Christmas coming

[winter]

It's a month to Christmas, and most other December holidays. With Tonio's condition and twice-daily medication, it'll probably be the first Christmas in over twenty years that we spend at home. All this means that in addition to the usual gift shopping (all gifts from me for family members, and all their gifts for me, since they cannot possibly fathom what I would like to get), I have to look into acquiring Christmas decorations.

To help others with the gift-shopping task:

• If you want to give someone a book, give Black Ships by Jo Graham. It's a wonderful tale with history, magic, religion, and volcanoes! Of note to people who want to support non-fail literature - name any test you want and Jo's characters pass it with flying colours.
  
  
  • The new US paperback on Amazon.com
  • The oh-so-pretty UK paperback on Amazon.co.uk
  • And lookit! It's 30% off on Bookdepository.co.uk with free global shipping!


• In the jewelry department, Astarise Designs just opened and offers extremely original jewelry:
  
  
  • Something a steampunk Phantom might wear
  • Flowers and romance that isn't cloying
  • And slightly grimmer fare

(Obligatory disclosure: I've known astarise for over half a decade, and jo_graham for a little less. The former bribes me with coffee, the latter with sneak peeks of her prose. The above is still meant with complete earnestness.)

Comments

[ciciaye.livejournal.com]

Have mentioned the jewellery on my Livejournal too...always pleased to give a mention to a fellow jewellery-maker, and astarise's stuff is very striking and original :-)

[winter]

Thankee :) She's a lovely person, too. Just needs a kick sometimes to get her to show off her crafts ;)

[astarise.livejournal.com]

Thank you! *bows* :D

[dbalthasar.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the jewelry link! (I already know Jo Graham's work. :-) There's some lovely stuff there.

[winter]

I've seen the pieces first-hand and they're even prettier :)

[amenirdis.livejournal.com]

You are lovely!

[sukeban.livejournal.com]

I've promised myself to only buy a package a month online, so it'll have to wait a few days, but bookdepository.co.uk seems awesome. Thanks for mentioning them :D

[winter]

They'll be a source of lots of presents this year :) Free shipping! And low prices, too.

[astarise.livejournal.com]

Aiiie, I'm being mentioned! *blush*

Thank you so much! I'm not a hugs person irl but I can hug you over the Internets *does so* ^-^

And~~~ actually you have inspired me with this entry. Phantom mask! I could totally take that 'full' mask and cut some bits of it off. Then it would be 9485698 times cooler than a normal mask *_* I'm so getting to work on that tomorrow! Thanks again~

[winter]

Just remember that various Phantoms wear various masks ;)

http://republika.pl/blog_ky_636190/1183776/tr/kuba_upior_blog.jpg - the movie mask
http://www.achievement.org/achievers/pri0/large/pri0-011.jpg - full-size mask
http://i2.ytimg.com/vi/vd8PZ1sXNUA/0.jpg - Takarazuka mask
http://images.fanpop.com/images/image_uploads/Erik-phantom-of-the-opera-1990-798335_360_270.jpg - Charles Dance mask from the series

[astarise.livejournal.com]

Oh, how cool, I didn't know that.

Being a Phantom noob, I just copied what I remembered from the film? More or less:
http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a93/astarise2/phantommask.jpg

I'll start working on that on Monday because the mold I wanted to use for it is busy^^;; And you can totally reject it - if you don't like it I'll just put it in my shop, no problem.

Your rose is drying, btw~! It looks good.

[pinkdormouse.livejournal.com]

I have a Book Depository Vouchrt, and was about to order msmanna's latest. Shall follow up on your rec at the same time.

Thanks and HUGS to you and the kitties.

[winter]

Oooh, you'll definitely like it :) That, and Stealing Fire, which will be out in a few months and got me to jump up and down with Ptolemaian pompoms.

(Kitty is well enough that he spent half the night carefully working open the hair tie looped three times around the handles of the upper cupboard that's his usual resting place. In turn, this jarred his IV cannula and caused a blockage. Yay for 6AM vet visit due to his paw swelling to four times the usual size...)