There’s this mediocre movie with an outstanding soundtrack that I’ve enjoyed for over a decade. It’s Swing Kids. And, you know, there’s this one song, written by a certain Count Basie, whose music I love, for obvious reasons. And it just happened to be the right length of time to stick in my vlog to the time lapse section. Nearly to the second. Swing band music just worked it for this steampunk fabric cuff tutorial. Confluence rocks. If a little strange while 1880′s-themed-things are being made to 1940′s-based-music. Grock to the incongruity! Which reminds me, I so want to steampunk out a deco costume. Hardcore want.

But I tangent. I did the taping for this Monday morning and this morning. And it’s getting published now because the kid and I went to COSI today, where I did the overdoing. GO FIGURE! But it’s fun being a kid. Gawd, is it ever.

Though, to someone with manageable claustrophobia, going into the two-man-sub while being completely congested makes such things entirely unmanageable.

Me: Hey, kid, I need to get out, like now. Is that alright?
Kid: That’s okay, I’m staying in. Have [our friend] come in.
Me: Thank you all that is holy (while I clamber out and massage my chest to breath, dammit, breath)

Erk. Aside from that, it was some of the best fun evar. Especially the wind booth where we got blasted by 78mph winds. Best two bucks I’ve spent in a long time.

Thus, the tardiness. Four hours of intense fun time led to a few hours of sit thyself down, woman! Then I edited, and here ye be, a vlog that’s all about how to do a fabric cuff with an embellishment. I did a steampunk-themed cuff with resin snaps and a cotton velvet fabric. It’s my first tutorial, so only use swear words in conjunction with constructive words. I’ll do better next time.

My ending words stand, however: GO FORTH AND CREATE!

Of note:

Gears can be ordered from Kay and Tony Steele. Two of the awesomest people.

Also, Blanket Stitch Video Tutorial. It’s perfectly illustrated. In video.

I use thrift stores for many things. Gifts. Work supplies. Me supplies. Things to wear. Things to play with. Today, I happened to be able to really get a huge old haul, mostly for work things, but a few fun things in between. All this shit? I got for just under $70. And in terms of raw materials needed for some products and some contract sewing, I saved myself, and my clients, a few dollars (around $200 combined total). Score? YES.

Scores and scores!

Starting from the top-ish area, going left to right:

• A brown suede hat –  for me.
• An ab dvd (I like exercising. No, really.) –  for me.
• Star Wars Episode V and VI dvd’s, or as I like to call the, The Real Star Wars – for me/work. (Plan on steampunking out some Star Wars cosplay, yo)
• A Star Wars “Extras and Behind The Scenes” dvd – uhm, me.
• A blue batik scarf thing to wear as a skirt/top – me.
• A bag of watch parts and lockets – work.
• Under that bag an amazing red leather brag book pouch thing – work.
• A black leather pouch – work.
• A dream catcher – me.
• A faux leather pouch – work.
• A brown leather purse with awesome hardware to scavenge and leather to use – work.
• A pair of curtain finials – work (staffs etc).
• A pair of boc brown suede shoes, the 2nd most expensive thing I bought at $7.99 (EAT THAT!) – MEMEMEMEMEMEME.
• Brown wide leather belt – work.
• Two other leather belts for parts – work.
• Brown suspenders – I wish for me, but for work.
• A sweet vest that I like the style of. Really. I can’t wear size dinky. But I can modify the pattern for one of my vests – work.
• A black sheet and a lilac sheet for test sewing – work.
• Two black leather jackets for material – work.
• A black lace and satin dress – possibly for me, but if it doesn’t fit, that’s cool, because I have plans for the fabric otherwise.

And that’s it. I don’t like using leather that’s brand new. As a point of fact, I won’t. My compromise for the quality and look is to go faux, but sometimes that just looks, feels, and behaves like shit. So, my compromise part two is to reuse discarded leather goods. It’s less expensive, and it’s kinder to the earth to do so.

Any great finds on your thrifting adventures?

Hey y’all. This is week numero three that I’ve not blogged or posted a vlog. Well, here anyway. I did do some stuff over on my tumblr. I even had some awesome video footage for y’all, but truth be told, didn’t have the energy to sit and click a bunch of buttons and type a bunch of text to make Vlog Tuesday happen.

I’ve been sick. And not just “aw man, I don’t feel good,” but siiiiiiick. Ear infections. A monthly cycle that made a blood pact with death to take me out, a flu virus, and now, sinus infections that are threatening to drown me in phlegm.

I give up.

Going back to the doctor tomorrow for what will quite possibly be my second round of antibiotics in three weeks. My beef with antibiotics? I hate them because they make me feel sicker. I hate that I have to kill all the good stuff in my body that’s trying to keep me healthy in order to kill all the bad stuff in my body that’s trying to dig me an early grave.

But.

I work for myself. I can’t take as many sick days as I’ve taken. But mostly, I’m just sick of being so fucking sick.

Any better news?

Oh, yes! A dear friend of mine, @periannathUK on the twitters <waves hi!> is helping me rebuild the site from the ground up. It’s going to be awesome. Better shopping capabilities. Better blog set up. Better load speed for viewers. Easier for me to add the shit-ton of product I haven’t added to *this* site because this site has turned in to the it. sucks. so. damn. much. site.

Time frame for the new site should be twoish weeks. Mostly because I have some contract sewing that I am eons behind on that I need to do and I need to get done being illllllllll.

It’s 3:50am and I’ve just sprayed my nose with the how-the-hell-did-they-figure-that-stuff-out spray that lets me breath for another 9.5 hours so I can sleep (can YOU sleep when you’re congested? I can’t. I feel like I’m dying.). So, night night loves. May the sparkling fairy dust in your dreams let you fly, and not cut you to shreds. (I’ve been reading way too much Redcap fanfic.)(Though, now, I’m concerned at what constitutes “too much.”)

Till next Tuesday. Promise.

It’s nearly midnight. Again. I had such high hopes for my “February: A month of mail in review” post getting posted at least by 7pm. Not nearly five hours later. Oh life! *shakes fist at air*

My kid was home from school sick today. And I found out that my original recording of this from two days ago were full of major audio fail. At least it was hysterical.

And this one – the audio is still off-track. Heh. Off-track. I just found a new way to describe the happenings in my brain. So what you see is me plopped in front of the lappy, re-recording, in my I’ve been a’cleanin’ clothes, without shower, while my kid is watching Avatar, praying she doesn’t interrupt me.

But the jist is this: yeah, I loved February! And you can’t smell me on video!

Not only did February have an extra day, I got a bunch of stuff in the mail that I needed for my business. Some of which had been in the works for months.

And it was all awesome enough, to me, anyway, to share with you all.

I’m now designing solely for this fairypunk vision I have in my head. I’ll totally explain it more in depth at some point, but it’s basically fairies in Victorian times (1800′s), but with more color. The Victorian Era wasn’t exactly known for its exuberant color scheme. So I get to make shit up. Fancy, sedate fabrics that I’ll mix with bright, patterned cotton prints. As you see the new things start to pop up on the shop, it’ll start to make sense.

That’s my goal, anyhow.

What I like the most about all of this is that I’m doing things that can be worn to cons (conventions) in the whole fairy-steampunk genre, but that you can also go into work at an office, as a teacher, at a packing plant (worst best job I ever had) with a piece or two on, and not look like you’re still at a con. Some people have issues with that. I dunno why. Even though I just started thinking in terms of cosplay, I’m hooked. I’ll share some costumes I’ve done recently – and I hope you’ll share some with me, too.

Awesome materials and awesome things to be made. Thanks, Feb.

What I *couldn’t* show in the video? New sewing table being picked up on Saturday. But, as that’s in March, technically, it doesn’t count. TECHNICALLY.

But, I’ll show you me gluing a 3′ x 5′ cutting mat to said table. WHAT COULD POSSIBLY GO WRONG.

Of note:
My mama on the twitters!
Sparklej on the twitters!
Kay & Tony Steele cogs & gears!
Scott Frank the designer!
MagpieGemstones!
StoneHappyJewelry (I giggled at the name, too.)
Joann Fabrics
Fabric.com
idea*ology, by Jim Holtz

I’m still working on fixing the website. With help. Which is boring. And I also began moving thing…. you’ll see.

Don’t want to ruin the video for you.

That’d suck.

I’ve also been sick. And busy. And cranky. I’m proud that I got this post up before midnight, keeping it Vlog Tuesday instead of mangling it into Vlog Wednesday. Win!

There’s another vlog coming Thursday – it’s all about the mail I’ve gotten in the past month. It’ll be worth a viewing. I keep saying that, but I think it’s true. This time. Or is it next time? Or is it that I don’t know what I’m talking about and you should just watch regardless? Yes. That.

Music is from Singin’ In The Rain, “Good Morning!”

I laughed while editing this song into the video.  It was either this song or one from Xanadu. Which will happen. I swear.

Okay, not really, but sort of. You’ll see.

So, I’m going to espouse my love for all things twitter. I have met some amazing people. I have sent Christmasy things. I have received Christmasy things. I have received random things. I have sent random things. I have helped peoples. And I have been helped by peoples. I am grateful and am now, and most likely always will be, a twitterholic. And damn proud of it.

One tweep, in particular, is helping me fix my goram site . If you like anything hobbit-related, you should check his site out, stat; it’s gorgeous. 

In other news, today is MARDI GRAS!

It’s also Tuesday!

It’s also 6:36pm and I really, really want to just get this done so I can… dun dun dun… SEW. Finally. With Samus. *swoon*

*dies*

That’ll be on video. I promise I won’t edit any crying out. Just like I didn’t edit out my “floating head” comment in today’s video.

Much love, peace, and celebration for us all, always.

Music is from Machinarium. The song title is Pipe Wrench Dubstep. The game and the soundrack rock.

Howdy Tuesday! And Happy Valentine’s day! Though, I kept typing VD day. Mostly because it was a typo, but somewhat because it’s funnier. I wish all of you happiness, love, and love-related things on this Valentine’s day, but also tomorrow, Friday, next Monday, and all the days in between.

So, in this week’s installment of the vlog, I fidget, I name drop games and shows from the weekend, and I  nerd up a little. But, most importantly, I own up to the terms of my bet. The bet I had with @vlynne3 where we had until February 3rd to complete each of our ends. She had to finish a first draft of her novel, and I had to photograph, photo edit, and list the 300 or so products I didn’t have on the site yet.

She finished.

I didn’t.

I did get 2/3 of my end done.

That means 1/3 of my work didn’t get touched. Therefore, instead of sharing a depraved sexual fantasy with the twitter (and now all you lucky viewers), I get to share a meager sexual fantasy of the weird variety. I also show how much of a pre-pubescent adolescent I can be.

Hey, I just figured out what I was really trying to type above:

Happy no VD day! (though I think that’s a great sentiment for any day of the year.)

Folks, don’t try this at home.

It’s been that kind of day. Kind of days.

Kid is sick. Virulently sick. Home from school. I’m exhausted with worry and from taking care of her and her not sleeping and fever cycles and still attempting to do work things while she’s sick.

Thing is, I picked up my comics today from my local comic book store. I get to use my sewing machine for the first time tonight.

Which is the near-equivalent of mind-sex for me. I’ll let you figure out if it’s the comics or the sewing.

Speaking of sex, I completed 2/3 of my bet with @vlynne3. It wasn’t until I finished recording today’s vlog that I completely remembered that I’d forgotten to share that fantasy with you all. You’re welcome.

I’ll do that tomorrow. In another vlog. My personal punishment level is about 5’8″ high.

That’d be me.

Also of note mentioned in vlog:

@comicinks

@womanthology

• Calculation: 304 items photographed x 6 minutes, average / 60 minutes per hour = 30 hours in taking photos alone.

 

• That does not include ironing, set up, putting away, photo editing, product tagging, or any other work-related task. HOLY CRAP.

 

• Well, I’ve got 1/3 of my end of the bet done. That means I move from sharing a “depraved sexual fantasy” to “craziest sexual fantasy.”

Well. There’s that. 

There are four main things about today’s vlog to keep in mind:

(1) I have insomnia. Chronically. I also have bouts/episodes of clinically diagnosed depression.  Jenny, The Bloggess, has taught me much about acknowledging and being verbal and open about these things. Because they don’t make us less or more. They’re data points on our map of shit we deal with.  If you’ve never read The Bloggess, before, I suggest a few starters: Copernicus, the Travelling Red Dress, or Chewpa-what? After you watch my video. OF COURSE.

• (1a) You’re totally welcome if I’ve just introduced you to her.

(2) This video will take up 8.5 minutes of your life. More if you pause the time lapse portion. In which case it’s your own fault. I’ve apologized before for the length of a vlog. Today I’m just going with “Welcome to 8.5 minutes of sheer, sleep-inducing bliss! I’m that kind of gracious video hostess!” Also, I don’t have enough time in the day to edit it down and not lose my bet.

• (2a) Though twitter seems torn as to whether we should win or lose.
• (2b) I’m not sure they’re solid on the definition of “depraved.”

(3) I really should have been drinking beer at 6:10 in the morning. It would make the entire video make that much more sense.

(4) I meant what I said at the end of the video: help me name my new machine.

• (4a) Reply via twitter, comment on my tumblr, or here. She’s a Husqvarna Viking Emerald 118. That should be enough fodder to get you started.

In non-vlog-related news, I recently started reading stuff over at xojane.  It started with their Show Us Your Bellies article, which I went all agaga apeshit over. And they’re doing it again with a Morning Faces segment. I’m submitting my morning mug shot. Multiples, in fact. And I’ll be doing a vlog post on it next week. I recommend you do it for the funsies and the reality.

On to the video.  MEET MY SEXIEST SEXY TOY. Yes, you may think whatever you wish of that. I have a d12, sometimes a d20, in fiber nerd.