How my kids challenged my skills this Halloween; or how to make armor from craft foam Part 3 The Final Results!

Ok so if you have followed along thus far, you've seen all of the steps I used in making this year's Halloween costumes.  I finally had time to get the kids back into their outfits and take some nice pictures in the woods behind our house. I'll post the screenshots here as well so you can see a comparison. Enjoy!!

Lily as Twilight Princes Zelda!

Screenshot for Zelda

Twilight Princess Zelda

Colton as Link from Twilight Princess Zelda

Screenshot from Twilight Princess Zelda

Link from Twilight Princess Zelda

And Austin as Ezio Auditore da Firenze

Screenshot from Assassin's Creed II

Austin as Ezio

One final shot of the kids.

Halloween 2013

How my kids challenged my skills this Halloween; or how to make armor from craft foam Part 2

So we left off with Link's Tunic and Hat........I forgot to mention that I used the most awesome spray adhesive to glue all the different armor pieces and details together.

Now on to Austin's choice of character. Ezio Auditore da Firenze from Assassin's Creed II. Here is the screenshot I found online that gave a good view of the basic armor set for this character. The items that were most important for Austin were the hood, the cape, the bracer, and the belt/sash.

Since I was already working with craft foam for Colton and Lily's costumes I started with the belt buckle and bracer first. The bracer is from an "upgrade" armor set not the one in the picture above. The cape we chose was also an upgrade that was black with a red liner. here's a good pic of the bracer.

I didn't find nearly as many or as detailed tutorials online for this character as I did for Link and Zelda, but I did find some that were helpful:

• Ezio cosplay tutorial
• Ezio Belt Buckle
• Ezio Bracer Templates
• Ezio Bracer final pic
• Ezio Hood Pattern

Using the same techniques as the shoulder armor for Zelda, I created this bracer using the templates in the link above.

After this I riveted the "leather" part of the bracer to a piece of faux leather fabric. I tried to use eyelets to allow for leather lacing to tie the bracer onto the arm, but the eyelets wouldn't work, so I just threaded the lacing under the craft foam piece and tied it onto the arm that way.

For the second bracer I just cut a piece of foam, sealed and painted it black. Then I drew a design from a template I made off a picture I found online. I used silver puff paint to fill in the scored design.

The belt piece was a lot of fun to create. First I used this picture to create a template to draw off of:

I edited it in picasa to get a line drawing I could trace by taping it up to the window. Once I had that i cut it apart and cut out the separate pieces you see in the unpainted picture of the buckle below.

 I used the same basic technique as in the second link above. I used a ball point pen in black to draw/score the details into the foam. 

Sealing it with the same glue/decoupage mixture as the other armor I then started with a coat of black paint. Then I did a few coats of sliver paint, rubbing it out of the scored details. Finshed with a watered down coat of black to really make the details stand out and make the buckle look more like it was made out of silver metal.

The cape was another challenge, but I found using the craft foam riveted to faux leather to make the shoulder armor allowed me to sew the cape onto the shoulder piece.  I attached the belt to a piece of red satin. Here's Austin modeling the belt and cape for me.

After a trial run of the costumes as the school's harvest fest, we realized that the cape wasn't as sturdy, so I redid it adding more rivets and faux leather to hold it all together.

The most challenging part of Austin's costume was the hood. It is very iconic and quite specific in design. There were a number of patterns online, but when I used them the effect wasn't right. So, I decided to create my own pattern using the screen shot above.

I spent quite a bit of time taking measurements from the picture and scaling it up to make a usable pattern. I found that using heavy interfacing in the band and point around the opening of the hood gave it the same stiff appearance from the screenshot. Sadly some how the paper pattern pieces have gone missing in the chaos following trick or treating or I'd post pictures of them here. Here are the front and side views of the finished hood:

I ran out of time, so I wasn't able to finish the jacket that the hood should have been attached to.  I choose to tack it to the shirt Austin would wear instead, and I think it made a good substitution. The shirt is from last year's Legolas costume. I made it from an off the rack shirt I found at Goodwill (notice a trend here?) that I replaced the sleeves on with fabric taken from a shower curtain!

When it was all said and done I think the whole costume turned out rather well! See part three for pictures of the kids in their finished costumes!

Just spend the last hour reading my old LiveJournal posts. It was started when we still lived in TX, and just before we moved up here to Portland.

I am so glad I recorded my thoughts. So much of what we went through, so many little joys, so many moments of sadness. All there for when my memory becomes dull. I enjoyed this trip down memory lane and I thought you guys might too, so the next few blog posts will actually be reposts from my Live Journal.

Here are a couple of my favorites:

life in the Miller Zoo

October 6th, 2004

Well today was your typical day in a monkey cage.

Except the monkeys are named Austin and Colton. I swear children must be preprogramed with a scream that is created for the sole purpose of driving their mothers insane. Fighting, pushing, crying, whining, and general chaos. ALL DAY. ARGH! And I am having another. I think I really am insane. Austin just doesn't get the idea of leaving his brother alone. And Colton goes up and whacks Austin for no apparent reason. I think it's payback for something Ausitn did and Colton just waits for the "right moment" to attack LOL.

It is days like today when I force myself to find the cute and the funny in my kids. One thing about Austin is that he is really helpful. Even though his helpfulness caused him to pull his little brother out of his high chair into a heap on the floor! I heard the scream and came running out of the bathroom (hence the reason Colton wasn't out of the chair yet) to see Colton on top of Austin crying his eyes out, and Austin crying louder!

Colton is sweet. He will come running to kiss you if you hurt yourself, and will try to comfort Austin if he is crying. He is also starting that wonderful independent streak that starts around 18 months! His favorite word is "no", which he usually is screaming at the top of his lungs at his brother. He likes to eat still, but is starting to be a little more picky (sigh) about what he will and won't eat.

At least I have a smart husband who made me take the heathens for a walk to the park when he got home today. The walk was fun and I got over my general irritation with them. On the way we saw two slugs **EeWWW***!!! that were very facinating to Austin and totally grossed me out. When we got there we met a little boy who was wearing the exact same shoes as Austin. Needless to say they were instant friends! I just hope we see him again next time we go. He and his sister were there with their nanny, and she said that they are usually there midweek at that time.

On the way back Austin got all worried about it raining on us, since the sun had gone behind some clouds, and I had chosen to leave the umbrellas at home. He is going to have to get over that! Getting rained on is part of life up here, or so I am told.

One good thing is that he is no longer worried about Mt. St. Helens. He understands that she is just "letting off steam" and we are safe. I am proud of my quick thinking and creative parenting on this one! I used my tea kettle to explain to him what was happening! Smart mama am I *grin*.

I have appointment number 2 with a 2nd midwife tomorrow. The first one went well and if I have to have another hospital birth I will go with that person. If however I can get our insurance to pick it up I really want to have this one at home. We shall see.

Ok off to bed to rest for tomorrow's events!

preggo update

April, 21 2005

Lets see I am 34 wks 1 d if you go by the ultrasound. I measured just shy of 35 cm at my appointment on the 19th, and I have been so consistently measuring a week ahead it is hard for me to think I might actually go to my EDD. I hope not.
I am still a little worried about what to do with the boys when I go into labor. If it is during the day I think they will be ok at the birthcenter and my MW's assistant even said as long as I am not crowning she can help keep them entertained. And they just got a DVD player and said that we can bring movies for them to watch as well. If it is in the middle of the night I am worried about it. They may not go back to sleep once we get there, and I really feel like I need DH by my side as much as possible. I am really hoping labor and delivery will happen while my inlaws are here, but just in case got the number for the volunteer/student doula coordinator at Birthingway Midwifery College, so I can get set up to have a student doula for free. They can come in the middle of the night to the center and either be with me if DH is needed for the boys or be with the boys.

I am enjoying the movements and playing with little girl as she poke her feet out of my sides. She is so big already! Her feet are in my ribs and her head is definitely down on my cervix. She is also anterior with her back on my left side. Although she tends to spin around on her head like a top during the day.
The heartburn isn't nearly as bad now that I am taking papaya enzymes after each meal, and liquid calcium/magnesium every night before bed. I also switched prenatals to the RainbowLight brand and they are awesome! I have more energy and I don't burp them like other vits.
Ok off to go fold laundry again!

37 weeks and counting. . . . .

May 12th 2005

Well I can officially have the baby any day now and she will be ok. MW's were worried about my weight gain at my May 5th appointment as I had lost about 1/4 of a pound, but on the 10th I had gained 2 lbs so all is well.
I am anxious for her to arrive, and starting to get restless. I don't sleep so much as snooze off and on all night long. Due to my need to pee every hour and the contrax every 20mins! I hope things get going within the next week or so. My FIL will be here on the 20th so after that would be a good time so that the boys can be with Grandpa.

The boys are awesome even if they annoy me most of the time. I am thinking it is the pregnancy not the kids LOL. I was in such a foul mood yesturday that Marc kicked me out of the house right after dinner and told me not to come home until 10. So, I went to my knitting group, and then to Barnes and Noble. I felt a lot better when I got home!

Here's hoping today is a good day! We are supposed to have nice weather so I think I am going to pack up the boys and my kntting and head to the park.

MORE to come!!!!

Ok so posting blogs w/ pictures via Picassa has it's downside, aparently I can only post 4 pics per blog, so here are some more of our day at Daytona Beach in January. If you read the previous post you know that Austin was very reluctant to go into the ocean. As you can see from this picture, once I coerced him into sticking his toe in, it did not take him long to be jumpin waves and having a ton of fun.











Now this was the way I expected to see Austin! Soaked and smiling! In the end he was very happy that he decided to go ahead and get in the waves. He loved the Florida beach, but said that he likes the Pacific just as much. Not surprising as he is definitely my water boy!


Colton also had a great time. He told me that he liked the Florida beach "way better" than the Oregon one, because the water was a lot warmer, and because we could park right on the beach and not have to hike to get to it. Colton found a star fish and some shells that were really neat.









Lily had a lot of fun. Running from waves, and digging for shells. We found a lot of cool things. Lots of little angel wing clams (scallops I have no idea), and a crab claw.


In the end this is one thing I really miss about Florida. While I love the ocean (any ocean) and will take what I can get. Sunny and warm is how a beach should be!

Saddness abounds....

We found out a few hours ago that Marc's step-dad, Bruce, passed away from heart failure. He was in the hospital following brain surgery to remove what they though was a cyst, but turned out to be a cancerous tumor. The surger was the 26th and everything seemed to be going well. He was eating, up moving around, took steps today in PT, and generally progressing in a very optimistic fashion. The heart failure was sudden and a huge surpise. We are all very sadden by this loss.
I'm heartbroke for Marc's mom. I just can't imagine what it must feel like. She wants us all to come out to Orlando, so we will be booking flights asap. We hope to leave Sunday afternoon if the flights I found tonight are still available in the morning. We are planning to stay as long as Donna needs us there, a week at minimum. Marc was 5 when they married, so Bruce was very much a 2nd father figure for him.
I'm a bit concerned about talking to the kids about this. I have an idea of what to say, and how to answer any questions that might come up, but you can never know how this will affect children. Poppa was the grandap they were all the closest to, and who they had spent the most time with. I can't predict how they will take it, so I have to be ready for any eventuality.
Please keep the family in your thoughts and prayers as we deal with this loss.