Monday, August 27, 2018

It was 20 years ago today...

Apparently this was in my drafts and I never published it, so here you go! This is from, well, several years ago, and several visits ago now!

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I recently went to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. The last time I was there, the Beatles exhibit was being renovated, so I didn't get to see John Lennon's Sgt Pepper suit, the one thing I really wanted to see.  Well, this time not only did I get to see it, but they are now allowing photographs. So I have a whole slew of photos to add to my research page!

Excited!

Here they are:







Painting!

My mom did a little chemise dress painting of me from a recent event!


Monday, August 20, 2018

Francaise Dinner 2018

Ah yes. Francaise Dinner 2018. March 2018. Also coincident with #babyplague2018.

This year, the Franchise dinner was hosted by Jessica, and was back at Gadsbys Tavern in Alexandria. I had talked my friend Get into coming down and staying with us, seeing the baby, and coming to the dinner.

We started off the weekend with a nice dinner out - unfortunately late that night, I started not feeling well… which devolved into throwing up. :-/ I assumed it was just me, though later I thought Elena had been much fussier than normal. But no one else had gotten sick from dinner, so I thought maybe it just hadn’t agreed with me.

I felt better the next day, just weak from, you know, being up a bunch of the night and throwing up twice. I took it easy and didn’t eat much and by the time we had to get ready for the Franchise dinner, I was able to get myself moving enough to go. I didn’t want Gen to miss it and I was keeping food down and everything.

As it happened, Janine and Ron were going to babysit for us since they live not far from the Tavern, so we brought our costumes there and they played with Elena and we got ready. Janine made the mistake of giving me some lipstick. I didn’t think to stop her because again, I thought it was just an upset stomach. The last two times I’ve thrown up has been from bad headaches.

So we left Elena with them, and Doug, Gen, and I went to the ball. There were lots of new faces, and I felt too tired to socialize, which I felt bad about. But I made it through and we went home, and the next day I felt all better, and the three of us had a nice breakfast out and all was well.

Gen took off for home (she lives in North Carolina and had a pretty long drive). Doug went for a long run, and I took over baby duty.

While Doug was out, Gen texted me that she stopped at an antique mall to look around, and said that fortunately they had a nice bathroom because she had suddenly needed it. Uh-oh.

Doug got back from his run, and I told him that Gen was sick. A little while later, he said his stomach didn’t feel great either. But he’s like that sometimes after a long run. He sat on the couch. A little while later, I asked if he could go move the laundry from the washer to the dryer. He got up, walked out of the room, then came back and sat back down, and said, “Nope, I can’t do that.”

Shortly after, he raced out of the room.

Uh-oh.

A while later I got a text from Gen about her getting to experience “high speed vomiting.”

So that was three. And then as it turned out, Janine apparently spent Monday morning throwing up in a Metro trash can.

When I talked to Stephanie, Monday morning (she was our child care provider at the time), she said, “You know, Iris, threw up once on Thursday night, but I didn’t think much of it, because it was just that one time….And Evey (the other little girl at day care) had diarrhea on Wednesday… And I felt kind of nauseous on Friday…”

So there you go. Evey to Iris and Stephanie and Elena, to me, to Doug and Gen via sharing food, to Janine via lipstick, to Gen’s dad in North Carolina, to one of Janine’s co-workers. :-/ That was one virulent norovirus. It was fast at least, but damn. That thing swept through all of us. Ron did not actually end up catching it. Neither did Mike or Gloria, who we saw at the Franchise dinner. And I was really glad I hadn’t felt well enough to socialize with pretty much anyway. I wouldn’t have gone if I’d known I was contagious, but until that point, it was only me, so….

Yeah, that is definitely a weekend to remember for all the wrong reasons.

In any case, here are some pics from the dinner, mostly just posed ones from before the dinner. If I look a little pale, or if I didn’t say hello at the dinner, you now know why.

My dress was based on this gown because I had this fabric in my stash for years and I wanted to use it, and even though it is not silk, it strongly reminded me of this gown pattern-wise. I ran the stripes on the sleeves vertically to emulate this gown, even though it is more common to see them horizontal.

I also did not have time to actually trim the gown because of the baby, but I figured it’d look this way this time, and I could add trim and it’d look different the next time I wore it. http://www.nationaltrustcollections.org.uk/object/1348709.1

http://www.nationaltrustcollections.org.uk/object/1348709.2

Also, I didn’t get a petticoat or stomacher made, so I wore it with my cream Francaise gown petticoat and stomacher. Also I swear I ironed those folds out, but they didn’t want to disappear.

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I also wore earrings and a necklace from Dames a la Mode and a Lover’s Eye brooch from Queen and Cavendish.

Most of the pics are by In the Long Run Designs.


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Tuesday, August 7, 2018

Grit - DC Cosplay photoshoot

Long time no update - which is really more work related than baby related (I had a baby in November!), though the combo has me pretty busy. And I’m once again massively behind on blogging stuff. So let’s just just back to March, shall we?

I attended a DC Cosplay photoshoot at the Graffiti Warehouse in Baltimore with friends - mainly because I had heard of this venue and it sounded amazing. (And also to spend time with my friends.)

The way these shoots work is that there are a bunch of cosplayers and a bunch of photographers, and you pair up and the photographers take pictures. The costumes had to be along the theme of “Grit,” so there were lots of super hero/horror type stuff, none of which I have. But Gloria thought my Violet Baudelaire from the movie version of A Series of Unfortunate Events would work. That costume hasn’t gotten a ton of wear and I spent like a year on it, so I thought why not?

Each photographer is obligated to produce 2 pics of each cosplayer they work with. So you end up with a bunch of photos you may or may not be happy with (depending on how much you like photos of yourself, haha), but you never know when you might get a gem. I’m no model and also have specific angles I particularly hate, but I decided to do it because it made me uncomfortable - and though I didn’t love all the photos, there were, indeed gems, and it was a cool experience. (It’s definitely intimidating in this era of hi-res photography that leaves no flaw unmagnified to let go and accept that it’ll be all on display. Also, finding good lighting in this place was definitely a challenge - and good light makes for flattering photos - but this wasn’t necessarily about that.)

First off, here is the group pic, taken by In the Long Run Designs (my friends Mike and Gloria).

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Which you can contrast with this group photo take by Don Holmes. DonHolmes1

The next few are my favs, probably because they aren’t really about me, per se. DSC_7734

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The lighting on this floor was so cool that I had a vision of a cool shot of me silhouetted in the light from those windows. I’m not sure I posed exactly right to match what was in my head, but Mike definitely got my vision.

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Lando Valez

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Robert James Litchfield:

Robert James Litchfield

Tony Kazmierski:

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Elysian Arts Photography:

Elysian Arts Photography

Elysian Arts Photography

In the Long Run Designs:

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Selfie!

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Random snapshot, probably taken for me by Mike:

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Gloria and I afterwards, in the graffiti alley outside the Warehouse.

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Mike, shooting a picture of Gloria. It was soooo cold that day!

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