My Tumblr Secret Valentine from Switzerland

I think this will be my last post pertaining to Valentine’s Week, but then I don’t know what the rules are, maybe it’ll turn into a month…

Apart from getting all luvie with RAworld Secret Valentine, I also took part in the Tumblr event.

Mid week I got a snazzy box from Switzerland  that sounded like there were jigsaw puzzles inside (perhaps a “stick a tail on Richard?).

Going down the stereotype route I opted for either Swiss chocolate or a cuckoo clock with Richard popping out on the hour.

I opened it up and it revealed a plethora of goodies, most of them hand-made, and you know how I feel about that!

Check out the lovely necklace that will enrich my Little Thorin collection:

Not to mention the knitted pouch (in my favorite colour!) and Thorin/Hobbit notebook:

And then there were dozens of chocolate hearts that will soon end up in my belly 🙂

Thank you Kiwitage!

And to all my blogging friends (readers, writers and lurkers), wouldn’t it be fun if we did something like this within our group for another occasion?

 

Pop the champagne, it’s my Blogiversary (for real this time…)

Today (well, technically it was Friday…) marks my 2nd Blogiversary and I intend to celebrate till my fingers turn pruney!

Who knew I’d last this long, 2 weeks would have been pushing it…

I always say that blogging is counted in either dog or Hollywood marriage years so in human terms I’ve been at it for about 14 years and it feel that way at times.

I stated out as an RA blog lurker in the summer of 2011, this blog which followed in January 2012,  was intended as a place where I’d gather materials I find on the net that could come in handy for my MA thesis in Fashion.

Fast-forward 2 years later and here I am blogging almost exclusively about Richard with an MA degree in Fandoms and Fanfiction…

This fangirling will take over your life if you’re not careful, but then I guess we wouldn’t want it any other way!

My blogiversary coincides with the annual round-up created my WP, so here’s I Want to be a Pin Up in 2013:

For the longest time I felt like the new Pin Up on the block, now it’s more like a goldfish in an Armitage pond 😉

Thank you so much for supporting my blog, I really appreciate it!

Some time spring it will hit the 500,000 clicks mark which it truly overwhelming and humbling.

Thank you for coming here for a giggle, for engaging and contributing with your comments.

I always say I seem to have the nicest, wittiest and possibly craziest readers and I couldn’t want it any other way.

I bet there are a few lurkers that fit that description well too and hopefully we get a chance to become familiar by my 3rd blogiversary.

I hope to meet up with a few other RA enthusiasts this December in London, fingers crossed.

It would be wonderful to watch Richard strolling the red carpet one last time to support the role of Thorin surrounded by my peeps.

I raise my glass to you Dear Friends, Na Zdrowie!

Armitage Weekly Round-Up Week 2

Here’s another weekly round-up of Richard Armitage/Hobbit/OT posts that caught my eye this week.

Thank you for stopping by last week, you can check out Week 1 here.

Arkie has been keeping an eye out for fanfiction that may interest you, so check it out.

What a perfect way to brave the cold, snuggled up with a good fanfic read.

Guylty wanders the wild with interesting posts that have appeared on Tumblr.

It’s a tough job but someone has to do it!

As always, if there are posts that you’d like to recommend or I have overlooked, please post them in comments either here or at the other two blogs.

We are still very much spReAding the love!

There’s £200 to snag for Richard’s JustGiving charities and you can make that happen by having your act of kindness noted by the end of February!

Frenzy takes it back to fandom basics! She suggests we start with I Saw Something Fine… and here are further thoughts

Richard goes the extra mile crosses the street for fans

Don’t step on Richard’s blue suede shoes

Behind the scenes DOS footage, keep it coming please!

Jazz and the Headbanger’s Ball with Thorin

Jonia celebrates her blogiversary. Congrats!

Sometimes it’s easiest to express it with an RA character

Does Richard wear Spanx (what? it’s a valid question!)

Philippa Boyens fangirls (amongst other things)

I guess Richard and the cast are still not done with NZ

Airport pics bug me, but maybe mostly because I don’t see such beauty on landing… and a further thought…

On blabbing about Tolkien. Me? I blab on Tolkien, food, gossip and anything else in between…

How big is big enough to be a sex symbol? (and yes, I’m talking about what you think I’m talking about…)

Morrighansmuse looks at Obsessions of a fan girl

OT: Words that soothe and harm

Baby it’s cold outside, don’t forget your cardigan!

Polar Vortex Shmortex- Richard will keep you warm.

Confession is good for the soul, so we Armitagettes must be angels…

And we must be some strong angels because that level of majestic fabooshness can kill a gal…

Possibly the most important interview with a cast member of The Hobbit!

The cat with the best taste in men…

Age with pride like Thorin and show those grey streaks with pride!

Obscura actually manages to make the Olympic Games interesting

I still thing Smaug needs mouthwash…

Zan’s back! Yay!

UPDATE:

Jazz tells it like it is!

Richard’s new project? I hope he gets his thespian on!

Perry digs up more on the subject here and there’s more here from RAC.

BccMee will forever be the queen of Armitage collective challenges and her whole blog is post after post of delicious goodies.

She’d encourage readers to suggest photos, quotes and such, and she’d whip up the most amazing graphics and fanvids.

Check out the fun Summertime fun challenge where she has two RA characters battle it out in the strangest categories.

I honesty struggle to recommend the BEST BccMee post, you should just start from the oldest post and make your way from there.

BccMee also creates  beautiful videos, like the one for Richard’s 41st B-day:

Check out the Tumblr Round-Up courtesy of Guylty and Arkie’s Fanfic Weekly Round-Up.

See you next week 🙂

RA Silent Auction: The Morning After

The Richard Armitage Silent Auction is done and what an amazing experience it has been!

I hope you enjoyed it as much as I have.

Let me start by thanking all the wonderful donations and generous bids.

I am also very grateful for those who made donations.

Thank you to those who stopped by to comment, retweeted, reblogged and reposted.

The winner of the Thorin Bookmark raffle is:

Congratulations, I will be contacting you shortly 🙂

I have already emailed all the winners of the auction, so congrats to you all!

I will tally up when all of the transfers come in, but I can tell you this:

When I had the idea for the auction, I hoped that I’d manage get 10 items that would fetch 100 GBP.

I can tell you that the auction has exceeded my hope many times over!

Not only were the bids generous, but I’m also grateful for the donations that RA Silent Auction received.

The JustGiving charity that you have chosen to support is:

I’ll be posting about the official transfer to Just Giving Childline once I have added everything up and all the transfers have come through.

This is the first time I’ve organised something on such a grand scale and I value your thoughts on what worked, what we could improve on etc., so feel free to email me at rasilentauction [at] wp.pl if you’d like to share your opinion.

Richard Armitage Silent Auction Coming Soon!

Dear Friends,

There’s been something I’ve been mulling over, seeking advice about, and trying to figure out the logistics of in the past few weeks and today I can finally share the news with you.

I’ve decided to organise a Richard Armitage Silent Auction from the 29th of November till December 1st.

What’s this mysterious being, you may ask…

Well, the  auction will feature a number of goodies (many, but not all are RA related) that you can bid on via email (hence the silent part).

I will be posting the rules and guidelines shortly, but let me just outline the basic idea.

A bunch of items will appear in a post on the 29th of November.

if you wish to bid on a specific one, you are asked to send me an email with your bid, with the closing date being Sunday Dec. 1st.

The person who bids the highest wins.

Here’s the best part: ALL of the money raised goes to an RA charity that will be chosen by Armitage Admirers based on the results of a poll that shall be up throughout the auction.

The RA Silent Auction means that you will not only be able to get your hands on some pretty amazing items, but you’ll also be contributing towards a worthy cause.

I will be writing more about the auction closer to the date, but today I’m looking for generous and kind-hearted people to contribute items that can be auctioned off.

And when I say items, your imagination is the limit 🙂

If you would like to donate anything, or help in any way, please email me at RASilentAuction [at] wp.pl or at my usual email address.

You can also leave a comment and I will get in touch with you shortly.

And a HUGE thank you to those who have already answered my  plea and have pledged awesome stuff for the auction or have offered their advice, assistance and wisdom 🙂

So, get your thinking caps on, start rummaging through your stuff, pull out the old DIY/ arts & crafts box,  and put aside a few pennies for the auction!

On Blogging, taking a Break and Being Back…

I don’t do “serious stuff” often, so I’m just going to stick all my random thoughts in one rambling post.

It should actually be two separate posts, but I ain’t got time for that shiz, I need to get back to the silly stuff I’m more accustomed to doing 😉

Guylty wrote a very interesting *ooof* post a while back.

And before you Duh! me because they’re always incredibly fascinating (and so sophisticated yet written so clearly that even a photography dumbo like myself can follow), I was referring to Guylty’s mention of how relieved she was to step away from all the Richarding going on in our little community which was brought on by the end of The Hobbit shooting.

I understand this sentiment completely.

I found the December Hobbit rush to be somewhat unbearable, but it wasn’t the first time I felt this way.

I remember Comic-Con 2012, when I was majorly peeved that my internet connection didn’t allow me to track, analyse and fangirl my heart out with the rest of the RA nuts, but, if I’m honest, a part of me felt an odd sense of relief.

It was almost like the pressure of all the stimuli, the condensation of new RA news created a feeling of saturation, and yet didn’t provide fulfilment because it was impossible to take it all in.

Don’t get me wrong, we all know I’ve made my way through old Armitage stuff with a fine-tooth comb, squeezing every last drop from the already knackered RA footage during the great drought of 2012.

I usually moan about not having enough new Armitage news, but then when it all starts tumbling out, I find myself consciously stepping away.

This onslaught of new RA information always feels weird to me, it’s almost uncomfortable, awkward.

Watching footage in almost real time makes him… somewhat all too real.

I actually felt a sense of relief when I  stepped away from blogging and allowed things to happen far away from me.

My absence at the start of the year could be explained in another way.

My sister is writing her master’s thesis on Trekkies, and yet she can’t force herself to actually watch any Star Trek episodes.

I think when I was writing mine, I couldn’t research fandoms, write about fandoms AND be an active member of a fandom.

All I could do was lurk around tumblr and let spam accumulate on my own blog and comments go unanswered.

The things is, blogging can be hard at times.

Don’t get me wrong, it’s wonderful, creative, fun/funny, but it eats up a lot of time and energy.

Usually, I get a post idea, start fiddling with it and 3 hours later I’m still elaborating on the original concept, going between photoshop and picmonkey, correcting spelling mistakes and sentences that make no sense (happens oh so often, but I doubt you’re surprised).

When there’s little time the pressure is on and there’s a sense of obligation (and I don’t mean that in a negative way) to put something new out there.

Blogging is all about give and take.

Don’t get me wrong, we blog to satisfy a personal need, but it’s wonderful to have your voice heard, for someone to respond, even if it’s a quick word in comments or a Like.

That’s why you will have noticed that bloggers are also the ones going around leaving comments on other blogs.

We try and encourage readers to give feedback, and believe me, there’s nothing better than someone engaging in what you have written.

I truly feel blessed (and that coming from an agnostic is saying a lot) that readers visit here, then come back to check out what else I’ve posted, but they also stick around to chitchat a bit.

Some blogs don’t get as much traffic, so sometimes there’s no trace of anyone ever actually reading posts, and that gives Agzy the sads 😦

I know that we as readers can’t be everywhere (and I do tend to favour wordpress blogs because it’s easier to follow them, while I shamelessly neglect others), but that’s why Servetus’ Legenda is so extraordinary.

It gives us a chance to check out what else wonderful RA Admirers have come up with and I bet you miss a lot in any given week.

As a blogger I’ll tell you it’s wonderful to have your stuff forwarded (this moved me , thank you dido12, whoever you are!), to be retweeted, reposted, re-whatever else you can do in this day and age!

Your comments, dear reader, are very much appreciated by every blogger and in a way they validate the hours you spent attaching silly moustaches on Richard (that may have just been me…).

So, next time you visit a blog, please make sure you leave a trace, a thought, a comment.

Show bloggers that their posts are important, relevant, that they are a valued voice!

Give them a moment of your time by engaging in their writing, especially seeing that they’ve spent plenty of theirs creating their posts.

And a HUGE Thank You! to all the readers who are generous with insightful, witty, sometimes silly comments.

You make the blogging experience so much richer!

From bloggers everywhere, Thank You!

For Servetus

I was deeply saddened to hear about our dear friend Servetus.

She’s an incredible force in the Armitage World, but also an amazing supportive person and I’m sure that I’m not the only one who shed a tear when I heard of her Mother’s passing.

If you’d like to reach out to Servetus to show your support, please check out Angie’s post.

A Paypal account has been established to accept donations that will then be transferred to RA’s charities at JustGiving, under the moniker “Memoriam for a Mother.”

Let’s show Servetus that she’s in our thoughts as she goes through this difficult time.

For those who have never used Paypal before, it really is incredibly simple to create an account and safe to use.

It’s the gesture that counts, so please donate!

King Richard Vegas Competition Day 6

It’s Day 6 of the King Richard Vegas Competition, and it will also be the last day.

Unfortunately, due to technical and RL issues, I’ve had to cut the competition a day short, but I just wanted to say a huge thank you to all of you who have played along, retweeted, and supported it.

I’ve loved reading comments, you are just a highly amusing bunch 😉

Let’s just say I owe you a competition day and I won’t forget it!

I have drawn the name of the winner of Day 5’s competition.

Congratulations and I’ll be getting in touch shortly 🙂

The competition may be winding down, but here’s the last item up for grabs:

A John Thornton ring

The size is adjustable and will fit anyon

Here’s the thing:

The new Ben Rayner photos have cause quite a stir within our fandom, especially this one:

OK, so it’s not the most flattering look for Richard, but when taking into account that winter lasted 6 months here this year and there was still snow about in the second week of April, I think he looks snug and warm.

Is there room for improvement?

Sure, I think he should start shedding layer until I tell him to stop 😉

The question is:

What look/item of clothing/ fashion style would you absolutely loathe to see Richard in?

I CANNOT stand cowboy boots.

Hate them with a passion, especially on men.

Comments close tomorrow at 12 GMT when I will be announcing the last winner of this year’s Amitage Day competition!

Good Luck!

King Richard Week Vegas Competition Day 1

Happy Armitage Day!!!!

I’ll mostly be celebrating on Twitter and Tumblr with my Armitage peeps, so I hope you’ll come and join us.

Bring the confetti, balloons and valium for when things get rowdy, which they will because it is Armitage Day after all!

Welcome to King Richard Week Competition Vegas Style Day 1

This is the FIRST day of the competition, and there’s a chance to win an Armitage goodie every day for the next 7 days!

To read about the rules, please go HERE.

Up for grabs today is…

A John Thornton brooch

The image was taken from RANet and is an original hand-cut silhouette portrait by Kathryn Flocken, which I antiqued a tad to suit the brooch.

The pics are pants and I really should get some photography tips from Guylty 😉

Magzy gave it a two thumbs up (actually she said “It’s so pretty, why are you giving it away?”).

She just doesn’t understand Armitage Day!

Remember that to enter the competition, and get your beautifully manicured paws on this goodie, all you need to do is answer the following question in comments, keep your fingers crossed and hope Lady Luck is in your favour!

I will ship to the winner wherever he/she may be.

Here’s the thing.

We all know what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas!

You can go the Britney route and get hitched (and have the marriage annulled) in a matter of a few short hours.

You can go the Prince Harry route, strip naked and shoot some pool.

You can pull a Hangover and just black out.

The question for today is:

If Richard went to Vegas, what naughty tomfoolery would he get up to?

Please leave your suggestions in comments and be as creative as you can!

Day 1 of the competition closes tomorrow at 12 GMT, and I will proceed to draw a winner from all the entries (multiple comments are OK).

Good Luck!!!

Day 1 of the competition is done and comments are now closed!

Congrats, I’ll be getting in touch shortly!

A Community of Friends

Hello Dear Friends!

Thank You so very much for taking the time to do my survey.

The response was so overwhelming that it reached it’s limit in no time.

The finding are very interesting (Oh you twisted sisters, I’m in good company) and will no doubt inspire me to make the final chapter a good one.

I will also be contacting some of the fanfic writers I know in order to pick their brain, so it’s time to start phasing me out if I’m bugging you 😉

I’ve been reading a lot about online communities and about how we have switched from neighbourhood ones, where ties are stronger, but limited in their amount and to geographic locations.

They usually involve common interests between members who share the same background.

Online communities are characterised by weaker ties, but then we tend to connect with more people, location is irrelevant as long as you have an internet connection and access to information.

Another characteristic of online communities is the lack of obligation.

This mean that, say, if I certain Polish blogger feels she needs to step away for a while to deal with other matters, the community still thrives.

This also means that if you encounter someone who is not to your liking it’s easier to just step away than in a RL situation.

The aspect of common interests is fascinating.

Take our group as a perfect example.

You join our little RArmy because you find like-minded people with the same crush as you (hello Mr A, thought you’d gotten rid of me? No such luck).

I’m however venturing a guess that many stay because they have created ties to other member and feel a part of a network.

RA may be the glue that binds us (very very sexy sticky… firm… muscular glue…), but there’s a sense of belonging that develops over time that accounts for the feeling of community.

You make friends with people you would have never met otherwise and learn about new thing that wouldn’t be accessible to you (and you know how much I love to learn!).

Have you ever wondered what role you play in this little community of ours?

Ever wondered where the appeal lies?

And no, I haven’t gotten all serious in the time I’ve been away 😉

Regular foolery shall commence (as soon as I get my rusty admiration apparatus known as my brain working again, not to mention my already dubious PS skills).

Tomorrow I feel I shall have to tackle Thorin and that air guitar 😉

I will leave you with this charming animation of T.S. Eliot’s “The Love Song of Alfred Prufrock”.

I’ve fallen in love with this poem and I think it strikes a cord with those over thirty, especially when you’ve let go of your teenage dreams and start wondering if indeed you “dare to disturb the universe…”.