Chess Piece Christmas Ornaments

Because in the past this has been where I have posted artsy things I do, and also because writing is creative and so is art, and also because I don't have a craft blog, I would like to share with you one of my more recent better ideas. Note: this is not a tutorial, but sharing ideas. I used a drill press, jewelry wire (16 gauge for most parts), needle-nose pliers, a combination of hot glue and tacky glue, beads, and ribbons. I also had some leftover scrabble tiles from another project which I used.

Every year, I like to make ornaments, and give them to as many people as I can (sometimes time makes me prioritize). This year, I am doing custom ornaments for all my friends, family, and loved ones. The ones I'm most proud of, though, are the chess ornaments I am making for my boyfriend.

First, I'll start with a bit of a story: long ago (a couple months), in a shopping land far away (Amazon.com), my boyfriend (codename: Chad) bought some chess pieces to match a chess board he found at Goodwill to practice his endgames. I know, right? Nerd alert! Anywhoodles, eagerly he awaited the arrival of his goods, and also eagerly he opened that beautiful wooden box to bask in the glory of these beautiful, wooden chess pieces.

It was not to be.

For inside that box, nearly every piece was perfect...except for the white king. HIS HAT WAS CROOKED. And so, the story of the Meghan Intervention comes to pass, as Chad decides to simply leave his chess set as is (too eager to begin his study, you see) while in secret, Meghan bought another set to sneakily replace the king with a better one.

This, apparently, was also not to be. I bought and returned five sets of the same chess pieces, and in all of them, the king's hat was crooked! I eventually just replaced the original with one that was better (because none were as crooked as that first king).

Now, I was left with a set of chess pieces, one with a king who had a crooked hat. Since I don't play chess (seriously, who does?), I figured I'd turn them into an art project or something. So, without further ado, the chess piece ornaments!

Here are the pieces in the shop, waiting for the trepanning to occur

Hard at work with the drill press. It was my first time using it, but it's surprisingly easy.

MY BRAINS!

Six of each of the pawns became snowflakes. For the white ones, I hot-glued the bases to a wooden hexagon of about the same color. The black ones got holes drilled through the sides of their heads.

I used the beaded wire (above) to create a tangled bishop.

The first five (or so) days of Christmas. My queens became angels.

The next five days, and my favorites! I used gauge 20 wire for the reindeer antler wrapping.

I also made the black king and queen dancing partners, but I don't have a photo yet. The project is still under wraps! It's the 11th day of Christmas present (and a Santa king is for day 12!).

Imalainn

As promised, here is the map of Imalainn. Our main character (the changeling) comes from Awen, while the rest are sprinkled around The Airde (mountains that are literally translated as "the talls"). Much of the language is derived from old Irish, with some made up phrases and some mix-and-matches, so none of it is actually real. Well, some might be on this map...it's the oldest version I have. I will try to update as soon as I can.

Go Hawks!

Yesterday, the boyfriend and I got to go to the Seahawks game against the NY Giants. Since he's from The Big Apple, he was a little torn on who to root for, but of course he made the right decision. I have to say, I'm surprised at how incredibly loud that stadium is. You hear about it in the news, and that's one thing. Being in the stadium is something else. My ears are still ringing.

The sound in the stadium is crazy, but what can you expect from more than 10% of Seattle's population?

We had awesome seats, so of course we were exposed to the elements. And, it being Seattle, of course the elements were primarily rain, rain, and rain.

The canons only serve to add to the noise

It was a really cool experience to see Russell Wilson live, watch Earl Thomas swipe a ball the Giants tipped in their endzone (also right in front of us!) and participate in activation of Beast Mode. No Skittles necessary. I had a blast, and if you're ever in Seattle and have a couple hundred bucks to spare, this is definitely worth it!

You know what this is

In other news, grad school has completely taken over my writing time. I write a lot, but it's probably not something we're interested in here. That being said, here is the link to my blog for grad school (hooray for teaching!). Let's just keep it on the DL that I'm linking to a WordPress blog from my Blogger blog. Oh boy. I will also include my maps for the Druid Wind, and anything else I think can safely be put up online.

I hope everybody is enjoying fall as much as I am! Happy November, and GO HAWKS!

No Giants fans here!

The Winter Changeling, or The Druid Wind

It has been a while. In all honesty, it has been a while since I have written (or edited) anything besides my diary and my travel journal. I have been busy with work, then preparing for graduate school, and then an exceptionally nice summer with more things to do than usual. So now that it's fall, I've suddenly decided that life is better when I'm writing, and here we go.

My rendition of The Little Mermaid is complete, and I have even revised a few chapters. After a later re-reading, I decided that it's no good, and I will be working heavily on it. Later.

The Shadowguard is still at a complete stop. I really need to figure out what I'm doing there before I continue.

And my current work (previously titled "The Winter Changeling") is being utterly revised and changed. I had this idea years ago, and it was really cool, involving a magical force that surrounds the world like a blanket and acts somewhat like the weather does (constantly changing, some places have a kind of "climate", etc.) called the thaumaturge. The idea for the story involved a changeling as the main character, and I still like this idea as well as the thaumaturge. However, the writing was all bad so I took a day to revise it all. Actually, I have done nothing to the writing except delete it. Now my story has "Chapter one" written in it. and the rest might have to wait until later. It's getting late.

Basically, what I did today was change the setting of the story so that it was more like Gaelic Ireland. I had already chosen several Irish names for my characters, so it wasn't difficult to make the decision to rename everything, then create lore for the world I'd built. I have been reading about Irish folklore and history all day, even going into the language. Based on that, I've created a new country full of territories, and I am ready for the story to begin.

However, I can't decide if I'm going to write in first or third person, and also I have three names picked for my protagonist. Choices, choices. I like writing in first person better, because it flows better for me and I like being able to get into a character's head. But third person allows me to add perspectives if I want (which I might later), and allows for a broader description. I like having the outsider's perspective as well. But I hate having two POV's in first person. So I need to make a choice. I'm leaning toward 3rd person, but we'll see.

Anyway, further updates will hopefully come soon!

Totes Magotes

In my real life, I teach preschool (gotta earn a living somehow!), which if you know me makes total sense. I'm pretty much a 3-year-old. Stupid things amuse me quite a lot, including this year's Valentine's Day Project. AKA the QR Occupation.

I have made a discovery.

My valentines this year look a bit like this. The big one is going up in the staff room, and I'm passing out the smaller ones. No other messages aside from the QR codes--because what else could you possibly need? In this day and age, QR codes are the method for communication, and obviously far superior to that strange thing people sometimes do when they use their vocal chords. Useless.

To read the message, one simply needs a QR scanner (easy peasy for us smartphone users) and has to click through everything. Also, another device to read the code, since half my Valentines are being sent digitally. Impractical? No such thing.

I have been having far too much fun with these lately.

On another note, I have also completed my first draft for my Little Mermaid re-write, and it is printed and currently being edited. I wonder how upset people would be if I published it in QR codes. How long would it take me, at 130 characters per code? 3078 QR codes, according to my Word Count and a little bit of math. But would it be worth it? I'm thinking so.

And the Writing Goes On

My third book in the shadowguard series is in the works! I have it tentatively titled Empire of Souls, which was somehow easier than thinking of a title for book two. Originally, I wanted to call it Shades of Gray, since that made sense both literally and metaphorically for my characters, but that was before I realized there was already a book with that title. And not one I wanted to associate with.

I recently picked up a story I started a year and a half ago as well. It's a rewritten The Little Mermaid (the Hans Christian Andersen version, not the Disney version), from the perspective of one of her sisters. It's going to follow the original story fairly closely (I may have taken a few liberties), with some Greek mythology thrown in for good measure. I'm 46,129 words and 12 chapters in, and dozens of edits away from a final product. I am not sure what I'll do with it when I'm done. Maybe I'll self-publish that one. Who knows? Self-publishing is going fairly well these days.

 

 

 

Also, on a slightly more scary (for me) note, I am allowing more and more people read my books! Yay me! Putting myself out there!

Don't Judge A Book By Its Cover (And You Know We All Do)

Prior to this year (I'm including 2013 in this year), I have avoided reading indie books like the plague. It's not that I don't respect authors who have the wherewithal to put their work out there and market it on their own, because I totally do. Unfortunately, I have some minor issues with grammar and formatting. Combined with a bad couple experiences with indie books, I just decided long ago that it was best to ignore them altogether.

Then came the era of Books I Was Frustrated With--namely love triangles and cliffhangers--and I stopped reading in my favorite genre altogether! What was the world coming to?

Once winter set in and my new crafting obsessions started, I knew I needed to distract myself. Since I'm poor, I went with some of the cheaper books... and to my surprise, I found some really great ones! They are all on my recent Goodreads books, which can be found on any page of my blog.

The point of all this? Don't judge a book by its cover. Or in this case, by prior stereotypes you have against their genre. Because I totally click on books with more interesting covers first.

On another note, I have found lately that my NEW favorite genre is standalone! I much prefer my books to END when they're supposed to, instead of being dragged out until there is nothing left of the story! Leave me with a brilliant smile and I will love your book forever. Cliffhanger, and I generally don't read the next book. I have a deep hatred (no, loathing... it's stronger) for cliffhangers. And love triangles? Off the charts.

Now that I have ranted a bit, I do believe it is time for this lowly author to take a nap... one that will coincidentally last for approximately eight hours.

Here is a sweet potato man