Grave yard preperations

I have started to make some Halloween decorations for the party we are having on Oct 31st. I always love party planning and being the hostess with the mostess ; ) I have made the invites to be posted, stating a formal dinner hosted by Lord and Lady Carrington, but when the guests arrive they will be greeted by Igor and Frankenstein's bride in a haunted house! I have made shopping lists and started the menu.



Cobwebs and twisted silver and black crepe paper will be the main decoration but I'm also going to paint some fallen twigs and attach some fake crows for a spooky centrepiece. I've left a bouquet of flowers from my birthday dry naturally and they look brown and limp, perfect for Halloween ; ) In the hallway I'm going to make a chandelier from cardboard and hang a curtain for a nice dramatic entrance : )

I have ordered some supplies, a fancy table cloth with spider webs, straws and silver/black serviettes. And last weekend Dave and I started to make some cardboard gravestones for the front garden. He was keen to help and is going away next week, besides it never hurts to start early : ) We started with some slim boxes (Thank you Rock Band) and moulded them even further by cutting, bending and tying the cardboard together.

We papermached them with a few layers then painted them with a mix of sand and paint to give it a stony texture. It took a good week to finish them as the different layers needed to dry overnight. I made them all a slightly different texture & colour and by using different gothic font to give more variety they look fabulous : )

I hope David can find some treats while he is away in Canada, in particular I'm after a severed arm to have coming up out of the grass in front of the "I'm not dead" gravestone LOL I'm also going to rig some fishing wire to a skeleton resting in a home made coffin (cardboard again) filled with straw, when I open the front door he should get pulled up giving those trick n' treaters a bit of a surprise ; )

Words of wisdom

I am often finding interesting and clever quotes from famous philosophers & thinkers of our time and often jot them down in my journal. I thought I would share some of my favourite quotes from Albert Einstein who was a smart man in so many ways.

"Any intelligent fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent. It takes a touch of genius -- and a lot of courage -- to move in the opposite direction."
"Peace cannot be kept by force. It can only be achieved by understanding."
"Not everything that counts can be counted, and not everything that can be counted counts."
"Imagination is more important than knowledge."

Just something I thought I would share with anyone who cares to read it :)

Alcon 2009

Well after just getting back from Alcon and having un-packed everything from the car I am pooped! I thought I'd give a diary post review of what our weekend involved and what it was like. Its quite long but I hope I covered everything and don't sound too negative!

On friday morning I packed 5 dresses, 7 changes of clothes, 8 pairs of shoes, 3 suits, 11 belts (I know!) 3 pairs of gloves and a basket full of accessories as well as a packed lunch and some pot noodles. (essential for saving the pennies for merchandise - priorities people!) Due to the late arrival we missed a couple of things on friday. In the evening atmosphere was a bit slow, I got the impression that it was a private party and we didn't know anyone there - which of course we didn't. Despite this we had a good evening and I made friends with a fabulous man called Matthew who had on the most impressive velvet platform boots : D



On saturday I was raring to go, we went to the anime breakfast club at 10am and watched a wonderful anime called "the girl who time travelled". After that we had fun in the video games room and David came 2nd in the Mario kart Wii contest : ) They also had this awesome Rock Band drum kit with 4 cymbals and a hi-hat : D The DDR tournament had a bit of a delay but we eventually got going although disappointingly Alex got cut out in the first round!

Later in the day was the masquerade. There was a couple of great costumes but most, unfortunately, left a little be desired. I admire the effort put into costumes as a cos-player and costume lover myself, maybe I'm getting cynical or maybe I'm just getting too old for this but it did seem like a bit of a lame convention >_> I did have a good time, found some new things, I totally glomped Bowser and was very excited by the portal girl, kudos to you my friend!

Saturday evening had a better atmosphere but I felt quite "old" as Dave and I sat out from the dancing although he did have a burst of Michael Jackson-esque popping which was appreciated by everyone ; ) I also loved the group dance (despite the "d**k" being a pain as he was all weekend) and would love to learn it myself! Otaku or what ; )



On Sunday breakfast club was cancelled and we found out too late we were supposed to check out at 9.30am but we got it sorted pretty quickly and didn't loose our deposit. Once again not very well organised was the rockband competition, actually it was guitar hero and we won anyway so who cares : D The other things I wanted to do clashed with this so I missed out : ( We didn't go to the cosplay cafe as £3 is a lot of money for a cup of tea and some cake!! We did enjoy the AMV chillout though, for a couple of hours we sat reading our new mangas (Alex with his new Magic cards) and David had a nap ; ) The band that played, Machina Shogunate, we were really good too.

The over all feel was that we spent too much time hanging around waiting for things to happen. Also some of the big things clashed and you had to prioritise between them. It was a nice weekend but I would have been happier with a more professional/not so immature atmosphere and more to do. A convention should be like a music festival, always lots to do and lots to see and never a dull moment. Unfortunately this didn't quite work at Alcon, although the organisers say it was their best year. Well I think I will stick with the bigger more experienced cons next year : )

Good will to all men

Recently I started making a dress costume for my friend, after my first few patterned pieces I felt happy to try something a bit harder. But a panelled lined fitted dress from scratch is a bit different from cushion covers and curtains! It was far too complicated for my mediocre dress making skills and I was depressed. I phoned several local tailors but no one was interested, one said he would have a look but decided he didn't have time to do it. BUT he did offer me use of his 2nd industrial sewing machine to use if I had time to do it myself. I tried to be clear that it was too hard for me and didn't know what to do but he still happy to show me.

It could have so easily been uncomfortable or in fact a disaster but it was an easy atmosphere and I did not feel unwelcome at all. After 7 hours of work I had nearly finished Komandei was a brilliant help, giving assistance where needed and gave me the confidence to do it all myself. I made a few mistakes but most were imperfections and a re-did a couple, I could have never done it by myself at home and he showed me a couple of new techniques that with a bit of practice I can now do myself. The zip was the hardest part but I am very happy with the result and hope that Laila is happy with the dress when I see her next week.

My point is that there are kind people where ever you are, even strangers. In this economy its easy to be selfish and only think of yourself, every one is short on pennies but Komandei helped me to finished my dress with no profit to himself and only my gratitude as payment. That kind of thing reminds me that the world hides gems all over the place, you just have to look ; )

Shooting stars

Last night as previously posted, I sat and watched the Persid Meteor Shower. My husband and I headed into the meadow out the back our house with a blanket & Thermos to enjoy the show. We waited a while as the dusk took a long time to leave, it wasn't even completely dark before the moon rose but I got a look at 3 or 4 good ones and about a dozen little ones. Towards the end of the window - which is really the start of the real show - we saw the most awesome shooting star! It burned brightly and strongly for a few fractions of a second but it was so brilliant and bright, with several colours it looked like a rocket or firework.


Its a shame about the moon which is in its last quarter, I would have loved to have seen more but feel grateful for the chance, that rocket-star was unbelievably beautiful. I am still smiling even though it was last night! I love watching the stars and its even better snuggled up with my David on our anniversary, what a fine night it was indeed :)

The Perseid Shower

Every 130 years the comet Swift Tuttle passes through the solar system and obits the our sun, the most recent visit was in 1992 and since then once a year in august we earthlings are lucky to witness the Perseid Meteor Shower; this is when the earth passes through debris left by the comet on its last visit. The shower is a stunning collection of shooting stars!

This year there is a small window because the shower collides with the moon which will be nearly full. The moonshine will brighten the sky and make spotting meteors harder, but the bright one's (and the best for armature star gazers) should still be visible. The shower lasts most of this week but best time is tonight between 9.30pm after dusk and 11pm which is when the moon rises, Tuesday or Wednesday being the peak. I don't know about you but I am sure to be grabbing a blanket & thermos and heading to the meadow : )