#I've literally had some of this photos saved since 2016

[lightleckrereins]

This is a hamilton ensemble skirts appreciation post because I finally found all of them (I think) only took six years in some cases.

[sheliesshattered]

So it turns out I completely forgot to take any pictures of my last sewing project. Oops. In fairness, it's a gift for my mother, whose birthday is tomorrow, and I didn't want to post any pictures until after it had arrived at her house and been opened. But I still meant to take some pictures, if not of the process at least of the final product. It wasn't until I got home from mailing it that I realized I full on completely forgot to take any photos at all. Oh well. Maybe Mom can snap a picture or two for me since I flat out forgot. Pics of that if/when I actually have them, lol.

But I'm already into my next sewing project, and I've resolved not to make that same mistake again. Which, really, is nearly the same mistake as I made with my fleece dress last month, when I didn't take any pictures at all until all the major seams were sewn. After documenting so much of my sewing throughout 2023, I seem to have completely forgotten all about taking photos of my works-in-progress the last couple of months. I aim to get back on course with this project, though!

The project in question is a hooded wrap sort of thing, made from the black and gray brushed cotton herringbone that I got a bolt of on ebay a couple of weeks back. After washing the bolt, it looks to be about 43" wide and roughly eight and a half yards long. I want to make an overdress for my fleece dress out of it too, but I think this wrap project will only take up about a yard and a half, maybe two, so I should have plenty left for an overdress. And then I can wear the wrap and the overdress together, potentially.

But really the thing I'm sewing this for is my birthday, which is coming up in about seven weeks. I have somehow talked Jack into going to Disneyland and spending all day in the Star Wars Galaxy's Edge area so I can pilot the Millennium Falcon as many times as possible, and doing some original costuming "Batuu-bounding" while we're there, too. Because I am nothing if not a costume nerd, and my life-long love for Star Wars has recently been reignited, so what better way to spend my birthday than dressed up in one of the best examples of 360 degree set building that I've ever seen.

After combining a bunch of pieces from my closet and my costume boxes, I've come up with an outfit that I like the look of, for a general purpose Force-sensitive smuggler pilot: my every-day tall Doc Martens with wraps over them, leather-look leggings, the vest from my Moment cosplay, and various accessories from my pirate-core and Wasteland days. I may need a better shirt to go with it, but I'm hoping to hit up Goodwill at least once or twice between now and then and see what I can find. The final choice will depend on a bit on the weather that week, which in late February in southern California can be literally anything from the cusp of freezing to 80 degrees, sunny or rainy or windy or some combination of all of them. I won't really know until the weekend beforehand.

Besides a shirt, the last piece I really want to add is this hooded wrap, both for practicality -- warmth in the morning and the evening, and keeping the sun off my head at midday without messing up my hair too much -- and for just the drama of a big hood and drapey wrap. I based the hood pattern on the hooded Vuvalini jacket I made for Wasteland Weekend way back in 2016, but took it in a bit both in width and depth (since I'm not trying to catch the wind with this one, and won't be wearing a fluffy scarf with it).

Over the weekend I drafted a pattern and made a mock-up, but the mock-up is really kinda ugly, since I used left over fabric and made a part of it significantly smaller just to save on fabric, so it's one of those mock-ups where you have to squint and imagine what the final product will look like. Not going to bother taking pictures of that. But it did serve the purpose of clarifying some design elements and finalizing fit, so still worthwhile.

With the hood pattern drafted and tested, and measurements for the long wrap bits figured out, I went ahead and cut it out of the herringbone fabric. Here it is all cut out, three pieces for the hood and two pieces for the back:

I'm doing french seams on this project, both to combat the fabric's tendency to fray, and to keep all the inner seams looking pretty when the hood is down, etc. Tonight I sewed up the first set of seams on the center back of the wrap, and all three hood pieces (as modeled by my sewing ham):

Tomorrow I'll press those narrow seams flat, and then sew each of them again a bit further in to completely encase the raw edges (ie a classic french seam). Next step after that will be attaching the hood to the right angle formed by the wrap pieces coming together in the center back. I did this, with shorter and narrower pieces, in my mock-up, and it's a little bit fiddly but not too bad. I didn't french seam the mock-up though, so we'll see if that adds any headaches to this.

Once both stages of the neck seam are done and the hood is attached, the last step will be hemming! And it's a lot of hemming, lol. The shorter edges of the wrap (starting from the top of the center back, where it meets the hood) are each 48" long and 18" wide. I actually haven't measured the outer, longer edge, nor done the math to figure out what it must be given that the center back is cut on a 45 degree bias, but let's just say it's a lot of inches. And then there's the hood opening too, which was cut to have a generous drape. Many many inches of hemming, really probably better measured in yards.

I need to play around with a couple of options, see if I like the look of top stitching or if I want to do the whole thing by hand with invisible stitches, but right now my assumption is that I'll end up doing this by hand. I actually enjoy handsewing hems, so that's not the worst thing in the world, and I've got plenty of time to get this finished before I plan to wear it at the end of February. I do have at least one other sewing project I'd like to tackle for our Star Wars Batuu-bounding day, and I'd like to leave room for other things to come up at the last minute too, so I'm going to keep buzzing through this just as quickly as I can. More pictures tomorrow, in all likelihood.

After I call my mom of course, and wish her a happy birthday. And beg her for photos of that thing I made for her, lol.

[starrybluez]

@wonhakwoon tagged me to share my lockscreen, last song listened to, and last photo saved thank you 💙

I've had the same lockscreen forever (literally since 2016) so embarrassed to post it a 3rd (or 4th?) time 😅 but here's the saved photo and not just one but two songs!

Yes that is my newest playlist called "2000s music I actually don't hate". It's still a work in progress...recommendations welcome.

And have some 70's era Paul & Linda

Tagging: @music-on-canvas @astarrynightinparis @fatal-plastic-kiss @pauls-mccharmly @tiggertaylor @medazzabon @discreetmusic @slashscowboyboots and anyone else who feels inspired! Again, yell at me if you don't want to be tagged.

[myfirelight64]

i want to ask what exactly happened w/ kaistal in 2016? i wasn't active in the fandom so apart from my intuition telling me it's weird, idk a single thing.. anyway kaijen is the weirdest shit ever like i've been a fan of sm artists for a really long time and like... i still remember the commotion when sungmin got married. this is just fishy and i literally smell dangerous work behind this i'm honestly kinda worried abt all the idols... anyway happy new year dear!

(sorry I’m so late to this I saved it in drafts and forgot about with with everything coming in today please forgive me TT)

OKAY SO

There had been people shipping kaistal since beginning of time. SM was rumoured to have planned them since debut as a pairing later if they needed a scandal, and had them do a photo shoot + other things (”plants”) to make it more believable when they released it.

They hadn’t planned on releasing it until later, but dispatch released it ‘early’ but the date kaistal’ was on was very badly staged and was easily debunked. The whole thing hurt Kai a lot though, many fans and fansites left him over the news and it caused problems with him and ksoo,,,they all cried a lot. Then they ‘broke up’ in 2017 and everyone gave a big sigh :/

This is a really condensed version of what happened,,,if you search it up you’ll probably find more! It was very weird but it’s all over now, even if some fans linger. Happy new year! ♥

[onthebackline]

Music for Deaf People

Wowee, the second year of my university life has definitely been eventful. Pretty much every assignment this year has been horrendous and honestly quite draining, but of course, there is one obvious exception which has completely saved my motivation and willpower to complete this degree.

Subwoofers seemed like an attainable but daunting goal when we first heard about it; since Winterland 2016 (remember that fun-filled experience?), in the first year, we were prepared to fill the concourse at the uni again with fun and interesting rides and attractions to bring in people from all around Wycombe. So when our lectures told us the success of Winterland had prompted a local charity, with a 23 Acre grass field, to try putting on their own music festival, and that they wanted us to work with them to make this the biggest event they’ve done yet. 

What? 

Winterland wasn’t the stressful failure I thought it was? External parties wanted to use our event management skills with their resources to put on another event? woo-wee. 

So I've spoken on this all before but we were put into the four main management teams: Logistics, production, Talent and marketing. I started in logistics but was moved to help liaise with the Talent team and the stage manager and was eventually fully inducted into the production team and for the last few weeks leading up to the event I had become the second stage manager and had to make sure that everything was going to run smoothly within that department. really a lot of the work for the second stage had already been done and I was simply making sure that people still had the right information, such as the most updated versions of the stage times and besides that, I was helping other productions members, in whatever way I could.

(Subwoofers flyer)

SUBWOOFERS 2018 was amazing, it was easily my favourite assignment of the year; there were so few problems on the day and the sun was absolutely beaming. The expected stress was about in the morning, as still, some jobs had to be done from the day before, signs were to go up, traders and a few rides were still to arrive. And a most recent addition, 300 deck chairs had to be unloaded in front of the stage. I managed to arrive 15 minutes late as I woke up at 6:59AM and missed the coach at 7 and had to leap into a taxi. 

So upon arriving we were quickly given jobs based on what still needed most urgently doing, regardless of their roles in the teams, (i’ll get back to this later buts it’s important) and the rest of the set up was fairly quickly done, which was good as the attendees were starting to arrive and the site was soon to open. deck chairs got unloaded, Herace fencing went up, queue systems were built, and then re-built as sections of ped barrier were stolen to quarantine the main stage and front-of-house booth. The only photo I have of myself on site is me helping the logistics team leader trying to put those really dodgy signs together, you know, those ones that have been around since bucks live was conceived? Those things are in dire condition...

(Oh look, it's me wow)

Being the second stage manager was probably the easiest thing I've done in my academic life. A quick comparison to Winterland here; when I was managing the second stage 1.5  years ago I overestimated my own knowledge and realised that I had severely over advertised myself, there were loads of things I hadn’t considered and had to make quick solutions. It was all very messy.

This time around though, I had at first decided to avoid production on this event, and see what I could do for the logistics team. However, things went as they did and I got pulled in by the “Production Gals” to sort out backline stuff and see that the second stage was up and running on time. Since Winterland, it was obvious that I had somewhat of a better idea of what would need to happen to make sure my stage would be a success. 

There was one problem with this. The production team were too good. Every time I had an idea, a suggestion or a question that I thought hadn’t had much thought to it, I’d have about 4 people reassure me in harmony, about what has been done and how I shouldn’t have to worry about that specific aspect. Every time I was worried about something I’d simply mention it and my fears would be washed away by this angelic production choir. (Adrienne, the main stage manager, said “Don’t worry, we got this Michael” literally 3 times every meeting) My stage had a tent, power, all necessary backline, PA equipment and a flipping engineer before I even knew I was running it. 

The day went so quickly I barely noticed, I had to make sure that my stage was on time with all its acts and there were no major disturbances to the lineup. In reality, about 80% of my stages’ artists either started or finished late, but due to the wonderful inexperience of the talent and production teams (in relation to solo artists), myself and the delegated engineer decided that the 20 minute changeover times were ludicrously overestimated and that we could be “flexible as fuck” with this lineup. this worked out nicely, and my stage stopped playing music before curfew, just for the record.

(Jack Little performing on the second stage at Subwoofers)

The biggest problem I faced all day was making sure artists got to the stage on time, I was constantly using the radio to contact the production office and see if the artists had arrived on site and that they were ready to be at my stage when needed. some artists made their own way and others couldn’t be found in time, but because the lineup was as flexible it was almost not an issue.

Dan was late, by the way. 

The only artist who was also in our class turned up 10 minutes late for the only set he had been booked into; although it didn’t really matter because he could have almost doubled his set time without infringing on the artist following him. No one seems to know what he was doing when he was asked after, but he seemed to enjoy his stroll for about 100 yards across the main field before he arrived at my tent. He put on a good show though when he did go on. Everyone enjoyed Dan the Guitar.

The day rounded up quietly, my stage stopped playing music at exactly 5:40pm and we had a soft close up till 6pm, as I asked a nearby steward to close up the side of the tent one by one, encouraging people to leave. After a quick sweep of the tent for litter, I set the engineer free from my control and allowed him to de-construct all his equipment and pack it all down. I went back to the life of odd jobs, trading 21mm spanners with people and chatting back and forth on the radio helping find lost event staff and going on suntan lotion runs.

(Bucks Live Lettering)

Overall the day was pretty breezy, it went a LOT better than I ever expected it to, this being because there were many small and recurring problems leading up to the day as well as assumed bad reception by the public. Now the marketing team inevitably did a good job, and it can’t be denied that the sunny weather had a part to play in our turn out, but I was still sure that there were going to be quarrels and arguments between everyone, but it just didn’t happen. It was kushty, to say the least. 

https://www.bucksherald.co.uk/news/picture-gallery-thousands-enjoy-fun-in-the-sun-at-saunderton-music-festival-which-has-a-woof-in-its-step-1-8494970

http://www.bucksfreepress.co.uk/news/16211630.Thousands_flock_to_first_ever_family__deaf_and_dog_friendly_music_festival/

[the2travel]

* World Travel Tips : I Took An Adult Gap Year, I've Never Been Happier

Travel Tips -

Exactly one year ago, I found myself seriously facing the decision to either follow my newly-found passion for traveling, or pay rent. I couldn’t do both, because I literally only had enough money for one or the other. Since it had taken me twenty seven years to even discover this passion, and a full year after that to convince myself I could travel longer than two weeks, I ended up saying f**k it, and opting for Asia over my studio apartment in West Hollywood.

It was more than just my sudden wanderlust that fueled the decision though. At twenty eight years old, I found that I wasn’t nearly as fulfilled with life as I thought I would have been back in college. I didn’t have that token perfect relationship, and I was FAR from having a ring on my finger or dare I say, a child. I still felt like a child myself, and I knew part of that was because I never got the opportunity to travel when I was younger.

I always kind of just expected that all of our lives would fall into the same routine pattern, so when mine didn’t, I started to wonder what on Earth I was supposed to do next. It made me feel like I had failed for some reason, and that feeling made me unhappy.

All I could really think of that I knew would make me happy, was to go out in the World and figure out what did. It wasn’t exactly considered “normal” for someone “my age” to just drop everything and go travel, but spoiler alert, one month turned into one year, and now I’m sitting on a white pebble beach in front of the crystal clear Adriatic Sea in Croatia, with nothing but my laptop and a random cat laying behind me, getting ready to tell you exactly what happened…

A post shared by Alyssa Ramos ✈️ Travel Blogger (@mylifesatravelmovie) on May 1, 2017 at 8:00am PDT

Cue the “Gap Year”. Well, in my case, and “Adult Gap Year”

What is a gap year? If you aren’t familiar with the term, it’s probably because the gap year doesn’t exist in the U.S. Actually, it only exists in Australia and a few places in Europe, but something like it is encouraged in many other countries as well.

A gap year is when students take the year off in between high school and college to travel on their own or with friends. It’s not to party or go crazy, like most of us do the second we leave home and get to college; it’s to find themselves, learn responsibility, and discover how many possibilities are in this world.

I definitely did not get that when I was younger, as I’m sure many of you didn’t as well. I didn’t even get to travel on vacation with my family because we were poor, but even so, it’s not like I was encouraged to do so in school.

So, feeling like I needed to really experience more of this world and in my life, I put my things in storage, made a plan, and left.

A post shared by Alyssa Ramos ✈️ Travel Blogger (@mylifesatravelmovie) on Dec 26, 2016 at 9:14am PST

Photo: During my Adult Gap Year I went to over 30 countries, mostly solo, and completed seeing all 7 World Wonders, and 6 Wonders of Nature.

Yes, it was Terrifying to take the Leap, then I Couldn’t Stop

A post shared by Alyssa Ramos ✈️ Travel Blogger (@mylifesatravelmovie) on Nov 17, 2016 at 6:46am PST

As I mentioned, I had to put all of my stuff in storage, something I’ve never done before since I’ve had my own apartment since I was seventeen. That being said, I was also technically “homeless” for the first time ever, which of course was beyond terrifying at first. I worried beyond belief that when I left I’d lose everything, that my friends would forget me, and that somehow, I’d miss something in LA.

But a month passed and I hadn’t had enough. I still had money left from what I had saved for months, and was making a steady income from online freelance work and being a digital nomad.

When the second month came near and I had to make the decision again, I opted for a month in India over paying for rent and a deposit on a place back home in LA (I’m originally from Florida but I call LA “home”). Since I was “in the area”, I figured why not make it Sri Lanka and the Maldives too? Both of which I did on an extreme budget.

I Opened Up to Opportunities, and they Came

A post shared by Alyssa Ramos ✈️ Travel Blogger (@mylifesatravelmovie) on Oct 16, 2016 at 6:13am PDT

I’ve always been what I like to call an “outgoing introvert”. I like to be around friends, but I also like to be alone, and get things done on my own, and was always convinced I didn’t need anyone else to help me.

Well, when you travel alone for so long, you start to open up to the thought of meeting people and letting them help you. The second I changed my mindset, was when I met someone who actually ended up traveling with me to four countries. (Yes it was a steamy foreign love affair, but I’ll get to that another time).

Aside from that little foreign fling, I also opened up to the opportunity of meeting locals in almost every country I traveled in. I wanted to learn as much as possible from their perspective, and from that I learned more than I’ve ever learned in school about people, cultures, religion, politics, history, and the world in general.

This new understanding, and these exciting experiences have changed the way I think of and interact with people. It has made me friendlier, kinder, and more empathetic. This change not only made me happier, but it immensely helped strengthen and broaden my career as a digital nomad as well.

I Got Used to a Minimalist Lifestyle

A post shared by Alyssa Ramos ✈️ Travel Blogger (@mylifesatravelmovie) on Aug 18, 2016 at 9:01am PDT

Throughout my entire Adult Gap Year, I traveled with a carry-on sized bag, and a tote bag. I never once got anything out of my storage unit (not that I’d have anywhere to put it), and would only shop once a month when I would switch out my wardrobe. The clothes I had been previously wearing all got donated to a local in whatever country I finally decide to go shopping in.

A post shared by Alyssa Ramos MyLifesAMovie (@alyssaramostravels) on May 25, 2017 at 2:50am PDT

I also got used to, and am very good at buying groceries at local markets; even if I have to take a few extra seconds to convert the price or translate what something is.

A post shared by Alyssa Ramos MyLifesAMovie (@alyssaramostravels) on May 27, 2017 at 6:31am PDT

This type of lifestyle also made me extremely healthy, and I can tell a clear difference than from when I wasn’t traveling full time. I never get sick when I travel because I make sure to eat right, and I’m more in shape because I choose to walk everywhere…even if that’s mostly to save money…

But Maintained my Adult Comfort

A post shared by Alyssa Ramos ✈️ Travel Blogger (@mylifesatravelmovie) on May 18, 2017 at 4:52am PDT

I won’t lie, there’s a 0% chance that I would sleep in a shared dorm in a hostel, or couch surf. I’m a grown ass woman who makes a good income on her own, so you better believe I’m going to travel with certain standards.

Most of the time I do a really good job at finding last minute deals online for decent and even really nice hotels…even if some times they’re all sold out and I have to opt for a scary place.

A post shared by Alyssa Ramos MyLifesAMovie (@alyssaramostravels) on May 24, 2017 at 5:10am PDT

I’ll also treat myself to a nice lunch or dinner now and then. I don’t think I should have to miss out on the luxuries of nice dining just because I don’t have anyone to take me out! I’m actually super proud of how confident I’ve gotten with eating out alone…”Just one?” “You’re damn right just one!” Although it’s hard to really stay alone once people realize you are…if you know what I mean.

I Was Never Afraid to say No...or Yes

A post shared by Alyssa Ramos ✈️ Travel Blogger (@mylifesatravelmovie) on Feb 9, 2017 at 5:56am PST

Part of being comfortable as an adult is knowing exactly when you do and don’t want to do something. I’ve learned to easily say no to peddlers, promoters, all-too-charming men, etc., which has really helped in my normal life, especially with decisions I want to say yes to, but I know I really should say no to…that mostly applies to men, business, and dessert.

On the flip side, this Adult Gap Year has also taught me to easily say ‘Yes’ to a lot of things I probably wouldn’t have before. I don’t think twice about how long it will take me to get somewhere, especially if it’s a hike to a waterfall, and there’s literally nothing I think I can’t do.

This mentality change has not only made me a stronger, happier person, but a successful entrepreneur with a constant stream of dreams and ideas that turn to realities.

I Learned How to Adapt to Any Surrounding

A post shared by Alyssa Ramos ✈️ Travel Blogger (@mylifesatravelmovie) on Feb 16, 2017 at 5:00am PST

One thing I can distinctly notice after my Adult Gap Year, is that no one can ever guess where I’m from. That’s because when I travel, I immediately adapt to the culture, customs, and local life, mostly because it just makes everything easier. As I said, it’s important to try to make your life as “normal” as possible when you know it’s not normal at all.

Before I took my Adult Gap Year, I worried non-stop about what it was going to be like in another country, and so far away from home. Now I show up and assume chameleon mode, which also makes things a lot more interesting.

I Checked off a Bucketlist I Never Knew I Had

A post shared by Alyssa Ramos ✈️ Travel Blogger (@mylifesatravelmovie) on Feb 9, 2016 at 4:34am PST

The bucket list I do have basically just includes “travel the world” and “get to Antarctica”. But during my Adult Gap Year I found myself constantly thinking, “I’ve always wanted to do that”, then doing it, and then adding it to my bucketlist just so I could check it off.

Aside from traveling to almost 40 countries in a year, which I was NOT expecting to do at all (remember, I was only supposed to be gone one month), I had a lot of other firsts as well. Most of them were things I thought were too late to do since I was already almost thirty and an adult, but low and behold, I did them anyway, and couldn’t be more satisfied.

I got scuba certified and dove in five different countries including Egypt, the Maldives, Indonesia, French Polynesia, and the Bahamas. I learned to drive on the opposite side of the road in New Zealand, and live out of a camper van.

I learned “Hello, how are you, please, and thank you” in about ten different languages. I bungee jumped, and also cliff jumped…way too many times to count. I climbed to the top of a tree in the Amazon rainforest, after swimming in the Amazon river with pink dolphins. I swam with Manta Rays in the wild in Indonesia, and also hung my feet over a volcanic crater lake. I chased so many damn waterfalls that people are starting to ask me when I’m going to make a coffee table book with all of the photos.

I completed my list of visiting all of the new 7 World Wonders, a huge achievement for me; and perfected the art of getting a photo in front of each one with absolutely no people in them. I also made it to 6 of the 7 Wonders of Nature...and continents...both of which I intend to get to the 7th of this year.

I became inspired, encouraged, and ambitious to see more, do more, and be more, not just for me, but for the people I show my new lifestyle to.

I Now Have a Solid List of Big Goals

A post shared by Alyssa Ramos ✈️ Travel Blogger (@mylifesatravelmovie) on May 30, 2017 at 9:32am PDT

After accidentally traveling full time for a year, mostly solo (AKA an Adult Gap Year) and achieving as much as I did, my list of life goals has not gotten shorter. It has basically grown from being the size of a lizard to the size of a dinosaur, with the aggressive behavior to match.

Thanks to this adult Gap Year, I truly feel like I can do anything now, from traveling the world, to starting my own business. I may have risked a lot; a home, a relationship, friends, family, MY DOG, but through the clarity I’ve found, I know that there’s time for that, and everything will happen when it’s supposed to. And that applies to everyone.

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