It's Easy For Girls......Right?

    I often hear guys complain that girls have it easy on the social scene.  And sure, I never turn down it down if someone offers to buy me a drink or cigar or whatever.  Free stuff is good! But easy?  I don't know about that...especially on the far side of thirty years old.

     Don't get me wrong here, I'm not complaining about being a girl. ;) But we do have to work for it.  It's just that all our work is behind the scenes, as it were. We apply 15 different products to our bodies EVERY DAY. There’s shampoo, conditioner, deep conditioner, and leave in conditioner. Then depending on what sorts of things we’re doing to our hair, there’s heat protectant spray, hair spray, mousse, and/or texturizers--and that’s just to get a causal look. (Myself, I get Brazilian blowouts*  twice a year, so I get to skip most of those steps now!) There’s exfoliating scrubs, body washes and body lotions, and that’s not to mention all the things we have to shave and wax and pluck and otherwise de-hair. We'll put on two different facial moisturizers, two different primers, a concealer, a foundation, powder, and then the most minimal makeup possible just to make it look like we didn’t do anything to our face that day.

    Then there’s the closet. We buy contraptions to haul our boobies up to gravity-defying, socially acceptable heights. Our clothes need to be carefully chosen for just the right amount of, “look at me, I look nice!” without saying, “Hey lookie, I dress like a slut!” After all, we’re not college girls anymore, we have to show some decorum. But at the same time we crave a *little* bit of attention.  Anyone who says differently is probably lying. And the shoe selection is difficult too.  It’s gotta be cute and maybe a little questionable, but if you walk like a newborn giraffe it sort of doesn’t work.  Like, at all.

    And guys will say, you don’t have to do that. Women are beautiful anyway! Trust me, you only think that.  I understand that you believe it with all your heart…but that’s because you don’t see the girl when she gets up in the morning! Really, just be appreciative of what we go through! (Though saying, “Wow, you must’ve gone through a LOT to look like that!” is NOT gonna get you very far.  For realz.)

*If you don’t know what a Brazilian blowout is, look it up because it’s probably NOT what you’re thinking. Brazilians do have OTHER beauty methods. ;)

Jessica Rabbit!

    So I got my Jessica Rabbit costume pretty much finished over the weekend!  This is one I've always wanted to do but I was never sure how I'd feel about wearing a wig and I do NOT want to color my hair again. But I finally decided I’d never know if I didn’t try and I ordered a wig from Epic Cosplay on recommendation from a few other costumers. Turns out wig-wearing is not horrible…not the most fun ever but not horrible.  It’s hot and heavy but it’s a good wig and it looks nice, so I think I’ll survive.

    I stumbled over the perfect red base dress for Jessica in a local thrift store for eight bucks.  EIGHT! It needed some altering but I wasn’t gonna pass it up.

    I had to remove the flare from the skirt which only required taking the side and back seams in from about mid-length.  I ended up tapering the sides in slightly so that the skirt would fall the right way when I added the slit.

    I had some great shiny stretchy material left over from my Siren costume that I used to make the gloves.

    Unfortunately, I remembered *after* I put them in the dye bath that synthetics don’t dye well at all.  So I made a second pair from a cotton blend. (Okay, so it was one of my boyfriend’s undershirts.  But it held dye just fine.)

    Now all I have left to do is style the wig and find a good pair of red heels before March, and she’ll be all ready for All-Con!

2013 Year in Review

    2013 was really a good year for me! I added five (I think) new costumes to my arsenal and met some great new people in the costuming world. Went some fun places, did some fun things, and overall just had a great time with life. 

    Last year I made a British policewoman outfit for the premier of The World’s End which I plan on adapting into an Amy Pond outfit this year. I also made a Starbuck from Battlestar Galactica that was both easy and hard - easy because really all I had to do was sew on some patches and do some slight modifications to the pants, and hard because trying to find stuff in my size at military surplus stores was a pain! I ended up having to order the jacket online and I STILL had to take it in about three inches. I got brave and made a Hellfire Club Emma Frost, but not quite brave enough to get pictures made in it.  Maybe this year. Also I did a Siren from TRON: Legacy, which was my first experience with working with electronic components for a lighted costume. It almost ended in tears more than once, but I pulled it off in the end! It needs to be reworked before All-Con but overall I was pretty pleased with my first attempt with something like that.  And for Whofest in November I made a Jenny (Doctor’s Daughter) costume.  That one was super easy - it’s nice occasionally to have a costume that’s just regular clothes!

    I finally started using the Twitter account that I made years ago in 2013. I wasn’t sure about it at first but about a week after I started using it, I was retweeted by Simon Pegg.  Made me decide to like it after all. J I’ve met some funny and interesting people there, so I guess it’s a keeper!

(BTW that's not my Twitter account anymore. You can link to my current account in the sidebar.)

    I met some great people in Scotty and Courtney too. They’ve both recently started cosplaying as well, and I can always count on them to listen when I’m frustrated or stumped on a costume!  Their work is amazing and well beyond anything I can do. Both of them are already instantly recognized around here and I assume will continue to gather recognition and fans as their work evolves. For real, check them out!

    In March I went to my second All-Con. It was much better since I knew what to expect and knew some more of the people, and also because we had MONEY. That always helps. ;) The previous year (2012) All-Con was the first convention I’d ever attended in the first ever costume I’d ever made, and I was a little overwhelmed.  Last year was much more about just having fun! I enjoyed having several costumes to wear and not having the same one all weekend.  This year it’s FOUR days, so I can squeeze in even MOAR costumes!

    In July we won the opportunity to go to the Alamo Drafthouse in Richardson for the DFW premier of The World’s End.  The theater wasn’t even finished yet but Simon Pegg, Nick Frost and Edgar Wright were all there.  Simon told my boyfriend what a fantastic job he’d done on his Nicholas Angel costume. (I totally wasn’t jealous that he got to talk with them.) It was a very fun and amazing experience and totally worth the migraine I ended up with after being in the 100 degree heat all afternoon.

    In October I painted my garage door like a TARDIS because I’m awesome.

    And on a very personal note, every year since I’ve been with my boyfriend has been better than the last. He’s made the past three years fun and fantastic in every way imaginable and I’m looking forward to 2014 with him!

    What was the best thing about 2013 for you?