Today's post brought to you by the need to throw SOMETHING on this journal no matter how silly...

[red_satin_doll]

And also, to remind everyone to vote in the otherworldlyric icon challenge contest #162.
ETA: dragonydreams just let me know that voting is closed and winners have been announced. Congratulations to winners spikesredqueen and chic_c !
(While I'm here I might as well send more kudos to wickedbish for being such an awesome icon beta.)



Now go get some sleep - tomorrow's a long day, sweetie.

Comments

[dragonydreams.livejournal.com]

FYI - Voting is closed and winners have been announced, but thanks for pimping.

[red-satin-doll.livejournal.com]

They have? Very cool! I didn't see it on the site a couple of moments ago, I'll head there now thanks for the update.

[velvetwhip.livejournal.com]

I voted in that challenge. Now that it's over, which ones were yours?


Gabrielle

[red-satin-doll.livejournal.com]

4, 11 and 12

(ETA: I'll post the entire "collection" of icons I made for this sometime this week)

I did vote today myself and at least one of my picks - #1 - was a winner.

[velvetwhip.livejournal.com]

Can't wait to see them! You made super icons!


Gabrielle

[red-satin-doll.livejournal.com]

Thanks hon! *works on it*

[kikimay]

I voted you without knowing and I voted one of the winner. Lovely icons, very funny. XD

[red-satin-doll.livejournal.com]

Well clearly you have very good taste and an excellent eye! *LOL*

By "funny" I assume you mean the picture in this post and not the icons in the challenge? Because if they came across as funny, maybe I did something wrong.

[kikimay]

The icons of the challenge are also funny. I mean, there are some funny icons, like the funny Willow icon or the Spike one (There are also not-funny icons like the one with Angelus and the Buffy VS EvilWillow one) But, I have to be honest, the Nikki one kinda makes me giggle. It's inappropriate, I know, but the phrase about the king sounds funny to me. I'm the worst!

[red-satin-doll.livejournal.com]

I started with a bunch of S6 icons then made the one of Buffy in PG, then Nikki (I also made some of Xin Rong); making those was the first time I've done an icon/visual art project in a fandom that almost made me cry.

I was thinking about how cold and lonely, how terrifying, Buffy's death in PG is - but Nikki's and Xin Rong's are no less so, and by extension the thousands of girls we never see, girls who have been drafted into a war they never sought, who know they die young, but fight anyway.

It's upsetting and it should be. If I'm able to cry over Buffy's death but ignore Nikki or Xin Rong's, then there is something very wrong with that.

The phrase "who died and made you king" has a several layers of meaning in that context: a girl dies so that a vampire earns bragging rights, a feather in their cap; one girl dies and another one, a stranger, will be called. A girl dies, alone and unknown, in a fruitless struggle to keep the rest of us safe while we sleep in innocently in our beds.

I almost used the words "Who died?" by itself.

[wickedbish.livejournal.com]

Your icons are gorgeous, hon. I will seriously give you feedback any time you need feedback!

[red-satin-doll.livejournal.com]

And I will TOTES take you up on that offer, trust.

(BTW - does Buffy actually say "totes" for "totally" in canon?)

[wickedbish.livejournal.com]

I . . . don't think so?

[red-satin-doll.livejournal.com]

That's kind of my feeling too - that it doesn't feel quite right but I'm not 100% certain one way or the other.

[wickedbish.livejournal.com]

Google is being distinctly unhelpful, but it seems to me that "totes" didn't start to be a thing that people said until at least three or four years after "Chosen" aired, so.

[red-satin-doll.livejournal.com]

Just for fun I tried looking up the origin online - hah - and I found something I'd never heard of before: "totes mcgoats"
The only appropriate response for when someone asks you to do something ridiculously cool.
Jezabeth: "Want to start a sea monkey farm?"
Tobias: "TOTES MCGOATS!"

Finbar: "Want to have role play sex? You can be Hermione and I'll be Ron."
Sarah: "TOTES MCGOATS BROSKIE!"

http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=totes%20mcgoats

I don't know where the heck that comes from either. But it's funny

[comlodge.livejournal.com]

That's my look!

[red-satin-doll.livejournal.com]

We can all identify, can't we?

Actually, this is all your fault (so says I) - ever since I saw your beautiful Buffy & Joyce banner using that shot from Chosen, I've gone back to Touched - Chosen and have been having way too much fun making icons of from those eps.

[comlodge.livejournal.com]

Lol. Then my work here is um working. :D

Are you going to post your icons so that we can marvel at them? My fave is no 12 but I do like the winners.

[red-satin-doll.livejournal.com]

#12 is one of my favorite icons I've ever made - and it was one of the simplest. Those are often my favorites, the ones that "make themselves" hardly any "special effects, just a little tinting and brightening, then the frame. It's the two fonts that are the 'special effect' to serve the mood and expression, and somehow it came together beautifully in that one.

I honestly don't remember which ones I voted for personally except #1 (me and my old brain...) - young Willow and Buffy at the Espresso Pump, how cute is that?

And yes, I will definitely trot out the entire set.

I hope you don't find them tiresome - I tend to do several icons using a single ideal, image or text; sometimes I just like them all equally and can't decide! (That's why I need Ryan to hold my hand, which he did brilliantly.)

[comlodge.livejournal.com]

Oh did you make no 12? Sorry I did not read that. Well if I'd voted I'd have used it first or second - I do love the winner. I'm always amazed to see such a sweet, full image be so very clear in such a tiny space.

I hear you about the repetitive theme. I often can't decide on a finish when I'm playing and sometimes just post the lot and let people decide which they like best eg when I was playing with wings on Spike, lol. And of course people pick different ones as their fave. It's why comps are so very hard. I still faithfully vote in BTVS Hush and Slayerstillness even though I seldom enter any icons and I hardly ever agree with the results. :D

[red-satin-doll.livejournal.com]

I'm always amazed to see such a sweet, full image be so very clear in such a tiny space.

*nods* that always amazes me. I think I've made a handful that came out well in that regard but that's pretty rare. I've still got a lot to learn about downsizing images. I think your icon is marvelously pretty and sharp even in it's "shrunken form" on my template.

I often can't decide on a finish when I'm playing and sometimes just post the lot and let people decide which they like best eg

Do you? That gives me a bit of courage to go ahead and do the same, because when I see people post their icons I've never seen that sort of repetition. (I made perhaps 10 icons from the same image from Showtime for example, or dozens from a single image of Satine in MR back in the day and I love them all.)

and I hardly ever agree with the results. :D

I have no idea what you're talking about *cough* The last round of Slaystillness that I saw had a gorgeous batch of winners, that was one of the prettiest sets I've ever seen, including the Dawn icon I'm using *points to*

[snogged.livejournal.com]

Congrats to the winners.

Love the Buffy image. Sleep is definitely something I need more of this week.

[red-satin-doll.livejournal.com]

Sleep is definitely something I need more of this week.

I've been doing pretty good but my sweetie is with you on that one! Anything in particular getting in the way of your sleep?

And thanks I'm glad you like the image! I saved it in large size before making it into an icon - I've noticed a tendency lately to want to put too much text in an image than an icon can really handle.

[snogged.livejournal.com]

Mostly it's just been play practices keeping me out past my bed time. But there are occasionally things that cause worry or give me thinky thoughts.