More Costuming Fun

Sorry for not being better about posting! I had a great Christmas break, but didn't get to see any of my immediate family so no fun pics of the kiddos, but that doesn't mean I haven't been busy!

Last weekend I attended an 18th Century "Twelfth Night Ball" in Sudbury, MA in a 300 year old inn with my costuming group! We had a blast drinking punch, watching the contra-dancing (doing a bit myself) and feeling like we were living back in revolutionary times!

Pictures, of course, with more here!

With Sarah and Jenni, enjoying the punch:

My first contra-dance:

Gloria and Mike:

I did both our hair before the ball:

It never takes long for Sarah and Jenni to start some kind of fight! (Just for fun, of course)

More of the dancing:

It was a really fun event, I got to know everyone better, we met some new friends, I ran into a co-worker who I didn't know did re-enactments, and we made more costuming plans so that's always a good thing!

I promise to have a non-costuming post up soon, but lately that's all I've been up to really!

Happy New Year, by the way!

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!

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!

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!

A Weekend at the Lake

My 4th ward campout was a success.

New friendships were formed,
bonfires were enjoyed,
moonlit dancing occured,
stars were gazed
{facilitated by Edwina of course},
the lake was canoed,
diet coke runs were made,
like I said, complete success!

We had Ward Olympics.
It's the only time I broke out my camera.
As a warm up a few people built a pyramid.

Check out our spirit!

Then we crammed 14 people onto a homemade raft of blow up swimming pools, tubes and floaties.
I was not one of those people.


A few other events took place.
In the end our efforts were not enough to secure the gold,
but I think we could still consider ourselves champions.

I thought the highlight of the weekend was the Campfire Cabaret.
Seriously hilarious. And an impressive show of talent!

So all in all, good times can be had in New Hampshire!
{Especially if you get to sleep in a cabin...}

In the effort to be a better blogger...

Here's a random mind dump of things I've been up to lately:

1. Taking a whole Saturday to play at Six Flags New England
2. Feeling like I've taken a beating the day after said adventure
3. Signing a new lease for a new place with my roommates - we'll be moving at the end of August
4. Buying tickets to visit Utah at the end of August, which will make moving 5 days after getting back from said trip super fun
5. Enjoying Edwina, my new iPhone 3GS, whose name had to be changed since she was just too pretty to be a boy
6. Lamenting the fact that pretty much everyone (and everything) in my life is now female - where have all the men gone?
7. Volunteering as a costume assistant for Shakespeare on the Common and then feeling like a crazy person for continuing to email them since I haven't heard anything from them (but keeping my fingers crossed)
8. Watching Harry Potter 6 last Wed! And loving it!
9. Continuing to love my new car, Gemma, and the freedom it brings to go anywhere I want whenever I want
10. Getting some fabulous knock-off Coach bags at a great "purse market" in New Hampshire for super cheap (ie around 10 dollars a pop - oh yes I bought more than one)
11. Watching "So You Think You Can Dance" every Wed. and Thurs. and consequently wanting to start dancing again (thinking about taking a class)
12. Thinking about maybe teaching a bookbinding class at the "Cambridge Center for Adult Education" since I heard their teacher left
13. Reading lots of good books, especially the "Percy Jackson & the Olympians" series, you should check it out
14. Getting no where on the quilting projects that I made goals to finish before the end of the summer and feeling guilty
15. Finally starting on the tan I vowed to get this summer - I no longer look like a vampire
16. Video chatting with the nieces and nephews - this is probably the best invention ever

That's it for now... And just because it's not a post without a picture:



Part of the group I went to the beach with 2 weekends ago which was the beginning of said tan!

Fun with Edwin (aka iPhone)

I've downloaded some new applications that let me edit my photos right
on my phone, which is pretty cool! Check it out!

Original photo straight from my phone:

Edited to look like an "instant" photo with Camera Bag:

Edited to brighten and then added a border with Photogene:

Edited with "Elf Glow" in CinemaFX:

I went to the aquarium the other day, this is the edited version of some Jelly fish using PhotoSharp:

Before editing:

P.S. Who knows, maybe the next time I post I'll be able to take video with my phone as well...

Please Excuse....

The Dust... Bella Boston is currently Under Construction.

So, what do you think? I was getting tired of my old banner, plus I've been learning some new things in Photoshop, so I thought I'd change things up a bit. It will probably change again soon, but I'm pretty happy with it for now. Let me know what you think! I'll be posting pictures soon from my long President's Day weekend and hopefully when I start getting some things done for the party on Friday, I'll post pictures of that as well! If you want to see some of the pictures and you're friends with me on Facebook, you can check out my new albums there.

Until then...

Can you believe I'm going to be 29 tomorrow?! I guess time flies when you're having fun!

Halloween Picture Overload Time!

Well, the best holiday of the year has come and gone! It was crazy madness getting ready for it this year, but I have to say, I think it was the best party I've had! Definitely the most put together.

Let's start with the decorations shall we?

Upstairs in the hall we used this great stuff called "Scene Setters" to give the effect of peeling wallpaper and exposed and cracking walls. We had some great "spooky" art work laying around (my roommates sister had done two pieces as part of her thesis project for art school that worked perfectly!) and I "boarded up" my room with strips of cardboard.

(BTW, these photos were taken by Edwin, my iPhone, so sorry that they're not the best quality, my camera has died permanently. I used my old camera for the pics from Friday night (but unfortunately forgot to bring it out with us to the parties...).

The decorations in the kitchen. Pretty simple, just orange lights with the paper-and-clothespin bats I made last year.

The second floor was by far my favorite of the house! Here's a shot of how the stairs looked! We covered them with the plastic "scene setters" that look like rock so it gave the banisters that castle feel. This was taken the morning after so some of the decorations from the wall are missing... they didn't hold up too well with people bumping into them.

The front porch, complete with chains for a drawbridge and a giant spider web with fuzzy arachnid (not pictured from this angle). Also, that's a pumpkin my roommate carved with the Disney Castle on it. Fun!

The piece-de-resistance, the food table in the bay window. This picture is from right after the party, so it's a little destroyed, but you get the idea. I made the chandelier out of cardboard (inspired by Martha Stewarts) and the Enchanted Rose was our centerpiece. We served breadstick bones, poisoned apples and a sheet cake with princess toppers that said "Happily Never After" on it. We also had scary music from the Disney movies playing in the area to really set the mood.
Here's a better picture of it all set up:

One of my favorite purchases this year, my new Halloween wreath from Target! I tried to make something similar to this a couple years ago in SLC, but black roses are impossible to find and don't look so hot when you spray paint them... So I saw this and had to have it! (BTW, do you see the letter on the door knocker? Yep, it's a W. This house was made just for me!)

The view of the front of the house the next morning. This looked so cool at night, the bags were lit with candles and we had a fog machine, so the fog would rise out of the bushes! You can see Cinderella's ride out in front as well.

And now pics from the party!

Here are the princesses before the "Happily NEVER After", Pocahontas (Nicole), Jasmine (Barbara), Cinderella (me), Belle (Abby), Snow White (Lora), and Ariel (Lisa)!!

Yep, we dressed up as Dead Disney Princesses! So much fun and such a good idea... I think that's what made this party the best ever, a great theme that got everyone involved. We all had back stories too, which I thought were pretty hilarious and were fun to come up with!

Ariel was strangled by seaweed, Pocahontas was shot in the head with an arrow, Jasmine was mauled by her tiger, Belle was the victim of domestic violence (kinda sad, but what do you expect from a Beast?), Snow White (and her prince, pictured below, were killed with tiny pick axes by seven angry dwarfs) and Cinderella was bludgeoned in the head with her glass slipper by her jealous ugly step sister...

Poor Cindy! (that pic on the wall was another one done by Abby's sister, pretty perfect!)

Here we are fighting over the Prince in Shining Armor (Snow White's boyfriend).

Seriously so much fun... Lots of people came to the party, there were tons of great costumes and we had another fun impromptu dance party! In fact, Thursday night was even more fun that Friday night! So onto pictures of the Fun:

Two trees who wandered in...

Batman and Napoleon, an unlikely friendship.

Part of the crowd.

Amicus the Pirate!

Guess what these girls are? The Sun, Moon, Starts and Outer Darkness... So original!

More of the crowd.

Best couple costume: Scanner and Barcode! And they really worked! Very clever.

The cutest costumes there: our Bishop's twin grandchildren, Buffalo Bill and Calamity Jane! When Abby first saw us, she was so excited that we were all princesses but as soon as she realized we were dead, she got this look on her face like, "What?!". She got over it soon though and was asking if she could be dead too! It was so funny!

Our Bishop and his wife dressed in their biker clothes (he's got a couple Harleys - our Bishop's cool like that).

Well, that's all for now! I hope everyone had a great Halloween! I'm kinda sad that I might not be able to do something like this next year... The Brits don't really celebrate Halloween in England! Maybe that will change once I'm living in the country!