The start of 2017 has been interesting to say the least.
For our family we have had some massive ups and downs. Starting last November we have been in the “House Hunt”; a week into the New Year we pinpointed a house that appeared to be a good fit for us. The house needed work, but the work would put instant equity into the house (equity that we would really need, to get rid of the PMI that we are going to be stuck with, long story), and it was work my husband felt would be manageable between him, his brother, and brother-in-law. We put in an offer the first day we saw it, full list price with asking the selling bank to cover closing costs. The bank responded the next day with…no. We reworked our financing, then submitted another offer, slightly under list but we would cover all closing costs. Next day: another no. After some back and forth with the listing agent, we went back in with our original offer, but this time the listing agent was going to go into the bank office himself and to go to bat for us. That was the Friday before MLK Day, so we had to wait until the following Tuesday to hear back. It was again, no, the bank wanted full list no concessions. Now we are back to the search and doing everything we can to save and raise money so we don’t loose out on the next one. If you would like to help, or just want to keep up-to-date on our hunt you can follow this link.
That weekend was RustyCon, so while dealing with all that, I was also finishing updating my Steampunk Kaylee costume to compete in it.
I went to the Con and had a blast, got to meet an author that I really enjoy: Robin Hobb, even got two books of her’s signed. One is for me and the other was for the friend that first introduced me to her books.
Their costume track was great, I learned a few tricks that I will have to use. I also participated in the recording of a fake radio commercial for RustyCon. That was a hoot and a half.
For Friday and Saturday I decided to try out the base of my new DragonKeeper costume. I discovered that I needed to take it in again (all the weight of the leather appears to be stretching out the foundation layer, I may need to add some more structure to the insides so that it don’t keep stretching). Thanks to wearing the costume I got to spend a good half an hour talking to a gentlemen who works with leather for a living and got some tips on how to do the final piece.
For our family we have had some massive ups and downs. Starting last November we have been in the “House Hunt”; a week into the New Year we pinpointed a house that appeared to be a good fit for us. The house needed work, but the work would put instant equity into the house (equity that we would really need, to get rid of the PMI that we are going to be stuck with, long story), and it was work my husband felt would be manageable between him, his brother, and brother-in-law. We put in an offer the first day we saw it, full list price with asking the selling bank to cover closing costs. The bank responded the next day with…no. We reworked our financing, then submitted another offer, slightly under list but we would cover all closing costs. Next day: another no. After some back and forth with the listing agent, we went back in with our original offer, but this time the listing agent was going to go into the bank office himself and to go to bat for us. That was the Friday before MLK Day, so we had to wait until the following Tuesday to hear back. It was again, no, the bank wanted full list no concessions. Now we are back to the search and doing everything we can to save and raise money so we don’t loose out on the next one. If you would like to help, or just want to keep up-to-date on our hunt you can follow this link.
That weekend was RustyCon, so while dealing with all that, I was also finishing updating my Steampunk Kaylee costume to compete in it.
I went to the Con and had a blast, got to meet an author that I really enjoy: Robin Hobb, even got two books of her’s signed. One is for me and the other was for the friend that first introduced me to her books.
Their costume track was great, I learned a few tricks that I will have to use. I also participated in the recording of a fake radio commercial for RustyCon. That was a hoot and a half.
For Friday and Saturday I decided to try out the base of my new DragonKeeper costume. I discovered that I needed to take it in again (all the weight of the leather appears to be stretching out the foundation layer, I may need to add some more structure to the insides so that it don’t keep stretching). Thanks to wearing the costume I got to spend a good half an hour talking to a gentlemen who works with leather for a living and got some tips on how to do the final piece.
Photo by: Sherry Kirk
Finally there was the masquerade. I had originally wanted to complete in a completely new costume, but I realized the week before that it would not be finished to the level I would have wanted it to be in order to compete. It occurred to me that I had never really completed in Kaylee in a judged masquerade, I’d done a walk across with it at the first year of SteamCon, but that was it. So an update and finishing touches was in store for Kaylee.
I realized later that the updated part (the back) never got photographed...oh well, next con.
I realized later that the updated part (the back) never got photographed...oh well, next con.
Photos by: Leslee Fuller |
I met some new people, and hung out with people I already knew; had fun being silly, and finally (I think) got over my fear of presenting a costume in front of people. Last year I literally became physically ill the two hours before the masquerade.
The day before I had been to a panel about competing in the workmanship category and picked up a few tips. So while my kids were eating breakfast Saturday morning I quickly wrote up a page of documentation. It covered everything from a description key elements of the original costume and how I had used them in my interpretation, to techniques, to fabric choices. The photo printer decided not to play nice, so I quickly loaded the images onto my tablet and took that with me. I presented everything to the judges, they seemed particularly impressed that I had finished all my seams with either a serger or I had done French seams. After I was done with them I had to add my favorite part, I got myself dirty! I had packed some charcoal from our fireplace to stand in as grease and put some on my hands, face, and chest. During my presentation I purposely rubbed my noise to smudge it up too, then before skipping off stage I enjoyed a smuggled piece of contraband i.e. chocolate.
While the judges were off making their choices there was trivia! All of us contestants had fun messing with the MC and being goofy. Then the judges came back. I could go through and list who won what but if you are reading my blog, I guess you are really just interested in if I got anything. Guess what? I did! Two awards! Which means technically for a con the size of RustyCon, I now will be competing at the Master level!
The awards I won were: Best Journeyman and Best in Show!
The day before I had been to a panel about competing in the workmanship category and picked up a few tips. So while my kids were eating breakfast Saturday morning I quickly wrote up a page of documentation. It covered everything from a description key elements of the original costume and how I had used them in my interpretation, to techniques, to fabric choices. The photo printer decided not to play nice, so I quickly loaded the images onto my tablet and took that with me. I presented everything to the judges, they seemed particularly impressed that I had finished all my seams with either a serger or I had done French seams. After I was done with them I had to add my favorite part, I got myself dirty! I had packed some charcoal from our fireplace to stand in as grease and put some on my hands, face, and chest. During my presentation I purposely rubbed my noise to smudge it up too, then before skipping off stage I enjoyed a smuggled piece of contraband i.e. chocolate.
While the judges were off making their choices there was trivia! All of us contestants had fun messing with the MC and being goofy. Then the judges came back. I could go through and list who won what but if you are reading my blog, I guess you are really just interested in if I got anything. Guess what? I did! Two awards! Which means technically for a con the size of RustyCon, I now will be competing at the Master level!
The awards I won were: Best Journeyman and Best in Show!
The second one is the kicker for me, there was only one other Journeyman entry and that was a group. Along with now competing at the Master level, I also got a membership to next year’s con! Woot! I’m a happy girl with that (so is my pocketbook).
I also learned that next year there technically will be two RustyCons, one during its customary January, and then again in October! They are moving the con to October in order to avoid some drama that was going on. For me that is awesome because I had already decided that I would be dropping StreamCon in the future, and SteamCon usually takes place in October.
Hopefully I will get around to updating again soon, but if not, I will update after NorWesCon.
Oh, and on top of all that I did NaNoWriMo again. This time a standard mystery, not sure I’m fond of it, but I will try reworking it.
I also learned that next year there technically will be two RustyCons, one during its customary January, and then again in October! They are moving the con to October in order to avoid some drama that was going on. For me that is awesome because I had already decided that I would be dropping StreamCon in the future, and SteamCon usually takes place in October.
Hopefully I will get around to updating again soon, but if not, I will update after NorWesCon.
Oh, and on top of all that I did NaNoWriMo again. This time a standard mystery, not sure I’m fond of it, but I will try reworking it.