shopping

Sleepiness and Suits

Tim MaidmentLeave a comment

I’ve taken some more time off work this week as a couple of celebrations bookend it and frankly I could do with a rest. So yesterday I herded both Lady M and boy s into the car to wander into Kingston – as you do. This was partly just to get out of the house and distract them as they were having low days – but also to do some clothes shopping.

Lady M doesn’t often spend money on herself, so putting her in the vicinity of clothing shops can sometimes take a bit of a run up. At the same time, we have an event at the end of March to go to, and it occurred to me that one of the rites of passage that boy s has never had until now was that of getting measured for his first suit.

I had threatened to take him to the tailors that I got my wedding suit made at, but a more low-key approach felt kinder. Both Lady M and boy s can get overwhelmed with lots of people around, so I was mindful to suggest going to Marks and Spencer, knowing their men’s section tends to be a bit quieter. We ambled around and looked at some styles and colours of things for him to take to the changing rooms – and then while he was trying a few things on, I had a chat with the attendant.

I explained that he had never had a fitting or indeed a suit, and so I thought actually knowing his measurements would help immensely. Indeed, it would not only inform getting formal clothing but would also be something to bear in mind when buying clothing from here on out. It would take the guesswork out of things as he got used to creating his own wardrobe.

Like me, boy s is not exactly the smallest person in the room, so there was a fair chance there wouldn’t be anything in store that would quite fit – but that’s only because they keep a limited size range in the actual store. The full ranges are available online – and so this was very much in mind.

So, having done that, and with Lady M’s eye firmly on items for herself too we retired to our new favourite coffee shop where I introduced boy s to what he has described as the best hot chocolate he has ever had.

And with that, collective spoons were depleted, so we went to retrieve the cub from school – and we all seem to have spent most of today cat napping…

Its obviously needed

Tshirt Things

Tim MaidmentLeave a comment

I spent some time this weekend putting a couple of reworked designs on the Amazon site, and starting to work through translation settings for non-English versions.

As there’s over six hundred clothing variants across a number of languages that are in turn spread over the nearly eighty designs I’ve current got up, I’m doing them in small batches. Some of the more niche D&D related ones will probably end up getting rotated out in time but for now they’re good for practice so they’ll stay up.

The two newest designs are called Ignition and Hungry Love and I hope its not just me who likes them. They are available on both UK and US sites at present, under the Ludd Clothing brand, and I’ll work on French, German, Italian, and Japanese versions soon.

More Markets

Tim MaidmentLeave a comment

I’m pretty sure I mentioned a while back that I’d been notified that Amazon were about to start widening my access to various markets with a program of translation into various languages in an automated process.

Well, that process is now underway, and my Ludd Clothing items are now available in not only the UK and US versions of Amazon but also the French, German, and Japanese markets as well. Looking at my visitor statistics I can see regular visitors from each of those areas, so if you’re interested please take a look and I’ll endeavour to put direct links up for each of the .de .fr .jp and .com versions in addition to the .co.uk version above.

So, that’s a thing that’s happening.

South Coast Sauntering

Tim MaidmentLeave a comment

Its been a good day today, albeit one with a lot of driving. myr s invited me down for breakfast, and this coincided with Lady B having arranged to pick up a vanity table from a friend, so we thought we’d make a day out of it, kidnap Lady J too, and bustle over to Eastleigh for the morning.

My sat available decided that with all the local roadworks on the motorways that it would try and ratrun us cross country, so we had an enjoyable bought of trying to work out where it was trying to take us and then willfully ignoring it based on my passengers’ local knowledge.

If nothing else it made for cheery conversations as people recalled past jobs, workplaces, or relatives in places we passed. We duly picked up the vanity table, tetris’d it into the car with only one seat needing displacement, and went on search of food before myr s could turn into the hangry hulk.

The last time I was there was for Pride a couple of years ago, so bits of the street layout started to come back to me, enhanced by Lady Best memories of working at a now defunct club that seems to now be an empty space. We allowed the mental stretch of imagining reworking it as a split use site with an LGBTQ+ coffee/bookshop space during the day and club/bar space for the evening. Maybe when the best sellers and/or lottery wins roll in…

Oh, and we hit Poundland, partly for sugary drinks, and partly to raid the Halloween supplies. We’re all cosplayers, it’s what we do…

I also got told that the cub had explicitly demanded I not leave until we’d picked him up from school, so we did that and treated him to McDonald’s for his supper before I headed home. The grins and hugs were well worth it.

And so home, with a bag of goodies for Lady M from myr s, for a curry, mindless nonsense on the TV, and more tinkering with scenario details for the next game.

Can’t complain really…

Random Wandering

Tim Maidment1 Comment

Just for the hell of it I went down to Portsmouth today to gather up myr s, the cub, Ladies J and B and go grab some food, drink, and relative normalcy out on the town. And it feels so good to have done so.

It says so much about the disruption that that has happened this year that it was, for some of us, the first time for eating out. There was a palpable sense of relief and accomplishment in just being around a table in public.

To round out the afternoon, we had a lazy afternoon where we enjoyed each others company. We did some shopping, and went back to Lady B’s flat to talk and pass some time – and it has been a tonic for the spirits for us all.

And then I came home to find that my order of one of my t-shirts had arrived from Amazon. Lady M immediately grabbed it to twirl and model and I very nearly lost it to her before ever wearing it myself.

Careful Choices

Tim MaidmentLeave a comment

I’m finally getting head around the Amazon Merch scheme, in as much as how the Tier system works: essentially they are labelled with numbers that correspond to how many products or designs that you can sell at any one time.

As of the time of writing, I am in the basic level called Tier10, which allows ten designs. For the curious they can be found by searching for Ludd Clothing on the Amazon website. My original reading of the documentation led me to believe that this meant I could have multiple items with the same design so that there would be ten designs but umpteen items based on those designs.

Its not quite so generous – understandable from a quality control point of view – being ten designs including variants such as t-shirt or sweatshirt. The tier level won’t go up until I have sold ten items and the designs manually checked. The next tier is 25.

So I’m carefully monitoring and adjusting what I have up there while continuing to expand the RedBubble Ludd72 range of designs that includes clothing, stickers, prints, phone cases, and all sorts of odds and ends.

Depending on feedback I may change around what is on offer to differentiate between the stores more, but if nothing else the whole exercise has been good practice reminding me of what I can do with Photoshop Elements.

In the meantime, here’s a quick and totally mercenary nudge to buy my stuff?

Attempts to Shop

Tim Maidment2 Comments

There must be a memo I missed because I’ve tried twice so far to pop down the road to get a couple of supplies in, and each time the queues have been longer and more fraught – to the point where I’ve given up each time.

The first time was early in the day and I hadn’t realised that the elderly and infirm were having their early hour today. Well I didn’t realise until I saw their queue snake round the carpark and felt the weight of some hundred-plus pensioners giving me the evil eye.

When I tried again a few hours later, they had finished that queue but then the main queue was somehow four times longer. I couldn’t face that either. I’m now weighing up if I can face another attempt. At least its not holding to Sunday Trading hours, or I’d have run out of time today.

On the other hand it does mean that I have managed to have my threatened tshirt cull and have items I can offer round the polycule before donating anything unclaimed. Lady M has already nabbed several plain tops that she has declared suitable for workwear.

A New Map

Tim MaidmentLeave a comment

I’d seen The Discworld Emporium advertised in a few places, both around the wider ‘net and in Terry Pratchett fan groups and been tempted by a few of their offerings. I hadn’t ordered anything until earlier this month though, due to nothing quite leaping off the page until then.

Then they released a colouring map of Ankh-Morpork, and Lady M and I both grinned in anticipation.

image

Much of the appeal of the shop is that most of the memorabilia they sell can be seen as items stolen away from within that flat, magical world. There’s a whimsy to their offerings that appeals. Their good reputation in the groups also tipped the balance.

I ordered the map, and then forgot all about it as life threw some extra curveballs and we got earnest about our decoration.

Yesterday I dropped in to the post office to pick up an undelivered parcel. I had no idea what it was until I saw that it was a poster roll, and it had some decidedly Discworld elements to it: namely Ankh-Morpork Post Office Stamps and warning notices about snails, dribbling toads, and alchemist guild-made contents.

image

Inside was a glorious map of The Big Wahoonie, and a personalised thank you/non-delivery note from the Ankh-Morpork Postal Service blaming “nae ordinary chicken!” which was why the non-magical Royal Mail had completed the delivery.

The map itself is on large high quality, thick and creamy coloured paper and the printing is clear and unsmudged. Details of the city’s landmarks are easily made out, but without labels so that you can stretch your imagination recognising them from descriptions in the book.

It’s little touches like this that mean I will be a return customer. I think I spent more time yesterday geeking out over the packaging than the actual contents, much to the amusement of colleagues and the staff at the local coffee shop.

Now our only decisions remaining are whether we’ll colour it at all, or only certain elements, before or after we mount it on the wall. I’m tempted to order a spare so we can frame one untouched and play with the new one.

Christmas Warm Up

Tim MaidmentLeave a comment

image

It’s been a busy old weekend, with Lady M devastating all before her at her staff party on Friday, and my brother Demonic hosting his annual pre-Christmas bash on Saturday.

From what Lady M has relayed, there are now a number of people who regret asking her direct questions about our relationship with Lady P; and others generally in fear and awe after she broke up a fight that was kicking off at the end of the evening. It would seem that she was channelling a combination of Mary Poppins and The Terminator when she physically separated two staff members and threatened to box their ears. Phrases such as “You are bringing disgrace to the company, now go to your rooms and have a long hard think about what you’ve done” are alleged to have been heard. This tickles me somewhat…

She certainly seemed to have had a riotous night aside from that, and was sporting such a phenomenal hangover when I got home from work on Saturday that I was worried I was going to have to go solo to Douze this year. She of course claims someone spiked her drinks as she didn’t drink that much.

Lady M did rally valiantly though (possibly inspired by the frosty tone in my voice) and took on chauffeur duties so I could enjoy a few drinks and Demonic’s “not at all a dry run for the Christmas Day” roast dinner. It was great to catch up with the usual suspects, and the quality of cooking has me looking forward to the Christmas meal even more than usual.

That just left today for picking up some Christmas stuff in town, and a catch up chat with Lady P about how her first week of her new job went. Oh, and Lady M treated me to a copy of Fallout 4, so there’s a new threat to my productivity right there 😉