Tiger Lily's Threads

Back in October, the Ellicott City B&O Railroad Museum announced that they were going to renovate the historic red caboose (stripping and possibly gutting the entire 1930's train car from the inside out to bring it back to its former glory).  With permission from the museum,   my brother and I took this perfect opportunity to  experiment with his camera and take  some victorian themed shots b efore they closed the car off for the next several weeks .  Though I cannot speak on my brother's behalf as his opinions are very much different than mine, I can say that experimenting with lights & shadows, subject placement and perspective (worms-eye view vs. birds-eye view) was something of a challenge; the natural lighting from inside the museum made things very dark and shadowy on camera - considering Jared does not have any lighting equipment yet other than his camera. To counteract with that, we had to move around a lot to get the right lighting; the out...

Hey everybody. Now that Spring has finally arrived, it's a perfect time to celebrate with the first tea of the spring season.  This past Sunday, I attended my good friend Carolyn's 1790's themed tea party. I have never been to one hosted by The Modern Mantua Maker before, but I'm so glad I made it because it was so much fun. I particularly enjoyed how everything was set up: Food and libations in the dining room, card games in the smaller dining room, and a space for lounging /conversing in the living room; music by Bach, Vivaldi and Handel were playing in the background to give the ambiance of the time period... It was perfect. Plus, everyone present was gorgeously dressed out in the decade between 1790-1800.  Ladies playing "Marrying Mr. Darcy"  Catching up on the latest gossip   Emma and Chelsea in candid conversation  Carol and Ginger donning their pink 1790 and 1800 variants In preparation for this event, I made s...

Hey Readers just a quick update:  Katsucon 18'  is this weekend and I have been very busy with digging out and mending cosplays, helping my husband with his panel, doing the laundry, packing up suitcases and sewing....Oh God! And working! I forgot that too!  While this seems like a bit much and overwhelming...it is :P With that said, I decided to pull out one of my gowns that I made back in december and debut it for the convention. Only problem was, the trim I had used to decorate the gown was made from some poly-synethetic material that melts when you touch it with an iron. Can only imagine the shock on my face when I found that out. Thinking quickly, I painstakingly took the trim off and started decorating from scratch. Thankfully with some help from some reenactors and dressmakers on FB I was able to fashion a tucker out of some twill tape and two tiers of lace I had laying around, and throw a black sash around the stomach...that's when an idea came t...

Wow, what a weekend! Where do I begin? This year, Otakon 17 has been moved from Baltimore, to Washington DC. This means bigger space and more things to see and do. However when my husband and I arrived at the Washington Convention Center, we were awestruck with what we saw. The convention center was so large compared to the BCC in Baltimore, that it was like stepping inside the Tardis from Doctor Who (bigger on the inside); in addition to the WCC, Otakon also had events running in the Marriott next door! As a result, Otakon surprisingly not crowded at all this whole weekend!  The second thing about the convention that was new, were the bag inspections at the door. Given the recent incident at a convention in Phoenix ComiCon this past May, a lot of conventions have now taken security measures by conducting weapons and bag checks; as a result of how smooth the line moved from outside to the check in counters, things went by very fast. Speaking of lines going by very fa...