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?

Monkey Farter

Happy Youtubesday!
Here are some recent favorites if you missed when I posted them recently.

New Ink for Xmas!!

"Why?", you ask?
Both animals represent creativity and magic.  They're reminders for me to get my creative shit out.
The spider spins beautiful webs despite them being easily destroyed.  The eye in it that I can't hide from and is always keeping watch.
Crows have an incredible sense of ingenuity and remind me to get back into the things that make sense to me.
They're there to kick my own ass into gear.
If you're curious, you can check out one of my favorite nifty books here that goes into animal symbolism/meanings in more detail.

While we're being honest, out of the (lucky number) 13 tattoos I have....these were probably the most painful.  Feels like road rash or a horrible sunburn.  I bit my lip, gritted my teeth, and made the pinched up "ow" face a few times.
And my feet are cold with it being chilly out.
I can't wear socks for a couple days.
But I absolutely love them and what they represent.  They make me smile.
And the guy who did them for me is pretty rad, too.  :)
Check him out here.

And see how cute they look with these shoes!!

Dragon Slaying & Christmas Decorations

My mom gave me this dragon incense burner over the summer after we'd been getting our Game of Thrones on.  I think it (and she) is pretty groovy.
I hadn't realized before this picture how creepy their eyes are.

The Perry Nutcracker is on watch.

Here's what our external house lights look like just before the cold front rain.

And here's what our tree looks like this year.  Pretty much the same as last year with a few new baubles (cuz I like that word).

haha...."baubles"

The 2012 Turkey

This here is some mustard seeds, black peppercorns, and bay leaves.  Set over a low heat until they get 'fragrant'.  They didn't really do that before they started toasting unless you got your face right up in it.  I figured toasted was fragrant enough.

This here is when you add some water, brown sugar, kosher salt to those toasted little earth nuggets.  Stir it until the sugar and salt are dissolved and then remove from heat and let it cool.

This here is what it looks like when you throw a bacon blanket over it and add the brine (shown above) and some onions and a few bottles of Guinness to it.  The actual bird is breast side down cuz you want that part submerged in the brine.  You'd probably actually want the entire bird submerged but I didn't have a pot big enough for that nonsense.  So we gave it a bacon security blanket.  Don't worry, there's bacon on the underside, too.  This will sit in the fridge for 24hrs.

This here's what that precious bird looked like when we pulled it out of the oven after it'd been roasting for about 3 hrs.  I cooked it for about 1.5hrs with a bacon blanket on top of it, removed that for the last hour of cooking to make sure it got that lovely golden brown.  The drippings and debris left in the pot made a delectable gravy.
I see you, Turkey.  You did a good job & I apprecicate the tough life you had so we could eat you.

This here's what Matt looked like when he carved up that delicious bird.

gave me a painting idea

Saw This & Thought It Was Pretty

It was floating around facebook.

Current Obsession

"Seeing we call it painting.
Hearing we call it music.
Reading we call it poetry.
And living we call it life.
So art is an attempt to capture life."
                  -Eyvind Earle

At Epcot The Other Day

Took this pretty effin' picture after leaving the butterfly garden at Epcot during the Flower & Garden Fest.

2012 KM Photo Project #1

So, every once in a while, Martha and I make dumb faces, take pictures of our dumb faces, and bomb each other's facebook pages for a day.

Example:

...and so on and so forth.  Until our faces get tired.
Since we rather enjoy playing with cameras (and our faces), I thought it'd be fun to do a photo project together this year.
For January, we chose to do a pinup inspired photo.  Here's how they turned out:

 Martha said this was, "nothing magical"

I'm standing in the tub.

What Karen learned from #1:  My eyebrows are ridiculous & in need of a wax.  I want gel liner and my hair to grow out faster.  And I wish to not sweat as much when setting up.....

What Martha learned from #1: Pinups get more sex.  Don't underestimate a good red lipstick.  Forget it....I'm tired.

Sunday Confession - Junk & Stuff

Remember these guys?
They used to look like this:

A week ago, the one on the right looked like this:

Now, they look like this.  The one on the left being not as impressive.  Once again, nature proves that the big ones aren't always the ones to impress us.  Its ok to root for the little guy.  haha....root....get it?

I think once the leaves show up, you're supposed to plant it in a pot or in the ground or something.  I should do that this week, maybe.

Here are some Halloween decorations we have up.

This is what Jason looks like from inside our upstairs hallway during the day:

And this is what he looks like at night from the outside looking up from the sidewalk:

And here's what our sunset looked like on Saturday night:

TT - Confession

It ain't Sunday, but I need to out myself.

I skipped the last acrylics class.  There are 2 major reasons why:

1. Dayjob.
2. Hella storm.

So I don't have any class photos or stories to tell you to close this out.

Sucks right?

Oh well.

In other news, here's a still from the movie for the pinup I'm working on.  It shows Adam's hand that I've been attempting:

Watch the movie, dammit.  This is such a great scene.

Here's a photo of something that caught my eye while I was working on it:

I guess that's all for now.

Suckit Saturday - An American Wedding

Remember these fine folks?
Turns out they're gettin' hitched this afternoon!!
And look at how fuckin' cute their invites are!

LOVE it!

Remember last year, when I made a couple of garters for my lovely friends who were gettin' hitched then?

Well, had to dust off the old sewing machine and crap and threw this one together & felt like it needed matching earrings to go with it.

Yes, there are bananas on it.

Man, I'm gettin' good at these things.

Maybe someday I'll make a whole bunch and sell them (that was the idea a year ago).

-ANYWAY-

Cheers to the happy ass couple!!

Now maybe you guys can do some planking!  :)

Suckit Saturday - Boston Highlights Pt. 2

Saturday marnin' we slept in cuz those damn Marriott beds are so friggin' comfy.
Then headed to the Pour House for breakfast beers.

I ate a cheesesteak omelette with sweet potato tots and dark rye toast.
Beer was Pumpkin UFO and pretty damn tasty.  Highlighted more of the spice part of pumpkin spice.
Was quite tasty.
We left a sticker here too.

Afterwards, we wandered over to Newbury Comics.
On the way over, we saw a guy on the street playing a hurdy gurdy.  His dog was chillin' with him.  We gave him a buck.
Sitting next to him was an older guy just sitting there with a paper bag on his head and his change cup out.
Look, if you want me to give you a dollar, you better be doin' some cool shit to earn it.  I'm not going to give it to you just for looking pitiful and needy.
If a dude is playin' some wicked badass instrument, or is telling funny jokes, or is busting some sweetass moves.....he'll get my dollar.
If you're just sitting in a chair (regardless of if it has wheels or not) & you just expect me to throw something in your cup because you have a paperbag hat.....
Sorry, man.

Once we got to Newbury Comics, I tried on stupid glasses:

Matthew bought some accessories (hat & glasses) to help him blend in with the locals.

I bought a bowler and nerd glasses.

Then we wandered over to Fenway to see if the sticker we put there the night before had lasted 24hrs.

Which was quickly followed by a trip to Lansdowne to drown our sorrows with some brews and pub chips with this badass blue cheese sauce/dip stuff.  It was pretty fuckin' good.
Bova met us down there & we headed over to The Bodega.
The front room looks like a shitty bodega with interesting knick-knacks, drinks, & snacks available for late night drunken purchases.  But then you step on a tile in front of that drink machine and a door opens into this pretty ass showroom for designer sneakers, watches, and a selection of outerwear.
After poking around in there, we wandered into a nearby halloween store where we tried on masks, I fondled a giant glittery stuffed penis, & Bova was asked if he was a member of the aryan race because of the t-shirt he was wearing.

We left and headed towards Solas for clubs, cubans, beers, & people watching.

Wrapped up there and stopped into a cigar bar for some dranks and smokes.  Had some nice chats and our waitress showed us her shoes that she bought at Marshalls.
We hung out there for a bit and then wandered back down to McGreevy's for a beer before calling it a night, said our goodbyes, and going back to the hotel room.

When we got back to the hotel room, the Michigan/Notre Dame game was still on and was still close enough to be pretty damn exciting, so we decided to grab a night cap (shot of jager) down at the sports bar before really calling it a night.

The next marnin', we enjoyed a breakfast buffet where Matthew caught a ciabatta roll on fire, we spied on a guy who looked like a mightymightybosstone, and remembered that it was September 11th.
At the airport, we grabbed a spot at the skyclub for an hour or so, left the skyclub, grabbed a beer & a lobster roll at the Harpoon joint by the gate, boarded the plane......

Sat on the plane for an hour without it moving.

Got off the plane and went back to the Harpoon joint to grab another brew and got to chatting with some nice folks from Michigan who were also delayed.  We talked about beer and rugby.
Then it was finally time to get back on the plane and were able to leave without any more delays.

The End.