Halloween Masquerade Ball!

Finally!

What I'm sure you've all been waiting for...
Better pictures of my costume!
And of the Masquerade!

It was a great night, at an amazing location
with 600 people!
So much fun!

My feet hurt by the end of the night,
I'd lost a feather from my hair (wah waaahhh)
and I got some frosting on my dress somehow
{even though I avoided the treats table, except for a cookie}
and driving in a corset is hard
{thanks to my roommie for driving home}
but all in all it was good times!

On to the pictures!

With Nicole and Janey


Inside the Ballroom, which you can't see too well here, but had amazing wood paneling and incredible chandeliers!

A group performed Michael Jackson's "Thriller" which was awesome, I just wish I had a better view! I could only see their heads really... People were going crazy!

With Natalie, the 1992 Moonlight Masquerade Barbie
{she painted her mask on! how cool is that?!}

With Aimee, showing off our lovely fans.

A view of my shoes

And from the back
{man I have bad posture, even in a corset!}

I pretty much just said "Thank you!" the entire night,
most people thought I'd bought it at first,
but it soon spread that I'd made it myself,
so people were asking for pictures with me!
It was pretty crazy.

I'm glad I did it, but next time I might try to give myself more time to get everything done.
There are still a few little things that I haven't finished on the corset and with trimming the dress, but I was glad I was able to wear it two weekends in a row.
Who knows when the next time will be!

Another small preview...

OK, so I know I promised lots of pictures of my costume and the party and everything but unforunately my cameras weren't working and so I had to rely on others to get photos.

I have gotten a few so far, so check it out, but I will
FOR SURE
post pictures of each part of my costume after this Sat.

It's the Halloween Masquerade Ball
for the Education Conference
(you might remember that from a couple years ago)
and I can't wait because it's going to be awesome!

So for now, here's a look at my
"Queen of the Dead"
costume and then a link here to more pictures from the party!

With my friend Janey who's a vampire.
{notice the slit neck that's been "stitched" back on...}

A fuller shot, but my face looks funny here... just ignore that.

More to come soon, for sure!

MoreSightings of Famous People

Ok, so I didn't get to meet them
per se
but Ben Affleck was filming right around the corner from my work yesterday.

That's Ben Affleck and John Hamm getting ready to shoot the scene.

So I couldn't resist walking by on my lunch.
And then I had to snap pictures.
Because really, how many times do you get to see movie stars in real life?
{Sorry they're not better, I just snapped them with my phone, so that means no zooming in...}
I was having lunch in the Au Bon Pain, which conveniently had a window looking right out on the action.

That's John Hamm in an FBI jacket.

Other people were gawking, which made me a little uncomfortable joining in, but hey, maybe they're used to that? That's Ben under the black tent thing...

And it was pretty cool to see how movies work for a bit.
They were setting up the scene
getting directions from Ben (he's the director)
and setting up the cameras.

I didn't realize till I walked by today, but the electrical box on the wall was placed there by the crew. It's not there in "real life". Crazy huh?

Have any of you met a movie star?
Who would you die to see?

Playing Dress Up

I just love Halloween!
Dressing up is one of my favorite things
so when I get a chance it's hard for me not to go all out.

Last weekend I was invited to a Halloween Dinner Party.
I was the only one who was remotely dressed up,
and this was toning it down for me!
Hello people, it's a HALLOWEEN dinner party!
You would think costumes or at the least all black is appropriate!

Here's what I wore:
A little witchy-fun!
I didn't get a picture of my nails but they were halloween inspired too,
with little spiders on an orange french manicure.
{Please ignore my messy room in the background... I've been sewing so much I haven't had time to tidy up!}


And since we're on the subject of costumes
here's a look at the undies I finished for under my
Marie Antoinette costume!


I have on the chemise, stays (aka corset), pocket hoops and petticoat I made over the 3 day holiday weekend. That was only 50% of the entire costume!
I'm almost done with the costume, and I'll be sure to post
TONS
of pictures of it and of the party.
I'm excited with how it's turning out!

The one thing I haven't tackled yet is the wig...
I think it should really *make* the costume.


Oh and here's a little piece of costuming cuteness I just can't resist sharing:
My niece in her cupcake costume!
She really is cute as a cupcake!
Can you believe how talented my sister is?
She made that without a pattern, using a lampshade as the bottom!


I love Halloween!!
What are the rest of you going to be...
if you're dressing up?

Meeting Shannon Hale

She was hilarious.
She signed my books, even the dust jacket
{although she seemed a little confused, "You really want me to sign right across the front here?"}
She petted our heads.

Here's proof:
That's why Karen and I are cracking up.

I don't know how it's possible but I think I like her even more now!
{Oh, and that's my Sgt. Pepper jacket there... you can't see it but it's pretty cute}

Getting in the Halloween Spirit

My parents came for their visit!
We had a great time except that Dad got sick,
then I got sick.
Mom has an iron constitution and has thus far avoided it.

We went to NYC which was awesome!

Check out just one wall of ribbons at the amazing trim store
M&J Trimming.
Mom and I went a little crazy in here...

We had fun in Boston too.
on Thursday, their last day in town,
we went up to Salem and had fun exploring
Witch City.

One of the shops all decked out for the season.

Man Salem is crazy around Halloween.
I mean, it's crazy any time of the year but I had never been in October before.
They go all out here!

It really got me in the Halloween spirit,
so I was able to devote this entire 3 day weekend after M&D left
to working on my Halloween costume!
Here's a little peek at what I did this weekend.

For the rest you'll have to wait!

Thanks Mom and Dad for coming to visit,
I had such a fun time!
If anyone else wants to come, please do.
There's so much to see and do here, we only scratched the surface!

A Trip to Austenland!

Well not really... I wish!

But it's almost as good
because I get to go see, hear and meet
the author of some of my favorite books!

Shannon Hale is doing a book tour to promote
Forrest Born
her newest book in the Bayern series.
{this is number 4 and should be just a beautiful as the first 3}


I hear she's a fabulous speaker
and if her blog is any indication she's super nice as well!

My favorite book of hers is Austenland
{can you guess why?}
but my copy of the book is in Utah with my sil,
so I'm going to take the dust jacket for her to sign instead!

I hope she gets a kick out of it...

If you live in Boston and want to go, check out the details here!

A Fair Day for the Faire

So we went to the Renaissance Faire this weekend!
Wow, what an experience.
It was surprisingly crowded and not everyone was in costume
{unfortunately including ourselves - we decided to go for warmth rather than "authenticity"}
but I think I can still say we were some of the most normal people there
{and attractive, if we do say so ourselves}.



The cool thing was that it was basically set in a forest as you can see in the pictures.
I felt like I had walked into a Robin Hood movie or something.
The whole thing was a little village and there were stages with performers scattered throughout.

They accept all thy cards of credit:
Master Card, Lady Visa, New World Express and Lord Discover


Trying on wreaths at one of the shops



We mostly just walked around looking in the shops and staring at all the people.
There were some people who really went all out with their costumes
like this Troll
{this woman actually asked him to pretend like he was cutting off her head... yeah}

And this living Gargoyle which was also pretty cool.

My favorite guy was this performer who, while wearing a kilt, rode a unicycle and played "Star Wars" on the bagpipe.
It was pretty funny. And he was pretty cute.

Which led to the question:
Would you ever date someone you met at a Renaissance Fair?
And if you would, would you admit to how you met?

I think I would, even though it's a little quirky,
cause I'm kind of a nerd myself in some ways.
Plus I think it'd be a hilarious story to tell.

What about the rest of you, married or not?
Would you date someone you met at a Ren Fair,
or would you admit it if that's where you'd met your loved one?

Flashback Friday

I've been thinking a lot lately about how I've been in Boston for almost 4 years.
That is just crazy to me!
I seriously feel like time has almost stood still since I moved here.
{which hopefully means that I can still claim to be 26, right?}

Boston is a great city and I'd always wanted to live here,
but before I moved out it was kind of an emotional time saying goodbye to everyone.
Especially my family.


It's a miracle you can't tell in this photo but I had been crying my eyes out.
This is the last time I was together with my brothers and sisters {the ones in Ut anyway} before moving out to Boston.

My life is so much better in so many ways than it was before:
I have an awesome job {my dream job really}
I've made some incredible friends
I've been able to visit so many new places
I've been able to take classes at Harvard{!}
I've really just been so blessed.

The only thing that's been difficult
{other than the non-existent dating life}
has been being so far away from my family!

They are truly my best friends in this world and there's no one I'd rather hang out with. Which is why I'm so glad my parents are coming out to visit me in just two weeks!
My Mom's been out before
but this will be my Dad's first trip.
I'm really excited!
It's going to be fun times!

Once a Pirate Wench...

Always a pirate wench. Or so I hear!

My friends and I are going to the King Richard's Renaissance Faire this weekend.


I'm thinking it's going to be a total blast.
To really get into the spirit, we're dressing up.
So I'm breaking out the Pirate Wench costume!
I'm sure I'll take a ton of photos of the weirdos nerds cool people we see.
I guess after this you can count me among them!