in which banui is somewhat embarrassingly materialistic

[faeriemaiden]

So, first off: ALKDHGHG PRINCE CASPIAN TRAILER AJHFHGH. Hark their spiffing school uniforms! (What can I say?; I love (British) school uniforms. This is, however, most likely because I've never had to wear one.) And all of the, you know, AWESOME. Er. Don't expect me to be able to be coherent just yet. (EEEE!) Or, you know, actually be capable of speech.

Second off: well, everyone else is doing it, so, um. This is my Christmas wishlist. I feel a bit narcissistic about putting it up at all, but, you know, some of you lot like to get me Christmas presents, and I suppose direction would be nicer than arbitrary stabbing. Also because I have difficulty resisting memes.

step one--
Make a post (public, friends locked, filtered...whatever you're comfortable with) to your LJ. The post should contain your list of holiday wishes. The wishes can be anything at all, from simple and fun ("I'd love a Snape/Hermione (WHAT?) Remus/Tonks icon that's just for me") to medium ("I wish for _____ on DVD") to really big ("All I want for Christmas is a new car/computer/house/TV.") The important thing is, make sure these wishes are things you really, truly want.

If you wish for real possible things, make sure you include some sort of contact info in your post, whether it's your address or just your email address where Santa (or one of his elves) could get in touch with you.

Also, make sure you post some version of these guidelines in your LJ so that the holiday joy will spread.

step two--
Now surf around your friends list (or friends friends, or just random journals) to see who has posted their list. And now here's the important part: If you see a wish you can grant, and it's in your heart to do so, make someone's wish come true. Sometimes someone's trash is another's treasure, and if you have a leather jacket you don't want or a gift certificate you won't use--or even know where you could get someone's dream purebred Basset Hound for free--do it.

You needn't spend money on these wishes unless you want to. The point isn't to put people out, it's to provide everyone a chance to be someone else's holiday elf--to spread the joy. Gifts can be made anonymously or not--it's your call. There are no rules with this project, no guarantees, and no strings attached. Just...wish, and it might come true. Give, and you might receive. And you'll have the joy of knowing you made someone's holiday special.

* * *

completely ridiculous things which i have no hope whatsoever of getting --

• A great lovely shiny laptop with loads upon loads of memory and a DVD ROM drive.
• A professional art-quality digital camera that will actually make me look like a Serious Photographer when it is slung round my neck, rather than an Arbitrary Snapshot-er.
• Handmade historical costumes. *nods*
• Ink-andwatercolour illustrations for the Emily of New Moon trilogy. Yeah, I know. (Particularly ones of Dean Priest being angsty with books, or Dean and Emily wandering through the woods, or something.)
• The Evenstar. Only $99 from the Noble Collection!
  

things that are actually within vague means of possibility --

• Firefly. And Serenity. So that I may display them geekily on my bookshelf and MEMORISE THEIR CONTENTS and LOVE THEM FOREVER. Also that I may analyse them further for my bizarre (f)anthropological dissertationy things. (Which haven't anything to do with Simon's waistcoats SHUT UP.)
• Knee-high lace-up combat boots. (In size nine. With a bit of extra allowance for thighs.) I have been looking for a suitable pair for three years now, and alas.
•  Things to go on my walls. (Prints of) paintings, photographs, movie or band posters, watercolour paintings of Remus Lupin reading Four Quartets...
  
• Seals and sealing wax. The sealing wax must be richest crimson, because there really isn't any other colour for sealing wax, is there? (Mum, if you're reading this, you know there are nice ones at the Peaceable Kingdom, and they would make excellent stocking stuffers, wouldn't they?)
•  Hats of all shapes and sizes. Because I do love them so. (Except for baseball caps. I loathe them.) I desperately want one of those crocheted caps, sort of like this one, except a bit more delicate, and crimson, preferably --  not pink, anyway. I have also been rather longing for a vintage leather aviator's cap, with goggles, but I suppose that's rather beyond the realm of practical expectations.
•  Interesting jewellery: particularly with a Victorian, Art Deco, bohemian, steampunk, fantasy, or Oriental sort of vibe. Also there is a bracelet at Claire's which is leather buckles and it is all kinds of shiny. WANT.
•  T-shirts wot have geekery on them, especially fandom geekery and punctuation marks. (A heart and a semi-colon? Oh yes.) Over the Rhine and Vienna Teng have gorgeous band t-shirts, but band t-shirts are always so fantastically expensive, especially if they are somewhat under-the-radar artists whose shirts don't end up at retail stores.
• Interesting a) stickers and b) patches and pins which I can a) stick onto my guitar cases, and b) sew or iron or pin onto my satchel. Fandom geekery and punctuation would be welcome here, too; yes indeed. I can never seem to find any hereabouts, alas.
•  I'm stealing this one from builtofsorrow, because, yes. "Anything from anyone I love that's handwritten or drawn or made or just has something to do with anything that would make me think of you (like things from the place you live (or wish you lived), shared fandoms, shared loves, what-have-you). Basically, anything that will make me think of you fondly." I love when
  lady_moriel  sends me her college's yearly writing-and-art publication, and when
  trolliepop sent me a mixtape and a Jane Austen quote on pretty paper, and when
  bonny_kathryn sent me a book she'd jotted down notes in (I love reading people's notes in books, whether or not I actually know the person) (and, er, I never actually did reply to that, but it was lovely and splendid of you, and I loved the doodles and quotes on the wrapping!). I just feel very loved when people give me little, inexpensive gifts that mean things. I suppose my bedroom has sort of become a minor shrine to friends, what with
  lexiedoh's Ten action figure; Kyra's Moony and ornaments (remember those? I hung them on the curtain rods) and candle-holder and -- well, we've known each other for years;
  midenianscholar's photographs and drawings -- all of the lovely things that you lot have bought for me over the years and reside in various places around my room (quite a lot on the bookshelf!) that make me feel warm and surrounded and loved.
•  Books, music, films, and, er, shoes. As demonstrated on my Amazon wishlist, which is most likely missing quite a lot of books because I can never think of the ones I want until I happen to see them somewhere. And mostly the books on there are ones that my parents would actually buy. Well, ones illustrated by Trina Schart Hyman which aren't St George and the Dragon or Winter Poems; those'd be nice. And, well. I just love getting books -- new books, old books, books I've read but don't own, much niftier copies of books I own, and books I've never read yet so long as I trust the taste of the person giving to me (new books are kind of like new people: viz. SCARY, but also intriguing). And there really aren't very many films on there, actually, not because I don't want them, but because I don't especially expect to get them. Oh, and don't bother with Patty Griffin's Children Running Through, because I plan to get it for my father for Christmas. We have a tradition of buying music for each other that we both want.

internet-transmutable things --

• Mixtapes! I've got mixes from several of you, and I love that each of them has a particular musical flavour that makes me think of the person who made it. Also, music = win.
• Icons! I like minimalistic icons with unusual perspectives and text only if it's strictly necessary. I would love someone with a better handle on their graphics programme to make icons for The Illusionist, because it's just so gorgeous, but also very dark, which I'm not much good at fixing. And icons with books in, and fantasy icons, and icons of attractive and unusual inanimate objects, and also baked goods. And Sirius/Sarah-Jane icons. *nods wickedly*
  
• Well, I do always love a good fic, even if it's just a wee one. By now you really ought to know what I like. :D (Though have I mentioned my fascination with Grey Lady/Bloody Baron? Also Remus-and-Tonks-are-not-dead fic. *nods* And crossovers make me happy. As do T.S. Eliot references.)
• A timey-wimey device that goes ding when there's stuff.

Well, that's that, then.