Seamstress?

I am wondering if there will be time this week to sew a dress for the Halloween party M&S are having next week. I should manage if I work on it every night, because I am pretty sure this is no onenighter... I want too much. An alternative would be to make something simpler but that wouldnt be as fun AND I wouldn't have a fancy gown to add to my wardrobe. Problem is, I know I don't have every night... I have three nights IF, and only IF I skip things like cooking lunches, doing dishes, and other domestic things. Sure, I could be fine with just stacking the dishwasher continually, but I'll be hungry without lunches. So. Hmm. To cut the fabric or not to cut the fabric...

For the same reasons Beledra did:

Noone is going to tag me and I feel like answering it, so I steal it. Since my names are so unusual I am not answering that question however. All for anonymity :)
And none of the lists are in any particular prioritized order.
___________

THREE THINGS YOU WANT TO DO BEFORE YOU DIE:
1) Travel to the other side of the earth
2) Build a house (or renovate one, or renovate a flat)
3) Read a million books

THREE NAMES YOU GO BY:
1) Silme
2)
3)

THREE SCREEN NAMES YOU HAVE HAD:
1) Silme
2) Sionnach
3) Miune

THREE PHYSICAL THINGS YOU LIKE ABOUT YOURSELF:
1) my hair
2) my hands
3) my calves

THREE PARTS OF YOUR HERITAGE:
1) Fisherfolk from the west of Norway
2) Farmers from the east of Norway
3) Further back: almost half of my genes are Finnish (Savolainen actually).

THREE THINGS THAT SCARE YOU:
1) Betrayal
2) Houses burning down
3) Loosing beloved pets

THREE OF YOUR EVERYDAY ESSENTIALS:
1) Tea. In bucketloads.
2) Sleep. at least 8 hours.
3) Reading while having breakfast.

THREE THINGS YOU ARE WEARING RIGHT NOW:
1) Socks with a skull motif
2) Black corduroy pants with an unfashionable boot cut
3) A petrol (= dark turquoise for you ignorant people out there) sweater

THREE OF YOUR FAVORITE BANDS/MUSICAL ARTISTS:
1) The Sisters of Mercy
2) Apoptygma Berzerk
3) Wolfstone

THREE OF YOUR FAVORITE SONGS (in no particular order):
1) More (tSoM)
2) First we take Manhattan (Cohen)
3) Tears (the apb remix) (Cruxshadows)

THREE THINGS YOU WANT IN A RELATIONSHIP:
1) Communication
2) No fear of showing affection
3) Mutual trust

THREE PHYSICAL THINGS ABOUT THE PREFERRED SEX THAT APPEAL TO YOU:
1) Eyes
2) Smile
3) Hands

THREE OF YOUR FAVORITE HOBBIES:
1) Reading
2) Papercraft/arts/other random creation
3) Photography

THREE THINGS YOU WANT TO DO REALLY BADLY RIGHT NOW:
1) Sit right here
2) Get rid of my reader's block
3) Somehow make N talk to me about things that matters

THREE CAREERS YOU'RE CONSIDERING/YOU'VE CONSIDERED:
1) Pilot
2) Veterinarian
3) Carpenter

THREE PLACES YOU WANT TO GO ON VACATION:
1) New Zealand
2) Greece
3) USA

THREE KID'S NAMES YOU LIKE:
1) Leopold
2) Oliver/Olivia
3) Theodor/Theodora

THREE WAYS THAT YOU ARE STEREOTYPICALLY A GIRL:
1) The details of the appearance/interior of my home means alot to me
2) I am fully able of spending alot of time in front of the mirror poking and painting my face
3) Shoes and bags.

THREE WAYS THAT YOU ARE STEREOTYPICALLY A BOY:
1) I like straightforward communication with no deceptions and trick questions
2) I like action movies and dislike romantic comedies
3) I really enjoy fast cars/air planes/motor bikes/boats/helicopters etc

Some photos of the new man in my life

1) What is that black thing you are holding in front of your face? (Two days after arrival)
2) Dinner is served
3) I like this bed. It has nice pillows I can kill when you aren't looking.
4) No, you don't have to tell me this basket is for cats!
5) I KNOW WHAT THAT YELLOW AND BLACK MONSTER DOES!
6) Who, me?
7) Exploring new frontiers.
8) Damn, appears I wasn't the first one to go into this cave :(

Morgen

~ Manchmal wünsch ich mir, ein bißchen mehr von dir~

Witch on a broomstick for Satu&Marika

You start with a square sheet of paper. I have marked out the first creases we will be making here as well.

Short note about terminology: I will avoid using alot of the origami-words, but two I will use: Mountain fold and valley fold. Mountain folds have the crease towards you (they "rise" if you lay the paper on a table), while valley folds are the opposite. If that explanation wasn't good enough, feel free to google for a better one.

In the first part of the witch, it is important to be exact with the folds to make it fold into a good looking witch later on.

I have marked the creases you make in the active step with a white line sometimes, sometimes not. Hope you will forgive me for this.

First, fold the paper in two diagonally, creasing from B to D.

Unfold.
Fold the other way, so B and D meets, but only make a small crease to mark the center of the paper.

Unfold. Turn the paper over.
Fold the tip of B down to the center (E), creasing sharply from G to F. Turn over again.

Fold G in to E (in the middle, I know I forgot to mark it). Make sure the edges are even on the rest of the sheet. Crease only up until the F-G crease, not any further. Unfold. Repeat with F.

This is what your sheet should look like. The pink creases are mountains, the blue ones valleys.


Now comes a part I am not able to explain very well. Make five shourt creases in the B-triangle, like shown below. Basically you fold the tips in along the creases, paralell, and then make a short crease inbetween the edge triangles. You might have to try a couple of times to make it look good, but it's fairly simple when you get it.



If you did the five creases above right, it should look like this when you press it flat.

Then fold the A/C flaps behind, like this.

Turned over this is what it looks like.

Fold it in two along the B/D line, collapsing the B-point at an angle. This is what it should look like:

Fold the J corner up, edge to edge with the diagonal midline. Unfold and repeat with I.

Repeat the fold above, but but the J corner behind like below. You make no new creases in this move, though you have to reverse a formerly made crease.

Like this

Now you should have this shape!

Grap the long triangle and reverse it to the front. Try to make the upper edge touch approximately upon the corner of crease we just made when folding up J.

Like this:

It is going to become the broomstick.

Make it narrower by folding in on both sides like this:

Resulting in something like this! Almost there.

The two points that used to be A and C are hanging down in the back. Fold these in. You have to partway fold the edge in front of it with it, flattening it down like below. I hope that makes sense, with the help of the photo.

You should have this:

And the last step: Making arms.
Make a small fold like this in both sides.


And you are done!

The Definition of Freedom - Going to the Movies Alone?

So, seems I broke the last barrier and you can now put that official Loner-stamp on my files. Finally gave up waiting for someone I know to have the time to go and the wish to see the same movies I do, and went alone.

So. How was it?

Creepy!

But I decided it was a good experience, in the end. I quite like going alone. I didn't have the distraction of wondering what the other person was thinking, and I could have a nice walk home in the cold, without having to make small-talk about the movie. Or something like that. I felt quite free, anyway.

And feeling free and unencumbered is a good feeling.

:)

Of Idleness and Industry

Sounds like an Austen working-title.

Anyway, this is the missing post, that I wrote in my notebook on the 12th of september. About a month ago, in other words. But it is still interesting.

Here goes:

I am an idle sort of person. I tend to postpone things that need doing, and avoid physical activity - not from any particular dislike of it (I love walking in nature, for instance), but simply because I have so many better ways to spend my time.

I am perpetually short of time. I don't have enough time to do what I like the best, and because I grab what chances I have, chores are eternally postponed.

Thus I seem lazy. Very lazy.

I have always semi-admitted to being lazy, but I started questioning that after a comment a good friend made during a conversation. People were talking about having majored in this or that subject, and I said to him privately: "I am a slacker major."

"But you achieve much more while slacking off than most others do while being industrious", he replied.

Perhaps so? What do I do while not doing useful stuff like washing dishes or going to the gym? I read hundreds of books. I make jewellery, cards and other papercraft, I knit and sew, draw and paint. These are some of my favourite things to do, and I keep myself busy with them, instead of doing less interesting things like chores.

Most of the time I'm reading, admittedly. But reading is learning and broadening my mind, no matter what I read. I can study history or read an SF novel, doesn't matter. Alot of the time I think I should read less and paint/sew/whatever more, because I am forever finding myself not having time for projects that are started and have a deadline (christmas presents, anyone?) as well as really good ideas I've dreamt up.

The main thing for me however, is that I hate not doing anything. Just sitting still and watching TV is plain impossible, I get bored out of my mind within ten minutes. Going to the cinema is a challenge. I want to, have to, work.

So, back to the original question. Do I really slack, or am I industrious in less obvious ways?

My original post ended there. However, my book about Writing says I must never end with a question, no matter how rhetorical, I should always end with a conclusion. So here we go:

I think I could perhaps hazard to claim that I am suffering of good old-fashioned artist's absent-mindedness. Meaning in most cases that I am too busy with my projects to worry about wordly worries like dishes, food or my fattening bum, that I get so absorbed in my latest endeavor that having an hour less to work on it because I have to cook lunches for work or do dishes, is something I can't even bear to consider. Thus, my own diagnosis is: I am not lazy, I have different priorities.

A Month Later

Still not been blogging. Anywhere. Been busy at work, and I've been doing stuff after work some days (like going to the cinema). And N is still away during weeks, but I have a cat (which still hasn't got a name, but is being called Cat). I will try to post photos of him later.

I wrote a blog post in my notebook, but I never typed it in. Should, some day.

Apparently I ate something very very bad yesterday, cause I woke around 2 am and felt like I had a rock in my stomach, then spent the rest of the night being very sick in all ways and not getting much sleep. Feverish too. Got some sleep just before eight, but then I got up to call in sick (no way I could go to work in the shape I am in) and then it took a while before I could sleep again. Around noon I felt pretty good but now (around 5pm) I am a shivering wreck, like the very worst hangover. Weak as a kitten. I have eaten some bread (no cheese or anything, don't dare when I'm already sick), but I should probably eat again, yet I'm not sure I dare. Tea with real sugar perhaps, just to get some energy.

We did play board games that time, it was good, and T's dog also came along. She almost won.
The coming friday we are planning to play again, but with more people (yay!), and on Sunday mum is coming to help me buy stuff in ikea. Muahaha.

What else has happened? Christine has had some drama in her personal life and almost moved back to Norway, which scared me. But now she isn't moving anyway and I am very happy. <3

I'm trying to convince my plants that its not autumn at all and that they should go on flowering and living, with partial success. And I put up my telescope in the balcony, so if we have dark clear nights I can try to look at stuff up there. Wee.

And the dentist is still trying to kill me:
The regular dentist, H, said that she was sending my papers to the hospital about the surgery I probably have to do to get rid of the infection in my jaw, and that it would take something like three months until I heard from them. Last week I got a letter telling me to come there tomorrow! NO WAY! Partly I don't have that kind of money, partly I need those three months to convince myself I will survive. And I'm not even done with the stuff they do locally trying to fix me. Got to see another person, K, going there for the third time in two weeks. The first time with her I totally panicked, I started hyperventilating and the only thing I could think was "why am I breathing so strangely". She wants to send me to specialists so they can sleep me, but that costs a fortune and so I just have to really concentrate to not panick to convince her I can do this. The second time went better, but then I seemed to have some reaction to the local anaesthetics, so the area around my upper lips swelled, making me look like a simpson (eek). In addition I was bleeding in so many places (I'm not sure what she did to make that happen), having my mouth full of congealed blood cause there was too much for the suckythingie to deal with it, that I just wanted to go home and feel sorry for myself. Which I did. Sorry, boss!

Uh. Guess that is most of the update. I'll try to post some photos later. And perhaps that post about laziness I wrote.

Perhaps I'll make more tea now, and watch Amélie.