If you read this, leave me a one-word comment about your day that starts with the third letter of your LJ username. Then repost so I can leave a word for you.

via irishkate

(via tumblr)

onionjulius:

pileofgoodthings:

WOLF:  Sea Wolf - Folk Underground
LION: In My Mind (feat Brian Viglione) - Amanda Palmer
DRAGON: Firedance - Bill Whelan, Riverdance (replaced dragon with fire)
ROSE: La Vie En Rose - Africando
SUN: Reel Around the Sun - Bill Whelan, Riverdance
WINTER: Winter Blue - Heather Nova
GROW(ING): Where The Wild Roses Grow - Nick Cave, Kylie Minouge
BLOOD: In the Blood - Annihilator
FAMILY: Runs in the Family - Amanda Palmer
STORM: Storm 3000 - Leftism

I should probably do a different one for Lion: Gold Day - Sparklehorse.

We're having a bbq on Saturday 16th July in our house in Kilkenny. Come along!

LJ friends, the info is pretty much the same as these posts except for the date: http://mollydot.livejournal.com/tag/housewarming

Non-lj friends, mail me for more info. Basic plan is adults and children are welcome during the day and adults are welcome to stay the night. We do need numbers for staying over, and it would be handy if you could bring your own sleeping mat/bag.

Apologies for lack of proper post with directions etc, but my desktop is broken and it's a pain gathering all that on the mobile. I had been going to wait till the computer was working again, but it's more borked than I thought.

Anyway. Party. Come.

Is there a difference between Irish bacon and British bacon?

Prompted by comments to this: http://james-nicoll.livejournal.com/3090505.html

Via Womanist Musings

Anyone on for a craft retreat in rural Kilkenny?

The idea is you bring whatever art/crafts you want to do to our house and have a weekend (or a day) dedicated to creating and crafty socialising, including swapping hints, and maybe teaching each other. Some of our floors are still concrete, so it's a good opportunity to do messy things :-) We could also do a supply swap/giveaway.

Don't have any supplies/tools yourself? I'm fairly hoardy about my usable-up supplies, but I have plenty of tools for papercrafting - punches, stamps, cutting tools; glue; a sewing machine; toy stuffing; drawing pencils; paint - gouache, acrylic, peelable glass paint and silk paint; bead loom; weaving sticks. Bring paper, fabric, acetate (for the peelable paint), beads or yarn.

Don't know how to do anything but willing to learn? Papercrafting, peelable paint and silk painting are all easy to start. And I'm sure there'll be someone willing to start you off knitting. And I have a selection of books and magazines.


I'm suggesting the 12th & 13th of March. I was originally going to give a choice, but my own weekends have filled up, so that's all that's available for the next while, unfortunately. I know a number of you have something else on on the 12th, but perhaps you could come along on the Sunday? Or come on Saturday if Sunday's out. For those who can't make it at all (or want to do it twice), we can do it again in a few months, if there's interest.


Food: This was originally inspired by gothwalk a few years ago, when he suggest renting a holiday home & all chipping for rent and food purchase, and he'd cook as his craft. Anyone interested in doing that? (gothwalk, are you interested and available?). Personally, I'd rather concentrate on other crafting than food provision, so the other options are potluck, takeaway, or sandwiches.

Getting there: I can do pick ups from train or bus, and I'm sure there'll be people willing to give lifts. Driving directions & more bus/train detail are available here for lj friends. Ignore party related details - I'm not specifically planning bbq & cocktails, but who knows what might happen!

Staying over: We've a double bed, two single futons, a smaller chair bed and a few blow-up mattresses. Available mostly on a first claimed first served basis: though if there's a couple they'll get double bed priority, and anyone with issues that make comfort important, eg pregnancy will get bed priority. We've space for other camp beds if necessary.


RSVP please*, so I've an idea about space and sleeping requirements, and for discussions about food. Also mention if you'd like to use the sewing machine a lot, in case there's two or more of you & someone can bring one.


* Is it normal to include please here? I feel weird leaving it out, but also putting it in, cos it's already there in the "SVP". #overthinking

Edit: Feel free to bring along books & magazines to swap/giveaway.

If you like the pretty, I recommend pinterest. For those of you doing up houses, it's excellent for gathering ideas. Fashionistas would probably like it too. And I'm seeing a lot of knitting and other craft pinning, but that might possibly be because I'm mostly following knitters :-)

Here's me: http://pinterest.com/mollydot/

If you have an account, link it in the comments. Even if I'm already following you, cos others might like to see them.

Whee! Finally starting to make use of my craft room for its intended use, rather than storing things and spodding. Here's two things I've made between Friday and today:

This grew out of a rant on someone's wall on facebook.

The main thing Anglo did wrong is give too many loans, overextending themselves. However, what made them fall over is that too many of these loans are not being paid back. They renegotiated payback schedules, eg just pay back the interest. Some property developers couldn't even manage that. So their loan grows instead of shrinking. Meanwhile, Anglo, and the other banks in the same situation, have to pay interest and principal on the loans they took from other banks in order to extend the loans in the first place.

Hindsight being 20:20 and all that, it is obvious now that these unpaid property developer loans were a high risk gamble, but everyone was too optimistic back then. Developers, banks, government, media, buyers. And, of course, the regulator who didn't regulate. The bank should have been more careful giving loans, but the property developers also should have been more careful investing huge amounts of money in a bubble*. Anglo are to blame for having so many high risk loans, but for each loan not being paid back, there is someone or a company who took the gamble on borrowing that much money. And that someone or company (or both, if a director personally guaranteed the company loan) still owes that money. Each of those bad loans has sunk Anglo, and now, therefore, us, into further debt. Each one that is paid back lifts us a little bit out.
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We had a housewarming. Apparently a picture is worth a thousand words: http://twitpic.com/2s9ym7