Lady of the Thread's Sewing Basket

It’s turning out to be a rough week here. First, my father twisted his arm at work on Tuesday. Yesterday, I went to the dentist to get a cavity filled and ended up getting my last wisdom tooth extracted, too. The dentist didn’t think it would be so hard to get out but it was stubborn and took over an hour with sawing and taking it out in pieces. X_X Then, after we got home, my mother fell in the back yard while getting the laundry and is now hobbling around with a cane and a swollen knee.


My brother posted a few more NYCC/NYAF preview shots, including neo2469, neoangelwink, sakuralenayuy, and usa_ko: http://www.flickr.com/photos/fotofong/

Here’s one from the Monkey Island photoshoot with neoangelwink as Guybrush and myself as Elaine.

Did I really agree to marry this idiot?



And a Saiunkoku pic. My hair is a complete mess since the wind blew my fake bangs all over and I had to bobby pin them off to the side to keep them out of my face. ^_^;; (Plus, they weren’t that great in the first place since I made them the night before. >_>) I did have some of my hair tied up in a loop but since it was towards the back of my head, it started drooping after a while and doesn’t show in the pic. But it does show most of the detail on the brocade shirt; that was the most complicated piece to make because of all the trim. I thought a dragon brocade would be fitting since Ryuuren is from the Ran clan and their crest includes a pair of dragons. And you can see the flute. It was a bamboo one that I painted with nail polish to give it a glossy look. It was never mentioned in the anime but I found out it was supposed to be metal in the novels; I guess that explains why he was able to knock people out with it!

My grandmother passed away peacefully at 9AM this morning at the age of 90. I'm sad since she was my last grandparent and lived with us my whole life but after the discomfort of those weeks in the hospital, I'm glad that she doesn't have to suffer anymore.

Thank you to everyone who has replied with well wishes over the past couple of months. I’m sorry I haven’t felt up to trying to reply to everyone individually but I do read them and I appreciate that people took the time to say something.

I usually only do public posts but since the situation with my grandmother in the hospital seems to be dragging out a bit, I’ve decided to lock those entries. I normally don’t care who reads this journal but it feels weird to leave multiple detailed posts on the subject out where random people can stumble across them so they’re now friends only. Cosplay babble and other hobby stuff will continue to be public like always.

Speaking of cosplay, I’m definitely cutting back on my Otakon plans because of the situation. If my grandmother is able to come home soon and I need to keep an eye on her, it’ll be more difficult to sew for long periods and to attempt fitting for the Lia gown since it has the 18th Century underpinnings. So, Lia is postponed, probably until next year. I would still like to try to do the Kyoya jacket by Otakon and attempt to have the costume tea party. My sewing machine and ironing board are currently in my sewing room in the basement so I might move the sewing machine up here so I can be nearby in case she needs something and still work on things.

And that’s assuming I don’t just cancel completely. :-/ I’m feeling slightly paranoid because my grandmother was fine and still able to get up and down stairs before my brother and I left for Anime Boston. When we came back, we found she had been a bit sick over the weekend and things have just gradually gotten worse since then. And she was still able to walk a bit with just her cane before we went to AnimeNext but was practically bedridden the few days after we came back. I know it has to be just coincidence but I’m a bit scared that we’ll go away for another con and find something else bad has happened when we come home. I’ve talked to my brother about it and we haven’t bought badges yet so we’re waiting to see what happens this week to decide if we’re still going or not.

Went to my high school reunion last Saturday. It was nice seeing some people again and catching up since I hadn’t really kept in touch with anyone after high school. (One of my old classmates was telling me I should get on Facebook since everyone’s there but I’m paranoid and dislike using my real name online. >_>;)

I wore the Chinese dress I had made for D’s sister and got several compliments on it. ^_^ Some seemed really impressed that I’d made it. My freshman English teacher was saying I should go to FIT but I have no desire for another degree and it would be so impractical with my lack of drawing skills. Saw one of my old history teachers, too. I remember he used to call me “woman with rage.” I guess he thought I looked mad or something when he tried to call on me since I hated speaking in class and never said anything. >_>

Unfortunately, the restaurant got really crowded and I kind of had to lean over and shout into people’s ears to be heard over the music and the 100+ other people having conversations at the same time. And I got a bit wary walking around towards the end because there seemed to be quite a few spilled drinks.

An odd thing is I ran into another cosplayer there. o_o Didn’t remember him so we might have never had classes together. He told me he liked my dress and later asked if I cosplayed since I told a few people I made costumes as a hobby now. He said he only goes to Katsucon and Otakon and that he doesn’t hang around cosplay sites so I don’t think he’d seen any of my costume stuff before. Would have been a really weird coincidence if he had and recognized me by my cosplay name.

I guess it’s kind of funny that I went to a high school with such a nerdy reputation but didn’t get into anime and cosplay until later on. Back then, I was weird and did a lot of cross stitch, crochet, and the like. Helped with costumes for a few of the shows during junior and senior year but it was mainly buying/altering stuff and using what was already backstage; only some simple stuff was made from scratch.


Was going to write more but I have jury duty tomorrow so I need to pick out a book or two to bring along and get to bed.

stillvisions posted my 2 shoots from Otakon so I now have some Kaleido Star pics with neoangelwink as well as a few more Count D shots. ^_^



I like how I look like I might be randomly twirling around and singing in this one. XD I need to pin the hood to my wig the next time I wear Sarah though. It took me way too long to realize it had fallen down since I couldn’t feel it through the wig. ^_^;;


More Kaleido Star plus 19th Century Count D on Stillvisions’s site.


On Tuesday, I went around the fashion district with sakuralenayuy and usa_ko which was fun. ^_^ Didn’t pick up any fabric that day but I did get a couple of fabric flowers to use for my fairy costume and some pattern paper. Also this week, I picked up a hat to alter for Ekaterina. It’s a costume tricorne so I’m ripping off the cheap gold trim on the edges and replacing it with black braid. Not sure what fabric I’m using for the veil yet.


Otherwise, things have been pretty blah. I have jury duty next month (postponed from summer) and I’m hoping the rest of the year turns out to be quiet. There’s been lots of little stuff that has gone wrong for my family this year so between all the little problems and how the economy has been, I would say it’s the worst year I can remember. -_- We’re still doing okay but it’s just been kind of depressing.

I’ve seen quite a few holiday card posts pop up on my friends list already but I’m kind of debating whether I want to do cards this year. :-/ I put up card posts the last couple of years but never got many requests. It’s not any of you; I’m just not feeling much holiday spirit after this year. -_-;

I’m also wondering whether to go to my high school reunion. I haven’t gotten anything in the mail for it but from checking the alumni site, it’s apparently the Saturday after Thanksgiving at a restaurant in Manhattan. Unlike college, I wouldn’t mind running into some people from high school again, especially since I haven’t really kept in touch with anyone and don’t know when I’d see them again other than a reunion. But the bad thing is that the tickets are $85 until the 23rd and $100 at the door. And it’s only for appetizers and open bar, which doesn’t do much for me since I don’t really like alcohol.:-/

At least, I have no desire to go to the alumni ball Stern is doing, which I did get a postcard for. >_> It’s at the American Museum of Natural History and can be up to $300 a ticket!

So, apparently, having to put fraud alerts on most of my family’s credit files because of those papers that UPS lost plus me getting a grand jury summons wasn’t enough bad luck for one summer. -_-X

My father also twisted his knee late last night. He saw a doctor this morning and is using my grandmother’s extra cane now. Trying to let him take it easy for now; I volunteered to take in some paperwork tomorrow morning if he can’t make it to the business appointment he had scheduled in the city. But this possibly leaves me without a ride for Otakon now since we’re not sure if he’ll be up to making the drive by Thursday and no one else in the family drives.

And, of course, this has to happen just when I’m starting to get excited about the prospect of seeing friends next weekend and plotting what costumes to bring. -_- I don’t want to push him if he’s not up to it though so I’ll look into going down by bus or train if necessary. After all the real life issues lately, I just want a break for a few days!

Hmm… I’ve been feeling kind of frustrated and blah the last couple of days. Found out last week that UPS lost some important papers and they still haven’t been able to find them since the envelope wasn’t scanned when picked up. Never sending documents through them again if I can help it! >_< Had more business appointments the last few days and a frustrating search through old papers last night.

On the bright side, I had dinner with an old friend that I hadn’t seen for several months last week and I finished another random summer skirt. Haven’t taken a picture of it yet.

And I’m being indecisive about Otakon. So, out of curiousity about who I'd see if I went...

[Poll #1232016]

I tried to talk my family into going down to Baltimore with me so we could make a short vacation out of it in addition to me going to the con. My father was open to the idea but neither of my siblings wanted to go. And I especially booked a room that would be big enough for all 5 of us if they felt like going. :-/

So, I basically have a $299/night suite at the Residence Inn and no one to share it with. I missed all the con blocks and it was the cheapest room I was able to find when I made the reservation in February. -_-; It wouldn’t be too bad if everyone was going and it was our mini-vacation for this summer but with that hotel rate, it seems much too extravagant for me to go alone. (And my parents are so paranoid, I don’t think they’d let anyone they didn’t know well room with me.) Also, I haven’t finished any new costumes since AnimeNext and I don’t have much that would be good to wear in the hot weather. And I didn’t pre-register.

But after the last few days, I’m half tempted to go anyway since it doesn’t look like we’ll be having a family vacation this year; we have no plans and my siblings don’t seem to really want to go anywhere. Also, now that MangaNext info is out, it’s not looking that promising for me due to the new location. :-/ It’s such a small con that I don’t want to bother getting a room but it looks like commuting would be much more of a hassle and more expensive than when it was in Secaucus. Wondering if I’ll just skip it this year.

Today was a nice day. We took my mother out for lunch for Mother’s day. I already gave her a card the other day and one of my aunts brought over Godiva chocolates for both her and my grandmother. She shared them with us after tonight’s steak dinner at home. ^_^

We did some shopping afterwards and picked up a new printer since both of our old printers died a while back and all that was left was my brother’s good photo printer with very expensive ink. We also went by Home Depot and Lowe’s to look for gardening things for my mother and some plastic drawers for my brother.

And I got a shelf that’s going to be added to one of my bookcases. I’ve been collecting for so many years and I’m such a bookworm that even with multiple bookcases I don’t have enough shelf space! I have 2 shelves of manga, 3-4 shelves of Nancy Drew, and probably enough books total to fill 4-5 bookcases. ^_^;;;; It’s mostly paperbacks though so a lot of shelves are taller than I really need them.

Now, some needlework ramblings…

After a really long time, I finally ordered some cross stitch stuff the other day. One of my needlework friends owns a cross stitch shop in Michigan and browsing around her site, I found something called a “biscornu” that seems to be trendy now. (Reminds me of how needlerolls were trendy when I was cross stitching a lot around the late 90s.) I ordered a couple, this one and this one , since they looked interesting with the 3D shape. Apparently, you can use them as pincushions or ornaments. (I tried looking up “biscornu” and it seems to be a French word meaning “bizarre.” No idea how it got applied to a needlework item!)

And I didn’t buy this since it was $60 but thought it was kind of cute. It’s a sparkly enameled box in the shape of a bee, designed to hold a needlebook. If that designer did something similar with a nice peacock theme though, I’d probably buy that since I love peacocks and cloisonne! (She uses a peacock as her logo and has done a few designs with them before.)

Costume stuff has been going pretty well but real life stuff has been kind of blah lately.

Unfortunately, my grandmother is still ailing with pain from rheumatism, some bouts of coughing, and decreased strength in general. :-( She’s so shaky on her feet that we’ve been bringing meals up to her the past 3 weeks and worried about leaving her alone for more than a few hours. It’s depressing and I’m hoping her strength will get back to normal soon since it’s been a strain on my mother, too.

Also, things have been a bit aggravating with trying to get my first credit card. Went in to Chase with my parents to apply at the end of January and got a letter the next week saying I was denied for not having credit history. (And ironically, in the same day’s mail was another offer for the exact same card I was rejected for! :-P) It was kind of stupid since the reason I never had one before was that I don’t need to borrow! I’d just keep using my check cards but I figure it’s about time I worked on building some credit in case I eventually need a loan for something big like a house in the future.

So, my father talked to the lady who helped us at the bank and she said she’ll look into it. A couple of weeks ago, she called him and told him the card was approved. I waited but there was still no card in the mail so I called the banker again yesterday and after checking, she says I should get it next week. Then, I got another denial letter in the mail today and called the bank but gave up after being on hold for 15-20 minutes. So, my father went over to the bank instead and it seems the letter was sent out before they had all the information and that I should be getting the card after all. The banker has seemed helpful but this really looks like a case of the right hand not knowing what the left hand is doing! >_> And hopefully this will be the end of it or I’ll be tempted to pull something like that scene in Gankutsuou when the Count went to ask Baron Danglars for a line of credit. >_>

And while I’m on financial rants, Countrywide junk mail is starting to irritate me, too, since I do all the mail and bills here. You would think after sending the same garbage each month and getting no response, they might figure out they’re just wasting money but no. No wonder Bank of America has to bail them out. >_> Really, who would want a credit card with the logo of a failed mortgage company?!

Bah, and reading the finance news these days is just depressing. -_-


Moving on to better news… I’m hoping to finish Sarah’s dress within the next week. I’ve gotten the main pieces stitched together but still need to add the pieces for the points at the bottom. Had to take it in a bit more around the waist and hips since it was a bit baggy there but it fits pretty well now. I hope the lower part will come together okay and fit properly over the poofy bottom of the underskirt. I’m a bit nervous about it working out right since I’m not the greatest at patterning. It should be fun to wear though. I tried on everything I have so far the other day and it looks good so far. ^_^ Even if I kind of look like some weird Arctic mermaid with the faux fur fanning out at the bottom of the costume and the fluffy hood. XD;