ARC & Animations Stores

Immediately following Samhain Fae Fest this Sunday will be a pagan rite which involves much drumming, a fertility dance between the Virgin Huntress and the King Stag and all ritual sacrifice. I have finally selected 12 dances for them. My intent is to put them into a singles dance machine and let them select the dances in the appropriate order as they feel "ready" for them. However, only 5 of the dances I selected are copy, which means I will deprive my Huddles if I transfer them to the other machine. Soooo, I will have to buy duplicates of the 7 I need and, unfortunately, 6 of them are from Sine Wave, the laggiest dance animations store in all of SL. How do I get myself into these situations? I guess I will just strip down to pants and shirt, my lowest prim hair and no AO. Wonder how low I can go?

Halloween Fun

So what did I do today? Well, I spent 4 hours adapting a medieval "ghost" story for presentation at the weekly Fireside Storytelling in Erebos. This tale was first written down by Gervase of Tilbury in the early 13th century. Gervase was one of the first to travel and "collect" local folklore and this particular tale was from a country called Arles. I have adapted the story a bit to fit the occasion, but it IS folklore and so probably had many forms. I added some emotes for my character, as well as memories she has of her granny telling the tale. And of course, the wording was changed a bit to fit the "chat" method of presentation. But if you want to hear it, you will have to come and sit by the fireside...

I did a bit of freebie shopping as well. I think this year's Halloween freebies are of much better quality than last year's. I need a different costume for each show I do this week and tonight's "Ghoul 2 Ghoul" theme had me baffled until I snagged 3 great freebies that, combined with a couple of things in my inventory, will yield a perfectly ghoulish outfit that fits MY style and the Funk theme. Look for me tonight at Linri's with my little brother Tulsa Sheridan, who is back from his 6 week vacation. I hope he hasn't had a chance to buy bubblegum yet...

OOC: Family

Sometimes a loss can make you realize exactly what strengths you have. I "lost" my father this week and just came back from the funeral. In actuality I deliberately chose to lose him many many years ago when I moved 600 miles away. Along the way, I lost the greater part of my family. We are spread out over 15 years, so by the time I left the house at 18, I never had the chance to get to know my baby brother at all. There are 5 of us now because we lost a brother about 10 years ago. We only seem to have family reunions for weddings & funerals, but this get together was the best I have ever had.

We are united in our desire to protect Mom and keep her happy & safe. Mom had a stroke a few years back and sustained a bit of brain damage. She cannot cook or remember certain things, but the bright light that made her such a wonderful woman and beloved by all who know her still shone through. And the sparkle that I was afraid Dad had managed to obliterate returned when she realized that all her children were surrounding her. My oldest brother (who is actually a year younger) and I sparred like we always do. He rested his elbow on my head and I punched him (not hard) in the stomach. He sang "short people" and I tugged on his scraggly, red beard and Mom said "Will you two stop it?" We just grinned and hugged each other. I sat on the couch, sipped my tea and realized what a deep well Mom had to draw from: I know enough about trusts and estates so that the brother and sister who are executors will be able to ask me how to proceed and I can offer advice. Al is a farmer and crew chief for Habitat for Humanity and my other brother has his own very successful painting business. My son was able to assist him by accessing my Dad's internet accounts (Steve is quickly learning about computer technology). One of my sisters is head dietitian/nutritionist with a large regional hospital, so she will be able to keep an eye on Mom at the assisted living place she helped locate for her. And the remaining sister has lots of love in her heart and will be able to support where it is needed.

But best of all, I realized that now there is nothing keeping me from returning to live close to family (except the weather, haha). At any rate, I will now make up a family email list and send weekly updates. With Mom moving out of the place where we all used to catch up with other, we will need a "center" to keep us all informed about each other even if it is virtual. And I think I can convince the rest of my brothers and sisters to keep in touch by email now that they see how fast and easy it is (and cheaper than phone calls). Most of us have Dad's penury...

OOC: Be Careful

I am a member of a group that meets about twice a month to draw pictures, eat snacks & chat up a storm. We envision ourselves as Medieval Illuminators and Calligraphers and call our group a "Scriptorium." (And before you get the wrong idea, I will tell you right away that I am NOT an artist. I can fake it with the best of intent by using a light table, a french curve and a straight edge.) Most of what we do involves going through gorgeous period art books and internet museum sites and saying "oooooh I want to do that!" After we find an exemplar, we decide whether to reproduce it or just let it serve as inspiration. Because we mostly do borders for award scrolls, we usually choose to let the artwork serve as inspiration. I am NOT good at sketching so I always need a lot of encouragement from the others before I even attempt to think about drawing figures or cute little beasties and I usually get it! Yesterday, I had begun to gild a mid 15th century border I had prepared at an earlier session when I upset the gilding glue onto the card stock! This is not the first time I have spilled something on my scrolls: I am an impatient person and rarely take the time to carefully set up my work area. Needless to say, the paper was ruined and very very sticky. The glue dries a bit slowly and sometimes it never completely dries out. Fortunately, the border was a simple geometric that I had planned to gild, paint and then apply white work onto so I have spent a few hours this morning recreating my work onto another piece of card stock.

I started by measuring out the "frame" that will surround the calligraphy. The border is very simple geometric design with 1/4" edges surrounding a 3/4" center. I left white space of 1" surrounding the sides and top of this design and a 1 1/2" white space at the bottom edge so that the scroll can be matted by the recipient if he/she so desires. In the center of the bottom design is a 1 5/8" circle which I will leave unpainted so I can fill in the appropriate badge at a later date. In the center of the top and sides is an "X" made by the crossing of the two 1/4" edges. This gives a little interest to the design and is actually the way the exemplar looks. The small edges of the border will be gilded and the space enclosed by the gold edges will be painted bold colors of ultramarine, crimson and green. These larger rectangles will then be painted on top with what is called "white work."

After I measured out and sketched the design in pencil, I "inked in" the outline so I can see it better when I paint. And no matter how carefully I draw with the pen, I always make a mistake. Then the trick is to hide the error! So now I have a 9 x 12 sheet of bristol board with the outlines drawn in pen and a big mistake where I forgot to draw in the top "X." Now I must make a decision whether to draw up the design again or just work the error into the design. /me gets up to blog about being careful...

A new home for Tori & Emy

Tori is building us a new home; it is a Greek Villa and will include a kitchen & bathroom. The house is white stucco of course, with two patios on the first floor and a balcony on the second that overlooks the island. The floors are tiled with a rich brown ceramic that looks very much like the tiles that surrounded the hearth in one of the houses I owned in my Real Life. I have already set out an arbor for us to sit in and the wooden table & chairs from the old house. I can't wait til Tori locks the whole thing down and I can begin to furnish it.

I am in charge of the meadow he wants around it. I have been shopping around all morning and have located some really terrific 1 and 2 prim landscaping items, but they are not cheap! I have noticed that the best meadows are built with grasses & plants, so I purchased a plot of wild daisies that change color on touch and some meadow grass. I already have a butterfly emitter, so that will make a total of 3 prim for a great piece of meadow... But now I have all these other ideas, such as, how can you have a meadow that isn't surrounded by trees? and we need a path down to the dance floor so I can find it, and Tori you need to flatten the land and remove the pond and your pillows so you can flatten the land and I can set up a really great meadow!