Y'all. I had this great colourful picture from one of the Con merch shops of the Chessex dice table - which I spent most of my shopping at - and I deleted it before I downloaded the dang thing. So the only picture I have from my shopping is this glared out one - but where can you buy art AND a kilt all in the same place. And not just any ole kilt but a utilikilt for the man on the go.

This is going to be a short post as I spent all of last night downloading these Dragon Con parade picks to Flickr whilst watching Project Runway not once but twice and I still have no idea what happened other than Dimtri didn't get kicked auf and that makes me a happy girl.

So ifin' you want to go and see some fabu costumes click here - and don't miss img_1526 because that boy sure was purty. Seriously. Pur-tay!

Peace out,
Ames

on Friday, September 07, 2012 1 comments

Labels: Dragon Con 2012 Parade Pics

on Thursday, September 06, 2012 0 comments

Labels: Dragon Con 2012, Georgia Aquarium

Y'all. Buttercup who is a seasoned DragonCon attendee warned me that there would be people at Con who would/might pick apart my costume. That this or that might not be authentic etc. And when I sat in on the Brit Costume Pagaent there was mention of a guy who couldn't find the exact Matt Smith Doctor Who shirt - so he stitched the pinstripes by hand. And another guy has been working with a taylor for over a year on Tennant's Who costume - the brown suit with blue stripes - matching each little stripe up exactly to pictures of Tennant's costume. I thought - boy these people sure are a bit anal about their costumes.

So here is the picture I used as my guide for my Dolores Umbridge costume.
And here is my end result which I was very happy with. It doesn't match perfectly by any means - but it was close enough and everyone that saw me at Con and prior to Con said it was great. So I decided to enter the Young Lit Costume contest and that is where I became one of those people.

Now during all of Con walking around in costume I had not seen another Dolores. I heard rumour there was one but at the contest there were three of us! Three. One gal did a spot on job and I loved her costume simply because she found the beautiful pink/brown houndstooth fabric and she sewed her entire costume.

Then the other Dolores - well - I wasn't too fond of her costume at all. It didn't help that she won honorable mention for accessorizing at the contest and me? Nada. Zip. Nothing. The problem I had was the other Dolores was covered in flowers. Flowers my friends! Her hat? Flowers. Her purse? Flowers. Her shoes? Ballerina slippers with flowers on them. Her jacket? Flowers! I suppose the judges never read or saw the Harry Potter books/movies because I don't recall Dolores ever wearing flowers. I likened it to Darth Vader wearing flowers. It just ain't right. I did find a picture of the flowery Dolores but I didn't want to post it as to twerk her off. This post is enough! lol

While I was disappointed I didn't win anything - Tobey was pretty upset as well. But the most important part was that I had a blast wearing that costume. Because we entered the costume contest we received wrist bands to enter the Yule Ball early. Chewie got sick and he and Peanut didn't attend and Tobey was at a panel. So I was left to my own devices and went into the character as best I could.

I walked around separating 'students' that were dancing too close. My favorite line was to tell the students, "No, no no! No booootay dancing!" Which usually ended up with the kids asking me how they should dance and I would do my best Carlton for them and reminding them that dance was more of an attitude then anything else.

One of the other contestants who went as one of the Weasley twins asked if they could borrow my hat at the ball. So later on I let my hat be borrowed and when the twin came to return it I played along chasing Fred or George around the dance floor yelling, "Weasley, give me my hat! My hat! My hat!" - someone took some video of that bit and I expect it to be up on youtube one day. God help me.

I also reported to several Dumbledore's at the Ball about all the shenanigans going on on the dance floor and every cute guy I saw I approached them and said I saw them eyeballing all of me and I was sorry I couldn't dance with them because I was chaperoning. Personally I think I made a fabulous Dolores even if I didn't get any honorable mentions at the Ball about my costume.

Oh. And I did do the bump with a Tom Baker Doctor Who!

Flowers. Eh gads.

~ame

on Wednesday, September 05, 2012 3 comments

Labels: DragonCon

Y'all. There are moments in your life you will treasure forever. The birth of your children. Your wedding. Meeting the prop master from Doctor Who Nick Robatto. For those of you who aren't Doctor Who fans you may want to skip this post...there will be a lot of squeeeing on my part.

On Saturday I sat in on a panel about Brit Costuming. Yes, I dressed as my version of Harry Potter's Dolores Umbridge. On the panel was Nick and he discussed how Matt Smith broke the 11th Doctor's sonic screwdriver only moments after Nick delivered it to the set. He also showed off some of his other creations and mentioned that he had a shop set up in the merchandise rooms.

The panel was set to show off your costume you created or bought. The room was packed and hosts called out people from the audience to come up front and discuss their costumes. The room was filled with Doctor Who characters and I was certain I would not get selected. But. I was!

So I described what I did to make my costume, my hat (which was one of Tobey's baseball caps that I ripped apart and embellished and my wand that I made from a piece of paper and 4 sticks of hot glue. A special thanks to Peanut who sent me a uTube link on the how to - sorry I can't find the link at the moment - Google it :)

Anyways. My wand got passed around the panel and to some of the audience members and everyone oohhhed and awwwed over it. After the panel was over I had several picture requests and got several comments from folks about how funny and great my presentation was. I tried to get to the front to see Nick and his toys but it was too crowded so I left. And I went to the merch shops to look for Nick's shop - come to find out I had walked past it about 4 millions times and never noticed it before.

One of the items Nick mentioned in the panel was a watch he made based on the Vortex Manipulator design. And he had them in his shop. For $119. *gulp* I thought "when am I going to get a chance like this again?" - so I bought one and it is the coolest thing ever. Ever! Oh, did I mention that Nick was back at his shop? Well he was. He came up for a chat while I was picking out my watch and asked to see my wand because he didn't get a chance to see it at the panel. So the prop master from Doctor Who checked out my wand and he had nothing but praise for it *squeeee*



He gave my watch a once over before it was to be packaged up and wouldn't you know it the thing had a 'dodgey rivet' and would I mind if he fixed it? Um. THE prop master from Doctor Who wants to fix my watch! Sure - go ahead - take your time Mr. Prop Master from Doctor Who!


So here he is fixing that blasted dodgey rivet. When I took the pic he asked if his eyes came out red - it must be a problem for him! About 15 minutes later he had the rivet problem solved and brought the watch back to the counter. He showed me how it worked I inquired if it had a instruction booklet and he said yes. Then. Then he asked if I would like him to set it for me. Um. THE prop master from Doctor Who wants to set my watch! Sure!! He pulls out his iphone and sets my watch to his time and I asked if I could get a picture with him and he obliged.

And here we are. Me and Nick Robatto. I told him he made my Con and he blushed and I was all fan girl about the whole situation. I am nothing but cool under pressure wearing a wool suit in 90 degree weather.


And finally I was able to get out of my costume and Tobey snapped this picture of me, a hot sweaty mess, with my new Vortex Manipulator Watch. And let me tell you friends - it is the coolest thing on the planet. When I showed it to my brother Matt Damon yesterday he said you had to have a math degree to be able to tell the time. I'll try and snap a pic of the thing all lit up - that is once I get unpacked (almost done) and I have all the laundry washed (almost done) and I rest up a bit (will need weeks to recover).

Oh and here is the link to Nick's store - from there you can also get to his Etsy store:
Rubbertoe Rayguns

~ame

on Tuesday, September 04, 2012 2 comments

Wednesday after work we headed for the bright lights and big city of Atlanta for the much anticipated Dragon Con 2012. We stopped in Valdosta at the midway point in our drive and continued on to our destination this morning.

So without further adieu (because I am wiped out) here are some random pics of our day:

The view from the hotel's pool.

Tobey cooling off after a dip in the spa.

The kids at the World of Coke - where they sampled all 60 flavored sodas from around the world. Whatever you do - don't try the Beverly from Italy. Battery. Acid. Blech!

The kids with the Coca Cola polar bear.

In Centennial Park.
The warnings for the pool/spa. I ignored them!

When we arrived the line outside the hotel was minimal. We got in line and security told us to skip the line and head inside because Jamie was in a wheelchair. We decided not to skip the line since it was so short. We had arrived a few minutes after 11 a.m. and it took about 30 minutes for us to get our badges. Chewie and Peanut went into the Disabled Services line and only waited about 10 minutes. Yehaw. Peanut was given a handout about not to expect preferential treatment because she is in a wheelchair. And that if anyone is rude to her about getting special setting etc - to ignore them. *ahem*

After we were all badged up the kids and I decided to visit the merchandise store which consisted of a window that sold lanyards, t-shirts, magnets and the like. We waited in line for about an hour and had moved about 15 feet and still were a good hour or two away from the window. I personally couldn't understand what was taking so long as they had four cashiers. Really how long does it take to pick out a t-shirt.

Once we made the final turn one of the Con reps told us to head to the front of the line and to see a specific cashier - because Peanut was in a wheelchair. So we did. And oh my holy hell.

We were called to the front and a woman in line began to complain loudly about us cutting in line and how she had been in line for an hour etc. I quickly grabbed the four lanyards we needed for our badges and looked at the woman and pointed to Peanut. Which apparently didn't impress her much.

I paid and told the kids to leave. One of the Con reps told me to ignore the complaining lady. As you can imagine....I did just the opposite. I hoped I was out of earshot of Peanut and after my purchase walked to this 'woman' and told her that I really appreciated how she treated my daughter who has spina bifida. Can you believe this cow replied with, "You could have waited in line!" I advised her that we had waited in line for an hour and that we were told to go to the front of the line. She said, "that's fine - but you could have waited in line!" So yeah. I followed the Wheelchair Guidelines and didn't call her a few choice names.

And we get outside and Peanut started to cry saying that in the six years she has been wheelchair bound she has never had anyone treat her that way. Which made me want to find that woman and give her a few more pieces of my mind.

Later on in the afternoon we had to skip through a business building in search of an elevator and can you believe the security lady there let us in and was very nice. And we all thanked her for being so nice. Which seems to be lacking thus far on this trip.

But onwards. We closed our day with dinner at Johnny Rockets and some time in the pool and spa. I'm totally beat and we get to get up early again tomorrow. Did I mention I was up at 5 a.m. this morning? ;)

I'll post more tomorrow and I can't wait for you to see our costumes!

~ame

on Thursday, August 30, 2012 3 comments

Labels: Dragon Con 2012

So the blog police called and wanted to know what was up. I think I have set a personal record of not blogging - and that wasn't my intention. It was a little chaotic here for a while and now it is blissfully quiet...

on Monday, July 02, 2012 3 comments

Labels: Life