Or Sixth, or Seventh....

Song for a Fifth Childby Ruth Hulburt Hamilton

Mother, oh Mother, come shake out your cloth,
Empty the dustpan, poison the moth,
Hang out the washing and butter the bread,
Sew on a button and make up a bed.
Where is the mother whose house is so shocking?
She’s up in the nursery, blissfully rocking.

Oh, I’ve grown shiftless as Little Boy Blue
(Lullaby, rockaby, lullaby loo).
Dishes are waiting and bills are past due
(Pat-a-cake, darling, and peek, peekaboo).
The shopping’s not done and there’s nothing for stew
And out in the yard there’s a hullabaloo
But I’m playing Kanga and this is my Roo.
Look! Aren’t her eyes the most wonderful hue?
(Lullaby, rockaby, lullaby loo).

The cleaning and scrubbing will wait till tomorrow,
For children grow up, as I’ve learned to my sorrow.
So quiet down, cobwebs. Dust go to sleep.
I’m rocking my baby and babies don’t keep.

Drawing Lord of the Rings

Arwen calling the river horses to wash away the Ringwraiths

Logan draws the battle for Minas Tirith

Gryphon draws Sauron forging the ring (on the back is an elf cutting off an orc's head......)

This is when Gollum is talking to himself while Frodo and Sam are sleeping, right before they get to the Dead Marshes (by Lilith)

Rumours

Mark and the boys ran to the store this morning to replenish the cheerios supply for breakfast.  On the way there, he saw one of his old coworkers, who waved at him.  He pulled over and they chatted for a bit.  As they pulled away, Gryphon asked, "Is that your girlfriend?"

And that, my friends, is how rumours get started :D.

Meet Mai Rose

This will be my Pandaren when Mists hits the shelves.  She's a Discipline Priest.  I kind of like the line drawing I did of her better than the coloured in version, but both I like.  She's cute but she's also serious.  That's going to be my Halloween costume as well.  The spelling of her name might change as most Chinese names with an "ai" are pronounced "eye" and her name is MAY, like the month.

lineart

Picture turned out a little fuzzy (although I guess SHE is a little fuzzy, har har)

Lord of the Rings and The Making of Costumes

In the last 2 weeks, we introduced the kids to the Lord of the Rings trilogy.   We are reading The Hobbit together (slowly) so the world itself was not new, but this was a completely different story.  I was not sure how they'd take it.  I had a lot of misgivings:  that there was much violence, and suspense, and that they would possibly be bored to tears.  To a one, all five older kids stared in rapt attention throughout the entire thing.  They LOVED it.  That might not be a bold enough statement.  They worshipped the perfectness of the epic tale of the Fellowship of the Ring with a passion worthy of its tale.  I have never seen a more perfect trilogy than LOTR.  The costumes, details, and architecture are all breathtaking but still completely believable.  The acting is superb.   The weapons are realistic and beautiful.  I never had much patience for the books (I KNOW.  Bad Melly) but the movies I could watch over and over.  While Tolkien adds little songs and ditties it seems every other page, the songs included are few but extremely poignant.  Merry's song while Faramir rides to (what he assumes) his death, gets me every time.  Just beautiful.  The score is a perfect balance between an understated background that propels your emotions where it wants them to go, and a riveting score that you'd recognize on any occasion.   It seems that every single minute detail of that movie, to the embroidery on an extra's robe to the unique armour bestowed on each race (or each subsection of race, ex the elves of Rivendell vs the elves of Galadriel) was deliberate, lovingly created with the intent for realism.   I love the movie for the story, for the action, for the small amount of comedy, and I also love it for the theatre person in me.  I appreciate the immense amount of work it must have taken to pull this project off so well.  I am looking forward to the Hobbit, in fact I am considering taking the kids to go see it as part of their Christmas presents.

Also in this past week we have been discussing Halloween costumes.  Of course the kids have naturally drifted towards LOTR for the costume choices.  Rowan was the first:  without stumbling he told me he wanted to be Aragorn for Halloween.   He knew exactly who the character was,  knew the name, and that's what he wanted.  Logan and Lilith were originally going to be an Andalite with Logan being the front end and Lilith being the back end (it's a kind of alien deer.....thing) but then Lilith remembered she was going to be Katniss from the Hunger Games.  I have not let her read the books yet (although I am reconsidering letting her read the 1st so she can be prepared for the costume) but she fell in love with the character from the movie trailers I watched online.  So Logan chose Legolas.  It's a good thing we have two bows (one more a prop, and the other from Mark's boy scout days).  Gryphon still wants to be the Headless Horseman (which is awesome, but going to be a lot of work).  Ivy had trouble deciding, but I think we've settled on Eowyn, the warrior princess :).  I REALLY want to make Lachlan a hobbit.  He has the perfect frame for it:  big head, oversized feet and hands, short legs, and slightly curly hair.  I could even give him a ring on a necklace and make him Frodo.   It's either that, or a panda cub. Because I am going to be a Pandaren warrior, and Seraphyna is going to be my baby panda cub :).  I've kind of got an idea how I'd like a Pandaren warrior to look, and I'm going to attempt to draw it out soon.  I'd like to be a warrior, but if that doesn't happen, I'll be a mage or priest.  I'll make myself a long sleeved long blue dress, throw the blue corset on over the top of it, paint my face, and make a staff.  Very simple.   Mark is still deciding what to be.  He has a replica of Anduril, Aragorn's sword, so he might be Aragorn as well, but maybe a different costume.  Rowan is going to be Strider Aragorn, black shirt, black long jerkin, Mark might be Gondorian Aragorn, with the blue tabard of Gondor.  It's such a gorgeous costume.  We'll see.  He might decide to be something else as well.

Picture references:

Strider Aragorn (Rowan)

Gondor Aragorn (Mark?)

Misc Hobbits (Lachlan?)

Eowyn (Ivy?)

Legolas (Logan)

Katniss Everdeen (Lilith)

Pandaren (me, Seraphyna)

Headless Horseman as envisioned by World of Warcraft (Gryphon)

Where Are We At?

I started to open up my story and write tonight, when I realized I needed to get some reference maps of the Northern Barrens and Ashenvale.  Everything I found did not have the exact details I needed, so I logged into the game and step by step did a ground mount run of the exact same route that Zara takes from Ratchet, skirting the edge of the Crossroads, up through Mor'shan Ramparts, and on to Ashenvale and north of Astranaar.  I'm really glad I did, because I was COMPLETELY off on a lot of key points in Nightsong Forest, and I will need to rethink how everything will go together once she gets there. 

Here is where Z stopped for the night, where I have stopped writing:

In the story it's a small oasis surrounded completely by trees and bushes.  This was the closest place.

And here she is on Arion, about to start down the road, where I need to pick up the story.

Hi Spook!

Here it is on the map:

Northern Barrens, Kalimdor

I got a lot of good shots tonight, hopefully I'll be able to get some good writing in the next few days as well :)