If you, like me, love mulled wine, especially the home made variety, but still keep a bottle of store-bought not-so-nice stuff around for those times when you come in half-frozen from the cold and don't feel like going to all that effort when you want just one cup of mulled wine, and you want it quickly...

Then I have the perfect solution for you. Mulled wine syrup! I just made a big bottle of it, and I really have to force myself to stay away from it or else I won't get any writing done this evening.

It is pretty simple: you need one bottle of a fruit juice which will go well with wine. I wanted to buy black currant juice, but they only had stuff that was made from concentrate, and I really wanted 100% fruit juice, so I took a bottle of red grape juice instead. Also, I took juice that came in a glass bottle, so I had somewhere to store the syrup in later.

All you then need is the spices you usually put into mulled wine. I took 6 star anise, 6 cloves, 4 cinnamon sticks, 1 vanilla bean and some ground cardamom, and also 2 organic oranges (you use the peel, so you want them to be free from pesticides and wax).

Thinly peel the oranges (you want as little as possible of the white stuff on it, as that will make the syrup bitter) and put the orange zest together with all the spices and the juice into a pot. Squeeze the juice from the peeled oranges into the pot as well. Heat it and let it simmer for at least half an hour, then pour it through a sieve to get rid of all the spices and pour the juice back into the pot. Add sugar (you will want at last half as much sugar as you have juice left) and bring it to a boil again, stir until the sugar is completely dissolved. Wash the juice bottle with hot water, and then pour the syrup in.

You now have a really delicious mulled wine syrup, and if you next feel like some mulled wine, all you need to do is pour yourself a cup of wine, put it into the microwave and then add a bit of the syrup.

Back from the dentist, with the root canal treatment finished at last. It took another half hour with my mouth wide open, but it was not as uncomfortable as the last time. He took another x-ray at the end and seemed very happy with it, and from my layman's understanding the tooth looked very well filled on the x-ray, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it will keep quiet from now on. And because my dentist loves me so much and can't bear to part with me for long, I got ordered to make another appointment in February, but only for some cleaning.

I'm so glad to have this over with at last. :) To distract myself I spent yesterday evening doing yet another Poser picture. It worked pretty well as distraction, but then, Legolas always does... ;)

( Waiting For His Lord - NSFW! )

So I found this Poser prop called posable splooge - I guess you know where this leads. ( More NSFW G/L porn, ahem )

I wrote 1000 words today, which is something at least. But I also spent the last few hours fiddling with Poser, and now have a picture I'm very proud of - which I'm not going to show here, as I have plans for my Christmas cards this year. ;)

But I think I never posted the last batch of pictures from when I finished the Poser master course, so here are a few more: ( Read more... )

Actually, I was just having so much fun with Glorfindel and Legolas that I did another picture of them with one of the M4/D3 poses I bought some time ago.

NOT safe for work. ( Naked elves )

I should be at 11 000 words today... But of course I'm not. I couldn't make myself write anything on Thursday and Friday, and then yesterday, as I had just got the HP6 DVD, I went to visit my brother and the kitties and watched the movie with him, my other brother and H.

I'm starting to realize the fault of my little writing challenge. I should have made it 'Write 500 words on 6 days of the week', as there is always going to be a day every now and then where I do not even feel like spending 15 minutes on Write Or Die. This way, I just feel so much worse if I didn't do my daily 500, and the prospect of having to do 1000 words on the next day makes me want to write even less.

Today I'd like to write at least 1000 words, do the first lesson of the last Poser course before they throw me out for being lazy, and start editing my rough draft of CE 69.

9081 / 15000 words. 61% done!

Happy Belated Birthday nierielraina
&
Happy Birthday lintalome!

I hope you both had/are still having a great day! :)





I'm 400 words behind on my writing goal for today, but I'll just have to make up for it tomorrow. I'm really tired. I think I might go to bed and watch Popstars with my netbook on my lap.

I also couldn't resist when I went shopping and bought a milk bath with fig extract, as well as a sachet of little golden pearls with orange and almond oil and vanilla, which gives your skin a golden shimmer. Now I know Glorfindel's secret... I suppose I had better save that for an occasion like Christmas, or else people are going to think I'm one of those sparkly vampires.

And it's finally time to reap the fruits of my strict writing regime. (Yes, I know it's what other people pound out during one week-end... Just humor me. ;))

Title: Cuil Eden
Part: 68/?
Rating: PG-13
Series: Sequel to Anestel and Ethuil'waew
Pairing: Glorfindel/Legolas
Warnings: mpreg, bdsm
Disclaimer: The elves belong to Tolkien, the situations are mine.
Lots of thanks to my beta for her hard work!


( Read Chapter 68 )

*stiffles a giggle*

Sorry for teasing you like this, but... drunk!Haldir? Probably the funniest thing I have ever written.

This is going so well! Only two weeks left now. I know I can do this. :)

8046 / 15000 words. 54% done!

OMG I got my Yuletide assignment and it is GREAT! Exactly the story I always wanted to write!

I am so excited! However am I going to be able to sleep now?

OMG how I love Yuletide! ♥ And once this story is finished, there is the mad rush of ficlets for Yuletide Madness...

*squees*

Best Fandom Invention Ever!!

\0/ My account at the Archive Of Our Own!

Now all that's left is to upload all my stories... Which might take a while.

I really *really* need to write today. I wrote nothing the day before yesterday... and spent yesterday in bed from noon onwards with a bad belly ache and even a bit of raised temperature. Obviously I ate something which didn't agree with me, but I have no idea what it could have been.

That means that I'm now about 1100 words behind, in addition to today's 500 words. It's time for some serious Write-Or-Die-ing today, and no playing with the AO3. :((

7105 / 15000 words. 47% done!
I should be at 7000 today. *sigh*

ETA: I have written 1694 words today, and am all caught up! I ♥ Write Or Die.

Open Beta of the Archive Of Our Own starts tomorrow! *celebrates*

Thank you for signing up for one of my favourite rare fandoms! Yuletide is one of my most-beloved fannish experiences of the year by now, and so most of all I really want you to enjoy the experience as well. :)

Most of what I have requested is slash, but if you can't write that, I would be happy with a gen fic as well, as long as it explores the characters a little. On the other hand, if you really want to write a PWP full of kinky sex, please feel free to, I promise that it is very hard to squick me. ;)



Jacqueline Carey - Kushiel series
If you don't think that you can write my request, or you want some additional ideas, here are some things I like: the Shahrizai arrogance, Imriel as Kushiel's scion and the Shahrizai sense of family, as well as D'Angeline society and the religious background & imagery. I'd also really love to see more of Valerian or Mandrake House... or maybe the goings-on at the Shahrizai family estate?

Carol Berg - Transformation series
Aleksander is a characters I really, really love. Things about him that I love: his temper and unthinking arrogance, the Derzhi pride, Aleksander as shengar, his hair - ohh, and that Derzhi tradition of how those slaves who wash guests' hands at a meal are up for grabs for said guests. ;)
Again, if you don't feel that you can write that temple scene, any Aleksander/Seyonne featuring one of those things above would be wonderful!

Diana Gabaldon - Outlander series
( Spoilers for An Echo in the Bone ) so any kind of story that deals with how the three deal with the situation would be very very welcome. I'm really open to anything here... long talks, a duel, a threesome, whatever you come up with, I'm going to love anything that helps me through the suspense until the next book comes out! ;)

I don't know what I would do without Write or Die... I'm seriously contemplating buying the offline edition, for the case that the online version vanishes one day, because I know that I never would have managed to keep up even with so tiny a goal as 500 words/day without it forcing me to concentrate on writing.

One third of the month done. Now if I could just keep Haldir from flirting with Legolas so I can actually have the plot advance... ;)

5125 / 15000 words. 34% done!

This is what I mean when I say that all it really takes is to concentrate for a few minutes every day... I'm going to do that every day this month even if it kills me.

4118 / 15000 words. 27% done!

2891 words of that are CE, by the way. :)

YULETIDE SIGN-UPS ARE OPEN!!! *squees*

My little writing challenge is still working well. I wrote a little less yesterday than I should have, but as I usually wrote more than I needed to those first few days, I'm still ahead. Of course, my secret hope is that I will not only manage to keep this up all through November, but that I might go on writing a little every day afterwards.

Now I have an hour left until I need to go to the dentist, which will hopefully go well enough to leave me the energy to bake more Stollen this evening and work on the RP. :)

2625 / 15000 words. 18% done!

I just saw that I have another date with my dentist tomorrow to continue with the root canal. He said something about 'electronic' measuring of the exact length of the canals. Not that I'm worried about pain as there can't be anything left of the nerve now, but I hope it's not going to be uncomfortable.

I also have my additional dental add-on to my health insurance from this month on, which will probably mean that I won't have any teeth-related problems for the next few years... I wouldn't mind that though, even if it meant paying 10€/month for nothing.

Getting back to the most important topic: I did my 567 words of CE yesterday. And I did it in addition to the RP post of almost 1400 words, which I'm not going to count as I really want to force myself to write those 14 000 words of Cuil Eden this month. Still, writing-wise, it was a very good day yesterday. :)

1799 / 15000 words. 12% done!

Now let's see about today's 500 words...

I finished the Mirkwood Awards story - 500 words/day seems to work really well for me so far. Of course, this is only the second day, but it seems to demand little more than half an hour of concentration every day, and that is totally doable.
From tomorrow on, it will be 500 words of CE every day, which theoretically should leave me with 14 000 words by the end of the month. Let's see if I can do that. I might even manage to get them out of Lórien at last before this year is over... ;)

1232 / 15000 words. 8% done!

Also, we got LotR!xkcd today - check out today's comic!

615 / 15000 words. 4% done!

Hah - the first day of my 15k endeavour was a success. Now all I need to do is to do the same on the next 29 days. The story for the Mirkwood awards is at 1350 words, and I should be able to finish it tomorrow. Legolas will be so embarrassed to hear it read out loud... at least that's what I hope. ;)

Today I also baked Stollen - two huge loaves, and they smell so good! Unfortunately, I'll have to wrap them up and put them away until the 1st Advent, sigh. But they'll taste much better for it, and cutting the Stollen makes the first Advent Sunday so much more festive. Only one month until the Christmas markets open... :)

I also finally managed to go to the library yesterday and fetched the copies that had arrived for me: David M. Craig's essay "Queer Lodgings": gender and sexuality in The Lord of the Rings which I've been looking forward to. Hopefully I'll get to work through it tomorrow.

Oh my god... I feel as if I'm going to die. I have stuffed myself with so many mussels that I'm going to burst if I take one more bite.

Mmmmmh, mussels with buttered bread and two glasses of Riesling... heaven!

I love them best prepared very simply: two onions, a carrot and two cloves of garlic chopped into small pieces and roasted in olive oil in a pot until they get a bit of color, then I pour a glass of Riesling on top and put a kilo of mussels in. Close the pot and let it all boil for five minutes. Voilà, the most delicious mussels ever. Also, drink lots of the Riesling while cooking and eating... ;)

I even took a picture, but I had so much wine that it is far too much effort to go and search for the SD card reader now; I'll do that tomorrow.