Script Frenzy!

So who has heard of Script Frenzy?
It's the script-writing sibling of National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) and takes place in April--so very soon!

The goal of this challenge is to write a 100 page script, over the 30 days of April. This could be a stage play, a short film, TV show, web show, screenplay or graphic novel!
Participation in Script Frenzy is free and the whole thing is run on not-for-profit donation. There are no prizes, except for the inevitable feeling of satisfaction you get after finishing off 100 pages of original scripted material!

I participated in Script Frenzy last year and wrote an absolutely terrible musical stage play that only came about because I was singing a silly ad-libbed song to my cat, Riley (yes, I sing to my cats. I'm practising for when I become a crazy old cat-lady!)

This year, I nearly decided not to participate, as I hadn't got any ideas. I know that some writers are adapting their NaNoWriMo into a scripted format, but I wanted to do something different!
Then - just as last year - I was struck by sudden inspiration :) So I'll be participating after all!

Script Frenzy provide a word count widget, which I'll add to the column on the right of this blog.

Are you participating in Script Frenzy? Let's be Writing Buddies! You can find my profile right here. 

Not participating, but want to know more? Check out the official Script Frenzy website, which has an extensive FAQ, loads of writer's resources (I hadn't a clue how to write scripts until looking at that page!) and forums where you can chat to all your fellow writers.

Well there's just a few days to go, and I'm nearly all set! All I need to do is decide whether to write another musical stage play, or push the boat out and write a TV sitcom...

Bad Egg cosy

Today has been lovely and spring-like, with clear blue skies and lots of sunshine!

Of course, along with spring comes Easter, and to me that means eggs. For once I’m not thinking of chocolate (okay, maybe I am a little) but delicious soft-boiled, free range goodness!

Deciding to make an egg cosy, I went to my scraps box to find I didn’t have anything particularly ‘Eastery’. But never mind—I like to do things differently :)

 

So I made a ‘Bad Egg Cosy’ and a ‘Devilled Egg Cosy’!

Want to make your own? Read on!

Liebster Blog Award!

Kara over at Simplistically Sassy picked Unfortunately Oh as one of five blogs to receive the Liebster award! Thank you Kara!
You guys should all head on over to take a look at her blog :) 

I'm happy to have been chosen, and now I can pass the Liebster award on to five other bloggers, too! These blogs are definitely worth checking out, so please go take a look.

1. At home with Mrs H is a fabulous blog with a great mix of topics, from crafts and tutorials to more witty everyday posts about everything from the perils of having short hair to the awesomeness of friends! Samantha is a really fun person and also makes fabulous bags!

2. My Busy Craft Life by MJ is another craft blog that includes posts about going out and about. Recently she posted a number of times about the decorated eggs hidden around London! It was lots of fun reading about it and looking at the pictures.

3. The Pink Box by Oshi Fugushima is a fun blog to look at if you like fashion and shopping! Oshi finds some great little wonders around the web - such as a mug with an afro and USB mummies! - as well as keeping a watch on celebrity style and lots of other subjects!

4. Horror Shock Lolipop - a horror-themed blog for all of those that wish halloween was every day! Here you'll find movie reviews (including classic horror films), games, and cake! It's got to be great if there is cake :)

5. Jengerbread Creations is a crafting blog full of great ideas! Just today Jenny updated with some fantastic ideas for a scientist themed birthday party (I want to be nine again!) and has also recently written about making over the entryway to her house.

Now these five lovely bloggers get the chance to pass the award along too!

These are the rules for passing it along.

• Choose 5 up and coming blogs to award with less than 200 followers.
• Show your appreciation to the blogger who awarded you by linking back to them.
• Post the award on your blog.
• Link back to the blogs you are awarding so that everyone else can pay them a visit. 

Free Easter Egg Hunt Sign Printable

Easter is just around the corner, and as with last year, I've created an Easter egg hunt printable!

To download this free printable, simply right-click on the image above and choose 'save link as' (or 'save target as'), or open in a new window to print straight from your browser.

Print onto card, cut out and tape/glue to lolly sticks or similar. Then let your little ones go on a hunt!

Sign prints out at standard A4 size.






Will be linking up at the fab parties at the bottom of the page!

Typography Challenge: Home Sweet Home

Since the challenge is now finished, I am finally sharing this at link parties! Voting is open until the end of April on Ricochet and Away

The moment I heard about the Typography Challenge, run by Keren (sew la vie) and Rikka (Ricochet and Away), I signed right up!

The lovely ladies hosted the Naughty Notions Challenge back in January, for which I made a zip-covered clutch bag.

This time around, the goal of the challenge is to create a home décor piece that incorporates typography. 'Great!' I thought, full of ideas.

Then I hit another craft slump and didn’t feel like making anything.

Luckily, some spring weather and a little easy-peasy crafting gave me the boost I needed to crack on with my project!

For this challenge, I decided on wall decor using maps.
Here’s what I put together:

Before starting on this, I was torn between a canvas and a quilted wall hanging. I decided upon a canvas since wall hangings remind me too much of secondary school, where student-sewn squares were quilted together into banners for the stairwells! 

This project cost me a grand total of 99p--and that was the cost of the canvas I bought from The 99p Store.

The fabric was an off-cut from my stash and the old map book I used was destined for the recycle bin.

I completed this across a couple of days! Read on to find out about the creation process, and the little lumps and bumps that happened along the way.

Swarovski-Inspired Bracelet

A couple of weeks ago, my middle sister showed me a gorgeous bracelet from Swarovski Elements. It was like an elaborate friendship bracelet, with the traditional woven strap, and the addition of diamante, chain, and coloured lacing. My sister loved it, I loved it...but it was £176. Ouch.

I realised I could use it as inspiration to make my own version.

So here’s mine:

My version, cost £0

Pin It

And here is the original:

Source: swarovski-elements.com via Kei on Pinterest

Joyful Bracelet by Bibi Bijoux for Swarovski Elements, RRP £176

Isn’t it beautiful? You can buy it at the Swarovski Elements Web Shop

I made my bracelet with things I had to hand, so it was essentially free. Production was pretty time-consuming, but I’m pleased with the result!

Read on for a tutorial!
 

Time needed: An afternoon

You’ll need:

Friendship bracelet or decorative trim
Rhinestones or rhinestone trim

Stiff webbing or similar (width = width of friendship bracelet + width of rhinestones + 0.5cm)

Chain

Embroidery thread

Extra strong thread (I think what I used was carpet thread!)

Press stud kit

Glue

Pliers for cutting chain

Covered Bracelet

Since I'm going through a bit of a craft drought again (blame poor health and lack of money for crafting materials!) I thought I'd keep this blog alive by sharing a simple craft!

There are covered bracelets aplenty in blogland and I found them inspiring, so when I found a pair of plain bracelets in Poundland I snapped them right up!

Pin It

These are only cheap-looking plastic bracelets; Poundland had them in several colours but I chose trusty old black. :)

What I used:
Bracelet
Lace trim
Ribbon (from inside a top--those loops sewn in for hanging wider-necked jumpers, etc)
Flower trim
Glue

This isn't a real tutorial since there are already so many out there, and covering bracelets is pretty obvious anyway.
However, not wanting to cut a length of lace trim - in case I cut too much or too little - and finding it got tangled as I tried to wind it onto the bracelet, I realised I could do this:

I spent a minute or so winding the lace trim onto an empty cotton reel. After that it was easy to wind it off of the reel and onto the bracelet.
I secured the end of the lace onto the bracelet with glue, and once the bracelet was covered, stuck that down as well. After that I wound on the ribbon (again sticking down the ends with glue, on the inside of the bracelet) and finally glued on the flower trim.

I only covered one bracelet, so this project cost me 50p, plus random bits and pieces from my stash (mostly leftovers!)
Somewhen I may cover the second of the pair, but that will look different!

Gig

Thanks to catching the lurgy and generally being an unhealthy, brain-fogged human being, I haven’t posted anything for a couple of weeks!

My last post was the 11-question tag game, posted the day after Shrove Tuesday (Pancake Day!). I didn’t eat any pancakes that day, however…

Instead, I spent hours standing in a line out on a cold London street in order to go to a concert!

The acts I saw were Kaya and Satsuki, musicians from Japan. I have been a fan of both for many years, including their previous bands. Japanese acts that I like seldom come to the UK, so I was happy they played here!

Unfortunately, I don’t have any live photographs to share with you, since we were asked respectfully not to take photographs (as far as I know this is a general rule in Japanese concert venues).

However, there are a few live photographs on Electric Bloom Webzine’s facebook!

Of course, the first thing I did when I got into the venue was hit up the merchandise table...

Whilst Kaya goods (CDs and DVDs) are easier to buy, I’ve found it harder to get hold of Satsuki goods, so I was glad there was so much available! I bought a CD of his beautiful music, a photo book, and two signed ‘cheki’ (that’s the little polaroids--one for me, one for a friend!).

Naturally, I had to buy tour T-shirts, too!

The concert itself was fantastic. I was close to the front with only 1-2 people between me and the stage, so I had an excellent view!

Kaya

Kaya was up first; the stage was set with lit candelabra and he danced as he sang. Kaya’s voice is utterly incredible, very strong and rich. He did a costume change halfway through his act and returned to the stage in an outfit inspired by traditional Japanese dress, and danced with a paper parasol.

His music is difficult for me to define; he has dabbled in quite a few genres ranging from pop-rock, industrial, electronic, jazz--he has even released an album of chanson!

Here is a YouTube video of one of Kaya’s Japanese performances. You can see that he has some very striking and very beautiful costumes :) This song isn't completely typical of his music, but I love it and it shows off his voice! This is from the Salon de Chocolat DVD, so it's quite a few years old now. If anything, his voice has become stronger since then.

Satsuki

The second act was, of course, Satsuki. Unlike Kaya, Satsuki plays with a support band. I missed the name of the drummer, but the support lineup was completed by Reeno on guitar and Ena on bass. The whole group was very energetic! Reeno especially spent most of the set smiling and high-fiving people.

Satsuki has a beautiful voice, though in a different way to Kaya. Many of Satsuki’s songs involve high-pitched vocals, which he carries off well. I’m not a musical expert at all but would guess his range is a good three octaves, if not more.

The style of Satsuki’s music fits much more comfortably into the rock genre. There are upbeat-sounding songs, songs with more of a hard rock feel to them, and songs to chill out to. Lovely!

I hunted around YouTube for a live video of Satsuki, but couldn’t find anything of a good quality. Instead, here’s one of his music videos instead. The guitarist and bassist in this video are the same guys that played the European tour! :)

As an encore, Satsuki, Kaya and the support band returned to the stage, and the two vocalists performed a couple of duets--one of Kaya’s songs and one of Satsuki’s. It was a real treat to hear them perform together and although their voices are quite different, they compliment each other well.

What language barrier?

Both acts were brilliant in their interaction with the audience. Kaya clearly didn’t know much English, but still spoke a little in a very sweet, nervous voice! He’s a bit of a chameleon on stage, with his personas changing from ‘cutie’ to ‘dramatic’ to ‘dominating’ along with the songs. Kaya smiled a lot at people, kissed a few hands and often held his mic out to the crowd.

Satsuki knew a little more English and tried to get his support band to speak English to us as well. It seemed he’d set up Reeno to say something silly, which made everybody laugh!  During his set, Satsuki frequently stood on top of the speakers at the front of the stage (there were no barriers), leaned into the crowd and high-fived a lot of people! He also taught us an English line from one of his songs, Innocent, and got us to sing along. :)

Overall it was a fantastic live! The venue was only small and the turnout wasn’t huge, but I was able to see two musicians perform that I’d never dreamed I would see! Although I went alone, I got talking to some lovely girls in the line who were also big fans :)

After the concert there was a signing session, but I was unable to stay as I had to catch my last train home. This was a little disappointing, but I was still glad that I could have gone to the concert.

Kaya’s most recent single is Vampire Requiem whist Satsuki’s is FATE / INSIDE. 

Both available on iTunes!

...well, so much for this being a crafting blog! I can ramble on an awful lot when it comes to this kind of thing :)