Next coat...

Almost forgot, got the first coat of actual colors on the minis the other night:

Tiwaz says that so far, the beetle is looking disturbingly life-like.  I give full credit to the mica topcoat.  I've mostly been focusing on the creatures, as they're the most urgently needed (in the sense of 'someday when everyones schedules aren't totally fucked over, we might need those'), but I've got a nice base coat on the shield and the sorceress's cape as well.

Knit, knit, knit, CROSS-STITCH!!!

I'm finally starting to reach the end of the knitting backlog.  Got both of the remaining pairs of handwarmers done, and the socks are coming along nicely.  I really need to get the handwarmer pattern all polished and posted - it's not going to be a free one, though.  Assorted reasons lead me to believe that I should charge a little something for it - not much, probably only 50 cents to a dollar.  I'd feel a little silly selling them if I was handing out the pattern for free, and well, quite frankly, I could use the ego boost of people buying something I've designed.

(Yes, I know I designed and/or wrote several patterns for sale at work, but I don't actually get credit for those.  Or more importantly, money.)

However, as the Christmas crafting winds down, other holidays loom before me.  Namely, a shitload of birthdays.  I've got ideas for most of them, it's just a matter of gathering the necessary time and/or money.  In particular, I've got a couple of very interesting cross-stitch/embroidery ideas in mind. (wow, I'm getting some mileage out of my forward slash in this post, aren't I?).  There's a couple of neat things I ran through Dark Lilac before they took their pattern generator down, and the rest I should be able to cobble together okay, as they're mostly text.  

All of this, of course, being dependent on getting the last of this Christmas stuff finished up soon.

Sigh......

New Year, New Stuff

Well, got my first comic of the New Year posted.  Hopefully, I can keep this up as at least a weekly occurrance.  I've got my next two weeks done too, so that's a good start.  I figure I can manage to come up with 52 funny things to say within the space of a year.  I could probably do more in terms of ideas, but unless I become an overnight success with merchandising and such, I don't think I can  afford the time to do more than one a week.  Now I just need to get my website looking a little more user-friendly, maybe integrate this blog into it.

Also used my Christmas money to get started on a new hobby - soldered jewelry.  Here's my first two pieces:

Nothing overwhelming, certainly, but I really enjoy it and it seemed to come pretty easily to me (with some help from my dad, Mr. Certified Welder, of course.)  Each one seems to come out better than the last, so while I've got some stuff now that I'd feel pretty good about wearing myself or giving as gifts, I think by next week I should be up to a point of feeling like I can sell them.  I know that sounded odd, but what I mean is that I've got the framing down but I'm not feeling secure in my soldered jump rings - stuff for myself or people I know, I can fix if the ring fails.

And I got the first coat of primer on the minis I (well, we technically, but they're basically all mine until they're painted) got for Christmas:

Now I just need to figure out where the hell I put my X-Acto, remove the flashing, and I can get really dug in.  I'm thinking of doing the dungeon vermin first, as it's the monsters that we need the most for our campaigns.