Menu

Subscribe

Dear Diary

A 3883-post collection

Cue the Lone Ranger Theme Music

This is the email I got from Hello Cosplay. You can understand that this is nails-down-the-chalkboard stuff for me.

My corset is in transit because I now dwell in the 91Kilo zone. My dress is in limbo.

I had to rush arrangements for the kids because I will be in Boronia Heights, 80K away, getting a kludge skirt together out of whatever we can manage.

At least Spotlight takes Amex.

Alas, I shall also be rushing today's Instant because I only have this morning to write. At least until the crisis is managed and I can gibber into the WIP.

AAAAAAAAAAAAUUUUUUUUUGGHGHGHGHGHGH!!

More lessons learned

Post makeup lesson one: I should have applied vaseline.

It's the little things that "everyone knows" that trip a body up. In this case, "everyone knows" to put vaseline on body hair before applying sticky stuff.

Not I, said the mouse.

Following the usual thing-making, I shall be posting pics of my horrible face again. Be warned.

[Shown here: reassembled clock]

Beloved drilled some holes and we re-screwed in the embellishments. The bell will be pointing towards my rear, so people will

Read more »

Tests and Finessing

Be prepared. This blog contains images that some may find disturbing.

That's right, gentle readers. I finally got my keister in gear and did a makeup test.

But first - a little about what we're doing with the clock.

[Shown here: clock bits]

First, we took off the bell and the two brass feet so we could remove those weird little bracer things. They'd just get in the way.

[Shown here: Red clock insert and belt clips]

This is the result of

Read more »

Round, round, I'm run around...

Welcome to the Last Mad Dash, the final 80Km relay in the Cosplay 2016.

Today, I am taking my admittedly limited funds to Spotlight to get the best look material for Bitzer's capelet. It has to be warm, because night-time temperatures in Tucson head to the single figures, it has to be woven, because MeMum can't pilot an overlocker, it has to look pretty nice, because Bitzer's a robot with standards, and it has to be cheap because I'm almost broke.

You

Read more »

Print crazy

Many of you probably don't remember the first time you got a printer. I do. Of course, this was before I found out what the internet was, but the ability to make copies of things, or even print out stuff on demand? It was like magic.

I'm pretty sure I did more damage to the rainforests of the world with my first printer than I have throughout the rest of my life. Heck, I even printed and bound a "book" of sorts,

Read more »

I got Beloved a gift!

It's always hard to shop for the snuggle-buddy who can get everything they want for themselves. Unless, that is, Aldi's happens to be selling 3D printers for $500.

The next-best commercial price for a 3D printer is around $1600, from Jaycar's. So this thing is literally less than half the price.

Caveat emptor - you have to at least know something about these things to get anything decent out of it. Including that it uses absolute meters of filament to print anything

Read more »

Progress and setbacks

I hit the 92 zone, this morning. 92.6 kilos. On one hand - hooray, I'm losing weight and that should be good for me. On the other - boo, the corset I have is now too big. And I have no idea where to get cheap and comfy corset stuffing.

I have got in contact with the corset people to see if I can swap it out for the same style in one size down. Fingers crossed that it won't break

Read more »

Spoonless...

The blockage in my lungs is not preventing me from getting air, apparently. I've been taking the nebuliser to little or no actual effect. And certainly zero relief.

I couldn't sleep because of the blockage. It's a struggle to breathe in. So, long about midnight, we had the home service doctors swing on by and take a look at me. That's how I know my asthma meds are working, even though it feels like some invisible python is crushing my windpipe. Or

Read more »

Zip ties and superglue solve lots of problems

...but not the one where I have to spend a lot of money to keep breathing.

Beloved and I restocked my medication stores, yesterday. It was quite the shopping list:

  • Ventolin nebules
  • Atrovent nebules
  • Magnesium tablets
  • Olive leaf extract tablets [I refuse to take the liquid, it is gut-wrenchingly gross]
  • Vitamin C
  • Probiotics
  • Cough syrup of the expectorant variety
  • Herbal anti-anxiety stuff

And a few items of sundry miscellany that were neither here or there. Now... how much would you expect to

Read more »

Asthma Games I Play (and other business)

I want it to be understood that a shortness of breath is something of a default state for me. Asthma creeps up on me by slow increments that are nearly invisible. I should be checking my nails for blueness, but if I do so regularly, I don't notice how much blue has crept up on me.

So I play really odd games like:

  • Is it a cough or a tickle?
  • How shallow is my breathing?
  • Do I really need my medicine or
Read more »

A cup of vegemite, a hug, and a good lie down...

Way back in the bad old days when procreation was all the justification needed to keep people from being equal... And Bex was known as an effective painkiller and not an addictive substance... the panacea of the time was "A cup of tea, a Bex, and a good lie down."

Well, I need a panacea that works because I'm now panicking about really minor things. As well as battling some asthma from Hades.

And no, dear Americans, I do not eat Australia's

Read more »

Aaaaaaahhhh...

Packing just got ten thousand percent easier. Turns out a discussion about luggage got me crosswired into thinking I could only take a carry-on-sized suitcase for all of my convention needs.

Now that I'm packing a proper-sized suitcase, all is well and I am much more relaxed about getting things together than I was, yesterday.

I'm up to the Unneccessary props, now. Things like "Maman's" photograph and the hip crank. I don't really need them for Bitzer's little routines because I've figured

Read more »

LUGGAGE!

Ok so I'm only allowed one small suitcase and one carry-on.

The small suitcase is BARELY big enough to hold the hatbox.

If I'm careful about how I pack, I can fit a lot of my cosplay extras in with the hat.

BUT - the makeup containers I have are too messy to go in with the hat [maybe if I ziplocked them into baggies?] and too big to go down the sides with other, more compactable things.

There's no real room

Read more »

Coming together!

I have some prednisone to help combat the bad asthma I've got. I should be done with it in six days, and back to what passes for normal before then.

The inside of the mask has a few more coats to go before it's prosthetic-ready. Naked paper maché is a thirsty material.

And as for the heart...

[Shown here: heart base with the springs inserted]

The final assembly is ludicrously easy, compared to the rest of it.

I got rid of the

Read more »

We're having "fun"

It seems like Mayhem's medication only really worked for one night. I found out why when I looked at the packet - it only works for kids aged 9 to 12. Mayhem is 14.

So we're seeing the doctor again about getting something to help him sleep. After I see the doctor about getting something to help me breathe.

Meanwhile, the fun and games he used to get "to keep him awake" is not happening, today. I figure if the motivation goes,

Read more »