Armitage Weekly Round-Up Week 9

I hope spring is slowly heading your way and that’s put a spring in your step 🙂

This is week 9 of the round-up and, as always, you can get the best that Tumblr has to offer over at Guylty’s.

Here’s a round-up of posts that have caught my eye this week.

The list is by no means exhaustive so feel free to leave links in comments.

This week has been abundant in RA news bits and bobs, so when you click on the posts I have linked to, make sure you check out other ones too.

The spReAd the love Children’s Book Challenge is in full swing.

I promised myself I will read all the books that meant so much to my fellow Armitage Admirers when they were children.

Talking about contributing, don’t forget to vote for Richard at the Jameson Empire Awards.

He’s nominated for the best supporting actor, so get voting, especially seeing that he’s up against some tough competition.

I’m not sure about repeat voting at Empire, but it’s worth giving it a try 😉

It’s also worth keeping an eye on The Anglophile Channel as they, and more importantly Richard, are teasing us shamelessly.

Here are some lovely pics of Richard from the day and I for one want to know what was in the glass Richard was sipping on, I think it’s good ol’ vodka

The full interview shall apparently be out at the weekend so I’ll link when it pops up.

Talking about Armitage (and when are we not?), remember when we were keeping our fingers crossed for Richard to play Ross Poldark in the latest adaptation?

Well, it seems my second favorite choice meaning Aidan Turner landed the part *does happy dance*

Don’t worry, Richard is involved in a new project and although there are no cravats involved, I am nevertheless thrilled.

RA/The Hobbit/OT posts

This week many bloggers shared their top ten pictures of Richard:

SueB, Servetus, Guylty, Siriuslygrednforge and reader’s favorites.

Perry would have my… well, certain fleshy body parts for earrings if I didn’t link to this 😉

Benny in a leotard gets me every time

Obscura serves up some Antique John S

Happy Blogiversary Servetus and LadyOakenshield

I do like a guy with a double triple quadruple chin

Mulubinba continues to get emails from Dibley

A “Richard climbing a ladder” picture I hadn’t seen before which can certainly evoke Romeo/balcony fantasies

Phylly on APM

Have you ever wondered about Bilbo’s bathrobe?

On loving North and South (and don’t we all find a tiny piece of ourselves there?)

Minion/dwarf crossover? Too adorable!

Remember to check out the Tumblr round-up from Guylty and I’ll see you next week.

Being on pins and needles about The Hobbit

Hello my lovelies,

I’ve been MIA for the past few days but I have a good excuse.

As some of you know, I’m partial to the odd craft project, but I think I’ve found one that has been consuming most of my free time (not to mention relaxing me into oblivion…).

Yes, I seemed to have slipped into middle-age and am passionate about cross-stitching, so don’t you dare judge me!

For those who don’t know what the heck that is, I suggest you check out this tutorial that generally talks you through this easy, not to mention inexpensive, hobby.

Seriously, it’s the most fun I’ve had in ages, with or with out my clothes off and I’d prefer you think I was joking because the alternative is a bit disturbing…

It all started so innocently when I decided to cross-stitch some images I could then glue into a ring of brooch.

Then I moved on to larger designs and now I’m consumed by it.

Imagine me with my thread and canvas, with an Armitage audiobook playing in the background.

Sheer bliss 🙂

Anyway, you may wonder why I am boring you more than usual and this is the reason:

The Hobbit cross-stitch patterns!

It’s An Unexpected Hobby, the Desolation of Free Time, going There and Back agin with your needle and thread!

Check out this amazing pattern:

I’ve been honing my skills in the past few days in order to try my hand and this snazzy design.

XStitchMyHeart is selling this amazing pattern of Etsy and I want it my precious!

If that’s not your tumbler of mead, how about this Hobbit design:

Adorable, no?

Both cost around 3GBP and I don’t know which one I want, so I’m afraid I shall end up trying both… oh, just noticed the seller has a sale on- 3 designs for 6GBP 😉

If you don’t want to spend a penny on patterns, the internet is a wonderful resource for cross-switchers and  this Hobbit house stitch pattern is no exception:

It doesn’t come with a colour legend, but then I think that’s what makes this project fun, although the amount of shades is specifies.

And for something a bit more challenging, how about a 28 different DMC color pattern:

I’m not ready to slay this particular dragon, I’ll let it sleep deep in my hobby layer…

As I relax with my thread and Richard’s soothing voice, I hope you have a wonderful day too!

It’s Thorin’s everywhere!

Please be warned that there’s an abundance of very pretty stuff coming up, so if you’re only planning on window-shopping, please put paypal/credit card details out of reach…

This morning as I was preparing for work I felt an overwhelming need for Thorin to accompany me.

Some of you may remember that I had been fiddling about with some images of our majestic dwarf for the premiere of The Hobbit: AUJ and I ended up creating a Thorin/My Little Pony image (still not sure what prompted me…).

The T-shirt design has faded from washing, but it was still a very good Friday T-shirt option.

It got me thinking about how hand-made (with love) Thorin goodies fill in the gap in the dwarf merchandise that some of us are feeling.

Here are some objects that give me a serious case of grabby hands:

 I absolutely love this  Thorin Owlshield (OK, I did my best to come up with a funny name, but that’s all I’ve got…).

Anyway, this Thorin bookmark is a hoot!

If what you’d like Thorin to do is take an unexpected journey to your bed, then here’s your chance with adorable The Hobbit pillow plushies.

What I want to know is can the Thorin pillow plushy arms wrap all the way around someone… err.. I’m asking for a friend…

Talking of Thorin plushies, how beautiful is this hand-made felt version?

I always thought that his thunder brows were his most prominent feature, but there’s no mistaking this little guy.

Good news if he ever gets drunk, passes out and the company end up shaving his brows off as a joke…

Where there’s a dwarf, there’s always an excuse to party and check out The Hobbit Cake Kit (yup, that’s a thing!).

It includes 3 Hobbit figurines, luckily Thorin is one of them,  and a pop-up background.

If I had my choice of characters, apart from Oakey, I’d go for sassy Thranduil and Smaug, just to heat things up. Mmmm red velvet cake…

I hope the “pop-up” background makes the cake look like this:

How amazing is this! Meemawolf, my BDay’s in November 😉

meemawof10. #sthash.I0eXshIm.dpuf

Ain’t no party like a Tolkien party!

If you want something special (and support one of our own!) I suggest you check out Gisborne’s Boy/Sebababy’s artwork available at Red Bubble.

You can order his images on a variety of items, like T-shirts, phone cases and stickers.

And if your Armitage love isn’t limited to Thorin, how about getting greedy and ordering a Team Everyone design.

There’s also a mountain-high amount of adorable Hobbit/Thorin/Tolkien designs to check out at Red Bubble under the “Everything Thorin” tag.

Have you come across some delicious hand-made design?

If so, leave links in comments so we can all sit around and drool, then go rob a bank.

I will see you tomorrow for the weekly round-up!

Thorin is getting a bit frisky for Valentine’s Week

I’m (unfortunately for you…) sticking with the theme of Valentine’s Week.

Here are some pick-up lines that you may want to use if you’re on the pull at a Hobbit convention (at your own risk).

It’s at moments like this, when I spend my free time making Tolkien mythology sound dirty that I question my choices in life…

And last but not least…

I bet you could do MUCH better, so hit me with your most painful Thorin pick-up lines 😉

Now the dust has settled, something to ponder on a Sunday…

I have a very serious question to ask, one that’s been bothering me for some time:

Who does the dusting in Middle Earth?

OK, there may be more pressing hygiene issues like the evident lack of plumbing, although there was one thing I was happy to see:

Let me zoom in for you:

Well, at least there’s that…

But seriously, if no one did the cleaning Beorn would live in a pig sty…

OK, bad example seeing that animals actually do live there and I presume a healthy spraying of Febreze is in order.

I wonder if Beorn’s shape-shifting abilities extend to rubber gloves and a bottle of bleach.

Coincidence? Maybe not…

Don’t even get me started on Mirkwood and that Moose Throne.

I just struggle to imagine Legolas going around with a feather duster and giving the chambers a once over.

And when he does his chores, does he get distracted by the cool things he finds:

Look, here are those dwarves I forgot we locked up a few days ago, I wondered where those had got to…

What I think  more probable is that Thraduil flaps his snazzy cape around every so often and that the dusting sorted for a few days.

Once the cape is worn out he probably thinks: another one bites the dust…

Erebor? Dustabor more like!

How do they reach the cobwebs with those high ceiling halls?

Seriously, how do you go around giving the ol’ chamber filled with gold a light dusting?

I bet Smaug would be the best at keeping the place clean- he’s good at housekeeping… and goldkeeping…

I wouldn’t be surprised if I saw Thorin with a broom- I know he swept me off my feet…

stop looking at me like that, you knew that one way coming so don’t kick up dust…

Even Hobbiton is a cleaning mystery to me.

Bilbo’s hole in the ground seems up-kept, but who does the vacuuming?

Does he have a nice Took lady come in twice a week to tidy up (although I bet she doesn’t do windows…)?

This is one issue to ponder and I can only regret that Tolkien never brought it up.

Maybe now we shall never know…

Armitage Weekly Round-Up Week 6

Welcome to week 6 of the Armitage Weekly Round-Up.

As always the list is by no means exhaustive so please leave links in comments to posts you found interesting and I did not include.

Arkenstone proves that the pen is mightier than the sword (sorry Guy) and has compiled the hottest fanfiction offerings of the week.

Guylty put aside Valentine’s issues long enough to compile a list of what Tumblr so lovingly provided.

It might not have been the best week for many of us (please remember that there are people you can talk to), but thanks to a good Armitage cheer even the most gloomy of days become brighter.

Case in point, Guylty is going full (luv) steam ahead with the RAworld Secret Valentine!

I’m super excited about it, especially that I can’t remember blogs ever collectively celebrating Valentine’s Day and yet we spend the rest of the year sharing our Armitage luvvv!

If you haven’t signed up but have had a change of heart and would like to participate, I’m sure Guylty wouldn’t turn you away, so come join us!

Talking about a little love:

Time Square? More like Smooch Square!

And on the topic feelings, we are still spReAding the love!

RA/Hobbit/OT posts:

Fedoralady relies on an old friend to keep her warm

Talking on Gizzy, he can give a jumper a beating, right?

Sometimes a gal just has to take a step back (but hopefully will come back soon)

Not sure about Captain America without the dashing geeky Heinz Kruger…

Guy of Gisborne counts down the days

Swooning Maruca on being a bunch short of a fruit basket for your online crush

Moody Thorin has finally reached his final destination and is guarding a very special place of fangirl worship

Not good when it says strapping and you accidentally read it as strap-on…

And the award to the thief of my heart goes to…. Oh, and the Anglophile thingy too…

Kelbel75 is still on her Alphabet Movie challenge and she visits the Dales and uncovers some hidden treasures

Thank You for traveling with Armitage Airways!

I’m tempted to pack my bags and go live in a hole

Dream a little dream of Richard (and what could be better…)

OT: KatherineD recs the best Aussie show TV has to offer

I can’t help hearting that sassy elf!

Welcome to the world of blogging, Girl who stumbled over Richard!

I guess that’s a no to Armitage, Richard Armitage!

Malice Aforethought dodgy mustache coming right up…

…with a side-dish of Richard booty!

OMG Obscura, that just gave me feels…

OT: Nothing wrong with a bit of Tom on the side!

For those who know “period drama” doesn’t refer to PMS!

Golden Oldies:

This post on (alleged) clothes swapping between Thraduil Lee and Thorin Richard reminded me how much I love to read posts about celebs and their fashion choices.

One of the most interesting blogs that specializes in nitpicking Richard’s attire is Jonia’s RA Vogue and Style!

(photos open OK in explorer but not in firefox for some reason…)

Jonia digs deep and takes one for the team to stare at Armitage pictures and try to determine what clothes he’s wearing.

I hope there’s plenty more to come, so continue digging Jonia 🙂

I hope you enjoyed week 6 and I’ll see you next week for another round-up!

Armitage Weekly Round-Up Week 5

Welcome to another week of RA/Hobbit/OT post round-up.

This list is by no means exhaustive, so please add any links in comments I may have accidentally omitted.

Once again it’s quite long (the list, not Richard’s…. oh, never mind…), but I’ve tried to include posts from RA blogs for those who don’t do the rounds daily, as well as a few surprises for those who keep their finger on the Armitage pulse.

As always, you can find the Tumblr Round-Up for week 5 lovingly brought to you by Guylty.

Arkenstone has taken care of the Fanfiction Weekly Round-Up, so you’ll have plenty to do to combat the cold.

Thornton Thursday started off with a bang with a guest post by author Trudy Brasure.

She continued her North and South musings on Friday and I hope you did better than me at the N&S quiz…

Trudy’s new book In Consequence is up for grabs, so make sure you leave comments on either posts for the chance to get your hands on this yummy N&S retelling (giveaway ends on Thursday).

Talking of wonderful ideas, Guylty, Ms *Ooof* herself, was brainstorming how we should celebrate Valentine’s Day Armitage Style, and the people have spoken, so make sure you sign up!

Valentine’s Day is the day of luuuuuuv, so have you spReAd any Armitage love recently?

And spReAd it some more!

There’s been quite an uproar in the BBC Sherlock fandom of late and has sent ripples throughout other fandoms.

(link removed by request of blogger) and here’s another post on the topic.

EDIT: Just in case this requires clarification, any comments that I write below are not in any way, shape or form a comment on the posts I have linked to above, but rather very loose thoughts on Abbington’s comments made on the issue of Johnlock and fan art.

I may actually grow a pair in the next few days and write about how, although Abbington has a right to her opinion, I have to disagree with what was said and how it was phrased (and luckily I get to have an opinion too).

In a nutshell this is why I can’t stand by and witness people policing others with regards to their preferences and likes, be it slash fiction, RPF or anything else.

Shades of grey...

RA/Hobbit/OT posts

Mary Mary, quite contrary, what does Richard feel like?

Perry is out with the old and onto the new

OT: Any advice for a fellow Tolkien fan and budding writer?

KatherineD crushes my Poldark dreams with logic (crushes I tell you!)

Whatever happened to the original Poldark?

Harry Kennedy has been in touch and has all the gossip from Dibley

I guess the folks at Wallsauce didn’t want to leave Thorin hanging…

This is one way to stay warm! Now get over here Richard, my furnace with thunder thighs!

Bilbo’s Door is going along nicely, thank you very much!

Armitage and the cutting room floor. I hope someone sweeps this stuff up and delights us.

Sweet Armitage dream or  beautiful nightmare?

This Smaug the dragon certainly shouldn’t be breathing fire!

Zan serves up some Armitage profile (for breakfast or dinner, depending where you are, it’s yummy nonetheless)

There will never come a day when I won’t link to an Armitage bum post! You have my personal guarantee 😉

Musings on The Sassy Elf King and his messed up face

Would you like to live in a hole in the ground?

The Swiss chalet jumper just doesn’t want to go away!

Very cute Hobbit avatars, slightly reminiscent of Anime Thorin, me thinks…

MarieAstra asks what the norm for fans is

On Grumpy Armitage. I agree, it’s attractive. Why?

OT: Joining a fandom (a story told in gifs)- disturbingly accurate!

Let’s hope Pinter/Proust wasn’t Richard’s Stage Swann song

Weta Workshop’s The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug Chronicles-Art & Design looks very interesting

I hope you enjoyed this round-up!

Don’t forget to check out Arkenstone’s Fanfiction round-up and  Guylty’s Tumblr round-up.

Thorin is spreading and I can’t make him stop (where are Orcs when you need them!!!)

I don’t know about you, but I always enjoy posts which feature pics of bloggers in their natural habitat and am often confused that they actually exist in RL in oppose to being conveniently placed right inside my laptop.

Today I will be posting tiny peeks into Chez AgzyM, dust bunnies, vinyl wallpapers and all 😉

There’s a room in my flat which has  a set of shelves on the left hand side as you enter.

Even before I move in, I started collecting fancy little shoe figurines and added the Andy Warhol Shoe book of illustration to the mix.

It was a cute feature, but it was time for a change…

You see, I’ve been fiddling about and in the meantime my Erebor has been slowly taken over!

 Thorin had been creeping into my flat (I have a sneaking suspicion he found my secret dwarf door and just used his key…and I don’t mean that in a dirty way…).

It started with London Thorin, a gift from my BFF while we were in London in 2012 to see The Hobbit AUJ.

Then this Christmas I added Anime Thorin to the collection (thanks not-so-secret- Santa!).

Then a beautiful Thorin stamp rounded things up (I’ll be changing the stamp background today, I think I can do a bit better and it certainly deserves it…).

OK, three is hardly a company of dwarves, so Lego Thorin was added to strengthen the group.

When you’ve already let decency go, it’s easy to go from four to five, so that’s how I ended up with Heroclix Thorin.

If we add my own Stockingface Thorin who remains blind, so he won’t be battling dragons any time soon…

….that makes SIX Thorins in one woman’s flat!

Slightly excessive, no?

I gathered my company of dwarves on my bookshelves, but the written word started to fight back, so I’ve succumbed and gave the shoes the boot…

One bookshelf is hardly excessive, but then, if I’m honest, that’s not the only place where RA pops up.

There’s an Action Figure Gizzy on the way (and I’m still not ready to talk about that particular impulse buy…).

Gizzy will come stomping his feet, clad in squeaking leather, wielding his sword, and will find the lodgings somewhat cramped…

There’s my Pop Art Richard Pic that’s standing right by my front door (and contrasts the authentic 20s telephone pretty nicely, right?):

Then there’s the kitchen.

I really liked the beautiful card from Guylty and thought it’s go well with my 60s Polish Ćmielów figurines that are right above my cooker:

I dare not think who else will set up camp in Chez AgzyM (although I’m certain it won’t be Weta Thorin, at least till I win the lottery…).

Other RA items are put away, for now, although last night I dreamed up a board where I could display all the beautiful cards I’ve received from my Armitage Admirer friends.

I’ll keep you posted…

Oh, and Sir PJ, as you vacation in luxurious exotic locations and I freeze my bollocks off, you’re very welcome 😉

Update:

I think Stamp Thorin looks much better… onto the shelf it goes!

I saw Something Fine: Crafty Thorin Stockingface

Today marks the start of the RA Flash Fan Event that will run starting Monday 13th of January and last a week.

You can find the list of all the posts from this event here.

The theme is I Saw Something Fine which we can interpret whichever way we like.

I had already scheduled this post and teased Guylty that I have a little surprise for her today, so let’s pretend I heard “I Saw Something Fine” and the following project sprung to mind 😉

Let’s be honest, Thorin has inspired many others to create very beautiful (or very dodgy) stuff, and he sure is fiiiine, so I say it fits!

I’d been meaning to create a lil’ Thorin for some time, one that would complement the ever growing Thorin Book guards that see my off as I head out to work each day.

I had already gathered up all the necessary elements (yarn, felt and such) in autumn, but RL didn’t lend itself to arts and crafts.

With absolutely no plan in place and a very vague memory of doing cute little stocking faces when I was a child, I ventured into my very own Craft Mirkwood.

The process would have been much easier had I been able to locate my hot glue gun (last seen some time in 2011, a reward for any info regarding whereabouts…), so I ended up having to hand-stitch an awful lot.

And you need to know that I don’t sew. Nope, never ever…

Anyway, this was intended as a fridge magnet but I couldn’t get the darn magnet to stick to the back, so I quickly changed my non-existent plan and attached a hoop made of yarn so Thorin can be well hung… *cough*… moving swiftly along…

Thorin Stockingface is in the company of gifts from friends 🙂

This Thorin is actually going to be shipped off to a certain portable shrine in Ireland (because, let’s be honest, EVERY shrine needs a slightly dodgy hand-made puppet head of an angry dwarf to brighten up the place).

Anyway, I started on a second one for myself and I was aiming for a more angry eyebrow Thorin, but I think I stuffed him a tad too much, so we’ll see how this one turns out.

I’m already asking a very dangerous question:

Hey, can I make a full-sized one, thunder thighs and all…

I’ll keep you posted.

 

Thorin and Thranduil, The Sassy Kings of Middle Earth (and their hair is pretty too!)

This post contains recommendations of fanfiction that are of a mature nature and may contain explicit slash writing.

There’s shipping, OTPing, slashing and so forth, so be warned, if that’s not your cup of tea, that’s fine by me, I note your objections 😉

As always with regards to comments, keep it clean, don’t be mean!

Ever since I watched The Hobbit: Desolation of Smaug I’m fascinated with Thranduil, played by Lee Pace.

The Elven King is the perfect and most worthy adversary for Thorin, the King under the mountain.

I love the scene when Oakenshield and his company are captured and he stands at the foot of a freaky moose-horn throne (they sell those in IKEA BTW, if you’re interested), and Thranduil is giving the pint-sized dwarf a nice pat on the head and trying to strike a bargain to get his hands in the crowned jewels he had long desired  (and when I say the crowned jewels I’m being literal, for smut scroll down) .

By the way, I found the object of Thranduil’s fascination a tad confusing: are they shiny like stars or made out of stars, what’s that all about?

Looked like costume jewellery to me…

Anyway, the scene was electric and the sass was flying left and right.

 All that’s missing is RuPaul sitting there shouting “Reading is Elementary*” while the two whip their hair back and forth throwing shade*…

* I realised that maybe not all of you have seen RuPaul’s Drag Race and aren’t familiar with drag queen terminology so here it goes:

to read someone means to point out someone’s negative traits, usually in a form of a funny one-liner.

throwing shade is a derivative from reading and means to point out someone’s flaws.

Back to sass and shade, I have to ask:

Anyway, I’m not the only one that’s digging these two (although I may be the only one who insists on waving my hand and snapping my fingers going: Oh no he di int! every time their scene comes up… at least I hope I’m the only one…).

Here are some fanfiction goodies I’ve come up with to quench a Thorin/Thranduil thirst, scratch that Thorinduil/Thradrin itch (does this ship have a name? it should because it’s already sailed…).

In The Mirkwood’s Dungeons – Thorin x Thranduil at Silvery Night (non-NS)

When Thorin is captured by elves guards, Thranduil discovers that he is irresistibly drawn to this arrogant and proud king. However, the king of the elves are not used to not getting what he wants, so he try to seduce Thorin without thinking of the consequences it may bring him.

The Last Alone by pherede

For good Hobbit slash/mature writing check out pherede’s other fics.

Thorin is victorious, and the terms of Mirkwood’s surrender are unbearable. There might be, however, another way. And Thranduil is not above sacrificing for the good of his people.

The Healing ~ Thorinduil Fanfic by |è†hål ð³§ir³s

Thorin stood in awe, forgetting to breathe, as he admired the divine being that approached Thror’s throne. The ElvenKing had come to pay respect to his grandfather. Never had he laid eyes on beauty so surreal…

Power Play by Destielixer

Thorin doesn’t really know how it turned out like this, him on his knees kneeling before Thrandiul on the throne…

Mortal Offence by Ludovica

When the King under the Mountain, frustrated by the Elvenking’s demands, insults him and his kin with equally insolent demands of his own, it becomes apparent that Dwarven culture and Elven culture are far more different than he thought…

Turmoil by malum_animi

While imprisoned in Mirkwood, Thorin and Company get caught up in a rebellion to overthrow Thranduil and kill his young son Legolas. When Thranduil is seriously injured protecting Legolas, Thorin realizes that his pride and hatred will lead nowhere but pain and suffering.

Honored Guest by pherede

Thranduil will do anything to protect his own. Even submit to Thorin’s punishment for his misdeeds.

I hope you enjoyed the recs and happy Thorinduiling 🙂