Lord of the Rings costume Wish List.

So lets just say that I have a little obsession. Okay, well, a big obsession. A very big obsession. I am totally and completely in love with everything Lord of the Rings. And the movie costumes? Gorgeous. So I have taken it upon myself to recreate my favorite costumes from said motion picture trilogy. As soon as I learn how to sew. Okay, I admit, I already made one, but I made it with two curtain panels and fabric glue, and it recently fell apart. So, as soon as I fix or replace my broken sewing machine, and learn how to use it, I will re-make it. But until then, I guess a wish list will have to do.

1. Arwen's Requiem Gown. Probably my all time favorite, I love the colors of this dress, and the (varied) style of the sleeves. It's true, the sleeves are adjusted in a few scenes of RotK to allow for easy access (never mind how wrong that sounds!), but I think that I prefer the trumpet sleeves.
2. Eowyn's Shield-maiden dress. Beautiful and simple, with absolutely elegant sleeves.
3. Eowyn's brown refugee coat. I don't know exactly what it is I like about the coat, but I do have to admit that the shield-maiden dress wouldn't be entirely complete without it.
4. Arwen's coronation dress and crown. The crown may be out of my skill to recreate, but it is gorgeous nonetheless. And the dress is my all time favorite color! I also really love the highly detailed embroidery on the upper sleeves-intricate, yes-but I think I can manage.
5. Arwen's Hope gown. Okay, I think this one ties for first with the Requiem. I love the leafy pattern, and the dark maroon velvet fabric looks oh-so luscious, like a plump, succulent pomegranate!

Well, that's only my top 5 favorites, in no particular order, to be completely honest. I think that the easiest to make will be either the Shield-maiden (including coat) or the Hope. All the other dresses consist of an under and over dress, and very big lower sleeves.
Photos of costumes in same order as above.

Happy New Year! Resolutions

So, the holiday season is over (and I got some nice pictures of it, too!), and the new year has begun over where I live.
I have quite a few resolutions this time around, all of which I plan to complete!


One of the many resolutions was to be a better blogger, so here I am trying to do my best. To help me in this, I borrowed PamperingBeki's 5 P's of blogging:

1. Post often. Blog readers like to see new content fairly often when they check in.
2. Pictures. There are a few rare successful blogs that are driven by words alone but for the most part pictures help tremendously. Many people view blog hopping like flipping through magazines. Which pages are you most likely to stop on? The ones with interesting pictures that grab your attention, not those with a lot of words.
3. Personality. Be genuine. Part of the appeal to blog readers is to get a peek into the life of the author. How personal you want to get depends, of course, on the focus of your blog and your intended audience.
4. Permutation. (Thank you dictionary.com.) It's great to have a specific topic that your blog is directed to, but the same ol' thing every day can get a bit boring. So keep it fresh by introducing new topics, jokes, tutorials, videos, etc. occasionally.
5. Participate. I was completely shocked to learn that on the whole, there is a blogging community! Get involved. Visit other blogs that interest you and leave comments. Share the link on your own blog. Participate in the community and you'll be more successful than you can imagine.

With the help of these 5 P's, I will hopefully be able to create a successful blog. I have decided that from here on out, I will not be afraid to write what I want, I will try to post at least once a week, and I am going to always carry with me a camera. The camera is not only for blogging, I must admit, but also because every time I see something beautiful that's worth taking a picture of, there's no camera to be found!
So, now that I know where to start... let's continue!

A big problem I have is staying organized, so that's a biggie on my list this year. I decided to start this particular goal with my resolutions themselves.

I decided that I am going to keep track of my resolution success in a log-a diary, so to speak. I found a cute little food-themed diary hiding out in one of my desk drawers, as well as a stack of brightly colored index cards.After picking a color-yellow, in fact-that I felt adequately encompassed my feelings for the new year, I wrote down all of resolutions for this year. Of course, what good is a list of resolutions, if you don't put it somewhere that you can see it everyday? With this problem in mind, I went on a hunt throughout the house, searching for a good place to put the card. But then I realized, the perfect place to put my resolutions would be in my resolution diary! So with scotch tape in hand I attached the index card to the inside cover of my journal, so that now whenever I open my journal to record my success (and maybe, just maybe, failures), my goals will be right there in front of me.One of my last (but most definitely not least) goals this year is to finally get my etsy shop up and running, but I just may have to wait a bit more for that to happen-thank you very much to hard times and an expired credit card. But until I do get my shop going, here are a few previews of what I have to offer: