Kris Howard

Lots of ground cover plants in pots

Lots of different plants in pots

Lots of different plants in pots

Grassy plants in pots

Landscaping resumes! - Now that our building’s fences have been repaired, we’re finally able to resume our garden renovation and actually put plants in the ground! This week the landscapers let us know they’re good to resume, and today the plants ar... https://www.web-goddess.org/archive/81781

YouTube video by Kristine Howard Taking my handwoven houndstooth scarf off the loom!

Video of pulling it off the loom: www.youtube.com/watch?v=CukX... #weaving

A woman in glasses wearing a blue hoodie and a purple/camel houndstooth woven wool scarf

Weaving - I have to return the loom tomorrow, so I’ve been weaving like a fiend this week to finish the houndstooth scarf. I just pulled it off the loom. Wow! Even before finishing it looks pretty great. Not bad for my third ever attempt at weaving, and... https://www.web-goddess.org/archive/81768

A man presenting at an event with a slide that says "Willpower is overrated: designer your way to team success"

A woman presenting at a lectern in front of a slide that says Sydney Technology Leaders

A woman presenting at a tech event with a slide that says "An Intro to Glue Work"

Two women smiling in the audience of a tech event

Sydney Tech Leaders – August 2025 - Last night I was back at Sydney Technology Leaders (https://www.meetup.com/syd-technology-leaders/), the meetup group I’ve helped organise off-and-on for the past 8ish years. The topic for the night was the invisibl... https://www.web-goddess.org/archive/81721

A bowl of stew with pork, sweet potatoes and prunes, with a piece of focaccia

A bearded man spooning jam in jars

Well fed - Sometimes I take for granted how well we eat! Today I made Pressure Cooker Pork Stew with Sweet Potatoes and Prunes (https://www.dadcooksdinner.com/pressure-cooker-pork-stew-with-sweet-potatoes-and-prunes/), which we served with the last of the... https://www.web-goddess.org/archive/81713

A selfie of two smiling women at a tech event

Your dedicated social media team hard at work! Big crowd tonight… #sydtechleaders

Who’s coming along to tonight’s meetup at Atlassian? Pizza has just arrived! 🍕 #sydtechleaders

A view inside a freezer at Aldi showing three boxes of frozen bake-at-home pretzels

CLEAR THE FREEZER! - This is not a drill, people! The bake-at-home frozen German pretzels have been spotted again at Aldi. They’re only ever there for a short period of time, so be quick! (We just cleaned them out at Broadway.) https://www.web-goddess.org/archive/81704

A screenshot from Meetup.com offering the ability to move up the waitlist for an event by paying $9.99/month for Meetup+

Meetup.com bullshit - There’s a Sydney Tech Leaders (https://www.meetup.com/syd-technology-leaders/) meetup tomorrow night, so I just went to register my attendance. It’s full up so I had to add myself to the waiting list. And when I did, I saw this s... https://www.web-goddess.org/archive/81633

We just spent 10 incredulous minutes on the Newtown bus listening to loud Uni students excitedly recount the plot of House. Like, the Hugh Laurie show that premiered before they were born. What is happening to the youth?!?!

A pink brochure for the Sydney Fringe Festival, alongside a pink Fringe Festival Volunteer t-shirt

Sydney Fringe Festival - Another volunteer orientation session! Really looking forward to helping out with some of the many events at next month’s Fringe Festival (https://sydneyfringe.com/). I definitely want to see A Succulent Chinese Musical?! (https... https://www.web-goddess.org/archive/81632

A shield-shaped yellow enamel pin with an illustration of a small blue bird on it. The text says FAIRY WREN FAN CLUB.

Fairy Wren Fan Club - I bought this excellent pin by Irish-Australian artist Bridget Farmer (https://bridgetfarmerprintmaker.com/collections/lapel-pins) a few weeks back at the museum in Albury. Fairy wrens are one of my favorite Aussie birbs. https://www.web-goddess.org/archive/81630

Random links - Clearing the open browser tabs…

- The Amazing Art of the Video Game Marquee (https://dansinker.com/posts/2025-08-01-marquees/) – I love this, and the next time we’re in the Midwest, I’m going to have to make a pilgrimage to Gallopi... https://www.web-goddess.org/archive/81626

Tania Culottes pattern Modern take on culottes combining the practicality of shorts with the appearance of a skirt. Pattern features a fitted waistband, deep pockets, wonderful drape, invisible side seam zipper and hidden centre front and back pleats to create the illusion of a skirt. View A is short with a full skirt. View B is a knee length with full skirt. View C is midi length with less fullness. View D is knee length with less fullness. Skill: 2/5 Sizing: 0-20 (print or digital PDF). See our sizing chart here. Looking for Curve sizes 14-30? Click here. Printed pattern details Your roomy and beautiful pattern envelope includes the full-size pattern on high-quality tissue paper and an instruction booklet with detailed instructions to guide you through constructing your garment. PDF pattern details After purchase, your patterns will be available immediately in your online account, and via a unique URL emailed to you. Ensure that you save your pattern to your computer before printing to save it for future use. PDF patterns cannot be opened on phones or tablets. Size 0-20 PDF pattern purchase includes the following files: Digital Instruction Booklet US letter size / 12 pages Digital Instruction Booklet A4 size / 12 pages Print at Home Pattern US letter size / 87 pages Print at Home Pattern A4 size / 87 pages US Copy shop 36x48" / 4 pages A0 Copy Shop Pattern / 4 pages Please note that not all files need to be printed, only the ones that correspond to your chosen printing method and pattern variation. Resources Need help sewing Tania? Visit the comprehensive Tania Sewalong on our blog where we guide you through the entire process of sewing your culottes with our detailed tutorials. Share your makes! We love seeing what you've made! Don't forget to tag your projects #MNtania and @megannielsenpatterns. Follow our blog for more sewing tutorials and Instagram for behind-the-scenes sneak peeks. Sign up for our newsletter to be notified of sales, special offers and new product releases. Policies & Copyright Please ensure that you read our FAQ and Policies before purchase. Copyright © 2013 Megan Nielsen. All Rights Reserved. Reproduction not permitted. FOR PERSONAL USE ONLY.

Sewing patterns - Speaking of making things, two sewing patterns that I’m bookmarking for summer: the Megan Nielsen Tania Culottes (https://megannielsen.com.au//collections/sewing-patterns/products/tania-culottes-sewing-pattern) and the Sew Over It Penn... https://www.web-goddess.org/archive/81622

Australia in race to wind back industrial devolution We rank amongst the world's richest nations when it comes to personal wealth but, in terms of our economy and particularly its complexity, we sit amongst the world's poorest — and the situation is progressively getting worse.

Making things - This morning I read this news story (https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-08-06/the-race-to-shore-up-australias-remaining-industry/105617502) which points out that Australia’s economy is one of the least complex among developed nations. We m... https://www.web-goddess.org/archive/81619

this work saved millions of lives in 2021, won the Nobel Prize in 2023, and is cancelled in 2025

Patrick O'Brian Mapping Project To accurately map the progress of Jack Aubrey and Stephen Maturin in the novels by Patrick O'Brian.

Avast ye landlubber! - Two more Master and Commander-related links I discovered yesterday:

- The Patrick O’Brian Mapping Project (https://www.cannonade.net/map.php?Master_and_Commander), which plots the journeys of each book on an interactive map (than... https://www.web-goddess.org/archive/81530

anyone out there we could commission to make some fake box art for early-90s era games for another game? we don't have a huge budget, but do have a budget.

Oh, the smug satisfaction of finding an error in a knitting pattern (one that had *numerous* test knitters!) and having the designer verify it and send out a correction. 💅

I would love a copy. Can you post to Australia? I can send $ for postage.

Purdue student detained by ICE and taken to troubled Louisiana holding facility Yeonsoo Go, 20, was detained after her immigration hearing in Manhattan and taken away by ICE agents.

Go, a college student, has a dependent visa (her mother, an Episcopal minister, is here on a religious worker visa), which doesn't expire until Dec. But when she tried to renew it early, ICE nabbed her and sent her halfway across the US to a detention center.
www.wthr.com/article/news...

Houndstooth

Houndstooth - My second weaving project on the rigid heddle loom has begun! I finally managed to get the thing warped and now I’m working on a simple houndstooth pattern. I suspect my tension will still be all over the place, but I’m having fun and bu... https://www.web-goddess.org/archive/81527

Awesome!! I kept having to look up where places were on my phone. :)

Master and Commander Master and Commander is a nautical historical novel by the English author Patrick O'Brian, first published in 1969 in the US and 1970 in the UK. The book proved to be the start of the 20-novel Aubrey–Maturin series, set largely in the era of the Napoleonic Wars, on which O'Brian continued working until his death in 2000. The novel is set at the turn of the 19th century. It focuses on two characters: the young Jack Aubrey, a Royal Navy lieutenant who has just been promoted to the rank of Master and Commander, effectively a captain, and Stephen Maturin, a destitute physician and naturalist whom Aubrey appoints as his naval surgeon. They sail in HM sloop-of-war Sophie with first lieutenant James Dillon, a wealthy and aristocratic Irishman. The naval action in the Mediterranean is closely based on the real-life exploits of Lord Cochrane, including a battle modelled after Cochrane's spectacular victory in the brig HMS Speedy...

Master and Commander - I finally finished Patrick O’Brian’s Master and Commander (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Master_and_Commander), the first in his long Aubrey-Maturin (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aubrey%E2%80%93Maturin_series) series. Here’s ... https://www.web-goddess.org/archive/81524

A man onstage at a conference with a slide that reads DataEngBytes Sydney

A woman presenting on stage at a tech conference

A man dialling in via Zoom to a tech conference

A crowd at a tech event, as seen from above

DataEngBytes Sydney - Last month I was chatting to Peter Hanssens, the organiser for the DataEngBytes (https://dataengbytes.com/sydney) conference, when he commented, “I didn’t realise you knew so many of our speakers this year!” Not only did I know... https://www.web-goddess.org/archive/81401

A woman giving a talk at a tech event with a slide that reads: "People are smart! Computers are dumb!"

A smiling woman holding a green and purple paper wheel

A table laden with many, many pizzas in boxes

GPN Term 3 - Ten hours later….

Well, that was a fun but exhausting day! There were 50+ tutors and 120+ high-school students at UTS today’s Girls’ Programming Network (https://www.girlsprogramming.network/) event. The theme of the day was cryptograp... https://www.web-goddess.org/archive/81385

GPN Term 3

GPN Term 3 - Best wishes to everyone protesting today! I am at Central Station picking up students for today’s Girls Programming Network event. Looking forward to a day of learning about Python and cryptography! https://www.web-goddess.org/archive/81381

Mittens with a QR code knitted on them

Sanity prevails - Google have backed down (https://blog.google/technology/developers/googl-link-shortening-update/) on their plan to deprecate the goo.gl URL shortener! I was really pissed as I had deliberately chosen that shortener when I made my Self-Re... https://www.web-goddess.org/archive/81376

Another hack; moving to WordPress Last week, I was going to upload some photos from the recent Girl Geeks event at Canva to my blog when I noticed a strange folder in my FTP directory called "PDFs." Crap. Yep, my site had been hacked again. It was filled with PDFs for Viagra and all kinds of crap. (What the hell is even the point of

WordPress anniversary, and thoughts on blogging - It’s the 10-year anniversary (https://www.web-goddess.org/archive/13993) of that time my blog hosting got hacked and I nearly chucked in the towel before John (https://johnfallsopp.com/) convinced me to ... https://www.web-goddess.org/archive/81327

Screenshot of dictionary definition that reads: crapulous | 'krapjulas | adjective literary caused by or showing the effects of alcohol: I was a little too crapulous to register what had happened | I'm surprised to see Graham spouting crapulous nonsense like this. ORIGIN mid 16th century: Latin crapulosus, crapula 'excessive drinking, inebriation, intoxication'.

crapulous - I am learning so many useful new words from this book! #masterandcommander https://www.web-goddess.org/archive/81255