Goodbye again, for a little while.

Hello all!

This is the face of an incredibly stressed out lady! I had some blog posts planned for this week but, to be honest, I really just need to focus on my thesis and nothing else. I've only got just over a week until I need to submit the final draft (the final final to be submitted the week after) and I have at least a month's worth of work left on it. So, until it's all done and dusted, as it were, I shall be taking a hiatus from blogging. I'll still be around Twitter and Tumblr and Instagram (@andibgoode) on my study breaks, though not as much as usual.

So, toodles for now, and hopefully the next time I post something, my thesis will be all submitted and I will be slightly less stressed! And thanks for sticking around.

He's terrific, he's magnific...

...he's the greatest secret agent in the world!

So, I had initially decided to wear my Abaddon dress, again, for the second day of Supanova, as I felt it needed another outing. But between not having comfortable heels and not wanting to attempt the hair again, I decided not to after all. And then quickly scrambled to get another costume from my list done. Ha.

My inspiration for my second costume was one of my favourite cartoons that I watched as a child: Danger Mouse. It's essentially about a mouse who is a secret agent - kind of a parody '60s spy shows and movies like James Bond and Danger Man. It's a lot of fun and still enjoyable to watch as an adult, unlike some other shows I watched when I was little.

My first idea was to wear a turtle neck, white pants and white knee high boots but I thought a skirt might be cuter (and easier to find at short notice, which it was). I also wanted a white bobbed wig but I already had this one at home and I think it does the job well enough. The spats were another last minute 'winging it' experiment so they've now gone in the bin but at least they lasted the day.

The ears are just pinned in place with bobby pins. I'm really happy with how the DM symbol turned out. It really pops! Quite a few people were excited to see my costume, which made me really happy. All of them around my age or older - I guess Danger Mouse hasn't been shown on TV here for a while?

If you've never seen Danger Mouse, you can watch the theme above (which is awesome but not as great as the theme for it's spinoff Duckula). And then go watch it all on YouTube, or something, if you feel like it.

There wasn't a lot I wanted to buy at Supanova, this year. I was hoping at least one stall would have the DC Bombshell figures/statues but I only found Supergirl and Wonder Woman (who's pose and outfit is awesome, but her face doesn't do it for me). But I did buy this little Pop! Vinyl '66 Batman. I wanted the Catwoman and Robin, as well, but couldn't find one without too many flaws. I think the Funko designs are really cute but they're cheap and it does show in the quality of the products. He still looks good on my Bat-shelf, though.

And my favourite purchase! This piece, by Anthea Wright, had been up in Two Bit Villains during a SALA exhibition. When I saw it, I immediately fell in love. I'd intended to go back, but forgot. But Anthea Wright had a stall at Supanova and, luckily, Catwoman was there! Apparently she was the last of the smaller framed works left and was obviously just waiting for me to buy her. Huzzah! Now I just need to put her up on my wall.

Holy miniskirts, Batman!

Gosh, it seems I forgot all about blogging, last week. I was concentrating on getting my costumes done for Supanova this past weekend. But, now it's all over for another year, and you all get to see the results of last week's stress (which I very vaguely hinted at in this post). 

The idea for my first costume of the weekend all started when I thought it would be fun to interpret the '60s Batman & Robin costumes (seen below) into mod style dresses. Then I messaged a friend, who shares my love of '60s Batman, about it and it kind of snowballed from there. I'm incredibly proud of the results...

Swoon!

Some of my ideas along the way. The white parts on the first dress would have been green.

And the final result! I'm so proud of this dress, which is pretty rare for me, so this post is a bit more picture heavy than usual.

I was initially going to do a yellow bib-front with the Peter Pan collar but I decided on bows to reference the laces of Robin's tunic, instead. The mask and 'R' were both made using patterns I found on a Batman forum - it didn't occur to me until the nearly last minute to see if anyone had posted a pattern online. Ha.

Trying out some Burt Ward as Robin poses.

The boots were the most difficult part of the costume. I looked at so many tutorials for spats (my first idea after I couldn't find green boots) and not one single one of them made sense to me. After many tears and yelling 'I'm never sewing ever again!' I just winged it and made slip covers that I stuck to some boots with electrical tape. They're not perfect but they did the job.

Testing out another Robin pose. Heh.

I painted my nails to match.

The Dynamic Duo together! My friend Kate is Bat-Ma'am (she coined the alternative name herself) to my Girl Wonder. Kate decided we needed a backstory so our Bat-Ma'am and Robin are from an alternative universe where Barbara Gordon was born to the Waynes (and Bruce to the Gordons) so she became Bat-Ma'am and Dot Grayson, still an orphaned ex-acrobat, is her Robin.

It's Batusi time!

Kapow! Crack!

Two of my inspirations for my Robin dress were Darshana and Betty Felon who have both done awesome Robin cosplays of their own. I also spent a lot of time scouring google for old magazine scans and searching 1960s dress patterns on etsy. It was a lot of fun interpreting Robin's costume into a dress and I'm so happy with the result (even though I still don't enjoy sewing). I shall definitely be wearing this again at some point. I'll have a post about my second costume up this Wednesday.

It's ukulele time!

Well, it's time for my ukulele feature post! I was going to record a new video, but I'm getting really close to my internet cap, so I decided to post some old ones, isntead. Hopefully some of you haven't seen them, yet. With the passing of Lou Reed, I decided to post the two covers of his songs I had uploaded to my channel, both from his fantastic album Transformer. I doubt they do him justice but I get a lot of joy out of playing these songs.

Goodnight Ladies works so well on ukulele. I feel like these older videos show that my singing, and my playing, have both got a lot stronger. (Well, at least, I sure hope they have!)

And a duet! Not only is Satelite of Love one of my favourite songs, it features in one of my favourite scenes of my favourite films: Velvet Goldmine. Sigh. (And, gosh, YouTube loves to pick the worst moments as stills for videos, don't they?)

Hope you all enjoyed my versions of these two beautiful songs! And I will have a new video for next month.

Yesterday's clothes...

Some days, I feel like I've forgotten how to start a blog post! Today is one of those days. It's also clearly another day I've had trouble coming up with a post title. Anyway, one of my goals for this blog is to start taking better photos - I didn't achieve that with this post but at least I remembered to take some photos of the outfit I wore yesterday.

I wore this to the city to see my thesis supervisor and do a tiny bit of shopping.

I'm incredibly impressed with the Australis Velourlips - I wish I'd bought more! It goes on so easily and dries in a really lovely matte. It lasts pretty well, too.

Another mirror shot, but this time in my room. You can just see a couple of the art prints I have on my walls, including the fantastic Vincent Price's Party from Ghosts Waltz (aka Danielle of Ahoy Miss). It's one of my absolute favourites!

I picked this skirt up at an op-shop - I love skirts like this! I'm always looking out for more. Now, if only it had pockets... 

I popped into Typo to pick up a diary for next year (I like to be prepared) but, of course, I didn't leave with just that. I also bought this adorable ceramic fox pen-holder. He's on my bedside table, at present.

On my way to the bus stop, I stopped at Goodwill and found this jacket! I couldn't leave without it. It looks something that would've been worn to the beach, but it doesn't feel like the right kind of fabric. They also had a Sun Valley Ken, but they hadn't settled on a price and I knew, once they did, they would likely overcharge so I just left him there. I might call later, though, to see if they've thought of a price. I'm looking forward to wearing this jacket - hopefully we get a cooler day before the heat settles in, so I can.

Sewing weekend

Hello, hello, I hope everyone had a lovely weekend. I started on a new sewing project - one of my costumes for Supanova, which is only in a couple of weeks. I didn't actually do any sewing, yet, so the post title is misleading but it sounded a bit better than 'pinning and cutting weekend'. Ha.

I've been feeling the 60s, again, lately (they were my first love, after all) and this dress pattern is not only perfect for my costume idea, but I'm looking forward to making some for everyday wear if the costume works out. I shan't say what the costume is, in case it doesn't work out, but you might be able to guess from the colours of the fabric in these photos. Hee.

Not a very exciting photo! But it shows you one of the colours I'm using...

How cute are the illustrations on this pattern? I love the shoes, too. And more hints of costume colours!

I've been feeling a bit 'blah' about my wardrobe, lately, but I decided that, seeing as I've many patterns and fabrics not used, I should make some clothes (and a dent in my fabric stash) before I buy any more. I'm also trying not to buyuntil I sell off some of the stacks I've got in boxes, etc., to list on etsy once my thesis is out of the way.

I really hope my costume works out - I can't wait to share it with you all! I think it's going to be cute.

Instagram Round-Up October

It's already November! Eep! That means it's time for another Instagram round-up...

L: mirror shot of my Halloween costume; R: Betty wanted her own Abaddon costume!

L: a new Blythe friend I've named Trillian; R: my wardrobe is overflowing!

L: Bright tights and dress; R: yummy donut treat.

L: Halloween decorating; R: things with which to decorate.

L: took Midge on an outing; R: wore a new dress.

L: Halloween friends; R: farewell friends.

L: snickers brownie; R: another new dress.

L: loving Batman '66; R: another new Blythe friend who I've named Dylan.

L: black, white, Peter Pan collar; R: all my vintage Barbies.

Apologies for the sparse text in this post - I've only just remembered I was meant to post it and now I'm lost for words, so to speak. If you want to follow me on instagram, and don't already, I'm back to @andibgoode now that Halloween is over.

Decorating for Halloween

Although I've loved Halloween for quite some time, I've never decorated the house for it before but this year I decided it was time to start! My decorations aren't that fancy, and eventually I would love to add some vintage pieces instead of tacky things picked up from cheap shops, but it was a lot of fun to decorate for Halloween for the first time.

As you can see, I've incorporated some of my toy collection into our decorations.

...and a wig I bought for a costume I changed my mind on. Looks fetching on the Jack-o-Lantern, no?

I wanted to take a photo of this from outside but there was something that looked suspiciously like a wasp flying around, so I decided to stay inside, instead.

This table cloth was sent from a friend in the US - seems there are much nicer Halloween decorations wherever she got this from than can be found over here! But there was a bigger selection here, this year, so I'm holding out hope.

More toys and some orange serviettes to add a little Halloween-y touch.

I love this bunting I picked up from Typo, last year.

I had initially intended this post for Monday but I was too eager to share my costume, so I switched them around. Happy (early) Halloween, everyone!

Show me what you've seen.

It's that time of year again - Halloween! And that means it's Halloween costume time, too. Huzzah! I love looking at other people's costumes but, of course, I also like making my own. Last year, I was a pumpkin and you can see some others (as well as non-Halloween costumes) I've done on this Pinterest board. Since I started dabbling, for lack of a better word, in cosplay I've created a long list of costumes I want to do one day. One of them happened to be Abaddon in her grey dress from season 8 of Supernatural, which was kind of perfect for Halloween. With the thesis, and my dislike of sewing at the best of times, my mum sewed my dress up for me but I still had my hair, make-up and blood spatters to do!

Anyway, I've been told lately that I'm too wordy (well, only by my thesis supervisor) so how about some pictures of said costume?

The hair was probably the hardest part for me. Looking closely, I realised the continuity for Abaddon's hair isn't really that great but it still all looked very complicated to me. This lovely person on tumblr put together some good reference shots, which proved helpful to me.

The biggest help, though, was the lovely Ruby Armoire. She spent a lot of time giving me tips and instructions (and even drew a diagram!) on how to do this style. You should definitely go check out her website and/or Facebook page. The style is still more of an approximation than an exact recreation, but I'm really happy with it.

Here's a full shot - I'm making my SRS DMN BSNS face. I made the blood using clear puff paint and gel food colouring, an idea I got from the same tumblr user who did the reference shots of the hair. I had a lot of helpful suggestions for blood but, in the end, I decided I wanted something permanent. The puff paint means that the thicker bits dry looking a little wet so it still looks like fresh blood. It is a more expensive method, though - if I'd had more money I'd have added some yellow to brighten up the blood.

You can see more photos of my hair on Tumblr. I'm really proud with how my hair turned out, because it was what I was most worried about.

For anyone who hasn't seen the show or any pictures of Abaddon, below are some screencaps to give you an idea of what I was working to.

I just love Abaddon's make up and, luckily, it was super easy to do.

The back of my dress scoops down and the perfectionist in me is screaming in irritation! (I got overwhelmed & tired & forgot until after the dress was made). I'm trying to ignore it...even though screen accuracy is really important to me. Ah well. You live, you learn, no?

I think I might add more blood to my dress before I wear it again. Not sure.

Despite the back of the dress, I'm really happy with this costume - I think I may wear it, again, for Supanova. I only got to wear it for about an hour or so, and I feel a bit silly for that, so I think it needs a proper outing, you know? 

What is everyone else doing for Halloween? Dressing up/having parties/watching beloved spooky movies? Tell me! (Please.)