Little Dancer

One of the hockey team's best and longest-time players is getting married in February. This picture is of one of his finance's children doing a head stand on the concrete (because the grass was too scratchy) as Jenette spots him.

Aren't kids cute?

The Real Deal

To show off how much money is in Colorado, specifically the Stapleton area, I present you with this picture of a real Vespa. One of the expensive names in moped land. Sweet.

Wowie.

On our way to Colorado for hockey. There is some major lightening ahead.

This is a fairly crummy picture. There was a huge storm that Jenette and Chris took turns driving through. Lots of lots of lightening. Then, buckets of rain. Good times. The lightening was truly amazing though.

Lobstered

Yep, that was fishy. All that oil in the plate, not fishy. That's why it didn't get eaten. It got played with instead.

Red to the Lobster

Before we left, well, we had already left, but it's before we got really far. Anyway. On our way out to Colorado for hockey, we started the trip off with something fishy. Mm. Mm. Fishy.

Ensy Weensy Car

Maria makes us all laugh sometimes. Like this time. We were in Dillon's Marketplace (it's a new idea by Kroger to be more like Super Target). They had this car attached to the front of a wagon and Nicole was in it alone, most of the time.

Maria wanted to know if she could fit, so she kicked Nicole out, squoze in, and then partied with Nicole again. It was good time.

A Little Visit

Today Maria made a day trip to Wichita and I tagged along. I gave Nicole her hat (above) and Mom her scarf, not pictured. It was nice to see Mom, Jayme, and the baby.

Hip Hop was a No Go

A while back I decided I'd like to be a rapper. I figured this meant I needed to know how to dance like one. So I tried to learn from some youtube videos, but that didn't really work for me. I never actually was able to master a single step.

So, my new goal, learn to clog dance. This is something I can actually see myself doing. Perhaps not in Manhattan, nor on my own, but I think It'd be really cool to be able to clog dance.

But you know what I just happened across? I never would have thought it existed, but here it is and I love it.

Mmm...Tea

Maria called Shannon the other day and we met her at Radina's for lunch. Yummy.

In other news. Knittinghelp.com is the best place to get help with how to do different knitting things. There are awesome videos with sound and examples. And well, it's just great!

I missed class today.

This morning I woke up and brushed my teeth like normal. Then I felt really dizzy. I kept on getting ready, but I was too dizzy. I laid down for a while. Then tried to get up and get ready again, but couldn't. So I decided I was going to stay home from my morning class. I slept for an additional 3 1/2 hours and dreamed of a fabulous Renaissance fair with Dwight Shrute and an awesome gypsy costume and a slide. It was great. Now I feel much better, but I still am a little off.

Costumes Part II

My costume was for a medieval seamstress. The sleeves for the under-dress were very tight. So I cut them off and made them removable. They kept falling off, the I will have to change the way they attach if I wear it again, but it was fine. I made the pattern for the overdress (not really all that complicated of a design). I also made my belt, you may remember. It turned out fine.


While there I bought some yarn so I can felt me another bag for the costume. The one leather pouch wasn't really enough.

Michelle started out as vampirate. But after some discussion as to why a vampirate would be in the same traveling group as a vampire hunter (Chris), we decided she should change titles. So, she became a dhampress (the female version of a dhampir).


I made the bodice based on the pattern that Jenette and Rhonda used. I just made it longer and lace up in the front only. Michelle and I planned and made her cape. It came out pretty good and matched her hair really well. The last thing I made for her was that hat. She had looked in some thrift stores and a costume store, but found nothing good for a good price. So, I remembered that I bought a pattern for 1$ and had fabric from Shannon's pirate coat. So, I made the hat. It turned out ok. The feather she bought really helped.

Shannon's costume turned out pretty good too. He went as an alchemist. He did a lot of research on alchemy and wrote just about all of it in those books he's got attached to his costume. In the bottles on the right are some things a real alchemist may have carried around.

I made the robe first for his costume. He found some really neat fabric and helped to design where the different colors would go. I then sewed it up. We slowly added the doublet, then the shirt, then the pants. It came out pretty good. Although, he said it was kind of uncomfortable because the books were very heavy to carry around. If there's a next time, we'll attach them differently.

Mmm...

Fajitas at the La (Fiesta). Mmm...

Costumes Part I

Rhonda made her own outfit. She was a lady of the court. As the rest of us, she's worked on it since this summer. We bought the patterns and fabric at JoAnn's pretty early (they were having a sweet sale 1$ McCall's patterns).


The coolest thing is all the work Rhonda put into her costume. She sewed on a lot of detail by hand. Check out the pearl beads on the skirt and bodice, the border of the bodice, the hair piece. Even her sleeves have some beaded goodness. I helped her hem the dress, but every thing else she did. :)


Chris also made his own costume. As far as I know, he made it all himself too. He was a vampire hunter.


He also has a cape to go with the costume. But his picture shows off his detail work (of which there is a lot). There was a lot of leather work that he did. He got pretty good at it too. He made some really neat things for not only himself, but Jenette as well.

I don't have a very good picture of Jenette's costume. Maybe after I look at their pics I will :). She went as fairy and tried to make it a pretty realistic one. As with Chris' costume, Jenette had a lot of detail .


She had fairy dust, cicada wing earring (made by herself), butterfly wing chain on her belt (made by herself), a light up fairy in a jar (made by Chris), and a plethora of other good things! For her wings, they decided to use boning to keep them stiff, but not sticking out. She found some really neat glittery-woody fabric to use. They were attached to her wrist bands so when she moved her arms, they moved too.

These three guys had really neat costumes. They put a lot of work into them and worked on them for a really long time. They came out really cool.

Renaissance Funstival

Sunday we headed out to the Kansas City Renaissance Festival. We included Shannon, Rhonda, Michelle, Jenette, Chris, and I. We arrived around 12:30 and stayed until close. It was a good time.

The ladies had tea with the queen. It turned into quite the gypsy party, but that was great fun too. The gypsy boys belly danced in the aisles and on the tables! We ate cream puffs, chocolate covered strawberries, cookies, fruit, cheese, and so much other tasties. It was well worth the 10$ for the ticket to the tea.


Last year when we went, they had an elephant and camels that you could ride. No one did. But this year, ah, this year. Michelle and I both rode the elephant this year. It. Was. Awesome. It wasn't a long ride, or even a fast ride, but it was a ride on an elephant! Sweet.

Other things happened too. We walked around and looked at a great deal of shops. I got some handspun wool yarn to felt me a bag with. Shannon and I also purchased 2 cd's from a band called Tartanic. They are a bagpipe rock band. They are really good. We sat and listened to their show, bought their cd, and then were pleased to see they provided the music for the post festival dance "outside the gates."


I'll post about our costumes later. Just know that I think each of us received a complement (independent of each other) on our costumes. Oh and Mom and Jayme, you really should come with us in a few weeks!

Football Season

Football season is back! I am very glad with that. Saturday was the first home game for the Wildcats. We beat the San Jose State University Spartans 34-14. It was a fun game to go too despite K-State's efforts to remind us of many who have died. (It was Ft. Riley day and they scrolled through a list of soldiers who've died and the half time show was dedicated to a student who recently passed away. BUT... It was a fun game to go to.

Also, in football news, our fantasy league is back (because the NFL is back). I opened the season with a loss to last years PIFF champion. Better luck next week when I take on the league founder.

Dance, Michelle! Dance!

Yesterday we went to the Kansas City Renaissance Festival. It was great fun and I got some neat things. Later on today I will (hopefully) have a chance to upload some pics and videos of the costumes and the fun.

Moving Sidewalk

While walking home from school on Thursday or Friday, Shannon and I happened to notice this forklift/bulldozer moving some sidewalk. I am not sure if the university thinks it's easier to just move the sidewalk and use it again, or if this is how they always remove unwanted flats of cement. Either way, it was fun. Especially when it fell off the lift.

Jeez.

Well, I upgraded my template (not sure why). And I wish I didn't. I can't figure anything out anymore. I can't get my flicker side bar pics, I lost my counter, and I am not in the mood to fix it.

Boo.

Basil Warmers

Our basil is growing better than usual. We recently harvested it and Shannon made us some pesto. Yum pesto. Yay Shanno.

In other news, I've got a funny mad libs. The Playground.

The playground next to our local school is good! It has lots of things for children to walk on, a ham to sit on, and a foot-box!