Wednesday, February 25, 2009

Poll for yarn...

Okay, so silly me forgot to make it where you can vote for more than one.

So now that has been fixed.

Go vote. If you don't, I'm gonna have to do some random generator thing.

Also, when Jen over at FFtC actually updates with the other colors that will be exclusive to the club, I will update the poll etc. If she doesn't update it, well then.. it won't get updated.

~E

Tuesday, February 24, 2009

In which one edits with an informed decision.

I finally made the decision that my most recent "official" chapter, meaning one of the ones I handed off to my minion for first edit. It going to get a re-write.
Most likely the entire chapter is just going to get thrown out the window.

I was not happy with it when I finished writing it, and upon letting it simmer in my mind, I decided it just wasn't working. It was also going to set the wrong first (well second) impression on a specific character. So out it goes!

But this is good. And after some discussion with my minion, and some spoiling of future plot to him on my part, we got at least the bare bones of a good way to make the chapter work.

I actually look forward to sitting down and writing it. I think it will fit more with the tone I want. Also it gives me a very needed excuse to go visit a certain location here in Colorado that I've been wanting to go to for years, and just haven't been able to go to yet. (Though, I had sort of planned at the very least that it would be one of the places Guy and I go to before we leave the state if nothing else. -heck it could still end up that way if this year goes like all the previous years where I've said "I'm gonna do it this year")

On the knitting front:
I actually do not have a project on the needles right now.
Okay thats a lie. I do have my purple and grey scarf that I've been working on for like 2 years now. But I just don't have the urge to work on it right now. Its one of those long term WIPs. I'm actually like nearly done with it though. But I've run into the problem of the fact that I think I am missing a few of my balls of yarn for it, and therefore it will not be the same length, nor have the fringe of it's companions. This is not necessarily a problem, but I really don't want to go out and buy more of the yarn. It's the cheap Red Heart stuff that I was using when I was a nooooob. I am beyond such horrid yarn. ;-) And I don't need much to finish which means I would have the majority of a skein left sitting around gathering dust. I guess I could use it for pattern swatches etc, but meh.

And to Marissa who commented on my last blog: As it will not let me figure out who you are or how I know you, I am having to respond here. Go try Entrelac! It's fun, it's addicting. And it is challenging. But it is worth it. I rather enjoyed my project. I already have ideas for another project in mind.

This weekend I will be throwing my hat into the Vampire Club from Fresh from the Cauldron. Sigh. And I have a decision to make. I need to figure out 2 colorways that I want.
I am going the 12 skein route for the club, as I need 8 of them to be the Lucien I've mentioned previously.

So 8 Lucien


2 Michael Corvin


And then two others of my choice, but I can't fully decide what I want.

These colors will not be avaiblie again until next year when the swap once again comes around.

There is:
Sonja


Viktor


Selene


Claudia


The Volturi


There are also a few she hasn't posted yet.

Now, not all of them are exactly my chosen taste, but at the same time, I do need to branch out sometimes and get somthing that isn't entirely what I normally go for. Thats how you end up with a wardobe of nothing but black clothes (actually, that was because I had no money when I first joined the corporate world, and my philosophy back then was "well, i can only afford to buy one. And so I should buy something that matches everything." before I knew it, I only had black work clothes)

Once I figure out how to do it, there shall be poll.

I can't decide if I want to do a poll or if I should just go random. But for now I might as well post a poll and see what you all think.

So go vote!

And I just had a horrible experience here at work, I'm not going to blog about it, but I do need to calm down from it. So I'm ending this hear before I start word vomitting it.

Sunday, February 22, 2009

The Impossible Project.. - Very picture heavy.

Okay, so this really isn't "The Impossible Project", or at least it started that way, but once I got past some frustrations it was quite simple.

I think I've got a few other things that actually will fill the description of "The Impossible Project" but we'll get to those in time. (Oh and James, you will love the fact that they are Kushiel related.)

Yes, this is the Entrelac Gator that I have made for my hunny.

If we were still doing Tourgique, this would have been perfect for our "house scarves" or equivalent there of (as we were set on an island).

But I did not make this with that in mind.

I did the project in the colors of Black and wine red, simply because I was learning how to do Entrelac, and the separate colors were a way to keep from getting fully lost. I was originally going to do 3 colors, but decided not to at the time.
So, when I decided that the project wasn't going to be frogged out, and also that I didn't want to make a scarf I'd never wear (due to the colors, I just don't wear red often, though, this Wine Red isn't that bad), I decided to make a Gator for Guy.

For those who don't know what a Gator is, it is a cowl like scarf thingie. Okay, it's a neck warmer. Generally Gators are knit in the round, because it is the equivalent for a Headband for your neck. But with entrelac, you can't do that- well I think you can, if you know how to knit backwards, which I don't. And I'm not sure if it actually be knit in the round due to just the way it works.
So, I decided to give my hand at buttons.
Now this was not in the original plan for this project.
In truth, there was nothing planned for this project. I was just trying to figure out how to do entrelac!

Button holes are not easy if you are just learning, and they are even more difficult if you are not working a "normal" side to side knitting project.

With entrelac, your sections end up going diagonal. So what you'd normally work with, is just slightly skewed.

Considering it was my first time, I think I did a DAMN good job.
Because of the small size of the button holes, to me they seemed a little sloppy, but in truth that is just the nature of the beast.

Unfortunately, when I was out buying buttons yesterday, I ended up getting two packs of different sizes. Sigh. I only needed 3 buttons naturally.
So the project is currently unfinished due to 1 button.
But all the knitting is done, all the button holes are finished, and all the ends woven in. All that remains is stitching on the last button when I go out and buy a new pack.

SQUEEEEEeEEEEEEEE.

In other news, yesterday was a good day. As I wrote above, I finished the project(mostly). Mother of Mine and I went out for breakfast at Panera as we had a Buy 1 get 1 free breakfast sammich coupon from the Library's 8 books in 8 weeks event that we did. (Which is still running, but Mother of Mine and I finished it a long while ago and collected our prizes).
The brekkie was very good! Surprisingly good actually. I haven't had something from Panera in a very long time, so I had forgotten that they were in fact good.
Then we skipped over to the store and picked up a few necessities like laundry soap. We managed to avoid any psycho crazy ladies this time, and got in and out very quickly.
Then we went over to the Colorado Mills, which is a privately owned fabric and notions shop. So basically, it's Colorado Springs equivalent of Denver Fabrics. Only slightly smaller and more cramped.
But, I think it'll be worth going there from now on, simply because oh my god.. they cut your fabric straight!
True, I was only there to look for buttons..
And actually, not for buttons for Guy's Gator. I was looking for buttons for my button up leg warmers Mother of Mine made for me (pattern via Knockdown Knits by Joan of Dark).
We of course did not find the buttons for the leg warmers. But, I did obviously find the buttons for Guy's Gator, and I also ended up finding buttons for my Steampunk Alexandra waistcoat. Woohoo. I had found buttons online that were made to look like gears and such, but honestly I don't want to use those, simply because they might catch on the yarn, and if you read my previous post, I'm spending a lot on my yarn and the last thing I would want would be for the buttons to snag my precious yarn.

Coming home, I looked for buttons online for the leg warmers, as now I had physically held some buttons and knew what I was looking for.
Lets just say with all the buttons I've looked at, I felt like I was in Coraline's Other world.

Okay, Okay.. I'm done chatting I guess on to photos. I don't know what my next project will be. I have a few ideas, but I don't have the yarn yet to do those. Mayhaps I'll just work on a few patterns for another crazy impossible project. Or mayhaps I'll start working on cables.

Oh, and a random note.. it is amusing how our couch there are balls of yarn shoved everywhere, seriously behind ever pillow is at least one ball of yarn if not more. Thats not dangerous, but the random knitting needles are! Lol. It's a good thing we never have guests over, otherwise they might get a wooden knitting needle where they don't want it!

Please ignore how horrible I look. Sunday morning prior to a shower. I'm sure you wouldn't look too spiffy either! :-P
















Thursday, February 19, 2009

Dreams of Knitting, and other randomness.. also 1.47 years left.

So today, I feel like I’ve been hit by a mack truck carrying a ton of bricks.
I did not want to get out of bed, and my body protested most loudly.
All morning long, I have been stiff and just achy. And unfortunately I’m most likely going to be this way until Saturday. Or at least last on Friday.
I’ve been in overdrive all week, doing 10 or 11 hour days, with no lunches.
My body doesn’t like working 8 hour days, so you can see how working an 11 hour day is practically suicidal for me.

One of my coworkers thankfully gave me some super strength Ibprophen. (sp?) and I’ve slowly started to be able to at least get some of my bones to “release” as my chiropractor used to call it.

Today has been very quiet at work, even more quiet than yesterday.

Like for the first nearly 3 hours, we didn’t get a single phone call. Honestly, I think we’ve gotten a total of 14 calls all day.
Now, that does not mean I’m here twiddling my thumbs. No, as my job is never done and is always busy.
We are thankfully able to breath and not just work at a break-neck pace.
I have already made over 30 phone calls today, and we are still kicking butt on our list of tickets to work.
This is good, because if it was hectic today, I would most likely have to go home. I’m just too broken to work quickly.

On other news, my backup, who is also the Backup team lead. So in one aspect he reports to me, and in the other aspect I report to him- it’s odd lets just say that… well he informed me of my “stats” today. And mostly he was telling me about my mistakes. Which other than a total of 2 tickets out of the entire month that I missed putting in 1 little snippet of useless information (which this was a FLUKE I tell you, cause I always add that info), my tickets are great, and all the feedbacks he gets on me are positive.

This is good. I haven’t gotten “she’s a bitch” at all so far in a good long while. Normally my boss pulls me into his office for those. But he hasn’t had to do that for a while. See I’m really working on it. Even with the stupid people I want to throttle. I’ve also got the highest amount of Kudos for the month, which rocks.

I know it’s silly, but hearing those things really do help. I’ve been busting my ass, and often afraid that I wasn’t “happy” enough, and I’m frankly over worked. But hearing that I am actually doing a good job, and I’m not about to get fired.. does make me feel better.

Actually, when it comes to layoffs, I will most likely now be the very last person they ever let go. This desk would quite literally fall apart without me. There is no one to replace me. Even if they replaced me with my backup, he still doesn’t match my pace.
So as long as the entire desk doesn’t go away, I’m the safest person here right now. And if the desk did go away, I’m going to be one of the few people that they shuffle over to another desk.
Okay, I’m going to shut up about that otherwise I’d keep rambling.

Today is the 19th. Which means once more an anniversary is upon us. 1.47 Years till I move to the UK. Or, 16.25 months in truth.

With really only a week left in the month, I think it’s safe to pull the number to the 16.25 instead of 16.5.

The months are passing quickly, but the days are passing slowly. Though January was just crazy.

Honestly, I do not hope that the rest of the year is as crazy as these few months have been.

I have done a lot in the last month and a half. Which is good. I’ve worked on my novel, I’ve learned a lot when it comes to knitting, I’ve actually hung out with friends. More than once! Lol. Okay so it was the same friend. But the sentiment is there.

I have also picked up an expensive habit this year. Sigh. Knitting shall not be good for my budget. As of course since I am allergic to wool, I can’t buy cheap yarn. Nooo I have to buy Bamboo, or boring cotton. Corn, Silk, Milk, or Soy. (the silk is the REALLLLY expensive stuff)
And generally the colors suck. Apparently, they think that if we want alternative yarns, we don’t have taste.
Sigh.
So, I have a person who hand dyes yarn. Gorgeously hand dyes yarn. And she’s willing to dye both cotton and bamboo for me. (haven’t even broached the others as I don’t know if I’d be able to find them undyed at this time)
But, for all her hard work, she is expensive. Not more expensive than others, just expensive. When I can go to hobby lobby and buy a skein of yarn for 3$ it makes the heart skip when the price tag is more like 35$. But that 3$ skein is 1) smaller, and 2) I’m most likely allergic to it. And 3) not in her super cool colorways.
I don’t mind spending the money on the good stuff, I mean you DO get what you paid for. But it just is not something I was planning on doing this year budget wise.
And man I’m a sucker for her colorways. It wouldn’t be a big deal but some of the colors I want are exclusives and therefore I have to get them now, or wait and wait and mayhaps never get them. See the problem? I do.

Then there is also the problem that I have lofty goals when it comes to my knitting. Such as wanting to do the “Alexandra” coat, (without the sleeves mind you) and make a super cool steampunked waistcoat. I found the perfect yarn. Or colorway I should say. But the problem is the coat will take a minimum of 8 skeins of yarn to make. 35$x8 = now your starting to get the picture.
(I’ll most likely only need 6 skeins, as I’m not doing the sleeves, but I can’t do the math yet to say “no only give me this much” and also I’m a tight knitter therefore I need to be prepared for the tight factor (which uses more yarn) and also, I’m a noob which means mistakes)

But it will be glorious when it is done.

Just imagine this coat:



Done in this yarn:


Glorious non?

Oh and for the record, the lovely Jen from Fresh from the Cauldron can be found here:
SquibStitcher's Shop (meaning the girl who is dying all the yarn for me)


Well I guess I’ve slacked off and dreamed about future knitting projects a bit too long now. So I guess I’ll go. Hopefully tomorrow I won’t be so brain dead as it is my sweeties birthday.

Monday, February 16, 2009

Seriously shocking

I am still in shock.

I just had a ... wait for it...

Pleasant experience calling Customer Service!

Brian at Overstock.com... whoever you are, you were a peach.
All it took was me giving my order number. Confirming my phone number and address. Giving him a brief run down of what the heck was going on with my Zen, and voila!
Within 24 hours, I will have my printable mailing label in my email box.
I already have my Zen and all the little bits of hardware that came with it (i'm missing just the silly little bag/pouch that came with it, and one of the software cd's. the tiny lanyard, I'm just gonna not worry about as it works very well attached to my mothers camera, and I doubt they will notice thats not in the box) back into it's box, and snugged inside a box fit for mailing. All I have to do, is tape the box up, slap the label on it and drop it in the mail.

The entire phone call took less than 10 minutes, honestly it took me longer to gather all the bits and pieces and do a half assed search for the software cd.

It sucks that my Zen died, but I'm glad that I had spent the 10$ for the 2 year warranty on it. Of course, that warranty will expire this up coming Nov, but I think I can renew it. I'll have to look into that. I just need my zen to last me 18 months. Yes, I say 18 months, because if it dies in 17 months, and I'm stuck on the plane to the UK (18 hour flight minimum) with no music, or having to deal with the old school of CD's. I'll most likely kill someone. So, in 18 months, after I've had a chance to settle into the UK, it can die. I'll get a new one. Because at that time, I should be able to afford the nice like... oh 40 gig one instead of the puny little 4 gig one I have now.

I don't care if they just fix mine, or replace it or give me credit for a new one. I honestly don't care, either way I'll have a new zen soon. If they just give me credit for a new one, I don't think they even have the 4gig ones on the website anymore, so I'd just spend a bit more and get one of the newer models. With more space on it.

But all in all, within the next 2 weeks, I'll have my music back. Woohoo.

I don't think there was any music on my music player that I can't replace.. I think I was smart and either have it all on cd or I've still got it zipped on my computer. It'll just require me to unzip the files again. I think I've even got my playlist for the "A Hard Day's Bite" Inspiration list.
Though, I don't think the version of the playlist I have on my laptop is up to date. Either way, thats no biggie.

Today I am home from work. Stupid Presidents day. Most likely there won't be any posts from me later this week, simply because I'll be working 10 hour days. Yup. Even friday. (Though, since I never do take lunch, I'll most likely still be able to leave after 8 hours instead of 10 hours on Friday...)

Reading update:
Just finished reading "Wolfsbane and Mistletoe" Which was a collection of werewolf novels, obviously set at Christmas. I only read it for the Charlaine Harris story of "Gift Wrap" (Sookie Stackhouse). None of the other stories grabbed my interest at all to even bother reading them, and I was more interested in getting back to my knitting. So eventually I'll own the book and go back and read all the other stories.

I also finished reading Coraline by Neil Gaiman, which I can't recall if I spoke about at all or not. I loved the book.

I also finished reading A Breath of Snow and Ashes by Diana Gabaldon. Which I have to say, I enjoyed this one so much more than i've enjoyed any of the others in the series that are set in the "Americas". I am actually looking forward to the next one.

Couch book: How to Live on Mars by Robert Zubrin (haven't actually started it yet)
Bed book: Tale of Desperaux
Purse book: as always, it is still The Peshawar Lancers

Knitting update:
I am about halfway done with my project of Entrelac. It looks rather pretty.. I love it. Due to the colors, it is becoming a project for Guy, which I'm sure he will use. After all, the UK has been rather cold right now.

And on a completely random note... I just watched Labyrinth for the first time in a long time. Sigh. I love that movie. I giggle at all the goblins.

Sunday, February 15, 2009

Moorish Tile Swatch



Been meaning to post this for a while.

But this was my attempt at doing the Moorish Tile pattern by ... someone lol on Ravelry.

The original pattern calls for color changes etc, but instead I did it as a Knit/Purl to make texture instead of color changes.

I do have another photo that I need to post up, but I haven't actually.. well taken the photo yet. And now that the sun has gone down, it's too late to do the swatch any justice.

Tomorrow with the light, I will take a photo of my big swatch, where I did both versions of the pattern.

More knitting stuff to go..

Hmm I don't work tomorrow.. mayhaps I will go and see Underworld: Rise of the Lycans.

Who knows though..

Saturday, February 14, 2009

Valentines Day Vampires and insanity inducing knitting..

So, yesterday I finally did it!
I figured out how to do Entrelac. Which for you non knitters, it is a huge insanely cool looking thing, and for those who are knitters who haven't figured out how to do it, it is a huge daunting pain in the ass. For those knitters who have figured it out, it's a breeze.
But either way, I finally did it. An entire week of misery at work and misery coming home and beating my brain against the wall trying to figure it out. I finally did it.
I will of course post pictures, but not right now.

Moving along..

Today I finally got the house to myself for a while.
And this is why I think that I can actually be a writer when I put my mind to it.
I've had the house to myself for about 3 hours. An hour of that time was spent finishing up watching a movie, talking to Guy, finishing the baking that Mother of Mine was doing, and making myself some lunch, bathroom brakes etc.
The other 2 hours of time was spent writing.
And in those 2 hours, I wrote approximately 2,341 words, of fresh new and exciting plot and storyline. Woohoo. Now imagine what I could do with a full eight hours?
Page wise, it's not much. Story wise, it's a lot. One of the KEY bits has finally been written out, and another scene that I'm not fully sure about yet has also begun.
I shall be sending those chapters off to Minion for his review.
I am now officially up to Chapter Eight. Woohoo. I still need to go and add a little bit to Chapter 5, but meh, that's not going anywhere.
I am currently taking a break, as the next bit of writing has to be perfect, and that requires some time for it to simmer and stew.

Well, I am off to go eat a oatmeal chocolate chip cookie, and call my Guy as since I have the house to myself, I can have a phone conversation without feeling the need to lock myself in my bedroom. And after all, it's Valentines day. I want to talk to my hunny.

Later people. The novel, is actually acting like a real novel. This is neat.

Thursday, February 12, 2009

Today already is not a good day.

It technically started yesterday, and just hasn't gotten better at all.

My beloved mp3 player.. my Creative Zen, has died on me. It freezes, and will not charge due to the frozen status.
After much troubleshooting on my part and frustration, I submitted a "hey its broke" ticket to Creative, and this morning..
I got an email back from Creative saying "oh your past your 60 day email support, but if you want to pay out the butt we'll give you 30 minutes of support, after that, we charge you more."
Luckily, when I bought it, I bought the 2 year protection from Overstock.com, which means Overstock will take care of it. But I can't call them until after work.

Yesterday continued:
My knitting was making me frustrated beyond belief, but mostly it was a silly mistake on my part the last time, tonight I am hoping for better results and I think I am understanding the situation more and more. That is what is keeping me from being actually "insane" by Einstein's theory. I am learning each time I do it, therefore I am actually getting different results.

Mother of Mine made pork chops for dinner with Pacific Rose apples that I had picked up, it turned out really good. The apples stayed crisp and yummy. I can't wait to try them in a pie. That was the only highlight of the evening.

I went to bed.

I turned up my heating blanket, as it has been cold, and one of the blankets I normally have needs to be washed, therefore it's a tad chillier than normal.

Well, I woke up to my heating blanket being completely off, and me in serious pain due to shivering.

And a cat who decided to meow incessantly from 4:45 until 5:10 when it was time to go downstairs. I honestly wanted to kill him.

As I was driving to work I realized I had forgotten my scarf at home, which attributed even more to the cold factor.

I'm at work, I'm tired, I'm cranky, I'm still cold even after a cup of tea. I've been here for 2 and a half hours already and I am still not warm.

Thanks to the tea I had to use the ladies room prior to when I normally do, and of course ran into the cleaning guy who ALWAYS shows up to clean the bathroom when I absolutely need to use it. And it does not matter which of the 3 bathrooms I go to. He's always there. It's like he has a 6th sense about me having to pee desperately.

Work has been busy, and I sit here wanting to cry. It's just a craptastic day. Yelled at Guy for something that really I should have just kept to myself, but it had been nagging me for a while, so now I feel bad for snapping at him about it because he feels about the reason for what I had snapped at him about.

I wanted to tell a person to fuck off in Ravelry, because I had mentioned a neat idea I had and I wanted input.
Basically: Character in my novel is blind. Just due to old age, but because she had been going blind for many years, she learned how to read braille.
I had an idea that not only did she use her Minds Eye (as she's very witchy), she also had a deck of tarot cards in Braille.

Well someone asked me why i felt she "needed" to read braille.

Ummm.. practicality?

Just for the novel's sake, the way to make my world more believable is to have just enough "real world" in the fantastical world. That way when someone reads what I've written the sit there and go "yeah.. I can see that happening."

Not to mention, if I truly was going fully blind, and I knew it. I mean not just partial vision, I would learn to read braille. And as someone who throws the tarot at least once a month, I would want a deck that I could read.

I even think I might someday actually make a deck of tarot cards in braille, I think it's a neat idea.
But the way that person commented, after everything I've dealt with for the past two days, just made me want to tell them to fuck off.

I was polite and didn't do that, but it urked me.

I want to go home.
No.
I want to get on a plane and go to the UK. I don't want to be in this damn country anymore, I don't want to be in this job anymore, and I want to have something go right for once.

Wednesday, February 11, 2009

Throwing the hat in..

So, last night a decision was made. What was that decision?
Well, a local MP in Guy's area has decided to retire. He has decided that he doesn't want to be in office when he turns 60. So he is stepping down. I understand his decision whole heartily... I mean, the political life can be rough, especially when your in your "I should be retired" years.

Guy has decided to throw his hat in the political arena. This is not a surprise as his eventual goal is to become Prime Minister, and one has to start somewhere.
The surprise is the timing. We weren't even going to start this kind of endeavour until he graduated, and I was over there with him.

At this stage, it is just submitting his name for even the option to run. But, if he gets selected, then he'll start campaigning etc. He'd also be the youngest MP.

I am sad, as I want to be there to help him campaign etc. I had braced myself for the Political Wifely duty, but this is ... Early!

I cannot tell him not to do it, because the opportunity is unlikely to present it's self again any time soon and he'd be a fool not to submit his name.
This is what we have been hoping for. 3 years now, we have been working towards this. It's just.. again... early!

If Guy were to get selected. And actually WIN the campaign... He would become a MP, and he would have a salary around £57,000 (I think thats the number he told me last night) a year, and also accommodation in London. (Well, up to £20,000 for accommodation) which.. hell. We could do nicely with that.
The money aside, this would be the perfect start to Guy's political career and eventual run for Prime Minister.

We want this!

It would also mean, that if he won the campaign, I would be hot footing it out there sooner rather than later. (After I get my tax refund, I'll be only like 5 months away from having the full amount I'm trying to save for the move. But with Guy's salary, we wouldn't have to wait those 5 months)

Methinks I'm going to start lighting candles and doing my witchy stuff.
I ask for prayers (doesn't matter who you pray to), and thoughts and wishes to help in this matter as it would drastically change both mine and Guy's life for the better.

Now, I'm being sensible, and I'm not getting my hopes up. I've known too many Murphey's to be that silly. But I am letting that little hope in side of me actually think about how great it would be.
Yeah, moving to England sooner rather than later would be sweet, but it's not even that that I'm thinking of. It's the fact that if he did get this, he'd be one step closer to his dream, and for me that means a lot.
I can suffer through 16.5 more months of a job that makes me want to cry and pull my hair out.
I can horde my finances away each month for another 16.5 months. I've been doing it for over a year already.
I can live as I've been living for the last year and a half (I say that because, I wasn't happy with my living setup prior to that coughDot/Amanda/Cherylcough

So when it comes down to it, I can and will live how I've been living for the last 2 years. But to have him get closer to his dream, sooner rather than later, would make everything much better for the both of us.

Tuesday, February 10, 2009

Repo! and Coraline

So I know I've been a total slacker and haven't posted anything recently, but I've been honestly busy, and exhausted.

So just a quicky about Repo, this shall be the very watered down version...
There I am, dressed, as the Grave Robber (I mean after all, he is the coolest character!)
I see someone dressed as Pavi.. I go to take my photo with him. There is someone standing in front of me.
That person turns around and looks directly at me and my knees went weak.
It was Terrence!
I completely did the speechless fan girl practically pissing herself with excitement.
He was highly amused with my reaction (you could tell by his expression)
He loved my costume, and we got many photos together (yes, I will link to photos when I finally pull them off my camera.)

I got to chat with him for a moment, and informed him about my plans:
1) I’m moving to the UK in 17 months and I want to do a weekly Repo type showing situation so I want to talk to him about that.
2) I got inspired to make a scarf inspired by the GraveRobber and when I’m finished it, I want to send it to him (honestly, you should have seen the expression on his face, it was so touching. He looked like I had just given him a puppy)

And 3) a bit about my novel, as there is a character homage to the graverobber (its a Steampunk novel) and I wanted to make sure that an ‘homage’ was alright. I don’t want to get sued.

Had to go inside, time for the film.
Got to hear all the stories from Darren, Terrence and Bill (yes, Bill Mosely.. Luigi himself!)
Watched the movie. Sang with every song.
After the show was autograph time.

Terrence was so cool and wrote a note about my costume on my poster. And he gave me some more info about another Road Tour going to the UK hopefully in the next few weeks, but thats still in the works.

All in all.. I had a fabulous time.

Pictures will be added soon. But I'm at work and don't have access to them right now.

Alright, on to Coraline. Book was by Neil Gaiman

Mother of Mine went and saw it this past Sunday. I am so glad we did. Though my only real complaint is the 3D glasses they gave us were out of a hard plastic and therefore hurt both my mother and I in different places (pinched my ears, hurt her nose)

The movie was amazing. And it was MADE for 3D which was so cool. They did stray a little from the story, but all in all they didn't do too badly, and the changes they made are understandably necessary.

Of course anyone who plans on seeing the movie I recommend to read the book first. It's a quick read and won't take you long at all. But it will make some things so much more amusing if you do.

The only MAJOR change they made was the addition of a new person. But, I see why they did it as to get it out of just being all Coraline all the time.

There was some amazing knitting in the movie, which yes.. those WERE real pieces of knitwear. Made on tiny needles by a person with far more paitence than I shall ever have. Think about it.. the scale was 1:8 (they were expecting 1:10, but she gave them 1:8!!!!!!)
Someone has already made the gloves, (in adult size) which I might have to someday make, and the sweater was neat as well.

All in all I had a lot of fun.

More posts to continue when I can finally function. work has just been insane, and I cannot wait for 16.5 months from now. Cause I'm just exhausted.