The Ariel Costume

So, last Tuesday, Josh came over to finish up some stuff on his Once Upon A Time-Hook costume that ended up looking like this:

We added the red satin panels, trim, and buttons to an old vest and gave the jacket some cuffs, buttons, and collar patches.

Since we were doing this for his & Andrew's Halloween party taking place that Saturday, Josh asked me if I knew what I'd be dressing up as.  I gave him a hesitant but thoughtful sigh and said, "No clue."

Matthew and I had kicked around a handful of ideas, but a decision hadn't been made.

Since he was out of town and had everything he needed for his costume options, I quickly made a decision a little later that night after remembering this awesome mermaid scale fabric I'd seen at Joann the other day.  I did up a quick sketch and got my measurements and ordered the corset & gloves from Amazon.  The corset looked like this before:

Which was too goth for Ariel...so when it came in on Thursday, I took all the black lace off and covered the remaining black trim with this rad silver trim and relaced the back with a metallic silver ribbon.

The tail skirt was an interesting experiment.  I wasn't working off a pattern or anything and the scale fabric was stretchy and my first attempt at a hem turned out awful because I'd used the wrong stitch setting on the machine.  My side seams are where I figured shit out and it was smoother sailing.

Tulle is a bitch.  I say that lovingly because it made excellent fins and my "make-it-up-as-you-go-along" way of getting things done was totally on track, but it's not my favorite fabric to work with.  I did a loose hand-stitch along the top to gather and then bunched that shit up before I ran it through the sewing machine.

Also, it was glittery and the entire house still looks like a unicorn farted up a storm.  The girl at Joann gave me the awesome advice of spraying it down with hairspray. That helped some but my vacuum cleaner has an interesting layer of mermaid fin glitter mixed with cat litter.

To hide the stitching where the fin meets the tail, I trimmed it with a glittery green ribbon.

Can I just tell you how much I love Liquid Stitch?  That stuff is amazing.*

Ariel needed accessories so I dug around the house and found a dinglehopper (plastic fork painted with silver glitter) for my hair, a thingamabob pendant (old corkscrew painted up and on plastic pearl beads), and a snarfblatt (belt buckle pipe I wore on an arm strap).

When I finished it on Friday, everything looked like this:

When I wore it on Saturday, I looked like this:

And for the majority of the night, ran around yelling "I'M A MERMAID!!"

______________________________

* Josh, can I get an Amen?

Advice To Young Bloggers

My friend's daughter, Nae, has recently been makin' some noise about blogging and was looking for recommendations for sites to start her own.
It got me thinkin' about what I'd pass along, or maybe, what I wish I'd heard those several years* ago when I first started putting my stupid voice out there.

Here are some helpful-ish tips:

1. Don't write for other people. They won't read your shit anyway. And I do mean that in the nicest way possible. They just won't. Until one day when you think no one reads it and then someone mentions to you at a party that they've been reading it. And that when they do, it's usually during a morning constitutional. But hey, they're reading it, right? Score!!
There have been a few other times people have owned up to reading my shit -looking forward to it even- and it's a funny feeling. I love you, you fucking creepers. ;)

2. Write for yourself. If you have something heavy on your mind - get that shit OUT!! Right then - write it down on something to type up later, get the mobile app....whatever...just write it down. Get those brilliant thoughts outta your head. It's actually better for your noggin health. Plus, you don't wanna let a brilliant strike slip away only to have a creative block later. I've found that while traveling or in places where I don't have a good connection, actual writing with pen & paper is best. *GASP* I knoooooow!! Who'da thunk?
The other awesome reason to write for yourself, and the reason I write for myself, is so when you're older than you ever thought was possible and your mind has left town, you have some entertaining shit to read or have read to you. Little time capsules & slivers of yourself to look back on or pass through the family. Same reason applies as to why I make the dumb videos I make.

3. Don't censor yourself or be afraid to offend people. Because fuck them.  See #2. (heh...#2)

4. Proofread a shit ton of times before you publish it.  Most of the time you'll come off sounding like an idiot anyway (especially if you're like me and write in a conscious thought stream that includes slang) - typos and easy grammatical errors will only compound that & cancel out any cool points you may have earned in topic.
Plus, simple errors just get on my nerves (ask Matthew) and I'd like it if more people took the time to proofread their shit.

5. Hemmingway said, "Write drunk; Edit sober."

6. If you're stumped and don't know what to write about, reviews and How-To's are always easy go-tos. Music, movies, books, events, travel, cooking, etc. (obviously, I've had no idea what to write about over the past few years.) Even old diary/journal entries are good references in times of blockage.

7. Never ever think anything is going to go viral. I stress this one here, but this goes for anything being shared via social media. "Viral" doesn't work that way. You can't set out one day thinking you're going to make a Viral Something. If you do, you'll only be disappointed and I'll point and laugh and say, "I told you so." If you end up making something that happens to go viral (see the difference there?), it will be a joyous occasion and we'll all be reading/watching it on loop and will help you celebrate.

8. As a follow-up to #3....Don't feel like you have a license to be an asshole to people. Don't make it sound like you're directing your commentary towards any one person. That's just mean. If there is anyone reading your shit, they'll probably think whatever you're saying is about them anyway, so just keep things in general terms. It's classier that way & you won't come off as just another trash talker.

9. Include pictures if you're wordy. How many times have you clicked a link and were assaulted by a giant screen of unbroken paragraphs and more words than you were able to scroll through? Did you read it all? No, you were too busy scrolling, looking for the end. Be nice to eyeballs and break it up into bite size chunks with pictures, lists (like this one), embedded vids, or just simply throw in some good paragraph breaks.

10. There's no number 10. I just wanted to see if you'd make it this far on the list. Here's a small reward if you've only scrolled to the ending because you let the amount of words intimidate you:

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*Yes, I actually have been blogging for "several years". I kept up with one on multiply.com for a couple years starting in 2004. multiply.com isn't around anymore as of May 2013. Go ahead, check. Then I did the myspace thing for a few years until I started spewing all over Blogger in 2008 with this slice of brilliance. And that's only the internet stuff. I've kept journals all my life, too!!

Mermaid Merriment

These make me laugh.

I'm a dork.

Sunday Confession - Dollhouse of Horrors

When I was a kid, my grandfather made this dollhouse for me. (ignore that 2009 project list.  I have.)

Over the past couple years, I've been slowly acquiring pieces parts and other accessories for the Dollhouse of Horrors.
Other folks are helping & contributing, as well.  My cousin, Deb, sent me some vampire miniatures and my friend, Willie, gave me a book for making my own stuff.
This weekend, I got myself somewhat organized and have a plan mapped out for what I want to do in each room.
Here's what the main portion of the house interior looks like.

There are another 3 rooms just under the roof, on top of these 2 floors.
One of those 3 rooms (the one with no windows) will be a vampire room.
This weekend, I took one of these:

And made it look like this:

So that's where we are currently.
Woopiefreakin'doo, right?
When I really get things going....I'll do more regular updates and shit.

Sunday Confession - I Do, Actually...

Sunday Confession - I heart the Buccs

So there.

Sunday Confession on Tuesday

This is what Matthew looks like with a giant chocolate covered rice krispy treat.

Here are some dumb doodles on an Alehouse napkin from the other night.

We also drew vegetables on an HOB kids' place mat with crayons but my phone was dead at that point - so no pictures.  Sad. :(

We got some Odd stickers.
I left one in our hotel room freezer.

You can probably tell where this will be leading.
Especially when we're in Boston this weekend for Dropkick Murphys at Fenway Park.

WTH Weds - Wig Day

Here's a hint for who I'm gonna be for this year's Superheroes/Villians Bomb.


Guesses will not win you anything, but they will be fun to read.

YouTubesday - Another WheezyWaiter

Sorry - but its still relevant:

Suckit Saturday - Moviestorm Edition

Youtubesday

Movie Monday - Thor

Have you seen all those trailers for this?

They look kinda dumb, right?

Have you played Ultimate Alliance and heard that stupid voice saying things like "By the power of Asgard!" and "How dare you strike the son of Odin!"?? You know how cheesy that all sounds??

Yeah. Me too.

Which is why I thought this movie was more than likely going to suck.

But it didn't.

Not at all.

I had no idea how anyone could've made a "Rainbow Bridge" cool....but it totally fuckin' worked.

Even my boyfriends were awesome in it:

Had about 5 lines but was still badass.

Even though he fucked up, he still saved the day.

Hemsford is gawdamn dreamy and should ALWAYS be shirtless.

During the beginning, at one point I leaned over to Matt and said, "Thor's kind of a douche..." forgetting that he was cast out of Asgard for a reason.

Great flick - way better than it had any right to be.

I give this movie 4 out of 5 hammers.

Looking at the cast list for The Avengers, I'm getting excited already.

There's only 1 year left to wait!!

Sploosh!!!

Captain America comes out in July.....so there's that to hold us over until next summer's hero extravaganza.

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Also: my apologies, but Green Lantern looks absolutely ridiculous.

Throwback Thursday 4

Catching up from last week when I failed to post anything due to having a shitty week & not feeling like putting forth any effort here.

Glad you noticed.

I present to you 2 entries from my old DOS WordPerfect journal.

December 7, 1992:

I was sick at home for most of the day, except for my last hour class: Science. I only went for that class to take a test because otherwise it would've been an essay test. Lord knows I ain't gonna do that.

While I was at home I watched the Joan Rivers show. Marky Mark was on. The whole thing was about sex and sex oriented. Not just a segment, but the whole show. Why are people so intrigued with sex? MaDonna would say, "Why is anyone? Why are you?" I think she has a very good point.

I talked to my dearest friend, Cortney, and we were talking about embarrassing moments. I haven't had any major humiliating episodes, but the people in some of my magazines have. Most of them, I think, just make up stuff and hope that their story gets in the mag. Stuff about farting at a boyfriend's house or getting their periods at a very crucial moment. Its kinda immature to send that sort of stuff in. I'm just glad they don't have the stupidity to send their names along with it and that the editors protect their identities. That's kind of them. Otherwise they would ruin these peoples' reps, such as I imagine they are.

I want to tell you that this is my first attempt to keep a real journal about me and the goings on of this day and age. I've tried to keep up with journals before but they kind of got boring after a while. Some didn't even make any sense. I want this one to be special. I want to have someone else read it in the next generation and the generation after that. I hope its that interesting.

Let me introduce you to my family by telling you a little bit about everyone.

My family is very close knit. We share a lot together. The close knit part of us all live here in FL. The farthest way to go to get to a family member's house is to Daytona.

OK, now here's my family [goes on to name names like a family tree].

There, that's my family. My friends...they're a different story. I can tell you about my closest ones. My first real bestest friend is April. She lives in Ocala now so we're not really that close anymore. I've known her since Kindergarten. Then there's Alicia. She moved to Winter Park and lives with her mom. I really ought to write to her. Thanks for reminding me. We try to keep in touch every now and then, if we're not too busy. Then I would hafta say that the most best friend that I feel really close to and have the most in common with is Cortney. We have the greatest times and the worst outcomes. We are trying to plan a bonfire/xmas party and we hope to have everyone there. I'll keep ya posted!

**********************************************

December 8, 1992

I cried watching the news tonight.

Those people in Somalia are really suffering. And for what? Starving people have done nothing to deserve what treatment they're getting. I don't understand.

Throwback Thursday 2

Shut up...I know its not technically Thursday anymore by the time this finished up, but who the hell cares when I can make the date/time stamp say whatever I want it to??

BOOYAH!!

Click here.

THROWBACK Thursday

You like that?

I changed it.

Cuz this is my blog and I can do that.

Here's a paper I found from my first year over at Valencia Community College in 1997.

What a n00b.

ENC1101.WO33

August 28

Diagnostic Assessment

I don't have a lot of writing experience.

I graduated high school in 1996 with English IV Honors, but even in there we didn't do much writing. I've kept a journal for 4 years, if that counts.

I'm not too sure on what I'm expecting from this course. I'd like to improve my writing ability and be more able to put my thoughts on paper.

I've never been told I had any writing strengths.(1) I try to make my writing look good and I proofread to make sure it sounds good. Everyone does that. So, I honestly don't think I have any "strengths" in my writing. Maybe I could find out if I do contain some by taking this course.(2)

As far as writing weaknesses, I could give a whole list of them. It takes me a long time to think of how to start. I have a hard time with transferring what's in my head and putting it on black and white. I also try hard to make my writing sound intelligent, but when I read over it, it doesn't sound as great as I think it should. (3)

**********************

(1) Teacher's note: "That's sad!"

(2) Teacher's note: "You most certainly will!!"

(3) Teacher's note: "Perhaps you are too hard on yourself."

She also marked all of my contractions, took out the "But" I'd had in there before "Everyone does that.", and changed "in black and white" to "on black and white".....which I still hate.

No one says, "ON black & white"....duh. I get the point, but it hurts my eyes to read.

I got a +10.

(why can you not flip photobooth pics in iphoto?? dammit.)