21 days remaining!

Hard at work, and it's coming right along! I worked on the mask the last two days- which, again, I'm attempting to create from the bodysuit's formerly-attached hood. For starters, I began hacking away at the mask (yes, while it was on my face.. terrifyingly dumb in retrospect but all my hairs survived!) and was ironically held up for a spell while my cat vied for my attention.

When that was finally done it came time to add the stitches. As promised, I attempted to do research on the best method of making stitches or stitch looking things on spandex without causing it to tear when stretched. As it turns out, I'm a crappy googler, so I had to figure it out myself. I am too scared of sewing up my suit and having it rip on my body at the show and I suspected that puffy paint would be really likely to tear or compromise stretch, so I bought two white markers- one a sharpie oil-based paint marker and the other a run of the mill white fabric marker. I tested them both on a rare piece of scrap fabric.

The oil-based paint faded significantly while the fabric marker stayed bright and bold. So I decided it would look the most realistic (as a marker can look) if I used the light sharpie to create the faux seams and the bright fabric marker to make the stitches. Combine that with a little bit of makeup..

I'm actually really pleased with the result, but now I'm unsure of how I'm going to create ears. I had planned on making a headband with two pointy pieces of plastic and wearing it underneath to push up the fabric, but my test of this process didn't show great promise. We shall see. I certainly need to work on my makeup and buy a whole new lipstick because that stage production cheap red is beyond atrocious... but hey, it's getting there! 

I suppose I'm feeling extra chatty tonight, so I'll semi-outline my diet and working out regimen. I wake up early in the morning every day (that's the important part, because once you let yourself off the hook one time, it dominoes into slacker mode), eat a little piece of toast or something with a bottle of water and do 20-30 minutes hard cardio. After that I do alternating legs or arms exercises every other day and around 300 sit-ups or several minutes worth of planks. It's not the most intense workout, but it's simple enough that I know I can stick with it.

For diet... well I'm a total foodie and I can't feasibly deny myself that much, so I'm just trying to focus on portion control. Absolutely no snacking, and eating whatever I want for meals, but just until I'm content and not over-the-top-bloated like I used to. All eating stops after 6:00 because my activity generally subsides a lot after then too. And, as much as it grieves me, limiting myself to one TaB a day and making the rest of my drinking of water.

And so it goes! Excuse the run-on sentences and comma splices, I get a little overly excited when it comes to costuming and my poor diction shows it!