A Quick, Casual "Black Widow" Cosplay

So, of course you remember what I said in my previous post, that I was cooking up another cosplay, and that it had to do with the new "Captain America: The Winter Soldier" movie that releases next Friday. ;)

Welp, it's time to get into all the details! :D

Sooooo after finally seeing the first Captain America movie about a month ago, and Steve immediately becoming my new favorite superhero ^_^, I became totally psyched for The Winter Soldier (which, did I mention, COMES OUT NEXT FRIDAY EEEPPPP) aaaaand, of course, I wanted to make some sort of costume for when I go see it. ;D (I'm not planning on doing the midnight premiere, but hopefully the day of at least. ;))

So. The wheels began turning, and my first thought was to create a "feminine" Captain America costume (I was extremely inspired by this photoshop creation. Because tell me that is not awesome?) However, I decided against that idea after about two days, because 1) I knew the project would be extremely difficult and I didn't even have a game plan yet, and 2) I would have only had three weeks to make said project. (Someday, ya'll, someday...)

UPDATE FROM THE FUTURE: Well, a feminine version of Captain America did happen, one year later. :D

So, like I said, that idea was scrapped. But I still obviously wanted to do some sort of costume. ;)

Enter this picture (of Natasha Romanoff aka Black Widow): (also this and this)

(This is, from what I've gathered, the outfit she wears during the final fight scene.)

Aaaaand I thought to myself, "Dude. You could totally recreate that outfit."

I immediately begin scrounging around through my closet and dresser drawers. Then, after finding all the necessary pieces, I try the outfit on all together -- and realize it's actually pretty decent.

Bonus: My cat, Fluffy, wouldn't move. xD

Casual cosplays for the win, right?? ;D The only thing is... I don't have red hair. And I'm too cheap to buy a wig and too chicken to try temporary hair dye. Oh well. xD So anyways, here's a quick breakdown of the outfit:

Shirt - Simple, black, short sleeved shirt. I'm pretty sure the original costume's is a cami, but I don't do spaghetti straps, and I wanted to be able to take off the jacket if need be.

Jacket - (Hehe, recognise this maybe? ;D) Brown, fitted leather jacket. No, it doesn't have all the buckles and straps that hers has, but it works. ;)

Pants - Dark wash, stretch skinny jeans.

Shoes - Slight deviation here. I'm using black, suede boots with a chunky heel. The original uses dark brown suede boots with a chunky heel. Hey, you work with what you have. ;)

So yes. That is my casual Black Widow in "Captain America: The Winter Soldier" costume! ;D

And how 'bout ya'll? Any one else excited for The Winter Soldier?? :D

A Few Recent Projects [of varying forms]

Ok. This blog post has been a draft for almost two weeks now, and now I'm finally sitting down to make myself finish it. xD I promise I'll try not to take so long between posts in the future -- but, as I'm sure you're well aware, life happens. ;)

So anyway... It's been going well in my corner of the world. Last week was spring break, which was lovely and very relaxing, with friend get-togethers, silly games of "this or that" with my sisters, and, of course, a few projects, which I'm going to share with ya'll in this post! :D

Also during the week, Spring had begun to creep in with all it's glories: warm sunshine, green foliage, and cool breezes.

But now, school and the winter weather have returned... *sigh.* Well, life goes on, and the wait for spring continues. It'll be here soon. (:

So, about those projects I mentioned...

The first is this leather jacket that I thrifted for 2 bucks. It is seriously awesome... BUT it's a women's size medium, and I wear an extra small/small, so some alterations were necessary.

Before...

After!

It was a pretty simple fix, it just took a bit of time to complete. I just had to take in the sleeves and sides a bit (ok, alot xD). Bonus: it's now perfect for my next little cosplay project... more news concerning that in a later post! No, I won't take two weeks this time... xD

One other really simple alteration project I had was a maxi skirt from Goody's -- for $6! Hooray for clearance and coupons, right?! The skirt was a small, but the waist band was rather large on me and stretched out a little (hence the clearance). But it wasn't anything a simple seam couldn't fix -- and it was six stinkin' bucks! I just couldn't refuse. ;)

The last one I want to share with ya'll was something I whipped up on a lazy afternoon, when I was in desperate -- yes, desperate -- need of a project.

It's made of cardboard (lols xD), black satin, cream chiffon, vinyl stick-on letters, and some silver trim left over from my Arwen costume from a couple years ago. I basically just made it up as I went... because you know that's how I roll. ;)

And, in case any one didn't know, that's a quote by Aragorn from LOTR. ;)

Oh, and that cosplay project I mentioned? Yeah, I'm pretty excited about it. You'll hear more soon.

Here's a hint. ;)

Almond Flour [Edible] Raw Cookie Dough

Who doesn't like eating cookie dough?

Everyone -- DUH. Including people like moi who follow the Paleo diet, and who can't eat flour or sugar or anything like that. ;)

Ingredients -- ASSEMBLE.

Of course there's the problem of raw eggs and all that... But what if I told you, you could eat raw cookie dough without any risks?

*The internet collectively gasps.*

Mix together dry ingredients...

Yes, yes, now we can! Thanks to a little recipe I cooked up, us paleo peeps can now eat raw cookie dough to our hearts content! ;)

This recipe is for a single serving, so you can just whip up a batch any time you get a craving, and not have any tempting left-overs to make you over-do it. Which I know I would do, that's why it's a single serving... ;D

Add wet ingredients...

It's based on this recipe that I posted a while back, for SCD butter-pecan cookies. (Which are amazing as well, btw. :D)

Almond Flour [Edible] Raw Cookie Dough
SCD, Paleo, GAPS, Gluten-free, Etc.

Ingredients:
- 1/4 cup almond flour
- 1/8 tsp ground cinnamon
- tiniest bit of salt, about 10 granules
- little bit of vanilla extract
- 1/2 tbl salted butter OR coconut oil (add a bit more salt if using oil)
- 3/4 (or more) tbl honey

Directions:
1. Add almond flour, cinnamon, and salt in a small bowl and stir together.
2. Add vanilla extract and honey.
3. Cube butter into tiny squares if cold, or use softened butter or coconut oil, and add to the mixture. Combine.
4. (If using softened butter/oil, you could skip this step.) Mix as well as you can, then stick the dough into the microwave for 10 seconds. Stir until butter/oil is completely combined.
5. Obtional: If dough isn't sweet enough for your liking, add more until it's perfect. I ended up using about 1 1/2 tbl. :)

Enjoy! :D

An "Exciting" Riding Lesson...

Welp, yesterday was fun.

As some of you may know, I'm a horse-back rider. I'm currently taking lessons at a nearby stable, and have been taking there since... September I think? So yesterday we drove over there for my weekly lesson. I hadn't been riding in over 3 weeks because of a stupid stomach virus and cold, so I was very happy to be back. :D

It was a GORGEOUS day for riding, which was awesome. Perfect temperatures and glorious sunshine. ^_^ But my lesson horse, Athena (a dark palomino draft/quarter horse cross and a very big girl;), who is quite sweet, has loads of energy, and is basically a walking bull-dozer, ;D was being a bit of an... ummm... idiot. Yeah. (No offense, girl. I still love you. ;D)

So, after brushing and tacking her up, we head out to the outdoor arena and warmed up, then worked on some bending (which is basically getting the horse to "bend" around your inside leg. It helps the horse use their body better, and also looks quite nice ;D).

Next we picked up the trot. We were doing nicely for a while, just trottin' around, continuing to work on the bending in the faster pace, but then... Athena decided it was time to go back to the barn.

The arena was closed off with just a rope over the entrance, looped through a ring on both sides, and as we're trotting around, she just... bulldozed right through it. No joke. o.O

How I imagine Athena's thoughts at the time:

"Oh yeah, I don't care if that rope is closing off the arena we're just gonna trot right through it and yep go under that tree branch and practically take your head off... trot trot trot back to the barn..."

It was ridiculous, and maybe a little bit amusing... xD She got half way under the barn's roof before I could halt her, then I made her back out and march right back to the arena to try again. ;)

So, I was a little bit shaken up by this, but it has happened to me (horses running off with moi) quite a few times before, so I'm doing ok. Not too big a deal. She's a really sweet horse, so I'm not worried.

So, back in the arena, we continue the lesson with several more circles of trotting.

But, when we are passing the open "gate" again, she does a little rear/hop that makes me let out a "polite scream," as my instructor, Tracy, described it. ;D Aaaaand Athena trots us out of the arena -- again, almost breaking into a canter, and acting much more forceful about her little stunt then the first time.

This time I was able to stop her before she got to the barn again, but the whole thing gave me quite a fright, so now I'm in tears and literally shaking... :p

Seeing that this was more of a problem then originally anticipated, Tracy steps in and hops on Athena to work her a bit and make her realize she can't pull shenanigans like that, much to my relief, as I'm still fighting back tears and shaking like a leaf. ;)

So after showing me a few things to do in case Athena tried it again, Tracy then hands her back to me, and, with a much more heavy hand on the reins and a more "I'm in charge" attitude, I'm able to get Athena to do my bidding. ;)

So, yes. That was my exciting riding lesson. ;) I suppose it's just another "almost-spill" to add to the list... this was literally like the 5th or 6th time a horse has run away with me and almost dumped me... >.< But I gotta keep my record clean, ya know... haven't fallen off yet. ;D

And, although it was rather frightening, not to mention irritating, I do think I learned a valuable lesson yesterday. See, I'm the kind of rider that likes to keep a light hand on the reins and be very gentle and subtle in my riding, ya know? But, as I learned today, sometimes you can't always ride like that. Sometimes you have to really get on to a horse if they act up and disobey, and teach them that it's not acceptable. And it's ok to do that. You're not being mean, you're just teaching the horse. ;)

So yeah. That was my Friday! How was yours? :D

Just a Quick Shirt Alteration/Refashion

Hullo peeps!

I've got another refashion to share with you guys today... Well, I think "alteration" would probably be a better name, since that's pretty much all I did to it... ;D

So, I started off with this shirt:

I got it at a thrift store, but it's really nice and in like-new condition. I love the color of it, and it fits perfectly, except for a small problem...

The hip-area was too big. o.O

I haven't the slightest idea why it was made like this; I've never seen any other shirt with this problem. But I really liked the shirt, so I decided to go ahead and take the time to fix it. :D

First, there were two extra seams on each side that were there only for style purposes, so I went ahead and ripped those out so I could sew my new seams properly. Then I turned le shirt inside out and began pinning my alterations. I re-pinned it several times to make sure I achieved the perfect fit. ;)

First pin positions...

After several re-pins, I finally had them where I wanted them. ;)

The next and last step was to sew up those new seams!

Just keep sewing... just keep sewing... just keep sewing sewing sewing -- what do we do, we sew, sew, sew... xD

All finished and ready to wear! Crazy how just 15 minutes can change a shirt from meh to fantastique!