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!

GAHHH!

Okay I just need to fess up. I have a serious case of lazy and deflection lazy. There's so much I need to get done and I either ignore it or act busy by doing ultimately useless things. I've recently started reading up on things that are important to me again, like making things at home for cheaper and/or better than I can buy at the store, or urban/suburban homesteading in general. I feel a bit better at that because it's not me spending hours on Pinterest pinning random fun things or feeling guilty because of all those annoying motivational pins about weight loss >_<

When it comes down to the nitty-gritty (which is a weird word...), I am lazy and it just cannot go on like this. I want to be a wife and mother who cooks, sews, gardens, preserves food, raises chickens/quail/rabbits/a pygmy goat who shall be named Geraldine, home schools the kids, still goes to anime conventions with the kids in cosplay of course, and draws comics that are just plain epic. Kinda' ambitious isn't it? It is especially when I'm a wife who has 36 pounds to lose by August yet can't seem to get off her duff and exercise, can't remember where her husbands socks ran off to, has to fight the clutter to even find her sewing machine let alone sew anything more than a straight-ish line, can't remember to do her own self-taught drawing lessons, will be doing pretty much all of her JAFAX cosplay last minute and killed the cord on her graphic tablet.

When I look at that list, I'm so very glad that I'm not alone in trying to make this happen. Seriously, if I didn't have Jesus, I'd go absolutely insane. I know that all things are possible because He gives me the strength to start and keep going, despite myself.

And now, Pygmy Goats, curtesy of Crosswynd Farms of Shelton, WA.

I love the long-suffering expression on who I presume is the momma goat.

Welcome to My Head

That's probably the most ominous beginning I've ever done for a blog. Of course, once you get to know me, it will seem pretty normal.
    
Anyway, allow me to introduce myself. My name is Rachel, though I'm also known as LunaMusings, Ookaminokage and She Who Must Be Obeyed. Okay, not really on that last one but a girl can dream. I'm married to a fantastic and insanely hilarious man named James. We do not have children yet. Emphasis on yet.
   
I am a comic artist, writer, cook, knitter, sewer and just about anything else I want to be. I simply love making things, tangible, edible and intangible. I suffer from no lack of inspiration. In fact, I have too many ideas. And that's why I'm here. I want to reach out to others like myself who have that same problem, the opposite problem, or someone who just needs a nudge in the right creative direction. I hope to share ideas that will inspire new projects for all who read my posts.

I hope that my brainstorms, sudden inspirations and even my "cranial drizzle" can be of use to you all out there in the great unknown of the internet. I hope to be posting every Friday or Saturday until January, when I'll finally have constant internet access. My posts will be varied, from recipes I've tried or made up, to sketches of characters, to the Christmas present marathon I will be embarking on called "Project Sock Critters". There will be much more and I hope to also include spotlights on other peoples' work in the posts to come as well.

I hope you'll take this journey with me. Thanks!