Bit of this, bit of that...

As much as I love cooking, I freely admit that I will happily let someone cook for me so I don't have to do it.

My brother has an aptitude for it though. That and he is infinitely more patient than I am. And he has more time to do so. He was nice enough to make chicken tempura tonight. It was very yum.

Tried my hand at longstitch binding today.

It was an interesting experience. All in all it took 4 hours.
3 hours 20 minutes to prepare the pages, the resizing took forever!
40 minutes to do all the sewing.

I think it turned out fairly alright for a first attempt. I didn't want to wreck my pristine papers so I made it out of recycled materials instead. Cardboard from a coffee box and A4 paper that has at least one side unused (from all the photocopies that I don't need anymore ^_^ ), leftover crochet cotton and some PVA.

Next time I might dilute the PVA a bit or use something else that won't warp the cover too much. And use the paper trimmer instead of doing it manually.

I do like it though. It's actually quite secure and the pages fan out beautifully.

After working on various cons, community events, etc for a while I'm so used to being behind the scenes or behind a table that I have difficulty adjusting to just being an attendee. The main exceptions are professional skills development seminars and craft expos. I love to just shop at these expos, buy a year's worth of supplies and join the workshops.

I went to Craft Expo aka Craftfest at the Dome last Thursday, my only free day >_< and had a ball of a time. Being the first day, it was quiet in comparison to the sort of traffic they got that weekend. I loved the multiple aisle setup, it had a market sort of feel.

Picked up a lot of supplies, mostly of the papercrafting kind. There were some awesome paper sets. Got a couple of packs of parchment card and nabbed some show specials. Not to mention I got a few rotary cutters for cheap. I've got reliable local and online suppliers for my other craft supplies that I didn't bother with getting stuff like yarn or jelly rolls. I finally tried a water brush pen after putting it off for so long. It feels weird not to have to constantly dip the brush into the pot. I don't know why I didn't try the brush pen earlier. I got to try it out before I bought one and tried it out in combination with stamping and it turned out pretty cool. Going to give it more of a test drive soon to get some practice controlling water flow and to get a better feel for how much ink/paint needs to be loaded on the brush. Can't wait to use this with my watercolours.





I loved their Discovery Desks. It had 15 minute demos for techniques and by extension, some new products. Napkin decoupage is something I've never really seen which was interesting because they used a medium to adhere it to textiles as well freeform sculpting. The workshops and seminars were really fun and interactive. Definitely picked up some great tips and ideas from it.
Got the chance to try polymer bead making and playing with Sculpey. It's fun, but I can't really see myself taking it up. I think I've taken up too many crafts as it is!

Can't wait til the next one. Finders Keepers Markets in May (for indie stuff) and S&C expo is in August.

I wonder how many people would be interested in an online craft swap on DW. Anyone know of any DW comms doing so? (not including Ravelry swaps XD)

I'm really looking forward to all the guests but people....another seiyuu is coming to Australia!

(snipped from SMASH! site)

I suspect I'll be reliving NGE fandom in the lead up to August. But wow that was a decade ago. There's more info on the website especially about the venue change. Gosh I haven't been to Town Hall since Animania 2006. Should be very interesting to see how it looks post-refurbishment.

( On a personal note... )

I was recced some stuff by The Pumpkin Head, so like any normal person, googled it.

Then I was like 'Hang on...the second person from the left looks really familiar.'
My first thought was miyukiko's been leading a double life! @_@



Sorry Miyu.

I haven't written any poetry for at least three years, so it was a bit of a surprise.
Wrote it to enter the lovely otterdance's signed bookmark competition. I couldn't resist when I saw the words "Be imaginative." XD

I tend to do fan poems a certain way. This has some similarities to the one I wrote for Bridge to Terabithia (awesome book BTW), although with the 250 max word count, I couldn't quite do it justice like the one I did for Terabithia. Maybe I'll work on that later to get back into a poet's frame of mind.

( Poem )

Poring now has a friend XD

I started crocheting the decorative lace for a hook case today. The crochet part is done...much quicker than I expected. Getting the hang of charts helps too XD. Now to find a fabric that complements purple to sew the inner compartments.

So went to do convention organise-y things today.
Um...was fairly productive? Small meeting, then huge meeting, then department meeting of two...XD
Wandered off for food after a close shave with traffic due to my woolgathering. Went to Myer food court and am lamenting that the awesome Malaysian place that had this delicious peanut tofu dish was replaced with a KFC. Normally I don't mind that much...but I had my heart set on having the peanut tofu dish. Got lost trying to find the other food court which technically does not exist due to the renovations, so went back out to check the pavement artist.

Spent an inordinate amount of time in Kino with arccie and pharaoh_cat. I'm wanting the Bunka Fashion Design series of books that was translated into English. It is a wonderful guide to fashion design, fashion plates; incorporating the basic fundamentals then progressing to more advanced stuff, particularly with patterning. I am in great and severe pain after seeing the price tag however. $75 approx per book and there are four books in this series. T__________T
Guess I know what I'll be asking for my birthday.
Ended up getting myself another embroidery book and the next book in the Kyuuto! series, Woolly Embroidery.

Popped off to Galaxy next, where I spent more on updating my SGA novel collection and getting the Elenium omnibus. Must remember to drop by in a couple of weeks and see if the Tamuli omnibus has arrived.

OMG YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Karl Urban is going to be at Sydnova!

I have less than a month to decide if I want my covers for ROTK or CoR signed. Or track down Bones merchandise.

I want to go to Sydnova in Starfleet blue now T____T

Sharing something that I'm currently working on mostly while commuting by train.




I'm always a sucker for a meme....

Comment here saying you want to play. I will find seven things off of your profile and you have to post in your journal with why you are interested in them. At that time, I will comment and squee. And possibly also participate in the fun by having you choose seven of my interests. We will go round and round and round.

So noxie gave me the following...

( Read more... )