A new steampunk tattoo

My cousin Dylan came for another visit. This means I had to partake of his services as an amazing tattoo artist. I am so glad I did because he went above and beyond what I expected. I asked him to do This Design for my tattoo. He asked me if he could tweak it just a tiny tiny bit. I said sure, why not. I trust him since I know he is an amazing artist with or without a tattoo gun. Without further adeiu or however it's spelt...

He went above and beyond what I had expected from him. It will look better once the smudged ink washes off. I told him to forget me giving him things I want done, he can just design all my steampunk tattoos now. You're the best Dylan, One Love.

I got a tattoo

Let me first explain. I had a tattoo before, still have it. However, it was made with a homemade tattoo gun made from a pen with a needle and a tiny motor from something or other. It hurt like hell and I sat on frozen bags of peas to numb my ass for it. Yes, it's a star on my ass and it hurt really bad. I'm a real wimp when it comes to pain... You'd think after having 4 kids, I'd be a bit stronger.

Now, after 18 years, I've did it. I got a real tattoo by a real tattoo artist. I thought it would have hurt as much as the first one but it didn't. The only time it hurt enough to make me grind my teeth together and grab the chair's Oh Shit Bar was when he was doing the tiny details near a spot he'd done before. I found the design using Google Images and it was from someone on Deviantart.net. I was going to have it colored but I think it looks really nice the way it is.

Hope you all had a wonderful holiday.

I certainly did. Hubby got me zombie books, video games and some movies. He knows me so well, he even gave me the gift of cleaning the kitchen after our Christmas dinner. Do you know how long it's been since I didn't have to do those dishes? The oldest two girls got their netbooks, the younger two got everything they wanted.

New Years was wonderful as well, the hubby got it off so we could be together. In the 10 years we've been together, we've had 2 and a half New Years together. He even bought me a bottle of something I've been wanting to try for years, Absinthe. OMG is that shit ever strong.

I'm getting a lot of hassle from friends and family about my 8yr old. Yesterday, my husband gave her the hair cut she's been bugging me for since November. Personally, I think she looks cute with it and it is only hair. Better to have her experiment with her hair and washable tattoos than drugs and sex. And if you don't think it's possible, you should hear some of the young boys around her age. Anyways, here's her new hair.

The bustle is still not turning out the way I wanted it to. I had thought about purchasing a bustle sewing pattern and then work out the measurements from there but bleh, too much effort. I know, so is using my own body measurements since I have to stop randomly and check against my body if it's going to work. My thoughts are that I just didn't plan it out properly. I have a bad habit of that, get an idea and just jump right in without thinking it through and planning out the steps.

I thought this would be a good project for when I needed a break here and there between editing the CZMA. That in itself is a hard task. I want to add to it but I don't want to add anything that would kill the interest of the readers. I want to take away some stuff but that would result in me having to pick and choose what I should get rid of and to be honest, this is one of the few stories I've written and then gone back to read where I haven't just hit the delete button on the whole thing. And I've already cut out a whole lot of crap from it. It was 50104 words, now it's hovering just over 23000. That's more then half but it was honest crap I removed. I wasn't going to turn into an Anne Rice and spend pages describing the intricate details of tables and doors and walls and all sorts of boring crap. No offense to Anne Rice, she's a really good writer but tends to go a little heavy on the details that have no bearing on the stories in her vampire books. I prefer her non vampire books, they don't take a whole chapter just to describe a door and have more interesting storylines if you ask me.

Okay, I'm not sure how talking about crochet frustrations turned into my writing frustrations but that's the way my mind works. I have a childless weekend so perhaps I should get back to both my projects. It doesn't help that I also have to finish a hat I'm being paid to make as a christmas gift.

*air smooches*

Hustle a bustle and you get a sad face.

So the crochet bustle idea is not working out as well as I thought it would. Now I have to frog it like crazy and rethink how I am going to do this. So many stitches now have to be torn out, the ball rewound and the project restarted. I think instead of going from the top and working my way down, I'll work it from side to side and use either buttons, a drawstring or an elastic band to close it at the top. My thinking is for the elastic band although the drawstring will mean I can wear it still even after I finish losing the weight I've been getting rid of. If this reworking doesn't work, I will probably go with the petticoat idea I've been toying around with. I dunno why but I have a thing for ankle length skirts, lace and frills.

*air smooches*

Back to designing...

If I've not mentioned it before, on this blog at least, I have plans to design an entire Steampunk costume done in nothing but crochet. This is a big project for me since a) I'm new to designing my own crochet designs, b) I've only written one pattern before and that was for my first pair of leggings, and c) I'm not allowed to go yarn shopping until the yarn I have is nearly completely used up.

I have an image of what I want this outfit to look like. It's beautiful, it's full of lace and ruffles and it features a lot of my favorite colour, purple. So why am I so nervous about doing all this? Because I tried to draw the finished outfit on paper and it looks like shit. That's because I'm a horrible artist. Even my stick figures look terrible. On the plus side, I'm a very stubborn lady so I will have this made. I will make this, I will wear this, I will look fabulous.

So tonight, even though it is 10PM as I write this now, I am plotting the first piece. While I know the smart thing would be to start from the inside out, I figure I'll save the bloomers for when I'm feeling confident enough to tackle bloomers. Since I've already got the leggings, I think I can skip the undergarment for now and head straight to the next layer. I'm going to start with a laced bustle. This seems like a very simple place to start and after looking at thousands of pictures of Victorian Bustles, I believe I can make one. I know, I could quickly sew one up but a) I need to use up as much of my yarn as possible with this outfit and b) I like the challenge.

So wish me luck darlings. I might post the pattern. I haven't decided yet, we'll see how it turns out and how generous I'm feeling.

*air smooches*

I did it!

I made it through NaNoWriMo in one piece although my brain feels like mush. I finished it yesterday with a word count of 50104 and man, does it need a lot of editing. I actually managed to read through the whole thing yesterday without deleting it after I put it into the word counter. It will take me a while to polish it all up nicely but once that's done, I think I will be ready to send it out and attempt to get it published. Wish me luck on that front. I did try to put some steampunk into it but I don't think it really works, I'll know more if I can after the editing.

This means I can get back to everything else I had planned. Blogging, crocheting and attempting to design an entire crocheted steampunk outfit.

Ta ta darlings *air smooches*