Halloween has come and gone…
And I realized I hadn’t posted pictures of the costumes I’ve made! ACK! They were posted to dA and Facebook, but not here. I’m so bad at blogging.
My kids are too young to care what they are for Halloween. Hopefully, I’ll get one more year of dressing them however I want before they start randomly picking costumes. I’m hoping for a little Link and Zelda next year because I might die of cute.
Anyway.
Michael was Baby Hulk for his first Halloween. It was a stupid easy costume – I drew a muscled torso on a lime green onesie I had and cut up a pair of purple shorts I bought from Dollar Tree.
Baby Hulk SMASH!!! in 2010
Last year I decided he should be a bat. I was also hugely pregnant with Miss Maddie, so I didn’t want to do a whole lot of sewing. Or anything. I ended up buying a black hooded sweatshirt, gluing on some felt bat wings to the sleeves, sewing on two stuffed fabric horns, and making little goggles out of fun foam and elastic. It turned out pretty cute.
Baby Bat – also cute 2011.
I really had no idea what the kids were going to be until around summertime, when Miss Maddie started sitting in the high chair. She loved to hit things with other things. DING! I decided then and there she would be Thor for her first Halloween. She absolutely loved the little hammer I made for her out of a wooden dowel, some electrical tape, and an Alka-Seltzer box. Check her out.
“I may have a rainbow on my shirt, but I mean BUSINESS.”
Unfortunately, I was really excited about Maddie being Thor and less about Michael being…anyone. So my blond-haired blue-eyed little boy ended up as Captain America. He doesn’t even know who Captain America is yet.
So without further ado – Tiny Avengers!
So much fabric paint was used on that shirt.
Maddie decided her hammer was tasty.
Not so good with riding it yet, but it’s a cute picture.
When Thor’s happy, everyone’s happy.
Maddie dislikes the outdoors.
Even superheroes need their trusty blankies.
The costumes were basically a bunch of fabric paint on basic clothes. Maddie’s was a black onesie with silver circles and a yellow belt, then I made a red cape that velcroed to it. Everything else was hers. Michael’s started off as a blue long-sleeved shirt. His shield was made from a frisbee I painted and attached elastic straps to. He had no idea what to do with it, so we hung it from his back.
And last, but certainly not least, I had decided to be April O’Neil from the 80s TMNT cartoon since my hair was orange (at the time – it’s not now.) This stupid jumpsuit ate an entire week of my life – I couldn’t figure out the directions. I basically FORGOT how to sew or something. Everything I pieced together wrong, inside-out, or upside-down…then more than once. I ripped out enough seams to make an entire second costume’s worth of thread. It was bad. But it turned out cute.
April O’Neil should’ve had Moon Boots like mine.
Now on to the Christmas sewing!
Read MoreI have discovered an awesome thing
Okay, it isn’t really a “new” thing, since I’ve been posting paintings I’ve made from photographs to show how awesome Painter is and how awesome of a photographer I am (ha). There’s lots of options to make a painting and it’s really fun to do.
Today, I discovered something even more awesome.
I attempted to take self-portraits with my kids. Michael wasn’t having any and Maddie kept wanting to shove the camera strap in her maw, so you can guess how well the pictures actually turned out. I also gave up on trying to get pictures without using the flash because my children vibrate. They are incapable of holding still unless they are asleep. Even then, it’s questionable.
I captured this gem of Maddie and me, and once I loaded it onto the computer, I realized how utterly crappy it was!
Out of focus, completely overexposed – there was no way this photograph could be saved. The expressions however, are priceless.
So I fiddled around with it in Painter, and made it into a watercolor.
I consider this a good use of my afternoon.
Comparison shot.
Midian – Sounds From The World Between
My second musical venture into Jack Shear’s The World Between is complete!
Introducing…Midian!
This one was giving me some trouble, until I opened the four songs I had on the playlist today and blasted through another 13 easily. Inspiration is neat when it’s useful.
Tracklisting:
- Papa Won’t Leave You, Henry – Nick Cave*
- Duel – Bond
- Preacher Man – Fields of the Nephilim
- Seven Devils - Florence and the Machine
- Wood Carving Partita - Michiru Yamane
- Spanish Steps - Toto
- Love Like Blood – Killing Joke
- Xavier – Paradise Lost
- Revival - Beats Antique
- Secret Message - Rasputina
- Carnival Noir - Cauda Pavonis
- Snake Dance - March Violets
- An Angry Blade - Iron & Wine
- Stigmata Martyr – Abney Park
- Quixote – Bond
- Sacred – Moonspell
- Venus in Furs - The Velvet Underground
You can listen to the entire soundtrack at 8tracks.com!
Picture credits
- dewfooter at dA for the knight
- VaultofJzabelle at dA for the castle
Read More
Veins of Vine
In between Sims 2 building and game planning, I’m doing random art. Well, it’s not really so random.
Trolling through the resources on DeviantArt is both terrifyingly hideous and hauntingly beautiful. There’s a lot of crap on that website. But there’s also a lot of gorgeous things. I stumbled across this picture and decided to do a painting of it. Many hours later, I’m calling it done.
Also, I just now noticed the funky line in the top right corner. Apparently that happened during saving in Painter. It happens occasionally. It just sucks because this is the last place I’m posting it, so I have to update it everywhere else. 
Anyway, Veins of Vine. Check out my dA site for the full size version.
Oil paint Michael
Another Painter experiment – this time it was fast. I did this in about 45 minutes and didn’t do any additional painting on top of it. I really like how the swirly grass and trees came out; it reminds me of Van Gogh.
Since this picture, the boy has gotten a haircut.
I might do one of Maddie from this set, but she is not a fan of the outdoors. She pretty much sat there in the grass and scowled at me. At least the boy likes being outside.
