My life really is boring, see?

So yeah, Michael was wondering what else I've been up to lately and the grand answer is? Not a whole heck of a lot. Costume Con was the big 'vacation' of the spring/summer for us. We're not going anywhere or doing anything particularly special. I've got a friend coming out to visit over the 4th so we'll be doing all the fireworks stuff in DC this year, and Dad and the fam are coming out for my birthday (yay!). And we're going over to see the Video Games Live concert again although at the Wolftrap this year instead of the Kennedy Center. I'm hoping it'll be more fun there instead of suffering from the crappy service from stuffy Kennedy Center employees whom we weren't good enough for because we were all geeks last year. Um... aside from that... Kat's growing nicely. Bit lazy on getting out of his old skin. We're going to have to give him a bath with some aloe stuff in it to help him shed all the way tonight. Brandon Sanderson's new book Warbreaker came out in hardcover a few weeks ago and was as excellent as expected after reading the draft of it... Um... sewing wise I'm working on a simple dress for the faire this summer, and got some fabric that I'm going to make cargo pants out of for July too. That's about it. Really. Sorry my life isn't all that exciting. I rather enjoy it though. It's nice living at a nice slow pace.

Yay! Phone's Up!

After weeks of harassing the appropriate people, my phone is working again. :D It's still my same number too so feel free to call!

Phone's Down

Seth and I are switching our phone service to Virgin Mobile from Verizon. We're trying to transfer our phone numbers, so hopefully if that goes through alright then nothing should change for any of you. However, my verizon phone is broken and it'll take a few days for the number transfer request to go through so my Virgin phone can be activated. If you want to call, I've got Seth's phone. The number is the same as mine except for the last four digits are 8456. I'll let you know when my regular number is available again!

Next Big Thing!

You may recall the next big thing I'd talked about almost exactly a year ago after Balticon. Well, the Steampunk Eowyn ate my life the past year and due to complexities, Varesh got pushed off. However, I'm doing it. Next year for Costume Con in Milwaukee it's going to be my big entry. First one as a solo Master in the biggest competition in the costuming community. So you'd all better be there to cheer me on and be stunned by my awesomeness. No. Seriously.

It will be better than it would have been if I'd made it this year. I've learned a lot lately. I'm much more confident in my skills and this is going to take them all as well as learning so much more. I'm diving in head first and I've got some good friends who are going to help. I'm doing the human version- still not up for the alien monster version with 6 eyes and the glowing arms and head- but there will be lots of armor making and wonderflex shaping, beading and embroidery. :D Lots of fun and work! I'm going up to a friends on Tuesday to get started planning. Of course... if anyone sees any greek key patterned royal purple silk jacquard and you don't call me about it I'll be severely put out. Google is not helping me much.





Pieces of the costume in a vaguely skin out order:
-long sleeve top with oriental style collar
-pants with an odd cut and gold beading/embroidery
-Gold Corset (striped?)
-Underskirt
-Beaded/embroidered overskirt
-Two heavy gold beaded/embroidered belts
-Armored collar and chestpiece
-Head "fan"
-Longest Fringed over-robe
-Shorter Fringed over-robe
-Embroidered/beaded drape over the over-robes
-Upper arm armor pieces
-Lower arm armor pieces
-Arm 'drapes'
-Fingerless gloves
-Ankle bracelet
-Medium length brunette wig
-Headdress

Costume Con Photos

Hey Everyone! Pictures are up from our presentation on Michael's page under my costumes folder.

And while our presentation isn't in this youtube playlist, there are some of the presentations from several of the masquerades at the Con here!

Costume Con!

There were a ton of amazing costumes there at the con, some of which were scary enough and worn as hall costumes and not even being competed! So I can't really complain about other people winning the Best in Class and Best Workmanship in Class awards...










































But we did take BEST IN SHOW: DIVERSE OVERKILL in Workmanship for the sheer variety of things we had going on in it! :D We also won the presentation award of BEST CONCEPT in the Master Class division!

AAAAALL Done!

Train pics

Whew! The end is in sight!

A good 10 hours of work today =

The bodice boned...


... and lined and the buttons all sewn on and the buttonholes on the bodice going beautifully in spite of my worries...


And ultimately the bodice finished!


Obviously I'm not going to be wearing it over my tshirt for the presentation >.>

I also got the train bustled up properly but don't have pictures of it yet. Maybe tomorrow. I'm excited to try it all on now.

I did take a few injuries in the line of duty, however. My fingers took one for the team...


And my elbow got stabbed by a very sharp silk pin that didn't like the fact I was using it on polyvelvet as well as the silk lining. 'Heresy!' it cried, and then martyred itself on my arm. Now I'm just getting silly.


Good night!

Last rehearsal....

Still more work to do. Like finishing the bodice and the gun especially!

So I update this thing about as often as I check it...

Congratulations to AnnaMarie on expecting #2!

I've been working hard on my costume with Costume Con coming up quickly next month. Let's hope I get everything done in time!

And a little fun distracting game :) Ready, Go!

Japanese Dramas

So I was talking to Abbey the other day and she mentioned a show she's watching on TV over there in Japan called "Mei-chan no Shitsuji." With my mad internet skills, in case anyone wants to watch it... Here it is. Subbed in English with direct download and torrent links. The HD version is a .mp4 file that my computer can't handle. Not enough ram or something XD but the SD version is a .avi that plays just fine. It's the sort of show that's so cheesy and absurd that it's amusing. Don't worry Abbey, I'm sure with a bit more poking around I could manage to find the raw files for you without the subtitles.

It's snowing up!

Heheh, ok, not really. But it looks like it. The air drafts next to our new apartment are such that when we get the wind blowing it comes right down the hill next to our building and then gets blown straight up the side of it. So when it's snowing like it is today the flakes go up instead of down. Now if only they'd just stay up. The weather is actually pretty nasty today. OPM declared a two hour delay for Seth at work today, though we found out about that after he'd already gone to the metro and the trains were running late. Ah well. Just means he'll get to leave two hours early. Yay. I'm going to attempt something very scary tonight so it'll be good that he's home at a decent hour.

I'm going to be... cooking. Yes, that's right. Me in the kitchen with ingredients and trying to make something edible. We'll see. That's one of my goals for the new apartment. Our kitchen is a lot bigger and I want to try using it more. We have cupboards and counter space! It's a real kitchen instead of a kitchenette! Also to make such an endeavor possible, the grocery store next to our new place is sheer awesome. They do online orders and deliver right to your door! Deliver fee is $6-9 depending on how much you order (cheaper for a more expensive order, oddly enough). Considering grocery shopping and then hauling them in the building and up the elevator is among my least favorite chores, it's a real blessing. Not to mention this way I can actually buy everything I need instead of having to buy by what I can carry. And by ordering it all online it makes it a lot easier to plan meals and get all the ingredients at the best prices rather than searching the shelves for the one weird ingredient. So that arrived this morning. My only complaint? How on earth were they out of stock on corn starch? Ah well, spaghetti and meatballs it is tonight then instead of sweet and sour chicken.

Kat is such a weird snake. Or maybe he's normal and I just didn't realize how weird snakes really are. He loves to try to crawl up the side of his terrarium and get get right up to where he's pushing against the top before he starts to lose his balance and twists around to try to maintain it. Which just makes him lose it in a different direction and fall over. He'll also curl up around the thermometer/humidity gauge and then get distracted by something else and fall off. It's rather amusing though I do worry he's going to hurt himself one of these days.

Kat likes his driftwood chunk :)

Snake Bracelet!

Katamari!

Well we picked the little guy up today! :D And he's absolutely adorable. Friendly and curious too. He spent a good hour climbing all over his terrarium before settling down in his little rock house for a nap. Isn't he cuuuuuute? ^^

Home Sweet Home

Well we're in the new apartment! Yay. Nice and big place. It took us a good 14 hours and three trips in the moving truck and loading up the car to move all the big stuff over. Loooong day. How did we ever move cross country with all we owned in a pickup truck? Admittedly, the majority of our possessions seem to be books. 14 or so boxes of them. And not small boxes either. The big 20 gallon Tupperware tub type. Sorting through them is my job for tomorrow. We definitely need more bookshelves. Anywho. I got a new desk while we had the truck to move and got it all put together. Very spiffy. Much better than having it set up on a folding table. Along with my flat screen monitor Seth bought me last month to replace the ginormous honking CRT screen that weighted more than I do, I feel positively modern. ;) Love you guys! More and pictures once it's put to rights later.

Train

Here's a pic of the train I'm using the pattern for. Fabric choices for it are either going to a copper/brassy brown silk dupioni I've got a lovely swatch of or a nice chocolaty velvet lined in the previously mentioned dupioni. If I can get my hands on it. I'd really love to use the velvet since I think it would really look beautiful and I'd make the bodice of the velvet as well. But we'll see. It's not going to happen at $30/yard.

Overskirt and Moving

Well we're getting out of our current apartment and into the new this Saturday. Seth's over dropping off the deposit check right now so we can pick up the key Friday night. As such, I kinda have to put the sewing on hold for a bit. A shame really, since I've been making so much progress lately. Just need a hem and a waistband on the overskirt now.

Showing off my Undies!

Of the Victorian kind, of course. Finished these today. Isn't the purple lace and ribbon a fun touch? ^^

Victorian Steampunk underskirt

Well, I buckled down today while Seth was packing up our books to move (filled about 8 large tubs full of them too!) and got the underskirt for my steampunk costume finished. It's made of a silver silk dupioni fabric and pleated all through the back to give room for the bustle as well as having that ruffle along the bottom pleated on. Pleats aren't nearly as annoying as gathering, but I'm still glad it's done. I even french seamed the entire thing so there aren't any raw edges inside. Go me. I also got the overskirt cut out and will start putting it together tomorrow.

Wizzum

Isn't he cuuuute? It's silly, yes. Click him! Edit: The images are the links

Floor Plans

Well here's the comparison of our apartment floor plans along with some very not-to-scale scrawling of where furniture is going to go. The living room in the new place is pretty big, so we're planning on extending the couch as a kind of divider to split the room in half and are getting a little dining room table to put behind it. With the second bedroom we can move all my sewing stuff and Seth's painting and modeling stuff into there instead of having it be in the living and 'dining room' of the old place. And when it says 8x10 in the old place for the dining room? That space includes the kitchen. The new kitchen IS 8x10 by itself and doesn't have the washer and dryer stuffed in there too! The washer/dryer has its own little room even. SO much nicer. The living room is almost three feet longer and two feet wider than our current place.

Moving!

Well Seth and I are finally getting out of our ghetto apartment in Alexandria and moving up into Falls Church (yay!) next month, with our move in date on the 15th and our move out date here at Tower 2000 by March 1. So we'll have a nice leisurely two weeks to get it done completely. Fairfax Towers is where we're going to and we went and looked at the place and filled out the application today. It's really nice and we're getting a two bedroom for $1600/month. There's even free aerobics classes held downstairs three times a week, a convenience store in the building, hair salon, and dentist. And hey, we just got dental insurance. Go us. Won't that be convenient. I'm also really excited about the move because we're going to buy new furniture. :D And that'll be a first for me that I'm looking forward to. I'm rather tired of hand me downs that aren't that nice anymore. Oh, and we're also going to get our snake when we move in too. ^^ We dropped by the pet store to visit him and an employee was around so I even got to hold the little guy we're planning on getting. He was very friendly and liked to curl around my hand and crawl up my arm to explore. And soft. I hadn't realized how soft their scaly skin actually is.

LOTS of pics up!

Hey guys! I know you don't hear much from me on here, but I finally go around to uploading about 250 pictures off my camera up onto Michael's website! There are a bunch from Williamsburg, some of Christmas up in PA with Seth's parents, and some from Dave and Melissa's wedding out in Utah! Then there are a couple of my latest sewing project pics up: the pluderhosen doublet pics, a couple of the green charmeuse skirt I made for the wedding, and the beginnings of my Steampunk Eowyn costume. I just finished the bustle tonight. Total it only took about 15 hours to make. Those ruffles were a killer though. Ugh. And buying the boning for it pre-cut to the appropriate lengths and pre-tipped? Pure Win and well worth the rather high price the patterns from Truly Victorian compared to the regular commercial Big 4 patterns. ($11 pattern + $18 for the pre cut and tipped boning) The entire pattern went together very well and easily. Would have been *easier* if I'd had a ruffler foot instead of doing them all by hand, but ah well. C'est la vie.



Next up: Finish sewing the drawers this weekend, order the silk and other fabrics I need, then the underskirt, regular skirt, bodice, train... It goes on and on. Less than four months to finish it though, so I've really got to kick it into gear!