Trashy-Chic

Last night I went to my first "anything-but-clothes" party. It was super fun =) I had a ball planning what to wear and I was so proud when it was finished!! I took a garbage bag and some bondage tape (it only sticks to itself so I could use it on myself without pain afterwards) and I made a cocktail dress, complete with bubble skirt, ruffles on the chest, and a nice bow.

Only issue was that I taped up my chest a bit too tightly (I was paranoid there might be slippage) so I couldn't inhale too deeply. Overall, definitely a success though!!

((I wish I had a better picture =( hopefully one will surface soon))

Costume Overload

Just when I thought the term was off to a wonderful start, this week hit. Holy crap! I've been up to my eyeballs in stress that I did not see coming!

The two things at school that have been getting under my skin (literally, at some points... stupid hand-sewing) are costume related. I feel like I'm drowning in Theatre sometimes. My class is making all the costumes for DalTheatre's third show this season, so I'm taken up with that. The actor I'm making costumes for is one of the skinniest men I've ever met... the alterations to his clothes have been crazy. It's good to learn this stuff through doing it, but it's still pretty crazy that we're in charge of a whole show. On the plus side, I'm doing a pretty neat alteration to a jacket. I'll try and get a picture up of it when I'm finished =)

Otherwise, all my spare time this week has been taken up with my research project for my theatre class. I elected to do an essay which would describe possible costumes for a play we're reading from the English Renaissance, called The Duchess of Malfi. Historically accurate costumes, of course. And I picked the scene with the most characters in it, of course. I just [finally] got the essay together... and oh my. It's been an ordeal.
Here's a picture of the Duchess of Amalfi that the play is loosely based on:

I love how hard they tried in Renaissance art to accurately depict the fabrics their outfits were made of. Look how luxurious her over dress is! It seems almost touchable

Leather and Lace

During that hellish end of last term, I should have been writing an essay, then I found these.
I friggin love leather and lace! Even the song by Henley and Nicks.
There's something about the combination of delicate and tough that just really appeals to me :)
I did the same sort of thing in my final garment project first year; I took really nice light linen and made a dress with a really stark, rough metal zipper up the back.

This is one of my favorite shirt/jacket combinations to wear:

One of my ambitions for the future is to find a good looking leather skirt! And make sure I'm in good enough shape to pull it off, haha. I would definitely dip into my savings in order to get a wardrobe item like that.

Work Field Trip!

At my work, we train a lot of people who work in the oil and gas industry, mostly on rigs. My dad used to work on rigs as well, so not only do I have lots of information from work, but I've been hearing stories my whole life which involve them and the people on them. I've run into a lot of the people, but I hadn't been on one... until yesterday!! I got to go on a tour of the Rowan Gorilla III with some of my coworkers.

Me on the drill floor 

This is a picture of the derrick from the deck

Remnants of the deep ocean

The RG3 is a jack-up rig, which means it has legs that it sets on the ocean floor and the deck and derrick, etc, gets jacked up so that it is above the ocean surface. We went on our tour while the RG3 was docked on the shore of the harbour so the deck didn't have to be up too high on the legs. This meant that all the build up on the lower parts of the legs were visible since it was in so much shallower water than normal. They looked fuzzy... someone said "it's almost like they belong on Sesame Street." It was a bit reminiscent of Snuffleupagus.
It was really neat to finally see the work environment of so many people I meet/have known.

Tumblr!

I made a Tumblr!!

We'll see how long I keep it up, haha.

Marred Pulchritude

Related note, I may have found a new favorite word.

Holiday Shoes

The family and I went out for a walk in the park on Christmas day. It was fairly brisk out so I donned my new, furry-on-the-inside boots. I'm in loooove with them!!
I'm forever hunting down boots that look old-fashioned, particularly boots that lace up and don't have a zipper down the side. My new ones are leather ankle boots, and they even have leather laces! I feel so great wearing them, I kept smiling down at my feet as we walked. I even got a compliment from a family friend we ran into!

You can fold them down so the fur shows around the ankles too, it's really cute (that's how I saw them in the shop window; they really grabbed my attention).

I also got a wonnndderful pair of wedges form Modcloth. I can't wait to show them off downtown :)

They're very comfortable, despite the height, and very easy to walk in =)

You can find them here.