Comic Con 2013 Salt Lake City

   Dane, Alyssa and I made it to our first comic con. It was very interesting and very crowded. I didn't have anything to wear so ended up just wearing my western/steampunk dress. (I really need to get accessories for it.) And Dane changed his vest into more of a military uniform and changed his hat. People who watch Dr. Who actually kept coming up and asking him if he was Captain something... I don't remember the name. I've never watched Dr. Who. And Alyssa of course was Loki. She ran out of time so didn't put on more layers of paper mache on her helmet so it is not as smooth as she would have liked it. People LOVED her costume. So many people came up wanting a picture with her. We only saw one other Loki. It was a lady Loki but was dressed up more like the comic books more naturey. Alyssa of course made her whole attire by herself.

 Two Lady Lokis 

Old Friends

Loki didn't have many pictures of himself 

 I loved this Sleeping Beauty Costume! 

Alyssa got a picture with all of the Avengers

We thought we were out of luck until we saw these two at the mall 

Steamfest

Dane, Alyssa and I made it to the Steamfest in Layton Utah on July 27 2013. It was fun to see other people's costumes but I don't think I will be going again mainly because it was $20 a person. I was happy for the edited picture below that was free. The photographer was really friendly. That white at my waist is showing because I had a too thin of waistband but it is now fixed. I need a picture that shows the details of my dress more. This victorian/steampunk dress has been my favorite sewn item that I have made. I especially love the material. It was on sale at home fabrics. Dane's outfit was kind of thrown together. His vest that you can't really see was an accident. It was supposed to be a civil war uniform for the Brigham Ball that ended up looking more like a dress. So Dane improvised and unpicked all of the sleeves and the bottom of it and had Alyssa hem it. We thought it ended up looking pretty Steampunky and ended up using it. Instead of a cowboy vest we were planning on making for it. His coat really tied his costume together I believe he got it from his Great Grandfather. 

 The Brigham Ball at This is the Place heritage park was actually really fun. It was only $5 dollars a person. I love to folk dance. A lot of people had really nice clothes. It was cut short because we were late and Dane had to go to work. But I do want to go again.

Below is a picture of my dress half made. (I never got a picture at the Brigham Ball) 

Our vacation this summer was going to be to go to Canada to visit Dane's family but had to be changed  because Dane had to change his job. So we ended up going to Torrey which was really nice. We hiked Calf Creek Falls again. I really like that hike I just wish it wasn't so crowded (it was fourth of July weekend).

School starts next week. I am not quite ready. I just finished a Calculus class that was very difficult. I am really excited about Genetics but I am dreading Physics and Organic Chemistry 2. This will be my last semester at Salt Lake Community College. I will be very sad to leave it. I never knew how great Community colleges were. They have teachers that seem to actually want you to succeed and the smaller classes are so nice! 

2nd Anniversary

Well, Dane and I made it two years! I just wanted to say how great he is and that I'm so glad we met each other! I feel like I am a better person because of him. He is very kind for putting me through school. I'm glad we have so many common interests and things have worked out. It's weird that we've known each other for six years. When I first met him in Germany I thought he was the so funny and clever, I still think so:) Without him I would have never interned for the Smithsonian or gone to Maryland. He's very helpful and a  good listener. I love him. I really hope things work out with his degree and that he can find a career that makes him happy.

 For my birthday I was given a $25 gift Card for Macaroni Grill so we went there on Sunday.

For our Anniversary my sister and I  made rhubarb pie which  ended up tasting pretty good. The recipe is here. Next time I think I will try a strawberry/rhubarb pie. I also tried an artichoke shrimp linguine recipe which I thought was really good too. The recipe is here. I just didn't put any olives into it. 

Aquarium, Vet shadowing and Birthday

  I volunteer at  The Living Planet Aquarium now it has been pretty fun. It's a little scary having people ask  all these questions and not knowing all the answers but otherwise it has been great. I keep learning more and more which is the best part.
  I started shadowing a Veterinarian a little bit too. I am actually really glad I found this guy I went to about ten Vets before him and found nobody. Most of them said leave your resume and then that's all I heard from them. If I ever have an animal in Utah County I want to take my pets to him. The whole shadowing/ volunteering thing has been a frustrating ordeal. I'm pretty sure every Vet school you are going to find is going to require Vet clinic hours. In Maryland I got a lot of emails giving out jobs to work at a vet clinic without needing experience. The job was there to give you experience. In Utah just volunteering is hard to come by. I'm still not sure if I want to be a Vet, the job seems fine I just really liked working at the endocrine lab for the Smithsonian. Maybe I will just go into research instead?
  Dane surprised me last week for my birthday by taking me to the Scottish Festival & Highland Games  It was a surprise I didn't even know that was going on that weekend.  I had a really good time. We watched some athletic tournaments. It was amazing what some of those guys could lift and throw. We watched a lot of Irish Step Dancers. They had all these booths with people that had ancestors from Scotland. We found clan Macleoud :) Dane and I both tried haggis which I thought was really gross. I think Dane thought it was okay. Dane bought me this really nice purse which I wouldn't have let him buy had I known he had a gift waiting for me the next day.
 The next day my mom had a barbeque for our family and Dane's family. I had a good time and thought it was really nice of them to all come and for my mom to do the barbeque.

Clan Macleoud flag

 Relief Society gave me a lemon cupcake for my birthday.

Cuyahoga Valley National Park

   I found some old pictures from our camping trip at Cuyahoga Valley National Park in Ohio. That was one of the stops we made when we were making our journey back to Utah from Maryland. I actually really liked that place. We hardly saw anybody there. I just wish we had more time.
   I believe I have mentioned before but when we were getting ready to leave Maryland there was a storm that took out our power for two days right before we were supposed to get out of our apartment. The power came back on Sunday morning the day we were supposed to leave. There were a lot of things I did not see the days before in the dark so I had a lot of extra cleaning to do. I also got to vacuum!   It also was very hard to work in the Maryland heat which made us a lot slower. We also lost internet service where we needed to give our couch away and other items. Luckily in the nick of time a neighbor had a truck and a few more people to help us lift the couch and drop it off at Goodwill.
   Anyways, with the power problem we were not able to leave until later which cut our camping trips time up by a lot. We were supposed to have time to hike that day but we did not get there until it was getting dark. It was kind of funny it was  dark and we were told to get to the camping site was going to be a vigorous trek. So here we are in this new place carrying all are camping gear in the dark and we can't see much all we see is a field and a mountain with a trail. We walk through the field and then up the mountain Dane thinks we missed the camping ground and it must have been in the field below. I think that that was not vigorous enough so it must be somewhere in the mountains. We hike further and eventually Dane says to wait there while he runs down the mountain to reexamine the field. So I do,  it turns out he was right. So that whole hike with our gear was a waste of energy.

   The pictures don't give this place justice. It was gorgeous! Especially the field and the mountain transition. The field looked like this magical fairy place ( the nice kind of fairies) and then the mountain looked like this dark mysterious forest.
After we left Ohio our next stop was my Grandparent's house in Boone, Iowa. It was really nice to see them. The food was great! It was  really hot.
   When we left Iowa we were supposed to stop at this campsite that my Grandparents suggested. Which I can't remember now I will have to ask somebody. We didn't make it because the car Dane was driving lost air condition It was 104 degrees fahrenheit outside  we had to stop at a BMW shop in Nebraska which took a long time.  By the time we got to the campground there was nobody there to register for our campsite. It was pretty sad we ended up staying at a Motel 6 a few cities later which ended up costing us about $40 more. I love camping because it is fun and and cheaper than a hotel. 

Utah Renaissance Festival and Fantasy Faire

  Well we made it to the Utah Renaissance Festival and Fantasy Faire. Over all it was pretty fun. The best part was making the costumes. Which we knew would probably be the case:) It was neat to see what other people were dressed as. I really liked the Bards and Nobles, especially the more upbeat songs. They were the ones that made the drive worth it.  It was nice to actually put our costumes to use. Alyssa helped sew my peasant/ tavern wench dress. She made her noble green dress and juliet cap. She made all of Peter's noble/robin hood outfit. And she helped make Dane's viking pants. Which were ripped a few times by his leaping or climbing :) Dane bought the tunic and armor off of Etsy.                                                                               

 My over skirt is full of keys, wallets etc. That is why it is falling down.

Robin Hood about to ambush the poor unsuspecting viking

Viking pillaging the town and capturing a maiden

Peter and Alyssa

It has been really fun sewing with my sister. I'll just need to figure out new projects. I really do want to make clothes I could actually wear but so far I have not found any pattern I actually like.  And sometimes it can be pretty pricy but there are ways to make it cheaper. Hobby Lobby every few weeks will have their patterns go on sale for a dollar. And home fabrics usually has really good sales of nicer material. 

Lamb and Wool Day

  Dane, my Dad, Alyssa and I went to Lamb and Wool day at Thanksgiving point a few weeks ago it was pretty fun. Sadly I only got one picture. We participated in Waulking which was pretty fun. We got to learn a gaelic song as we did it. The blanket on Dane is an example of what we helped waulk. That one was already made.

   

    

   It kind of reinforced our dream of moving to the Faroe Islands or Orkney Islands. At least what we imagine it would be like :)