The Thing That Goes Doink

For those of you who might be wondering what I'm wearing today, I think my friend forgotten_relic has captured it best:

( The under bust is real. Steel boning and a steel busk. If cinched super tight, I wouldn't have been able to breathe. )

The last one is so you can see my awesome boots. XD

That, ladies and gents, is what I spent the whole of September fighting with. But it was worth it. So very worth it.

So I don't know when it started but one year, when we lined up everyone's jack-o-lanterns on the kitchen counter, someone said, "Well, those are some great pumpkins!" and they somebody yelled, "Great pumpkin!" and it sort of caught on. So now when someone says, "Great [insert noun here]!" everyone else yells back, "GREAT [insert noun here]!" Even on Facebook and Twitter.

Anyway, carved my pumpkin tonight. After a couple of years of pumpkins of being of questionable freshness when Halloween finally rolled around, my family started doing it a couple of days before. Disney's family site had a bunch of pumpkin templates for designs featuring their characters - Jack Skellington to Phineas and Ferb (and Perry the Platypus!) to Ariel and Mater. I opted for Maleficent's dragon form from Sleeping Beauty, which is appropriately creepy but also fun. Though Jack Skellington was a close second.

( It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown! )

But totally worth it. We collected 475 food times tonight for the local food bank. We're hoping to get a bit more tomorrow. I am now going to take a shower and pass out and stay dead until football pre-game shows tomorrow.

In which case I'll probably spend most of the day in half of Sheena's costume because it's comfy.

Yeeeeeeesh. Went from the front page of the newspaper to the evening news. Only one of the local stations (the ABC affiliate, I think), but it's possible that the other stations will end up covering us either tomorrow or Sunday.

@_@

We are officially the biggest thing to happen on Halloween in our town. WTF?!

(On the plus side, I'm really hoping that this means that we'll be getting some really good donations for the local food bank. The more publicity we get (via Facebook, me Tweeting, the local newspaper and being on the local evening news), the better the outcome for donations. Over the years our local food banks have struggled to have enough for needy family in the area so I'm really hoping that this will help them out.)

So.

I've been determined to continue with the Wii Fit Plus and not fall of the wagon. I have this nasty habit of doing it for two or three weeks, and then something comes up and then I don't do it for a couple of months. I've decided that if I do it when I get up in the morning, it forces me to do a few things.

1) Get up at a reasonable hour.
2) Eat breakfast - more than just coffee and a piece of toast.
3) Not waste water by showering more than once a day.

This also means that I have the day to spend on projects. Today I'm going to start cutting out pieces for my Sheena costume for Halloween, while watching Gilmore Girls for backtodragonfly. Sadly the community is finding itself in a bit of jamb as most of the members are swamped with school and whatnot, and trying to find time to not only watch the three episodes a week but to also write up the responses to the discussion posts. That was part of the reason why I wanted to watch one episode a week (yes, I realize that it would take us a couple of years to get through the whole series, but it would also allow for ample time to watch and discuss, but I digress). So, to my Gilmore Girl faithful who have time on their hands, I ask you to join up to add to the discussion. Heck, if you remember the episodes really well, you don't even need to watch them again, you can just join in on the discussions. It would be much appreciated.

Okay, got off on a tangent. Pardon, pardon. Anyway, I want to get Sheena mostly sewn by the time October starts as I refuse to sew the Christmas Party dress during NaNo. I did that once before and it was almost more than I could handle. I figure I'll try to get as much cut out of the costume as I can this afternoon, and then work on getting the major pieces sewn together in the coming weeks. From there, I need to start working out (probably on scrap fabric) how to make the boot covers and the arm warmers. I'm going to buy pants, as they look like plain black cotton. And those I can buy pretty much anywhere. I may need to buy new shoes and paint parts of them to look right, but that shouldn't be too difficult with either fabric paint or acrylic paint (which, now that I think about it, are probably more or less the same thing. XD)

Once Sheena is more or less assembled (and I figure out how to properly do the hair...there may be a wig involved, or copious amounts of hair spray and temporary dye), I'm going to start in on the Christmas Party dress (view C, or the middle one, if you prefer). I'm actually going to make it in the same color as the illustration (that dusty rose pink) that goes with a set of pearls that I have. The crepe back satin will drape wonderfully, and best of all the dress is great for a figure like mine (more or less an hourglass shape, rather than an apple (top heavy), pear (bottom heavy) or rectangular (even on top and bottom with little to no waist line definition). I figure I'll just use the same shoes and purse that I got for the party last year, and that way I don't have to worry about trying to find shoes and a purse for this year. A couple of my friends have volunteered (I think) to do my hair and make-up, as well. Since the dress has a retro feel to it, we're thinking a finger-wave with nude make-up. The pearls will accent the retro look (they're freshwater, and in shades of pink, green and ivory, with purple beads).

So yeah, I more or less have the next three months planned out. I'll probably spend my evenings working on the outline for NaNo. I'm thinking that I need to go and buy a journal to put all of the info into, such as character biographies, plot outlines and details, and so on. I think I'll start book two of the Magnolia series. The first was called Magnolia Blossoms and I should start thinking about what the second book will be about. Ryder and Gabrielle have finally stopped arguing, so perhaps it's time for them to start courting properly, and of course Miss Olivia's son has his eye on Gabrielle and is sure to cause problems. Ooooh, drama!

Meh. I should find lunch. I need to get going for the day, project wise, anyway.