miss_grimwood

An exciting and busy month, looking back! Although with less to show for it than I'd like

Fics:
you shall drip rubies, precious rubies - Bellatrix/Rodolphus, rated M

Crafting::
I finished the blanket! I need to make a post dedicated to it with the few progress pictures I have. It was actually quite easy to put together in the end after all the putting off I did.
I’ve managed to get myself two new blanket projects, though, one (crocheted) for my best friends baby due in October, and another for my other cousin, who has sensory issues and thought she wouldn’t appreciate a yarn blanket, but she’s tested her sister’s and now she’d like one for her birthday in September

Read:
The Folk Tales of Scotland

Other::
I got a job! I had my interview at the start of the month and the last three weeks have been full of paperwork and training and prep. My DBS certificate came through this morning which is the final stage - they just need to verify it and I can start working. It’s part time, and client based, so it won’t be super regular, but because of the nature of it (I don’t know why I’m being vague, but I am), I can also find private clients and supplement my working hours that way.

Happy May! A slightly more productive month

Fics
(a seven part series of Belladolphus fluff ficlets for the Baby Shower Bingo)
Diagon Alley
Something to show
comfort
spoiled
Your Baby
will you help me up?
Ophelia Saiph

command me (Belladolphus, rated E, for ABCs of Kinks and Paraphilias)

Read
Sanditon (Jane Austen)
The Watsons (Jane Austen)

Crafting
Wove 30 squares - as of right now I only have 8 left to weave before I join them all together

Other
I secured a job interview! It looks quite promising, so fingers crossed that I'll get it. The interview is next Thursday, for a tutoring position
I went to the Animal Crossing event at the sea life centre and had the best time. I went with my parents and it was the first time we all spent the day out together like that in forever. Love seeing the fishies
I'm still chugging along with the blog

I now only have 40 days to finish the blanket I promised my cousin I'd make for her 18th birthday. I was doing sooo well I started in January and got 40 squares woven.

I have 44 left to do, the original 10 for two more colours, then 4 more of each colour so I can expand it. I also have to work out how I'm going to attach the squares together, since I haven't actually reached that point in the original blanket I was making.

I can probably get a good chunk of weaving done this weekend, Ideally I can have everything woven before the end of the easter hols and then I can get to work on piecing it together.

Ok so it may have been a few months since I was last online at the right time to answer the friday five and it feels like fate because the theme is pretty relevant to me right now

1. How far back can you trace your family tree?
I'm currently working on my family tree again, and the furthest I've got as of right now is my 5th great-grandparents according to ancestry. Early 19th century

2. What is the most interesting (or strange) thing you've heard about one of your relatives?
My paternal great-great grandmother was arrested 12 times and imprisoned twice for drunkenness, which was not particularly surprising given the current generations, but we were surprised that it was from my nana's side and not my grandad's

3. How do you feel about legacy names like John Henry Smith IV or naming children after other relatives?
In theory I like it and I think its very sweet. Especially middle names honouring grandparents. That being said, it's a NIGHTMARE when it comes to finding people on ancestry

4. Would you consider yourself and/or your family to be traditional?
I do think traditional can be a bit of a loaded word in some cases. But in a way, yes. generally through the lines and going on to now, it's always been nuclear families, closeness to cousins, things like that. But half of my generation of cousins (on both sides) are queer now, so I imagine families will be at least a little different going forward. But then looking back into the family tree, there are a lot of step families and half siblings, back when that wasn't very common
5. What is one tradition you have passed on to your children and/or plan to pass on to them?
I don't particularly plan on having children of my own, but if I were to it would definitely be the big-ish family get togethers. My maternal side all gets together on the last sunday before christmas eve, and even though we're all adults now we still insist on it. In fact I think it even started specifically because the music charts used to come out on a sunday so we'd all stay at my granny's house to find out the christmas number one, but now that happens on a friday instead.

I started the month with every intention of getting my shit together. I ended the month having another ocd relapse (milder than the last one, though). I think I'm more prone to them now I'm out of uni and not yet in work because I don't have things to properly occupy my time and thoughts. 
I still haven't had any luck on the job front, but I'm hoping to hear back from a company I really like. Its only part time but it would be a start.

I didn’t get any fics written, or much in terms of fandom (I am so disappointed in myself for not doing the snowflake challenge, but I did launch a blog with my partner in crime. We talk about literature and language and pop culture stuff twice a week, and you can check it out HERE if you’re interested.

Read:
Frankenstein retold by Isobel Lundie and Nick Pierce

Watched:
The Curse of Frankenstein (1957)

total words: 23,891

total fics: 29

first fic of the year: a new life (with you)

total fandoms: 5

new fandoms: 2 (men behaving badly, a room with a view)

most written fandom: harry potter (21 works)

most popular by hits: Daddy’s Girl

least popular by hits: Nothing Important


*idea borrowed from soulandromance 

This month I made the mistake of taking the tram through the city, and I'm currently on my third week of having the plague. Genuinely, a cold usually lasts me 3 days max, but I've been practically bedbound for a fortnight. I even lost the hearing in my left ear for a couple of days - whatever I caught from that trip made its way through my entire respiratory system and left chaos in its wake.

Aside from that

Fics
My works for the Crucio and Cocktails Exchange were revealed!
Traitor - Bellatrix/Lily, rated T, 881 words
A Reunion - Bellatrix & Delphi, rated G, 1042 words


I also wrote two things for the HP Rarepairs Secret Santa, which I'll include in my December roundup

Other
Since I've had the plague, I haven't done a whole lot (I haven't read a single thing all month), but I did manage to buy my graduation dress. I'm also starting to work on adapting one of my essays into a journal article to try and publish that, and I've had a couple of job interviews. I'm also in the process of setting up a blog (co-owned) to make more serious posts about literature and linguistics and the process of university education, mostly for fun, but also to see where it takes us. I'll probably share a link to it when it's fully set up and ready to go.

Maybe December will prove more fruitful

1. Do you celebrate or observe Halloween? How?
I decorate! cute pumpkins and my spooky women gallery (black and white images of my favourite horror film girls in diy frames). Sometimes I'll watch a spooky (not scary) film, but this year I forgot

2. What is your favorite Halloween candy?
Specifically Halloween candy I'm saying a mars bar because a full size one can be too rich for me but the half size halloween ones are the perfect size

3. Do you get trick-or-treaters on Halloween?
We used to! But now my dog is terrified of strangers at the door so we keep the lights low and people tend not to come. We do invite the small neighbours to come and get some sweeties though

4. Do you enjoy dressing up in costumes?
I prefer to dress my dog up! I even splashed out on a new costume for her this year after making her be a dinosaur for the past 4 in a row:

She quite likes this one because she wears something similar to keep her clean on walks, so she was happy to trot around the street in it yesterday until she got spooked by a black cat

5. What is your favorite Halloween memory?
Me and a group of friends got together to watch Kill Bill. the film wasn't amazing but I haven't seen most of them in almost a decade, so it's more my favourite for nostalgia reasons

@ficortreat

miss_grimwood's Door

DW username: miss_grimwood

Light is on for: Everybody! Those in the neighbourhood, those in my circle, and anyone coming across the post/community

What's in the Bowl? Videos from my 'creatures' playlist, small fics (<1000 words)

Let Me Know:
-For a video, tell me your favourite animal, or favourite type of animal (I have a variety in the playlist), or if you'd prefer a surprise, let me know if there's any animals you don't want to see.
-For fic, send a request for a ship/fandom. You can see my list of ships I write/my masterlist HERE, but tl;dr: fandom list - A Room With a View, Harry Potter, Ocean's 8, Sweeney Todd, Dark Shadows (f/f and f/m). Send a prompt - be as specific or vague as you'd like
Other info: I'll be posting the treats on the 30th and 31st of the month

1. Most everyone will recommend a book or two to read, but are there any you would tell people to avoid?
I tell anyone with a dog to avoid The Last Family in England by Matt Haig. I love the book, but its not the kind of thing I think you should read when you have a dog, for spoilery reasons. My mum wanted to take it on holiday when she was rooting through my collection and I had to say absolutely do not

2. If you take a book on vacation, are you more likely to take something you haven't read yet or an old favorite?
Always a new one! Its the best time to get reading done

3. Do you read any genres by the season? Like horror around Halloween? Cozy Mysteries in the Winter? Romance in the Summer?
I avoid by the season, if that counts. I don't read horror or mystery or murder vibes in autumn/winter - I can only read them when we have late sunsets because I get frightened by them particularly in the dark, so as long as I'm reading in the daytime and I'm safe in bed by dark I can read them (particularly annoying because I do enjoy murder mysteries)

4. If you read a lot of Fiction do you prefer an author that has a series with the same character(s), or do you prefer stand-alone stories?
At the minute I'm leaning towards stand-alone stories, but I will cycle through as much as I can by the same author until I need a break

5. Is there a book that you wish you could read again, but experience it like it was the first time?
I wish I could reread Lady Chatterley's Lover again. I read it for the first time when I was quite young, I wish I could go into it from an adult perspective