The Airship Pirate Communicator Armband

The earlier incarnation of the airship pirate armband can be seen in this picture from Halloween two years ago,



but it was time for an upgrade before we go to Dragon*Con.

I salvaged the elastic and the number charms from the original armband, but disposed of the rest (it was pretty damaged after two years of play).

For a pattern, I traced the original armband on a regular sheet of printer paper, which means that a seam allowance had to be added. I chose to add a 1/2-inch all around to accommodate, not only the seam allowance, but also the fact that Blaze has grown over the past two years.



Using some of the scrap leather I purchase every year at the Medieval Faire, I cut two matching pieces from black leather. One of the pieces had a window cut into it, the size of the Ipod screen. Then I used a rich, reddish-brown leather for accent pieces. The number charms are glued in place with strong glue and the leather covering is glued over them. The other pieces of leather are held in place with both glue and rivets (really just office brads).





The two pieces of black leather were then sewn together, right sides together, leaving the wide end open. After sewing, the armband was turned right -side out. Stitching was added around the Ipod window and then a frame of the contrasting color, with a smaller window, was added around the Ipod window, to assure that the Ipod stayed in place. Extra stability was added to this layer, by gluing a match frame made of cereal box cardboard to the under-side of the brown leather. Velcro was used to seal the opening for the Ipod case.



Copper wire was wrapped around a pencil to create a coil, that was attached to the two brads on the side of the armband.



A piece of cardstock with Blaze's name, medical alert information, my name, and my cell phone number is placed under the Ipod. I will probably also add our hotel and room number information to it. I don't plan on letting him out of my site at Dragon Con, but with big crowds in big hotels, I'm not taking any chances. He has been told to show his emergency card ONLY to police or hotel security and ONLY if he's sure he cannot find us. This may not have been necessary, but I also explained that people dressed as super heros are not really working for the police.

The Mini Top Hat Tutorial

With only about 30 days left until our trip to Atlanta for Dragon*Con, I've been thinking about what costumes to take. I made this mini top hat to go with my tiered bustle skirt.

Supplies:




Thin cardboard, such as a cereal box

Disposable party cup

Felt ( I use wool felt or a wool blend for all of my projects)

Fabric for hatband

Decorative ribbons, feathers, or charms

Embroidery floss that matches the color of the felt

Strong glue


Pattern:









1. Copy the patterns as letter size paper.

2. Trace the circular pattern onto a cereal box and cut out. Cut just inside your tracing line, so that the cardboard is just a tiny bit smaller than the pattern.




3. Cut two circles from felt. This can be accomplished by pinning the pattern to the fabric or by tracing the pattern with a white pencil, if you are using dark fabric, or a regular pencil for light colored fabric. Cut out the felt for the side band of the hat in the same way.




4. Glue the side band felt to the cup, overlapping the edges.





5. Cover the bottom of the cup with glue and center the cup on one of the felt circles. Press the cup down firmly to make it stick. Let dry.






6. Use " whip stitch" to attach the bottom edge of the felt around the cup to the large felt circle. The stitches can be pretty far apart, since they won't really show.




7. Turn the hat upside-down on a piece of felt and trace around the top to make the proper size circle for the top of the hat (crown tip). Cut out the circle and sew it to the hat using a blanket stitch.




8. Turn the hat upside-down and lay the cardboard circle on top of the large circle that is sewn onto the hat. Then place the other large circle on top of the cardboard and blanket stitch around the edge of the two felt circles to make the hat brim.




9. At this point, you get to make some of your own artistic choices. A hair clip or comb can be sewn onto the bottom of the hat to hold it in place. It can be sewn or glued onto a headband, or an elastic band that can function as a headband. I chose to glue on a ribbon that can be tied under my hair and to sew on a comb to help hold the hat in place.




10. Decorate the hat.

The Greaser

I just can't resist posting these pictures of Blaze, because they came out so good. This started out as yet another attempt to spike his hair, which like all previous attempts, failed miserably. Since he had almost a half jar of sculpting gel in his hair already, I decided to try something else. It turns out he makes a good 1950's style "greaser". He says he wants to wear this look to the next dance we go to.

Quick and Easy Photo Antiquing

I posted a link to this Japanese site once before, but that was almost two years ago. Since I was having fun playing with it this morning, I thought I'd post it again.

Giving your pictures a vintage look

You don't have to speak Japanese to figure out how to work this site.

1. Click on "choose file".

2. Pick a picture from your computer photo files that you would like to use and click on it, then click "choose"

3. Click on the blue bar under the file number.

4. Wait a few seconds and your picture will appear.

5. Drag and drop the picture onto your desktop.


This is what my pictures turned out like:

Out With the Old

Our apartment complex common room was not an attractive space, but it's hard not to feel a little nostalgic for it as it's being torn down. It was the place where Blaze had his birthday party.





I think it's been about two years since the University started this constant construction on our family housing complex. I'm sure it will all be lovely for future University students and their families, but it's been a bit inconvenient, loud, and dirty for us at times. Most recently, we were without internet for three days.

Along with tearing down the common room and the laundry room/office to build one large building that will house all of that, the workmen are also completely gutting and redoing one apartment building at a time. This is their second one:

Greek Lemon and Rice Soup

This soup tastes complex, but it's very easy to make.

Avgolemono (Greek Lemon And Rice Soup)


8 cups chicken broth
1 cup rice
4 eggs, separated
1/2 Cup lemon juice
Freshly ground black pepper

Bring broth to a boil and add rice. Simmer until tender, about 20 minutes. Salt to taste.

When the rice is nearing tenderness, whisk the egg whites in a separate bowl until medium peaks. Add egg yolks and lemon juice, whisking continuously.

When the rice is done, transfer 2 cups of the hot stock to the egg/lemon mixture, adding very slowly in a constant stream and beating vigorously to prevent the eggs from cooking quickly and becoming lumpy.

Take the soup off the heat and add the beaten mixture back into the pot, whisking to incorporate. Serve immediately with freshly ground black pepper.


My husband had a funny way of describing this soup, "It's like an Orange Julius made with chicken". Believe me, this is not a bad thing. He's made this soup for us twice in the past two weeks.

Solving the Toy Storage Problem Part 1

Our previous solution for toy storage was a large collection of various sizes of black, plastic cauldrons, purchased from post-Halloween sales. These went very well with the Harry Potter themed bedroom, but the current bedroom style is going more towards steampunk, although bits of Hogwarts remain. I have become less enamoured of the cauldrons as I have been cleaning Blaze's room from top to bottom this past week. The open tops of the cauldrons, mean that many of the toys are very dusty and little pieces of toy sets have spilled out.

The worst problem with spilling is with this big cauldron of Legos. Blaze carries them back and forth from his room to the breezeway between the apartments quite often. The cauldron is unwieldy and spills Legos as he goes. I'm sure anyone with children knows how painful it is to step on a stray Lego.



One thing that we do have, that works very well, is this treasure box with a carrying handle, which is where all the toy cars are kept.





I was inspired by a discussion on Steampunk Empire to add some draw pulls to the side of the bookshelf I was refinishing. These will be used as hooks for hanging up bags of toys.

The shelf before:



Being stained red mahogany, to match the other furniture.



The draw pulls that I found at a resale shop for 10 cents each. I sanded the wooden centers and tried to stain them to match the shelves, but the stain wouldn't take. The wood sucked up the stain, leaving barely any color on the surface, so I painted the wood with brown acrylic paint.



I then glued a decorative gear to the center of each drawer pull.



I placed three of the knobs/hooks along one side of the bookcase. The top one is 5-inches from the top and then they are spaced 20-inches apart.

Here is the finished product:



This week, I'll start working on some bags that can hang from those hooks.