Conventions, Medication and Decompression

I live!

I feel like I fell off the face of the planet for a bit though that's not unusual for me while prepping for an anime convention. Yay Shuto Con! Yay Decompression post Shuto Con!

That's mostly what's been going on with me lately. I've been a sewing fiend and when I wasn't a sewing fiend, I was a wig styling fiend. I was a few other types of fiend as well but to a much lesser degree.

Shut Con was a blast. I made some new friends, learned a ton from Kristie in her lovely panels as well as hung out with her at Art Jam (greatest panel ever for drawing/hanging out with fellow artists!), and had a somewhat successful cosplay experience. And I finally got to see our friend's panel that we missed last year due to limited space/VIP pass issues, even if he did get technology-screwed and had to smash his whole presentation into about twenty minutes. Equestrian Embassy: Condensed was still just as good as it would have been normally and was probably funnier because of the time crunch.

Expounding upon the cosplay experience, the reason I call it somewhat successful is that I was still not as identifiable as my husband and friend and creating the costume just about gave me a aneurysm. Here is the break down:

Successes:
* I finished the outfit the week before Con week and the bags two day before rather than a race to finish line that my previous costumes have been.

* I was able to use a commercial pattern without killing my brain.

* It was comfortable to wear, aside from a wig cap issue. Apparently I have a large head.

* There was no catastrophic failure of any pieces. My shorts did pop a stitch or two, but I expected as much since I sewed them with the wrong tension but didn't figure that one out until it was too late.

* I was far more recognizable than in my first Fluttershy cosplay. I even received an attack hug from a Discord cosplayer which made my day.

Less than Successes:
* Sewing my dress and shorts was incredibly hard, mainly because I merrily jumped into the world of knit fabric. I mostly knew was I was getting into and the shorts weren't bad. The dress fabric was a very thin, fine jersey though, and I swear it was doing the hula while I tried to sew it. It still turned out well though.

* I trusted Burda too much with the gathers in the dress and not a fabulous sewing blogger (http://www.makeit-loveit.com/), who had already helped me with my shorts. Burda's instructions for the waist gathers were to zigzag over lengths of elastic thread, while the lovely lady at Make It and Love It manually winds the elastic thread into a bobbin.

 I did test the Burda method and it seems to work. OVER SHORT LENGTHS! I am no tiny person, so the width of the fabric was daunting. Sure you can still pull it to gather but your elastic thread will probably break and it will be nigh impossible to keep it at the right length you want. I ended up having the remove the back gathers because A) the front gathered too short so it wouldn't fit around me if the back was also gathered and B) it is very hard to sew over elastic thread on thin jersey fabric and maintain straight lines. Bad call Burda. Bad call Me.

* I placed my Cutie Mark on the right side of my dress, which was promptly covered by the front of my wig. I ended up playing with it constantly so that people had a chance to notice it.

* My bags were okay except that I had to carry more than a hip-slung bad on a thin belt could handle. I hadn't planned on carrying two small sketchbooks but my friend didn't have the space in her carrying device (she was Twilight Sparkle, so she carried a hollow fake book for a purse). The bags kept slipping down and they weren't even in weight so it was always off.

* Again, I was still not as recognizable as my friend or my husband. To be fair though, they are doing more closet cosplay than me. The only things handmade they have are their Cutie Marks and my husband's Smarty Pants doll (which I made...). Also, I take a different view of Fluttershy than a lot of other cosplayers do. I think Sweet Lolita Fluttershy is cute, but the pony works with animals. She has chickens and a host of other animals. Loli is impractical for taking care of animals, so I went with something cute and breezy but with a practical side, hence cute but sensible boots and "saddle" bags. Maybe I'm looking at this the wrong way, but I don't want to feel I have to be LoliFluttershy to be recognized.

There is also another aspect to this. I do wonder if it's partially because I'm a large woman. I'm not trying to say that everyone who recognized my friend (who is a stick) didn't notice me because I'm fluffy and they all are jerks. I just wonder if I'm deemed "not cute enough for pictures" because of it. Aw heck it's probably not that. Some people did take pictures of me, though it was always with my friend a/o husband. Well, best not to over think this one!

This does made a good transition though. In regards to weight issues, I've finally kicked a factor out of my life for good. No more hormonal birth control for me! Maybe I won't have to think about that paragraph above this one ever again!

Bye for now!

I have no idea what I'm doing!

Or at least that’s how I feel most of the time.

Actually I have a better idea of what I’m doing than when I posted last. I've actually achieved some of my goals to an extent and that makes me rather excited to continue.

So here is what I have achieved thus far:

I have pared down my fanfiction list considerably from what it was. I cut the ones that were crack-tualarly stupid (LOTR OC falling in love with one of the sons of Elrond anyone?) for a grand total of six stories and only one is destined to be a fan comic. The others will be written stories, which is particularly good for the choose-your-own fanfic that I decided to keep because it was just so stinking hilarious I couldn’t bear to drop it.

I have restarted my sprout jar and will be harvesting my first batch today. Though I have a big jar, I’ve found its better for me do sprout small amounts of mung beans as the volume quadruples as the sprouts grow. That was January’s project from the Homesteading list.

I have also started my sourdough starter. I think I may have misunderstood what people have been writing about them because I had the crazy idea that they took a while to get started. When mine was living on the back of the stove, it took off running in two days. Not only that but it also out-grew its jar with stunning results not unlike a science fair volcano. It now resides on the kitchen counter in a large glass vase and still threatens to take over the kitchen for a while after every feeding. I’d better get a move on with various sourdough products. Last week I had a Pancake Day. Maybe tomorrow I’ll have the guts to start some actual bread.

As for other food-related goals, I’m still struggling to kick some of the processed food habit. I have a severe weakness for pizza which is fantastically bad from a Real Food standpoint. Mishandled grains, dead cheese and who-knows-what’s-in-there sauce…and yet I keep coming back to it! I guess I’ll be adding sourdough pizza crust to my list of things to do with my Blob That Ate New York starter.

As for my other biggy, weight loss, well, I’m not sure what’s going on. Apparently while eating a reasonable amount of calories and exercising every day, my body doesn’t like getting rid of the padding. I’m pretty sure some of it is those stupid birth control pills. The rest is me, pure and simple. I’m thinking, and hang with my on this one, that I’m not actually eating enough.

A lot of people, including those who are supposed to be experts on nutrition and weight loss would say this is counter-intuitive but I’m pretty sure it’s one of my problems. I found out that at the very least I need 1500+ calories just for basic functions that keep me alive plus about 150 more for digestion. This doesn’t even account for things like moving, or exercise. So, with the knowledge that I already have and this “new” information, I shall move forward.

Whodda’ thunk my problem was not eating enough?

Found this in my files. I create terrible things sometimes.
 I didn't know what I was doing with this one.