Anthony's hat for his black mage costumes is done! Very exciting. I was a little nervous about making this hat, but in the end it turned out well, I think.

Clearly, that's not him, but I'll get a pick of him in the hat yet!

The hat only took an hour to draft, cut and sew. In addition to being a breeze to make, you only need about a yard of 72" felt to make it (I got lucky and found a remnant at Jo Ann's – 50% off!), so this is super cheap too (especially because around this time they put all the felt on sale for about $2ish/yd).

Anyone interested in a tutorial?

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    The fabric is here! So, as promised, here is my review of ichiroya.com.

Overall Rating (5 max): ✯✯✯✯✯ 

Order Placed: 29 September 2010     Order Received: 12 Oct. 2010

Reference page: http://www.ichiroya.com/item/list2/151542/

Fabric: silk

Size	Width: 14.5"
	Length: 472.5"

Technique: dyed and woven

History: quite new

Condition: excellent

Price$78.00 $38.00


Fabric as pictured on website:

Fabric as arrived:

Good: Ichiroya.com has a great selection of Japanese kimono fabrics of various fiber content, age, condition and price range. They accepted my payment promptly and my fabric arrived in less than 2 weeks. Their pricing seems fair, as does the shipping charges. The fabric was as pictured and as described on the internet. I didn't have to contact the company so I can't report on their promptness in this area.

Bad: There are way too many choices on this site! 

Overall: I would defiantly shop from this site again!

    Anthony and I were invited to a Halloween party. After much thinking, we've decided to be a version of a white and black mage from the Final Fantasy series. Naturally, I adapted the white mage's outfit from FF III to be more Loli-like, here's my idea:

    I don't know yet how Anthony's is going to look, all he's told me is that he wants "the hat", cape, and pants. . . it's a start.

    Well I can check one thing off my list, the leg warmers for Victoria. Here they are:

What do you think?

  I made them with the round red knifty knitter and two skeins (3.5 oz each) of bulky(5) yarn. They took me a week to make, but I could have done it in two days (a day a leg) if not for school and work. I could give the pattern up if anyone's interested. . .

    Okay, I know, I havn't made a report in forever. School started up and work geared up and wow, have I been busy! Here's an update for you if you're interested: 

1.My dress is nearly done. The overskirt needs to be hemmed, snaps sewed onto the forepart, snaps sewed onto the removable sleeves, and pearls to adorn the lace on the sleeves. 
2. Anthony's outfit needs a lining, a collar, some trim, and to be hemmed. I suppose he needs trousers too. . .

There's only a few weeks left for the faire! So I've got to be quick. My dress is almost done. So I'm not too worried. I'll feel bad if I can't get Anthony's done, but I feel like I can do it!

Victoria told me she wanted a pair of legwarmers for her birthday, so I found some pretty pink chunky yarn at Jo Ann's and have already knitted up one and a half! This year I may have her gift to her on time! I'll post a nice pic of them when they're all done, which should be soon, for real :} . I'm making the leg warmers with the red knifty knitter. I love knitting looms! So easy, and you can make all the real stitches of knitting without all those needles.

This semester, I had to take a speech class, which sucks – I am an awful public speaker. The upside is, I can use myself as a visual in my final speech. For my speech, I chose Lolita fashion as my topic! Yay! I hope it won't bore my audience. . . for my speech I will make a power point show, and a Lolita dress, I bought a pretty bolt of (what I hope is) pink kimono silk from ichiroya.com, to make a Waloli style dress. I've never ordered from this place before, but have been ogling their wares for 10 years online and in person at various fairs and events. Here is the link to the silk I bought: http://www.ichiroya.com/item/list3/151542/ . I'll update with pictures and a seller review when the fabric arrives. The fabric is a little pricey, I know. But given that it is silk with an authentic Japanese pattern, I was able to justify it to myself. Also helping in my justification is the burning desire I have for a lovely pink WaLoli dress to wear to the cherry blossom festival. It's just the perfect outfit to have for that occasion. (:

I'm going to go work on those legwarmers some more, but before I go for now, let me leave you with a list of things to come: 
1. Pictures and pattern review of finished Elizabethan gown
2. Pictures of Anthony's finished outfit (pattern was self-drafted)
3. Pictures and possible pattern for leg warmers (time depended – pictures for sure though)
4. Seller review for  http://www.ichiroya.com/ 
5. Waloli dress drawing board

I know - I haven't been around for AGES. Will it make you feel better if I tell you how to turn cake mix into cookies?

What you need:

• 1 box of cake mix (any flavour you'd like)
  
• ½ cup of fat – this can be any kind of oil, slightly melted butter or margarine
  
• 2 large eggs
  
• 1 tsp of vanilla extract
  
• Chocolate chips and/or nuts (optional)
  

 
How to make your cake into a cookie:

1. Preheat oven to 350°
   
2. Put your oil/butter into a bowl. Add eggs and whip together. Add vanilla, whip one last time (I used an electric blender, but it's not necessary)
   
3. Empty contents of cake mix into your wet ingredients. Stir until all the cake mix is incorporated.
   
4. Add nuts and/or chips
   
5. Grease / cookie-proof your bake sheet
   
6. Drop cookies mix by rounded spoonful onto sheet.
   
7. Bake for 10 – 14 min – or until cookies are a light golden brown. Do not over bake, they'll get really hard and crumbly. 
 

 

 

Cake mixes make great impromptu cookies. Most grocery stores run killer sales on mixes (I got 5 for $5) so they're an affordable thing to keep on hand so that you could whip up tasty treats on short notice, or on a hunger whim. This trick is also a good project for kids and there are a lot of ways you can have fun and mix it up:

 
Instead of butter or oil for fat try ½ c of:

• Applesauce
  
• Purred banana
  
• Pureed pumpkin
  

 
Try adding seasonal spices to your mix like pumpkin pie spice


 
Add some dried fruit or oatmeal to your cookies for a yummy trail mix treat,


 
Get creative and have fun!