Saturday, October 30, 2010
Pumpkin Carving
At 9 o'clock the other night, I decided that I'd carve a pumpkin. It was a no-brainer to use one of the HomestarRunner.com patterns, and I always loved The Cheat, so that was an easy decision, too. In typical bite-off-more-than-I-can-chew fashion, I chose to carve the pumpkin without cutting the pieces out completely. (You've seen it I'm sure. It's where the light just shines through the thinned out pumpkin wall.) This technique is difficult with the right tools & even more so without them. I ended up using a vegetable peeler, cheese slicer, and the back end of a spoon to get the job done. Some pictures, including the finished product, are here for your viewing pleasure.
Dressmaking 101
My dear, sweet mother-in-law agreed to help me make my Halloween costume/teach me to sew. We made a Princess Peach dress! Here's the documentation of our efforts.
As we were cutting out the pieces, we realized that I got shorted a yard when I bought the light pink. That was fun. We made a quick trip to Savannah to get some more, only to learn that they didn't have the same fabric (despite being told that they did over the phone). So we got some sparkly light pink to do the bodice & sleeves.
The completed bodice. I sewed the whole thing! Kathy ironed. I don't do irons. I've come to terms with the fact that I need to make friends with the iron if I'm going to sew, but you're gonna have to give me some time...
Sleeves (light pink) and skirt poof (dark pink). The skirt poofs have my first official rolled hems on them!
Bodice with sleeves. I also at this point sewed the skirt panels together & gathered the top, but didn't take a picture. There was too much skirt to get a clear shot!
Here's where Kathy took over. See all that mess? Yeah. That's gathered skirt poofs sandwiched between the bodice & skirt, which is also gathered. I didn't put a ruler in the picture for scale, but trust me, it was nearly 3/4 of an inch thick of fun-ness to sew through. So, yeah. Kathy took over.
Action shot! I'm ripping out a seam, I think it's the zipper. That zipper did not want to go in properly! It was quite the debacle to say the least. She finally got it in though & all was well. Notice, too, in this picture that I'm wearing what looks like a white skirt. That's my crinoline. Yup, I was sporting the T-shirt & crinoline look most of the day!
No picture of the finished product because it's a surprise. Stay tuned for pictures of the entire costume!
As we were cutting out the pieces, we realized that I got shorted a yard when I bought the light pink. That was fun. We made a quick trip to Savannah to get some more, only to learn that they didn't have the same fabric (despite being told that they did over the phone). So we got some sparkly light pink to do the bodice & sleeves.
The completed bodice. I sewed the whole thing! Kathy ironed. I don't do irons. I've come to terms with the fact that I need to make friends with the iron if I'm going to sew, but you're gonna have to give me some time...
Sleeves (light pink) and skirt poof (dark pink). The skirt poofs have my first official rolled hems on them!
Bodice with sleeves. I also at this point sewed the skirt panels together & gathered the top, but didn't take a picture. There was too much skirt to get a clear shot!
Here's where Kathy took over. See all that mess? Yeah. That's gathered skirt poofs sandwiched between the bodice & skirt, which is also gathered. I didn't put a ruler in the picture for scale, but trust me, it was nearly 3/4 of an inch thick of fun-ness to sew through. So, yeah. Kathy took over.
Action shot! I'm ripping out a seam, I think it's the zipper. That zipper did not want to go in properly! It was quite the debacle to say the least. She finally got it in though & all was well. Notice, too, in this picture that I'm wearing what looks like a white skirt. That's my crinoline. Yup, I was sporting the T-shirt & crinoline look most of the day!No picture of the finished product because it's a surprise. Stay tuned for pictures of the entire costume!
Friday, October 8, 2010
That time Nathan got hit in the face...
Y'all have all heard by now that Nathan got hit in the face with a softball. Here's the story.
Well, it started as a typical office pick-up softball game. Nathan plays catcher & there wasn't really anything exciting happening. Until someone comes in to score & he stands up for the throw from 3rd base.
As you can see from the above picture, the ball WAS heading straight for Nathan's glove as the runner arrived at home plate. Turns out he's pretty good at pick-up softball!
But then here comes the twist. Mr. Runner runs straight into Nathan trying desperately to get to the plate. In the process, as you can see, the ball is no longer aligned with the glove & instead its smack on track for Nathan's face. Uh oh.
And here's the result. My poor husband ended up with a very swollen, broken nose & two black eyes. (The left eye blackened the next day after this picture was taken.) Apparently, it bled for somewhere close to 3 hours! Thankfully, it doesn't look like his nose will be crooked for the rest of forever, but I don't think it's going to be quite right either. One of those it hurts when it rains kind of things.
Also not pictured here is Nathan's mustache, grown in preparation for his Mario costume. With the double black eyes, the mustache really adds to how rough he's looked for the past week. Anything for the costume!
This week he's feeling a good bit better. True to Nathan form, he's reluctant to take his medicine, so he's playing through the pain for the most part. It does look better every day, so hopefully it won't hurt too much longer. If it still hurts in another week, he's gotta go for a CT scan of his face. Not really clear on what the utility of that will be, but that's what the doctor said, so we're just going with it.
Well, it started as a typical office pick-up softball game. Nathan plays catcher & there wasn't really anything exciting happening. Until someone comes in to score & he stands up for the throw from 3rd base.
As you can see from the above picture, the ball WAS heading straight for Nathan's glove as the runner arrived at home plate. Turns out he's pretty good at pick-up softball!
But then here comes the twist. Mr. Runner runs straight into Nathan trying desperately to get to the plate. In the process, as you can see, the ball is no longer aligned with the glove & instead its smack on track for Nathan's face. Uh oh.
And here's the result. My poor husband ended up with a very swollen, broken nose & two black eyes. (The left eye blackened the next day after this picture was taken.) Apparently, it bled for somewhere close to 3 hours! Thankfully, it doesn't look like his nose will be crooked for the rest of forever, but I don't think it's going to be quite right either. One of those it hurts when it rains kind of things.Also not pictured here is Nathan's mustache, grown in preparation for his Mario costume. With the double black eyes, the mustache really adds to how rough he's looked for the past week. Anything for the costume!
This week he's feeling a good bit better. True to Nathan form, he's reluctant to take his medicine, so he's playing through the pain for the most part. It does look better every day, so hopefully it won't hurt too much longer. If it still hurts in another week, he's gotta go for a CT scan of his face. Not really clear on what the utility of that will be, but that's what the doctor said, so we're just going with it.
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