Change...

Here's some background music for this post. ;)

I've noticed a theme in the posts written on the blogs I follow recently.

Change.

I've currently been experiencing this - change - the most I've experienced it, well, ever. While in the past I've moved several times to very different locations, they occurred when I was younger and less effected by such things.

But, now, I'm 16 and have been living in the same place for the past 6 years, and those years have been more influential on my life than any of those before. I've had so many wonderful memories with the amazing friends I made in those 6 years.

Then, suddenly, I realize that those friends and their lives are changing, including me and mine.

None of us have much free time any more to just hang out. Some of them have begun drifting out of my life. And as for the people who have gone away to college, well, I'll only have the opportunity to see them when they come home on breaks. Which I definitely look forward to, but it's not nearly as satisfying as knowing I'll at least see them every week at church.

And then there's the result of these changes. Like I've already experienced, people end up fading out of your life and, somehow, you two turn back into acquaintances, with not so much as "goodbye."

My personal change is hard, and scary, as well. I'm approaching my senior year of highschool. In just over a year, I'll be heading to college... and so many questions and fears arise from this fact.

Will I be able to keep up with all the [difficult] school work? And amidst that work, will I still have time for the things I enjoy? Will I be able to make any new friends? Will I meet *that* special someone?

All this... yeah. It's hard. Change is hard. And scary. And is when we need to trust God the most.

However - we have to remember that change can also be good. For us, for others... and with this, somehow it will all turn out perfectly in the end.

Updates and ALS Ice Bucket Challenge

You must forgive me for my absent from the blogging scene lately... it hasn't been intentional! ;) I've got a few half-finished posts ready to be completed, but I just haven't gotten around to them... so, here's a quick update with randomness. :)

Firstly... I'm back in the South. (yay!) My northern vacation was great, but still. There's no place like home. ^_^ Though now I get to readjust to the heat... :P

Can anyone else not believe the summer is almost over? (for me, anyway -- your's might already be over! :p) I keep asking myself, where did it even go???? O_O

Oh and -- heh -- speaking of time and stuff, uh, just thought I'd mentioned I'm obsessed with Doctor Who now. Namely, 10. David Tennant. (ermergersh he's just so seriously awesome... ^_^ ;D)  Maybe that's where all my time went... spent watching Doctor Who... xD

I start school again on Wednesday. And I'll be a senior. I mean seriously, where did you go, time? *sigh*

And now, my final update. Le ALS Ice Bucket Challenge! Enjoy. xD

1. If you're reading this, consider this my nomination for you! You've got 24 hours! :D
2. This is the reason I'm not an actress... xD
3. I deleted the part with my facebook nominee names for privacy's sake. ;)

Talk to ya'll soon!! ^_^

[Battle] Tauriel Cosplay - Mock-up and Chainmail

It seriously felt so good to write that title. Why? Really just 'cause I finally know what my costume is for The Battle of the Five Armies. Hehe. Anyways... let's get to the updates! :D

Firstly, I made a mock-up of the skirt yesterday:

It's nothing fancy, but I did spend a fairly good while on it. ;) Most of that time was spent playing around with drape and length and such.

It's made out of some old flannel-type fabric I had lying around. (Which had a surprisingly nice drape..? I don't even know. xD)  As you can see in le pics, it's split down the front and the back. I was trying to figure out whether to do 4 splits or just 2, and this has made me decide on just the two, so it'll almost be like a riding dress. This also makes it easier to decapitate orcs and goblins and such. ;)  And the train... is it practical? Not completely. Does it look cool? Uhm, yesssss. :D So, I'm gonna compromise and do a short-ish train; probably about 6-8 inches.

I'm also working on figuring out the shape of the skirt panels... like I said in my previous post, I'm considering buying a pattern to help with that and the rest of the construction of the dress.

So - that's that. Now the part I'm really excited to show ya'll... the beginnings of some pretty epic chainmail armor (if I say so myself;), made from soda pop tabs!

(the heart-shape was not intentional... ;D)

In case you missed my last post, what I'm making is shoulder armor (whose technical name is "spaulders").

This piece is only about half finished, 'cause I didn't have enough tabs... however, I'm heading home this Tuesday (yayy!) where I've got a whole bunch more tabs (all saved up in a little jar hehe). So you'll be seeing the finished product soon (hopefully - hah)! ;)

About the process of making the chainmail... it was surprisingly simple! It took a couple minutes to learn how and to get into the rhythm of it (bend, cut, connect), but after that it was quite easy -- though it is a bit time consuming. This piece took about an hour and a half total. In the future, now that I know how to do it, it should be a bit faster. :)

Oh and, yeah, my fingers were hurting after all that. xD

In case you wanted to try your hand at makin' some chainmail, this tutorial by kirilee on deviantart is quite helpful. :D

Well, I suppose that's about it for my Battle Tauriel costume updates!  Next up on my to-do list: Finish the chainmail armor and start fabric shopping!

My BOTFA Cosplay Announcement!!!

YES.  YOU READ THAT CORRECTLY.  I HAVE FINALLY DECIDED.

First things first, though. ;)

I was seriously soooo disappointed when no new [female/simple] costumes popped up in the Battle of the Five Armies teaser. (Except for that teensy peek of Galadriel's new costume, which a picture was already released of.) Yeah, as much as I like Thrandy's and the dwarves' new armor, uh, yeah, not gonna happen. xD

HOWEVER -- I do adore the idea of armor...

So, I started thinking... what if I just completely made up a costume inspired by Tauriel? And then I remembered all that GORGEOUS concept art for her costumes that they ended up not using. And then the idea just kept growing and growing until I finally decided on the idea of...

Battle Tauriel. :D

Like I said, it'll be based on the concept art designs, and embellished with my own imagination. It'll be, basically, what I think Tauriel would wear into battle. The main things I want to include in the costume are some sort of elvish armor, and a floor length, split skirt (unlike the calf-length of her dresses in Desolation of Smaug).

I started sketching some ideas over the past week... Now, keep in mind, none of the designs are perfect. I'm really just messing around with my ideas. The more I think about it, and the more designs I make, the closer I'll get to what I actually want the finished costume to look like. :)

So, that's what I'm working with currently. My favorite idea so far is the chainmail shoulder pauldrons, which I got from this concept drawing. (And if I did that, I'd most likely make it out of soda pop tabs. Yes. Those tabs you open aluminum cans with, which I've been collecting for the past several months, actually. xD Sound weird? Check this out.) I'm thinking of adding another chainmail aspect to the costume, though I'm not exactly sure what.

Also with the chainmail idea, I'm not sure whether it should even be chainmail, or maybe just leather armor... or perhaps I could try my hand at craft foam armor, and give it a metal look...

Another thing I'm debating is the cape. I don't want it to be a full cloak (which would hide too much of the costume underneath), but rather one that just goes down the back, like the first design, or one where the arms are exposed, like designs 2 and 3.

The final thing I'm debating is the base dress -- basically, how I want the skirt, sleeves, and collar to be. I'm looking at a few sewing patterns for that, however, which would definitely make creating the dress easier. ;)

So, yeah! That's what costume I'll be making for The Hobbi: The Battle of the Five Armies. :D

In conclusion, may I just say... I am so pumped for this cosplay. It's going to be so incredibly fun to make. And wear. And it's already been fun to plan. :D

I'll update with more news concerning this soon! 4 months to go, guys!!! :D :D

Oh! And I've made a Pinterest board just for this costume -- as usual. xD

Follow Beth's board Cosplay - Battle Tauriel on Pinterest.

My Trailer for The Battle of the Five Armies

So, last year I made a trailer for The Hobbit: the Desolation of Smaug about a month after the teaser trailer for that released (which ended up going on to get over 10,000 views on YouTube!!)

And because I absolutely adore doing things like that (making movies, digital editing, and such) I decided to do it again this year. But for The Hobbit: the Battle of the Five Armies. :D
While I absolutely adore the official trailer, I had several ideas of my own for a trailer for BOFTA... which I then made a reality over the course of about a week. The process included finding, downloading, and editing video clips, finding just the right music, and then, of course, editing it all together.

The music I used is called "An Unfinished Life" by Audiomachine, from their album "Tree of Life," and I edited the trailer using Windows Movie Maker (very high tech, I know. ;D)

(Microsoft recently updated Windows Movie Maker, and it works 900% better after the update. I couldn't used it last year for the DOS trailer I made, as it had a ton of glitches that kept ruining the video as I worked on it, but I decided to give it another try, and it worked like a dream! Super simple, but gets the job done quite well.)

With all that said, here's my trailer for The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies. Hope you like it. I really liked making it. (: