This is Halloween, this is halloween....

I never thought I'd be a fan of Halloween.....I don't like anything remotely scary, I hate the idea of walking up to strangers' houses and asking them for stuff...however, I really really REALLY like costumes. Which is what has won me over for the last few years. I've been a Corpse Bride, a Cabaret Vampire and Mrs Lovett, but I think this year was my favourite.

This is Halloween! Everyone hail to the Pumpkin Queen!



The idea behind this costume came from two objects. One was the wig - I saw it on eBay ages ago and thought it was oh so pretty! It was even listed as 'Pumpkin Orange'! Second was this little bottle.



Pumpkin Juice brought back from Harry Potter World in the USA from my best friend. The bottle was way too awesome to not be used for something!

From then I started to piece together how I wanted to look. This was my first and only sketch of the costume - as you can see it has a few similiarities, but is definitely not identical.



All I knew about this costume was that I wanted my skirt to stick out at strange angles and just look generally awesome. Thus began the most time consuming element of any costume I think I've ever made. Each individual 'leaf' was cut from fabric and a piece of interfacing. The interfacing was then ironed on to one of the pieces, with a length of wire stuck in between, This was sealed by heat and then everything was sewn together for extra support. I then burnt the edges of each individual leaf (even got some melted fabric stuck to my finger at one point D:) and once it was cool, I'd paint detail with gold metallic paint. A select few lucky leaves got to have creepy faces painted on to them for good measure. The leaves were the main feature of the costume, making up the overskirt and the sleeve.




The rest was mainly bought. Trusty black corset, black tutu and orange tights - all from eBay. The headdress was made by cutting off the top of a pumpkin (yes that's real....it was still slightly juicy and VERY heavy) threading wire through it and securing it to a headband, that was in turn secured with a million bobby pins to stop it slipping off. Makeup was fun, orange eyeshadow brings me great joy!Last but not least was my awesome creepy clawed hand, that was sewn quickly last minute because on a whim I suddenly wanted one!

Super Pie

Once upon a time, I stumbled upon this wondrous blog post when scouring the whole of Allie's delightful blog.

I laughed. Muchly. I agreed. I disagreed. I wanted a frosting rose. And then I finished reading. And my brain could only think of one thing......Super Pie.

I had to create it. It sounded so good. I too wanted to have rainbows and stars burst out of me when I ate this creation. But how to do it? The pie filling couldn't be too sweet, or the frosting would lose it's power. But it needed to taste delicious enough to be deemed Super. I wanted cake to feature also, as I do really love cake. And then one night, while eating ice cream, with the help of my friend Jackie, I knew how I could create it.

FIRST LAYER: Pastry shell - mmm delicious homemade pastry
SECOND LAYER: Homemade vanilla custard. My first attempt at custard, though I followed the recipe perfectly, was not great, so I made it up the second time and it came out awesome. Hooray for adding condensed milk to things!
THIRD LAYER: Passionfruit Curd - I used this recipe
FOURTH LAYER: Cinnamon vanilla cake
FIFTH LAYER: The most important part.....PINK ICING

Sometimes i'm humble about baked goods....this was not one of those times. It was SOOOO GOOOOOOOD. I'm going to make it again very soon, yum yum yum.



Thank you Allie, for putting this idea in my head. If I could send you Super Pie from Australia without it getting gross, I totally would.

Pemberley and Princesses

Yay costume time again! Two of my lovely friends and I went to Abbey Museum's Picnic at Pemberley a few weeks ago, and it was just wonderful! We dressed up like English ladies...



Sampled delicious delicacies...



Danced a jig around the maypole...



And played a round of croquet...



The weekend after that I had the pleasure of attending a Disney themed 21st party. The birthday girl Teneka had been having trouble finding a costume, so in the week leading up to her big night, I made her a Cinderella inspired dress. As there was a time constraint, it's not the best costume I've ever created, but she looked beautiful and was absolutely thrilled with it!



I had one morning to make my costume, so I decided on something very simple, but pretty! I often go as villains, so it was really nice being able to go as a princess for once, even if it was in her 'peasant' outfit (I like this one more anyway!) So, with my red hair covered by a gorgeous blonde wig, black corset laced over a white blouse and totally quick grey skirt sewn, I became Briar Rose (as Sleeping Beauty/Aurora is known before she discovers she's a princess!)Pictured here with Jess, who looked AMAZING as Ursula!

Conceptart.org

Many many months ago I joined the online art community of Conceptart.org where, you guessed it, artists from all across the world draw, paint, discuss, learn and enjoy concept art.

The forum I joined for was CHOW which is a weekly forum where a Character Description is posted and it is up to individuals to draw and paint this character it whatever way they imagine it, while sticking to the brief. I love this forum. I've only entered it twice, and I haven't actually finished either time, so I've never made it to the voting stage. But one day I will, if only I could find more time, or need less sleep!

Anyway here are my unfinished pieces. Marie Antoinette and a redesign of the 8-Bit character Splash Woman.

This little Lauren went to market....

A while ago I registered as a seller at the King George Square Suitcase Rummage. It was a lovely, if not rainy, day (we were undercover though, yay!)and it was a little bit exciting for me to actually try and sell things I'd made. The uber talented Lauren Carney and I set up our blankets and suitcases, and settled in for a fun day of catchups and sellings.




I didn't have enough time to make a huge amount of anything, but the things I had to sell were quite nice I think! I made postcards from my rainbow animal girls, and some brooches with my own artwork.



But my favourite creations were these guys - my 'famous monster' softies. In the week before the Rummage I was able to complete two Loch Ness Monsters, one Big Foot and one Kraken. My wonderous sister Katherine helped me out so very much by making Godzilla, not to mention making the pattern for Kraken, cutting and glueing brooches and giving me much needed guidance along the way with the other softies! Soon enough we'll be able to get creating again and make more of these friends to sell at the next market, and on Etsy!






Oh and how did I do? I sold a few postcards, brooches seemed to sell everytime I left the stall in Lozza's charge (she's a good saleswoman!), Kraken was swept up almost instantly and cuddled for hours while we chatted with his new owner, and Godzilla was admired lovingly by a lass who thought she shouldn't spend money...when she left her boyfriend raced back, bought it on the sly and was no doubt showered with kisses and hugs upon his return.

Must love books....

Drawn while I was feeling a little sad for my lack of...this. Le sigh.