book report

so yeah, i know i read A LOT.......but wanted to recommend the latest on my list............

usually, i read mostly sci-fi, fantasy, and things of that nature..........within the past year or so, i've started reading mysteries, history, romance, and women's stuff............as well as anything else that looks mildly interesting...............most of the reason for this is my local public library is tiny, and all sections are very limited.........so i've gone through almost everything in my favorite sections, and now browse the entire space, hoping for something to catch my eye...........and have proceeded to work my way through entire author's collections, because i grab one book, and then go back and read everything the library has by that same author...........within a week.

so i go to the library on wed afternoon..........took back the 10 books i had out last week........and find nothing really catching my eye. so i grab two..............i just finished the second, and that's what i'm talking about here..........

in the genre of women's stuff.......by new york times bestselling author Kristin Hannah...........

"Firefly Lane"

about best friends, growing up from the 70's to today..........getting through life's ups and downs, staying friends through career and marriage/parenthood............

i never cry at books..............well, this ending made me cry, for something like 50 pages...........

a wonderful read.........a wonderful story..........

deaths of legends.......

well, several things on this topic.......cause it seems to be one of those weeks.......

on a more regional level, i recently found out that a prominent member of an organization i played with recently passed.........yes, king cheslov of markland has gone to the great beyond...... http://www.companionsofthecross.com/ for a pic and obit........this man did more than i ever thought possible........both for country, and for reenactment!!

and on a more global level...........arthur c. clarke (author of such enduring things as 2001: a space oddysey) has died at the age of 90!.............. http://tv.msn.com/news/article.aspx?news=306053 ............wonderful writer, did quite a bit for both the genre, adn for hard space science as well..............

both men will be missed greatly!

knitting tips

alright, here's my crafty concepts for the evening..........

first, for all those books that are not spiral bound........yeah, it breaks the spine, but some books don't open unless you break that spine!!

and for all the times you hafta frog, and you are using a center pull ball.......knitting off the peice of card was a little fiddly, but saves issues with tangling!!! and yes, my snake ate my yarn cake.....that's why i made him!! i didn't want the silk yarn to get all weird, so i'm holding it snugly in the solipsis snake..........

(also, i really wanted to show off the pretty colors of silk i'm knitting with).......

i uploaded more pics to flickr.........and rav..............

laters all!!!

odd things.......

warning:: this could give you nightmares.........

ever seen the movie "black sheep"?? i think that's the name.......it's set in australia or NZ, something like that...........about zombie sheep, eating people.............it's gruesome, but hysterically funny............

now, take that info, and relate it to this pic...............

i found this (through friends on the knitty coffeshop boards) at http://freshome.com/2008/03/13/the-creepiest-chair-youll-ever-see/

the tooth fairy gets cranky!!

i just had to share this..........

the backstory is, my stepmonstermonkey lost a tooth today.........at lunch, at school........well, the little doof left it in the cafeteria!! and by the time she went back to get it, she coulnd't find it........she's pretty sure the cleanup crew got it, and it's in the dumpster...........

so, being as she had no tooth to put under her pillow, we wrote the tooth fairy a note, explaining the circumstances.

and this is what the tooth fairy wrote her back::

DEAR ANASTASIA,

THANK YOU FOR YOUR NOTE. I ALREADY DUG OUT THE TOOTH; YES IT WAS IN THE DUMPSTER. THANKS A LOT, NOW I SMELL FUNNY, AND WHAT’S WITH THIS BANANA PEEL BEING STUCK TO MY WINGS?? NOW I CAN’T FLY RIGHT. THANKS A LOT. I THINK I LOST MY WAND; IT BROKE WHEN I USED IT TO PROP UP THE DUMPSTER LID, AND NOW I CAN’T FIND THE PIECES.

YES, I FORGIVE YOU. YES, YOU STILL GET THE MONEY; BUT BECAUSE OF THE HARDSHIPS INVOLVED, YOU GET MONEY THAT YOU ARE NOT ABLE TO SPEND. HAVE FUN WITH IT TACKED TO YOUR WALL, RIGHT NEXT TO YOUR CHINESE MONEY. EVERY TIME YOU LOOK AT IT, REMEMBER SOMETHING FOR ME, ALRIGHT??

QUIT LOSING YOUR TEETH!! THIS TIME YOU LEFT IT AT LUNCH, ANOTHER TIME I HAD TO DIG IT OUT OF YOUR MOTHER’S ARMCHAIR; YOU’VE NEVER MADE IT EASY FOR ME!! YOU’RE LUCKY YOU’VE EVER GOTTEN MONEY FOR THEM, WHAT WITH ALL THE ISSUES I’VE HAD TRYING TO RETRIEVE THEM!!!!!

NEXT TIME, DO ME A FAVOR?? DON’T LOSE YOUR TOOTH, WHEN YOU LOSE YOUR TOOTH.

THANKS A LOT, KID. SEE YOU AROUND!!

-THE TOOTH FAIRY

the "tooth fairy" took her note, and left her this, with a $2 bill..........

just thought this really needed to be shared...........i'll post tomorrow with her reactions..........
i just thought everyone really needed a giggle right about now!! we almost snarfed laughing, while writing it...........

new places to find our shtuff

yeah, i know, y'all find rabenwald in so many places.......at ren faires, at sca events, at dag events, on myspazz, knitty, ravelry, ebay...............

now, here's another place to find your friendly neighborhood metalsmyths.......on etsy.

rabenwald.etsy.com ...................some of our weirder stuff, some of our normal stuff.............and this is where drogo's newest obsession is gonna have its home..........

yes, my dear man is into STEAMPUNK.

if you don't know what that means, google it..........that's really the only advice i have.......

come out and give us a look!!

thx all.........

opinion time poll

yeah, i'm looking for feedback here..................i'm in a quandary.

so a few posts back, i squeed over some new fabric i got...........now, i know what most of it is gonna be.............i've got (total) five pairs of pants, two tunics, a nightgown, some headscarves, and some mystery fabric.

it's the mystery i'm trying to work out.

and by mystery, i mean the absolutely gorgeous, two toned with gold accents sari fabric.

i'm pretty sure i want it to be a persian coat..............cut so that the edging is in the middle.........

but this leaves me with issues. first off, this fabric is very slippery, making it difficult to cut and sew........next, stuff like this is famous for fraying off the body if the seams arent' done right.........also, it's fineness and slipperyness make it have no body and no warmth (while trapping moisture, making it uncomfortable to wear next to the skin)...............and lastly, the style of coat i want needs to have certain components............

which leads me to questions, that need opinions.

so i'm holding a sort of opinion poll..............

here are the pics................the fabric;

and what i want to make from the fabric...............from codex vindobonensis 8626 (pic found at http://www.geocities.com/anahita_whitehorse/ottofemcloth.html )

and a crop from this pic, specifically what i wanna do.............the coat, here shown pink, with a green edged yellow lining.

now, i'm looking to use my sari fabric for the outer peice of the coat..........my quandary is i need a lining. i personally dont' really like green or yellow............sometimes if it's the right color, but not usually.................and i already have several coats of this sort, yes they were worn in layers.........i have a short sleeved black velvet, lined with gorgeous rose colored floral paisley brocade............and a long-sleeved purple velvet, lined in dark blue cotton...............the pants seen here i sometimes wear, a mottled dark blues.........i also have shalwar, in a very light satin that is kinda purply-blue...............

but as can be seen from the codex vindobonensis pics, outfits did not neccessarily coordinate........or match.............and many bright colors would have been worn together............so in reality, i'm a little too monocromatic..............except for the rose lining.

so i'm looking for opinions here...........what color should i line the sari fabric with?? i'm thinking of bonding the lining to the sari, then cutting............it will stabilize the sari, making it easier to cut and sew, and less likely to fray................i will prolly be french seaming this whole buggering thing............and i might pick up wide ribbon, to edge the lining also............but that would hafta be yet again a totally different color...............

i want the lining fabric to be cotton, prolly a plain single color............

my favorite colors are reds, blues, purples, blacks, and greys..................i also wear whites, or at least creams..............

i dislike greens and yellows.............they make me look sallow, unless they are just the right shade, and it's tough.....................

a bright color would prolly be best...............but for personal preferences, i'd prefer something that doesn't clash...............much.............and actually coordinates somewhat with what i already have..........

i have made sure that anonymous postings are allowed for comments...............please, drop me a line, give me what you think...............it will ultimately be my choice; but as i don't have any girlfriends nearbye, adn i'm tired of making drogo do this for me, drop me a line!!

thx in advance y'all..............

new ways to get ahold of me

and yes, i know that this is two in one night, even in one hour.......
but.........

i just got google talk.........so any of my friends with gmail, or google accounts in general, get in touch and i'll make sure you get put on the list..........

this especially goes for said girls that got mentioned in the post directly under this one!!

laters all, i think i'm done for the night (but i'm not promising anything!)

nyah nyah nyah nyah nyah!!!

i just wanted to let everyone know, i had the windows open today.......the banks we passed with temperature readings on their signs said anything from 68degrees to as high as 72degrees..........it was beautiful, sunny, warm, with a breeze............

yeah, i'm being mean..........but then again, it's supposed to snow later this week.........so i had to, just had to..............

it's days like today that remind me that winter will end eventually................

on another note............i'm debating on joining the challenge........... http://chilechews.blogspot.com/2008/02/stress-less-in-march.html ...............i'm just not sure. it's a great plan, to spend 30minutes a day of mindfulness (meditation, yoga, stuff like that that keeps your thoughts on the now, not the worries)............it would be a good idea, for every day, to take time out and calm down, get centered/grounded, stuff like that...............i'm just worried that trying to fit something into the daily schedule will actually cause more stress in the house..........either just trying to remember to do it, or freaking out when i get to bed adn realize i've forgotten..............i'm hideous at remembering things............even things that happen every day (the number of days i simply forget to brush my hair, until it's either bedtime or we're about to leave the house, is simply uncountable)(and this is bad, my hair is almost long enough to tuck into my pants!)...................and our daily schedule is hectic enough without trying to impose something else onto it..............
i'm just not sure.
i might start doing soemthing like this when i can......on my own time, with my own stimulus.......
if i do, it's prolly gonna be something like learning tai chi, which is something i've been meaning to start anyways to help my health........

on this note, only different........
i really wish i had a friend that lived close enough to do things with.........i love all my good friends.......but my three best friends all live 6 hours away from me, in three different directions.......and i see one of them around once a year, and another twice a year (and we missed one of those times for weather, so it's down to once this year)........the third i see fairly regularly, but we are usually so crazy busy that we dont' have time to hang out and just be girls.............this drives me nuts. i have other friends that are closer, but not really less than a few hours..........and not really the kind that you would call up and say 'hey, wanna go shopping?? i'm going nuts here, i need outta the house'................
i guess what i'm saying is i'm feeling lonely...........
now, this is not a whine, or a ploy to convince a certain nerd to come get me.............this is just a moment of loneliness...........
and said nerd and i will get together asap, as soon as we can coordinate lives, schedules, and money issues..........on both ends.
and yes, we can hope that a certain redhead that i missed on my b-day weekend will be able to come out to something else eventually......................
and we can hope that a certain other redhead will calm down, and we can actually hang out sometime instead of running around like chickens with our heads cut off............
and yes, this has been posted in public.............
and i will try.

i love you girls.....................but i'm still gloating about today's weather!!