All In A Day

It's been too long!

I hate missing a blog entry but if you follow my Facebook, Twitter or Instagram, you'll know that I've been very ill for over a week and that's why my internet self disappeared off the face of the earth for a bit. My bad.

But I've been prescribed the right medication by a lovely doctor in A&E during the early hours of Saturday morning and I feel over 9,000 times better already. Seriously. Thank you lovely doctor in A&E.

Until then, all I'd really managed to do between my last entry and Saturday afternoon that was arts and crafts related, was one page of colouring in. (I felt that bad.) I did make it interesting though by nipping onto my Pinterest colour scheme board (there's some really nice ones on there) and selecting one to stick to. I chose the one below for a floral colouring page as there weren't too many different colours but it wasn't just tonal either. A nice little mix.

I love these colour schemes because for some reason I find it extremely satisfying seeing the inspiration behind choosing those co-ordinating colours and being able to witness just how well they co-ordinate. Plus, ice cream. Yum.

So I picked out my six matching coloured pencils and challenged myself to use all of those particular pencils but no others on the entire page.

Unfortunately the beige colour isn't overly visible on the page but I did use it, I swear. I just had to shade it with the brown because it was so pale.

It went quite well and the colours suited the picture nicely. I'm also really pleased with the pencils which were a Christmas present, as they shade just beautifully.

Luckily that's not all I have to post today though. Otherwise that would be a very short blog entry.

I can now show you the card and present I made for my sister's birthday earlier on this month, which I couldn't post in my last entry as she hadn't yet seen them!

The card had to be quick and simple because unfortunately I didn't have a lot of time to make it. So when I saw some Star Wars wrapping paper on my way home from a walk the day before, I grabbed it. It was used to wrap her gift and make this adorable card! I simply cut out a panel of black card and stuck it to a base before adding the cut out Yoda using 3d foam pads. A few hand drawn stars and sentiment in white ink and then some sequin stars stuck on with more foam pads, 10 minutes later you've got your super cute card. Woohoo!

The present took me longer. I bought a plain black sketchbook from Paperchase and used masking tape to cover an area to form my sister's nickname. I followed a tutorial I found on Pinterest to create the galaxy design over the top, peeled away the tape and then outlined the letters with a white gel pen just to make them really pop and was left with a really cool, personalised sketchbook for my sister, who is always drawing.

And since I am feeling over 9,000 times better today, I started work on two projects this afternoon.

The first was the second of my romantic book quotes for the bedroom in the same theme as my Harry Potter one. I even have a webcam as of today so this whole project was recorded and will have a timelapse video posted in the (hopefully) near future.

I had a lot of fun making this one. Both the quotes I've featured make me cry buckets and I'm just really glad I was actually able to write them nicely enough to feel proud displaying them on my walls.

The second project I started working on today was inspired by these fantastic felt succulent plants I came across on Facebook as I scrolled down my newsfeed. I like plants but I can't keep them alive and I find succulents particularly beautiful in a strange way, so there was no way I wasn't going to try and make these!

The box frame is a little cheapy from The Range which I took apart, removing the glass and then gluing the rest of the componants back into place so they don't shift around. To make sure the background was super sparkly, just in case any shows through once I'm done adding succulents, I filled the frame with PVA and then just poured in a whole load of gold glitter.

No crafter's stash is complete without glitter. I'm just impressed I didn't get it everywhere. It normally goes everywhere, so well done to me.

 While I wait for the glue to dry so it's safe for me to tip out the excess glitter (which is probably when it will go everywhere) I decided to start work on my first succulent.

I followed the instructions on the tutorial but I stitched a little bead into the centre and added some colour around the edges of the petals just because that seems to be my style - throw back to these little rose brooches. I just like a little extra detail and feel like beads make really pretty centre points.

I stopped after two layers of petals because I may be feeling a lot better, but I'm still not quite 100% and I don't want to overdo it. Plus silicone glue really smells so I wanted to call it a night.

That's all for now but I want to take this opportunity to say that next week's blog entry will be posted on Monday instead as I'm going to be at MCM all weekend!

Expect a loot post people!

In the meantime, feel free to check out my Pinterest, I find and save plenty of really cool projects, some of which I'll never get round to making but love the idea of, so if you're crafty like me, it might be a great spot to find some inspiration for your next make!

Until next time!

Prizes Fit For Princesses

This week was a much better week for Wonder Woman. The folks at Darkside for Free Comic Book Day loved her, so she should go down well at MCM in a couple of weeks!

So we're starting today on a happy note, and I have been very busy. I've finished off the Ariel hoop for my "I'd Rather Be A Mermaid" giveaway. The finished piece and my beautiful winner can be seen below!

I also got the Wonder Woman hoop done for my "Fight Like A Girl" giveaway, which can be viewed with my wonderful winner below!

I am definitely going to be making more projects in this style (once I've got some more embroidery hoops) because not only were they fantastic fun to make but I think they look really great.

That's not all I've been up to though... After all, I'm Always crafting. Heh. Heheh.

This post is getting pretty pic heavy so I'll try to keep the last few bits short and sweet, I just wanted the above image to be viewed at a decent size because I think it's really beautiful. I'm still making my flat seem more like home, tweeking here and there and the bedroom is the feminine space since the living room is more masculine because that's where the boy spends most of his time. So I'll be moving the two Halo canvas prints from the bedroom into the living room. Which means I'll have nothing on the walls in the bedroom apart from the shelves and memo board (that's an old one!) around my dressing table. Dun dun DUNNNN. The above was my solution, subtly geeky, romantic quotes to hang on the wall in pastel colours. The boy even got to choose the frames we'll be using. This is one of two that I have planned. The second will be "You love me, real or not real? Real." from Hunger Games because I cried literally buckets. That one will have a Mockingjay on it in place of the doe.

I also just realised that I never posted the finished Sailor Moon compact embroidery hoops or the finished badger birthday postcards on this blog! Shock horror! So here they are to finish off this week's entry with a much more confident Wondy! (Judy Hopps cosplay by Lunaris Cosplay.)

Have a great week guys, you have my sister's birthday present and some other small bits and pieces to look forward to next week that I'm unable to post yet because I want the recipients to see them first but I'm sure I'll be feeling crafty between now and next Sunday too. If you're interested in sneak peeks and more frequent updates check out my Facebook or my brand new Instagram and recently renewed Twitter pages. I'm getting super good at this whole social media thing! I'll try not to be so image heavy next week too.

Until next time!

B+

Today we're doing something a little bit different because yesterday I did something that is incredibly hard for me to do due to confidence and anxiety issues and because of what I encountered while I was doing it.

As you'll all know from my last post, I wore my newly made Wonder Woman costume around Chelmsford Town Centre yesterday to promote Free Comic Book Day at Dark Side Comics and my own Facebook page's giveaway so I could help out a friend and try and gain enough followers to set up my Etsy properly. I had business cards printed up for it and everything and I was so excited!

I have serious confidence issues and insecurities though and I've only recently learned how to cope with my anxieties, so wearing a skimpy cosplay in public was terrifying to me. As much as I thought it looked great and my friends agreed, I knew from past experience, from growing up being told by my peers that I was fat and disgusting, that there would be a lot of negative comments.

I went anyway.

Some comments made were nice, some people liked seeing their classic heroine out in town, some wanted selfies and were interested in Beckit's Boutique as well as Dark Side.

But they were few and far between. And though most comments and sniggers were quiet, I heard them. I've spent my entire life overhearing them because my ears are now acutely attuned to pick up certain words, phrases and sounds. Some weren't even quiet. And for the uptight, bigoted lady that felt the need to yell "Excuse me, there are small children around!" at me, I have a special question for you; For a start, there are no small children with you, so how does this affect you? Secondly, I was wearing a lot more than a bikini, what do you do with your non-existant children when you go to the beach, bury their heads in the sand?

The rest of you, I'm used to it, so I can take a few emotional blows as long as I have someone with me, which thankfully I did, but well done for crushing my spirit a little bit and sending me fleeing back to the shop feeling awful and ridiculous. You're so hard.

I write all this because it's important that people are aware that not everyone will defend you, or comfort you when horrible things are said about something you've put a lot of time and effort into. And I'm not just talking about my cosplay. I run at least 5k at least three times a week to keep fit. I'm currently in the process of losing weight and trying to make myself more confident. This is a long, tiring process that takes a lot of hard work and dedication. I have run four virtual races of varying lengths for charity so far this year and just signed up for four more virtuals and a live race in the next few months, one of which is a half marathon, which I intend to run the entirety of.

I have worked tirelessly to improve myself and feel better in the skin I'm in and you all shot me down! Well done. Very impressive. Your parents must all be so proud.

But this post is B+.

Be. Positive.

And it's about to really B+!

I didn't know this girl. At all. Never met her in my life. I don't even recall passing her yesterday as there were so many people. But she is my Wonder Woman.

As soon as I'd got back to the shop, I'd rushed into the bathroom to change and was nearly in tears because I felt so awful about some of the things said about me.

Meanwhile, this beautiful human being took to Facebook (guessing my dress size perfectly I might add) in the hopes this message would get to me. Another friend of Dark Side's owner saw it and automatically connected the two events. I saw it the moment I got out of the bathroom and immediately welled up again.

A perfect stranger had come to my rescue when I needed it and as soon as this post started getting shared, comments came flooding in.

(Gotta love my mum for not taking the route of "well you can't go around dressed like that" as most parents would.)

As did the private messages from both friends and family who understood how difficult something like that had been for me to do and that I'd done it because I will do anything to help a friend and because I like to make other people happy. I would be happy if I saw my favourite super hero in town!

(This isn't all of them by the way, there were far too many to keep screenshotting and censoring, I'd have been here all night.)

And suddenly everything was brighter, everything was better, because although some people put me down, there were so many more right there to pick me back up.

So I've gone from cowering by a toilet, hating myself and vowing to never wear a skimpy cosplay again, to being unimaginably excited to wear it at comic con in a few weeks. There will be like-minded people there who would love to meet Wonder Woman and I can't wait to meet them!

So whenever something seems awful. Please, be positive because there may just be a perfect stranger out there who thinks you're amazing! I know I do!

Until next time!