Guess what! Chase and I are homeless.
We closed on our house Friday. All done. The new owner takes possession a week from today, so we have until then to move out. It’s so strange feeling. Like I said, I’m a little sad. It’s been a great home. But before I get too far into all that, let’s go back and start where I left off!
I had Tuesday off work – because it was dad’s retirement day! He’s actually been retired for about a month now but they had his luncheon Tuesday. We spent the morning running some errands, then headed over to the luncheon. It was really great.
Mom, dad, me and Chase!
And I can finally post this…! Dad’s company always gives the retiree a caricature of them at their retirement party, and dad is the one who has always done the artwork. They weren’t going to ask him to do that, of course… so they asked me and Chase!
I did the art for Dad and Kes, Chase did the grill, the background and the lettering. I was pretty happy with it! I’ll upload the actual file here sometime soon.
So then Friday, we closed on our house. That was exciting. It feels weird to be technically living in somebody else’s house right now.
So where are we going? I don’t know that I’ve posted our plan. We are moving in with Nana and Kristie, just like we did in 2009 when we were between our apartment and buying the house. We plan to be there about 3 months — this is for 2 reasons. It’s a sellers market here right now and houses are going so fast it’s crazy. A friend of a friend was stuck house hunting for months because as soon as they’d find something they’d like, there would already be an offer. So from everything we’ve heard, the market is finally slowing down now and we’re hoping in 3 or so months – once school’s back in and most families are settled – we can have an easier time finding something without having to panic.
And the other reason – we’ll also be able to save up some more money to add to our down payment. So that’ll be great.
So Saturday we ran some errands. Went to dinner with my parents. Sunday we moved stuff over to Nana’s. And nearly killed ourselves. It was rough LOL. We get to do it the rest of the week and then Saturday will be the big moving day – sending all the major furniture to storage. Sunday we’ll take our last personal things (and my sewing) over to Nana’s.
Ok so speaking of sewing let’s move onto that.
I got a little bit done on Amidala last week but gosh it’s nothing to look at.
I got the panels for the back and front cut out, finished the edges, pressed. I then got them attached to the satin base and gathered at the top.
This is the most recent pic I have — since I took that, I got that right side moved down a bit since they were off a hair.
I did try to go ahead and machine sew them on… and kept getting the loose pleats of the back panels caught in the stitching. Had to undo an entire side. So currently it’s back to being pinned together and I’m probably going to have to hand-sew it.
I spent a lot of time working on the prop. That I’m still not posting about. But I think it’s looking pretty cute. I think I might be done with it soon.
Shopping stuff – got a lot of stuff from amazon last week. A wig and a shirt for silly costume #1. A few more normal clothing options for silly costume #2 (and somehow none of them have pockets?? so annoying, I’m going to add some). Saturday during errand running, ran to Michael’s for a few things:
A base ring for Crait Leia. Not perfect but it’ll do for now.
I’m hoping somebody starts making them so I can just buy one soon LOL
Shoes for one of the silly costumes. These are not right for it but I liked them so much (and they fit! and were real converse!) that I got them anyway, because I’ll probably wear them outside of the costume, too.
And 2 more pairs of shoes from the secondhand store… left set is for silly costume #3 and will be painted. right set were just cute and cheap so I bought them just in case.
And my massive Arda wig order came in earlier than I expected. With the exciting little blue postcard.
And non-costume shopping I got these cuuuuuuuuuute new shoes.
And they came with these awesome stickers!
So back to sewing. Last week I got to dyeing stuff for the orange costume (AKA Silly Costume #3). I wanted to get everything dyed before we moved over to Nana’s.
First up I got my satin thrown into some orange poly dye. It wasn’t bad to start with but I wanted it MORE orange.
Here’s the before and after. I was REALLY happy with how it turned out!
My fringe for this costume came in last week, too – 20 yards of it! Comparing it to the dyed satin…
It was a little pale. And a little more “UT Vols” orange than the blood orange I was aiming for. So, into the dye!
Ground beef, or freshly dyed fringe?
This was pretty darn close to what I wanted, so I’m happy.
Yesterday I REALLY dug in and worked on that Silly Costume #3.
I got my bodice layers cut and sewn together:
Tonight I’ll get them assembled, get the boning in, get the straps made… I’m not going to put bra cups in this one, I don’t think it’s necessary. I need to get my eyelets for the back soon before I can start decorating it.
But most of yesterday was spent on these bad boys
Ok so I hate the colour orange. And here we have a pair of high-waisted orange shorts that I’m going to wear at dragoncon… LOL.
Honestly I can’t say that I’ve ever made a pair of shorts that aren’t made of spandex/stretch material, so this was new territory for me. I used the Simplicity Bombshell Wonder Woman pattern, only change I made was to shorten them, and I fully lined them instead of doing the facing at the top. I did the invisible zipper the pattern called for, too. Been years since I’ve attempted one… I don’t have an invisible zipper foot, so it’s a pain in the ass (it doesn’t look GREAT but it does look better than a regular zipper). And I do so hate those delicate little breakable zippers, LOL. Seriously, these actually fit pretty well, but they are TIGHT and there’s no give. I’m worried one wrong move will bust that sorry little zipper right out. I’m going to have to teach Ash how to whip stitch the back closed in case this dumb zipper breaks on me.
I mean, she’s had to carry scissors in her pocket to cut my fingers apart in my Ocha costume, so this is old hat for her.
Anyway tonight my goal is to get that bodice assembled. Tomorrow get the grommets in, get the straps on, be able to get it all on and make sure everything looks ok. I’m REALLY hoping I can call this one FINISHED before we even move, then I can just focus on finishing Amidala and my wigs over at Nana’s.
last thing!
This morning I got to work and there was an amazon package on the front step… which was weird. Even weirder when I picked it up and it was for ME? Got it inside and opened it and…
Chase surprised me with this! Had it sent to my office. He said it was supposed to have been here late last week but it got delayed.
I’ve been wanting this one and the Leia one since I saw them! I’m not going to open til we’re in our new house though… don’t want to lose the little parts. She’s so cute!
And I have to do an art dump before I leave, of course.
I FINALLY finished wedding Padme. FINALLY. This was not a labor of love. This was a labor of intense hatred, frustration, and questioning my life’s goals.
For posterity, here’s as far as I got on the 2010 version:
Even back then I realized how much I did not want to draw this thing.
And the new one…
So glad it’s done.
So originally I was saying that was the last Padme. But then I went back and looked at one of the Clone Wars looks I originally decided to skip…
(This one)
I skipped it because I didn’t think there was enough there for me to do a full art piece from. But then I looked at it and decided there was, so that calls for one more “canon” Padme:
And I AM saying that’s the last canon Padme. But now I’m going to veer into non-canon Padmes. Which I said I wasn’t going to do, but I’m doing it. That’s right, we are heading into concept art land. I just love Iain McCaig’s gorgeous concept art, and I have a bunch saved that I’m going to attempt to do justice to. Should be fun! How many Padmes am I going to end up with?! I have 54 at the moment and if I do all the concept pieces I have saved, I’ll have 11 more – so 65, that’s a nice round number.