Halloween Reveal

I promised a reveal.

I'll first post the full costume, though I didn't get to wear it all today, and then I'll post all the bits and pieces that I got throughout the year in order to make the full costume.  I'll also post the one from today since today's party was a queen for a day party instead of the regular Halloween party.  I may yet decide to try and dye it lavender, but I haven't decided yet.  At any rate, I'm sure you'd rather see pictures than listen to my rattling on, so here you go, the reveal of the full costume.

So there you have it Bo Peep!  It took some doing to get all the things together, and to transform other pieces.  First I got the staff and some items to transform it to the decorative one you see here.  I was fortunate to find some flowers on clearance that worked out perfectly since they were in a vine form.  I had also gotten some ribbon that had wire on the ends that helped me wrap the two together to come up with the whole effect.

When I'd wrapped the flowers and ribbon together I felt like something was missing and found a bow to add to the whole thing.

Next I thought, how can I have a flock of sheep?  So I'd collected some sheep here and there, and also found a neat little planter that was an amish wagon with working wheels, had an extra garland of flowers and used them to "hide" the sheep inside the wagon.  I added a sheep dog to watch over them, and tada, Bo Peep lost her sheep......all except Julep because she was too big for the wagon and gets to be carried instead.

I forgot to take a photo of the wagon before I added the sheep, but I think you can see there's a bench seat, and see the sheep hiding among the flowers.  I may add some tulle to it since the handle is shorter, with a bow to wrap round my wrist to pull it along behind.

Every good Bo Peep needs a hat.  You most often see costumes with what is called a Poke bonnet/hat.  I had one that was perfect from mom, which was a sun bonnet and I added pink tulle in order to transform that into a poke bonnet.

For the inside of the bonnet, I used the pink glitter tulle and sort of wadded it and used a running couch stitch to run all over the inside from one side to the other.  That way, I could preserve mom's hat with as little invasive substance as possible, and no damage.  On the outside I added pink tulle to the hat band then also added some of the traditional bows on the sides that you'd typically find with a poke bonnet, and ran the tulle underneath so it could fasten under the chin. I left one side longer so it would look more natural tied on the side, this also helped to form the u shape around the face, and the uplifted top portion of the bonnet.

Lastly, since I'm a pink hatter, I'm supposed to wear lavender with a pink hat.  Since I couldn't find a pattern for the dress I wanted to create, I ran into a costume, but that came only in white, which is the reason for me pondering if I should try and dye the fabric.  I did add lavender gloves and a wrap to make up for the fact that the dress wasn't the right color.

The dress does have a train and a button in back that you can use to shorten the train, BUT it still has one even then, so I added a little elastic to the end of the train so I could fasten it to my wrist and try and avoid being stepped on.  It did seem to work today, though I'd not accounted for low heels.....really no heels, and so I do think I need to shorten the dress at least a bit.  I had originally thought about shortening to around the knee, and buying white yoga pants and lace to make the bloomers you typically see on some Bo Peep costumes, but I thought, I'll just be a more grown up version of Bo Peep.

Of course, today as I said, most of the additions were left behind since the party had changed to a different type.  But I still wanted to share, I'm not sure if I'll wear it next year of if my other idea will be next year.....but if I wear this, that means I have 2 years to work on the next idea and perfect that one.  I didn't have a hat today, but rather used a flower clip in pink to pull my hair up.  That served as a little cheat to the traditional hat we're supposed to wear, since I didn't have a pink tiara....but I may get one JUST IN CASE I go to another Queen for a Day party :P LOL.  Or if I just feel like being a queen or princess.  Here is is as worn today.

And now you have it, Bo Peep according to me, and a dress fit for a queen on other days!

Good News but not the BEST News

Sometimes you get news that is good but could be better.

Tuesday I had a phone appointment with my Lawyer for my case.  He said he had good news but it wasn't the best scenario.  The best news would have been that my case that is in the federal process would have had an overturned decision with the negative response being automatically rendered as a positive response.  What did happen is that the decision was remanded (I think that's the term he used), and that we would have another court date to be able to have a new judge hear the case.  I had said it was odd that the original judge had stated on the findings and court transcript that he had no doubt I was disabled as the professional witness had stated that someone with my current limitations would not be able to find or keep gainful employment, but that he was rendering a negative decision on my case.  I was told that does sometimes happen and it is strictly up to the judge whether to approve or deny a claim based on their own feelings about the case overall, rather than giving a positive decision based on all the facts and witnesses statements.

Either way, I'm taking this all as a positive step, though it's been a very long and tedious process thus far.  I think part of the issue is that a doctor may state something to you in person, and then not write it verbatim on your records.  Such as when I saw the neurosurgeon and he told me I'd be a bad candidate for back surgery for reasons such as, since I have numerous spinal curves, both scoliosis, and Scheuremann's Disease, that we could only choose one of the curves to attempt to correct and that it would likely result not only in numerous procedures rather than simply one, but that also, it would likely exacerbate the pain I have from the other curves causing greater pain from those.  I'm not altogether sure that he stated things in that way for my records, though I appreciated his candor and honesty to me regarding my overall health.  The issue for such things is that a judge wouldn't have the benefit of seeing and knowing that there is no possible option for said health issue to be corrected or the state of that issue to be improved.  My two options for my issued with my spinal pain are live with it, or take pain meds, and the danger there is that I would exchange spinal pain with a potential drug addiction and I don't feel that that's a very good or healthy option.

Recently.....the end of last month, my primary doctor did more kidney function tests since my test in May had shown I think renal functions at 59.4 where 60 and above is normal and desired, and she found that I'd dropped 11 points in 4 months, I think it dropped to 48.3...?  Either way, I've now been asked to adhere to a diabetic diet as much as I'm able, to not take my metformin, and to drink copious amounts of water and we'll retest at the end of this month.  I'm not sure, but some of my medications for anxiety could also affect my kidneys, and that's been the only medication that's been adjusted in the past year, and I'm not totally sure about some of the others, but I'll retest minus the metformin, consult with my psychiatrist at our appointment, and touch base with my primary doctor when my results come back.  I've not really talked about this with anyone, because I don't want family to needlessly worry, since it could be an easy fix....or it could be more serious.  Since my PCOD affects my ability to process food, and to attempt to assist with digestion, and kidney functions I've added some supplements to my daily routine.  I've added, cranberry pills, garlic pills, cinnamon pills to help with sugar processing since most foods break down into complex sugars and I don't have the metformin at the moment to help with that, and a multivitamin since it was saying that vitamin D helps with kidneys, so I figured what the heck it can't hurt to add more vitamins.

I'm not sure that everything I'm doing will help, but I am hopeful since if it's more serious and I've developed kidney disease it could result in several weekly trips for dialysis and I don't relish that thought, nor do I relish the thought of losing kidney functions and needing to seek replacement and going through surgery etc.  I choose to remain positive and think that it's just a simple issue with medication and that it can be reversed and improved.  That's where I'm determined to stay until notified otherwise.

All I can do is hope and encourage my doctors to document what they're telling me, and hope that all this helps with my next court hearing, which will likely be at the beginning of the new year.

Just wanted to share

Lots of things have happened lately.

My little bestie....aka my niece, has begun kindergarten.  Fortunately, that doesn't mean the end of our playtimes, so I'm happy about that.  Unfortunately, I've had several colds and don't want her to miss school, or make my parents sick either, so I have missed a few things.  I was working on a costume for pretty much a year, getting this and that for it, and am a little sad because tomorrow was going to be the big reveal, but I don't want to make the ladies sick, some are fairly old.....90+ and if they caught cold there's no telling how badly they would get it.  I may still do a blog reveal of the outfit since it was to be tomorrow anyway, but I'm undecided as to how soon I'll be doing it, I'm still thinking about that :P.

For my niece I got her a going to school present, and since she's told me stories about daycare etc, I told her it's a friend she can talk to and tell about her days when no one else is there to listen and hopefully it will be a good friend to her for many years until she can properly write in her joural.  She's learning so much so fast and I'm very pleased that she's got a good will and desire to learn.  I'm not sure what she's named her new friend but I'll share her for you.

Also, my sister had a birthday party that same day so I got her a gift as well.  I will share that, and also share some pretty neat things she's been doing.  It's nice to see her being so creative!

I think she liked it, she started coloring in it right away.  It was a pretty big book, which was nice so there's lots to color!  If you're looking to see if you or someone else is interested in beginning this as a hobby, or stress relief etc, these little packs are a good way to see if it's for you or a loved one.

There she is being pertiful and coloring LOL :P.  The creative things she's been doing I got to see firsthand when I was house sitting.  I think you'll be tickled to see them as well.  She's been painting rocks, and I guess you can even order rocks so you can paint them!  How fun, I'll share a few photos one of one of her rocks, I think she did an awesome job, and another of a package that came LOL.

The blue wasn't something she did, I did that to retain her anonymity though, I'm pretty sure it'd be hard to find her without other info LOL, but anyway, I thought others would like to have some creative ideas.  The bottom picture is of the package that came, it was full of rocks LOL.  I think she might have a few to paint!

Happy coloring, painting etc......oh yes, also I got my sis, mom and niece a set of water colors and paintbrushes, so I'm looking forward to seeing what they can do with those!