In which there is magic at twilight

At the weekend I went along to a local folk dance club having enjoyed the ceilidh at our own wedding so much, I wanted to do more. We did dances from Jane Austen, but also a round strip-the-willow which I always love. Apparently the club do different types of folk dances every week, so Irish dancing, Morris, ceilidh, Scottish dancing etc. As expected though, it is mostly old people in the club. I do have lots of friends who love barn dances when they are at parties, but I know doing it on a Friday night isn't cool. It's not really the solution to making more friends in the area. In fact we are so uncool that we then went home, made cachaca strawberry daiquiris (almost like normal people), but then after drinking them did a 2 hour dungeon crawl on Neverwinter, the MMORPG that is sucking up my time. Oh dear. 

We have been living in this place for a year and a half now, but we only have a few friends we've made from our board games club. I really want to take up something new to meet new people but I get so nervous about joining sports clubs (they'll be full of sporty people! I'm so unfit!) and the other things I like (art, dancing) don't seem to be for people my age. Any tips of finding new things to do and new people? 

We've been using our blender a lot more since I discovered the joy of blending frozen fruit. No looking back! It's cocktails or smoothies every day in this crazy heat.

Went clothes shopping at the weekend and got the both the items pictured here. I love this skirt. It's quite a stiff thick material, but really comfortable and it has pockets. I also love the stag print tee. A bit different from all the ubiquitous swallow prints everywhere.

Pockets!

 

 We went to the park Sunday evening, took a patchwork quilt and played some Magic in the late evening. We were there till half 8 and it was still light! Just utterly beautiful.

Outfit details
Skirt & Top: New Look
Accessories: Claire's

In which giants have invaded and brought toys

I have something new to show you. I literally whipped the below thing up in half an hour. I probably could have made it a lot better, but I am being urged to go play Fluxx with my parents (I am visiting), which I love. Hence, quick bit of fun. :)

Seriously best purchase ever. Andy got an award from work of £200 John Lewis vouchers and we bought so many things. We actually were in John Lewis for 4 hours. We did have tea and cake part way through, but 4 hours to decide what to buy. We got a blender, wok, printer, pillows, a headband and these awesome storage boxes. Although I also have a Lego lunch box in a similar style it can't stack with others like these can. We can now go back and buy more and actually build with them. :)

Also, tomorrow I will be in Edinburgh arranging my wedding dress. So I shall do a photo montage of all the wedding-y bits put together. I thought people would groan with the self-indulgence of wedding posts and the sickening happiness of it all. But people seem to like it, so I shall indulge a little more next week!

In which I come clean about blogging

I have had an awkward guilt-ridden relationship with my blog at times and I have decided to come clean.

I started this blog to do Something Original On The Internet.

A grand aim in our open information age.

I was going to write an entire blog from the perspective of Origami Girl.

Origami Girl is my alter ego. The girl I would be if I had super powers. She makes things out of origami and they come to life. I wrote some short stories about her and know her inside and out. My boyfriend and I made up little tales where we were both superheroes and we would go on fantastical dates together, like he would make a boat out of ice and I would give it paper sails and it wouldn’t be a problem that I can’t swim. My alter-ego probably can swim pretty well actually, but the water makes her washi-paper wet. Not that I am hung up on my poor swimming ability; it’s completely incidental and never an issue. So… firstly I wanted the blog to be a ‘creative writing exercise’. A test of my skill if you will.

However, I also wanted it to promote my jewellery business. I was going to make origami-themed jewellery and other great things and people would love the character and associate it with my Eccentric Accessories. The thing is it didn’t work like that. I wanted to write a blog that I would want to read and in general I find craft blogs boring and self-absorbed[1]. Harsh, but self-promotion isn’t interesting. Second of all, the origami jewellery? Not actually my forte it turns out. Some people do it much better. I make things out of buttons and toys, with Operation charms and dominos –but not so much the origami.

Don’t get me wrong –I tried self-promotion. I really wanted to make money from selling monopoly house earrings and I STILL DO[2]. I just want the blog to be more than that now.

The creative writing was its own issue. If I want to take the self-deprecating angle I can say it was because I am not a good enough writer or not determined. Pretending to be someone else all the time is hard. So I watered down that idea a little bit and let the fashion encroach, whilst keeping sly references to saving the world, origami and a secret identity (ie. the not-showing-my-face thing). Over time Origami Girl has just slipped away from the internet and back into my subconscious.

I like blogging for itself. I love clothes and fashion in ways I never expected. I like to write. I also like me. I would like to be free to talk about toys and tulips and the TARDIS without worrying about how my alter-ego would phrase them. 

I still love origami. I still make origami, but I can’t be Origami Girl any more[3].

The blog is actually going to keep going the way it has been for the last six months, but if I want to put up a little creative writing it might not be in the character of origami girl. If I want to put up fashion photography I want to be free to show my face. I hope those of you who read it at the start enjoyed reading my little tales, and I hope you enjoy what the blog has become and will be. Thanks.

High quality origami jewellery made from folded silver. It blows my mind. Found on etsy.com

The kind of jewellery I actually make. Monopoly dog pendant. Available from me/Eccentric Accessories.

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[1] Like all things there are some wonderful exceptions. I would recommend Scientific Culture for one.

[2] Although the business is currently on hiatus as a result of moving house.

[3] But the blog domain name and banner are staying for now. Afterall, I am into origami –I just haven’t yet figured out how to save the world with it.  

In which something Wonderful this way comes

Friday night was mine and the boy’s four year anniversary. We decided to do something pretty special for it –and it turned out a little bit more special than I guessed.

We went to see Wicked, which I have wanted to see for years, ever since a friend played me a YouTube video of the song Defying Gravity. I’ve been to see quite a few of the London shows now but we have always got pretty cheap seats. We decided to splash out on this one and got fantastic seats -and the show was incredible.

I even planned my outfit around the show. I dressed all in black, with green nail varnish and gold shoes. I would have worn silver shoes, but sadly don’t own any so it was the next best thing. Similarly I don’t own a winged monkey necklace, but I do own a Pegasus one so a winged horse would have to do! 

 

Right down to the wtichy lace socks and points on the lace-ups. 

I apologise for the rubbish photos –they were taken on my camera phone.

So yes, me and the boy got to the theatre and swapped presents. I got him the Dungeon Masters guide for 4^th edition. Yes, we are nerds.

He got me a big box that looked like this:

Inside was lots of blue tissue paper and several Playmobil figures in their boxes (I think I’ve mentioned I like Playmobil before), some Lego figures (including a Lego Mowgli with a monkey and a female viking!) and a happy faced noodle bowl. I was so happy with all my new Lego figures and general cuteness that I nearly stopped there.

Awesome.

The boy then nudged me to open the lid on the bowl and inside were a series of smiley faced food items decorating colourful boxes, each one inside another. Boxes in boxes. He told me to keep going.

All the way up to one last happy jam box. 

It contained this Lego figure:

 And these: 

 

So I believe that would make us engaged. : D

and elated. 

(Also I promise this will not turn into a wedding blog, in fact I have a post in mind about Weetos so no worries on that account.)

In which I dress up as Princess Mononoke.

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Sorry for the long delay in blogging. I have been incredibly busy so had no time at all.

I did however have a fantastic party. It was rather belated for my birthday as folks had been occupied at the weekend.

I spent aaages making my costume for it. It was themed on 'things you would find in a forest' and I spent ages on the planning. I went for a walk in the woods with my sister and gathered sticks and things and wild feral apples and put them in jars around the room. I bought beautiful lights disguised as cherry blossom and then wound plastic ivy around the window bars and dotted playmobil trees and unicorns around the tables. It looked so beautiful and atmospheric.

Here is a picture of one of my friends in costume, looking 'atmospheric'. :)

Thinking about planning the party with my sister, I have just realised that having a sister is kind of unusual for a superhero. I think the heroism works for them in the comics because they are all 'an only child'. So much angst.

I'm trying to imagine batman with a big sister. She wouldn't have stood for all that emo nonsense with dressing in black and going travelling to 'find himself.'

Or imagine if Spiderman had a younger brother who caught him flexing his muscles in the mirror. A little brother would have just laughed at the skin-tight outfit, although probably been quite jealous.

The only ones who had siblings were heroes in teams, I think without them people like Iron Man can only think of operating on their own. (Although I suppose he had friends who helped but shhhh)

I think it is similar to how in children's fantasy novels the parents have to conveniently disappear. They are always orphans. Although it is something that I really like in the Doomspell books. The kids there have parents, worry about them and try to protect them from the witches and so forth. Really really good series actually.

But anyway I do have a sister.

I dressed up as Princess Mononoke for the party. Finally linking back to my first bit about spending time on the costume. I went on a little tangent there.

So here are some photos:

Notice, still wearing a mask. :P I love costumes so very much. I really want to do a 'wolf suit' from Where the Wild Things are one day.