Going Vegan?

Between spending eight hours a day at work, then coming home to work for five hours on cosplay--I don't really have much time. I have however, successfully managed to squeeze in P90X. While I don't physically see results yet, I'm getting stronger. It's only been two weeks but...

I can do a REAL push up.

Not one of those girly knees-on-the-floor push ups. But a genuine push up. And I can even do more than one!

All day I look forward to doing the exercises but of course, when the time finally comes I wish they were shorter. I just have so many things to do. But once you start and "bring it" everything else kind of melts away. (Hopefully the fat does too!)

Speaking of fat, I tried to measure my body fat percentage. I am by no means a fat person. But I did a lot of the tests and one of them said I was obese! I can't physically imagine how many people must be obese by this tests standards. I only weigh 131 pounds! Now my self-image is shattered =(  Just kidding.

I've been spending a lot of time looking up all of the nutrition stuff for p90x and it has led me down the road of vegan foods. In part, because they are healthy (I'm not talking about stuffing my face with twinkies). Plus, it is something different to eat. So, now I'm attempting new vegan foods every week. I think I'll share with you what they are and how I feel about them. Unfortunately, I can't go completely vegan because I'm pretty sure Boyfriend would break up with me (Although on our recent trip to Trader Joe's and Wegmens, he was having a blast picking out vegan items--he even bought some!) and I love bacon, chicken and turkey too much. I already cut out beef over a year ago. So.

I tried tofu.

Verdict?

It was fantastic. It was a tofu scramble recipe I got from a vegan cookbook. It tasted just like eggs! It had the same consistency and with the spices on it, it gave it a nice spicy kick. I'm really glad I'm the only person who eats it because that meant I had leftovers for the next day!

Costume-wise, I am working on the heart dress from "Madness Returns." It's the sequel to "American McGee's Alice" and is one of my favorite video games ever. The twisted version of the Wonderland story just couldn't get any better than this! The game released on June 14th. As luck would have it, I'll be at AnimeNEXT from June 10-12th so I will be wearing my dress then to promote the game! It is super detailed but I am so in love with it. There are probably ten different types of ribbon on the dress, which was a pain when I ran out of one and had to find the exact match. I will definitely post pictures soon!

Change of Pace

I realized that it's kind of boring to just state what I'm doing each day costume wise. And I was considering starting another blog to just share about random things in my life. I figured, why not just change this blogs direction a little? Sure, I'll still pepper it with updates on costumes. For example, I'm almost finished sewing a leotard for my Jenova costume.

Since I'm going to be wearing a leotard, I figured I would need to tone up a bit. I joined a gym, but I'm so lazy with actually dragging myself over there. It's just too much effort. It would be one thing if Boyfriend was there to motivate me but he has lazed out too. So my alternate option is to get P90x. Which I have done. I'm just waiting for the pull up bar and resistance bands to arrive in the mail. At least this way the only place I have to go is my house and I don't have to worry about random men staring at me while I jog or use any machines. Plus, I'm self conscious about sweat. And your supposed to wipe the machines down. Well what if someone watching doesn't think I did a good enough job? I don't want them to think that I'm a slob! So really, the gym is just more stressful than it needs to be.


I picked out a place to go hiking in Maryland this weekend. I'm pretty excited. Everyone keeps saying it will be too cold but I heard it's going to be around 60. That's not really that cold. I mean, if it was cold enough to snow I would rethink this plan. But I haven't been out in nature since Fall! I think. I'm not really sure.

Well thats about it for today. I'm tired and uninspired.

Trying to get back in the swing of things!

So after the whole craziness of October and the hype of "I'm going to make a career of being a costume designer!" It kind of fell to the back of things. But on the bright side, I was asked to make a costume for someone who is paying me and it is actually almost done. It's a present for his girlfriend, which is sweet. It's supposed to look like this:

Hatsune Miku

Really all I have left to do on it is to finish her hair pieces and the little gold pin on her shirt. Of course, boyfriend continuously checks over my work and "tuts" when it doesn't meet his standards. So then I have to start over. This resulted in the skirt being made over twice, the shirt being taken in a few times and the trim being applied twice as well. The gold pin has yet to meet his high standards, which annoys me because what does he expect me to do? Go and melt actual gold? His serious suggestion was to find a flat pin and paint it.

Paint it with gold. Not just a regular acrylic paint-like real gold.

I told him to go work on that.

I'm trying to find time to work on our own costumes, but I never seem to get anywhere. We started on a wing harness, but now I have to go "shopping" in my Dad's garage for nuts and bolts that will fit with a flag pole holder. That place is messy.

I don't want to go in there.

For myself, I've put some work into my head piece. It's my first time working with wonderflex and it is seriously magical. Heat it up with a hair dryer and it becomes pliable, once it cools you can't move it at all unless you heat it up again. Plus, that stuff is really strong. Scissors are its only weakness, which is good because otherwise I wouldn't be able to cut it myself. Of course, I have to make the whole headpiece all smooth and pretty but that seems to be a bit harder than I had originally thought.

Side note, "Face Off" on SyFy is the best show EVER! An entire reality show based on special effects? Count me in! I am learning a lot from it, actually. Especially the fact that it's okay to start over even when you have a deadline fast approaching. I'm nowhere near as good at makeup as they are, but maybe someday! I can not wait until tomorrow to watch it again!

Finally, I'm going on vacation this Friday! I'm off to Islands of Adventure in Orlando and then a cruise to the Bahamas for Valentine's Day/celebrating three years with the beau! It is well deserved and I can't wait. When I get back from this wonderful relaxation, I'll be back ready to work on costumes! The Hatsune Miku one will definitely be done by the end of the month, and I'll post pictures later of the lucky lady to own the very first Icarus FX product (outside of family).

Break time

Paypal takes forever to verify your account. When it "says" 2-3 days. They really mean a week. This is why I have had to try to verify it three times now. I forget to check after the 5th day whether or not two cents was added into my account. So much for the "instant verification" working.

The clay mold of Lock's mask is officially done. We started putting ultra cal on it last night, but the new clay that Monster Makers has, doesn't like the ultracal sticking to it. Eventually, it started sticking but then we were having problems with the burlap. As I ran out of the burlap from MM, I bought a little bit from Joann Fabrics thinking that it would work the same. Burlap is burlap, right? Well, I was wrong. The pieces just wouldn't stick. We had to pull off two burlap pieces soaked in ultracal just because they wouldn't stay on. I think it might have to do with smaller holes in this particular burlap. The burlap from MM has wider holes (if anyone even knows what I'm talking about >.<). So, I just have to make do and work with it. Boyfriend is supposed to be adding more once he gets out of work.

Awww, how cute

I just have to paint the dice and they will be finished. My dress is coming along nicely. All I need is a zipper, now. Though my spool of thread is running out. I hope it doesn't run out before I finish-I have enough things to buy as it is.

I told you before that we already know what we are doing for next years Comic Con. Well, here it is-Sephiroth and Jenova. We already found the most *amazing* tutorial to make wings. It's going to cost a lot of money. But it will be well worth it in the end-as long as it doesn't interfere with this cruise I want to go on!

I won't really be doing any work on the costumes until Sunday. Today and tomorrow I need to get out of the house! I'm kind of sick of being hunched over a sewing machine all day. Tomorrow, I'll be going to the Eastern State Penitientary for their Halloween tour. I know I will get scared, but I'm hoping I see something cool idea-wise.

It's a process

Boyfriend and I have been hard at work with our Halloween costumes. Unfortunately, we didn't buy enough burlap for his Oogie Boogie get-up. We want to double up on the fabric, but I guess he is taller than I thought-or I can't do math. It's probably the latter. I get dumber the longer I am out of school.

Burlap made boyfriend die.

I also started work on my dress. I bought glittery pink fabric for it. I know what she wears isn't glittery, but I wanted to pretty it up a bit. In retrospect, it was probably a bad idea because the fabric I bought just keeps fraying and it's pretty annoying.

My mom is helping me with reading the pattern this time around. So far, I have the top part of the dress (without sleeves done) complete, and it doesn't look terrible. I am a little nervous that I will mess up the sleeves though, because they are supposed to be puffy sleeves. I can't do anything without it getting messed up, so I am just waiting. It will happen soon.

I've also been working on Lock's mask. So far, all that is left is to finish up the teeth and to smooth it out. I just hope that it is going to fit right, since I'm not using an armature. I'll keep my fingers crossed!

It looks pretty good!!



We also made dice for Oogie Boogie. They look really good and I do plan on making a mold so that I can make multiple for other people! It's just something cool to have.

Looking back, all of that doesn't seem like much. It's only four things, really. But it takes up a lot of time! Especially sewing when you don't even know how to use the sewing machine right. (I did learn that there is a button that makes the needle go backwards. This whole time I thought you were just supposed to push it backwards).

I'm hoping that tonight we will finish something. Four costumes need to be made in less than two weeks!!

Half way there

As we speak, Boyfriend is learning the difficulties of working with oven-baked clay. He's trying to make the dice that Oogie Boogie carries around. So we bought some Sculpey (they were the only ones that had the red that we really wanted), and now he is trying to work with it for the first time. It is actually pretty hysterical. It breaks off and doesn't go together as easily as he thought it would so he is kind of complaining. And now all he wants is a rolling pin. I took one part from him just to even it out so that it wasn't all cracked. Had to make his life a little easier.

Anyway, so I peeled the latex off of the mold I made for Shock last night. Originally, the nose was still wet so it was a different color. I got pretty paranoid that it was going to stay like that but after drying more over night it became uniform.

It's not a great picture, kind of makes it look like a blob

I started cutting the eyes out but I'm doing it little by little so that I don't mess up. We took a dremel to Barrel's mask, or rather, Boyfriend did. I just watched. Then we put some more gesso on. It's starting to come together, but we still need to keep sand papering it to even it out. It has to be perfect because that is just the type of people we are.

Last thing, I have this new brilliant idea and I really can't wait to put it up! It kind of combines my love for writing, costume making and living in a fantasy world. It might take a few weeks to finally finish the first segment, but I'm hoping it doesn't because I'm impatient. =) I hope you'll enjoy it when I finally put it up!

And since I am dead, I can take off my head

Last night was more mask work! This time for Halloween costumes, though. I poured the latex into the Shock mold and started work on Lock's clay mold. However, this might be difficult since I no longer have an armature. Even if I order it now, I wouldn't have it before Halloween. So I'm kind of building the mold directly off of my face. I'm not sure how well this process will work but I really have no other ideas. Thus far, it doesn't look too bad. I'll show a picture tomorrow since right now it just looks like a mound of clay.

I also did some work on Barrel's mask. I started putting some gesso on it to help smooth it out, but for the teeth, I need a dremel (according to boyfriend) to help sand them down. Apparently, it would just be easier that way.

I watched Howl's Moving Castle for the billionth time last night. It's such a beautiful movie (book is great, too!) And it gave me an idea: one day I want to make a cosplay of Howl and Sophie! How cute would that be! Of course, Howl will have to have wings and I prefer the yellow dress Sophie wears at the end of the movie. But I think that people may not recognize Sophie then, since it only shows that dress for a few seconds. It really isn't a crazy cosplay idea but I really love the movie.

Finally, I just want to say that I am selling Silent Hill Nurse masks and American Mcgee's Mad Hatter masks. They would both look like the ones that were worn during the con. 

I realize I didn't have any up of the Mad Hatter. This was the final product.

Unpainted, they will both go for $60. This does not include shipping. If you want them painted, it will be $75. If you are interested, email me and we can talk about it. Again, I can do custom work as well but this will be postponed until I obtain an armature.