Up

I have a fear of heights.  It is a rational fear; being high means one could fall...very...very...far.  At the beginning of playing Minecraft, I used to get a pit in the middle of my stomach when I was up high. It was a normal fear response to being up high but in a game, fear can be managed; much like it can in real life for some situations.

This is a picture of my house from up high in Captive Minecraft.  I pillared up and then used vines to create a ladder up to Sky Island #1.  As you can see I have worked through my fear a bit to be able to use this method.  Many a time I have fallen off my pillar and fell in the air a bit until I flail and find it again or fall to my death.  "Act don't react,"  Xena said that in an episode where she was teaching someone how to deal with enemies attacking.  I find those words to be sage advice as I am falling.  If I do something I might survive if I freak out...I probably won't.

Here is my home again from a second pillar up to the Burning Island.  As you can see I'm in the clouds now and really...really...really...high.  That is my house way down there; I was thankful the zombie pigman didn't push me off while I was getting this shot.  :)

Captive Minecraft has been a challenge and I really have been enjoying it this week.  But much like ESO I made some bad calls.  Instead of planting the sugar cane (the one piece I found) I used it to make sugar.  I forgot you needed two pieces of sugar to make a cake and that has really screwed me up.

In Captive Minecraft you start with one block and a world border all around you.  This border moves every time you successfully complete an achievement a half of a square.  As you can see messing up one of the achievements can really cost you.  So I'm in limbo right now.  I'm mining out every piece of block that I can and my goal is to be able to see the world border in every area of my world.

I was worried when my cow suffocated herself in the border, but thankfully, another one was given to me and I was able to corral and breed them. 

This is a challenging but fun map.  At some point I settled down and made a house and a farm and did all the things that usually do when I play.  I figure the achievements will come as they will and I'm not in a rush.  In the meantime, I am having a good time.

I just received a villager.  I'm not sure what I'm going to do with him yet.  :)

Have some knitting in the works but nothing to show yet.

I hope you have a graet week as we go out of Mercury's grip of crazy,

Happy crafting,

Ruinwen

:)

Mercury is in Retrograde

After checking here to see what Mercury was doing, I was actually relieved. See that tiny dot next to our beautiful sun, located a little south of the center; that is Mercury.

Everything this week has seemed like such a struggle that I was ready to just throw my computer through the window.

Mercury governs communication, clear thinking, truth and travel.  When it is in retrograde then you can expect all of these things to just run amok.

Even signing in to my blog, something I have done thousands of times, was made impossible by Google deciding that I needed not one but two security checks that needed to be sent by text before it would let me proceed.  Very frustrating.

Gah!  I really dislike passwords and creating new passwords and more and more things that I just can't remember.

And now I get an error code for goodness knows what.

I'm thinking I should just be happy I could get a few words in and stop there.

Mercury is in retrograde until the 25th...Goddess help me.

Happy crafting,
Ruinwen
:)

P.S.  Please ignore my grammar and sentence structure this week.  I just can't seem to put two words together in a cohesive fashion.  :)

Amelia

This week we had a little visitor.  My son had to adopt a Flour Child for the week.  She can't be left alone and for all purposes, she must be cared for like a real child.

From the beginning, I tried to take this very seriously.  The lessons that can be learned from Amelia are important ones that children need to understand.

The school seems to be taking it very seriously too.  There is a daycare in each class so while the kids are learning the babies won't suffer.

After the first day, my son has been cradling her head and holding her in a way that she is supported. It makes me smile inside to see him so compassionate.

We were babysitting while my son took a bath and I had to check on some laundry so I gave Amelia to "Grandpa" and when I came back he was rocking her back and forth...so sweet.

When we went out to the restaurant we had to get a high chair for her and when we went shopping we used a cart that had a strap for kids.

I found that she seems to be heavier today...they grow up so fast.  I also found myself talking to her like I used to do to my son when I carried him everywhere and learned to do almost everything one-handed.

Amelia has brought out all my emotions.  We talked about adoption and choices and what family means.  My son answered with some pretty personal observations about me and her and life in general and I realize it makes me love him even more.  He is such a beautiful soul.

I was hit by the designing bug and decided to make some mitts.  I started with some cables in ribbing. The above shot is as far as I got this week, but I really like the way they are working up.  My sis had noted that the gloves I made last week were a little snug and we both agreed they would stretch...like a good pair of jeans.  But, if I made the top side with some ribbed cables, then if it needed to be tighter it would and if it needed to be looser it could.

I imagined in my head when Amelia grew up what she would look like and pictured a girl who loved nature and played outside as much as she could.  I could see her auburn curls glinting in the setting sun as she watched a hawk in its nest or ran after a frog.

A girl like that would need some mitts to keep her hands warm as she headed home when the street lights came on.  A girl like that would appreciate the delicate cables that made the mitts seem a bit Fey...she might even make up stories about being a Faerie Princess visiting the Earthly Realm.

So I've named these mitts Amelia...for that spark of the little girl in all us women that is connected to nature and believes anything is possible.

Bright blessings to you and yours,
Happy crafting,

Ruinwen
:)

Under the Sea

I've got goodies to share!  This haul came from the Shenandoah Fiber Festival last weekend.  My Sister and I had a blast.  It wasn’t as big as MD S and W but the quality of the booths were amazing.  If you like spinning your own, this show is for you.  There were bunnies, sheep, goats, alpacas, llamas and camels on display to pet and ogle their beautiful fur.

My sister got these mitts and I said I would knit them up for her.  I love the colors and they are really easy to make.  knittyandcolor had some beautiful, bold and bright hues.  My kit with the pink came from her as well.

I had the flu and then I just felt blah for a week so I didn't knit.  But this is what I am making for myself.  A little Halloween scarf…there is a theme going no?  :)

Let see, we got the yard done.  I meant to show a shot of it a few weeks ago…but time got away from me.  Here it is.  I absolutely love it!  There are a bunch of herbals in there and plants that all flower during different seasons.  It makes me smile every time I come home.  :)

Our big family goal over the last few weeks was to conquer a Minecraft Underwater Temple.  It is the biggest temple in the game and has three big mean bosses.  There is a ghost of those bosses who give you mining fatigue which makes you mine really slow.  It took me 8 real-time minutes to get through a block!

So, first, my Sister and I scouted for a temple.  We sailed the seas of Minecraft looking for one of these rare temples.  Usually, I can find one really quickly, but it took a bit of time.  Luckily there was a little island right there and we built a little stanging shelter.

Hubby decided he wanted to dig under the temple and that is what he did.  Isn’t this amazing?  He glassed in the atria to the temple and I love the way it looks.  :)

While he was digging, I was cooking.  I made potions of water breathing and night vision so we could breathe and see underwater.  I cooked chicken and rabbit stew.  I crafted golden apples, torches, boats and a bunch of other items that we would need.  I forged new diamond armor for everyone and swords and pickaxes.  I enchanted the boots for water striding and the helm with aqua affinity.  I made sure everyone had a silk touch pickaxe for getting the lanterns, which are pretty rare considering the numbers of the prismarine we obtained.

The next thing that I should mention is that there are the three Elder Guardians which are really tough but then the whole place is swarming with the normal Guardians which shoot bolts at you.  The normal Guardians will keep spawning when there are eight blocks of water present; so we were literally up to our armpits in them. 

We fought our way to the sponge room and one of us collected a sponge while the other watched for Guardians.  You dry out the sponges and then can use them to dry out a section of the room.  It takes time and teamwork and we rocked at both.

As you can see we have demolished the rest of the temple for stone and lanterns and stuff.  I put in glowstone lights and I did it all legit.  Not like it really matters, but I did.  I laid out the floor lights wrong twice and had to break them and put them down again.  But I think it looks nice and nothing like zombies or such can spawn with all this light.  I can hear one though.  There are tons of mines under this structure and they are rich with ores and zombies.

We will turn the temple into a spawner for the Guardians when we are done since they are a renewable source of prismarine crystals and shards.  These shards are used to make the lanterns and other blocks.  This way we will have a never-ending source of crystals and shards.

It really is a beautiful temple.  You can’t see it but the colors slowly change in the prismarine.  It is such a lovely stone.

We really enjoyed doing something new together and everyone was so awesome.  We piled all our loot into 3 chests and everyone should have enough prismarine to add on or redo part of their houses.  I can’t wait to add it to the floor in the entry hall.  :)

In other gaming news…my ESO character reached level V1.  Veteran Rank 1.  I can’t believe it.  My next big quest is to kill the big bad of the game Moleg Bol.  We have a statue of him next to Alduin from Skyrim and he is really, really, really big.  But I have faith in myself.  I am looking forward to being able to travel to a new province once I destroy him once and for all.

And that my friends, is where I am at.

I wish you all shade and sweetwater,

Happy crafting,

Ruinwen

:)