In spite of all my efforts, I did catch some con crud, and today my head is woozy and I'm not good for too much. So it's a day for drinking lots of tea and resting, and for blogging links that have been waiting for ages to be blogged.

Here you go!

Magistra et Mater has a very interesting post up (has had it for a while) about how men dominate women.

You can find old city plans from Austrian cities here at the Österreichischer Städteatlas.

And for those of you in the States and looking for something to do in the next few days, there's an exhibition running until the 18th: Treasures and Talismans: Rings from the Griffin Collection at the MET.

Finally for something completely different: an Imperial Speeder Bike going on a flight.

These past few days were wonderful, and very relaxing, and much-needed. I got to spend time with friends, and eat lots of lovely food, and play many, many games, as the big game fair in Essen took place on the weekend.

As usual, we went there and ambled through the halls full of people and games. The fair at Essen is the world's biggest boardgame fair, and they had about 800 new games this year, released at the fair. There's tables with games set up that you can look at, there's usually someone there who explains the rules to you, and then you can give the game a try and play a round or two or even the entire game in some cases to see how you like it.

We spend a long weekend there, with three and a half days at the fair, plus more gaming in the evening, and we usually play (or test for a few rounds) about 30 games. As usual, some of them were nice but not mind-boggling, some were fun, some were really, really bad (mind-bogglingly bad in one case) and some were so much fun that a copy had to travel home with us.



Today was busy with doing things for the shop (all in the background for now, though) and preparing for the next blog tour together with Gillian - the US release of the Beast is coming up!

The last few weeks were incredibly busy, and I'm proud and happy that they ended with several successful projects or several things sorted out (new book about gold embroidery! new scarf knitting kit! new special colours on thin lace-weight two-ply wool yarn! new gold embroidery starter kit! fair in Weikersheim!). That was exhausting, though, and I'm in need of a little break now.

I've planned several months ago to take the rest of this week off - it was already obvious it would be a very busy time just beforehand, and I'd need some time to relax and get my mind off work-related things. I had also planned to do some blog posts beforehand, though, and to post them on schedule... and I realised yesterday night that this plan will have to quietly slink away and pretend it never even existed.

For you, that will mean blog silence until next week, and I'll be gentle with myself and declare the blog silent until Tuesday. Meanwhile, there's a lovely story over at the Toast - maybe you'll enjoy that until I'm back...

I'm packing up today and leaving to set up everything for the Nadelkunst, and I'm all excited about it.



If you're going there, you can find me in the "Remise". If you're not going there and only read this blog, I'll be back and writing for you on Tuesday, when I will be able to tell you more about how the fair went and how beautiful the castle in Weikersheim really is...

This blogpost has been eaten by the book - completely and entirely. You get a picture, instead, which was not even taken by me - but it's related to things that will also happen within the next few days.

I will have less greedy time-munching books on my table tomorrow. I promise. (Most of all, I promise that to myself and the most patient husband of them all.)

This was a busy week, and today was sort of weird and hectic* with a health checkup and a friend visiting and mail to get out and oh my goodness am I looking forward to some cake now, and some quiet time, and the start into the weekend. The embroidery instructions are almost done, and now it's time to get some feedback on them (shoot me an email if you'd be interested in proofreading/testreading, though I'd need to get it back soon). A few more pics need to be taken, and then there's the layouting to be done, but I will take care of all that next week.

Friday Flower!

For the rest of today, my plan is to have coffee, and eat cake, and relax and do nothing. Nothing. At all. Now doesn't that sound nice?


*Weird and hectic includes this blog going up way later than planned, due to me not getting around at first and then blogger acting up. I have prevailed, though. Arrrr!

If you're hanging out in the internet, you might have come across this one:

Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life.

I have a job I love, but I really, really disagree with that saying. Yes, having work that you love is a wonderful thing. It makes spending the bulk of your adult waking life on it something which is nice instead of dreary... but. But. It's still work.

I love running the little shop I have, finding new sources for tools and materials that are as close to the historical originals as possible. I love editing, and writing - this blog, the occasional book, instructions, or research excerpts for museums. I love preparing and giving presentations, talks, seminars and workshops. I love cutting and tailoring and sewing. It takes energy and effort, though, and energy needs to be recharged from time to time.

Furthermore, it's never just doing things you love, or that you enjoy, and nothing else. There is bureaucracy stuff to take care of, and there's the occasional troublesome thing coming up that needs to be dealt with, or you mess something up and have to own it and sort it. There is no work on earth that is all loveliness and rainbows all the time, ever.

What's even worse about that quote, if you ask me, is that it sort of insinuates that if you are feeling like you are working... you're not loving your job enough. Or you did a bad job at choosing your job. In any case, you're not doing it right, right?

Here's the thing - I love my job. It's full of challenges, it makes me look at all kinds of different things, it gives me the opportunity to work with people and with things, to do research and crafts. But it's still work, it will take energy and effort, it will tire me out after some time, and I am looking forward to having holidays just like everybody else.

Which is just a lengthy way to tell you that I'm on summer break from today until August 24.

I won't blog during this time, and any orders sent via the shop will be taken care of after the break. I'll spend the time taking care of things that had to take a back seat during the last months, and relaxing, and I am really, really looking forward to that. Especially the relaxing part...

See you on the other side of my summer break - and I hope you have nice, relaxing, wonderful holidays yourself!