Review: F.A.C.T.S. 2012 in Ghent

Hello everyone! =)

Today I want to take a short break from Christmas. I bet you all are quite annoyed by it, right? No escape of Christmas songs, cookies, and so on. And buying all presents, of course. So I just want to skip the Christmas thing for now and tell you about my stay at F.A.C.T.S. a couple of weeks ago.

First some basic information: The F.A.C.T.S. is an annual convention in Ghent, Belgium, dealing with comics, sci-fi, fantasy and japanese cartoons. A dear friend of mine - using the pen name Calssara - was invited as a Guest of Honour and she asked me whether I would like to accompany her. And well, what should I say? Of course I said yes, because I just love travelling and I love seeing different places. And I was a bit curious about the other guests. I studied the website of F.A.C.T.S. and found a list of invited actors, writers, etc. Maybe you know Norman Reedus, Sean Patrick Flanery, Lauren Cohan or Charles Dance - just to name some. To sum up the guests where people related to The Walking Dead, Vampire Diaries, Game of Thrones and many more. I tried to get an autograph for a friend, but the queue was just too long. So after a short time I lost interest and moved on to he food station. Since we were in Belgium we had to try the waffles - and wow, Belgium waffles are the best I ever ate. They were even served warm. Paradise! ♥
All in all you could compare F.A.C.T.S. to the RingCon in Bonn, Germany. I guess. I have never been there, but friends of mine. And they told me.

source: Calssara's FB page

Now I want to tell why my friend Calssara was invited. As you may have noticed she is neiher a movie star nor a novel writer. She is a costume artist. She makes all of those costumes herself and with some she participates in international contests. She was chosen twice as a German represantative for the World Costume Play Summit in Nagoya, Japan, and once for the European Costume Play Gathering in France, where she won the first price. This is the link to her website. I think you should pay a visit, because seeing her in her beautiful costumes is always better than just read about it. At the F.A.C.T.S. she was one of the three judges for the costume contest.







The pictures below show some of the participants and winners. Do recognize any character? =)
Have you ever thought about dressing up as one of those characters? For carnival or another event? Come on, guys, tell me - don't be shy! ;)

source: Calssara's FB page

source: Calssara's FB page

Love,
J.


EDIT:
I was asked to upload some more pictures - well, here they are! :)
All photos were taken by Calssara.

 

 

 

 

 

 

How to: Christmas Stocking

Hello everyone! =)

Just as promised: here's my little "How to make a Christmas stocking" tutorial. I made a very plain stocking, the basic version or so you might say. Of course you can add further decoration or accessories :) Instead of a long speech I want to show you the pictures I took while sewing.

Christmas Stocking Tutorial

 What you will need:

• sweets! Lots of. And maybe some healthy stuff ;) Your stocking has to be filled afterwards
• fabrics (I recommend using felt. It's very easy to sew plus you don't need to cast the edges, because it does not fray. But you can also use jute or something similar)
• scissors
• fixing pins
• needle and thread
• glue (better use the white adhesive for handicraft work. It will become transparent when dried. Other glue might leave stains on the fabric)
• pencil or marker
• decoration

Draw the shape of a stocking unto the fabric. I used red felt. You can get felt (and jute) in every fabric shop as cut goods and sometimes in craft shops in form of a small sheet. I bought my felt in a local craft shop for 0,40 EUR a sheet.

Try to use as much space of your sheet/fabric as possible. Note: when you sew them together and turn it over afterwards the capacity of the stocking will shrink.

Fix the one side of the cut stocking with pins on the fabric and cut the second part.

Now we need the typical white edge of the stocking. Put the red felt part on the white fabric (you can also use fake fur to make the stocking extra fluffy) and mark the edges. You will need two white trimmings - one for each side of the stocking.

Glue or sew the trimming onto the outside of your stocking. As recommended earlier use handicraft adhesive to prevent stains on material.

If you want to hang your stocking apply a pull strap. Just sew it in the back of your stocking.

Once you applied both trimmings, put both sides on top of each other. Make sure the trimming is inside, this is very important. Otherwise you will have the wrong side on the outside.

Fix both sides with pins and sew them together. I used my sewing machine, because I am a bit lazy. Sewing by hand is also okay, it will just need a little bit more time. Leave a span of roundabout 0.5-1.0 centimeters to make sure you sew both sides. Of course this span can be shorter, if you worked more careful beforehand.

Afterwards cut back the seam allowance and turn the inside out. Then iron your stocking.

After you are finished with ironing your stocking is supposed to look like this. Now it is time to apply all the decoration! Better put a paperboard inside, if you want to glue. This way the stocking can't stick together by accident ;)

Et voilà: your Christmas stocking is finished! Now fill it with the stuff you like the most.

In case you made your stocking bigger, you can use it as a cute packing for Christmas presents, too. A good book, jewelry or a perfume might fit inside as well ;)

I hope this tutorial was useful for you. How do you like it? Was it easy to understand? Or maybe it motivated you to make a Christmas stocking yourself? Please give me feedback so I can improve.

I wish you a happy and pleasant St Nicholas' Day! <3

Love,
J.

Little Announcement: St Nicholas' Day

source: http://www.business-cloud.de

Hello everyone! =)

The reason I'm writing this entry is a small announcement. I did a bit of brainstorming and instead of telling you about Santa Clause costumes and so on, I just want to show you a small DIY tutorial. Unfortunately I did not have any chance to hop into a fabric shop last week, so I will try to do so tomorrow. I want to show you how to make Christmas socks for sweets and little presents. So make sure to stay tuned! ;)

As you may have noticed: today is 2th December. The first advent. Are you already in Christmas mood? Sadly I am not. Some friends on Twitter tweet about their stays at Christmas markets, the first snow and Christmas songs on the radio. Until now I have not experienced any of these this year. Sure - there is sooo much time left until Christmas, but I'm a bit scared I might miss Christmas mood again this year.

Time to prepare a couple of plans to prevent this:
- baking Christmas cookies with a dear friend while listening to Rolf Zuckowski
(Okay - that was a bit embarassing... but honestly: there can't be Christmas without Rolf. Have to listen to his Christmas songs every year again and again. I still own two CDs. Is there somebody out there who knows him? And listen to his songs during Christmas time just like me? In case you don't know about whom I talking, click this link ;D)
- Christmas market! Eat and drink a lot of the good there: candied almonds, hot wine punch and so on
- Christmas themed movies (Christmas Vacation, Merry Christmas/Joyeux Noël, Home Alone, ...)

Do you have an recipe to get into Christmas mood? Please tell me! ♥

Love,
J.

Fascination: Costuming

source: http://www.bellaumbrellablog.com

 
Hello everyone! =)

Today I was thinking about which topic I should blog and millions of ideas popped into my mind. I was thinking about fabric suggestions, more musical stuff, costumes for children, etc. but in the end I decided on a rather simple, but 'close' topic.

What is so damn fascinating about costuming?

To be honest: I actually don't know. I could speculate about possible reasons. Some may say escape from reality (which I think is nonsense), others might say it is more like kind of a game. But these are all very vague explanations. When I think about costuming the first think I remember is warmth. Or rather: being loved by my parents. Both my mum and dad put so much effort in creating a nicer world for me, when I was a child. Sounds magical? Well, for me, it was. When I was little, my dad always asked friends of his to disguise themselves as Saint Nicholas and Knecht Ruprecht. And everytime I was enjoying this special day, the sixth of December. Knecht Ruprecht was really scary, dressed in a black robe with his old and dusty rod. Nicholas was always kind-hearted. He reminded me a lot of my grandpa. Thinking back I imagine it was quite a procedure to organise this day every year again and again. But this indicates that they cared for me.
When I was old enough to attend the kindergarten my mum began to sew costumes for me. I could be just everything or everybody I wanted to be: a lion (oh, how I loved Simba the Lion King back then!), a fair princess or an evil witch. She spent weeks working on my costumes, but I treasured them. Watching old photos of those dresses and costumes still makes me feel nostalgic. I think that gives a pretty good impression why 'warmth' is the first thing for me when it comes to costuming.

Nowadays I grew too old for this stuff. Today I can make my own costumes for German carnival, Halloween and other festivities. It is a great opportunity to work creative. Sewing is something else than just drawing a design. When you draw something it is caught on paper - but when you sew a dress or a costume, it really bursts into life. You have the power to create something new with your very own hands. For me that is the most fascinating part.

I know that there are millions of other reasons to start costuming, sewing or crafting, since there are millions of different people carrying millions of different emotions. So please tell me, why did you start?

Love,
J.

Everyone has danced with Death

... but no one like Elisabeth.

source: musical-in.de

This time I want to tell you about a huge passion of mine: musicals. I just love the singing and the gorgeous dresses and costumes. Until now I have only seen three different musicals, which were Elisabeth, Wicked and Dance of the Vampires. Not that many, but I think next year Tarzan and The Lion King will follow, if my pouch allows it. Just to make things clear: I prefer the German versions. It's just a matter of personal taste. In my opinion the lyrics and intonation sound way better than in English - so I will link German versions and talk about the German actors/singers. But -just as I said - it's a matter of personal taste ;)

I have seen at the beginning of this year, so my memory is a bit blurry but I'll try to give you a nice overview on the Elisabeth musical, which is about Elisabeth (also known as Sissi), the wife of Franz Josef II. The musical focuses mainly on an imagined lifelong flirtation with Death himself (in disguise of a handsome young man called "Der Tod"- German for "death") and Elisabeth's constant need for independence, often at the cost of her loving husband and her hypersensitive son Rudolf, who commits suicide later on. It is narrated from beyond the grave by Luigi Lucheni, the Italian anarchist who assassinated her in 1898.

The thing I like the most in this musical are the costumes. Every time you can see Sissi she is wearing another dress. At the beginning they are rather plain, but become more and more luxurious and detailed when Elisabeth too becomes more powerful. Another small detail that caught my audience was that Elisabeth ages visibly (due to make-up) during the musical. At the beginning she looks pretty and young and in the end there are acutally wrinkles in her face and she looks worn out.

Elisabeth dancing with her husband Franz Joesf.
source:dermuenchenblog.de

If became curious and you want to check out the musical, you should pay YouTube a visit. You can watch the entire musical there - even in different languages. But I recommend to watch it live. Musicals develope some kind of magic and strength when you experience them in person. You just can't compare it to a video. Anyways, here is the prologue for a first peep:

Fun fact: There is even a Japanese version of the musical, did you know that?
Have anyone of you seen Elisabeth? How do you like it? What do you think about musicals in general? Don't hesitate to tell me! :)

Love,
J.

The eleventh of eleventh

Soon the 'fifth season' will start in Germany. In many towns - the most popular are Dusseldorf and Cologne I bet - the commencement is about to begin at 11.11, the eleventh of November. This time is called 'Fastnachtsbeginn' and will initiate the carnival festivities troughout Germany. From this point carnival parades start and continue until the actual festive days in February next year. There is a short winter break around Christmas but after that parades and parties will take place again. The biggest parties are on 'Weiberfastnacht' (07. 02) and 'Rosenmontag' (11.02).

To be honest: I'm not that much of a carnival nerd and don't know anything about the historical backgrounds and very little about some customs. In my hometown parades are almost not celebrated at all and the festive events become less and lesser every year. The only constant are the 'Kamelle' - candy so to say - that are distributed among the festival goers. I bet they use the remaining candy every year... because that is how they taste like: old and rock-hard. Sadly there is not the slightest atmosphere and spirit of carnival.
Until now I was in Cologne once or twice with a friend to celebrate carninal and it was an entirely different world. The people but so much effort into their costumes - really! There are almost no people in improvised costumes or clothing. The entire outfit was carefully planned in detail. They even bring more than just one costume for the parties. It's the same like in the real life: you can't wear the same outfit over and over again when going out. You simply have to bring something new with you. Trust me: when you wear your normal clothes among costumed party people you feel like an outcast. You feel like you don't belong there. You feel dull and grey. So at least put on striking make up to stand out a little and become one with the party group.
Surrounded by all those great costumes you instantly catch fire and become infected by the carnival celebration virus. It is a great feeling standing in the midst of a group of Ghostbusters while being invited to a drink by Jack Sparrow. If you have the opportunity you should celebrate carnival in one of Germany's strongholds: it's definitely worth a trip.

carnival in Cologne - source of image: deutsch-heute.blogspot.de

Pumpkin, pumpkin

Hello everyone!

It's been a couple of days since Halloween and I'm awfully sorry for not posting earlier. But I guess you all know the procedure after a good Halloween party: cleaning, cleaning and more cleaning. And then sleeping. Like forever.

To sum up Halloween was really great! Tob, a dear friend of mine, made his famous and super tasty nacho salad. It's not that kind of salad you could call super-healthy - but in my opinion this is the perfect salad for a party. Sure there is plenty of iceberg lettuce in it and corn, too, but also some more lusty stuff like minced meat, kidney beans and of course nachos. It's super delicious! You can also add onions, cheese, sour creams or ingredients like that. You should try it! Click this link for a recipe in English.

world's best nacho salad!

All in all we had so much food to eat. I made a noodle plate, Melle made Wan Tan (Oh- I have to ask her for the recipe. They were sooooo good!), Rieke and Randi made a huge bowl with pineapple and lots of alcohol in it and some nice finger foods.

Finger food... I think this gives it an entirely new meaning.

Bibi made this gorgeous cake. The 'earth' are crumbled oreo cakes! Great, isn't it?

And when you think all we did was eating, then you are so damn right! I can't remember how much I ate but... I can remember my full and aching stomach in the morning. And a bit of the rest alcohol *cough*

To be honest we did a bit more except for the drinking and eating stuff. Randi and Tob showed us some very creepy and 'disturbing' horror games. 'Disturbing' only counts for Typing of the Dead, the worst zombie/apocalypse/whatever game ever developed. You shoot zombies with a keyboard while writing words and sentences that are displayed on the screen. Sounds strange? It really is... And I bet if we were more drunk this game would have been even more disturbing. The next games we played were Slender, Paranormal and SCP. And guys - if you honestly think that you are brave: play those games. You will shit bricks. Not kidding. We girls were so frightened. And screaming almost nonstop due to those f****** shock effects. Slender only lasts 20 or 30 minutes, so playing it won't take that long ;3 Here's a short trailer. Okay, I have to admit that the trailer is not that scary. But the game definitely is.

Last but not least I made a small collage to show you some more impressions and to prevent the hell of a picture spam.Unfortunately there are no goods pictures of me, because I totally messed up my make-up. I only had fifteen minutes to dress up and get my clothes packed... I was in totaly stress and well... it ended up no good. Maybe there is some free time next week to make up for the missing photo of me :)

Ah, I almost forgot! Since this is my very first time blogging, I feel the constant fear that Iwill run out of ideas or my blog entries are boring - so tell me please what do you think about this blog? What do you want to see? The next blog entry will deal with the upcoming carnival season in Germany.

Love, J.

Are you dead yet?

Hello everyone!

Halloween is in roundabout a week. So, there are seven days left to get a nice costume or to apply scary make-up. Sounds like much time for organizing a costume? Well, it isn’t. 

To start with I had several problems with organizing my costume. At first I wanted to dress up as Red Riding Hood (a bloody version of course!), but I couldn’t any affordable costume off this. Then I decided to make one myself, because you don’t need that much stuff: a red skirt and cape, a white blouse and maybe a black or brown belt around the waist. Too bad I had nothing of those things in my closet and no time to go and get them at a shop. So I had to switch to the next plan: a piratess costume. I found a nice one on Ebay and insta-bought it. After a day I got a message. They said they were terrible sorry, since this item is not on stock. Jesus. So my final plan is plan c and I really hope this one will turn out good. The upcoming costume will be a little secret until next week, because I want to take some pictures and maybe make a small make-up tutorial. It’s nothing big, but I hope you will like it nevertheless. So keep your fingers crossed for me. Otherwise…  I’ll have to take a bath in fake blood. Or something like that.

You see? Spending a couple of thoughts on a Halloween costume – it can never be too early! For next year I want to start at the beginning of October. Or even better: September. So you can make sure that you won’t end up costume-less.

When thinking about a good Halloween costume my first thought is always “What make-up should I use?” I spend some time on YouTube and found those great tutorials I want to show you. Essential for most of the tutorials is latex. You can buy it on the internet, get it in crafting shops and sometimes even in building centers. The German equivalent to “Kryolan” (which you can also buy on the internet) is “Eulenspiegel”. Every “Askania” or “Idee” shop has it :)

By the way, this is my favourite tutorial of this year. It is very easy to do. Everything you need is a zipper (dry goods store or 1-Euro-shops), latex, make-up. Maybe I try to do a make-up like this at the weekend. Just for testing. Don't you think trying different make-up looks like that one is fun?

 

Here is a make-up tutorial that pay attention to the beauty aspect, since there are a some people that surely are not keen on looking like 'crap' ;)

Oh- and if you don't have an idea for a creepy costume yet, watch this video.
I love the "ring" movies! In my opinion there is no scarier character as the drowned girl Samara. Years ago this movie scared the shit out of me. Watching it made me think I would die within a week. Oh, I was so sure of it... it's a miracle I survived ;) 

I think this costume is a great last minute solution. All you need is a worn out dress, a black wig and matching make-up. A good addresse for wigs in Germany is Kalz shop. Usually they send the goods after 2 or 3 days --> http://kalz-shop.de

Fun fact: Every time I watch this movie, my phone rings.

Coming up next: My costume for Halloween and some more tips and tutorials!

Frankfurt Bookfair: The Aftermath

As stated on Twitter a few days ago I went to Frankfurt last Sunday. Since I love writing and reading – journalism student and wannabe author detected! – it was quite obvious that I had to go there. And it really was a great experience. So many books and stuff! But before I get carried away I want to tell you something about the costumes I saw there, in the end it is the topic of my blog ;)

This year’s host was New Zealand, so it was obvious that there were many booths and contests dealing with NZ’s most popular saga: The Lord of the Rings. Or rather The Hobbit, because there will be a movie in the very near future. Unfortunately I was only there on Sunday, so I missed the Hobbit Look-a-Like contest they held a day before…
But I am not sad at all. When I went to the bookfair on Sunday I saw a bunch of kids, maybe around 7 or 8 years old, dressed up as little Frodo and Sam from LoTR. So cute! They even had some wool glued upon their feet matching the typical hairy feet of a hobbit. When I was rummaging around in my bag and looking for a camera, they already have disappeared in the very crowded area. So I decided that my following ‘phototour’ had to be more organized. I never let go off my camera from that point.

When wandering around the exhibition grounds I saw many people in costumes and they told me that they are waiting for the DCM to start. So I became curious. They explained that the DCM is short for Deutsche Cosplay Meisterschaft, in English: German Costume Play Championship. The people participating have to sew their own costumes according to a reference of an existing fictional character. Video games, movies, cartoons, bands and comic characters are allowed. Later the participants had to perform on stage. And they also can win nice prizes: coupons from several publishers and crafting materials, tickets to conventions including the stay at a hotel and stuff. The first prize is a trip to Japan (since the contest is strongly related to Japanese comics as well).

Here are some photos I took during watching the contest:

Two girls dressed up as characters from the Japanese comic "Trinity Blood"

As Katniss and Cesar from the Hunger Games series

Bubble Head Nurse and Pyramid Head from Silent Hill

 All in all it was a quite interesting experience. The participants put so much effort in their costumes and at some point I couldn’t believe everything was self-made (but it really is – they have judges who check this very strictly), all of the participants looked stunning. Sometimes I wish I could be as skilled as they are. I’m sure I won’t have a problem finding a good costume for Halloween then… which will be by the way one of the following entrys! <3

Love,

J.

P.S. If you are interested I can upload some more pictures of the contest - so please tell me! :)

The Birth of a Blog

Hello everyone!

Thank you so much for having a look at my new blog. It's still a bit blank and the design is not final - aside from all the lacking content. But I eager to fill this site pretty soon with some useful information.
This blog will deal with:
- costume tips i.e. concerning Halloween, Christmas or the German carnival season
- make-up tips (of course no "how to apply concealer?", rather "how to create wounds or scars?")
- easy to understand tutorials when it comes to DIY stuff

Feel free to contact me for critics, feedback or even suggesstions you want to see on this blog! :)

For news and some random but entertaining blah check out my Twitter account:
http://twitter.com/keytoneverland
So you can make sure not to miss an entry

Well~ thanks for reading this very first posting and please stay tuned for the interesting stuff.

Kindest regards ♥