TheWeeJenny.net

I’ve been noticing folks coming here from jewellery searches more than in past months, of course this is happening when I haven’t had any new baubles up in ages.

The good news is I should have a few new things soon. The lull was due to a combination of supply problems and health woes, both of which are beginning to alleviate somewhat. I’ve discovered a beading place right here in my neighborhood, which is a BIG DEAL. Customs and shipping charges these days are such that I can’t afford to order from the places I used to, so you can imagine my relief at the possibility of getting some of what I need without so much as getting on the train. The next nearest place that I know of is over in Burnaby, and I don’t like to go there too often if I can help it (too close to the big annoying mall).

I don’t know exactly when I’ll have something up, but I thought I better say something about it since there’s been nothing for so long. I really want to get the shopping page fixed up proper and get to selling things on Etsy again. I have a couple of web things to do that might have to come first, but I’ll update again when I know more about that.

Lastly, I really need to do something about Wherecraft. We’ve been talking about selling the domain since neither of us are really playing WoW for the next few months at least, and the whole MMO guide aspect ended up not really fitting into our schedules. Before we do anything like that I want to be darn sure we can’t make use of it or repurpose it in some way, just in case we think of it after the sale and go Doh!

Thoughts and ideas are certainly welcome if you’d like to leave them in the comments.

I fiddled this out whilst waiting for the colour suggestion for the one I’m going to do for a tutorial (Tony has spoken, the colour is green!). It’s almost too busy for a desktop but terribly pretty (even if I’m the one saying it). I just put my icons on the shiny floor bit.

The zip file (again hosted by Deviantart) contains four sizes this time. Let’s see if I can get them right.

1600×1200, 1600×1060, 1200×1048, and 1200×800

Download at Deviantart

Like last time, there are two sizes in the zip. 1600×1200 and 1600×1060. Enjoy!

ETA: I posted the resolutions wrong at initial posting. I also forgot to say that I’m totally willing to make specific sizes for folks who need them.

Download from Deviantart

I just installed Hardy Heron on my husband’s laptop since he just got himself a new desktop, and wasn’t completely satisfied with the wallpapers that came with it. I opened up the gimp and made this. I’m super impressed with how much Ubuntu (and the Gimp) have improved since the last time I used either of them. I wish I had room to install Heron on my computer too. There are two sizes in the zip file. 1600×1200 & 1600×1060. As last time, if you need another size just ask.

Download it at Deviantart

Is there a Dr. Horrible in the House?

Oh nevermind. It look like you can only watch it if you’re in America.

Update: It’s fixed! Hurrah! Go watch it now!

I sincerely hope that the plan is to make it viewable in other locals in the coming hours. Otherwise I may be forced to be assertive in some way. Indeed, I may say stern things in a letter of some sort. Perhaps electronically. BE AFRAID! *shudders*

I’ve made a few stylistic changes to the site. Nothing major, but I’d been intending to do it for ages so I’m happy to have it finished. I made me a brand spanky new tiling background on bgpatterns.com and cobbled together a couple icons for the rss and email subscription links. Not that there was anything wrong with them, but it was more because I didn’t make those (the background came with the message board theme I’d chosen and the icons come with the default dark stylesheet in Options) and I’m kinda trying to make all my own stuff as much as possible.

I also had to take the boards down. I’d been having some technical troubles with it for a while and something in the admin finally broke such that I couldn’t fix it, so I’ve just taken it all down for now. I do have backups of the database and everything so all can be fairly simply restored. I think it was just down to the fact that I installed it back when it was a beta and have updated/added mods and so forth from there instead of doing a fresh install when it went gold.

I’ve been up all night (insomnia again) so I didn’t really want to try to restore it until I’ve had some sleep. I’m also kinda trying to decide whether or not it would be better to switch to bbPress. There are a few compelling reasons for doing that, but it’s not yet possible to easily port users and posts to it from phpbb3 yet so I’m not sure if this is the time. There is a beta of an Options theme for bbPress, so I may work on a port of my style in the meantime.

I’m all manner of tinkery lately.

I wanted something blue and pretty and spring/summery for my desktop so I whipped this up last night. Head on over to this here Deviantart page to download it at full size. It’s in 1280×800, I’m totally willing to make other sizes if anybody needs.

Here they are in their finalized version. I adapted them from a couple other tutorials I found elsewhere on the net (I’ve lost the list of links for the moment, had to re-install windows a few days ago and I put some of my backups in funny places it seems) then tried my best to get them to come out the same every time. The yarn weights vary slightly between colours though they’re all the same type and brand (acrylic), so I have to vary them by a stitch or two in width, but nothing major.

The main inspiration for their final state was this pattern here. This provided the breakthrough I needed to get consistent results (crocheting continuous rounds without closing each ring, made it much easier for me to make a nice smooth “of a piece” rectangle of uniform size). I was going to add button holes and buttons but I’m not sure what method would look best yet, so I just made slightly longer flaps so they could be tucked in. This even works when there are headphones as well as the ipod in the cozy, so it’s not a bad alternative.

I’ll be listing these on Etsy (for no more than 5 bucks each after shipping I think) but if anybody would like to call dibs on one before I do just leave a comment on this post and I’ll contact you through email with the necessary info. I’ve got plenty of yarn still so there will be more than these four soon. ^_^

A birthday present I made for a friend of mine. I altered an existing picture in photoshop, so she and the tree and her expression and all that are totally real, I just painted some pixie dust all over it. I also used the clone stamp rather extensively to obscure most of the traces of the building and cars that were behind her and the tree. It turned out almost exactly like I imagined it when I saw the original picture, I really hope she doesn’t mind me posting it.