Some of my collecting and costuming-related gifts from this year.
To be honest, I wasn’t really much in the mood for the holidays. After the year I’ve had, I was just feeling a little “meh,” not to mention my poor husband has been working so much overtime. We don’t really know where the month of December went!
I did receive some very helpful and lovely gifts from my mother-in-law (Mary) and her brother (Bob), though!
I have not been able to do much with costuming at all, either historical or the dwarf projects, and I need to purchase tools and books for the latter.
Fortunately, I now have a little bit of a start.
Mary bought me a great book on make-up effects and hair/wig making (Special Makeup Effects, by Todd Debreceni), and Bob got me Basic Leathercrafting by William Hollis (some of Thorin’s costume pieces are made from leather).
Being able to get started on these things will be in the distant future still, but now I have the ability to read up on things and have a better understanding of what I will need. Maybe even start acquiring some of the tools. Who knows? I might even be able to do simpler things as practice… a dwarf lady, perhaps?
The other great gift is more of an inspirational piece. One of Thorin’s rings (the linked page has more information about the ring) from Mary. I will eventually have to make something for Christopher’s size since the replica will not work for him. At least it’ll be something nice for me to wear and display! And thanks to uncle Bob, I can listen to the soundtrack for Desolation of Smaug while I’m working on art or contemplating future costumes. 😉
It really helped brighten my spirits. I’m so thankful for that, and the help of getting these important references and inspiration pieces. I just love when family has fun seeing me get into fandom. 😉
I still need to do my end-of-year entry (I am so not in the mood to mess with it right now heheh), and I have been contemplating next year’s goals and projects. Feeling a little overwhelmed and slightly panicked, but hopefully I’ll be able to tackle some of those.
