2013

On the 31st of December last year I was at a friends house playing Xbox without any expectations for the year to come. Highschool was a not so distant prospect I didn't want to think about and exams did not even dare to be considered. Fangirl was a term I was unfamiliar with and shipping was transporting something from one place to another.

If you'd asked me who Arctic Monkeys were I would have looked at you funny. Miles Kane was just a name and The Last Shadow Puppets would have sounded like the name of a childrens book.

John Green was a just another auther I thought I would never read and The Perks of being a Wallflower was a book I'd heard of but never thought I'd read.

Sherlock was just a book, Star Trek was for nerds and Matt Smith was still the 11th Doctor.

Mandela was still alive, as well as Lou Reed, Paul Walker and Cory Monteith. The Boston Bombings were about to shock a nation and Malala Yousafzai was still recovering from being shot.

The galaxy S4 was yet to be released, the DSTV explora was unheard of and Proton Beam cancer treatment was still being perfected.

Tumblr was a website for people with no life and was about to crash with Yahoo and Danisnotonfire was some person who obviously had no idea what a space bar was.ju

I only downloaded the Arctic Monkeys song "2013" in November but it really does sum up this year.

Here's to 2013 and may 2014 be as good a year as this one has been.

Live long and prosper internet :)

izzy

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas internet! I hope you are all having a wonderful time and got to see "father christmas" travelling around the world on google maps :D I logged on when he was in Jizan, Saudi Arabia of all places ;D

Here is the fandom crossover christmas card I made :)

 

 

Sherlock and Spock agree that the hats are impractical and illogical and Castiel does not understand their significance :)

izzy

Star Trek and what on earth is a fandom?: Part 1

I have recently been able to start recording and watching Star Trek and being the nerd/fangirl I am, I am now a trekkie (much to the amusement of my mother and bemusement of my father). This made me realize that when I talk about fandoms people generally have NO idea what I'm talking about so this is Part 1 of "What On Earth is a Fandom?".

Defintions

• Fandom - A virtual kingdom for the fans of a certain book/TV show/movie/band etc. (eg. The Sherlock fandom). All fandoms have different names for their fans, for example Star Trek fans are Trekkies, Harry potter fans are Potterheads etc.
• Fangirl/Fanboy - A term for a person who is extremely invested in a certain book/TV show/movie/band. They generally have a blog dedicated to whatever fandom they belong to or spend a lot of time reading other fangirls/fanboys blogs.
• Feels - Extreme uncontrolable emotions felt while reading a perticular part of a book/TV show/movie/band or seeing a fandom post referring to said part or just thinking a lot about the book/TV show/movie/band (a vulcan's worst nightmare ;) ).
• ASDJJHJFYFJKHJHHJGYTTYFFHGFRDHD - Usually expressed when one is so overcome by feels it renders one incapable of normal speech/typing.
• I can't even - Also expressed when one is so overcome by feels it is impossible to even.
• Fanfiction - Stories written by fans about a certain book/TV show/movie/band or their favourite ship.
• *dying whale noises* - Another outcome of feels. A bit like moaning in pain but more guttural.
• Fandom Reference - A reference to a speech a character made, song lyrics, quotes etc. slipped into everyday speech/posts.
• Tumblr - A website that is home to many fandom blogs and is a bit like fandom rehab.

I thought this next bit required a section to itself in this post because it is a HUGE part of the fandom life.

• Shipping - Basically (relation)shipping to people one thinks might look good together. It causes a lot of feels and copious amounts of fanfiction to be written.

The different type of ships

• OTP - One True Pairing. In colloquial terms it means ones favourite ship and people generally have fictional and nonfictional OTP's
• NoTP - A ship a person dislikes greatly.
• Crack Ship - A ship of two people that would be hilarious together.
• Canon Ship - A ship that exists (eg. Ron + Hermione = Romione)
• Headcanon ship - A ship that does not exist ( eg. Draco + Hermione = Dramione)

This is just a brief description of what shipping is, it goes a lot deeper than that but I will explain more in future posts.

 

Some common fandoms and their fan names

• Dr. Who - Whovians
• Sherlock - Sherlockians
• Supernatural - Currently no name
• Star Trek - Trekkie
• The Hunger Games - Tribute
• Harry Potter - Potterhead
• Mortal Instruments - Shadow Hunter
• The Host - Hosts
• Lord of the Rings - Rings

Some examples of fandom posts

 

 

It made me really happy when I googled "random fandom posts" and the majority of them were Sherlock, Dr. Who, Harry Potter and Star Trek related :).

 

So I hope now you understand a little bit more about fandom terminology :). To those of you that read my blog and are fangirls and know what I'm talking about PLEASE EMAIL ME at izznknit@gmail.com with any changes you think I should make etc. because I think of stuff to type and then forget it so it would be great to have some feedback.

 

NEWS

 

It is now the holidays and almost Christmas time so the time for crafts is upon us. In honour of my new Star Trek addiction I made a felt Spock and Kirk and am in the process of making a Scotty, Chekov, Sulu and Uhura :D

 

On new years eve I am probably going to do a post where I reminisce about 2013 so come here if you want to revel in nostalgia (see that is an arctic monkeys fandom reference :D).

 

Live long and prosper internet :)

 

izzy

 

Hello again

Well the torturous process one reffers to as exams are over, although I cannot say mine were as terrible as some of the older grades (*cough* 6 hours art prac for the grade 11's *cough*) ;) . The only thing the end of exams has signified is that I can now vegetate without feeling guilty about it although he odds seem to be ever in my favour as the end of exams coincided with the premier of catching fire which I had a fangirl moment about earlier.

I will not be doing a Christmas countdown this year as I will not be in an area with feasable internet (GASP) for the first few days of December but I will obviously be posting more consistently.

Izzy

Updates

HIIIIII,

So I feel bad not to warn any regular readers about my unavoidale absence starting now until the 22nd of November, as unfortunately there is a horrible thing called exams and I want to do well so I'm trying to avoid any distractions ;)

so here are some things (just books and CDs) to do instead of (hopefully!!!) read my blog.

CDs

• Arctic Monkeys - AM

• Miles Kane - Don't Forget Who You Are

• Oasis - What's The Story (Morning Glory)

• Lorde - Pure Heroine

• The Last Shadow Puppets - The Age Of The Understatement

Books

• Just In Case - Meg Rosoff

• How I Live Now - Meg Rosoff

• Lexicon - Max Barry

See you in a while :)

izzy

Trip to Imfolozi

Hello internet fangirls (and fanboys?),

this week we took a three day trip to Imfolozi Game Reserve and it was amazing! We saw so many animals and the only member of the big five we didn't see was a leopard.

List of animals we saw
28 rhinos (NO KIDDING)
7 lions (feeding on a buffalo)
5 zebra
10 giraffe
Lots of warthogs
Lots of vultures
Lots of buffalo
A cheetah
3 wild dogs
3 elephant
2 hyena (thank goodness no more)
Lots of different birds and eagles and stuff
MANY buck (and my little sister insisted on stopping at every. single. one.)

DAY 1
On the first day was braaing the chicken for our supper that night and a hyena came up behind him and he had to try and get inside with the meat (which he managed) and I think all us girls inside nearly wet ourselves. Being a dad, he kept trying to go outside to take pictures of the thing and mom got so angry with him she tried to forbid him to go outside which didn't exactly go as planned...

DAY 2
It was disgustingly hot and I think we all nearly died and only really saw animals in the very early morning but the day was not completely a waste as a herd of buffalo came charging through our campsite and amelie was beside herself making sure that no one was wearing red ;).

DAY 3
We saw lions eating a buffalo. FUN! *insert sarcstic voice*. It was pretty amazing though. We almost caused a traffic jam which was quite funny as well :D.

Amelie gave this profound speech in the car while looking for rhinos:

Amelie: Izzy my friends dog's leg got runned over by a car and its guts comed out!
Me: Wow Amie, its guts came out its leg?
Amelie: Ja! What are guts?

If you ever feel discouraged while in a game reserve because you aren't seeing animals, don't worry, if all else fails you will see buck. There will always be buck to spectate while they eat grass.

I love this one

CREDIT: my dad for the amazing pictures

On the extremely bright side I got the new Arctic Monkeys CD =D!

izzy

How to: Make an easy felt bunny

Hi,

I made my sister one of these for my sister while we were away at imfolozi game reserve (post soon to follow) and she loved it so I thought I would make one for here :).

I APOLOGISE FOR THE POOR PICTURE QUALITY MY CAMERA WAS BATTERY-LESS SO I HAD TO USE MY PHONE...

You will need
Felt

A needle

Embroidery threads

Stuffing

How to
1. Cut out the body (back and front), arms, ears and inner ears out of the different felts.

2. Sew a face to the front piece of the body.

3. Sew the inner ear to the ear and sew along the outside of the ear in blanket stitch.

4. Attach the ear to the part of the back that will be facing the inside of the bunny.

5. Repeat with the other ear.

6. Sew around the arm in blanket stitch.

7. Attach to the back the same way you attached the ears.

8. Repear with the other arm.

9. Sew the front part of the body to the back with blanket stitch and stuff lightly.

10. DONE!

They are incredibly easy and very cute.

BEHOLD!!! The ulitimate book nerd cake! I found it yesterday at the garden show :). Unfortunately my plea did not convince my mom to buy it so my birthday will have to suffer without a book cake ;).

Izzy

How to make CAT EAR ALICEBANDS

FIRSTLY

Happy Heritage Day South Africa!!! I hope everyone is enjoying braais right now ;)

These were inspired by Teengranny's cat ear headphones :) they are really amazing and I think all teenage fangirl nerds should own a moustache pen and a cat ear aliceband :D

You will need
2 pieces of felt

A loooooooong strip of fabric

Thread

A needle

An aliceband

How to
1. Loosely wrap the fabric around the aliceband and make sure none of the colour of the aliceband shows through.

2. Tie a bit of the thread around each end of the aliceband to stop the fabric from slipping off.

3. Cut out four triangles with rectangles on the end for the ears and cut two smaller triangles out of a contrasting felt for the inside.

4. Sew the smaller triangles to the bigger ones.

5. Sew along the bottom of the first two big triangles.

6. Place these on the aliceband and sew along the top.
 7. Sew around the outside of the triangles in blanket stitch.

8. Repeat with the other ear.
9. DONE!

Have fun little fangirls :)

izznknit

(P.S. Go and check out LORDE her voice is ethereal!)