Tea with your sugar?

So on Midsummer I made a goal to give myself a proper altar by Lughnassadh... 



 

Iave a pair of Tripp PVC pants that have a hole. How would I go about repair that? 

Okay...so I was watching tv a while back, and while flipping through channels, I saw Tyra Banks showing the world how to make a fake rose. And this is what I came up with:


( More pictures and a bit of a tutorial )

You can pin these to dresses/clothes. I'm thinking of making hair barrettes with them.

Enjoy!

 lately i've been wanting to change around my altar. it's already been through many changes. when i first had an altar i used a round table but then i was gifted with an old end table that works better for me. it doesn't have nearly as much work space but as a place just to have an altar set up it's great.

anyway what's on there right now is this: 
my things are in no particular order. this end table has two shelves. the top shelf has my bonsai tree in the middle (for earth) and to the left is a faery statue (for air) and to the right is a kitty statue (to represent Bastet). on the second shelf is a wood carving of a fish that my grandfather made (used to represent water, and as a tribute to him since we were super close). there's also a vial of water from a near by stream in the back and a little vial of turquoise crystal chips (a tribute to my heritage as i have Hopi blood in my veins). there's also a little bear dressed as a scarecrow on the second shelf...a sort of tribute to my grandma.

the problem i feel is the second shelf. i like the first shelf and don't want that to change. but the second shelf is all of wack for me. i'm thinking of removing the bear (bc it's almost a little too big for the small end table anyway) and making the fish more of a focal point. i also need to add some sort of god image. i believe Odin has been calling to me lately and i would like to somehow represent him on my altar. i've just begun researching him though and am not sure what to use for his representation.

on the wall behind my altar i have pictures of herbs. this isn't working for me anymore either. i like the herb pictures but...there's another picture there that says "may your days be filled with happiness, friendship, and love" that my mom gave me. it's throwing the whole the theme off and i need to move it. so i'll probably do that as well. that should take care of the wall issue but...i'm still not happy with the second shelf. i'll have to do some rearranging and see what i come up with.

sorry, just needed a place to 'think outloud' on this subject. also wanted to know if any of you know of things that possibly could represent Odin? also sorry for no pics...my scanner is completely shot. =-P

http://io9.com/5038302/a-jetpack-from-the-real+life-days-of-steampunk

This is the necklace I made the other night just sitting at a bar. The charms are a Fleur de Lis(sp?) and a few beads.



Not sure what to do with it yet....

the second one:



Is made from hard drive pieces and copper wire. Again not sure what to do with them. I may sell them as they will just collect dust around teh house.

Well, it's about time for a new piece- or in this case, a remix of an older design.


Tempus Frangit II: Bracer by =Winneganfake on deviantART

There we have it, folks- the new version of the Tempus Frangit bracer- this one's larger than the previous, sized more to fit the full forearm, rather than just the wrist- it's also got a leather backing on it for a bit of extra comfort.

squirrelmadness' recent post with steampunk guidelines made me think that we could do more for those that are new to the style, or those that have questions.
To have guidelines to indicate the general idea is undisputedly a good thing, whether people want to use those that G.D. Falksen has written, or the steampunk fashion articles from Steampunk Magazine or the Gatehouse Gazette, BUT I figure we can do more.

Why not make posts about the steampunk styles there are and all share the outfits we have made that fall within these styles? They might serve as an inspiration (and note that I say inspiration, it is NOT ok to blatantly copy the work of others without permission ok) for those new to the style and heck, even for those that have been around in the movement longer and are suffering of a creative block. And if the moderators would be so kind, we could put these posts in the memories of this community so they'll be easy to retrieve again :)

Note that it's the intention of this post to share what we percieve as the styles mentioned in the title of the post. So to share photos!!! Bring on the visuals!

Of course it won't end with this style, the rest will come later (if no one has started those I'll start one tomorrow and then another the day after and so forth, but really, if someone wants to start a topic on a specific style (e.g. airship pirate) please do, this is something we can all cooperate on!)
We've already covered the aristocrat, now it's time for something new :)

Simply reply with your own (mad) scientist, inventor or engineer pics in the comments and we'll go from there :)

( the first example )

Merrell Tetra Launch Waterproof Boot Not cheap, but if you want to play size-roulette, they'll probably go on sale or clearance at the end of the winter.

A few more that struck me:
http://www.planetshoes.com/itemmatrix.asp?groupcode=1861&Item=Naot-Illusion&Brand=Naot
http://www.planetshoes.com/itemmatrix.asp?groupcode=1303&Item=Tsubo-Pluv&Brand=Tsubo

It's funny how a year of constant change makes stuff that I would have thought of as utterly insane this time last year actually make some sense.

I think I'm finally adjusting to myself, I'm finding equilibrium in some things while doing more balancing out on a limb with others. Some of the interesting part of this weekend involved giving voice to some thoughts about myself that less than a year ago, I never told anyone and only laughed at myself about them because they were so absurd. But now, not so absurd. Unlikely couple as we may be, can I just say, the girlfriend, she groks Teh Crayzee.

I'm still working on this idea. It involves me, how I see myself, relate to the world, and relate to the gods. If I can express my thoughts coherently, I might post it.

Who ever goes to this or there other events do post your photos once you have them.

All the info here
http://www.edwardianball.com/2008.html


I love the flyer very well done.

I've found the area right around the Washington Monument here in Baltimore to be an interesting place for as long as I've lived in Baltimore. It sits in Mt Vernon, at the intersection of Charles and Monument streets, only a few minutes walk from my apartment.

The first thing I had ever noticed there was the Mt Vernon Place United Methodist Church, which is a rather striking building, one of only a few Gothic buildings in Baltimore (the link says three, I could swear there are four or five) The coloring of the church is considerable greener than the picture on the linked page where it looks very yellow.

So this church first grabbed my attention, and then I started actually walking through that area regularly when I moved to Calvert street in 2005, then I noticed the park around the monument, the architecture of a lot of the buildings facing the park and various other interesting details, including the brick-paved street.

What I didn't notice until more recently- and I'm not actually sure when I first did- was that the monument and even more so, the park immediately surrounding it on Charles and Monument streets have a very different "feel" to them from the immediately surrounding area.

Gavin and I had been talking for a few weeks about walking around there some night, and finally on Friday night we did. I made a somewhat earlier dinner than normal, and then we wandered out, grabbed dessert at XS (yay for my favorite place being just around the corner!) and then down to the monument where we sat at one of the little tables on the north arm of the park on Charles street and had our chocolate lasagna (think layers of devils food cake alternating with layers of chocolate and white chocolate whipped cream and chocolate ganache frosting. Yeah.)

After that, we wandered around the park. It's not big, it's four small patches of land to the immediate north, south, east and west of the monument with the street splitting in two to go around them, meeting in the middle in what essentially becomes a traffic circle going around the monument itself. Each little patch of the park has a bunch of trees, some sculptures...the east and west patches on Monument street are sunken a few steps off of the street, there are a couple of fountains, tables chairs and benches.

We spent some time in each bit of the park, first eating dessert in the north, then went down to the south where Charles street turns back uphill after a very sharp downhill block, leaning over the railing of one of the fountains until my ribs hurt too much from leaning on the railing, then moved over to the eastern bit, walked briefly around there, and then moved over to the western bit where we spent most of our time that evening, sitting on the edge of one of the fountains.

We ended up spending over three hours around there, largely discussing 1. religion 2. our relationship and 3. ourselves. I had a lot of "Am I really having this conversation???" moments (nothing bad, I was really happy, just a lot of things that I had never really thought about until recently, and stuff I never would have expected coming up and coming out.)

But through all that, the one thing we kept coming back to was talking about the place itself, how radically different it feels just stepping into the park, and how the street parts around each bit of it, and how it just seems to be shifted ever so slightly off from the rest of the city, as if the park had been built when the city was a nicer place and stayed in that time while the city changed around it. It's kinda eerie, very other-worldly- it's even like that during the day, but the difference at night is so much more pronounced...you can see cars driving by thirty feet away, but it almost seems like their driving in another world that borders the park, with an invisible barrier to separate. Noises, even close ones, just seem so far off and I kept almost expecting to see a shadow of a ghost or something similar flit on by and I just felt like I wasn't quite all there.

We're definitely going to go back and spend some more time around there.

A few pics illustrating the wonderful juxtaposition to be had with corsetry and uniforms.

May I present her Imperial Majesty Princess Margaret of Hesse

These photos are courtesy of The Kaiser's Bunker http://www.kaisersbunker.com/ a remarkable and extensive site for Imperial German militaria.

Here is Princess Viktoria Luise




And Again in the company of the Crown Princess of Prussia



Still don't know if I should stand to attention or swoon......

Hello hello

Where can I find nice, simple Victorian blouses for women? I've been browsing classical lolita websites (Mary Magdalene, Victorian Maiden, Innocent World) for ages, but my problem with their blouses is their so... formal? They're not the type of blouse I can see myself wearing everyday. I'm looking for some that are a bit more toned down, preferably with a square or rounded collar because high neck doesn't look good on me. Still Victorian, but less elaborate I suppose.

Hoping someone can help! Thanks.

I think I can say that this past weekend has been the best weekend I've had in immediate memory. I need more weekends like this.

Vintage slip reconstruction

( More... )

With all the new stuff for fall, every day has been like Christmas at the shoe shop I work at.  And knowing that the right shoes can be hard to come by, when these came into the shop I immediately thought of you guys...  I tried these on my self and if you'd like my personal opinion, they're all extremely comfortable.  I'd say you could easily wear them around all day.



I want these in the red lacker...
http://www.wolkyshop.com/pws-detail-344-7901_Waltz.eng.html

We managed to get these in a claret patent leather...
http://www.lacanadienne.ca/en/collections/fall-winter-2008/footwear/tula

And these are the ones I finally ordered in my size ('cause I wear 11's and of course we got them in brown but not the black I wanted)...
http://www.lacanadienne.ca/en/collections/fall-winter-2008/footwear/terry



And best of all... my boots will be waterproof!  (I won't tell you what they cost, though.  They're worth it, I swear!!!)

Although I did not originally commission my dress with steampunk in mind, given the recent "East meets West" posts, I think my gown may be of interest to some people:



( More pictures and explanation behind the cut )

Hi there. Does anyone know how to resize a clothing pattern? I have several old clothes patterns and one is larger sized but I really want to sew it.

Does anyone have instructions on how to resize this pattern so I can actually wear it?

And then there are a few patterns that are smaller than I can wear, but the most important one is larger.

I have this neat 'how to make patterns' thing to tell you all about later once I am more awake and can type better and a really nifty machine that is at least as old or older than I am that I am excited to start sewing with.

The how to make patterns thing doesn't help me resize patterns but MAKE my own clothing patterns. At least I don't think it would help me.

:-)