Gift Giving

November 24, 2013March 9, 2022 | mlatimerridley

Ridley: So it’s a bit early to be talking about Christmas (well actually never too early in my book!), but I have to say it’s my absolute favourite time of the year. I mean, when do we have such an absolutely fantastic combination of being able to eat loads of chocolate and at the same time give presents? Like, you have Easter, which is great for the chocolate side of things, and then there’s birthdays for the presents, but Christmas is like Easter and a Birthday smushed together! (and obviously I know the whole point of Christmas isn’t just presents and food, but work with me on this!)
Anyway, I love getting presents for people that suits them, it’s fun to see their faces when they open up something they’ve always wanted or least expected and never knew they wanted. So, while it’s still early, I have begun to look for the unusual presents you can only get online and that can take awhile to get here once ordered. In the interest of helping others with their present searching (cause I’m nice like that), here are some of the best things I’ve found for sale on my favourite craft site, Etsy.com (and yes, it is a case that I’ve been just sharing all my internet procrastinating haunts, but they’re good!!)

lacravatteduchien

Absolutely beautiful and colourful handmade jewellery. They’re a little like stain glass, aren’t they?

nicoledebruin

Have a charm bracelet or want to start one? Here’s some Christmas charms! So dainty!

PaperMatthew

Paper sculpture, so brilliant, there’s real craft gone into these. Usually the actually sculptures are a little expensive for my wallet, which no doubt reflects the skill and amount of time that’s put into them, but they currently have a sale on, and you can pick prints of the sculptures too.

asherjasper

Handmade wool and felt toys! So unique, and you can get custom ones made for you!!

Kreativlink

I absolutely adore unusual notebooks and journals, here some beautiful and unique ones!

majalin

Some really cute artwork and designs. Mind, there’s loads of fantastic artists on both etsy and on deviantart, maybe if you wanted something unusual for that special someone, why not think about supporting some of these unknown but absolutely fantastic artists?

And everyone, just to get you into the Christmas spirit, here’s the new John Lewis Christmas ad. It really almost brought a tear to my eye. Absolutely stunning!!

Tickle Me Pinkish

November 10, 2013March 9, 2022 | mlatimerridley

Ridley: There are some really fantastic, skilled people on youtube, whether they’re online for their animation, their comedy, their music or just to share their opinions, there’s something there for everyone. Two of my favourite youtubers that I said I’d share with you are Domics (Lat likes him too, actually she was the one who originally discovered him) and Communitychannel.

Domics is an animator and is quite funny with interesting stories told in his minimalist style of animation. It’s the expressions that he puts on his characters that are the best, I love watching his videos! Bitches Be Crazy is just a brilliant song too, kinda strangely catchy and I laugh at the funny arm dances in it each and every time.

Communitychannel is an Australian girl who is absolutely hilarious and tickles me pinkish with her random, fairly nerdy (at times) jokes! Her video, ‘Be my Friend’ could just totally be me.

It’s kinda strange when you think about it though. That you sit down in the evening and watch total strangers put up videos from their bedrooms, and you start looking forward to their new releases like any new episode of your favourite show. The power and reach technology and the internet has given us all is mind boggling really!

Visiting Hobbiton via Newbridge

November 4, 2013March 9, 2022 | mlatimerridley

Ridley: The Newbridge silverware shop in, of course, Newbridge is holding a Lord of the Rings exhibition. It has loads of the costumes and props from the movies on display. I wandered over on Sunday to take a gander, and what I saw was absolutely beautiful. Latimer and I have often watched the ‘making of’ videos on the Lord of the Rings dvds, I’m pretty certain we’ve both had starry-eyed dreams of one day working with Weta workshop. Well maybe it was more of a case that we wanted to wander in and out of the different workshops and visit different people and basically see what everyone was making and just make a nuisance of ourselves, rather than actually doing any hard graft. The detail and the designs gone into some of the weapons is absolutely awe inspiring. The pure craftsmanship and love of their art shines through in each of the pieces. Even for different parts, whether it’s the handle, or the blade, or the inside of the helmet, areas that will probably never be seen in the actual movie, they’ve still gone to extraordinary lengths to ensure every inch was designed, etched into, and craved to the best of their ability.

Ringwraiths always freaked me out, especially when they made that weird screeching noise!!

This is a Ringwraiths sword. Really fits with their image and rather creepy it was too.

He was so tall, and scary!! I really wouldn’t have liked a whole troupe of Uruk-hai after me. Oh bloody hell!! Run!

There was so much to see, I let my inner fangirl out with a massive smile. If you’re in Ireland and you get a chance, do get to Newbridge, it’s a completely free exhibition, and while you’re there you can check out some of Marylin Monroe’s dresses (she was tiny!!) and some iconic Michael Jackson suits too over in the other sections.

Thing of the Month October 2013

October 30, 2013March 9, 2022 | mlatimerridley

We are fan-girls – we get obsessed about anything and everything, very quickly… it’s a curse and gift (sort’a!) that we both share!

When we find something we love, we stand up on virtual rooftops and scream – “watch this! go here! eat this! love this! listen to this! read this!”

We have so many obsessions, big, small, wonderful, weird,… weirder. We accumulate new ones by the month! Like hoarders.

We give an RSA (Ridley Stamp of Approval) or an LSA (Latimer Stamp of Approval) to the things we like best – if one of us gives one, then the other knows it’s something is good!

One of us will ask; “Ah, but does it have an R/LSA?” 🙂

We’ve decided to share one of our R/LSA’s each and every month!

Yes, welcome to *drum roll* —- THING OF THE MONTH! (*boom*)

Latimer’s LSA: For me, it’s a book series!

You know how it goes; you find a series of books you love and you just devour it like it’s chocolate – you ride the book high. And you feel awesome! (that was me, I found a series that had me riding that high!).

That series is The Seven Realms by Cinda Chima Williams (4 books total – I like a good sized series me!). It was recommended by mseregon (who mentioned it on deviantart)!

The Seven Realms series - soooo pretty, neh? — The Seven Realms series – soooo pretty, neh?

I’d never heard of it before! So I owe mseregon so much!

The Seven Realms is a good old-fashioned pure fantasy series. It has been a while for me, a long while, since I stepped back into that world!

It made me want to seek out the Belgariad series (by David Eddings)!

I read it so long ago, I hardly remember it – but I remember that I loved it (if that makes any sense!). It’s in my attic somewhere – I went looking, but I had to fight a bird and a massive spider up there, so I got freaked out and ran away screaming!

Anyways, The Seven Realms is a great fun, high-fantasy series, with magic, adventure, romance and mystery! Ah, but beware, with great joy comes sadness – when it ends… argh, you hit the book-low!

Yep, you know the feeling, the ‘what now?!’.

It’s chasing the dragon and getting burned.

Hopefully, by sharing this series, someone will recommend me a new one! But please, chase this dragon… it’s worth the burn!

Ridley’s RSA: My thing of the month isn’t as impressive as Lat’s, I didn’t have a dragon chasing experience, though I plan on it soon as she passes on that series she’s just finished (I know they’ve been bagged up and they’re just now waiting for my grubby hands to get on them, haha).

It has a serious LSA attached, so I’m really looking forward to delving deep and not coming up for air until I’ve devoured each book and have slumped over in a fit of depression where I fully believe that nothing else will ever top them. You know how it is. 🙂

This month I started a new comic book series, Fables. It was not in any way what I expected. Basically all the well known characters from our fairy tales (Snow White, Prince Charming, Red Riding Hood etc) have all been driven out of their magical lands and they’re currently etching out a life in New York city. As you’re a child when you read these stories, I came to the series (without realising I was doing this though) expecting it to be a little like the fairy tales of old, I thought it would be quite light-hearted, little childish, maybe just a new take on the old stories. I was quite wrong. It’s very much for adults, where in the opening pages there is an apartment trashed and covered in blood, then there’s Prince Charming seducing a waitress into paying for his restaurant bill and bringing her home for the night and the Big Bad wolf is an old school smoking Columbo like detective who has a serious crush on Snow White (can you tell I’m already rooting for them to get together?? 😀 ).

It’s an absolutely massive series with something like 133 issues, which is both fantastic – knowing I’ve so much I can work through – but daunting at the same time.

My one gripe with this new reading genre that Latimer and I are trying to break into (she’s doing such a better job of it than I am too!) would be how quickly you go through a comic, I read volume one of Fables in one sitting, so then you’re left sitting there wanting more. With a book you can just sink your teeth into it, and then when you’re left waiting for a sequel you know when you get it, it’s going to be enough to slake your thirst, you’ll get to find out what happens to the characters. Though I suppose the exact same could be said for manga and I still love those too!

We’d love to hear your Thing of the Month, here in the comments, or if you want to post one to your blog – maybe we could make a chain of fan-girls sharing fandoms!

As hoarders we love to collect new obsessions! Hopefully we’ve given you some fun things to check out too! 😀

Silhouette against the Stars

October 29, 2013March 9, 2022 | mlatimerridley

Ridley: So, for those of you who were knocking around here this time last year, you know we created a stop motion silhouette trailer for our book, Legend Unleashed.

Now I don’t know where the year has gone (it seems to have flown by on turbo wings), but we’re rolling up our sleeves and getting stuck into creating another video for book 2, which will be the sequel to Legend Unleashed. Hopefully this time around we’re a little older and wiser, and better able to not get accidentally stabbed by the Stanley knife, meaning we won’t repeat old mistakes, but we reserve the right to make new ones! So, as part of my “research” (read, procrastination) I decided to look up some of the latest (and some classics) of stop motion silhouettes and I said I’d share some of them here.

An absolute classic here from Lotte Reiniger, who was basically a founder of this style really. This was made in 1922, making something like this for that time, it must have blown away audiences. Look at the intricate, detailed work on the various ‘sets’ and characters, the fact he was able to easily portray a feather in a cap, or a sweeping dress in this medium is very impressive.

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This I like as it’s quite quirky. I loved the addition of the colours in the girl’s hair and dress, and the bell style with the design in the middle of the skirt is just lovely. Also, the transitions between the different scenes, say where she’s floating up to the guy in the hot air balloon, were really well done.

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The style in this is really different to anything I would have tried in the past, there’s way more colour in it for a start. I loved the changing background of the different newspapers, it does have me wondering how it was done as that was impressive, and the moon rising up was beautiful!

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Another very different style, but still really pretty and some fantastic skilled work gone into its creation. Plus I quite like the song!

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Here’s a music video, I think it was stop motion, though it looks so perfectly done, I’m sure there was some computer polishing at some point. The vibrant colours in this are just fantastic in it though, wish I could make something like this. Reach for the stars, eh? 🙂

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Now technically this one doesn’t count, as it’s all done on computer and there’s not actually any stop motion involved, just the silhouettes, but it’s so beautifully done I just had to include it!

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Lastly, here’s one of my favourite silhouette illustrators, Jan Pienkowski, his art is just so amazing.

Animal-napping

October 21, 2013March 9, 2022 | mlatimerridley

Ridley: I love animals. I always have, even as a child I used to spend half my time animal-napping other people’s pets. One of the days, when I was seven, I remember grabbing a full packet of ham and laying a meaty trail in through our front gate for this gorgeous basset hound I’d spotted on the street.

The minute he’d ambled into our garden, I leapt forward, slamming the gate closed while laughing, ‘He’s mine now!’. Mind, he was quite clearly someone elses, with his lovely new collar and name tag (complete with address and all on the back) but I cheerfully ignored all these obvious signs of people ownership as I hugged him and he became mine for all of half an hour until my mother released him. *sigh* I even tried to adopt a skunk once, not really understanding that they weren’t fluffy cats with large white stripes (all those episodes with Pepé le Pew tricked me!).

That aborted animal stealing event ended with me being scrubbed in the bath with tomato juice. It was shortly after this that my parents eventually relented and got me a white kitten, which I called Precious (no, I didn’t really think that name through too well, that or I was already showing Gollum-like tendencies, ‘My Presciousssss’)

Since then, we’ve had numerous beloved, and not forgotten, animals. Not least of which are the ones at home at the moment.

We have three dogs, which are known as the twins (two cairn terriers – Ernie and Daisy) and the big ‘un (Raffles, half dalmatian, half cocker spaniel).

There’s also our cat Pigeon, who is basically the princess in the house, we (okay, I) spoil her rotten (little treats of tuna, special Whiskas milk) and she now expects it. I am convinced all cats remember the time when they were once worshipped in ancient Egypt; Pigeon in particular must have been some high priestess or something, as she gets annoyed if she’s given normal cat food.

I swear the four of them think they’re humans, or at least they act like it. And yes, I’m sure you noticed that I called my cat after a bird, I really wanted to call her something like Cleopatra (she would have been Cleo for short, I had it all planned out) or Crookshanks, but the family vetoed all of my well thought out (and pilfered from various movies/books) names, so eventually I said, ‘she’s grey, we’re calling her Pigeon’, of course everyone protested, telling me I couldn’t call a cat after a bird. Ha, watch me. (Latimer wanted me to call her Dobby, but I didn’t think she had big enough eyes)

Pigeon also has the three dogs wrapped around her little paw. If she’s ever in a fight with another cat, she races down the wall, happily leading her would-be attacker into the back garden. Then she hops down right into the centre of the three dogs. Who see another cat chasing their special Pigeon and they rear up barking. All the while, behind them is Pigeon, with a smug little expression staring up at her shell shocked enemy who turns tail and flees in horror. Ingenious really, and kinda evil, is it little wonder she’s my cat…haha

Anyone else have crazy cats and dotty dogs? What would you do without them, eh? 😀

TED Talk Round up

October 13, 2013March 9, 2022 | mlatimerridley

Ridley: I love TED talks, I find I learn loads from them, so here are some of the ones I’ve enjoyed over the last few months!

If you ever get a chance to go to one of these events, do! I went to TEDx Dublin last year and it was absolutely brilliant. I missed out on buying the tickets for this year though, it sold out too quickly! I’ll have to try catch it next year!

“Body language affects how others see us, but it may also change how we see ourselves. Social psychologist Amy Cuddy shows how “power posing” — standing in a posture of confidence, even when we don’t feel confident — can affect testosterone and cortisol levels in the brain, and might even have an impact on our chances for success.” So make sure you take a power pose now and then when no one’s looking!

“Elizabeth Gilbert muses on the impossible things we expect from artists and geniuses — and shares the radical idea that, instead of the rare person “being” a genius, all of us “have” a genius. It’s a funny, personal and surprisingly moving talk.”

Love the idea of an elusive creative genius, sitting on your shoulder, whispering ideas in your ear like some Golem or Dobby like creature, only prettier possibly.

“Why do people succeed? Is it because they’re smart? Or are they just lucky? Neither. Analyst Richard St. John condenses years of interviews into an unmissable 3-minute slideshow on the real secrets of success.”

“Dan Gilbert, author of “Stumbling on Happiness,” challenges the idea that we’ll be miserable if we don’t get what we want. Our “psychological immune system” lets us feel truly happy even when things don’t go as planned.”

Behind the Masses

October 6, 2013March 9, 2022 | mlatimerridley

Ridley: I’m so behind!! Everyone has been facebooking, tweeting, blogging and talking about the end of Breaking Bad, and where am I? I’ve just started season 2, having stayed put at around episode 5 in season 1 for weeks and weeks. It’s not like I didn’t know it was good, it’s been recommended to me over and over by various people since around season two/three, but I was watching other programmes like Orange is the New Black and House of Cards. Now I feel like I’ve missed out and it’s going to take me months to catch up, by that time even the hard core Breaking Bad people will have gotten over their withdrawal symptoms and found something else to obsess over. That something else will become big, then I’ll end up being behind in that too, with more sprinting to catch up, it’s like a never ending, vicious – rather pathetic, have I nothing else to worry about- circle!! Haha.

Usually, I love giving recommendations to my friends and family if I find something good to read or watch, but I’ve been perpetually disappointed the last few months when every single person I’ve spoken to has either gone ‘I’ve seen that’ or ‘oh yeah I heard about that’ (hear the escaping wind as Ridley deflates in disappointment). Damn you internet and your wise, Ridley stealing, recommendations. I don’t think I’ve been ahead of the posse in anything since I was 12, where I predicted sticker collecting and the Power Rangers were going to be big, low and behold they were. (Latimer has heard this story at least a dozen times)

Well, stickers were massive in my school anyway, I don’t know about nationwide or anything.

Oh and pogs, remember those? I knew people would love them, mainly cause I did, they were so much fun! Ah the 90s were great. I wonder where all my pogs are now…hmm…

There was a time (we all know this isn’t true but I’ve convinced myself otherwise) that I had my finger on the pulse of what was cool and up-and-coming. Now I’ve to go cap in hand to my younger brother and see if he’ll throw me a few recommendation crumbs before the masses catch on. When I ask him how he knows, he just shrugs, ‘sure everyone knows that’s a good show’. Fine, keep your mysterious sources.*jealous glare*

I’m just living in hope that one day my predicting skills return, so far I remain predictionless, and so behind my television watching! First world problems, eh? ;D

(also considering my last post was about reality television, I’m pretty sure people now think I’m like Jabba the Hutt vegetating on the couch watching endless episodes of Breaking Bad, Duck Dynasty, and all the rest…of course, you’d be right! Haha. No not really…)

The Reality of Procrastinating

September 29, 2013March 9, 2022 | mlatimerridley

Ridley: I wouldn’t watch much television to be honest. When I say this, I do watch shows, but it would be more on netflix when I have nothing else pressing, rather than just randomly sitting down in front of the television every night. However, Sundays can often be my day to watch what I call ‘car crash television’, I get sucked into watching reality shows that teach me nothing, in fact my precious (and rapidly dwindling by the year) brain cells probably slowly decay the longer I sit there. It can’t be helped though, sometimes it’s like I can’t look away, or close my gaping mouth. I’m pretty certain I’m not the only one, as these shows are still on and seem extremely popular. So I said I’d share some of my favourites (as you do).

Deadliest Catch

Basically this show follows fishermen on the Bering Sea catching king crabs. Most of my friends and family think each episode looks identical to the next one. There’s the sea, crabs and a boat, and they keep catching the crabs or they don’t. But to be honest, I find this show quite addictive. I have favourite Captains and I love how the camera skips from boat to boat, seeing how they’re each getting on with their haul, it’s quite unpredictable (and dangerous), you never know what the sea is going to do.

Ducks Dynasty

Of all the mad shows I watch, this is my all time favourite. It’s about this Louisiana bayo family who have made it big, they’re millionaires from making duck calls for hunters. It’s the ultimate rags-to-riches story, where their business was started in the family shed. They are the most unconventional company ever, where the whole extended family, and most of their neighbourhood, has been employed by the business. The antics and the madness they get up to often have me in stitches. Uncle Si is my favourite of the family, the lines that randomly come out of him are just classic.

All the Inks, from L.A Ink, Miami Ink, London Ink, NY ink.

I watch all the ink shows, basically its a reality show where people get tattoos from absolutely epic artists. I’ve always wished I looked like Kat Von D, she’s very cool.

I love the display of artistic talent and the unusual images that people decide to get. I also come away with a massive desire to get a tattoo myself, but I can never decide on an image, that, and I usually like to avoid pain – I’m not a fan.

Ice Road Truckers

This is another show a bit like Deadliest Catch, where the job is really dangerous. I think I like these as I can’t imagine myself ever having enough courage to be able to this type of work myself, or how you’d mentally be able to go about doing it. Night time driving, blizzards, freezing temperatures and roads literally made of ice, not to mention the massive expensive tons of gear you’re huge truck is transporting from one town to the next. Anything can happen, and does!

Here Comes Honey Boo Boo (which is an off shoot of Toddlers & Tiaras)

These shows, I just watch them with my mouth hanging open and I randomly shake my head. Toddlers and Tiaras is basically all these kids who do pageants and try to win titles by dressing up to the nines with make up, glitzy dresses, swim wear and costumes.

I was originally going to say we don’t really have these sort of events in Ireland, but actually the first ever one was held last weekend. Mind, it’s not nearly as popular here as it is in the U.S.

Now, as one of the kids who was a star in T&T, Honey Boo Boo obviously caught a producers eye somewhere along the way with her sassiness, so she and her family got their own spin off show.

I think most of her relatives (and herself) are all hyped up on sugar (actually more than likely as they drink this juice, called Go Go Juice, which is made up of Mountain Dew and Red Bull! My heart is just racing thinking about it). It’s just mental to watch them.

Now you know what Ridley does when she’s feeling bored and rebelling against doing any actual work. You know you all do it! 😀 Amazing that I managed to do a blog post about the things that almost prevented me from doing the post in the first place! Teehee.

Carwicky

Two eccentric girls with one big dream

Ridley Stamp of Approval (RSA)