The Desert Mermaid

Oh, hey, almost forgot! Check out what I made:



Lisa Frank may have been a coked-up maniac, but her sense of color burned its way into the impressionable aesthetic centers of my young brain long ago. Bright goddamn rainbows are encoded into me the same way the Super Mario Bros. song is. So when I decided to learn the box chain for serious this time and found that you could get multicolor packs of anodized aluminum jump rings, well, there was no stopping me.


Camera playing again. Turns out the artificial light in this picture is noticeably different from the natural light in the other. Someday I will get this "photography" thing figured out.

Full thing, with toggle clasp. By the way, did you know that chainmaille weaving is hard on your back as well as your arms? I gotta work my muscles up to this. But hey, if my carpal tunnels give me trouble, I can always have dad refer me to a good neurosurgeon.

Next up I plan to do other colors of box chains, because you can never have too many colors, and learn some other weaves. I always rather liked the Persian star, too.

In other necklace news, yes, I did succeed in making a Fairy-Inna-Bottle necklace. I am still working out the best way to photograph the darn thing. I'm getting closer, in that it no longer looks quite like a tiny UFO, but it still doesn't look great. But it looks pretty cool in person, I assure you!

While we were in the Tetons, Dad got me a Vest Of A Million Pockets as an early birthday present! I've been wanting one for years--following Dad's lead. He already has one, because he and I think alike and like our security blankets.

I realize it will always look like I am about to go fishing, which so far is 100% not true, but it's a small price to pay if I'd rather not drag all of my carry-alongs and thingy-things in one handbag. A vest distributes their weight nicely and is far more washable.

Plus, I really hate the word "purse," for absolutely no reason, and now I don't have to use it! God damn, why didn't I do this YEARS ago?

Hey, my camera is full! You know what that means, right? CAMERA DUMP!



A dramatization of what the weather was like yesterday. This was actually taken a few weeks ago, but same principle. I love it when it’s so cold the clouds fall completely out of the sky, leaving you with frigid sunny days and a layer of sparkling snow. I am rather sad that my camera did not capture the sparkles, though.



Mom made this wall hanging a few years ago, minus sleigh and decorated tree. We were surprised at how much we liked adding the Christmas effects.



Daja gets her Longnight tunic!

Longnight is what the people of Emelan call the longest night of the year, although just how it got a name like that is anybody’s guess. People stay up all night to greet the sun in the morning. It’s also the birthday of one of Daja’s foster parents!

I am hoping this tunic is a good imitation of the men’s “over-robe” style that Tamora Pierce often refers to in the Circle books. Daja tends to wear men’s clothes more than women’s, so this seemed natural.



And Loke gets a dress, as well!

I did not make this dress. It was part of the iDolls line (yes, really) from Kid Galaxy 10 years ago. I tried to make a dress based on something like these, and it mostly turned out pretty damn good even though satin can kiss my ass, but when I sewed the skirt to the bodice it gathered wrong or something, and now it’s all wonky. Plus, after a while that site gives me the heebie-jeebies.* Hooray for eBay!

I also want to make her a uniquely Hawaiian-type Xmas dress (I have an image saved from a site I can't remember: sleeveless dress with matching sarong), but I'd have to find the right fabric for it. Maybe next year.



Hey, look, I made another Magpie Necklace! This time our scavenger seems to be a mermaid, who has found quite a few pearls to hang on a woven cord, accenting some of the other things she’s scavenged. (That starfish’ll get good and tarnished in the sea water, but hey, so it goes.)

At this point I’m still just making them for myself, but I am still waffling over whether to sell them. It seems like a lot of extra work to do it, but, well, I dunno. I’ve never been very good at selling things. I always feel rather dishonest, and I’m not sure why. I guess I’m just not cut out for Business.

I may take shots of the doll display later, but right now it is Reading Time, so y’all will just have to back off whilst I go read. Good day to you.


*It’s the Purity Balls. You read one article about dads taking their daughters out and promising to guard her virginity until he hands her over to her husband, and you wind up conditioned to have an adverse response to girls’ party dresses forever.

I have acquired new pants!

It’s about flippin’ time, too, as my old were … nearing the status of “publically unacceptable.”*

Fortunately, yesterday the mall felt like being cooperative, and on my first try I found a stack of variously colored stretchy jeans!** It’s a miracle.

I had to pay for that miracle a few minutes later when I decided to pick up some soap while I was at the mall, and found that, once again, Bath and Body Works has discontinued one of my favorite scents. You can no longer get Moonlight Path soap? What the hell is this? Do they hire a guy to track my purchases and discontinue products accordingly? Come on, assholes—Bath and Body Works products are some of the few pleasures I can get with my myopic (myosmic?) sense of smell, and you are taking that away.

I’d say “at least it’s still available as a lotion,” but that would just jinx it further, wouldn’t it?

But it was a good trip otherwise. Money was hemorrhaged, but at least I have new pants! And they were entertaining pants, too, because each one came with a Da Vinci Code's worth of stickers, tags, labels, and instructions. Now I just have to hem them to fit my hobbit legs, so that I am no longer standing around in a puddle of jeans cuffs, and all will be well!

I think I’m going to make the back pockets of my old thigh-exposing jeans into hanging pockets. I may also get a pair of doll jeans out of them. I might just give a Viking funeral to what’s left after that, though. Thrift can only be taken so far.


*“How do you even manage to get holes there?” my brother asked. “Fat thighs,” I told him.

Turns out this isn’t entirely true. My elf-skinny sister gets the same holes in hers, so it just must have to do with having WOMEN thighs.

**Including a pair of really terrific maroon ones, which are doomed to be forever referred to as my “Joker Jeans.”

Have begun the Epic Plow through Mario and Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story, and let me just say that HOLY SHIT IT'S FUN TO PLAY AS BOWSER.

Especially when ( that one thing happens ).

My new shirt agrees.



And I still giggle helplessly every time Luigi does anything. He's just so flippin' adorable, whether he's crying like a big baby or busting up everyone in his path. (I always try to make him into the bruiser. Got good at it in Partners in Time, when I pimped him out to be NONSTOP KO GUY. My sister put up with a lot of random shouts from across the living room: "OH, YOU THINK YOU'RE TOUGH? WELL LET ME INTRODUCE YOU TO THE MAN IN GREEN!") But even though the Bros.' pseudoItalian gibberish is hilarious, I must say: Charles Martinet, you've done some great work over the years, but in my head the Bros. still sound like Lou Albano and Danny Wells.* Some things just never change.**


*"'Ey, Mari-YOH."

**Thank god that doesn't extend to Legend of Zelda. I don't think I could TAKE a constant earworm of "Well, EXCUUUSE ME, Princess" while I played.

I know you were all sitting in suspense all of yesterday saying to yourself, “What did padparadscha get for Christmas?” Well, I am sorry to keep you waiting so long, but here it is—the obligatory Christmas Haul Photo Post!

( This is my haul. There are many hauls like it, but this one is mine. )

Last time in jewelry the guy across from me was trying to figure out what to do after his first project. There’s something about being in a class having all the resources at hand that just blocks all inspiration. So I made a few silly suggestions.* Then I mentioned a website  kjpepper had linked to a while back, Made with Molecules. It seemed like a great idea for new symbolism.