Robin McKinley

"Master of the House" - me as Thenardier:

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Puppet on a String:



This was the first competition I ever won, and I still don't know quite why! I still own the dress, waistcoat and apron - and the "shoes and socks" - but the hat and pigtails have long since demised, alas.

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Me as a gym bunny. Note the knitted/crocheted "trainers":

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[Updated on: Tue, 05 July 2011 09:22]

This is positively the last time I will ever dress in this costume!

[Updated on: Tue, 05 July 2011 15:17]

It's my favorite (and most comfortable) costume - and also the only one from a book. Well, a webcomic. That I own in print. And there's also a book now. Yeah.

LINK to reference image

Picture of actual costume:

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The rose skirt, with details of the rose, the hat and the glass bead shawl. The rose bush came with the 1930 house and I have no idea what she might be, but she is very fragrant and the blossoms will fade to a pale peach.

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I don't have a tripod, so I couldn't get a good picture of myself wearing my entry. These were made sometime in college, and there are more frogs on the back.



(Since I already won one of Robin's contests, feel free to draw another name if mine comes up.)

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Here's my first go - semi-goth bellydance outfit, the only one I can fit into that's vaguely decent at the moment! . The picture on my left is a paiting of me by my Grandma, by the way.

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And try number two - I had fun with this, it's my version of being Harry from the Blue Sword (with practise sword, I just couldn't find a blue stone in the hilt of any of my swords somehow). . I admit she probably never wore an Egyptian galabeya, but it's a robe at least (no belt so this must a pre-trials Harry).

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Last go - this was my wedding bellydance outfit - but I thought the wings reminded me of pegasus wings, so would be a good thing to wear to the signing.

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I'm posting one entry on Twitter, one on Facebook, and one here.

This is by far my silliest outfit. Most of this stuff is wool, and it's about a hundred degrees outside
All of these accessories were inspired by books: the hat is SUNSHINE, the green shawl is DEERSKIN, the scarf is FIRE, the bluish cowl you can't really see well is OUTLAWS OF SHERWOOD, the gloves are CHALICE, and the socks are THE HERO AND THE CROWN.

The hat I'm wearing in my picture on Facebook was inspired by DRAGONHAVEN, and the shawl in the picture on Twitter was inspired by PEGASUS.

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This is probably as silly a summer outfit as I would wear to stroll down a city street among. The hat might be a problem in close quarters, but people would just have to COPE.

My companion Sophie would, of course, not accompany me as she is a homebody.

Since I was so amazingly lucky as to win a prize in the crossword drawing, this is posted just for fun.

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If I could make it to the signing tomorrow, I really would be wearing this.

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Oh, phooey, phooey, I forgot that it was midnight GREENWICH! Can I please post? This is the dress by Japanese designer Issey Miyake my mom made for me, and I would so like to wear it to Robin's signing, if geography weren't in the way.

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And this gives a better idea of the dress, as taking a pic of yourself with a phone that does not have a back-camera is remarkably difficult. It's a great dress, but so unusual and striking that I never actually had occasion to wear it very much, which was a shame. Operas would probably have been good. But I don't do opera, much

She made me a skirt out of just the bottom of the pattern, with the flared-out pocket-flaps, which I practically wore out, so I hope she wasn't disappointed that I never got enough use out of the dress.



Oh, and Isabel made the dress, but I made the necklace!

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HOW IS IT WEDNESDAY. I THOUGHT IT WAS ONLY TUESDAY. But I'm demoing a house, and trying to meet a freelance deadline, and I was SURE it was only Tuesday... and so I have probably missed the deadline. But I was really excited about posting this silly picture, so even if I am too late for the contest I'm going to post it anyway!

SO. If I were able to attend the signing tomorrow (tomorrow! HOW is it Wednesday already??), I would wear my tree costume from when I was in the Wizard of Oz last year. I played one of the Tin Man's three Andrews-Sisters-esque backup-singing apple trees, and it was a good time. At the beginning of the scene, this costume also had fake apples velcroed to the sleeves! AND, yes, I kept the costume at the end of the run, so this IS actually something I could viably put on tomorrow, were I for-real attending a book signing tomorrow.

...thank you and goodnight.

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