Quietish

Another Borg post is up (CLICK) but because I really don’t want to neglect this blog because I’m doing stuff over there too, I’ll share photos with you here. The hive only got video, peh!

Well actually first, I must mention that the Leaky Cauldron July Craft-Along (CLICK) opened today. Please go there and craft along with us! I’m hoping to get my supplementary video walkthrough up sooooon.

I made a needlebook the other day. I wanted to see if I could do it. I’m very pleased with it.

I also finished a gift for a really cool kid who’s special to me and happens to like Harry Potter.

I used block patterns by Jennifer / Ofenjen.

Also, I thought I’d share a cute drawing Jamie made. Her skills are getting much more refined. (It used to be all big-headed birds, all the time.)

Dude, click this image and read. Go ahead. I’ll wait.

I know, crazy right? I got a letter from J. K. Rowling. I can’t even believe it. I got it Friday before my trip to “camp” with the Flemings, so I’ve had a few days to cool down. A little. Wow. Wow.

Here’s what I made. (This is the sooper sekrit Crafty Witch Project tm previously mentioned here and here.)

Hi all,

This is Rosemary, aka Quietish on the Leaky Lounge. I, along with my
fellow Crafty Witches, would like to invite you to join us for The
Leaky Cauldron’s first ever Craft-Along!

Starting in May, Leaky Crafts will be hosting a new Craft-Along every
other month in the Harry Potter Crafts forum on the Leaky Lounge.
There is a special forum where members can participate in the
Craft-Along and share with others, here:
http://www.leakylounge.com/Contests-and-Craft-Alongs-f304.html

We begin May 1st and our first project will be to make our own wands,
following a tutorial for a simple wand, with a few options.

I hope you all will grab your supplies and craft-along with us. Check
out the Crafts Feature page on The Leaky Cauldron for more information.
http://www.the-leaky-cauldron.org/features/crafts/craftalong

Cheers,
Rosemary

I finally have my very own Chudley Cannons afghan, and I’m soooooo happy. THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU, Amber for this very special gift. I shall cherish it forever. <3 <3 <3

While I’m here I’ll share the reason I didn’t get much knitting done yesterday.

Hey, all. I’m around, and owe you an update. Although I should point out that one could better keep track of me on Twitter (where my user name is Quietish, of course), as I can post small updates from my phone where ever I am at the time.

Letsee.. Justin is going out of town again tomorrow, this time to Anchorage, Alaska. While I’m not pleased about this, Justin’s happy dancing all over the place. He keeps it to a minimum when I’m around, though.

I’ve been keeping busy on the crafty front. My main project for the time being is to make a series of Harry Potter themed gifties for my fellow Crafty Witches, all of whom have been so kind and generous to me. I feel it is time to repay the kindness. No pics though, teehee. Naughty Crafties!

Speaking of the Crafty Witches. Check out the news article on Leaky News about an upcoming feature to Leaky Crafts. Craft-Alongs! My primary job is now preparing and hosting Craft-Alongs every other months (and coming soon, seasonal Crafty Contests) on Leaky and the Leaky Lounge. Please feel free to join us starting May 1st. If you’re not already a member on the Lounge, it’s easy to register an account. Our project for May is a simple wand with some fun customizations.

I’m off again, zooooom.

When it’s been weeks since one has posted anything on her blog, it is really hard to know where to pick back up again. In such an instance, one is very tempted to delete everything and start from scratch. You know, come up with a gimmick or at least a blog theme instead of the catch-all thing that Quietish is. Being that the problem in the first place is lack of motivation to post however, obviously I can’t be bothered scrape around for some creativity.

So I thought I might update on what I’ve been up to for the past weeks. That’ll be fun, right? In no discernible order:

• After years of not really watching much at all, we finally broke down and bought a (laughably small) HD TV for the bedroom. We then hooked it up to cable. This event strangely coincides with the time my friends noticed that I quit signing onto my instant messengers. Funny, that.
• In a related note, I am writing to you now from my new favorite spot of the apartment (the perch on my bed directly in front of said TV) with an extra computer Justin scrounged up for me. The pictures following were also taken from The Perch. I only needed to lean over and grab the camera out of my purse. This will explain my lack of makeup or brushed hair.
• Because we all know I needed another hobby, Justin and I have been playing Dungeons and Dragons every weekend with friends Matt and Mary Ellen, and lately some newer friends from nearby Charlie Bean. I am currently a Level 5 Halfling Rogue. Fear me.
• Yes I’ve been knitting some. I have not been excited enough to post about it though. You can see finished pics here, if you are so inclined.
• Recently I discovered that my beloved Clapotis had a few small holes in it. I frogged it and have spent a few weeks thinking about what to use the yarn for next. I could have knit another Clappy, but I don’t think I have it in me. Until this morning I was thinking I’d make a shrug. A bit ago though, I decided on the Clementine Shawlette.

  

  I have been fickle lately though, so I might get another inch in and frog it. I’ll let you know how it goes.

• I recently had a whole troup of Wizard Rockers roll into town for the Whomp The House tour and play a lovely show at Charlie Bean. I whined about Kelly not being there the whole time, but I had an excellent evening. I took very poor pictures. Sorry. You can see them here though.
• The Oklahoma City area has a new Harry Potter fan group. We are bowling on Sunday. Please come, if you can. Potter people have lots of fun.
• I changed my hair.

  

Catchyalater. Peace out.

So, um, wow.

What can someone say in a blog-appropriate length about one of the most awesome weekends in one’s living memory? I am not really going to try to get it all in, but I will say that:

Abby is my new hero.

Kelly appeared to have an excellent birthday celebration.

I got to spend time with a few wonderful HP friends, including Kim and many Wrockers. Why yes, I am a lucky and privileged chickie.

Despite it’s remoteness, that part of Missouri is quite beautiful.

Harry Potter and Wizard Rock fans are made of win and are made of love. This should be a no-brainer as we come together with the common interest of a book series that teaches love, compassion, friendship, and perseverance, but to see that in action is indescribable.

This event has helped bump the Harry Potter Alliance into official non-profit organization standing.

I was rendered speechless many times, quite a few of which were the work of Andy (of the HPA). HP fans are changing the world.

I love Uncle Carl.

I am very blessed to be in this fandom, and am very happy. Although I am still pretty sore and now somewhat ill.

I was a bad photographer really and took just a few photos. You can see them here.

I shall be here, through the weekend. See ya there!

Love, Rosemary

I’ll warn you now that I’m in a mood to whinge, so the post below will follow accordingly.

I shouldn’t complain. Life is good. Really.

But the crafting? Not so good.

Knitting goes. It’s fine. I’m just a bit uninspired and when I am inspired, I’m too busy to do anything about it. I would be tempted to cast on every project I have the yarn for, but I would like to keep on with my tactic of not exploding my head.

I would like to quilt. I want to try paper piecing like Jen does. I want to make up crazy HP themed appliqué designs as well. The problem? I have a very lame fabric stash. It’s a stack of highly-patterned fat quarters, mostly. This makes it hard to find anything worth cutting into tiny pieces to sew back together. And if I did have a fabric stash, I’m not sure where I’d put it anyway.

I have been daydreaming about beading. Beads are beautiful. I want to loom bead. I want to learn the peyote stitch. I want to work with tiny, tiny Delicas. I don’t know how to start though and, as is usual around here nowadays, I don’t even have time to put the research into it. Although I think I’m hitting the bead market with Susan.

Yeah, you’re right. I have so much to do that not only can I decide what I want to do more, I don’t even have time to consider. So, it’s knitting by default I guess. I can cast-on a new project in my sleep.

I’ve managed to squeak a little reading in lately, but it’s still not enough! And my little dream of one day actually writing again? Just as I lost my ability to speak German with any fluency when I quit using it, I fear I will not know how to string a sentence in English when I finally do sit down and try to put something out. I can picture showing up for my first day back in college classes (maybe next year? gulp) all eager and happy-go-lucky with pencil in hand, only to have my brain leak out my ears when the Freshman Comp professor assigns the first essay.

This last weekend I spent a few hours in the tattooing chair of a very good artist that’s working in Oklahoma now. People that do such good work always make me wistful about art. I’m annoyed that I quit back when I was in the right place to keep going with it. Now I’m all rusty and feel like I’ll never catch back up. The idea of trying for art school now is laughable. I can’t find time to sketch even weekly.

While I’m at it, I suppose I could go ahead and mention that this year I’ve also had weekly guitar lessons. Full disclosure and all that. I’ve been at it since February, when I decided that I’d been wanting to play for as long as I could remember and should finally just go for it. I’m happy, I love it, I look forward to every session. It is VERY slow going though, I assume because my practice-at-home time consists of a few minutes here and there of grabbing the thing up and playing a few bars before having to put it back down. I really am not used to not being instantly good at something. (Double negative, wheee!)

As is consistent with my above statements about not knowing how to write anymore, I shall now end this post with no real point. I’m frustrated and while I know that you all will have great advice and wonderful words of encouragement, I’m just gonna have to live through the frustration for awhile. It’s just part of my regular cycle and when it’s done I’ll pick back up and happily move along. I just like to whinge about it now and then.

At least I’m thinking about creative things, right?

Thanks for listening. For sticking around, I’ll post the pic of a hat I started last night.

Ciao.

Yesterday Jamie was in the other room drawing pictures (probably of birds) and I could hear her as she began to tell Cian what her picture was about. She said “I am drawing a story” and then told him about the animals in the picture. They could change into other animals. She included crazy, swishing sound effects.

So I called them into the office where I was sewing something and told them a bit about Animagi.

“What kind of animal do you think you’d turn into if you were an Animagus?” I asked, my preschool-show-host voice surprising me.

“A penguin.” Jamie, of course. She has a thing for Piplup.

“A woolps.” Wolf. Cian has not yet mastered the use of the -f- sound at the end of words.

“What would I be if I were an Animagus?” I was sure it’d be “Turtwig!” or some other such creature.

“You would be an owl.”

I’m quite pleased. I’m not sure I would have thought of owls first. Don’t get any ideas. I will not be carrying anyone’s mail.

——-
Anywho. Nothing new to show on the knitting front. Cian’s sweater has a few inches on the first sleeve, but I’m moving pretty slow.

My brother’s on his way to California and I believe will be stopping by tonight. Must. clean.

Since it’s been so long since we’ve had one. How about a puppy dog picture?

Ginevra, sitting atop the crates.