First November Update: Progress has been slow

Hello everyone!

It's been a couple weeks, hasn't it? I've been working hard, I promise!! I just finished the hand embroidered ovals I talked about in September on my Instagram video.  I really enjoy hand embroidering, I always have, but it's pretty slow work on slick material like the ribbon I used.  The finished trim turned out great, though, and once I finish sewing it onto the skirt and finish a good portion of the skirt I will make a progress post with photos for everyone.

I've also been visiting a lot of local craft fairs and vintage markets.  I went to my first "Vintage Whites Market" here in the valley, and was really impressed and got a lot of crafty-inspiration.  It's actually quite terrible when I go to craft fairs, because instead of seeing something I want and buying it, I tell myself "Oh, I can make that, no problem!" But honestly I never end up making it, unless I'm really, really motivated to do it.

Oh, and you also may have noticed some graphic enhancements to my blog! Instead of coming up with content for a blog post (actually, one of the things I was gonna do for a blog post molded, eep!) I spent time drawing the header for my blog, and making the background.  The header was sketched in "Sketchbook Pro," on my Mac, and although it may not look like much I spent a good few hours on it and am pretty pleased with myself.  And the background was super fun to make.  I think I could have a future in photo editing ;).  The image is comprised of different photos of objects I have in my craft room.  Its 7 images layered on top of each other, with the backgrounds made transparent so that they would sit pretty with each other.  All the photo editing for this was done in Gimp; it's a free, open-source version of Photoshop, and while a little tricky to figure out, it does a great job.

No photos this time around, sorry! But next post I make will definitely have the progress photos from what I'm doing.  Do you like my work on the background and header for my blog? Wanna scold me for not working fast enough to bring you progress updates? Just wanna say hi? Send me a note on Twitter, or jot out an email to heartandsoulcosplay@gmail.com!

Stay cozy!
-Alycia