So I promised photos of corset, and here it is (and Michael, looking dashingly dead)! Note to self: Corsets hold stuff up. Don't stick a safety pin to your bra to hold your petticoat up, because you don't need it. But you WILL have a safety-pin-shaped indention in your ribs for hours. Also note to self: alter the petticoat so it's not too long and we don't have this issue again. I love all the floof. And I had time to get the tablecloth bustle all ruched properly this time, instead of just draped on my butt.



Franklin Street wasn't as scary as I thought it'd be, but we had an iPhone to help us navigate to parking once they started arbitrarily turning roads one-way. I will sound impressive and committed when I say we parked in Carrboro and walked to Chapel Hill, but it was only a half mile or so.

Also with more of the fabulous things that happened this weekend, Michelle offered to buy my bedroom furniture, which means I don't have to go the Craigslist route and have strangers in my house! YAY!

I was all gun-ho to start emptying drawers yesterday but it was rainy and cold, and I was sleepy, so I priced out a Dell laptop, which probably WON'T be any cheaper than a Mac, for what I want in it, and knitted while watching a Teen Titans marathon, the ninja turtles movie, and half of Bram Stoker's Dracula before going to bed.

ta-da! Today, spats. Tomorrow, the world corsets!

The last bit of leftover upholstery fabric from a chair, and some really neat buttons. Godamn buttons and their stupid stupid button holes. I win, bitches!

Might have to put an elastic strap underneath.

I need to seriously sit down this weekend and come up with a concept for the next Clockwork Ball! August in the south. I think poofy shorts will be the way to go. I should look for some neat leggings or something.

I didn't go to bed until after 1 am last night and this morning was difficult.

The skirt is done. Mostly. I am getting confused around the zipper, which is supposed to go through both layers of the skirt, which implies both layers are attached, which kind of makes a mess of things once you start yanking on drawstrings. Maybe my zipper is too long (it was originally intended to go from underbust to hip). I might just sew the underskirt to it for a few inches and then just leave it. It's all nice and neat on the front though. I was really really careful whenever I had to remove stitches because taffeta is not very forgiving of needle punctures, and then I stabbed right through the front of one of the channels while threading the ribbon and put a hole in it. D'oh.

I hemmed a lot of ruffle. I cheated and used stitch witchery.

My petticoat is too long. When I said "it fits" apparently what I meant was "it does not make me look like a six year old playing dress-up in mom's clothing". I may just have to remove the bottom ruffle for now, and trim the crinoline and lining. Or just hike it up to my arm pits and lace it up tight in the corset for tomorrow! I like that plan better.

Tiggy goes to the vet for check-up after work, and then I finish skirt and style the wig I want to wear. There won't be time for a nap AND getting my hair all fancy tomorrow night, and a nap is requisite for continued functioning.

Saturday I spent lots and lots of time at the fabric store getting ideas and materials for the unbirthday. I am finally settled on the Queen of Hearts, and am moving forward! Before I can work on that one though, I have to finish my outfit for Friday's clockwork ball. Yay bustle skirt! ( cut for babbling about bustle skirt! )

Sunday was paint party, and prep for paint party! It was hilarious and after I got past the artist's block I had fun actually painting. It has been awhile.

I made one.





To be used for June's Clockwork Ball outfit.

...if I get my skirt done.

Klaude and Emmett posted the playlist they spun for the V-day Clockwork Ball. I want all of it.

If I'm still awake I hope to catch their Clockwork Cabaret radio broadcast tonight.

( Gutter Tango on the Devil's Dance Floor is the High Price for Necromancy (okay I'll stop now) )

this is awesome.

I left my cellphone at work this weekend. I did not miss it, and apparently need to do that more often if it means I will spend several consecutive hours cleaning my house. And loving it.

I have yet to really orchestrate a full top-to-bottom cleaning spree. My brain is still having difficulty coming to terms with the fact that I have nearly double the square footage to clean, and that I can't do it all in two hours anymore. I continue to be baffled at why I'm only able to tackle a room at a time on any given night, and my mother laughs at me. Of course I also get side tracked by re-organizing. Like last night: the computer desk got a good work-over, and I finally made a slightly smaller mess of all the cables and cords behind it.

A last minute GoodWill trip Friday night found me a really nifty shirt that went with my steampunk outfit. Michael planned our V-day, apparently ages and ages ago. I just tacked on the clockwork ball at the end. He found a place that let you paint ready-made ceramics. I have no idea if I planned my colors well, since there's a big difference between the glaze before and after firing. I may end up with a bowl that looks like it has been puked on. Michael did a little red dragon (after searching the shelves for a cute little pony to defile. I'm SURE it will come out the intended red, but for an hour and a half he sat there meticulously painting a little pink dragon.

We perfectly timed our arrival to dinner at McCormick & Schmidt's. It's a pretty new restaurant for the area AND v-day, so there were some crazy wait-times. Luckily, we had reservations, or I would have started snatching plates as they passed by. They were giving out roses to all the girls, which was cute. The timing between courses was good, and the wait staff was attentive, so kudos to them for handling things well. And the food was SO GOOD!

Then we got changed for the clockwork ball held at Mansion 462. The place was really cool. They had a vintage men's club kind of decor. Lots of dark wood and animal motifs that kind of hinted at the victorian. A perfect place for steampunk! I loved all the mismatched antique chairs. Here's the outfit I put together for the night, although here one of my poofies wasn't poofing in the shorts. They are very comfy though, and I can't believe I got into the corset after eating all that food earlier.

We made a new friend! And by 'friend' I mean drunken lech who tried to hit on all the girls in our group. He apparently wandered into the bar (to be fair, it was a saturday night), looked around at all the steamy people, turned to Michael, and went "....what is this?" And we never got rid of him. I stuck my fingers in my ears and went "lalala!" when he started going on an on about how hot I was, and I made room for Eric, should he decide to reach over and throttle the guy when he tried to grope Michelle. I hid for awhile by Will and turned down his "let's be best friends!"/apology-for-being-drunk-weird-guy shots of Jaeger.

Then I got home, slept the sleep of the dead, cleaned, got myself shot out into the Gerudo Desert, and cleaned.

Weekend well spent!

Or simply the exhausted.

I don't know what's up, something horrible has gone wrong. After rolling in at 2 am from WTH Con, my eyes popped open at 7:41 am yesterday morning.

One discernible problem was that it was too bright in my room, a problem that is on my House list to have remedied. While I do like that the loft gets nice and sunny during the day, I don't like it in my face while I try to sleep. So I crawled into the nice dark guest room with its nice clean sheets an had an awesome 2-hour nap. The cats didn't miss a beat, and followed me. They also took a nap in that bed later yesterday afternoon. I decided to sleep there last night, with plans to wash the sheets on my own bed, and it was so comfy!

I'm having problems figuring out how an ancient old mattress, which is smaller, with two cats was somehow more restful.

I did a lot of housework yesterday, and I made my poofy shorts for steampunk! They're kind of awesome. However, the suede-ish fabric for the arm sleeves hates me, or my sewing machine, and we're not on speaking terms at the moment.

So, conceptually, I have a pretty solid costume for upcoming steampunk. I am borrowing a corset from rootbeerwoman, and realized the thrift pants I bought the other day are almost the exact same brown, a little too matchy matchy than what I was going for. I might have some cords that I blew the knee out of sitting in the closet that could be sacrificed.

Target has some really cute hats right now.

I am so taking a nap when I get home from work. Is it Friday yet?

No sleeping in for me this past weekend, which makes for very tired Monday morning.

On Saturday I did at least get my oil changed, stomped around in the park for a few hours, and then was pretty damn useless the rest of the day. I don't think I'm a morning excercise person.

I'm working on gloves for my next steampunk, but they are more like arm warmers with thumb holes than actual gloves. Now that the first one is all sized, the second one should finish pretty quickly. I also tore out the side seams for the blue vest I found. Getting the lining put back together when most of it is still attached into the vest is a pain, but I think I've got it all pinned and can just run it through the machine tonight after ironing down the inner seams.

naiad_kitty and I went out yesterday and picked out some fabrics for Kyoshi Warrior robes and skirts. She'll be working on a mock-up/her costume and will be our ginea pig. She gave me a good idea for the armor that I think will be easily duplicated. I'm a little grateful now for the past experience of churning out a zillion (okay, five) ANBU vests.

Yay projects getting worked on!

Although by now you're probably sick of the problem!

I've been stuck in this "must wear skirt/dress" mindset for my next steampunk, but it dawned on me that I don't have to. It's the fashion of a fictitious era and I can be girly AND wear garments with leg holes in them *gasp*.

Since it's on V-Day, I wish I had something fancy to put together but I used up the closet for that on New Years, and don't have the money to put into something new at the moment, or the time to make it from scratch.

So I was thinking of looking for some good pants to cut down and remake into some poofy shorts, similar to what this person has done.

I am ignoring the fact that it's February.

Also? I think that costume is adorable.

The next Clockwork Ball is set for Valentine's Day - Saturday, February 14th at Mansion 462 in Chapel Hill.