software -- not just an app with the most basic features like I was using before. The other day, I finally sat down and taught myself how to do it, and I'm quite proud of myself:
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Making the thumbnails (the cover picture) is also quite fun!
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Writing this post has gotten me thinking about how much things have changed since I started hanging out on the internet back in 2004. For many years, I was too shy to share my face (let alone my whole body!) on the internet. I was incredibly self-conscious about it. For example, I was into knitting and crocheting hats for a few years. I couldn't convince anyone I knew to model them, so I bought a head model from Ebay just so I could share them online. (I still have her -- her name is Hedda!)
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I often found myself in a ridiculous situation where I wanted to sew clothes, but I was too self-conscious to share them on my blog. I wanted to share <I>every</I>thing craft-related here, so if I didn't feel I could share it, I didn't make it! It was a piece of topsy-turvy logic that seems funny to me now. (...and yes, I ended up with a big stash of fabric I never used!)
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Joining Instagram a few years ago changed things immensely for me. Seeing other people with similar body types to mine helped me to come out of my shell. I started posting photos of my face, and later, my whole body. I began to enjoy fashion more when I saw the possibilities, after having given up on it years earlier. I wanted to make my own clothes again, like I used to when I was a teenager. I did make a skirt last year, but I was so out of practice and made so many mistakes, that I was too embarrassed to blog about it. Here's a picture of it anyway:
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The stars must have been aligning early this year, when I had a strong urge to get my fashion/style house in order, and saw this video about <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W7yNaukxFoo" target="_blank">a 365 day style challenge</a>. I decided to do one of my own! I'm not usually that impulsive (maybe it was a pandemic thing), but there you are. At first I was going to document it through my blog like I've done with so many projects before, but I became increasingly convinced that it wasn't the right format. It can be hard to describe something so personal -- and sometimes complicated -- in writing. Some things are just easier to talk about. About a month after I started, I decided I may as well try documenting it in video form, and started a Youtube channel to support that.
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I've learned so much from starting this project -- not only about fashion and style, but about making videos. It's been a steep learning curve, fun, sometimes frustrating, but always satisfying, and I hope there are many more videos to come!
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ApartmentCathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05074382933557558949noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4781995366266750834.post-35547787533122990142021-09-23T14:02:00.002+10:002021-09-23T14:02:26.965+10:00Hobonichi 2022 Diary UnboxingIt's become a yearly tradition now for me to share the unboxing of my Hobonichi Diary for the next year -- and seeing as it's Spring, to do it outside on the grass! <BR><BR>
I was very excited when I received my order! Unfortunately though, I have to report that I was pretty disappointed by the state it was in when it arrived. Usually the iconic Hobonichi box is enclosed in a paper bag, which keeps it safe while it travels from Japan. I (and I'm sure many others) like to keep the box to store stationery and other items in. This year though, the bag was dispensed with and the box was sent 'nude'. As you can see from the photos, it's covered in courier stickers and is very scuffed and a little crushed on the bottom.
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The box such a gorgeous pink colour that I was particularly disappointed I won't be able to use it, and it's essentially 'just packaging' -- only fit for the bin now. But let's move away from the melodrama and see what's inside! As always, there is a quote on the inside flap of the box, and it's quite a nice one:
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The first peek inside reveals the pencil board from the 'Standard Set' I ordered -- more on that later.
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Underneath were the covers I ordered, and underneath that, some of the accessories. The Scary Bear spoon is one of this year's free items.
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As always I ordered the Hobonichi Cousin, the A5 size book. I also got two covers, because I have a book from a couple of years ago that's still lacking a cover. The covers I chose were the plain colour in Lemon Squash yellow, and the "Shall We Have Some Tea?" Retro Cafe design.
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I did a bit of a mix-and-match -- I ordered the Standard Set, which comes with the Hobonichi book, a plain cover (for me the Lemon Squash yellow), a clear cover-on-cover, and a pencil board. I plan to put the plain cover-on-cover over the Retro Cafe cover, and the Lemon Squash cover will serve as the base for the Season of Hope cover-on-cover that you can see below. I just can't decide which will go on my new Hobonichi and which will cover the old one!
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As for the accessories, I purchased the matching folders for the "Shall We Have Some Tea?" set in both A5 and A6 size. To be honest, I don't have any particular plans for them, but I just love the designs so much that I couldn't help myself.
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Here is the 2022 book with this year's free items: the usual tri-pen and the Scary Bear spoon. I just adore the colour of the pen barrel!
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It again came with a fold-out booklet with information about the Hobonichi. It's a little smaller than in previous years, but it has a lovely illustration of cats in a park on the back, which I think I might even frame.
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I got these animal stencils for no particular reason. They were reasonably priced, and I liked all of them, so I decided to get all four.
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Likewise with these Pentel brush touch pens. I've seen other journallers use them in their Hobos without any bleed-through problems, so I indulged.
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Lastly I purchased a few washi tapes. There is a larger range available in the Hobonichi store than there used to be, and more choice means more temptations! I couldn't help but get the matching washi tape from the "Shall We Have Some Tea?" range, as well as a few geometric edge-cut ones, which are a bit more unusual.
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Aside from the disappointment with the box, which I'll admit was probably just due to high expectations, I'm very happy with my order. In fact, this was the first time there has been enough afordable choices in the A5 cover range that I had trouble deciding! It's a nice problem to have. ApartmentCathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05074382933557558949noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4781995366266750834.post-26257142817396091932021-06-08T10:44:00.002+10:002021-06-08T10:44:20.192+10:00Unfinished Crafts, June 2021<span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="color: #45818e;"><b><i>Plushy Letters : O</i></b></span></span>
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Continuing the plushy letter theme from <a href="https://katiestable.blogspot.com/2021/05/finished-crafts-may-2021.html">my last post</a>, I started a Plushy 'O', as it seemed the second easiest letter to design after 'I'.
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<span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="color: #45818e;"><b><i>Floral Skirt</i></b></span></span>
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I started this skirt a few months ago, and it's almost finished. I just need to finish the bottom hem, and I'll probably add some of this lace to it. To be honest, it's deep Winter here now, and this is a rather summery skirt, so I'll probably put it aside until the season comes around again and work on other things in the meantime.
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<span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="color: #45818e;"><b><i>Grannyland Blanket</i></b></span></span>
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This is such an easy go-to project to grab when I'm feeling the urge to craft, but don't want a lot of brain-work to do. I realised a while back that the overall blanket will look better if I edge each square in the same colour. I finally got around to purchasing some wool for the purpose. I don't know why I chose red. Black is too common for this purpose, and I'm already making another blanket with white edgings. I thought about the primary colours and red just felt like the right one. I've started the epic task of adding one row of red to each of the 36+ squares. To be honest, I'm still not sure what dimensions I want the finished blanket to be, so there may be more squares before this thing is through!
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<span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="color: #45818e;"><b><i>Art Projects</i></b></span></span>
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The last two projects are ones that I'm doing under my artist umbrella, rather than 'private' craft projects. They're both still in the early stages, so I won't talk about them too much now. They both involve a lot of cross-stitch, bead embroidery, knitting and other crafty details, so I thought I'd mention them here at least.
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Take care and keep on crafting!
<BR><BR>ApartmentCathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05074382933557558949noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4781995366266750834.post-74045143355152120412021-05-31T11:25:00.010+10:002021-06-04T05:18:18.421+10:00Finished Crafts May 2021<span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="color: #45818e;"><b><i>More Tablet Weaving Bands</i></b></span></span>
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I took a few months off from tablet weaving, but then I became obsessed with it again. I was halfway through Band No. 3 (left) and when I took it up again, I forgot the pattern I was weaving. So one half of the band is wavy, and the other half stripey. But that's okay. It's long enough that I can make it into a bag strap, and hopefully I'll get around to that soon. Bands No. 4 and 5 (middle, right) are shorter. I was more wanting to try out different published patterns to see how they would turn out. I came across various problems while weaving, like twisting, bulging and bumping, but all of them have been explained by various Youtube videos and I feel like I'm learning more with every band.
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<span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="color: #45818e;"><b><i>Plushy Letters : I</i></b></span></span>
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A project I've been thinking about for a long time, but only started to act on recently, is to make a set of plushy letters that spell out words. For some reason I felt like knitting them instead of sewing them, which takes a lot longer but is a more portable craft. I couldn't find any patterns online that made letters as plump as I wanted, so I decided to design my own. I started with the easiest letter -- I.
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<span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="color: #45818e;"><b><i>Plushy Dinosaur</i></b></span></span>
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Last but not least -- the greatest triumph! I made this plushy dinosaur for my two-year-old friend, for her birthday. It took a very long time, and the process was filled with ups and downs, but at last at the end of March it was finally finished. I redesigned the back plates to make the shape more realistic, and also a smaller version to go along the tail. The original pattern was perfectly fine, but I just preferred the way it looks this way. <a href="http://jacobhaller.com/knitting/stegosaurus.html" target="_blank">Here is the pattern</a>.
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Next time I'll be looking at crafts still in progress!ApartmentCathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05074382933557558949noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4781995366266750834.post-16298913405985841102021-02-22T15:38:00.001+11:002021-02-27T15:38:45.087+11:00A Freezer Full of PlumsWelcome to my annual fruit tree harvest report! The title of this post pretty much says it all, but I'll add some more details, as much as for my own future reference as for anything else. This was the second year of doing my 'meshless' fruit growing method. I've decided it's actually a thing and not just laziness!
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The first to ripen was the cherry tree, around mid-November. The tree has grown strongly in the last year and I'm very pleased with it. The harvest was bigger than ever before. I'm pretty sure I took a photo of the fruit but I can't find it now. When I say "bigger than ever before", it was about 3 handfuls. I picked them while still underripe and laid them on a tray for a few days to ripen. We ate them with dessert for two nights in a row and then they were all gone. We only lost a few to birds.
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The next to ripen was the apricot tree, around mid-December. The harvest was smaller than last year, about twice what you see in the basket in the photo (below). I stewed them and it came out to slightly less than one takeaway container full. I was lucky enough to be able to visit Mum at Christmas, and gave her a small, precious containerful.
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I should mention the nectarine tree. It was having an 'off year' (apparently that's a thing). It produced many blossoms, but only two fruit grew from them. Then they were ruined while still only half-grown by the storms we had in December. The weather bureau reported widespread Brown Rot alerts to fruit farmers at that time -- it never occurred to me before that they apply to backyard single-tree gardeners like myself, too!
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Last but certainly not least were the plums. They were still too small and hard to be affected by the brown rot, and we had a bumper harvest! despite my severe pruning of the tree last year to prevent it from producing too much. It seems that backfired, hm.
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Harvesting fruit is fun -- looking amongst the leaves and selecting the ripest ones, feeling them still warm from the sun, placing them in the basket.
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Despite my best efforts, some were eaten by birds. This photo (below) represents probably half of what was lost, but rest assured, it was only a small portion of the total produce! Towards the end, some dropped naturally as well, as I ran out of energy and skipped a couple of days of harvesting and processing.
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I made sure to pick up all the dropped and bird-ravaged plums, as if left they might sprout into baby plum saplings. As nice as that sounds, I've learned from experience that it's not such a good thing -- they grow too close to the parent tree, so they need to be dug up (not to mention it makes mowing very difficult) and I never had a single one transfer to a pot successfully. And besides, I already get more plums than I can handle, even with just one tree!
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I decided to process all the plums by stewing, bagging and freezing them. I didn't have the energy to make jam, and besides it's too hot in Summer! I can always defrost some and turn them into jam later if I want. I picked enough each day to fill the slow cooker, washed them and cooked them on High for about 2 hours.
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I let them cool for a bit, then used the highly sophisticated method of fishing through them with a spoon to remove the stones. Each batch yielded about 3 sandwich-bag-sized bags, and there were 9 batches so that makes.... a lot of plums! Once frozen, they filled up about half the freezer (it needs defrosting, I know!). Once I'm able to visit my family again, they'll be sharing in the bounty. Sometimes when I open the freezer door, I think: if anyone else looked in here, they'd think I was a prepping vampire!
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I guess there will be a post on plum recipes coming up soon?
ApartmentCathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05074382933557558949noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4781995366266750834.post-85912939238020866822021-02-13T11:11:00.000+11:002021-02-13T11:11:45.621+11:00Craft Goals for 2021 - My Make 9!The <i>Make 9</i> craft challenge has been around for a few years now, but with everything that happened last year, I had completely forgotten about it. Even when I was reminded by seeing other people's goals popping up here and there on the internet, I hesitated. It just seems strange to plan for the future these days. Finally though, last week I felt an urge to work on some craft projects again and thought, maybe I'd like to do a Make 9 anyway!
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(The accompanying pictures aren't really relevant, they're just nice backgrounds from photos I found on my phone!)
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I deliberately made the goals very vague. My interests tend to change rapidly and without warning, so I wanted goals that would accommodate anything I was interested in at any given time. I did take the chance and looked through my current and planned projects list to add some to the grid. I made sure to choose some smaller projects, with the awareness that I'm starting 6 weeks late. Here are my thoughts:
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1. <b>something I want</b> - probably my next sewing project: a skirt from a blue/silver floral fabric I bought recently. Hopefully it will be more successful than my last sewing project! <BR>
2. <b>something I need</b> - a pair of shorts, because I need them. Not sure what fabric to use yet.<BR>
3. <b>a gift</b> - a secret project! Ideally I'd like to have it done by the end of March. <BR>
4. <b>a long term project</b> - Green Plushy Monster. It's not that long term, I guess, maybe 18 months. But he only needs some arms and maybe a fuzzy hairdo and he'll be done. <BR>
5. <b>a small project</b> - to finish off: Trollen Braid. Over Christmas I had a mini-obsession with making trollen braids (a new-to-me craft). I started 2 and I'd like to finish at least one. <BR>
6. <b>for a festive time</b> - future project: Christmas garland. I bought some supplies to make a Christmas garland a couple of years ago and haven't gotten around to putting them together yet. It can sit on the back burner until close to the end of the year.<BR>
7. <b>spliced</b> - Lace Gilet - an experimental work in progress at the moment. I bought two lace dresses and want to try to splice them together into a gilet (sleeveless cardigan thingy). <BR>
8. <b>altered</b> - pants enlargement. I bought some pants online and they were a bit small, so I'm planning a way to make them fit. <BR>
9. <b>decorated</b> - Tablet Weaving piece. As <a href="http://katiestable.blogspot.com/2020/04/i-learned-tablet-weaving.html" target="_blank">I talked about</a> earlier in the year, I taught myself tablet weaving. My enthusiasm slowed down a bit on the third piece, but I'd like to finish it off and find something to use it for.
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Of course, this may change at any time!ApartmentCathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05074382933557558949noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4781995366266750834.post-25685290905356434792021-02-04T09:03:00.001+11:002021-02-04T09:03:26.937+11:00Habitica : Gamified Motivation App<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFTDdydlMCgUKvA1Hjbwb_kzqLxlEeBcTT8GoHsoqzspJriGiGNEfPVZFyImQS_L7xVg6FNsKEyPbR7FJpE2F7ncaW7u4LOp2QdFjtmDiZblILB_3u7Op-g0plf2wShIC65Cm54yBLh8Mr/s0/IMG_3081.PNG" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center; "><img alt="" border="0" data-original-height="533" data-original-width="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFTDdydlMCgUKvA1Hjbwb_kzqLxlEeBcTT8GoHsoqzspJriGiGNEfPVZFyImQS_L7xVg6FNsKEyPbR7FJpE2F7ncaW7u4LOp2QdFjtmDiZblILB_3u7Op-g0plf2wShIC65Cm54yBLh8Mr/s0/IMG_3081.PNG"/></a></div>
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A few weeks ago I started using Habitica. In the creators' words, it's a "free habit and productivity app that treats your real life like a game". The app has been around for several years, and I have to admit, it's not new to me either. I tried using it a few years ago and found it too complicated and confusing. But for some reason I decided to give it another go, persisted in trying to understand it, and now use it daily.
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Anyone familiar with roleplaying games will understand how the Habitica game works. You have a character with a certain amount experience points. Every time you complete a task, these increase slightly, and over time you level up. When you level up, you receive stat points that you can allocate to the character's four stats. You also earn coins that you can use to buy outfits, decorations and weapons. There are four different character classes to choose from, with different skillsets. (I'm a Rogue!) Players can join challenges or play in a party to defeat monsters. I haven't personally joined a party myself, but I am doing some challenges which are fun. You can also collect pets! Currently I have my favourite one with me -- my pink dragon!
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The core of Habitica is the tasks, and there are 3 different kinds which work in different ways. As I mentioned earlier, I did find it a bit confusing at first, but I came to understand it fairly quickly. The 3 different kinds of tasks are:
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* <b><i><FONT COLOR= "green">Dailies</FONT></i></b> -- tasks that you repeat every day, week, month, year, etc. These might be 'do the dishes', 'take my tablets', 'clean the windows', 'buy a planner'. These tasks disappear once you tick them off, but reappear on the appropriate day.<BR>
* <b><i><FONT COLOR= "green">To-Dos</FONT></i></b> -- one-off tasks. Once it's done, you get the kudos, and it disappears forever. <BR>
* <b><i><FONT COLOR= "green">Habits</FONT></i></b> -- these are things that you'd like to get into the habit of doing. They are repeated but don't have regular intervals. You might do them several times a day, or only once or twice a week. Examples might be 'read for 1/2 hour', 'work on art', or 'weed the garden'.
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The three kinds of tasks are in different sections, and you need to flick back and forth to access them. I would say that's the only drawback of Habitica that I've found, but once I understood the purpose of the different types of tasks, it was a lot easier to handle. I've been using Habitica daily for over almost a month, and have found advantages that the other organising systems I've used don't have. The tag system is invaluable: I've set up tags such as 'morning', 'evening', 'computer' and 'garden', so I can filter tasks according to my situation at any particular time. This is something I couldn't do with other systems I've used, and I've come to find it incredibly helpful. In fact, Habitica has completely replaced Trello and my whiteboard as my way of organising my day.
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The game is quite forgiving in many ways. At the beginning of each day, all of the previous day's not-done tasks are displayed, giving you the chance to tick off any that you did but forgot to update in the app. It also has a built-in motivator: every day that a task isn't done, it turns a deeper red colour, and when you finally do those, you get extra experience and coins. Ones that you've diligently been doing daily turn green and then a beautiful turquoise colour. Of course, it's up to the player's sense of honesty to faithfully record what they did or neglected to do! I don't know about you, but I always feel like I didn't really earn something if I cheated to get it.
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I could go on about Habitica's features (like the group challenges and supportive community) but I'll leave it for now! All that remains is to tick off the "Blog Post" task. :D
ApartmentCathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05074382933557558949noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4781995366266750834.post-62879379646224061902021-01-12T11:33:00.002+11:002021-01-12T11:33:51.285+11:00101 Things in 1,001 Days : Huge OverhaulFor the last few years, I've been on the <I><a href="https://katiestable.blogspot.com/p/101-things-in-1001-days-2.html" target="_blank">101 Things in 1,001 Days</a></I> track. <i>(Click that link or the tab above to see the full list.)</i> My second cycle is due to finish this coming March. 1,001 days seems like a very long time -- two and three quarter years. Or, it used to seem like a very long time, anyway. Now, at the end of 2020 and all the things that happened (and didn't happen!), it seems like just a hop and a skip.
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For most of last year, I forgot about my <I>101 Things</I> goals. There were so many more important things to think about. I didn't feel like doing most of the things on the list, and some of them I wasn't even able to anyway.
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Recently things started to look brighter, and I looked at my list again. It hit me that the end date of 13th March 2021 is only a few months away. And I'd only completed about 15 of the 101 items! That's a bit drastic!
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<CENTER><I>Things I <U>did</U> do: played board games!</I></CENTER>
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I've seen people online refer to 2020 as "the year that time forgot" or a "leap year" -- not in the sense that we had an extra day in February, but that it felt like we collectively skipped a year in our lives. So I've decided to do the same with my 101 Things list! I extended the due date one year, to 13th March 2022.
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<CENTER><I>Remember when the seasons used to change?</I></CENTER>
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Then it was time to look at the actual things I'd wanted to achieve. Soon after the first lockdown started, I'd already gone through the list and marked some items with the label 'Compromised'. This meant anything that I couldn't really do at home, like going to a drawing class, or getting a beauty treatment, or going overseas. (Yeah, that last one was a big one!) I had trouble thinking of a good word for the label, and I ended up choosing 'compromised' because it was halfway between things being fine and things being actually cancelled. I'm really glad I did that in the past, as it helped me to overhaul my list and not get too overwhelmed with all the things I have to let go of.
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<CENTER><I>We had an indoor picnic!</I></CENTER>
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There were also some new things I'd started that I wanted to be included in the list, so I replaced some old items with them. Here are some of the things I changed:
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❖ <b>#8 - removed "<i>make a gluten-free flour mix</i>" and replaced with "<i>keep a Morning Pages journal for 1 year</i>"</b><BR>
I'm no longer eating bread at all (gluten-free or otherwise) so this goal is pretty pointless. I started writing daily Morning Pages last November and have been going steadily so far, so I thought I may as well make it a proper goal. A whole year seems like an intimidatingly long time, but I thought I may as well challenge myself.
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❖ <b>#82 - removed "<i>re-read the Harry Potter series</i>" and replaced with "<i>complete 6 challenges on The StoryGraph</i>"</b><BR>
While I'll always like Harry Potter, I'm really over JKR's recent activities, and I just need a rest from her creations. I was in a bad reading slump throughout most of 2020 anyway, until I discovered <a href="https://app.thestorygraph.com/" target="_blank">The StoryGraph</a>. Their challenges are a lot of fun, so I added this one in.
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❖ <b>#56 - removed "<i>go overseas</i>" and replaced with "<i>complete 3 writing challenges</i>"</b><BR>
It was with a heavy heart that we had to cancel our trip overseas. We postponed it for 2 years to October 2022, which is too late to add into the current 101 Things list. It will hopefully be in the second one, though. I've been much more into writing again, so I replaced it with a writing goal. I've talked myself into and out of writing (properly) so many times, and I just want to do it! Or not do it! But either way, just make up my mind, haha.
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<CENTER><I>I had a green-themed tea party in my backyard.</I></CENTER>
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There were some things that I decided to reduce and/or modify, rather than replace, including:<BR>
❖ #44 - art/craft classes reduced from 6 to 5; also online classes count too<BR>
❖ #33 - finish current craft projects reduced from 12 to 10<BR>
❖ #74 - read biographies reduced from 10 to 8<BR>
❖ #49 - computer-free days reduced from 20 to 15
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<CENTER><I>Example of unfinished craft project.</I></CENTER>
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And there were a few things I was pleasantly surprised to find that I've completed! These were:
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❖ <b>#15 - "<i>decide on something to collect and do it</i>"</b><BR>
I decided a while back to collect tea pots and tea tins. I visited my Mum once I was allowed to again, and she let me have first pick of all the knickknacks she was getting rid of. I chose 4 teapots and lots of other teawares for my collection. Added to the 8 or so teapots I already have, I think that's probably enough ... for now!
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❖ <b>#77 - "<i>read </I>A Christmas Carol<I> every Christmas</i>"</b><BR>
I actually managed to do it before Christmas this year, too! I watched <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pZwS_60M3oY" target="_blank">Townsend's reading at The Nutmeg Tavern</a> on Youtube, and it was delightful. Technically now though, seeing as there's another Christmas to go before the new ending date, does that mean I still have one to go before I can tick this off? No, I think I'll give it to myself. We all deserve some self-kindness.
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I'm still feeling hesitant to make any firm plans, and I think I'll review my list again in a few months. But just having done this much feels like a real achievement. Now I can get back to reading and writing and making art and crafts! And hopefully writing about it here more regularly. See you soon!
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<CENTER><I>I've been doing a <strike>lot</strike> bit of drawing too.</I></CENTER> ApartmentCathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05074382933557558949noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4781995366266750834.post-13259393576885369862020-12-31T13:00:00.001+11:002020-12-31T13:00:02.865+11:00Holiday Greetings! (and Goodbye 2020!)<CENTER>I hope you have a safe and happy festive season!<BR>
May 2020 be gone forever and never return!<BR>
And may 2021 bring you everything that you wish for and more. <BR>
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimwJ2mrfXQWMjh3hJ1SMW9f7kCB5XzmQgJD3fxTCQZpkOdSFEc8W84ol25Oc31ptoRFyQTbH7AUBafwsqHWaPKmyErz0IZjk6-nZG9t7APv-avYgUJTCEGotGDdje2TND8mTXgSQFaGmAR/s398/Krampus.jpg" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center; "><img alt="" border="0" height="400" data-original-height="398" data-original-width="330" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimwJ2mrfXQWMjh3hJ1SMW9f7kCB5XzmQgJD3fxTCQZpkOdSFEc8W84ol25Oc31ptoRFyQTbH7AUBafwsqHWaPKmyErz0IZjk6-nZG9t7APv-avYgUJTCEGotGDdje2TND8mTXgSQFaGmAR/s400/Krampus.jpg"/></a></div>ApartmentCathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05074382933557558949noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4781995366266750834.post-34819833721096869262020-12-15T07:51:00.002+11:002020-12-15T07:51:25.639+11:002021 Hobonichi Diary Unboxing<p>
Normally I make this yearly post in September each year, when the Hobonichi diaries for the next year go on sale. The Hobonichi company have an order holding service, so this year, with the turbulence in the mail delivery system, I kept my order on hold for as long as I possibly could. After that, it arrived very fast, as it came by courier. </p>I'll just show the unboxing photos without too much commentary, as I didn't order very many interesting things this year. </p><p>
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The <a href="http://katiestable.blogspot.com/2019/09/hobonichi-unboxing-part-2-custom-covers.html" target="_blank">Etsy shop I bought my covers from</a> last year was no longer open, sadly, but thankfully Hobonichi were offering one cover I really loved (both outside and inside!). It's by Aki Kondo, the same artist who invented Rilakkuma! <p></p><p>
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<p></p><p>I also ordered these cute Astroboy pencil boards for myself and Husband. They have a holographic effect!</p>
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This year's fold-out has a guide to uses for the Hobonichi with lots of ideas! It's in English as well as Japanese for the first time, though now I have a translation app on my phone I could read it. It's amazing to think that didn't exist a few years ago!
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Here is the page I did in this year's Hobonichi to celebrate the arrival of next years', and also the backlog of stationery packs from my <a href="https://www.patreon.com/rainbowholic/" target="_blank">Rainbowholic Patreon</a> subscription. They were being held until the post could get through again, and I received 5 months' worth at once! I felt like a (stationery) queen!
<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUXFsFwFLMsyvnvl6p91WmuKRutH_Gq7Ea4vTQZYFE3TKGx6Yz1Wh5eh7ynaQ8OQSejacdsRIEz_IKjXRl8iyjsjwSikqXdXCopM37V3CnVFk_5HYRR-LYUVOD06xRibAgKAyhi9YHWM3c/s0/IMG_2342.JPG" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0px; text-align: center;"><img alt="" border="0" width="500" data-original-height="913" data-original-width="652" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUXFsFwFLMsyvnvl6p91WmuKRutH_Gq7Ea4vTQZYFE3TKGx6Yz1Wh5eh7ynaQ8OQSejacdsRIEz_IKjXRl8iyjsjwSikqXdXCopM37V3CnVFk_5HYRR-LYUVOD06xRibAgKAyhi9YHWM3c/s0/IMG_2342.JPG" width="500" /></a></div>ApartmentCathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05074382933557558949noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4781995366266750834.post-24401185209073765692020-12-07T13:05:00.001+11:002020-12-07T13:05:25.795+11:00What I've Been Doing LatelyI've never been one to apologise for not posting for a long time, but gosh, it's been ages, hasn't it? With everything that's been happening in 2020, I'm sure you can't blame me. Whether I post once a week or once a quarter, I'm always intending to keep on blogging.
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I thought I'd kick things off with a little wrapup of what I've been doing these last few months:
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<FONT SIZE=+1 COLOR='green'><i>An exhibition!</i></FONT><BR>
I was lucky enough to be chosen once again to hold an exhibition at NOIR Darkroom, called <i>Before(During)After</i>. It was originally supposed to be in April, but was postponed a couple of times due to the pandemic and the gallery not being able to open. The gallery allowed me to change the theme, which I did to something more current. It explores how my art has changed during the pandemic and my uncertainty about what the future holds (for my art, but in general, too). There's a <a href="https://www.noirdarkroom.com/gallery/before-during-after-digital-gallery/" target="_blank">digital gallery on NOIR Darkroom's website</a> which has photos and also an artist talk I did. I managed to talk for quite a long time for someone so shy!
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<FONT SIZE=+1 COLOR='green'><i>Art! and a Conscript! </i></FONT><BR>
More specifically art-wise, I've been working on a series I call my Codex Pages. They're inspired by the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voynich_manuscript" target="_blank">Voynich Manuscript</a>, a medieval book written in a mystery language that no-one can decipher, with strange illustrations. I've been fascinated with it for years. I finally had the idea of trying to make my own version. I created my own constructed script (conscript) for it. I always find this a lot of fun. I say 'always' when I've only created one before, but you get the idea! I'm hoping to write a post on this in more detail in the future.
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These ones aren't finished yet:
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<FONT SIZE=+1 COLOR='green'><i>Building a City! </i></FONT><BR>
Not a real one -- I was furnished with a game called <i>Cities Skylines</i>. It's like SimCity if you've heard of that (but better, by all accounts). My city just hit 80,000 inhabitants, and is called Lavender Town. I know! But it's not named after the location in the Nintendo game, but the pre-made map I chose in the beginning, which was called Lavender Lake. It's just the kind of game I like, and I've been spending a lot of time playing it lately. Here are a couple of screenshots.
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<FONT SIZE=+1 COLOR='green'><i>Reading! </i></FONT><BR>
I was in a reading slump for several months, from about May to the start of December. I was given some ebooks to review, and of course whenever you're obligated to read something, it's no longer fun, so even though the books were good, I found it a little bit excruciating to get through them. (I still have 3 to go, oops!)
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My friend Emilie started a Youtube channel a few months ago: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCx9rvv6VAhF5Jr7qdz7w6YQ" target="_blank">Teacher Emilie in the Dining Room Library</a>. She reads illustrated childrens books -- like an online storytime! It's kept me from having to admit that I read absolutely nothing in that time, if you believe that books usually for toddlers count! She often has wise comments to add as well. I recommend it.
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I discovered <a href="https://beta.thestorygraph.com/" target="_blank">The Story Graph</a> a few weeks ago, and that's what really got me out of my reading slump. It's a reading community like Goodreads (but better, I daresay), with stats and graphs of books you've read. It aims to develop a really accurate and satisfying recommendations system. It's still in beta at the moment so you need to sign up to see everything, but for me it's definitely worth it so far. Reading challenges launched a few weeks ago, and members (including myself!) are enthusiastically creating and signing up for challenges.
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<FONT SIZE=+1 COLOR='green'><i>Music! </i></FONT><BR>
Late last year I started a project to replicate my itunes library in Spotify. I ran into some hiccups at first which I won't go into (nothing to do with Spotify) but I've had lots of time to work on it while lurking in my cocoon this year. I'm working by artist and I've just finished the Gs, plus Eurovision working backwards from the present to 2004 so far. All the while I'm discovering new artists and songs. Who knew there was so much music in the world?
<BR>(The title of this playlist comes from a private joke of mine.)
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<FONT SIZE=+1 COLOR='green'><i>Gardening! </i></FONT><BR>
Even through Winter there's usually something to do in the garden, but now that Spring (early Summer really) is here, it's all stations go! I'm barely keeping on top of the weeding, let alone planting new plants and re-potting old ones. But it's honest work and it makes me happy.
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Well, that's about all I can think of for now. Hopefully I'll see you again soon!
<BR><BR>ApartmentCathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05074382933557558949noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4781995366266750834.post-926730210907859912020-09-03T15:02:00.003+10:002020-09-03T15:02:38.732+10:00I Made a Skirt : the NovelHere is the story of my skirt. I made it myself, and it's a tale full of twists and turns, anguish and triumph.
<P>
<i>Prologue --</i>
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Every now and then, I want to get back into sewing, but then usually nothing happens. Last year I got to the point of actually buying some fabric. (Actually, it was the year before last, now I come to look it up!) I even had plans in mind for each of the five pieces I bought, but I ended up putting them aside again.
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This has been happening for enough years that I've started to recognise it as a pattern -- every Spring and Autumn (the transitional seasons: interesting?) I get really excited about fashion and sewing, and plan to make lots of garments and cute accessories. I sometimes, as in the above case, even buy supplies, because you can never have too many craft supplies, right? Then I talk myself out of it for one or all of the following reasons: it's too hard and complicated, I don't have the skills and I'd screw it up, it wouldn't look good on me, I have no occasion to wear it, or the worst, I'd never wear it because I don't want to draw attention to myself.
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I'll write more about that another time, but for now, let's tell this skirt saga!
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I haven't sewn in nearly 10 years, so I thought I'd ease myself into it by making something simple -- a skirt with an elastic gathered waist. I was pretty sure I could cope with a ruffle as well. My first mistake was not measuring properly. I cut out a rectangle that was supposed to be my hip measurement plus 10 cm for some ease, and sewed it into a tube. I tried it on and realised it was way too big straight away but thought, <i>she'll be right mate</i>, the waistline will be gathered anyway.
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Then I lost motivation and put it away for a few months. (This will turn out to be a recurring theme and is why documentation is so important!) By then I had forgotten it was way too big. I measured out some elastic for the waistband, forgetting that you need to make it a bit smaller than your waist measurement, otherwise it's too loose. I tried it on and it nearly fell off. So I unpicked the elastic and cut it shorter. I put the project aside for a while more, and by then I had forgotten that I'd already adjusted the elastic, so unpicked and re-sewed it again. The elastic was now too small!! But I had other issues...
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Because the skirt itself was too big, the fabric was very bulky and made my waistline look much much bigger, as well as ruining the line of any top worn over it. I needed to reduce bulk around the waist, especially the front, so I sewed some big darts into the sides (at least I could remember how to do that, hah!). There was no need to add elastic all the way around the waist because the skirt was now much more fitted, and only needed the teensiest bit of staying-on power. So I cut a short strip of elastic (about 25cm) and just sewed it on at the centre back. Now I had a smooth area across the front.
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Even though it looked totally awful and amateurish, I was determined to finish it ... after taking a couple of months off. Next thing was to add the ruffle around the bottom. I had made sure to order enough fabric for a good ruffle, so I cut the strips needed for this and sewed them into a big circle, twice the width of the skirt itself so it'd be nice and floofy. I measured the bottom hem of the ruffle all the way around (all 400+cm of it!), and folded and pressed it in place with an iron, before sewing a nice-looking hem. At least I got that right! Then I sewed it to the bottom of the skirt, and did an extra line of zig zag stitching to keep it neat.
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I tried on the skirt -- and it sucked! It was longer than I'd wanted, and while the ruffle was indeed very floofy, the fabric is too heavy for that kind of treatment. The weight of it pulled down on the whole skirt, and it not only felt heavy to wear, but didn't look right either. As well, it was doing that thing where it hangs down lower in the front (do all plus size people get that problem, or is it just me?). I had forgotten that I need to adjust for that when making skirts.
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I was so unsure of my own judgement that I put a poll on instagram asking for opinions: was it: too floofy, too long, both of the above, or just fine. I got about an even number of responses for all 4 options, so I had to decide for myself in the end.
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I knew I had to do something because I couldn't stand it the way it was. So I cut the ruffle off, and cut about 12 cm off the bottom of the skirt. I sliced into the ruffle fabric and removed about 1/4, then sewed it back into a ring, ready to re-attach to the skirt.
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To fix the low-hanging front problem, in the past I always adjusted it at the waistline, but I'd already had too many waistline issues, so I decided to try cutting the bottom edge into a curved shape along the front. Then I sewed the ruffle on again (which if you're a sewist you'll know is not the quick and easy feat that it sounds like!). I tried it on and guess what?! I had sewed the ruffle on inside-out! I didn't notice the whole time I was pinning it on, or the whole time I was sewing it! I took photos of this mistake but I was so disgusted with myself that I deleted them. Thankfully I had decided to try the skirt on BEFORE securing it with zigzag stitch, otherwise it would have been even more of a nightmare! As it was, I spent a nice Friday evening with a glass of wine and my quick-unpicker, who I decided to name Buffy to preserve my sanity a little bit.
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After many tea breaks and lie-downs, I sewed the ruffle on for the THIRD time. After carefully checking it again, I did a final zigzag stitch along the ruffle seam to secure it. I was so excited at the thought that this was the final seam of this project, I can't tell you! However, the universe didn't want to release me quite yet. I ran out of bobbin thread and had to refill the bobbin. Then I ran out of upper thread and had to find a new (<i>almost</i> matching) thread. Then not long after installing it, the new thread snapped! I had to thread it again! All for one seam, though thankfully it won't show on the outside so no-one will notice all the stops and starts and slight colour variations.
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Better, no?
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Another thing I'll note:
In the beginning I had tried to save time for myself by aligning the edges of the pieces up against the bound edge (selvedge) of the fabric, therefore theoretically meaning that I don't have to secure the edges with zigzag stitching or pinking shears, but it turned out to be more effort than it was worth and didn't really help at all. I had to secure it with zigzag stitch anyway and the thick selvedge edge just added bulk in most places.
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I still don't really consider this skirt as 100% finished. I'd like to fix the darts in place with fusible webbing (I have some, just need to find it), and maybe add some lace to the bottom edge if I'm ever feeling brave enough.
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There's the full saga of my Faux Patchwork Skirt, the first garment I've sewn in 10 years. It was pretty excruciating, I have to admit, but I have a feeling it's somehow broken a barrier and enabled me to think about what else I can make in the future. I ordered some more fabric this morning from a new-to-me shop and I'll report when it arrives!
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It was extremely windy when I took these photos, so the skirt looks uneven, but it's actually just being buffeted by gale force winds. =D
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Mostly for my own reference, but in case anyone is interested, here are the specs:
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Fabric: quilting weight cotton ; Michael Miller "Indian Summer"<BR>
Length: 2.5 metres<BR>
Bought from: <A HREF= "https://www.modes4u.com/en" TARGET= "_blank">Kawaii Modes 4 U</A> <i>(purchased in 2018 - no longer available)</i><BR>
Cost: $42.15 <i>(I'm glad I didn't remember how much it cost, or else I would have been much more upset and precious about this project than I already was!)</i><BR>
Pattern: n/a
ApartmentCathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05074382933557558949noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4781995366266750834.post-70322444343305767052020-08-06T10:00:00.001+10:002020-08-06T10:00:49.789+10:00Tea Time: Full Moon by The Forest Witch<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmQQs-I_4PUq6OZhy7SXTgeLUxgiCNx8VbUNHbs5B3tIq4KDwXhdCT3RZqrmgIEq2jgPLVHCi3vd1cQLTKt-grNId780O1oPb2immykKPdiSg6YYO7c7q6-7NuVoIsYkCeaP8jCcOQGYS-/s700/IMG_1294.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="700" data-original-width="700" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmQQs-I_4PUq6OZhy7SXTgeLUxgiCNx8VbUNHbs5B3tIq4KDwXhdCT3RZqrmgIEq2jgPLVHCi3vd1cQLTKt-grNId780O1oPb2immykKPdiSg6YYO7c7q6-7NuVoIsYkCeaP8jCcOQGYS-/s640/IMG_1294.JPG" /></a></div><div><br />
</div><div><b>Today's Tea:</b> <a href="https://www.theforestwitch.ca/products/tea-full-moon" target="_blank">Full Moon from The Forest Witch</a> <br /></div><div><b>What is it?</b> From the Forest Witch website: "A lovely and light tea. Floral hints, with juicy plum and a sprinkling
of fennel mingle together, bringing you a cup with gentle mugwort to help with your Full Moon endeavours."</div><div><b>Ingredients: </b><span>organic green tea, plums, organic fennel, organic mugwort, organic jasmine</span> </div><div><b>Recommendations:</b> My sample pack didn't have brewing instructions, but generally green tea should be steeped for 1 to 3 minutes. <br /></div><div><br /></div>
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<div><b><br /></b></div><div><b>About the Tea: </b>Full Moon tea is created by independent tea blender The Forest Witch Mia, located in Canada. All of her teas are inspired by Celtic deities or fantasy themes such as Harry Potter, Game of Thrones and Good Omens. Full Moon is from her spiritual collection.</div><div><br /></div><div>
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The tea has a bright, straw-like flavour profile, with just a slight hint of sweetness, which comes from the fruit and jasmine flower. The version I have contains apple rather than plum, but I think it works just as well. Fennel and mugwort are classic ingredients in spiritual brews. Mugwort is the perfect herb for working with the full moon. It's other name <I>Artemisia</I> comes from the Greek goddess of the moon Artemis, and it's used for moon meditations and connecting with the feminine cycles that the moon also follows. Fennel adds strength and fertility, and is used for meditation and protection. <br /></div><div><br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMShM8ffl1PYELuca_FHV0Ww2DcmhfVNta2-Kzp8QsuU3H7LWHJsZifs5qT0s6jnZCT1rYAEHTNqXg4ANwYfVv3UJ0wSvTK9nAVRUyGDoXq-6WLwRjejKZSy0BVcjMiAwwSKdtshrkZ1OL/s650/IMG_1294+-+smol2.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="594" data-original-width="650" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMShM8ffl1PYELuca_FHV0Ww2DcmhfVNta2-Kzp8QsuU3H7LWHJsZifs5qT0s6jnZCT1rYAEHTNqXg4ANwYfVv3UJ0wSvTK9nAVRUyGDoXq-6WLwRjejKZSy0BVcjMiAwwSKdtshrkZ1OL/s640/IMG_1294+-+smol2.JPG" width="640" /></a></div><BR>
<B>Available:</B><br />
Full Moon is available online from <a href="https://www.theforestwitch.ca/" TARGET= "_blank">The Forest Witch</a> shop. I found the price (in Canadian dollars) very reasonable and the postage costs to Australia, too, especially compared with many U.S. sources. She also has <a href="https://www.etsy.com/au/shop/TheForestWitch" TARGET= "_blank">an Etsy shop</a> if you prefer. I loved dealing with Mia and look forward to making many more purchases with her. Her <a href="https://www.instagram.com/theforestwitchmia/" TARGET= "_blank">Instagram is here</a>. <br />
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<pre><center><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_IUR2VrIvQG4JuduSFV__7lIFfJdTqYOjA9NNGmpcxsuhl_pf94nJvegHnZhqN-Yi_zPGMuuK1PyNdZCi5prZOQnQNSw3eeR8HwH7_LvB47OEAY74Gw3LUOnuhEMstVi7zJKvAOYivSsJ/s1600/w-line1_zpswa6ulvio.gif">
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<a href="https://katiestable.blogspot.com/2019/07/tea-time-norns-by-forest-witch.html"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEtxEslQfDRYYiFryczaHlZrt-ee40FJd6tvzMbk6FojAcjYTgFbBaUJm9_5P6xI0EbLrXpULn-pBZ5_ABfukCsMQFHgH0Hfn6eKy_fqHvZgch3oh0F2TwtnTlWcY49kMstGcM63pxCLov/s1600/IMG_6946.JPG" width="100">Tea Time : The Norns by The Forest Witch</A>
</PRE>ApartmentCathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05074382933557558949noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4781995366266750834.post-62489602414446542162020-07-21T14:37:00.000+10:002020-07-21T14:37:00.251+10:00Isolation Photo ProjectBack in April, I took part in an online project hosted by NOIR Darkroom, a gallery in Melbourne. With (almost) everyone having to stay home, it was a welcome opportunity to look at the space around us in new ways. A prompt was released every day for about 3 weeks, and all photos submitted were posted on NOIR Darkroom's Instagram account. <br />
<br />
It's a little bit belated, I know, but I thought I'd share them here for all the non-instagram folks, as well as a reminder to my future self. I've included my original comments, and further explanations in italics. <br />
<br />
Day 1: Illumination<br />
I know that I’m lucky to have a garden to spend time in. On sunny afternoons I lie on the grass in the shade of the fruit trees and breathe. This yellow leaf caught my eye as the first sign of Autumn. <br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqol5WLoPhgyfN9DbWH9ynbbmRC6FYvPKrlQVsUxqmcddvuXJWkhPF5yM0yyeUTA-iAhMfPoqQ89CdVBO93JPhAbqnCi9VH-qQo5TECwDbxANLCEdpUvu1QTmt0-a-BJU7nioprTzwfJaL/s1600/Illumination.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqol5WLoPhgyfN9DbWH9ynbbmRC6FYvPKrlQVsUxqmcddvuXJWkhPF5yM0yyeUTA-iAhMfPoqQ89CdVBO93JPhAbqnCi9VH-qQo5TECwDbxANLCEdpUvu1QTmt0-a-BJU7nioprTzwfJaL/s400/Illumination.jpg" width="400" height="400" data-original-width="1080" data-original-height="1080" /></a></div><br />
Day 2: Still Life<br />
aka how I spent my morning <br />
<i>I very rarely do my nails anymore, but I gave myself permission to do some things I normally don't feel like I have time to do.</i><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgo6UAJxznwqGGPzTNiH5hFP135BBC6sXFSLKn215DiHAdOcpvqqscwQ6b9EYwOBkArU1v7HLXZj4dcvtJWRal2Lp5J48TNOfewMVUsYeTIIjNvLClpaP2NX271QdOmFlyDgSPAJwP1l1ty/s1600/Still+Life.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgo6UAJxznwqGGPzTNiH5hFP135BBC6sXFSLKn215DiHAdOcpvqqscwQ6b9EYwOBkArU1v7HLXZj4dcvtJWRal2Lp5J48TNOfewMVUsYeTIIjNvLClpaP2NX271QdOmFlyDgSPAJwP1l1ty/s400/Still+Life.jpg" width="400" height="400" data-original-width="1080" data-original-height="1080" /></a></div><br />
Day 3: The Shadow<br />
I can’t believe how well this turned out on my crappy old phone <br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCFg8pIjDzbQ58savqFUnSYwBTuhEjQ_GNAN3veHYiK0GU90o_IUgqZPRM9qIff-9-wu22zeZh_An-MI1ceKB2hT9M1dxk35euumhMB2DYg04pe3v_Qk8rYm82uR94Pwzda2F0D34H0Upp/s1600/The+Shadow.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCFg8pIjDzbQ58savqFUnSYwBTuhEjQ_GNAN3veHYiK0GU90o_IUgqZPRM9qIff-9-wu22zeZh_An-MI1ceKB2hT9M1dxk35euumhMB2DYg04pe3v_Qk8rYm82uR94Pwzda2F0D34H0Upp/s400/The+Shadow.jpg" width="400" height="400" data-original-width="1080" data-original-height="1080" /></a></div><br />
Day 4: Repetition<br />
Only 8 more to go!<br />
<i>I was making a stegosaurus toy for my friend's baby (24 plate pieces required) and this seemed like too good an opportunity to waste!</i><br />
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Day 5: Reflection<br />
I’m surrounded by books and toys and games, but sometimes it’s good to just think.<br />
<i>This felt a bit pretentious to me, but people seemed to like it.</i><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcE5CfgBlrI-oN_65lX4FpB_IWTDLa-h-_r0zQRww1PTKQtv8lN6ZPdFSia6vItYDSNAs4osbu5_SfIVIIGIvfXrZzFgkRKCF24BU6Q6h2FUdhDgLxBODaIoVGQoxfRMRtQvgtC4_dXiVO/s1600/Reflection.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcE5CfgBlrI-oN_65lX4FpB_IWTDLa-h-_r0zQRww1PTKQtv8lN6ZPdFSia6vItYDSNAs4osbu5_SfIVIIGIvfXrZzFgkRKCF24BU6Q6h2FUdhDgLxBODaIoVGQoxfRMRtQvgtC4_dXiVO/s400/Reflection.jpg" width="400" height="400" data-original-width="657" data-original-height="657" /></a></div><br />
<br />
Day 6: Texture<br />
[insert some artist waffle about contrasting textures here] Actually I took this the other day because #lazy and #nofilter because #brainfog #hair #grass #longhair<br />
<i>A couple of the photos were from the same session when I was sitting under my trees outside and mucking around with taking photos. It's unashamedly recycled from that.</i><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNbWjJWpdNyTTufwCgDWgZGrolXVmEpSzoTlvvtqg7KRA54iZaFDRTGyf07Om1RMmXqktHF8Tg8q0-pBqPSkF16yzN4YyPcQCScxd2jp_lb4HGJOSPS1WtFOaya4ofZDguDLrJUN0rqrWT/s1600/Texture.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNbWjJWpdNyTTufwCgDWgZGrolXVmEpSzoTlvvtqg7KRA54iZaFDRTGyf07Om1RMmXqktHF8Tg8q0-pBqPSkF16yzN4YyPcQCScxd2jp_lb4HGJOSPS1WtFOaya4ofZDguDLrJUN0rqrWT/s400/Texture.jpg" width="400" height="400" data-original-width="1080" data-original-height="1080" /></a></div><br />
Day 7: Out of Place<br />
#anxiety<br />
<i>Out of Place is how I feel most of the time, so I thought it would be interesting to explore a visual portrayal of anxiety.</i><br />
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Self Portrait <i>I lost track of what day it was after a while.</i><br />
Because I’m not just how I look, but what I create.<br />
<i>Also, I'd done a couple of self portraits already and didn't want to repeat myself. It was surprisingly difficult to take an 'over-the-shoulder' photo of my hands without asking someone else to take it for me. I used my tripod but it held the camera so far away that the photo quality was quite bad. I think it adds a grittiness to the subject though. And yes, I'd really hurt myself on both hands recently.</i><br />
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Broken<br />
Aftermath of the storm a few days ago<br />
<i>I wanted to do something a bit more psychological rather than literal, but everything I thought of didn't seem right. I remembered I'd seen a broken branch on my fruit tree the day before, so I took a photo of that. </i><br />
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Symmetry<br />
<i>I was mucking around taking some photos with my cat while I was trying to think of something for this prompt, and afterwards I liked the idea of a conceptual rather than visual symmetry.</i><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2BmPvkVEYNvYEA5SVnM8WE9nVTFYZcb3dvdXzRRQFKi73g4xvvv6Hn61sY4PN13-2rqY-o8Z-8HrWZQAxvQYsMknWW8FWwjZsZZALNCMdD5BlXw5j7yFnUy1p2BcnEhAKGT0tuT6iQaP9/s1600/Symmetry.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2BmPvkVEYNvYEA5SVnM8WE9nVTFYZcb3dvdXzRRQFKi73g4xvvv6Hn61sY4PN13-2rqY-o8Z-8HrWZQAxvQYsMknWW8FWwjZsZZALNCMdD5BlXw5j7yFnUy1p2BcnEhAKGT0tuT6iQaP9/s400/Symmetry.jpg" width="400" height="400" data-original-width="959" data-original-height="959" /></a></div><br />
Movement<br />
<i>I was bored, that's all I can say.</i><br />
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Moving Through<br />
I wanted to give a sense of moving from indoors to outdoors, through the window. Maybe?<br />
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Contrast<br />
<i>My inspiration was starting to flag, but I managed to come up with this idea for contrasting colours and textures. </i><br />
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The project went on for about another week, but by then I'd lost my mojo. It was a lot of fun though, and helped me to see my everyday surroundings in a new, deeper way. <br />
ApartmentCathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05074382933557558949noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4781995366266750834.post-70952972149462750912020-07-18T12:41:00.000+10:002020-07-18T12:41:08.603+10:00Book Review: Metaphorosis 2019: The Complete Stories<i><blockquote>Please note: this book was provided for me to read and review by LibraryThing's Early Reviewer programme. You can rest assured however, that this is (as always) an honest review!</I></BLOCKQUOTE><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJr1q2zzHn_jIgX73Al5HjnXOWoSkt_itJ8EwcSph69RrldiW0klVn492PiVrqwkQAFJ3cwiCqkkMdiV6KXmPbgY8Tgcl_dMLadZSMY0vKnr9vYuHKYxPACYJpjVU2fpbUiWyZsISDqPmi/s1600/MPR.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJr1q2zzHn_jIgX73Al5HjnXOWoSkt_itJ8EwcSph69RrldiW0klVn492PiVrqwkQAFJ3cwiCqkkMdiV6KXmPbgY8Tgcl_dMLadZSMY0vKnr9vYuHKYxPACYJpjVU2fpbUiWyZsISDqPmi/s1600/MPR.jpg" data-original-width="183" data-original-height="275" /></a></div><br />
<a href="https://magazine.metaphorosis.com/">Metaphorosis Magazine</a> is a literary website that publishes 4 to 5 stories a month in the realms of science fiction and speculative fiction. At the end of the year, the 52 stories are brought together into an annual anthology. <br />
<br />
I must confess to begin with -- I haven't read all 52 stories! Doing that would mean this review would take months to come out. So I read one random story from each monthly section for a total of twelve, which is slightly less than a quarter of the total. <br />
<br />
The stories range from your traditional set-in-space, quantum-physics-problem-solving tale, to speculative ones involving animal transformations and other, more fairy tale type narratives. <br />
<br />
I found that the stories varied in how much they piqued my interest personally, but they were all well-written and engaging. Some of my favourites were <i>One Day in Space Too Many</i>, in which a lone space traveller is cloned every day, and <i>Favourites from Here and Abroad</i>, about a young girl navigating a dystopian future in which the ruling AI beings live in cities in the sky. <i>Somewhere To Be Going</i> was a beautiful piece about a young boy with a strong urge to leave the earth and return home. <i>Las Vegas Space Museum</i> was an intriguing look into a world where bricks discovered in space are used for building, but seem to be alive. I would love to see a longer story from this world. <br />
<br />
I will definitely go on to read the rest of the stories in the anthology, and look out for more on the Metaphorosis website. Normally at the end of a book review, I ask myself "would I read more by this author?" In this case it's not really appropriate, so instead I'll ask myself:<br />
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<i>Would I read more from Metaphorosis?</I> <b>Yes!</B>ApartmentCathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05074382933557558949noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4781995366266750834.post-81583076559954527612020-07-11T07:38:00.000+10:002020-07-11T07:42:57.573+10:00Movie Review: Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDUugqZurH1g17Jtku7nJDImi6IyMifYbK_cLFvKEf6dbxPh3uUNeHj4c8-7HLBKM1ensobsCszFC3Nze-FJq5gB7u_PHsqbcvOCDFNfCdmUzpwhH-n8hllsRJTS76MMEHyFj9-dZaqvy5/s1600/firesagaposter.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDUugqZurH1g17Jtku7nJDImi6IyMifYbK_cLFvKEf6dbxPh3uUNeHj4c8-7HLBKM1ensobsCszFC3Nze-FJq5gB7u_PHsqbcvOCDFNfCdmUzpwhH-n8hllsRJTS76MMEHyFj9-dZaqvy5/s400/firesagaposter.jpg" width="240" data-original-width="1013" data-original-height="1500" /></a></div><br />
<i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eurovision_Song_Contest:_The_Story_of_Fire_Saga">Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga</a></i> is a 2020 comedy movie about a fictional act in the Eurovision Song Contest. It was meant to be released to coincide with the 2020 Contest, but as it was cancelled, was released a month later on Netflix instead. It stars Will Ferrell as the Icelandic musician Lars, and Rachel McAdams as his friend Sigrit, who have formed the band Fire Saga. Their lifelong dream is to represent Iceland at the Eurovision Song Contest, and they finally get the chance. Will they win? Will Lars finally gain the respect of his father? Will some terrible yet hilarious disaster ensue? And will Lars and Sigrit's unrequited love finally be realised?<br />
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To be perfectly honest, the comedy of Will Ferrell is not to my taste, and I've never seen one of his movies all the way through before. However, I was pleased to find out that he's been a fan of Eurovision since 1999 (nearly as long as me!) when he was introduced to it by his Swedish wife. The movie was crafted with a genuine love of the Contest, and is packed full of references and easter eggs for the devoted fan to dig into. At the end I felt relieved that I didn't hate the movie -- in fact, I loved it!<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgx_MYnJm_H54aXi_qbzNaJmwKnh63MP-rHwufQ4uXiNN5pV0dqYbcZEy0Z_ZDk8bJYtVkdjWAZ7oOh1n9ewy9ThJskv8kGiZZmdzrAk3QF2MdwIiW0-8wIME0cNuxskaZwg5p77dVechQd/s1600/eurovision-movie.webp" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgx_MYnJm_H54aXi_qbzNaJmwKnh63MP-rHwufQ4uXiNN5pV0dqYbcZEy0Z_ZDk8bJYtVkdjWAZ7oOh1n9ewy9ThJskv8kGiZZmdzrAk3QF2MdwIiW0-8wIME0cNuxskaZwg5p77dVechQd/s400/eurovision-movie.webp" width="400" height="225" data-original-width="965" data-original-height="543" /></a></div><br />
The storyline partially echoes that of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Song_for_Europe_(Father_Ted)">"A Song for Europe"</a>, an episode of <i>Father Ted</i> in which he is chosen to represent Ireland because they don't want to win, and his song "My Lovely Horse" is the worst of the bunch. Ireland <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ireland_in_the_Eurovision_Song_Contest">won the contest 4 times</a> in the 1990s and it was a huge financial strain. Many of the smaller countries do have the issue of how they can afford to host the contest if they win, and Iceland really was left almost bankrupt after a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2008%E2%80%932011_Icelandic_financial_crisis">banking scandal</a> in 2008. And yes, over 50% of Icelandic people really do entertain the existence of the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hulduf%C3%B3lk">Huldufólk</a>, the elves that help Sigrit in the movie. <br />
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Speaking of Sigrit, I really warmed to her character. Her genuineness and love of her home country and town cause her to resist those who urge her to be more ambitious and leave Lars behind. I loved her everyday hairstyle and outfits. And it was so cute that she knits, and when she was angry, she knitted a jumper with a frowny face on it. <br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOmViKRfjrAMAjd8jQ9qYi0Q5OCX4imt_vuofavaq1WdOMh2-VF4ZHTgjIuXrM9KzFs0mXYfDDqkroy83AXZTt1dcgwZEc0asN6XYpcOYLbpTsjjVDUJn-obfTM04KT4TM0gkGH_Qbj5Ld/s1600/larssigrit.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOmViKRfjrAMAjd8jQ9qYi0Q5OCX4imt_vuofavaq1WdOMh2-VF4ZHTgjIuXrM9KzFs0mXYfDDqkroy83AXZTt1dcgwZEc0asN6XYpcOYLbpTsjjVDUJn-obfTM04KT4TM0gkGH_Qbj5Ld/s400/larssigrit.png" width="400" height="258" data-original-width="1024" data-original-height="660" /></a></div><br />
The movie was filmed in Iceland and Glasgow, with some scenes shot at the actual Eurovision venue in Tel-Aviv, Israel, while it was set up for the 2019 contest. Some scenes were filmed in the real life Icelandic town of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H%C3%BAsav%C3%ADk">Húsavík</a>, Lars and Sigrit's hometown in the movie -- which actually has 2,300 inhabitants, not the 15,000 of the movie. The beauty of the landscapes and cityscapes, not to mention the shots of a real Eurovision stage (with real Eurovision fans as the audience!) give the film a visual authenticity. <br />
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The songs, of course, are what could really make or break the movie. Lars and Sigrit have written many songs of various quality, but when they play live in the local pub, all the audience wants to hear is "Jaja Ding Dong", the town's local folk/love song. It's a cute mixture of sing-along folk song and innuendo. Several songs are heard during the contest itself, and all of them reference real Eurovision songs to some extent or another. Some are clear parodies, but others are more than worthy of adding to a serious playlist. The most fun song, and one of the best scenes in the movie, is the Song-A-Long at Alexander's party. There are cameos from so many past participants in the contest that my head was swimming, and it brought back so many memories, I have to admit, I was crying afterwards. Yeah, I'm that kind of dork! <br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYnucynIkQr26XMpJ-nBRBq7TMwvUiJvkQw0y9jPQOR8xRAlvXn9tOLavgyM3runyPBwKu0schjqXhkRPcF_UJl4BUaOY5VoJOgf8HJCvUbbcfD6g43ofN5OyjRW9t-OocQg_RwXiEoCUf/s1600/songalong.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYnucynIkQr26XMpJ-nBRBq7TMwvUiJvkQw0y9jPQOR8xRAlvXn9tOLavgyM3runyPBwKu0schjqXhkRPcF_UJl4BUaOY5VoJOgf8HJCvUbbcfD6g43ofN5OyjRW9t-OocQg_RwXiEoCUf/s1600/songalong.jpg" width="325" data-original-width="275" data-original-height="183" /></a></div><br />
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I was worried that <i>Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga</i> was just going to be Americans having a cruel dig at a culture they're not familiar with. On the contrary, it's a romp through the quirks and beloved moments of the Contest, a delight for fans, though for anyone not familiar with the Contest, it will be baffling. While re-listening to the final song "Húsavík", sung by Swedish singer (and Junior Eurovision contestant) <a href=" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Molly_Sand%C3%A9n">Molly Sandén</a>, I had all the feels that I do when watching the competition itself. And I think that's what makes <i>The Story of Fire Saga</i> work. <br />
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<i>Would I watch it again? <b>Abso-freakin-lutely!!</b></i><br />
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<img SRC= "https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgj1fdNV9TeXRdLhyphenhyphenr9zwtHISIO7EYLLwtNkeD0iLkBuRPJbHn3WyOfFxvi_yrw5uRoUCMiAxqaR97AbZJUXnah0VkWjx5tHvsHaeeu-c7yOm21UF4eNsM7nj5e2zd6ZwQWAE-kivJ40EDE/s1600/bg_c8_zpszifbk6b3.gif"> <img SRC= "https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgj1fdNV9TeXRdLhyphenhyphenr9zwtHISIO7EYLLwtNkeD0iLkBuRPJbHn3WyOfFxvi_yrw5uRoUCMiAxqaR97AbZJUXnah0VkWjx5tHvsHaeeu-c7yOm21UF4eNsM7nj5e2zd6ZwQWAE-kivJ40EDE/s1600/bg_c8_zpszifbk6b3.gif"> <img SRC= "https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgj1fdNV9TeXRdLhyphenhyphenr9zwtHISIO7EYLLwtNkeD0iLkBuRPJbHn3WyOfFxvi_yrw5uRoUCMiAxqaR97AbZJUXnah0VkWjx5tHvsHaeeu-c7yOm21UF4eNsM7nj5e2zd6ZwQWAE-kivJ40EDE/s1600/bg_c8_zpszifbk6b3.gif"><br />
Note: All factual details are sourced from the linked Wikipedia pages. ApartmentCathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05074382933557558949noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4781995366266750834.post-61613472111596092012020-07-08T10:38:00.000+10:002020-07-08T10:38:00.416+10:00Konmariing My Emails -- Nearing the End?<a href="https://katiestable.blogspot.com/2015/09/how-i-kondo-ed-my-emails.html" TARGET= "_blank">When I started de-cluttering my emails five years ago</a>, I had over 10,000. Now I'm down to under 100. Some days, I even get under 50, but I just can't seem to get rid of the last few. There seem to be two types -- new emails that come in every day, and old emails that I can't bring myself to deal with out of sentimentality or some other emotional reason. <br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9qeQHP-_6SpbY53NeJ50D0uYg3d_tUhTmE9sBXqTIpDZqdR2E2uNlGwgEJrdrgoIztvXnVWHGMxRDWMWX_EW3EybQQNPHrOoheKNt12wbnW9HUpvRFjg4zCc-2LqdSD7VvXIypa_ql2xh/s1600/mountainofemail.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9qeQHP-_6SpbY53NeJ50D0uYg3d_tUhTmE9sBXqTIpDZqdR2E2uNlGwgEJrdrgoIztvXnVWHGMxRDWMWX_EW3EybQQNPHrOoheKNt12wbnW9HUpvRFjg4zCc-2LqdSD7VvXIypa_ql2xh/s1600/mountainofemail.jpg" width= "350" data-original-width="620" data-original-height="332" /></a></div><CENTER><A HREF= "https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.fastcompany.com%2F1654978%2Fwork-smart-how-power-through-mountain-email&psig=AOvVaw1dPtldrMd1_um-PMvxIyGL&ust=1593994320079000&source=images&cd=vfe&ved=0CAMQjB1qFwoTCMiBgN3ptOoCFQAAAAAdAAAAABAD" TARGET= "_blank"><FONT SIZE=-1><I>[Picture Source.]</I></FONT></A></CENTER><br />
I've thought about my email "problem" a lot, read many articles about it, and tried different ways of tackling it. At first I dealt with them in timed sessions, e.g. 25 minutes, 5 times a week. But I found that not only does that take a lot of time out of my week, the number of emails wasn't really going down, because some of them took a long time to read. And of course, new ones are always coming in. So I switched from a time-based method to a numbers-based one. For a long time, this consisted of 25 emails, 5 sessions a week. <br />
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This took so much time out of my day that it became very frustrating before long, mainly due to the "long read" emails. So I created a series of subfolders where I could store emails until I had time to work on them, including:<br />
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➸ Action -- emails that need me to do something, obviously (whether urgently or not)<br />
➸ To Read -- emails with content I'd like to read, but there's no time pressure<br />
➸ To Watch/Listen -- same as above but with links to video or audio content<br />
➸ To Copy -- emails which have information I want to keep in some other format<br />
➸ and others to store receipts, correspondence from my art collective, links I've sent myself about interesting shops, restaurants, and other places to visit, etc.<br />
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I'm still getting the emails out of my inbox, but with many of them, the action consists of filing them away for later. This made my daily sessions much shorter and more pleasant, and I felt like I was making a lot more progress. I didn't have to worry about the important emails (i.e. ones to be actioned soon) getting lost anymore.<br />
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I chose some of these categories for their functionality. Once I finish sorting the emails, I head to the Action folder first to see if there's anything I need to do that day. Then, depending on what my day is like (or my mood!) I can choose whether I want to read some short or long emails, watch a video, listen to a podcast episode, etc. I started actioning/reading three of these as part of each session to make sure they don't build up too much. (No more than three though, or the session would end up lasting all morning!) <br />
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The syphoned-off emails aren't technically finished with, I know, but I hoped it was a compromise that allowed me to process the emails without taking too much time out of my day ... though I'm aware if the emails in the subfolders build up too much, I'll need another solution. <br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiszRHt619waqFKnnsmufXxBbPzgVKZ3g708Ud_gOUksm2mIX-FG6N-mCy2fOXUl47MAqHTqBH7TSGI-q5ytirc69MBRXxbH59uu7DZsvUpZ_-m0ghNDCHsD49SG6rWYw_trD5PZWR12cSE/s1600/email-inbox2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiszRHt619waqFKnnsmufXxBbPzgVKZ3g708Ud_gOUksm2mIX-FG6N-mCy2fOXUl47MAqHTqBH7TSGI-q5ytirc69MBRXxbH59uu7DZsvUpZ_-m0ghNDCHsD49SG6rWYw_trD5PZWR12cSE/s1600/email-inbox2.jpg" width= "350" data-original-width="615" data-original-height="482" /></a></div><CENTER><FONT SIZE=-1><I>Not actually my inbox!<br />
<A HREF= "https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.walesonline.co.uk%2Fbusiness%2Fbusiness-opinion%2Fyou-struggle-mountain-emails-your-10044509&psig=AOvVaw3Ct4gzYvF-u0M3PREPbsdS&ust=1593994142028000&source=images&cd=vfe&ved=0CAMQjB1qFwoTCLii4IfptOoCFQAAAAAdAAAAABAD" TARGET= "_blank">[Picture Source.]</I></FONT></A></CENTER><br />
After diligently working on them for quite a few <STRIKE>months</STRIKE> years, I finally got down to about 100. But as I mentioned at the beginning, I had trouble reducing them past that. In an effort to minimise the time I was spending on them, I tried reducing the number of emails per session to 20, but I had to increase it again as the number of emails crept up. More recently I reduced the number of sessions per week from 5 to 4. This seems to work okay, thankfully. The number of emails isn't going up too much, but on the other hand, it isn't going down, either. <br />
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As I said at the start, I have in general two types of emails in my inbox -- new ones that come in every day, and old ones I've hesitated to deal with. As for the new ones, I've already unsubscribed to countless email lists. Many of the old emails are difficult to deal with emotionally: they're from people who I've lost touch with, requests I never fulfilled, etc. I've decided to deal with one each session, no matter how hard it might be. I'll talk about this more in another post, as this one is getting quite long already!<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9w8O2W_DBTH9s52knmhUJ-XV8ckXddE3pPENnfzM_PkCXFhIyF_tR65Wvbso_l0Mk7XlWrba6Bgld1p_JwGXA6d01_9VKWdSEtXq49fhmbrAV6XJjmCDJyfk4WRPfaricaX97o4nNNhkg/s1600/c1_1636146.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9w8O2W_DBTH9s52knmhUJ-XV8ckXddE3pPENnfzM_PkCXFhIyF_tR65Wvbso_l0Mk7XlWrba6Bgld1p_JwGXA6d01_9VKWdSEtXq49fhmbrAV6XJjmCDJyfk4WRPfaricaX97o4nNNhkg/s1600/c1_1636146.jpg" width= "350" data-original-width="620" data-original-height="413" /></a></div><CENTER><A HREF= "https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.bangkokpost.com%2Fthailand%2Fgeneral%2F1636146%2Fmountain-of-undelivered-mail-found-at-postmans-house&psig=AOvVaw1dPtldrMd1_um-PMvxIyGL&ust=1593994320079000&source=images&cd=vfe&ved=0CAMQjB1qFwoTCMiBgN3ptOoCFQAAAAAdAAAAABAI" TARGET= "_blank"><FONT SIZE=-1><I>[Picture Source.]</I></FONT></A></CENTER><br />
<FONT COLOR="seagreen"><b>What will I do next?</b></FONT><br />
Once I've taken care of all the old emails, I'm going to refresh the whole system. I'm going to clear out all of the automatic sorting rules that are in place and re-do them. I'm going to carefully think about every email that comes in and decide if I really need to be getting any more from that sender or about that topic. And I'll set up new sorting rules that divert the emails straight into the subfolders so my inbox stays as clear as possible. <br />
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And perhaps I'll eventually achieve the mythical <a href="https://whatis.techtarget.com/definition/inbox-zero" TARGET= "_blank">Inbox Zero</a>. (Just kidding!)<br />
ApartmentCathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05074382933557558949noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4781995366266750834.post-9828627645296316462020-07-05T09:03:00.001+10:002020-07-05T09:03:46.205+10:00Hello Winter! (My Garden)Winter is definitely here in Australia. Admittedly, it's not as severe as in many parts of the world, but we do get frosts in the southern part of the country that can damage or even kill plants, and it snows in the mountains. <br />
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Here's the first good fog of the year:<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh03cPZqelmpQbaYSlyJ7hqJV_k2uZKuzZx2FqF4AxfF9ch0NUSu3qHwAHO-PkCC5KAXI5bG7I3FxsWrq_7O05OmEhDkCOIgM5ldwDYps-3609c-5-y9K-DSexzhX8PJjGwcT6Iqrh-tUXc/s1600/IMG_0846.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh03cPZqelmpQbaYSlyJ7hqJV_k2uZKuzZx2FqF4AxfF9ch0NUSu3qHwAHO-PkCC5KAXI5bG7I3FxsWrq_7O05OmEhDkCOIgM5ldwDYps-3609c-5-y9K-DSexzhX8PJjGwcT6Iqrh-tUXc/s1600/IMG_0846.JPG" data-original-width="500" data-original-height="578" /></a></div><br />
I thought I may as well continue with the garden theme, as a surprising amount happens in the garden in Winter. The grass grows (and weeds, too!). Some plants, like succulents, still grow, just more slowly. The winter oranges are nearly ready to pick. <br />
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One day this area will be a rockery:<br />
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I hope everyone is staying safe, and staying warm or cool, depending on where you are. <br />
ApartmentCathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05074382933557558949noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4781995366266750834.post-82165348828444327692020-05-22T14:58:00.000+10:002020-05-22T14:58:18.212+10:00Book Review : The Invisible<i><blockquote>Please note: this book was provided for me to read and review by <br />
LibraryThing's Early Reviewer programme. You can rest assured however, <br />
that this is (as always) an honest review!</I></BLOCKQUOTE><br />
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<I>The Invisible</I> is a noir police mystery set in the not-quite-New-York city of New Babylon. Georg Ratner is the police commissioner, and finds himself walking the tightrope of politics during an election year while investigating the murder of his former partner and the appearance of a new and mysterious drug called Synth. Not only that, but he also has to contend with a city-wide strike, a dead poet, and a secret society who believe that corruption is a living entity. <br />
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The mystery deepens when he finds that there seems to be no central source for the drug, and moreover it seems to have no negative side effects, but enhances creativity and peaceful feelings. Yet his superiors seem to want to crack down on it even more. <br />
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The book consists of very short, choppy chapters, most less than a page, and is divided into sections named after the major arcana in Tarot. This imbues the story with a mystical feel which contrasts with the gritty reality of murder and corruption in a very intriguing way. The magic intensifies when it's revealed that the Egyptian goddess Nut occasionally appears to Ratner in his dreams, giving him advice and answering questions. Music also plays an important part, with Ratner listening to songs inspired by the drug Synth and seeking out its creators. Despite the brevity of the text, the author pauses to describe a smell or the beauty of the season, which also helped to add a sense of the ethereal.<br />
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<I>The Invisible</I> is part of the City-States Cycle series. I wasn't able to find a numbered listing but it seems to be at least the tenth book set in this world so far. <br />
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I have to admit, it annoys me when I read a book and don't find out until later that it's one of the latter books in a series. I'm just a bit OCD that way. I was confused about some questions that presumably would have been explained had I read the series from the start. For example, the setting -- very similar to Earth but with different city and country names. Is it an alternate history or something else? Is it the kind of universe where magic is real? Can a goddess really help Ratner or is he just hallucinating? <br />
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The story also ended quite abruptly, with the mystery on the verge of being solved. It's hard to say whether the author intended it to be a self-contained ending, or if the mystery is solved in the next novel. If it's the author's style to leave major questions unanswered at the end of a novel, I can accept that, but if it's an attempt at drawing the reader in to continue on to the next in the series, it's kind of annoying. <br />
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Despite this, I did enjoy the story and found the concepts of a harmless drug and a police commissioner guided by a goddess to be intriguing, and I have to admit, the brief chapters appealed to my ever-shrinking attention span.<br />
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<i>Would I read more by this author?</I> <b>Yes!</B>ApartmentCathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05074382933557558949noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4781995366266750834.post-11728723820494599532020-05-13T14:02:00.000+10:002020-05-20T14:08:28.576+10:00In The Kitchen : Vegemite ScrollsA few weeks ago I had a craving for cheese and vegemite scrolls, which, being gluten intolerant, I haven't had for years. I had a packet of gluten-free bread mix in the cupboard that I'd bought on a whim at the gourmet supermarket that we visit occasionally. I don't eat much bread (gluten-free or otherwise) anymore, so I thought it would be fun to try and make it up into something a bit more special.<br />
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Thankfully scrolls aren't that hard to make, really. I followed the instructions on the box to make the bread dough. I have to say, this bread is one of the best gluten-free ones I've tasted. <br />
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Then I rolled out the dough to about 3 centimetres thick, trying to keep a rectangular shape. Then I spread it with vegemite (warming it slightly first helps) and sprinkled cheese on it. <br />
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I rolled up the rectangle into a scroll and cut it to make the buns. Some of them were smaller because the scroll was a bit uneven at the edges, but that's okay. They just fit into the pan. I used a springform cake tin so that the buns would use the side of the pan (as well as each other) as support while they rise. It worked very well. <br />
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After rising, I sprinkled on some more cheese before baking. They didn't take very long to bake!<br />
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The scrolls look divine, especially when the photos are taken with Husband's much newer phone camera! <br />
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I liked that they all came out different shapes and sizes. They are most delicious served warm with lashings of butter in the middle and a cup of tea. <br />
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ApartmentCathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05074382933557558949noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4781995366266750834.post-67405673755511836342020-04-29T15:30:00.000+10:002020-04-29T15:30:47.881+10:00Hello Autumn!Autumn must be my favourite season, because I haven't skipped a single year since starting these Hello seasonal blog posts, and I think I've forgotten about at least one of all the other seasons! I love the cooler, rainy weather that the season heralds, the hazy sunlight and occasional thunderstorm. So many of my favourite activities are best done in cooler weather, so I'm going to take a look at some of them today.<br />
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<tt><font COLOR= 'seagreen' SIZE=+2><b><i>craft</I></B></FONT></TT><br />
In the middle of Summer it's too hot to do most kinds of craft -- holding wool and having it on your lap isn't the most pleasant experience, and trying on self-sewn clothes can be a sticky experience. Right now though, my urge to do craft has returned in the biggest way. I've started several new projects, and even taught myself the new-to-me craft of tablet weaving, which I wrote about <a href="https://katiestable.blogspot.com/2020/04/i-learned-tablet-weaving.html" TARGET= "_blank">in my last post</a>. Here's a sneak peek of another project I started recently:<br />
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<tt><font COLOR= 'seagreen' SIZE=+2><b><i>snuggly things</I></B></FONT></TT><br />
Speaking of scarves, getting to wear them is heavenly, too. One of the best things about cooler weather is that I get to wear layers -- cardigans, scarves and closed shoes with socks. Maybe even legwarmers if it's cold enough! I have a large collection of all of these things and am always working on making more, so it's nice to get to wear them. I really like the way a scarf looks and feels in particular. P.S. I've been practicing my photography and modelling lately.<br />
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<tt><font COLOR= 'seagreen' SIZE=+2><b><i>baking</I></B></FONT></TT><br />
As soon as it's cool enough to put the oven on, I feel like baking, whether it's biscuits, cakes, fruit or vegetables loaves or buns. Husband can whip up a cake without following a recipe (a gluten-free one, too!) which is an enviable skill to have, in my book. We stopped eating bread late last year, so baked products are a bit more special than they used to be. I had a craving for vegemite scrolls, so I baked these last week:<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkCwQ2OiUl2ogdkuaSy15VmwhDRFva6eMn_3Py1BlBYFHhfJOMGhZ7miRy9nDVM-K3tVKoDfr3Ahx5B8iJNMofjvshTyTeZgllvw1K91HJoXllG44_EfqUbMjbqlsnEWJow4qBo8WaN7S7/s1600/SOVK3849.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkCwQ2OiUl2ogdkuaSy15VmwhDRFva6eMn_3Py1BlBYFHhfJOMGhZ7miRy9nDVM-K3tVKoDfr3Ahx5B8iJNMofjvshTyTeZgllvw1K91HJoXllG44_EfqUbMjbqlsnEWJow4qBo8WaN7S7/s1600/SOVK3849.JPG" data-original-width="400" data-original-height="534" /></a></div><br />
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<tt><font COLOR= 'seagreen' SIZE=+2><b><i>tea</I></B></FONT></TT><br />
Nothing goes better with the baked goodies I mentioned above than a nice cup of tea. I'll drink any kind of tea, but my favourites lately are a fruity flavoured black tea, and herbals like peppermint. I like to re-organise my tea cupboard and refresh my inventory this time of year, so I'm looking forward to doing that soon. <br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlTZs8iMBxNDKxos7YKehYh3URZQT54PDAdxncBMAh5tb_Jos-OLb7BUHto0gzQvqnq7aRa2BIpjBIJHE4nIIcBFaUdu6ACUKTxsg6M_OI5wpA4g90XYl2SGRBgnvEGBztS9US7Lp9PHsk/s1600/IMG_0668.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlTZs8iMBxNDKxos7YKehYh3URZQT54PDAdxncBMAh5tb_Jos-OLb7BUHto0gzQvqnq7aRa2BIpjBIJHE4nIIcBFaUdu6ACUKTxsg6M_OI5wpA4g90XYl2SGRBgnvEGBztS9US7Lp9PHsk/s1600/IMG_0668.JPG" data-original-width="400" data-original-height="425" /></a></div><br />
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<tt><font COLOR= 'seagreen' SIZE=+2><b><i>Samhain</I></B></FONT></TT><br />
I'm not a big one for following the Sabbats, but this time of year my mind always turns to the more esoteric and spiritual matters. As the days grow shorter and the light dimmer, now feels the time to turn inwards. I feel like building altars and lighting candles. Plus, I want to finally experience the other joys of the season as everyone in the Northern Hemisphere got to do six months ago. <br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQiInfOt2-OVEE0RtndK-308OWPJJ1l1sQ1C-0_ZEfF46PAudM_hKbPYfa2LJfLgGTIZfNNqnf62XX1E_JZwqqbZPDWf6V8IzUSsZQTuVMa9KYES2qj-hgxUV9crW04ayhY1G_DiNAN-Cu/s1600/IMG_0667.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQiInfOt2-OVEE0RtndK-308OWPJJ1l1sQ1C-0_ZEfF46PAudM_hKbPYfa2LJfLgGTIZfNNqnf62XX1E_JZwqqbZPDWf6V8IzUSsZQTuVMa9KYES2qj-hgxUV9crW04ayhY1G_DiNAN-Cu/s1600/IMG_0667.JPG" data-original-width="500" data-original-height="442" /></a></div>ApartmentCathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05074382933557558949noreply@blogger.com0