SN Friday night ... Too tired for ..

[Thecarrotcake]

Drinks and snacks on the table ( non alchoholic and low carb stuff to the right)..

I have no children tonight.. I may doze on and off throughout the evening as last night was a long one with DS.

Had an interesting convo with school .. Ds is now not showing any signs of distress... And has been Cured... With a touch of maturity!
Damn.. I didn't know he just needed to grow up..
< shucks>
anyway i mentioned that his anxiety was coming out physically ( bad belly for weeks and sleep talking non stop... Which is keeping the house awake every night)... And guess what?! ... It's better it coming out that way than through hard work behaviour at school.!

I. Give. Up. !

My SIL said that all her Uni friends were doing Avatar 'bluing up' for parties just before christmas - but that is so last year!
My house is now in peace as they have all settled- as opposed to pieces when they are all awake. My job today is done - i'm off for a kip. Fingers crossed no-one decides on an early rise!

Morning all... sound like you all had a good eve... I am in my pj's and slanket, not a good look but don't care, am toasty warm and ds slept till 7.30 . hoping spa day today is lovely, and everyone else has a relaxing and fun weekend.

Morning all! Don't forget the MNSN Mum's getaway. It's still going ahead, it's just gone into hiding through fear of trolls, stroppy people and journos! Iknow all the people on here iyswim, so message me for more infor

The place I'm taking him is here and I've paid £72 for the room for the night b&b Not something I'll be doing often, but nice as a treat. There's nothing really that I can physically buy him - we've got each other, enough food, warmth etc. Also laptops, clothes, cameras etc.

Don't forget, too, that I'm in the New Forest dahn sarff where there's lots of campsites etc and I'm available to help out with meltdowns etc or just babysit for a coupe of hours

Have a lovely time Purple - it looks very romantic. Are you going to trawl the antique shops looking for rare treasures?
I think we're all wistfully thinking about the spa day - and hoping it's a good'un. I'm not a spa fan myself, but the thought of relaxing and spending a day for me - where's that envy emoticon

Carrot, dh is having an 'Undead/Zombie' 40th in February and I've been trying to plan my fancy dress for that - hence the sudden desire to lose a rather large chunk of weight.

I love the steampunk stuff. Have you seen the bustle skirts made by Spindoctor - you can get them cheaper on ebay - quite a bit of steampunk on there these days. Couldn't wear any of it though - although I'd definitely be scarier than the zombies!

Been looking at a lot of Hellbunny stuff too - if only I could afford a pair of New Rock boots to complete the look.

At the moment I am planning to go as Little Dead Riding Hood, but the outfit very much depends on how much weightloss I manage. Was thinking of a punky style LRR with red and black striped legs, a 50's style Hellbunny dress, red cloak - obviously and my DMs with red and black laces. If I'm still feeling fat I will have to redesign it to punky wide flare black jeans, two tops, one slashed and pinned black one with a red and black one striped underneath and then the cape.

Have been seriously tempted by some of the psy clothes online as well, but they're all for skinnies with a size 12 being xl in most of the shops!

Am going to backcomb my hair (which is now well past my bra strap in length) into high bunches and add some silver/grey and red extensions. Found some great eyeball hair bobbles and some poison bottle and bloody bone hair slides as well.

As well as sorting out my outfit, I have to bake about a million zombie cupcakes and a mahoosive grave and headstone cake with a zombie hand sticking out. Also have to come up with horror/zombie party bags, so people can take some cake home - I daren't be left in the house with all that cake.

Dh has hired a really cool gin parlour for the party (no charge for the room as long as the bar tab is up to scratch) and he's having a big screen playing really old zombie films (Bella Lugosi (sp?)) alongside a lot of very noisy alternative music.

Am getting quite excited about it all now really - even though I have a morbid fear of anyone with their face painted or wearing a mask.

Have a lovely weekend Purple - although I'm sure you're on your way by now.

We are in meltdown land this morning - first one started as soon as we got out of bed - oh the joy!

Dh is going to take him to the library soon to replenish his book pile and hopefully that will keep him busy for much of the weekend.

Might try and get out for a looooong walk with the hound dawgs tomorrow as well. Veedub needs a run out and ds1 loves being out in the open.

Your dhs party sounds fab!
Loving the spindoctor stuff and the hell bunny!

I'm going to have to revise the skirt in the link to something a tad longer .. Can't be having too much on show :) I've been looking for top hats and cogs on eBay ..
Dressing up is soooo much fun!
I have persueded dh to grow his beard so he can have mutton chops! And ds1 is straining a moustach ( erol flin stylee) out ( as long as school don't ask him to shave).

It's a great distraction from the rubbish we are having at school at the moment .. :)

after that bestest friend and I are trying to sort out a black tie do, all dead posh and lots of auctions going on.. If we pull it off it should be a bit fabby... Again a great and much needed
distraction.

Maybe we should have an SN bash

You're right, its a welcome distraction here as well.

I was very anti at first and told dh we had far too much on our plate already.

He assured me there would be minimal planning and it was going to be a small affair.

He then invited everyone we know, including people from way back, some of whom live abroad and assured me most of them wouldn't come. Wrong! We now have three couples coming from overseas and everyone who's been invited has said they're coming!

Sounds like they're all getting highly competitive with the fancy dress as well. (There's a prize for the best outfit.)

I think you can lengthen or shorten some of those spindoctor skirts. I couldn't even get away with them at their longest at the moment.

I got a bit obsessed with finding stuff on ebay - all that lovely choice, but then found a lot of the stuff cheaper in some of the smaller alternative shops online when I googled. So its worth googling specific brands and items before you buy them. Also google image search is great for inspiration.

Black tie do sounds fantastic. I love organising parties, but dh goes pale at the cost once I get going! [evil grin]

SN bash sounds like a great idea.

Moosemama - i had an idea for your party bags - why not use sick bags? in keeping with the theme i thought.
I love all this stuff. We don't get to dress up enough really do we. And part of the fun is finding everything.

Oh yes moose... Sick bags would be perfect!

AE dh and I were both moaning about ' no life' a new year.. And then we decided to create social stuff that fits in with our lives... And then friends all sort of joined in! ... They had all been moaning too!

Aunty, it's next weekend - so I get three weekends off in a row

Moosey, would you like me to have a go at this? I rather like the idea of making something as challenging as a costume, and could steal Venus the dressmakers dummy off my Mum...

Ooh, I like this one

www.tudorlinks.com/treasury/freepatterns/pe187707wbalayskirt.html

Sick bags! Great idea - thanks!

Purple, oh thank you, what a kind offer. Love those skirts, but they're not really what I had in mind. Been looking at this sort of thing or this. Also love this one and this one and for that matter one. To many to choose from really and some of them sooo pricey. Basically something prom-dressy with a zombie/horror twisty iyswim.

Hang on a minute, what are you doing here? Shouldn't you be enjoying the lap of luxury with dp by now?

Burlesque style

Really classy, might try this for me

"proper" steampunk

I like some of the skinny strap and strapless ones, but am rather hampered by my ridiculously large norks, so don't do strapless bras. A corset would be ok - but I think I'd feel nekked!

Well, I'm not sure I'm up to an actual boned corset, but a bodice should be easy enough.

You'll probably need 2.5 to 3m cotton fabric, then probably about 4m net for a petticoat...

I rather like the sugar skulls

]

Oh, and his birthday is next weekend. This is my normal "off" weekend

argh... day late to the party, but my god today has been a "bang head on wall" day all the way around!

DH is going to go pick up a bottle of wine. He is currently wrestling with changing and putting to bed our 1yo. I can hear the fussing all the way downstairs. I suspect the 1yo is winning.

Gah triggles!

Purple.. Ds needs a costume too ( the rest of us I think are almost sorted).. But ds poses an issue in the fact that he needs soft clothes... And I can stitch a few things but there is no way I could actually sew a costume... If you might be up for it could you pm me please. Thanks x

I like some of the fancy dress ideas-particularly taken with 'little dead riding hood'

Had a bit of respite today so actually went out with dh for a couple of hours-that was a novel experience

Moosemama - i have the same 'nork' problem. Strapless and basques are fine as long as you wear something contrasting/matching underneath.
Me personally would be trawling the charity shops. Its amazing how many 'leather' items are in there - not gimp, but 'middle aged' trousers and 80s jackets. Cut the arms and collar of an old leather jacket, bit of spray paint to spruce up, washers etc stuck over buttons, or stuck on the back in a suitable form, or split pins. Oooh don't get me started. I love this stuff, its what i studied and it still gets me going!

little dead riding hood? hmmm... not the story I remember then...

DH back with the wine and is now putting DS2 to bed. And DS3 is fussing.... Don't they realise it's wine time? go to sleep!

AE .. I have ordered my 'watch parts and cogs' for embelishments and plain welding goggles and.. Some toy water guns.. Which will all get the carrot touch..

I love this bit.. It's practical sewing stuff I can't do lol..

Can't wait for next week when everything starts to arrive ..
Now as long as ds doesn't get too fasinated and start collecting watch parts I'll be okay:o

Sorry, dashed out to B&Q mid thread. Dh has decided to paint the toilet room tomorrow (only two years after it was refitted ) and I had to seize the opportunity! He was threatening to choose the paint himself!

Purple, you are lovely. I really like that sugar skulls fabric. Get Cutie do all sorts of cool fabrics like that for their clothes, I often go and drool look at them wistfully. I think you should sort carrot's ds out first though. I don't have a clue what size I'm going to be yet (hopefully a lot smaller than I am now ) so I may have to just get something at the very last minute.

AE, what do you mean by wearing something underneath? Do you mean something like one of my proper feat-of-modern-engineering bras or an actual top? Thing is, I think I would feel very exposed not having anything on my shoulders and arms. All my friends are used to seeing me completely covered up as well, so I'm concerned there may be a few eye popping moments when people first clock me as well. I suppose the cape would cover me to a certain extent though.

I have been looking out for a prom-type dress I could distress in charity shops and on ebay, but nothing's come up so far. Again, I think my size is against me at the moment, so I might have more luck in a couple of weeks if the weightloss continues.

Triggles, sorry for the bad day. Hope the wine eases your pain and the dcs sleep well.

moosemama thanks. DH pouring it now, so here' hoping! I'll leave you all to your fancy dress discussion! Have fun!

Moose.. Unless you are horridly unhealthy .. Don't worry... And get those arms out.. I bet you look fab!

Now.. I have a bit of a norkage issue... ( small back big norks.. Which sounds far better than it is.. I cannot go into M&S and actually buy off the shelf bras!.. I have to order the buggers in!
I am hoping it may work well with a boned corset though..yet I may need gaffa tape as gravity has started to intrude :(

anyway back to the point.. I have been all sorts of sizes and I hated being skinny.. Everything else was fine :)