Scariest Drive Ever!

Hi Everybody! I'm in Flagstaff! It was one crazy drive. Tucson-Phoenix was fine, and the first 20 miles or so out of Phoenix were great... until we hit crawling traffic, due to a 3-car pile-up in the middle of nowhere. Once we got past that, we were having a great time, cruising through beautiful country and jamming to Corvus Corax, and then the rain started. Pouring rain, so heavy we could barely see the highway. The guy ahead of us didn't bother to put on his lights, and there was no center line. UGH!

But we're here, and let me tell you, Flagstaff is beautiful! It's so green, with beautiful trees and grass. I love it here. I want to come back sometime and go hiking.

Tomorrow, I'll have dogs :)

Storming Again, also, Leaving Tomorrow!

Just as I was sitting here reading my message boards, a thunderstorm started up, so I said to myself "I'd better blog before I have to shut down!" And here I am. The rain smell is wonderful. Mmmm. So refreshing and inspiring!

We're going to try to leave town at around 10am tomorrow. I plan to blog from the hotel room, but I may not. Depends on what else we are up to in Flagstaff and how tired I am. The forecast for Flagstaff is highs in the 60s and lows in the 40s. Yikes! Maybe this is why I never go there... I had to retrieve a sweater from the depths of the closet to make sure I won't freeze.

I've got a lot of things to do before we go, including packing the rest of the stuff we need to take and printing up directions to the hotels, and all that fun stuff. I was hoping to make a necklace tonight, but at this rate it probably won't happen. The important thing is getting ready to go get my lovely dogs! Hurray!

A different kind of flight

We started the week off with a butterfly, and we end it with a propeller! The funny thing was, I was going to make this week's theme "nature" (yeah, mermaids aren't natural, but fish are, and there were a lot of natural materials in that necklace), but then I went into the beadroom today and realized that I wanted to make something steampunk. The result is Aviatrix!

I had fun picking out the beads. Black was easy -- I've got lots and lots of black -- but the white was trickier. The porcelain white of the focals (by Earthenwood Studios, naturally!) has an earthier, almost dirty quality to it. White glass doesn't go, white pearls don't go, off-white really doesn't go... but these weird dim vintage clean glass beads do. And the square ones echo the shape of the focal, which is a nice bonus! I rarely buy clear beads, and I rarely buy square beads, so I think the only reason that I bought these particular beads is because they were vintage and cheap, two of my favorite things. I may have even picked them up at the same show as the mermaid focal from yesterday's post.

Tonight my friend Helen is coming over for dinner, and I want to bake cookies for dessert, so I'd better get off this computer and into the kitchen.

A focal that I love.

I think this precious mermaid is the last boxwood carving I had that I hadn't used yet. Unfortunately, I've yet to find a seller at the Tucson shows who has the combination of selection/price/quality that I got at the Whole Bead Show in New York City. These were just the prettiest, smoothest, most unique boxwood pieces, and I've used all of them up now.

This mermaid is part of today's Daily Design Challenge piece, Napping Treasure Hunter. She's what I started yesterday and couldn't finish in time. I had to put another 2-3 hours into her today. All of that knotting is tedious! But I like how it looks. I tried stringing the beads on Beadalon, with seed beads between, and it just wasn't working.

Now I have more work ahead of me. To make the necklace, I went through my beads, found a ton of things that I thought would go well with the color scheme I had planned, and dumped them into the largest section of my beaded stringing tray, swirling them around to see how they looked together. Now I have a jumble of leftover beads to sort out and put away.

Artsy Photography and Travel Plans

The verdict is in! Beaded jewelry does photograph well outdoors on a cloudy day. With another storm blowing in, I took these earrings outside, hung them from a little branch on one of my young mesquite trees, and snapped some shots! I like how the opal glass of the leaves glows slightly in the diffused sunlight.

The earrings, by the way, are called Eternal Spring and they're today's Daily Design Challenge item! I had started working on a necklace, but it grew out of control and by 3pm I realized there was no way I was going to have time to finish it and get it on Etsy today. I'll try to finish it tomorrow.

Now for my travel plans, and how they'll affect the Daily Design Challenge. We're going to leave Tucson Sunday morning and get home Tuesday evening. Obviously, if I'm gone on Monday and most of Tuesday, it will be pretty hard to make, photograph, and list jewelry. But fear not! I have a plan! I shall... cheat! I have two pieces of jewelry made already, one of which is already photographed. Ideally, I will list one from the hotel room Monday night, and the other one from home after I roll back into town. That way I'll at least keep up with my quota of listing items.

Granted, I may not end up listing an item at all on Monday. I may be too busy playing with my new dogs at the hotel. But if that's the case, we'll just have a Twofer Tuesday, and everyone will be happy.

I'm really looking forward to the trip. Not only will I be adopting two adorable little corgi girls, but I'll be spending a night in Flagstaff, a place I've never been. I've never been to Farmington, NM either, but I hear it's kind of boring, so I'm not as excited about that.

Green beads make AJ happy!

The other day, when I was getting beads picked out for the dragon nest necklace, I noticed that palace green opal Swarovski crystals went really well with malachite. Unfortunately, neither of them went with the vintage green egg beads, so I saved the color combination in my mind, finally coming back to it today. Because I like how the pewter of Green Girl's work looks with malachite, too, I decided to use one of her tree pendants, and then I threw some green goldstone in for good measure, because it went and the coin shape of the beads nicely echoed the coin shape of the pendant. And so I give you Tree of Knowledge.

Check out the close-up in the Etsy image. How I love my camera! I was going to take some pictures outside today, because I heard that the lighting is ideal for photography when it's cloudy out, but then those clouds started dumping rain. Good for my trees, not so much for my camera. Maybe tomorrow will work out better.

Art Bead Scene's theme this month is "Something to Say." I'll be submitting Tree of Knowledge to the challenge today, but in the meantime I have three other pieces submitted, and yesterday I was chosen as the Designer of the Week because of The Mantra! There is a lot of other beautiful jewelry in this challenge, so I feel honored to be recognized. Be sure to check out the other entries!

A Butterfly Necklace!

It's been a while since I made something with a butterfly. Far too long, in fact! So here's Autumn Flier, today's Daily Design Challenge piece. The enameled pendant is accented by Czech glass, Swarovski crystals, and vintage beads.

At around 11:20am today, we got hit by a nice thunderstorm. I was surprised to hear thunder while I was doing my morning e-mail, as our storms usually don't hit until afternoon or evening. I decided to take advantage of the nice temperatures and actually work in the beadroom, instead of bringing my project into the office. It was a lot more efficient, and Topher liked it. The kitties aren't allowed in the beadroom unattended, but they enjoy the fresh air so much that I've decided they can be in there whenever I am. Lira likes to sit in the windowsills, and Topher usually lies on the floor and looks up at the windows. Of course, with all the rain coming down, Lira didn't come out at all today, and Topher decided to sit in the doorway instead, so he could keep an eye on me without getting too close to the scary wet stuff.

By the way, I'm really liking how most of my jewelry looks against the polished wooden box I've been using as a backdrop frequently. What do you think? I'm considering getting a nice-sized board and asking my Dad to stain it for me, to use not just for my Etsy listings, but for the BFAC photos that I have to start taking soon.

I'm going to be a dog owner!

Topher says: "Dogs?!? I didn't agree to share my house with any dogs!"

Yes, I can finally share my news! Chris and I will be adopting not just one corgi, but two 18 month old corgi sisters! I've spent all week in e-mail discussions with the rescue organization, which is based out of TX and NM. Today, through the power of the Internet, we gave them a video tour of our house, which was the last thing they needed to be certain that we're an ideal home.

Our girls are currently named Maggie and Daisey, but I'll probably be changing their names -- I'm not a big fan of people names for pets (Ok, yes, there is an actor named Topher Grace, but that's not where The Toph gets his name!). Of course everyone who hears that I'm getting a corgi -- including Chris -- suggests that I should name it Ein, after the one in Cowboy Bebop, but that's not happening! So stop saying it, people! ;)

We'll probably make the roadtrip to bring them home next weekend. I'm so excited!

Denise's Earrings

Denise requested earthy amber tones, so I decided to make her some mini chandeliers with tiger's eye, citrine, and some amber firepolished teardrops, all dangled from sterling silver stampings. I'm very happy with how they turned out, I think they're earthy and elegant. Hopefully Denise will love them, too!

Most of all, I'm happy with the picture. It makes them look like some super-swanky earrings that would end up on the front page of Etsy! Sometimes I see people that I know in an Etsy treasury and I think "someday that will be me!" All I need is a picture like this, and for someone to see it and know that it fits perfectly with their theme.

After spending my mornings sleeping and my afternoons doing the Etsy thing, I've been spending my evenings catching up on all of the housework I fell behind on a couple of weeks ago when I felt like garbage. When I'm doing chores, my mind wanders a lot and that's when I come up with my best ideas. Well, last night I had some of my best thinking time ever while I was doing dishes and laundry, and I figured out how everything ties together in my book. I mean, I had already had an epiphany at dinner the other day, figuring out a new and better ending, but last night I figured out how the secondary characters tie into things and what they'll set in motion and what will happen to them, and I just loved it. In that moment I felt like a real author, one capable of writing a book not just with cool characters and good dialog (what I consider to be my two strengths), but a really intricate plot with lots of enjoyable conflict (my definite weaknesses). If I can actually complete this book, it will be the best thing I've ever written, and without a doubt it will be something I'd be proud to try to get published.

Needless to say, that's an awesome feeling.

An accidental theme

Last night, as I was thinking about what to make today, I realized that everything I'd made for the Daily Design Challenge so far had an artist-made bead or charm. So I decided to make it this week's theme! As such, today's necklace features a lampworked gargoyle face by Ann Scherm Baldwin. But what's even better than the necklace is the little story that I wrote to go with him, so I think you should go visit his Etsy listing.

So far I'm having a lot of fun with this Daily Design Challenge. I'm looking forward to continuing it next week. I hope you've all been enjoying the new jewelry!

I should have dog-related news this weekend. Woohoo!

My labors were very fruitful.

I just had a very productive afternoon. Not only did I make the above necklace and earring set for the Daily Design Challenge, but I also made Denise's contest prize earrings and repaired two things for my mother-in-law. All that, plus photography, Etsy listing, and putting away the leftover beads. Woohoo!

The set is called In The Dragon Nest, and if you click on the name, you can see the Etsy listing, with some more fun photographs. The best photo of the day however, was one I took of Denise's earrings, using macro mode and turning off auto-flash. I'll post it on Saturday.

I still have a lot to get done today. The housework has piled up a bit while I've been off in beady land. And I need to pick out my next major beadweaving project, since The Mantra is finished. I'm thinking maybe something with an embroidered cabochon, since Locked Away was so much fun.

The Mantra

Shopping for word charms is fun! I came up with this combination last time I made an Earthenwood order, and now they're at the end of a beaded lariat... which is today's Daily Design Challenge piece! Click Here to see it on Etsy, and view more images.

No model shots today. I'm wearing my Glass Alchemy t-shirt, which has a woodcut type image of a skeleton on the front. I love it, but it's definitely not a good backdrop for a really long lariat. I may play around with some more model shots this weekend. I could put on my Sexy Brown Dress and vamp it up a bit.

Putting the finishing touches on The Mantra took longer than I expected, so I'm really running behind today. I'll leave you with this short post and the promise of more tomorrow.

I make a lousy model!

So. I decided to do something different and try a "model shot" for today's Daily Design Challenge piece, and of course, I had to be more own model. I was trying for "sultry" in this shot, but I ended up with "surly" instead. Plus half the necklace is missing from the shot.

Would you like to see the entire necklace? I really think you should go take a look, because I'm very happy with how it turned out. I call it Unlock My Secrets.

Other than the fact that I make a lousy model, photography went better today. I set up a make-shift photo studio and got a few good shots (plus some pretty lousy ones). I can't seem to find my tripod, which is annoying. It's a good thing that my camera has such a good inner stabilization system.

Oh, and there's progress on the dog ownership front -- but I don't want to say too much until I have a better idea if it will work out! I'm trying not to get too excited, just in case the rescue agency turns me down. So please think good "AJ and Chris would make great corgi owner" thoughts for us!

Daily Design Challenge, Day 1!

The Daily Design Challenge got a slow start today. I overslept (stayed up too late writing again!), quickly developed a headache, and hadn't set up a photography space over the weekend. But I let none of that stand in my way. And so I present to you the very first item for the challenge: Unseelie Lover.

These earrings feature some pretty porcelain hearts by Earthenwood Studio. I just love designing with Melanie's beads. Whether I want to make Gothic, Faerie, or Steampunk jewelry, she has all my bases covered. I accented the hearts with some vintage glass and those new-ish red coral Swarovski crystals.

I'm not thrilled with the photos. I'll do them differently tomorrow. I'm once again using my dining room table as a photo studio, which isn't ideal. I might try setting up in the guest room soon, I'll just get a card table to set up in there. That will at least work until such a time as we furnish the guest room (currently the only furniture is a single bookcase!), at which point I'll probably have another suitable space picked out.

Good News, Bad News

Good News: while eating dinner tonight, I figured out how my book is going to end, and it's much better than the vague idea I had before.

Bad News: I was not successful in finding a dog to adopt today.

And that about sums up my Sunday! Check back tomorrow for new jewelry.

Exciting Etsy Announcement!

As I've mentioned over the past couple of days, I've decided to put my focus on my Etsy shop while my website is down. And then I thought... well, why not really focus on Etsy? Why not pour a ton of work into it, so I don't even have time to think about the really annoying problem with my website?

So I'm giving myself a little challenge. Starting on Monday, every week day I must complete a piece of jewelry, photograph it, and list it in my Etsy store. That means five new pieces of jewelry a week! I will be doing this until at least the end of the month, or until my site is back up -- whichever comes second!

Now, most of these items will be earrings and strung necklaces, because there's only so much I can do in a day, but I plan to also have large woven projects in the works that will get posted on the day they're completed. For instance, my in-progress lariat will hopefully be ready on Monday or Tuesday -- maybe Wednesday if I get really fancy with the fringe.

I think I'm up to the task, and I hope that you, my friends and readers, will enjoy the constant new eye candy and will encourage me not to be lazy and slack off! Now it just needs a catchy title for convenient blog labeling purposes. I think I will call it the Daily Design Challenge!

Congratulations, Denise!

Congratulations are in order for Denise, who correctly guessed that there are 14 bobbins in my thread bowl! Every else was pretty close, too, so good job all around! Denise, please e-mail me at erthefae@aol.com with your color and metal preferences and your address, and I will have earrings on their way to you next week!

Above is the latest addition to my Etsy shop. Mmm, I love those olivine greens!

Remember to tune in tomorrow for my exciting Etsy announcement.

(short post today, I'm eager to bead!)

A little contest! Join in the fun!

Yesterday I mentioned that I felt like doing another contest. I thought about it a bit and came up with one that should be fun.

The objective is to guess the number of thread bobbins in the cup on my desk. Just post your guess in the comments section on this blog. The first person to guess the right number wins!

The prize is a pair of earrings, in the winners favorite color(s) and their choice of Sterling or Gold Filled findings, shipped free to the winner. Prize has a minimum value of $10.

My thread cup is 2" tall and 3 1/2" across, so obviously this is not like one of those county fair jelly bean guessing games where the answer is in the 1000s. That's all the hint you get :) So start guessing!

In other news, I am having a lot of trouble with my domain and my website may not be back up until September at this rate. I'm trying to stay positive, and focus my energy on the Etsy shop. As promised, I added another bracelet today (as seen above), and I'll have one more tomorrow. Then on Saturday, an exciting announcement! So be sure to visit on the weekend.

Guess what I found?

I found my thread! Yesterday, while I was doing other things, I suddenly remember where I packed it! It was in one of the two deep drawers in my jewelry armoire. Oh, little bowl of thread, how I've missed you! We were apart for far too long.

I thought about hosting a little contest, to give a prize to the first person who guessed where my thread had been all along, but I decided it would just be too hard. Someone would have to guess that I had an armoire, that it had deep drawers, that it used to be in my beadroom, and that it would seem like a good idea to stick my thread in there. But I do feel like doing a contest, so I'll have to come up with something else.

Meanwhile, I've been happily beading along, working on a nice earth-toned lariat. It's shaping up nicely, and I'll be taking it to tonight's game so I can get a lot of weaving done tonight. I'm very happy to be able to bead again, without being limited to two colors of thread. At this point, I think I've figured out where all of my beading stuff is. Now if I could just get it all neatly organized, I'd be doing really well.

ErtheFae.com is still down, but one of Chris's co-workers came up with a plan that may allow us to bring it back up. We're going to give that a try tonight. To make up for not having a site right now, and not updating it when I did, I've started to list a few new items in my Etsy shop. I put one bracelet in today, and there will be one more each tomorrow and Friday. Be sure to check them out!

I made something - AND - took a picture of it

Look at this... I finished a bead project and took its picture! Ok, so it's not much of a picture. I took it right here in the office, with it just sitting on my current beading work surface, so the colors are a little off and the reflections are weird, but you get the idea.

This is the rivoli necklace that I was working on last week, and having a bit of trouble with. I managed to make it work after all! I thought the top two stones were both Deep Lagoon color, but the middle one is actually erinite, upon closer inspection. They're somewhat similar, but the Deep Lagoon has a warmer base color and odd, dark flashes due to having one of those special after-market coatings. It's one of the many custom colors that Betcey at Beyond Beadery carries, and the base stone is actually vintage. Oh, and the bottom rivoli is emerald. The strung section is an assortment of emerald and erinite crystals in various shapes, with the same Delicas I used for the bezel serving as spacers. The washers are actual hardware, from Home Depot, and the idea is to slip a ribbon through them and tie it at my neck, making for a nice adjustable length and a mixed-media feel.

A couple of things about this necklace: One is that it was almost free. The rivolis all have little chips or scratches on the edges, which can be hidden by bezels but which Betcey didn't feel right selling, so my co-workers and I at gem show got to take them home as a bonus ;) The crystals are all from various birthday presents and surprise packages from my friends, who know how much I love green (especially erinite and emerald!). The Delicas were from a friend who was destashing, the 15s were inherited from my friend Layne. I think I may have bought the Czech 15s from my first gem show employer, but they might also be from Layne. The only things I paid for were the thread, Beadalon, crimps and washers.

The other thing is that this is an attempt to make a necklace with steampunk inspirations, without it being obvious. Though I had the idea to do these rivolis with golden and bronze bezels before I moved, the impetus that got me moving was my new goggles. It doesn't quite match (the lenses are definitely more like the discontinued Medium Emerald Swarovski hue than the true emerald I used), but it coordinates nicely. And the genuine brass hardware washers are a nice, subtle touch, I think. I have two more that I want to turn into earrings, as soon as I find the bronze-hued titanium findings that I bought at gem show. The idea is to be able to wear it with my goggles as a nice accent to a steampunk costume, but for it to also be at home with other styles.

In other news, my website is still down. Bah. And since I was feeling a little down (physically and mentally!) yesterday, I read Jumper. All of it. I started at 3:15pm and ended before 1am, and that was with taking an hour break to play some Guild Wars, and some time for dinner. So I basically devoured the book. It was much different from the movie, better in lots of ways, worse in some (the movie is cooler, the book is deeper).

Also, I still can't find all my little spools of beading thread. Right now all I have at my disposal is my huge spool of black, and the little spool of olive that I've used for my last two projects -- neither of which are suitable for the bronze and golden brown lariat I want to start. Guess I know what I'll be doing today!

Website temporarily down

I somehow always manage to forget that my domain registration expires before my web hosting does. As such, my site went down sometime today, and I'll need to get Chris to help me bring it back up tonight.

I'm probably going to switch hosts this month, too. I don't know if there will be any downtime involved in that. I've been more or less content with the host that I've had for the past few years, but Chris says the host he uses for his business is much better, and since he does more back-end stuff with my site, I feel I should be using the host that has the options he likes.

While I was quiet all last week, I was getting some things done: beading rivolis, writing my book, considering a second blog project, and preparing to adopt a dog. Yes, as little as my cats will like it, it is time to add a canine member to this household. There are a few more things I need to do to get the house ready for a dog, but in the meantime I spent most of Saturday reading Dogs For Dummies. I learned a lot of nice little things that will make dog-ownership easier for Chris and I, and better for our pets, too. Stay tuned for more on this story as it progresses.

One other thing I did was finally go see The Dark Knight with Chris. I enjoyed the movie, but I didn't find it to be quite as awesome as everyone said it was. In fact, I found that it really dragged on, especially at the end. I guess it didn't help that by the time we factored in the trailers, we were in the theater for nearly 3 hours to see the movie. It practically needed an intermission, though I suppose that might have removed some of the tension from the movie. Over all, while it was good, I didn't find myself wowed like I expected to be. Hellboy II gave me much more bang for my buck.

Today is feeling like a good day for some beading, so I think I'll go do that now.

Playing with beads

I was sitting here working on a new rivoli pendant that would match my goggles (lagoon and emerald rivolis with brassy, bronzey Delicas and seed beads), but it's just not coming together. I feel like maybe I'd rather do a simple stringing project right now.

I need to get some more furniture for my beadroom. Everything's too piled up, which makes it hard to get to anything, which makes it hard to get inspired. It's also pretty dusty in there, which is a definite downside to having a screened-in porch as my beadroom. I'm going to have to spend a lot of time dusting. Hopefully once I get better blinds up (that is to say, ones that haven't collapsed under their own weight), that will help keep some of the dirt out.

Not much else to report on. I'm suffering from a serious case of the afternoon drowsies and can't think of a single thing to write.

I'm a nerd... a nerd with goggles!

Every now and then, you just have to do something silly, like take a picture of yourself wearing goggles.

Actually, this is a terrible picture of me, so I don't know why I'm posting it. I suppose it does serve as a good illustration of how/why I am frequently mistaken for a teenager.

Anyway, that is me wearing the awesome goggles that I purchased at Comic Con from Brute Force Leather/Fallen Angel Fashions. They were my big splurge for the convention. Oh sure, I bought plenty of other things, but nothing that big/fancy/amazing. They're made of dark green leather and lots of brass, with interchangeable lenses -- I got a pair of green (as seen) and a pair of dark blue. The coolest part is that the straps are attached to the sides using brass hardware hinges.

If I'm going to actually wear them on my eyes, then I need to see if I can shorten the nose piece a tiny bit... But otherwise they look pretty nice perched on my head, or around my neck, and I'm sure they'd look great on a hat, if I were so inclined.

Not much to report today. I had some fun this afternoon hanging up more art. I need to go out and buy frames for all of my prints. Then by the time I get them all up on the walls, it will probably be time to take them down to paint the living room.

(Edited to provide proper link)

Away from the computer

No, no, this isn't a post about another hiatus. It's just a post about my efforts to waste less time on the computer, and the things I've been doing over the past few days instead of wasting my time on Facebook.

There's been some housework, but no one wants to hear about that.

I've read two books recently. The first was The Family Trade by Charles Stross. I read it on a friend's recommendation, and I really enjoyed it. Despite being marketed as a fantasy, it's really quite grounded in reality and features a main character who is strong and capable, but who also makes some believable mistakes. The second (which I just finished an hour and a half ago) was The Looking Glass Wars by Frank Beddor. I read it because I needed something to read while waiting for panels at Comic Con and none of the publishers had more free novels to give out. It looked interesting, but ultimately turned out to suffer from rather weak writing. It probably doesn't help that it was a Teen novel, and while I know there's a lot of good Young Adult fiction out there, I think that the current demand for YA/Teen fantasy leads to some stuff getting published when it could really use a bit of tightening up first. It wasn't a total waste of time, and I did enjoy some parts and a lot of the concepts in it, but I won't be picking up the other two books in the trilogy. I'll have a full review in Collector Times next month.

I picked up my beads again yesterday, and finished the necklace that I started back before I moved. It turned out really nice, so now I need to pick a good spot to take some pictures. I'll probably work on a little rivoli pendant for myself while I'm straightening out the beadroom and deciding on my next major project.

Today I unpacked some stuff from Comic Con, and put all my review materials in one spot here on the desk, so I can read through them over the next few months and write lots of reviews. I've also got a big stack of postcards, fliers, and other promotional items to look through to decide if I want to visit any of their websites for more info.

I didn't just bring back comic books and novels from Comic Con, however! I've got a new piece of art to hang in the living room (and half a dozen to frame and hang) tonight, and some plant cuttings to pot. Plants from Comic Con, you say? It makes sense, honest. An on-line beading friend of mine gave me some cuttings from her very prolific garden to take home and plant. I bought some really cute pots for them, although I have more cuttings than I thought, so I need to go get more pots.

In fact, I think I'm going to go get to those cuttings now, and then maybe get a bit of tidying-up done in the beadroom.

Comic Con Articles

Nothing says Comic Con quite like posing with a random guy just because you like his costume! Actually, this guy was pretty cool. I saw him from behind and I could tell that he had a great outfit going on. When he turned around, I caught his eye and he walked over to me, saying something along the lines of "I recognize the fair folk." So when I asked to take his picture, he offered to pose with me and have Chris take it.

I'm not sure if he meant to be Robin Hood or just an English-style archer, but he looked great. The vest and armor are leather, and I'm pretty sure his bow was functional. This was just one of the many great costumes I saw at the convention. I hope to get all of my pictures up into a Flickr album soon. In the meantime, if you want a full shot of my faerie costume, check out my new profile picture.

If you've been waiting for more details on my Comic Con adventure, today is your lucky day! The new issue of Collector Times went up last night, and I have four convention-related articles:
Gaming at the convention
A review of The Mutant Chronicles
Steampunk at the Convention
Webcomics at the Convention

Ok, that should keep you busy while I run off and bead!