Stargazing

Since I blogged about my middle-of-the-night stargazing adventures on Nate Day, I've been itching to stargaze some more!  Enter StarDate.org!  They have great tips and tricks for the beginner stargazer - like me - all the way up to the most experienced!  They also have a list of places holding Star Parties.  That's where I found a link to the Atlanta Astronomy Club!  Score!



Granted, I've been sick the past few days and that has put a real damper on my hankering to get out and watch the stars but it's about to ramp up in late-November / early-December when comet ISON passes by the Sun.  Why is that such a big deal?  If ISON doesn't get obliterated by the Sun's heat, it will be the most visible object in the night sky!  Imagine!  It'll be like all my sci-fi movie visual dreams coming true!

Even though I live OTP (that's Outside The [285] Perimeter to you non-Georgia folks), I don't live far enough OTP that it's fairly easy to get someplace rural for some stargazing.  Sure, the Enota Mountain Retreat was nice but it was also 2 hours away!  Maybe it wouldn't hurt to secure a campsite in a non-wooded area for mid-December for some ISON-watching?  What a fun weekend excursion!  All I need is to check off some items on StarDate's helpful checklist and I'll be ready!

Err...maybe.

I still need to check which areas around me (preferably on a mountain top) would be ideal for stargazing - and that they AREN'T affected by the Government Shutdown...I guess I don't really need to limit it to Georgia, if I don't have to.  I could venture out to Tennessee, North Carolina, or even Kentucky!  They're all a reasonable drive away - except, maybe, Kentucky.  We could stay on the Appalachian Trail and pretend we're living the way of the pioneers using only the night sky to guide us.
A bit much, huh?

Maybe I should just stick to possibly joining the Atlanta Astronomy Club and see if there's going to be an ISON-watching star party in the near future, perhaps?

Rodarte Star Bursts: DONE!

While I was watching a mini Face Off marathon, I decided I'd get out my stars and have another go at a hair clip.
After some playing around, I finally settled on the perfect layout

Fancy, huh?  I'm so proud of the way this one looks!  It's definitely streets ahead from the first one...

And I even found a way to incorporate the baby stars that I thought I couldn't use!  Hooray!
Both have hair clips attached and now all I need is some spray paint.  I think I'll make the big one gold (like the original) and I'll keep the smaller one silver but I'll make it all the same colour - including the clip.  I might even try some glitter spray paint???  We'll see.

You like?  Have you tried making some?

My Rodarte star bursts are coming together!

Along with all my weekend fun, my Studs and Spikes package arrived on Saturday (wow that was fast!) and it wasn't until late Sunday evening that I started experimenting with my stars.


I ended up ordering 3 different star sizes but I can really only use the large and medium if I want to make my Rodarte star burst the way Refinery 29 did and I realized that after I laid out my initial arrangement


It was looking a little too large and in charge - which IS what I want but I would imagine it would feel a little uncomfortable after a while.  Oh well.

After watching the how-to video a few times, I finally settled on this cluster


Lucky for me, the wire I had purchased a few weeks ago for my other incarnations of this project was already silver so I was thinking I could keep this silver version and make another one tonight to spray paint gold this weekend!  After I get them all together, I'll have a family photo of my project.  Stay tuned...

So what's a girl to do with the pack of 100 smaller sized star nail heads?!  Looks like my wardrobe is going to get a little more celestial and I ain't even mad!

Rodarte star bursts

As we all know, I've been very inspired by the star cluster look from Rodarte's Fall2012 show

And on my quest to make them, I've done some pretty wacky stuff...

This is the only one I can bear to share with you - the others were not so great...

Luckily for all of us, Refinery 29 has figured out how to make them with this handy dandy video tutorial!


I went to check out M and J Trimming's website since we don't have one of those here in Georgia and so my surprise, they don't have those cute studded stars listed in their nailheads section! *GASP* Luckily, trusty Studs and Spikes has them and I put my order in yesterday!  WHAT WHAT
A little later, I think I might order some bullets to make the bullet cuff I saw on, where else, Pinterest!  The tutorial originally came from Stripes and Sequins and I think it's pretty bad ass.  Especially since I'm trying to figure out what to do with my two keepsake bullets

I finally decided (just two days ago as a matter of fact) that I would take my bullets to a local shooting range and have them deactivated without having to fire them off so that I can drill a hole through them and turn them into a two-tiered necklace.  I think Nate would enjoy that!

More NYFW Inspiration: Tavi Gevinson

In keeping with the NYFW inspiration, I saw the prettiest picture of Rookie Magazine's Tavi Gevinson posted on Rodarte's Instagram

I instantly fell in love with her rose crown/headband! I loved it so much I made one!

I bought some cheap roses with fake dew drops on them (on sale, son!) for my trial run and I really like the way it turned out!


They remind me of some roses that Oni painted and put on ribbons for me years ago and I thought about doing that but I like the stability of the headband base - which I noticed when I made my Rodarte inspired foam stars.


And even though I enjoy the stability of the headband for the roses, I think I'll move the stars to some ribbon.  They're not as angled as I had wanted them to be for the Rodarte piece.  I mean, the way they are now reminds me more of the Giant Dwarf piece - which is fine but I'll fix that this weekend.  Since the glitter foam turned out okay, I think I'll move on to using what I wanted to use instead: glitter vinyl.  I bought some wires to make the starbursts from the original look and I can't wait!  The purple stars were a huge hit at work!  Especially since I paired it with my black and silver Mondo Guerra sugar skull shirt!

The stars definitely helped pick up my mood as well.  I feel like I'm recovering pretty quickly but I'm still tired and my throat feels like there's a desert in there.  Not pleasant at all.

I think with this new inspiration and Lauren's new hairdo (which she revealed during the Project Runway All-Stars live-blog), I'll make her a custom hair accessory!  I also bought some cherry blossom sprigs to pin in my hair tomorrow to keep my mood up.  Maybe I'll keep the flower theme going and make hair pins for Heather (a co-worker)!  She has pretty, long blonde hair that I want to make pins for.  We'll see what kind of mood I'm in. I'm hoping to catch up on some rest so that I can be fully recovered by the time I'm off my medications.  Only a few more days!

EDITOR'S NOTE:
Here is a tutorial from Rookie Magazine on how to make various crown/headbands

Inspired: Rodarte Star Clips

Is it possible to love an accessory so much you want to marry it? Yes. Yes it is.What accessory am I talking about? Why, this little darling from the Rodarte show yesterday...

Precious. I want it. I need it. But I can't quite have one. What, then? Do I curl up in bed and go wanting? NO! These little star beauties reminded me of these little star beauties:

They're not exactly the same BUT I think I'll take a cue from this fellow DIY-er and try to make my own.
I'll try to make mine closer to the ones seen at Rodarte but we'll see...Honestly, I think it will have a more Janine Basil feel - which I'm totally okay with since her stuff is AWESOME.
After reading this great article on From Me To You about the behind the scenes of the Rodarte show, I'm totally inspired to get my sick self crafting.Since I can't be in all the NYFW fun and since I definitely can't afford the fashion - why not try to recreate a budget-friendly version?  I enjoy that!  Maybe I'll have enough strength (and courage) to make my version of that cute L.A.M.B. pleated skirt?  I hope so!  Maybe I'll enlist the help of my Mom or Oni...making an actual garment from scratch scares me!