Just a little head

My husband and his friends go to Otakon, an Anime Convention, every year and I've always been invited to join them. Usually I don't go to conventions unless I'm able to cosplay. When else besides Halloween can I walk around in crazy costumes and have people not think I'm weird? (I mean, besides the people that know me personally.)

Unfortunately, I haven't had the time to sit down and really work on an awesome costume until now. With the house more organized and most of our boxes unpacked, I'm running out of excuses. I decided to try and work on an insanely hard cosplay outfit, based off a video game I fell in love with a couple years ago.

Don't tell my husband. . . 

In the game, Fred Neuman a murdered private investigator is reanimated by a scientist to find his killer Ulysses Pitt, a mob boss who runs Hope Falls, New Jersey. The scientist is forced by Ulysses to give Fred's head up, but he's able to save the brain, eyes, and body from being tossed. As Fred moves through the game, he's able to collect other heads that endow him with different abilities. It's a dark comedy game that takes a lot of humor from the detective noir movies from the 1940's. The best part of the game is that Fred is voiced by John C. McGinley, who played Dr. Cox in the TV show Scrubs. His voice acting abilities really adds a lot of humor to such a dark premise! 

Anyhoo, back to the outfit. Making a cosplay of a person with a brain in a jar is a lot of work, so I'll try to keep you posted on my progress as I go along. So far I've been able to finish a prop for the costume that I'm going to carry around with me. In the game he collects a shrunken head that enables him to shrink to fit through small compartments. 

It's super creepy with the eyes open

I looked online for a base that I could use to start the process. There were a couple different variations of plastic shrunken heads online (surprisingly). They all required a bit of work to get it looking the way I wanted, so I bought the cheapest one (in case I messed up the first time).

Not even close

You can see how much work was needed to make this head look like the shrunken head in the game. I removed the hair and cords first so I had a blank slate to work with. Carefully using a xacto knife I removed the nostrils of the nose and shaved down the bridge of the nose.

I had to find a clay that would air dry, but still be bendable with the soft plastic the head was made of. I used the Creatology Air Dry Clay from Michaels. This clay may not be good for some projects, but it's good when you require a non-toxic clay that can be glued and painted when dry. This clay will usually require glue when adhering it to other surfaces.

I usually use yarns when I'm working on hair in projects because it's a lot cheaper and plentiful. Now that there are so many varieties of yarn out there, most people should be able to find a similar texture or size for the project they need. I did make the mistake of not bringing a picture of the shrunken head with me when I went perusing through the yarn aisle. The yarn I ended up buying served the purpose pretty well, but wasn't as similar as this perfectionist wanted.

Close, but no cigar

After a couple of hours of working with the shrunken head, I finally got it to the point where it looked as close as I could make it.

You talkin' to me?

I was happy that I was able to get the angry look that the shrunken head has in the video game. Since he's really no bigger than the palm of my hand I didn't go for as many details as the head has in the video game. I cut out a lot of wrinkles and the cheekbones so I could start on the other parts of the cosplay. I usually like to try and make all my crafts as close I can and it was difficult for me to put it down and move on.

Here's a side by side comparison of the heads so you can see how close I got it!

 If you squint your eyes really hard you can see it 

Once I'm done with a few more items in the cosplay I'm going to go back and add some more hair to it. When I was working on it, I cut out the extra layer to save some time, but he really does need it. I'll update the post with the extra hair once I add it. 

Repotting seedlings

I started planning for my garden a little early this year. Because my husband and I moved into a new house over the winter, I wasn't sure how the new surroundings would affect my plants. I started sowing the seeds in a little plastic seedling greenhouse in our kitchen, and boy they have grown!

Okay, I admit it, this isn't the plant.

A lot of them have already grown past the point where they should have been repotted, but I've been busy unpacking and setting up the house. Since I didn't want to kill them before they even had a chance to really live, it came down to a do or die situation this weekend. . . at midnight.

In Virginia, the soil isn't ready yet for planting anything (it's still a little too cold and windy) and I need a few more weeks before moving them outside. I bought some larger seedling pots to house the new plants, in hopes of buying myself a little more time. 

My hero

These starter pots are a lot better for big seedlings, and are usually about the size of a 3-inch terra cotta pot. The seedlings were growing in a 1-inch plot of soil, so these pots will still run a little large for them. When you're repotting plants, it's usually best to move to a pot that is an inch bigger than the pot it was in previously (depending on the type of plant). This gives the plant room to grow it's roots, while still focusing on leafing and blooming. If you put it in too big of a pot, it'll spend all it's energy in root growing.

I was only able to find biodegradable pots in the size I needed, so I figured out how to work with both pots. Before you start working on anything, you'll want to trim off the connecting tops of the biodegradable pots. Then start soaking them in water so they'll be nice and wet when you need them.

Using the soil, get it wet enough to be moldable. You want it to be a little clay-like in your hands to make sure you can manipulate it properly. Work with the soil until you're able to get it up on the sides of the pots, leaving the middle part open.

If it's a little crumbly near the top that's okay. 

You just want the bottom part to have a good amount of soil.

Now that the containers are ready, you can start pulling the biodegradable pots out of the water and putting them into the larger containers. If there doesn't seem to be enough space, pull them out and get the soil just right.

First try: Failed! 

You'll notice that my biodegradable pots aren't really wet enough. When you're repotting, you want to have a lot of moisture in the soil and with the plant. Repotting is a very stressful event for a plant to go through and the wetter the process the better. After they're successfully potted, you can usually give them almost a whole week before they need to be watered. That does depend on the plant, so you'll want to look at what it requires. (You'll get better on the water/soil ratio the more you do this.)

When you're finished with the biodegradable pots, use a toothpick/fork/sharp tool and poke a few holes around the sides of the cardboard. (You only need a few, and don't poke the bottoms!) 

From here you can start adding soil and moving the plants over one by one. Make sure to be super careful and make sure not to bury them in too much dirt. You want the roots to have room to grow.

Roomy

And a beauty shot:

That's a lot of cucumber

After the plants are successfully repotted. Add a little bit of water to the top of the soil and move them into a sunny location. I did this at night (really coming in under the wire) so they had to wait for sun until the morning. I had to improvise with the plastic spoons and sharpies too. I couldn't find my popsicle sticks in my boxes and this had to be done. They actually don't look bad though, so I may keep them as long as the sharpie holds up.

From the top (or side, or across the hall)

Beginning a blog is never easy, especially since I'm currently talking to no one.

Hello!

Nevertheless, I'm going to give it a shot!  As an avid crafter, most of my projects range from nerdy to super nerdy (with a little bit of normal thrown in).  I also enjoy cooking/baking, sewing, and gardening, so I may eventually cover a wider range of topics than just my geekery.  I've tried to record a lot of projects I've completed in the past in the hopes of eventually sharing them in a blog of my own.  I have boxes full of crafting supplies and many ideas shuffling around in my head, so hopefully I can share them with you!  That's right, I'm still talking to no one.

Since this is just an opening post, I'll try to keep it short. If you somehow find me in the sea of blogs and decide to stick around, please keep an eye out for future projects, posts, and more!