Ankantoiel's Diary

No responses yet – published on Apr, 20 2010 at 11:26 under Hobby,Site.

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Last Sunday I had the chance to visit castle Trauttmansdorff in Meran, South Tyrol with my uncle, aunt and cousin. The weather was unfortunately not that good. It was constantly raining softly. Nevertheless it was a very lovely day and it was nice to spend some time with my relatives.

I took some pictures of the very beautiful flowers that were blossoming in the gardens of the castle it is famous and popular for. The pictures are taken with my aunt’s camera (Nixon Coolpix S550) and I wasn’t too comfortable with it as it was quite different to handle compared to my Canon Digital IXUS 860 IS. I really missed the possibilities of settings or at least I couldn’t find them in the menu. I, nevertheless, think the pictures are nice for the first tries with another camera. What I really enjoy are close-ups and what better motive than a beautiful and colorful flower?

Last week I had some time and redesigned the website of the Tolkien Smial Tyrol. Guess everyone was right that the page was to dark and the text too difficult to read on the blue background – and after all I was never happy with the old design. So the new one is lighter with warm brown and green shades – remembering me of the Shire and Hobbiton. Additionally, a new site structure should make the navigation easier than it had been the last 2 years. I have also registered a new domain for the site, www.tolkien-tirol.com, and have moved it to my own server. The old domain should redirect automatically. I hope people will like it. It’s always difficult to say how people will react.

No responses yet – published on Mar, 09 2010 at 18:25 under Hobby,Site,Sport.

Wow, it’s been a really long time since I have posted something here on my blog. And now I’d like to tell you some new, exciting stuff but actually there’s nothing going on. Nothing at all. That makes me kinda sad. Seems that my life is quite boring at the moment. So I must stick to some old news.

I was finally able to finish redesigning my web portfolio on www.carmen-brenner.com. It’s nothing special and I already got some comments of people that don’t like my checked background. Well, I guess that’s always a matter of personal likes and dislikes – I actually like it. So it will stay until a muse kisses me again and I can think of something else cool. Despite this comments I am content with the result. The projects list is a bit short right now, but I hope it will grow in the future.

End of January the Nordic Combined World Cup took place again in Seefeld. It was the last competition before the Olympic Games in Vancouver and a very successful weekend for the Austrian team – maybe because that the Finnish, French and US Teams were not present. Marina and I had a lot of fun as every year. I am looking forward to next year when the new ski jump will be available for the first time in a public competition. I hope we can see a lot of new records.

But… the biggest news is likely to be that Rowanfair, Saerwen and I have decided to make a trip to Wales, UK to the Festival in the Shire. The website homepage states that it will be “A celebration of all things Tolkien inspired!”.

Announcing the biggest and most exciting event for Tolkien enthusiasts in 2010: Festival in the Shire! This will be the most comprehensive event ever held for the fans of J.R.R. Tolkien, with a conference, a collector’s exposition of original art, rare books and memorabilia as well as a large festival with stalls and entertainment.

Our tickets for conference and festival are already booked as are our B&B and our flight tickets. And I cannot wait for August – it seems to be an aeon until summer. *sigh* There is but one question: Should I get done a new Elven dress for this event? I have this in mind since some time now, but there are always doubts if it will be worth the cost.

The dress I want to have is only seen in a very short scene of the SEE of FOTR (where the Fellowship gets the presents in Lórien), and there exist only two other photos of it taken at a LOTR movie exhibition. On alleycatscratch.com – THE source for all LOTR movie costumes – it has been titled as “Light yellow lace gown“. I think it is not made from lace, nevertheless, but from something crushed (silk maybe, but it is really hard to tell, also from the screenshots I took). I have first considered to sew it myself, but actually I cannot sew. On the other hand to get it done by a sewer is very expensive. So you see I don’t really know what to do now, especially as I don’t think there will be nearly enough time to do it myself.