Mind The Gap

Album with pictures.  Everything is now pretty much done except for Russ’ costume.

http://picasaweb.google.com/hmfullen/DragonCon08/

All that is left is to add the hardware to let me pull up the train so it doesn’t drag, which will be needed for the reception.

Still plenty more to go on other bits of the outfit, but now it’s time to change focus to the Dragon*Con costumes.  This skirt took longer than I had anticipated, and a lot of other stuff came up in between, so now I’m on a bit of a short timeline.  Eeek!

Updated shot of the skirt:

The fabric roses I made for decorating the bustle area:

Also, I’m pleased to announce that the Hippodrome has now officially been reserved.

Needed to take a break from wedding sewing and decided to use the time to make this cute little guy.

I was going for kind of a folk art look, so everything is hand stitched with the stitches visible (and they definitely aren’t perfect but that really wasn’t on purposed).

In keeping with the Victorian (and ever so slightly steampunk) theme of the wedding, I’ve been working on custom accessories for my costume, and a couple of things for the ring bearer and the maid of honor.

Starting off with what I feel to be the least impressive of the bunch, my shoes:

These are a pair of Victorian style boots from an online costume shop.  I then purchased bridal appliqués from the fabric store, sewed them on, and then replaced the shoe laces with ribbon to coordinate with the chosen colors.

Now, the hats!

I ordered small felt top hats from a doll shop and decorated them (with supplies easily found in craft/fabric stores).

The maid of honor’s hat:

This one has a couple of small loops of ribbon on the inside for hairpins or clips to attach to.

The ring bearer’s hat: 

And guess who the ring bearer is!

The bride’s hat:

(That’s not the hair I’ll be wearing, it just happened to be handy for the photo.)

To see the full set of pictures (including close ups of my hat, and more pictures of the dog in hers), go here.

Just some random bits from the trip.

Pinball game in one of the airports.

Monument to capitalism at a mall near the hotel.

Mounted police letting their horses drink from a fountain downtown.

Fun juxtaposition of colors in Chinatown.

Old sign in Chinatown.

Bus advertising it’s own use of biodiesel in the shopping district.

‘Twas a fun trip, and those are all the photos I have.

On our one major afternoon of exploring, one of our stops was the Chinese Gardens. It didn’t take us long to wander through, which made the ticket price seem disappointing. However, I think one could have made much more of an event of it than we did (such as by going on one of the guided tours or renting the gadget that has pre-recorded info about various stops in the garden).

We sort of just meandered through, looked at things, snapped some photos, and then wandered out.

Some neat bonsai.

Ryan’s silhouette in front of a willow tree across the lake.

Stone pattern on the ground.

More miniatures.

Ryan in front of the flowering tree.

I was thinking of editing this image to remove the dirt smears, and then printing it to frame at the office.

Another nice view through one of the decorative windows.

Tiny sign at the very bottom of the wall of the tea house.

City skyline behind the pagoda on the lake.

Close up of the willow tree.

View from inside one of the buildings.

And thus concludes our summary of the Chinese Gardens.

Been a busy couple of weeks.  But, I’ve finally uploaded a few more photos from our trip to Portland earlier in the month, so here we go.

We stayed at the Doubletree at Lloyd Center.  The hotel is undergoing renovation (environmentally friendly renovation, I might add).  Where they are in the overall project plan, I do not know, but I found that several area’s are already redone, while some others are not.  We had a newly redecorated room, that even underwent some enhancement during our stay (new chair brought in, new curtains hung), while some others in our party on a lower floor were still stuck with the 80s furniture and formica.

Anywho, I took several pictures of things around the hotel, such as the views from various windows, Ryan and I, and a bit of amusing signage.

Views from the hotel:

(Mostly from our room, a couple from another room we briefly visited.)

Ryan and I:

Amusing Signage:

(I liked that it was room 666, and there is a no smoking sign…)

Only one or two more installments of Portland pictures to go!

There are loads more pics from the trip, but I’ve decided to siphon them out a few at a time, because I feel like it.

On today’s menu we have the few pics I took of food and drink.  (I meant to do more of this, but ultimately kept getting distracted.)

This is a photo of the paper chopstick cover from a little sushi place where Ryan and I had lunch on our first day in the city.

Beer sample from the Rock Bottom brewery/restaurant.  All of them were good (although the seasonal stout is to be recommended especially), and the food was also rather tasty.  A+++ would visit again.

Photo of sake from a fancy sushi place (the name of which unfortunately escapes me).  I took several pictures of the serving setup, but ended up settling on this one.

This is my favorite photo of the serving because the sake is poured so that it overflows into the secondary dish there as a symbol of abundance (we were told), and meanwhile beside this symbol of abundance is a chipped plate, and it’s generally considered bad form to serve a guest from cracked or chipped dishes.  I found the juxtaposition amusing.

The sake itself was also of interest.  First, the bottle is comically huge, at over a foot tall.  Second, the sake is a milky white color instead of clear, is a bit milder/sweeter than normal sake, and is served chilled.  We sampled a few and as a group chose this one (Murai Family Nigori Sake).  Bit of info here.

One of our projects around the house is creating a drink cooler out of an old broken washing mashing, and decking it out to look like a victorian styled time machine.

One of the major hurdles of the project is removing the agitator shaft from the washing tub.  (Taking off the cover is easy, but the metal shaft itself is another story.)

We finally managed to get it cut out, and here are some artistic photos of the damage.

Since then I’ve sealed up and padded the remaining stub using kitchen/bath caulk, and have primed and painted most of the case, and the control panel.

Next steps are:

1. Drill hole (so I can paint the last panel)
2. Install drain tube and faucet (using aforementioned hole)
3. Paint control panel components
4. Reinstall control panel
5. Add wood trim
6. Install brass handle
7. Paint textured panel  on lid
8. Paint and attach sign panel on front
9. Install thermometer and hygrometer inside lid
10. Paint inside of  lid with instructions for use