Bonnet Trouble

I have decided, on a whim, to make a bonnet. Crazy? yes. I have no pattern whatsoever.

To start with, I've had this a straw bonnet for some time, bought from a sutler. It originally had a ribbon and flower on it, but both were not very good quality so I took them off. So Yesterday, I decided to tear my bonnet apart, because it is NOT the right shape. I need one with some sort of spoon shape.

I managed to get the brim and crown apart. I also cut a section of the crown off to enable my hair to get through.

 Now I don't know where to go. :{

So, I don't have any appropriate fabric. haha. That's what I get for tearing something up on a whim. I think I'm going to buy some crushed taffeta (there's some on sale at Joanns). I believe I want some in Ivory or Bone, as it would go with more outfits. I'm not sure if I want to go with blue, black, or another color?

I have no clue what I'll do next, but we'll see where I get. :)  If you have any suggestions or fabric you want to get rid of, let me know!!!!!!!

Christmas 2009

I just HAVE to blog about my Christmas presents. I've not been able to stop looking at them since I opened the packages.

1)  Corsets: Historical Patterns and Techniques by Jill Salen
                    This has some really wonderful pictures and patterns.  I can't wait to use them. I'm really eyeing the late 19th century patterns. It's completely worth the full price if you're any kind of costumer.

2)   60 Civil War-Era Fashion Patterns by Kristina Seleshanko
                     This book covers all of the 1860's, not just the American Civil War years. It has a nice collection of women's and children's patterns throughout the era. It's around $12 on Amazon.com, another good buy.

3)   Civil War Ladies: Fashion and Needle-Arts of the Early 1860's
                       It's REALLY HEAVY. A collection of patterns and pictures from Peterson's Magazine 1861-1864. There are many, many great pictures but not a whole lot of instructions/patterns for clothing. It also has piano music from the era and other accessories that would be nice to have with the wardrobe. :)

4)   The Art of Manipulating Fabric by Collette Wolff
                      This one's a wonderful buy. I've not been sewing for a long time, so there are lots of techniques I would never have figured out without this book. Ideas out the wazzoo and lots of pictures make it easy to understand. It's going to pair really well with the next book.....

5)   Reconstruction Era Fashions by Francis Grimble
                         BUY THIS BOOK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! There are so many good things about the book, I can't begin to name them all. This is one of my favorite time periods for clothing and it is a nice reference for all sorts of things. It has LOTS AND LOTS of ideas for the surrounding periods. I CAN"T WAIT TO START SEWING!!!!


Other than the books, I got socks and dishes for my hopechest. It was a really nice Christmas overall. I hope you all did too :)
                   

Yoda

I haven't posted in a long time because I've been working diligently on Yoda and Grievous. Yoda was finished this morning, and good thing too! Because, he was being given as a present to my cousin today!

While I was working on the Storm Trooper earlier in the summer, He started getting all excited over the prospect of having his very own Yoda, who is his favorite character. He went into such detail and got so excited just talking about it, I simply had to make it for him. Well, HERE HE IS FOLKS!

*he has magnets in his hands so that the "Force is with Him, Always"*

 

 

All in all, it took no less than 72 hours of work... most likely more. But it was all worth it to see how happy my cousin was to have his own Yoda. Definitely worth all the effort! :)

Here's the sneak peek of what's to come!

 Have a Wonderful Christmas!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Love ya!

(If you would like to see more photos... here's the link)

Star Wars in Concert

I just got back from attending one of the most AWESOME events I will probably ever attend... Star Wars in Concert. I had a really great time. Not only was the music completely enrapturing, but the lights, the accompanying video, and the fact that Anthony Daniels was actually there was great. Below are some of the pictures and a video of what it was like to be there. And HERE are the rest of them if you wish to look.


My Favoritist Character in the Whole Wide World


The Flash Happened to Censor out any unwanted materials


Me with Han... Ain't he cute?


Jeff and the Ewoks... He's just like them :D


Devin and Jeff, the Storm Troopers got'em


They have been frozen in Carbonite... Still alive... we think.

I have a video that I'll upload soon! but for now.... May the Force be with You

Coco Avant Chanel Movie Review

It was wonderful. Enough said. I had been wanting to watch this movie for a really long time now and I finally was able to watch it online for FREE!!! you heard it... FREE. here's the link if you want to try it yourself.

The movie's costumes were great and the story line was very entertaining. 5/5 All y'all should see it :)

Virgil

This is a post about my doggie, Virgil. He's a miniature schnauzer that we 'rescued' from Petland. He's the cutest thing! First I'll start off with a little background....

One day about 3 years ago, there was a little dog that was wandering around the road in front of our house. My brother noticed it had a collar and my mother coaxed it to the house. He was a Standard Schnauzer with the most wonderful disposition. My dad fell in love (odd to say but it's true). We eventually found the owner, who was ecstatic to find his wonderful pet. After that day, my parents started browsing a Petland near us. On a whim, my dad bought our first schnauzer.

A year after that, they bought another one. Many would think this to be insane, buying animals on whims, but my dad is just that way.


Last November, my family went into Petland again and saw an ADORABLE tiny salt and pepper schnauzer. He was soooo little! We played with him, and despite him being a little scrapper (biting at my shoes and such), I fell in love with him. I told dad that I was willing to take money out of savings to pay for him, but he was really expensive ($900 on sale). I became sad and thought that was the last I'd see of him. I decided that if he ever got to $500 that I would buy him. It was a long shot but I knew if it did happen, it was meant to be. Low and Behold, My dad surprised me with the puppy the Saturday before Thanksgiving. (he had talked to the manager of the store and brought him down to $500)

What a surprise it was! I woke up and dad plops this tiny ball of fur into my arms. I didn't know how to respond, except a huge smile on my face.


Now, this puppy has not been an easy task. He has been a turd from the get-go. He is over a year old now and still decides he's going to pee in the basement when he feels like it >:{ But he is quite adorable and we love him to pieces.

THE REASON BEHIND THE NAME
One of my dad's favorite movies is Tombstone. He likes all the old westerns, like John Wayne and such. However, Tombstone is especially wonderful. It has been a family favorite and we watch it all the time. When we got our first schnauzer, I thought his muzzle looked like a handlebar mustache. So I came up with, Wyatt(Earp). My dad loved it. Keeping with the theme, we named our next one Doc(Holliday). I'm a lover of themes, no matter what. So, when I got my own bundle of joy, it was a toss-up between Morgan and Virgil (Wyatt Earp's Brothers). If you've ever seen the movie, you'll know why I chose Virgil. Sam Elliott is all salt and peppery in this movie (and is Virgil Earp)... and so is my Virgil.





ABOUT VIRGIL:
Virgil is...


1) A Scrapper. He LOVES to pick a fight with Doc and Wyatt.
2) Tiny. He is a stubby, short little thing. About 10ish inches tall
3) Studmuffin. He likes to pee on things still. He has "Napoleon Syndrome" ;)
4) Adorable. We can't walk by him without gawking at him still, even tho we've had him for a year
5) Uncuddly. He likes to be pet, but will leave the moment you cease to pet.

And so, with a very long post...That's the story of how Virgil came to be my doggie.

A Pilar Cyst!??!?!?!

For 3 years I have had an odd bump on my head. It started with a large pimple that didn't heal for about 2 months. When it finally healed over there was a bump. I thought it was just swollen or something. So, around a month ago it started to get larger, harder and was now able to move around. This was terribly alarming to me. So I went to the doctor to get it checked out.

It turns out it's called a Pilar Cyst. Here's the definition from Wikipedia:

A trichilemmal cyst (also known as a "Pilar cyst" and "Isthmus-catagen cyst) is a common fluid-filled growth (cyst) that forms from a hair follicle. They are most often found on the scalp

It was on the top left side of my head. I had it removed on the 10th. Here's what they do to get them out:



Here's what mine looked like:



It felt like cartilage, and looked like a smooth brain/pearl/lentil to me. It was about the size of a large pea.

And here's my syst-less head:


My hair's really nasty because I'm supposed to put Vaseline on it all the time "To keep the stitches moist"..... ewwwwwwwwwwwww.

Anyways, I thought it would be an interesting post ;)

Halloween '09

I was going to wait until I got more pictures, but it has already been a week since BlockParty. It's Time.

I managed to only get a picture of Devin and I (with his brother). We had a great time. I can't tell you how much I smiled. I was just happy that Devin was willingly wearing the garb! We decided on "British Colonial Loyalists" as what we were.


haha, Devin has no hand :p

Other than that, Devin looked perfect! He fits that era very well. You can't see it but there's a frilly shirt under there. That's right. OW OW.

As for me, my hair was huge. It took us (my mom and I) and hour to put it up. And about 45 minutes to take out. LOTS of teasing and pinning. I may put a tutorial up on how to achieve it :)

Pumpkin Post '09

Behold......... MY FIRST JACK-O-LANTERN EVER!!!!!



Ya, this past Friday was the first time I've ever carved a pumpkin. Crazy, I kno. I have wanted to carve pumpkins since I was little, but my parents just never got into it. I never voiced that I wanted to, so I'm sure they would have obliged had they known. To be honest, they didn't offer because of the stress and mess of the adventure. So how did I find my first pumpkin carving experience?

It was great. I was with two friends of mine, and we had a blast! I didn't mind scooping out the innards or anything. I thought it was all very cool. As for my theme, I didn't want to do the "normal" jack-o-lantern faces cuz quite frankly... I'm far from normal. I chose Princess Leia only because I couldn't draw a Darth Vader for the life of me. I think Leia turned out pretty alright. I had fun doing it, and look forward to pumpkin carving again next year!

Upcoming Event:

This next weekend is Halloween, as well as the Infamous Athens Block Party/Halloween 'celebration'. I have never been in my 19 years of living, and this year I'm going to change that fact.

We (My Boyfriend and I) have been commissioned, by his older brother, that we are to accompany him and his friends to Block Party. So, what are we going as?!?!?!? an 18th century couple!!!!!!! I'm very excited to see my Handsome Man in a redcoat and breeches ;) very excited indeed.

It shall be the debut of my 18th Century Outfit and his first experience to wear 18th century stuff. We know a guy who has an entire outfit for that era. So we're borrowing. (if he likes it... and even if he doesn't...I'm going to make him a gentleman's wardrobe ;)

Music Wise

I have found some very beautiful music on Youtube and I'm going to share it with you.


^^^These^^^ pieces are just wonderful! I can listen to them all day



The first piece above, I'm arranging for piano and violin so that My violinist and I can have it in our concert for the end of the year! GORGEOUS.

Crochet StormTrooper

Recently (well more like beginning of last summer), I agreed to making a Stormtrooper for my boyfriend. It's taken me forever to finish it but here he is: Drumroll PLEASE!!!!!!!!


Mr Storm Trooper









So there he is! I'm so happy to be done with him... now onto make a YODA! :D

Alternative Bathing Habits for Water Conservation

I was originally going to do a post all about my Crochet Storm Trooper's progress, but I thought I'd share about my new "thing" I'm into...

I live with my parents (because tuition is cheaper), and our water bill was outrageous about a month ago. My mom and I, who have a soft spot for natural resource conservation, have been talking for a long time about changing our "wasteful American Habits". I found an article on MrLock.net about bathing habits after I started my new nightly ritual.
The article isn't really about bathing, yet it has some info in there:

...on our trip to NJ the next week, we stayed with friends who were in the process of remodeling their one bathroom (beautiful small house built in the 1930s). The shower was useable, but still not quite finished, so I decided to put myself to the test: instead of a shower, I used a washcloth, warm water from the sink, and soap to do the job.


This is the approach I have been using for the last month. A washcloth and hot water with soap. That's it. Now, you have to have a little background from me to understand why I think this is AMAZING.... I Hate Showers. I always have. Before I only took about 3 showers a week. I would try to go as long as possible without taking one because I hate it so much. The reason for this hatred? I have no clue, but I know that I do see them as a waste of time and not very rewarding. My new approach to bathing is this:

Every evening get some hot water in the sink with just a little bit of soap, not enough to be soapy or sudzy, but enough to make it smell good. Wash your entire body with a well wrung-out washrag.

Wash hair in tub when needed.

Take one bath or shower on Saturday (so I'm nice and clean for church the next day)


I was skeptical at first because I thought "There's no way that that's sanitary". But honestly, I feel cleaner and more refreshed doing things this way versus taking a shower every day. It is also good for the environment. So anyways, I like it, comment if you will or try it yourself and tell me what you think!

Finished Caraco Coat thing

YAAAAAAAAAAYYYYY!!!!! I finally finished my Caraco Coat thing on Saturday. I had been putting if off because I thought the final task of hemming would be awful (as I did it by hand) but it didn't take me too long. Instead of doing 3 tabs in the front I decided to stick with 2 and make it a bit more interesting. I wanted the tabs to look more like an Open Pelisse that's present in a lot of Regency movies, I made the top tab/strap sloped to give a prettier and more feminine look to the outfit, because the straight straps were BORING. I'm very happy with the result, I'm just not sure if I need to embellish it! I definitely want to do something with the sleeve openings, but not sure what? Any Suggestions?




I took many many "vanity shots" (photos of yourself) because I was so excited with how it looks. Not bad for my second dress ever made! :)

Caraco Coat Progress

I've been sewing like mad on my Caraco Coat. I finally got some good pics too! The lining is done, the outside is done, they just have to be put together and embellished. I do not have the "strap thingies" done for the front quite yet, they will be done tomorrow. Forgive the frumpy-ness of my get-up, it was 1am when I was taking the pictures.

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I'm kindof excited too b/c I can also do this with my Caraco thing:



YAYYY!!!!!!