look on my works ye mighty, and despair

Today: gaming, then sewing some wig stuff for Pez's new Zero wig, and then trying on the lacefront sample.

( Photos behind here )

I actually did everything I said I was going to do this weekend, holy crap. And played a lot of Dragon Age Inquisition too. One of these days maybe I'll even manage to do some writing.

Yesterday morning I declared that I would mostly play Dragon Age. And indeed: I mostly played Dragon Age. I did also go side-stack a bunch of books, and it looks like that frees up, uh, about half a bookcase. The dream, fwiw, is to free up an entire bookcase, which we can then GET RID OF. I know. This seems alien to me, too. But Pez is right: we have far too much furniture, and ditching a bookcase would be a start.

I finished Dito's sleeves on Saturday; the pattern for the sleeves was hilariously hour-glass-ish in the end. Pez says she'll try and make Dito's sword over the next week, even, because she's on a sword-making roll right now and is generally a lovely wife that way. I was just planning on not having the sword for Kita, but hell, I'm not going to turn down a prop that'll be better-made than one I can manage. Earlier I threw together the Persona 3 protag's headphones/mp3 player thing, because he's my 3rd costume for Kita now (I... yeah, I wanted to do Susan, but it didn't happen and I'm not beating myself up over it).

I think I might play more Dragon Age now. Yeah. Over the ugh-so-slooooow hump with this Inquisition playthrough, actually got to Skyhold now. Hooray! Though I'm a little surprised that the Hawke I loaded up for this game is female, since uh in every single other respect it's reflecting my DA1/DA2 playthrough accurately...

Meanwhile today I finished Dito's hoodie and shorts! Hooray! I also bought things from eBay for both Druitt and Dito, and Pez helped me map out the sleeves I'll need for Dito's shirt. I know how to proceed with Druitt, too, so I will do that later.

I even managed to cook a nice dinner! Productivity feels nice.

(But first, I need to write labels for some of the colour sample rings, because otherwise I will be sad tomorrow at work.)

The past week has been very full:

* We met up with friends on Monday for food (after some closed-restaurant shenanigans we all ended up at Burger King). Our local friends are lovely.

* Easter was a four-day weekend and for various reasons we decided to hold a wig sale. The combination meant we had a record-breaking amount of parcels to send out on Tuesday, but did actually manage to get them all packed just in time for the pick-up. When I say 'just in time' I mean that we'd nearly given up on getting the last twenty parcels done but the postman was a little late so we managed to get the last sack packed up, paid for and down to reception just as he was loading the van. Running up and down the corridors carrying heavy sacks of mail is a good workout, at least.

* On Wednesday we had a cakemeet down in London; we ended up at Maison Bertaux for cake/coffee and then on to Gerrard's corner for delicious foods. Most of the evening was spent listening to kahochan's woes over the new house; we were all very sympathetic between the jokes and usual Pete-mocking, honest.

Somehow I managed to write another chapter of my Last Remnant/Pretty Woman fic this week -- I actually bought a copy of the DVD on Friday so I could check scenes, and the CEX employee was very amused by my purchase -- and over this weekend I made a toile of a jacket for my Count Druitt costume for Kita (and Pez made a shield for my Dito costume and sourced a bunch of other bits for me, because she's wonderful like that), and played a bunch of Dragon Age. I also read several books this week, and even napped on a few days. I like it when I'm like this, and wish it happened more regularly; energy that isn't manic is such a blessing.

I'm actually making four costumes for Kita (Therius from The Last Story, Dito from Drakengard 3, Count Druitt from Kuroshitsuji and Susan Sto Helit from Hogfather); that's rather ambitious considering my usual lack of energy but I think it's doable. I would rather do these after losing more weight -- so I could be more appropriately sized for the costumes -- but if I keep putting stuff off until I get to a better weight then I'll never get around to all the costumes I want to do. Therius is probably the most awkward of this list because of the armoured boots and gloves. Count Druitt is 90% about the outer tailcoat and it's so blingy that I can probably get away with a lot of little mistakes as long as I drape enough braid and stuff on the top. Dito is... going to be more of a pain than you'd think at first glance, but I think it'll be worth the hassle to get those pieces looking right. Susan Sto Helit I could in theory entirely assemble from bought separates (apart from the wig), and I probably will if time gets short.

Hooray for having multiple costumes I'm genuinely excited to get to make and wear!

2014 was an up-and-down year, like 2013 before it. Breaking it down:

( Work )
( Health )
( Travel )
( Home )
( Music )
( Cosplay )
( Fandom )
( Books/manga/comics )
( Videogames )
( TV/Film/anime )
( Theatre and Ballet )
( Other )

My posting here dropped off sharply, sigh. I was mostly on Tumblr this year, and a little on Facebook and Twitter (I am massively throttling twitter participation and basically don't add people any more; I do not want it to become my primary social outlet because I dislike the length restriction).

But I'll, uh. Try to post here more, again, at least.

Pez has been playing Drakengard 3 (which our friend kindly got her a special edition version of since the US gets all the nice things).

It's extremely bloody and nihilistic and the dialogues are swathed in references to sex and sadism and torture. It's also funny and self-aware, and the writing is sly and sharp. It also doesn't end with one playthrough, because Drakengard is the land of alternate timelines and multiple endings. Pez is on the third branch at this point, having viewed endings A and B. I'm expecting at least another two endings, and probably another few extra side-stories too.

It's a very rich, detailed world, and it ties back to Drakengard 1 a lot (allegedly; I didn't pay a whole ton of attention to that game honestly). The costume designs are by the same group as in The Last Story. The music is by the same composer as Nier. It's a fun game to watch.

But man, they could knock off the sex jokes a bit sheesh.