What a great day!

Oh my gosh, I'm in utter awe here! My little Henry doll is making his way around the internet at an amazing speed; who knew plushies could get so much attention? I found him so far on about four websites/blogs and links to those sites in a few other places (it's like a big "Where's Waldo" game, LOL!). Thanks so much to everyone who is posting about it- it totally made my day!

I've just been having a pretty darn good day all around; it's such a pleasant change! :D

Dungeons and Dragons
First, the "Dungeons and Dragons" group started on Ravelry today- D&D games make me so happy! I'm playing a High Elf bard who isn't really a bard (she's a "Thespian" kit so she acts rather than does music), but to make it confusing her main persona is a bard. She's not an actress who acts on stages, but one who thinks of life as a series of roles, so it'll be a lot of fun thinking of different personas to give her. Obviously her adventuring party will eventually learn that she's an actress, but at that point she'll hide it from everyone else and trust that the party doesn't give it away.

Pretty nature
I finally got a whole bunch of photos taken of trees and grass outside; that sounds kind of weird, but I'm hoping to use those photos as edited-in backgrounds in the winter when I can't take photos outside (since my thing is to show items with the foresty look in the background). I have no idea if it'll work, but it's worth a try.

These were my favorite three (click to see them larger).




Finished bracelets/anklets
Look what the faeries left in my yard!

Okay, really I finally finished the bracelets/anklets I'm sending along for the "Capturing Creativity Sampler" my Plurk friend ShesBatty is doing. I made a set of ten- click the below images to see them larger.


Hopefully I didn't duplicate any when I was editing the photos. Boy, is it hard to take a picture of your own ankle! I made these crocheted hemp things long (anklet length) in case whoever gets them wants to wear theirs as an anklet; I'm going to include a note that says that they can trim the ends and reknot if they want it bracelet length.

I was listening to the Spin Doctors while making these anklets; for some reason that band always puts me in a really good mood, so that improved my day, too. :)

Shop funness!
I sold two sets of runes today and also got a custom order for a pair of cartilage chain earrings. Hooray! That means I get to make more runes and when I make those earrings, I'll probably make a few at the same time (you know, since my supplies will be out). I don't think I can mention enough how much I love custom orders- I always get the nicest people! :D

I'm also going to be getting more art supplies this week (had to wait for my fiancé to get paid), so I'm looking forward to that, too!

The only bad thing is because it's suddenly so cool here (I think the news said we're getting October weather), that means that my back is really hurting and I've come down with some sort of bug (nothing too major so far, knock on wood). I'm going to go read, I think; I'm still slowly working my way through The Silmarillion. I don't think it's ever taken me this long to finish a book before!

Henry is famous!

Okay, so my doll isn't really famous, but he was blogged about today on tinycartridge.com. :D How cool is that? Thanks so much for featuring him- it's an honor! And hey, a DS blog- I'll have to start RSS feeding that since it's relevant to my interests. (Not that I'm on top of DS things; I'm too poor. Heck, I only have the original DS and a few games.)

I'm not entirely sure how they found him, though; I suppose through Flickr or my blog, but that blog definitely gets bonus points for knowing to link to my website and for figuring out what my real name is (not that I make that a secret; I just prefer to go by my nickname, lol). And hey, thank goodness for Google alert; if it wasn't for that email telling me when my nickname gets mentioned I never would have known.


I completely forgot to stick Henry up in the sold/finished part of my website, so I'll do that now. He's going to his new home tomorrow; he's going to be a gift for someone's husband. I just think that is so cool because I know my fiancé loves getting video game related things as presents, so I'm hoping this guy likes it as much as my fiancé always does. :)

Finished custom orders and some dorky drawings

Thanks so much to everyone who answered my clay questions here and on Facebook! *hugs!* I'm super excited to get to work on new clay things; Josh is ordering me the supplies this week, as well as some yarn for my elf costume. :D

I wanted to share the two custom orders I finished this week- I hope the people I made them for like them!

The first is the finished Henry Hatsworth plushie; I haven't played the DS game that he's from, so I worked off of pictures like this one.





(Click to see them larger.)
He's almost entirely crocheted out of acrylic yarn. The red strip on the hat, the bowtie, and the pockets of the jacket are felt that is glued on. The eyes and mouth are painted on in acrylic paints and the monocle is made from wire. The teacup and sword are made from polymer clay painted with acrylic paints (and gold pigments mixed with varnish on the sword), then coated with a shiny layer of varnish and epoxied onto the doll.

While making him I got some inspiration for some hobbit dolls (I blame the jacket looking like a vest before I added the sleeves), so I'll likely work on one of those soon, too. :)


The other custom order I finished this week are these earrings (click to make larger).



I'm really proud of the polymer clay beads I made- I think I'm getting better with clay. :) She wanted them to look like tie-dye, and I think I got pretty close. I'm still not good enough with clay to be able to tell the colors where to go, but I do okay with random swirls. ;)


The other random thing I wanted to share are the sketches my fiancé drew last night- I love his drawings and creativity (he's a comic artist, although he hasn't updated his webcomic in a while). Whenever we play Uno with my family he always draws something on the scoresheet, and this time was no exception.

We've been playing HeroQuest (it's a board game, but kind of like D&D), so he sketched out the Barbarian and Dwarf characters:

The dwarf is also standing on an eye that Josh was originally going to make a beholder but decided he didn't want to draw all the little eyes on. I think it looks like a dragon is sneaking up on the unsuspecting HeroQuest characters.

And my favorite, silly as it is, is this drawing Josh did of my D&D characters:

I've been bugging Josh to draw a "kind of cute drawing of my characters" for a while, and I guess he got tired of me saying that so he drew this. ;) The left is Cyneric (my cleric) and the one on the right is his orc henchman SwampFox. I think they look like characters from a children's cartoon; wouldn't you want to watch a show with an orc as a main character?

I'm going to go stick that picture in Cyn's blog, and probably use it as an icon on my personal livejournal because it makes me smile. :) Maybe I should try drawing the characters, but I don't really know how to draw an orc.


I've also been thinking up short stories (like a back history) for Cyn, and I really really miss writing (I used to do a lot of online ficlet writing for characters), so I'm pretty sure I'm going to start doing something like that in that blog. You know, if anyone feels like reading about the adventures of a cleric of a mischief/messenger god who has an orc as a best friend. If not, I'll write it anyway because I want to get back into the practice of writing and give him some character development. :)

Question for those who work with polymer clay

I'm going to do a post a bit later about the things I finished for custom orders (the plushie and some earrings), but first I have a question about polymer clay. Is there a way to bake clay, add clay to it so it sticks, then bake it again? Or will that burn that clay that was baked the first time (or burn/darken the glitter and powders I use on the first part of the process)?

I'll use the horns I made as an example:

When I made these, I made the base for them with black clay that I covered in glitter. Then I stuck the black spirals around, but that's where I had a problem; the glitter got on the black spirals where I didn't want it because I couldn't hold the horns without the glitter getting on my hands. Here's where my question comes in- could I bake the clay with the glitter (so the glitter stays on it better), then add the clay spiral and bake it again? Would the spiral stick? Would the glittery (or powdered- they seem to work the same way) part burn since it would be in the oven twice?

It's not too much of a problem to have to paint the spiral when it's black to cover the glitter that got where it wasn't supposed to go, but I'd like to start using other colors for the spiral and then I won't be able to match the paint with the clay as easily.

So please, does anyone know what I can do here? Please help a novice clay worker out! *puppy eyes*


And I'll include a picture of the finished dragon horns here, modeled by my best friend (since I made them for her and all).

They're on a black shoelace now. (Note to self: buy more shoelaces since I'm almost out.) I tried ribbon and yarn, but neither are thick/strong enough to hold up the horns; so far I've found only the shoelaces work.

I feel so productive! (Adventures with clay)

I spent pretty much the whole day working on crafty things- that's so rare for me because usually I'm either feeling too crummy or I can't concentrate or feel creative for too long at a time. But I got a lot of stuff done! Okay, well not done but worked on. :)

This is some of the stuff I was working on today:

The custom plushie, some horns, some beads for a custom pair of earrings I'm making, and some practice pendants. The beads will get blogged about later once I finish the earrings, which are the other things I worked on today but they didn't get in the photo.

Here's a closeup of Henry:

I crocheted his hat to look like his derby hat, but it's hard to tell in the picture that the brim is flipped up. He's also got a face, mustache, jacket, tie, and monocle now. :) The only thing he's missing are the sword and teacup (those are on the left in the first picture of this entry), which I'm going to glue into his hands tomorrow. I'm really liking how he turned out!


And now for some clay! After reading Luthien's clay tutorial on her blog the other day (are you following her yet? If not, you totally should- she makes amazing art!), I was itching to try my hand at it since I have most of the supplies mentioned. And I have to say, it was so much fun! (Thanks, Luthien, for the inspiration!)

Normally when I make things out of clay I'll just mix in maybe a tiny bit of glitter and then paint the finished product (usually runestones) with acrylic paint, but I wanted to try some pendants with her tutorial because I'd love to eventually make some intricate ones for my chainmaille. What I came up with aren't perfect (and they look even shabbier in the photos since I had such poor lighting) but darnit, I'm proud of them!

This is the first:

This disc started out just a boring navy blue, then I took some sandpaper to it to give texture (I'd never done texture before! It's so cool trying to find things that leave marks!), then rubbed some silver and gold Pearl Ex powders and some green pigments on. After I baked it, I added some varnish to seal it.

Here's the second:

This square (although it got unsquared during my novice attempt, lol) started out as just boring white clay, then I pressed a seashell up against to give texture, then rubbed silver Pearl Ex powder and some blue and green glittery pigments on. After I baked it, I added a layer of shiny varnish.

I did find that the Pearl Ex works a lot better than the pigments (I think they're ink pigments?) because the pigments don't spread as well and they soak up the varnish so it beads (THAT's why I'd been having problems with varnishing my runestones! I think the varnish itself is fine; it's just interacting with the pigments I sometimes mix into the clay). So the moral of the story is I'm going to go buy more Pearl Ex ones. I need to buy yarn this weekend, anyway; I may as well add extra art supplies. ;) I'd also love to get some wood stamps, but unless I can find some good ones cheap, that'll be pushed back for a while when I have some extra cash. (Also, thanks to Luthien's blog I know one of the types of varnishes that have been recommended to me- hopefully I can find this one better than the Diamond floor polish stuff that apparently no hardware store in the area carries.)


The last thing I want to share are the horns I made for my best friend. At least, I started out making these for her but they ended up a really cool accident so I'm not sure if they're still the color she wants.

The picture doesn't do these justice at all- I'll have to get a better one once they're on a cord and when it's daylight. The accident is because Care wanted them black with purple sparkles, but the sparkles kind of took over. They did start black, but as I was sprinkling on the glitter I thought "this glitter is really fine/small, I wonder if I can rub it on and cover it?" (like I had been doing with the Pearl Ex powders) and sure enough, I could! That purple is entirely glitter and the picture doesn't show how amazingly shiny these are- even my mom and sister who don't like fantasy things thought they looked neat!

Anyway, after I did the glitter part I added the black twists and baked the clay. After it cooled I had to touch up the black with paint to cover some of the glitter that had gotten on it (it was my first try- hopefully in the future I can avoid that step), then covered it all in shiny varnish so it's even more shiny.

Now I'm going to be on the lookout for super-fine glitter like this purple so I can make more horns. I think I only have maybe two other colors like this; the rest of my glitter is larger, so they wouldn't work so well.

So, Care- let me know if these are still what you want. I can do another pair black if you really want more black, but goodness, these are pretty! (Okay, I do have a thing for shiny things.)

I love when accidents turn out better than what you'd actually been planning! :D

Sneak peek at a custom plushie and some gaming ramblings

I apologize for not updating much again; I haven't been feeling too well so I haven't really been listing anything new (just an earring, I think- I'll post about that the next time I list something) and I haven't finished anything new recently, either. I've mostly been working on stuff for EtsyFAST (like membership and blogrolls and admin stuff like that), and I've been working on some beaded hemp bracelets for a sampler one of my Plurk friends is doing that I hope to have finished in a few days. I kind of got sidetracked by a custom order I got asked to make on Etsy- I'm really excited about this because it's only the second doll I've had requested by someone who wasn't a friend. The first was for a charity auction, so I guess this is the first custom doll I'm selling. :D

She requested a plushie of Henry Hatsworth, a character from a DS puzzle game. It's actually a game I've wanted to try for a while but haven't been able to get yet, so I like that I'm able to make a doll from it. :)

After working on it off and on for a few days (I haven't been feeling too great this week, so I'm working on it when I can- I'm definitely on track for my deadline of 1-2 weeks, though!) this is what I have so far:

His arms are even; they just got folded a bit wonky when I was trying to get under lighting good enough to take a picture. The shirt collar and sideburns (or whatever that hair in the front is, lol) were a new experience; I had to try a few different things to get them to look right. The ears are sort of new; I've never given a human doll ears before (usually I just give them to Elves), but after looking at the picture of the character I decided that he really needed ears- they're like the way I crochet the Elf ones, only with a few less stitches so they aren't pointed.

I also have the mustache done, but I haven't sewed or glued it on yet because I need to see how the rest of the face looks first in case I have to make it bigger or smaller. Tomorrow I'm hoping to finish the hat and jacket, then after that comes all the embellishing, sculpting, and painting. I'm still not sure yet how I'm going to do his tie; I'll have to see what looks best with the jacket (I'm thinking either crocheting the tie or making it out of felt).

I want to give a big thanks to my fiancé- I didn't have the yarn in quite the right colors for the hair or jacket, so Josh went to the fabric store and picked out the perfect matches. Hooray for guys who are good with color! (I guess he'd have to be; he's an artist, too.)


Now onto the gaming ramblings!
And non-art-related, I'm joining a second Dungeons and Dragons group! This one is online via Ravelry and I'm super excited because I've never played online before and it looks like everyone is going to be into it. :D I'm going to be playing a High Elf bard; one of my favorite characters was my old Grey Elf bard, so I'm really looking forward to getting to play my favorite character class (and race) again. I'll likely be rambling about her soon. ;)


Not to leave my current character out, though (I do love ya, Cyn!), I'm going to go update the adventuring party's blog now, then maybe do a little journal entry in Cyneric's blog (that helps me get into character, especially since this was our first game in months and months).


And also related to gaming (although a different game), my friends and I have been talking about making our own expansion to the "Order of the Stick" board game- new characters and rooms, mostly, so that all of our D&D group can play and not just six people. (Although I will admit that my ulterior motive is so that I can play my favorite, very minor character.) No idea when all that'll get done, though, since we'll have to write up new descriptions and I'll have to see what I can put together in Paintshop. I guess this'll be sort of like house rules.


I also got asked by one of my good friends to make her some mittens, but I have to figure out how to crochet cables first since the ones she wants are knitted. I know there's a way to do it, I just need to find a tutorial; I'll ask around in the fiber arts sites and see if they know where to find them. Normally I don't mind not knowing how to knit (I mean, I love crochet far too much to cheat on it ;) ) but sometimes I see really neat knitting patterns that I wish I knew how to make.

So yeah, lots of projects in the works and these are only some of them! :)

Trove Thursday- You found an empty bottle!

As usual my posting schedule is a bit off, so I'm posting Trove Thursday today. ;) I'm doing this one differently than I have been and just chose things I liked rather than things I liked that were by teammates. I also found so many awesome things that fit the theme that I filled two treasury box things; I hope you don't mind!

The theme for this week is "Legend of Zelda" because I'm getting obsessed with it again after playing some "Ocarina of Time" and finishing the Dark Link plushie this week. I'll also admit that this Trove Thursday was heavily influenced by my friend Ruthie's Link bracelet (that's the first picture in the first treasury grid), because darn it, even if I can't afford it yet I'm going to keep drooling over it as much as possible. ;)




1.) "The Legend of Zelda - Link, Bracelet" by roseworksjewelry on Etsy.
2.) "Anime Poster Print-Link's Journey" by SundanceKidStudios on Etsy.
3.) "Ocarina Earrings" by Soupis on Artfire.
4.) "The Legend of Zelda Triforce charm pendant necklace" by CreativeRampage on Etsy.
5.) "Legend of Zelda Lon Lon Milk Bottle" by tiffanybell on Etsy.
6.) "Commanding the Wind" by theGorgonist on Etsy.
7.) "We're Gonna Need a Bigger Rucksack... - Print" by kiwifruitbird on Etsy.
8.) "Legend of Zelda Master Sword and Hylian Shield Magnet Set" by PixelatedCreations on Etsy.
9.) "Legend of Zelda Link Hat Cosplay - GRASS GREEN" by armadaanime on Etsy.

And now for the bonus grid! (I guess you found the key?)



1.) "Zelda - Deku Nut Cell Phone Charm" by KeroKeroCola on Etsy.
2.) "Hero of Hyrule - 8.5 x 11 inch print" by vapor72 on Etsy.
3.) "Legend of Zelda Deku Shield/Kokiri Sword Organic Catnip Toy plushies" by Medusa4755 on Etsy.
4.) "Zelda - Bottled Fairy Necklace" by YellerCrakka on Etsy.
5.) "Green Rupee" by WickedOrin on Artfire.
6.) "soprano traditional ocarina" by anitasocarinas on Etsy.
7.) "Tri force Zelda stud earrings" by crimsonking on Etsy.
8.) "Korok" by KawaiiKritters on Etsy.
9.) "Deku Scrub Link - Charm" by UntilItEnds on Etsy.

Whew, that was a lot of copying and pasting links! (... the pun was unintentional, I assure you.) I love that you can find such amazing and dorky handmade items on Etsy and Artfire. :D

Yay for vacations and finished plushies!

Trove Thursday will be posted at some point soon, but I wanted to blog about the finished doll I made for my best friend and our trip down the shore. :)

I didn't think I'd be able to get down the shore this year because my health tends to keep me from leaving the house, but fortunately I was able to go when my best friend and her mom (also one of my good friends) invited me down for the day. I'm so glad we went- it was so much fun and the beach was great! The weather was perfect and the water was surprisingly warm for Jersey. We also hit the arcade and I got a really pretty faerie sculpture, and while there we also played Lord of the Rings Monopoly and "Ocarina of Time" and talked about costumes and "Order of the Stick". It was geeky fun! :D

This is my favorite picture:

Care and I were doodling in the sand (we ended up using our nicknames) and her mom had the idea for us to get our feet in the photo, too. We left that there so until the tide came in people probably went "what stupid names!", lol!

I have more pictures and blatherings about the trip in my personal blog- you can find that here. :)


I know a few of you have wanted to see the Dark Link plushie I've been working on for Care, so I'll post a whole bunch of pictures I took of him; I took the photos on the grass so it'd look like he was in Hyrule field or something.







I'm really proud of how well he came out, even with my Epoxy disaster with the shield (where I'd been trying to glue it didn't work, and now his right bracer is shiny). He's crocheted from acrylic yarn (except for the shiny trim around his tunic to look like chainmaille), his hair is acrylic yarn, his belt and bracers are felt, and his sword, shield, and scabbard are painted polymer clay. I'm really happy with how that shield came out; I had to paint the design with the back of my paintbrush because none of my brushes were small enough. It worked, though!

I forgot to give him his earrings, but I'll do that this weekend. I found that a problem with working with an all black doll is that a lot of the detail gets hidden; I painted his boots to look accurate and I gave him little painted ties on his hat and tunic, but those are all hard to see. The paint on his one eye also got scratched some and I didn't notice until it was too late, but that mistake actually worked out because now it looks more realistic, like light's reflecting off of it.

Overall, though, I love how he came out. Maybe now I'll get the kick I need to finish the Sheik and Pit ones I started months ago. ;)

I still have to make Care horns, a plushie of her D&D henchman, and finish her sweaters, so I'll post pictures when those are done, too.

Sneak peeks at what I'm crocheting

Sorry I haven't posted an art update in a while; I've been mostly working on presents for my best friend's birthday (see below for sneak peeks), reading The Silmarillion (for all that I have a BA in English, that book is a hard read even for me), and playing HeroQuest with my friends (it's like a D&D board game). My back has also been bothering me again, so I haven't wanted to be on the computer much. However, I do have a lot I want to share, so I don't want to put that off any longer. :)

This is the latest addition to my shops, "Goddess of the Silvery Moon" hemp necklace/anklet:

(It's here in my Etsy shop and here in my Artfire one.)
I'd been meaning to make another Goddess-themed piece of jewelry and finally figured out what colors (or lack there of, in this case) to do it in. I'm not much of a fan of monochrome, but I'll admit that it does look good on this necklace. :)


Now I want to share a sneak peek of what I've been working on; these are presents for my best friend's birthday. The pictures are as obscure as I could make them because I don't want to give away to her what I'm doing (although more in the case of the plushie since she already tried on the sweater, lol).

It's a very fluffy monster! Run! ...okay, that's the sweater I was talking about; it's so soft and fluffy!


No, that's not a voodoo doll, it's just the plushie I'm working on; the pins are to hold the felt in place while the glue dries.

If you're curious as to what the plushie is going to be, here's a rather obvious hint:

Yup, I'm making her a Dark Link; he's her main Smash Bros character. I'm having a heck of a time finding a picture of his scabbard; I think it's the same color as regular Link's, but I can't find any photos of it. I think I'll just paint it a bit darker than regular Link's.

Maybe finishing this doll will give me the kick I need to finish the small Pit and Sheik ones I started months and months ago. I love making plushies, but once I get to the making clothes stage I tend to procrastinate- I'm really not looking forward to duplicating the toga I made for the larger Pit plushie I made last year, and Sheik's wraps are almost as annoying. I think the main problem is that those two character's clothing have to be fabric rather than crocheted (or else it'd be too thick), and I don't like working in fabric. (Heck, I want to crochet my Pit cosplay rather than sew it.)

But I'm rambling. The last thing I wanted to share was this really pretty feather I found while taking a walk the other day. I think it's from a blue jay:

I collect feathers (I use them for dreamcatchers and hair accessories), so I love finding new ones! If you have any extra pretty feathers laying around and you don't want them, I'll gladly take them off your hands. :)

I'll admit to having a thing for fictional men

Time for a random post! I could put this in my personal livejournal (and maybe I will crosspost it) but I'd love to start a chain of people doing this. :D My friend Niere made a post in her blog about fictional characters she has fancied over the years, and since I love the idea, I'll do it, too. Pretty much all the characters I've loved in the past are characters I love now, so there hasn't been much change over the years for me. These are in no particular order; I guess I'll do them randomly by fandom.

1.) Meriadoc Brandybuck (Lord of the Rings)

This crush has nothing to do with the actor; in fact, the reason I have a thing for Dom Monaghan now is because he played Merry, not the other way around. Merry was actually my very first crush; I fell for him when my dad first read me The Fellowship of the Ring when I was still a kid (I think I was about eight). Of course, I had no idea that it was a crush at the time, just that I thought he was so cool. What's not to love about Merry- he has a sense of humor, he's very brave, and he's a hobbit. ;)

2.) Faramir (Lord of the Rings)

This crush is an old one, too; I finished the rest of the trilogy when I was in high school (before the movies came out) and his honor and strength are what make him so appealing.

3.) Cedric Diggory (Harry Potter)

I'm actually rather embarrassed by this crush because I figure people will think I like him because of the actor (especially since he was in that stupid vampire movie and is all popular now). As with Merry and Faramir, I like the character for the character; I'm a Hufflepuff, how could I not like him? Anyone who shows how great Hufflepuffs can be is awesome.

4.) Data (Star Trek TNG)

I don't really fancy Data the way I do most other characters; I find his naivety to be absolutely adorable. Going by appearance and how attractive a character is, though, I think Riker would win.

5.) Ford Prefect (Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy)

Honestly, it's time for a reread of this series because I can't remember exactly why I like him so much. I think it's his optimism and eccentricity, and that cluelessness that he sometimes has.

6.) Link (Legend of Zelda, specifically "Ocarina of Time")

OoT was the first Zelda game I ever played and it's still my favorite. Link is just awesome- strong, brave, quiet... and attractive, of course. ;)

7.) Lobsang Ludd (Thief of Time- Discworld series by Terry Pratchett)
Unfortunately I don't have any pictures for him- they haven't made Thief of Time into a movie yet and there's no official art of him (actually, I'm kind of glad of this because I know they'd get him wrong from how I picture him). However, Lobsang is actually my biggest crush (it's starting to feel kind of creepy since he's only about 17 or so, lol). He's the anthropomorphic personification of Time (well, he's Time's son and takes over for her) and he's one of those mischievous young characters that I love so much. He's also the love interest of the character I cosplay, so maybe I'm biased there- I'd make my fiancé dress as him if Josh looked anything like him; unfortunately, Josh looks more like Carrot minus the red hair. Maybe I'll still make him dress like Lobsang anyway. ;)

8.) Skif ("Heralds of Valdemar" series by Mercedes Lackey)

I have a love/hate crush here. I love younger-Skif; he's so mischievous and funny! However, when he gets older he becomes stupid and won't drop a crush he has on a character I really don't like and who doesn't like him back, and he spends far too much time pining. Ugh.

9 and 10.) Elan and Inkyrius ("Order of the Stick" webcomic)

Elan (the one on the left) is pretty much my old (and one of my favorite) D&D character- he's goofy, not very bright, and oblivious, but he's just adorable and a very nice guy. As for Inkyrius, even though he's (she's? We don't know the gender of Elves in that comic strip- I think of Kyrie as male, though) a very minor character, Kyrie's my favorite. Any Elf who is willing to stand up to an angry and possessed mate with nothing but a stick in order to protect his/her children is awesome in my book. And come on, what's not to love about a green-haired Elven apprentice pastry chef? ;)

11.) Bakshi Legolas (animated Lord of the Rings)

Now this is an attractive Legolas- Orlando Bloom has nothing on this wonky-eyed and buck-toothed Elf! ...okay, this is a joke that my friends and I have had for years and years (and it's actually how I know the friend I stole this blog post idea from- I met her in the Bakshi Legolas thread on Gaia, I think). He's obviously not really a crush, but he's my main joke-crush, so I had to include him. ;)

So there's my list of mostly literary characters (what can I say, I'm a bookworm). Please jump on the bandwagon if you'd like; I'd love to see what fictional characters everyone fancies!

Trove Thursday- Splish Splash

Time for another Trove Thursday post where I get to show off pretty things from members of my teams and guilds of Etsy and Artfire. I love getting to go through all the amazing listings in order to narrow it down to nine (although that's the hard part!).

This week's theme is "Water", focusing on the ocean. Because, hey, I love Summer and don't want to focus on Autumn, even though that's starting to be the promoted season. ;)


1.) "Water Spirit Mosaic Box" by intothedawn on Artfire.
2.) "Atlantis (#116)" by mirthreverence on Artfire.
3.) "Summer Ocean - Adjustable Gemstone Necklace - Amazonite and Copper" by goddessjoy on Artfire.
4.) "Coral Reef Sea Shell Wire Wrapped Bracelet" by tangocatgems on Etsy.
5.) "print-Phoebe's Pearls MRMD" by RadianceArt on Etsy.
6.) "Erato The Nereid Shell and Gem Pendant MRMD" by mermaidencreations on Etsy.
7.) "Brackish Water-Merino, Farm Wools. Kid Mohair Locks and sparkle drum carded fiber batts for spinning and felting" by Jazzturtle on Etsy.
8.) "Aquamarine and Fresh Water Coin Pearl Bali silver Assymetrical Necklace" by CrysallisCreations on Etsy.
9.) "FIBER BEAD We think someone who loves the ocean will buy us. Look at our shades of sea water blue." by Ebrown2503 on Etsy.

And that's my feature post of the week- I hope you guys enjoy it as much as I love finding these treasures! Is there any particular theme you'd like to see picked in the future?

Finally, chores are fun!

This update has nothing to do with anything (I can be random sometimes! ... okay, a lot of the time, lol!), but I wanted to share this site that I found through Ravelry. It's called "Chore Wars" and it's like "Dungeons and Dragons", only you get experience and gold for finishing chores and tasks. Finally, something to encourage me to stop procrastinating! ;) If only the rest of my family would play along, but I guess that'll have to wait until I move back in with my fiancé (as it is I'm trying to get him to sign up so I can assign him the tasks I need him to do for me. Mwahaha!).

Here's my badge:

I just wish there were more options for the userpics (or you could upload your own); I picked that one because I had hair that color for a while. Oh, and that's an L and a Y in my name; the font makes it look like "Merikj" instead of "Merily".

If you like fantasy dorkiness and want encouragement to get stuff done, check out that site! :D

Book reviews- Austen, Pratchett, and Shakespeare

I think I'm going to do short reviews/opinions of these three books; these aren't books I won from LibraryThing, so I don't feel too guilty about writing slightly shorter reviews than I usually do. ;) I was doing a post like this a while ago where I'd do paragraph long reviews of about ten books at once, but I realized that I'll just keep putting it off because that's a rather daunting task. I think if I do them one or a few at a time, I'll actually get them done. :) So here are the three recently finished books that I haven't already reviewed:


Emma by Jane Austen
What can I say, I love Jane Austen; she was an amazingly talented author. I hadn't read her books since I took a class on her works in college, and since it's been about four years since then I figured it was time to reread them all. I really enjoyed Emma- if I remember correctly it isn't my favorite Austen book, but I do really like it. I read through this one faster than I did my recent reread of Pride and Prejudice probably because I found this one a bit more interesting. I'm not a fan of Emma's character, but I think that's probably the point Austen intended. She's not the most likable character (well, she's pretty flawed, not really unlikable, I guess), but she's certainly well-developed, so my dislike of her has everything to do with how well she was written. What I mean is Austen made a believably flawed character who is human enough to get on my nerves as a reader- that takes far more skill than writing a poorly-developed character who gets on my nerves because they're so poorly written! I did really like the character of Mr. Knightley, so I think that made up for my annoyance at Emma.

I like any story where the characters are well-developed, interesting, and rounded (if you couldn't already tell, well-written characters are what make a story great for me), and I don't think I've ever found fault with any of Austen's. I give this book 4 out of 5 stars, mostly because Emma tended to get on my nerves, especially with her matchmaking, so that kept it from being five stars. However, the interesting plot and all the character development worked in the book's favor.



The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents by Terry Pratchett
Somehow I had missed this book as I've done various rereads through the Discworld series; I didn't realize it was a Discworld book until recently. I don't really see how it's a young adult book in comparison to most of the rest of that series (I think there are three other YA books?); yes, it has talking animals, but it's a mature and deep book that can be cynical and dark at times. Since this is a Discworld book it has Pratchett's usual wit and humor about it, and the main character is a cat- what's not to like about that? (I want to add that Pratchett writes some very cat-like cats; definitely praise from a cat person!) Like a lot of the other books in the series, this is a sort of parody off another story, in this case the Pied Piper. The characters were all intriguing, especially the rats and the cat. The human characters were far less interesting, but that's mostly because the animals stole the show; the main human character was called "stupid-looking kid" for most of the book, if that gives you an idea of what I mean. (Speaking of stealing the show, my favorite character was Sardines, the tap dancing rat.)

I enjoyed this book, but it was kind of dark for my taste; maybe I was expecting it to be a bit more cheerful and funny since it's a young adult book? Still, though, it was a good read, even if it's not one of my favorite Discworld books. I'm not sure whether to give it 3 1/2 or 4 stars- can I give it 3 3/4? No? In that case, I'll leave it at 3 1/2, but it might go up to four on a later reread- I've read the rest of the series at least three times each, so I'll give this book another chance later, too.



A Midsummer Night's Dream by William Shakespeare
This is my second favorite Shakespeare play, just narrowly being beaten out by The Tempest (if you want to know how much I love these books, I'm tempted to name future children Miranda, Lysander, and Demetrius). I love all the subplots that occur throughout the story (the play within a play and the men acting in it are just hilarious!) and I love all the humor throughout. And this play has Puck- what a great character! He's the character that says one of my favorite Shakespeare quotes "Lord, what fools these mortals be!", and he's definitely up there as one of my favorite characters written by the Bard.

This is just such a fun play that I'll heartily recommend it to anyone who hasn't read it- and if you have, you should go reread it (I must be up to about six or seven rereads by now). ;) Hands down, this gets 5 stars out of 5; if I could give it more, I would! I may be biased, though; this is a play about faeries, so how could I not love it?


So far I'm up to 39 of the "52 books in 52 weeks" challenge; I'm going to aim for 75 read this year, then try to beat that next year.

Very delayed art update

Woah, have I really not made a post with an update of what I've been creating since the 28th? That's almost two weeks! In that case, expect lots of pictures in this update; I think I have about eight things I finished in that time. (I'll make the photos smaller so they don't take up so much room if you're RSS feeding my blog or something.)

First, the two things I made for the giveaway in my blog last month- both have gotten to their new homes by now, so I can share them. :)

I made this earring for Ruthie- she wanted a cuff at the top, and I made it in purple, black, and silver for her. :)


And these are the crocheted elf ears I made for Theresa.

And now onto shop things! First, a new pair of horns:

These "Water Sprite Horns" can be found in both my Etsy and Artfire shops. I hadn't made horns in a while, so it was fun to make these. I need to get more shoelaces, though; I tried using ribbon but it just isn't heavy enough to hold up the polymer clay well. These are shinier than they look; there's glittery pigment all around them.

Now two necklaces:

This is the "Shepherd of the Trees" hemp necklace/anklet, named after the Ents in Lord of the Rings; this necklace reminded me so much of old forests that I couldn't resist giving it a name like that. ;) It's here in my Etsy and Artfire shops.


The next necklace is "Poseidon's Pet"; the name came from the fact that the necklace has seahorses on it, and Poseidon is the Greek god of horses and the sea, and his chariot is drawn by hippocampi, a kind of seahorse (granted not this kind). I love that making art means that I get to research neat mythological things like this. :D This necklace is unique because it's my first Water-themed one that isn't blues and greens. It's here in my Etsy shop and here in my Artfire shop.

And last I have two new cartilage chain earrings:

This is the "Ocean Blue and Green" one- I really love these colors! It, too, is in both my Etsy and Artfire shops.


And this is the "Girly Gamer" cartilage earring; I made the chain for this first, then as I was looking through my bead stash, saw that the pink dice bead matched perfectly, so knew that was what had to be added. :) It's here on Etsy and Artfire.

I can switch out the pierced posts on the earrings with cuffs (for the top part) and/or clip-ons (for the bottom post) if you don't have pierced ears, and it won't cost any extra for that. :) I only charge extra on the earrings if someone wants Sterling Silver posts because those are more expensive to use.


Whew! I think I'm caught up now. Remind me next time not to fall so far behind! ...said the girl who is already two book reviews behind schedule. ;) I've also been relisting Halloween/Autumn things that I let expire over the winter, but since those aren't really new, I won't post about them. They'll be showing up in both of my shops if you're interested, though.