aniraangel: (Default)
2010-06-13 01:34 am

Oh dear. I should update this thing more often.

Ah yes, I’ve been gone for quite a while. At least, from posting here. Things are just hectic and exhausting and…. it goes on. And my blog is now two years old! Fancy that. I don’t know where to start on where I’ve been or what’s been happening…

How about we try for a list of somewhat major goings on?

  • I turned nineteen waaay back in January. I’m half way through the year now, though, so I’m almost twenty. Good lord. :unbelievable: o_O
  • One of my cats had to be put down because she was having seizures.
  • I have an iPod Touch, which while not especially news, is awesome! (even if apple are market controlling idiots.)
  • The Government is actually giving me a semi-decent paycheck every fortnight for looking after Mum, the house, and Lily. (Mum had two minor strokes, for those out of the loop. So she needs help, I’m her carer. The government gives (somewhat crappy) pay to those who fulfill these roles.
  • We have a new dog. Her name is Galinda. Yes. Like from Wicked/The Wizard of Oz. And she came named that way. A lot of animals around here are getting named after witches, recently.
  • I hate American companies who won’t sell me the things I want. DO YOU HEAR ME, SONY? BARNES AND NOBLE I’M TALKING TO YOU TOO. Or that will sell to me, but charge way more than the exchange rate difference.
  • My computer died, taking with it virtually two-three years of art, writing and photography. A week or so before I was getting a new back up drive (the old one went a bit dodgy). Fuck you too, fate. (side note – anyone who has any of my writing/photos/whatever. Sendies, please? I’d love you forever. :D)
  • I started a new RPG, on my new domain name. The game is floundering a little, especially since the great computer crash of 2010, but I’m going to try to put more effort into it (and things like blogging, since I forget to tweet. Whoops.) It’s called Unearthly Tales and is a freeform (i.e. everyone can make up storylines, not just the staff), Multi-Genre, Multi-Game forum based rpg. If that sounds complicated, it’s really not. The basic gist is that you can have “small” (i.e. not needing a lot of players) or even private (games for only a few members/a game that is invite only to new members) games, within the most appropriate genre board, or you can play in a “large” game that has a main board as well as various sub-boards, sub-sub boards and etc. These games can even have their own theme set, as the software I use allows me to set a theme for any select board that’s different to the main theme. And it has the benefit of being part of a (hopefully someday) larger community.
  • I really, really, really want an eInk Reader device. It’s like star trek in real life. So AWESOME. And yes, I did like ST way, way, WAY before the reboot. So ner. :pissed:  Silly youngin’s. I wanted a Nook, and while I could give one of my American friends the money to get me one and send it on… I think I’ll get something that’s more customizable and directly available to me to purchase myself. Even if not now (I need a few thousand for a new laptop. Sigh.) A.S.A.P. I’d really love a pocketbook 360, though. MobileRead is feeding my obsession.

..Uh there was probably more, but that’s the best I can think of for the moment. Anyone have any good cheap/free ebooks suggestions, by the way? And I’ll try to be around more!

Oh also, on Siren Tides the comments are disabled for the moment as I am getting spammed an absurd amount, and for some reason akismet isn’t just kicking them to the spam file but I promise I’m trying to work it out, and for those few who care, they will be back A.S.A.P.

Nevermind, apparently it got disabled somehow O_o

Oh and… anyone happen to have any good ideas on how to raise money for a new laptop? I know, saving, but at the rate food costs that’s going to be a century or two before I have my own laptop again (the old one really tanked) and thus can actually do things. I’m borrowing a computer for the moment, but obviously that can only go on for so long.

Mirrored from Siren Tides.

aniraangel: (Default)
2009-11-25 10:38 pm
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The case of the walkabout grave

We went up to the Cemetery today to see Dad (my grandfather), a sort of… saddening experience. Sitting on the edge of a grave isn’t even close to sitting on your grandfather grave. But still. It’s nice to visit sometimes. After that we went to find Poppy Godden, my great grandfather on my Fatherside side.

Nan said she knew where he was. I thought I did too.

I think his grave went walkabout! :huh: We couldn’t find him! We found my uncle, but not Poppy Godden.

…does this ever happen to anyone else?!

Mirrored from Siren Tides.

aniraangel: (Default)
2009-11-24 10:35 pm

Tree Swirls

Tree SwirlsA preview of the tree ornament I made, I haven’t had time to finish editing the rest of the pictures yet, but it’s not too bad.

Mirrored from Siren Tides.

aniraangel: (Default)
2009-11-23 10:57 pm

What’s your favourite?

In honour of it being still far enough from Christmas/the holidays to get some American’s knickers in a knot about people going on about Christmas before annual Turkey Sacrifice Day. In honour of sleeping in and nearly missing my post. In honour of finally finishing this ridiculous felt tree I’ve been making (pics tomorrow)…

What’s your favourite holiday song/Christmas Carol?

I think mine would be Happy Xmas (War is Over).

Mirrored from Siren Tides.

aniraangel: (Default)
2009-11-22 09:35 pm
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A storm and an almost project.

It’s been crappy weather all around today, so I was going to do some sewing with my machine, but it still hates me. I was going to make a poppet, this doll by Ghilie of Craftster. I’ve had the pattern for about a year and a half, but I couldn’t find any material that was appropriate… but I realised I had some in my stash this morning so when the weather began to go south I decided to try it.

Sewing machine didn’t want to cooperate, though. So it’s a no go for now until I get another machine or feel up to handsewing it. :/ But, aren’t the poppets precious?

Mirrored from Siren Tides.

aniraangel: (Default)
2009-11-21 09:07 pm
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So tired. Argh.

I was going to do stuff today, other than visiting Aunty Duck and going to the pool and doing chores, but to be honest. I’m stuffed. Four hours sleep isn’t enough, really. I can cope on it… but I need to go to bed soon I got some things to do tomorrow, though! :D

IMG_0549-polalittleSo have a flower. I’m off to snooze. <3 I love you all! Yes, even you the stranger lurking over the corner. ;)

Mirrored from Siren Tides.

aniraangel: (Default)
2009-11-20 10:56 pm

Crafty Photos

Here we go, I promised and I keep my promises (most of the time). Follow the cut!

This is a group shot of the paper lanterns I made. They have simple hemp handles, and are really adorable in person. I learnt to make them when I was small.

Read the rest of this entry »

Mirrored from Siren Tides.

aniraangel: (Default)
2009-11-19 10:18 pm

Green & Gold

I should have some more photos up tomorrow of the ornaments I’ve been working on, a lot of paper lanterns, some origami pine trees that the kittens love to search and destroy.

For now, though. I leave you with a photo I took back in April, I believe. From a train. It’s not really a polaroid, I took it with my digital camera, but I like it. And it shows you how dry it gets here.Green & Gold

Mirrored from Siren Tides.

aniraangel: (Default)
2009-11-18 10:24 pm

Some Excerpts

To spare you guys some of the “HEE! DECORATIONS. TINSEL!” rambling, I’m going to give you some excerpts from ongoing fics/my random prose file (a file that only Jacky has seen, to date.)

Some of them are old, and most unedited. So forgive me? :D The worlds of the fanfis don’t belong to me, obviously. But the original stuff is mine, and either way don’t steal. :devil:

Read the rest of this entry »

Mirrored from Siren Tides.

aniraangel: (Default)
2009-11-17 10:39 pm

Everything is fodder for crafters

Here are some of my ideas/things I liked for Christmas Ornaments:

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Mirrored from Siren Tides.

aniraangel: (Default)
2009-11-16 10:30 pm
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Handmade Christmas TREES? Help?

Okay, here’s the thing. I see Christmas pretty much as a tie to stress out (family issues. Rawr.) and decorate. The last bit is possibly the only reason why I like it at ALL anymore, actually.

But Mum refuses to put our tree up. At all. And I don’t have space for the family tree in my room, so I can’t put it up in here (plus, seriously, who wants to work out if red or green goes at the bottom?) and the only tree I’ve found downtown that I liked was a, $50 and b, still too big.

So I’m trying to work out a handmade version, but I’m honestly stumped. Does anyone have any ideas? Preferably ones I can move away from my cats reach? I wouldn’t mind something I could get away with making ornaments for all year… It’s soothing.

Mirrored from Siren Tides.

aniraangel: (Default)
2009-11-15 10:42 pm
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Austrian Teddies & an Ornament

I come with photos! Whoo!Austrian TeddiesThese are some teddies my aunt brought back from Europe for us, I’m pretty sure Nan said she got them in Austria, but it could have been Germany. The one on the left is mine, I need a name for it. Any ideas?

OrnamentA slightly crappy picture (sorry) of a mini-wreath ornament I made from leather, hemp, wooden beads and bells. It’s nice to hold, weighted but not too much so. It was time consuming to make, though. Like it?

Mirrored from Siren Tides.

aniraangel: (Default)
2009-11-14 10:37 pm

One down… lots to go.

I need to find my camera cord before I can show you, but I finished my first ornament of the year, it’s a mini-wreath made out of leather, hemp cord, wooden beads and a few bells. My aunt said it’s nice, so did Mum, but lets be honest. Family is biased, so I’ll let you see tomorrow. :D

If I find my god damned cord.

I’m also making a few of these. They’re very easy felt baubles that look a bit like those paper pompom things, I think they’re called? Only I managed to sew the seam wrong.  :roll:   It’s a little crooked, so it won’t be perfect, but it’s only for me so it doesn’t matter so much.

Mirrored from Siren Tides.

aniraangel: (Default)
2009-11-13 10:43 pm

Handmade Holiday Ornaments

So all this talk of Christmas is a, making me mildly nauseas and b, making me want to craft. Given that I am Pagan and in Australia, it’s really closer to Midsummer than it’ll ever be to Yule when Christmas comes around, so I have sort of bi-polar holiday decorating sprees. My mind sort of goes like this: Midsummer! Suns, war, flowers, fey! Christmas, Winter, snowflakes, snowmen, tinsel!

Despite the very obvious fact that I have never seen a white Christmas outside of movies and pictures.

And if I live here all my days, I probably never will see one. So the winter theme is marvellously ironic. Whoo! (Who else sees the hilarity in singing “White Christmas” in Australia, in December, in 30+°C heat?)

Anyway, as most of my family is probably likely to look at me like a loon if I try to explain to them why Midsummer would be a more fitting holiday (some Catholics have no sense of humour) and I make most of my holiday ornaments, I propose a compromise. Which no one but me will suspect. Make Christmas/Midsummer ornaments! XD Sunny themes amongst the wintery ones.

Does anyone else make their own ornaments? Would anyone be interested in seeing what I come up with/tutorials I find helpful?

Mirrored from Siren Tides.

aniraangel: (Default)
2009-11-12 10:19 pm
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My Father Loves me!

Which makes me happy to stupidly ridiculous levels. Beause there were a few years when we never spoke and I rang him about a month ago and we talked and now he’s rung back. :D

But I have a small problem. I want to make him something for Christmas (that I can mail, he lives in Queensland) and I don’t know what to make. And he says he’s colour blind, which sort of makes my normally colourful things sort of moot. Any ideas? He likes red.

Mirrored from Siren Tides.

aniraangel: (Default)
2009-11-11 10:35 pm

Rememberence Day

Standing at Attention

On the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month, we will remember them.

Lest We forget.

FOR THE FALLEN

Laurence Binyon


With proud thanksgiving, a mother for her children
England mourns for her dead across the sea,
Flesh of her flesh they were, spirit of her spirit,
Fallen in the cause of the free.

Solemn the drums thrill: Death august and royal
Sings sorrow up into immortal spheres,
There is music in the midst of desolation
And glory that shines upon our tears.

They went with songs to the battle, they were young,
Straight of limb, true of eyes, steady and aglow,
They were staunch to the end against odds uncounted,
They fell with their faces to the foe.

They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them.

They mingle not with their laughing comrades again,
They sit no more at familiar tables of home,
They have no lot in our labour of the daytime,
They sleep beyond England’s foam.

But where our desires and hopes profound,
Felt as a well-spring that is hidden from sight,
To the innermost heart of their own land they are known
As the stars are known to the night.

As the stars shall be bright when we are dust,
Moving in marches upon the heavenly plain,
As the stars that are stary in the time of our darkness,
To the end, to the end, they remain.

Mirrored from Siren Tides.

aniraangel: (Default)
2009-11-10 10:42 pm
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Busy is as busy does

I was planning to go to bed by 2 am last night, which, for me, is early, but as it turns out. I didn’t. Which means I missed Cath, like, completely. Argh. :mad: it’s awful missing rp partners with busy as hell schedules. D: It really doesn’t help that she’s in the UK, either.

Anyway, I didn’t go to bed last night when I wanted too not because I did the usual and got distracted, but because my little sister got sick. Poor doll, she was still sick today – though I think she’s getting better. Mum thinks it might have been the heat, we’re getting weather near 40°C at the moment, which is something like 105°F, I think. Or, in translation: REALLY. FUCKING. HOT.

Amen.

Dear heat, please go pick on somewhere else.

No Love, the winter lover.

P.S. If you are like this right through February again, I might seriously consider penguin hunting.

Mirrored from Siren Tides.

aniraangel: (Default)
2009-11-09 10:19 pm
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I quit

As much as I love NaNoWriMo, in theory, I just. No.

It’s not that the story isn’t there to be written, it is. NaNoWriMo just ends up making me feel crap because I fall behind, inevitably, often because I have things to do. A mother and sister to look after. Christmas things to make, and honestly I’d like to go to bed this Christmas Eve rather than stay up till four am stabbing my fingers to finish gifts. It’s not as though I don’t write all year, because I do. I write fics and stories and poems and ridiculous little drabbles.

I just… ugh.

Stress = Steffi getting her second grey hair before she’s 19.

Mirrored from Siren Tides.

aniraangel: (Default)
2009-11-08 07:55 pm

Young Hearts, Run Free

It’s a good day when one goes swimming for an hour or a two. My new swimmers are wonderful, though if I stand near the vents in the pool my top sort of blows up to make my boobs look bigger. Not sure if this is a good thing or not. :lmao: I clearly didn’t manage to drown or swallow so much pool water as to get chlorine poisoning, though. XD

On the slightly less physically exhausting front, the vampire I’ve been playing with (Katie Dee) becomes clearer and clearer to me the more I play her, though she is confused just a little at her reactions to some of the humans that I have been exposing to her (via the lovely The Dressing Room) and despite some mild concerns about her going hungry, I don’t think that’s going to become an issue, as she has found a willing victim (normally she wouldn’t care about someone’s willingness, but tdr is special and most people never get hurt there, which is what blood loss would be considered) in Fred. A slightly warped version of Fred Weasley.

I sort of feel bad for letting her bite him. The poor doll. But he likes it, so. Er. I’m excused? :evil:

She rather likes him, actually, which surprised me as Katie isn’t big on the interpersonal relationships that are  bigger in scale than acquaintances. She keeps to herself most of the time, even though she can appear to be quite sociable it’s only to give people a false sense of security or to keep them from bugging her too much. Figures she’d pick  someone submissive to like, though. If she can’t have someone who’ll keep her safe, she can know at least that while she plays with him she’s more than safe.

Mirrored from Siren Tides.

aniraangel: (Default)
2009-11-07 10:18 pm

November is…

Extremely counter productive. Especially when I keep getting sick. Woe.

On the plus side, I’ve started working on small parts of peoples Christmas presents, and I watched the Scream Awards, which are possibly the most awesome awards show, ever. I’ve also been working on expanding a few of my characters and verses, not just the one related to NaNo.

I’m considering making magnets (marble and a few other types) maybe custom stationary/stamps, lavender sachets for drawers, nice little things as I’m making most if it by hand and a lot of people in my family keep telling me they have too much stuff. Maybe decorated candle holders? I don’t know. Ugh.

I hope everyone’s going strong! :hug: :hkiss:

Mirrored from Siren Tides.