Two posts for the price of one
Mar. 4th, 2019 10:25 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
willowmegI didn't quite mean to post that yet. I was going to witter on about some other stuff, too - but the excitement got the better of me, apparently. Did you know that if you hit Enter after typing a tag, it posts? Oops.
My brother (the middle one) is getting married at the beginning of May - [sorry, if you know me outside DW everything I post here is probably super old news] - and at the time of my last long post, I think they'd just settled on a wedding date. He's marrying E, a fellow gearhead he met in mechanic's school; she has 2 children from a previous married-too-young (to an abusive white supremacist, in Idaho?? I gather mostly from context??) situation. They kids are around 6 and 8, hyper and rambunctious but overall pretty sweet...at least, they seem to be, given that I only get to Florida about twice a year to see them.
WELL - that's about to change! H called me up in January to tell me that he and E are looking to move up here, to Ohio, after the wedding; they want to live in my city and be near me and G! This had me JUMPING UP AND DOWN excited at the time. I mean, I'm still excited now, I'm just more realistically chill about it. But it will really be great to have family members in the same place as me, a sibling I can spend more than 3 days per year hanging out with, a sister-in-law to drag on shopping trips...a niece and nephew to occasionally babysit...okay, that's less exciting, but I think the kids like me and Greg at least, and they honestly have a lot more going for them behaviorally than my niece in Chicago (I'm sorry, I rag on her in like every other journal entry, jeez I must sound like the worst aunt ever) so it should be OK. And maybe Gwen (or Hunter) will turn out to be interested in handcrafts and fiber arts; I'd enjoy being a crafting mentor again, honestly. I'd always hoped V would grow in that direction, but she just doesn't have a focused bone in her body. The summer I spent teaching Cat (my best buddy's daughter) to stitch temari was really rewarding.
Of course there are drawbacks and unpleasantnesses looming in this plan, despite my brother's untarnished optimism...for one thing, they'll be relying on us and our social circle to be their only friends for probably a good while. And G and I will be the only local support available to them, as far as child-care - I really do hope that remains only an *occasional* thing - plus they'll have to start budgeting for trips to Florida every holiday season. (We may travel down together with them, sometimes, but I don't think we'll ever be able to do Christmases outside Chicago. At least not while G's parents are living, and let's please not think too hard about when they might not be.) E has employment guaranteed, transferring to a Columbus branch of the collision-repair company she already works for...H will have to have a letter of intent to employ from a car dealership here (he's a certified parts technician) before they can apply for a VA loan or seriously search for homes. They did spend a long weekend here with us in February, and looked at a few places with their broker, and H applied at something like 5 or 6 dealerships but I don't know if he's getting any response yet. So there may be some major hurdles coming.
I found (pretty much immediately after being told the news in Jan) the PERFECT DREAM HOUSE for them, it's close to my work/our soon-to-be new home, it's pretty much within their price range if they're careful, it's got a ton of outdoor space for the kids to play safely, and it comes with a 2 car garage AND a pole-barn set up as an AUTO SHOP with a lift and compressor included. H has a habit of collecting beater cars to mess with, and E has always got a "project car" of her own going, so there couldn't possibly be a better place for them in the long-term. I'm starting to get worried, though, that this house has remained on the market for so long and still hasn't been snapped up - I keep telling myself that it's because most people looking to buy a home around here are NOT the type that are looking for a full auto shop and an acre of land in the middle of Whitehall...not that there's something actually wrong with the place. Or, worse, that the place has actually been sold months and months ago, and due to some glitch the listing has remained active on the real estate search websites. So now I'm torn between wanting to pay *no attention to it* until it's finally time that H has his pre-approval and his pending employment and they're Seriously Seriously Looking, y'know, just la la la not paying attention to you and hope we don't jinx it into disappearing before the time is right - or, just breaking down and asking *my* broker to take a look and tell me if it actually IS for sale still, at least, so I can quit chewing my nails over it on my brother's behalf. And while he and E both have acknowledged that it is, in fact, basically their dream home, they didn't even bother *looking* at it when they were here, or asking their broker about it? and that makes me crazy.
My best buddy Matt comes to me sometimes to request costuming help for his CGMC shows - the big one once a year, although not every year needs my help. They always announce the required theme outfits about 2 weeks before showtime, so we often have to go crazy cobbling something together last-minute items. Like the tear-away toga with the fully hand-sequined button-down beneath it...or the made-from-scratch casino showman's vest (with dice-shaped buttons I made myself, too!)...or a crocheted guitar strap for a prop, or crocheted sparkly fingerless gloves. Anyway. I take a lot of pride in going above and beyond on fulfilling these requests.
This year is no exception - and I wanted to go especially overboard, because it *has* been a few years since I've been called in to help (last year all I had to do was go shopping with him at Kohl's and help him pick out a wacky patterned shirt). The theme is Pride, and Matt had his heart set on a unicorn hoodie. We talked about it on Wednesday evening, then met up Saturday afternoon to go shopping for supplies, and then I got down to work and didn't let go of my needle the rest of the weekend.
Imagine, to begin, a plain black hooded sweatshirt...
I cut off the sleeves and hand-hemmed around them to make a sort of hooded muscle vest...
I crocheted and attached a sparkly gold horn with a spiral of gold cording embellishment...
I fashioned ears out of the hoodie sleeve fabric, lined with a bit of multicolor crochet (that took 5 attempts to get 2 matching ears, ugh)...
I spent an entire movie cutting a whole skein of fluffy rainbow yarn into 9" lengths, sorted by color...
I crocheted a base chain with a loop of extra stitches at the forelock, a loop of stitches to surround the base of the horn, and a long tail extending a few inches past the shoulders, and then stitched it on over the top and back of the hood, leaving the sides of the chain loops free for attachment of mane pieces...
I crafted and attached EPAULETS from more sleeve fabric, internally structured with laminated card, under-stuffed with batting, and trimmed with gold twist fringe...
Now I'm stitching narrow bands of a frankly amazing multicolored rhinestone mesh trim up each side of the zipper band. A bit more of the same trim will go on the *inside* of the hoodie, in the collar area where it will hang open at the top. I'll have extra and might decide to go so far as a bottom band, but that might be overkill so we'll see.
Then, I'll sew on three silver star patches - rank, of course. No, I don't know what rank three stars would be in the Glam Unicorn Militia. And no, I don't particularly care. :D
Last step will of course be tying on the mane...and possibly doing a bit of a tail out of my second skein of rainbow yarn, if I feel it's warranted. I didn't want the yarn to get messed up with any of my other sewing, so it had to wait till last.
This thing is already looking AMAZING!!! The epaulets were an inspired decision; any old unicorn hoodie would be predictable as hell, even if well-crafted, but SPARKLY GLAM MILITIA UNICORN - yep, I've outdone myself. :D
I'll post a photo or two when it's done, I promise!
My brother (the middle one) is getting married at the beginning of May - [sorry, if you know me outside DW everything I post here is probably super old news] - and at the time of my last long post, I think they'd just settled on a wedding date. He's marrying E, a fellow gearhead he met in mechanic's school; she has 2 children from a previous married-too-young (to an abusive white supremacist, in Idaho?? I gather mostly from context??) situation. They kids are around 6 and 8, hyper and rambunctious but overall pretty sweet...at least, they seem to be, given that I only get to Florida about twice a year to see them.
WELL - that's about to change! H called me up in January to tell me that he and E are looking to move up here, to Ohio, after the wedding; they want to live in my city and be near me and G! This had me JUMPING UP AND DOWN excited at the time. I mean, I'm still excited now, I'm just more realistically chill about it. But it will really be great to have family members in the same place as me, a sibling I can spend more than 3 days per year hanging out with, a sister-in-law to drag on shopping trips...a niece and nephew to occasionally babysit...okay, that's less exciting, but I think the kids like me and Greg at least, and they honestly have a lot more going for them behaviorally than my niece in Chicago (I'm sorry, I rag on her in like every other journal entry, jeez I must sound like the worst aunt ever) so it should be OK. And maybe Gwen (or Hunter) will turn out to be interested in handcrafts and fiber arts; I'd enjoy being a crafting mentor again, honestly. I'd always hoped V would grow in that direction, but she just doesn't have a focused bone in her body. The summer I spent teaching Cat (my best buddy's daughter) to stitch temari was really rewarding.
Of course there are drawbacks and unpleasantnesses looming in this plan, despite my brother's untarnished optimism...for one thing, they'll be relying on us and our social circle to be their only friends for probably a good while. And G and I will be the only local support available to them, as far as child-care - I really do hope that remains only an *occasional* thing - plus they'll have to start budgeting for trips to Florida every holiday season. (We may travel down together with them, sometimes, but I don't think we'll ever be able to do Christmases outside Chicago. At least not while G's parents are living, and let's please not think too hard about when they might not be.) E has employment guaranteed, transferring to a Columbus branch of the collision-repair company she already works for...H will have to have a letter of intent to employ from a car dealership here (he's a certified parts technician) before they can apply for a VA loan or seriously search for homes. They did spend a long weekend here with us in February, and looked at a few places with their broker, and H applied at something like 5 or 6 dealerships but I don't know if he's getting any response yet. So there may be some major hurdles coming.
I found (pretty much immediately after being told the news in Jan) the PERFECT DREAM HOUSE for them, it's close to my work/our soon-to-be new home, it's pretty much within their price range if they're careful, it's got a ton of outdoor space for the kids to play safely, and it comes with a 2 car garage AND a pole-barn set up as an AUTO SHOP with a lift and compressor included. H has a habit of collecting beater cars to mess with, and E has always got a "project car" of her own going, so there couldn't possibly be a better place for them in the long-term. I'm starting to get worried, though, that this house has remained on the market for so long and still hasn't been snapped up - I keep telling myself that it's because most people looking to buy a home around here are NOT the type that are looking for a full auto shop and an acre of land in the middle of Whitehall...not that there's something actually wrong with the place. Or, worse, that the place has actually been sold months and months ago, and due to some glitch the listing has remained active on the real estate search websites. So now I'm torn between wanting to pay *no attention to it* until it's finally time that H has his pre-approval and his pending employment and they're Seriously Seriously Looking, y'know, just la la la not paying attention to you and hope we don't jinx it into disappearing before the time is right - or, just breaking down and asking *my* broker to take a look and tell me if it actually IS for sale still, at least, so I can quit chewing my nails over it on my brother's behalf. And while he and E both have acknowledged that it is, in fact, basically their dream home, they didn't even bother *looking* at it when they were here, or asking their broker about it? and that makes me crazy.
My best buddy Matt comes to me sometimes to request costuming help for his CGMC shows - the big one once a year, although not every year needs my help. They always announce the required theme outfits about 2 weeks before showtime, so we often have to go crazy cobbling something together last-minute items. Like the tear-away toga with the fully hand-sequined button-down beneath it...or the made-from-scratch casino showman's vest (with dice-shaped buttons I made myself, too!)...or a crocheted guitar strap for a prop, or crocheted sparkly fingerless gloves. Anyway. I take a lot of pride in going above and beyond on fulfilling these requests.
This year is no exception - and I wanted to go especially overboard, because it *has* been a few years since I've been called in to help (last year all I had to do was go shopping with him at Kohl's and help him pick out a wacky patterned shirt). The theme is Pride, and Matt had his heart set on a unicorn hoodie. We talked about it on Wednesday evening, then met up Saturday afternoon to go shopping for supplies, and then I got down to work and didn't let go of my needle the rest of the weekend.
Imagine, to begin, a plain black hooded sweatshirt...
I cut off the sleeves and hand-hemmed around them to make a sort of hooded muscle vest...
I crocheted and attached a sparkly gold horn with a spiral of gold cording embellishment...
I fashioned ears out of the hoodie sleeve fabric, lined with a bit of multicolor crochet (that took 5 attempts to get 2 matching ears, ugh)...
I spent an entire movie cutting a whole skein of fluffy rainbow yarn into 9" lengths, sorted by color...
I crocheted a base chain with a loop of extra stitches at the forelock, a loop of stitches to surround the base of the horn, and a long tail extending a few inches past the shoulders, and then stitched it on over the top and back of the hood, leaving the sides of the chain loops free for attachment of mane pieces...
I crafted and attached EPAULETS from more sleeve fabric, internally structured with laminated card, under-stuffed with batting, and trimmed with gold twist fringe...
Now I'm stitching narrow bands of a frankly amazing multicolored rhinestone mesh trim up each side of the zipper band. A bit more of the same trim will go on the *inside* of the hoodie, in the collar area where it will hang open at the top. I'll have extra and might decide to go so far as a bottom band, but that might be overkill so we'll see.
Then, I'll sew on three silver star patches - rank, of course. No, I don't know what rank three stars would be in the Glam Unicorn Militia. And no, I don't particularly care. :D
Last step will of course be tying on the mane...and possibly doing a bit of a tail out of my second skein of rainbow yarn, if I feel it's warranted. I didn't want the yarn to get messed up with any of my other sewing, so it had to wait till last.
This thing is already looking AMAZING!!! The epaulets were an inspired decision; any old unicorn hoodie would be predictable as hell, even if well-crafted, but SPARKLY GLAM MILITIA UNICORN - yep, I've outdone myself. :D
I'll post a photo or two when it's done, I promise!
