#so I went back to my objects and clicked symmetry and when I went back to my sculpting layers

[cringe-time]

HEY CINEMA 4D TRY MAKING A PROGRAM SOMEONE CAN USE WITHOUT CRYING IN FRUSTRATION TRYING TO FOLLOW A FUCKING BASIC SCULPTING TUTORIAL NEXT TIME

[inerdmuch]

Dark Circles, The Noon

Also on my Ao3

Idea by @do-you-promise

Remus could feel the tight rings around his eyes loosen. He knew that he was healing, but he desperately wanted to keep the dark circles. They reminded him that HE hurt himself, not anyone else. They marked his body as his own, and they were fading. He felt the moment they finished healing, leaving smooth white skin behind. He scrubbed at his eyes for a moment, and looked up miserably.

"It seems your eyeshadow is gone," Logan commented as he glanced up from his book. Remus scowled and hunched over on the floor. Patton had offered him a place on the couch with them, but he'd refused. The ground was comfy.

Virgil coughed anxiously, and glanced at Remus. His eyes were unfocused, and he frowned in a way that foreboded a large outburst. He had to do something fast. Wracking his brain, he hurriedly reached up and rubbed at his left eye, smudging his eyeshadow badly down his face. He sat in wait. He knew it would bother Logan's sense of symmetry.

"Virgil, you have a little..." There. Logan was twitching his fingers slightly. Virgil tilted his head, and looked into the pocket mirror handed to him by Roman. He had not meant to ruin his makeup that badly. He looked like a nightmare. "If you are not opposed to it, perhaps you can take Remus and touch up his as well?"

He didn't even have to suggest it out loud! Grinning, Virgil stood, helping (read: hauling) Remus to his feet and hurrying him to the bathroom. As the door shut, he leaned against the sink counter and breathed. Taking out his own supplies, he began to meticulously fix his makeup. Remus stood still.

"I brought you here so you can fix your bruises," Virgil muttered. "I know you like to do them yourself, so I brought you with me. At least, I hope they're still done by you?"

"Still me," Remus smiled. "I think he saw how much I liked the style and forwent hitting me again. No pain has its perks." He looked squarely into the mirror, and Virgil turned away.

Remus held his cheek down with one hand, and raised his other hand in a fist. He angled it with practiced precision, drawing back, angling his knuckles just so. The fleshy sound of skin smacking skin made Virgil cringe. The process repeated, and Remus was suddenly darkened again. He took several moments to admire himself in the mirror. His look was once more complete! Well, if nobody noticed the fact that he took the gel labeled 'Roman' and twirled his moustache. Sharing is caring, and siblings were meant to care!

~~~

Patton drummed his fingers on his legs. He tapped his toes. He blinked rapidly. It was as if his senses were on overdrive. He kept an ear out for trouble in the bathroom, hearing muffled voices and the click of Virgil's eyeshadow palette.

Then he heard the sound of a punch. Then another.

He leaped up, ready to knock down the door. Creaking open before he'd even left the carpet, it showed the two sides exiting, seemingly fine and well. Virgil was blinking delicately to get used to the fresh layer of dark powder, and Remus had two black rings around his eyes again. They seemed unhurt. Patton peered around them, swooping them into a hug and glaring around the bathroom.

"I heard punches being thrown!" He cried, smushing their cheeks to his chest. "Who hurt you?"

Inexplicably, Remus started laughing. He breathlessly wheezed against Patton's side, evidently shaking with uncontrollable giggles. Virgil slipped out if the constricting grip and edged away. Seeing neither was in pain confused Patton more. Remus stopped giggling and started coughing, so he let him go, and he fell to the floor bonelessly.

"The punches were to fix my eyes!" He cooed, wheezing still. The light sides sans Virgil went blank. Remus fluttered his eyelashes. "Story time, perhaps? Well, you see once upon a time blankety blank occured, angst, angst, angst, I decided I liked the look and made it my own!"

"Eh-uh-weh?" Sputtered Roman. Logan seemingly blue screened, an error four oh four practically flashing above his head. Patton went very still, and then his arms started to tremble. "By the statement you just made, are we to believe that you were hurt by someone?"

Virgil and Remus slapped a hand over their mouths. At the warning look in Logan's eyes, Roman waved the question away. However, he also spotted intrigue in the eyes of logic. Virgil ripped away his hand and swallowed. He slowly nodded, testing the boundaries that he had.

"How about we answer some yes and no questions, and you nod or shake?" Asked Logan, a shine in his glasses. Remus got to his feet and nodded eagerly. He didn't seem bothered with repercussions, unlike Virgil, who practically shivered.

"Did someone hurt you in the Dark Side?" Patton burst out, looking like a protective father more than ever. Virgil nodded very quickly, as if worried that the loophole would fail them. "Was it Deceit?"

Two shaking heads, Remus's a little more upset at the notion.

"Did you start getting hurt recently?" Roman inquired. Virgil shook his head, and Remus shook as well.

"The split," was what he managed to say. Roman's jaw tightened and he rested his hand on the handle of his sword. Creativity split at the age of seven.

"Remus, this is specifically for you," Logan began, uncertain. That itself was a shock for the indigo side. "Would you rather stay here, or in the Dark Side?"

The commotion raised drowned out the confused screech that Remus made. Patton was mostly excited, talking about room decoration, and new family dinner plans. He seemed apprehensive over Remus's behaviour and outbursts, but was still ready to welcome him. Virgil wasn't very loud, but he had expressed a small agreement. Something about getting them out sooner then later. Ram didn't object, but made a huffy noise and remarked that Logan should have to deal with Remus's mess if he made one, as it was his choice to 'keep' him.

Logan sighed, looking at the three chattering sides. How was he going to get them to be quiet? His answer; Remus screaming a demonic scream, effectively shutting them up.

"I am an adult!" He yelled into the now silence. "I make my own decisions, I choose my own choices, and though I may not act like it I still have feelings and rational thoughts! Now, all I want to know is; may Deceit come as well?"

Oh.

Logan felt rather foolish. How had he not considered Deceit? He looked toward Patton, who was putting his 'I've made up my mind but I'll pretend to think about it' face on. He hummed and haa'd, and Logan fell a little more in love with the side.

"Well Kiddo, maybe we should ask him when he comes to pick you up?" Patton grinned. It seemed a little strained. "He's not my favourite person, but you guys need to get out of the Dark Side."

Remus swept him into a tight hug, and leaned into his shoulder. To everyone else it looked like a normal hug, but Remus whispered something to Patton very quietly. When they parted, Patton had to blink back tears. He smiled, and Roman announced a feast and Disney marathon to celebrate. Remus immediately conjured his favourite film..

"It's not Disney, but..." He smirked, throwing an arm over his brother's shoulders. "Who can say no to Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice?"

The Prince rolled his eyes, but set up the dvd player anyway. He and Patton whisked to the kitchen to prepare the food. They shouted that they'd be a few hours and that the others should play a board game.

"Uno?" Logan suggested, holding up the cards. Virgil nodded, and Remus gave a twirl of his moustache. He knew full well how this game was gonna go.

~~~

Deceit huffed and pasted another band aid on his arm. It covered the worst of he scratches. He would have to leave his back. He throbbed all over, and grimaced at the feeling of dirtiness that he knew would follow him for a while.

He knew that now was the time to sneak out and pick Remus up. He only hoped that the other dark side still in the realm wouldn't notice.

He felt bad, ruining his fun, but Deceit knew he'd never be allowed to stay much longer. He hoped the light sides had at least fed him.

[lashayyakingfutureworks-blog]

Character rig tutorial - XB3001

Throughout third year, I realised I will need to rig the characters I create either for showing the character for rendering purposes or for practices such as to be used in Unreal, since Autodesk Maya is my default 3D program that I use for “non-sculpture” modelling, I heard about the ARTV1 toolkit which works with Maya and Unreal.

To use the program effectively each time I should rig a character, I decided to create my own “tutorial” for myself, to work as a workflow to follow when rigging a character, I came up with a series of steps to follow because of of watching videos on YouTube which consisted of tutorials for ARTV1 by Unreal or tutorials by character riggers and modelers. I also read some posts online to come up with the best options to use when using certain tools within the toolkit.

The series of steps that I use with the ARTV1 toolkit are as follows:

Character rig tutorial using ARTV1

Preparation + Skeleton placement

1) Open the ARTV1 character creator option within Maya.

2) Input the number of bones needed for each option.

(if metal – wouldn’t have a twist bone, e.g. cyborg)

3) Once the amount of bones has been input, click ‘skeleton placement’, this will create the skeleton and place the mannequin.

4) Then import the character as one would usually input an object into the scene.

5) The character has been input into the scene.

6) Setup the layers to have more control over the character mesh. I simply called it ‘mesh’ in the ‘layers’ tab.

7) Then choose the necessary options needed for the layer by clicking ‘edit layer’.

8) I then organised the outliner by clearing the history, these transformations come from the history being left from the characters. I then named the character mesh as appropriate. However, in this case, I left the transformations just in case they were needed and grouped them together and renamed them.

9) This is the organised outliner.

10) I then created a group for the clusters I created in the scene (which will later be explained.)

11) I then scaled the character as appropriate according to the size of the mannequin, this is appropriate as it is a humanoid character, however, if the character was a robot or creature with a scale very different to a human, it is not necessary to scale the character, the joints would be moved respective to the character’s joint’s locations, after they have been moved, the ‘aim’ option can be used in the character creator and the joints will all be aimed at each other, which is the only important thing.

Clusters

12) A very useful tool that can be created in Maya for character rigging is making use of clusters, to do this, I opened the script editor and went to the shelf editor.

13) I then wrote the sentence shown into the space within the command tab.

14) Then to this part of the script editor to make Maya create a cluster which can allow an object to “vertex snap” to a cluster.

15) Then using the CVC script, I can select for example an area of the character’s body. In the image above, I have selected the whole upper arm area for the upper arm bone, when I click the CVC button that I have placed in my custom tab, it will create a cluster at 0,0 of the selected volume. This creates a cluster right in the centre of the selection.

The idea is to do this on all the areas that the character has joints on.

16) In this image you can see the CVC button at the top and the description “Create a centred cluster based on selected volume” as I described in the previous step.

17) This is a front view of the character with all the clusters placed for the joints.

18)  This is a 45-degree view of the character with all the clusters placed for the joints.

Using the CVC is a much more efficient and quicker way of placing the joints, as once you place the clusters, you can snap each joint to the respective cluster then aim the joints and use symmetry to mirror the other side.

Joint placement/Alignment

19) After placing the clusters, in the joint outliner, starting with the pelvis (ignore the root bone), you can place them one by one, from the pelvis to the three (or more/less) spine bones, the benefit of using CVC specifically for the spine area is that you can easily get the natural curvature of the characters body as it will always be perfectly centralised according to the volume selection when placing the clusters.

When I’m lining up the pelvis bone, I use the ‘+’ key to extend the length of the movement control arrows to perfectly line it up with the top of the character’s lower back area; I then line it up in the side view so that the legs (which are attached to the pelvis bone, drop and follow the curvature (if the character is defined enough) of the thighs below the pelvis, assuming it’s a standard humanoid figure, the character would not have legs that are far from the pelvis.

20) The leg joints naturally fall quite close to the character’s leg, I then just needed to select the rest of the leg joints and snap them to the clusters, by holding V, the vertex snap.

21) Then, proceed to line up the joints one by one – using symmetry for accuracy, unless character is asymmetrical, in which case one would use symmetry to line up bones such as the clavicle bone, then turn off symmetry for the arms if the character had different shaped arms that differ in structure drastically.

22) For the hands, one would simply grab the movers and snap them to your clusters which were placed previously, if the character has more than 4 fingers, as this tool-set is limited to 4 fingers and 1 thumb, you can make use of the “extra” joints and use a leaf joint which is essentially just an extra joint that can be placed anywhere if needed.

23) All the joints have been lined up by working down the outliner and snapping them appropriately, the last thing to do would be to give it one final check-over by eye and make sure they are placed well then go to picker > aim, the joints will then become ‘joints’, it will re-adjust the boxes in the correct way, setting the rotation of the boxes so that they “aim” at each other and line up with the flow of the skeleton, after this use symmetry, then one final check-over before going to the next stage which is ‘Deformation setup’.

I now delete the clusters in the outliner, and select the character model and freeze transformations and delete the history.

24) Deformation tools > create rig pose > save pose > no to proxy mesh skin weight because I will be using my own custom character, if I was using the mannequin as a temporary proxy mesh for prototypes, then yes.

25) Now I need to bind the skeleton to the character mesh, first, select root in outliner, then right click and select hierarchy, then select the mesh in the outliner, then in Maya go to the animation/rig options in the top left (differs by Maya version), skin > bind skin > smooth bind (options):

Keep max influences on ‘3’ Bind to: joint hierarchy Skinning method: Dual quaternion Normalise weights: interactive Weight distribution: distance Select the root bone, then body, then apply, the colour of the skeleton will change, then finish with > bind skin.

The character’s finished skeleton.

Painting weights

Select character > paint weights in deformation tools, proceed to paint weights as necessary. In the ‘profile section of deformation tools’ it controls the size of the brush, there’s 3 round brushes with different falloff shapes and then 1 solid square brush, there are also skin tools to help speed up this process and mode controls which allows switching between weight painting mode and selection mode.

When painting weights, it’s important to be very aware of the value that one is painting in, it’s never good to paint in 0 value, because if you paint in 0 value Maya will automatically reassign influence to a random joint (this is an option that can be changed, but I leave it on to remind myself of practising proper weight painting and also it prevents any vertex from having 0 value, as if any vertex has 0 influence, it will make the animation look very strange and would cause problems later as the vertex without influence would not move with the rest of the model.) For example, if you notice the lower_arm_r joint has influence on the thigh_l joint, if you paint over it and replace it with 0 value, the influence can randomly be assigned to say the head joint. therefore, it’s better to just replace it with 1 value on the correct bone/joint and work one’s way down the joints outliner.

*However, in the following steps, I had not yet figured out painting weights completely as I only knew what I had researched up to that point, which wasn’t too much, just the basics, therefore, I did not follow the ‘never paint in 0′ rule, and had a lot of issues with the influence being randomly assigned to different joints. But I later painted weights onto another version of the character that was done better than the first time and would be a better example of how I painted weights onto the character and for it to work well, this will be shown in a following post.

26) I usually start by flooding the root with 0 (as the root is supposed to have 0 influence on the character’s mesh.) I then go in using 1 value and replace, then paint in 1 on the major areas around the joints (like the volume that was selected when the clusters were placed before), by selecting each joint one by one starting with the pelvis then spine bones, similarly to before.

27) If I separate all the arms and legs out, then I can see how the joints are influencing each other at the beginning.

28) I move each bone one by one, and paint influence as appropriate. I also test each bone by bending them in different directions (only naturally moving them, for example, I wouldn’t bend the leg upwards beyond 180 degrees in front on the Z axis as that isn’t a natural movement of the human body.

The above image shows the amount of influence I painted with.

This influence worked well and the skirt lifted with the thigh and did not clip weirdly.

The leg is too stiff and is being “creased” by the current influence values.

The leg has been fixed appropriately and is no longer creased weirdly; It was difficult to make it look completely natural as it was a very low poly character and so getting fluid movement, was less easy to do, but still very possible to an extent with what I could do at the time.

This is the completed leg with the correct influence on each joint bone, the bends are natural and there is no strange creasing.

After this point, I finished painting the weights and went to publish the character:

Build control rig > Select project  - new project name > Character name – CharacterName > build > pose character as appropriate for picture, full view at 45 degrees works best. Then click the camera button > then click close on the new box that opens.

The following images show these steps.

ArtV1 > Add character for animation > select character > add and close. 

To modify the controls, open the original rig file, then switch between object selection and component selection by pressing F8 and carefully select each respective vertex on the each of the controls and scale them around the areas of the character appropriately, then save it off.

This is the character control rig file after publishing the character, in this scene, I can rotate the control rig and move the character’s joints. 

*Side note: However, there were strange twists in the character’s arms, the reason for this was not solved but I think it is to do with the rotation of the character or the controls, as when I rotate the controls, the arm does untwist and look normal.

Additional notes from note document:

Painting weights

1)      Flood 0 influence on the root bone, when pulling out character’s limbs, you can see the areas that are being influenced by the movement; it helps to see the problem areas. > Paint skin weights tool, select root, drag ‘value’ to 0. Show > hide joints > vertex mode.

OR

2)      Select character MESH, then go to Skin > paint skin weights, then tool settings, paint operation > add or replace is predominantly used, value is how much weight is being painted (how strongly is the influence of movement in the painted area).

‘B’ key adjusts the brush size, then paint the areas around the joints with a .5 value setting around the immediate areas of the joints, and smooth it out by holding shift and painting the areas on the outskirts of the .5 area. E.g. hip bone would have .5 value on the hip area and about an inch or two outside of that area would be smoothed with a softer value. This same method would be used for each of the joints of the skeleton on the character mesh.

3)      After painting the areas of influence, if the character is symmetrical, one may want to mirror the weights to ensure the movement is the same on both sides: Skin > Mirror skin weights > Mirror across: YZ, Direction: Positive to negative Surface association: Closest point on surface Influence association 1: one to one Influence association 2: one to one

~End of character rigging tutorial

[supremeuppityone]

Klaroline fanfic update: A Beautiful Symmetry

Chapter 29: The Blonde Witch Project

Author’s note: This story was written for the Klaroline Infinity Finale Week Event. Caroline is a New Orleans witch who runs a magic shop that caters to a very select clientele. It’s a case of the “customer is always an asshat” when a smug hybrid stops by to purchase spell ingredients.

  All your life you've never seen a woman taken by the wind Would you stay if she promised to you heaven? Will you ever win?

— Fleetwood Mac, “Rhiannon”

              It turns out that dried troll livers, no matter how shriveled, will still leak acid when you drop them. Caroline groaned as she watched a handful of the rust-colored, wrinkled organs tumble off the quartz counter and fall to the floor with a series of stomach-churning splats and an audible hiss. With a muttered charm, she summoned the wet-dry vacuum from the back of the shop. While she ordered the mess to be cleaned, she stretched, hearing several angry clicks along her lower back. She really should have asked Enzo for help unloading those massive tubs of melanoma remover, but he had been really excited to leave the shop early and go on his first official date with Bonnie, so Caroline hadn’t wanted to detain him.

           As a witch in New Orleans, Caroline had gotten fed up with inferior occult shops who catered to tourists and constantly had the more exotic spell ingredients on back order, so she finally opened her own shop several decades ago. By design, she operated in the shadows, upon hushed whispers and knowing winks her business flourished. The entrance to her magic shop was cleverly hidden inside what appeared to be a broken down old crypt near the back of St. Louis Cemetery No. 1. She cheekily called her shop Grave Matters and despite the unconventional location, her reputation for discretion and possessing the most comprehensive selection of spell ingredients in the world ensured her success.  

           The chorus to Donovan’s “Season of the Witch” alerted her to a client in the store’s lobby. She headed down the corridor, enjoying the pleasant hum of magic in the air from the spacious design she had created with the help of her talented coven. As she stepped inside the lobby to find Klaus Mikaelson, she mentally congratulated herself for having the forethought to put up a protection barrier that activated the moment a client stepped across the threshold. While she’d never met the Original before, the volatile hybrid’s reputation preceded him. She could feel power emanating from his aura, and if he didn’t agree to her shop’s rules, she suspected her refusal to do business with him would be somewhat problematic.

           “Welcome, Klaus Mikaelson. I’m Caroline,” she said, inwardly wincing at the breathlessness of her voice as she took in his unexpectedly appealing package. Good grief, nothing that dangerous should ever look that good. She was so distracted, she nearly crossed the magical barrier and had to quickly jerk her foot back.

           Klaus took in her rigid posture and hasty movements and a playful smirk slid across his handsome face. “You’ve heard of me, excellent. Am I to assume that this protection barrier is meant for me and my somewhat prickly reputation then?”

           She rolled her eyes and scoffed, “Please. I cater to a rather exclusive clientele. You’re hardly the most dangerous creature to wander in here. All of my clients are expected to agree to my rules before we can do business. Once you agree, the barrier is lifted — but not the security enchantments.”

           “I’m afraid I’m not much for rules, love. But I can assure you, if you make an exception, I’m definitely worth your while,” he smoothly said, momentarily forgetting the barrier as he attempted to reach out to play with one of her wayward blonde curls. The zap of her protection spell singed his fingertips, causing him to emit a growl that seemed to be more embarrassment than pain.

           Barely managing to contain her giggles, Caroline said wryly, “Yeah, no. My shop, my rules. Rule number one: You have to relinquish your supernatural powers while you are inside the store. Rule number two: You have to sign your name so that I can divine your true intentions with the spell ingredients you wish to purchase from me.” She watched with a bored expression as Klaus’ face contorted in the standard series of emotions many of her clients went through upon hearing her rules: disbelief, outrage, stubborn refusal, pompous asshat, etc.

           “Are you out of your bloody mind,” he seethed, black veins appearing underneath his eyes that now glowed with a hint of furious gold.

           Caroline crossed her arms in front of her, glaring at her rude client. “Your choice, Klaus. But make up your mind soon, please. I have a cauldron full of mustard brambles and fairy wings that requires counter-clockwise stirring precisely every 52 minutes. So, tick tock.”

           Seeming to weigh his clearly deep-rooted paranoia against his obvious desire for rare spell ingredients, Klaus finally grumbled petulantly, “Bloody hell, fine.”

           Rubbing her hands together, she whispered the incantation that stripped the hybrid’s powers, leaving him immortal, but without his superior strength, speed or fangs. A pearlescent ball of light floated in front of Caroline before vanishing in a wisp of white smoke. “Once our business is concluded, I’ll fetch your powers from my vault and restore them,” Caroline promised.

           Klaus eyed her warily, seeming to feel vulnerable and uncomfortable in his own skin. A scrap of parchment and a silver fountain pen appeared before his startled gray eyes, and he regarded the objects suspiciously before he hurriedly signed his name with a growl.

           With a flick of her wrist, the parchment shot into her palm, and as she traced the strong, commanding curvatures of his signature, the letters burned red. Satisfied, she nodded to herself, removing the invisible protection barrier with an impatient wave. “Follow me,” she told him, turning on her heel and leading him down the corridor to one of the main workrooms. Good grief, did he always smell this good? She detected hints of spice and orange along with the gritty-but-seductive earthy fragrance that all wolves seemed to carry. The normal iron smell that flavored a vampire’s aura was barely perceptible on him. Interesting. She briefly wondered if all hybrids smelled this way, but put quickly that thought away as she knew better than to go looking for trouble. And delicious-smelling Klaus and his hybrids were definitely trouble.

           She gestured to one of the tall swivel chairs along one side of a long concrete countertop. As Klaus settled into the chair, she headed around the other side of the counter near a wall of seemingly endless wooden shelves.

           “So, you’re here to buy ingredients for a locator spell for one of the doppelgangers, Katerina Petrova, as she has stolen the cure from Silas,” Caroline said briskly, trying to recall if Enzo had finished cataloguing the latest shipment of arnica.

           Making an impressed noise, Klaus cocked an eyebrow, asking, “You learned all those details from merely touching my signature?”

           Her blue eyes twinkling merrily, she answered, “Well, that and your brother, Kol, plays mahjong with my friends at the retirement community over on Magazine Street every Tuesday.” She giggled as she confessed to the surprised hybrid, “Ida Mae, Myrtle and Lisette are a rowdy bunch, so Kol fits in quite nicely.”

           Klaus studied her carefully. “You have friends in a retirement community, yet you appear to be quite young. How long have you been practicing your craft, sweetheart?”

           She let out a surprised laugh, lightly smacking his hand. “Shame on you! You know better than to ask a lady her age!”

           Amused, he seemed to drink in her soft ivory skin and gleaming curls, his gray eyes darkening slightly as he said, “My apologies. I do prefer a woman with a few secrets.”

           She refused to shiver at the sexy drawl of his words. Trying to steer the conversation away from what she considered a dangerous flirtation, she said, “Speaking of secrets, did you know about your brother’s slightly alarming Golden Girls’ fetish? He can turn almost any conversation into something he saw on an episode. He also keeps insisting he’s the Blanche of my group even though he’s clearly Rose.” She smiled brightly, only barely resisting the urge to hum a few bars of the Golden Girls theme song. She added, “Not that I blame him — everyone wants to be Blanche. But I’ve made my peace with forever being the Dorothy of any group.”

           Klaus chuckled, his shoulders relaxing as he clearly started to feel more comfortable with Caroline despite the temporary loss of his powers. “I always found Dorothy’s brashness quite attractive,” he flirted, tipping her a saucy wink.

           Caroline snorted. “Kol was right — you are so a Sophia.”

           Sitting up a bit straighter, Klaus asked curiously, “What else has Kol told you about me?”

           Tucking a curl behind her ear, she grinned. “Well, he did tell us about the first time you milked a goat and how milk flew everywhere and soaked your trousers. And then the whole village called you brusi míg, which means urinating he-goat.”

           Flushing slightly, Klaus said defensively, “That wasn’t me! It was Finn!”

           At her skeptical expression, he muttered, “Perhaps it was Elijah then.” Flustered, he tugged on the leather cords around his neck, the various charms jingling slightly.

           “Of course it was,” she said, smoothly changing the subject as she gestured toward the rows of shelves behind her. “Now, about this locator spell. I have some experience with several variations, so let me pull ingredients that have the highest success rate and we’ll go from there.”

           She saw the way his eyes widened in surprise as he took in the labels of some of the more unusual glass jars on the shelves behind her — angst of 90s grunge music, optimism of millennials, Mick Jagger’s ego, Meryl Streep’s talent, and a tiny jar with a biohazard label marked sweetbreads of D. Salvatore. She chewed on her nail as she examined a couple of potential ingredients, mentally weighing their potency in locator spells. She carefully brushed past a jar smeared with orange powder with the lid slightly askew, labeled Curse of 2016 and pulled down a long, fossilized canine tooth. She carefully wrapped the item in soft linen, placing it in a dark purple satchel.

           “It’s such a shame saber-toothed tigers are extinct; they must have been magnificent beasts,” Klaus commented, the apparent awe in his voice making him seem younger somehow.

           His boy-like wonder touched something within Caroline, but she stubbornly ignored the butterflies that she felt. She smiled secretively and replied, “Yes...extinct. That’s what happened. They definitely did not wander into an interdimensional wormhole a newbie warlock accidentally left open.”

           She tucked away a grin at his bewildered face and climbed up a wooden ladder next to the shelves to grab the rest of the locator spell ingredients. She came back down with an armload full of wiry sasquatch hair, two jars of consecrated earth from Stonehenge, and mulled wine found in a clay jar in a cave beside the Dead Sea. She carefully wrapped the objects, muttering a spell to ensure they would all fit securely within the purple satchel.

           She had just opened a container of arnica to dice when Klaus interrupted her. “Wouldn’t red clover be a better match than arnica in a locator spell, sweetheart? It has inherent properties of luck and is known to pierce protection spells.”

           Caroline rolled her eyes. Why did everyone assume they could do her job better than her just because they had a passing familiarity with Harry Potter books? In a light tone with just a hint of bite, she explained, “Red clover is the favorite plant of the fae. It’s used to gain their sight and give you visions of the fae realm. So, unless you’re chasing Tinkerbell, leave the ingredient gathering to the professionals, hmmm?”

           Klaus’ gray eyes flashed at her words, but they were far from threatening. If anything, he seemed more intrigued than ever by Caroline and leaned closer to her as she began dicing the arnica. The bright yellow petals gave the appearance that she was chopping bits of sunshine. He asked, “Then tell me why arnica is the superior ingredient for my locator spell?”

           The corners of her pink lips lifted as she heard the earnestness in his voice. He seemed the type to enjoy a good chase, but she liked how he appeared to be willing to put in a bit of effort first. She hadn’t decided yet if she’d play along fully — after all, she had other obligations and reasons for wanting to avoid him after this encounter, but she couldn’t help but wonder about the possibilities... Shaking her head slightly, she favored him with a smile as she explained, “Arnica was strewn along the midsummer wheat fields to prevent the grain’s restorative properties from escaping. It is said the goddess Freya infused the herb with her power. It’s basically magical LoJack.”

           Seemingly impressed by her knowledge, he allowed her to continue working in peace, occasionally catching her eye and giving her a flirtatious smile full of promise. After he paid for his ingredients, she walked him back to the lobby. She also restored his supernatural powers as promised, leaning in to give him a brief hug and a gentle kiss on his dimpled cheek. She allowed herself a few blissful moments to breathe in his intoxicating aroma, enjoying the way he rumbled lowly in his chest as she pressed against his muscular body. As she pulled away, he looked at her questioningly. She grinned and said, “It’s for luck with your locator spell. I hope you find what you seek.”

           “I may have unexpectedly found something I didn’t know I was missing, love,” he said with a saucy wink, making her feel hot and cold all at once as she tried to calm her rapidly beating heart.

           Caroline smiled and said cheekily, “Well, it’s not going anywhere.”

           He leaned closer, their noses almost touching as he whispered hoarsely, “Good.” Before she could speak, he flashed out of the shop, leaving her to ponder the often unexpectedly messy ways of the world.

           Taking a breath, she pulled out her phone, pressing the familiar icon of an old contact. When her call was answered, she advised, “Everything went smoothly. I convinced him to substitute arnica instead of red clover in the locator spell — he’ll never find you.” She dug in her pocket, pulling out one of the leather necklaces she swiped from Klaus when she was giving him a hug. “I also obtained something that should give your protection spell a boost. No need to thank me, Katerina. After all, what are friends for?”

[skullssales]

*HUGE* Halloween Home Decor Haul Avelina De Moray

Hi there every body! Welcome to my channel .Glad October, the month of Halloween it is coming near I inspiration i’d better get my act collectively and in reality film my halloween haul n the month of Hallowee,n so it is on before …..Halloween in view that final 12 months I received my blood tutorial on a few days late….My unhealthy!!!! For those who guys have kids you realize why shit is perpetually late okay so as you recognize I used to be in LA not too long ago for 2 weeks and as an Australian living in a country that does not relatively have fun Halloween they’re opening to slowly embrace it but via include it I imply having one small little Halloween section in an complete storm so type of a letdown I used to be so excited to find out that I used to be visiting to LA across the Halloween season in view that all of the shops went nuts and i am so excited to show you what I purchased i’m gonna with one of the crucial serious decor considering there are just a few strange items in right here you understand you know what i am talking about when you comply with me on Instagram I put up reports like this about 50 reports a day so when you followed me while I was in LA you can comprehend what my husband bought anyway let’s get started with whatever serious the very first thing I need to exhibit you this is wonderful the scale of this I noticed it and that i fell in love i am like i need this on my wall no longer necessarily exactly Halloween themed however Gothic however and that i must have it it can be simply lovely so this was once from i will inform you because i do know this was from Halloween time Burbank l. A. And that i purchased a number of quite cool matters from this retailer and that is a Halloween headquartered retailer that’s open all yr circular which i suppose is rather cool we just do not have the Halloween tradition here where a store could preserve itself and be open all year circular the following is this beautiful lovely little signs crisis thingy I’ve received a lot of science i need sit luckily a excellent a big apartment however I have got to figure out where they’re going so this simply stood out to me the colours that we just had the completely happy Halloween I think it’s relatively lovable have no idea the place i will put yeah but that was once first-rate continuing with the theme of science i’ve this sign right here as quickly as I saw it i am like yeah which parking best violators will have a spell cast on them that’s pretty cool and this i will be able to tell you seeing that I don’t forget was once from Michelson yet another signal this used to be one one selected feeling lucky psychic predict the longer term knowing the prior so he bought this for the recording studio that we’re engaged on and the article that I hold noticing with the entire signs which have seen is that they’re very professional like they are not simply squares like in Australia they’ll simply do squares or rectangles where right here they they cut shapes out they usually they put the little witches broom on high there’s simply the awareness to element is impeccable so that is simply solid timber yet another lovely addition to our ever-developing facet collection ok now I want to exhibit you the 2 ridiculous things that one became out now not so ridiculous I sincerely ended up liking and it goes really good with a different object that I purchased however his first ridiculous thing and again i don’t really you ready for it large toad I mean the one factor that makes this Halloweeny is that it was once located within the Halloween section in one of the crucial outlets and it can be style of creepy but apart from that i am like why why and the children hate it that is terrified of it so yeah that is the first creepy factor that fun however the subsequent factor I can not throw considering that i’ll break it is it was Frankenstein it was once just white plaster they had different huge tremendous plaster heads and so they’re simply white yeah Mon sprayed that silver chorim nevertheless it honestly works rather well subsequent to the next thing that i’ll exhibit you which ones was a lantern I forgot to turn my mobilephone on silent whoops this has the label on it this was once from Ross Ross’s I consider it is simply Ross the identify Ross I fell in love with this I ought to perform a little shout out to jewel cher i am hoping i’m pronouncing her Instagram name thoroughly she’s a lovely mother she just had a new little one i really like following her style anyway i assume it can be her and said howdy you might have just bought she’s received graphics of decor every single day like regularly shopping i will be able to relate to that i’m like woman the place do I need to go inform me and she despatched me to all these stores so really this Halloween haul do not have kind of occurred without her so huge thanks it is right here how lovely is it adore it’s stable metallic once more if this used to be in Australia that may simply be plastic and it’s received a little bit yeah a little bit again section there so that you could pop to you like chocolates in I did are trying that beanie difficulty i have with that is motive this steel it can be most likely a conductor so it it really heats up so i’m gonna put it faraway from the children faraway from some thing that might trap hearth i am particularly clumsy wish it like that so these two together can i remind you we were touring america k so Australians you could have a suitcase restrict of 23 kilos this guy is with ease four or 5 kilos and this isn’t heavy that is like due to the fact it’s hole it but it surely’s huge and you couldn’t put something inside it so we left Sydney with one suitcase one had new smaller suitcase packed inside of my suitcase however we came we came residence with six we got here dwelling with six suitcases for have been on the brink of being oversized so full particularly huge suitcases after which two of the largest hand luggages in all probability placed on the aircraft with out you recognize moving into challenge okay carrying on with on how cool is that this also from Michaels which and noted hell yeah I simply saw that and that i thought that is going to make me appear so much cooler after I believe my youtube movies and i really like that the straw is difficult and it can be like Charlie Halloween themed like an orange stripes I simply saw that it can be actual good best it used to be pendulous rather having fun with that i’m gonna keep that right there so i can stay hydrated let’s proceed along with the consuming utensils oh okay i am again next up also from Michaels was this lovely purple you could you see that that’s a cranium within hopefully that’s being picked up by means of the camera however I just love that and i really like matters which are red and it goes by means of all of my nails which are bloody k next on the cups this was once $5 I are not able to bear in mind where this just but i’m virtually I feel it would even be Michaels I simply loved the two-toned glass to style of teal blue and fading to rain again it’s no longer displaying up loopy world yeah i will show it to you on a white heritage higher tremendous cute ok subsequent up on this epic Halloween haul are these beautiful cranium candelabras I acquired to cuz i love symmetry and i frequently buy two of the whole thing always it’s a bit of a main issue I might need help these obtained smashed to pieces on the best way right here i attempted my great to p.C. The entire breakables within clothing and blankets that I get the SI blanket um you will see that that’s absolutely fucked however bun did a quite excellent job of tremendous gluing it back collectively there is just a few matters that we bought that used to be tremendous fragile that like simply obtained smashed to smithereens I suppose it was once simply in one suitcase and i utterly blame the men and women from United airlines in view that there was once a bit ticket saying they searched our bag so all the broken things have been isolated to that one case now not completely satisfied United airlines additionally we didn’t lock the bag it used to be one of the vital baggage we purchased on the last day actually the day that we left and we did not have time to installed the I mean it only takes a 2nd let’s rephrase we could not be afflicted developing the little pet code with the numbers however after we received it again it was once locked and wager what they set the code to established on what used to be inside this suitcase i assume six-six-six and also you have to be questioning good how were you aware what the code I swear bond is like he knows how to do so so much stuff it is ridiculous like in another lifestyles he have to had been like an archaeologist that you know places together bones from tiny fragments on account that he is really excellent at this ship and the children are forever breaking matters but yeah he did that factor that they continually do in like Ocean’s Twelve but I listened to the safe something he hears the clicking like dude you are crazy anyway he heard it and it lined as much as 666 a greater story for you now for those who’ve seen my house you understand I have already got various candelabra so I really didn’t need to any extent further and this one this story behind it’s bittersweet seeing that it is not precisely the person who I wanted so this was once from a store known as Marshalls which I didn’t be aware of at the time however is apparently like a really huge reduction retailer where various they buy stuff from different outlets that do not sell in order that they’re only one offs if I had have known that i will put a photograph of the candelabra see that one significant it’s rather massive it was simplest $30 I did not like I idea it was some thing they’d have in inventory all the time so I did not buy it i am like i will simply come back that was long gone so alternatively I received this little teeny tiny variation but it surely’s still lovely I love it it used to be also Burke on some of the fingers you’ll discover right here is it way more commonly back together however you know if I did not let you know that you just would not understand that and just do not buy a ridiculous amount of Halloween shit while you journey internationally you’ll be best ok the following item was once from Russ I relatively enjoyed their decision of apartment to cool they had plenty of small print on the blanket that I bought was from there I really should have accomplished this whole postal errand you can figure it out that’s best so this is only a beautiful reflect I notion for certain this was once gonna get smashed fingerprints all over it so it’s simply very antiquey watching and it had a skull attached to the entrance of the reflect which style of makes Sameera itself really impractical but I simply liked it as a section of audit publication yeah i’ll find somewhere to have that each one proper the subsequent object I want to share with you is this little skeleton coffin if you happen to’ve watched the video that I placed on good it is today but it is not going to be by the point this video goes on the Halloween shopping video part one at Michael’s you are going to see me get fairly excited over this I consider i will movie a bit video of how these guys look at night for the reason that they’re so exclusive you know you do not get the atmosphere at all for the period of the day and i am all about atmosphere all myths so that is just a bit skeleton dude and that i i might say perspex i’m not going to assert that’s glass either method I did suppose that was once going to break but it failed to and the LED candle inside has a high-quality little go giving it a individuals realism Oh cup of tea times one cup of tea who smash he knows once I’m filming any wreck hmm watch me feel high priced lounge k this subsequent thing used to be additionally from Ross they’d a lot cool stuff if you’re in america and there’s a row retailer close you I incredibly advocate going so the sign was 399 once more so very respectable poison consumed at your possess threat one at the start hung this above our kitchen it’s kind of of a comic story because I burn everything it’s simply cool it spoke to me matters communicate to me i buy them i assume about anything quite jewellery shoes clothing nail components the subsequent object we wish to exhibit you at present is that this crimson bats heart bottle 100% glass 100% pure i love that voice I should do the whole video such as you love it okay yes this one here additionally on hand in inexperienced worry loss of life and magic pre-made character mixtures so these had been from Russ tremendous adorable so that one has a bit sparkly form of Raven going on and it’s bought a group of LEDs that seem like this strung on a copper wire so that they style of jingle about but you are not able to quite see on the grounds that the glass has this distressed look about it it this definitely looks higher for the duration of the day the only factor i do not like about this is when you know you know what ambience and the lights are off this sticky label is transparent so you can’t read it anyway to not smile it is all bonds dancing for me excellent yes sir that’s scorching back pots a hundred% pure really lovable as good these have been sitting on my bookshelf on the moment which has turned extra right into a display just for cool-watching decor rather than housing books however four of the eight shelves do have it that is thanks the subsequent object is that this little cranium looking dude who hasn’t eyeball in the flower Rose this used to be wholly smashed to portions again for now repair that rather a lot for me and again I’ve just been sitting this on my bookshelf I just preferred it rather on the grounds that of the eye with a bit of luck you see it the eye inside the Rose so that was that was creepy and the children are really lovely they requested me about it hi there mom why does our eyes have now not fall thanks yeah i’m gonna smash the whole lot if it wasn’t damaged it is going to be soon next up and this is from Michaels you saw me in that Halloween looking hall get really enthusiastic about this pieces are nonetheless shedding off it as we converse magic potions charms and poisons akin to a stack of books however this is definitely porcelain porcelain ceramic whatever tremendously breakable plaster it came in white or bronze I put the bronze most likely so the ends all chipped up all the corners broke but it surely style of offers it some realism that it did not have earlier than i’m simply pleased it can be nonetheless in a single piece and the highest also it appears relatively exceptional k next up with these coffins I suppose for them to be displayed at full abilities they have got to be sprayed a specific colour so there have been in the craft section one thing along with your raw Frankenstein head which is now watching much better now that he sprayed it so i am definite this may be the identical I have no idea what colour but am i one of a kind Nadia hi there Nadia it sent me a funny picture where she had this kind of that she bought for like final Halloween and i used to be displaying on my Instagram stories how they remove darkness from and she or he used to be like god damn I had no inspiration there was once a change on the backside and then it lit up I simply purchased it because it was once a cool Kaufmann and it does open up so that you would take me please store things within it i’ll exhibit you what matters seem like at night time pleased Halloween I was once just rather impressed with the laser etching on that i really like my lights so I obtained that one I bought trick or treat with some bats on it they might even be cool to show jewellery and you recognize I might allow them to open and up like that i’ll test round with that boots out and the final one this how so much used to be this that is five dollars shutout so this one says trick-or-deal with and once more the artwork caught my attention optimistically you’re seeing how lovely that’s the spider the cat I relatively experience silhouette paintings i have never rather ever performed it myself i might wish to considering that this might have a screen printing fairly well you understand what you simply made God works out of watercolor I do not know what i am gonna do with it it does not have putting so i guess you just sit it on a table but i’m absolutely loving that subsequent up are these adorable indicators that we bought really for our kids one every for their door so it is a little complex to show so warning do not feed the zone peace steals consistently asking about zombies and vampires and monsters and skeletons and things like that he is surely in love with the movie sequence and wishes to cover just think he said to all good he’s four years ancient and this one says element vampire dangers are in a dusk unless dawn they may be simply thicker cardboard so you know they may be now not constituted of steel or anything but it was 99 cents so who gets blended up is this cute throw rug that I purchased I do not know I fairly I do not know if I bought it for myself or pull my it my expensive old son London he’s in love with me I think it possibly south used to be his orange one we have bought with bats on it that is his blankie this is so so so we try to get a just right shot of it it has beautiful spiderweb designs so this used to be $from Russ and the opposite aspect is the most softest fabric I’ve ever felt it simply makes me need to snuggle in bed and do without doubt nothing all day so i’m gonna put that away or else i will end up very unproductive however for $I used to be like god damn that is a cut price but you realize i am no longer very good at math what i have realized is that a lot of 1299 s add as much as fucking lot you

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Source: https://skullssales.com/

[cancenjvp-blog]

Living My Imperfect Life Perfectly With the Help of Cancer Surgeon in Ahmedabad

I am Rashik Aghoda. My body is 53 years of age. I don’t know about my spirit and psyche however. I have worn numerous jobs throughout my life and being a malignant growth survivor is only one of them.

Malignant growth is a terrifying word. Since the times of Bollywood films when somebody would need to hack out blood to distinguish that they have malignant growth, we have made considerable progress as far as diagnosing, treating and keeping this feared ailment.

Having endured third stage bosom malignant growth for over 2 decades, I can reveal to you that disease isn’t what it would seem that in motion pictures — neither in the positive nor negative way. Each individual will have their own malignant growth story, their own emotionally supportive network and their own interpretation of it on the most proficient method to experience it.

Before Cancer and After Diagnosis

My life can be isolated into two noteworthy parts, B.C. what’s more, A.D. Not the average Anno Domini and Before Christ, but rather Before Cancer and After Diagnosis which had indistinguishable effect on my life from the Anno Domini had on the world history. Life in BC was spent like the cash won from lottery, yet every snapshot of AD was progressively similar to the well deserved cash which we don’t discard however needed to. It took malignancy to demonstrate to me how excellent life is and why I can matter to myself and another person too.

What might occur if disease did not transpire? May be I would have consumed all my time on earth like the cash spent by the reckless child in the good book on things and individuals who are not deserving of it, along these lines turning into a swine crowd at last. I don’t know, but rather it would seem that I had begun my voyage headed straight toward implosion, without acknowledging it.

The Beginning of a Struggle

According to cancer surgeon in Ahmedabad, Cancer is very quiet like a cockroach. You won’t know there is a quiet executioner abiding in your body in the event that you couldn’t care less to avoid potential risk. There was where I was unreservedly breastfeeding my multi month old little girl without a slight insight that I had dangerous tumor in my bosom.

All I had seen was a little knot in my bosom in the span of shelled nut. It was not a lot unique in relation to solidified drain clusters I would get here and there. Be that as it may, after seven days while having a shower, I understood the irregularity was unique. As opposed to solidified drain, it felt like a hard structure.

That is the point at which I chose to have a specialist’s sentiment. She promptly instructed me to have a biopsy. At the point when the reports came, my specialist instructed me to return and meet another specialist the following day. He was an oncologist. Some way or another I didn’t give it an idea and tranquilly strolled in to meet him the following day. It was just when he declared that my report says I have bosom malignant growth organize III, that the gravity of the circumstance truly soaked in. I was normally stunned.

My reality changed with the articulation of three words on April seventh 1996. Despite everything I feel it in my bones, the gentle shudders that kept running down my spine, the perspiration that wet the napkin in my grasp, my consuming cheeks and wild pulses. It is so carved in my mind that despite everything I recollect the Yellow and dark sari I wore that day and furthermore the white cotton napkin with yellow chime blossoms that lay moist in my grasp.

Am I imagining? Is this genuine? Would this be able to happen again in my family in a range of 4 years? On 1992, my Dad was determined to have Hodgkin’s Lymphoma, 1994 my sister was determined to have bosom malignancy and here now the ball was in my court in 1996. Is it accurate to say that it was hereditary? Is it true that it was our way of life? Is it true that we were reviled? The inquiries continued flying into my mind in a steady progression.

Coming in wording with Cancer

Everything I could consider right now of stun, disarray and dread was about my kids. One was my first conceived who was 4 years of age and another only multi month old infant young lady who I had simply bosom bolstered before my visit to the specialist. It required me investment to understand that only a couple of minutes prior this bosom had been a wellspring of nourishment for my tyke, and now it was something that compromised my life. Again the distress in my mind made me question the conclusion. I know a large portion of us need this to be lie, yet it only sometimes turns out the manner in which we need once we are analyzed.

My doctor did not take the discussion ahead. He had recently delayed after the declaration and sat tight for my reaction. I don’t know to what extent I took to react in light of the fact that when I had opened my mouth, I was prepared to proceed with the treatment, battle the beast and live for couple of more years for my youngsters and my family.

I asked my onco specialist in Ahmedabad, “What should I do to endure this?” I could recognize a glint clearly and a grin all over, as he said “You previously did that. Settling on a choice to endure and beat the infection itself is a major advance towards survival. Off base we will talk about the treatment choices and date of medical procedure for expulsion of the harmful tumor, since that is additionally required”

Like a motion picture, interchange future endings coasted before me as I gradually strolled back home. I admired my kids, a multiyear old to a great degree enthusiastic kid and multi month old young lady with extraordinary requirements. A distinctive picture of them as vagrants coasted before me, they were sobbing for me and asking where is our ‘Maa’. I couldn’t give this a chance to occur.

Again another picture of a bare lady with one bosom drifted before me. Will I ever be an attractive lady subsequent to experiencing mastectomy and chemotherapy? The possibility of losing the bosom and symmetry of my ladylike body was extremely excruciating, so was the prospect of going thoroughly uncovered even incidentally.

At that point there was the intense piece of declaring it to my family. My significant other was in bay, so he needed to hear it on the telephone. His upheaval was, “For what reason is God doing this to me?” I resembled, “To HIM?” however did not say it so anyone can hear. Rather I enabled him to cry how shocking he was, the manner by which life had dependably been extreme for him, etc. As I strolled back home, I understood that nobody was anticipating that me should state what I was going to state. My sister was at that point in fourth phase of malignancy and they were all the while attempting to adapt to that. I needed to let them know however. It made an entire mayhem and a blended scope of feelings was released running from outrage, fear, crying, misery, or more all perplexity.

I didn’t realize what to do. As I sat there in regret, my child approached me. He was feeling uncertain and terrified. He had heard the secretive chat with my name. When you endeavor to conceal things from kids it just makes them progressively terrified consequently it is in every case better to state things as they seem to be. His look transformed me. Besides there was my girl who was searching forward for me to breastfeed her not realizing that when I exited, it was the last time I would bolster her. She just squinted at me with her honest grin which persuaded me to battle for my life.

I needed to live for her and be there for her. There was no chance I would forsake my uncommon needs youngster and surrender to malignancy just to abandon her to battle her fights in solitude. On the opposite side I was neither going to abandon my child or my family by simply faulting disease and enabling it to remove me!

Taking it head on

I was not in disarray any longer. My children would have me in their life as long as they needed me. I guaranteed them, “I have disease, however I will make sure that malignancy will never have me”. With that soul I kicked myself into battling mode and began my adventure of carrying on with a superior life than I had done ever previously.

Time in some cases ends up dormant and one forgets about it when you experiencing treatment.

Just before setting off to my medical procedure, I remained before the restroom reflect and took a gander at my body which would not appear to be identical from the following day. It made me passionate however then I chose to take the battle firmly, I needed to. There was no other alternative as per head and neck cancer surgeon in Ahmedabad. I exited unemotionally. Today, I lament I didn’t click an image to spare that memory, on the grounds that with consistently one’s memory turns out to be increasingly hazy and the lady in the mirror isn’t unmistakable plainly any longer. As much as I would, I am able to be not ready to review how I was before my medical procedure.

My medical procedure went easily. I practiced my hand according to the counsel of my specialist. I likewise began conveying my girl to physiotherapy in couple of weeks. It was trailed by chemotherapy which was very troublesome on my body. Some way or another, with a great deal of battle I endured the half year of chemotherapy. I won’t state it was simple, however the 23 years of survival thought me a ton on the most proficient method to experience it.

My Spiritual Transformation

Rising up out of the trial I was an alternate individual. I had more an incentive for every day I was living. I was searching for a reason in all that I did and I had more regard and adore myself. I began being calm and making an incredible more. I set objectives for every year to be accomplished and my attention was on finishing them. Also, not to overlook I needed to deal with my kids too. This pushed disease to the rearward sitting arrangement. Malignancy was lost in the turmoil of regular day to day existence battles. It was difficult for me amid that opportunity to pay charges, contemplate, figure out how to drive, figure out how to swim and fabricate a profession while dealing with my girl, yet then these difficulties may have added to my survival by moving my concentration from malignant growth to life.

Disease did not simply remove my bosom which I lost to add up to radical mastectomy, yet additionally my judgmental character. In the wake of being through malignancy for a few years, I understood out of the blue that I was not making a decision about anybody. I had more sensitivity for individuals around me.

It removed my enthusiastic reliance on others. I turned out to be all the more sincerely independent. Despite the fact that I looked for organization, it was more towards advancing a sound fellowship, relationship and camaraderie.

Malignant growth gave me bravery. I was a victor who had beaten the savage mammoth to withdraw. At whatever point I confront an intense minute in my life, I typically think, hello I have beaten malignant growth, wouldn’t i be able?

Another acknowledgment that occurred to me amid my malignant growth venture was the vulnerability that accompanies monetary reliance on others. I needed to make and move delicate toys, fasten dresses for boutiques and complete a great deal of odd employments to take.

[calorieworkouts]

In the Gym With Lorna Kleidman, World Kettlebell Champion

By her late 30s, Lorna Kleidman was spending four-hour days at the gym, striking back-to-back-to back physical fitness classes, and treking along on the treadmill in between. And afterwards at age 39, something lastly clicked. Fitness can be easy, fun, and fulfilling. All she required was a kettlebell.

Kleidman quickly upgraded her entire regular and also landed a train that would ultimately prepare her to compete at the highest possible degree imaginable. She went on to win all 10 national as well as international competitors she entered, consisting of 3 globe champions, and a globe record in 2011. Today, Kleidman is identified to assist others discover that very same stamina, self-confidence, and success with her brand-new beginner-friendly kettlebell program KettleX. To begin the New Year off right, Greatist's health and fitness editor swung in on the kettlebell champ to chat training, transformations, as well as why it never ever hurts to attempt something new. And don' t miss out on Kleidman's special KettleX workout included below!

You phone call yourself a late-life professional athlete. At what age did you start to get into fitness as well as sports?

I experienced into the fitness center scene in my late 20s. It wasn't until my 30s that I actually set out to reshape my body. I really did not merely want to be slim. I wanted be strong and also healthy, as well as a head-turner. I started taking just concerning every course they offered at the health club-- two classes a day [ throughout the week], and four classes on Saturday. And in between them I would go on the treadmill running. I believed that was just what was called for to look excellent. And also then one day over the summer I was running outside as well as I believed to myself, "Exactly how in the hell am I going to maintain this up when I'm in my 40s as well as 50s?" I recognized there needed to be various other ways.

So when did you discover kettlebell training?

In 2005, at age 39, I was introduced to kettlebell workouts and I swiftly found I didn't should work out two one hours a day, or perhaps daily. I decreased my time in the fitness center by over half as well as got far better results: lean lines, [improved] metabolism, and my butt was lifted and round. I realized you didn't have to go insane to look great as well as remain that way.

I know a great deal of individuals-- ladies particularly-- could be frightened by kettlebells. Just how do you aim to resolve that?

It's true. That's why we're taking it away from the understanding of the old Russian strong guy and also strong lady device ... We're showing individuals they do make them in lighter weights. I'm not going to put a 35-pound bell in your hand and also spoken, "OK, allow me see exactly what you have actually got." My goal is to reveal you the best ways to make it fun and easy to learn.

People love collaborating with kettlebells as a result of the stylish, round activities. And it's vibrant. We're implied to move on and also back, side to side, as well as in rotation. When you're moving a kettlebell in creative means, like the way I show it, you're utilizing all of your body at one time, relocating in lots of various airplanes of movement in all different vibrant methods. It creates a balanced body. As well as it creates a stunning symmetry that many ladies do not have since they often work much more on their reduced body as opposed to their back, arms, or shoulders-- so they might have semi-toned legs but their posture [could endure]

Are there any type of typical errors you see beginners make when they was initially starting out?

I see really couple of troubles with beginners utilizing the kettlebell. The only challenge is: How can you make it much better? Just how can you utilize it in a more vibrant way? Exactly how can you use the wonderful resistance device to not only have fun, but develop the body that you desire? That's why I have actually created hundreds of activities-- some people have seen prior to, others are my very own innovative movements (see try exercise listed below!).

How lots of days each week do you educate, as well as what would you advise for others?

Now that I'm no more contending, I train concerning 4 days a week. When in a while I could include a barbell, however it's mainly kettlebells. I do my own exercise as well as do several of the competition raises still, however the secret is always mixing it up. Much heavier weights, lighter weights, different activities, different complexes, timed drills-- it's always different.

And do you cross train?

I do yoga exercise around as soon as a week, however I don't require a great deal of added cardio along with kettlebells since the bell offers resistance and cardio at the same time.

You advise every person begins with kettlebell health and fitness, yet beyond that, what does competitors involve?

Competition requires significant ability, aerobic ability, endurance, and also mental emphasis. It's a 10-minute efficiency, so you have 10 minutes to install as several reps as you can without placing the bell down, as well as you have just one possibility to transform hands. So if you start on your ideal side, you could only change when to your left ...

I began with nab. Yet I have actually also done the other two lifts: the jerk and the long cycle. These are the 3 basic lifts in competitors, and also you get ready for one. Think of it like a jogger who prepares for a specific meter dash.

So it's not all about weight. ... Just how heavy are the kettlebells you educate with?

In international competition the minimal weight for females is 16 kg (or 35 lbs). The guys, depending on their age, lift 53 lbs (or 70 pounds). Fortunately is, here in America, in national competitors you can contend utilizing much lighter weight to start with. So for instance the 12 kg (or 26 pounds) as a lady. Which's a truly excellent point for the sport, numerous individuals are obtaining into it as a result of that.

I started out with 16 kg, and also I have actually functioned with around 20 kg. Currently that I got to all my objectives, including the globe document, my sole emphasis is making kettlebells easily accessible and also fun for everybody.

Lorna Kleidman's Kettlebell Workout

Ready to attempt out some of Lorna's favored kettlebell movements? Adhere to along for her beginner-friendly kettlebell workout, detailed below. For each and every workout, complete three collections of the suggested representatives with an optimum of 60 seconds remainder between. Women utilize a 15 pound kettlebell, and men utilize a 20 pound kettlebell to begin. Breakthrough to a much heavier weight when movements come to be easy.

1. Double Arm Swing Hold the kettlebell handle with straight arms, knees soft as well as butt out. Swing the kettlebell back with your legs, linking your wrists to your inner, top thighs. Produce a forward turn up to chest degree with a strong hip drive (instead of a squat), preserving a straight back throughout the motion. Exhale as the kettlebell rises and also connect your wrists to your internal upper legs as the kettlebell comes down. Full 20 reps.

2. Lateral Lunge, Open Arm Begin with kettlebell in the right "residence position," with the body of the bell relaxing between your arm bones, hand unwinded at your chest. Step your left leg to a lateral lunge, maintaining the appropriate leg right and also sending the butt back behind you (while the back remains long). Using the flooring, press your left leg down and away to stand up, as you bring the bell back to "home." Full 10 representatives on each side.

3. Zip & Change Hold the best corner of the bell in your right-hand man, arm straight, spine high, and also shoulders back. Powerfully prolong legs directly while zipping the bell before your body to breast elevation, taking the left edge with your left hand and reducing pull back again with left arm right. For more intensity, perform the movements without stops briefly. Alternate for an overall of 10 reps on each side.

4. Backward Action, Pass Hold the best corner of the bell in your right hand. Step your best leg back, bending both knees as well as pass the bell under right leg to your left hand. Stand. Repeat on left side, tipping back with left leg. Alternative for a total amount of 10 reps on each side.

5. Plank Row, Pass Start in a plank position with straight spine, as well as abdominals tight. Row the bell to your midsection with your ideal hand. Place the bell down as well as change to your left hand, or advance one side prior to switching. You can likewise resort to side slab as well as row the bell up just under your upper body, arm joint to ceiling. Total 10 reps each side.

6. Stooping Joint Stooping on a floor covering, keep your hips involved, in line with your trunk. Hold the bell in your ideal hand and gently turn it ahead, after that lean back, letting it touch the flooring at your external side of your foot. Reach the contrary arm forward to counterbalance the bell. Aim to lean right back without hinging your hips or turning your trunk toward the kettlebell. Swing in front once more. Carry out 10 representatives on each side.

Get tired effortlessly, or intend to up the strength just a bit? Try performing the above relocations in supersets (so any type of mix of two motions back-to-back) with One Minute rest in between sets. Or, execute them as a circuit, finishing actions 1-6 in order, 3 sets with, with 60 secs rest in between collections. For an included challenge, aim to lower remainder durations by 5-10 secs each week, Kleidman suggests.

To learn more regarding Lorna, her KettleX courses, and training, visit www.lornafit.com, as well as follow her on Twitter and facebook at @LornaFitness.

Have feedback on the exercise above? Tell us how you did in the comments below or tweet the writer at @jshakeshaft.

[montamileikemc-blog]

Symmetry and  Breaking The Frame

SYMMETRY:

Something that has ‘mirrored’ shapes or forms

A compositional photographic technique

A way to approach framing a photograph

How can I play with artificial symmetry in post-production? E.g. making horizon lines dead-centre of a picture. Why people are drawn to symmetry? Is it innate or learned?

I researched on google about symmetry in photography. e.g. portraiture, landscapes, nature, plants and flowers. If portraits were symmetrical, the face looks really weird as both sides of your face look slightly different to each other. People are not perfect, nobody is symmetrical.

Image credit: julianwolkenstein.com

Symmetry gestalt psychology (the way we see things, our perspective)

Symmetry facial attractiveness

After researching I looked into how symmetry is or is not in nature, we were tasked to play around with nature and make things more symmetrical therefore more pleasing to the eye!

The Photoshop process:

Symmetry in nature

I went into UNSPLASH.com – downloaded the free stock photography)

(Credit: Alex Blajan ‘Flower’ RBG/8)

 Photo-Manipulation Exercise

Process:

Click ‘View’ and select ‘New Guide Layout’ (to quickly make guides)

Enter ‘2’ columns, ‘2’ rows, no gutter then click OK

To create symmetry in rows (‘shape’ enabled):

Choose row, select marking tool ‘M’, highlights chosen box (‘ants’)

Short-cuts: CTRL + J

Duplicate a layer or selection (Layer 1)

CRTL+B

‘Move’ tool – we need to flip it

Click ‘Edit’, select ‘Transform’ then click ‘Flip Horizontal’

For quicker duplication: hold ‘Alt’ key and click & drag then release ‘Alt’ key then ‘flip’ vertically

To try a different sector: Layer 1, Layer 1 copy, Layer 1 copy 2 – select all

Shift & click on layers to select all, then Ctrl + G to group them

Name it ‘Symmetry 1’

Click Temporarily hide visibility of group)

Choose a different sector of the picture, then repeat short-cuts (as above)

Once your symmetrical flower is made, turn guides off - Ctrl +/ -  for toggle guides on & off

Put in new folder and name it ‘Symmetry 2’

Go to File to click Export and select Quick Export as PNG. 

We can ‘push’ the look of the photo, using curves – Curves Adjustment Layer (red, green & blue).

I selected a shot from Annie Spratt, which I found on UNSPLASH.

Same process:

How would a manipulation like this have been created in the dark-room? How does Photoshop make it easier to achieve?

Dark-room comparison - to create this manipulation would take a full day in the dark-room. You would have to create a quarter-mask on the negative and expose it a quarter at a time, repeating the process for all 4 quarters. This takes a long time to process and is a lot quicker in Photoshop by just a few buttons to press. You can always scan your analogue negatives into a flatbed scanner and then print at a high resolution and edit it in Photoshop, this is a quicker way of doing this whole process and takes a fraction of the time if you experimented in the dark room.

Experiment:

1. How to break the tyranny of the photographic frame.

2. Why is it always a ‘tiresome’ square or rectangle?

3.  More unusual ways?

Basic Technique:

Click View and select New Guide Layout

Experiment with more columns and rows

10 of each and add a gutter (the mini-margin between columns and rows

0.5cm - quite narrow as this depends on the size of this picture

Click OK

Use guide to create mask, to break the picture up into a tessellated pattern. 

Process

Hold Shift and use the marquee tool to create boxes across the image (ants); some horizontal, some vertical, some squares, some rectangles. These can be symmetrical but the gutters should be left blank.

Click on the Japanese Flag, bottom right…

Crop/split the image to your satisfaction.

Ctrl +/ - turns the guides off to see final image.

This process fragments a frame (i.e. ‘Breaking The Frame’)

Save as PNG

Can we use more sophisticated shapes than squares and rectangles?

Circles? Not possible. Triangles? Well…we will see by (Opening ‘Adobe Illustrator’ – this is to graphics what Photoshop is to photos; we can create patterns to frame photos). The Toolbar looks familiar: Paint, Brush, Magic Wand, Pencil, Gradients tools - there is some over-lap with Illustrator and Photoshop! Illustrator is designed for graphics, as it is more creative; it is also easier than Photoshop.

Adobe illustrator (Ai) is used because it uses Vector and Photoshop doesn’t duplicate using Vectors. The benefit of using Vector art is that it is resolution independent – meaning it can be scaled to any size, from a large billboard to or double decker bus to a business card. Vector has no pixels, therefore there is no pixilation when enlarged). so the size can be resized in Vector and therefore you don’t lose quality. I believe if you resized your shots to such a large scale as a double decker bus, you would see pixels in Photoshop.

Process:

Open Adobe Illustrator

Select New Document

Select Print A4 (Size in Illustrator doesn’t actually matter)

Select Rectangle Tool on left-hand toolbar; Shift, drag & drop white shape onto document.

Fill – the colour inside the shape

Stroke – line outside of pattern; to remove stroke, choose Stroke Options (white box top-left)

Change the fill so that it is not white.

You should have a colour square with stroke around

Select Pen Tool, then Delete Anchor Point – delete one and you should have a triangle (Ctrl+ to zoom in)

Pick first Black Arrow Tool (top left)

To duplicate your triangle – press Alt and drag across so that the two triangles are perfectly aligned.

Illustrator has a repeat duplicator! Ctrl + D – as many as you wish

Next, select the whole row using the Black Arrow Tool.

Press Alt and drag the row down so it is perfectly aligned.

Ctrl + D creates as many duplicated rows as you wish (should have a triangular grid pattern across the whole document.

Bring this to my photo portrait; select all or Ctrl + A), right-click Copy and go to your portrait in Photoshop.

Ctrl + P or Paste in.

A Paste as box will appear – untick Add to Library, then OK)

Enlarge your grid to cover the whole of your photo.

Hit Enter.

Duplicate Layer; disable squares and rectangles from previous photo – click Unmask.

Should have the original image with the triangular grid covered across it. You can see two versions, one with squares & rectangles and one with the triangular grid)

Press Control and Vector Smart Object (bottom right)

Copy Layer.

Select Japanese Flag and triangle visibility off (eye icon)

Back to Portrait Layer (top layer visibility off)

The image with a white triangular grid across it.

Use Colour picker to add background colour layer.

Save it

[abbiedodsonmc-blog]

Breaking the frame - Part 2

We tried breaking the frame using guide layouts however we also tried breaking the frame through using shapes. Firstly we opened the  up Adobe Illustrator and went to File > New > and then wanted an A4 layout  and then clicked Ok to finalise it. Creating shapes in Adobe Illustrator is a lot easier that it would ever be in Photoshop. Once we had created our shape we would then be able to move it into Photoshop and create a mask from it. In order to create our triangle we needed select the shape tool and make sure that the rectangle was selected. The holding down SHIFT we drew a square. Holding down SHIFT ensured that both sides were proportional and that we had a square instead of a rectangle. With regards to the size of the square that we drew, it could have been any size. This is because Adobe Illustrator is based on vector graphics meaning that no matter how much you enlarge something  you will never have any issues with pixilation. However to make it easier for us we decided to make the square a reasonable size roughly 2 cm by 2cm.

Once we had pressed finalised that we were happy with the size of our square we were presented with a white square with a black outline. Ideally we wanted the shape to be all one colour so that we could easily make a mask out of the triangles when they were opened in Photoshop  For this reason we changed the colour, the colour of the shape didn't matter so I chose to use blue. We changed the colour by going up to the fill box just under the tool bar and then changing it. We also need to change the stroke which was the line that goes around the edge of the shape, because we didn't require a stroke we change the setting to the first setting which would remove it.

At this point our shape is still square. In order to make a triangle we needed to divide the shape in half.  As shown in the screen shots, each side of the square is made up of 3 small boxes. Like in Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator has a pen tool, and thus also a delete anchor point tool. It was with this tool, which was located on the drop down menu of the pen tool,  that we were able  to alter the shape of the square by clicking the top right anchor point of the square in, which in turn created a triangle.

Now with the shape we needed, we were able to duplicate it in order to create an abundance of them that would create a pattern. Firstly we needed to create multiple duplicates going in a horizontal line. Much like we had been doing in the Symmetry in nature task, the first duplication was made by holding ALT and then dragging and moving the shape into it correct place. However there was a quicker and more efficient shortcut for duplication available to us in illustrator which was to press CTRL D. The next step was to create more rows to that it would cover the photo, so we selected all the triangle we had just duplicated. We could click and drag, although there was an alternative method which was to press CTRL A as this would select all. Then following the same steps as we did before when duplicating one triangle, we did the same for the rows. Hold ALT and draw the first row, then use CTRL D to copy the rest.

Once we had finished duplicating the rows we needed to move the mass of triangles into Photoshop. I chose to use CTRL A to quickly select all the triangles and then CTRL C to copy them. I then opened Photoshop back up and pasted them. Once i did this a small box popped up in the middle of the screen asking me in what form I would like to paste my selection. We wanted to paste our selection as a Smart Object, so we made sure that box was selected. When doing this task on the class computers we made sure to un-tick the box that said save to library because we didn't want to save the shapes to the computers, however when doing this task at home we would have been able to. It just ensured that if we ever wanted to use it again for another photo what we would be able to because it would be saved.

With the triangles now in Photoshop we were now able to resize the so that we were happy with how they fit over the image. It was important when resizing to retain the proportions by holding SHIFT. Once we had we were happy with the placement we clicked the tick in the top corner. we were then able to make a selection of the triangles to that we could turn them into a mask. In order to do this we had to click  on the vector smart object whilst holding CTRL. Having now made the selection we were able to turn this into a mask, however in order for this to work we needed to make sure that we had the background layer selected so that it would effect that layers. With the background layer selected we then pressed the Japanese flag button in order to create the mask. At first it may appear as if nothing has happened however this can be resolved by turning off the vector smart object layer. Our final step was to add a solid colour as a background which was done by going to to Adjustment Layers > Solid Colour, we then chose a colour that complimented our photograph. Much like with part 1 i decided to go with a blue to help contextualise the photograph. In addition to this a pale colour complimented the photograph, using a brighter more  vibrant colour may have been more eye catching however it would have also been a lot harsher.