Random Magic - Pirates / The Parting Glass

The Parting Glass

Today’s the wrap day for Random Magic Tour: Pirates! (May 10-30)
You can find the Tour Schedule here. And don't forget about the awesome prizes for the tour- you have until tonight to enter for that. You can find the info about that here (and who doesn't love prizes?) ;)

As one of the mates - ahoy, matey! - sailing with this crew of buccaneers, I'd like to say thank you for visiting my blog on the musical blog hop and hope you also enjoyed some of the other great blogs on the tour.

Since this is the last day for the tour, I figure this is a fitting time to share a seafaring song by Enter the Haggis, one of my very favorite bands:


And here's another tune for you:


For the wrap day of the tour, we’re just going to raise a final pint o’ grog along with a cheerful sailing song, to say thanks for the good company. Yaaaargh. Smooth seas and sunny days be ahead o’ ye!

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Message in a Bottle: visit Liana's Paper Doll Blog to see the Pirate Queen Sasha and read more about her at Moonlight Gleam's Bookshelf.

Elfsisters' Art Adventures, Week 4 - It's a little known fact that cats love numbers

Time for more wreckage of my journal! (It's week 4 already?) This week our task was the "Add your own page numbers" page. This is another page I'd done years ago- here is what it looked like then:


Ruthie and I have been teaching ourselves how to write in Elvish, so I figured this would be the perfect time to do that. I used the top outside corners and wrote in Elvish script (runes?).


Here's a better look at the page itself:


Oh, whoops, sorry, there seems to be someone trying to help me with it:

Who knew cats loved numbers? Okay, really she's just an attention hog and saw that I was nearby with a camera and did her usual cute act to get kitty lovins. ;)

Anyway, I also wrote "Add your own page numbers" in Elvish. I'm not entirely sure how accurate that is, but it's close. My many elf characters are happy with the fact that I'm finally using the correct letters and are demanding that I do so more often. We'll see. I'm dyslexic enough with regular English ones!



This week for our May challenge I decided to work on designs for an embroidery I want to make my sister for her birthday.

That heart Celtic knot is something special to us- it's a kind of sister-knot, I think, and she has it tattooed on her back. I'm going to get a matching one at some point, but until then my sis bought me a necklace with that design on it.

I realized as I was drawing it, though, that I could make it more special for my sister, hence the sketches to the side. That top, middle and meeting of the three loops looks like it spells out "Amy" (her name), and by stylizing the heart slightly, I could also get "Susan" out of it (that's my birth name). Here's a closeup of the knots:

I'm not entirely sure which of the four designs I like best, though. I think I'm leaning towards the top right. Those won't be the colors I use, but they're ones I grabbed to try to easily differentiate between the letters. What do you guys think?


And speaking of Celtic things, I'm all sorts of excited because two of my favorite Celtic rock bands are going to be playing locally in late June. I'm hoping to see Blackthorn at a local park on June 23rd and Enter the Haggis at the Celtic Fling (PA Renfaire grounds) on the 24th. I haven't seen either band since '06, so it's about time I saw them again. Whoot! I definitely recommend checking both bands out!


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Want to join the art adventure?
Ruthie and I would love to have you along on our art adventures! If you want to know more, check out out this post and if you're playing along, feel free to join our flickr group. Each week we do a different WTJ page and every month is a new drawing challenge.

Did you join us this week?
Below is the link list/blog hop thingy. Did you do the Celtic challenge and/or the WTJ "Page Numbers" page? You have until Tuesday(the 31st) to blog about either challenge (or both), then come back here and add your name and the link to your blog post.





The Next WTJ Challenge
Time for some mess! This week we'll be doing the "This page is for handprints or fingerprints. Get them dirty then press down". My book is still looking rather neat and tidy (er... minus the scorch marks and flung teastains), so this'll be interesting! You'll have until Tuesday the 7th to do this and blog about it. Ruthie will have a post up on her blog next Wednesday (the 1st) for you to drop off your handprint blog entry.

June's drawing challenge will be announced on the 1st, too. :)

The "Special" Pages
As Ruthie shared this week, we'll be doing a few long-term pages during the course of the challenge; these are ones that will take longer than a week to complete or have to be done at a specific time.
These are:
-Collect Fruit Stickers
-Use this as a Test Page
-Collect the Stamps off of All your Mail
-Document a Boring Event in Detail
-Fill in this page when you are really angry

So feel free to do these at any time. :) I'm also adding the "grocery list" page to this because I don't often have grocery lists, as well as the "Scribble with borrowed pens" because how many borrowed pens could you possibly find in a week? And maybe we should include the pocket lint, too. Man, this is awesomely amusing!

Art Update - Embroidered some trees and created octarine

Recently I finished embroidering a set of trees:

While working on this I discovered a complete lack of grey thread. I have about a gazillion of those little skeins (is that what they're called?) but my stash came up greyless and light pink, brown or yellow rocks would have just looked silly or like the trees belonged in some sort of chocolate factory. So off to the craft store I went (oh darn).

I had some trouble tracing out this design; it kept shifting on the window, so it's not quite as even as it should be. I love that middle tree, though! I still have to wash this to get out the pencil marks then iron and frame it. I'll do that when I finish the next embroidery because they're easier to frame in batches (meaning I hate pulling out the old, awkward ironing board that's older than I am).


The other reason I had to hit the craft store? My red dyes dried up into some sort of gel consistency and wouldn't work on my yarn. Which is weird because the purple and sky blue did the same thing and those work fine. Must be whatever sugar goes into the reds. Burgundy and Christmas Red now reacquired, I'll try using those next time.

I did get a neat result with the orange/red yarn I dyed, but it came out more "pumpkin" than the "fire" I'd intended:

The other colors are:
-Emerald/sea green/blueish-purple (this one really looks off in the photo- it's much more green)
-leafy greens with red specks (was going for green and brown, but the green ate all the brown, leaving just red spots like berries. Next time I'll do the green first, then add the brown)
-Octarine (was going for black, ended up with a weird purple with green spots- the green is much more obvious in person. Decided it's octarine, the color of magic because "ugly purple mess" isn't as poetic. Now I'm thinking of geeky Discworld dreadfalls I can make with this)
-sky blue/purple (these were old dyes, too, but they worked fine)

And since I can't have yarn out without the cat sauntering over to claim it...

Say "hi" to Clara, my resident yarn-tester and purring machine.


The problem with embroidery and most art right now? I can't see it well and I keep getting headaches. :( Turns out I need bifocals, which confused and rather irked me at first because I'm 27! But the eye doctor says it's a focusing thing, not an age thing (and when he told me he had bifocals at 26, that made me feel better!), and doing such closeup work constantly for years means I can't focus correctly anymore.

So I'll be picking up those new glasses in two weeks, but until then not a lot of art is going to be worked on- or at least not a lot of detailed, close-up stuff. Spinning yarn is fine, since I'm not really looking at it. Crochet may be fine, too, since I don't really look closely at that, either. And this'll be the perfect time for making more horns and dreadfalls, I guess! But chainmaille, earrings and embroidery are going to have to wait a bit. And what sucks? I can't read much, either, and looking at text on the computer screen gives me a headache, too. :( Bad, when I have a 10k word story that needs to be 80% done by June 15th and between the headaches and a respiratory infection, all I have so far is an outline. *flails!*

Elfsisters' Art Adventures, Week 3 - Adventuring with goblins and a Celtic dragon

Sorry for a lack of posts recently. The last two went missing with Blogger's outage and issues last week (fortunately someone was able to find the writing for me; I'm very very thankful for this!) and I was afraid to post anything new. But now that I was able to rewrite those posts with that help, all is good. Hooray!




Our assignment for the Wreck This Journal this week was the "Close the journal. Write/scribble something on the edges" page. This is one of the few pages I already had done from a few years ago, but wasn't happy with the colors. This is what it looked like before this week:

(Err... minus the yarn ties, since I've lost those.) I'm not nearly as into pink and black as I was then, so decided to just add a heck of a lot more color:

That's the natural environment for my WTJ, by the way: surrounded by D&D books and my cat.

Here's the instructions for this page:

I'd already colored in that page, so just redated it with when I recolored the edges.

But there was that full white page facing me! We can't have that, now can we? And since the opposite side of that is one of the "Sleep with the journal. Describe" pages, that means this blank page was going to stay there and wasn't likely to be removed (like the back of the compost page will be).

That means.... Goblins!

I'm now going to assign this page to my fiancé, since the goblins are from his webcomic, meaning he'll have to draw them in his WTJ, too. ;)

From left to right we have Igik (holding a BBQ fork and some sort of sauce- best not to ask what kind), Boss holding his dagger, Gork the ambush commander with his axe and Blarf the young (pyromaniac) shaman apprentice with a torch. I didn't draw these to scale, though- Igik should be taller and Gork and Blarf shorter- I guess they're in the foreground. Or I just need more drawing practice. ;)

I've decided that I'm going to draw as many geeky characters in my book as possible. It'll get me back into drawing and it means more geekiness. Totally planning on putting hobbits on my "collect fruit stickers here" page, or possibly the one where you smear your dinner. LOL!


Here's the completion of the idea I had last week:

Yeah, I'm rather obsessed with dragons. Could you tell? I've never drawn a dragon from this angle before, so it's kinda wonky. Still, I'm pleased with it! It was drawn with pencil, inked with a ballpoint pen and colored with colored pencils. I took a picture of the page in my sketchbook rather than scanning it in, so the colors aren't quite right. It's a bit darker than this, I think.

Not sure what Celtic thing I'll do next week, but I'm sure it'll be geeky. Of course. ;)

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Want to join the art adventure?
Ruthie and I would love to have you along on our art adventures! If you want to know more, check out out this post and if you're playing along, feel free to join our flickr group. Each week we do a different WTJ page and every month is a new drawing challenge.

This week Ruthie is going to be hosting the next WTJ page and you can find the page we'll be doing in her blog post. You'll be able to drop off your blog link there, but the site's currently not working. Check back on her blog later if you've made a blog post and want to join us. :)

Art Update - Seasonally confused with chainmaille while learning to wire wrap

My art muse seems convinced that it's fall and not spring, so I'm thinking she must have been vacationing in the southern hemisphere. I mean, why else would I be making orange and black in May? ;)


"Monarch in Flight" Orange and Black Butterfly Ear Cuff - Etsy and Artfire
In this case, orange and black worked this time of year because it's the color of a monarch butterfly. (Although now I'm picturing my fiancé doing his awesome The Monarch impersonation and calling for henchmen... The perks of dating a comedian-type.)



Black and Orange Rubber Chainmaille Bracelet - Etsy and Artfire
And this one was made for a reason, too- the same reason I made this one:


Red, White and Blue Rubber Chainmaille Bracelet - Etsy and Artfire

At craft shows I frequently had people mention that I should make bracelets in colors of local sports teams, so these represent the Phillies (the only team and sport I'm at all interested in) and the Flyers (my fiancé really likes them). Or, ya know, just American colors and Halloween colors.

I've been working on these bracelets a lot:

I really want to keep that purple one on the end- it came out neat! I just love when a day's work of chainmaille turns into a sleeve. It's a new fashion statement! Or I just have freakishly tiny arms so they fit to my elbow. Either one. ;)

And speaking of chainmaille, made a bunch of handflowers this week to get ready for craft shows this weekend:

The purple has butterflies, the black has stars, the green and brown has leaves, the green and silver is Celtic and the red has flowers.

And that random round pendant thing in the middle?

Yup, trying to learn how how to wire wrap- this is the only one that came out decent enough to not take apart. I definitely need a lot more practice and some better wire; this was too thin but the next thickness I had was crappy plastic coated kinds and the step up from that was way too thick.

Going to keep trying, though, since I have a bunch of semiprecious stones that I'd like to wrap and string on ribbon cords for craft shows.

Elfsisters' Art Adventures, Week 2 - Celtic Knots, Cracking Spines and Geeking Out with Colors

Time for week two of the Elfsisters' Art Adventures! That means this week is actually an art update since last week was more of an intro. ;)


This weekend my fiance and I got to work on our journals and I have to say it's so much more fun doing this book with other people! I'd done some with mine a few years ago, but this is new to him and my Elfsister Ruthie. Because of that, as I flipped through Josh's pristine new book, I realized that a) my book is already looking pretty beat up and b) I have an old edition. Mine has a "burn this page" while Ruthie and Josh got something like "stomp on this page". Boo, and that burn page was fun, too!

This week our task for the WTJ was to do a few short pages: "This Book Belongs To", "Read the Instructions" and "Crack the Spine".

I'd already filled out the "This Book Belongs To" page years ago, but had to change the address (although I paintshopped that out, obviously). Since I was changing things around, I added a lot more doodles to the two pages- leaves, mostly, since that's my obsession. ;)


Previous I'd only had my name, the top vine and the bottom leaf on the right and just the info on the left. I'd messed up here, though- I thought the marker I grabbed was brown when I doodled the bottom left, but it turned out to be a dark red. Whoops?


Now for the instructions. Since there was all that blank space on the left, I drew some of my favorite things: two foxes, my black cat (looked off of photos for these) and Celtic knots. I could have drawn the animals better had I given more effort, but ... well, this book spends a lot of time wet and on fire, so didn't want to put a lot of time into it. ;) I love Celtic knots anyway, but those were particularly because this month's theme is "Celtic"- I'll get to that in a minute. Oh, and the colors around the arrow are my favorites: green, green-blue, brown and hot pink (err.. yes, I do really like hot pink, which surprises people).

The actual instructions page is geeky, in a secret kind of way. After I colored in the first instruction, I realized "Crud, that's red!" as once again I'd grabbed red instead of a brown. So I tried again on the next one with actual greens and browns. At that point I discovered "Hey! Those colors match two of my characters!" and continued the other three instructions to match the rest of my writing characters because why not make this geeky? It is my book!

~Green and brown with a hint of red is Raff, my half-elf cleric with a ranger background (greens and brown for the woodlands, red for the color of his order and robes)
~Green with a bit of brown is Meren, my wood elf wizard; a girl so tied to trees that she's been known to talk to them.
~Red and orange with a good deal of brown is Cyneric, my human cleric. The reds and oranges are not only his favorite colors, but represent his priesthood and his pet fox. The browns here represent animal fur; this character has a strong connection to animals and he borders on druid.
~Blue spaced between browns and greens is Kryro, my centaur (no picture for him yet as he's the newest one). He's Meren's brother (don't ask), so he shares her environment, but prefers the blue of the sky peeking through the treetops to dense forest.
~Purple, sepia and silver is Aldalion, my grey elf bard. Sepia is for parchment filled with songs and spells, purple is his eye color and what he's known for being garbed in, and silver is for his hair. (And working against my better judgment totally is a rule a bard would approve of!)

I'm sure these characters will show up in this book elsewhere, but had to ramble about it now. Don't mind me, I'm just a bit of a geek. ;) But that means I got to use colors besides green and brown, so that counts as experimenting, per rule #5.


The last page I did this week was "Crack the spine". Or, rather, Josh had done this in '09, but I figured it could use more cracking and redid that. And you can also tell my book isn't as new as his or Ruthie's because it already has colors seeping through from the "Add your own page number" page. I decided to just continue that mess of colors on this side in marker and colored pencil. Yay, colors! ... and by "colors" I mean "green, brown and ... hey, how did more red get in here??" By the time I'm done with the WTJ, maybe I'll like red just because it keeps showing up in my hand when I'm reaching for brown. Heh.


The other half of this week's adventure is...

Yay, Celtic things! I decided to start this month's theme simple and just draw some knots:

I'd done the top two knots before (henna and painting, usually) and like the shapes, so had to add those in (I really dig things in threes for some reason). I'd like to start embroidering Celtic knots so I can definitely use the practice!

The heart one has special meaning- my sis has that tattooed and got me a silver necklace a few years ago with a design much like it until I can get a tattoo to match- so I'm going to take that design and embroider and frame it for her for a birthday present. Shhh, don't tell her. ;) I'll blog about that whenever I work on it.

That little pencil blob in the bottom right corner? That's my idea for next week's drawing, assuming I can get it to work- it'll be a lot more complicated! I'm glad these themes run for a month; that gives us plenty of time to improve.

Next week my Adventures post will be much shorter since we're only doing one WTJ page. Speaking of...

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Did you join us this week?
Below is the link list/blog hop thingy. Did you do the Celtic challenge and/or the WTJ "Instructions", "bio" and "spine" pages? Just make a blog post between now and Tuesday night (the 17th) about either challenge (or both), then come back here and add your name and the link to your blog post.





Next Week's Challenge
Starting Wednesday the 18th and running until Tuesday the 24th, we'll be jumping ahead to the back of the book and sharing a new page that day. Err.. if yours was numbered, it would be page 177, but since mine's the only one that far along, ignore this fact and just count back about four from the end until you reach the "Close this journal. Write/scribble something on the edges" page. We'll still be doing the Celtic challenge since it's still May.

Ruthie has a post up on her blog now and will be adding the link list thing soon where you'll be able to drop off your blog post for the "Draw on the Edges" page and the Celtic challenge.


And don't forget- you can find our flickr group here (feel free to upload your pictures to the group pool or chat with us there!).

Random Magic - Pirates / Musical Blog Hop

Mermaid's Cove Music Hop
Ahoy, me darlin', ye've found a jolly round of songs for swashbucklers.

Music is a strong theme in Random Magic -- so strong, in fact, that one of the celestial characters Winnie and Henry meet is Efterpe, the Muse of music.

So, for the love of music (and pirates), here’s a fun music hop to check out, featuring all kinds of delicious tunes piratical.

Start anywhere you like -- for each blog stop, you’ll be able to enjoy a merry tune, then just sail off to the next port for another round. Hoist the mizzen and away we go!

You are here: #3 of 11: Elbit Blog
Songs for: Accidental pirates



Captain Kidd – Great Big Sea

I was sick and nigh to death,
And I vowed at every breath,
Oh, to walk in wisdom's path,
As I sailed
But my repentance lasted not,
My vows I soon forgot,
Oh, damnation is my lot,
As I sailed…

My name is Captain Kidd
And God's laws I did forbid,
And most wickedly I did as I sailed

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~



Shown above: Random Magic book trailer


Random Magic quote of the piratey persuasion:

‘Aye! Use yer deadlights, mates,’ yelled Hammer Jack, ‘the captain’s naught but a scurvy tar -- let's send 'im to Jack Ketch! Take the ship!’
‘Crk!’ said the parrot.
Captain Jack lost his temper completely, and hurled his knife into the rabble, which immediately solved the problem. ‘Take me ship? I'll 'arve ye both i' the brig! Oi'll 'ave yer guts for garters! Oi'll cut yer 'arts out and 'ave 'em for stew!’
‘That'd be a sight better'n the grub we've got now,’ Rutby Tom muttered crankily to no one in particular.
‘Have 'em for stew!’ One-Eye Pete said. ‘I'll get me spoon!'
(More)

Find the book Random Magic: Amazon | Kindle



Set sail for a new port - check out music stop #4 of 11: vvb32 Reads

The Mermaid’s Cove Music Hop is part of Random Magic Tour: Pirates!
You can find more fun stuff here: Schedule

(If you enjoy a particular music pick, please consider buying the track to help support the person or group that created it for everyone’s enjoyment. The Red Queen is the unofficial soundtrack for Random Magic Tour: Pirates! Happy listening!)

For the impatient, here are all the blogs on the hop:
My Love Affair With Books
Twitter: @Misha_1989

The Book Girl of Mur-y-Castell
Twitter: @blodeuedd83

Elbit Blog
Twitter: @MeriGreenleaf

vvb32 Reads
Twitter: @vvb32reads

The True Book Addict
Twitter: @truebookaddict

Willowdust Reviews - Tina’s Book Reviews
Twitter: @BooksAtTinas

Diary of a Bookworm
Twitter: N/A

Cerebralicious
Twitter: @cerebrate

Eating YA Books
Twitter: @eatingyabooks

Vampires and Tofu
Twitter: @vampiresandtofu

Songs and Stories
Twitter: @LiederMadchen

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~



BONUS: Win some marrrrrrvelous plunder! Feast yer deadlights on some great tour goodies, and if you like, join the hunt! (Through May 30): Browse prizes or Join the hunt



Reader note: Do you have a favorite pirate tune? Feel free to share some of your top tunes in the comments, maybe everyone will find a great new song to check out. If you're playing Rum + Plunder, yourcomment could count towards winning one of your fave prizes, too! How to play.

Random Magic Tour Schedule: Pirates!

Random Magic Tour: Pirates!
May 10-30, 2011

About: Random Magic
Tour organization: Lyrika Publicis
Triton Tavern proprietress and guest relations: vvb32
Contact the tour: @RandomMagicTour

Rum + Plunder Treasure Hunt (May 11-30)
Win some marrrrrvelous plunder!
Browse prizes
and
Bonus: Little Pirate Prizes
Cool surprise treasures scattered throughout the tour…

May 10
Mermaid’s Cove Musical Blog Hop

Shiver me timbers! Here be a round of jolly tunes about the sweet trade.

My Love Affair With Books
Twitter: @Misha_1989
Songs for: Bold pirates

The Book Girl of Mur-y-Castell
Twitter: @blodeuedd83
Songs for: Gloomy pirates

Elbit Blog
Twitter: @MeriGreenleaf
Songs for: Accidental pirates

vvb32 Reads
Twitter: @vvb32reads
Songs for: Saucy pirates

The True Book Addict
Twitter: @truebookaddict
Songs for: Scary pirates

Willowdust Reviews - Tina’s Book Reviews
Twitter: @BooksAtTinas
Songs for: Pirate queens

Diary of a Bookworm
Twitter: N/A
Songs for: Poetic pirates

Cerebralicious
Twitter: @cerebrate
Songs for: Brave seafarers of every kind, and a moment for all the lost ships.

Eating YA Books
Twitter: @eatingyabooks
Songs for: Jovial pirates

Songs and Stories
Twitter: @LiederMadchen
Songs for: Ominous pirates

Songs and Stories
Twitter: @LiederMadchen
Songs for: (Delightfully) campy pirates

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May 11
Liana’s Paper Doll Blog
Twitter: @lianaleslie
Design doll: Queens of the Sea: #1 of 10
Voting: May 26-27

and

vvb32 Reads
Twitter: @vvb32reads
Triton’s Tavern opens: Tour updates
Rum + Plunder tour hunt opens
Rum + Plunder: Join the hunt

May 12
The Fluidity of Time
Twitter: N/A
Feature: Discussion: Seafaring culture and beliefs
Feature: Pirate Queens: #1 of 10: The Lioness of Brittany

and

Liana’s Paper Doll Blog
Twitter: @lianaleslie
Design doll: Queens of the Sea: #2 of 10


May 13
Lady Violet
Twitter: @ladyviolet3
Video review, Random Magic
Feature: Video reading, Random Magic
Feature: Pirate Queens: #2 of 10: Lai Choi San


May 14
Giada
Dr. Stravagante’s Traveling Circus
Twitter: @hatshepsut0011
Review (Dual language: English, Italian)
Feature: Arrrgh! How to talk like a pirate
Plus: Random Magic and unusual grub
Bonus: Free audio book, The Pirates Own Book
(Contemporary usage: The Pirates’ Own Book)

and

Liana’s Paper Doll Blog
Twitter: @lianaleslie
Design doll: Queens of the Sea: #3 of 10

and

vvb32 Reads
Twitter: @vvb32reads
Feature: A Dandy in Distress (Part 1 of 3)


May 15
Moonlight Gleam
Twitter: @MoonlightGleams
Review
Interview
Feature: Cinematic Swashbucklers
Bonus: Free audio book, Buccaneers and Pirates of our Coasts

and

vvb32 Reads
Twitter: @vvb32reads
Triton’s Tavern meet-up
Tour tidbits and pints o’ grog
Feature: A Dandy in Distress,
the preposterous piratical melodrama continues (Part 2 of 3)


May 16
The Book Swarm
Twitter: @marybrebner
Review
Feature: Pirate Queens: #3 of 10: Jacquotte Delahaye
Bonus: Pirate puzzle

and

Liana’s Paper Doll Blog
Twitter: @lianaleslie
Design doll: Queens of the Sea: #4 of 10

and

vvb32 Reads
Twitter: @vvb32reads
Feature: A Dandy in Distress (Part 3 of 3)


May 17
Cecilia
The Epic Rat
Twitter: @theEPICrat
Review
Feature: Grub and Bumbo
Feature: Pirate Queens: #4 of 10: Anne Bonny
Bonus: Free audio book, Among Malay Pirates and Other Tales of
Peril and Adventure

and

Liana’s Paper Doll Blog
Twitter: @lianaleslie
Design doll: Queens of the Sea: #5 of 10


May 18
Miss Page-Turner’s City of Books
Twitter: @MPTsCityofBooks
Review
Feature: Gallery: Sailing the Seven Seas
Feature: Pirate Queens: #5 of 10: Grace O’Malley

and

Songs and Stories
Twitter: @LiederMadchen
Review
Feature: Finding Starboard
Bonus: Color-Me-Pirate

Liana’s Paper Doll Blog
Twitter: @lianaleslie
Design doll: Queens of the Sea: #6 of 10


May 19
vvb32 Reads
Twitter: @vvb32reads
Feature: Music: Takes on pirate tunes
Feature: Pirate Queens: #6 of 10: Awilda

and

The Life (and Lies) of an Inanimate Flying Object
Twitter: @haleymathiot
Feature: Under the Black Flag

and

Liana’s Paper Doll Blog
Twitter: @lianaleslie
Design doll: Queens of the Sea: #7 of 10

May 20
Fiction Folio
Twitter: @TaraMQ
Video review, Random Magic
Feature: Post Like a Pirate
Feature: Pirate Queens: #7 of 10: A Salmagundi of She-Pirates

and

Liana’s Paper Doll Blog
Twitter: @lianaleslie
Design doll: Queens of the Sea: #8 of 10

and

vvb32 Reads
Twitter: @vvb32reads
Triton’s Tavern meet-up
More tour tidbits and pints o’ grog.


May 21
Bibliophilic Monologues
Twitter: @Nafizaa
Review
Feature: Literary Brigands
Feature: Pirate Queens: #8 of 10: Anne Dieu-Le-Veut
Bonus: Free audio book, The Frozen Pirate

and

Snowdrop Dreams of Books
Twitter: @snowdropdreams
Review
Feature: The Lost Ship
Bonus: Free audio book, Treasure Island


May 22
Book Lover - Book Chicks
Twitter: @LexieVamp666
Feature: Discussion: (Video) Real-life pirates
Bonus: Free audio book, Great Pirate Stories

and

Vampires and Tofu
Twitter: @vampiresandtofu
Review
Feature: Casting Random Magic
Feature: Pirate Lairs: Ocracoke Inlet and the legend of Blackbeard’s ghost
Bonus: Pirate karaoke


May 23
Liana’s Paper Doll Blog
Twitter: @lianaleslie
Design doll: Queens of the Sea: #9 of 10
Review
Bonus: Quiz: Find your Random Magic twin

and

vvb32 Reads
Twitter: @vvb32reads
Feature: Radio show: Captain Blood

and

I <3 Reading (I Love Reading)
Twitter: @iheartreads
Review (Dual language, Flemish/English)
Bonus: Video lecture about pirate queen Grace O’Malley
Bonus: Game: Blackbeard’s Gold

May 24
La Femme Readers
Twitter: @lafemmereaders
Feature: Kick-Ass Women

and

Bookish Ardour
Twitter: @Bonnie_Sparks
Review
Feature: By Land or Sea (Vintage maps)
Feature: Pirate Lairs: Tortuga, Port Royal,
New Providence and the Brethren of the Coast
Bonus: Game: Pirate Chains

and

Liana’s Paper Doll Blog
Twitter: @lianaleslie
Design doll: Queens of the Sea: #10 of 10


May 25
Gofita’s Pages (Heather)
Twitter: @Gofita
Review
Feature: How-to: Pirate makeover
Bonus: Free audio book, The Sea Hawk
Bonus: (Video) Pirate movie night

and

Beyond Strange New Words
Twitter: N/A
Review
Feature: Songs from the Sea (Sea shanties)
Feature: Pirate Queens: #9 of 10: Winnie Flapjack
Bonus: The Pirate Modiste (Dress-up doll)


May 26
Books, Sweets and other Treats
Twitter: @lindsiking
Video review
Feature: Grog and Sangaree
Feature: Pirate Queens: #10 of 10: Mary Read
Bonus: Color-Me-Pirate

and

The Book Addict
Twitter: @christina_622
The Book Addict video channel
Video review
Feature: (Video) Top five Random Magic quotes
Feature: (Video) Reading from Random Magic
Bonus: The Mermaid Maker (Dress-up doll)

and

Liana’s Paper Doll Blog
Twitter: @lianaleslie
Design dolls: Queens of the Sea
Voting for favorite design doll
(May 26-27)

May 27
This Miss Loves to Read
Twitter: @MissIrenne
Feature: Discussion: Top 10 fictional corsairs and buccaneers
Bonus: Free audio book, Captain Blood
Bonus: Pirate karaoke

and

Liana’s Paper Doll Blog
Twitter: @lianaleslie
Design dolls: Queens of the Sea
Voting for favorite design doll
(May 26-27)


May 28
Splash of our Worlds
Twitter: @SplashOOWorlds
Feature: Video discussion, Random Magic and pirates
(Int’l: Greek language, English transcript)
Bonus: Free audio book, Howard Pyle’s Book of Pirates
Bonus: Game: Pirate’s Quest

and

Liana’s Paper Doll Blog
Twitter: @lianaleslie
Design doll: Queens of the Sea:
Fave design revealed, winner selected
(May 28)


May 29
Sea Wolves Reading Circle

Ahoy, matey! Here be a treasure chest of great piratey reads, plucked from shelves by a scandalous crew from near and far.

The Fluidity of Time
Twitter: N/A

This Miss Loves To Read
Twitter: @MissIrenne

What Book Is That?
Twitter: @heynocupcake

Cerebralicious
Twitter: @cerebrate

My Love Affair With Books
Twitter: @Misha_1989

vvb32 Reads
Twitter: @vvb32reads
http://twitter.com/vvb32reads

Willowdust Reviews - Tina’s Book Reviews
Twitter: @BooksAtTinas

Songs and Stories
Twitter: @LiederMadchen

The Diary of a Bookworm
Twitter: N/A


May 30
The Parting Glass
Tour summaries and a pub sing

Wrap day! Feel free to visit all the cool blogs on tour to browse wrap day posts.

Rum + Plunder: Final tallies
Little Pirate Prizes: Final tallies begin
Winners announced: June 6

Art Update - Frogs, mermaids and elves... yeah, strange inspiration

Wow, just realized I had typed this entry up a while ago and didn't make the post go live. *headkeyboard*

Chainmaille
Here's an elf-inspired stretchy chainmaille bracelet. I really love these rubber bracelets; they're so comfy! I wear one every day, although I'm tempted to make a green and brown one for myself (mine's green and black).

It's here on Etsy and here on Artfire

I guess since it's been gradually getting warmer, I'm thinking summer. Here's the first summery thing of the day, a handflower that would make fitting armor for a mermaid:

"Mermaid's Armor" Blue and Green Dolphin Chainmaille Handflower or Slave Bracelet - Etsy and Artfire

Ear cuffs
This ear cuff would match that handflower, huh? Somewhere there's a mermaid who is my target audience here. If only mermaids were on the internet, I'd be set! ;)

"Mermaid's Adornment" Blue and Shell Cartilage Ear Cuff - Etsy and Artfire

And carrying on the aquatic theme, here's a froggy, too!

"Longing for the Pond" Green, Pink and Silver Frog Ear Cuff - Etsy and Artfire
Another name given to me by a friend, although someone also suggested "Herbert the Frog" which is adorable so my next frog will get that name.


And breaking the theme to give something completely different... Goth time! (Err... there could be gothic mermaids, though, right?) The name came from my friends- one suggested "furball of terror" (which I loved, by the way!) and another said "flail", which was also too good to pass up on, so I decided to combine them.

"Flail of Terror - Cartilage Ear Cuff in Red and Black" - Etsy and Artfire
Don't let the name fool you, though; this earring isn't actually spiky or terrifying. The spike bead is a soft rubber/silicone material that feels more like a gummy bear than a flail. But no one has to know that when you're wearing it, right? ;)