The weather changed. And I got a cold. Yeah saw that coming. I wonder what it is about the body that goes "What the fuck, the temperature changed I can no longer guard against viruses!"
Not a bad cold. But I do feel like a 2 pound weight has been added to the front of my face.

Con season is pretty much done and I can get to work on my house project sewing. The first victim will be the living room curtains. They will be red sheers with a 1.5 foot black pleather bottom. It was going to be a black satin bottom. But I thought the pleather will kick it up a little. My living room is industrial asian. I want to keep an edge to it.

After that I hope to work on my bedroom linens. I have some fabric I have had for 2 years that I have been meaning to turn into a sumptuous bedroom set for when I feel elven/french/princessy ect.



The top right hand stuff is my duvet cover, the bottom middle are my curtains. Other stuff is pillows.

It's been a few days recovery from DragonCon. We all have gone back to our mundane lives and left friends to go states away for another year. But luckily the fabulous pictures remain. I had a wonderful time. Especially the beginning. So full of promise. I have some 180 pictures to share. Speaking of, here's a picture of the finished dress for posterity.


This is photoshopped by the way. I have the OMG oily skin. I carried a compact in my bra the entire time I had this on and STILL more than half the pictures I aquired from people had a shiny face. So I took the shine off my nose and cheeks. Also blurred the BG to make it a better photo.
I haven't seen a picture of the back yet, which is a shame cause it's a more interesting pattern. So I'll post one of those later.

Here are my pictures:DRAGONCON!!!


The costumes were more funny this year than WOW how did they make that. I saw a guy with little containers of laundry detergent lined up like weapons in a bandoler. His shirt said "Laundry Matt" You can see a picture of him early on in the photos. Look for the orange clothing.

I met many BCs. Some of which I knew, some new. All super funny and friendly. Did the parade for the first time. Got my ass out of bed and was glad I did. I immediately took a nap after that though. I missed a lot of parties due to inevitable need of sleep I just wish I could turn that need off for D*con. I also don't think I've ever been kissed that much either. Ya know, that friendly cheek kissing.

Anyways, off to bed. Got that mundane work thing in the morn.

I spent my entire weekend on the front.






Now both sides are painted and sewn together. All that is left is to make it fitted, sew in the zipper, and hem it.

At this point I am astonished at the paint job. It came out better than I hoped. I have a pic but I want it to be a surprize for D*con. I also get excited at this point that something like this can come out of fabric, tape, and paint.

Well it's about 9 or 10 days before D*con and as usual I am working on something at the last minute. I had planned to have this done a couple weeks ago but you know how that is. Good and sweet buddah the amount of tape!!!



The beginning. Cut out the dress shape and modified it. Made it a foot and a half longer, more flared, and cut the V to stop right above the bra cause I don't want to have to buy a special bra for this. Stared at the scene for a good while and worked out the start of the pattern. Yeah I got it wrong. I realized it right after this picture. So I started over on the right side.


A day and a half later...



The day after that......
LOOK AT ALL THAT DAMN TAPE!
and that's just the back.

Now I get to screw it up by trying to paint it...with spray fabric paint....

Hopefully it will look something like this when I am done:

I have been really spendy lately. I'm glad about it cause I usually hem and haw over every purchase. I felt I wasn't buying the things that made me happy. The way I figure it I wouldn't buy the $20 top cause this $10 is just as good albeit a little dumpy. Then I end up not getting as much use out of the thing cause it's not as neat and cool as it could have been. I think I have been explaining that a lot in this journal.

Well you get what I am saying right?


These are the socks I just ordered


Farking spiffy aren't they?

I also got some thigh high black socks just cause. I have a white pair and having black would also be fun.

D*con is like 19 days away....good gravy where did the time go?

I might get the funeral dress done in time.

So I like cookies. Some people swear by pie, some live for ice cream, and some like cake.

I LOVE COOKIES. I got a big bag of Famous Amos cookies a couple days ago and it's the best purchase of the year as far as I am concerned. Little tasty tiny cookies....how do they makes them so good.

My fave is the standard chocolate chip cookie. But not with semi sweet chips, milk chocolate ones are way better.


If I ever meet you, give me a cookie. I'll be your friend for a year.

Boyfriends be good to your girlfriends, girlfriends will act like you do.

Well I've thought about it for a few hours, perhaps it's been on my mind for a couple of days as one of those thoughts that form in the back of your head but doesn't come up front till much later.

I'm not going to the con.


Short story....Peter has been pissing me off, not that nampby pamby he didn't take out the trash whiny pissed off that all girls feel. More of a slow simmering if he does _____ one more time I am gonna tear him a new one kinda pissed.
Weeks ago he mentioned he thinks I don't do anything by myself. He doesn't think I've ever stood on my own to get whatever it is that I want. I waved him off saying whatever, compare me with your whiny bitchy friends, yeah yeah I'm just like them...oh wait..but I have a damn good life sans drama.

It's been eating at me. I didn't know it was.

Well this week the con is coming up and I was making the ad for him. (took the pictures, did the editing) which took about 4 hours total. I said, "This is why I get in the con for free." He says, "The others do much more than you." I said "I didn't say that....I mean that I do something. I don't just get in cause of you."
He still says "But they are working more" Which means he wasn't getting the point.

Fastforward to this week and I wonder why I'm not as excited as he is about his game show and the convention. I say, "I'm just not excited. I think I am focusing on DragonCon" He says, "It's because you aren't working on the con." I said something like....no, I just told you why. I wave this encounter off.

Driving home today I realized another factor. I already had my marathon sewing job and drive all over creation week. It was a couple weeks ago when my mom came to visit and his 10 yr reunion was all in the same week. I'm tired I am a creature of habit. Right at this time last year I was running around like a mad woman for the con. I had my stint already and that's why I don't give a flip about the con currently. I already shut down till next "run a muk" marathon (Dragoncon).

I mentioned this and he says, "I told them you don't want to do anything and to treat you like a regular guest of the convention cause that's what you are since you don't do anything" I said, I did do something. He said "The ad isn't anything compared to what eveyone else is doing. You did the ad last year. That's what you do." I countered with," The year before I also did the crossword, the year before that I did the laminating, and the year before that I also made the podium" (I'm not saying I do much, I said that to illustrate that he's wrong) I also said I don't want him speaking for me in that sense. If they want me to do something they should ask me and not him. He says "I'm an officer of the convention and so he can speak for me. I'm avaliable at all hours to do things and you keep saying no to whatever they ask."

And that is where we come full circle.....

I said....sounds like someone I know.
I realized....I'm carrying this household. That's why I'm tired. My house is a wreck all the time unless his friends are coming over. Only then will he get out of his lazy boy or from behind his computer to help me clean. And it's his version of clean, which is dumping everyting in the bedroom.

I'm tired of always having something to clean up. I'd stop but last time I did that flies were everywhere. No....I'm not kidding.

I think it's time I stopped trying to impress everyone for a while. I wonder what will happen.


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Author's note: The only thing I feel bad about in this is that like a lot a females I took one fight and turned it into being about something else. Normally I nip that stuff in the bud. But this time I know it's a crossover thing. I know in my life everthing effects everything else. My mood at work crosses over at home for at least 30 minutes, I can't just shut off emotions. I can only ween them off.
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Because I like pictures!
Not that you needed to see this....


His pile o clothing. Note the pokemon pillow and copious amounts of black clothing. He also likes Guitar Hero.


My pile o clothing. The rest is in the hamper and closet. My stuff is out and about like that cause I took apart my drawers to paint them.

My favorite lament of Peter's is that if he had his own dresser he would put his things away. He bought himself a nice tall chest of drawers too. Look at the pile....yeah....uh-huh

Well one week to go. This must be the first year I haven't made a costume and wasn't concerned about it. I think I am just more concerned with Dragoncon than usual. Peter has all his gameshow stuff ready and packed away....unfortunately on my lazy-boy chair.

I finished his con guide ad:


FULL SIZE

I'm ok with it. It's pretty decent for last minute work. I was unsure about using Peter's rendered text. Peter did point out one cool thing about it I hadn't thought of. It's all ours. None of it is a borrowed logo or anything. Which is nice cause it has a uniformity to it.
Took the pictures myself, of him and the fireworks. With the camera I love so much.

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On Wednesday at work we came back to find lightning had fried the motherboard of the hub computer. After an hour I was sent home and I gleefully left. I happen to work next to a very large mall and took myself shopping for shirts. I am pitiously low on shirts that are NOT tshirts. I found 3 winners and 2 came home with me. I actually learn from "What Not to Wear" I tried on everything. They are SO cute. They remind me of cute housewife shirts from the 50's. They are very similar but strangly I got them in two very different stores. Even more strange the less expensive one was bought in a more expsnsive store. ::shrug::

I may go back for that power work shirt with the bow on it. I could have sworn it screamed "I am woman, hear me roar but look at this cute bow"

Something else interesting. I was passing by Aeropostale or Abercrombie or one of those teen status quo stores where the people are so pretty you want to smack them with an ugly stick so they look normal pretty.... and they had models at the door! Some toned surfer dude with long blonde hair and a tanned mexicana girl with a cute smile. I had to smile...cause how often do you see an Abercrombie ad walking around?

Fought like mad to get the teal dress done. My mom came to town this week and going back and forth to see her after abnormally busy days at work when I should have been sewing the dress for the reunion was SO TAXING. The last couple of days I have been a smidge under the weather trying to do so much. I can't believe it actually made me ill.

I'm glad I went to hang out with my mom though. She's such a great lady.

The reunion was a total snooze. I guess partners/wives of the reunioners are always going to be bored. This was made worse by the fact that Peter didn't do a lot in school. No football, no clubs, nada. He had friends, but most of them went to different schools.
I very much hope my 10 yr reunion (if there is one) next year will be far more lively. I did a crapload of things in school and hopefully a lot of people I liked will be there. Oh and one girl....gah, if she is as much of a bitch as she was then all she needs to do is give me one reason and I will slap her like I should have then. Hopefully she was just being Nelly Oleson and had to find a good man or something that said he wasn't putting up with that crap.

But I got to wear my dress tonight, have my hair done for like the 4th time in my life and ate decent food. But it certainly wasn't near worth the $80.

But ah, rest. It awaits me.

Went to the Tampa Screening of the movie...

The adventure went as follows:

Had a map in hand and still got lost getting off on a toll road. I had the map in the backseat and when I saw Ext 77 pop up on the road I took it cause I couldn't grab the map in time but I remembered the directions said something about 77 on them. It was a toll road and I had very little change. Hope I didn't tick the lady off with giving her a bunch of sticky pennies. About 8 miles down I got to turn around. Looked at my map and it said 77 miles down not exit 77.... arrgh!

Oh did I mention I'm in nearly all Zoë costume? I don't mind stopping for gas in costume. But stopping repeatedly for ATM, directions, and such was annoying. I got over it by the 3rd time in public. I didn't have the holster on yet so I didn't raise any panic signals.

So after 2 hours on the road I arrived about 20 minutes late. Was greated by there cool organizers. Walked into the dark room and as I stood letting my eyes adjust I saw about 70-100 folk. What a glorious sight. Sat down in the dark room. Turns out I sat right next to my friend Dash, a Mal costumer.

After the movie they gave out prizes and I met Ren for the first time. She won some heist money. Met Derelict Titan and a few others too. What a great group. Browncoats are so enjoyable. Everyone took pictures but I forgot my memory card so I didn't get any.
This is your cue if you took pictures to send me some

We talked about D*con, the boards, costumes, my latent crush on a pilot, popping your convention cherry, and just stuff. Felt like they were insta-best buds. Which...ya know browncoats are.

Should have stayed longer and had dinner with everyone. But oh well. But that drive back didn't look peachy. Ren showed me the way back to I-4.

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In other news....anyone recognize this?



YES.....it's the dress. It's coming together nicely so far. I'm working with the gold and silver fabrics now.