Look Familiar?

Below the fold are yet more birds on a wire. I've noticed that I tend to run with a single design until I'm sick of it and that can take ages (Ask Ptichka about my string printing phase). I'm tempted to try putting a similar design on greeting cards because now that I'm no longer doing blackbirds only, they're so much more fun.

Both use pretty much the same materials: mulberry paper, chiyogami, kozo, Indian paper, and silk thread. And may I say, I'm loving the French knots. I was so scared of them for so long and I don't know why. Perhaps because that was back in my chicken phase? Sure.

Speaking of chicken phases, it's a heck of a lot harder to outgrow this phase than I would like. I'm still working on the intro. I still don't like it. I'm still afraid of it. Why? Because it's the beginning of the end in many ways. Once it's been circulated around my committee, they will all actually know what I'm doing and that frightens me.
It also frightens me because this is my one shot at it (the topic, not the diss). Lermontov's post-diss fate doesn't bother me much. I'm actually planning on getting rid of most of my Russian language books once I graduate. But poor, poor Mácha deserves better. I've been told by several people that I can continue working on this topic once I'm officially out of academia, but let's be realistic here. I won't. I'm not that kind of person with that kind of discipline. Oh, and bonus, I really don't like writing. At all. Meh.

So, on that cheery note, I wish you all a good weekend. I'll be rooting for Germany in the third-place match because a diving team really shouldn't place in the World Cup, which is, after all, a football tournament. And I still haven't decided who I want to win on Sunday. I'll probably just turn on the match and see. I do have a sneaking suspicious that I'll wind up rooting for France, community spirit be damned.