If I wasn't a school teacher...

I would run a costume hire place, making my own costumes, cos I love it :)

Today I completed something I have been meaning to do for aaages - transfer all my costumes from a bunch of boxes into an actual wardrobe! I have so much stuff I didn't realise it till I saw it all hanging up.

Here's the (complete I think!) list...

Fur stole and shoulder cape and coat (all 3 from Grandma)

Purple feather boa

Rock and roll petticoat. It's all full and flouncy. Vintage gear from Dad's first wife.

Wrap around old-school netball skirt.

Hutt Intermediate t-shirt.

Hutt High t-shirt.

Hutt High skirt, tie and jersey.

Gym Slip (my Ma's old uniform, or perhaps my Aunt's.)

Red boiler suit.

Nurse costume (actually a 60s housedress that I converted.)

Tuxedo shirt.

Flouncy pirate shirt.

White alb (that's a priesty churchy garment, or could double as a really old fashioned nightgown.)

Bumblebee striped singlet with wings (with matching striped 'rugby undies' I won at a quiz.)

Tiger suit (spraypainted white paper boiler suit like they put criminals in on the telly) complete with stuffed tail.

Tellytubby costume (red tracksuit with a shiny belly bit, and a hand stitched head piece.)

Unicorn hand stitched head piece plus white trousers (Wore it to Sophie's 'U' themed 21st, wow, 12 years ago!)

Indian bodice, skirt and scarf. My dancing dress :)

Black and glitter saree and bodice top. Was a wedding gift from a workmate.

Two other sarees from an Indian fair.

Grass skirt and about 6 leis. Not sure how I got so many leis...

3 sulus (sarongs) from Fiji.

German-Oktoberfest-barmaid kind of dress. My Ma made this in the 70s (remember Burda patterns? No?) and actually wore it as an everyday outfit! Mad.

Ripped (not just small but tiny!) t-shirt from when Sam was the Incredible Hulk a few years ago.

Black dress that was my Ma's nice black dress in the 80 but is really dated and I'm hanging onto it in case it comes into fashion again.

80s towelling jumpsuit a'la Flashdance. Sweat bands optional.

60s velvet A line dress - paisley, Noice. Matching handbag.

Three floaty flowery 70s dresses in yellow, green and blue. My fave is the green one. They all have matching handbags too. These were all Ma's.

Academic gown. Scored for free from my Great Aunt, who was in the Association of University

Women or some such (they handle gown rentals for prizegivings etc.)

Long white shift dress. The actual under dress for Ma's wedding dress. She apparently cut the dress proper up and made nighties with the fabric?!! Double mad!

Princess Leia dress. Ma and I made this using a church robe pattern, modified from looking at many screen shots of Carrie Fisher.

3 pairs of camo pants, nicked when I left the Cadet Unit :)

1 camo shirt, ditto.

Green army shirt.

Scrim (green netty stuff that makes a nice headscarf or sweatband or whatever.)

Camo face paint.

Silver bridesmaid dress from Sister's wedding.

Green ball dress from 6th form ball.

Wedding dress, used once :)

Black sheet - Sam's ghost costume.

White sheet, cut in half and sewn back together to make a long strip for easy toga tying. Length is the key, in case you didnt know.

Assorted ties, glasses, belts, braces, wigs, hats, wings, tiaras, wands, jewellery, face paint.

Headbands with ears/antennae/devil horns.

A long cigarette holder for stylish lady smokers.

Handcuffs. Don't ask ;)

Handmade poi from a tangata whenua costume.

A ball and chain, made for Sister's Hen's night.

Mum's knee high hand made boots from Singapore.

Doc boots.

Army boots.

Anyone wanna borrow anything? Ask away!

Dressing babies up is fun, honest!

Omg - here is the funniest thing I just found! Love the pea pod :)

Winner

Well done to Cal who figured out what the mirror thing was. It is indeed for seeing bub in a rear facing car seat. Here's my one, modelled by my beautiful assistant :)

This is what it looks like when you turn in the front seat and look backwards:

And this is the driver's view in the rear view mirror. Sometimes I forget to look at the road :)

more craftiness

"What's that?" you all ask.

It's a pressie for my Sister from Cassie's leftover fabric, a mirror and some old bra straps.

Answer later this week. Maybe I'll organise a prize for correct guesses? (except Carol, Kirsten and Sarah, who already know).

The pics below reflect someone else's craftiness:

We got this cute wee hoodie in the post last week, courtesy of my Cousin Nicole. So cute! Thanks babe :) Charlotte was kinda wriggly when I took these with the cellphone, so she's a bit blurry.

Being Crafty

I have been in a bit of a lazy funk recently, and have had all sorts of things planned in my head to do "when I get round to it", so this week I decided to bloody "get round to it"!

Here's the jobs so far:

1. Make chair thingy for Cassie's mate's new baby. Here's my version, but hers is blue with monkeys and lions and elephants all over it.












2. Turn wasted cupboard under the stairs into coat cupboard.


I took two bits of 2 by 4 and an iron bar from Dads' shed (good thing he was a hoarder or I might have had to spend money), chatted up the woodwork teacher, who drilled a couple of big holes, and stuck it all together in the cupboard. Voila - coat cupboard!






3. Get next tattoo organised.



I've had this picture (the left one) for years, and last night I had a dream that I finally got it onto my arm. The pic is by Escher, but I want to modify it slightly. The purple fish are upside down, but I see no reason why they can's have eyes too. It's going to wrap in an armband on my big huge muscly bicep.







Here's a badly edited version showing what I mean.

In my dream it got all messed up though. The ends met in a bad place and stuffed up the pattern, and the colours were wrong, and it got distorted so the ends were different sizes. It didn't hurt in my dream though :)







4. Make a hole in a wall.

Our kitchen is at the back of the house and a completely separate room, which feels quite isolated. I want to make a window through into the dining space so I can watch the bub without having to have her on the kitchen floor where I might drop hot food/knives/heavy stuff on her. Haven't done this yet. Times like this I miss my Dad. And Leon. :)


5. Garden.

The side garden is a weed (no not that kind of weed...) heaven, but should be a nice courtyard.

I need to:
Remove the grass and weeds, make it level, super saturate the ground with nasty plant killing stuff, weed mat it, and cover it with big slabs of concrete/pebbles in a chequerboard fashion cos I think it would look cool.

This will be a summer job methinks. I feel a working bee coming on. Watch this space!