Halloween is nigh!

One of the very few downsides I can think of from growing up in Belgium is that I was cheated out of Halloween. I never got to go trick-or-treating. A couple of times, I attended an American or International School-sponsored Halloween event, but I never got to wear a costume; and was sad that I wasn't able to join the kids winning prizes for their creative costumes. I was a weird kid anyway, so it wasn't unusual for me not to be doing what everyone else was doing.

I do have pictures of my older sisters in costume though attending the ISB Halloween thing... so they were assisted in that matter, but I guess the six-year gap between my sisters and I was enough that Satan my mother simply didn't care any more, and she never bothered. I'm not bitter; really---However, if I am ever blessed enough to have a child of my own, her Halloween costumes will be the envy of all, that I promise. :) I will also NEVER forget to pick her up at school and leave her sitting for hours in the dark by the guard-shack by the quietly concerned MP (Military Policeman), waiting for someone to come and get her. Yes, that happened. A lot. Parents are often the best lesson on what NOT to do in parenting. ::heh heh:: (No, there's on vicarious sentiment there... reparenting me...)

I get all tickled when I see hoards of bumble bees, fairies, spidermen and witches tottering down the street, milling like ducklings around a parent who's thought to put on a witch hat and uses her wand to herd the little costumed clutch. Where I live is so rural, and so seasonal, I don't get trick-or-treaters. :( Last year, I put out purple lights, and pumpkins... but no takers. Instead, I sat in front of the TV, eating the candy from the bowl, watching Buffy reruns. :::sigh::: Oh well.

This year, I'm going to the Transylvania Ball (on Friday). I have my costume pretty much done. Since it's a Victorian theme, I did something very goth-victorian, red and black, with a corset. Steph-II is going to tease my hair up into something frightful, put a raven in it, and my makeup will be outrageous, I'll probably break out from it. I even got fake eyelashes. I'm excited. :) I will take pictures if I remember to.

Anyway, have a happy Halloween. If you have kids... Lucky you!

A closer study....

Pathetic, am I.

To be delivered on Halloween...

It's love. I confess. He nibbles shirts and pants, and tries to untie himself from the tie-bar. He likes to be scratched just about everywhere, doesn't mind kisses on his huge muzzle, has huge hoofs, and my saddle fit him as if it were tailored for his back. He's pretty big, like a bulldozer. His shoulders and neck are thick. He's not as tall as his brethren; only about 16.2 hands (~5'6') at the withers. He's a lot of horse though, a massive hunk of horsemeat. He's got a really playful sort of nature, and is curious about everything. One particularly adorable moment, a cat slinked up to the post, and they touched noses. He's sweet. I can't wait to finally meet him. Bit and -girth extender are on order (54" inch girth was about 6" too short...) Time to oil up the new bridle I think. Waiting for my new Jodhpurs to arrive; have to dig out my paddock boots still. :) So much prep to do. SO excited.

Happy Flippin' Friday!

Yes, I'm in one of my 'moods' today. I'm loving the murky, wet, soppy weather with wet leaves plastered all over my car. I'm serious, I *am* sincerely loving it. I'm just dying to go home. I haven't felt good all week and I just want to curl in my bed with the two warm dogs and sleep. Tomorrow I go to meet Tag, and Dan gets home next Saturday... two things to look forward to! S-II bailed on me for the trip to see Tag so I'm on my own tomorrow--heading to a creepy middle-of-nowhere place. Too bad I don't have a license to conceal like hubby because I'm tempted to take the 9mm with me.

I bought an oversized bridle the other day. I realized that even if I do pull everything down from the attic, that my bridles are cob or full sized, and Tag is going to need the oversized one. I just need to figure out the bit and size. I'm hoping he'll come with a good bit. I refuse to use shanks... I'd like to get a nice snaffled Kimberwicke for him that I can use with a harness if I need to when we start using him for driving as well. /horse-ese

Today's office special will serve as the event-artwork for the Oregon Regency Society's Valentine's Tea. It was a special request from my friend Elfkin, and it took me out of my doldrums when I drew it. Like the corset for Tessa, the act of creating something that turned out the way it was supposed to is always so good for my self-esteem.

I'm working on my corset now. That red fabric is SO beautiful... I can't wait to see what it looks like finished.

Yay. Have a lovely weekend all.

Preparations are underway.

Project Transylvanian Ball:

Tessa’s Victorian Costume:

• Corset [check]

• Gold Bodice [check] Oops, wrong colour!
• Brown Bodice [check]
• Gold Underskirt [check]
• Bustle Overskirt [check]

• Gold Bodice Jacket [check]

My gown:

Corset underway—received boning last night… must weigh about 5 pounds. Found really nice boning with lacing holes.. got two sets, an extra set for my new Regency stays I’ve cut but not sewn.

Project Horse:

• Acquired at significant discount, a new halter, rope, 54” girth, fleecy saddle-pad, gloves and saddle cover (god that was fun… I can’t remember the last time I went tack shopping it was like snorting pure, untainted sparkly happiness powder)
• Bought a brand new pair of Fuller Filly PUPPI Jodhpurs today.
• Cleaned and oiled both of my saddles.
• Arranged for appointment to see the newest member of the Mt. Hood Johanesen Clan (Saturday)
• Found and secured lodgings suitable for the giant hoofy baby.
• Need to go up in the attic and pull down two tack-boxes to inventory additional tack, oil bridles, and insure they haven’t been eaten down to scraps by mold.
• Need to soften my old paddock boots.

Project Evil:

• Found lodging for Satan (aka; my mother) near Gresham.
• Obtained, completed and submitted necessary paperwork for said lodging.
• Took steps to secure lodging, including a long, unnecessarily complicated and costly process just to get my mother to inconvenience herself enough to get me her signature on a piece of paper (faxing to a local pharmacy is too complicated you see…)
• Pestered sister to get financial aspects covered…
• Hopefully secured lodging for mother within 40 minutes of my residence.
• Considering moving to the Tibetan plateau.

Project Exhausted:

• Somehow managed to come down with a case of upset stomach and body aches.
• Emotionally drained from dealing with Satan (aka Mother).
• Sick of house-hunting for mother.
• Fizzled out from trying to find care facilities for Papa.
• Burnt out from Horse-Boarding hunt.
• Still trying to make up from the sleep debt from late-night sewing.

Project So Excited I Could Cry:

• I’m going to have a horse again! OMG OMG OMG!!!!
  

A whine-fest and some better news...

See? Even as a toddler I was a crybaby.

I don’t know how to have friends. I realized this yesterday. I’m terrible at it. I don’t share or confide; or if I do, it’s mostly surface stuff, or if I do share, I then stop the flow of confidence and clam up. I divulge more of my personal life on my blog than I do with the people who I care about. What is up with that?

I have been thinking on it. And I realized that my control-freakishness extends into my emotional life. I realize that I am afraid that by letting people in, I am relinquishing control of the most tender part of my being. My past; my feelings, my hopes and my dreams. I’m so superficial in a way; I don’t really get into depths with people even though I want them to bring depth to me. It doesn’t mean I never have been deeply invested in friends; I’ve had one or two friends in my life who didn’t settle for just the onion paper. They dug into the layers that provoke unwanted tears—but they had to really dig for it. I don’t volunteer it, I don’t weep on people’s shoulders, I don’t ask for help, no matter how close to tears I feel. I don’t know how to fix this… or to let go of control without feeling like I’m bearing my underbelly to be ravaged by whomever. I understand that it’s trust I need to work on… I’m trying. I am not the person to chase people down to confide in them though, and that’s probably why the onion diggers were successful, because they chased me down and made me face myself… Otherwise, I’ll avoid intimacy at any cost. I can sort of see why that is looking at my past, but it’s no excuse. I know.

Lately, I’ve been internalizing a lot of stuff. Things have been so open with my husband and I, despite his constant absence—and his stress levels with the job that he has are soaring, so I don’t want to dump my miseries on him. I try to stay positive insofar as I can (being such a negative Nancy, it’s rough…) so he doesn’t feel worse about his situation. So I’ve been chewing on my sadness about my father and his now failing kidneys… and stewing in my stress over my job and feeling like I’m losing grip on the ORS, which is so important to me… and worrying that the people who I rely on to help me are not happy and are jumping ship when I need them most—I know they have crises and difficulties of their own too, so I don’t want to impose. I don’t know where to go with that—how to go to someone about that without looking like a big hungarican whiner, or even who to take it to. I feel like I’m treading water in the middle of the ocean. < /whining >

Really. I’m done whining. ::::::::I am a crosspatch today::::::::: I just should have stayed in bed… had I not used up every last second of my vacation time to visit daddy, I probably would have taken the day off.

ANYWAY…. Onto better things….

Remember this guy?

Cuteness extraordinaire!

If you don’t… here’s the original post. His name is Tag. And he might be mine after all. I just need to find a place to keep him near my home so I can fuss over him and call him George. How irresponsible of me. ::teehee:: I have to dig around in the attic and find my tack boxes and see if my bridles haven’t been turned into mold fodder, and I need to oil my saddles. I may also go ahead and buy myself a new sidesaddle—I found some reasonable ones on ebay. What a fun opportunity to sew a regency riding habit.. Squeeee!!! See… Hopes.. UP.

Inspiration... Possibly another project I'll never finish?

I love Firefly. I have since it first aired on Fox and was duly canceled. I love the idea of pioneering the wild-space-west and I love the steampunky sort of grit... the mix of the elegant and the rough. I also LOVE that the future society is strongly influenced by Chinese culture, which is completely realistic seeing how the world is heading today, and how China continues to grow.

I also LOVE the episode called "Shindig". It's an ep where Captain Mal needs to negotiate a special deal with someone who is attending a very fine ball. He's being really rotten to Kaylee, and has to make it up to her in order to persuade her to go with him to the ball. Inara is attending this ball as well, and as usual, she is a vision.

It's the ep where Kaylee wears massive cupcake gown of horror. Captain Mal had to buy it for her in order to persuade her to be his date.


Let's face it. Kaylee's adorableness supercedes her horrific sense of style... I just love her guileless, sweet character.

Despite the horrible gown, she triumphs over all the snotty girls who are critical of her by charming a powerful gentleman who humiliates the bullies, and eventually Kaylee charms all the other gentlemen simply with her tremendous knowledge of space vehicles. She also stumbles upon a a massive pile of strawberries, which her very favourite thing in the whole 'verse (besides Serenity). I was told (and this is wholly circumstancial) by a costumer who once worked hollywood films, that the crinoline/hoop that was used for Kayee's horrid gown was actually one used for Scarlett O'Hara in Gone with the Wind, and that they turned it sideways to make it as broad as possible. I am not sure how true this is, but it is interesting nonetheless.

The snotty girls at this ball are all dressed so beautifully; all a fusion of the very modern and very Victorian (I did however, find the Chinese influence shockingly lacking. They use it so much everywhere else, there just was hardly any evidence of it at the ball). Isn't that net-aprony thing on the girl on the right just divine?

Anyway, I started thinking about it as I sewed Tessa's Victorian getup (photos will come, I promise)... and I thought it would be fun to do a Chinese-Victorian fusion gown. So I stole someone's wonderufully long, and thin and wholly misproportioned croquis, and drew the gown (along with some very animé hairstyles).




What do you think?

Happy Friday by the way!!!!!!!!!!!!!

UPDATE 4/15/10: I found this lovely picture on Ruffles & Stuff recently. It is a reproduction of Kaylee's cupcake gown of horror. The owner's name is Kristin, and after some rather brief googling, I found her gown construction website that describes the process of making her own cupcake gown of horror. Here it is -- however be warned, her photo-essay part is missing, so all that remains is a breakdown of fabrics, yardage, trim, etc. Still useful! Enjoy.

She apparently swept up the costume award at Farpoint this year with this costume. Here is her LiveJournal post on it.