I guess it's been a while since I wrote anything here. I've been busy with my moms' group and family doing all sorts of things. I've also been gaming a bit with friends, reading for my monthly book club, wasting time on Twitter and Facebook, and sewing A LOT! Over the past few weeks, I think I've done more sewing than I have over the past year, though that's probably not true. My sewing teacher had a workshop on how to make capes, so I made a red crushed velvet hooded cape for my son. Then, I made a blue fleece dinosaur costume for my son for Halloween. He was kind of freaked out about it when I first tried to get him to wear it, but when we went to a Halloween party for the kids in our moms' group and he saw all of the other kids in their costumes, he happily got into his. Having the party on Friday made Halloween a much happier experience for him. He was very excited to go Trick or Treating, and since this was the first year that he really understood what was going on, we went to a lot of houses in our neighborhood before he showed signs of being tired of it. We stopped by my sewing teacher's house, where she got to see not only his costume, but mine, as well. I had it in my head a while back that I really wanted to try my hand at sewing a steampunk costume. For those who don't know what "steampunk" is, here's a great website of steampunk fashion: http://www.clockworkcouture.com/. It's a mix of the Victorian Era, the Industrial Revolution, and WWI, and it kind of answers the question "What would the world be like if the atomic bomb had never been invented?". When I started looking for costume ideas, I found a pair of boots in a catalog that I absolutely loved. Once I bought them and they arrived at our house, I realized that I needed to get down to business. A pattern for a woman's pirate costume inspired me, and when I found a corset vest and a flouncy blouse at two different stores that I knew would work perfectly, the rest of the costume came together pretty well. I just had to sew the bolero-jacket, the pants (which came from the pirate costume pattern), and a bustle, which I attached by ribbons to the corset vest. I also found a hat at a store, and I already had my goggles from a previous costume. It took me a while to actually sit down and sew everything, and I was actually finishing the jacket and making the entire bustle on Halloween! It was a good thing Trick or Treating didn't start until 5:30! The costume turned out better than I expected, and V and I both had fun walking around all dressed up. After going by my teacher's house, we went to the mall, where some of the stores handed out candy to the kids. We ended our night at our college friends' house, where V got to hang out with their sons, and B and I got to spend some time chatting with them. It turned out to be an amazing Halloween, and below are a few pictures to prove it.
Now, it's November, and it's also National Novel Writing Month. Today, I did the craziest thing and registered at this website: http://www.nanowrimo.org/. I've wanted to write a book for a long time and have had a few stories bouncing around in my head for even longer. I guess this is the perfect opportunity to give myself a deadline and do what I've always wanted to do. I'm not sure if I'll make the 50,000 word count goal by the end of the month, but it never hurts to try. Plus, no one will be reading what I write but me, unless I decide to post excerpts here or on Facebook or something. I'm not sure if I'll be that adventurous. As I told someone on Facebook today, what I write may be utter crap, but at least it'll be MY utter crap, and I can decide whether to edit or not after the month (and deadline) is over. We'll see!
Best,
Amanda
