& the slipper still fits

DECEMBER BRUSH SET


Brush Set #001, December 2010 photoshop CS4 +
Inspired by the Harry Potter Founders, this first brush set for December 2010 features 28 brushes of various size larger than 800 pixels. Both actor images and stock photos were used. The brushes are more grungy and were created for use as masking tools or decorative decay accents.

Why the Harry Potter Founders? Because I simply cannot get them out of my head (and it doesn't help that the 4 actors considered to be the OTP set are some of my absolute favorites). To learn more about why I would have a photoshop crush on these four, visit fyhogwartsfounders and fyeahmodernfounders. The graphics are always entertaining and inspiring.

But even if you don't like the Hogwarts Founders, or Henry Cavill, Katie McGrath, Billy Piper, and Jonathan Rhys-Meyers this brush set it for you. I made sure there were over 12+ abstract/decorative brushes to insight your interest. Enjoy!

KEEP ME CURRENT 12.19.10

Tumblr gets ready for 2011 Could this possibly mean less fail screens?! AND not mass posting my queued photos?! That will be welcome.

BBC 1 unveils previews for new Upstairs-Downstairs

The Tempest gets closer to Theatres

Big bookstores nearing end of their shelf life? While I would love to see us move back to the small-town, family run, bookstores of yester-year, this article seriously unnerves me. Borders and Barnes and Noble are staples in my shopping life and book-buying mentality. We're coming into a whole new age of reading, readers and I'm not sure I'm ready for it.

Anything Period is doing a Christmas Week of Costume If you're not familiar with Tumblr, or anything period, its a micro blogger where I daily post photos of our favorite costume dramas. A week of costume is where I take a week and only post photos from a specific costume drama; normally week of costume is only a summer thing, but this Christmas it was time for our favorite heroes (and me) to give back a bit. Today: its the boys of Merlin, tomorrow: Col. Brandon.

BLOG IN 140 12.17.10

I doubt very much that I will be sleeping at all tonight. At All.

A SENTENCE A WEEK 12.13.10

"Dance with me."
"Why?" Alice asked, her brow furrowing slightly with confusion. Toby never danced.
"Because its five minutes to midnight," he started, pulling her into his long arms, "and the slipper still fits."


word count: 534 (I know, I did nothing last week.)

FIRST LOOK: PotC - STRANGER TIDES



I must admit, I'm WAY more excited for this one than I ever was for the last two.

KEEP ME CURRENT 12.11.10

'Voyage of the Dawn Treader' has a better trip to Theaters than 'The Tourist' Rough estimates peg the third Narina movie making at least 29 million, Tourist 19.

Thor trailer hammers its way online

"You have to let things go" Suzanne Collins on Hunger Games movie

The Mortal Instruments Series gets a lead Ladies and Gents, Lily Collins is our Clary. And where I am normally a pessimist about casting news, this one I'm going to be optimistic about. I like Lily Collins; Clare herself supports the casting, and already beat down anti-Lily comments on her blog. I'll wait to rant when Alex Pettyfer isn't cast to play Jace.

Dowton Abbey to air on PBS (in US) on January 9th So excited! I will be watching it on PBS, and blogging about it the next day.

AUSTEN-ESQUE ORNAMENTS

This Christmas I wanted to do something different with my Christmas tree. It's always dolled up with reds and golds and glitter, and I love it, but this year I thought that an Austen twist would be refreshing and fun. But first, I had to find a quick and cheep way to make an austen-equse ornament. I always love the beautiful silhouette portraits so common from Austen's time and decided I would start there. I made 16 ornaments in this batch, so all the supply list numbers reflect that amount.

For this Project you will need

Silhouettes of chosen family members (or your favorite actors, writers, pets)
4 sheets of White Paper/ Any color construction paper
Scissors: plain and/or decorative
Ribbon (2-3 yards)
Photoshop & some knowledge of the pen tool (the quick and easy way)

For these ornaments, I used photoshop to make the silhouettes. You could of course, make them by hand. I found photoshop a quick and simple answer to hand drawing all those profiles. Click the photos to see the larger versions.


1. Take silhouette photos of your family.

2. Open the photos in photoshop as a copy.

3. Use the pen tool to make a path around the whole silhouette, remember you can touch up the lines on your silhouettes and not fundamentally change the look of your subjects. It doesn’t make for a completely true likeness, but your family will probably thank you later if you photoshop out their double chin.

*Pen tool tip: Hold down the alt button and click the anchor point to remove a leading direction line. This makes doing the silhouette by hand infinitely easier.



4. Fill the path (right click inside completed path) with black, or any other color you prefer. For mine, I’m using plain black and white and embellishing with colored paper later. When the path is filled, right click in your path again and select Delete Path.





4A. If you have spots in your silhouette you do not want filled with black (ie open spaces between ponytail and head): Follow step 3 and Fill Path with white or contrasting color.

In mine, I’ve decreased the opacity of the PATH layer to see the holes. If not, all you see is the black silhouette and not the picture underneath. I do not use a second layer for this white path. I fill path in the same layer.



5. Return the opacity back to normal. Your silhouette is done!
I add a new layer between the photo and the PATH layer and fill it white.





6. Resize for printing. I want my silhouettes to be about 4 inches high and able to cut in an oval shape. So I’m saving them that way in photoshop, but I will also tweak them in InDesign. The below photo breaks down the image resize. To save without using InDesign, save file with Height: 4.0 inches x Width: --- (size adjusted by photoshop).



In InDesign, I lay out a bunch to print at one time, looking like this:



But you absolutely DO NOT need InDesign for this project. Just make sure you save them the right size in photoshop and you’ll be good to go. I however, was making A LOT of them and wanted the oval outline to help me keep my cutting on task.

7. Cut out ovals and 1 plain oval to use as a guide. I’m cutting my silhouettes as cleanly as possible and cutting my plain blue ovals a little larger so there is a blue border around each one.





8. Glue together. I used double-side tape for mine and it worked beautifully. I’m sure the edges will curl slightly, but I’m okay with that. To solidly affix, I would say use a glue stick or roll-on glue tape. Wet glue will bubble and could aid the black ink in bleeding.



9. Now its time to make your ribbon loop. Either:

A. Hole punch at top and string ribbon or
B. Glue Ribbon to back.

I chose B, looping the thin white ribbon and sticking together with a dot of hot glue on top.

10. Decorate tree with your new ornaments! I also tied white rowgrain ribbon bows on the ends of branches to heighten the Austen feel.

BLOG IN 140 12.8.2010

Peace and serenity will be mine today. Just not together. Or until 10 pm tonight.

SENTENCE A WEEK

"That's Toby over there--he's from here. I'm not. I don't quite remember how I got here, but I know I'm trying to go home. To our world.

Word Count: 500

KEEP ME CURRENT 12.4.10

Oh my! dear reader, it is the first "Keep me current" with a few uncurrent links, but I'm sure you'll be entertained.


Bill Condon tries to start first certifiable riot on Internet. (above photo) In other news, why is it every time I click a Twilight link IE dies a little?

Game of Thrones HBO first look. Boromir! You're back!

Several Hobbit Updates hit Internet.

Return to Cranford slated to open PBS's costume drama line up in new year. Yay!!

Early reviews of 'The King's Speech' promising. When is anything Colin Firth does not promising? But seriously, this movie looks fantastic. I hope it will play in my local theatre for at least a week so I can catch it.

Behind the Scenes footage from new PotC

Jane Eyre 2011 gets a website As if I know obsessively check tumblr enough, now I'll be glued to this site like--well, like glue. There's a new photo lurking around too, even though its in the trailer already:

The Princess Bride, Cary Elwes's Diary



This is simply to lovely not to post. Home videos shot during filming of the Princess Bride with commentary from Cary Elwes and Robin Wright Penn.

MERLIN 308

Every episode of Merlin should be a quest. With Courage, Magic, and Strength. PS- Gwaine should be a main cast member like, NOW.

CHRISTMAS LISTS AND CEREAL

It's 8:45 on a Friday morning, I don't have to be to work till 11, and I haven't done my Christmas list at all.* Well, I have a little. I'm one of the biggest forgets-everything type of people. Like yesterday, I had 3 huge postits telling me not to forget spray adhesive. Guess what I forgot? Dear reader! I knew you'd catch on quick! So of course I have a short list of things I shouldn't forget to ask for, but its tiny and, I figure, needs a great deal of expanding.

THE NO BRAINERS

Josh Groban: Illuminations

Josh Groban is one of the few artists I still buy actual CDs for. He was my first real concert, and listening to his voice is like drinking the best type of hot chocolate with extra heavy cream. I've held off buying his new album illuminations simply because I listen to his Christmas album this whole month and I don't think I can dedicate enough Groban-loving time to 12 new songs. That all changes December 26th!

Twilight Saga: Eclipse

Short of a long, drawn-out, explanation, I'll give you my reasons. 1. I've read the books and enjoyed them. 2. I haven't seen the movie yet. 3. I already have the first two, and I have this thing where I have to have whole sets of things. For example, a book series. There's a reson I don't buy in to those 32 volume fantasy fiction monsters.

THE REAL WANTS

Fringe Season 2

No brainer, no brainer, no brainer! I fell in love with season one about a month ago and have been itching to get my hands on season 2 since I finished the finale. Do you know how hard it is not to be spoiled about this show online!? At least most of it I don't understand yet, so it doesn't drive me nearly as crazy as it could. Needless to say, I need my Joshua Jackson and lensflare fix ASAP. And then Season 3 soon after that.

The Tudors: Seasons 1-4

The Tudor period has to be one of my absolute favorite historical eras. In fact, it would battle the Victorian Age for supremacy in my which topic will Heather get a PhD in throwdown. I'm still so upset that they didn't want to continue the Tudors without Henry VIII. I mean, you still had the most famous Tudor to go Showtime! But that's their loss. I would love to get all 4 seasons for Christmas, but with my b-day 10 days later, I'll settle for season 1 for now. Although season 4 had to be my absolute favorite.

Lancome

What girl doesn't want amazing face cream?! Lancome is the stuff my mother always wishlists and I've been thoroughly hooked. It also clears up my face like no ache cream can. Maybe I'll get lucky and sneak my Sephora rebate card in my mom's purse when she goes out shopping and get free points too.

"The Dragon of Cripple Creek" by Troy Howell

Not only does this book look fantastically endearing, but I can do 3 degrees of separation with the author! Troy Howell is the infamous illustrator uncle to my best friend since kindergarten. He's an award-winning and beautiful illustrator and this book sounds like a sure-fire adventure. I think Jane Yoeln's endorsement says it all:

I hate it when really wonderful illustrators turn out to be even more wonderful at writing novels. Somehow it’s not fair. Yet how could I hate Troy Howell whose sassy, self-aware (and hurting) heroine Kit has one of the freshest voices in children’s novels today. Whose dragon Ye has a marvelous world-weary insouciance. Whose landscapes and cave-scapes are as visualized in words as in his paintings. You guessed it. I love this book.


THE AIN'T GETTIN'

Nook - Barnes and Nobel

As much as I love my books, and trust me I love them too much to get rid of any of them, the N&B Nook has me interested. Especially the possible option of downloading PDF files and reading off the Nook. I wouldn't kick it out from under my Christmas tree, but at the same time, I doubt I would opt to buy the e-book over a hard copy. Free online books a la canon here I come!

Wii



I have a Playstation. A playstation that, for all intensive purposes, I think my parents sole because I never use it. So as much I would love a Wii with all the mario and tennis games I can muster, it is not a practical get Heather gift. But it is pretty. Very pretty.

*As usual, a blog post took way longer than I thought. And while this wasn't posted at 10am as planned, I'm sure dear reader, you still get the picture.

BLOG IN 140

Has a x-mas list the write, x-mas cards to make, a tumblr to fill, and a pop3 email to figure out. Friday could be daunting.

BLOG IN 140

Just wants to hide away in bed and watch North and South with a huge cup of coffee. What a rainy end of the year!

HOLIDAY READS- a pathetic confession

Miss Casee Marie will always and forever have me beat when it comes to timely blog posts. Hence, I get some of my favorite ideas from her, all credited of course. So when I saw her fantastic blog post about some wonderful holiday reads, I realized that if I wanted to do a post about holiday novels, it um...would look impossibly depressing.

As far as I remember, I've only ever - and I mean ever - read one holiday-themed novel. And, of course, it was campy enough to include vampires. And you know what's worse? I actually thought it wasn't that bad. I mean, sure, it was slightly (overly) predictable; sure, it was a gag Christmas gift; but I still read it in 2 days and was seriously creeped out at one of the short stories for a good two weeks. That's more than I can say for some of the other romance novels I've picked up to read.

And this Christmas, I'm being realistic. Last year, I bought the complete versions of The Nutcracker and what better time to read it than now? But with my luck, I doubt that I will be able to finish anything this holiday season other than shopping.

There is one novel I read this year that I think would fit into the holiday season category nicely. It is not particularly Christmas or holiday themed, but it is set in winter and has that magical touch of Christmas throne in. The Sugar Queen by Sarah Addison Allen is a must read whether its the holiday season or not.

Josey Cirrini is sure of three things: winter is her favorite season, she's a sorry excuse for a Southern belle, and sweets are best eaten in the privacy of her closet. ...Soon Josey is living in a world where the color read has startling powers, and passion can make eggs fry in their cartons. And that's just for starters.

The Sugar Queen is so much more than you expect and nothing what you expected. I'm stashing my copy in my car to reread with those precious spare moments in between work.

FIRST BLOG POSTS ARE NEVER FUN

Let's just say, I've tried this often. The whole "blogging" thing. I've started countless ones, always thinking that they'll get off the ground; always thinking that maybe this one will be different. Don't worry, I'm not THAT delusional anymore. I'm sure this poor place too will slowly stop the updating. But that doesn't mean I shouldn't try one more time. With a new mission. Simply, to write.

And write about writing, or the lack of me writing. I won't be writing about work, I won't be writing about costume dramas (okay, I'll be writing more about costume dramas...I can't help it, its in my blood), but mostly I'll be writing about what inspires me, what I love, and a constant update (hopefully) about why.

And then there's the novel sentences. One sentence from a work in progress every week along with a weekly word count, and maybe, just maybe something more will come of out all this than another sleeping blog. Let's start here and see what happens. Fingers crossed.
This is just a little post, so I can see how the whole layout will look. Becuase if you don't look good, you don't want to do anything with anything.