Below are the 20 most recent journal entries recorded in We're doing WHAT by April?'s LiveJournal:

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Monday, April 11th, 2005
5:29 pm [glitchnyc]	Icon 24: First Impressions x-post from Glitchnyc.com (add as friend) Sara as Arwen We spent this weekend at Icon, the giant annual Sci-fi / Fantasy / Anime / Gaming / Etc... convention on Long Island once again this year. </p> It's hard to explain a "con" to someone who hasn't been there. Conventions, particularly ones where cosplayers are in abundance, are safari's for people watchers. There are people of every shape, size, persuasion, sociability, and dress, all crammed into one geeky place together. It's incredible to watch the interactions, and fun to be part of them yourself. This year, I volunteered to help with the con because I like to be active and busy (and I got a free ticket out of it), but I felt a bit like Steve Irwin jumping into a (geeky) crocodile swamp. "Well, I've just subdued the angrusgeek, he was a really fiesty fell.. OH WOW, lookit that, ova there is a particularly rare breed - the bifurcated gothling! She's nearly cut in half by that corset, and you've just got to wonder where her organs are. I imagine it's only a matter of time before a swarm of hornigeeks start to... Oh look, here they come." This year, we decided to join in the fun and actually cosplayed ourselves. It was a lot of fun to put together the costumes over the past few months, and theres something wonderfully validating about being told that some thing looks "amazing" when you've worked really hard on it. I'll be doing some more "side by side" shots in the coming posts so that you can see what people were going for with their costumes, but for now, you can flip through the truckload of pictures here. (Comment on this)
Monday, April 4th, 2005
11:35 pm [glitchnyc]	Tick Tock Tick Tock Okay - It's crunch time here at the Skiff house, and we're working as fast as we can to get everything ready! Sara's been sewing since we got home from dinner, and she's gotten the underdress done and is now working on putting the sleeves on arwen's overdress. It's coming along great! Meanwhile, I've been busy distressing and assembling my costume. The coat is a work of art at this point, and actually needs some minor repairs so I look like a journeyman and not a hobo, but I think it's going to be great. Staining and weathering the grey shirt and the jerkin have been fun as well! Making the wig oily was, well, not so fun, but it's getting to the point where I think it looks passable, and some last minute "mussing up" should finish it off. Here are 3 stages of the coat, starting with original, then stripped down to the suede (I'm still cleaning "leather dust" off of surfaces in the apartment), and then a (dark) close-up of the distressed leather. So you can see where I'm going with these pieces, here's the actual Strider costume from the london exhibit on the right, and my approximations of them on the left. I still don't like the color of the red jerkin, I'll probably beat the crap out of it some more tomorrow :) No, that's not a tribble hanging on the wall between the shirts and the coat, that's my wig. WOW! Sara's just finished with the overdress, check it out. We're totally proud of ourselves tonight. Check out close ups and more pictures in the online album. Oh, and there may be some fun with a wig in there... Very weird to see myself with shoulder length hair again, it feels like 11th grade. (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Wednesday, March 30th, 2005
4:04 pm [glitchnyc]	One Week Well, Icon is about a week away, and Sara and I are right now saying "WHY do we do this to ourselves?!?!" Like any good project, we've procrastinated the heck out of it, but I think we're in pretty good shape to get it done. We've got everything we need, we just need to put the work in. Sunday is officially deemed SUPER COSTUME DAY. Just to make myself feel better - I want to throw out there that whatever we come up with, it can't be as bad as this: (4 Comments |Comment on this)
Friday, March 11th, 2005
5:40 pm [aurra_sing]	Don't shoot me for my crappy tie knotting skills, i just learned today. I didn't shower so I didn't take a full body shot, but I do have on pants that go. Angel, I have the patch for the robe, i'll give it to you wednesday :) (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Thursday, February 10th, 2005
3:56 pm [aurra_sing]	WIGS you'll have to excuse a few things in these pictures.... 1 the lighting sucks for some reason, 2 there's toothpaste on the mirror that i didn't notice until after and 3 i'm hideous due to no shower and no makeup ( to the wigs ) (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Saturday, February 5th, 2005
8:26 pm [deathslilsister]	Pippin! I'm finally done sewing buttons and pressing the collar, yay! Pictures ( under the cut ) Current Mood: I'm (halfway) done! (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Friday, February 4th, 2005
1:30 pm [aurra_sing]	I went shopping for wig things! ( This way to pics ) This all came to about 74 dollars, free shipping on orders more than $45! We'll see how they come (Comment on this)
Thursday, January 20th, 2005
4:52 pm [datura547]	shoes, etc.. Today I bought those little slippers that I posted about the other day. Does anyone want me to get them some? They are $6 and they have white, black, red, and a goldish/brown color. Let me know! Also, Angel...did you say that you have an Evenstar pendant? Let me know if you can find it :) (4 Comments |Comment on this)
Monday, January 17th, 2005
1:53 pm [deathslilsister]	thank god for days off, right? yay, it's finally done! Well...almost done. I'm picky and realized that the neck on the under-tunic forms a "V", so I'm gonna cut that a little more when I put the trim on the neck and sleeves, and I think the under-tunic needs one more dye job, but other than that...ooo, pretty corset. :) ( psst...this way ) (2 Comments |Comment on this)
12:55 am [glitchnyc]	Aragorn costume start Well, we've begun putting together the pieces that will make up Aragorn's Strider costume. These photos don't do the items we got complete justice but you can begin to see where we're going. He wears a lot of layers so some of the stuff doesn't have to be 100% (for example, using the textured fabric for the jerkin rather than the suede.) There's going to be a lot of dying, distressing, and detailing work to be done on these, but that's the stuff that I'm good at. Now that we've got somewhere to start that doesn't require the use of a sewing machine, I can start to work on making this as screen accurate as possible. Unless my dad threw it away, my uncle Arts' old leatherworking materials should be around somewhere and I can use them to add the sleeve details and stitching. If not, I'll have to pick up some supplies. Sara is thinking about making boot coverings to go over my normal shoes for the "pirate boots" that Aragorn wears, and my leathers should suffice for the pants. After that, it's all wig and facial hair, and some of that I can just grow. This costume is WAY more together tonight than it was when we started out this morning. Yay for driving around LI to various thrift stores. Goodwill came through for us in a big way. Finding a sword and the dagger are going to be tough, as I'd like them to look like more than toys but certainly don't need to own a sword myself at this point in my life. So if I grow a beard and Sara gets a long black wig - it'd be pretty easy to go as Troi and Riker the next day. Hmmmmmm. (3 Comments |Comment on this)
Wednesday, January 12th, 2005
9:05 pm [deathslilsister]	Since the community's hopping tonight anyway, I thought I'd post the pictures I have so far of the vest and corset for the Shieldmaiden outfit. ( behind the cut ) Current Mood: wheee! Current Music: The Simpsons! (5 Comments |Comment on this)
7:58 pm [aurra_sing]	I have pictures of salvation army finds and my yarn! please look, because I need advice! ( Costume things ) (8 Comments |Comment on this)
5:31 pm [datura547]	ideas... Do you guys think these would be good for shoes for Arwen? They're only $6...but I probably wouldn't have to order them, because they sell these all over the city. http://store1.yimg.com/I/asianideas_1825_8459559 Also, I just ordered ears today! I didn't want to even attempt to make my own...so I ordered these http://www.aradani.com/elvesofaradan/pics/smallpainted.jpg came to $17, but I think they look really good and a lot of people recommended them on Alleycatscratch.com. Yay...having fun researching and stuff today :) (4 Comments |Comment on this)
Sunday, January 9th, 2005
5:38 pm [deathslilsister]	oh, and... Speaking of shoes... check these out: Natashas. The store's in my hometown, and they're absolutely wonderful people... and yay satiny mary janes. Would work very nicely for our girly costumes :) (1 Comment |Comment on this)
5:35 pm [deathslilsister]	wheeeee! Just got back from a HUGE trip to Jo-Ann Fabrics, and now I have everything I need to make my Eowyn costume, so I thought I'd share. First of all, go here:joann.com Get coupons. My 40% off coupon every month rocks my freaking socks. So here's what I got today: 5 yards of cream patterend silkessence for the underdress ($18 w/coupon!) 1 1/4 yards brown suede for the tunic 5 yards brown and gold trim cream braid for the sleeves brown cording for the corset back interfacing (5 yards for $1, no kidding) All of the fabric and trim I bought today came to $61.... so with the brown velvet I've already bought, the whole costume is under $70 so far, before wig and shoes. The practical upshot is, thanks to shopping the sales and getting coupons, these costumes are all going to come in wicked cheap. Yay! Tonight I'll probably put up pictures of the costume-in-progress, and our adventures making dressforms :) Current Mood: whee! Current Music: NPR (Comment on this)
Saturday, January 8th, 2005
7:02 pm [datura547]	D'oh! Hi everyone! So, I was never told about this community that you set up...so I JUST read it all today! I'm so sorry for not responding or joining in on the conversation! I feel so bad! Now that I'm up to speed... Kerrin, I didn't forget about the scarf, but now that I've seen the instructions, I've realized that I am way too underskilled to pull it off, lol. I'm sorry. I didn't realize how intricate it was! I see though that your mom may be attempting it? I hope that works out. Sorry that I gots no skillz. Well, at least not very accelerated skillz. Eric and I are still interested in the cosplay for ICON though. I've been too busy with the holidays and job hunting to think about it though. I will start thinking about it more. BTW, i cut my hair after the wedding (not thinking) and it's just past my shoulders now. I still have a few months, but I don't think it will be quite long enough. So I am contemplating a wig too... (3 Comments |Comment on this)
Monday, January 3rd, 2005
5:25 pm [aurra_sing]	So who is still with this cosplay :) I have the fabric for the scarf, just waiting on my mom to start it. If that fails, my sister has a scarf that I could pass off (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Thursday, December 9th, 2004
5:17 pm [deathslilsister]	Just to keep the community alive a little bit, thought I'd let you know how my costume is coming. I couldn't decide which of Eowyn's costumes I wanted to do, but a trip to Jo-Ann's decided it for me. ( it's ) (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Wednesday, November 24th, 2004
1:38 am [aurra_sing]	No frodo. It's cool, doable, our ring bearer is uhhh off to mount doom or... yeah...cough cough with Sam somewhere :) But seriously, it's cool. However, I hope everyone else sticks with this :) if not, angel and marc i'm looking your way to promise me you're doing this for sure. :) Sara, if you make my scarf that would be awesome!! but if not, don't owrry, i'm gonna keep an eye out at the thrift store for anything in houndstooth pattern that can be made into a makeshift scarf. (Comment on this)
Tuesday, November 23rd, 2004
1:10 pm [anaphexeton]	the wormy one Right, so I can't decide if I want to do Elrond or Wormtongue, but I did find this awesome collage-type thing of the wormy dude. I'll try to find more pictures with detail and whatnot, but I just thought I'd throw it out there for you to gaze upon. Gaze, damn you! (2 Comments |Comment on this)