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EEEE! I just found out last night that Terry Pratchett is going to be at the Union Square B&N tonight! And I have permission to get off work early! TRIUMPH!

So. Saturday and Sunday, my friend El came to visit! For her 18th birthday, she went to see Drew Sarich, one of her favourite actors, playing Valjean in Les Miserables. All was merry! We had great adventures with nonexistent transportation and both got a pair of the most ridiculous shoes ever.

I’m kind of obsessed with the shoes, and they would actually work really, really well with my Maeve costume, so I’m currently debating between them and my Docs. They’re clear plastic 6″ platform heels–making me 6’3″–with sparkly green accents, and they are SO MAEVE IT HURTS. I’ll bring both alternatives with me to Philly and decide there.

Speaking of Maeve, I finished the wig last night! Well, I might actually bleach some of the brighter strands a touch whiter, as it’s gotten a bit too far away from the glacier look, but… EEE! Pretty! See here and here. I love the tacky tiara–It makes the wig! I found it in a box of equally tacky tiaras, probably intended for Daddy’s Little Princess’s quinceanera. A bunch of them actually had a “15” in rhinestones. I love it!

And the tackiness of the tiara and the potential shoes nicely offsets the elegance of the toga top, and everything comes together beautifully. When I first set out to put the costume together, I was worried that the costume wouldn’t have the vibe and personality it needed, but I see now that my fears were completely unfounded.

Now I need to figure out some kind of crazy knitting project that will allow me to use all my leftover yarn. It’s so pretty, I can’t just let it collect dust in my closet!

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GUH. Just started adding the mohair to the Maeve wig, and it looks awesome! Ooh, I wish I’d gone with mohair entirely rather than starting with the Point Five. It looks so much more dreadlock-y and awesome, all felted to itself. Inspired by this look, I’m gently untwisting and separating the Point Five, then re-twisting it in chunks with a few strands of mohair to make it look a bit more dread-y. It looks way better already! Squeeeee, one week until PhauxCon!

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More progress on Maeve!

I have no idea why these look so desaturated. You totally lose the cool, subtle blue-green glow of the wig hair! And the pinkish yarn is actually closer to a dark beige. They looked fine in photoshop! Ah well. I currently have about a third of the head wool-ized, though I’ll be going back and adding more of the blue-purple-black yarn in the lower layers to get the general color range a bit closer to the intended vibe. The other side is still the wig hair only, without the added woolly goodness.

Soooooo excited. Though I need to figure out what to do with the bangs so I don’t look like an anime character!

(And woo, Charlex t-shirt! My company’s parent company, for the win!)

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WOOHOO! I just finished dreading the Maeve wig! A full head of 37″ hair, all without incurring a repetitive stress injury! WIN!

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Some Maeve pics!

The hair dye job! This is the only shot I could get the colors to look reasonably accurate. It’s much lighter than one might expect from her description in the book to compensate for the darker colors of wool I’ll be adding in. Anyway, it looks so cool in real life! When it’s in shadow, the sea green practically glows.

My nails afterwards, AFTER scrubbing at them for five minutes.

First progress shot of the dreads and some wool added in, taken Sunday evening.

What it looks like now, with all the “done” dreads pinned up out of the way and all the remaining hair still down. *wibbles and clutches poor, aching arm*

Another angle showing all the dreads I’ve done so far, which might explain the wrist-twingeing.

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So! Catching up.

I’m almost done with living out of suitcases! My last piece of furniture, a chest of drawers, will arrive this Sunday. This past weekend, I gained a desk, a headboard, a bookshelf, and a massive TV and a lovely dinner table for the common room. WIN!

While I wasn’t waiting for stuff to get delivered this weekend, I was tromping up and down the city looking for clothes and ideas for a new costume. A new costume! I have a goal! Time has meaning! For PhauxCon‘s McAnally’s Costume Shindig, I’m going as Maeve, the Winter Lady from The Dresden Files. Ever since I first read her description in Summer Night, I’ve longed to make her costume, and now I’m going to!

The chief draw is the wig I’m going to make: “Her hair had been bound into long dreadlocks, each of them dyed a different shade, ranging from a deep lavender to pale blues and greens to pure white, so that it almost seemed that her hair had been formed from glacial ice.”

*gurgles*

I just got the base wig last night–waist-length and white with long bangs–and it’s so pretty that I almost feel bad that I’m going to dred the heck out of it. Ah well! It’s going to be aaaaaawesome when it’s done! I bought three skeins of gorgeous Colinette wool yarn, dyed just the way I picture Maeve’s hair to be: one, two, and three.

Her general attire is a bit skankier than I want to play her, so it’ll be a challenge to design a new outfit for her. I found a gorgeous, subtly shiny, ice-blue pashmina wrap that I’m going to pin strategically to a bra and wear like a draped, toga-ish top. Not sure how to better explain it, but it looks fantastic.

As for the bottom… no clue. Massive combat boots or tall Doc Marten-y type boots are a must, because that’s just the kind of person Sidhe she is. I like the idea of a blue camo miniskirt with white fishnets or sexy, similarly patterned cargo pants, but I’ve been so far unable to find anything that fits this mental image. I have a few leads to pursue this weekend, though, so I might not have to give up on this concept. The big challenge is finding something that works with the elegance of the top, but also expresses her rebellious, punkish, sexy attitude.

Then there will be white/silver mascara and crazy eye makeup and maybe some sort of body painting involved, depending on how much time I’m going to have to get ready.

Speaking of PhauxCon, today is the last day of Early Bird Registration! After midnight tonight, the price will go up from $50 to $60. Then after October 4th, any remaining tickets will be sold at the door for $70. Registration is also open for Friday’s dinner with Jim and Shannon Butcher and Sunday’s writers’ brunch. Details in the LJ!

I leave you with a fantastic BSG crackvid to Flight of the Conchords’ The Humans Are Dead. YES.

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Will pointed out that I’ve neglected to mention the release of Many Bloody Returns, an anthology of short stories dealing with vampires and birthdays. It officially came out yesterday, though I managed to snag a copy from Borders last week. Jim Butcher has a Dresden Files story included, and it’s hilarious. Check it, yo!

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Episode 9 of The Butcher Block is up! My news segment starts at 2:48. (Did I mention that I’m now the official news correspondent? Because I am. I’ve also been recruited to do news posts for Jim-Butcher.com) There’s also an Easter Egg of sorts at 29:57. I miss being called an Industrious Little Gnome. :D

In case I didn’t post about it before, Episode 8 is here (my bit begins at 4:09), though my segment was a bit less smooth. Firstly, I was moving at a breakneck pace because there was SO MUCH NEWS to report, and because I rambled like a crazy person in the previous episode. But most significantly, it was because I kept bursting into giggles for no particular reason (well, Chungy’s presence in the next room might have had something to do with it) and had to redo whole chunks, and Fred had to splice everything back together. He sent me the “outtakes” reel of us screwing up and laughing at each other, and it’s over seven minutes long–nearly as long as my actual segment!

Someone, somewhere, has started a drinking game based on how many times I say “Yesssss” and “Eeeexcellent” and is now either comatose or dead from alcohol poisoning. I really don’t use those words that much in real life!

In other news, I made some brownies for friends, and they are GORGEOUS.

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The next episode of the official Jim Butcher podcast, The Butcher Block, is out, this time with a new format! I’m now the official News Correspondent, and my bit starts at about 3:45. Huzzah!

(31min 45sec) Fred plugs in for a quick episode in a new format. He checks in with Butcher Block News Correspondant Priscellie for an update on everything that’s happened since the last episode, and goes over to the grill with Chad Underkoffler to cook up some “butcher burgers”, looking into discrepancies in the continuity of the novels.

Of course, since Fred and I recorded my bit last Friday, we got news about the DVD release of Season 1, a release date for Small Favor, and according to Fred, Jim finished his story for “Supernatural Honeymoon” (but of course, none of the details of said story are public knowledge yet, phooey).

On a sadder note, however, Veronica Mars has been canceled, with little hope absolutely no hope for resurrection. Whyyyyyyyyyyyyyy?!