Black Hole in Space Yarnblob

Seen here in true color, one can discern that the black hole is actually navy blue, as is the trail of space dust being pulled in by its gravity:

(Ignore the Matrix in the background; Morpheus' blue pill will make that go away...)

Choosing January's Mini

After reviewing my New Year's resolutions, I realized I'd better pick a mini for January.  Then I encountered what I suppose I have encountered every time I've tried to pick a mini to paint; my overwhelming collection:

This doesn't include the Warhammer 40K Termagants or the handful of painted Reaper minis that are currently in use. Still, it's obvious that the majority of my collection remains unpainted. I find it easy to choose when the mini is for a particular character, but choosing one just to paint is rather daunting. I like them all. Most of them made me ooh and ahh when I bought them. I want to paint all of them, so how can I pick just one?

Finally, I decided January's mini should be something rather simple; a ninja. Specifically, 03081 Edo, mini and image by Reaper Minis, sculpted by Bobby Jackson:

You can see him waiting patiently in the fourth photo of this post, middle shelf, far left (your left). Now he's waiting patiently on the crafting table. You know how ninjas are: they'll wait patiently until it's time to strike. Or, you know, get painted.

2011 Gaming & Yarn Resolutions

Guess I’m gonna jump on the bandwagon here and post my blog-related resolutions (meaning, I’d better make some so I can post them):

Yarn stuff:

• Knit something for someone who isn’t expecting it (I already have the project and recipient in mind)
• Finish all those baby sets before the babies are in college (it could happen)
• Finish that dang green blanket! (the one I’ve been working on for 10 years now – I’m really close!)
• Make hubby’s Lab blankie (already have the yarn and pattern, just gotta git ‘er done)
• Organize (yes, I used the “O” word!) my yarn stash and library
• Knit sufficient dice bags for our large dice collection (yes, each of us has a collection that large – dice are shiny and pretty…)
• Make myself a sweater (sad but true; I, the knitter, have no sweater)
• Talk more on the forums (I tend to lurk)
• Blog more regularly (this is something I enjoy, and I’ve gotten in the habit of letting chaotic days keep me from it)

Gaming/RPG Stuff:

• Try my hand at a character who isn’t a rogue (presuming we start a new campaign or my rogue dies; and, btw, this is a toughie: I’m generally always the rogue)

Painting Stuff:

• Paint to completion at least 1 mini a month (that sounds like a long time for a single 28mm mini but you’d be surprised)
• Talk more on the forums (noticing a trend with this talking thing?)

That's all I can think of. 

Green-Brown Dice Bag and New Year's RPG'ing

They say that what you do at the end of the old year and the beginning of the new colors the rest of the year to come. To celebrate this New Year's, my Hubby and I played Pathfinder most of the weekend with my oldest, my best friend, her husband and my brother-in-law. We also managed to squeeze in some painting, some knitting and a few other crafty-type things. Naturally, much of the knitting was done while we were gaming, so while my Pathfinder rogue was looking for secret treasure rooms and good positions in combat, I managed to produce a new dice bag for my oldest:

The guardian spider, however, was a gift from my Hubby (shown here warding off my youngest just outside the dungeon):

My Dice Tower

I mentioned that we made most of the gifts we gave out this year; my Hubby made dice towers. Here's mine:

The tower is detachable from the base:

And yes, that's a rogue shimmying up (or down) the side:

I like it :-)

Trajectory Yarnblob Proves Space is Curved

Riiight there.....

Painted Minis

I took this random picture in our game room:

I admit to feeling some pride that most of the minis we use for gaming these days have been painted. Most of the character minis in this case were painted by me; the monsters, the campfire and the barbarian were painted by my Hubby. One character was painted by my youngest and another by my best friend. Unfortunately, we've not been painting much lately. I'm hopeful that this year we'll get to spend more time on our hobbies. Call it a resolution: Happy New Year!