Soooo....been nearly a month, once again. I am now all moved and partially settled in. I haven't done much right now. I need to revisit Talleg's outfit. I need to decide the next one and start on it.

I have been streaming again on Twitch, under Teaweaselstopmo. Feelf ree to come by and see. It has been mainly gaming, as I still need to get my shit together for my cosplay.

But really, for now, that is it. Not much else. Weebly iPad app has beena cting up. If I can get it to go I will do some more updating at work today.

So, as I suspected, I have not had time or energy to blog or to create. Job, w00t. :P I do have an income, which is nice. Also....I am moving. Tomorrow I go sign the final paperwork and pay my deposit for a townhouse over in Beaverton. I am excited to have my own space again. As far as housing in Portland goes, it is fairly large for the price. It is fricken hard to find a place to live here. People were either not getting back to me or they would disqualify me over the phone because I have been at my job such a short time and it has been a bit since I last rented, and before that I spent 10 years going from one room rent to another, not really renting my own place. But someone finally took pity on me, and I will be moving the end of this week. Yeay!

That means that once I get settled, I will start doing more cosplay stuff. I will do more creative streams on Twitch. I will play more games. I will be able to settle in a bit. I also have decided to try FAWM. YET again. I probably won't finish this year either, but it is worth a shot.


Also....KITTEH!! I mentioned her before. She is cute and intelligent and funny and frustrating, and a total love. I am happy to have her in my life. I am really really glad I was able to find a cat friendly place to live. It would break my heart to have to leave her behind. Because I really don't have much to add here, you get kitteh pics.

Also...Merry Christmas, if you celebrate it. I hope yours was a good one.

I missed the whole month of November. :( To be fair it was a very busy month. I did not really get any arty stuff done. I did some photography. But I really had to concentrate hard on school and getting a job. Which proved successful. I am now employed. I started last Wednesday. Now I have to get ready to move. So this month will probably be light as well.

I did get some ok photos this month, and I tried my hand at compositing photos. I intend to do more. Here is a bit of what I did.

I also took some spider pics. I have a spider living just outside my window I have named Jeff. Every time I approach the window his legs start flailing. I was watching The Grimm Adventures of Billy and Mandy at the time I noticed. He has a giant Fleur de Lis on his back. So pretty.

Also I have an addition to my family. Her name is Grainne Mhaol, after the Irish female pirate. Pronounced Grawnye Wail. She is a cutie and I can go on and on and on about her. I will just post a couple of pics and will drone on about her in a different post.

It has been a while again. I have been so busy trying to find a job I haven't had time to do much else.

I have lost a lot of wieght, as a consequence clothes fit me that did not before. Last summer I ordered a bunch of clothes online that were really really cheap, but despite being size 3x they didn't even remotely fit. They were more like 14-16, which is in the Large/Xlarge range. At this point things are starting to actually fit. This weekend is Kumoricon, and I haven't had time to do much cosplay building. I was just planning on going, playing DnD and taking cosplay pictures. But this jacket now sort of fits, and it is kind piratey....maybe? It had a really crappy zipper on it that wouldn't stay together even if I zipped it up without putting it on so there was no pull on it.

For some reason I didn't think of getting a pic before I started working on it. First I just cut off the zipper. Then I reinforced the button area. I have pinned all the buttons on, and sewed about 3 of them. I will then make loops to hook over the buttons. I have no idea what else I will do with it. What will I wear under it? Skirt? Pants? Will it easily lend itself to being turned into a cosplay for an existing character? I dunno. It is 3/4 length sleeves. I have a ton of silver buttons. Originally I was going to put buttons on both sides and lace it together. However I do not have enough of the same kind of buttons, so I decided to do the button loop thing. I have these pirate skull and crossbones buttons. Not enough for the sleeve cuff buttons, but that is ok. I will put dragon buttons on the sleeve cuffs. The color matches. Sort of. I also found a bunch of Halloween themed stuff I bought on sale last year. I have no idea what I will do with them yet, but I am sure I will think of something.

I need to get back to job hunting. If I come up with something cool I will post it.

Sooo....

Still looking for a job. Trying to get through school stuff. That has been my life. :/ I finally passed the Comptia A+ cert. So yeah....

Yesterday I was able to work on playing around with painting some cabashons. Just some playing around, trying to de-stress myself. I like the one in the upper left corner the best. I put some dark sparkly orange on it, then blotted some of it off wiht a paper towel. Them I put some blood red on it and blotted some of it off. Then I backed it with a dark brown. I think I need to make more of those.

I also have been working on making underworld terrain for DnD. I kind of like how this one turned out.

For the month of October I decided to try to a photo a day challenge. Sometimes it has worked, but a lot of times they are meh. I got myself together a list and posted it on Discord. I have only missed one day so far. Here are a few of them.

So I have a ton of holes in my armor that look really bad. I am running out of time to complete this, as the con is 7th of Sept. So I decided to just try to make some easy simple 4-in-1 chain maille to fill in those spots.

All I have is shiny aluminum 16 gage wire, and I have no more money to buy any, so that is what I used. I am in the middle of the second sleeve. I figured I would make a strap to tie them together and strap em to my person. That may not be what happens after I try it out, but that is the plan.

The principle behind the 4-in-1 is to put 4 rings onto 1 ring, then attach those 5 ring sets together to make the piece. It took me a while to get it, but after I finally wrapped my head around the concept it went fairly smoothly.

I am running out of rings, and I have completely run out of wire. I still have torso and legs to cover. So I have some 18 gage wire, so I guess that is what I will make the lower body chain maille out of. It'll be fine, right? I still intend to finish the spoon maille. I just haven't had time and I won't have time to complete it before the con. This is just intirim stop gap measure maille.

Neglectful blogger has been neglectful. But busy.

Talleg is supposed to be done for Rose City Comic Con, which is here in a couple of weeks. I do not think I will get the spoon maille done. But everything else is progessing nicely.

Mainly done, I suppose. The vambraces need leather straps and buckles. I am waiting for leather strapping to come in from Amazon. I am also going to replace the belt strap with leather before I attach that belt buckle. I am working on the thigh armor, which will look exactly like the vambraces only thigh sized. And I will rivet it in the middle as well as the edges. That too will need straps. Then I will just need to decide how to do the upper arms and torso. Cause those will eventually be the spoon maille. I may just try doing some kind of intirim maille look thing for now. I also need to get my +1 mace done. I am making it light up and it will be a flange mace with angry waves as the flanges. I am kind of excited.

But seriously...I am really really happy with how the gorget turned out. That is the last pic in that bunch of pics. I had a few false starts, but it got there in the end. I used a SCA leather gorget pattern and modified it. The first one I did out of 2mm foam. It looked great, except the trim looked like it had been done by a drunk person and it felt like it was too flimsy to last long.

I opted to use real rivets. They are cheap leather rivets, meant for decoration only not real work, but they will do. For $8 I got a set that had a hole cutter, 30 rivets and caps, an anvil and a setter. Amazon has those cheap buckles for 50 for $10. They are all different sizes, which is what I needed. I intend to use them for the vambraces, leg armor, etc.

OK this is getting long, so I am going to leave it here. One day soon I will do a post talking about the silver gilders wax I used to make the armor shiney. But for now, I need to get back to it.

Ok....so I really ahven't done much this week. I have been playing around little with photography, though.

I really want to be able to do cosplay photography. I have been working at learning what I can when I can. I have not had a ton of opportunities to practice, though, so I find my skills lacking still.

I took my camera with me to VersusCon. I had some issues, and it was clear I did not have the best equipment. And it was clear I am still struggling to remember all the technical stuffs. I think the more I do it, the easier it will be to remember.

So here are a few of the pictures I took. They are....ok. My lens decided half way through the day that it did not want to focus. I also was having issues getting it to be unmushy. I don't have a light. I need a light. I am aware of this. I look at my pics and can tell where it could use a fill light. Also...going full automatic did not improve the pics any, so I think overall my camera was unhappy and just crapping the bed.

I tried to edit where I could. There are still several I think I may be able to salvage.


So I was talking with a friend of mine, who suggested a speedflash with a triggering system. I found some cheap online and ordered them. A bunch of other people online suggested I invest in a 50mm 1.8/f lens. Found one of those cheap too in a bundle deal with the speedflash.

Turns out the triggering system, though it says it is compatible with Canon, is not actually compatible with Canon. After some frustrating stops and starts, a friend helped me figure this out. The speedflash works, though, if I use the on board flash to trigger it. The issue with that is the onboard flash leaves wierd shadows from the long lens or lens hood, depending. I would rather just be able to use the external flash by itself. but I chose to get a Canon so unless I have the money to invest in a Canon brand triggering system it isn't going to happen.

I tested it out with the puppers. These are with the kit lens (18mm-55mm, 3.5/f).

Still not great, but I think I am moving in the right direction.

So Friday I got the lens and did some testing. I really like the 50mm 1.8/f lens. I need to play with it more.

I think I am starting to get it. I do need to get more people to let me take thier picture though. As I practice and get better, I think it will be apparent.

One thing is certain, though. This is MUCH MUCH MUCH better than a point n shoot. I don't think I can go back to a point n shoot. And I have a Nikon point n shoot.

That should be the epitaph of my life. :(

So.....

Everything was going OK. The mop didn't work. Mostly because the orange bit at the top started crumbling apart, and the more I tried to glue it the more it crumbled until it was more glue than orange bit. Looked really really bad.

I was like oh well. I will just deal with it. I got the rest of it done. I adjusted the gloves so the white stripes were less wrinkly.

Then this happened:

You see, I live with a family who has a 5 month old puppy. I very chewy, rambunctious puppy. She is a love, but she has had a predeliction towards my foam for a while now.

Up until now if I said no and put it up, she would leave it.

But this time...

She has grown enough that she can now just grab things off my desk. I love that puppy, but damn girl. She also chewed up the belt stuff. This made everything I have been working so hard on this week all moot. I no longer had a cosplay. The mop and the accessories is what makes it VCD Janitor, as opposed to a random construction worker or janitor. This happened the NIGHT BEFORE the con. :/

After I was done crying in the corner, I considered what I could do. Because I already paid for this con, I was damn well still going to go.

I still have my Aoifa stuff. Sort of. I have lost 45 pounds since I made her, so her bodice no longer works. You can read about that build by going to October 2017 in the archives. There are several posts about it. I was going to link one, but I can't decide which one as all of them apply. I think I also have them all tagged Cosplay as well.

Anyway...So Aoifa's breastplate is waaaay too big now. The fabric bits are all in tatters. All that works really is the front bit and the horned circlet.

So looking at it, I decided if I had something to cover the back like a cloak, I could just tie the breastplate on directly around the back. It now wraps several inches into the back when tied that way.

So I needed fabric or something. And I would need a skirt and shoes. So I talked to a friend, who generously drove with me to Goodwill. There I found a furry vest with a giant collar, a tweed curtain, huge ass earrings, and a couple of pairs of knee length boots.

Photo vomit:

I first cut the collar off the vest. I included part of the body so I had a foundation. Then I cut the curtain to length. It was already finished on all the edges and was the perfect width.

I....am not proud of the next step, but it was a desperate situation. I then hot glued the curtain to the foundation bit I left on the collar. It worked waaaay better than I thought it would. I like the cloak. I think eventually I will sew it firmly.

These were earrings. Huge ass earrings. I removed the earring part, which was just french hooks held on by a jump ring, and attached 2 safety pins with black chain maille rings.

Then I painted them with some oil based paint pens I had. Obviously they didn't work well, as most of it chipped off quickly. And the safety pins were shite. They were in a $5 sewing kit, and they kept bending and popping open. They did look good though. I think I will try to find some more permanent enamel paint for these and better broach clasps.

Boots!! So I have to wear footwear that supports my ankles. I have joint hypermobility syndrome, and my ankles and hips are the 2 most effected sets of joints. I found this out when I started randomly face planting and spraining shoulders and wrists over and over again. According to the rheumatologist, this is permanent. It is a consequence of this degenerative condition. No more going barefoot, me. :( That means I have to find footwear that 1. fits my short, wide feet and 2. will go around my disproportionatly shaped calves. Up till now the best I could do is ill fitting ankle length construction boots. But these.....ah these...HEAVEN! They are comfortable. They fit my odd shaped feet. They have enough support for my ankles. And they have the two stretch panels in the back so they fit my calves!! And they are SOOOOOO comfortable. And they take 2 seconds to get on and off. I long ago gave up the idea of the quick on/off process of the footware. I wore these all day around the con yesterday, and they were still so confortable I didn't want to take them off. No rubbing spots. No too tight spots. They supported my ankles enough I could still walk without faceplanting after hours of cement walking. If nothing else, this is the best possible outcome of this frustrating situation. I ended up with footwear I CAN WEAR. Sigh. And they were $5. And hardly worn. I AM SO HAPPY I COULD CRY.

Ahem...

So I had a long black skirt with slits up the sides, so I decided that would work with this outfit. And the horns were still serviceable. So VOILA!! New iteration of Aoifa!

By the end of the day, tired cosplayer was tired. We did a photoshoot out in the sun. My chest is soooo sunburned right now. Fortunately I had on sunscreen, so it doesn't hurt. And it will go away soon and be blaringly pale again in no time. (I do not tan. And yes, I burn THROUGH sunscreen.)

So overall I am kind of impressed with how it turned out. For pulling it out of my ass last minute.

Sadly it is not the last iteration ever. The boob parts partially tore away from the base part. The grommets are pretty much toast. So I just need to reinforce the rest of the boob parts, attach them to a different breastplate, and figure out a better way of attaching it to my body.