New loves and New Projects

So, ever since the new trailer for Alice came out, I've been itching to do some Wonderland DIY. But what to do? I could always do some shrinky dinks, or sculpey some things and paint them, but I always seem to bust out accessories and I really want to make something to wear.

In comes THE dress. You've all seen it. It's the same dress that everyone and their mother is selling right now.... you know.. this one

Whether it has the three tiers or just a simple skirt, it EVERYWHERE!!!!!!!
And it looks so easy to make! Take a tank top, sew on an elastic waist band, use an old sheet for the skirt and voila! new dress.
The trouble for me is that I'm picky about my dresses. I don't like them above my knee, because I'm very modest (not to mention I have pasty white legs and icky knees). I also like to have sleeves, because it just feels weird to go sleeveless for me.
So, I can make this dress myself, and I figure I can make it MY way!
So here's my plan for my "Modern Alice" dress (keep in mind I'm not a sketch artist)

The White parts are white. The black parts are black. The gray parts are light blue.
So there it is, hopefully I can bring it to life soon.

And on the topic of dresses. OH! this one makes me want to travel back in time to Austen times and have tea in the garden

yes it's from Modcloth

In other news. My wonderful (and amazing artist too!!) right above me* cousin, Conner, introduced me to a new amazing musician, Zee Avi. Her voice is amazing!!!! And I love her songs.
My description of her song "Bitter Heart" was that I wanted to dress in 20's clothes, drink tea, and watch old home movies ( the kind with the faded color), and then going for a swim in a lake... all of which happening at a grand English estate.
Here it is:

She totally adds to my quirky 20's-ish kick right now.

I also learned one of her songs today on my ukulele, Ulysses.

Ahhh... I love it so much.

Also, Since I'm a poor college student now, I wasn't able to afford a Comic Con pass this year *heavy sob*
So I've been living vicariously through others and the news channels. I'm very fortunate to have it right here in my hometown, San Diego. It also pains me even more because everyday on my way to work in Coronado, I pass by the shiny bright convention center and stare at it with deep longing.
So I've been watching the local news covering it, but also I've stumbled upon vloggers on youtube who are going and updating. (AH!!!!)
Silly me, came upon one who sounded familiar, turns out he is friends with another vlogger who's videos I watched a while back ago because it was right after the beginnings of my Doctor Who obsession, and he happened to look like David Tennant.
Well, he was also pretty funny, and there was a whole group of people vlogging about their lives and such, and they all became friends!
Sounds like the mugglenet/mugglecast story about something like a book or technology bringing people together.
Anyways, It makes me want to vlog too. But then again, I already blog here. And I know I'm awful with editing video.... Remember the Rescue video I promised back in spring? Where is it? Sitting in my "Rescue" file, in my "Year one" file, waiting to be edited on iMovie. But I do love blogging.
Sometimes I even finish a blog entry and then want to do another one, just because it was so fun.
Awwww.... I'm such a nerd
WHY AM I NOT AT COMIC CON!!!!!

*sob* David Tennant is going to be there..... on Sunday...... DAVID TENNANT!!!! in SAN DIEGO!!!!!!!!!

And I have to work. Last show of 'The Fantasticks' that night. I'm trying to go see 'Godspell' after my show closes.....you see, 'Godspell' is playing at the Horton Grand. It's downtown. A block from the Convention Center.
I'll do anything to be close to it.

..... all I want is to see one storm trooper

-Brenna


* The cousin's on my Dad's side are pretty much in a line, separated by a year, almost a year, or a little over a year it goes as follows:
Kyle, Taran (my brother), Amber, Conner, Me, Anna, Nathaniel.
At a certain part of the year we all line up in age... the next line I think will be
24, 23, 22, 21, 20, 19, 18
Crazy huh?


..... okay, so I've edited this post about a thousand times now, adding more and more, because I've had more and more to say, but I didn't want to make a whole other post..... Anyways. I've been thinking about different ways I can create things and got myself out there in the world, because I know there's more for me out there.... and I've looked at all the different sites and things, and there's one that I have yet to give in to... so
Should I get a Twitter?
I'll prolly make it a poll..... even though no one reads this, so no one will probably answer.........
oh well

Teaser Trailer!!!!!

So just a bit ago I was gushing about how amazing the new Alice in Wonderland looks. and today the teaser trailer came out!!!

None of them can be embedded, so here's the link

The odd part is that it looks like Burton made Johnny Depp the main character. He is the Narrator, and maybe it's just the trailer. I know that just by having his voice on it instantly sells the movie to thousands of people. Just the title sells it to me and Burton makes it an instant classic. And Helena Bonham Carter, Alan Rickman, Anne Hathaway, Stephen Fry, and Christopher Lee (as the Jabberwock!!) just make me want to pee my pants from excitement.

I just found new pics on IMDB of some of the main characters!
The White Queen

The Red Queen (I love that she looks so butch in this pic, not at all a Queen stance!)

The Mad Hatter

and Alice

She's in her amazing victorian dress. If you pay close attention at the trailer she looses her dress when she drinks the "drink me" bottle, and has to create some sort of makeshift gown that was in this picture...

... that I had on my original AIW post.
then I believe any other dress she has is made for her by the Mad Hatter, as you can see him trowing bolts of fabric in the trailer.

Ahhhhhh!!!! I'm so excited. I'm going to have to start doing some Alice DIY to blow off the steam until March.
That seems so far away.
This weekend is Comic Con too..... I'm broke and couldn't afford a pass. But Burton's going to be there promoting his new film 9, and will have some Alice talk in the mix.
David Tennant will be there too..... *sigh*

Next year I will be there.
until then, don't mind my drool
-Brenna

Sad day in Daydream Land

I made my daily stop at Modcloth too heck out the new arrivals, and of course to drool over my favorites, and sad day.......



It's all gone!!!! It's just the same as when I saw this for the first time...

I signed up for them to notify me if the shoes are back in stock.... not that I'll be able to afford them, but it's still nice to know that maybe if I happen across an extra 30+ dollars to throw at shoes, I could be reunited with my loves.....

Another item I was saddened about today....


And just as I got my brother to sit down beside me and look!! He started gushing over all the new arrivals I was looking at on the site..... and I may have been heavily hinting at some of the particular items, seeing as my 20th Birthday is coming up in October :]

And a new awesome discovery!!!!

how amazing are these?!?!
I would totally wear these with my pair of black high top Cons.... that is if I had a pair of black high top Cons.....
I would fold the tops down and up, and down and up. And freak out everybody, and try to cause a few headaches :D

Well, my brother started reading aloud over my shoulder a bit ago..... so I'm going to sign off for now and try to lure him back into the wonderful world of Modcloth.
Wish me luck!
-Brenna

Wonderland

I am super excited for Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland. It comes out March 5, 2010. And I can tell you now, I may have to give in and see it right then instead of waiting for it to hit the dollar theater like I normally do.

Alice in Wonderland has always been one of my favorites. I love the books, and all the movies I've seen of it. Of course the Disney version, but I also really love the 1985 version (even though I find parts of it terrifying because of the jabberwocky and Carol Channing *shudders*)


And so far the images from the new version look AMAZING!!!


















And check out the older Alice look! I LOVE the costumes... some of them remind me of Joanna in Sweeney Todd




I'm glad it seem like Burton is making it more Victorian, but of course with a colorful twist.
I hope he kept the "drink me" bottle and "eat me" cakes. That's always been my favorite part of the story. I think it may have created my slight obsession with glass bottles.

If you haven't already read the original books, go do so now! The second is my favorite. And yes, there are two. Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Alice, Through The Looking Glass. Disney kinda' combined them but left out the cooler parts of the second one. It has amazing pieces of poetry. I've even memorized a few :]

Happy reading!
-Brenna

EDIT: the pics look a bit small, but you can click on them to see a larger view :]

DIY

There's not much for me to do during the days. I work at night, so all that's left is to sleep and clean. The former I most definitely do, and the latter I most definitely avoid. So, I DIY instead :] I surf the net for a good part of some days, go on my favorite online shops (we all know Modcloth is a good few hours for me) and look through fashion blogs to see what's up in the world of wear. And then I get to work.
Here's what I've come up with:
This baby is made out of one of my older brother's old tee shirts. I found the tutorial on the site Dollar Store Crafts

You can double it up too for a different look

And then ideas of what else to do with the shirt soon followed.
Which meant new headbands!!!! I cut up a bunch of these guys from the sleeve

And then I sewed an old scrunchy to one of them

I also cut out more strips and made a braided headband that I saw at H&M last week, it was about $3 there, but free for me!

I also started making Shrinky Dinks!!
This one I made when I went over to my friend's, Amber, house. She started me on Shrinky Dinks

Then I got home and pulled out all of my sheets of the stuff and got to work!


This one is inspired by the most adorable pair of glasses known to man, and where can you buy them? Modcloth of course!

Then I took an entire sheet of SD and tried to make a life size pair, they're almost there, just need to be a bit bigger, but good enough for me!

Here's the link of you can actually afford these lovelies

And then I got to making earrings! I had the holes that I had cut out of the life-size glasses, so I turned them into these

I also discovered something cool. Since the Shrinky Dinks become sort of 3D when they shrink, so you can draw on the front and the back. So I drew the cage on the front, and the bird on the back. The bird actually looks like it's in the cage!
I also got some free guitar picks when I bought my new Ukulele, Ulysses. I don't use picks when I play, so instant earrings!

I'm thinking of adding peacock feathers to them as well, to add a bit of flair
And with the new Harry Potter movie that came out yesterday, I couldn't keep doing all this DIY without adding some of my favorite boy wizard to the mix!

I came up with a Luna Lovegood cork necklace. The cork is from a bottle of Trader Joe's olive oil. I used up the last bit and snatched the cork before it could be recycled.
Then whilst taking all these photos today, I did a little hunt around my extremely messy room for things to create into brilliant fashion pieces, and I found this old net piece I think is the last bit of my mum's old wedding veil. She gave it to me to play with, and little me cut it all up and turned it into little craft projects. I'm sure she knew that would happen though.
I made this literally 5 minutes ago

Good thing is, all I did was tie it around my head, so I can just as easily undo it and make it into something else!

The best gift I received from growing up in a not-so-wealthy artist family was creativity, and the ability to turn anything I find into a new play thing or a new fashion statement.

Until later!
-Brenna

A Thought On Picnics

While checking the usual sites I came across a post about picnics, and had pictures of ones that the blogger wished they could go to. They all seemed nice, there were the usual types, with kabobs and grilled chicken with potato salad. There were fancy french style picnics with bread, cheese, fruit, and of course wine.
But one caught my attention. A breakfast picnic. I've never been on a breakfast picnic before. How lovely would it be to have your coffee, some eggs, fresh berries, and hot morning bun out in a lovely grassy area, with flowers and such.

Maybe that's what also fuels my love for English gardens. They seem like beautiful places to have tea, or even a breakfast picnic.

If I ever live in a place with an english garden I will surely have my morning meal among the flowers and fresh dewy air.

Dialectology

-is the scientific study of linguistic dialect, a sub-field of sociolinguistics. It studies variations in language based primarily on geographic distribution and their associated features.

I've always loved accents. And I like to believe that I have a knack for them. I get ridiculed enough for slipping into one depending on what I've been watching (mostly Doctor Who). My mom says that I just speak with British intonations, so I sound like a Brit without actually speaking in the accent.
At one point I wanted to look into talking classes from an accent coach so that I could learn a Scottish accent. The one that I can't seem to be able to master (and the one my dad can do with such success that he even fools a few Brits). So I looked into accents coaches. I never thought that I would want to be one.
But that seems to be the only job I can think that I would want to have after professionally studying the field of dialects. I see it like this:

I want to be involved in some form of art for my career. If I choose to follow the path of Dialectology, then I can become a brilliant accent coach, and work with actors. That allows me to still be involved in the arts, and then I can have a flexible work life, because I'll be working based on appointments. It may even be a way for me to travel, depending on how good I am and if some film needs a coach on location.
My one draw back is that I'm not sure if I would be accepted in the UK or Europe as someone to teach say, an Irishman a Cockney accent. It seems like they would want to go to a born Brit, someone who was raised with the accent, and didn't just learn it like they have to.
But then again, if it is what I'm supposed to do, then I guess it will be something I would excel at, so it wouldn't matter that I'm just some girl from southern Cali, born and raised with a Standard American accent.

I'm going to try to schedule a meeting with an academic adviser when I go back to school, and see what my options are, and see if this is something I want to pursue. I may have to end up doing a double minor in Sociology, or Linguistics. It's that or do dialects on the side as a hobby and continue in art and get my masters.

This is the point in my life when if there is something I may want to turn into a career, then I have to go after it. It's the time in my life to explore options and study in different fields.
I need to pray about it, and see if this is what God has in store for me.
It may be how I meet my good-looking English husband ;)

Oiche Mhaith ("Good Night"- I'm starting off my new hobby with reading up on dialects and learning Irish Gaelic)
- Brenna