It's okay, I've done it before.

cassie_black12 will return.

Consider that a warning.

She's got a ma-hoosive Klaine!fic of massive to post and you people are too shiny and distracting. So she thought this would help.

Yeah, right...

EDT: See? Couldn't even go a couple of hours without us.

Seen the movie, bought the fitted tee-shirt (because my boobies look good in those).

( Did anyone else notice...? )
I asked the actor if it had a name, but he couldn't remember. I say we make one up.


AAAAANNNND, remember this icon?

I'm expecting great things from you guys.

How much did I squeal with joy when I got the thilia's prompt for hp_yule_balls? Tonnes! I absolutely loved writing for this wonderful lady!

Title: A Gentle Empire O'er Fraternal Souls
Rating: NC17
Pairings: James/Albus, AS/S
Summary: There’s always been a connection, but to whom?
Warnings: Incest
Word Count: ~3,700
Author's Notes: I was so pleased to get this prompt – thilia's Albus Severus is my Albus Severus, and it was her pictures of him that inspired me to write this. Thank you so much to my wonderful betas, cassie_black12 & delphipsmith and to the best emo cheerleaders, noeon and bryoneybrynn! The title is taken from the poem To My Brothers, by John Keates.

Additional: the Prologue and Epilogue are snippets of many conversations.


( Pottercest this way )

*waves* Hello! We're all back safe and sound, a lot poorer, but with better tans.

I've had the busiest four days of my life this week, and although you may have seen me comment on a few things, I've had little chance to get back into LJ with a vengeance. Luckily purdah makes work a little less hectic, but there's plently of other things going on outside of it that are taking up too much of my time.

So, quick drive-by post is quick:

HAPPY (late) BIRTHDAY to softly_sweetly, my lovely lass from up North. I hope you had a great day. I'm glad your present got to you on-time, even if this message didn't.

HAPPY (early) BIRTHDAY to alovelycupoftea, my lovely lass from the Midlands. You're getting a roast dinner for tea when you get here! I'll just test out this bottle of wine I got for us...

THANK YOU, my lovely flist, for the wonderful comments (and virtual gifts:) to keep my spirits up whilst trapped in America :) We actullay (mostly) had a great time, despite the inconveniences and expense, and we had some very interesting and awesome experiences.

THANK YOU so much, lotus_lizzy for the hugely generous lift from JFK to Newark. I can't wait to meet up again and we had a brilliant time with you at lunch! I'm sorry we missed each other, snarkyscorp, rickey_a, and nuclearsugars, but I'm sure we'll be back in CA again! And drippingcherry, I'm sorry I didn't have my phone and missed you at O'Hare. I usually fly through there when I visit home, so will shout the next time I'm back. *hugs*

A HUGE THANK YOU to faithwood for the wonderful new layout!!! (And the other one, too, which I'll be using in due course *wink*.) Oh, and cassie_black12 for uploading it for me while I was at swimming lessons with the kids this morning.

And finally, another HUGE THANK YOU to moonlitdark for her hp_art_tales submission: fantastic artwork that she created for Afterglow. It's absolutely amazing and I'm so grateful to her! Everyone, please go check it out! It's very different from what I was expecting and she has chosen some brilliant scenes. I ♥ you tons, lovey!

That's it for the moment, as I now need to clean the house in preparation of my birthday guest. I'll have a couple of photos and a bit more news in the next post.

So glad to be back!

I have to use my Frog Brothers girlish screaming icon for this post. I just have to...

No, Keifer Sutherland is not pressing me to drink a bottle of wine with him (more's the pity), BUT, seriously - something else just as amazing happened to me today:

Remember back in the day when I told you I had splurged and got myself this amazing work of art by the fabulous stellamoon? Well, before I got it, I dithered for days about maybe getting this one, too, because I love it so much. But I didn't. Swearing that I'd save my pennies, I would revisit Coming Home, perhaps for my birthday.

Well, a few days ago, while the other half of my brain (cassie_black12) and I were discussing yet another piece by stellamoon, I went over to have a look at Coming Home again and what did I see? It had been SOLD! HOW DARE THAT HAPPEN?!!!

And this evening I found it sitting on my dining table, beautifully wrapped in Christmas paper - a present from the world's best beta, the Blackadder of Lawrence High School, Mrs J-L Piccard herself, delphipsmith!

Thank you, thank you, most awesome of friends!

And thank you, stellamoon, most awesome of artists (and gift-wrapper:)

Happy Birthday, Noe!

I'm so sorry I didn't have the time to write you some wonderfully cracky Next Gen fic and I'm sorry I can't be there to give you a huge HSU birthday hug (and abuse)! But, as most of my flist already knows, I asked someone much more talented than I to make you a gift as beautiful, creative, gorgeous, and splendid as you are.

Thank you, Noe, for all of your support, humour, chat, and general knowledge/silliness. HP and HSU are lucky to have you! And I am all the better for knowing you. Now, tell that Doctor and Snake of yours to get the party started!!! *sets Tardis light to "disco mode"*

Huge thanks to pink_mint for taking Noe's vision and making it so real.

More wonderfulness to report!

The Bartender's Padawan over at Ho State University drew my name for the Seekrit Santa (which I'd forgot, which is just pathetic, seeing as I'm the one who assigns them!). She, with the help of my Georgian - he's dead, Jim - doctor got me an assortment of fun stuff!

The dynamic duo of snarkyscorp and _aurora_sky sent me the cutest and bestest Teddy bear and art! My phone takes shitty pictures (yes, blame the tools), so this doesn't do either gift justice. Both the bear and the boy have purple hair - squee! Thank you so much, ladies!

I got two beautiful cards: a homemade and personalised one from the talented eyesemerald and one with the cutest Christmas Antipodean animals from brissygirl. Thank you!!! And ladyoneill, I got a gorgeous card from you parents, too:)

ACK - almost forgot, the beautiful noeon sent me wonderful Chanukah stickers, as well as kid-themed stickers which are now fixtures in my house, on my furniture, and on my clothing:) Thank you, darling, and thank you for all of your wonderful help with embracing my inner emo.

cassie_black12 outdid herself and sent me a whole load of things I can't possibly live without! This includes chocolate (frogs, of course), an iTunes voucher, a bank shaped like The Stig's head - yes, can you believe it? - iced tea, and a snake plush toy (to wrap around my lion plush toy, of course).

I also got my One Day In the Life... book, which is not only easy on the eyes, it's also incredibly inspiring. Guh!

( New Year's Stuff )

I'll wrap this up by saying if you're thinking about attending, get over to hp_uk_meetup and vote in the latest poll!

Happy New Year to my flist! I've had an amazing first year back in the fandom. I thank you for the hawtness, the laughs, the tears and the ♥.

I am back from the wilds of a very snowy Scotland where I had the most stupendous time with my family and friends.

The best part (aside from watching my son open the remote-controlled scorpion he's been asking for all year) has to have been meeting up with the uber-wonderful moonlitdark, who not only suggested knocking over an old lady who was wearing the hat I wanted (such heroism), but also helped me pick out earrings for treacle_tartlet's very late Christmas present, gave me some good ideas for my hp_art_tales fic, and forced me to drink two pints of Best after stuffing myself at the Elephant House. I cannot WAIT to get back for the Meet-Up!

And today I had another fabulous lunch with my fun French friend, sybillevance and my family. We had a lovely stroll around the colleges and saw some beautiful buildings. I've lived here for over a year and still never get up to the colleges, so it's great to have a tour guide and a friend point out all of the stuff around me in such an historic setting.

How do I love my flist? Let me count the ways - thank you so much to the following awesome people:

MAJOR FLAILING must go to treacle_tartlet for what has to be one of the best things I've read this year, made all the more special as it was a gift for me! I'm talking about A Funny Thing Happened On The Train To School... It was melt-you-into-the-floor hawt and pressed all of my post-HBP buttons.

And keeping with my train theme (I have such a thing for trainsmut), the lovely emzlovesharry drew me a bit of Next Gen naughtiness!

My second partner in crime, alovelycupoftea surprised me with a cute and cuddly lion toy (where did she get that idea from???), which my daughter has co-opted and I haven't seen in a week.

cleo_jay, everyone's favourite spouse, sent me a load of wonderful things including a gorgeous red and silver belly-button ring! Thank you, muchly, light-of-my-life! (She's mine, too, y'all!)

My favourite little boy's bestest godmother, and my oldest friend in any galaxy, ladyoneill, sent a box of wonderfulness for my kids - hurray for SW toys!

Finally, thank you to me for getting myself a present in the shape of this gorgeous piece of H/Sc art you all know so well. It is, of course, Tackle, by the ridiculously talented stellamoon, and seen in several of the more high-brow places around LJ. But the original is now sitting right here on my desk!!! I've kept it mostly away from the puddles of drool which collect next to it on a regular basis.

If I've left anyone out, please feel free to shout at me. Royal Mail is still jealously holding on to a couple of things, I believe, and as soon as they arrive, I'll be squeeing all over you, I promise!

Hello all,

I'd like to start this post by saying thank you to my husband for taking the kids out to the local soft-play centre so I can spend some quality time here. (I'm sure there's a catch, but for now I'm just going to enjoy it.)

Now for some thank-yous:

I got some brilliant cards from enchanted_jae, katelinmr, bryoneybrynn, delorispea, and melusinahp! They're wonderful, girls. (I especially like the snake in the comic and the stickers of the boys.) Thank yous!

I got my rubbish SW Episode II & III DVDs and some yummy chocolate from kilter, who went beyond the call of duty and got me the chocolate with cherries in (again) despite hating it! Thank you!

The whole family is going nuts over the fantastic presents from softly_sweetly! (I had the Santa bath bomb co-opted for use by the kids! WTF?) Thank you!

I got a nghhh-wonderful DR calendar from the equally wonderful accioscar. Thank you! *looks up at it as I typedsldafsdkljfh*

I got fic, w0oT! My hd_holidays gift was posted: Taking the Easy Way Out. Thank you, Mystery Author!

I got art, w0oT! The artist who's chosen my fic for harrypotterbang sent me over what she's created for my submission and it's so effing good! She does photomanip "walls" using the actors' images with gorgeous backgrounds. And since my Big Bang entry is schoolsmut - colour you all so surprised, I'm sure - it's gonna work very, very well! Thank you!

I got to meet another wonderful fangirl, sibyllevance, who is by far and away one of the smartest people I've met. She not only knows everything about everything, but also HP in great detail. We had a wonderful time chatting (trying to watch HPB, but we just had too much to say!), having a yummy lunch and taking pictures of trees. And the most brilliant part? She doesn't live far away at all! I can't wait to meet up again and convert her from gen to slash! Thank you for the great day!

Finally, I'd like to say a HUGE thank you to alovelycupoftea, noeon, lotus_lizzy, silentauror and my wingman of mayhem cassie_black12 for their extendable ears (TM) and infinite patience. I'm still smiling!

Oh, I can't finish this without saying CONGRATULATIONS TEAM COLA!

Nom, nom, nom... Here I am, eating my way through these lovely snowflake cookies! Huge thanks to leo_draconis, cassie_black12, ohnvm, micolerose, faithwood, katelinmr, lotus_lizzy, jtsbbsps_dk, moonlitdark, sesheta_66, 3whiteroses, dysonrules, nolagal, okydoky, fireflavored, treacle_tartlet, delorispea, phoenixacid, lolafalola, brissygirl, stellamoon, pink_mint, alaana_fair, tray_la_la, tari_sue, nuclearsugars, loikifan and alovelycupoftea!

I'd also like to thank rage_it for the super-cute penguin and silentauror for the 2nd degree burns.

I absolutely adore virtual gifts, so these were (almost) all a wonderful treat!

I'm sorry I was so Scrooge-like in my gift-giving yesterday, but karma felt I hadn't done enough stupid things in one week and decided I should break my big toe whilst kicking a door open wearing fuzzy purple slippers (sadly, NOT the steel-toed ones) and shouting at my husband.

Honestly, the argument was an important one...it was all about...er...well, whatever it started with, it quickly detoured off into the familiar waters of ALL of those things we ALWAYS dredge up whenever we argue, know what I mean? Yes, I can almost see the nodding heads out there.

As a result, by the time I'd sat down at the computer, my toe strapped up in Christmas ribbon (I'd run out of Micropore), with a bag of frozen peas precariously balanced on it (my icebag sprung a leak, and Mr Bump wasn't cold enough from the fridge), I wasn't feeling very full of the Christmas spirit.

But if fanfic teaches us nohing else, it teaches us about the merits of amazing make-up sex. (Although usually sans a broken toe, which is something I will not ever be taking for granted again.)

Finally, I'd like to say thank you for all of the wonderful fic, art, recipes and laughs which have been popping up on my computer whenever I turn it on. I love my flist. Thank you all. I'm off to the doc now...