Time keeps on slipping.....

I took today off to file taxes.
I have achieved my goal for the day.
Wooo Hooo, I made a whole 11,000 bucks working my ass off last year!!
Wow, really the best I can say for last year is, I survived.

Archon 35

While procrastinating even further I finished rebuilding the Archon 35 album.  I haven't been watching these things and somewhere in one of the many crashes and restarts and clearing outs the file got deleted.  So I finished rebuilding it.
I really hate trying to redo something.  I don't do well with recreating something like that.  It really doesn't feel right, it just doesn't flow.
But on rare occasions it does get done.

And for added time wasting value I rebuilt the album for Archon 34 as well.  This was somewhere between rebuilding and building.  I up loaded the pictures to Facebook, but this is the first time they've been on Picasa.  I even made a title page for it and everything...

Archon 34

I realized something the other day.
I should have been born British.  I have an affinity for GB.  I like their TV and tea and I love the country side and the small towns.  Would love to live in Glenbogle, Market Shipborough, or Port Wenn.  I make a mean bangers & mash.
And I was born in the year of The Doctor.  I'm turning 50 the same year The Doctor is.
From the chatter on the FB Archon board this is gonna be The Doctor's year.
The costume possibilities are endless...

 In the past I have considered Novice Hame....
Come on, Cat Nuns with guns, can you get better than that?

I have the pieces from the failed attempt at Idris....

Sarah Jane's Andy Pandy outfit would be fairly easy to do....

Madam Vastra is a challenge with several options....

There's Time Lords old and new....

Donna Noble would be fairly easy to do and has options, including a wedding gown....

Lot's of possibilities....
I really wanna go to Con this year.

Archon 35....

When last we talked of this, seriously, I was heading out the door...

Costumes ready to go.

All my stuff packed.

I was loaded and ready to go around 2:30pm.  My personal launch time for Con. is 5pm.  Comes from the days of having to work on Thursday or Friday.  So 2:30 ain't bad.

I motored over to E & J's to see what was up.  Had a cup of coffee.  C gave me a key card for the room.  I took one of the boxes they had ready to go and headed out.  I was in Collinsville around 4pm.

Next time, I'm taking a smaller first trip, that way when the key card doesn't work, it's not such a pain.  Somebody was nice enough to let me into the hotel.  But that was no help with the room.  Luckily, our Linus and Lucy were in the parking lot.  I had gone up to let them in.  It was good in theory.  They came up and watched stuff and I ran down and got the key card fixed.  We got into the room, yeah.  I lugged the rest of my stuff up.  They lugged up their stuff and we settled in.

Shortly, everybody else rolled in.  We all settled into 2 connecting rooms, with refrigerator and coffee maker.

Yeah, we were stylin.

After the meet and greet and exploration and setting of the rooms we ascended to the flurry of the first round of costumes.  This is the round where basic costumes difficulties will arise.  Depending on your level of perprep, these will very in challenge and toughness.  It's good to have safety pins, superglue, and duck tape for this round.  This year the round was fairly uneventful.  Most of the difficulties having been considered and planed for.  We had the duck tape and Saran wrap when it was needed.

My Rouge costume is meant to be a Saturday day costume, not a main costume, not yet.  It's a work in progress.  I realize that I can't do the whole thing right in one year.  The plan is to slowly build the whole costume up with leather armour and everything, into an elven rouge.  It's a long term thing.  If I had considered using it as the main costume this year I would have done something about the make up.  As it was with the critical fails on the T.A.R.D.I.S costume, it was a fair fall back.  Wearing it this year made me decide that this year's serious project is a proper tunic.  

The lining of the cape being black wasn't a planned thing.  But, the cape worked well.

I wasn't stepping on it and not many other people did either.  It billowed quite nicely in the wind.  I like the way it turned out.  So it stays with the costume.  I'm gonna see about turning the pin into a button.  Pinning it all the time is a pain.  The belt and scabbard worked great.  But you can't really see them.  So this year I'm gonna work on a suitable tunic.  The mask was a last minute addition and it was a little difficult to see out of.

Learned that real quick by walking face first into a window right off.

I had only had one drink.  My title as Champion Klutz is secure.

I registered, I got my weapons, peace bonded.

Anything that could be used as a weapon has to be secured to the costume.  Since my sword and dagger or metal and pointy enough to do damage they were zip tied to the scabbards.  I didn't take the staff with me this year, didn't want to deal with it.

And then I walked around, talked to people, and took pictures.

That's pretty much what I did all weekend.  Walked around, took pictures, talked to people, hung out in the room.  Had a great time.

Saturday morning we all suited up and did the Hogwarts sorting ceremony.

This year we had a Professor Sprout and Hagrid.

This year was a little low key for all of us.  There weren't any panels that looked interesting, I couldn't find a schedule for the video room in the program, didn't work up the interest to look for it.  Half of our number were sick.  People had other obligations.

The beds were comfortable and the squishy pillows were awesome.  I miss the squishy pillows.

We ate unhealthy food and partied.  Can you ask for much more? 

 The rest of my pictures from Archon 35 are on Picasa...

I am good to go!

And I do mean good.
Everything I wanted to get done for this costume has been accomplished  Wit the inclusion of a garter for the dagger I wasn't planning on taking.  The belt and scabbard look great.  The cape is done.
And I have a suitable bag.  Looks like something my Rouge might carry and is big enough to hold the cameras and other stuff.
Shows what $10 bucks and a half an hour of work can accomplish.  Yes, I used $10 of the Walmart card to finish the costume.  It's worth it.
I'm ready to head off into the land of elsewhere.  Bring on the true vacation.  Cuz this is the only go away from home vacation I've gotten in more than 20 years.  It is a good weekend.  Regardless of what doesn't quite work.
It's a live and learn sort of thing.  Last year we learned not to have Taco Bell and then follow it up with White Castle.  This is a recipe for chemical warfare.
Well, this is probably the last post till Sunday or Monday.  I hope you all have a great weekend.

The Morning of Con.

Which is not a Con. morning.  Those are completely different.
This is the morning of Con.  Which is a special thing all by itself.  Con. prep has been in full swing for 2 weeks now, on E & J's part, mostly.  I started working on the T.A.R.D.S costume over a month ago.  Since the critical fails on that front, I've been working intensively on the cape for a little over a week.  But I've been over there working on the belt, and helping out where I can.
Con. prep is a year long thing, really.  Intensity of activity depends on the costume.  Last year I was putting the finishing touches on the Umbridge costume and packing at this point in time.  This year I'm working on the cape.
And it's almost done.  I wrestled with the hem till the wee hours.  The first pinning was way to high.  It would have inspired high water jokes.  So I had to mark the hem all by myself.  It's not easy to set a hem on something when yer wearing it.  I always have trouble with hems anyway.
It looks good in theory, section by section on the table, with the bulk of it trying to slither off the other side....
I really needed a bigger work space for this project.  Would have been much easier to do if I could have laid the whole thing out flat at some point.  The table I have won't even accommodate a quarter of it at a time.  Made things very difficult.  The cape is heavy and it was always sliding off the table.  I don't have a full length mirror so I'm judging the final product on what I can see with it hanging on the back of a door, spread out on the bed, or looking down while I have it on.  A dress makers dummy would be very helpful.
It's far from perfect, but it's done.  I'm gonna throw it in the wash.  It spent a lot of time on the floor it needs a good washing.  It seems to move well, I can walk in it with out stepping on it.  Will have to wait and see how much other people step on it.

I was planning on pinning it on, have a neat necklace bit that will make a good pin, if I can get the backing to stay on it.  that became a problem about 2am this morning.  That's when I decided to go to bed....
I still have to wrok with the pin and see if I can get it to work.  Failing that I'll have to find an interesting button and do some more hand sewing....
I'm also working on a garter for the dagger.  I wasn't going to mess with the dagger this year, but I had an idea last night....
Still need to do something about a bag....  I started on an idea the other day, but it's not panning out...
And I have to run to Wally world for dog food.
I'm waiting on the Macy's check to pop up in my account right now.  I'm supposed to be getting paid for last week, but it's not there yet.
As usual, the morning of Con. and it's chaos.....
But, it's all good.

Con Countdown....

We have entered the final round of Con countdown.  This time tomorrow we will be on Con time.  Which, as you all know, moves in mysterious ways.  Con is one of the few places in my world that still has magic in it.  I'll get to see people I haven't seen in at least a year.  I've already seen people that I haven't seen in a year.  C & M got into town yesterday afternoon.  We sat around the kitchen table swilling coffee and laughing.
There have been a couple of costume accidents.  The staff for C's Moody costume was pretty much destroyed by Fedex.  It got to E & J's on Tuesday in five pieces.  Luckily C found a place on line that can ship a new one and have it here today or tomorrow.  I'm not sure, I don't remember when it was supposed to come in and I haven't talked to anyone over there tonight.  It will be here for Con.  M & C are repeating their costumes from last year as Mad-Eye Moody and Minerva MoGonagal.  Moody's wand arrived yesterday and the staff should be here in time.
J & E are doing a big splash this year with the ballroom costumes from Labyrinth.



These will be in serious contention for the Hall Way costume contest.  They decided not to enter the Masquerade.  They didn't want to devote the time it takes to compete in the Masquerade.

J made Jareth's costume and J's mom made the dress for Sarah.  I've seen Jareth's costume.  E's been beading it for the last week.  This thing has some serious bling to it.  It's gonna look good.  E finally found the perfect wig.  The Jacket is done.  Everything is ready to go.  Except Cosplay shipped him 2 left boots.  They got here late yesterday.  There's another place out in Cal. that's shipping another pair, hopefully not exact matches, unless they are the right ones, by tomorrow....  Let's all keep our fingers crossed.
I haven't seen the dress since it was a couple of bolts of material.  Haven't gotten an update on status.  Last I heard, last night, there was still some question on the state of the dress.
I will have plenty of pictures at the end of the weekend.
Things are charging now.  Batteries and cameras, they are all sucking up juice as we speak.  I'm doing laundry and packing.  The belt and scabbard are completely finished.  I need to hem the cloak.  Still haven't found or made a camera bag.  Gonna hafta work on that.  I need to dig out the leather lace I dyded last year for the dagger.  The Umbridge costume is ready to go.  I want to clean up a little before leaving.
So I have things to do before I sleep.