Designing a Tattooed Lady Costume

Last time I shared how some thrift store shirts and sharpie markers were used to create a strong man costume. Today, I'm showing how a thrift store shirt, sharpie markers, and an old pair of knee high stockings became Lydia's Tattooed Lady costume.

This costume is also constructed from several thrift store pieces. You can read all about the dress by clicking here. Again, the bulk of the outfit was one really good find, in this case a blue and yellow adult size long fancy shirt.

Last year, the dress was intended for an event where I was supposed to be a ring leader. Lydia was going to be a mini-me match of my outfit. That event never happened. At the time, this dress was a little big for Lydia so I thought it could wait a year.

At some point I decided that Lydia could still just be a pint sized ring leader for Halloween this year, OR we could change it up and she could be Lydia the Tattooed Lady from the old Groucho Marx song.

And so began the hunt for tattoo lady inspiration. Once again, I found the tattooed dolls of Mimi Kirchner, and once again I am in love with what she creates.

Thankfully the dress making and idea finding was finished long ago, so all I had to do this year was make the tattoo stuff. I did have a set of store bought tattoo sleeves as a back up plan but I really wanted something a little more tailored to Lydia's size and look.

I actually used an old pair of knee high nylons for her sleeves! I just cut off the toe part and it was the perfect length for her arm! In the first picture she has the nylons on her arm, but the color was such a good match it is hard to see. Then I inserted a piece of paper under the nylons to protect her skin and drew my tattoo designs with a sharpie marker. Remove the paper and the tattoo is on the nylon sleeve and not on Lydia's skin!

I used this image of a tattooed lady for specific ideas and clear line drawings of tattoos. I borrowed the idea of her snake twisting around one arm, a bird and some flowers. I also discovered that I could stretch the nylon sleeve over a paper towel tube to draw the designs without making the four year old sit still for hours.

Here is one of the only pictures I have of the chest tattoos. The original dress was a little low in front, so I added a panel of flesh colored knit from a thrift store shirt ( it was actually scraps from Joshua's strong man skin). On the chest panel, I drew her name, a flower, and I even put a bird on it!

For the back, I cut out a large part of the original dress and added another flesh colored panel. This was the last part that I decorated and I am really proud of my tattoo skills here!

Here is a close up of the back of the dress details, which were still drawn with sharpie markers.

We will go and have some professional pictures taken next week, but I posed Lydia in our yard to get a few pictures with natural light. Here are a few of my favorites!

And finally we got a few pictures of Lydia with her daddy, the crazy mentalist from the side show.

I even got in front of the camera for a picture with Lydia and the ring leader. So now we just have to figure out which circus character Lydia's Aunt wants to be and the whole crew will be ready to go.... And I will be ready to rest.... Or start planning next year's pirate theme!

Sewing a Strong Man Costume!

When I made Joshua a mustache pacifier a month or so ago, I got the idea of making it part of his Halloween costume.

I searched the Internet for inspiration and quickly found the beautiful tattooed strong men dolls by Mimi Kirchner. I love SO much about her work!

A lucky break came in the form of that striped romper. I found it at a thrift store and it was exactly as you see it in the costume, sleeveless with long pants. I didn't have to change anything! I just added parts from a flesh colored knit shirt that was also found at a thrift store to be the outer skin of the strong man's muscles.

I was able to use sharpie markers to add chest hairs and tattoos to the skin fabric.

I thought for a while about different ways to sculpt the actual muscles. In the end it was a simple solution. I cut the sleeves off of a long sleeve shirt that was getting a little small.

So with one sleeve inside the other, I just inserted a little blob of stuffing between the two layers. I could shape it however I needed and it stayed in place without any sewing!

The belt hardware came off an old belt that didn't fit anymore. The red fabric was a wool sweater that accidentally got washed and shrunk.

And here is the outfit all put together on our little strongman! That's the tattooed lady holding him. More on that costume later.

Dairy Tour

Today Lydia's school was closed for fall break and I decided we needed to take a little field trip.

I often drive past the signs for Mayfield Dairy when I head down to Chattanooga. It's about an hour away from our house, but (more importantly) it is ten minutes past the most AMAZING place to buy discount upholstery fabric. I just happened to have one more upholstery project to finish before my maternity leave ends next week. So we headed out for a day of fabric shopping and dairy touring.

We couldn't take pictures on the actual tour as it was against FDA regulations. Also against FDA regulations, anyone and I mean ANYONE going with out a hair net!

Apparently, having real cows at the dairy must also be against regulations because we never saw one.

We saw tons of fake cows.

But no real cows.... And no ice cream making. Apparently that part of the tour has been shut down for a while.

There was ice cream, for sale, after the tour. In fact they had a few flavors that are not sold in stores, so that was cool.

Mostly it was a pretty day and it was fun to go somewhere out of the ordinary. I'm so lucky that I got to go with two extraordinary traveling companions!

Move In Day!

I haven't had to move in a long long time and for that I am grateful! However, today we moved all of our bedroom furniture upstairs to the new bedroom so that we can finish the first floor addition, which includes major alterations to our bedroom.

The furniture that was in our bedroom always looked too massive for the small bedroom it was in, but in this room it seems like a good fit.

The mirror that goes above the dresser is the only piece that didn't fit in the new space.

And there are still areas of the new room that are not finished, like the window seat, but we are moved in and sleeping in the new space. It is so weird to be right next to the nursery and outside of the original footprint of the house.

Mostly I am loving the new space and especially enjoying sleeping on the same floor as the kids, once they actually are asleep that is!

New Addition

I mentioned needing to decide on the siding for our addition, but I don't think I have shown much on the actual building that is going on.

PJ built our house so the idea that he is currently working on a re-build of our house doesn't seem strange to us. (He was a single guy in his twenties when he started the home that is now occupied by a family of four, so a few adjustments don't seem unreasonable.)

This is the back of the house, once occupied by three different decks that were rarely used. This picture shows the footprint of the addition. Basically, the area where two decks were is being replaced by actual living space. On the ground floor we are getting a family room/ sun room and a little extra space connected to our master bedroom. Upstairs, there was a small deck accessible by a set of french doors. Those doors will now lead to a new bedroom. Prior to the addition we only had one real bedroom for the kids. What we use as a nursery is a space that you have to walk through to get to the bathroom. Now that small space will become a shared playroom.

Here is the addition as of last spring.

PJ was working really hard this summer to get the big stuff done before the baby arrived (the addition is adjacent to the nursery). He had to take a break for the last few months, but was able to get the drywall done while I was out of town with the kids last week.

Now he is painting and putting up light fixtures! Today I got to pick out the carpet for the new upstairs room! Since part of the downstairs renovation connects to our bedroom, I think we are going to temporarily move upstairs and into the new room.

But eventually, I think Lydia will win the rights to the big new bedroom.

With her in mind, we are building a window seat with lights for reading and storage in the bench.

Above the door, there is even a special little hide away nook (currently housing a large green ball). It has windows (currently stuffed with insulation) on either side because her daddy wants her to see a view of the sun and the moon from her bed.

Monday Mugging

I really should fold the laundry.

Or vacuum.

Or get dressed.

But there is this incredibly cute distraction in front of me.

And it is so fun to watch him now that he really looks back at you.....

And smiles at you.

Yep. Who am I kidding. I'll be lucky to get lunch!

Playing With Paint (and Asking Sherwin Williams for help)

We are working on the addition to our house again.  The inside is progressing quickly but soon we need to deal with the exterior, which has had plywood but no siding for a year now.  It will be difficult to match the existing siding, so I am trying to design a total plan for the house that makes the areas with different siding look intentional and not haphazard.  I am thinking about playing with paint to both unify some areas and create accents in others. I have been googling and pinning lots of ideas related to log homes (what we currently have) and craftsman style cottages (the direction that I want to take out house). In the process, I stumbled onto Sherwin William's website.  Do you know about their color selector website?  You can upload a photo of an interior or an exterior and then select different areas to "paint".  It takes a little time to get the hang of masking off different surfaces to receive different colors all in the same image, but it is SO cool to see the options on my house with my green roof effecting every color choice! Here is where I started tonight.

And here are four different color schemes that I found sing the color selector website.  We are looking to add cedar shakes on the peaks of the roof and probably a vertical board and baton siding on the addition (currently covered in Lowes brand Tyvek).  The new siding will be painted to match the stain on the wood log siding on the front of the house, so I wanted colors that log siding comes in or weathers to become.  I think we would just stain the wood, but I am tempted to paint the white caulking on the log siding part so that the white stripes aren't distracting from making a cohesive image. Is that wrong of me to want to make my log cabin look less log like?  Id love to hear your thoughts on mismatched siding, painted log cabins, and my color ideas.  I have two favorites.  What are yours?