Peacoctopus

This is a remarkably creative and fun jaunt through a thousand years of English, and a creepy story to boot. I’m good through the 1400s. How about you? 🗃️

A suncatcher on a brown table. It is roughly 8" of the chainmail weave Kyy, which consists of smaller rings alternating between left-leaning and right-leaning, and in a rainbow pattern. Around and through the smaller rings are larger rings of bright aluminum, also alternating between left-leaning and right-leaning. At the bottom of the chain is a 3/4" glass crystal pendant.

A close up of the Kyy weave.

When I'm learning a new weave, I find a suncatcher is the way to go rather than a bracelet (I rarely wear bracelets). Learned the Kyy weave, and I kinda love it. It looks more complicated than it is, and it weaves up quickly. Now to find a window space in which to hang it :)

YouTube video by Thuy crafts The Cozy Christmas Hack | Sewing Projects That Make the BEST Thoughtful

Here's the tutorial I used. It's not shown in the vid, but I recommend re-squaring (re-hexagoning?) after applying the fleece just to keep the shape from getting too wonky. www.youtube.com/watch?v=jwl1...

Four hexagonal mug rugs on a brown table. They measure 8" from point to point. The center sections depict various generic fantasy characters. Surrounding the characters are fabrics depicting chainmail, cartoony D&D monsters, potion bottles, and dice. The border is black with bits of color from the images on the back folded over onto the front.

The fabric on the back of these oversized coasters is the very last of my dragon fabric...a black background with purple, brown, and blue dragons in full, and the hint of a green wing and a gold tail coming into frame.

Made some mug rugs as a gift for one of my daughter's teachers who's really into D&D. They're a little wonky, but I learned a lot. I find stitching through the images in the middle a little distracting, so next time I'll stitch-in-the-ditch. Already planning on making more for our gaming table :)

Thank you!

Thank you so much!

I also used an old hairbrush on the seams before washing just to get the fraying process started. Beware...it's messy.

YouTube video by Chelsea | She Sews Seams Beginner Rag Quilt Tutorial | The Easiest Quilt You’ll Ever Sew (No Binding, No Batting, No Stress!)

This is the tutorial I used if anyone else wants to give it a go. I'd recommend re-squaring your squares after sewing the X in the middle, and I washed mine in a duvet cover to help keep the fraying threads from clogging my washer. www.youtube.com/watch?v=_t0H...

The quilt front, draped over a dark blue couch. It is 8 squares across by 8 squares down, all made with fabric that has that blue-on-white Blue Willow-style pattern. The quilt measures roughly 60"x60". The seams where the squares meet are intentionally frayed and have a fluffy look and feel.

The back of the quilt, draped over a dark blue couch. The lower left corner of the quilt has been folded up so the front is visible. The back is made from a thrifted set of flannel bed sheets that are also in that blue-on-white Blue Willow-style design. The seams where the squares meet are smooth as all the edges are sewn to the front of the quilt. The middle layer of the quilt is also made from the same thrifted flannel bed sheets.

I don't quilt, but for some reason I decided my mother needed a rag quilt. Turned out fine (and she loves it), but cutting ~200 squares drove me up the wall. Will I make another? Not anytime soon. Learned a lot, though, and my already great respect for quilters and their art has only increased.

Life won't allow me to dive back into bellydance to the degree that I was pre-2019 (and if I'm being honest, I'm not sure I'd want to), but a laid-back, every-so-often show at a retirement/assisted living/memory care facility? Yes, please, that would be lovely.

I haven't bellydanced since 2019. Multiple life circumstances have conspired to keep me away from the dance, but this past Saturday I was invited to join w/ a troupe dancing at an assisted living/memory care place. It felt so good to dance again; I didn't realize how much I missed it.

Our "Dark Shadows" rewatch is going slower than we'd like because life keeps getting in the way, but we're almost to Barnabas! I'd forgotten how the first actor who played Willie Loomis did such a good job portraying him as so utterly sleazy. He totally makes my skin crawl!

Aw, dammit. I've never lost Whamageddon this early in the season...

That turned out fantastic; great job!

A 30" chainmail necklace in the Byzantine weave is laying on a dark brown table. The chain is a mix of bright aluminum and stormy grey, and the pendant on the bottom is a 1" diameter coin embossed with a bear head.

Closeup of the Byzantine chainmail weave necklace and the 1" diameter coin pendants embossed with a bear head. The chain is a mix of bright aluminum and stormy grey colors.

A friend commissioned a 30" continuous Byzantine chain for the pendant he bought over the summer. Mangled the hell out of the final ring up towards the top because the space was too tight for even my smallest pliers 🙁 Thankfully it doesn't show, and grateful that my friend doesn't mind.

Good morning. For anyone that needs to hear this:

Boobytrap spelled backwards is partyboob.

Thank you for this. It helped my daughter begin to unwind her spiraling anxiety thoughts, and thus helped her to recover from the meltdown she was in. She's still learning how to punch her anxiety brain, but this visual gave her the chance to take a much needed deep breath. Seriously, thank you.

"Ahhhhhhhhhh..."

Yesterday my spouse and I escaped the 100+ degree heat by staying inside and replaying couch co-op Divinity Original Sin all day. It and its sequel are probably our favorite couch co-op turn-based RPG; I think this is our 3rd or 4th playthrough. Always a fun time!

I love everything about this!

Photo taken of our tv screen: a black-and-white image of actress Diana Millay reading a book in front of a large fireplace on the set of "Dark Shadows" from 1967. Her character is a phoenix-type being who dies by fire every 100 years and is reborn. When we hit the pause button, the flames of the roaring fire she was sitting in front of just happened to take the shape of what looks like a small figure of a person with wings outspread.

Continuing our Dark Shadows rewatch and had to pause during an episode. We hit the pause button as Laura Collins (the Phoenix) was sitting in front of a fireplace, and noticed we just happened to catch the flames in a vague phoenix shape. A fun coincidence; couldn't have timed it better! 😄

Two chainmail bracelets sitting on a wooden table. The bracelet on the left is made with bright aluminum jump rings and green, blue, and black stretchy rubber rings, and is woven in the Box Weave pattern. The bracelet on the right is made with bright aluminum jump rings with bright yellow and pale green beads, and is woven in the Beaded Shaggy Loops pattern.

Made a couple of bracelets as teacher thank yous, each in a color scheme the teachers like. I always panic a little when making bracelets as gifts for other people, because I have to guess at how big to make them and worry they won't fit. At least the one on the left is stretchy...

A section of a necklace woven in a weave called JPL. It is black, grey, and silvery, and the three colors gently spiral around themselves. Not pictured: matching 1" long earrings.

A section of a necklace woven in a weave called JPL. The rings are shiny pastels in blue, lavender, rose, yellow, and green; there are three rings of one color before changing to three rings of the next color, and so on. Not pictured: matching 1" long earrings.

(Kinda blurry) close ups of the two most recent necklaces I made using kits from Blue Buddha Boutique. I'm going to offer them to my daughter's school for their yearly auction (last year I made dice bags). Pastels are generally not my thing, but I'm really loving BBB's pastel rings.

One of these days I will learn that obsessively refreshing the tracking status on a package will not help the package to arrive any sooner.

Proud of my son for getting his drivers license! Now he can drive himself home after his midnight shifts which in turn means I'll be less sleep deprived overall. We both win 😄

An orange cat sits on a brown table, and he is surrounded by pieces of the board game "Wrath of Ashardalon". His right back leg is up in the air parallel to the table, toes spread wide as he bends his head over to lick at his foot. The tip of his pink tongue can be seen just to the side of his foot.

"I lick my foot at your silly board game!" Chaos, you fuzzy little goofball, you certainly do live up to your name :)

Hearing the joyful, boisterous laughter from the next room as my gen z son introduced his gen z friends to M.U.L.E. on an Atari 400 mini made me so very happy (it's one of my all-time favorite games). They genuinely loved it and plan on playing again the next time they're over :D

An exceedingly annoyed orange tabby sits and glowers in his black mesh carrier. He can't believe his nap was so rudely interrupted for this vet visit nonsense.

The indignity of being woken up from a sound sleep, stuffed unceremoniously into a carrier, and hauled off to the vet for a routine check up. So rude! He is clearly plotting his revenge.

(Check up went great; he's relatively healthy for 14!)

That turned out fantastic; great job!

Beautiful work!!