photo saturday: countess

So, yes, this is the same skirt as Madame Fortuna. But I also wanted to play with a couple of different ideas. Also, do I wish they had a proper corset/stays/corset belt you could put over the top of another outfit. Yes, yes I do. Do I also still want that jacket in three variations, that one, one with no sleeve and one with two sleeves. Yes, yes I do.

This was also me playing around with the idea of an Aberrant Mind Sorcerer, which ended up going in a completely different direction. And plus, I was fucking around with the lightning body decals from a couple of weeks ago and turning them into scars.

Poor Countess didn't get a full name, but I was also working under the idea that she was either travelling somewhat incognito, or going full video game amnesia.

But, like I said, she got replaced by a better idea.

Anyway...

This week was Tuna Mornay. And, fun fact, after all of these many, many attempts of making tuna mornay, I discovered that it actually helps to warm/heat the milk first. Who knew? Actual chefs probably. It was a pretty good though.

[clandestine reference to ongoing project that I spend a lot of this week working on, that I'm doing much better with and is now up to just under 40 hours total... also more supplies were obtained today for same]

And... the end of the week was... a non-event.

Thursday DnD was cancelled because we were already one person down and then we had another cancellation. Next week is also going to be out. And then one week on... and then DM Fluffy is out for three weeks. And usually the wheels fall off the Thursday group by the end of November until at least the end of January.

So we have about four sessions left for this year. [sigh]

Friday DnD was likewise cancelled... for the same reason as last week.

I mean it wasn't going to be DnD anyway... but potential board games night didn't happen. And after starting to fall asleep watching a movie while laying on the bed, I basically gave up and went to bed at like 9:30.

Anyway...

Today was essentially supermarket, then the aforementioned trip for project supplies.

photo saturday: pie-in-face

So, sometimes there are ideas that just move into your brain without being asked, unpack furniture and change the locks.

Bobo was one of those ideas. And it was like half of an idea to start with... "goblin in jester outfit". But then I started thinking about what class, and threw out Swarmkeeper ranger, went to Wild Magic Barbarian and changed the colour scheme from black and yellow to black, pink and blue.

I also needed to fuck around in Photoshop to get all the coloured shapes to be the colours I wanted them to be by making two versions with opposing colours and doing a cut and paste to get it to look the way I wanted it to.

So, Bobo got a tambourine that functions as a shield, and a full on ACME mallet.

Also I love the idea of turning the Wild Surge effects that happen when a Wild Magic Barbarian rages with stupid, clown related stuff. Instead of "an intangible spirit, which looks like a flumph or a pixie (your choice)" that explodes, it's a cartoon bomb. Instead of "a bolt of light shoots from your chest" that potentially blinds an attacker, it's a custard pie. And for when the "shadowy tendrils lash around you" instead becomes the two "ears" on his fool's cap. You know, dumb stuff like that.

I also love the idea of playing tiny barbarians. Just because it's more fun than a big burly brute.

And yes, his name essentially translates to "court jester".

Anyway...

Remember last week when I said...

Look forward to next week where I just complain that the soup was nothing special, because I'm flying without a net or much of a plan honestly.

 Yeah. That. It was fine, but it was boring.

[clandestine reference to project that look up about 18 hours of the week but that I'm keeping on the downlow right now because reasons]

I did also make an actual apple pie. Which, unsurprisingly, turned out much, much, much better than the terrible mock apple pie I made the other week.

Thursday Night DnD was much less [stream of consciousness]. We were also down our Barbarian, which means that you can 100% guarantee that we're going to engage in combat. Which is exactly what happened. We also diverted some (much?) of the potentially fallout from last week.

Friday was Chiro Day. And, much as I suggested would happen to the woman on reception last month, I totally blanked on the fact that my actual appointment was a full half hour later than usual and went into town at the usual time, only to realise I had a bunch of time to kill once I got into town. So instead I did much of the things I would normally do after the Chiro. Namely, Games World, EB Games and Dymocks.

I also discovered that Fluffy was also in town at the same time.

After Chiro, I went down to the Terry White Chemist in Rundle Place and finally got my booster. Because I have forgotten to drop in and make an appointment at the one on the Parade every single time I go visit the library for... about a month. So now it's done. And I don't have to worry about it again until the end of March.

Then I texted Fluffy to see where he was, and we met up at a very cool new second hand bookstore in the Myer Centre called Page and Turner. Where the pet store used to be I think. And there was much Looking At Books before I wandered off to Lincraft and he went off to find his dad.

Also, can I just quote a very accurate Tumblr post I saw earlier this week in relation to craft stores...

Craft stores are just like “can I interest you in some…objects? some items? would you like some things?” and every time I’m like Oooh I love objects and items and things!

Yes, this is, in fact, me... in every single craft store ever. 

There was also no Friday Night DnD because people had to do stupid things stupidly early the following morning.

Anyway...

Today was likewise by the numbers. I'm defaulting to tuna mornay for this week, because the weather is definitely taking a turn... but I'm thinking of perhaps trying out "cold soup" over Summer, at least, you know, something mostly tomato based. We'll see.

After the supermarket, we did some futzing around here, then went out to run some errands. Well, an errand. And that was it really.

photo saturday: sparks and popcorn

Young Sparks had been fully designed and was sitting in the folder as a potential DnD Character Colouring Book... and then Hero Forge went and dropped some lava and lightning body decals yesterday. So he definitely got a do-over.

Also, my first Fire Genasi. And first urchin background. Plus the first time I've used the extra arm feature to put something where it otherwise wouldn't have been able to be. Specifically, the rat familiar. Which is why the tail clips through his body. But overall, it worked out pretty good.

And yes, it's another warlock in the Too Many Belts Pants and Vest With No Shirt combo. Sue me.

Anyway...

The weather this week has also been... bananas. Remember last week's "arctic winds"? Yeah, I had to give up and put the air-con on this week, because it was just too damn hot on Thursday. Also, Thursday was so completely insane with the amount of wind and therefore pollen in the air, so I was completely hayfever's bitch all day... well, at least until I left the house in the evening.

This week's soup was Lasagna Soup. And pretty damn successful too. I know I've said this a lot about many different soups, but it was potentially the best version of that I've made. Look forward to next week where I just complain that the soup was nothing special, because I'm flying without a net or much of a plan honestly.

Wednesday I ventured into the Baking Yesteryear cookbook for the third time and made something that actually looked like the pictures for a change. Which is what happens when you actually follow the recipe properly.

Granted, the final product, Potato Chip Cookies (yes, you heard me.... they have both potato chips in the cookie dough AND are rolled in crushed up chips afterwards) was... interesting. They've kind of gotten better over time, or else I've just used to being blasted with salt. I think possibly the particular brand of chips I used might be more salted than their American brethren.

Although, I do wonder what they'd be like if you used BBQ chips... maybe one day.

Thursday Night D&D was... uuuuuuurgh [head desk] [facepalm] fuck [nose bridge pinch] [wtf.gif] ARGH [flip table] [old man yells at cloud.gif] Why are you like this?

I think that sums that up nicely.

Friday Night DnD was much less chaos. We came, we saw, we kicked Hill Giant ass. I made a commune of lesbian farmers canon by accident.

T'was good.

Anyway...

Today was one of those Second Verse, Same As The First weeks.

Supermarket. Back here. Spotlight for craft project supplies.

photo saturday: jack woods

Let's call this one a "companion" piece to a different rabbit hole from a little over a year ago... Lord Silver.

But rather than Blades in the Dark, this rabbit hole is the Candela Obscura system from the folks at Critical Role. And I'd been attempting some version of this character for a little while, even though the full rulebook isn't out, but then a Reddit contest spurred me on to actually get the idea to actually work. And come up with something of a backstory.

Jack Woods grew up in Seasway, a small, coastal village to the east of Newfaire. The family home wasn't far from an ancient lighthouse, and growing up under it led young Jack to develop a fear of deep water from repeated nightmares.

He left home at 16 and came to Newfaire, eventually finding work in Red Lamp as a "gentleman's companion". He has also posed for a number of the artists that call Red Lamp home. One of those relationships first brought him to the attention of Candela Obscura when he was 19. He's been part of the organisation for two years now.

As a Face/Magician, Jack can talk to just about anyone, but growing up under the light of an ancient astrolabe did allow him to learn one real trick. Changing his appearance to look like somebody else.

He carries a set of brass knuckles tucked in his jacket in case of trouble and never forgets to bring a lamp when his Circle ventures into the dark.

Granted, in the contest instance, I used a different surname... because I originally I wanted to go with Jack Wood... but that ended up feeling like too much of a double entendre for someone who is a sex worker. He could also be a different "class", but I kind of like the idea of the Face.

Did I also Photoshop the hell out of this by adding lighting and reducing the size of the lantern from something that came down to roughly the end of the cuff on the boots? Yes, yes I did. Did I also do a lot more work to it after I submitted my contest entry? Yes. Do I wish I'd waited and submitted this version? Also yes. Are his shoulders perhaps a touch too wide? Possibly. I was trying for more "human" proportions... so, who knows.

Also, have I mentioned that one of my very favourite boys names is Jack? Because it is.

Anyway...

The weather this week has been certifiably bass-ackward for this time of year. Starting out warm, ending with literal rain and wind coming up from the Antarctic (after doing a little loop and then coming down from the north) by the end of the week.

I mean, I'm not excited about the warmer weather being on the way, but also Literal Winter in September is... some bullshit.

Soup this week was... Chicken and Rice. But not the best version of that that I've made this season. Not horrific though. It could just have done with more... everything?

Thursday started off... well, not strong... but it was raining a little but I figured, I'll take my umbrella, I'll be fine. Yeah, I came home with wet shoes, wet socks... wet... everything from the waist down basically, because the rain was both heavy and at about a 45 degree angle. So... fun?

Thursday night DnD was good... but also semi frustrating for a variety of reasons. Firstly, everybody I play with can kiss my ass if they ever say that I talk too much in game. Because I was attempting to get other people involved in things so that it wasn't all me... but everyone else was just "well, you talk, you do it". Also, yes... but at the same time, you don't get to complain about it ever now.

But mostly I kid. Mostly.

It was otherwise good... did I break a guy's finger to try and get him to tell me things? Yes. Should I have broken more fingers? Also yes. What? He had information, I wanted the information, he tried to non-lethally shoot me and kidnap someone from the party. He needed more broken fingers.

Please note: I am only advocating for graph-paper broken fingers. On people who are definitely bad guys. And who attacked me first. For legal purposes.

Friday Night DnD was... our first actual DnD session in like a month. And that's usually the job of Thursday Night.

So it took a minute to align my head back to my big bird boy.

It was also one of those "spiraling gently into insanity" sessions. Probably because of the aforementioned break. But we'd had a plan... the DM had prepared the plan... we didn't stick to the plan. Which normally means that something wacky happens. In this case, it meant that nothing much really happened.

Which is fine.

We also levelled up, so that's nice.

Anyway.

Today was... let's go with wacky.

We did the supermarketry. Then we came back and I'd asked Ma to teach me how to do a thing... which, you know, is both dangerous and turnabout is, in fact, fair play. It went... about as well as I expected it to go initially, which is completely badly, and rather than being frustrated, I kind of lost my mind a tiny bit.

But I kinda got it. And then I didn't... and then I really didn't... and it was a very amusing disaster.

And then we went to Spotlight and bought things so it can be a disaster later. Or I can practice it being less of a disaster. I don't know.

I also found a very stupid, yet adorable, "bat skeleton" amongst their Halloween things. He's very dumb, but is now hanging, upside down, from one of my bookshelves. I might need to try him in some other places.

But that was it.

photo saturday: jungle explorer

Did I need to redesign a character I legitimately forgot to make for the longest time? No. But I looked at her and went "what the hell was I thinking?", so I started fucking around with new ideas. And since there really aren't any ears that are perfectly suited for what I want, I threw up my hands, went "fuck it" and put her in a hat.

Had I ever referenced her wearing a hat before? No. Am I ever actually going to sit down and play her ever again? Also no. But it made sense, given the location she lives and works in.

And is everyone probably going to get their second, third, fourth or in some cases thirty-second makeover when the new face customiser drops sometime soon? Yes. So look forward to that or whatever.

Anyway...

Pea and ham soup this week... and by ham I mean kransky. And did I completely fuck up my process and have to extract all the piece of kransky from the soup pot because I put it in when I shouldn't have? Yes. Am I asking a lot of questions and then answering them this week? Also yes.

I attempted a second recipe from the Baking Yesteryear cookbook this week. And... is it possible that the finished product was always going to be bad? Maybe. Is it possible that I used a different kind of sugar and then forgot two other ingredients so the end result was never going to work? I mean, it's more than possible, that's literally what happened.

On the plus side, the pastry was fantastic (which I did not make), and I want to use it and my new little pie tin to make a real apple pie very soon. So that's a bonus.

But I think I came to a realisation I've kind of had in the back of my head for a while. I'm an excellent cook. I'm a shit-house baker. I mean, of anything other than bread. And in situations where the recipe relies on very specific ingredients in order to resemble the thing it's supposed to resemble.

Because baking is about precision much more than cooking. And there are recipes that absolutely don't care that much and there are other recipes that absolutely care. I seem to have come across two of those recipes in this book thus far. Which is fine. I'm just more fully aware of it than I perhaps have been in a hot minute.

Thursday Night DnD was pretty good actually. And the pay off for last week's Bad Brain Day was actually getting to say all the things I thought about saying after last weeks game. In character to an NPC. Because it all needed saying. And kind of changed to vector of what we were intending to do.

Granted we also discovered right after that that there were at least three other locations we could have gone for the same information, including, weirdly enough, our own innkeepers. But I feel like it was more important for my character to have his moment than for us to go see NPC B and get the information from them.

But mostly we did one of those sessions where nothing much gets done, but we all enjoyed ourselves and will remember it fondly. Which I think we needed in character after what they've been through of late.

Friday Night DnD was... board games. Mr was otherwise absent, so Fluffy, Mrs and I did Board Game Night instead.

Which basically resulted in us doing a lot of chat, playing some games of Sushi Go and Love Letter while continuing to talk rubbish. Which did mostly centre around Mrs and I remembering places that no longer exist on O'Connell Street. And terrible 90's boy bands.

So an enjoyable evening all around.

Anyway.

Today was basically the supermarket. Did I also buy normal white sugar, which I haven't purchased in... I dunno... 15 years? Yes. Yes I did. Because, if baking wants white sugar... well, what the hell.