The hot days seem to drag on. The Rally is here and, with it, the incessant sounds of sirens and motorcycles.
I cannot seem to concentrate much, but I’ll be darned if I can’t relax by diving into a new book.
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August 2nd
Everyone said the world stopped.
COVID-19 pulled everything to a screeching halt.
Even major sports were halted.
As this drags on longer and longer, I see more and more people beginning to fall into the trap of negativity. It feels like that is the only way to accept life as it has now become. It is tempting to become bitter and resentful. It seems easy to give in.
The world has not stopped. Humanity is still here, breathing, beating, singing, inventing.
Great things have happened this year! World-shaking movements has started, we have discovered a little bit more about our healthcare system (Americans, that is)… I could go on.
It probably isn’t a message anyone wants to read from someone who has not lost their job or seemingly had any difficulty due to any of the crises that have impacted the world.
We have all suffered through this. Mentally, physically, emotionally, financially. Some of us have lost people close to us and been unable to attend funerals or even have access to counseling.
There is another side to this.
We just have to have hope.
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August 1st
August rain: the best of the summer gone, and the new fall not yet born. The odd uneven time.
Sylvia Plath
August is not the beginning of autumn. Though, I wish it was. Autumn is such a bittersweet time of the year: change.
Change is hard. Change can be scary and intense.
The nostalgia of fall imbues me with *chefs kiss.* Tea and hikes and vampires and period dramas and Halloween.
I have never felt that the harsh, bitterness of the colder months was exaggerated in media. Young Adult novels and films always make it seem so cruel.
I always see the colder months as this beautiful thing, something unattainable. We are always in flux, in change, with this world. Nothing is meant to last. Every day is a blessing.
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A Semblance of a Routine
In my twelve years blogging, I have had the most difficult time keeping myself on a specific theme or routine since leaving high school. Now that I find myself in a position where I need to create an adult (ie: responsible) routine, I must put into action my routine before the change happens.
I got myself a new position at my job that does not require split shifts (late nights/early mornings) or weekends or holidays. A solid, Monday through Friday, 8-4. That is my new life.
The first few weeks are going to be difficult. I will still have my 6AM shift.
My new routine will be more demanding of me: mornings are for meditation and writing, evenings are for the gym and time with my boi. Weekends… oof. I do not yet know what/when/why/where I can or even will start my YouTube again. Ideally, I would like to reserve weekends for youtube and cosplay, but I will take it one step at a time until I am able to find a routine that works best with me.
With Birds of Prey coming out tomorrow, I thought I would compile the research I have done on the outfits we have seen so far!
Harley Quinn has been an audience favorite since her debut in the beloved 1990s show Batman: The Animated Series. She was voiced by Arleen Sorkin – whose jester outfit on Days of Our Lives inspired the writer’s of the kids show.
Harley was created specifically to make the Joker more human – to tone him down. Unfortunately, in comics, she just serves as a toy for the Joker to torture.
Birds of Prey: And the Fantabulous Emancipation of Harley Quinn serves as the breaking free of a tortured and abused woman. Harley Quinn is coming into her own.
Maybe she will end up going back to the Joker, but this message is such an important one. No matter what you think of yourself, you are worth more than the abuse.
Anyway! The outfit above is the one I am going to give you guys links to!
I get no profit from this, but if you would like to support more projects like this please donate a coffee on my Ko-Fi.
There are a lot of others out there, but most have really poor reviews (especially the Hot Topic socks). The screen accurate (abbrev. SA) shoes are mucho expensive: $220.
HerUniverse has a good track record for recreating SA clothing. This is their Jacket. Most cosplayers I have seen are wearing this one, though their are many, many SA jackets on Etsy (They get up into $200+).
One of the hardest things to find was the bodysuit/swimsuit/thingy. There seemed to be very little reference photos until this last trailer a few weeks ago. I think we will see 
more pop up on the internet later in the year, but the only one I have been able to find is the one from Spencer’s. It has some good reviews on Instagram – not on their website, though.
They are passably SA. The color and texture seem to be close, but until we see more pics (or the movie) we are going to have to take their word for it *sob*.
The shorts…oof. Guys, I have been so frustrated trying to find SOMETHING that is close 
enough, but also fits right. Most of the cheaper ones available online have sizing that are way off (according to reviews). And, as always, I like to support small businesses (within $$ reason because IM BROKE).
I found MarinaQuinzel’s shorts/profile through a promo on instagram and was so floored by the quality I just HAD to buy them.
Due to moving, I was not able to have the items shipped to my apartment. I made a bulk (eesh) order for other costume stuff and had it sent to my parents and will not be able to get it for another month. SAD DAYYYYYYY
Hope this was helpful in some way!
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I Need an Adult
Hello, friends and fronds!!!
Apparently, I cannot stick to a schedule to save my life, but here we go! Next video is scheduled to be published on the 15th!
I apologize for the weird lighting, here! The autofocus on my phone does not like my ring light and I SUPPOSE I should be smart enough to figure out how to fix it lol.
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Stories That Deserve Big Screen Adaptations
Have you ever read a book and thought “this would make a great film?”
I do this quite often.
- Nick of Time
- The Night Circus
- Delilah Dirk
- Tokyo Ghost
- The Marauders (Harry Potter Universe)
- Half Magic
- Hellsing Ultimate
- Any number of Star Wars stories
- There are so many good Star Wars stories that are “no longer CANON” – according to Disney, anyway. I look at the stories of Darth Bane and Revan as well as countless NON-FORCE-USING character stories and they are SO COOL.
~thoughts from my computer
Unfortunately, YouTube was a bit glitchy and I uploaded an old cosplay photo for the cover *facepalm. But, here is my channel placeholder!
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YouTube Channel Plans
It’s so hard to share just the link to my YouTube Channel…. BUT! It is “KayKosplay” and the first two videos will be uploaded on the 15th of January!!
“For I am the daughter of Elrond. I shall not go with him when he departs to the
Havens: for mine is the choice of Luthien, and as she so have I chosen, both the sweet and the bitter…. It is mine to give to whom I will, like my heart.”
I was raised in one of those unique homes where my mother is a traditionalist Christian and my father with a much more modern view of the world. Mom (and her parents) gave us religious foundation and Dad impressed upon us the strength of women in both history and nerd culture. (TBH, I was always drawn to that one warrior priestess, Deborah from the Book of Judges – went to a church halloween function dressed as her!)
As you can imagine, it made for some very interesting conversations.
Growing up with: Star Wars vs Star Trek, Alien, tales of famous female pilots, Wonder Woman, etc. made me want to be a boss lady. Tough, unbreakable, invulnerable. As soon as I heard, “What’s this? A Ranger caught off his guard?”
I immediately fell in love with both Arwen and Aragorn. I fell in love with their story. They were vulnerable, sweet. Their love did not make them weak… it made them stronger. Arwen may not have been a fighter, but she provided Aragorn with what he needed to defeat evil.
I was 11 when I was introduced to Lord of the Rings. It set me on my first steps to loving fantasy (having previously been only sci-fi obsessed).
My parents thought I was not going to like LOTR because there was only one warrior female. Ooooooh… how wrong they were. I came home from a sleepover where we had watched the first part of The Fellowship wanting to read all the books. My mother pulled out her hardbacks from the late 1960s and introduced me to The Hobbit.
Even though I have been cosplaying since 2011 (I am sure closet cosplay counts), cosplaying Arwen seemed a bit out of my reach. My Galadriel cosplay was made out of a 50 cent wedding dress and a $20 wig. I also had no desire to cosplay her without an Aragorn.
Fast forward to two years ago (2017) I met an amazing man. Without gushing too much about him, I will say that he inspires me every day to be better than I was the day before – while still loving each other for who we are. Our first date was a masquerade ball where we dressed up as Steampunk versions of our favorite XMen characters (Wolverine and Jubilation Lee). A month or so later, he asked me if I would be his girlfriend and set up another date to a costume event. During our conversation, Mat asked me what my dream couple cosplay was.
I am certain that you all know how I answered. We settled on the Requiem Dress and “Visit from Elrond” outfit for Mat. (I will make a compendium of outfits for Aragorn sometime in the near future.
He bought me the pattern and began working on his Return of the King version of Aragorn. As you can see, our 30-day project looked nice but lacked in accuracy.
We have off-and-on worked on these outfits and, as it is our 2nd anniversary, are beginning to upgrade these costumes.
As I am rebranding my cosplay accounts into more fantasy related, I decided it was time to achieve what I had only dreamed of: replicating all of my favorite Arwen dresses (even those that did not make it into the final cut of the film).
So, you get to watch my mental breakdown as I make a comprehensive post of the costumes, hairstyles, links, etc. of two of Arwen’s dresses. I am exhausted already. These are two I am in either the process of making or commisioning.
Flight to the Ford Coat/Dress
Ah, yes, the outfit that started it all!
The scene begins with: What’s this? A Ranger Caught off his guard? And ends with Arwen clutching a dying Frodo in her arms.
There are three dresses present in this scene. One, the grey coat; and two white dresses (Frodo, passing on to Shadow, sees her as she is Across the Water – her angelic form). The second white dress was used in reshoots and the differences between the two white ones is small, but noticeable to the trained eyes (which is not mine – I found a youtube video that used stills from the movies)
While researching the cloak for the Requiem Dress, I stumbled across Brielle’s Costumes and her massive Arwen collection!
She has made nearly every Arwen dress, I believe. I reached out to her about the Helm’s Deep Battle Dress (which Mat ended up wanting to do Strider instead of Helm’s Deep Aragorn *facepalm.* And she was such a gem about switching my order to the Flight to the Ford!
The outfit consists of a grey coat, grey leggings, tall grey boots, her sword, and the brooch!
The wig was a pain to find, but what I found works fairly well. I found a long, curly natural black wig and styled it using this tutorial:
Arwen’s hair changes color depending on the light, making it difficult to pin down exactly what color it is. I used the book as a reference:
Requiem Dress
As the first outfit I have made for her, I can say: the pattern is really nice, but inaccurate! My mom and I had to modify it significantly to get somewhat close to the movie. It still required a lot of modifications after the fact.
This is, by far, my favorite scene of Arwen’s. Her love, her Foresight, drawing her back to the man she loves – to the future she knows will come to pass.
The struggle I have with this dress isn’t the beading or the neckline – it is the COLOR. I swear, they used filters or even multiple dresses because the color of the velvet changes so much from shot to shot.
Navy blue (which is what I used) is not the correct color, but it is what I had to work with. Someday, I will upgrade to a screen accurate blue, but I am more concerned with the cloak and the beading… and the sleeves at this point in time.
The Traveling Cloak is a bit out of my comfort zone besides the beading. I have found ONE person who makes the cloak and have plans for purchasing it at a later date.
I lack the skill to both find the correct color of velvet and to figure out what the heck is up with that hood.
The brooch is a beautiful butterfly that is very similar to one she wears in her hair with several other dresses in addition to the one used as a clasp in her “Flight to the Ford” outfit.
I will be taking some Swarofski crystals to sew into the cloak once I receive it!
I would like to take a second to talk about her hair in this scene. The most accurate wig i have found is Arda’s “Arwen.” Now, Liv Tyler’s hair in the film was a wig, but I’m sure that no cosplayer has $2000 to spend on one wig.
Arda Wigs are good wigs, but lack a natural look to them. However, for this dress (and those where her hair looks like this) it is the best and cheapest wig I have found.
I hope this helps in some way!
Caffeine and Other Vices 