This month on emuse

This month has been all about gems, crystals, geometrics, constellations and sky-watching!
Shrink plastic gem
Hama bead gem
Geometric earrings
Crystal doodle
Recently thrifted geometric necklace
Space books
Nacreous clouds

Along with some other random stuff:
Baby card
Moomin post-advent calendar
Sunday self-portraits: High-vis satchel
Book review: Among Others

This month I have been mostly...

Watching:

Icelandic drama Trapped, French drama Spin (I loved the first season but it's taking me a wee while to get into the second season because of some cast changes), the final two seasons of Dexter on Netflix (really good, but I've been having some weird dreams since watching them!), some programmes about China, some programmes about the Renaissance, a documentary about the Palio horse race in Siena, and much more! And, of course, the new series of The X-Files. Pretty much all I've done all month is watch TV!

Reading:

I finished reading Hollow City, which I didn't get through quite as quickly as Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children, but it was still good, and ended on a cliffhanger so I'll have to get the third one. I also read Among Others by Jo Walton which went straight onto my favourites list. And Slaughterhouse-five by Kurt Vonnegut which I found really boring!

Moomin post-advent calendar

I've always been a fan of traditional advent calendars. None of your calendars filled with chocolates, perfume, candles or nail polishes for me! That was until I discovered you could get a Moomin advent calendar! By the time I found out about them it was too late to get one for December, but that worked out really well for me, because I thought it would be even better to have a "post-advent" calendar to brighten up the dreary month of February!

I've been having lots of fun opening the calendar each morning, and finding creative ways to photograph all the Moomins and their friends.

Book review: Among Others

Among Others by Jo Walton went straight onto my favourites shelf! Or it would have done, if it hadn't been a Kindle book, so instead it went into my favourites folder.

It's hard to quantify what makes a book become a favourite. This book had so much about it that I loved. The main character was, like I was at the same age (and still am), a voracious reader. She devours the contents of bookshelves and libraries just like I did, and she loves science fiction and fantasy in particular. There are dozens of references to other books within this book, many of which I'd already read, but many others that I now want to read. In fact, I'll probably read the book again just to pick out those books I particularly liked the sound of. And I've also pulled out my Waterstone's Guide to Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror to have a browse through.

There's also the boarding school setting - so many of the books I've loved over the years have been set in schools (particularly boarding schools) or universities. I think it's the idea of lots of people being thrust together and having to make friends that appeals to me.

And, best of all, there's the magical element. All my favourite fantasy novels are set in our own normal world, with just a sprinkling of something strange and magical, from Charlotte Sometimes which I read as a child, to Tam Lin which I read as an adult (and which both live on my favourites shelf). I think this book has a lot in common with Tam Lin (by Pamela Dean) in particular. In both books there's the listing of the sci-fi books the character owns or reads, an educational setting, and the existence of fairies in our world.

Baby card

Here's the card I made for the arrival of my new nephew, and it's a design that would be suitable for either a boy or a girl.

1. Choose a selection of papers

2. Draw some elephant shapes in different sizes (you can vary the number of elephants in the family to match the family members of the family you are sending it to). I made the shape by cutting a rectangle, rounding off the corners, then cutting curves to form the legs and trunk.

3. Cut the shapes from the patterned papers.

4. Make sure they will fit on the card.

5. Glue in place.

6. Cut rectangles and write the letters BABY on them. Cut around the letters and glue them to the card.

Crystal doodle

This has been one of my favourite styles of doodle ever since I was a child! Here's how to draw it:

1. Randomly draw some dots or stars spread around the page. I find that 7 is a good number.

2. Choose one point and draw lines connecting it to all the others.

3. Choose another point and connect it to all those it is not already connected to. 

4. Continue until all the points are connected to all the others. Colour it in if you like!

Sunday self-portraits: High vis satchel

After buying Cambridge satchels in a few sizes that were a bit too large or small for everyday use, I finally settled on my "Goldilocks" size (i.e. the one that's just right for me), the 11" satchel. I've been using my Oxblood one for a while, but, when the Christmas sale started, I treated myself to another, the fluoro yellow one, which I'd fancied for ages. It's great for winter time as it keeps me visible in the dark weather!

Space books

Along with geometric shapes and crystals, constellations are part of my theme for this month's posts. So I thought I would show off some of my books on the subject of space.

I got The Guinness Book of Astronomy around the time I was at university, and it was my astronomy bible in the days before I used the internet as my main source of information. When I got obsessed with the moons of Jupiter, this is where I found the list of them to memorise! Of course, years later I discovered there were lots more smaller moons, so I had lots more to learn (which really only comes in handy when watching the quiz show Pointless!).

The Ladybird books have gorgeous illustrations, and one of them was my first introduction to learning about the night sky. And the daytime sky too - we observed an eclipse using techniques from the book!

Oops - this one is not really mine!

Recently thrifted

With a bit of a theme of geometrics, crystals and gems this month, I thought I would show off this funky geometric necklace I got recently at one of the local charity shops. I think it looks like a cat's face! 

I haven't decided whether to leave it gold-coloured, or spray-paint it another colour.

Nacreous clouds

Recently there was a big storm, but it did have a silver lining, or, rather, a mother-of-pearl one! That evening, and the next morning, these amazing nacreous clouds (from the word nacre, meaning mother-of-pearl) appeared in the sky.

I'd been reading on twitter about how they had been spotted in Edinburgh, then, moments later, I became aware that it had become very bright outside. When I looked out the window I spotted these glowing colourful clouds lighting up the sky.

I quickly grabbed my camera, and ran to the window. The storm meant that the windows were covered in raindrops, but the photos turned out well despite that. As the sky got darker after sunset the clouds stood out even more in the sky. I've never seen the northern lights, but this will do me fine until I do - a constantly changing light show in the sky!

The following morning I looked east and again saw the clouds, so I took some more photos before leaving for work.