I'm sorry Blog.

I've been neglecting you. I've been neglecting...everything. You see it is The Holidays. And during The Holidays life as I know it gets put on pause, and the world is different. So, I'm sorry. But as a Christmas present to you (you don't care, but play along) when The Holidays are over and my life returns to relative normalcy I will have lots of pictures of projects. I hope to have new updates on the Touchdown, some photography fun and all kinds of adventures with my new sewing machine (!). Again Blog, I'm sorry. I'll be back I promise.

P.S. Firefighter and I went to Bronners a few weeks ago and decided to start a tradition of getting an ornament with our names every year. Here's the beginning, it makes me happy.



P.P.S. Happy Solstice Blog, days are officially getting longer now!

Want It Wednesday

I want more time.



I feel like I have a hundred things to do and about two minutes to do them in. I'm sure most of this feeling is because it's winter. Winter and I have some issues. I'm sure I will write a more in depth post about my Winter Issues another time. For now I will just say that I'm glad it's not November any more, but things like motivation, and energy, and general not-losing-my-shit will be difficult for me until March/April.

Until then I am on the desperate search for more hours in the day.

Want It...Thursday?

Whoops. I am a slacker. No Want It Wednesday post this week. But here is a special installment of Want It Thursday - Book Edition!

1. The Lazy Girl's Guide to Green Living
I don't like to think of myself as a "lazy girl", but (at least sometimes) I am one. I do like to think of myself as an environmentally conscious person, so this book seems pretty perfect.

2. Vogue Sewing, Revised and Updated
I'd like to have a beyond-basics reference book. And I'd like it to be this one. I've come to respect Vogue publications on knitting, and I thoroughly enjoy Vogue patterns. So yeah, I want this book.

3. Vogue Knitting Stitchionary Volume One: Knit & Purl: The Ultimate Stitch Dictionary from the Editors of Vogue Knitting Magazine (Vogue Knitting Stitchionary Series)
Speaking of Vogue Knitting. I'd like to have all of the Stitchionaries and I don't have any. Some day this will be remedied.

4. Darkly Dreaming Dexter
I don't know that I really need to OWN the Dexter books. But I would certainly like to read them. I'm pretty much obsessed with the show, I don't really know how I could not like the books.

5. The Belly Dancer
It's a romance novel, and that makes me scared. But it's titled "The Belly Dancer", so that means I gotta have it.

Thus concludes the first installment of Books I Want. There will be many more to follow. I really like books.

Touchdown costume - Part 3, a trim story.

I got this far:



And then I stopped. I had this lovely trim:



Upon closer inspection it was even more wonderful than I thought:



See that!? See how the little metal parts of the trim coodinate with the medallions that I already have on the costume?? But I only had a couple yards of the trim and that's not acceptable. And I can't get any more. So I went to work with the scissors:



Perfection! I have since sewn some silver coins on, and have started with these teeny little mini-medallions. But I don't have pictures yet, so you'll have to be patient. I am very excited about this costume, can't wait to get my dance on in it!

Want It Wednesday

Now that my dreams from last week have come true and this Christmas I will be receiving a brand spankin' new sewing machine (!), I have moved on to dreaming of things that go with that sewing machine. I do not have a house of my own, or a room that I can dedicate to creativity, but if I did I would want koala Cabinets for my sewing machine and serger. I would want the "simple" ones. The Cub IVs.



These "simple" cabinets are $1400 EACH. Yep. But they are faboo. This is one installation of Want It Wednesday that will not be fulfilled any time in the near (or probably far) future. Unless I can find used ones somewhere that will work for my machines...

Touchdown Costume - Part 2

Finally finished the never-ending black braid. The whole thing is trimmed and starting to look like something I might actually wear. I used just over six yards of trim, but my fingers feel like it's been about 20 miles.





Now the real fun part. This is where my brain gets to let go of the more technical thinking and let the design part go wild. I have small box of bits and parts to start with, but there will be more.



I started by adding the center piece to the top, I like to start symmetrical and build from there, so the middle is a good place to begin. Then I added medallions along the tops of each cup. I am now in the process of doing the same to the belt.





And! If I had panned a little to the right in a few of the above pictures, you would have seen this:



It is my Christmas present from my amazing, wonderful, magical boyfriend. Yaaaaaaay! I can. not. wait. Oh man. It's beautiful.

Want it Wednesday

I want a sewing machine. I'm tired of using my mom's. I have a serger, and I love it, but I need a plain jane machine for all my flat, non-seaming sewing. I just wanna be able to put a hem in a costume with out having to pray that the machine isn't up north or at my sister's house.

Doesn't need to be fancy. Simple forward and reverse stitch, and zig zag. That's all I ask. *sigh* Someday...



By the way, I have no idea what that picture's about. Thanks photobucket.

Touchdown Costume - Part 1

I have been meaning to make a costume out of this fabric for at least 2 years. I finally decided to do it. It will make a fabulous renfest costume, and I think I'll be able to use it for most of my more fusion-y pieces. With different skirt/pant/accessory combos it should work for the Balkan music that I have fallen in love with and the "steampunk" choreography that I learned at GLBC.

On to the creativity!!

So when I started making this I didn't have this blog, so I didn't take pictures of the very beginning. I bought some molded foam bra cups from Joanns and cut up a pair of Firefighter's old jeans to make the base for the rest of it. I cut out my pieces and covered them in the fabric.





Then the hardest part of the whole process...making a dance top that doesn't make the tatas look really weird. It's a science and requires a lot of trying on despite the risk of death by pin sticks. Once I got everything figured out I sewed it all together into a top that I am pretty satisfied with.





Now that I have that figured out the fun part begins, embellishing. I'm starting by trimming the whole shebang in black braid. I may have lied two sentences ago when I said this was the fun part. This part sucks ass. The fun part happens after the trimming when I get to put coins and medallions and shiny things on the costume. This part sucks because I don't have a sewing machine at the moment, so every single stitch on this bad boy has been done with my poor little fingers. I'm almost sure this costume (like most of the things I make) will be composed of 27% blood and swear words. But that's also part of what makes a handmade costume wonderful.

I love it already.

Want It Wednesday

As I mentioned in my last post, my computer is dead. D-E-A-D. So I need a new one. And this is what I want:



It's an HP Touchsmart Tm2 and it's beautiful. Like really beautiful. And I can write/draw on it because it's a touchscreen. Look how it flips around and turns into a tablet, and it's pretty swirly design...goodness gracious I want it now. But it will have to wait. I still have one more payment to make on my Bestbuy card, then Stanley - my camera - will be paid off (yipee!) and I can start making payments on this bad boy. Oh man. So excited.

Cast of Characters

If you plan on reading this blog (and really if you're reading now I'm shocked, my plan is to basically speak into the void, I'm not getting my hopes up for actual readers), you will be reading A LOT about the following people (well, 2 people and a cat). And you will see more pictures of them once I have a computer again. Until then I have to work with my very limited resources, bear with me, imaginary reader.



My cat, Zula. I adopted her in June and she is turning me into a cat lady. Her name is Urzula, it's a Polish name that means "little she-bear" and it is a perfect match for her personality.



My boyfriend, Firefighter. He loves me and I love him and we are happy. There will be lots more to follow about our relationship and how awesome we are.



And me.

test

testing. testiiiiiiiing.