Thursday, July 28, 2011

Hello Little Piggy!

Little Piggy

Today we took Fin to a farm, he loved it there. I’ll upload some more pic in the future but for now here he is with a piglet, love this photo.

Wednesday, July 27, 2011

Costume Pics

Tried on my Scully costume to check it tonight. Think it’s looking pretty sweet and will look even better once I’ve had chance to do my hair properly (this was taken just before I showered so my hair looks awful!)

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Also tried out a basic Firefly concept. I think I’ve figured out something that needs doing to it from this picture but I’ll leave that for now as I have other costumes that need prioritising.

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Last task for the Scully cosplay is whipping up a simple gun holster this week so I comply with weapons rules at the con (all guns must be kept holstered except in designated cosplay settings like the masquerade.)

Tuesday, July 26, 2011

Cosplay Shopping Trip

Today was a good day for cosplay shopping.

I’m cosplaying as Agent Dana Scully this weekend with my best friend backing me up as Agent Monica Reyes, so this morning after confirmation from an eBay seller that they could dispatch immediately, I ordered our FBI ID cards – no Monica ones available so we have Mulder & Scully, hopefully a bit of quick modification will allow Monica to pass as Mulder without anyone noticing! I decided to hit town for a few hours to pick up the last few bits needed for MCM Expo this coming weekend. Fake police style gun (complete with handcuffs) from the pound store, can of matt black spray paint because right now the gun is bright blue, and a basic black jacket from Primark – I already had the trousers, white shirt and Apple Green Sweater of Lurve.

Whilst I was in Primark however I happened upon a rather amazing pair of reddish brown trousers, complete with brown braces. Never were such a fine and shiny pair of Captain Reynold pants seen in a high street store! A quick try on confirmed they were indeed most shiny and comfortable too so my Browncoat costume took another step toward completion. As this one isn’t actually being planned out for anything specific (I doubt I’ll be able to attend the Big Damn Shindig next month) I’m only buying clothes that I can wear day-to-day and which do double duty as Browncoat wear.

My upcoming cosplay schedule is as follows:

MCM Expo (July 30th) – Agent Dana Scully
Whovian Gathering (Aug 6th) – Amy Pond
Harry Potter Flashmob shhhh (Sept 1st) – Ravenclaw Studennt
Asylum Steampunk Festival (Sept 9 – 11th) – Generic Steampunk
My son’s Pirate Birthday Party (Sept 18th) – Pirate (D’uh!)

Pictures will follow but for now, here’s me in my Ravenclaw gear, just home from the cinema last week:

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Monday, July 25, 2011

Portrait Editing Again

Continuing on with my class in portrait editing and things are starting to get more trickier and more detailed, but with that comes even more impressive results.

Recent lessons have included how to remove bags under the eyes:

Before and After Web

And major glamour retouching:

Before and After Web

Animated

Very cool huh?

Friday, July 22, 2011

Bath Time Bug

I brought the SLR camera to bath time tonight as I wanted some shots to work on in Photoshop. Fin wouldn't let me stop snapping, he just kept saying "more" every time I took a photo!

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I also managed to get some rare shots of Fin with his dad, love this one when they were talking to one another.

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Wednesday, July 20, 2011

Cakes, Portraiture and a Scratched Cornea

This week has been something of a mixed bag so far.

Yesterday I tried to think up something different for Fin and I to do together. I decided we could bake a cake as he loves the electric mixer and pouring stuff. Obviously it was rather messy but he enjoyed himself.

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The cake itself turned out pretty well. I used a silicon could from Lakeland which created the shape in individual kid sized portions. Only problem was that Fin didn’t quite grasp that the cake was

A) Too hot to eat straight from the oven

and

B) For eating AFTER he’d had dinner

The two of which combined to a minor temper tantrum on removing the cake from the oven!

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Last night I went through the first lesson on the Advanced Portrait Editing course I’ve signed up for.  It was long and delicate but I’m rather proud of my first attempt.

Before and After

It’s kind of hard to see at this size but the lesson focused on smoothing and de-shining the skin, removing bags from under the eyes, stray hairs and blemishes.

It was not long after I finished this that I felt something in my eye that I couldn’t get rid of. I ended up going to bed, and waking up, in some pain so this morning we went down to the NHS walk-in centre who confirmed my theory that I had scratched my cornea. Nice. The eye drops seem to be helping now although my eye still feels very odd and uncomfortable an d is slightly blurry.

Finally, this afternoon I took Fin for a bus ride to town where I picked up this amazing book.

The Sounds of Star Wars

We also popped along to Wildcard to check out their new Snape tee which I’m sure will be in my wardrobe before long.

A Day at The Seaside

The other week we took Finlay to the coast for the first time. We went to Skegness and split our day between the beach and the fair.

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Fin seemed to enjoy most of the rides. He and I both got wristbands so we could ride multiple times if he enjoyed something. At first he was wary of the swings and cried when I took him over to it so we left without riding but after the beach he came on it happily.

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Fin totally loved the beach, I think he would have been happy there all day. I admit I look forward to him being a little older and more independent, then I can bring a book to read while he plays around. For now he enjoyed building sandcastles with our help and checking out the tidal pool that had formed nearby. He was a bit wary of the sea itself but paddled in it with me for a few minutes.

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After the beach it was back to the fair for rides on the teacups, carousel and rollercoaster, all of which he rode without fuss. I went on some spinning ride on which I thought I might actually die, it flipped you around and around so your entire body weight kept hitting the shoulder restraint which jerked every time you hit, utterly terrifying. I also thought I was having a brain haemorrhage on the waltzers, they were going around so fast I couldn’t keep my neck up and then one ear felt really hot inside so it felt like it was bleeding – very disconcerting.  I think I need another trip to Disney to satisfy my thrill ride needs without the cheap fairground terror aspect of these seaside places.

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Tuesday, July 19, 2011

24 Books in 12 Months - UPDATE

1. Kingdom Keepers 1: Disney After Dark - Ridley Pearson
2. Kingdom Keepers 2: Disney At Dawn - Ridley Pearson
3. How to Love Safely in a Science Fictional Universe - Charles Yu
4. The X-Files: Whirlwind - Charles Grant
5. The X-Files Graphic Novel - Frank Spotnitz Et Al
6. From The Earth to The Moon - Jules Verne
7. Angus, Thongs and Full-Frontal Snogging - Louise Rennison
8. American Gods - Neil Gaiman
9. Harry Potter & The Deathly Hallows - JK Rowling
10. Nerd Do Well - Simon Pegg [IN PROGRESS]

Ok I admit I'm massively running out of time now! Any feeling on whether I can include comics, fanfiction and textbooks in this because if I did, I probably completed it months ago!