“I wish it need not have happened in my time,” said Frodo.
“So do I,” said Gandalf, “and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.”
After too many days of miserable quarantine blues, my roommates and I desperately needed something to pep up our spirits. My birthday came ’round and we opted to do a craft project based on a Hobbit clock tutorial my roommate found on Imgur! We’re an artistic lot and Lord of the Rings is one of our most beloved fandoms. What was originally meant as a birthday gift from my roommates became a group project for all of us to do. We are most pleased with the results and so I thought I’d share with you all!
In case you would like to make one for yourself, here is how we did ours:
Materials we used:
- Clock (we used this one from Amazon)
- A high quality map print of Middle Earth (whatever area you like best!)
- Sharpie
- Pencil
- X-Acto knife
- Spray adhesive
- Parchment paper
- Gold gel pen
- A good cutting surface
Build steps:
1. Take apart the clock. Save the paper backing.
2. Use the glass from the clock to choose which section of the map you’d like to use.
3. Draw a circle in pencil using the paper backing from the block as a stencil on the map print.
4. Cut out the circle with an X-acto knife
5. Place the circle cutout on the circular glass facing
6. Draw marks at the approximate number markings of a clock (12, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11)
7. Write out the hobbit meal times on parchment paper in pencil
8. Trace over the words in gold pen (the original tutorial called for gold leaf, and it looks incredible! But I didn’t have any, so we used a gold gel pen)
9. Tear them into strips to look more organic
10. Spray adhesive onto the back of each piece and place them onto the circle cutout (we guessed when “Afternoon Tea” or “Second Breakfast” might be)
11. Put clock back together
12. Hang it on the wall and enjoy with a pint! Then check the door. Dwarves might be coming to dinner.
Originally I bought this dress for a girls’ trip to an apple orchard where our ringleader wanted us all bedecked in matching gingham dresses. Me being me, I had to do a geek twist on it (shocking, I know!). One character immediately springs to mind with gingham – Dorothy Gale from the Wizard of Oz. And seeing as how this year is the 80th anniversary of the 1939 film, there were too many layers of appropriateness to ignore.
Alas, while the roadtrip didn’t happen, I still had this Dorothy-inspired outfit begging to be worn and photographed. But where does one do that in the cold November day? I wracked my brain through Munchkin-land potentials or Emerald-City likelihoods. But I kept coming up short.
After a batting of eyelashes at my roommate and a bribery of tea later, we packed up to go to a park almost literally in our backyard, the 
So I might have done something recently….
Short. Copper. DIFFERENT.
In celebration of International Womens’ Day, I thought I’d share a entirely female-collaborated editorial between local Atlanta store Coco & Mischa, jewelry from Canned Goods, photographer Astrid Kallsen, and group of lovely lady models, including myself. (This was actually the second part to the 
Thanks to friends lending their saree fabrics, teapots, and a quick run to Home Goods, I amassed a large bin full of blanket fort building goodness. However, I’m the first to admit I’m not the best at coming up with mechanics of fort building. But then, what better couple exercise is there than building a blanket fort? Come to find out, Ian is quite good at it! So without further adieu, here’s how we did it!
3. Strung up sturdy string in a long rectangular stretch across the majority of the room (All credit goes to Ian for this. I struggled for a while trying to figure this part out. Bless my other half for his left brain-ness.) The string was wrapped around strong anchor points across the room.
5. Draped saree fabric across the rest of the string around the room. (Saree fabrics work SO well for this as they’re designed to be quite long for proper Indian styling. Makes for great dramatic floor pooling.)
6.Kept them in place with small coloured clothespins (while they broke easily, they come in large quantities. Bonus OCD points for getting coloured ones that match the sarees. Because I’m THAT person. 😅 )
7. Piled an assortment of pillows on the back wall for maximum lounging.
8. Brought in my breakfast tray, covered it in small, washable scrap fabric for tea and noms. (Inara tea from Adagio Teas, not pictured – our favourite Indian dessert, anjeer katori from a local Indian store. Balu shai is a close second favourite.)
9. Made a second sitting area in the front with floor cushions and strategically placed candles for ambience (why? Because WHY NOT.)
10. Finishing touch of a runway made out of saree fabric and candles. Because, as we’ve established, I’m extra. And I wanted to spoil my boyfriend with pretty. (He’s actually quite a romantic himself. I thought candlelit dinners, wine with a bath, and romantic music were only preferred by those of the female persuasion. Oh was I wrong!)
11. Add in a Firefly-themed playlist, two steaming cups of tea, and a whole lotta love and VOILA!
I can’t tell you how excited I am to share this shoot! Normally I’m a very sleek, black, spy chic kind of gal. But part of the fun of being a model is getting to try out different looks, different characters. This particular one was probably the most different look I’ve ever done! Pastels are the antithesis of my usual palette (she says as she washes her almost entirely black laundry load). So when my make up artist and stylist friend, 
I was hooked! So off I went, prancing my buttermint pastel self to the front of the camera, grinning my head off as I went.
Speaking of grinning, I know many of you have mentioned how you’d like to see me smile more in my pictures. While I joke that I only have two modes – model face and derp face. The truth is I’m quite self conscious of my smile (I’ll spare you my wah wah whiny details), and feel it comes out looking really wonky in photos. But you better believe if I get a photo where it looks normal and pretty, I’m going to post it! I feel so spoiled by Richard in this photoshoot because I got not one, but multiple attractive smiling pictures!
I hope you enjoyed this Honeydukes-tastic look!
Over the years I’ve gone on a journey to see the magic of the everyday. I had my head too much in the clouds, lusting after a life of seemingly unattainable class and status. But a geek version! Surely that’s doable, I’d always say to myself. Well….not exactly. But sometimes one has to try their darn hardest to make it happen on their own terms to learn from those mistakes and find something new. So now, I am in transition to something new.
Ah. Hah. Ahahahahahah.
Let’s dissect this shall we?
2) Learn thy angles! Editor Briana is disappointed in Model Briana for this. Model Briana should know better. Model Briana needs to Work. Those. Angles!
3) While I am naturally pear shaped, my lower hips stick out due to both the way my body deposits fat, but also muscle reformation issues from my accident (especially the left side which puckers out weirdly from my scar). It bugs my OCD, so I try to camoflauge it in different ways. This photoshoot was before I learned how to do that. Past Briana, flowy coats are your frieeeeend. They hide said hip weirdness and make you look epic when the wind blows.
So next time I put an outfit like this together, I know some different things to try to create a perfect nautical chic outfit for my odd little body. Voila!
Photographer: 
As Emily Dickinson wrote, “To live is so startling it leaves little time for anything else.” Yet I’ve found myself drawn back into the familiar trudge of being a homebody, being slave to depression and poverty, while wistfully sighing over the seemingly endless stream of far-away adventuring Instragrammers with their sunshine filled exotic adventures. As someone who once traveled across the world alone and knows the soul-filling capacity of travel, my heart aches much these days.
Events in our lives happen in a given sequence in time, but their significance to ourselves find their own order through the continuous thread of revelation. The latter part happening more rapidly as of late. College ushered in a new book in my life as I lived on my own for the first time and then leapt across the world to the far reaches of New Zealand with nary a thought to normalcy. Although I returned with my tail between my legs due to being victim to being abroad during the global economic collapse and my own declining health, the lessons I learned from living alone overseas shaped the foundations of the adult I am today.
The chapters of childhood have long closed and the written pages are being crafted of my life as an adult. It was not at all what I was expecting. Now I fully understand many adult’s depressed desires to return to a youthful state. I did not take into account just how much I had taken for granted when I was younger. Naturally I had the childhood bruises and scraped knees, but nothing from the eyes of a child can prepare you for the pain of heartbreak, destitution, of dealing with friends’ suicides, drug addictions, overdoses, and having your own body ripped apart. (Not to mention the fiscal, emotional, mental, and societal responsibilities of being an adult).
Still, I find myself wondering if my time is well spent. Much gets sacrificed to my disabilities or unfortunate mental health that I find myself grabbing for social media as priority over the movement of my own two feet. It’s easy. It’s comfortable. It’s safe.
Though it wouldn’t be me if there wasn’t some aspect of geekery involved. I’m sure the word “travel blogger” brings particular image to mind, especially in regards to Instagram. A solitary figure (usually female) admist a sprawling vast wilderness or exotic landscape, bedecked in a flowing dress and matching hair. While it may be a cliched image these days, I still love it. The images provoke a feeling, a stirring within me (be that wonder, awe, or jealousy). The twist I’d like to bring to the table is to mimic the same style, but instead of it just being yours truly as the figure (because let’s face it, I would be lost in the sea of white female Instagrammers), it would be me as various fandom characters; like Lara Croft, Carmen Sandiego, Daenerys, Belle, Bladerunner, etc.
Alright so I fibbed slightly…it came to my attention recently, that I had actually unknowingly cosplayed from Lord of the Rings (this was way back in 2002 before most of us had even heard of cosplay). Here is teenage Briana in her very first elf cosplay. I decided to get up in front of my school’s talent show in that get up and sing May It Be. That poor audience…if there’s a female equivalent of a guy’s voice cracking at puberty, pretty sure I had it and it made its presence know every few notes. Oops.
Or as I like to joke – otherwise known around here as The Wert Family. Imagine someone looking akin to your favourite grandparents with hobbity dispositions. There you have Jim and Emily Wert (who frequently cosplay as Samwise Gamgee and Rosie Cotton. So adorable) and their just as Tolkien-loving, cosplaying children. They’re known in town for hosting the most EPIC themed parties, helping run the Tolkien track (now General Fantasy. Boo. Hiss.) at Dragoncon, and the local Atlanta Tolkien Fan meetups with the lovely Rebecca Perry (my former roommate! At this point I’ve realized all of my roommates have been LOTR people. We just find each other.) On various Sundays of the month, we take over a local, appropriately British looking pub, to both fan over Tolkien work and then incesssantly rant over one Tolkien topic or another. Our current favourite is the upcoming Amazon TV series. #givethepeoplewhattheywant #wedontknowhatthatisyet #butwewantsit
One of the local geek haunts, 