Musings of a Neutral mind

Well, ladies and gentlemen ... the time has come, and I cannot rest before I dedicate the release of the movie X-Men: First Class with a special surprise of mine *rubs hands in anticipation*

Back when I was living in London, I had the ultimate chance to attend the UK premier of "300". In 2007, not a lot of people knew the key individuals who would soon take up the mantle of leading actors in the years to come... However, and most fortunately to myself, I had the best of luck to land standing beside those who were not yet known back then... hehe

Therefore, I present to you a quite old but still no less treasured picture of mine with Michael Fassbender (Magneto in X-Men: First Class, "300", Hex, Inglorious Basterds, etc), with whom I chanced to stand beside that day and strike a random conversation with :) Damn, he's one charming bloke, let me tell you that! *snickers*

Behold!!! bwahaahaa...

I would like to express my congratulations to two very talented people ;  warfare_777  and maria_lynette  ... HAPPY BIRTHDAY! I would sing but I'm afraid to burst your ear drums *snicker*

Hope you had (are having?) a great time! *wink*

At this moment in time, I am trying my absolute best to remember the time when Winter (yes, capital W in this case!) was a season of merriness, snowballs and sledging. Yes, that time is fondly remembered as "childhood"...

Alas, all I get out of this particular season nowadays is one flu after another. Seriously, how many times can one person go through it? I did not even know there were so many types of ailments until they decided to bombard me with their love within one week of each other *grumbles*

The thing is, I have successfully recovered from my previous coughing fits (as noted in the previous post) to only catch another bugger...and a more nasty one at that. Won't be going into any gory details but upon yet another of my hugging encounters with the bathroom I suddenly recalled one very lame joke;

Two drunkards are sitting together drinking.
One says to another: 'Imagine how cool it would have been to be a giraffe! You drink and you feel the liquid going down, down, down...
The other one replies: 'Yes. But now imagine if all of that would go up.'

I feel sorry for the giraffes...I really do.

Anyway...as I was sent home for a sick leave again, guess what I did there? Yep, banner making...one of my own this time around! I was starting to really dislike my older version so I created a brand new spanking one :) The process inspired me to write one more paragraph in the new chapter of this tale as well so not all is lost!

Alright, I will very poorly show off now...*winks*

Not one to simply dwindle my thumbs even once I start sneezing, coughing and basically sympathizing with the members of the mollusc family (slug, anyone?), I threw myself into something very productive: banner making!

Now, for all those that have read my stories and even those that haven't {gives the evil eye}, might know that I have started working with the general banner making techniques around three months ago. After taking a break for a month or so, I decided some serious improvement was needed! So, I jumped into the WWW portal and had a couple of hours to study various tutorials, textures, blending techniques (one might go on forever) and then spread out the word to my fellow writers on Granger Enchanted ... what you will now see below are the fruits of my labours!


Ta-da!

First of all, I want to wish you all a very Happy New Year! As it is the year of the rabbit, I hope all of those that write among you, shall keep your fluffy bunnies close to your bosoms (and why does that instantly bring an image of a certain blond wizard?) !!!

Speaking of which, I would like to share with you a little experiment of mine...Unfortunately, in the past I have dealt solely with story banners so this is my first attempt at a bigger photo manipulation! As an amateur, I did not know what the hell I was doing half the time *grin* However, I do hope you will be able to appreciate it anyway =) Whilst working on an idea, the first subject that came to mind, was of course, Lucius Malfoy.

Thus, here is a little New Year's present from me to you all!!

What is more, I would like to dedicate this particular piece to the amazing Solas_Divided, whose birthday was on the 25th of December and whose work I have been enjoying for the past few days non-stop! Hope you will like this, hun =)

 

Well...after a dose of boredom and a rather large portion of enthusiasm, I decided to undertake some sneaky research. The result of the said experimentation could be clearly seen below.



Therefore, it's official : I have located my future place of residence.

The only thing left now is to pack my bags and...oh, and apparently collect enough money to move to the other side of the globe and somehow find a way to snatch a property from under everyone's nose!!! *sniff*

Here is a little eye-candy Christmas present from me...




Believe it or not...your eyes do not deceive you!!! There really is a Severus Road in London!!! Trust me, when I stumbled upon it, I thought I was losing my marbles at last (well, you know - with that fan fiction and all). However, it is true! I used to live two blocks away from this street, actually...lucky me! *giggles*

NOTE: MistressMalfoy, if you are reading this, here is the proof of my sanity, as promised! :D

Merry Christmas to you all!

Funny thing that, coincidence.

As it turns out, my first ever LJ entry is falling upon the eve of Christmas itself. Should one regard that as simple happenstance? Or perhaps a lack of familial spirit?

Actually, it's none of the above!

Truth be told, the sole factor of my lonely Christmas spirit is due to my presence in another country altogether: Russia! Alas, no hanging stockings or warm puddings are awaiting me this night! Am I sad? Nope! How so? Simple...one has just to accept the fact that though Christmas is viewed differently on the planes of this land, New Year is an altogether another subject.

Therefore, I am merely keeping my energy bar for another six days of this year. Can't stand vodka, though. Oh well...

Alright, that should be enough musings for the first timer.

All those celebrating out there, Merry Christmas to you!! Beware of spiked eggnog...;)

Ms Velvela