I'm back after 2+ years.

Not so recently; I decided that I would NOT be doing anything else creative with the purpose of financial gain in mind. NOTHING!

That being said; after the previous post, I moved to Indiana for a year, at which point I took my Etsy offline to update my location and still have not put it back up. I am now back in Southern California. I'm attending school for Architecture...
The only social media I partake in anymore are Pintrest, Tumblr, and Instagram. No, I did not delete any of my other accounts, I simply don't use them, unless I am notified that I "need" to. Yes, if you try and reach me anywhere else; I will (in theory) eventually receive that communication. I'm doing a Keto Challenge for the next 60 days and will be trying to be more active in the blogsphere at least until classes start at the end of August. Seeing as I'm not exactly a creature of habit, we'll see how it goes.

In the mean time: I've been creative writing the last few days over on Tumblr, and been posting some art on Instagram.

Here's a watercolor painting of an orange I did recently. 

All the Pink Things Productivity

It's rare that I get sidetracked with work... It seems more natural to be sidetracked from work. Especially when it's the tedious kind of work that I know I should be doing. Yet, I find myself choosing to power through all these new photos and update the posts. I suppose that falls into the catagory of "Inspired" quite well. That being said; I have one more pink thing to update and then I'll finally start my day. Now that is't 1pm.

In the meantime; I've already got four more scarves updated on my Etsy! I'll be adding them to my albums on Facebook. It's surprisingly easy to be productive when you're excited about what you're doing. I hope that shows through. Plus the weather is nice today, that probably helps a bit.

   

    

Editing for sales!

I'm so excited! Yesterday, someone purchased my Legend of Zelda inspired renaissance satchel! LOTS and LOTS of people liked it, but one lucky person took the plunge. It's weird to think that someone out there will be using an item that I made. It also makes me nervous. All my insecurities are trying to crowd my brain. What if they hate it when they get it? What if it's not actually good
enough? Gaaaaah! But then I remind myself; they bought it. It had pictures. They showed it for what it was, as it was.

*Deep Breaths*

In other news; I've been working on editing and re-posting other listings. I've gotten four more done today, so far. I've come up with a system, so it's going more quickly now. They've also all been organized into their correct spots, so that isn't taking up my time anymore.
Also; when I was at the post office mailing off the Zelda pouch, I was able to look at some shipping materials and ask some questions. Which means we are a few steps closer to me shipping internationally. I bought a small shipping tube, which may not be the most cost effective way to ship, but at least, I won't be caught unprepared if someone buys one, and I have to ship it to them.

Revamping my Etsy process.

In the interest of updating my Etsy shop and listings; I decided to go out on a limb recently. I rarely like to ask people for anything. I try and make everything about somebody else, (unless you talk to my immediate family, of course they may disagree). So I went against my natural gravitation and asked a friend for a favor, she agreed and I think the results thus far are turning out quite well.
This past weekend, I had the privilege of working with a beautiful friend to model my items. We had such a good time coming up with a general look, finding a location, and generally putting the whole thing together, and she was fantastic. I am pleased.
Therefore, starting today; I'll start uploading the photos we took to the existing listings, editing all of the descriptions, and making the entire operation more appealing to the eye. I figure this should take me a week or two to get through everything we photographed. (It was a long day). Then, until we can take more photos, I will be working on creating a larger inventory.
As far as inventory goes, I think I'm going to get back to basics with the things I create. Meaning; for satchels and bags, I'm going to start offering a line of basic colors that will possibly be made to order. A variety of blacks and browns to match any costume or outfit. Some Things that can be re-created depending on availability of the fabrics and materials. I'm also open to suggestion of what else I should make. I don't want to spend too much money to get started on new projects, at least until we figure out our move... Which gives me a great opportunity to siphon through my fabric stash and perhaps condense to a reasonable amount of excess. (Packing fabric is a thousand more times tedious than storing it in a stagnant location.)
I'll do my best to keep people updated on the progress! Perhaps I'll actually start sharing my project creation again. I did like doing that.

Getting Back into the Groove, for the First real time

Today I felt well enough to get some work done. So I sat in bed all day reading articles on my laptop. Don't get me wrong, I was working. Maybe not the hands on creative work I usually prefer. No, today I got into the nitty gritty tedious and almost torturous labor of researching and planning out marketing. The main point I gleaned from the dozens of articles I read on the subject was simply this; Be yourself. Well of course I'll be myself. Yet the problem(s) with being myself is this; I'm naturally an optimistic pessimist, also known as a realist, who's a bit anti-social, socially awkward, and introverted. I don't really like talking about myself, ever, to anyone. And I can count my close friends on one hand. Generally, I have no problem being myself around those close friends. I can be friendly and witty and sarcastic and personable, and talk about them or things that don't matter until I'm blue in the face. My issue, I've come to find, is showcasing my friendly, witty and personable self to people I don't know. More specifically, in writing, in my Esty shop. When it comes down to it, I'm not naturally wordy enough for the internet. Yes, I see the irony here. This is a blog post, and I write it as though no-one will read it, except for maybe my dad. (Hi, dad!) Even though I have actually had a blog since 2007, I don't have a following. Probably because the aforementioned statements (paired with the fact that I'm terribly inconsistent when it comes to scheduling, and I don't stay on topic.)  (What was I writing about again?)

Last week I was terribly sick. I laid on the couch and watched old crime dramas such as "Murder, She Wrote." This morning, my husband and I spoke at length about our goals and disappointments for the past few years. I found myself, the pot, giving him, the kettle, some very sound advice for the umteenth time, and wondering why I never take my own advice. So this week I'm setting some short term goals. If I can keep with them, then I'll set some more goals, If I can't then I don't really want what I think I want and I should just give up on myself and get a "real job" and waste away for eternity working for someone else and live out my miserable existence as a blip on the radar, or another statistic. Sounds dreadful.

Some of these short term goals include;
- Retake photos of current Etsy inventory. Try and make them better than the ones I have.
- Review said listings and make some adjustments.
- Start work on pile of projects that I've been avoiding since my last trip to the fabric store, costumes don't make themselves.
- Do SOME work every day and don't sit around like a louse! (Except for Tuesday. I can be a louse on Tuesday if I want, hubs has the day off Tuesday.)

Does anyone want to help me with photography? I'll bake you any confection you desire (within reason) as payment.

Elves coloring page

I was bored again, so I drew an elf. Then I drew another elf. Then I made them into line art and created this coloring page scene with them... Yay! Another gift for you. Aren't you special?

Happy Christmas Coloring book page.

I already posted this over on Tumblr, but they screwed up the format and it looks like a mostly blank image with two black lines... so I'm going to post this here. Bored, drawing, santa, coloring book page, happy christmas.

NaNo Justification

The thing about writing that one story about death and winding up back in time... I didn't like where it was going. There was no way to progress the story any further and for me to like it. It was stopped. The outcome was not possible and what had happened up to that point didn't matter at all for the plot. The other thing about it is that my writing it coincidentally sided with NaNoWriMo. The "Rules", which have been continually reminded to me by someone who will remain nameless, state that editing during NaNo is prohibited. Abandoning the Novel is Failure. But continuing on in this would be failure. The story would end up being 50,000 words that amount to shit. But I am not sure what exactly to do for it. So I'm setting it aside to write something else.
I'm not abandoning it, I'm letting it fester. I'll probably delete back to chapter 2 and start from there. I'll work out a timeline and major plot points and then write it. For now I'm still writing, just not that novel.
I've gone back to writing Les'n'Moore. After more than a 2 year hiatus from the story and lots of life changes, I started it again. You can read it HERE. Why, you may ask? After all this time? That's a fantastic question and I'm glad you asked.
Recently, probably due to prolonged solitude, I've been having dreams full of discourse and negativity. One of these dreams was so vivid I decided to dwell on it when I woke up. AFter a long while of laying there I wrote down what I had. Thus was born the Dream Triangle idea. Over the next several hours I thought about the sequence of events and why the characters do what they do, and all the events that did happen in the dream and all the things that would happen after... By the time Puese got home from work I had some words to describe it that he would understand. GTA meets Princess Tutu meets Fable. Center Stage meets the Bourne series. Since then It's developed passed even those visible possible references. While writing the outline I need a Why for one of the characters. So I thought of an idea that tied this new story to Les'n'moore, making it one universe. This bridge between the two is both the reason this new one is happening, and a why for characters in the old story. I'm really excited, but I don't want to give anything away. I did however write the bridge between these stories, so I would have it as a history for the one and a guideline for the other. But I cannot share it yet because SPOILERS. I will share that bridge after both are written... or maybe I'll keep it to myself. I dunno... we'll see if I actually can stick to writing this/these.

On a side note, I've created the "Hashtag" #LesnMoore for those who want to follow the story of the nameless girl as it develops. And NO, this will not be participatory to NaNoWriMo.

Writing my Fantastical Autobiography

On our anniversary, my husband, Puese, proposed this idea to me. Actually it wasn't a proposal so much as a "Have you ever thought about this" thing. Have you ever thought about what you would do if you suddenly woke up in your life before? As in you were all of a sudden in your body on a previous date in time, doing what you were doing back then, and WHAMO! Your current brain shows up.
This idea plagued me since that day until I started writing. One not so special day i sat down and wrote these first two chapters. Then I asked some people for feedback. For the most part, the feedback getting has gone as should have been expected. People don't respond to me. So after Hmming and Hawing about it I wrote some more. Then I deleted that and today I wrote something else. I'm now mid-chapter 4 and I'm sharing what I have with you. I am in need of a title as well as chapter titles, any help and feedback would be much appreciated.

Chapter 1

All I could hear was the soft muffled cry beside me, so faint in this cold night air. My vision started to blur. The road so dark and icy beneath my head, started to blend in with the black of the night. I don't know how long I laid there, how long it took me to fade out. It was long enough for little white specks to start appearing from the sky. I wanted to comprehend what they were, where I was, what I was doing here. I couldn't remember. When did it happen that I couldn't move? When did I cease to hear? Why had I stopped feeling? Where was I? Was this the end? The end of what? I couldn't remember. I stopped remembering. My white speckled world started to shake in slow motion. My perspective was changing. A face obscured my view of the white and black that had been my world. It's lips were moving. I couldn't hear. I tried to focus on them. But they were trembling too much. It was a mans face. I knew this face. But it had never looked quite like this before. He looked so sad. Why was he so sad? Was he sad for me? All at once I could hear again. His voice wailed before me. He cried into my hair. I was suddenly frozen. And then I remembered.

Like a flash in my minds eye, every moment I had spent with this man sped through letting me catch only a glimpse of each. I knew this man well. He was my best friend. He was my husband. He was my true love. The moments kept spinning past like a wonderful love story that I shouldn't want to end. But then it started to slow. As slow as an instant can be. And I saw the crash, I knew why I was here. He was crying because I would be dead soon. There was no coming back from this. I tried to smile. To let him know that I wasn't scared. I couldn't move my arm to caress his face one last time. I couldn't speak the words I love you. Then my eyes slid shut and I made a wish because I knew it was over.

Chapter 2

I opened my eyes to a room full of people that looked all too familiar. Each of them was looking at me as if waiting for me to say something. Wasn't I dead? Why would I be in a place like this? Unless hell looked like my college from years ago. Because this wasn't heaven. I sat motionless aware that everyone was now looking at me as if I were acting awkward. From the front of the room someone else finally spoke.

"I'm glad that your getting to know each other moved you so much, but you still need to share with the class." That was Mr. Lopez, as he was exactly like the day I started in his class 10 years ago. I turned my head. Everything looked exactly as I remembered it from that day. Each of my classmates were seated just as they had been. Both Ken and Chandra sat at their art desks across from me smiling at this mess I was apparently making of myself. Some of the class had started to giggle. I knew what this was. We'd been doing getting you know you exercises. I was sitting next to Steve. I was telling to room about him, and he was to tell them about me. But I couldn't remember what he'd said. That happened 10 years ago. I also didn't know what my past self had already said before I, my future self?, showed up. I think I was going crazy. That may be, but I am here now. Maybe. Was this some kind of joke. Was I meant to relive moments from my life. Was I not actually dead? Was I dreaming? I took a trembling deep breath, and felt sick to my stomach. How could I feel sick to my stomach? Wasn't this just a dream? Wouldn't it shift like dreams do to some other moment in time? If I were now aware of this dream, wouldn't I just wake up? I knew everyone was still watching me, waiting for me to say something. I bit hard on the inside of my lip, hoping the pain would wake me from this nightmare. It hurt. I didn't wake up. The scene didn't change. Time ticked normally. I could even hear to second hand ticking on my watch. This must be really happening. I reasoned with myself. I told myself that if I could get through this moment, it would change, and I could move on from it. Best just to act like this was real, even if it weren't. I strained a small smile and opened my mouth to speak. I hesitated a moment, not sure of what to say.

"I'm sorry, what was I supposed to be saying?" The room giggled and scoffed. Mr. Lopez rolled his eyes.

"Maybe Mr. Cardoza can tell us about you, and then you'll remember."

At the desk beside me, Steve sighed and sat up a little. "This is Johanna." That's right, I didn't go by Van yet "She likes all music. Her favorite is, Ah, Bing, Crosby? And this is her first quarter here" He gave that crooked smile and his light chuckled guffaw that was his laugh, recrossed his arms and leaned back in his chair. But those are things I recognized about him in the future, that I didn't know before this day. My first day in this class was the day I met him. What did I ever see in him? Granted, apparently I had 10 years of life experience that my 2004 self didn't have. I knew from remembering that I would develop a huge crush on him, he would be my best friend for years, and he would take advantage of how I felt about him whenever it suited him. I was also privy to the information that he would eventually, in his last quarter, stop going to his one class and eventually not graduate ever because of it. Then he'd move home, get fat, and sell CD's in a bookstore. I would be hopelessly in love with him through most of it. And eventually work at the liquor store in the same shopping center as his book store. That liquor store was where I met my husband. But that wouldn't happen for several years. What I needed now was to remember what he'd told me during this class before my future brain showed up to stop the show. How am I handling this so well, so calmly?

"Alright Johanna, back to you" It was my turn again. I remembered that in my past, on this day, we spoke of his shirt. I glanced at it. Led Zeppelin. I could do this.

"This is Steve. He likes Led Zeppelin and this is his first quarter."

"That wasn't so hard was it?" I smiled and glanced at Steve. He looked at me and nodded approval and did his same laugh. Apparently that was good enough because class continued on as if it were normal. Still moving at a normal pace. Mr. Lopez gave us the third degree about not having all of our supplies just as he had my first time around. And class ended around 9:30 as it had back then. I packed up my things, which was a trip, seeing all my old supplies like new. The most touching reunion of this three hour period of crazy was my mechanical pencil. This was the first day I'd used it. It would last me until summer of 2013 after my friend Mandi's wedding, while doing a self imposed drawing challenge while staying at my dads. But as of right now, I didn't even know Mandi. I didn't know any of my best friends as best friends. Actually, at this moment in time in my past, I couldn't remember actually having any friends. I couldn't remember if in October of 2004 I was still trying to become friends with those church people, or if I'd finally given up on that yet.

After collecting all of my things. I followed the rest of the class as they filed out of the room. I wasn't sure where I was going. I dug in my old jean purse for some keys. I had driven myself here, but wasn't sure what car I'd been driving at this point. I found my VW keys. YES! I did a little happy dance in my head. I'd gotten money my grandparents had set aside for my 18th birthday. I had my Cabriolet. My baby. My grandmother. I got to see Grandma again. In all of her crotchety wonderfulness. When did I commit to thinking this was now real life? I lost my breath. I stopped mid step on the stairs. If this were now my real life. If I died and my brain was sent back in time 10 years, that meant that I would have to re-live my life. My life, and the path it took to get me to him. Why? How? What could this mean? I took several deep breaths. A few people passed me giving me strange looks. It was some time before I could move again. I kept thinking of all the things that could change in 10 years. Whatever this was, I'd landed back on my first day of college, before any of the cataclysmic mistakes I'd made in life. In the last 10 years, I'd made friends, I had jobs, I'd graduated college, I'd traveled, I'd moved several times, I'd had a broken heart, I'd made terrible mistakes, and I'd found true love. I'd met him, I'd crushed on him, I'd gotten over that crush, I'd moved on in life, I'd reconnected with him. I'd fallen in love with him. I'd married him. I'd moved across the country with him. But right now was before I even knew him. it would be at least 6 years until I could meet him. My head started to ache. It held the memories of a future that hadn't happened yet.

It took a while but eventually I made it to my car and just sat there in darkness. Strangely aware of the world around me. What was I supposed to do? Would life continue on like this? How was I supposed to function if it did? Why wouldn't this change? When would this go away so that I could go back to my current life? Or was I dead? Was this some sort of curse? Some strange life flashing before my eyes thing? No, that had happened then. After the crash in 10 years, I had seen my life with him. He had been crying, and I was quite certain I was about to die. Maybe this was just an elaborate coma dream. If it were then wouldn't I be able to do things that can't happen in real life? Like in that movie with Leonardo DiCaprio where people can do things in dreams... Inception? But that won't come out for a few years. I'd seen that with Charles, whom I wouldn’t meet until after my mom remarried, which if my memory were correct, right now my parents were just legally separated and 2,000 miles apart. My mind kept drifting from memory to memory that didn't make a difference if I were stuck in 2004. Because none of it had happened, and if this were real, which I was sure it couldn't be, then it could all be undone by messing with things. If I knew anything from Dr. Who, or Back to the future, it's that the slightest change can have catastrophic effects on the future. But that would also mean I'd have the choice with the foreknowledge to change my future. This was big. This dream continued on in real time, and if it continued, I'd have to make some big decisions on how to spend the next 10 years.

I blinked, found that I'd been crying, dried my eyes, started the car, and drove to grandmas house. I was pretty sure I still lived there at this point.

Chapter 3

When I opened my eyes, I was in shock. I hadn't really expected to wake up here. I was still laying in my bed on the patio, still wearing the clothes I'd fallen asleep in the night before. Staring at the ceiling, I could feel silent tears well in my eyes as I struggled to catch my breath. Breathe in, breathe out, breathe in, breathe out, stay calm. This made no sense. I could feel the pain building in my chest. An anxiety attack. I propped myself up on my elbows and closed my eyes, reminding myself over and over again to just breathe.

In my old future I would have my first anxiety attack in 2012. I would be laid up in bed for 3 days and miss 2 days of work. Because of that, I now knew how to help myself through this. But we didn't have Bayer in this house. I did however need water. I glanced towards the patio door into the house. Someone was awake and moving about in there. I didn't know how to deal with people like this. I'd made it through that class last night doing a play by play of memories. I had no memories of interaction on the day to day scale. Just breathe, stay calm, I can do this. I sat there focusing on my breathing, listening for whoever was out there to leave so I could find some aspirin and grab a glass of water. It was taking longer than expected. Slowly I was able to calm down. Though the small pain still lingered in my chest. I took in my surroundings, struck anew by the surrealism of being in this place again. The clothes rack, desk and wardrobe that made up the surrounding walls, shielding me in from the rest of the patio. My mother had an area similar to my own beside mine and my younger brother had a bed on the other side of the room. There was so much crap. So many things I no longer owned in my future, and barely remembered having owned in this past.

Why am I here? There was no answer to that question. It was then I heard whoever it was go down the hall and shut a door at the end of it. Cautiously I left the safety of my area and crept towards the door. Today would be Wednesday. My older brother would either be in class or asleep on the couch. Or maybe it was him whom I'd just heard in the hall. Mom would be at work. My younger brother, Joseph, would be at school. Aunt Debbie probably was still working her job and my cousin was either asleep or not even home. My grandma would be... Grandma is still alive. I peered through the glass door. The blinds were open enough for a person to go through. My brother slept on the couch. Grandma would be in her room. As quietly as I could, I tiptoed through the living room towards the dining room, pausing to glance down the hallway. Then I peered around the wall into the kitchen. Deserted. Good. I took a deep breath, adopted an air of confidence and strode to the cabinet for a glass and filled it. Turned abruptly and searched through the bottles on top of the microwave searching for the aspirin. And then the unthinkable happened. Not sure why I though it unthinkable, pretty much anything was possible at this point. Including my cat jumping up onto the counter to glare at me. He hated to be held, but I grabbed him up anyways and quietly sobbed into his beautiful Persian coat. It wasn't until I heard the door open again at the end of the hall, that I put him down smoothed his fur and dried my eyes. Then I got out some aspirin and was finishing my glass of water when Robby entered the room. This was early for him to be up, but I was strangely relieved that it was him and not grandma. I wasn't ready to see her yet. I had been at her side when she died, it would be too weird. Plus, based on the reaction I had at just seeing my cat, I wasn't sure I could keep myself appropriately composed.

"Hey" He said to me in his half asleep groggy tone. His hair was still cropped short, and he looked all the 10 years younger that he was at 19. Still enormous in physique at 6' 7" or so, but a lot more friendly looking than he would become.

"Sup" I said, as normally as I could muster,while averting my face. I didn't want to deal with people, even if they were half asleep. I washed my glass and got out of his way, then made my way back to my area on the patio. Since it looked like I was going to have to re-live my life. I definitely needed a plan.

Chapter 4

It had been almost a week of restless nights, plan making, and dodging the question "Are you alright," but I was pretty sure I'd finally come up with what could be my plan. I was going to feel people out and see if I could get away with telling the truth. Not the truth about my having memories of things that hadn't happened yet. Dear God, no! About the way I was going to choose to live my life. The air was chilly as I got out of bed and crept to the bathroom. Mom wasn't awake yet, the sun was barely coming over the horizon, but she would be as soon as it peeked through the windows. I took a quick shower, as quick as I could manage, and got dressed in the clothes I'd brought with me. My Sunday best looked strange on me. I hadn't dressed up for church for a while. Several months, almost a year probably. I also looked strange because I didn't own these clothes in 2014. My long black pencil skirt would rip from over wear in 2009. My blue button up would acquire stains, and my shoes would wear out. I was also still not used to being so NOT-fat by comparison. How did I think this was fat? I wore a 9-10 at the time, and the first time around I thought I was fat. Sure compared to skinny people I was larger, but at least I wasn't so big I barely fit into my size 14 clothes. I heard the faint sound of people talking down the hall waft through the door as I stared at myself in silence. Best not keep them waiting. I quick french braided my wet hair, a skill I wouldn't acquire until 2008, and applied some mascara, choosing not to add the dark layer of eyeliner I used to don on a daily basis.

I entered the kitchen to see grandma and my mom talking at the dining room table. Both eyed me as if my presence were a questionable mirage.

"You're up early. And dressed. What's the occasion?" My mom smiled at me.

"'Morning."I posed to them both. "Oh you know, don't want to make us late for church again." I took a seat with them in the dining room.

"Do you have to do sound today?" Shit! I hadn't remembered that. In all of my prep and planning, I had forgotten I used to help out by doing sound at church sometimes. I had NO idea if this was my week to do it or not. I tried not to let the alarm show on my face.

"I don't think so." I said apprehensively. There were two other guys that worked sound besides myself. Carlos and whatshisname. Luigi? No. Linus? L-L-Lois? No! Louise! Lou-y. That's it. Louise. I think. There was a one in three chance I was wrong, and was supposed to be the one to do it. We'd find out when we got there.

My grandma sat there with her coffee eying me speculatively. Our first encounter had gone better than mine had with the cat. I didn't cry. But I was probably acting really strange. She pursed her lips in thought like she always did and took a sip. I smiled and asked about breakfast.

A Wealth of Options and No Project

The mess I made looking at fabric

So here I sit, specific project-less. I have a few ideas, but nothing concrete. Recently, I pulled out all of the fabric from my fabric box. Most of it is just notions, and leftovers from other projects, but there are some other rather substantially sized pieces. The problem with those though is that they're not attractive fabrics. Or if they are, I have no idea what they could be used for. That's not true for everything, just the large solid pieces. As far as small pieces go, I have ample amounts of options. Lots of them can be made into more of those Renaissance style satchels I've made and posted on Etsy. Or similar style purses. Or even more custom designed purses, but it seems not that many people want an extremely small purse (or if more people do, I have no idea how to find them). I do have an obscene amount of sheer purple material (organza, taffeta, that other stuff people make the top layer of gowns out of) from my mothers wedding. The issue with that is the pieces are smaller, and I'm not sure I have the patience to work with the fabric. Plus, it's so very see-through that, depending on what I make with it, I'd also need a lining, or an under layer. I thought of trying my hand more in the fantasy side and attempting some sort of fairy garb.
On the other hand, I do have a few oth
er projects that I could work on, but I don't have the appropriate fabric for those. For instance, I want to create a modern day Link, and/or a modern day Assassin top (tunic/shirt/vest/hoodie/outfit). That would make them modern day clothes that are character inspired, and not so much "Cosplay" (as a side note; I don't like that word, and I don't like when people call any COSTUME a COSPLAY, which may be the main reason I don't like that word). I personally believe that inspiration can be found in all places, which most definitely does NOT rule out video games. I suppose I'm focusing on those two games specifically (Legend of Zelda and Assassin's Creed) because Puese's birthday is coming up in just over a month. But that doesn't mean I can create something awesome for him and then create something the same or similar for someone else, based on their own particular specifications.
The other projects I could work on include making Puese his grilling/cooking apron. When I made mine, I also got all the materials to create his. However, for his I want to put some wording on the front, and I'm not sure what that wording should be. I am partial to plays on words, but I asked him specifically what he'd want on something like that and he said "Mmmmmmerrcileeess Gladiator!" That's not really a play on words, and I'm not sure anyone else would get it except those who know about Athene. There's also the question of how many M's would be required, and how to apply said words to the apron.
Similarly, I do have all the necessary materials to make this one dress. I even have the pattern. The problem is, I don't like how it fits. I already made the same dress for myself in yellow, and I'm not sure how the fix this particular issue. It's actually the same basic issue I always have when making things for myself. Sleeves. In this case it'd be the armholes, and their largeness providing ample amounts of side boob and a great portion of my bra. Not good. I think it's safe to say I'm still novice material when it comes to fitting patterns... I've taught myself everything I know. I cut the pattern to fit across my bust, but then it's not exactly fitted, and I have issues with the sleeves/armholes, and in some cases the neckline being too large.
I guess what the real issue is, because obviously I have plenty of projects, is that I want to create costumes and garments, but I'm not feeling adequate in my abilities right now. (Which is preposterous! I'm Awesome!) What I'd like to do is afford to take that Victorian Undergarments or Corset making class, or in the very least be able to get the corset kit.

That being said, I am confident in my basic abilities making costumes for other people. Does anyone have a project for me? I may be offering a discount of up to 100% off or maybe just the cost of materials... Maybe?

Offering my Costuming Services

I don't know if anyone's noticed at all, but I've been busy making items to sell on Etsy. And I'm not sure if you saw, but I've also offered up my services to make Halloween costumes this year. Now, I'm not limiting myself to Halloween costumes. And I'm not limiting myself to things I've already done. What I'd like to be able to do is create costumes for people based on what they want. I'd like to help people be their own Hero in their imagination. Say someone wants to be a princess... What do they envision? If they were a princess in a world designed by their own imagination, what would that princess wear? Is that world grounded in historical accuracy, or entwined with a hundred different ideas of fantasy? Or if you don't want to be a princess, that's just an example of an idea I've personally been toying with for a while now. I've made custom costumes for my friends in the past. I've worked as close to one on one as possible with them to bring their vision to life. There've been ninjas and gangsters, can-can dancers and renaissance men. And yes, there have been princesses. I want to spark the creativity inside of people to use their imagination. I believe it is good to emulate the best qualities in characters you admire, and build on that to become something truly awesome and awe-inspiring. Something uniquely you. If this vision sounds like anything you too align with, I'd like to be the one to work with you to create the attire befitting to it.

Plus; there's just over 9 weeks to Halloween. So contact me so that we can get started! I'll be so honored to be of service... Within reason.

Facebook  -  Etsy

Renaissance Faire Attire

Left to Right; Fushia, Puese, Ceeyena, Axure

To go along with my princess dress post from the other day, sort of. I'm going to go ahead and tell you about the costumes I made for the Renaissance Faire way back in April. Like seriously, I have no idea why I didn't post about these things before... I'll be better in the future.

Puese in his garb

To begin I'm going to tell you a little story; Once upon a time there was this young couple that got married in Vegas, and then again in small town Wisconsin several months later. They waited to go on their honeymoon until the following (late winter) spring. For this honeymoon, they would spend a week in Maui, and then spend a week visiting family in Southern California. Whilst in California they would attend the Renaissance Faire. However; they needed appropriate attire for this event, and the husband didn't want to look like scrubs. He wanted it legit status. So the wife, skilled in this area, set out to make their costumes.

My garb on my dress form

Puese's satchel

And that's just what I did folks. It was like 2.5 solid weeks of work, before and after work, but it was totally worth it. He was a Renaissance Man, and I was a somewhat historically accurate female pirate. Keyword; somewhat. We scoured the internet for appropriate footwear for him, lucked out on a matching set of queen anne tankards/mugs on Etsy, and Fushia bought me my hat from ebay. I made his pants, my pants, his shirt, my shirt, his doublet, my vest, his satchel and my pouch. I found bits and bobbles around the house to complete the costume. Like belts and scarves and pins and things of that nature. And thus; we were ready to go. (I already had my boots, I'd worn them the prior year with our thrift store ensembles.)

What do you think? Not too shabby if I do say so myself. Since then we've added various items, like our matching Dragon Key necklaces, and my short sword, and his hat. Last weekend (not yesterday weekend, the one before that) Axure came out to our Faire and some of Puese's old WoW friends joined us, coming in from Indiana. It was so GREAT! Puese and I are going back next weekend. We'd love to see you there.

Princess Birthday Dress

I don't think I talked about this at all, which is strange, because it's kind of a big deal. I made a princess dress for my birthday! (I'll see if I can find the pictures.)

I decided since I've never had a princess birthday party before, I was going to have one for my Golden Birthday.*  So I set out to make myself a dress for the occasion. It's teal and purple and I had lots of input from Puese on the matter. (Mostly because I forced him to give it.) I also made a petticoat for it, but didn't finish it prior to my birthday. I did however, have a tiara and Puese gave me a set of pearls for my birthday.
It was lovely. It was beautiful. It was not perfect.

My dress on my birthday. Puese is a horrid photographer.
This was the best of them all. That's as far as I can lift my arm too.

I ordered a corset for underneath it so that I wouldn't have to wear a bra, but the corset I got squished my breasts into my throat. That didn't work for me, so we adjusted it as much as we could so the body of it was fitted, but the top was let out a bit. Regardless, it didn't actually work with the dress, and it makes the fitted bodice of the dress look funny. After the fact of the day, I found that one of my bras works well with the dress and you can't see the straps.
Then there was the strange phenomena that was me not lifting my arms up. I'm not sure how to fix this since I did the entirety of the sleeve before attaching it to the dress, and the sleeve fit fine, the dress fit fine, but the armhole doesn't allow for much movement between the two.

FASTFORWARD to today; I went to add a gusset  to the armpit of the dress, but after I let out the underarm seam I realized that that was not the issue either. The problem is in the front of the shoulder. How am I supposed to fix that? I suppose I could take the sleeve off completely and do my best to stitch as far into the seam allowance on the sleeve side as humanly possible. But the fabric frays easily, so there's not a whole lot of seam allowance left to work with. I'm not sure what to do at this point, I don't want to take too much apart until I KNOW what I'm going to do, and flouncing around in a dress with armpit vents is not a pretty picture.

Has anyone else had to deal with this? Does anyone have any suggestions on how to fix it?

Ballet flats-making them work for me.

II have this pair of black flats that are a tad too big for me. I knew they were too big when I bought them, but I didn't think they were THAT big. (I have a new bunion on my left foot, and my size hit them terribly wrong). After breaking them in to my feet, they fly off my feet randomly. This is not useful when I'm on my feet all day walking around for work. So I was having to use my feet muscles to keep them on, and that was wearing out my feet. Paired with my other foot issues, this was not happening. So I'd been just putting my fancy insoles into my moccasins and wearing those everyday to work. 

But crap, why did I buy these shoes if I can never wear them? 

So I figured out a way to wear them without straining my feet to keep them on. Yesterday, I cut out an attached tank from a lace shirt I had. While doing that I cut out the ribbons that are there to keep the shirt on a hanger. The ribbon was just long enough to lace through the eyelets of the shoes and tie like a ballet ribbon. Granted; those ribbons were rather narrow compared to ballet ribbons, but these aren't exactly pointe shoes anyway. Today I rummaged through my box of ribbons and lace and found a few colors I can cut for doing this. Yay! I can wear the shoes I bought for work, to work. 

And So I failed 2013 - New Project Anyway!

I'm sure that if you followed this at all, you probably noticed that I stopped posting around the wedding. Then, I never started again. Drat! *Insert excuses and reasons here* moving on!
It is now the end of January (Literally the last day of the month) in 2014. And I'm finally doing a postable project. Yay!
Puese and I have this bad habit of hating to wash the dishes, yet loving having a clean kitchen. We've decided to make a game of it; or a reward system rather. It started as the idea of: Each time we do the dishes and they are more than just our own (like we get home from work and there's dishes on the sink that we didn't dirty, but we wash them anyway) we get to enter our own name into a jar. When it's time for date night, we empty the jar and see whose name in in the jar most. That person gets to select what we do for date night. But then; Puese and I are terribly indecisive sometimes so I thought of a secondary idea to go with the first. We shall have a second jar with ideas in it for date night. Once we withdraw an idea from that jar, we have to plan that date. It can be anything from camping, to seeing a movie, to going ice skating, etc. Yesterday we went to the dollar store to see what we could find for creating this game/point system. (because we don't have jars or coins/disks (we do have things to put our names on, but they're boring paper) to use for it). We left with four vases; two tall, and two small, and two sets of those decorative clear colored rocks. I had sticky notes, paint, a picture frame and a printer, so I was set.
Behold; the date night jars!

Granted; the idea changed slightly, to make it happen. For the date night ideas we have this sticky note pad, with its' sticky side face up. We can write our ideas on the pad (with the pen provided) and stick them in the "Date Night Vault."







The Date Night Vault; if you hadn't gathered, is the "Jar" or in this case the vase that we're keeping those date night ideas in. With the above mentioned sticky notes, we can fold the ideas over on themselves to stick to its own paper and make a sort of secret envelope. So the ideas don't show when we are fishing them out. On the vase itself I simply used acrylic paint, which over time can scratch or wash off. Because some day I may learn to write on glass better... I mean come on, that writing is atrocious! I'm also pretty non-committal for crafts.





For the other jar, we've called it the Date Night Bank. We chose two different colored rock/disk/things to use as representation instead of our names on paper. When the time comes we count out the colored rocks in the Bank vase. For these tiny vases I wrote our names on each and filled them with the colored rocks to represent us. Puese gets green and I, Ceeyena, get blue.


And just in case we forget how these things work, I made a little rule plaque. It reads:

"Date Night Bank;

Deposit one of your coins (rocks) for each time you wash the dishes, and they're not all yours.

Withdraw all coins when date night is necessary date night plans are chosen by the one with the most deposited coins.

Date Night Vault;

Deposit ideas for different date night plans.

Withdraw one plan when date night is wanted, yet no ideas are available."  

TahDAH!!!! Now I'm going to go wash those dishes which my dear hubs dirtied last night and this morning... I Win!


(And then I went and wrote some more on Mrs. Puese Laviathan)

Super Quick, DIY Skinny Jeans from Non-Skinny Jeans

I believe I missed a week. And I am certain that there's no way I can convice myself that cleaning up my house after all of the guest left, is in any way creative. Being sick, and job hunting, also fail to fall into the creative catagory. Granted I'm not that sick. Anywho; I have a project today.
I went to the thrift store to find pants that fit my larger than ever body. I did find some "classic fit" jeans that fit me around but not lengthwise, nor flatteringly. I opted to spend the $2.50 on them anyway and doctor them up a bit. A while back I read a few different tutorials about making any pair of jeans into skinny jeans. I do not currently have any that fit, but winter is coming, and skinny jeans are ideal with the boots I own. Also; if they remain too short, for their use, it won't be a bad thing. Thus, I give you, the making of the skinny jean.

Can't really tell in this picture of the pants on, but these are the before photos. The first step is to flip the pants inside out.  

Put the pants on while inside out, and button them up. Then sit down and pin them. I've seen it told both ways; inside seam, or outside seam. I believe what all the tutors are trying to say is; pick the seam that's single, not doubled over. (Not sure why the one photo turned sideways). 

Once the pins are comfortably in place, carefully take the pants off. Mark and even out the line that will be your new seam. Loosely stitch (Stay stitch) the seam and try them on again, to make sure they fit, and they can be put on. Make adjustments if necessary. 

After you get the seam how you want it, trim the excess fabric between the new and the old seam. Reinforce the stitching, flip them right side out, and you're done! Like I said; the pictures aren't that great. At least not for much more than proving I'm not good at photographing my own legs. Yay! They're still short!

All the Wedding/Birthday/Congrats party stuff.

Just one more week until the wedding... This past one was a doozy. I re-dyed my hair, set up guest rooms, cleaned the house, made party signs for birthday and congrats, decorated the house for said parties, made a bouquet, made bridesmaids gifts, failed at making the bolero for the wedding a third and final time, baked a cake and cupcakes, worked on adding music to an emergency wedding playlist, wrapped presents, and cleaned the house some more. Though, I'm sure that's an incomplete list.
Now, I understand that most, if not all of these things sound relatively un-creative. But hear me out. I crafted the Congrats and Happy Birthday signs by myself without template. The cake I baked was blue and orange to match the happy birthday decorations. Granted; the homemade cream cheese frosting was not, in fact the same blue as the decorations, but it was sufficiently blue to get the point across. Also; all that creative placement of paper flowers into a bouquet without actual stems, and onto other wedding paraphernalia was quite tasking on my creative juices. Also; if the bolero hadn't ended up being a failure; I'd list that under successful creative ventures. But seeing as it was a failure; it was just a complete waste of time and creative juice. Maybe not complete; but mostly. Now; it is 6:30 am, I still have to pack, do my hair, get dressed, and be in Indianapolis by 3pm. I will add photos later... When I get a chance... Like I said; only one more week.

Lots of projects; no finished products.

This week has been super filled with projects... not all of them have been finished yet. When I finish a decent project; it'll get it's own post. The reason behind all of my chaotic creativity is; There are less than 2 weeks to the wedding. Actually that's not true. But there is one week and one day until my mother arrives. At which point, I don't think I'll be able to utilize my office for any more creative projects. Then it's just one more week until the wedding, but I don't think putting things off til the day of will be such a good idea. I'm going to be a little bit busy.

One project (and these are in no particular order) was the guest book. Based on a half idea that brewed while I was searching the interwebs for inspiration for a non traditional guest book. I remembered I had this big frame that I ripped the painting from a few years back. I also remembered I had this gray w/ dark blue pin-stripe fabric. Ta-Dah! I could wrap this frame in that fabric for the base of a community art/craft guest book. But that's as far as the idea went, and as far as it got... Still don't have a guest book. And now I don't have an idea of what to do with this frame.

Then; to keep sane and satiated; I've decided to make pizza from scratch. I made a BBQ chicken pizza first, but left it in the oven after turning it off, to let the pizza cool... The oven was of course still hot; so it got a little bit burnt. That red stuff is that burnt cheese. But I had so many toppings on it, so it didn't burn under that cheese. The crust was a little stiff; but not the worst. For a first try; I think it was a success. One day I'll post this recipe. But not today... probably.





Back to wedding stuff; Based on this photo I'd say I worked on this after the frame. But Centerpieces! Originally; we'd discussed a dark blue under the lacy sheer stuff, and I was going to hem the edges and the brandy snifters were going to be over sized... not all of that worked out. I had yellow remnants and no appropriate blue material. And yellow is actually one of my wedding colors so that worked out. I did not, however have much of it. So that squares of it ended up smaller than the sheer stuff. Which totally still works: It's sheer. I experimented with the extra pieces combining them with a fancy stitch (It's small; but it looks nice when you can see it; kinda leafy) But in the end everyone I asked for their opinion liked the two separate pieces better... But I'm going to just leave them with raw edges because hemming them is going to be way too much work, and my work load is already too much. After I took the picture I had to go buy a glue gun and add all the ribbon to them... I say that like it was a lot. It was actually just one woven lacy ribbon thingy added around the brandy glass.


I didn't take a picture of it; but I've also been working on the bridesmaids bouquet alternatives and gifts. I may just end up making paper bouquets if I find time. But I won't know if I'll have time until after I make all the other decorations.

My second pizza really looked like a pizza. It even has a crust. I wanted to try a stuffed crust; it kinda worked. It needed more cheese. And the cheese I used for that was colder than everything else when I put the pizza in the oven. So it wasn't as melty as I would have liked. But it was damn good, if I do say so myself. This one was also not over cooked. That helped.




It's gotten pretty cold lately; some nights I'm figuratively freezing. So I decided to freak out about wearing a strapless dress. I determined that I would require a bolero. I would up with twice as much fabric for centerpieces than I needed, so that meant I had enough to make a bolero. But I could not find a good pattern without going to the store and buying one. I even went through the filing cabinet. (I inherited a filing cabinet filled with patterns... After organizing all the patterns by brand and pattern number; I looked at all of them for something I could alter to fit my needs and found nothing.) I wanted something with a "mandarin collar" and long, fitted sleeves. I really didn't think it would be hard to find something and alter it. But I didn't so I had to draft one. Kinda. I went through all the patterns I've ever made and found things that looked right, but then I realized that I've gained weight since I made most of these so none of them fit.
Whilst sitting in my office, wallowing in self pity; I realized that the jacket I was wearing had the right collar and sleeves. Granted; it was a running jacket, but it could suit my purposes. I traced the pieces of the jacket as best I could and made a "prototype" out of some sheer purple stuff I have oodles of. (It's all in smaller pieces because it was used for decoration at my mom's wedding.) I didn't really want to just go for it, on the good fabric, and have it look like crap. Good thing too. The pattern needed to be altered because it's not a stretchy fabric. I altered the pattern and have yet to cut it out and sew it on more of the purple stuff.

 I've also been going through all of my music on my computer to make a wedding playlist because all of a sudden; I'm my own DJ, in a way. I'm realizing that I don't have much music to dance to. I think there are 5 songs on the playlist.
Then there's all the schedules and creative planning I get to do, because there are people staying in my home the week of the wedding. We have one bathroom, the bride and the groom and my mom's not renting a car. So one car for 4 of those 6 people. Then; I was told to have a backup ceremony written, just in case my brother doesn't follow through. I have to plan the layout of the room which is hard without a more solid guest-list count. There are probably other things that need to get done.
But hey! We did figure out what the drinks are going to be finally... I have to make drink signs, and other wedding signs. Oh poop... I have two birthday's to plan too. And a congrats on buying your first house thing... I gotta go.