stonepicnicking_okapi | Entries tagged with request

I would like to try my hand at making DW icons (for 3weeks4dreamwidth). Can anyone point me in the direction of a simple (and free) tutorial/instructions/guide/tips on how to do this?

I just watched a Youtube video about setting up a morning routine, and it recommended playing a morning playlist, so here's a question:

If you had a morning playlist, what song(s) or type of music would be on it?

Does anyone have any recommendations for a facial cleanser? My big bottle of Cetaphil is empty but I don't feel any loyalty to it. I have normal (mature!) skin.

Anybody have a brand of sports bra they are in love with? Mine is giving up the ghost for the last time and I need to invest in a new one pronto. The one I have is a Champion but it is hanging by a literal thread (and a mangled hook).

I'll be sending out Valentines soon. If any of my new friends would like one, please leave a comment or DM me on DW. I will screen comments on this post. The plan is to drop the international (read: not USA) ones in the post on Feb 1 and the domestic ones on Feb 7. If you usually get holiday cards from me, then you will get one (unless you tell me not to!). I've got some very corkin' [as Bertie Wooster would say] Valentine stickers and I'm very eager to put them to good use. They will look something like this:

Just wondering if any friends have recommendations for lipstick and/or lipgloss brands they like? As part of my decluttering campaign I am getting rid of all but one of my lipsticks (the only makeup I still use; believe it or not I think some of them are 10 years old!) and I went to the Sephora yesterday but was overwhelmed by choice.

I am middle aged so I don't need glitter or shine, just a decent pink and maybe a wine colored one. I'm only got to buy, like, two or three max, so they can be higher end brands, preferably something I can get in the US.

By next week's shopping day, we'll be out of the coffee the boys' father brought back from Kenya, so I thought I'd ask any coffee drinkers what they like.

Before my brother in law visited, we just drank instant coffee (Folgers), but he brought 3 bags of Rwandan coffee and it seemed a shame not to try it, so I bought a small cheap coffee maker. But I've never bought ground coffee before and the choices are overwhelming so I thought I'd ask if anyone has favorites or suggestions.

Just asking my friends if they have recommendations for:

scary movies

scary stories

any other autumn/Hallowe'en media or entertainment you want to recommend

I am in the mood to be scared!

I get the sense that most of you don't like scary stuff but there may be some gems out there I've not heard/seen/read before...

Would you like a Hallowe'en (or Halloween) card? If I don't already have your address [anywhere in the world, I have plenty of global stamps though I'm based in the US], you can Private Message it to me. I am in the mood to make some Hallowe'en cards. Please specify any Do Not Wants. I don't think there'll be any blood but probably a lot of skeletons and/or skulls. Maybe some bugs. Or snails! [just kidding

dr_zook no snails for you!] I am going to stop by the craft store today or later in the week and see what they have in stock. Cheers.

So I have a cookie mix for lemon cookies that I want to make for tomorrow (Easter). It is Betty Crocker lemon cookies. You add a stick of butter and an egg to the mix and that's it, very simple. But the two times I've made them in the past with this same mix, they turn out incredibly hard.

Like sometimes cookies go hard after you leave them out, but these are hard almost from the beginning. Strangely hard.

Is there something I can add to make them softer? I don't know the science/chemistry of it. The flavour is nice, it's just a really, really hard cookie. I've never made any this hard.

I know there are many bakers on my list, so let me know if you have ideas.

I am gearing up for a month of poetry in April, so I am asking my DW friends what their favourite poem(s) and/or poet(s) are. Feel free to extol and exalt in the comments!

So with all the hubbub of the weekend, I missed doing the next step of mi cafe (my miniature coffeehouse).

The next steps are signs. One of them is a long thin framed quote.

Sometimes happiness is just a matter of attitude adjustment.

It's (in my opinion) a shit statement on many levels. I am not really after 'happiness' first of all. 'Sometimes' yeah but sometimes there is structural poverty, institutional racism, brain chemistry that is like Prometheus' guts post-pecking, and general Bad Fucking Luck. Blaming the victim, meh, too.

So, my question to my friends is: do you have a quote (50 characters or less) that you think would be appropriate for a miniature coffee shop? [extra points for coffee related puns].

The prompt is Hecate & Sphinx of Thebes.

( Prompt text )

Pod works:

I enjoy suspense/horror fictional podworks. I liked the first season of "Alice Isn't Dead" and the first season of "The Magnus Archives" and I am just starting "I am in Eskew." I welcome any recommendations in these vein [all of these I learned about via

garonne]. I prefer stories that are set in the real world but have horror/suspenseful/eerie/supernatural elements and can tolerate a middling amount of gore and violence. The Magnus Archives got too complicated for me, and I wasn't crazy about a new voice in Season 2 of "Alice Isn't Dead" so my history so far is to abandon listening after the first season of something.

Sphinx of Thebes

1. Moodboard

2. Riddles

It is a word that’s five lettered,
And yet when two are unfettered
Only one is left, most bereft.

It can run but it cannot walk.
It has mouth but it cannot talk.
It has head but never weeps.
It has bed but never sleeps.

By some, it is loved more than life.
By others, it’s loathed more than death.
By some, it’s hated more than strife.
The poor own it as their breath.
The contented desire it.
The wealthy do require it.
It is what the spendthrift saves.
And all will take it to their graves.

It can be pregnant (as with child).
Or companionable (close and mild).
But say its name
And you’re to blame
For breaking it (gone and defiled).

( Answers )

So, Minor's school year has official come to an end, and I am planning some theme weeks for the summer to keep him and Minisculus engaged until late August when school resumes (in what form, who knows). The boys brainstormed and have come up with topics. The first two are:

Outer space

and

Birds

So if you know of any good activities/books/resources for kids on these two topics, feel free to leave them in the comments. Videos and films are fine but my kids are super, super sensitive to scary stuff so anything even remotely scary will probably be a no-go. For reference:

Minor is 9 years old (finishing 3rd grade in the US, going into 4th in the fall) and academically is on level

Minisculus is 5 years old (going into kindergarten in the fall) and is a little too smart for his own good :) meaning, I think he's a bit above level

I will do my own googling and what not, but if anything comes to mind let me know.

Get Your Words Out (GYWO) has posted a ficcing meme. I am thinking of picking out a few questions for my end of the year review. If anyone would like to ask me something, please do. Note: it's a long list.

( List of questions )

I want to recommend the DW comm BeautifulMechanical

beautifulmechanical which is a comm where members share their favorite music (usually in the form of embedded videos). Right now the challenge is 'All About the Voice,' and over the Thanksgiving holidays I posted a video of the Argentine rock band Soda Stereo which was very popular in Latin America in the 80's and 90's. The lead singer Gustavo Cerati's voice is haunting. Just a warning, when I added the comm to my subscription list, it slows my computer to a stand-still, so it's something I'm going to be checking on the weekend, or once in a while, but not having in my feed, but it's a very active comm.

Question: What is your favorite seasonal songs? Mine are "The Holly and the Ivy" and "The Carol of the Bells" and "You're a Mean One, Mister Grinch."

I'd love to hear what kind of music my friends like to listen to/associate with Hallowe'en and/or autumn.

I haven't really found any piece of classical music that sums it up better than Camille Saint-Saëns's Danse Macabre.

I am listening to a collection called "Halloween Classics" and I have to say songs like Beethoven's Tocatta and Fugue and Grieg's Peer Gynt Suite have been spoiled for me by use in films and commercials. But not Danse Macabre. I can always listen to it.

My kids and I also like "This is Halloween" song from The Nightmare before Christmas. And, surprisingly to me, when I want to write vampire BBC Sherlock, I usually put on Rob Zombie's Dragula (I heard it on a CD I checked out from the library called 'Now That's What I Call Halloween.'). I don't usually listen to metal/rock music (or whatever genre it is) but it definitely puts me in the mood to write a certain type of fic.

And I also like "Werewolves of London" by Warren Zevon which also always puts me in the mood to write werewolf fic.

So, please, share your thoughts. Instrumental or songs with lyrics. What are your seasonal favorites?

I had such success with my request for polar expedition resources, I thought I'd ask again about this. I am trying to find a reference/resource that would tell me what Retirement Watson might be doing in his Sussex garden for a given month of the year.

In the US, we have a farmer's almanac which gives this kind of information based on geographic region. If something like this exists/existed for the UK, that would be perfect. It needn't be detailed, just something to give the person who knows nothing about gardens or plants or related seasonal activities (me), a general idea of what Watson would be doing in June versus September versus February.

So tomorrow is Walpurgisnacht, which every good vampire-lover knows is a fun day for the dead to rise. It also is the antipode of Hallowe'en.

Hallowe'en is my high holy season for ficcing and every year I try to tackle a different kind of scary story (ghosts, vampires, creepy objects, Lovecraftian possession, etc.).

This year, I've set my sights on polar expedition horror (a la Papí Doyle's "The Captain of the Polestar."). It will more than likely be Sherlock Holmes ACD AU but I'm not wedded to that.

Anyway, if anyone has thoughts or fictional or non-fictional works about polar expeditions that I should check out, let me know! I'm starting from zero that's why I need to start early. And if I can't make it work, I shall fall back on ye ol' haunted house. :)