With Halloween just around the corner,
we’ve recently restocked our Etsy shop and it’s all good!
So pop over and have a look and see if anything catches your eye…at Amaranth Alchemy…
We’ve got necklaces, and boookmarks and quotes… Think Dictionary, Sherlock and The Hobbit
Dracula and Frankenstein…bookpage bookmarks…
Ravens…black as night…on our Dictionary Scrabble style necklace…
Welsh peg magnets to hold your precious secret recipes and potions…
The moon on a dark Halloween night, and Smaug…dancing with fire before it…
Wizardry with Harry Potter and the Cheshire Cat’s smile…creepy…
Dragons flying across the full moon…on our Scrabble style necklaces…
We’re gearing up for Halloween and then there’ll be, dare I say it, Christmas…
Like our Amaranth Alchemy Facebook Page and you’ll be the first to know when our Giveaway starts and you’ll always know when we put out our special offers!
My oldest, Rayn, just returned from their first Comic Con: Cardiff Film and Comic Convention at the Motorpoint Arena. They had an amazing time, and one day they’ll take me with them!
It was the culmination of great desire and months of hard, hard work creating their own costume…to go to a Comic Con and not cosplay? No way!
They finally decided on Thranduil from The Hobbit and got down to it. They needed much, including a sword, crown, elf ears, long blond wig and an elven coat. I saw it in many states of array and watched the whole costume come together. I was wide-eyed at the range of their talent, talent they already had and new ones! The silver coat was miraculously hand sewn from scratch, and is gorgeous!
The money, time and dedication that goes into a cosplay costume is legendary, and a lot…then they got to wear it, and they looked stunning!
Rayn as Thranduil – Photo by Antii Karppinen
They got to take photos with Sylvester McCoy, the Seventh Doctor and Radagast The Brown and also sat upon the Iron Throne! They were stopped, too many times to count, by other fans wanting to take pics with them, and they loved the time to meet so many like-minded cosplayers! The costumes were first rate…and this is where the most amazing guy turned up.
Antti Karppinen, a young Finnish photographer, was there with a small set up and took photos of the fans. Seriously, this young man’s talent is fantastic, but his ethos was even better…he wanted to take pictures of the fans because he realised what the Comic Con was all about – without the fans the celebrities wouldn’t be celebrities – and he wanted to give something back.
Please read his story here, you won’t regret it and take a look at the other stunning photos he took!Assasin’s Creed, The Beast, Constantine,Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle, Super Girl, Spiderman, Loki and more…they all rock! Follow him on Facebook too.
His photo was probably the culminating moment of Comic Con, a permanent photographic record of a costume that took hours and hours of blood, sweat and tears, and lots of determination and love! And a photo of my child that I can treasure…Now take me next time!
* Note – This post has been edited to use Rayn’s pronouns, and their deadname has been removed. This hasn’t been done in the comments, but the comments are very much appreciated! (2026)
How I love words…and there’s no Flash Fiction challenge better than trying to shoehorn nine of the lesser known ones into a 150 word (exact) piece of fiction! A warm welcome back to Monday Mixer courtesy of The Latinum Vault. Though we only actually need to use three of the words, one location, one thing and one adjective…unless we wish to use more. I kept it simple this week with four.
Sam stalked, like Mad Max across the wilds of the badlands, to Mr McGregor’s office. Mr McGregor‘s door swung open. “Watch out! Here comes Bilbo Baggins!”
Sam glowered muttering under his breath in his best Gandalf whisper, “You fool… of a Took, wish I had a real bilbo, that’d show you…” and he imagined the narrow blade resting in the vulnerable cleft of Mr McGregor’s throat. Oh, how he wished to thrust it!
“Got the memo?” Mr McGregor‘s smug, rotund face infuriated Sam and he moved his illusory sword to the side of his boss’s neck, planning to pierce the bulbous scrofula instead and watch the alien drool of pus and goo. “You’re not right for the job. Can’t have a hairy bigfoot selling stilettos.”
Tootsie ran through Mr McGregor’s mind as Sam rammed his egalitarian sword through Mr McGregor’s neck and murmured “My name is Inigo Montoya…prepare to die!”
So pop over and have a look and see if anything catches your eye…at Amaranth Alchemy…
The Last Krystallos 
