making a dress form: part 1

A few days ago I decided I really wanted to make a 1950's bathing suit. The only problem was that I did not have a dress form. So, I got online and found a website that showed how to make one yourself.
Last night Kacy and I started what we felt would be a 1 hour project of covering my torso in duct tape. We would be doing this in order to make a dress form casing which we would then fill with foam insulation. It ended up taking about 3 hours! It got pretty uncomfortable at times, but I believe it will be well worth it. Here are some pictures of the process:
We added Chicken Wire to keep the body from changing shape when we filled it with foam. It was extremely uncomfortable, but it made for good effect. Nic even made me a duct tape face mask so that I could pretend I was in a Woody Allen film :)

New Semester

Mama: "I think popcorn is the best thing God ever gave us" (Joking because Seth hates popcorn)


Seth: (very serious) "No mama... brown sugar".


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It is cold. Very, very cold here. I don't think I could ever get used to it. To escape from the outside, Seth and I have adopted things to do inside. We have become avid readers of C.S. Lewis, at least The Chronicles of Narnia. Before that, we read Julie of the Wolves and the books that followed, My Side of the Mountain, and select Jack and Annie Books. I have really enjoyed reading Seth chapter books as it gives me a guiltless escape from school work. We have also rented the Star Trek: Next Generation series from blockbuster online. We watch an episode a week or so. It brings back fond memories for me. Besides venturing into other worlds via books and television, I am learning to knit and Seth is learning to crochet and do needle point. It is a great pastime.

Although we have only been home (in VT) for a little over a month, it feels like forever, and it doesn't help that we have been sick off and on through most of it. I completed 2 weeks of intensive language classes and I am on into my finals week of the Spring I semester. The nice part about living in a cold state, is you get to have Winter Break! This happens for me on the 16th. The problem is-- Seth has his winter break the following week... so he gets to go to class with me those days. Poor thing.

In school, Seth has been learning how to ice skate as part of their winter sports program-- he just missed the age cutoff for skiing! He loves it and I cant wait to take him myself so I can see all his fancy new moves :)

I this winter, on the other hand, have not been active at all. With my busy time schedule, I don't see this changing anytime soon.


Pictures of our previous semester: