Sewing

I found some black leather gloves at a thrift store for $2 to work into my Inara outfit. I also found a dress there for $8 that will be perfect for the shindig dance at Dragoncon. Its not even remotely close enough for me to try and alter it to look like the real thing, but its curiously similar to Inara's own shindig gown: http://serenifly.tripod.com/ffinara_gown.html . If there's time I may tweak it a bit, but at least its fine as-is.

Please note, all the pics below are of the original costume from the Prop Store of London Auction, not of my rendition.

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I'm trying to figure out where to go with the bodice now. I know that some bellydancers make bra tops by covering an existing bra with fabric. I'm debating if I should try and construct the front that way and then create the back when I have my dress form. This would allow me to keep working on it during the week - I should have the dress form by the end of next weekend but I still need all of the time I can get. It would also allow me to figure out how to put in the gold threading that is in the front of the bodice link

Or maybe that's just me wimping out with drafting the whole thing? I keep going back and forth on whether it would be better to create from scratch or use something else as a base.

Brian's chugging away on his bow construction. He's such a creative guy! We're both trying to figure out if we want to enter the DC costume contest with these . . . the Whedon track is sponsoring their own.

Landscaping

We had some friends over yesterday for a cookout who are quite knowledgeable about plants and things like that. Its the first time they had been out in our yard, and boy did they have fun poking at it. Our yard is so bad that their bored 7 year old son spent some of his time at the house weeding our front yard. Heh. I wish I could have a nice looking yard without doing anything to it, but I know that's not realistic.

The 'Dagoba' tree (seriously; Vader lives there http://www.diabolis.net/gallery/thumbnails.php?album=232 )in the back is some kind of Ash. Unfortunately there's some poison ivy growing up behind it too. Its funny, because I'm usually sensitive to poison ivy and yet I've weeded the little sprigs with no issue. The tree needs a serious pruning.

We've kept the Japanese Knotweed at bay (what we were calling bamboo) but I really want it gone. The space it grows is odd in that its a tiny patch of land between two paved areas (with a chain-link fence in the middle). I'm wondering now if I should just try and strip all of the vegetation out of there.

Something was eating our newer rose bush http://www.marmontianderson.com/photos/displayimage.php?album=19&pos=15 . The older rose bush (a climbing one) is kind of out of control but its super dead on the bottom. I have a trellis for it, but it sits almost a foot in front of the bush given all of the old dead stuff in the ground at the base of the plant. http://www.marmontianderson.com/photos/displayimage.php?album=19&pos=13

The vinca is the bane of my existance http://www.marmontianderson.com/photos/displayimage.php?album=19&pos=14. G said that the only thing to kill it is the chemicals, putting some on each shoot. That should be fun, seeing how its creeping up in the grass all over our entire yard. On the other hand, the vinca minor that I planted in our front yard didn't take over as I hoped http://www.marmontianderson.com/photos/displayimage.php?album=19&pos=22. It actually got kind of fried from the hours of hot direct sun (despite watering). I'm considering now trying to plant veggies out there next year. Its kind of odd, but it would be a good use of the sun.

The large tree that our swing hangs on is apparently an invasive Norway Maple http://www.marmontianderson.com/photos/displayimage.php?album=19&pos=18. All parties suggested that we cut it down, since it tries to spread like crazy and ends up shading out so much that nothing else can grow. I'm not sure if we'll be jumping to do that anytime soon, but we do need to prune it - its attacking the 2nd floor windows of the house next-door.

There's always something. I say each year that we'll focus less on the inside and more on the outside. I think we're finally at a point now though that we can actually do that. I don't want to do gardening or housework or that kind of thing to the detriment of other fun things, which is a good deal the reason why our yard looks like it looks. :)