Obviously, I've been rather busy as of late (who hasn't), and I happen to know for a fact, that this busyness will not be slowing down anytime soon. I promise to come back as soon as I can come up for air, but in the meantime, take a look at this wonderful craftblog.
Is that not a wonderful basket?
With the constantly broken sewing machine, and the abundance of craft blogs about, I've been giving my own blog some thought. What I have come to is the fact, that there are certainly not enough cat blogs about, and it's about time I fixed that.
Starting today this blog will be transitioning to an all cat blog. Well, with some comic book stuff thrown in, because there isn't really anyway I could avoid that.
Updates coming soon!
Littler Solution for large charms...
There were actually a lot of Henchmen, but these guys were the best!Oh Wondercon, every year more fun, every year more crowds.
I'm just going to type this and leave it alone, because there is no way I can fathom that the people running the con did not realize, once things got going, the mess they created: Less space for "waiting to get onto the convention floor" is in dire order. Especially, when that space remains empty the entire day. That space needs to be given to the actual "floor" space, so that people can move and breathe. I'm sure Wondercon is getting flack from the city, about people lining up on the street (I recall the cops from a few years back screaming at everyone). However, the current setup isn't working. If the city saw the mass of people in the crowded aisles, I'm sure their next complaint is going to be "fire hazard."
Dean Venture in his pajamas.
That typed, let's talk about fun stuff and my godson's meta costume. Originally I had big plans of dressing the wee one up as The Monarch from Venture Brothers. However, and luckily, for him I'm still in the midst of sewing machine issues. Not wanting to fully submit to store bought, I thought it would be funny if we dressed him in some Spiderman pjs and called him Dean. What can I say? The Venture Brothers and their pajamas is one of the funniest things on the show, for me.
The official Dean Venture shirt.
Knowing that we needed something more to convey that the babe was dressed as Dean Venture, and not just in his jammies, I came up with the lack luster of idea of putting a name tag on him, which would read "Dean." Thankfully, D came along and shared with me the official Dean Venture t-shirt, which:
a) made me feel a bit better about my lack luster idea
b) helped me figure out what the name tag should look like
Our very own Dean.
The "costume" was bit high concept, but we actually had a couple people stop and laugh. However, my favorite moment was when we saw an excellent group of Monarch Henchmen, and decided to ask them for a picture. The conversation went a bit like this:
Me: (gently touching the arm of a Henchmen rushing to get somewhere) Excuse me, could we get a picture?
Henchmen: (polite but annoyed) Uhmmmmm
Me: We just want a picture with our Dean
Entire group stops, excited, curious, looks around. Nikki wanders up with "Dean" in her arms.
All Henchmen: DEEEEAAAAN!
It was pretty awesome. They fussed over his button and laughed, and I got my favorite picture from a con ever. Our Dean was wonderful too. I think he was truly fascinated by The Henchmen, which only convinces me that he must indeed be cutout for a life of crime.
It figures that a Green Lantern would have to give the X-men directions.
Speaking of crimes, there weren't many, if any, costume "crimes" this year. We saw a ton of wonderful, impressive, and cool costumes.
Vision and FRIGGIN Hellcat!
There was even this Spectacular Hellcat; Patsy Walker, costume. Which delighted me because, I've never seen a Hellcat at convention before, and I'm really digging the latest Hellcat mini that just wrapped. Believe me, if you like silly and surreal writing, and lovely art pick it up.
Female Robin
Actually, I don't recall seeing one costume that looked like it never should have crept out of it's parent's basement. People stepped it up a notched, which was a bit disappointing for me, because I do also enjoy the ones that make you shake your head and wonder.
I wish D hadn't stepped out to get food, otherwise I would name this dude.
There was also a good deal of crowd stopping costumes and creations about. A larger number of these were Transformers, and were pretty jawdropping.
Aww, doesn't that girl in the background look nice?
My problem though, and I know I said I wouldn't complain anymore (and it's such a tired complaint) is that these things really are crowd stopping. You get an entire mess of people trying to get a look at these fabulous creations, and you can't get around them. Actually, the Transformer fans were pretty good about this, and did try to step off to the side, or pose in unpopulated areas. Cheers to them.
Look, if you're gonna ruin my lunch, I can take your picture.
The same really can't be said for the guys running their remote controlled, super loud, R2D2 units. One almost ran over our little Dean, when we were in a totally remote area, trying to give him a bottle. They then proceeded to blare their damn bloops and bleeps, then the Star Wars theme song, and collect a gigantic crowd right on top of where we were sitting. They could have just moved 20 feet over and we wouldn't have a smushed baby and a ruined lunch, but I don't think these dudes have any concept that not everyone is excited by the color changing paint they used.
Dean is gonna finish cleaning some droids... droid's clocks that is!
All in all, it was great time spent with good friends and it just makes me more excited for San Diego, later this year. But, I better get a handle on my crowd frustration before then. Last thing we need is me hulking out, and maybe tearing off a car door panel or something.
Free handed (with the help of a cup) Blue Beetle symbol stencil
It is that time of the year! Sadly, I've been a little swamped, and wasn't able to come up with anything too creative. Then end result is a freezer stencil Blue Beetle T-shirt. I had played around with the idea of getting a light blue shirt and painting over the shoulders and back the beetle design (like Ted's own costume or something Snapper Carr might wear), but I was afraid that fabric paint in that large of a quantity wouldn't look nice.
There comes a time in girl's life when she realizes she can't craft whatever she likes, and ends up with an expensive hobby. For me that would be my Juicy Couture charm bracelet. It is a bit of a hodgepodge in the sense that I won the actual bracelet on a Goodwill auction, and took off the lipgloss charms to make more room for my own charms! I never would have used the lipgloss, and the money I saved on the bracelet means I can buy more charms; call me ghetto, but I'm happy with it.
Juicy Charm Catcher
Now, I love my little collection, but having a job where I spend a bunch of time at a computer, I find it a bit difficult to wear (and impossible to type with). Not wanting to just wear it out in the evening or to random coffee meets with the girls, I went about looking at how others wear their charms, when they're not on the bracelet. One of my favorites is the idea of attaching it to your purse, but I'm a bit too violent with my purse for that. The other solution I came across was the Juicy Couture Charm Catcher necklace. I've never actually seen it in person, but I liked the idea and the style of it.
Pinwheel charm on faux charm catcher
Of course I could go to the Juicy shop downtown, or the near by Nordstrom to see if I liked the look of it, or I could go into my own jewelery making component and findings collection and see what I had there. What I had was a nice loop that came in a three pack, which I bought for another necklace awhile back. I pulled out that loop, spray painted it gold, set it on a jump ring, strung it on a chain, and then placed one of my charms on it. I can't say I was wild about the end result; my faux catcher was too big for my taste, so I set about on another idea.
Juicy charm on large chain
My next idea was to pull out a large chained necklace I had laying around. I do believe that JC sells charm necklaces that follow this same idea, but of course the chain looks like a larger version of their bracelet. Again sadly, I felt this was just too big, not very me, but would probably look great on Mr. T.
Juicy charm on simple chain with jump ring
I was getting to the bottom of my jewelery case, when I decided to try the charm on a simple gold jump ring, strung on a chain. This isn't exactly earth shattering, but it is the best solution I found that evening. I'm still on the lookout for a smaller gold loop to make my own charm catcher, but I haven't had much luck. In the meantime, this should work out fine. Alternatively I could try a ribbon, but I'm afraid that weight of the charm might constantly untie it.
My idea well has run dry... any suggestions?
Sorry readers, I am currently, and again, without a sewing machine pedal. This of course slows my crafting, and what I have done this month is ultra top secret Valentines Day and Birthday stuff, that I can't share until later. I'm promise... craft to come.
