For the last month, we've been living with contractors in and around our house, mostly all day every day, while they are turning our garage into our new Master Bedroom/Bathroom suite.  As a family of 5 with only two bathrooms, we really needed another one.  The beauty part is, the new bedroom puts us at the other end of the house from the children.  So far everything has gone almost according to plan, which is that the contractors went over budget, didn't finish by when they said they would, and when they said they were done we were still finding things that they didn't do or that didn't work.  Having lived through a few of my mother's remodel projects, I totally expected this.

The good news is is that they've left our room to us to finish up the details and we got the rest of the money to pay them off (thanks, Mom!).  Rob has been amazing doing all the little things that still needed doing and most especially for staying on the contractors' collective butts to finish stuff.

My big role in all this is to get our old room ready for Sarah to move in.  We're repainting over my Moulin Rouge themed red and gold room and turning it into a Pink Paradise.  If Sarah knew about Steel Magnolias she'd be quoting Shelby: "Pink is my signature color"  "It's not pink and pink, it's blush and bashful!"  So we went to Home Despot and bought 4 different shades of pink.  The kids were all enlisted to paint the walls, the bathroom, and the closet.  I got the trim and the ceiling and the all the sponge roller texturing that involved.   It took 4 days to paint and one day to move in.  The moving in was almost worse than the painting.    Here are some photos of how everything turned out.

Way back in May I thought about doing a family Buffy cosplay for our next convention.  I bet you were wondering whatever happened with that.  Since then, Matt Van Dyne discovered my website and we've struck up a correspondence.  Matt Van Dyne was the costume designer for the last season of Buffy.  He had no idea that Buffy had such a cult following and was still popular.  He was asked to attend a convention in Canada years ago, but never did.  He's now looking to get on the convention circuit.  I suggested Geekfest and our local HOT con and put him in touch with Jason Sanchez to get that set up.  Then I put him in touch with Jennifer Dunham who works the bigger cons in Texas usually guest liaison for John Barrowman if he's in attendance.  She suggested he get a booking agent and put him in touch with the actor who played Clem.  I told him he could always talk to James Marstars since he'd just done the Houston con and was doing Wizard World as well.  The upshot is, I hope that Geekfest brings him down next month because I'd love to finally get to meet him.  So naturally if Matt Van Dyne is there, we have to dress as Buffy.  It's a moral imperative.

Rob is still not happy about wearing tweed in Texas in the summer.  Oh well.  I spent a couple of hours internet shopping and found Sarah a cheer skirt, panties, and yellow sweater for Buffy.  The skirt and panties were from Omnicheer and were really cheap: $13.75 plus $9 for shipping.  The sweater I found on EBay: $14.95 plus $3.35 for shipping.   I found ankle socks and keds in white for Sarah at Goodwill, but no silver cross necklace.  Come on Waco, I know you have more Christian jewelry here than the bible belt, I see it at WestFest every year, so where were you hiding it yesterday?My plan for Mr. Pointy is styrofoam covered with wood putty and painted a darker wood color.   I will not be going to Hobby Lobby to get an applique megaphone or an S to put on her sweater, hopefully Joanne's will have what I need or Michael's.  

We went to a Goodwill and Plato's Closet yesterday and I found tan pants, a black t-shirt, and a sleazy poly button down shirt with bands of color running horizontally across it for Seth's Xander costume.    For my Willow costume, I was looking for a floral patterned skirt with a horizontal stripey top, but instead I found overalls with Winnie the Pooh on them.  I found three horizontalliy striped tops and bought all of them.  I think I'm going to go with the yellow/white stripe.   I wore the blue one last night to go watch Fireworks.  I also found camo Converse low tops for me. I'll re-dye my hair later on and get colored tights too.

So now that our costumes are mostly a done deal, I should announce that I'll be doing a panel at Geekfest as well.  I'm doing my DIY Armor, Masks, and Crowns lecture that I've done before at TETA.  This time with new and improved photos from more recent shows and well as my mask project that I will be finished with by then.  So come to Geekfest and check out my panel.  Hopefully we'll all be able to meet Matt Van Dyne as well and get to hear all his stories about working on Buffy.