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  1. The Sewing Goatherd, , more info

    The Green Taffeta "OOPS" Off-the-Shoulder Christmas Dress
    "On the Twelfth Day of Christmas my true love gave to me Twelve Drummers Drumming. . ."Ok, I think I'd rather pass on that particular gift. I'll take the 3 french hens, the 5 golden rings, the 6 geese a-laying (my chickens are on their winter strike right now, so any laying birds would be useful), or even the 8 maids a-milking (Although since all of my goats are currently …
    By Alyssa, 1,265 words
  2. Namerology : Articles Archives, , more info

    15 Years Ago I Made a Prediction. Here’s How it Turned Out.
    The trends I got right—and wrong—reveal a pattern. Where do they point for the baby name future? Making predictions is fun. Facing up to the results, though, can be humbling. In the past, I’ve held other people’s baby name forecasts up to the reality mirror, notably the economic-class-based predictions of the book Freakonomics. Now it’s time to face the music myself. I recently came across a list I created back …
    By LauraWattenberg, 608 words
  3. Orson Cart – at large, , more info

    A Vardo – Part Seven
    Regular readers will have previously seen the lock and wheels etc. upside down in A Vardo – Part Four, but now that I have it all painted (figure 1), it’s constantly in the way and easily damaged. I decided, therefore, to lift the vardo up and install the lock in its rightful place (figure 2). Fig. 1. Carefully assembling the painted lock and wheels. Fig. 2. Bugger! Now I need …
    By orsoncartatlarge, 507 words
  4. Municipal Dreams, , more info

    Poplar High Street: a Walk on the Municipal Side
    This blog began twelve years ago and it began as a result of a walk in Tower Hamlets where I live. We were struck by just how much of what we saw was built by local government. That was true of housing most of all; unsurprisingly in Tower Hamlets where at peak in the early 1980s something over 80 percent of households lived in social rent homes. But there was …
    By Municipal Dreams, 3,004 words
  5. mssv – Adrian Hon, , more info

    A Weekend at The Smoke Larp Festival
    4-5 January 2025London, UKOmen Star£90 (some £40 subsidised tickets also available) Last week I visited The Smoke, a two-day international chamber larp festival in London, organised and run by Omen Star. It’s very similar to the Immersion festival in Turku, Finland I wrote about last year. I wasn’t planning to do a full writeup of The Smoke because I am trying very hard to focus on the book I’m writing, …
    By Adrian Hon, 1,731 words
  6. Michael Sippey, , more info

    Spencer Wright on Christopher Payne
    In Scope of Work, Spencer Wright rides along with New York Times photographer Christopher Payne, on his visits to the MTA’s repair shops. The factories he visits are complicated, complex, kludgy. Factories take knowledge away from craftspeople and turn it into bureaucracy and institutional anxiety. Factories pollute our waterways. Factories take razor-sharp lathe swarf and try to convince us it’s jewelry; factories enlist workers to help someone else fulfill their …
    130 words
  7. Sew Historically, , more info

    How To Make A Muslin Mockup
    First of all, I hate making mockups! But they’re essential for a good fit of the garment. I usually have to make more than one mockup before I’m finally satisfied with the fit: especially for form-fitting garments like corsets and tailored garments like jackets. ‘Two fittings for a simple garment, such as a house-dress, a plain shirt-waist, or a skirt, should be sufficient, if the garment has been properly prepared …
    By Lina, 862 words
  8. it's her factory, , more info

    LAST SPLASH as the ür-text of 90s modern rock
    Though the standard narrative of 90s alternative hinges on the explosive success of Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit,” Gen Z pop star Olivia Rodrigo is known for having a different take: as she told the LA Times at the end...
    By Robin James, 49 words
  9. Azazel's Bitz Box, , more info

    Archon Studios Dungeons and Lasers: Woodhaven – Outhouse & Furniture
    First up – Happy New Year to everyone! I haven’t painted anything from my Dungeons and Lasers Woodhaven Kickstarter pledge in some time now. These pieces in fact were painted in November or December, and are in the round-up I recently posted, and so for the sake of my own completeness, here they are. These were originally started as part of Dave’s Season of Scenery challenge, as supplemental pieces to …
    By Azazel, 241 words
  10. Pegs and 'Tails, , more info

    Wisdom Comes in Many Shades
    Wouldn’t you know, Orson Cart has been whittling away at his mobile home.
    By Jack Plane, 18 words
  11. The Autodidacts, , more info

    Scroll-to-text fragment bookmarklet
    TL;DR I made a thing and think it’s cool. Have you ever wanted to send someone a link, not to a huge and confusingly-laid-out webpage, but to the one sentence that’s relevant to them? So have I. For technical people, this has sometimes been possible, by linking to subheadings. But many documents don’t have subheadings with IDs that can be linked to. I read a wonderful post by Caleb Hearth, …
    By Curiositry, 245 words
  12. Jerry Ng's blog, , more info

    I Built a Visa Requirement Change Tracker for Fun
    Have you ever wondered how visa requirements between countries change over time? I certainly have. It all started when I was planning an international trip and needed to check if I needed a visa for the country I was visiting. A quick Google search gave me the answer, but it sparked a bigger question: How have visa requirements evolved over the years?I was wondering if countries are getting more relaxed …
    By Jerry Ng, 1,140 words
  13. Notebook Stories, , more info

    2025 Planner Set-Up
    This year, I feel like I’ve seen more Instagram and blog posts with this title than ever before. Setting up one’s planner for the coming year means different things to different people– for some, it seems to be an elaborate and labor-intensive process! I admire the creativity and care, and I’m sure beautiful, hand-crafted planner … Continue reading 2025 Planner Set-Up →
    By Nifty Notebook, 65 words
  14. Knife Steel Nerds, , more info

    Crucible Steel is Bankrupt! What is Next for MagnaCut?
    Join the Knife Steel Nerds Patreon if you want my next update on the Crucible situation as soon as we know what happens with the bankruptcy sale. Video YouTube video for the following information: The Current Production Path for MagnaCut and CPM Steels Crucible Industries makes steel (duh), specializing in powder metallurgy tool steels. They are located in Solvay, NY, near Syracuse. Any steel with a “CPM” in front of …
    By Larrin, 1,625 words
  15. Fishing & stuff ..., , more info

    A Cold Morning
    I was awake before the alarm and loaded the car in the dark. A cold morning, the grass was frosty and the windscreen needed a scrape before I left; proper Pike fishing weather according to some. But to be fair I’ve always found rivers do fish well in the cold, or maybe they are less adversely affected? Either way this was convenient because that was where I was heading, I’m …
    527 words