You Are An INFJ

The Protector You live your life with integrity, originality, vision, and creativity. Independent and stubborn, you rarely stray from your vision - no matter what it is. You are an excellent listener with almost infinite patience. You have complex feelings, and you take great care to express them. In love, you see relationships as an opportunity to connect and grow. You enjoy relationships when they are improving and changing. You can't stand stagnation. At work, you stay motivated and happy... as long as you are working toward a dream you support. You would make a great photographer, alternative medicine guru, or teacher. How you see yourself: Hardworking, ethical, and helpful When other people don't get you, they see you as: Manipulative, weak, and unstable

What can I say?  The first thing I wanted to do at uni was photography, but ended up teaching.

Various cards I've given so far this year.


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I'm getting on to this one while it's fresh!  Snagged from nuit2005 and lunastormdancer 

You Belong in Dublin

Friendly and down to earth, you want to enjoy Europe without snobbery or pretensions. You're the perfect person to go wild on a pub crawl... or enjoy a quiet bike ride through the old part of town.

I added a header image!

Not sure how long I'll keep it as I'm not sure it's what I really want, but I dare say it will probably be a while through lack of opportunity to do another. At least I know how to put one in anyhow :D

For posterity's sake...

About time I post the Xmas cards I made last year methinks! I made about 4-6 of each of these, all after the start of December, but most of the stamped images I'd done a few years ago borrowing my sister's stamps (hence, they didn't take so long to do). At that stage I wasn't keeping track of stuff I'd used, so had to try and work it out afterwards or ask my sis if she could remember. There's a couple of things I haven't worked out yet, but I want to get on with posting these.

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They're all fairly simple in style since I did them so quickly, but I was fairly happy with them.

Cards for various birthdays last year.

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Haven't got photos off the camera yet or I'd be posting about Supanova. Suffice for now to say that things got basically finished enough that things were wearable. Actually only got a couple of photos of Lachie's, so I'm intending to take more pics before posting about it all anyway.

For now, a few more cards from last year. These were all made rather quickly so are none too flash. Better stuff coming some time soon when I upload pics.

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This is mainly for the costumers, but I welcome the input of anyone!

I started today looking into what I'd need to do for my pregnant Morgaine costume, from how it's described in the book. Marion Zimmer Bradley doesn't give a lot of description to clothes throughout the book, and all I've got to go on for pregnant Morgaine is from just before she gives birth.
- dark blue kirtle that is too long (borrowed from her aunt), faded and threadbare
- her shoes were below the ankles
- her hair was tangled and in a loose braid, but then redone by her aunt
There are a few other things I can suppose and infer from what's written elsewhere in the book, but basically that's it.

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Gosh, it was over a year since I posted any cards! Will have to do this in stages as there is just so many.

I wasn't the only one to have a baby last year of course, and made these for my fellow pregnant friends.
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Mother's Day cards
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Father's Day cards
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Have been busy as might have been gathered, and while I'm pretty much keeping up with reading OL (sans fanfic, not sure when I'll get back to that), ACG and LJ I just don't get to comment or post as often as I'd like.

Anyhoo, I'm here today as part of my cleaning up my computer desk :p  So I've started updating my lj, beginning with a new layout, just need to add userpics and a header now!  But I have a pile of stuff here to deal with before I can clear it away...

Thanks for the Xmas cards-
gemelliragazza of course I love that it's handmade, and thanks for the gemstone too <3
ki_kiwigirl alas, the edge of the envelope was torn open, and instead of your wonderful creation I only had a few stones and silver bits left in the tissuepaper.  Can't tell for sure if it might have been deliberate or accidental, but I'm sorry I didn't get to see what you'd made for me.  Thanks for the thought and effort *hugs*
nuit2005 Love the cute chipmunk card, and the soap of course, though haven't yet got to use it *hugs*
lunastormdancer the bookmark is surprisingly in use, only get to read a couple of pages at a time though (re-reading Mist Of Avalon for the umpteenth time, but this time for costume-research purposes)  Love it *hugs*
krazymoonkat Leggy's legs suffered a bit of water damage unfortunately, but another 'crafted' card, thanks so much *hugs*
and lambchop33 *careful squishy hugs*

Thanks again to Gem and Ki for the birthday card too.  I'm pretty certain I will only ever have to use the Express Checkout!
Want to also direct folks to the card my sister made for me, FOTR Arwen inspired, which can be seen here

I had intended doing an update of cards or on the boy, but we'll start with this since it's most recent...

I managed to scrape up just enough time to make some graphics for the Orlando Love July graphics challenge. The challenge was to make a signature set featuring Orlando (as himself or in character) with his shirt off. Was a tough assignment ;) and I was blown away with the result.










I had actually made a third set (was second actually, but yeah), but had the Shy set idea so completed both. In the end I preferred Shy as my second entry.

A belated Happy Birthday to Gem.  Hope you had a very special day, and hope to see you again soon  *hugs*

I haven't yet caught up with things at OL, but next week is looking good as I pretty much have cards out of the way. Will have to post about them next week though as a we're going away to my parents for the weekend. Hopefully the boy won't mind the 3 hour car ride too much.

Glad I was able to make it to the monthly QLD ACG meet up, was good to catch up with the ladies a bit after so long. Was thinking through the day that I wouldn't make it as the boy was a bit grizzly but thankfully he got over it. He just cried all the way home. Must have been missing Donna and Kerry :)

Didn't have a Lost ep to download yesterday, was almost a bit lost myself.  Still have lots of things mulling around about it all after the finale.  I have a theory about Ben and the Brontë sisters, well more of an Easter egg.  What with Emily being his mum's name, then Annie/Anne his Dharma friend's name, and now with Charlotte there.  I'm wondering if she's actually his daughter, seems she was born on the island.  But big YAY for Desmond and Penny *bounces*  Now to just keep her out of Ben's grasp!

Haven't found anything suitable for Elizabeth's end vest yet.  Am debating if I should try and make the whole thing for the ACG Talk Like A Pirate Day dinner, but am thinking I'll probably only get time to make the shirt at least, so will have to make more of an effort to sort out a pattern for it.  And decide what to use- linen, cotton, something else?  Though I'd love to make something for the Regency do, I'm thinking I probably won't have time this year, so will just have to aim for Liz's shirt since it's part of a plan for Brisnova, and something for the Wild West Poker do since it's the Xmas party.

Best get having breakfast and finish the packing so we can toddle off.  Hope the ACG ladies have a good day at History Alive.

Ooh, that reminded me!  I happened to come across some medieval patterns while trying to find out if there was any news about the Redcliffe Medieval Fair thing being on this year.  Didn't find anything about it, but found that Blue Draco are suppliers of Medieval Miscellanea period patterns.  Hmm, might have to check that out.  Am debating what to actually do for Abbey.

This is something I've wanted to do since seeing the movie, and now having a sewing machine (which hasn't made it out of the box as yet!) and Spotlight starting their stocktake sale tomorrow, I figure I should try getting some things sorted out, even though I'm intending this for Brisnova next year.

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I've had a bit of a look around for patterns on-line, but of course haven't found anything that's a perfect match. The closest I've seen has a curved neck, but don't come down low enough, have the right collar, or the double row of buttons. I figure it shouldn't be too hard to alter the shape of the neckline from curved to straight, but I'm thinking adjust collars will be more difficult. Haven't really seen a shirt pattern that I think will suffice, but I've been looking more at vest patterns so far.  The detail on the upper sleeve reminds me of Aragorn's shirts. You see so little of the skirt it's difficult to say anything more than it's long and reasonably full.

As to materials, upon looking at the vest closer I immediately thought 'tapestry', but I've read brocade mentioned a couple of times.  I know tapestry stuff is likely to be quite thicker/sturdy, I think it's more likely I'll find a similar pattern in tapestry fabrics rather than brocade.  The back of the vest is darker, and does also have some different colours in it, but I can't really tell much more than that.  I'm guessing linen or cotton for the shirt.  The skirt is a reddish brown colour, but I didn't upload a pic where you can see it better.  Not sure what sort of material it would be, but something with a bit of weight to it.

Does anybody have any suggestions for patterns or fabrics?

The other one wouldn't show some things properly on my friends page which was really bugging me.  I'm also wanting to do my own header, so need to look in to how to do that a bit more.  Thinking I may go to a paid account for the extra icons ;)

No, my parents in their late 60s haven't decided to give me another sibling- I finally bought a sewing machine!  Bit strange to see sewing machines popping up in K-Mart, Big W and Target all of a sudden, but I'm not complaining!  I got the XL-2620 for about $160 from Target, so almost half price!  And while I was all for doing the medieval clobber for my family with the more authentic hand stitching, for the sake of speed I think I'll use the machine.  If I can navigate my way around it.  Haven't had a chance to get it out of the box and test it out as yet.  But I've now got thoughts of getting other costumes made a lot sooner than I expected- yayness!

In other 'news' I haven't been on the computer much in the past couple of weeks because my partner decided he'd download the client for the new Age of Conan game rather than wait the extra couple of weeks when he'd have the discs.  That was a whole 13 gig, and our limit is 12 gig.  So within the first week of May our speed has been dropped down to 64 kps.  Not happy Jan, not happy at all.  I was staying away from the net while he was downloading it cos it was going so slow, but now that it's finished and I've started catching up with a few things it doesn't seem to be as slow as I expected.  Though when I make it back to OL I'm sure the weight of pictures will slow things up.

And thanks to The Special K Breakfast Club for the card (oh, and the picture message).  It cracked me up no end, and did bring a tear to my eye as well.  Glad to hear you all had a marvellous time in Melbourne (without me).  Aside from the Kelly country tour (ack!  Forgot to ask someone to say hello to Avenel and Euroa for me!), I would have loved the Tramcar restaurant.  Indeed, next time.  And I'll make sure there's a Leggy or two!

I had hoped to put more about Supanova here earlier, but alas it has taken me until now to get a chance, and so I've probably forgotten a lot of things I want to mention.

Firstly, to continue with Teryl Rothery, she was an awesome guest. Highly entertaining, lots of character and personality. And lovely to boot of course! I have come a part of her talk on Saturday on YouTube. Absolutely hilarious!

It was also great to see so many of the ACG people and catch up with them a bit, though it certainly wasn't enough. I had hoped to make something for my son to wear, but just didn't have time.  Despite that, after having to change his clothes because of him being a boy and taking advantage of a nappy change, he was just wearing a Bonds Wondersuit when a guy walking past said he was a future cosplayer!  My partner whacked together some sort of pirate get up (similar to what he wore for AWE screening) and I wore yet again my Mirkwood variation of Arwen's style of dress (forest green and leafy), with elf ears of course.  Due to my camera battery issues I only got one photo of some ACG folks


I will say again that fire_elfweb's Parade Amidala was totally awesome!  I'm also thinking, aside from one day making the Leia (ewok village) and Padme (funeral) costumes I've contemplated in the past, I would like some Jedi robes.  One day.  A way down the track methinks!  There's the Abbey Tournament first, let alone I should use the material I've got first before buying more.

Couldn't help thinking that it was a year ago that I met Karl Urban, and the beginnings of my partner and I getting together.  Ahhhhh, memories :D

After her talk yesterday, Teryl Rothery walked past me holding my son on my chest, put her hand on her own chest and said "Awww, beautiful".  Later I lined up to get her to sign a SG1 dvd for my sister (the season 5 disc with Rite of Passage on it, for those Dan and Jan moments), with my friend Ange looking after my boy in the pram.  Teryl motioned to Ange to turn the pram around so she could have a better look at him, and Ange indicated to her that I (his mum) was in line.  I turned around just to see how the sleeping boy was going, and saw some of this exchange so I walked back (missed a few places in line, but not a big drama at that late hour of the day).  Teryl then crawled under the table to come and have a closer look at him!  She talked about him being so small (I don't quite think so, but then I know he's grown), and cute with his hand up beside his face, so I told her about how he was born that way (didn't mention the tearing and stitches though).  She started to call him beautiful, but then said how it wasn't quite appropriate for boys and amended it to handsome.  Teryl asked what his name was, and thanked me for allowing her a closer look at him.  She then walked back around to her seat behind the table (the shortness of her shorts I think made her refrain from crawling under again).  When she got to her seat she motioned for Joe Ferrigno (the original Hulk) and Michael Winslow to have a look at him too!

Alas, I hadn't the time to make a costume of some sort for my little boy.  My bf and I were talking last night and we realised that we had something already that he could have worn, that could have served a few purposes (though it would be too big and baggy).  We'd gotten a lot of hand-me-down clothes from my nephews, one of which is like a white rabbit outfit, hood with ears and all.  BF said he could have been the Evil King Rabbit from Dream of Mirror Online (that he's been playing recently), and I suggested the evil bunny from Monty Python's Holy Grail.

Looking forward to Saturday as we'll be going to Supanova. Although there isn't the drawcard for me this year like last year (Karl Urban) it will still be good to see Dr Janet from SG1 and Ando from Heroes. But more so, seeing folks from the Australian Costumers Guild as I've been out of the loop for a while. Alas no costume for me this year (but then, how could I top the entwife of last year? :p), though I did contemplate it of course. It will also be special as last year it was where I met again my best friend's brother, and the start of where I am now. Funny what dressing up like a tree can do for your love life!

Enough rambling, time for a meme.

It has been just far too long...

Gradually catching up with things after the busy Xmas and start of the year, and hopefully before bub pops (due date was Wed 27th, so we're overdue now).  I hope to catch up with people's own journals before things get hectic here with a new addition!

A bunch of cards first of all, birthdays and a Valentine.