December 10, 2012
A Quick Christmas-y Thought
Of all of the many many ways I’ve spent (and wasted) my money. I have never regretted spending money on a Kickstarter project. I generally feel passionate about whatever I’m giving money to. I’m always wildly impressed by what these entrepreneur accomplish. And I always excited to see something that I contributed to come to life.
Just a thought for this Christmas – give a gift to everyone and help fund a project!
November 27, 2012
Steamy Halloween
I got my Halloween outfit together! W00t for me. I used a few patterns to “mod” my way into my look – which I went for a Steampunk Rosie the robot maid. My outfit turned out incredibly steampunky, if not very maid-like. I needed a feather duster and didn’t have time to find one. It’s oddly hard to find a feather duster if that’s all you want.
So I used an Alice in Wonderland costume pattern for the dress. And I modded the heck out of a waist corset pattern to make the belt. Tye designed and painted the key. (lucky for me 
) Now all I need to do is figure out how to make the key move for DragonCon. And change out my dress (Cuz I’m not going to be a steam operated maid at D*C).
Here are the pics:
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- I wanted that cool Victorian neck line… so I faked it
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- Bottom ruffle? After looking at it, decided it was too much.
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- Looks better without the ruffle
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- The full effect!
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- My windup key
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- See the details!
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- All I needed was a feather duster…
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- I wish I had gotten someone else to take a picture – but here it is.
November 26, 2012
Please let me introduce – the Interruption
So, as usual, posts have been erratic. I’m always planning to post on a regular basis, but life has this way of throwing a wrench in my plans. Right now, one of my wrenches is named Belladonna – Bella for short. She’s almost 4 months old, black and white and shows signs of severe ADD and mental retardation. Tye swears up and down that she’s a normal kitten and that’s what you do when you are that young. All I know is that she needs constant watching…. and that if there’s ever silence in the apartment then she’s probably breaking something, stuck in something or asleep. And lately, it seems like there is a lot of the first and second. Bella came from the basement of my best friend’s apartment, a second generation of kitties from a pregnant stray (Momma cat) that showed up a few years ago. Momma cat moved on, but she left behind a little baby girl cat that turned around and had her first litter right before DragonCon. Well, Laura got that cat neutered and convinced Tye that he needed one of the kittens (He did). So I wound up driving 7 hours with a completely and totally crazy kitten to bring her home to live with my equally crazy cat and boyfriend. We’re quite a family.
Bella is a handful. She likes sitting on my keyboard when I open my computer, climbs into the oven, dishwasher and fridge, eats people food and trash and chases Pepper. I swear that she is a whirlwind of trouble…. every freaking second of the day. And she’s working on honing her killing instinct on feet, hands, pillows and even her tail. Oh yeah, and it’s Christmas time, so she has a tree that I’m having a time teaching her not to climb. Bella is definitely testing the limits of trouble-making cuteness.
Oh and she’s made a point of reminding us that she’s still a wild, free basement kitty. She’s outgoing and “chill” around us, but when guests come over, she gets skittish. So who wants to come over to my house and make the kitten uncomfortable. She’s lucky she’s so cute.
Speaking of cuteness – here are a few pictures to show you what I’m having to live with. All I have to say is Poor Pepper!
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- Thank god she sleeps cute, because she also farts in her sleep.
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- She’s standing in front of the computer. Very helpful…
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- She walks all over me. And squeaks instead of meows.
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- This is proof that Bella is Tye’s cat
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- Awww moment
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- Belladonna – middle name Trouble
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- Anyone want a free kitten?
October 26, 2012
Halloween Outfit ideas
First of all – let me apologize for not posting the rest of my DragonCon stuff. I have to go through and delete a few hundred pictures before I have the memory space for more photo heavy posts. But here’s my latest project: Halloween is in the middle of the week this year…. and that means that it will be another Wear-Your-Costume-To-Work year. My new job is super into costumes, which means I need to put something together, but not so into the Nerdy-arts. So my usual steampunk stuff might be too much of a stretch. So I’ve decided to go as a windup maid. Mostly cuz Tye jumped the gun and made a windup key for me. This means that I need to paint the key he made, create a harness and then put together a dress. And it’s 5 days before Halloween…. So yeah – we’ll see how that works out.
Okay here’s my inspiration:
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- The original inspiration
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- She’s a windup doll
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- Yeah if I could make my outfit out of code – it would look like that too
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- A dress option…. a very ambitious options
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- I could make the top of the dress look like that…
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- I could do this
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- I could pull that off if it wasn’t for the sleeves…
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- Maybe I’ll make a harness like this
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- I bet I could make this dress
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- I like the use of the lace
October 19, 2012
Why I wander at DragonCon
So it’s hard to explain to people why I go to DragonCon…. if you haven’t been – you just don’t get it. However, this is my photo montage that explains why I go to DragonCon. And why I kinda wish that DragonCon went on all year long. Well not the drinking and late night antics…. I’d be dead if that went all year round.
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- Reason 1: People interacting with other people’s costumes. Yeah the redshirt grabbed the dino by the tail.
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- Reason 2: A mass of super heroes walking around.
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- Reason 3: Listening to a lecture with people dressed like this.
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- Reason 4: The robots
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- Reason 5: Zombie peeps
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- With an election year – zombies have to be proactive.
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- Reason 6: Karaoke is actually surprisingly good.
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- And the audience really gets into it.
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- And they really know how to end!
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- Reason 7: Pop culture colliding…
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- Reason 8: Stairs become a surreal experience…
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- Reason 9: Signs get more interesting
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- Reason 10: Nerds like to make things better.
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- Reason 11: The randomness…. cuz yeah that happened.
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- Yeah and then there’s that…
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- Reason 12: Impromptu parties
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- Yup – they’re dancing…
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- Reason 13: People in line share
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- It’s movie time! I mean line time…
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- Reason 14: Crowd rating, fun for both the raters and ratees
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- Reason 15: The random chats
October 18, 2012
Oh yeah – DragonCon…
There is nothing like a few Tornado warnings to remind you about the fun things you did and forgot to blog about. Have I mentioned how chaotic moving? I lived out of boxes for a month, then move my cat down here and then went to DragonCon and came back with the boyfriend. Since then, it’s been packing, fixing things, breaking other things, finding things and shopping…. so much shopping and not for any of the fun things – like clothes, socks or shoes… Instead I have to buy shower curtains and hooks and wall anchors. Oh well – them the breaks…
So I know I owe you all a few posts about Dragon Con. For my first one, I’ll tell you how I wound up being a liar…. I was all sad that I couldn’t make by big DragonCon outfit because of a lack of $$. I was absolutely positive that I was just going to wear my old outfits and that was, well, depressing. But, as I was checking out Kato’s sight for a little steampunk inspiration, I found an outfit that she made and I was pretty sure I could replicate. So sure that I rushed out and bought a few yards of fabric to throw together some last minute outfits. And here they are:
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- I could totally make an outfit like that. Thanks Kato!
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- This outfit is totally made up of clothes I already had, and you’ve already seen.
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- And old bar t-shirt, the belt I bought in LA and a wraparound skirt I made in an hour and now I’m ready for DragonCon.
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- Tank top, same belt and another hour skirt. Oh yeah – I’m good.
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- Happy about my impromptu outfits. Or just happy that the line was only an hour long.
My Still amazing Outfit (Part 2)
So I’ve been tacking together my pretty amazing train. And I hope that you’ve figured out that I’m making things up as I go along. But hey, how badly can this go?
I started my train project by buying a ton of fabric. All which I really like. And can’t make up my mind about. So I’m going to use it all. What do you mean that might not be a good idea. Pffh.
I stopped by my friend’s work (to show off my skillz) to get her opinion on my fabric choices. And to show off. And she did some magical thing and created a pretty amazing bustle. And now I want to figure out what she did to recreate it. Of course, I can’t remember – but we took some pictures. So I decided to guess. And here’s how it all turned out:
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- Modeling Nessa’s magically bustled train…
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- Can you tell this fabric is raw edged? Or that I’m in a bar?
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- Ready for a close up?
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- Note the folds – to give it depth…
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- Under layer – Just pinned into place
August 21, 2012
Moving Part 1
I want to sum up how my moving has been going.
Atlanta to Memphis is a 7 hour drive… through all of Alabama and most of Mississippi.
I have a cat – an old cankerous cat that doesn’t like changes to her routine.
It was a 7 hour drive with a very unhappy cat.
Now I need drugs.
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- 7 hour drive and if she could have, she would have kept her kitty foot on the brake
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- This is how walking the cat goes – she hides behind a wall and stares at things.
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- First thing she does is climb up onto the only piece of furniture I have and takes a nap…
August 17, 2012
The Best Laid Plans
Normally by this point in time, I’d be blogging madly about the outfits I’m making for DragonCon and all of my big plans for that weekend. But instead – I moved to a different state.
I’m going to go to DragonCon, but the move has eaten up most of my money and all of my time – so it’s a reuse and redo D*C for me. And since I won’t have a hotel room – I can’t have 60 outfits to look all cute in. Even more sadness 
But don’t worry friends and fans, I’ll still have some posts about D*C, some outfits to show off and all of that other stuff…
And I’m steampunking my new apartment – mostly because my boyfriend doesn’t care what I do as long as I don’t spend him broke. So budget steampunking it is!
You can steampunk anything!
May 8, 2012
Cage Dress – it’s happening, D*C 2012. It’s happening.
I think I’ve mentioned my fondness for Apocalypse Steampunk before, but just in case, here are my thoughts again.
What I think is really fascinating and fun and it wonder what you would use to make clothes if the Apocalypse had happened and there weren’t any factories or stores anymore. What would you use if all of the “clothes” were gone? Or if you didn’t feel bound to use fabric, what would catch your eye. Hence my paper skirt outfit. It probably helps that I’m crazy fond of Mad Max and movies like that… They provide a lot of inspiration.
So my next project is making a cage dress. I’ve gathered quite a few ideas and there was a design student on Cut Out + Keep that posted a really amazing outfit that I think I can really use as a template. Now to make it Apocalypse Punk, I plan to raid the hardware store to get supplies…. But before I start my shopping trip, here are my inspiration pictures. I’m leaning towards a mix of a hoop skirt and a corset and a cage dress.
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- The bustle is a bird cage…
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- An illustration of what I’m thinking, from Threadless
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- But I want my skirt to be wild and short!
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- Note the lines and the amazing skirt.
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- Note the top – It’s very cage like….
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- This is an option for the skirt.
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- Here’s the whole dress. It’s pretty short!
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- Dress standing up
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- This is the back of cage dress – I like that it closes with ribbons.
