Green & Brown

We went to a Wal-Mart with fabric yesterday. They didn’t have anything new, so I went ahead and bought fabric for *gasp* $1.87 a yard instead of the desired $1 a yard. I know, I’m cheap. I bought three yards of brown broadcloth for a tunic, and three yards of forest green for a skirt experiment. My younger sister bought seven yards of a fabric that’s three shades of green for me to make her a cloak with.

I still haven’t finished my fifth PaFQ II scene. I introduced three new characters – Joaquin Jerico, Tristyn (which is likely to change) Rourke, and Liam Rourke.

My younger sister is straightening my older sister’s hair. It’s very long.

And I need to work on my lab report on the experiment I did to find out whether various household substances were polar covalent or purely covalent. Since most of them contained water, it was easy to guess the outcome. The soy milk behaved strangely when mixed with the oil and water and didn’t dissolve in either of them, though.

Have a mind-blowing rest of your life.

- WM

Animals & Cloaks

I was in a picture mood today. Bear with me.

A week ago, the two neighbor children we frequently babysit came over. Cade (or Caid) likes Molly quite a bit, and he enjoyed my taking pictures of him. So here are their sweet faces:

Later, Amy invited Molly onto the sofa.

Of course, when I was taking pictures of Molly, I couldn’t leave Sydney out, though she usually won’t sit still enough for a picture unless she’s sleeping.

Today, I took pictures of our other three animals.

This is Tahn, my gerbil. He was very curious about the camera.

So was Drinian, Laura’s gerbil.

The only way to get a clear picture of Tahn without using the flash is to offer him food and hold it, or take the picture while he’s eating or sleeping.

This is Laura’s betta fish, Neptune.

I finished the cloak for my friend. Besides several terrible mistakes, it went fine and looks fine.

Without hood:

With hood:

In the mirror:

I also fixed the neck on my tan cloak so it doesn’t look as bad.

Have an amazing rest of your life.
- WM

Lunar Eclipse

On Wednesday night, there was a lunar eclipse (this is when the earth’s shadow covers the moon). I finally got around to putting the pictures on my computer. Here are some of the best, which aren’t very good:

This was taken at the very beginning, so it’s hard to tell that a corner of the moon is covered. But the colors are neat.

The moon was fully covered at this point. Yes, that’s the moon, not a fingertip. It had an interesting reddish color.

And that’s similar to how most of my photos turned out.

Ah, well.

We went to Wal-Mart today, but they didn’t have any fabric I wanted at a price I wanted to pay. We also went to J.C. Penney and Kohl’s. I got a shirt. And at Wal-Mart, I did get some iron-on paper so that I can print out a picture of the white tree of Gondor and iron it onto the tabard I’m going to make with the leftover black cotton from the Renaissance shirt I made. I tried several ideas to get that tree on there, but none would work out, so I’m going to try this. Assuming the printer has white ink. I’m not sure if there is anything other than black left.

I’m tired. Oh well.

I babysit some children tonight. If the usual number is there, there will be seven.

I need to do chemistry homework.

Have a blessed rest of your life.

- WM

2/19

Every Tuesday I go to an art class. Last week I finished my drawing of Spiderman in black and Spiderman in red and blue that I did for one of the two boys my mother tutors in basic math. Now I’m drawing Peter from The Chronicles of Narnia. I’m using a picture from The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, but I’m a bit afraid his face won’t look enough like William Mosely. Oh well. It’ll still be Peter.

I tidied up the neck of the tan cloak I made. All I need to do to my friend’s cloak, made of a sky blue fabric, is hem the sides and bottom. I started sewing together the medieval-type dress (does medieval need to be capitalized?) that I cut out weeks ago. And tomorrow I’m going to a Wal-Mart that sells fabric, so I might have even more projects to work on. But the hemming of the blue cloak comes first. I’m not sure when I’ll get the dress done. I don’t need it for a specific day, though if it turns out nicely and if I can go, I might wear it to the Renaissance Festival, which is in April and May. The homeschool day is at the beginning of May, so we’d most likely go then.

I’m hoping to find fabric for a tunic (the “Legolas” tunic in the Simplicity one that has patterns for the costumes of Legolas, Elrond, and…someone else, maybe Thoeden) that I want to do in brown, some dark green fabric for a skirt, some fabric for a white version of the black Renaissance shirt I made, possibly fabric close to the color of Aragorn’s ranger cloak to make a ranger cloak, and, if they still have it, some leather-look fabric for gauntlets. This is if they have the right colors at $1 a yard. That’s enough projects to keep me busy for quite a while!

I’m reading the last book in the Kingdom series by Chuck Black, Kingdom’s Reign. The series is an allegory of the Bible set in a medievalish world. The writing is simple, but I’ve enjoyed them so far. My favorite book is Kingdom’s Call, one of two about Sir Gavinaugh, a knight who is the Biblical equivalent of Paul. In March, I’m going to start Tahn over, because it’s the Nookbook of the month on Clean Place. Then I’ll read the two sequels, Return to Alastair and The Scarlet Trefoil.  Mom started reading The Light of Eidon and is hooked, so I’ll probably read the rest of the Guardian-King series as she does, since they’ll be in the house (the library has some, if not all, of them, and we can order them from another library if need-be).

I should go do some chemistry homework. We don’t have class this week, but the term “break” is inappropriate,  due to the amount of homework the teacher piled upon us. But I have found time to get some other school done, and it really isn’t that much when I break the six assignments into work for six days. You probably think I’m crazy after I talked about all that sewing and reading I’m doing/going to do.

I hope dinner is ready (soup, salad, and bread – yum)  so I’m going to end this. Have an amazing rest of your life.

- WM

Colorado

The second annual Clean Place moot is this summer. (If you don’t know what Clean Place is, it’s the online Christian writers’ critique group I’m a member of). It’s held in Colorado, where the administrator and over half a dozen other members live, and is June 13-22. Mom is driving Nimelen and I to TN, and we, along with Lissi, are riding with Legossi to CO. It’s a 17-hour drive from TN, but I’m really looking forward to it.

I need to work on the cloak I’m making for a friend. The fabric is blue. I haven’t even finished ironing it yet. Seven yards of fabric takes a long time to iron.

I also need to get to work on editing and expanding the two novels I wrote in 2007 (one is a sequel to the other). But I’m doing Picture a Fantasy Quest on Clean Place, a writing challenge where you write a story with each scene based on the picture of Mangycat’s choice. I need to write my fourth scene before the fifth picture is posted tomorrow. It’s about an ex-bandit pursued by his former “gang” in his search for truth. So I’m not sure when I’ll have time to work on my novels, with that and all the chemistry homework and the other new project I have.

May God shower His love on you more than you’ve ever experienced it before.

- WM

Completed:

I finished the cloak. It turned out I was supposed to sew the neckband on before the hood, but…I did it the other way. Simplicity pattern instructions aren’t very clear *whistles innocently*. Otherwise, it turned out nicely, for a first try, anyway.

My younger sister got a betta fish today. She named him Neptune, my brother’s suggestion. Neptune is blue, red, and purple.

I’m reading The Light of Eidon by Karen Hancock for the second time. I’m enjoying it, like the first time, and as the first time, it frustrates me every time it switches away from Abramm’s point of view. It’s a very good book, as are the rest in the series, but there are some…adult…things. If you read it, I’d skip chapter 21 (or is it 22?). I was warned about it and haven’t read it. The series is Christian, but in that chapter the main character isn’t saved and does something he later regrets.

I’m also reading Tahn, by L. A. Kelly, for the…fourth? time. The Tahn series is VERY good. Christian fantasy. Beautiful picture of God’s love and mercy.

I’m tired. I’m typing in fragmented sentences. Yikes.

I forgot what else I was going to write about.

Have an amazing rest of your life!

- WM

Cloak

I’ve been working on the tan cloak. I cut out the pieces yesterday and have sewn some of them together today. But the hood has me a little stumped. I’m not sure how to sew it together and put it on the rest of the cloak, and whether I should put the “facing” on before or after the cloak. The directions and pictures aren’t very clear.

I did some of my chemistry homework over the weekend. It’s amazing how wonderful it feels not to have so much to do in a few days that I get a little stressed. I should do that more often. I do have an exam to do that the teacher sent home with me, but that’s all.

We watched part of the Super Bowl last night. We always make some special food and watch it for the commercials. But last night we watched part of a wedding cake making competition, part of How Do I Look?, and part of Miss America: Reality Check, flipping back and forth between those and the Super Bowl. H.D.I.L.? and M.A.:R.C. are interesting but pretty much a waste of time.

God bless you.

- WM