I always injure myself when I hand sew

Okay. I just stuck the eye of a needle half a centimeter in under my nail. I think that means it's time to stop tinkering with my outfit. It's a significant eye, too - about a millimeter in diameter. Funnily, it's the same sort of sore as a piercing. Weird. It's not bleeding so much. A little blob welled up just after it happened, but now the nail looks normal, with only a little mark about half a centimeter down on the inside. Interesting.

I got purple shampoo today. Who knew such a think existed? Blondes use it to keep their hair looking super-duper extra-platinum white-blonde. And the one I randomly picked up had really good reviews. The conditioner's reviews aren't so good because people thought it made their hair look purple. That's good news for me :)

So my outfit is only about 80% good. There's more I'd like to add in and parts I'm not very happy with, but it'll do. It'll look good to anyone who isn't familiar with it, but I'm afraid it won't stand muster when real Skyrim fans see it. Anyway. It's good enough. It's not like I'm entering the cosplay contest or anything. And I'll have fun wearing it around for a day. That's really all that matters, really. Right - time to try this on. Yeay.

my hair is PURPLE

Tired post ahead - you have been warned.

I have purple hair. It's so amazing. Every time I pass a mirror (which is quite often given that we have at least one in every room) I see it and I smile, which evolves to a laugh, which evolves to a happy dance. It's so amazing. I was at the hairdresser for about three hours today. She did a great job on it - both the colour and the cut. I think I look about 12, but that might just be because I'd gotten used to icky sort-of long in-my-face shaggyness. I was well fed up of my grown out hair. But this new hair is amazing. I know I said that already - read the disclaimer.

So, what else... I'm touching up my dovahkiin outfit for the weekend. I redid the bracers from scratch, and next is to make the "studs" look better, then to round out the edges of all the "leather" bits. I must log into the game and check the studs to see if I'm inspired on how to get them to look better. I still haven't figured out a way to do the little shield-thing on the shoulder (gardbrace?). If my sculpting skills were better I'd make it from reinforced clay, but as it is I need some sort of guide or mold and I haven't come up with anything.

Okay. Check out armour in Skyrim, then off to bed.

I think I made yeast

So it's no great secret that I hate doing the dishes. I'll let them pile up and overflow the sink until, eventually, it's gets bad enough that I wash them. I got around to doing them today and there was a pot which had been used to cook potatoes. Just boil them, nothing else - not even a bit of salt in the water. When I took the potatoes out of the pot, I left it by the sink (didn't empty the water or anything) and when I got to it today I was expecting a really bad smell (the lid had been on up until now). But I was pleasantly surprised by a fresh yeasty smell when I opened the lid. It was quite lovely, actually (if you like that smell). I felt really bad throwing it down the sink. That was living yeast I just killed. I would have loved to experiment with it making bread, but I don't know if it can be extracted from the water it was growing in.

I bit my tongue this morning eating breakfast. The rest of breakfast had a distinct flavour of blood to it. It's still sore now.

Ooh. Big news. I'm making studded leather armour from Skyrim for halloween.



I fell in love with this armour the first moment I put it on (almost a year ago - it was the first set of armour I picked up. Actually, I loaded up my second ever save, because I knew I'd get references easily, and it was kind of nostalgic seeing my lvl 38 stealth character all the way back at lvl 5). I wanted to cosplay it all the way back then, and now I have a good excuse. I'm going to try working with craft foam - because it's cheap and available. I'm doing up the pattern now, and I've got the waist bit done out on paper and just putting it around my middle made me really excited. I have high hopes that if I actually manage to get this done it's going to look amazing.

I would like to note here, too, that Guild Wars 2 is the most fun ever. lordkilljoy and I have been playing almost every day since it came out.

Comic Con and Cosplay

Ah, Lj - I've missed you. Please don't go down for over a week again. And I've had loads to post about too.

I'm working on my portal gun at the moment. I've been carving the main back part from expanding foam (the stuff you use to insulate cracks in your house with). The can said it can only be used once, but I had no trouble clearing out the application pipe and using it 4 or 5 times. I emptied the can :)
Anyway - it looks kind of cool. Well, it's still really rough, but it has the shape of a portal gun, which is good.

I was carving today and I sliced my thumb. The cut is about a centimetre long and I have no idea how deep it is, but davidnarby thinks it's pretty deep because of the amount of blood that poured out. Anyway, I have a plaster and a bandage on it at the moment and it's not too sore. I poked at it earlier, though (silly, I know) and that really hurt.

Other news: Comic Con was good. We saw loads - it's kind of hard not to when it's the size of a small town. San Diego is lovely. We stepped off the plane and walked outside and the first think I said was "California has the perfect climate." For all that, it did feel cold in the shade (24degrees is cold these days). I think I'd live there, given the opportunity. Not in San Diego, perhaps... there is too much an undercurrent of a city that's not quite as nice as the façades of the buildings would lead you to believe.

I can't really describe the con itself... fascinating, crazy, colourful. We spent 3 days wandering around and we didn't see everything. It really is huge and there is so much to do. We managed to fit in some browsing, buying, Wii games, DS games, a SWTOR PVP session, celebrity spotting, artist signings, panels on comics, internet stuff, we saw the mythbusters, stood in mile long lines, didn't stand in 2 mile long lines (that's an exaggeration - it wasn't 2 miles, but it was long - it was about 1km, actually - that's pretty long for a queue). We ate in a restaurant that had been taken over by SyFy and made out to be the restaurant from a TV show - Cafe Diem from Eureka for anyone who watches that (it's good - give it a go if you are looking for something fun with a sci-fi twist to watch).
What really amused me was that we had to get the train in each morning and the main stop was 12th and Imperial Transit Station. It's funny because if you ignore the 12th, it becomes Imperial Transit Station, which has a very sci-fi tone to it - like something from Star Wars.

I don't know what else... River is well. She's really cute, actually. In the evenings when lordkilljoy is at work, she sits beside me just waiting for rubs and attention. I think she misses having someone to cuddle next to on the couch. She's gotten into a routine of sleeping until 8 these days - which is good. 7 was just a little too early for me. She even slept until 9 the other day. Amazing.

Right - I think I'll go now. Get some food, maybe. I'm thinking of just putting on dinner, because I have no idea what to have for lunch. It's a little early for dinner, though. Oh well.

Comic Con Costume

I am about to attempt a mock-up of a portal gun. I'm going as Chell (the protagonist from the portal games ) for comic con and the gun is the main part of the outfit. I've found a site that goes through the making of a portal gun, but I don't have nearly as many tools or expertise as that guy. I'm also trying to keep the cost down and don't want to buy too many tools or materials.

So far, I've spent $4 on card and masking tape for my mock-up.

I figure if I draw up some guides in illustrator and cut out shapes and stick them together, it should give me a good idea of the size I need, then I can go and get some pipes, or use cans or find some hardy material from which to make the proper gun. I'm a bit excited about this, but we'll see how it turns out.