Halloween menu planning

 Did you know that grocery stores don't carry spiral-cut hams as a matter of course? I mean, I knew they were special occasion foods, but I figured people bought them for parties any old time. I'm disappointed, I wanted to have one for Halloween this year, but I was told that they are usually only available on pre-order for holidays like Thanksgiving and Christmas. Bah, I love ham, and it would have saved me a lot of work. I could get one at a specialty store like Honey-Baked Ham, but I'm not sure the convenience would outweigh the expense. The alternative is to roast a pork loin, which wouldn't be as expensive, but probably a lot more work. I do have a good one with apples and mirepoix, so that's an option.

Everything else will be vegetarian and kosher-dairy. Other items on my list at the moment are cornbread, gingerbread, and pear and parsnip puree. Wow, this is going to be one starchy spread. But I guess fall foods tend that way. I also want to do something with squash. I'm considering my favorite butternut squash soup, to give a substantial alternative to the pork, though soup may a bit awkward to serve. Ah, well, I may just do it anyway. The puree is a show-offy dish and always a favorite, though it is a wee bit labor intensive to make. I'd also like to do something with cranberries, besides the juice I'd like to serve out of Skully's head. (We're actually calling him Yorick now, on Charlotte's suggestion, which you may scoff at as uncreative, but we live at Elsinore, so there.) And besides cranberry juice, there will be apple cider and probably some Coke as well. Must remember to make sure I have enough paper flatware. This is going to require a lot of work, but fortunately there are several lovely people I plan on drafting into service as kitchen slaves. There will probably be lots of other random edibles, like Halloween candy and perhaps some snacky things like chips and pretzels, but those will be the real foods I'm planning on making.

Must look into that ham...

Stage kitten

So all the week I've been helping out backstage for the Wrathskeller, the Boston Babydolls Halloween production at the Cambridge YMCA. It's a really fun show, and I am happy that laurion* asked if I wanted to help with it. He's a very good stage manager, and a fun part of the show itself as well. I am being what is known as the stage kitten, the person who collects all the shed costume pieces between the acts. Though I am enjoying the experience, I have most definitely decided I like being onstage far more than I like teching. Stage crew specifically does not suit my skill set. As an actor, I have developed the tendency to focus strictly on bearing my part of the show, getting my cues right, minding my own timing, doing whatever little responsibilities have been closely assigned to me. If actors worry too much about whether or not other show things are being done, they get distracted and miss their cues, so they are encouraged to just trust the techies and the other actors and do their own parts. But as a techie you have to be aware of everything that's going on in order to time your stuff right, and to be able to provide the most support to everyone else. It's been a tough mentality shift. Also, being slightly nightblind, doing things in the dark isn't my strong suit, and hunting across the stage for lost pieces of clothing and then collecting them all as quickly as is necessary is not the easiest thing in the world for me. I am doing a passable but not great job of it. I probably would be doing better if I'd been able to be there for more rehearsals, but I imagine even with practice I can never be more than a strictly average stage tech.

But I got to wear a neat costume. I wore the neat bodice I found with the red corduroy side out over this gauzy black blouse I have that is a fantastic psuedo-period costume piece because it is ruffly, and a floppy enough fabric that I can get it to drape pretty much however I want, in this case off my shoulders. On the bottom I wore a full black skirt with flounces in it, graciously lent to me by blendedchaitea*. I was pleased because it suited the show's overall aesthetic, but wasn't so flashy that I drew unnecessary attention to myself. I ran into in_water_writ* and bleemoo* afterwards, and had a lovely time chatting with them for a bit. It was nice to see them, it felt like it had been a long time. Jenn was nice enough to snap a couple of pictures of me. Pardon the lousy lighting and low quality, it was just on my iPhone after all.

The show itself is really cool. It has this very 20's aesthetic to it, and tells a creepy story in a seedy cabaret setting with a great gothic atmosphere. The dancing is excellent, and the costumes are really fantastic to look at. And though I confess I personally don't find it all that hot (I've learned I find pasties and g-strings more absurd-looking than sexy, plus none of the ladies are my type) they are certainly experts at the art of burlesque. It's going on now through Halloween, so there's still time to check it out.

Simple hairstyling of which I am childishly proud

I like what I did with my hair this morning. It's nothing fancy, but it's more than I usually do and I am pleased with it. The old mane was an absolute horror when I woke up today, so there was nothing for it but to brush the hell out of it and confine it to a ponytail. My bangs were driving me nuts, so I wanted them out of the way. Normally I'm a wash-and-wear kind of girl and don't go in much for styling, but since today it looked painfully clear that the "wash" part of that equation wasn't really evident, I tried sweeping the bangs back, but not so far that they laid flat. Rather, they kind of puff up in front and give a little definition to the shape of my hair. This I affixed with a barrette and and a few spritzes of hair spray. Lo and behold, it has actually managed to hold its shape and I managed somewhat downplay the effects of my greasy Italian genetics. I wanted to show you what it looks like, but since in about eight thousand pictures I did not manage to take one that was either flattering or represents how I actually look with my hair this way, I will settle for an image that at least kind of shows what I did.

Bah. You can't really see the shape in front, which is the part I like about it, but none of the head-on shots really captured it either. At least I don't look like Grease Thing. Also, note my pretty new earrings, which consist of three pearls dangling on lines of silver, one white, one black, one pink. They were a gift from Jared's parents from their recent trip to Vietnam, and I like them very much. They didn't even know pearls are my favorite. :-) Cut out of the shot is the matching necklace, which I am also wearing today.

Intercon K plans

So the schedule has gone live, and with the first round signup fast approaching, me and my fellow larp addicts must decide what we are signing up for.

Now my last several cons have been packed to the gills. I've certainly enjoyed them, but so much non-stop activity really takes it out of me. Still, this time it's looking like I'm going to have four out of five slots filled. I wish I could go a little lighter, but I'll probably end up in too many games yet again.

Friday night I believe my preference is The Clockwork Cafe; it looks really cool. The Anthropophagy Society looks weird and creepy and clever, though. And I only just noticed the Expedition games, apparently authored by zapf*. Curious, I wonder what those will be like.

Saturday morning I'm leaning towards Snaf University. It's become a Brandeis classic by now and I've never played it. Andy Kirschbaum's Peter Pan-themed Never, Never Again (did he also write Wonderland 2.1? Apparently he wants to adapt all the same children's stories I do) sounds interesting, but still, I think I desire to play in Snaf most of all.

The Stand is slotted for Saturday afternoon, so that's where I'll be. At least I find GMing to be a lot less intense than playing. So it'll be a little bit of a break. Somebody should sign up for this, yo. It has cowboys.

Saturday night I'm not sure what I want. Resonance is no longer an option as I've just recently agreed to be a writer monkey for it. Better Off Dead: The Necropolis Senior Prom looks fun, but I'm unsure. I'm signed up for Haz's two other games, one at SLAW and the other just at Brandeis, and I wish I had time to play one of them before the signup to see if I like the style. I guess my first choice at the moment is Game of Thrones: Blackfyre Rising. I'm a fan of the book series, but as I mentioned before, I am concerned the massive interconnectedness and meticulously detailed plot that makes me like the books will not be possible to duplicate in larp form. We shall see, I guess.

Sunday I will not play. I will hang around and sit on my ass and eat breakfast foods. This at least I am certain of.

I am uncertain what to use my first signup on. I believe Snaf is the smallest game I'm considering, and conventional wisdom suggests that smaller games will fill faster and therefore should be snagged early. But Clockwork Cafe, though large, is a Brit game, and those always go fast. I'm expecting Blackfyre Rising to be similar. I think I will go for Clockwork. If I end up locked out of either my Saturday morning or evening pick, well, at least I'll have a slightly lighter schedule. I think that is a pretty good preliminary plan.

What are you all thinking?

Secretariat

Saw Secretariat this week and really enjoyed it. He's always been my favorite racehorse. As great racehorses go, people tend to disagree whether Secretariat or Man O' War was the greatest of all time. Man O' War had the better, more consistent record of winning races, but I have always preferred Secretariat because when it came to sheer equine speed, he was beyond any other horse that ever lived.

Big Red, you see, was impossible. He was capable of moving at speeds that, before him, people had believed no horse could. He was strangely fickle about unleashing that speed; his winning record was far from perfect, since some days he just wouldn't break it out. But still, he could sprint so fast that he could hang back at the rear of the pack and explode forward for the win. He was what was known as a pace stalker, a horse that just barely matched the speed of his opponents for the majority of a race and then kicked into gear to beat them at the end. The kind of speed he opened up with broke records that have never been equaled-- he won the mile-and-a-half Belmont by a shocking thirty-one lengths. The announcer yelled out at the time, "He is moving like a tremendous machine!" He really was, after all. When they autopsied him after his death, they found he had an enormous twenty-two pound heart, which people theorize delivered so much more oxygenated blood to his muscles than any of his competitors. He was a freak. He was a miracle.

It's a good film, well-made and interesting to watch. The dialogue was a bit cheesy in places, but they didn't squishify the horse too much and the dramatic tension built during the races was awesome. I spoke with Jared afterward about it. He'd also liked it but he said he was a bit weirded out by their choice to play "Oh, Happy Day" over the last few strides of Red's Belmont win, jokingly asking if they were saying the horse was Jesus. I laughed that no, but I still found it an appropriate song-- that too was impossible, and yet. It was a really beautifully set up shot up, too, with silence as Red went into the curve and then bursting into the song as he exploded into the final stretch. Very beautiful, and about a truly amazing animal.

Halloween is coming

I am now back from my lovely excursion, and smack back in the middle of work and responsibilities. Ah, well. Idle hands are the devil's workshop and all that. It was nice to have such a lovely break.

I have a number of things going on right now, but since Halloween is less than a week away, my preparations must buckle down in earnest. My costume is very nearly in order. I am pretty much just wearing the bellydancer outfit I assembled for Stars of Al-Ashtara-- I was not feeling particularly inspired this year and it saves me having to construct an extra costume. I could use a few more little details like a veil and maybe some bangles, but I can figure that out. I just need to finish sewing the waistband into the skirt I am making from the fabulous patterned blue muumuu I thrifted. It's a bigger job than I thought it would be, because there is so damn much fabric. I will put an elastic inside this case I'm sewing so that it will gather around my waist just fine, but that case has to be very long before the elastic can get in there to scrunch it up. Such is the nature of a muumuu, I suppose. I guess I could cut a chunk out of it to make it smaller, but I kind of like how full it is, and it wouldn't exactly eliminate a lot of sewing if I had to sew the side back up as well. So, I'm just going to keep on with the casing. I'm about a third of the way finished, so I should be able to get it done before the day.

I also need to plan the goodies menu. I want to have lots of tasty seasonal delicacies available, but I have yet to decide what they are. Pie is certainly desireable, and I will probably go with pumpkin but apple is a possibility as well. Cider is another fall favorite of mine. Besides apples and pumpkins, other foods I associate with fall are cranberries, squash, pears, ginger, and corn, so I will have to figure out what sort of things I can make involving those. Suggestions as well as the volunteering to bring dishes are welcome.

Whatever my spread, the centerpiece of it will be my newest acquisition, my beautiful skull bottle. In the liquor store on Main Street I saw that there is now a kind of vodka out called Crystal Head, which is sold in this fantastic bottle in the shape of a skull. I don't drink, and the stuff inside it was fifty bucks a pop, but I had to have one for this Halloween. So I stalked an empty one on eBay, nabbed it in triumph, and returned last night to find it already delivered and waiting!

Creepy little bugger, isn't he? I'm not sure what I'll fill him with-- kind of makes me wish I drank just so I could put some creative and brightly-colored cocktail in him --but I want him to serve a drink. Maybe cranberry juice, for the fall feel and the bright blood red. Ah, so much planning to do, and so much lovely cooking to get ready for! God, I love Halloween.

Unexpected costuming possibility

So one thing I didn't mention about my trip to the Renaissance Fair with my parents is that I found something interesting in the parking lot on our way out. On the ground in the mulch was a forgotten bodice, or possibly a vest for a young boy, reversible with red corduroy on one side and silky gray with swirls of red velour on the other. I wondered if it fell out of someone's bag, or if they took it off at the end of the day and it dropped out of the trunk of their car. I felt bad for them, as this sort of thing isn't cheap and the owner would probably kick themselves for losing it, but I had no way of figuring out who it belonged to, so I decided to just keep it. It was very small, leading my dad to speculate that it might have been sized for a child, but once we were on our way in the car I took off my coat and tried it on over my shirt. I was disappointed to find that I couldn't even come close to closing it. No manner of my trying to pull it could bring the two sides of it to meet. Still, I didn't want to give up on it yet. When I got home I tried messing with it a bit more, deciding that maybe if I laced it I could at least get it closed enough to look okay. I decided I'd buy a shoelace for the purpose and find out. I forgot about it for a while, and didn't mention it here because I was fairly certain that it wasn't going to end up being wearable. But today, looking for elastic at the drugstore but not finding any, I remembered I wanted to try lacing it.

What I found was... kind of shocking, really. With the laces I not only could make it fit but cinch it all the way closed, without an excessive amount of pulling. Wouldn't be the first time I squeezed into child-sized clothes. I took this picture to commemorate the miracle.

Hello, breasts. So that's where you've been hiding.

It's not really very comfortable. It's pretty damn tight this way; deep breathing is pretty much an impossibility. And I can't say I pleased with the way it pushes my fat out into bulgy love handles down below. But it pretty much fits, and it actually does for my bust what these sorts of tops are supposed to do for one's bust. Overall I wouldn't say it looks bad. A bit over-the-top, but not bad. That specific quality makes me think it might be good to incorporate into my Wrathskeller costume plans, specifically on the red corduroy side not pictured here. I think it needs something underneath it, if only to distract from the bulging. My cropped chemise would not do in that case. But it definitely has the tavern wenchy aesthetic I'd want, and I'm sure I can find larp and other costuming opportunities to make use of this. It may encourage me to drop those last five pounds. We'll see what I can put together.

Chemise put together

Finished the basic construction of the chemise, meaning that all the major seams are done and all the pieces are put together. It is somewhat less ugly now that it is closer to being complete, so for this picture I turned it right side out so you can roughly see what it's supposed to look like in the end.

Next step is the finishing up the edges, which entail sewing casings to hold pieces of elastic. I'm starting to think I bought elastic that is too think for everywhere but the hemline-- it's a full inch thick. What I want is for the fabric to gather around the hem, collar, and cuffs, and I'm getting nervous that it's not going to come out right. valleyviolet* suggested I put a facing on the collar instead of trying to fold over that uneven line into a casing, which I may do if that would help it gather better. If anyone has any further suggestions, it would be much appreciated. I guess I'll just have to give it a try and see how it comes out. I don't have anything to do tonight, so I think I will see what I can accomplish with that free time. Wish me luck!

Chemise progress

I want to have more pictures to accompany my posts, particularly when I'm working on a project or talking about something that would benefit from a visual reference. It would make the blog a lot more interesting to read and to look at. It would be easy enough; I have a pretty decent point-and-shoot digital camera, plus there's always the not-totally-terrible camera built into my iPhone. So I think I will document the progress of my endeavors will pictures of things like the dishes I cooked and the costumes I put together. So, in the spirit of this, here is a picture of my progress on my chemise.

Kind of ugly, isn't it? Well, it's my first try, and I'm hoping once I finish up the edges it will be less so. At the moment, one half of the bodice is put together, and the sleeves are attached to that half. You can see the unnecessary seam up the middle that I would not have had to put in if I'd doubled up the fabric when I cut it out. The sleeves have the same problem; I folded the left side over onto itself to show what it's roughly going to look like when it's totally sewn up, and I left the right side unfolded to show the unnecessary seam. At least on the sleeves a seam up the side is not that noticeable and probably won't change the overall appearence of them all that much. But since I had a little extra fabric, I cut out the second half of the bodice in the proper way so that at least one side of it will look the way it's supposed to. And to save me on sewing. If I'd cut things out properly the first time, I'd have sewn everything that needed sewing already. ;-)

The next steps will be attaching that second bodice half, and then finishing up the sleeves. You may have noticed that this is extremely short for a chemise, and that is intentional. Partially to save on fabric if this thing turns out to be a total mess, and partially because I was thinking of wearing it to the Wrathskeller as part of a slutty tavern wench look if it doesn't turn out to be a total mess. After everything is attached, then i will be trying to put elastic in at the neckline, cuffs, and hem. I am kind of dreading that part, as it will require care to put in some meticulously straight seams. I will just have to pin very, very carefully and draw a guideline, I guess. More pictures to come once those steps are taken.

Mom suggests I learn to sew costumes

So I mentioned this fleecy white hooded zip-up I have that I loved and was wearing all the time because it was warm, well-fitting, and went with everything. Unfortunately, because of how often I wore it, it was getting progressively more threadbare and the white wasn't really so white anymore. I hadn't really noticed how ratty it had gotten until my parents saw me in it one day and condemned it in the same manner as a building inspector condemns a delapidated house. Ever since then I have been too embarrassed to wear it in public, but not without much moaning about how much I loved it and its warmth and versatility. This visit, however, my mom told me she'd been checking J. Crew where she'd originally bought it for months now trying to find a replacement for me, and was finally about to present me with two very similar fleecy zip-ups in the colors of cream and olive. I have already worn both of them in the two days since they've left. Don't tell Mom I said this, but these two new ones are not quite as perfect as the original was. They are longer and less form-fitting, giving me a boxier shape, and though still neutral in color they are not quite as versatile to match with things as the white one was. Still, they are warm and almost as nice, so I expect to wear them until they fall apart just as I did their predecessor. Thank you, Mom, for thinking of me.

My parents were looking for an activity for us to do as a family, so, since I had fun there, I suggested I take them to King Richard's Faire. They hadn't been to a Ren Fair in years, and nobody could suggest anything we all liked better, so they agreed. Everyone ended up really enjoying it (perhaps more than they expected to, heh). My dad bought a fox tail that can be worn on a belt, because he and Mom are going to a Halloween party and she will dress up like a foxhunter and he will be a fox. :-) I like that. Also, my mom has set me onto a new project. While we were at the fair, I kept pointing out all these costume pieces I liked but thought were too expensive. Her response was "Why buy them? It wouldn't be hard to teach yourself to make a lot of this stuff." Which intrigued me, because I had never seriously considered it because I didn't think I would do a good job. But she said that she didn't know much about costume making either until she decided to learn, and she got to be a rather capable seamstress. And learning to sew better is something I've always wanted to do. So I have decided to teach myself about costume construction. I am starting small, trying to make a very simple Renaissance chemise and seeing what I learn from that.

I found a patternmaking tutorial on the Internet and bought myself some cheap linen fabric to give things a try. I have already made about six mistakes, the first and most egregious being I did not realize that I was supposed to be making patterns that were folded in half. Thus is my unfamiliarity with patterns. So I ended up cutting out, for example, four quarters of a bodice rather than two halves. This means I had to do twice as many seams as I was supposed to. Ah, well, at least it will help me practice my stitching, and now I have learned. I don't have a sewing machine, though my mom may send me up her old one if I get serious about this, so I am just doing a simple backstitch to put everything together. I was surprised at how easily the thread tangles, so my stitches are very ugly in places, but when I turn the fabric right side out at least the seams are pretty straight. I will work on it more tonight. I don't know if it will come out wearable, but at least I'm learning about how to put this sort of thing together.