Computers And Internet

Simplicity 2758 Wool SkirtSo I've finally gotten some sewing done! Granted, not a lot, but it's something. Kris's company had an awards banquet on Friday, and it's been ten years he's been working there now, so we had to go. So I needed something formal-ish to wear.

So I made view B of Simplicity 2758 out of a wool suiting I got from FabricMart's $1.99/yard section and wore it with my Butterick 4609 blouse. There's something a bit off about the skirt. I think I probably shouldn't have interfaced the waistband, because it seems like the rest of the skirt had a bit of give, but the waistband didn't which gave it a weird shape. Or I should have interfaced the top of the skirt. I need some more practice with invisible zippers, too. I don't think I have the technique quite right. But overall it wasn't bad. Certainly wearable.
I hemmed it with pink topstitching thread.

I even wore heels! I picked up a pair of black Aerosoles at Marshall's that could actually be considered comfortable if not for the fact that they're heels. I'm actually rather fond of them.
Pier Scene: An in-progress pier scene I'm working on in Blender.
And now it's time to make excuses for not having been blogging. I'm still a tad absorbed in Blender. I've been working on some stuff for SL (although I haven't actually gotten anything up in my SL shop besides the shoes and a rigged strapless dress) but I've been doing tutorials and experimenting with lighting and materials, and playing with scenes.

The photo textures in these two scenes are from CG Textures which is what the Blender Guru was uses in a lot of his tutorials.

I'm particularly enjoying experimenting with materials. I'm loving the raytraced mirroring and transparency.
And of course cloth simulation!
The big black beast [computer] does the rendering so wonderfully and quickly! (Depending on the complexity of the scene, of course. I haven't done anything that complex yet, but the BlenderGuru has some .blend downloads to go along with tutorials that are really heavy.)
Street Scene in Blender: An in-progress street scene I'm working on in Blender

French Hood on Aditi (SL Beta Grid)
Yea, I'm still lost in SL. Working on garb! Yes, I know it's not physically real garb. Except to the physics engine, but that not real physics.

But anyways, I've been working on a French hood. It's not rigged, I think it'll probably work out better as a normal attachment.
French Hood in Blender
It still needs some work, but it's getting there. I tweaked it some more in Blender, and now I'm having trouble uploading it again. I'm not sure if it's because of the mesh or because Aditi is being really really really slooowww. So the second picture is just from Blender.

I did some more shaping around the part that goes over the ears, widened the bottom of the outer part, and pulled the veil back a bit to help with the clipping. Maybe I should shorten the veil a bit, because there will probably be clipping either way if it's not rigged and it's that long.. but I kinda like the way it looks. If I can eliminate most of the clipping and get it to look decent, I'll probably leave it this length.
It probably needs some kind of other trim besides the pearls, too.

So I didn't get anything actually done.. But I did make some plans!Plans for a Cedar Trunk

So I've been wanting some better storage, like something that actually looks nice. I have one trunk in the living room, not a very pretty one, but still better looking than most inexpensive storage. Rubbermaids are ugly!

So I'm making plans to build some trunks. Well, I'll start with one, then go from there. So I drew up some plans in Google Sketchup. The cedar boards don't come any wider than 8 inches, and only in even numbered widths, which made plans slightly more difficult, but I think I've got it figured out.

The body of the chest will be 16 inches tall, 18 inches deep and 32 inches wide (including the outside pieces on the sides.) The lid will be another four inches tall. I'd hadn't originally intended the lid to be quite so tall, but this seemed like the best design, given the size limitations for the cedar boards that Lowe's carries.
Pickles (The Milk is for Perspective!)

And here's a picture of the pickling pickles next to a half-gallon of milk for perspective. See, the jar is bigger than it looked! They all fit with room to spare!

However, they're not yet pickled. It had been a week, but the insides didn't taste pickled. We put the cucumber spears back in the jar along with the rest of the still-pickling pickling cucumbers.

Seems that the color on that crock I was using wasn't so colorfast.. because some of it definitely seeped into the pickles and the garlic. I do hope it's not dangerous. But the coloring on the crock from a crock pot can't be dangerous, can it? It is meant for food.

Does the brine look darker than it should be? I think of brine as being lighter colored, but I'm not exactly an expert on pickling. And I assume that if the coloring from the crock seeped into the garlic and the not-yet-pickles, it's probably in the brine too.

Opening the Layers/Channels/Paths/Undo Dialog in Gimp There's been some talk on PR lately of images, and companies and/or people using them without permission, and it's come up that a lot of people (including dfr!) don't know how to watermark their images. The thread that prompted this post was the one started by Rebecca of Tales of a Wannabe Seamstress about pattern companies publishing blog photos on Facebook, but there have been several other threads recently on similar topics.

While someone with much photo-editing skill can probably remove most watermarks, just having it decreases the temptation to simply swipe an image because it's easy, and increases the likelihood that if someone else does use your images, they'll at least credit you.
In general, circulation of your work through comments, links, excerpts, etc., is usually positive, and inclusion on gallery and "social collection" sites like Pinterest or Wists is generally a good thing. Whenever you put something up online, you shouldn't have the expectation that it will be private, and usually visibility is what you want. But having your images simply stolen is never fun.

How to Create New Layers in Gimp

You should consider carefully before objecting to properly attributed excerpts, even if you weren't asked. Interlinking and commenting on what other people have done is what makes the blogosphere go 'round. If someone has quoted you or shown a reasonable picture or screenshot of something you've done that could be considered fair use, and has linked to you and properly credited it, you should probably be happy rather than angry. The guideline on fair use is that their use shouldn't decrease the value of what you've published. That doesn't mean they can't criticize it, it just means that they can't include so much that your own post would become redundant to their readers. The legal criteria for fair use are outlined by United States Code Title 17, Subsection 107.

Gimp Opacity Slider and Layer Mode Selection

How To Watermark Your Images

So, some quick instructions on watermarking. Most of what you're going to do uses the Layers/Channels/Paths/Undo dialog. It should open along with GIMP, but if it dosn't, you can access it through the "windows" menu in GIMP's top toolbar. (You can view the larger versions of images in this tutorial, and on my blog in general, by clicking on them.)
What you're going to want to do is create a new layer for the watermark.

Note that when you add text, that text is always added in a new layer, and the layer is automatically labeled by what the text says. So if you're watermarking using text only, you shouldn't need to add your new layer manually.

New layers added using the "add new layer" button (Circled in red) are by default called "New layer," "New layer #1," etc. If you right click on the layer in the layers dialog (Not in your image!) the first option is "Layer attributes," which will allow you to change the name of your layer if you wish to do so.

Once you've created a new layer, whether it's text or an image (I've created a GIMP brush for my watermark, so I can easily stamp it anywhere) you can manipulate the layer opacity and mode using the options just above the list of layers. Whatever layer is selected will be the one affected by your selections. Opacity should be fairly self explanatory: 0 is completely transparent (invisible) and 100 is completely opaque.
The layer modes contain things like overlay, darken only, lighten only, and value. They dictate how the layer shows itself. For example, if you make a layer the "darken only" mode, you'll only see the contents of that layer in places where the selected layer is darker than what is under it.

When you select Edit > Paste as > Paste as New Layer, your newly pasted layer will be a floating selection, not yet anchored to a "real" layer. You can fix this by clicking the "create new layer" button. Otherwise, if you paste anything else, that floating section will automatically anchor to the layer beneath it. I believe anchoring is the same as merging down. It's not the same as moving down, which is simply rearranging the order of the layers.