bling bling baby

the bling collection, originally uploaded by spugmeistress.

well it's finally up! earrings here, necklaces here and here, and a prize(*) to anyone who can guess what nintendo game the sprites come from :)

i guess i'm making a big deal out of this little collection because despite everyone loving the classics, it's using the obscure sprites that i really like best. making real life pixellated versions of real life things. like the mario coins, they're something you would expect to have on jewellery, but pixellated. it's not a new idea in the slightest, i have to admit that this collection from mike & maaike was a big inspiration to start all this. i just got a load more hama beads, including lots of lovely transparent ones, which i fancy using more instead of the opaque colours, just because the light shines through. and that's what pixels are, light, in essence.

so hopefully it's a range that can be expanded on, i have plenty more cool sprites and ideas, just depends what the audience reaction is, because although it sounds all rubbish and corporate or whatever, there's not much point me making stuff that won't sell, because i won't wear it (not cos i don't like it, i love it - i'm just not a jewellery person), and it'll just add to all the other crap in my room. maybe i should make things that actually suit me. hmmm, something to work on, along with aforementioned boy-appropriate stuff...

p.s. watched the life aquatic with steve zissou last night - very bizarre but in a good way :) want to see the new sigur ros film too, but the cornerhouse don't seem to be screening it :(

(*) well, it might be a metaphorical (or even metaphysical) prize. unless i come up with any wacky ideas ;)

shiny new things

shiny new t-shirts, originally uploaded by spugmeistress.

i couldn't decide which one i like the best so you got all three! just in time for game city later this week (which i just booked all my tickets for, yay!) here are a selection of my newest geekiest t-shirts.

i've wanted the gamegirl t-shirt ever since i saw it in HMV when i was about 15 and skint, and then never saw it again. a while ago i decided to search for it and came up with a sold listing on ebay. the seller didnt have any more but said they would get in touch with me if they found one, and to my surprise, a few months later, they did! it's a bit huge, weirdly since you'd expect it to be girl-sized, but i can sort that out with the aid of my trusty sewing machine :)

the robot one came from florida as part of my 'sorry you didn't get to come on holiday with us' swag from the family. which also included a harry potter cushion, a spiderman i-dog, the latest arcade fire album, neon bible (which is ace and i am going to see them on saturday woo!) and some 'candy from the 80's' which is a) american (their sweets are weird) and b) smells funny.

the google one makes more sense if you read scarygoround (specifically this comic here) - i don't hate google randomly, i use it way too much for that, but i do sympathise with erin's sentiment here. on one hand, access to a searchable index of everything ever is amazing, and that you can find out almost anything so quickly is really cool, but on the other, it (along with mobile internet) has changed the nature of pub quizzes for ever which saddens me.

in etsy news, i just realised i hadn't listed anything in ages, so put this lovely necklace up for sale. the bling collection deserves a blog post of it's own, so that'll come later in the week when the others are up too.

sleepy

my ibook, originally uploaded by spugmeistress.

this is what i'm looking at right now. not blogged much the past few days because work has been crazy busy, so i've been really tired, and crafting has pretty much been non-existant. except for the stuff i've had to do for work that is (i'm a children's & youth work volunteer).

so instead of pretty crafty pictures you get to look at my computer. my lovely shiny ibook g4 :) because i've just spent the last hour or so playing about with my links list (psst, over there ->) which i thought i would explain a bit about. friends links are basically etsy/crafty type people i know who have blogs and make cool stuffs that you may or may not be interested in. astareal is my friend ses's new business and she makes gorgeous jewellery and custom made felted dreadlocks. lupin makes lovely little things out of felt, including fake moustache disguises, one of which i bought for my friend jo and unfortunately had to post out before i could take a pic to put up on here. she also makes cool recycled map stationery, which i also bought for my friend sarah, as we are both map junkies. we would love to own some of bombus's decoupaged furniture. i shall save some of the others for a bit of a spotlight some other day when i am feeling too lazy to make anything myself to blog ;)

crafty links is full of the kind of stuff that inspires me. you already know about etsy, but one of my favourite websites is knitty.com for the amazingly cool and *free* knitting patterns. if you've seen me lugging around a red bit of knitting, it's supposed to be this. craftster is a brilliant (but very fast-moving) forum full of ideas and tutorials. instructables is again with the really easy to follow tutorials and instructions, and is more wide-ranging and techy than just craft.

webcomics - i'm addicted to quite a few. it's my early morning ritual to go through them all as i'm still waking up. copper is my absolute favourite, but it's very infrequent so sign up for the email updates. diesel sweeties is probably the most relevant as it's all pixellated just like my craft, but if i had to choose a webcomic i would like to be in, it would be scarygoround. i just spent £40 on SGR books and this t-shirt, which i have been coveting for a while. my geekier compatriots will appreciate the humour (and idealistic but awkward romance) of xkcd.

and now we come to miscellanea. alice, who posts at wonderland, is a minor hero of mine (she stands next to john allison). her blog is all about videogames, the social internet, and she regularly trawls etsy for gaming craft, of which she was kind enough to feature some of my stuff a while ago. she is also going to be at game city in nottingham which i *really* want to go to, if just to see the godfather of tetris, mr alexey pajitnov himself. on a completely different subject, scarlet mist is an ethical ticket exchange - if you ever need a ticket for a sold out gig, or have a spare ticket you need to get rid of, i urge you to check this place out. i absolutely despise ticket touts (especially ebay ones), and this site has come through for me (as both a buyer and a seller) on many an occasion, and it will only get better the more people who use it. orisinal is the best place on the web for browser based games, and disposable media is the pdf mag i used to write and design for (check out issues 4-6 in the archives).

how on earth do you keep up with all these websites, i hear you ask? well that's the other thing i've been playing with today. OMEGAZOID always had an rss feed if you knew to look for it, but now we have a shiny new feedburner link (the little orange thing) to make it easy. if you look back at my screen in the pic, you'll see a program called newsfire that i use - it basically collects all the updates from all my favourite websites into the app so that i can see when people have posted without having to go to the site to check. it's very handy :) and now you can do it with OMEGAZOID! there's all sorts of readers, from downloadable programs, to widgets, to websites that do it for you, see what fits, and feel free to comment if you need any help :) alternatively, if all that sounds a bit too techy for you, you can also sign up to updates by email in the little form.

anyway i think that's far too much blogging for one night, this is obviously what happens when you let it all build up ;)

immensity

white light, originally uploaded by spugmeistress.

i went to see oceansize tonight :) they were amazing (as usual). i don't think i have smiled, or rocked out, so hard in a *long* time. i like this picture because the light overwhelms you just like the music does when you see them live.

anyway, on my way home, i stopped off at moonlight to get some ice cream (damn you, rob, for introducing me to that place) and then i got the bus home. on said bus, i managed to achieve my best ever tetris high score! 199 lines! \o/ *one* away from the elusive level 20 just as we were pulling into parrs wood. but at that point the pieces weren't getting to the sides even on full whack, so i had no chance. i love tetris (but only the original gameboy classic cartridge version, none of these 'new improved' efforts).

so yes, a pretty good night :D

p.s. went to see control last night, very good but very sad.

p.p.s radiohead day tomorrow!!!

graffiti and riots in manchester

mushroom graffiti, originally uploaded by spugmeistress.

took this pic on the way to the night & day in manchester, to see stars last wednesday - nice to know someone out there shares the nintendo love :)

stars were excellent (see some pics on my flickr) so much so that i bought their latest album afterwards and upon reading the liner notes, saw that they knew a chap called daniel handler who had written an introduction for them, and played accordion. daniel handler, being lemony snicket's real name. so of course, i *had* to find out if this was really real, and by this time, most of the people had left the gig and some of the band were putting away their instruments, so we went up and asked the bass player, who was lovely, and got chatting to the drummer too, and it turns out that stars, (one of my new favourite bands) know lemony snicket (one of my already favourite authors)! how cool is that?

following the gig theme, went to see maximo park with leah last night, (again, see some pics on my flickr) who were very very good, but not as good as last time i saw them, and not as good as stars either, but both those are very high standards to live up to, especially in a larger venue like the apollo. blood red shoes supported first, and were better than good shoes who supported second. not quite sure why there was a shoes theme going on but paul smith did have some rather shiny red ones on.

anyway, what else? well my bluetooth is fixed, woo! but i haven't been making much else other than my uketsy secret swap item, which has involved a lot of very slow knitting. tis all finished now but i can't put it up until my swappee has received it (so after the postal strikes then). the white ghost earrings have sold to a lovely lady in spain, so out of all the halloween stuff there's only the necklace left! have put some different ghost earrings up as well, and might put another badge up in a minute...

mooooooooooo

your moo minicards are inside*, originally uploaded by spugmeistress.

my moo cards arrived! well they arrived a few days ago, but i've only just got around to taking photos of them. you'll have to click on the photo or my flickr to see what they actually look like ;)

i had loads of pictures to take of the haul from my mum, dad n sister's trip to florida, but the bluetooth on my ibook seems to have died, making file transfer less easy than usual :s

the rest of my halloween jewellery has just gone up on etsy if anyone is interested, although the stupid postal strikes have started up again, so i can't post anything out for a few days which is annoying.

stars tonight! and oxfam now, must be off...

it's like christmas came early

ghosties, originally uploaded by spugmeistress.

the above is my entry for the uk etsy challenge o' the month, october's theme being halloween. boo (the big ghost pin, from super mario) sold within mere hours of being listed! yay :) the other will be going up soon.

anyway, that's not what i came to explode about - two of the most exciting things of the entire year have been announced today!

scott pilgrim 4 is finished! if you don't know what i'm on about check out www.radiomaru.com or read my article about it in Disposable Media issue 4. i love scott pilgrim. i met bryan lee o'malley 2 years ago at Page 45 in nottingham and i think he is probably my favourite comic writer artist dude. scott pilgrim has everything you would ever want in a comic, including videogame references ahoy, obscure indie music culture, gorgeous art and textures and lots of canadian snow. i almost can't wait except that....

radiohead have just announced their new album is being released next week! aside from the awesomeness of the distribution model, and the fact that i was alerted to this news by one of my favourite webcomics, talk about instant gratification! it was only last week that zane lowe was saying he wasn't gonna talk about them working on it, for fear of pressurising them, and now, not only have they announced that it's finished, and is being released, but you can download it *from next week*. also, it seems you can pretty much choose how much you think the download is worth. which makes sense really, cos anyone who wants it for free, is gonna get it for free anyway, and the band know that, but also, most radiohead fans (like me) love the band so much that even if it *is* legally available for free, we will happily pay up to £40 for the privilege of owning the 'discbox' set of gorgeously packaged vinyl and enhanced cd.

*sigh* it's a happy day in rachel land :)

back to on-topic stuff tomorrow ;)