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Friday, December 27, 2013

I'm Back!!!


My most humble apologies for the lack of activity since August! Really?  August? Yeah, it's been that long.  Too long, much, much too long.  Well it's time to kick this thing back into gear.  Maybe not high gear, but we can get the ball rolling, right?

To start with here's recap, Summer was a whirlwind of activity, which should have meant a lot of posting, hmm.

I attended a "walk about" for the Steampunk community.
 



























Then there was Summer Feast with my Corthan SCA friends.































My birthday was in there somewhere.

Then, in the beginning of Fall, I designed and sewed a family costume set with a good friend of mine, Nichol Richardson.  What an amazing time that was.  Maybe I'll recap it in it's own post, sometime in the future.  We hope to have a nice photography session to capture what I think is the natural beauty of this family in all their humorous and quirky glory.  They made me smile this fall and for that I'm eternally grateful!




After a big sigh of completion immediately following Halloween, then the Winter crop had to go in in the garden and it is doing splendidly.  We've already enjoyed some broccoli, basil, rosemary, lettuce & soon we will be enjoying snap peas, CARROTS (my favorite garden veggie), artichokes (maybe), and more broccoli.















Winter festivities also started.

Sewing for the San Diego Costume Guild's Christmas Dinner.




































Christmas designing & decorating at my church.  The 16' lobby tree got a makeover this year.  A big shout out, thank you, to all of our decorating geniuses, who helped us put out all the decorations!!!






A trip to Disneyland with my Mom!!!  This was such a wonderful adventure.  We went, along with a few friends, to enjoy the original park.  This is the first of hopefully a year long set of trips.  There will be more photos to come in future posts to document our adventures.












 











And finally, a blast wave of youth clothing, right before Christmas.  Hemming pants, baby skirts, a hoodie scarf with bear ears, and much more to come.  I'm gearing my sewing time towards making money this year.  I'm hoping to support my year pass to Disneyland habit and maybe help with our personal finances.  So far it's been amazing to be blessed by the orders I've received.  I'll keep you posted about the progress and the best of the projects in the months to come.











  








Thanks for taking this end of year, all in one post, tour with me!  See you again soon!



























Sunday, August 4, 2013

Summer's Here!

For the past few weeks posting has been almost non-existent and that means one of two things, creative block, or no free time.  For me, this time, it's been a combination of both of those things.  When I had the time, there was a block in my creative side.  The inspiration for my summer costume projects came and went of its own accord and I wasn't able to force it back. 

The steampunk event went without a hitch.  Although it took 3 hours to get dressed and do my hair.  But the result was worth the time.  Steam World's Fair on Adam's Avenue was a fun get together with some friends who helped me dive in to my first steamy event.  They made the night great and I'm forever hooked.  There were vendors, live music & performances, many in costume and some not.  There was an endless stream of photo moment requests from other attendees and passer by alike.  The feel of the event was relaxed and comfortable.















So now that it's all wrapped up and the event has passed, the costume is pressed and hung away for another day.  By all rights I should have been pumped and ready for the next event.  Summer Feast, with my Cortha friends.  It is an Ottoman Summer Retreat and the scope for costume is wide and pliable.  My favorite type.  So open to the creation process to make something unique or clever.  Inspiration was instant but my budget didn't cooperate and so the idea had to sit and wait for the funds to buy the parts & yardage.  But the days came and the materials were acquired.  Then I lost the juice, the drive.  It just vanished and no matter what I did to try to jump start the creativity, it just dragged along threatening to burn out, like an ancient snail not wanting to give in to death.

This weekend though I determined to tackle part of it to fulfill my promise of revealing the fabric choice as a finished garment.  Here it is folks.  With your help to choose the best lining fabric for this bustle piece, I was able to create this.  The royal and rich feel of the purple fabric with gold filigree design won me over as it did for a few of you as well.  Thank you for your help, it turned out beautiful!





Then I was off and running and the pants came together too.  I had the drive to complete the pants so that my photo would be complete to show you the full elegance of the bustle fabric choices.

All that is left now is to make the bodice.  It is all cut and I've started making channels for boning on all the parts that need it.  I hope to have the whole thing complete before Friday night's Sewing group which is the day before the Retreat!

Final pics will come with the next post, so keep an eye out!

Monday, July 8, 2013

Garden Monday



 It's been way too long!  I hope everyone is well and good.  Life is so sweet and we couldn't miss a minute of it here at Casa de Guerra. We've been doing a lot around our house.  Adding some new trees and shrubs to the side of the house that is the most open.  This is also the side our bedroom is on and the side where the neighbor with the early crowing rooster lives.  So hopefully our new additions will help block some of the sounds 2-3 years from now.

As for the garden....The squash plants are actually pumpkin.  I love my memory and being a procrastinator who didn't actually put markers on them like I was going "to do later".  So it turned into a nice surprise when the first pumpkin starting growing.
 


















  The upper deck got a new shade cloth cause the leaves were getting burned from so much heat and all day sun.  It's been about a week since I installed the piece of shade cloth and the plants are starting to look happy.  Finally.


The gourd plants are finally gaining height and flowering.


















The cucumber are starting to grow and their fruit is no longer so small....like grape size...they should be golf ball to baseball size.  I'm growing the lemon cucumbers that are yellow and round.  Looking forward to tasting them. 

The one broccoli plant I have is growing well.

The watermelon is gaining size finally.



 The actual squash plants are growing well also.

Tomatoes & Peppers are actively gaining size and starting to produce fruit.  The plants aren't quite as big as I'd like to wait for before letting it flower into fruit.  But, I want to eat some tomatoes so I'm not going to wait.






























Our berries bushes and vines are all pretty much growing well save for some slightly scorched blueberry bushes (2 of 5 that we have).  The blackberries have been so big and juicy.  Raspberry bush is taking it's sweet time and might not produce this year as it's kind of late in the season already.  But we shall keep waiting and praying for some of my favorite fruit.

The hens are laying well and are looking forward to the move down to the smaller coupe soon.  We built it last year and put my two new hens there, with the other three original hens in the older larger coupe.  One of the two turned rooster and so he was returned to the breeder.  I have credit with them but I'm going to wait till I've got the girls moved before getting more.  The one of that group that was a hen went to live with the other two now, since one of those drowned in the rain, stupid chicken.  Then a couple weeks ago one dropped dead without any explanation visible.  So I only have two hens.  They get along well and are happy bug hunters.  They are both sensitive girls, so I'll move them to the smaller coupe, upgrade the larger and add any new hens to that.  I'm hoping soon we'll be able to afford adding a good 4-6 girls.  We shall see though.