Back in the Saddle Again

Life is crazy right now....crazy good, crazy busy, and just plain regular crazy.

Tomorrow I leave to attend the Oregon Flock and Fiber Festival (OFFF) and I am super excited! I have a friend riding down with me, and two riding home so the mini road trip should be entertaining. We are meeting several of our friends down there and it will be a great time.

I haven't been doing very well on my one craft project a week quest lately, and I have really had the bug to sew something....so I am going to recommit myself to this pledge. So, that being said I have a few different things I need to work on. I didn't completely finish my costume for the Costume College gala - so I still have the corset cover, the gauntlets and the hair piece that wraps around her braid to do.

I had finished the bustle underneath the skirt, but it got stepped on and ripped so I need to repair it and better secure it....and find a handler to be sure no one steps on me. =)

Also there are a few things about the neck-piece I would like to change, but given that it is such a huge piece and requires so much work, I am not sure I am ready to rip it out and do it again. I just realized I hadn't posted a picture of the finished project.

I am pretty happy with the way it came out in general, but as a perfectionist...it could be better...a closer match. Until I have the will to rip it out though, it will do :)

So those are a few pictures of the basic costume...I wore a purchased corset and had mostly finished gauntlets, but wasn't happy with the way they fit, so ended up taking them off when I sat down to dinner. It was fine though, my costume was recognizable, which is always fun!

Much of Costume College was made up of historical costumers, but there was a very nice selection of Steam Punk costumes thanks to the fact that last year's bonus track was Steam Punk. It is apparently "tradition" that people take what they learned that year at CoCo and work on their costumes in that style when they get home and then wear them for the following year's Ice Cream Social.

This year's theme was medieval and although I didn't get to take many of the classes about medieval dress, it really inspired me to make a Lord of the Rings costume. I am thinking that Arwen would be best for me. So that will be coming some time in the future.

In the in-between time I need some smaller projects to complete each week. There are a few things I have on that list. First...I don't own a pin cushion...I don't know how this happened, but it did...and frankly I am appalled. Well...not really, I have just always used them out of my box of pins...but no longer - one of my little projects is to make myself a wrist pin cushion. I know that this is not a difficult project, but its a fun and practical one.

One project that has been on my to-do list for a long time was to decorate a wrist support I have that I wear while knitting. So last week I decided to complete this task. I had purchased hot-fix crystals that I bought at Shipwreck Beads some time ago. I already had a hot-fix wand from when I made my veil for my wedding.

Unfortunately I wrote the letters too close together so the rhinestones don't fall on the guides and you can see them a bit. These gloves tend to get a little grubby, so I will likely need a new one in not too long, so I will know better how to layout the sparkles =)

I think that does it for tonight. I am going to do my favorite thing in the world...and make a list of the projects I want to work on. =)

Promises Broken

I told you I would have a post up by Friday...and it is now Monday...and I am just getting to this...sigh... better late than never?!

Ok...I left off with leaving for Costume College - I got to the airport with much crafting in my carry-on hoping that I could complete a large portion before arriving in sunny SoCal.

As you can see, the progress on my neck piece had come along quite nicely thus far, but still had a ways to go. I continued to work through the flight. I admit I did stop to knit a bit for a while as my index finger was tired of trying to force the needle through the cardboard backing.

I arrived at my hotel in advance of my roommate (whom I had never met before, but was paired with by the Costume College folks) so I went to get some lunch downstairs and met a very nice fellow costumer who was a veteran to CoCo and I hit it off with immediately! She was lovely and promptly invited me to an annual martini party that evening. I went back to my room and continued working on my neck piece until my roommate arrived.

My roommate Caren was very sweet and her and I got along famously. I would recommend to anyone who is going to an event in a distant city without anyone they already know....sign up for whatever roommate matching service might be available. It makes it so much easier to meet new people and to get the lay of the land when venturing into a new event. Caren provided much insight as to dress code and what to expect in the day to day of the event.

That evening was registration and I met a LOT of great people in the lobby area awaiting registration and excitedly going through their registration packets. One of the first people I met was a gal named Holly and her and I were instantly friends. As you know I am primarily...or I guess at this point...singularly a Star Wars costumer...and CoCo is largely a gathering of historical costumers....Holly is a Sci-fi/Fantasy costumer, so her and I were pals throughout the weekend and we took most of our classes together.

I also met a wonderful woman, who after hearing that I had unfinished gauntlets and her sewing class had been cancelled volunteered to let me borrow it. :) It was an incredibly generous thing of her to do and I was supremely grateful. I spend a good amount of the rest of the night putting the generosity of her gesture to good use and sewing the gauntlets up.

I got the majority of the gauntlets sewn that night, the only thing left was to attach the buttons to close them. As they are pleather they require an opening and an elastic band at the top. I got the main stitching done and then got a call inviting me to the martini party...I was looking forward to the new friends I would meet there and was definitely not disappointed.

If I haven't mentioned the flamingo here before...I should have. When CampKIP (see previous posts) was originally organized there was someone who was ordering these flamingos...initially to be used in the pool to hold a ball of yarn so we could knit in the pool...when the location changed venues and the pool wasn't going to be open at the time we were there...we decided to put them to "better" use...to hold our beverages. Since then, those of us who were fortunate enough to get a flamingo at CampKIP have brought them with us where we travel and taken pictures of them with various concoctions within. This is my flamingo with a chocolate martini at CoCo...it was a big hit! =)

I will write more in-depth about the classes at CoCo later...it was such a great experience that I don't want to see any portion short.