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. =)