Tuesday

Well our Realtor says we should find Tuesday whether they're accepting our offer or not. I really hope they do (obviously) and have already been thinking about things I want in it :) Our two bedroom apartment is rather a bit smaller than this house so it's going to look pretty empty for a while.

1. I want to make curtains, probably roman shades for all the front windows.

2. I want an actual couch instead of just the chaise we have room for now.

3. I want a proper sewing machine cabinet like the one mom had for her machine that has a drop down stand for the machine so that you can sew flat with your work surface. These tend to be expensive though as ikea doesn't flat pack them for pennies. :( Something like this: costs about $600 though so that's a bit further out than decorating the rest of the house.

4. Enough bookcases that our library is not stacked up along walls anymore

5. Shelves with pull out baskets for all my fabric and sewing projects.

6. Big area rugs with funky patterns.

7. Patio furniture

In short, lots of stuff. We'll probably have to wait on most of it. Funny how buying a house means spending a lot of money, but hopefully once our savings have a bit more cushion then we can start buying one or two pieces a month. And hey, we'd be closer to the local ikea in Maryland! If we get the house.

Housing Hunt

See what happens? I post something of substance and hear crickets out there from you! Anyways, Seth and I put an offer on the house tonight! Cross your fingers, hold your breath, and pray that they'll accept it! Signing date would be January 21.

A real post

Ok, so Seth and I have been looking at houses. And I've written this post three times now only to have various forms of blog apps eat it. Grr. Anyways. You don't get the whole long post again since I'm not rewriting the stupid thing again. Short of it is that yes, we are looking and here's the best prospect I found so far:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AWdNkFD_xX4

Pros:
- 5 Bedrooms, 2 Bathrooms = 4 Bedrooms, 1 Sewing Room, 2 Bathrooms
- In our price range ($299,000)
- Newly renovated
- Low Crime neighborhood
- Near the school
- Shorter commute for Seth than where we live now
- MD has better traffic than VA
- Closer to friends

Cons:
- No driveway
- No basement
- If we put an offer in now they'd want to close in December, our housing contract ends in February
- It's in Maryland and Seth likes VA better but see above for my opinion on it...


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I've also been planning my Costume Con projects since it's time to get on that again. I'm picking up the plunderhosen project again. I bought Janet Arnold's book which has already helped me figure out where I need to go with the pattern after getting stuck on the commercial pattern I'd bought last time I tried this project. This would be competed in the historical competition. I'm still mulling over an entry for the Sci-Fi/Fantasy competition but with steampunk so popular now I've had Victorian on the brain. and came up with this concept sketch...

Test

Testing iPod blogging apps

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Sent from my Virgin Mobile

Taken on my Virgin Mobile

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Sent from my Virgin Mobile

Victory is Mine!

Ok, for all of you very patient family members who've been watching the blog occasionally, finally an actual post for you to read rather than evidence of my geeky costuming handiwork. No, today get to read evidence of my geeky costuming handiwork!

This weekend was Otakon and while it was killer on the feet, it was a lot of fun. I got to hang out with my friend Megan who I went to BYU with and haven't seen much since then since she's still living in Utah. It was a girls weekend out for me since Seth stayed home and a couple of Megan's friends from high school that live out here came and hung out with us too. It was awesome just to geek out with similar geeks as I am.

Megan was debuting her long-awaited and very incredible Midna costume from the Zelda video game Twilight Princess. I'll stick up a pic of her when I get one, but she was the star of the convention and deserved every single accolade that they gave her.



She competed in the costume contest as a Novice and won Overall Best on Saturday. And there was some pretty stiff competition there!

I hadn't intended to compete in my FFXIII Exile Coat. It was only ever meant to be an easy-to-make relatively casual hall costume that I can comfortably wear at conventions. However, since I did finish it and Megan was competing I decided to give it a go too. :) And I actually ended up taking home Second Place in the Master Craftsman Division on Friday! With the el lighting up it really made people go 'ooooh' and attracted a lot of attention. :) With Megan and I walking around together on Saturday we couldn't go five feet without being mobbed for pictures. It was a blast but my costume ate through 9 volt batteries like mad. The el sheets would only last a couple hours before burning them out. I bought the local 7/11 out of their entire stock and barely managed to conserve enough power to make it through the official photoshoot and stage presentation before they failed me completely. Lesson learned. Next time before I go I'll buy a huge 20 pack. One of my el strips on my sleeves also cracked and doesn't light up half way down the sleeve so I'll need to replace it. And the dangly headpiece bits need to be rethought and remade with something stronger than the 18 gauge jewelry wire. Maybe some steel spool wire. That should hold. It was a really fun costume to wear and I definitely want to brush it up and wear it again at another convention!